Question of the Week - July

July 25, 2007 -- on hiatus this week

July 19, 2007

Q: I’m curious to know what type of writing and how much writing I’ll be doing in law school.

A: The quantity of writing in law school is going to vary at times. In the first year, the most important writing required will be for your exams. With the exception of Legal Analysis & Writing (LAW), your first year courses are going to have long written exams at the end of the semester. Your grade on the exam will make up most, if not all, of your grade for the entire class. Other than exams, the writing you'll be doing your first year will mainly be taking notes and outlining cases.

As for the LAW course, you will be doing writing exercises over the course of the first year. This is really where you learn the "type" of writing you'll need (i.e. how to write like a lawyer). Some people call this "persuasive" writing. Looking at legal briefs or legal research will help give you examples of what I mean.

In the second & third years, you'll have some courses that will require papers in addition to, or in lieu of, a final exam. Most of these papers will include research you'll need to do on legal issues or cases. You'll learn how to do research through the LAW class, but the library staff is also very helpful to students who ask for their assistance.

Graduation requirements vary, but at Lewis & Clark Law School, all students must write two large research papers before graduating. The papers can be ones you wrote for a class requirement, or they can be done for one of the law reviews/journals, or you can do them on your own time outside of class.

If you'd like to hone your writing skills, a couple of books that I think are great for learning how to write well are Eats Shoots & Leaves, by Lynne Truss and The Little Book on Legal Writing by Alan Dworsky which is a book used by a lot of our own LAW professors and sold in our bookstore. Here's a link too to 100+ books on the law that you might find just interesting to read.

July 11, 2007

Q: What is the social life like at Lewis & Clark Law School? Are there student activities I can get involved in?

A: Law school can be very time-consuming, but there definitely is room for a social and active life. We recommend that students find interests outside of the classroom in order to keep some balance in their lives.

There are many social opportunities at L&C. Our first-year pod system, where students in a section all take the same classes together, allows new students to really get to know one another. Because they have the same schedule, it also makes it easy for them to meet up outside of class and on weekends.

The law school student organizations also plan several activities throughout the year. For example, one organization, the Bar Review, invites students to gather at various bars or clubs in Portland. The Public Interest Law Project plans an auction every February to raise funds for students planning to work in the public interest sector. The auction brings together students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the community in the biggest social event of the year. The Student Bar Association, Minority Law Student Association, Women’s Law Caucus and other groups often host BBQ’s, breakfasts, or pot-lucks in the outdoor amphitheater or student lounge. The Intellectual Property Student Organization hosts a microbrew tasting and our Softball League is also popular. There are many more examples of groups of students getting together to ski, bike, hike, salsa dance, watch movies, go fly-fishing, kayaking, and much more. Of course, many of these organizations also host campus events such as speakers, live debates, documentary viewings, networking activities, etc.

Students can get involved in most student organizations as a first year student. You definitely won’t be lacking in things to do while in law school, and it is important that some of those things are also fun!

July 4 -- Taking a break for the holiday!