ZiefBrief

1L Advice

The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog is featuring advice for first-year law students from a host of literary lawyers, including Scott Turow, Jeremy Blachman (aka Anonymous Lawyer), Cameron Stracher, and Jeffrey Toobin. 

First-Year Survival Tips for the New Law School Year

Our colleagues at the Boley Law Library at Lewis and Clark Law School have posted their annual Tips for 1Ls From Around the Blogosphere. This year's collection ranges from general survival advice to tips on understanding legal terminology to the ever-popular advice from Professor Orin Kerr on how to read a case.

And here's a bonus tip from ZiefBrief: for a fund of great advice on how to study and learn, visit Lawsagna, where Anastasia give you "alternating layers of thoughts, tools, tricks, tips and other ingredients for a successful learning experience in law school and beyond."

Brand New CALI Lessons

We stopped by the CALI booth at AALL to pick up a list of new CALI lessons just released for the 2007-2008 school year.  We'll be featuring a list of selected links to these lessons by subject area throughout the week. What are CALI lessons?  They are online, interactive tutorials about specific academic legal subjects by law professors and law librarians.  There are a wealth of CALI lessons on first-year and bar topics, and CALI has even created a list of CALI lessons by casebook.  If you're a faculty member or currently enrolled student at USF, you can contact any reference librarian to obtain your CALI registration code and start reviewing or taking CALI lessons.  If you're an incoming first-year student, you will receive the CALI registration code during orientation week.

First up -- Legal Concepts, Legal Research and Legal Writing:

• Podcast from Professor Douglas McFarland: "Advice to a 1L"
• Podcast from Profs. Grohman and Brown:  "Preparing for Your First Semester at Law School"
• Professor Diane Murley's interactive lesson:  "Where Does Law Come From?"
• Professor Sarah Gotschall's interactive lesson:  "Introduction to Search Logic and Strategies"
• Professor Rebecca Trammel's interactive lesson: "Plagiarism: Keeping Out of Trouble"

Summer Reading Before Law School - Dean Brand's Recommendation

Dean Jeff Brand, always interested in how law can serve the cause of social justice, stopped by the Zief Library the other day full of praise for Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, a "fantastic book," in his words, "that every incoming first year law student should read."

Arc of Justice reports on events that took place in Detroit in 1925. Ossian Sweet, an African-American physician, moves his family to a white neighborhood. The neighbors riot, one of them is shot, and Sweet is tried for murder. Author Kevin Boyle of Ohio State University gives us a biography of Sweet, a detailed report of the trial (in which Sweet was supported by the NAACP and defended by Clarence Darrow), a vivid sense of life in the segregated South and North of early 20th century, and some lingering questions about what it has taken and will take to eliminate racial prejudice and segregation in the United States.

USF law students, faculty, and staff can check out the Zief Library's copy of Arc of Justice. It's on the shelves on the second floor at KF 224 .S8 B69 2004.

Here's more on Arc of Justice —

• Forgotten Justice, Priya Jain's review from Salon.

• When a Moving Van Could Spark a Neighborhood War, Patricia Cohen's New York Times review.

• Arc of Justice: An American Tale of Racial Hatred, materials from NPR, including audio files of Tavis Smiley's interview with Kevin Boyle, and of Boyle reading an excerpt from his book.

Another Cure for Final Exam Stress - Law School in a Box

Tired of studying for law school exams? Anxious about passing the bar exam? Tempted to chuck it all? Consider this alternative:

Law School in a Box

This simple product from Mental Floss is said to be "the #1 rated boxed law school in the country!" and it purports to contain, in one small metal box, everything you really need to practice law. It's even got its own diploma ("with real Latin words" - ZiefBrief checked, and it's true!) and a suitably condensed bar exam.

So enough with the $100,000 in tuition and fees, enough with the exhaustive text-taking tips. For $14.95 the Mental Floss people will give you an escape from academic drudgery and, ah, some unique legal credentials.

Law School Exam Advice Tops Lawsagna's Menu

As finals approach, Lawsagna, one of ZiefBrief's favorite sources of advice on ways to study and learn, is serving out exam preparation advice.

In Exam Tips, Lawsagna's Anastasia collects links to her previous posts on studying for and taking exams, and also refers readers to other blawgs for more tips, techniques, and advice.

Don't forget the low-tech as well! The Zief Law Library's own Succeeding in Law School< [PDF; 2 pages] handout lists a bunch of — yes, books! — with great material on doing your best in law school finals.

Lawsagna Dishes Up Advice on Briefing Cases

Lawsagna, a blog that's all about innovative and useful ways for law students to study and learn, is talking about briefing cases today.

In her post What's in your brief? Anastasia offers 7 succinct tips on becoming better at briefing cases, and she links to several other useful sites as well. If you'd like to tune up your case-briefing skills, check it out.

Fifty New Popular Film Titles Added For Your Viewing Pleasure

While you can't learn to be a lawyer just by watching popular films about law and lawyers you can learn a lot about what film makers (and by extension many non-lawyers) think about the legal process and community. You can sample lawyers as Saints (e.g. Henry Fonda in the title role of Young Mr. Lincoln and lawyers as Demons (e.g. James Woods as Roy Cohn in Citizen Cohn. If you prefer there are lawyers as buffoons (John Cleese's Archie in A Fish Called Wanda) or lawyers as folk heroes (Edward Arnold as the eponymous Daniel Webster in The Devil and Daniel Webster). We have added these and about 50 other popular films with legal subject to the collection in the last few weeks and they are available for USF law students to view in their copious spare time. Take a break, view a flick -- you  will feel better for it.

A full list of the latest 52 film titles added in the last month appear in the continuation to this post.

Lawsagna - Brain Food for Law School Success

Wishing you had a better way to prepare for law school exams? Looking for paths to a successful spring semester? Dish up a heaping serving of Lawsagna, a new blog full of "thoughts, tools, tricks, tips and other ingredients for a successful learning experience in law school and beyond."

Lawsagna's recipe includes advice on learning styles, time management, motivation, memory, food and drink, and much more. Most law students will find intriguing new ideas here.

[Thanks to the Law Librarian Blog for the tip!]

Maybe This Book Will Help You Ace Your Exams.

With a name like Getting to Maybe you might just think you have found a book about negotiation, (Getting To Yes by Roger Fisher And William Ury is considered the bible of negotiation by some folks) but not so. The full title is Getting to maybe : how to excel on law school exams by Richard Michael Fischl and Jeremy Paul. There is a lot to be said for books like this one -- most new law students don't have a clue on how to best prepare for and master a law school exam while more experienced students are always looking for that extra edge that will get them a better grade. GTM offers a strategic approach to law school study and exam taking. While this book (or any of the other books in the Zief on the topic) can't guarantee you a better grade, just reading the Chapters on Test Taking Tips could make the difference between a great exam and a mediocre one. Check it out.