HATE is easy…love takes COURAGE

Alright,

The substantive posting around FTS has been…sparse…recently, so I’m making my first venture back into things a post about supplements and what has and has not worked.  I know it’s before finals, so before I have the “proof” of grades, but I wanted to do it early enough so that those of you who are still confused in class can pick them up in time to read through them once before finals start.

This semester, I’ve got Civil Procedure, Torts, Contracts, and Legal Research and Legal Writing.  Everybody takes a “lawyering” class and since that class is pretty unique to each school, I’m going to skip it.  Though, if anyone knows of any good collections of books to aid in memo writing, feel free to share.  And before we begin, I’m adding the little disclaimer that I’m just a lowly 1L sharing my opinion with fellow students, and that I am not receiving any compensation for recommending any of the following books or study aids.  This is just my two cents, and you should bring your grains of salt.

Civil Procedure: Let me begin with a shout out, hug, high five, and thank you, to Professor Richard Freer.  He’s a professor at Emory Law, and if you’re in Civ Pro, he should be your freaking HERO.  He wrote the casebook we’re using in class, as well as a BRILLIANT book titled, “Introduction to Civil Procedure” [henceforth called "Freer"]. I think Amanda [2L] over at Teasingly Diverse first recommended it to me.  I have been grateful that she did at least 243608135135 times this semester.  So why is it so special? Because he manages to tell you what’s going on, what things mean, how the rules fit the way they do, and he manages to do so in a way that is straightforward, easy to read, and conversational.  It’s been a joy to have his casebook also, because the two fit together wonderfully.  I love my professor, but Freer’s book is an excellent way to review what we’ve been over in class, to cement certain concepts, and to make sure I understand what’s going on.  His chapter on personal jurisdiction is definitely worthwhile, as well as the chapter describing pleadings.  Of course, no conversation about study aids would be complete without mentioning Professor Glannon of Columbia Law’s  ”Civil Procedure: Examples and Explanations.” [Henceforth referred to as "Glannon." And if you're wondering where his shout out and hug are, wait until we get to Torts.] I’ve been using both the E&E and the Freer for Civil Procedure.  For some people, both might be overkill.  For me, it’s just about right.  The Glannon is, first, hilarious [in the way that law students find things hilarious], and beyond that, the hypotheticals he puts forth are invaluable.  I read through the Freer because his explanations of the concepts are very very thorough and very clear.  Glannon’s explanations are less detailed and intricate, a way to refresh the general concepts.  Freer’s good if you need help with what the heck is going on [and let's face it, you might], and Glannon is good for testing what you know.  The real meat of the Glannon is in the examples.  First, they’re just funny.  Second, they start out fairly simple and grow increasingly complex.  They build upon the concepts you’ve learned little by little, so by the time you’re done, you’ll not only understand the concepts, you’ll remember them.  Excellent.  Anyway, they’ve been my buddies in Civ Pro this year, and it’s been fun times.

Torts: Now, we get to give Professor Glannon his own high-five and thank you for his “The Law of Torts: Examples and Explanations.” I.  Love.  This.  Book.  Transfer the hilarity from his Civ Pro E&E, and crank it up a few notches, just because Torts cases are inherently more ridiculous.  While I’ve been reading the Civ Pro E&E and the Freer from day one, I just started reading the Torts E&E on Sunday.  Let me tell you, it’s an AMAZING review.  All the good things I said about the Civ Pro E&E can be said about the one for Torts as well.  Again, the introductions to the topics before he presents the examples are not meant to be a substitute for your casebook and class as they’re a bit more general, but they put forth the main points you need to understand what’s going on.  And again, the real substance is in the examples, in testing what you know.  I’ve noticed that some of the hypos in the book are the same hypos [more or less] that we’ve had posed to us by our professor in class.  I’m definitely going to read through the entire thing and be glad I did.

Contracts: Here’s where things get tricky.  Most classes start with consideration, or “how to tell when there’s a contract”, or “what’s a contract anyway?” and move forward from there.  Naturally, damages are something covered near the end of the course.  Unless you’re me, and 100 or so of my closest friends.  Our professor began our course with damages, and we just finished them about 2 weeks ago.  If you’re currently looking at your computer like this, it’s okay.  I think there’s a method to my professor’s madness; I’ll get into that at another time.  Anyway, it’s made choosing a study aid very difficult.  I finally reached the point where my casebook alone wasn’t enough [Contracts is by far my hardest class], so I settled on two aids.  First, I picked up Professor Chirelstein’s “Concepts and Case Analysis in the Law of Contracts.” I’ve only read through the first two chapters, but I’m already in love.  Again, it’s a conversational read, and it’s very conceptual, which fits with the way my professor teaches.  Today, I felt a little weight lifted off my shoulders and I felt less like this when I opened the book and Prof. Chirelstein told me in about 5 pages what expectation damages are, why they’re important, and what the heck they even mean.  In case you haven’t picked up on this, I like things that are written in conversational [that just means not opaque] English and present concepts in an easy to understand and memorable manner.  Chirelstein is yet another professor who accomplishes this.  Now, I’ve also got the E&E for Contracts, by Professor Blum of Lewis and Clark Law School.  I haven’t looked at it yet, but I have a few classmates who have found its treatment of the UCC as well as its hypos very useful.  Given the success I’ve had with the method used in the Glannon E&E’s [overview, hypo practice] I figured it can’t hurt.  In fact, for my style of learning, it’s necessary.  I’ll update this post once I’ve worked my way through it a bit.

Anyway, that’s where I currently stand on supplements for those three courses.  You might notice commercial outlines are not on there.  ::gasp:: In fact, that shouldn’t be surprising, and I was warned of this before I started school.  They’re useful for filling in gaps in your personal outline, and for filling in holes left by your classes and your casebook, but that’s about it.  They won’t really do much to help your understanding, explain the material, or make you feel like you’ve actually learned anything.  I suppose they don’t profess to either; they’re outlines.  Yet, I have a whole host of them sitting on my bookshelf. ::sigh::  If you’ll use them, like anything else, then I suppose it’s a good idea to buy them.  If you’re like me, do what I did and get them used for between $5 and $15, so you can use them if you need them, but won’t feel guilty about spending money on them if you don’t look at them more than a couple times all semester.

Well, that’s that for now.  I hope 1Ls who haven’t had these classes yet find this useful, or 1Ls who have these classes but are looking for some extra help.  I know I wish I’d had someone lay this out for me before I started school [whether they thought it would mean anything to me or not], so hopefully this gives 0Ls a starting point as well.  As always, my wonderful readers, feel free to chime in with your own two cents.

Cheers.