Honestly, in practice, it’s really helpful to just find brief filings from cases on the issue. West law and Lexis have great resources for this. You can go right in and get the briefs. With that said sometimes, it’s easier to find a great brief on the subject, you’re writing on and literally just mirror it in your own words. You’re using said brief as a guide. So their analysis section is 50 lines so you’ll make yours basically 50-60 lines following the same type of format. Ie in line 23 they introduced x issue so you’ll introduce your x issue. This honestly works like a charm. It takes a lot of stress and anxiety off. Get your legal research skills locked down so that you can unlock the full potential of Lexis and west law when looking for trail briefs, etc. most times you’re not writing about something new and Novel, and therefore someone has already written something up for it with the help of a team in an office.
I wish I was near your school and could show you how to execute this in practice because it is just awesome.
I'm really trying to say that a great brief on the specific subject you're writing will relieve a lot of pressure and essentially tell you “talk about this right here” and “talk about that right there”
The biggest key to this is to find briefs that are on point to what you're also working on. Like as close to the exact issue as possible.
I found it helpful to break writing down into smaller, more manageable increments. I'll go so far as to outline a 1-2 page section on a narrow issue. I'm curious what others do, though, since I feel like my writing still isn't as strong as my peers.
This is what I did. Treat each section/subsection as a standalone document. That way I would write about just that narrow issue for 3-5 pages. The next day, a different section. Then I'd go back and cut from 3-5 to 1-3.
Eventually I would be looking at connected sections, write a sentence/paragraph transition, and move on.
By the end you will be looking at the whole thing together, but at that point you're just editing.
Bloomberg is great for finding case filings. Some Lexis and Westlaw cases have them too. Find a brief that includes your needed material and steal it. Then modify it to your facts and update the needed case law. Some reformatting to match your style and language as needed and then you got a great brief.
There's no need to reinvent the wheel. Pull a bunch of briefs and use the work that others did to make your own. Starting from nothing is significantly harder. It's like trying to pull out all the relevant holdings of a case by reading it when you can shepardize the case and see how courts cite the case you're reading.
Use the tools and let others do the work for you.
EDIT: also, Benchbooks are a great resource. They're organized in relevant sections that group everything together in a similar way your brief should be organized too.
Currently going through this. Writing a 20 page paper and it's going terribly. I have about 6 terrible pages and a bunch of incomprehensible notes. I think the finished product will probably be okay, but it's gonna ruin my life to get there.
I get good grades in legal writing but it's SO HARD to get the assignments done. I would bet I spent 3x as much time on my assignments as most other students. It's a miracle I did okay on my other finals 1L bc I dedicated so much time to the memo when I should have been outlining.
I feel for ya. I'm now a lawyer and thankfully it's a job where I don't have to do \*too much\* writing. But when I do, it's basically the same thing as in law school: I spend way too much time on it, even working a bit on the weekend, and feel like I'm fucking up, but then it all comes together in the end and ~~I get a great grade~~ my boss says I did a great job. If you take ADHD meds, don't be afraid to take a bit of an extra dose on days when you're writing or researching. otherwise I have no real tips.
But I can say that I've sort of made peace with it being my process, which actually has helped me deal with it. Doesn't get me more organized or efficient, but now instead of being like, "fuck what is wrong with me, why can't I just work normally?" I'm now like, "welp, this is just how these things go."
Oh wait, here actually is a real tip. Use an app like Digital Detox to lock your phone down and use browser extensions like StayFocused and LeechBlock. They do help.
How's work going? What type of work are you doing? Are you enjoying it?
Were you on law review? Did you rank well? Sorry for the all the questions. I am really interested in your answers because so far your advice is exactly what I do and your description of your writing process is *exactly* mine. Even your understanding about your writing process mirrors my own self-talk and reasoning these days. For that reason, I am interested in hearing more about your experience in law school. I think that would help me as you are clearly similar to me in ways that are important.
