I remember sitting at orientation before the start of my 1L and an I-R-A-C being presented to me for the first time. It was then that I had the realization that the writing style that I’ve been trained to perfect my whole life was not what I would be using in law school. Obviously, when we have been writing following the rules of MLA, APA, or Chicago (I know there is probably so many more, too) our whole lives, it is scary to realize that the world of IRAC’s and Bluebook exists. But luckily, the tools that the Legal Methods program at Widener Commonwealth gives us help the transition to becoming a strong legal writer be much smoother. 

In Legal Methods I and II, you will learn how to write both objectively, like a judge and subjectively, like an attorney. You learn how to apply statutes and case law to factual scenarios to answer the issues of cases. And while doing so, you will learn how to write it in such a way that is simply different than what most of us have ever had to do.  

I am an ASF for Legal Methods, and the two questions I get asked the most are “am I writing too much” and “am I actually going to have to use the bluebook after this class is over?”. As to the first question, the answer is usually yes. We are trained in K-12 and college to write as much as we can to prove our points and write with a lot of extra “fluff”. Legal Methods retrains our brains to only put in the pertinent information and to not overdo it. It is often tricky for us to understand that it is okay for our writing to not ramble and use confusing big words, and instead follow a CREAC. I often tell the students that legal writing is like doing a puzzle. By understanding each section that must go into our legal writing, the next step is just finding the correct information to plug in!  

As to the second question, yes, you will likely always need to have a Bluebook handy. Now that I am a 3L, I have interned and externed in three very different types/areas of law. When I externed for a judge, I would draft Opinions in the way we learned how to do so in Legal Methods. I would use my bluebook to cite the relevant cases and the facts of the case. When I worked at private firms, the story was the same. When drafting briefs and memos, it was definitely important to have the tools of the bluebook at my fingertips.  

So, moral of the story, your Legal Methods I & II courses that you will take as a 1L will serve you not only through the 9 months you are in the class, but for the rest of your legal education (and career!) While it might feel new and scary at first, taking seriously the skills you can learn in this class will make the rest of what you will do not feel as scary.  

As an incoming 1L, I think the hardest thing about law school is not knowing anything about law school. Before starting at your new law school, you can go to all the open houses, read all the prep books, and do everything to get ready for this journey. These things give you the general gist of what law school will be like, but it’s not everything. The truth is, you will never really know what you are getting into before you go because everyone’s experience is different. I know that probably doesn’t come across as very soothing, but it’s not as bad as you think. We all eventually figure it out!

When you get to law school, you are going to be put in a room with a bunch of people who are all accomplished somehow, and who all have the same goal: to get through law school. Despite the end goal being the same, the path to getting to this goal is rarely the same. I urge you to keep this in mind before you start comparing yourself to others. The first semester there’s a million thing that goes through your mind:

“How many clubs should I join?”

“What GPA is considered good?”

“When do I need to get an externship?”

“What classes should I take next semester?”

Hopefully by the time you are getting to law school, you know a little bit about yourself. What works for you… what doesn’t work for you… Trust yourself! Just because someone else is doing something does not mean you have to be doing it. Remember your first priority is just passing your classes. Everyone struggles with knowing if they are doing the “right thing”. So we tend to look to our peers. I remember always being stressed over hearing how late people were working in the library the night before. Meanwhile, I finished up around 8 p.m. and went to bed at a reasonable time. I would get a pit in my stomach thinking I’m not doing enough and would fail. But I would fail to account for the fact I just start studying others where as they would not start studying until much later in the day. But that’s just what worked for me, and that’s what worked for them. When grades came around, I did fine because I didn’t switch up what I knew what wouldn’t fail me. It’s easy to think that you don’t belong because your routine is not exactly the same as your friends, but that is the farthest thing from the truth!

This doesn’t mean you can’t take advice from people and maybe learn useful tools to succeed from others. It just means that it does not matter if someone is in three clubs and you are in none. As your law school career goes on, you will figure out what you can handle, join clubs, get internships, and figure out what classes you want to take. You will learn what works for you, how to study, how to brief, and how to be a successful law student on your own. Most importantly, you will be okay, just trust yourself!