Duke 1L (soon to be 2L) taking questions Forum

[Winston1984]

So what do you guys do for lunch when you need to be at the law school during that time? Are there community fridges/freezers we can store things in? Campus restaurants close by?

[DOOK101]

So what do you guys do for lunch when you need to be at the law school during that time? Are there community fridges/freezers we can store things in? Campus restaurants close by?

There are communal fridges/freezers on the first floor of the school by the lockers- lots of people use them. There is also De Novo, the law school cafe. They have some decent food that is a bit overpriced, and you get tired of it pretty quickly. There is a cafe in the public policy school across the place called Saladelia (its a chain in Durham) that is pretty tasty. The main undergrad lunch cafeteria is about a 5-10 minute walk away, but given the amount of work you do on a daily basis it isn't as common to trek over there. There's a lot of stuff at that cafeteria.

[SplitMyPants]

So what do you guys do for lunch when you need to be at the law school during that time? Are there community fridges/freezers we can store things in? Campus restaurants close by?

There are communal fridges/freezers on the first floor of the school by the lockers- lots of people use them. There is also De Novo, the law school cafe. They have some decent food that is a bit overpriced, and you get tired of it pretty quickly. There is a cafe in the public policy school across the place called Saladelia (its a chain in Durham) that is pretty tasty. The main undergrad lunch cafeteria is about a 5-10 minute walk away, but given the amount of work you do on a daily basis it isn't as common to trek over there. There's a lot of stuff at that cafeteria.

You forgot the most credited lunch option, which is to cop some food from a lunch talk. Some people I know are pretty egregious about taking food and bailing on the talk. I prefer to either snag the leftovers after everyone has gone in, or occasionally I will attend the ones that interest me. There's almost always two or more lunch talks occurring on any given day during the week.

[Serett]

So what do you guys do for lunch when you need to be at the law school during that time? Are there community fridges/freezers we can store things in? Campus restaurants close by?

There are communal fridges/freezers on the first floor of the school by the lockers- lots of people use them. There is also De Novo, the law school cafe. They have some decent food that is a bit overpriced, and you get tired of it pretty quickly. There is a cafe in the public policy school across the place called Saladelia (its a chain in Durham) that is pretty tasty. The main undergrad lunch cafeteria is about a 5-10 minute walk away, but given the amount of work you do on a daily basis it isn't as common to trek over there. There's a lot of stuff at that cafeteria.

You'll also be able to get free lunch (albeit not the greatest stuff in the world--think pizza most frequently) attending events most days, should you choose to go. And most importantly, we're next door to Fuqua's Cafeteria.

Partially scooped.

[DOOK101]

So what do you guys do for lunch when you need to be at the law school during that time? Are there community fridges/freezers we can store things in? Campus restaurants close by?

There are communal fridges/freezers on the first floor of the school by the lockers- lots of people use them. There is also De Novo, the law school cafe. They have some decent food that is a bit overpriced, and you get tired of it pretty quickly. There is a cafe in the public policy school across the place called Saladelia (its a chain in Durham) that is pretty tasty. The main undergrad lunch cafeteria is about a 5-10 minute walk away, but given the amount of work you do on a daily basis it isn't as common to trek over there. There's a lot of stuff at that cafeteria.

You'll also be able to get free lunch (albeit not the greatest stuff in the world--think pizza most frequently) attending events most days, should you choose to go. And most importantly, we're next door to Fuqua's Cafeteria.

Partially scooped.

Wow. Daily free lunches + Fuqua cafeteria were really egregious omissions. I second everything said above.

[Brady199]

Free pizza 3/week made my day

[SplitMyPants]

For rising 2Ls, what are some must-haves in our first registration window if we want a shot at getting them?

bump. anyone?

[Brady199]

There is a specification for laptops to require a DVD drive. I don't have one on my ASUS which meets all other requirements. Could I get those movies/software as an image file or should I just buy an external DVD drive?

[MadwomanintheAttic]

There is a specification for laptops to require a DVD drive. I don't have one on my ASUS which meets all other requirements. Could I get those movies/software as an image file or should I just buy an external DVD drive?

I have the same question. I plan on using my MacBook Air and it doesn't have a CD/DVD drive, but I do have an external drive that works pretty well. Hopefully that will suffice.

[SplitMyPants]

That's dated. I just bought a new retina MBP for 2L, which doesn't have one. You don't need a disk drive. It's 2015, everything's available online.

While we're on the topic of computers, the most important thing is reliability. So, if you don't already use a cloud folder such as Dropbox as your primary working folder for school, you should. Duke gives us 50 gb free of Box storage. I'd set that up first thing and do all of your school work in it. Then you never have to worry about losing a thing.

[Serett]

Basically anything capable of running Microsoft Word and the internet will work for law school.

[Brady199]

What is the most economical way to buy books? By when would we know what all to buy?

Do you recommend buying the E & Es for every subject?

[SplitMyPants]

Do you recommend buying the E & Es for every subject?

Certainly not. For example, E&E for contracts is great, while E&E for crim is utter shit.
My suggestions, which may vary based on the professor and what they emphasize in the class, are:

Crim: Understanding Crim by Dressler and the Black Letter Outline by Dressler.

Property: Emmanual's Cruchtime Supplement and Gilbert's Property Outline are good. Understanding Property by Sprankling is also great for supplementing during the semester.

