General Information For First-Year Students

Your course schedule:

You do not chose any of your courses during your first year of law school.  All students will take the following courses:

• Civil Procedure I

• Torts

• Criminal Law

• Property

• Contracts

• Constitutional Law

• Civil Procedure II

• Legal Skills I

  • Legal skills is a pass/no-pass class where you learn about how to cite cases and write legal memoranda.  You will take legal skills each semester.  The first semester focuses on how to write a memo, the second semester focuses on persuasive writing.  During your second semester, you will draft an appeal brief and argue your brief before a panel of "judges." 

The Casebook Method

The casebook method is, for the most part, what you will experience during your first year of law school.  The casebook method involves you reading a bunch of cases and then learning the law.

• Wouldn't it be much more efficient to just condense the law into a summary, rather than having you read cases?  In short, yes.  But if you could easily access a condensed version of the law, there would be no point in charging you 45,000 per year in tuiton, so 3-4 weeks of what should be material in Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Property, etc., is parsed out into hundreds of pages of reading spread out over 14 week semesters.

• Everything you need to know about briefing a case may be found here.

The Socratic Method

The Socratic method receives a disproportionate amount of attention from pre-law students.  Do not worry about it.  You should place the Socratic method way down on your list of law school priorities.  During orientation the school simulates a mock Socratic method, even though many students will never experience the true Socratic method during classes.  Professors that use the true Socratic method: Alexander (Crim law), Devitt (Evidence), L. Ramsey (various courses), Claus (contracts-not harsh about it, doesn't ask tough questions), McCouch (Trusts).  Sometimes professors will solicit an answer from the class, and if nobody raises their hand, then the professor will resort to the Socratic method (McCouch, Claus, Alexander, and Ramsey typically solicit questions before going Socratic).

The Socratic method involves a professor randomly calling on students during class and having those students answer questions about the assigned reading or some set of hypothetical set of facts.  Most law students dread the Socratic method.  The good news is that the Socratic method has really fallen out of favor at most law schools and especially at the University of San Diego School of Law.  If you have an older professor who has taught for 30-40 years, then he or she may still use the Socratic method.  In all likelihood, you will probably only have 2-3 true Socratic method classes during your 3 years at USD Law.  Many of your professors will not use the Socratic method, or will use a hybrid.  It's not a big deal if you completely botch the answers when called upon.  Although most professors will state in the syllabus that you can have your course grade deducted one level for unpreparedness, this rarely happens (even if you botch the answer or don't do the reading).  (1) When professors grade exams, it's done anonymously.  Professors don't see your name, they only see a number.  In order to reduce your grade, the professor would have to compile all of the grades for the class,  assign letter grades to each number, convert each number and grade combination to the names of each student, and specify a decrease in the grade for a student, and possibly recalibrate the curve for the class.  Professors hate grading, so they don't take the time to do this.  Furthermore, professors would have to keep notes on which students botched the Socratic method during lecture, and they don't do this either.  Even if a professor did make a note that you botched the Socratic method, the professor would have to keep this note for months, until the semester ended and the professor had tabulated grades for each student.  This is highly unlikely.

The Socratic Method, What Should You Know?

If you are taking a class where the professor uses the Socratic method, don't panic.  At a minimum you should know the following things from the assigned reading:

• Facts of the cases the professor assigned you to read

• Holding (outcome) of the cases the professor assigned you to read

• Reasoning, if any

Many times the professor will ask rhetorical questions for which no correct answers exists.  In these circumstances, your reasoning is more important than the answer.  Sometimes, no matter what you say, the professor will usually point out some problems or issues with your answer.  It doesn't matter because law professors like highlighting the gray areas of the law.  Even if you give a great answer or provide great reasoning, prepare to answer a question from the professor that includes the phrase "but what about" and then chaning one or two of the facts.  Then the professor will ask if that changes your answer.  Again, no right answer exists, you just have to give an answer and then justify your answer.  If you read the class materials and understand the reading, there is no reason to worry about the Socratic method.

Socratic hybrids (much more common than Socratic method):

• On Call Method

  • The on call method has largely replaced the true Socratic method.  While only a few professors use the true Socratic method, many professors use the on call method.  The on call method involves the professor reading a list of student names at the end of each lecture.  The professor will read 3-4 names of students, and these 3-4 students will be on on call for the next lecture.  This means that these 3-4 students will answer all of the questions asked by the professor for a given lecture.  The good thing about this method is that you know when you will be responsible for reading the cases and material so it's easy to prepare to be on call.  The bad thing about this method is that there really isn't an excuse for being unprepared if you're on call.  Professors that use this method: Schwarzschild (Civ Pro I, II, Con Law II), Kamisar (Crim Pro.), Prakash (Con Law I).

• Snake Method

  • The snake method involves professors going down each row of seats and calling on each student in the row.  For example, the professor will start at the front of the class and call on people sequentially until the professor reaches the last student in the row, and then the professor will move one row up and do the same.  The good news about this method is that you will generally know when you're going to get called upon, and if you're really worried you can always miss class and hope that the professor moves past your seat.  The bad news about this method is that it's somewhat unpredictable.  Some professors will call one 2-3 people per class, others will call on 5-6, so once the professor starts to call on students in your row or close to your seat, you may have to prepare to answer questions for more than one class. Professors that use this method: Lawrence (UCC Sales, Secured Transactions),

• Alphabetical Method

  • Similar to the snake method.  The professor will call on students alphabetically starting with A.  The same pros and cons for the snake method apply here. Professors that use this method: Ramirez (Evidence).

If you botch the Socratic method or didn't read

Don't worry.  If you didn't read the case you can let the professor know, in which case they will call on another student, or you can try to fake it.  If you tell the professor that you didn't read the case, the professor will usually tell you that you're on call for the next class, or he will tell you to "prepare for class."  That's it.  I've never really seen anything adverse occur because a student didn't read for class.  Again, everybody vastly over estimates the role the Socratic method plays during law school.  You won't even care/notice after your first year.