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Law Students Can't Read Cases Either

By Eric Lipman

Sigh. On Friday, we talked about the perception, revealed at a roundtable discussion among law school deans, that law students were not learning/not being properly taught effective legal writing. Yesterday, on the Law School Academic Support Blog, Amy Jarmon, Assistant Dean for Academic Success Programs at Texas Tech Law School (sorry about the game Saturday, Dean Jarmon; Hook 'Em!), threw up a blurb about the influx of panicked 1Ls freaking out about how long they're spending reading and briefing cases for class. I think it's perfectly legit for 1Ls, a month into their law school experience, to be a little thrown by the whole "casebook method" of teaching. Many of their concerns, Jarmon says, "are linked to not understanding why we read cases and how they fit into overall learning and skills development." Again, makes sense. Jarmon reproduces four tidbits of advice that she gives to these students (below, verbatim): All cases are not equal in importance. Some cases are read for historical background only - the law will change by the last case on a subtopic. Some cases are packed full of important essentials such as rules, policies, jurisdictional differences, important points of reasoning. Some cases are included for...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on September 21, 2010 (boomark / email).