The Law School Playbook
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Introduction: Make the Most of Your Investment
29 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to The Law School Playbook! I’m Halle Hara, a professor of academic success and personal skills coach to law students and attorneys. I’m g...
Case Reading Topic 1: Please Read
28 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At the risk of sounding like a nagging parent, I implore you to please read for class—it is not optional. I know if you had your druthers, you’d m...
Case Reading Topic 2: Think Beyond the Screen
27 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I’m a few years older than you. When I wanted information growing up, I turned to an outdated set of encyclopedias my parents bought from a door-to-...
Case Reading Topic 3: Find Your Inner Purpose
26 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
My goal is not only to change if you read but also how you read for law school. For instance, you may be reading for class because you don’t want to...
Case Reading Topic 4: Energy Matters
26 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve all had those moments when we are sitting in front of a book, with our head resting on our hand, when our eyes begin to close. You tell yourse...
Case Reading Topic 5: Find Your Inner Actor
26 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you find yourself just getting through your reading assignments, you’re not alone. The good news is that there are easy strategies that take no a...
Case Reading Topic 6: Bring Your Knowledge With You
25 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I was lucky enough to work in the federal trial court for a collective fifteen years. During that time, and in private practice, I saw countless jury ...
Case Reading Topic 7: Bring Your Opinions With You
22 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Law students, particularly in their first year, look for truth in the cases that they read. Even second-year law students likely figure that the judge...
Case Reading Topic 8: Talk to Yourself
20 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Some people say that talking to yourself means you’re crazy. Other people say that talking to themselves is the only way they can have an intelligen...
Case Reading Topic 9: Time Matters
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There is no question that time is the elephant in the room throughout the entire law school experience—there just isn’t enough of it. All law stud...
Case Reading Topic 10: Find Your Inner Artist
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Who says law school doesn’t foster creativity? To the contrary, an effective reading strategy involves visualizing or using imagery to picture what ...
Case Reading Topic 11: Recognize the Strategies
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We have discussed numerous strategies that can prompt you to be an engaged, critical thinker while reading. It is important for you to recognize, howe...
Case Reading Topic 12: Put It All Together
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
My parents were avid golfers when I was a teen. Every so often I’d join them on the golf course, although I was pretty unskilled. I’d step up to t...
Reading and Interpreting Statutes Introduction: Enacted Laws Abound
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The law school experience is so focused on reading and interpreting appellate cases that students sometimes overlook the central role that legislation...
Reading and Interpreting Statutes Topic 1: Don't Grill, Barbecue
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Celebrity chef Guy Fieri has said:There are two different things: there’s grilling, and there’s barbecue. Grilling is when people say, ‘We’re ...
Reading and Interpreting Statutes Topic 2: In the Words of Sophocles, “Without Labor, Nothing Prospers”
17 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
So today, our work of reading and interpreting statutes continues. After the first step—slowing down—the next step is to determine how the statute...
Reading and Interpreting Statutes Topic 3: Find Meaning
16 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We are continuing our discussion of reading and interpreting statutes. To recap the steps we have covered thus far, when approaching a statute, you mu...
Reading and Interpreting Statutes Topic 4: Craft an Argument
15 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we are picking up our ongoing discussion of reading and interpreting statutes. We will discuss the final step in this episode, which is to reso...
Reading and Interpreting Statutes Topic 5: Let's Practice (Steps 1 and 2)
14 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we will be focusing on steps 1 and 2 of reading and interpreting statutes, which we know are to: slow down (step 1) and determine how...
Reading and Interpreting Statutes Topic 6: Let's Practice (Step 3)
13 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We are going to pick up where we left off in the last episode, where a commercial airline pilot named Sean Fitzgerald showed up for work “rip-roarin...
Reading and Interpreting Statutes Topic 7: Let’s Practice (Steps 4 and 5)
12 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we are going to pick up where we left off in the last episode, where commercial airline pilot Sean Fitzgerald showed up for work “rip-roaring...
Legal Analysis Topic 1: Law Can be Like Math
11 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today we will begin our discussion of legal analysis. We have all heard it time and time again: the purpose of law school is to train you to “think ...
Legal Analysis Topic 2: Law Can be Like Science
10 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The topic we are addressing today is inductive reasoning, another well-known type of reasoning often used in law school and in practice. While you are...
Legal Analysis Topic 3: Law is Deliberate
09 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to The Law School Playbook! I’m Halle Hara, a professor of academic success and personal skills coach to law students and attorneys. I’m g...
Legal Analysis Topic 4: Avoid the Pitfalls
07 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve listened to the episodes on deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and policy-based reasoning, you know there is a lot of room for crea...
Mind Matters Topic 1: Know Your Mindset
05 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When students come to me feeling stressed and defeated, sometimes wondering if they can continue on in law school, we discuss their mindset and how mu...
Mind Matters Topic 2: Persist
05 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying that law school is a marathon and not a sprint. At the heart of that saying is that to navigate law school successfu...
Mind Matters Topic 3: Overcome
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the last episode I highlighted the work of Angela Duckworth in her New York Times bestseller Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance. Today, I’...
Mind Matters Topic 4: Evolve and Be Kind
03 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
So far in the mind matters series, we’ve discussed having a growth mindset, grit, and using resilience to overcome difficulties. In this episode, I ...