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Exam on Monday morning, asked a friend for an outline today and he sent me over 150 pages.  I can learn this in a day right?
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May 6, 2012 06:07
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PatrickKilpatrick posted:Exam on Monday morning, asked a friend for an outline today and he sent me over 150 pages. Don't print all of the outline as one doc. Copy each section to its own word doc and give it a really descriptive one-line header that repeats on top of every page. Print 2x pages per sheet (so two columns on each sheet, each column = a page in Word) - that means half as much page turning during the final. DO NOT print double-sided tho. Staple each major section as its own packet, so you have 10 mini outlines. Generally, you can figure out the main issue each Q is getting at, and only having to pick up and thumb though the 5 relevant pages is nice. Making your outline less cumbersome to find things in is almost as good as having read it beforehand.
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May 6, 2012 06:36
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HolySwissCheese posted:Don't print all of the outline as one doc. Copy each section to its own word doc and give it a really descriptive one-line header that repeats on top of every page. This is key. I also go a little overboard, adding a tab to the top of each mini-outline so you can find the front page quickly and easily, and I'll sometimes use a labelmaker to print a one or two word label for each tab. That way I can look at my stupid pile of mini-outlines and find the one I want by just flipping through the tabs.
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May 6, 2012 06:52
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Thanks guys!
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May 6, 2012 07:54
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Gonna be a Judges' clerk. Boom.
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May 6, 2012 10:47
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mutism posted:Gonna be a Judges' clerk. Boom. wait, are you a licensed attorney who is now going to be a circuit court clerk?
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May 6, 2012 16:41
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Ani posted:What the poo poo? Do those things just wander around the streets of Guam?
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May 6, 2012 16:46
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Abugadu posted:There's a kid that has one on a leash for the tourists at one of the cultural centers, but you wouldnt see one unless you were deep into the forested shore area limestone. The gargantuan spiders, on the other hand, are conveniently located behind every dark remote area and under every toilet lid in your home. Welcome to Guam!
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May 6, 2012 17:30
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prussian advisor posted:The gargantuan spiders, on the other hand, are conveniently located behind every dark remote area and under every toilet lid in your home. Welcome to Guam! Are they venomous? Oh my goodness yes! I'm at least assuming so Last day of studying for law school classes. All right Sec Reg, it's just you and me. Let's Thunderdome this poo poo.
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May 6, 2012 17:41
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woozle wuzzle posted:Woo! Where'd you just WashingTTTon and Lee. Don't have a sub 3.0 UGPA when applying to law school kids. You could be me one day. If you were an immature 18/19 year old teenager and tanked your UGPA before maturing, just forget about any law school pipe dreams. No matter how much time has passed, how much your resume has grown, and how high you score on the LSAT. Maybe we'll see each-other at the bar woozle. woozle wuzzle posted:And uhhh, self-study can work, but do you have a recent book? If you steal this years Barbri book, it's a workable plan. Barbri MBE subject outline book coming in the mail, as well as 2 barbri and 2 PMBR books of practice tests/questions. ALL from 2010 or 2011. No state-specific stuff from either. Got state subject outlines from Baroutlines.com, downloaded past Essay questions and model answers from William & Mary's website. Haven't started looking at state specific yet. Plan on continuing study of the 6 MBE subjects this week, and this week or next week starting to hammer away at practice MBE questions in 100 question/3 hour chunks like on the real exam. Questions style and tone from what I've seen are identical to MPRE. With 60 MPRE questions, I got done in a little over 1 hour, and then reviewed every single question and still left after 1 hour 45 minutes. That's around 1.75 minutes per question for 2 pass throughs. I've always been a fast test taker, but I forced myself on the MPRE to go back through every question. Plan to do the same for the MBE. Every point counts and will give me more room to tank essay questions. At 1.75/per, I can do 2 pass throughs on a 100 question MBE section in just under 3 hours. Hopefully before May is over I'll know the material well enough to do them at that pace and score 75% correct or so. If ANYONE is going to be taking the Virginia Bar Exam, I'd be eternally grateful for state specific outlines/material you may have or may soon receive if they're in electronic form.