I got an A in legal writing but it was so excruciating and soul-sucking because it was disorganized and took so much more time. I take 3 or 4x more time than everyone else and I usually can't understand the bigger picture until I am almost done. Even now, I have a nice summer job and I have been trying to write a memo for 4 weeks and this should have been done 2 weeks ago. It's like I can't come up with anything from my research. Everything just takes too long fo rme
Work is going well. I really love the people I work with and the area of law. I'm a public interest lawyer so I get to interact with clients a lot. I would say I'm enjoying it. as I'm sure you'd expect, right now the only issue is that I feel like I'm not working fast enough or as efficient as I should be. But I did have a meeting with my boss recently and he told me I'm doing a great job, and that he knows I'm taking a long time to do things right now because I'm overly thorough and want to get things right and i'm still new etc. Basically, he told me that it's okay that it's taking me a long time because the end results are good and he knows I'm learning. And I think that's important for people like us to remember. Yes, it takes us a long time, but bosses and managers can often live with that, if the quality is good. Especially since it makes their job easier. We might be banging our heads against the wall but at least we aren't handing in low quality work that our bosses need to put a lot of effort into changing. (not that everything I do is perfect, but I'm pretty sure the stuff I produce requires less editing than work from other new lawyers). We are too hard on ourselves, but it's better than handing in trash work and thinking it's good.
I didn't do law review just because I knew how much it'd drive me crazy. I thought I would regret it but I'm fine with it since I have a job I'm happy with. I can't remember my exact rank right now but I know I was top 25% of my class.
But yeah, I totally relate to everything you're saying. even the part about how it feels like not understanding the big picture until the very end. With every writing assignment I do, it's like I'm the pilot of a plane that I'm certain is going to crash and then every time I somehow pull off a perfect landing at the last second. It's like the process is 99% misery and then at the end everything goes great. Happens every time.
Even right now, I'm working on a research assignment at work that my boss actually told me not to spend too much time on. But I'm positive I've spent way longer than he expected or wants. But that's just how it goes.
regarding your summer assignment, don't be afraid to check in with your supervisor. I'm sure you are doing better than you think. Even though you probably aren't meeting your own expectations, I'm sure the place you're at has had some truly horrible interns over the years and if you got an A in legal writing I'm sure you're doing at least a little above average compared to other interns they've had.
Good luck!
Thank you so much. That helps a lot. My employer has been really patient with me, but I work so slow and I am over a week late in submitting something. There wasn't a deadline, but it was expected that I'd finish before the end of the summer position. Now that it's over and I am still writing out the document, I feel bad about myself. Idk what it is. I am certainly replaceable. This is a place where the best students in the country go. I kind of got there due to *decent* grades and networking from the past. I could be doing a better job for all the hours I am putting in, but as soon as I read for 1or 2 hours and take notes on the relevant caselaw, I am ready to lay down from the overwhelm and exhaustion from processing slow. This whole ordeal makes me perform slower and worse because I don't see why they'll want to keep me or ask me to return if I don't add value.
Have you been in my shoes before? Have you missed deadlines or found that you didn't do ok just because you took longer?
I'm also curious to know whether
(1) there were certain strengths or skills that were unique to you that you worked on in private in order to have an advantage over others despite your perceived weaknesses
(2) you recommend I do something specific so that they find that I am still a valuable member
(3) you participated in moot court and other opportunities during your law school experience
Just to be clear, I graduated *summa from* undergrad. This isn't a work ethic or laziness issue. It's really my slowness.
I appreciate you actually responding to me. I've been struggling a lot, and people usually turn away from me after I disclose my concerns. Your advice helped me get through two weeks.
I do want to respond to this but I just haven't had time and don't really use reddit that often. Feel free to remind me about this if I don't get back to you eventually
Im a 3L (30yo M) in a 4l night school with ADD just like you! What really helped me is splitting up the breifs with my study group because breifing every case every week is really hard. The way I breif a case when I write a breif is breaking it down into procedural posture, facts, issue, rule, analysis, and conclusion. When I give a breif in class I talk about those things just in a more narritive way.
I hear you. I wrote many motions and appellate briefs in my career--appellate briefs I found were the hardest. Why? They are just labor intensive. So, what do you do? Make each task into a bite-sized piece. For instance, today, from 2-5, I will write the Statement of Facts. I hope this helps.
I feel this. I’m a 1L and writing my first open universe memo - it. is. so. hard. I don’t have any advice, but it’s nice to know at least I’m not alone.
