While most people see attorneys standing in front of a jury in a setting reticent of Law and Order, most with actual knowledge of the field understand that for writers, the primary task is most often critical writing. Lawyers – and students in law school – have to know how to take a tremendous amount of information and distill it down into something that can be used. Likewise, lawyers have to know how to write for multiple purposes. A law review article, designed for consumption by academics, is much different than an appellate brief, designed to persuade a court to take some kind of action. While both of these formats – and many more – require clarity and brevity, they have different forms and purposes. In preparing myself to go on to law school and become a successful lawyer, I have taken a number of different steps to become a more proficient writer. By writing about distinct legal topics, branching out into research on technology, and exploring the possibilities of the arts in promoting healing, I have stretched my horizons and prepared myself for the rigor of law school and the legal field to come.
I understood from very early in my degree program that I did not want to be one of those students that gets pigeon-holed into one specific iteration of one specific major. While completing my degree requirements, I have been sure to pursue a number of my own interests in order to bring out the best expression of my overall talent. Law school is the immediate goal, and in order to achieve that goal, one must understand how to read and write case briefs. Ask any student in law school, and they will tell you that perhaps the first few months is spent learning how to write a case brief. With that in mind, I completed a long project on the Supreme Court case Doland v. City of Tigard, an innovative case about building contracts. In putting together this brief, I learned to deal with the procedural history of the court, and I was able to distill facts into a small space. Any time a case makes it all the way up the court ladder, there are bound to be complex sets of facts that need discussion. This discussion must, however, be done in a way that is manageable for those reading the brief. This assignment allowed to do other things that will be necessary for a solid career as a law student and later as a lawyer. I considered feedback on my work, and I integrated that feedback into a final draft. As a law student, much of the work will be writing, but even more will be re-writing. By learning to take this feedback and use it in a constructive manner, I have arranged for immediate success in a setting where my work will be scrutinized closely by people looking to help.
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Writing a case brief can only take one so far. In preparing for my career in the legal world, I also completed an assignment where I was charged with writing the opinion of the court. This, of course, flips the perspective of the work. In a brief, a person is looking at the situation from the outside and offering an analysis on what happened. When writing an opinion, one must apply legal rules to a factual situation in order to get some closure on the issue. While the first assignment asked me to state what the legal rule in the case was, the second assignment required me to take that next step, considering how legal rules and facts interact without the guidance of a court that had already decided on the issue. This was a challenge, of course, but it has provided me with something very value – the ability to get inside of the mind of a judge. If I am going to be successful down the road in the legal field, I will need to think like a lawyer, but more, to think like a judge who will be deciding on the merits of my case. There is no better way to obtain this perspective than by playing the role of judge.
The work in my program thus far has not been all legal, as I have felt that the best approach is branching out in order to have a more worldly view of contemporary society. Lawyers are tasked with knowing the law, of course, but they are confronted on a daily basis with situations that require them to understand emerging trends in society. With this in mind, I have written extensively on the way that technology impacts people in today’s society. Technology, including smart phones, social media sites, and the like, have fundamentally changed the way that people communicate with one another. This research gave me a deeper understanding of the connections between human beings, and in fact, the human experience itself. Not only will this give me a better capacity to connect with my clients in the future, but it will inform my ability to regulate my own life. Like most, I am living in this new age of technology, and a keen sense of self-awareness about the effects of this technology is very important for future development as a human being.
Lastly, I have engaged in research that combines two of my passions – the arts and understanding the human mind and human behavior. Lately, scientists have discovered that by allowing mental health patients to engage in the arts, they can help those patients cope and develop new mental skills that can serve them well along the way. One of the chief benefits of this assignment was that it required me to think critically, applying one particular solution to a problem that might seem to be outside the bounds of that solution. As lawyers, part of the goal is coming up with ways to meet the needs of clients who have their own specific and unique problems. Too many lawyers and law students stay inside the box, as they are constrained by conventional thinking. This assignment helped me understand that quite often, it is possible to solve a problem by thinking about solutions that may have never occurred to others. Not only did this assignment require the kind of critical thinking that will be required in my next step as a law student, but it required specific, substantiated writing. This has prepared me to write at the next level, ensuring that all the work that I produce is well-researched overall.
Ultimately, my education thus far has been formative in helping me tackle the future. I will have to learn new skills in order to be a successful lawyer, but in my degree program, I have laid the foundation that will help me have long-term success. I have learned to write at a high level, and I have learned to think not only like a lawyer, but also like a judge. The ability to distill a great deal of information into a small amount of space will serve me well in the future. Through the assignments that I have completed thus far, I have shown the willingness to think outside of the box and taken distinct steps to build my tool box as an attorney.