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May 6, 2012 19:22
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Boosted_C5 posted:WashingTTTon and Lee. It sounds like you're on a good track. And if you can find anyone taking VA barbri, that'd be perfect. The lectures from them that I found particularly useful, and would prioritize getting outlines about, were the ones about the test itself. In one they go over the rate of questions each subject area has received historically, and give educated guesses about what topics will receive questions this year. It's pretty detailed and they are pretty good at guessing. They might give 12 subjects to best cover the 7(?) essay questions. That's a lot better than facing 25 subjects or whatever. It's not fullproof, and you've still got to cover it all, but it really helps to focus your studying. For example, there's ALWAYS a wills question on VA state law, so you can't skim it. This will be specific to this testing year, so it'd take getting the outline from a friend. In another lecture, they go over the exact scoring system for VA essays and that really helped. If an essay has a possible 10(?) points, those points are all assigned to certain triggers. Like if you mention the right area of law, 1 point. Identify a contradiction, 1 point. Name the statute, 2 points. Etc. You can get a decent score by not knowing the answer, but building up to it decently. So style and "normal" writing are way less important than pumping out hits on those point triggers. A crude, unformatted list could earn a mediocre 5 points while a giant essay that misses the topic could earn 0. This is not specific to the testing year, so I bet you could get an old outline/video on it.
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May 6, 2012 19:57
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woozle wuzzle posted:Woo! W&L stole our smug weaselly dean in 2007! He jumped ship while I was in law school, although it had no practical effects for either of us. Smug weasel? Jumped ship? Yeah, that pretty much covers it. I'm glad that douche-bag left. Hope the schools new dean isn't a clown. The final 5 candidates had some real nutcases among them, hope they didn't pick one of the nuts. woozle wuzzle posted:In one they go over the rate of questions each subject area has received historically Found this on-line: http://www.all4jds.com/Group/tabid/74/asg/16/aft/13502/showtab/groupforums/Default.aspx Posted in 2010, # of times tested (out of possible 32), Percentage: Wills/Trusts - 32 100% VA Civil Procedure - 31 97% Criminal Law & Procedure - 26 81% Domestic Relations - 26 81% UCC/Sales - 25 78% Equity - 24 75% Ethics (Professional Responsibility) - 21 66% Federal Civil Procedure - 21 66% Real Property/Suretyship - 19 59% Corporations - 18 56% Agency - 16 50% Partnership - 16 50% Commercial Paper - 13 40% Personal Property - 13 40% Local Government Law - 11 34% Creditor's Rights - 11 34% Secured Transactions - 10 31% Conflict of Laws - 5 16% Torts - 2 6% Taxation - 2 6% Constitutional Law - 0 0% Contracts - 0 0% woozle wuzzle posted:In another lecture, they go over the exact scoring system for VA essays and that really helped. If an essay has a possible 10(?) points, those points are all assigned to certain triggers. Like if you mention the right area of law, 1 point. Identify a contradiction, 1 point. Name the statute, 2 points. Etc. You can get a decent score by not knowing the answer, but building up to it decently. So style and "normal" writing are way less important than pumping out hits on those point triggers. A crude, unformatted list could earn a mediocre 5 points while a giant essay that misses the topic could earn 0. I had heard something like this. Plan on IRAC-ing everything, and making up a rule that sounds reasonable if I forget the correct state rule, so I can get points for application to the facts. I have scoured the web and simply cannot find anything for Virginia specific other than what little I have found. 
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May 6, 2012 20:07
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Speaking of going solo, any area of law in particular you would recommend for a stay-at-home dad attempting to work from home part-part-part time? Where in VA do you live? We're moving to Lynchburg at the end of this month.
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May 6, 2012 20:13
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Boosted_C5 posted:Speaking of going solo, any area of law in particular you would recommend for a stay-at-home dad attempting to work from home part-part-part time? We got a new guy in our law chambers who does wills & estates stuff and it seems chill as heck. He works 3 days a week and runs a hobby farm the rest of the time. The clients aren't totally shady either, which is a nice change of pace from the scum that a crim practice attracts (which is what most of the solos in our chambers do).