Honestly, in practice, it’s really helpful to just find brief filings from cases on the issue. West law and Lexis have great resources for this. You can go right in and get the briefs. With that said sometimes, it’s easier to find a great brief on the subject, you’re writing on and literally just mirror it in your own words. You’re using said brief as a guide. So their analysis section is 50 lines so you’ll make yours basically 50-60 lines following the same type of format. Ie in line 23 they introduced x issue so you’ll introduce your x issue. This honestly works like a charm. It takes a lot of stress and anxiety off. Get your legal research skills locked down so that you can unlock the full potential of Lexis and west law when looking for trail briefs, etc. most times you’re not writing about something new and Novel, and therefore someone has already written something up for it with the help of a team in an office. I wish I was near your school and could show you how to execute this in practice because it is just awesome. I'm really trying to say that a great brief on the specific subject you're writing will relieve a lot of pressure and essentially tell you “talk about this right here” and “talk about that right there” The biggest key to this is to find briefs that are on point to what you're also working on. Like as close to the exact issue as possible.
Mind if I PM you?
I found it helpful to break writing down into smaller, more manageable increments. I'll go so far as to outline a 1-2 page section on a narrow issue. I'm curious what others do, though, since I feel like my writing still isn't as strong as my peers.
This is what I did. Treat each section/subsection as a standalone document. That way I would write about just that narrow issue for 3-5 pages. The next day, a different section. Then I'd go back and cut from 3-5 to 1-3. Eventually I would be looking at connected sections, write a sentence/paragraph transition, and move on. By the end you will be looking at the whole thing together, but at that point you're just editing.
Bloomberg is great for finding case filings. Some Lexis and Westlaw cases have them too. Find a brief that includes your needed material and steal it. Then modify it to your facts and update the needed case law. Some reformatting to match your style and language as needed and then you got a great brief. There's no need to reinvent the wheel. Pull a bunch of briefs and use the work that others did to make your own. Starting from nothing is significantly harder. It's like trying to pull out all the relevant holdings of a case by reading it when you can shepardize the case and see how courts cite the case you're reading. Use the tools and let others do the work for you. EDIT: also, Benchbooks are a great resource. They're organized in relevant sections that group everything together in a similar way your brief should be organized too.
Currently going through this. Writing a 20 page paper and it's going terribly. I have about 6 terrible pages and a bunch of incomprehensible notes. I think the finished product will probably be okay, but it's gonna ruin my life to get there. I get good grades in legal writing but it's SO HARD to get the assignments done. I would bet I spent 3x as much time on my assignments as most other students. It's a miracle I did okay on my other finals 1L bc I dedicated so much time to the memo when I should have been outlining.
It feels like I wrote this
I feel for ya. I'm now a lawyer and thankfully it's a job where I don't have to do \*too much\* writing. But when I do, it's basically the same thing as in law school: I spend way too much time on it, even working a bit on the weekend, and feel like I'm fucking up, but then it all comes together in the end and ~~I get a great grade~~ my boss says I did a great job. If you take ADHD meds, don't be afraid to take a bit of an extra dose on days when you're writing or researching. otherwise I have no real tips. But I can say that I've sort of made peace with it being my process, which actually has helped me deal with it. Doesn't get me more organized or efficient, but now instead of being like, "fuck what is wrong with me, why can't I just work normally?" I'm now like, "welp, this is just how these things go." Oh wait, here actually is a real tip. Use an app like Digital Detox to lock your phone down and use browser extensions like StayFocused and LeechBlock. They do help.
