With one week down for our summer starters, and many other new law students getting ready to come in the fall, we though that you might be looking for some good preparatory reading material.  Everyone had different ideas on the best books that you should read to get ready for your law school career, so we have a few different lists to consider. A few years ago the Volokh Conspiracy asked for readers to suggest the best books for people starting law school.  The list includes books that are intended for 1Ls, leisure books, and even some magazines.  Lawschooldiscussion.org has a page devoted to pre-law books and branches out into pre-law movies. LawVibe has a top ten books list as well.  There are also multiple user lists on Amazon with good suggestions, like this one, this one, or this one.

There are lots of good resources out there for starting your law school career.  Take a look at the lists, pick a book or two, but also remember not to worry yourself too much.  There is a reason that Volokh contributors suggested fun books as well as serious ones.

We have mentioned this in the past, but we thought it was time to devote a whole entry to it, especially with new careers and summer jobs on the horizon.  One of the most important things that you can do, no matter what level your research skills are at, is familiarize yourself with the resources that are available to you. This was a theme in the Jumpstart classes, too, for those who attended them. The first think that you want to know, when you start your new job, is what you have to work with.  Do you have Lexis? Westlaw? Something else?  What kind of books are there on hand? Where is the nearest public law library?  Is there a company file of the forms they use most? What are the free online resources for your particular area of law?  It’s a good idea to find these things out early.  And if worse comes to worse, you can always call the reference desk here for help. 

With that in mind, have a wonderful summer!  The BLAWg may be slightly more sporadic this summer than it is during the school year, but we will still be bringing you the latest as it come up.

The extremely popular Jumpstart research program returns to the Law Library for the next two weeks. The program, designed by the Reference librarians, will again work towards preparing law students for summer clerkships and the first year of practice. In addition to group sessions on basic legal research skills, there will also be individual sessions dealing specifically with the Internet and Web applications. During last year’s sessions, a number of students learned the necessary research skills for dealing with materials such as legislative history, administrative law and the regulatory process, and computer-assisted legal research.

Following the formula established in previous years, each of the Jumpstart sessions will begin with a brief review of the basic legal resources so that every student has a complete grasp of the legal research process. The librarians will also provide information about more specialized types of reference books, including practice aids and form books. The Jumpstart sessions will then focus on individual student problems and questions about legal research, with an emphasis on the type of practice student participants will be seeing in the summer. During individual electronic research sessions, Peter Hook, the Computer Services Librarian, will discuss applications and uses of these extraordinary computer sources in the law office and on the job. The Internet/Web sessions will include hands-on exploration of the various Web sources.

If you have any questions about the Jumpstart programs, be sure to drop by the Reference Office and speak to a reference librarian. We’d especially like to hear from those of you who already know in what jurisdiction you’ll be working this summer and any special areas of law with which you’ll be dealing. We tailor the Jumpstart sessions to your particular needs in order to make the program a continuing success.

Connelly, Michael. The Lincoln Lawyer: A Novel. New York: Little, Brown, 2005 [PS 3553 .051165 .L56 2005]

The law library doesn’t buy a lot of fiction. Still we do purchase the occasional legal based novel and of course the latest legal thriller (Grisham/Turow/etc.) So it shouldn’t be a surprise that when, a few years ago, I read a review of The Lincoln Lawyer, I decided it was an appropriate addition to our library. Connelly is perhaps best known as being one of Bill Clinton’s favorite writers and he had a string of successful “hard boiled” detective novels published in the 1990s. A fan of the like of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, Connelly’s writing is as rough as 24 grit sandpaper. The Lincoln Lawyer, his first jump into the legal thriller genre, is no exception. Full Story »

Everyone makes mistakes, and lawyers are no different. According to a recent Law.com article one complaint was allowed even though it misspelled the names of both parties and forgot to list the amount of damages. The defendants asked for a dismissal based on the numerous errors, but the judge decided that the mistakes were not sufficient grounds to dismiss the complaint. The same site references an older article about a solo practitioner who did not notice when his spell checker replaced every occurrence of the term “sua sponte” into “sea sponge.”

There are any number of potential mistakes waiting to be made. Legal terminology is unusual, and you don’t want to be dependent on your spell checker. It is important to edit your own work. And you always want to get the parties right. It is worth checking and double checking your papers and briefs for errors. But is it also true that mistakes are not the end of the world, in law school or even in the real world. Forgive yourself a few mistakes, and get on with your career and you life. But never forget the importance of learning from those mistakes.

Law.com ran an article recently about looking for a summer job in the current economic climate. Everyone takes a different approach to the job search, some of you may have already begun applying, others not yet thought about it, but if it is important to you to get a good legal job this summer it does not hurt to start thinking about it early. There are lots of resources for job seekers out there. The article mentions the National Association for Law Placement, and there are other good sites like the FindLaw career center.

The Legal Writing Prof Blog and the Law Librarian Blog both recently mentioned a wiki page devoted to making it through your first year of law school. It is not yet exhaustive, but there are several good tips there—especially the one about asking librarians for help!

Congratulations! You are now in the final stretch of you first semester, which is usually the hardest one. All you have to do is survive a few more classes and finals. It is, however, when you are almost done that the stress gets the worst. We suggested that you take a little time for yourself earlier, and now we want to remind you again. Sleep, food, and relaxation are more important than ever.

The Law Magazine Blog has an entry on managing stress, and it is a pretty good one. Not everything will be for you, we understand that you can drop everything at the end of the day during finals, but there are lots of good suggestions for little things that you can to maintain your mental health. Finals are hard—but you don’t need to make them any harder. Take care of yourself.

With finals right around the corner it is easier than every to get stressed out, and to not play at the top of your game. The Law Magazine blog has posted a few things that you can do to keep sharp, including exercising, varying your stimulation, and the importance of repetition. There is nothing too revolutionary in the article, but remembering little things like exercising is especially important in times when you are more inclined to be stressed and overworked.

Last Friday we wrote about the lawyers that might have top roles in the new administration. These guys are not only interesting as a legal presence in our country, but also as a reminder that your JD is a gateway to far more than just the practice of law. There are any number of professions in which a law degree is useful that don’t fit the traditional mold. Although law school is similar to a vocational school in that it teaches you the skills necessary to practice a particular profession, it also promotes critical thinking and writing skills that are useful for numerous professions.

Some people go to law school knowing in advance that they are not interested in the traditional practice of law, but even if you have planned to be a lawyer since the third grade (and that’s wonderful if you have) it doesn’t hurt to take a quick look at the myriad of options available to you. There are several resources. To begin with, check out this article from the Law Student Division of the ABA. It’s an oldie, but a goodie. You might also want to take a look at one of the many books on the subject. We have several, including Nonlegal Careers For Lawyers, What Can You Do With a Law Degree? A Lawyers’ Guide to Career Alternatives Inside, Outside & Around the Law, and Judgment Reversed: Alternative Careers For Lawyers.