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May 6, 2012 21:11
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Boosted_C5 posted:Speaking of going solo, any area of law in particular you would recommend for a stay-at-home dad attempting to work from home part-part-part time? Bankruptcy is pretty good. Clients pay up front, only one required "hearing" per client. You can also find a bankruptcy litigation person in your area and fee share if you need to litigate.
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May 6, 2012 21:25
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That online breakdown is helpful, but barbri will tell you exactly what's been on it the last several tests, and guess which topics are "due". Like if there hasn't been a corporations question for the last three tests, you can bet there will be one on the upcoming. Or if it was on the last 3, highly likely it will be cycled out. They know the trends. It's not a huge deal, but it's helpful.Boosted_C5 posted:Speaking of going solo, any area of law in particular you would recommend for a stay-at-home dad attempting to work from home part-part-part time? Like Roger_mudd, I'm in bankruptcy. I work maybe 25-30 hours per week. But you could do most things: criminal, family, wills, or whatever as a solo and have a flexible schedule. Bankruptcy is nice because it has huge demand and people will seek you out if you're new (and therefore cheap), so it's fast to jump in. The learning curve is a kick in the crotch though, you need a mentor to walk you through the forms. But that's probably true with most things you'd do. I'm in a suburb of Richmond. You can work from home, but I'd advise never meeting a client at your house. Rent a back room in some office. Like a real estate office or doctor, etc, for just a few hundred a month. Put a desk and fake plant in there, and bingo you got an office. If nothing else, meet them at a local library. You just don't want whacky people thinking they can show up at your house just to show you what they got in the mail that day. (THEY WILL DO THIS)
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May 6, 2012 21:34
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How hard would bankruptcy, wills/estates be to teach myself? Never took those classes in school. Did take a LOT of tax and a LOT of securities, also covered securities in business graduate school. Maybe I could do sort of a personal finance themed practice with these areas if I can easily teach myself bankruptcy and estates.
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May 6, 2012 21:35
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Boosted_C5 posted:How hard would bankruptcy, wills/estates be to teach myself? Never took those classes in school. 2 part answer: If you are just doing simple chapter 7's, it's just a matter of buying a few books, buying some software, and getting some clients. After you've done a few it's as easy as filing a 1040. If you want to venture into 13's or bankruptcy litigation, it would take you a few years. These are the best books: http://www.nclc.org/ Also you'd want to join NACBA for the listserve, folks are pretty helpful to newbies.
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May 6, 2012 21:41
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Thanks guys! Bookmarked the NCLC page. Probably just stick to Chapter 7.
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May 6, 2012 21:49
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Boosted_C5 posted:Speaking of going solo, any area of law in particular you would recommend for a stay-at-home dad attempting to work from home part-part-part time? I know a few guys who have tiny contracts to take just a very small number of PD conflict cases. It's not "from home" because you have to show up for court once or twice a week for a minute or so (when you can't be telephonic), but if you avoid trials it's super part time.
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May 6, 2012 22:42
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Agesilaus posted:wait, are you a licensed attorney who is now going to be a circuit court clerk?
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May 6, 2012 23:16
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mutism posted:Graduating law student — works differently in New Zealand than in the US. Two years working for 2-3 Justices. ohh Justices, got it. When you said clerk and judge together, I recoiled in horror at the thought of a trained, licensed lawyer being a circuit court clerk. Not a staff attorney, but a court clerk  .
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May 6, 2012 23:27
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Anyone know of where I can find canned briefs for Canadian cases? Hoping for something besides Wikipedia.
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May 6, 2012 23:31
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Solid Lizzie posted:Anyone know of where I can find canned briefs for Canadian cases? Hoping for something besides Wikipedia. Most of our cases, especially the Supreme Court ones, will have head notes. Those, you can get off of the SCC website. See if your Westlaw will allow you access to the Cnd cases because the majority will also have head notes. Maybe you'll earn another badge this way.
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May 7, 2012 02:45
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Boosted_C5 posted:
At the high end, estate planning is very much tax-driven, so the two are a pretty good fit. Not so much with the usual "all to my wife, then equally to my kids" type of wills.
