Law School Academics - 2. Readings and Notetaking

We've all been there. You set the goal of staying on top of your law readings this term, and you keep up in the first few weeks. Then weeks go by, and you question the value of reading the sheer volume of pages you were assigned.

I call this getting stuck between feeling guilty that you aren't completing the readings and feeling miserable when you are doing the readings. It's like feeling guilty when you're having fun and feeling miserable when you're studying. There's no win-win.

Know you're not alone - these thoughts plague every law student. So today I'm going to offer some action steps to get you out of this guilt tripping, miserable cycle. I want you to feel content with the amount of readings you complete.

So let's get started.

Setting your Expectations

Early on in the term you should set a realistic goal of what mark you wish to attain. Don't set a goal that you don't genuinely think you can achieve. Be realistic and set an honest goal.

Factor in your other commitments which determine how much available time you have to study - how many days of work per week, extracurricular hours per week, how much time you want to allocate to socialisation, health and exercise etc. The remaining time is how much you are genuinely happy to spend studying.

If you have conducted this process honestly, it should help alleviate any feelings of misery when you study and complete your law readings.

Strategies for Reading Cases

The most important skill any lawyer can have is being able to filter what's important and what's not. You will likely be reading case judgments for the rest of your career and we all know all too well that judges can explain their reasoning in a round-about way.

For the purposes of a problem question, all that matters is the ratio, dissent, brief facts, and sometimes the reasoning or analogies used.

So how do we know when we have reached these sections in a judgment? Unfortunately, I don't have a sexy answer other than it comes with experience. However, some pointers I use include:

• Any section citing lots of case authorities is setting out the relevant principles or discussing past cases and their outcome; often this is not needed so skim or skip these sections
• It is more important to know the facts of cases for subjects where you commonly need to analogise or distinguish cases eg. torts, contract, land law etc
• Scan the case judgment first before reading it in detail, especially the beginning (for the facts) and near the end (for the ratio and key legal reasoning); the middle is often not important

For notetaking, you may have been taught by your professors that case briefs and tables are the way to go. If you are willing to put in long hours, I would highly recommend these. However, if you are time-constrained, then it is not a good use of your time as creating case briefs is a low yield study activity. Your final exam isn’t testing your understanding of legal reasoning in one case; rather it is testing how you apply the ratio to a problem question.

Try and find a reliable and accurate set of notes that summarises the facts, ratio and legal reasoning of your assigned cases. You can build your notes off these; this will save you from having to create notes from scratch.

Strategies for Reading Theoretical Articles

For law courses with an essay component, you are looking for different things: critics arguments and counter arguments, statistics (use sparingly), legal reasoning in case judgments dealing with vexed legal issues or overturning previous doctrines.

Often these sections can feel long and complex, and your notes become excessively long. What's worked for me is keeping the notes for each critic paper brief, then at the end of that lesson, write a paragraph about your stance on the issue, in a personal, critical and evaluative voice. After all, you are marked on how you use the supporting material so you don't need to note down their arguments in great detail. Just figure out your stance early on.

For example, this term for Public Law, an example paragraph that I wrote after finishing my readings is shown below:

By no means is this polished, but it gets your mind thinking early on in the term how to answer essay questions in an evaluative and critical voice.

In Summary

1. Set clear expectations on how much time you are content to spend on law readings. Your mental health will thank you if you do.
2. Know what you are looking for when doing the readings (facts, ratio, legal reasoning for PQ and arguments, counter-arguments, statistics, and contentious legal reasoning for essays). This will increase your reading efficiency.
3. Know that notetaking is a low yield study activity. Only note down information that you absolutely need. Be cut-throat.

Where to Find More Tips?

If you’ve made it this far, you’re definitely dedicated to developing yourself and it means the world to me for my content to provide great value. To find more tips:

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