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Resources for First-Year Law Students Law school is challenging, stimulating, frustrating, and stressful. Sometimes you can use a little advice and instruction from someone who's been there . . .
Adjusting to Law School Life Citation Guides Class Preparation Courses in the First Year De-Mystifying the Tools of Legal Research Dictionaries	Exams and Other Fun Topics General Study Skills Sites Recommended Study Aids & Commercial Outlines Research Tips and Guides Study Strategies

The Westlaw First Year Center has information on briefing cases, preparing for exams, and other tips for surviving the first year.
First Day of Law School Tutorial (SMU Dedman School of Law)

Adjusting to law-school life

A Beginner's Guide to Legal Education, by West Virginia law prof James Elkins.
Incoming One-L FAQ is full of questions (and answers) that every One-L (first-year student) needs to know.
Letter to a Young Law Student by Emeritus Professor Corinne Cooper (UMKC) published at 35 Tulsa L.J. 275 (2000).

Law School Stress by Professor Glesner Fines (UMKC)

Citation Guides

ABA Special Committee On Citation Issues, Report And Recommendations (May 23, 1996)

Introduction to Basic Legal Citation -- This guide is a handy summary of the citation rules found in the Bluebook, with examples of how to cite many types of legal materials.

Bluebook Home Page -- Not the whole Bluebook (alas), but the site includes some questions and answers, plus highlights of the Seventeenth Edition.
Lexis' Interactive Citation Station will help you master the Bluebook.
Class Preparation

Ten Instructions for Briefing Cases by Professor Paul Bateman (Southwestern Law School).
Not quite sure what to include, what to exclude from case briefs? Try the CALI interactive tutorial on briefing cases.
Rack up better grades by mastering the basic pattern of legal analysis. Here's a CALI interactive tutorial on legal analysis using IRAC.
Incorporeal hereditaments? Malfeasance? Estoppel? Quasi in rem jurisdiction? Don't gag; look it up in the Duhaime's Law Dictionary.

Courses in the First Year

For LRW, you'll surely find The Law Student's Guide to Good Writing a big help.
Vexed by venue? Jinxed over jurisdiction? Irked about intervention? Perplexed about pleading? Delirious over diversity? You must be taking a course in Civ Pro. Cornell University provides good generalized and specific-topic overviews of civil procedure.
Offer and acceptance, promissory estoppel, restitution, damages--we're talking about contracts. Another good overview from Cornell.
Learning the law of (the) land? Here's an overview of real property law from Cornell University.
What's a tort? It's not a cake unless it hits you in the face. Visit Cornell University's Tort Law: An Overview.

How to create a Table of Authorities in WordPerfect.

De-Mystifying the Tools of Legal Research
The parliamentarian for the U.S. House of Representatives explains how the legislative process works. Understanding this process will improve your ability to research statutes and legislative history
Ever feel lost in the law library? Don't know your digests from your citators? You will after working this CALI interactive tutorial on basic tools of legal research.
Mystified by legal research terms such as pocket part and advance sheet? You won't any more after consulting Harvard's 1L Dictionary.
It's time to put together a research plan. The excellent CALI interactive tutorial on legal research methodology will help you locate the most effective and efficient way to approach legal research.
Practice your legal research skills with these self-paced exercises.
Overwhelmed by all those cases and statutes? Here are some tips for selecting authority.
Legal Research Using the Internet -- good advice from U of Chicago's law librarian
The Virtual Chase: A Research Site for Legal Professionals -- wise advice and useful links from a law firm librarian
Dictionaries

General

AllWords
Webster's Dictionary

Internet terms:

Webopedia Internet Dictionary of Terms and Abbreviations

NetLingo

BUBL LINK Catalogue of Internet Resources: Internet dictionaries

Legal Terms:

1L Dictionary (Harvard)
Duhaime's Law Dictionary

Eurodicautom    (European law dictionary)