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May 7, 2012 02:49
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BigHead posted:I know a few guys who have tiny contracts to take just a very small number of PD conflict cases. It's not "from home" because you have to show up for court once or twice a week for a minute or so (when you can't be telephonic), but if you avoid trials it's super part time.
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May 7, 2012 02:53
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Penguins Like Pies posted:Most of our cases, especially the Supreme Court ones, will have head notes. Those, you can get off of the SCC website. See if your Westlaw will allow you access to the Cnd cases because the majority will also have head notes. Maybe you'll earn another badge this way.
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May 7, 2012 03:41
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nm posted:You can't exactly be an effective defense attorney if you avoid trial. Oh come on, how hard is it to say "Yes, we agree with that plea bargain." That's like 90% of your practice, right there. (this is a joke)
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May 7, 2012 04:01
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nm posted:You can't exactly be an effective defense attorney if you avoid trial. my favourite thing is when a defence attorney is negotiating something with me and goes "well, we're prepared to take this to trial!" as if that statement is meant to intimidate me into agreeing with whatever they want. oh no mr defence attorney pleasssseee don't make me go to trial i'll do anything you want just don't make me practice my trial skills~
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May 7, 2012 04:03
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Agesilaus posted:my favourite thing is when a defence attorney is negotiating something with me and goes "well, we're prepared to take this to trial!" as if that statement is meant to intimidate me into agreeing with whatever they want. oh no mr defence attorney pleasssseee don't make me go to trial i'll do anything you want just don't make me practice my trial skills~ FYI, this works with a lot of prosecutors. Maybe not with you, but many of them.
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May 7, 2012 04:25
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nm posted:FYI, this works with a lot of prosecutors. Maybe not with you, but many of them. yeh, maybe if you catch them just before lunch time
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May 7, 2012 04:28
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nm posted:FYI, this works with a lot of prosecutors. Maybe not with you, but many of them. The biggest card defense attorneys can play is not "I'll take this to trial," but rather "every witness in your case is a meth head." Organizing meth heads for trial is like herding cats. Angry, brainless cats.
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May 7, 2012 05:26
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BigHead posted:The biggest card defense attorneys can play is not "I'll take this to trial," but rather "every witness in your case is a meth head." Organizing meth heads for trial is like herding cats. Angry, brainless cats. poo poo sounds like a lovely place to live and a terrible place to be a defense attorney. I mean, that is just implied in "we're going to trial" here.
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May 7, 2012 06:01
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mutism posted:Gonna be a Judges' clerk. Boom. Congrats! I'm kinda jealous, going straight into a law firm.
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May 7, 2012 07:40
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nm posted:FYI, this works with a lot of prosecutors. Maybe not with you, but many of them. This continues to puzzle me. Why become a prosecutor if you don't want to take cases to trial?
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May 7, 2012 11:59
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prussian advisor posted:This continues to puzzle me. Why become a prosecutor if you don't want to take cases to trial? Money, status, stepping stone to being a judge.
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May 7, 2012 13:35
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Athenry posted:Money, status, stepping stone to being a judge. And even if you want to take cases to trial, it probably isn't practical to take all of them to trial, just from a time perspective - you may want to take cases to trial but if you have three times as many cases as you can deal with, you're going to need to find some non-trial way to dispose of some of them.
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May 7, 2012 13:50
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Kalman posted:And even if you want to take cases to trial, it probably isn't practical to take all of them to trial, just from a time perspective - you may want to take cases to trial but if you have three times as many cases as you can deal with, you're going to need to find some non-trial way to dispose of some of them. Gah. This is just another byproduct of our terribly inefficient justice system. We should never have moved away from trials by fire and/or combat.
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May 7, 2012 14:32
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entris posted:Gah. This is just another byproduct of our terribly inefficient justice system. We should never have moved away from trials by fire and/or combat. I'm doing research on trial by combat/ordeal. It hasn't been found unconstitutional as far as I can tell, so when the time is right I'm going to wait until a person waives the right to a jury, and then I'll argue to try the matter with oaken clubs in the interests of judicial efficiency.
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May 7, 2012 14:46
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entris posted:Gah. This is just another byproduct of our terribly inefficient justice system. We should never have moved away from trials by fire and/or combat.
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May 7, 2012 16:23
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