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Im currently a 1L. My brief and open memo suck. I guess Ill keep submiting them because thats what everyone is generally doing...

... but what about also using exam answers as writing samples?

Feel free to tell me this is a dumb idea if it is.

Nova wrote:Im currently a 1L. My brief and open memo suck. I guess Ill keep submiting them because thats what everyone is generally doing...

... but what about also using exam answers as writing samples?

Feel free to tell me this is a dumb idea if it is.

Just do writing you did under a timecrunch bro

Give it to employers and be like "if this is what I can do in 4 hours, imagine my potential"

rad lulz wrote:Give it to employers and be like "if this is what I can do in 4 hours, imagine my potential"

Except they'll be like, just send me what you can do in more than four hours, if you actually want the job

Are your brief and memo really that bad? Like did you bomb lrw or something? If not, just try to fix it up a bit. Maybe even see if your old prof is willing to point out some of the glaringly obvious problems. It HAS to be better than whatever you vomited out during the 3 terror filled exam hours.

On a related note, does anyone know how much firms actually care about these things? I just can't imagine some recruiter reading through stacks of brief/memo excerpts, or having much of an idea of which are the better ones for that matter. There's sure as hell no way an attorney is going to waste time doing that...

For this summer?
You'll get something a lot better for OCI during your summer job.

DF & Rad, cant tell if yall are serious.

JamMasterJ wrote:You'll get something a lot better for OCI during your summer job.

Ahh good point.

grrm09 wrote:Are your brief and memo really that bad? Like did you bomb lrw or something? If not, just try to fix it up a bit. Maybe even see if your old prof is willing to point out some of the glaringly obvious problems. It HAS to be better than whatever you vomited out during the 3 terror filled exam hours.

Yeah i mean, I thought it was fine, but I got the lowest grade possible to still pass (P/F). I did, compartively, much better on exams.

Ill try to fix the brief and memo up a bit after exams are over....

Hopfully employers dont really care or read them too closely.

I'm not srs

1L here but I wouldn't use your exams. Follow the above advice and edit your brief or memo. My exams were fine for their purpose but they were still riddled with typos. Also, sometimes I would only get a couple of points on a page just because a lot of my arguments were either incorrect or irrelevant. Finally, the exams aren't like the type of work you'll be doing at a law firm.

Larger point, I can't imagine anyone ever reads any of the writing samples, and if they do, they glance through them at most. Just pull yours up to the level where they won't hurt you.

You don't generally need a writing sample for OCI, though there are exceptions. Even though you got a better grade, it doesn't mean the writing is better. I can assure you the writing in your memo is better. As others have said, just polish it up.

Alright, thanks everyone.

Take your school's writing competition, use that as a writing sample.

ph14 wrote:Take your school's writing competition, use that as a writing sample.

I'm not sure all law schools allow this.

bk187 wrote:

ph14 wrote:Take your school's writing competition, use that as a writing sample.

I'm not sure all law schools allow this.

Really? Why wouldn't they? It's your written work. Obviously don't break any of your school's rules, although that goes without saying.

ph14 wrote:Really? Why wouldn't they? It's your written work. Obviously don't break any of your school's rules, although that goes without saying.

I dunno. Paranoid about info getting out? I'm not sure that any disallow it but I wouldn't be surprised if some do based on some of the rules that I've seen.

At my school, the write-on topic was often recycled/updated each year (rather than coming up with something entirely new - it was an 800-pp. packet), so I'm pretty sure it was an honor code violation to share answers. Plus, it was closed-universe (if 800 pp) and constrained enough that the result was often fairly artificial. Lastly, it was a mini LR note, and I think for most employers something practice-oriented (memo, brief) makes for a better sample.

*gets exam as writing sample*

"holy shit, how bad must his LRW memo/brief have been for him to submit this?!"

You can edit your memo(s) if they're that bad. Don't submit an exam answer. I've never heard of that and it would be extremely odd. Plus, you usually don't need writing samples for OCI.

ajax adonis wrote:You can edit your memo(s) if they're that bad. Don't submit an exam answer. I've never heard of that and it would be extremely odd. Plus, you usually don't need writing samples for OCI.

You definitely have to have one available. Maybe 5 out 60 firms I interviewed with wanted one.

Desert Fox wrote:

ajax adonis wrote:You can edit your memo(s) if they're that bad. Don't submit an exam answer. I've never heard of that and it would be extremely odd. Plus, you usually don't need writing samples for OCI.

You definitely have to have one available. Maybe 5 out 60 firms I interviewed with wanted one.

Yeah, I did overstate. I meant to say that most firms won't ask for one, so don't stress too much about it. Have one that's typo-free and reasonably written and you should be okay.