Help! I'm Going to Law School in September and I'm Scared Witless!

Congratulations! You've been accepted into law school! Assuming you are going to attend full-time, that means that within three years, you will be taking the Bar Exam. Well, that rests upon another assumption, which is that you won't get weeded out after the first semester.

I'm not saying that to scare you; just telling the truth. High-powered educational endeavors like law school are intended for those who can, in fact, stand the heat in the kitchen. Incredibly competitive, and incredibly challenging, the legal profession is not for the faint of heart. That's why law schools do their best to weed out those who won't make the grade out in the real world.

What are the things that tend to make or break law students? Well, for one thing, there's all the reading. Thousands of pages of reading, and reading to memorize. There's also the writing. While there are several kinds of documents that law students are expected to learn to produce, one of the most common is the legal brief, or case brief. Basically, this is a very short summary of the facts of a particular case written in such a fashion that the language persuades the reader in favor of one particular side.

Law students are required to write approximately ten million legal briefs each semester. Well, of course that's an exaggeration, but you see my point. Lawyers need to be able to whip off legal briefs in a heartbeat, as they are required in almost every sub-profession of law. And they have to be perfect, concise, elegant, and articulate. Not easy to pull off; hence the enormous amount of practice in law school.

If you don't make the grade, literally and figuratively, with your first one or two legal briefs, do not falter. Do not hesitate. Get help immediately. You must learn how to write these things fast, since they are looking to weed you out. A few good model briefs will help you get on track and stay in law school.