Recently Graduated UT Law Student taking questions Forum

[nonprofit-prophet]

First of all....take all of nonprofit-prophet's advice. All of it. Don't ask any questions. Don't pass Go, don't collect $200. Just do it. Your grades will thank you lol.


Secondly, I haven't seen any of my professors on here except Youngdale. This year was the first year that they changed the LRW professors mid-year (apparently, everyone got to keep the same professor in previous years). While I preferred Robin Meyer's teaching style, I got a better grade in Youngdale's class. She was very helpful, answered all of my (probably inappropriate) questions about my lack of understanding of brief writing, and is genuinely a nice person. She seems a little bit more nit-picky than Meyer was but overall, I liked her. Definitely improved my writing in her class.

That's a great point. People will bitch about having the hard LRW professor that makes you do more work. Sure, it sucks that other people in your big section have a little less work, but think long-term. I had Sween. She was hardcore, which we all bitched about during our first semester. But I felt like my friends and I improved our writing more than our peers in other sections/LRW classes. Definitely helped me this summer.

LRW matters more than you all realize right now. A random bad grade in property won't sink you. But a bad LRW grade... it pretty much ruins your chances at a good lit firm. And when you finally get to your summer, your writing skills are going to be front and center. Invest time in LRW. Seriously.

[blackmooncreeping]

First of all....take all of nonprofit-prophet's advice. All of it. Don't ask any questions. Don't pass Go, don't collect $200. Just do it. Your grades will thank you lol.


Secondly, I haven't seen any of my professors on here except Youngdale. This year was the first year that they changed the LRW professors mid-year (apparently, everyone got to keep the same professor in previous years). While I preferred Robin Meyer's teaching style, I got a better grade in Youngdale's class. She was very helpful, answered all of my (probably inappropriate) questions about my lack of understanding of brief writing, and is genuinely a nice person. She seems a little bit more nit-picky than Meyer was but overall, I liked her. Definitely improved my writing in her class.

That's a great point. People will bitch about having the hard LRW professor that makes you do more work. Sure, it sucks that other people in your big section have a little less work, but think long-term. I had Sween. She was hardcore, which we all bitched about during our first semester. But I felt like my friends and I improved our writing more than our peers in other sections/LRW classes. Definitely helped me this summer.

LRW matters more than you all realize right now. A random bad grade in property won't sink you. But a bad LRW grade... it pretty much ruins your chances at a good lit firm. And when you finally get to your summer, your writing skills are going to be front and center. Invest time in LRW. Seriously.

Agree with all of this. Also, LRW seemed to be the class where I really noticed a correlation between time spent writing/reviewing/editing/etc. and grade received.

Having said that, you will hate LRW in all likelihood but don't neglect it.

[waterbug]

What are LRW grades based on? Are they generally exams or writing assignments, etc.?

Also, any comments on Dzienkowski?

[nonprofit-prophet]

What are LRW grades based on? Are they generally exams or writing assignments, etc.?

Also, any comments on Dzienkowski?

Every prof does it a bit differently. In the fall, LRW will be about memo writing. Some profs will do the final grade entirely on the memo. My prof had little mini assignments throughout the semester, with the final grade made up as follows: 1/3 semester assignments and 2/3 final memo.

I haven't had DZ, but he's highly regarded.

[blackmooncreeping]

What are LRW grades based on? Are they generally exams or writing assignments, etc.?

Also, any comments on Dzienkowski?

Every prof does it a bit differently. In the fall, LRW will be about memo writing. Some profs will do the final grade entirely on the memo. My prof had little mini assignments throughout the semester, with the final grade made up as follows: 1/3 semester assignments and 2/3 final memo.

I haven't had DZ, but he's highly regarded.

Both of my LRW classes were set up the same way as above. A practice memo/brief divided into 5 assignments worth about a 1/3 and then the final brief/memo problem wort the rest.

[mrsmartypants]

LRW matters more than you all realize right now. A random bad grade in property won't sink you. But a bad LRW grade... it pretty much ruins your chances at a good lit firm. And when you finally get to your summer, your writing skills are going to be front and center. Invest time in LRW. Seriously.

I don't do lit, but I do hire, and a bad LRW grade will incinerate your chances at my firm.

Take heed, 0Ls. Apart from doc review and courtroom/testimonial exercises (the latter of which you probably won't see for years), the work product upon which your professional existence hinges is the written word. Your chances of success depend greatly on how well you generate it.

