The Law School Toolbox Podcast: Tools for Law Students from 1L to the Bar Exam, and Beyond 084: Using Rules Effectively in Legal Writing (w/ guest Jason Jones)
Welcome back! Today, we're talking with Law School Toolbox tutor (and former law professor) Jason Jones about a very important aspect of law school exam success – using legal rules.
Some of you might be thinking, "Duh, of course, I know how to use legal rules. It's all we talk about in class and I have them all in my outline." But, we see A LOT of exam answers – where students swear they knew the rules going in – that really don't include rules at all.
If you want to set yourself up for legal rule success, tune in!
In this episode we discuss:
- What's the rule supposed to accomplish in legal writing?
- Why it's important to have accurate, complete rule statements
- Common issues students have with using legal rules effectively
- What a bad rule statement looks like
- Do you need to memorize your rule statements exactly?
- How do you know if the rules in your outline are correct and easy to use?
- Is it okay to just look up the rules in a commercial outline?
- Alison and Jason share examples of what do to (and not to do) with rules in legal writing
Resources
- A Formula For Rule Analysis Success (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/formula-rule-analysis-success/)
- 3 Steps to Using Cases to Explain the Law (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/3-steps-using-cases-explain-law/)
- How and Why: Deepening Your Legal Reasoning (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/how-and-why-deepening-your-legal-reasoning/)
- Legal Writing 101 podcast (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/podcast-episode-11-legal-writing-101/)
- Getting to Maybe: How To Excel at Law School Exams (https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Maybe-Excel-School-Exams/dp/0890897603)
Episode Transcript: Download the Transcript
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Thanks for listening! Good luck with those rule statements!
Alison & Lee