How to Think About Law School: A Handbook for Undergraduates and their Parents: Michael R. Dillon: R&L Education

How to Think About Law School

A Handbook for Undergraduates and their Parents

How to Think About Law School

A Handbook for Undergraduates and their Parents

Description

This Handbook provides a comprehensive guide for college students and high school seniors considering law school. It teaches how to build an undergraduate resume, how to gather information about law school and legal careers, how to prepare for the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) and how to navigate the pitfalls of the law school application process. It also leads students through the law school curriculum, the central importance of the first year (1L), the roles played by Law Review, clinical programs, Moot Court, Mock Trial, interviewing, networking, summer associate positions and clerkships. Finally, it concludes with seven lessons to carry from law school into legal practice. This Handbook arises from the author’s two careers—one as a university professor and pre-law advisor, the other as a magna cum laude law school graduate and a successful practicing attorney. Along the way it conveys the author’s love of the law and admiration for the role of law in the United States. How to Think About Law School adopts a broader and longer perspective than any of its competitors, beginning with freshman year, and covering each year as an undergraduate, through law school admissions, the three years of law school, and into the beginnings of legal practice. The Handbook provides useful, concrete and practical information including, lists of Dos and Don'ts, a Four Year Checklist, information about key resources, a step-by-step explanation of the law school application process, as well as a formula for selecting “competitive,” “safe” and “reach” law schools. In addition, it presents detailed information about the law school curriculum each year, the importance of Law Review, clinical programs, Moot Court, interviewing skills, and summer associate positions. Addresses current downsides to the practice of law in a more open way than any of its competitors, including the exorbitant cost of law school, the difficulty repaying law school debt, the lack of opening legal positions in the wake of 2008, the high levels of job dissatisfaction in the profession, the stresses practice places upon a personal live. The book concludes with seven critical lessons to carry from law school into the practice of law.

Preface---About this Handbook

1. Pre-Law Undergraduates - Majors, Majors Everywhere
1.1. Follow Your Passion I
1.2. No One Right or Wrong Choice of Majors
1.3. Dual Majors Are Not Necessarily Better
1.4. Follow Your Passion II
1.5. Save Your Successes
1.6. It’s OK to Decide “No”

2. Your Mission Freshman and Sophomore Years
2.1. GPA Foundations
2.2. A Myriad of Options
2.3. It’s Not on TV
2.4. Ask, Interview, Shadow and Visit
2.5. Pre-Law Programs and Advisors
2.6. Disciplinary Disclosures
2.7. Question 1 – How much will it cost and how do I pay for it?
2.8. Question 2 – Why such high levels of lawyer dissatisfaction?

3. The Time Table Junior Year
3.1. Counting Backward
3.2. The Friday Before Thanksgiving
3.3. Test Prep, Test Prep and More Test Prep
3.4. Timing of the LSAT
3.5. LSAC Accounts
3.6. Letters of Recommendation
3.7. Resumes
3.8. Personal Statements
3.0. Waiting for a Year or Two

4. The LSAT Examination
4.1. Prep Courses – Do I Need One
4.2. Test Day – It’s Not as Short as You Think
4.3. The Nature of the Questions
4.4. How Much Preparation is Enough?
4.5. But, Can’t I Take it Again?
4.6. What to Know About The Scores
4.7. The Night After the Test

5. Choosing a Law School – “Know Thyself
5.1. What Not To Do
5.2. Areas of Emphasis
5.3. Law School Rankings
5.4. Web-sites to Know
5.5. All the Same But Different
5.6. Careers Can Change

6. How Do I Pay for It?
6.1. Don’t Count on Scholarships
6.2. Tuition, Books, Living Expenses Equal?
6.3. Like Buying Your First House
6.4. Interest Rates on Loans
6.5. Your Debt Limits How and Where You Can Practice

7. Application Process
7.1. LSAC Account
7.2. LSAT Score
7.3. Undergraduate Transcript(s)
7.4. Personal Statement
7.5. Letters of Recommendation
7.6. Resumes
7.7. Early Decision
7.8. Addendum Do’s and Don’ts
7.9. Disclosures Advertent and Inadvertent
7.10.How Many Applications?
7.11.First, Second, Third Tiers
7.12.Forget Rankings Most of the Time
7.13.The “Wait” List

8. Acceptance – The Holy Grail
8.1. I Can Breathe Now
8.2. Visiting Schools - Stay the Day
8.3. What Is My Long Term Goal?
8.4. Where Can I Flourish?
8.5. The Summer Before Law School
8.6. Proposal for a Legal Reading Plan
8.7. Proposal for a Non-Legal Reading Plan

9. The First Year – There Are No Second Chances
9.1. Transition and Success – Starting Fast
9.2. Curriculum and Briefing
9.3. The Reading Load
9.4. Socratic Method
9.5. Study Groups or Not
9.6. “Thinking Like a Lawyer”
9.7. Outlines – Do Your Own
9.8. Examinations
9.9. Law Review
9.10.Second Year Interviews
9.11.Clerkships
9.12.Summer After First Year

10. The Second Year
10.1. The Curriculum
10.2. Law Review
10.3. Interviewing for Summer Associates
10.4. Clinical Programs
10.5. Moot Court and Mock Trial
10.6. Elective Courses - Winnowing Down Your Options
10.7. Competitive, Confident and Cordial
10.8. Summer After Second Year - Summer Partners

11. The Third Year
11.1. Waste of Time? The Unnecessary Year?
11.2. Electives - Has Your Passion Changed?
11.3. Still Building Resumes
11.4. Networking and Faculty Support
11.5. Employment within 150 Mile Radius
11.6. Remember: Your Debt May Limit Your Job Prospects
11.7. Summer After Third Year - You Are Not Bar Exam Ready
11.8. Your Are Also Not Practice Ready

12. Lessons To Carry With You
12.1. Learning Every Day
12.2. Continue to Pursue Your Passion
12.3. Thinking Problems Through and Tracking the Details
12.4. Respect, Civility and People
12.5. A Profession, Not Merely a Job
12.6. Doing “Good” while Doing Well
12.7. Stress, Success, Failure and Family

Appendices
A. A Four Year Undergraduate Check List
B. Letter of Recommendation Form for Faculty
C. A Successful Law School Application Strategy
D. Additional Readings and Resources

Afterword

Product details

Published	21 Feb 2013
Format	Hardback
Edition	1st
Extent	150
ISBN	9781475802450
Imprint	R&L Education
Dimensions	236 x 160 mm
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Dr. Dillon succeeds where few have: he cuts through the plethora of misinformation about law school admissions, the law school experience and legal careers to author a candid, insightful and eminently readable guide that is a ‘must have’ for anyone considering law school. Only someone with Dillon’s decades of experience in practice and academia could write with such clarity on the subtle nuances that define successful applications.

Grant W. Keener, Senior Director of Admissions, Penn State Dickinison School of Law
Anxious pre-law students (and their parents) will devour this book. Professor Dillon explains–calmly and honestly–how to get in, how to get through, and how to get hired. I wish I’d had this book when I applied to law school!

Michael W. Steinberg, senior counsel, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP
Michael Dillon's useful and engaging book provides both law school-bound students and their parents an honest and practical analysis of the pros and cons of entering law school and lawyering. Inspiring in this era of lawyer-bashing, Dillon, a gifted teacher who spent 22 years in law practice (I know first-hand that he was excellent at it) advises would-be lawyers to 'follow your passion.' Particularly helpful is a check-list for each of the four years of college that should help undergraduates get into law school, with extended advice to carry them through into practice.

Linda R. Singer, Washington DC lawyer and mediator