International Law Dictionary and Directory

Legal Lexicon's Lyceum

Shark Talk: Everybody's Law Dictionary    (Nolo Press)

Exams and Other Fun Topics

CALI interactive tutorial on writing exams -- the importance of structure
Exam Preparation Tips (mostly from law professors!) Includes links to old exams on-line from University of Arkansas, University of Dayton, Harvard, University of Kentucky, and Ohio Northern University.
Tips from two law professors to solve every student's nightmare: taking exams.
Every law student needs to know what plagiarism is and how to keep from committing it.
General Study Skills Sites

Stress & Anxiety
How to Deal with Stress

Study Strategies Homepage
(University of Minnesota Duluth)

Study Skills
(Virginia Polytechnic University)

Study Skills Handouts
(Purdue University)

Recommended Study Aids & Commercial Outlines

Generally, students should only use one study aid (if that) for a course. The following is a select list recommended by law professors and law graduates. Commercial outlines can be very useful, but they should be used in moderation, in conjunction with the course outline you create yourself. To learn about the different types of study aids and outlines available, first year law students should check out Study Guides 101.

Civil Procedure

Steven Baicker-McKee, et al., A Student's Guide to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (2001).
Mary Kay Kane, Civil Procedure in a Nutshell (1996).
[At Reserve: KF8841 .K36 1996]
Gene R. Shreve, et al., Understanding Civil Procedure (1994).
[4th Floor: KF8840 .S484 1994]
Commercial Outline: Steven Emanual, Civil Procedure.
[Available at the campus bookstore. Free summaries are available at http://lawschool.westlaw.com.]

Constitutional Law

Erwin Chemerinsky, Constitutional Law : Principles and Policies (1997).
[4th Floor: KF4550 .C427 1997]
John E. Nowak & Ronald D. Rotunda, Constitutional Law(2000).
[At Reserve: KF4550 .N6 2000]
Commercial Outline: Steven Emanual, Constitutional Law
[Available at the campus bookstore. Free summaries are available at http://lawschool.westlaw.com.]

Contracts

E. Allan Farnsworth, Contracts (1990).
[At Reserve: KF801 .F365 1990]
John D. Calamari & Joseph M. Perillo, The Law of Contracts (1998).
[At Reserve: KF801 .C26 1998]
Commercial Outline: Steven Emanual, Contracts.
[Available at the campus bookstore. Free summaries are available at http://lawschool.westlaw.com.]

Criminal Law

Dressler, Understanding Criminal Law, 2d ed. Matthew Bender, 1995.
LaFave & Scott, Criminal Law, 2d ed. West, 1986.
Loewy, Criminal Law in a Nutshell, 3d ed. West, 2000.
Commercial Outline: Marc A. Franklin, Criminal (Gilbert Law Summaries).
[Available at the campus bookstore or order on-line at http://www.gilbertlaw.com/bookstore/]

Torts

Dan B. Dobbs, The Law of Torts (2000).
[At Reserve: KF1260 .D6 2000]
Edward J. Kionka, Torts in a Nutshell
[At Reserve: KF1250.Z9 K53 1999]
Commercial Outline: Marc A. Franklin, Torts (Gilbert Law Summaries).
[Available at the campus bookstore or order on-line at http://www.gilbertlaw.com/bookstore/]

Research Tips and Guides

Boolean Search Strategy   A basic introduction to Boolean searching.
How Search Engines Work
Locating Statutes
Finding the Law Interactive tutorial for finding Federal and state laws and judicial opinions. (Brandeis University)
Locating Cases by Party Name
Locating Cases by Topic
Locating Law Journal Articles
Study Strategies

Law School Materials for Success
(Prof. Glesner Fines - UMKC Law School Summer Academic Enrichment Program Materials)

Writing a Student Paper
(Professor Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law).

Procrastination Research Group
(Carleton College, Ideas on How to Avoid Procrastination in Study)

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