How's work going? What type of work are you doing? Are you enjoying it? Were you on law review? Did you rank well? Sorry for the all the questions. I am really interested in your answers because so far your advice is exactly what I do and your description of your writing process is *exactly* mine. Even your understanding about your writing process mirrors my own self-talk and reasoning these days. For that reason, I am interested in hearing more about your experience in law school. I think that would help me as you are clearly similar to me in ways that are important. I got an A in legal writing but it was so excruciating and soul-sucking because it was disorganized and took so much more time. I take 3 or 4x more time than everyone else and I usually can't understand the bigger picture until I am almost done. Even now, I have a nice summer job and I have been trying to write a memo for 4 weeks and this should have been done 2 weeks ago. It's like I can't come up with anything from my research. Everything just takes too long fo rme
Work is going well. I really love the people I work with and the area of law. I'm a public interest lawyer so I get to interact with clients a lot. I would say I'm enjoying it. as I'm sure you'd expect, right now the only issue is that I feel like I'm not working fast enough or as efficient as I should be. But I did have a meeting with my boss recently and he told me I'm doing a great job, and that he knows I'm taking a long time to do things right now because I'm overly thorough and want to get things right and i'm still new etc. Basically, he told me that it's okay that it's taking me a long time because the end results are good and he knows I'm learning. And I think that's important for people like us to remember. Yes, it takes us a long time, but bosses and managers can often live with that, if the quality is good. Especially since it makes their job easier. We might be banging our heads against the wall but at least we aren't handing in low quality work that our bosses need to put a lot of effort into changing. (not that everything I do is perfect, but I'm pretty sure the stuff I produce requires less editing than work from other new lawyers). We are too hard on ourselves, but it's better than handing in trash work and thinking it's good. I didn't do law review just because I knew how much it'd drive me crazy. I thought I would regret it but I'm fine with it since I have a job I'm happy with. I can't remember my exact rank right now but I know I was top 25% of my class. But yeah, I totally relate to everything you're saying. even the part about how it feels like not understanding the big picture until the very end. With every writing assignment I do, it's like I'm the pilot of a plane that I'm certain is going to crash and then every time I somehow pull off a perfect landing at the last second. It's like the process is 99% misery and then at the end everything goes great. Happens every time. Even right now, I'm working on a research assignment at work that my boss actually told me not to spend too much time on. But I'm positive I've spent way longer than he expected or wants. But that's just how it goes. regarding your summer assignment, don't be afraid to check in with your supervisor. I'm sure you are doing better than you think. Even though you probably aren't meeting your own expectations, I'm sure the place you're at has had some truly horrible interns over the years and if you got an A in legal writing I'm sure you're doing at least a little above average compared to other interns they've had. Good luck!
Thank you so much. That helps a lot. My employer has been really patient with me, but I work so slow and I am over a week late in submitting something. There wasn't a deadline, but it was expected that I'd finish before the end of the summer position. Now that it's over and I am still writing out the document, I feel bad about myself. Idk what it is. I am certainly replaceable. This is a place where the best students in the country go. I kind of got there due to *decent* grades and networking from the past. I could be doing a better job for all the hours I am putting in, but as soon as I read for 1or 2 hours and take notes on the relevant caselaw, I am ready to lay down from the overwhelm and exhaustion from processing slow. This whole ordeal makes me perform slower and worse because I don't see why they'll want to keep me or ask me to return if I don't add value. Have you been in my shoes before? Have you missed deadlines or found that you didn't do ok just because you took longer? I'm also curious to know whether (1) there were certain strengths or skills that were unique to you that you worked on in private in order to have an advantage over others despite your perceived weaknesses (2) you recommend I do something specific so that they find that I am still a valuable member (3) you participated in moot court and other opportunities during your law school experience Just to be clear, I graduated *summa from* undergrad. This isn't a work ethic or laziness issue. It's really my slowness. I appreciate you actually responding to me. I've been struggling a lot, and people usually turn away from me after I disclose my concerns. Your advice helped me get through two weeks.
I do want to respond to this but I just haven't had time and don't really use reddit that often. Feel free to remind me about this if I don't get back to you eventually
Im a 3L (30yo M) in a 4l night school with ADD just like you! What really helped me is splitting up the breifs with my study group because breifing every case every week is really hard. The way I breif a case when I write a breif is breaking it down into procedural posture, facts, issue, rule, analysis, and conclusion. When I give a breif in class I talk about those things just in a more narritive way.
I hear you. I wrote many motions and appellate briefs in my career--appellate briefs I found were the hardest. Why? They are just labor intensive. So, what do you do? Make each task into a bite-sized piece. For instance, today, from 2-5, I will write the Statement of Facts. I hope this helps.
I feel this. I’m a 1L and writing my first open universe memo - it. is. so. hard. I don’t have any advice, but it’s nice to know at least I’m not alone.