Con Law: Chimerinsky is far and away TCR.

Civ Pro: E&E as well as Freer's supplement. Glannon's is also good.

Contracts: Chirelstein's supp (who was actually Haagen's prof at YLS) (AKA "The Boat Book"). E&E is also great.

Torts: E&E. Also, if your prof is less black letter and more theoretical in torts, Geistfeld's supp is good IMO.


NOTE: this is a personal list. For example, I know some people who love Emmanual's layout while I find it annoying. I bought pretty much every outline there is using half.com (so they were like a few bucks each) and then thumbed through them to choose.

[Lawl Skool]

Any reccomendations on furniture stores (preferrably with delivery) in Durham? I'm moving in on the 15th and my apartment isn't furnished at all.

[legallybrunette93]

Do any of the 2Ls or 3Ls reading this know anything about Lemos for Civ Pro or Gulati for contracts? Any recommendations for supplements for them or general advice for their teaching styles?

[alpha kenny body]

So what do you guys do for lunch when you need to be at the law school during that time? Are there community fridges/freezers we can store things in? Campus restaurants close by?

There are communal fridges/freezers on the first floor of the school by the lockers- lots of people use them. There is also De Novo, the law school cafe. They have some decent food that is a bit overpriced, and you get tired of it pretty quickly. There is a cafe in the public policy school across the place called Saladelia (its a chain in Durham) that is pretty tasty. The main undergrad lunch cafeteria is about a 5-10 minute walk away, but given the amount of work you do on a daily basis it isn't as common to trek over there. There's a lot of stuff at that cafeteria.

You'll also be able to get free lunch (albeit not the greatest stuff in the world--think pizza most frequently) attending events most days, should you choose to go. And most importantly, we're next door to Fuqua's Cafeteria.

Partially scooped.

Can you cop a meal plan for Fuqua's cafeteria? Bon Appetit looks like they sling the fire on a daily basis.

[MadwomanintheAttic]

Do any of the 2Ls or 3Ls reading this know anything about Lemos for Civ Pro or Gulati for contracts? Any recommendations for supplements for them or general advice for their teaching styles?

+1 also anything about D. Coleman for Torts? In addition, any opinions on renting textbooks?

[Serett]

Do any of the 2Ls or 3Ls reading this know anything about Lemos for Civ Pro or Gulati for contracts? Any recommendations for supplements for them or general advice for their teaching styles?

+1 also anything about D. Coleman for Torts?

She can come off as a hard-ass but is hyper-organized. She teaches out of her own, not-yet-published casebook, so it directly includes what she wants to focus on and is short enough that I wouldn't recommend relying on any supplements. Her final contains a number of different problems that are all traditional issue-spotters with stringent limits on length, so word-vomit is not recommended. Try to think about the different topics/law in as concise and organized way as she does, with strict law-to-fact application. She has certain problem days that it's good to volunteer for, as they count as your cold call for the semester. That way the possibility won't be hanging over your head every day deep into the semester.

In addition, any opinions on renting textbooks?

Do it.

[MadwomanintheAttic]

Thanks Serett Any advice on supplements in general? Or is that instructor specific as to if they're useful or not?

Edit: just saw the supplement discussion above this post! Oops

[NoLieAbility]

Insights in to Demott for Torts, Metzloff for CivPro and Barlett for Contracts?

[urbanist11]

Post removed.

[Serett]

Insights in to Demott for Torts, Metzloff for CivPro and Barlett for Contracts?

So c/o 2017 was Bartlett's first time teaching 1L Contracts (or first in years, at least), so we didn't inherit much advice specific to her. I can say that in general, Chirelstein's boat book comes recommended for Contracts, but I can't personally give it a first-hand recommendation.

[TripTrip]

Do any Duke 2Ls or 3Ls have outlines (or exam answers) for Stephen Sachs (Civ Pro) Barak Richman (Contracts), or Ruth Okediji (contracts) they would be willing to share with Harvard students?

I don't think we have any HLS professors visiting Duke this term, but I can give you access to our outline bank in exchange: http://hlsdope.org/outlines

Shoot me an email: tyler@hlsdope.org

[FeraFera]

Do any of the 2Ls or 3Ls reading this know anything about Lemos for Civ Pro or Gulati for contracts? Any recommendations for supplements for them or general advice for their teaching styles?

I didn't have him, but Gulati pretty infamously doesn't give a shit about teaching Contracts. Lots of (probably exaggerated) tales about his Contracts classes: basic contracts concepts are entirely skipped, he spends a lot of time talking about sovereign debt issues, he picks up exams for grading the day before grades are due, etc. A lot of people who had him seem to have liked him anyway though, so there's that.

And to whoever asked about DeMott, I did actually have her. Didn't use supplements, so can't help you there. Class is very heavily focused on the assigned cases and playing around with concepts in the cases. She "cold" calls straight down the class roster in alphabetical order, and, in our hour long class, almost always called on two people per class. Final is just a series of issue spotters (1 big one and 2 smaller ones, IIRC). Be mechanical in running through the elements of the various tort claims/defenses, and you should be fine. Some people found her really frustrating and the final very difficult because she never really puts any of the material together for you in class and instead just kind of bogs discussion down in weird hypotheticals. I guess my advice there is to focus on getting the structure of tort concepts from the readings/supplements/old outlines/whatever and to treat class discussion almost like a sideshow.

[ValeVale]

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