Archive for the Moritz College of Law Category

Outlines

Posted in 1L, Moritz College of Law with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 27, 2011 by Rayman

It has been probably over a year since I posted. I promise that I did not abandon the blog…I was just busy with, you know, law school. I’ve seen some people out there with the time and energy to blog and do law school simultaneously but I am not one of those people. After a full day of reading and writing the last think on my mind was writing about my day spend reading and writing.

Anyway, my efforts paid off and I ended up in the top 10% and on law review — probably the two most important measures of law school success. Since I did well I want to share the wealth. There were so many assets out on the internet that I used during the year that I feel like it is necessary for me to give back to the community.

Each outline is the final version that I used during my exams. I also had other outlines too but those are probably not the most useful. Generally, I would make a huge outline for each class. Then a month before exams I would rewrite each outline while simultaneously condensing the materials. Once my short outline was complete I would begin to shorten it even more by removing stuff that I didn’t find coming up on practice exams. I was better at this in some classes than others but the general idea was to try and get the outline down to the shortest possible form.

You will find that I put the grade I revived in each class in the outlines. I did this not to brag or anything stupid like that. I decided to do this so you have some idea of what your looking at and if you can trust it. I wouldn’t trust my outlines 100% if I were you but my guess is they are probably more trustworthy than someone who didn’t do so well. During the school year I was always annoyed when people would post their outlines but not how well they did. I wanted to know I was getting something I could trust.

There are a few suspect outlines that I am posting. For example, my legislation outline is not that great. This class was not my favorite and there weren’t many practice exams out there that I could use to narrow it down/turn it into an exam tool. You might also wonder about my contracts outline. Even though I didn’t do so hot in the class, I still stand by it. I think my low grade in that class was more a function of the exam (very weird) than my actual knowledge. In fact, contracts was perhaps my favorite class and definitely was the one I spent the most amount of time doing hypos for.

One last note — the outline don’t represent my views or really anyone else’s views. They are really just a form of highly organized notes designed to help me do well on my exams. Since they are notes for school you would be absolutely insane to use them for legal advice.

Torts Exam Outline – Chamallas

Property Exam Outline – Cohen

Legislation Exam Outline – Tokaji

Crim Exam Outline – Federle

Contracts II Short Exam Outline – Cardi

Con Law — National Power and Federalism – Zipkin

Con Law — Indv Rights – Zipkin

Civ Pro – Fairman

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It’s Real

Posted in 0L, Moritz College of Law with tags , , , , , , , on July 27, 2010 by Rayman

About a week ago I got my schedule for law school and recently it was made official by an email from the Moritz Law registrar. Now everything feels so real. I am leaving my job, packing up my apartment for my move and panning my daily routine — starting August 19th. So, here is my schedule:

Rayman's Schedule

Generally, I am very pleased with my schedule, as it suites my personal preferences quite well. One thing that I like is that no class starts before 9:10am. This is great for me because I like to work out in the mornings. I also feel like it will be nice to do a little studying prior to class. With this schedule both working out and studying are possible before class.

There is also a nice one hour and a half block in there for lunch. I see myself using this time to either study or eat lunch with my wife. I feel like a lunch date with her could make for a very pleasant afternoon.

I have read some complaints of TLS people about the one Friday class. Some have said, “why not go longer on Thursday and have a three-day weekend.” I, on the other hand, have never been a fan of the no class Friday. I think having one class is perfect because it is enough to make me take the day seriously while also providing ample out of class study time.

In the end I think that my only real disappointment — even though it’s not listed on the schedule above — is not having Professor Dressler for Criminal Law. I was really hoping to get him, since he is a pretty well-known legal scholar and I have enjoyed his blawg in the past. Oh well, I guess I could always just listen to his Sum and Substance lecture series.

Now, if orientation could only hurry up and get here…

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Summer Reading List…?

Posted in 0L, Moritz College of Law, Prep, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , on July 16, 2010 by Rayman

So, while I was busy not blogging last month, I got a suggested reading list from dean Northern. I was looking forward to getting this list. Now that I have it, I feel a little let down. Check it out:

Suggested Reading List
I have compiled a short list of optional summer and fall reading material. Some of the selections provide good background information for the concepts you will need during your first year of law school. Other material focuses on the emotional and social aspects of being a law student. Yet other material is simply interesting reading. The list is by no means comprehensive, nor should you endeavor to read it all.
IMPORTANT: Every law student should have a Legal Dictionary (Preferably a recent Black’s Law Dictionary) that they can carry with them to the library, to class, etc. The first semester of law school is quite similar to your first semester of a new language the vocabulary can be strikingly unfamiliar and even familiar words, when used in a legal context, may have unfamiliar meaning.
Law School and Legal Education
Aldisert, Ruggero J., Logic for Lawyers: A Guide to Clear Legal Thinking. 3rd ed. South Bend: National Institute for Trial Advocacy, 1997
Barber, David H., Winning in Law School: Stress Reduction. 2d ed. Dillon, CO: Spectra, 1986
Calamari, John D. and Joseph M. Perillo, eds. How to Thrive in Law School. Pelham Manor, NY: Hook Mountain Press, 1984
Deaver, Jeff., The Complete Law School Companion: How to Excel at America’s Most Demanding Post-Graduate Curriculum. New York: Wiley, 1992
Feinman, Jay M. Law 101: Everything You Need to Know About the American Legal System. Oxford University Press, 2000
Fine, Toni M., American Legal Systems: A Resource and Reference Guide. Anderson Publishing 1997
Guinier, Lani., Becoming Gentlemen: Women, Law School, and Institutional Change. Boston: Beacon Press, 1997
Hegland, Kenney F., Introduction to the Study and Practice of Law in a Nutshell. 2d ed. St. Paul, West, 1995
Kuklin, Bailey and Jeffrey W. Stempel., Foundations of the Law: An Interdisciplinary Approach and Jurisprudential Primer. West Publishing Co, 1994
Levi, Edward., An Introduction to Legal Reasoning. 1948
Llewellyn, Karl N., The Bramble Bush: On Our Law and Its Study. rev. ed. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications 1981
Rapoport, Nancy B. and Jeffrey D. Van Niel, Law School Survival Manual: From LSAT to Bar Exam. Aspen Publishers 2010.
Shapo, Helene S. and Marshall Shapo, Law School Without Fear: Strategies for Success. Foundation Press 1996.
General Reading
Davis, Michael D. and Hunter R. Clark, Thurgood Marshall: Warrior at the Bar, Rebel on the Bench. New York: Birch Lane Press/Carol Publishing Group, 1993
Griffith, Kathryn. Judge Learned Hand and the Role of the Federal Judiciary. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 1973
Harr, Johnathan, A Civil Action, Vintage Books 1996
Irons, Peter. The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court. New York: Penguin, 1990.
Kahlenberg, Richard D., Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School. University of Massachusetts Press 1999
Stern, Gerald M., The Buffalo Creek Disaster. Random House 1976
Tribe, Lawrence H., God Save This Honorable Court: How the Choice of Supreme Court Justices Shapes Our History. New York: Penguin/Mentor, 1986.

I value dean Northerns opinion. Clearly, she knows a lot about law school. However, the law school and legal education list leads me to believe that law school prep books are outside of her scope of knowledge. I have done an extensive amount of research on law school prep and can honestly say that I have heard of very few of these books — three perhaps.

More surprising than the books included are the ones omitted. I figured that the list would at least include Law School Confidential. Even though I consider the advice of the latter basic and common sense, a lot of people appreciate it and find its advice useful. Of course Getting to Maybe should be on any law school prep list as well. But that too is absent.

Sure, I can see why the dean may have wanted to leave off PLS II. If I were a law school dean I know that I wouldn’t appreciate the views of Atticus Falcon. I can even understand that the dean may be under some political pressure to promote certain books over others. What I fail to understand however, is how the dean can fail to include one major book that the law school prep community(is there such a thing?) stands behind (read Getting to Maybe).

I have no major problems with the “general reading” list. Indeed, I have even read parts of the Thurgood Marshall bio and found it a good read. I wish that the list had a little more books though. A couple additions not about the supreme court would really balance out the list. Don’t get me wrong, the supreme court is great, its just that there is so much more to the legal field than the supreme court.

At the end of the day, I suppose it is good to have some alternative input. So moving forward I may “endeavor” to get and read a few books off the list. But we shall see.

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USNWR Rankings Leaked

Posted in Moritz College of Law, Schools with tags , , on April 14, 2010 by Rayman

Every year the law school rankings from US News and World Reports leak early.  They are supposed to be released this week so, like clock work, the rankings have been leaked. You can check them out here.

Assuming this leak is correct you can see that Moritz Law’s new rank is 34. Considering only numbers, this is a one number improvement. Alright!

EDIT: It appears that the leak was for real because the real rankings were realased yesterday (4/15) and they match up.

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A Historic Day

Posted in Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University with tags , , , , , , , , on March 31, 2010 by Rayman

Yesterday the new Ohio Union at the Ohio State University officially opened to the public. I consider it a great day for anyone associated with the University. The current students are very lucky to have the opportunity to participate in such a historic event.

For those of you who are unaware, for the past three years the area directly adjacent to Moritz law has been a construction disaster area. The old union was just too dated to be renovated so university officials decided — in typical fashion – to tear it down and build a whole new one. This marks the fourth dramatic change to the university in the past five years after the south campus gateway, the RPAC and the renovation of the main library.

I am really excited about this because, like I said, its right next door to the law school! Which means I will be visiting it quite often, come August. From the photos and various articles (Dispatch, Lantern) I have read about it, it really seems like a great space and for its $118 million price tag it better be. It is also looks a ton better than the old union.

Some of the highlights are its restaurants and performance space. In total the Ohio Union has seven ”dinning spaces” — yeah, that’s right I said seven.  One of the dinning spaces that I am excited about is Woody’s tavern. Woody’s was in the old union and was among my favorite dinning options back when I was an undergrad.  Naturally, I am happy they brought it back. The performance space will also be excellent for shows and events. The Grand Ballroom — named after the great Archie Griffin — can hold 1200 people! I also saw, in the photos, a movie theater like room. That space will be great for OUAB’s flicks-for-free.

I think having a great space like the Ohio Union right next to the law school enhances Moritz tremendously. It makes the whole area surrounding the school much more vibrant and will contribute to a general feeling of community. There is no doubt that this new addition to the university will help attract some of the best students around. If you are on the fence about attending the Moritz College of Law you must do yourself a favor and visit the new union. While it is not an integral part of the school, it is an unexpected feature that just might pull you over the fence.

If you didnt catch my link to the photos in the text you can check them out HERE.

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