Yes, litigation drafting differs significantly from transactional drafting, persuasive vs. objective and all that. If you don't on which side of the lit/trans divide you'll fall, take advanced LRW classes in both areas when you're an upperclassman. UT has an excellent legal writing faculty.

In particular, take any class Schiess offers.

[Chaucer1343]

Recommendation Question:

On our UT Law business cards, should we use our UT Law email accounts or our personal (professional) email accounts (ie, myname@gmail.com)?

[nonprofit-prophet]

Recommendation Question:

On our UT Law business cards, should we use our UT Law email accounts or our personal (professional) email accounts (ie, myname@gmail.com)?

I don't know anyone that actually bought those business cards.

[StylinNProfilin]

any opinions of these profs?

Contracts David S Sokolow
Property Andrew Kull - looks like he's a visiting professor from BU
Criminal Law I Jennifer E Laurin
Legal Rsch & Legal Wr Wayne Schiess- sounds like I'm getting a great LRW prof from nonprofit's posts

[blackmooncreeping]

any opinions of these profs?

Contracts David S Sokolow
Property Andrew Kull - looks like he's a visiting professor from BU
Criminal Law I Jennifer E Laurin
Legal Rsch & Legal Wr Wayne Schiess- sounds like I'm getting a great LRW prof from nonprofit's posts

I didn't have Sokolow but I went to some session he did on the UCC and my roommate had him. All I know is that he seemed like a really nice guy and my roommate liked him a lot.

[mrsmartypants]

Sokolow's schtick is a little bit corny/rehearsed, but overall, he's a pretty damned good teacher for contracts. I was less impressed with his Business Associations class, but that might have been the subject matter.

He's a lecturer, not a tenured professor, meaning he's not sucked into the eggheaded hive mind of legal academia--rather, his job is to teach, and he pretty clearly loves to do it.

[philosoraptor]

any opinions of these profs?

Contracts David S Sokolow
Property Andrew Kull - looks like he's a visiting professor from BU
Criminal Law I Jennifer E Laurin
Legal Rsch & Legal Wr Wayne Schiess- sounds like I'm getting a great LRW prof from nonprofit's posts

As everyone has said, Schiess is great.

Pretty much everyone loves Sokolow. Is that your small class?

I had Laurin for crim. I liked her a lot -- pretty straightforward, not a lot of hiding the ball. It was clear what she was going to put on the exam based on what she emphasized in class. Keep this in mind if you're tempted to take over the class with your own opinions about crim law. (This happened an annoying amount in my class.) Just pay attention, do the reading, and concentrate on understanding the statutes that she assigns (for us it was the TPC). She's 100% cold call/Socratic, but if you do the reading you'll be fine. One of the most helpful things I did was take her practice exam and then go to her office hours, where she marked it up and explained what she wanted to see.

I'd recommend Dressler for background reading and exam prep, but keep in mind it tends to be a lot more detailed than what you'll actually need. Also, start outlining early (including the policy stuff Laurin focuses on); it will come in handy on the open-book exam.

[dkb17xzx]

Recommendation Question:

On our UT Law business cards, should we use our UT Law email accounts or our personal (professional) email accounts (ie, myname@gmail.com)?

did we already get our UT law email addresses?

[StylinNProfilin]

Sokolow's schtick is a little bit corny/rehearsed, but overall, he's a pretty damned good teacher for contracts. I was less impressed with his Business Associations class, but that might have been the subject matter.

He's a lecturer, not a tenured professor, meaning he's not sucked into the eggheaded hive mind of legal academia--rather, his job is to teach, and he pretty clearly loves to do it.

Thanks! Any supplements/outside reading you recommend for his class?

As everyone has said, Schiess is great.

Pretty much everyone loves Sokolow. Is that your small class?

Thanks thats very helpful! Actually Laurin's Crim Law is my small section.

[mrsmartypants]

Thanks! Any supplements/outside reading you recommend for his class?

Sorry, it's been so long that I don't have a good recollection of what I ended up doing for a particular class. In general, I didn't rely too heavily on supplements--I did occasionally leaf through E&Es. I think Sokolow put together a packet of his own outside readings to supplement the casebook.

[waterbug]

Any recommendations on how to most effectively use class time? Also, what we should be trying to get out of that time?

Seems like a lot of this will be personal style as to whether you take notes or do more listening. But, I'm still not entirely sure what I should be listening for!

