Thread Unworthy 1L fears, inquiries, and rants welcome here

[beach_terror]

At least you assholes got feedback/guidance on your brief in some manner. We were basically left for dead on ours.

[goosey]

The funny thing is our prof told us to not do any outside research an focus on the opinion of the lower court using the cases they used in our argument. Literally half the cases he used I have never heard of and are not within that opinion.

Wish we had a rewrite. Not to say I would know what to do, but our prof is so nice I think a rewrite = automatic half a grade up at least if we had one, and she is already a really generous grader.

thats freakin hilarious. I always wonder why people like that think the professor will be impressed by the extra hard work they did----the professor is more likely to be UNimpressed by his lack of being able to follow instructions. if you guys are peer editing, at least you'll have fun :p

[BarbellDreams]

At least you assholes got feedback/guidance on your brief in some manner. We were basically left for dead on ours.

Nah, our "guidance" was basically: "Here is an example of a brief that got an A last year in my class. Go and do that and you'll get an A too. See you in a month."

I severely regret buying the books required for this class, I have never ever read for LRW once, although we have technically been assigned a bunch of readings from those books.

[kalvano]

Just finished and exchanged briefs with opponent (The biggest gunner in our class).

Number of cases I used: 9.

Number of cases he used: 23.

lol. wowwwww.

I think my brief had like 13 cases, some of which were only used in a string cite to add support. how the hell do you fit 23 cases into one brief?!

Uhhhhh.....my brief is going to have about 35 cases, give or take a couple

[BarbellDreams]

Just finished and exchanged briefs with opponent (The biggest gunner in our class).

Number of cases I used: 9.

Number of cases he used: 23.

lol. wowwwww.

I think my brief had like 13 cases, some of which were only used in a string cite to add support. how the hell do you fit 23 cases into one brief?!

Uhhhhh.....my brief is going to have about 35 cases, give or take a couple

Blatant TLS overachieving .

[dakatz]

I had about 20 cases, but my professor kept telling me how by biggest problem was the fluff and the fat I had to cut off. He said that by having all this additional law and all these cases mentioned, it was taking the focus off of the main points and most important cases. Said it would be a much stronger brief with less cases mentioned, as long as I stayed strongly focused on the cases I did mention.

[goosey]

I had about 20 cases, but my professor kept telling me how by biggest problem was the fluff and the fat I had to cut off. He said that by having all this additional law and all these cases mentioned, it was taking the focus off of the main points and most important cases. Said it would be a much stronger brief with less cases mentioned, as long as I stayed strongly focused on the cases I did mention.

yeah, thats what I would think too. I dont know if kalvano is joking about 35 cases haha, but if serious...I just cant imagine it. Especially if there is a word limit.

[keg411]

My brief had a ton of cases too, but it was the nature of the topic and also we had to distinguish all of the opponent's cases. I only discussed a few cases in depth with the rest used as "See Also's", which my prof LOVES (and which my class was instructed to do).

[kalvano]

I had about 20 cases, but my professor kept telling me how by biggest problem was the fluff and the fat I had to cut off. He said that by having all this additional law and all these cases mentioned, it was taking the focus off of the main points and most important cases. Said it would be a much stronger brief with less cases mentioned, as long as I stayed strongly focused on the cases I did mention.

yeah, thats what I would think too. I dont know if kalvano is joking about 35 cases haha, but if serious...I just cant imagine it. Especially if there is a word limit.

I'm not. 2 issue appellate brief. Around 14 pages.

One issue is arguing to adopt a particular standard of review, the other is arguing a pure application of law.

[BarbellDreams]

My opponent quoted LR articles and has footnotes in his briefs to describe them...

[keg411]

My opponent quoted LR articles and has footnotes in his briefs to describe them...

Lulz. Bottom of the curve much?

[kalvano]

Well, I will have a couple LR articles, but we aren't allowed footnotes.

[YourCaptain]

Well, I will have a couple LR articles, but we aren't allowed footnotes.

How do you people fit LR articles into a brief?

I had ~9/10 pages to get all of my legal explanation and application in. I think I cited 12 cases and only used 3 or 4 in any serious depth.

I guess our legal issue was pretty "not subject to serious debate" despite serious ambiguities in how our fact pattern comported with the actual law.

[TTH]

God help me if a Prof got hold of my first draft outlines. I load them up with obscene hypos to serve as examples.

[mythosopher]

Does anyone have a LRW prof that looks at your draft and says, "Meh, I don't think that's persuasive." and you ask why not and they reply, "I don't think other people would find it persuasive. I just don't believe your argument. I don't think it's strong." Um... okay... but WHY?

[kalvano]

Well, I will have a couple LR articles, but we aren't allowed footnotes.

How do you people fit LR articles into a brief?

I had ~9/10 pages to get all of my legal explanation and application in. I think I cited 12 cases and only used 3 or 4 in any serious depth.

I guess our legal issue was pretty "not subject to serious debate" despite serious ambiguities in how our fact pattern comported with the actual law.

It's only one cite, maybe two. Haven't decided yet. We have about 14 pages.

I'm using a ton of cases, but it's a First Amendment issue the Court has not definitively ruled on, so I have a ton of persuasive authority.

[mythosopher]

I just realized I just sent a cover letter that has the wrong PI org name in the body of the letter. FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU How could I do that?!?

[BarbellDreams]

I just realized I just sent a cover letter that has the wrong PI org name in the body of the letter. FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU How could I do that?!?

I called a clearly female named clerk "Mr." and still got an interview. I think it really depends on the person who reads it, some might just laugh it off and realize you're mass mailing everyone and may still give you an interview.

[snowpeach06]

I have basically just tomorrow to finish a draft of my motion for summary judgment. Thus far, I've extracted like one rule of law, have 3 sentences written and am struggling with distinguishing the cases I have from the facts I have because they are so different that it's difficult to compare. Color me stressed.

[BarbellDreams]

I just realized that I have no idea how to draft any motions cause we haven't looked at anything like that in HelLWR and our Civ Pro prof is insane. Can't wait for this summer where I have to figure out how to draft these daily.

[traehekat]

I just realized that I have no idea how to draft any motions cause we haven't looked at anything like that in HelLWR and our Civ Pro prof is insane. Can't wait for this summer where I have to figure out how to draft these daily.

+1.

[snowpeach06]

Yeah, we've gotten some instruction, but I still feel wholly unprepared for any summer job. I'm an ok writer, but, I suck at legal research. And, I can't even tell you how confused I am with this MSJ. I don't even know what to argue.

[snowpeach06]

I think this summer, I'm going to beg the WL and/or Lexis lady to just tutor me.

[kalvano]

I just realized that I have no idea how to draft any motions cause we haven't looked at anything like that in HelLWR and our Civ Pro prof is insane. Can't wait for this summer where I have to figure out how to draft these daily.

I've seen some. They are actually easier than an appellate brief.

Although I wish we had done motions and trial briefs, as I feel it would be much more helpful than appellate briefs.

[goosey]

when are you guys starting hardcore studying