For many 2Ls, seminar papers are the first time legal research feels truly open-ended. There’s no model answer, no issue-spotting checklist, and the success of your paper depends heavily on the work you do before you start drafting. If you’re in the researching phase and beginning to plan for drafting, now is the moment to slow down, work strategically, and use the right tools. Below are legal research tips that align with law review best practices.

For many 1Ls, the most stressful moments of law school don’t happen during finals, they happen in the middle of class. One minute you’re following along, and the next your professor calls your name. Cold calls, class participation, and impostor syndrome often arrive together, shaping the first-year experience in ways few syllabi acknowledge.

The start of your 2L spring semester can feel like a turning point. No matter how your fall semester turned out, spring isn’t about catching up or making up for anything...

Author: Don Macauley, Esq Every 1L hears the same recycled advice:

Author: Don Macaulay If you’ve made it to November, congratulations -- you’ve survived the wild ride of your first semester (so far!). But now we enter the stretch that separates those who finish strong from those who get swallowed by the law school chaos vortex.

Author: Don Macauley, Esq One of the first big shocks of law school is realizing that 1L exams are nothing like the tests you took in high school or college. Back then, success often came from memorizing facts and repeating them back on test day. Law school exams don’t work that way. In law school, your job throughout the semester is to collect rules, legal tests, and defenses, each made up of elements (facts!) that must be satisfied. The cases you read are not just stories; they’re illustrations of how courts develop and apply those rules in response to concrete factual scenarios.

Figuring out legal terms is a part of your 1L year. Here’s a 1L hack your professors won’t tell you: every time you hear the word “element” in class, swap it out with the word “fact".

When you start law school, you’ll hear Latin phrases tossed around like they’re part of some secret code. One of the first is prima facie case. But what is prima facie? It sounds intimidating, but the idea is straightforward, and one of the most important, foundational concepts you’ll learn.

Starting law school can feel like stepping into a secret society with its own language, formalistic traditions, and arcane rules. Professors toss around terms like tort (a civil wrong that causes harm to another person) or consideration (something of value exchanged in a contract) with ease, as if you should already know what they mean. You may begin to wonder whether you missed the secret pre-law decoder ring during orientation.