From what I've gathered on other threads it seems the goals are to get into the professor's head as to what's a priority, to listen for patterns of explanation that can be brought back on an exam, and to gather the motivations behind why various laws were created.

[philosoraptor]

Any recommendations on how to most effectively use class time? Also, what we should be trying to get out of that time?

Seems like a lot of this will be personal style as to whether you take notes or do more listening. But, I'm still not entirely sure what I should be listening for!

From what I've gathered on other threads it seems the goals are to get into the professor's head as to what's a priority, to listen for patterns of explanation that can be brought back on an exam, and to gather the motivations behind why various laws were created.

It's a tough adjustment to make. For a lot of profs, the goal of class time is not to teach you the law, it's to see how well you figured out the law yourself from the cases. If you start with that assumption, you can conclude a couple of important things: First, you should understand the law before reading the cases, by reading supplements that actually teach you the law. Second, you should not pay a lot of attention to what your classmates are saying. Their opinions don't matter; only your prof's opinions matter.

Use class time to reinforce your own understanding. Try your best not to dick around on your laptop. Don't try to take tons of notes, just the black-letter law that your prof emphasizes, plus policy stuff that he/she highlights for you. For example, it's easy to learn the bare elements of negligence from the E&E, but if you have Robertson, you'll need to know his theories on causation for the exam, and you can get them only from him and his writings.

Most important, remember that not everything that happens in class is valuable, and don't assume that anyone else has any more clue than you about what's critical and what's not. Keep up with supplements, learn the law before you read the cases, and try to figure out what your prof is highlighting.

[Chaucer1343]

Recommendation Question:

On our UT Law business cards, should we use our UT Law email accounts or our personal (professional) email accounts (ie, myname@gmail.com)?

did we already get our UT law email addresses?

The UT Law accounts are now shown in UT Mail. You should have: @utexas.edu / @utlaw.utexas.edu / @utmail.utexas.edu. That's 18 months of free Amazon Prime.

[dkb17xzx]

Recommendation Question:

On our UT Law business cards, should we use our UT Law email accounts or our personal (professional) email accounts (ie, myname@gmail.com)?

did we already get our UT law email addresses?

The UT Law accounts are now shown in UT Mail. You should have: @utexas.edu / @utlaw.utexas.edu / @utmail.utexas.edu. That's 18 months of free Amazon Prime.

haha Amazon Prime is precisely why I asked

now it's time to spend ~$500 for books

[shifty_eyed]

Would the Fed Rules of Civ Pro be something we will want to keep as a reference, or would renting it be fine?

[nonprofit-prophet]

Would the Fed Rules of Civ Pro be something we will want to keep as a reference, or would renting it be fine?

http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp

[shifty_eyed]

Would the Fed Rules of Civ Pro be something we will want to keep as a reference, or would renting it be fine?

http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp

Thanks

[ajclark1992]

Would the Fed Rules of Civ Pro be something we will want to keep as a reference, or would renting it be fine?

http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp

For some reason, I thought that this would be a whole lot longer than it is.

[utlaw2007]

LRW matters more than you all realize right now. A random bad grade in property won't sink you. But a bad LRW grade... it pretty much ruins your chances at a good lit firm. And when you finally get to your summer, your writing skills are going to be front and center. Invest time in LRW. Seriously.

I don't do lit, but I do hire, and a bad LRW grade will incinerate your chances at my firm.

Take heed, 0Ls. Apart from doc review and courtroom/testimonial exercises (the latter of which you probably won't see for years), the work product upon which your professional existence hinges is the written word. Your chances of success depend greatly on how well you generate it.

Yes, litigation drafting differs significantly from transactional drafting, persuasive vs. objective and all that. If you don't on which side of the lit/trans divide you'll fall, take advanced LRW classes in both areas when you're an upperclassman. UT has an excellent legal writing faculty.

In particular, take any class Schiess offers.

This statement here is so true. Schiess is a great instructor. And a lawyer's ability to write, especially in litigation, is soooo important. It creates leverage and sets the tone for the impending action. And your writing is one of your best defenses from getting your case dismissed in court if you are on the plaintiff's side as I am.

[utlaw2007]

Not only that, but if you are working with more difficult facts as it relates to damages or liability, your writing will be the main thing that propels your case forward. When taking a case at the plaintiff's level, the strength of your cases depends upon your ability to articulate the arguments for your case through your writing. All other support for your case, emanates from that.