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Hey everybody, I am going to start doing some podcasts about actual cases that you might read in your law school classes. Let's talk about it.

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Welcome to Law School Decoded, the podcast that pulls back the curtain on what it's really like to succeed in law school. Let's get started.

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So you should learn about your cases in a variety of ways. You should read about them. You can go to AI to ask about them. You can read supplements related to those cases. And there's certainly plenty of very awesome formal learning tools out there that I'm sure you're already aware of that can teach you about the cases that you are reading in law school. I'm going to do some podcasts and start doing some podcast episodes about certain cases that are really popular for law professors to teach in law school classes. And I hope those are just one more resource for you to learn about those cases. As I start doing that, I wanted to make this very quick episode with a few caveats and things you should be aware of as you are listening to me talk about those cases and as you are reading about them from other sources, other supplements, other online websites, podcasts, wherever you want to learn about your cases. The number one thing is you need to read the cases. There's no substitute for that. You need to learn how to read cases in law school if you're going to get better at it and succeed on your exam. And you need to actually see how the case is articulating legal rules that are within the universe of your class. The second thing to note is that you need to focus on the universe of your class. What do I mean by that? What your professor believes about the law is what matters. What cases you are learning about in class are what matters. What I say about cases, what other supplements say about cases, really doesn't matter, especially if it conflicts with how your professor sees the importance of cases or how your professor articulates the rules that we get from cases. That is what is important for succeeding on the exam. That is what you should treat as the truth. You shouldn't listen to me or other supplements to the extent that these resources are different from what you're actually learning in class about the rules from these cases and how to use them when analyzing hypotheticals as you will on the exam. Why is that important? Well, different sources might think that different things are important about cases that you read. And what you're trying to do in law school is succeed on the exam. You aren't going to succeed on the exam by disagreeing with your professor. You aren't going to succeed on the exam by bringing in legal rules or materials that are unrelated to the class or that aren't consistent with how your professor views the law. So make sure to follow at all times what your professor says. The universe of your class is what matters, not what I say or not what anyone else says, including supplements made by really big companies that do that. So make sure to follow what your professor says, not me. The other thing is remember that, you know, I'm getting these cases online. I know that they are ones that law schools popularly teach and that you will read in your doctrinal classes. However, you should make sure that you're actually reading the cases because the excerpt from your book might be different from what I am putting in my podcast episodes. So keep that in mind. The next thing to keep in mind, and what I hope you get a ton of value out of as you listen to my podcast episodes about cases, is thinking about how to put the case in your outline for the exam, maybe as soon as you are reading it for the first time. Start outlining early, start outlining often. In each podcast, at the end, I'm going to ask the question: how could this case and the rules that you are learning from it be used on the exam? What kind of issues might you spot in the exam question that would trigger you to say, uh-huh, I remember there's a rule from this particular case. And I wrote that rule down in my outline. Time to flip to that page of my outline, this choose your own adventure story that I've written before going in. And I am going to pluck out the rules that are relevant to this issue. I'm going to drop those rule statements into my exam answer. I've already written the issue statement in my outline. I've already written the rule statement. Now it's time for analysis. And then in these podcast episodes, I'm going to talk you through the kind of analysis you might do when those issues come up, when you deploy those rules. What you need to get really good at doing is creatively and persuasively looking at the facts of hypotheticals, like the issue spotter exam you're going to get and thinking about how you write a really impressive analysis section. You're going to think about how would I use facts for one party or another? How would I use the identity of the parties to make arguments for one side or another? How would I use the setting that the parties are in to make arguments for one side or another? How would I use what the professor wrote down about what people did, what people said, and who people are in order to represent this client? What are the best arguments that they could make if they were going to present these cases to the jury? That's the most important part of succeeding in law school. And that's not something you're going to read in your case textbook, but it is something that as you read cases, you can and should start asking yourself in order to get better at it. And so we're going to do that in these podcast episodes. We're going to ask ourselves, what is the issue that would come up on the exam that I might need to write about? What are the rules that I'm getting from this case to address that issue? How am I going to write that rule statement before I walk into the exam? How am I going to write that issue statement before I walk into that exam? And then you're going to have an analysis section, and I'll start talking to you about the kind of arguments that you might make and that you might look for to reach that conclusion about who has the better case, which you should do. You are going to have to use judgment for the rest of your career. Let's figure out and use common sense and think who would have the better case here based on the facts, based on what you see in the problem. So keep that in mind as you read through your cases and keep that in mind as you listen to my podcast episodes about the cases that you are reading. I hope you enjoy them. I hope they're yet another good resource for you as you are learning this content. Thanks so much, everybody, for joining. Let's see you next time.

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That's it for today's episode of Law School Decoded. Visit us online at lawschooldecoded.com and make sure to subscribe. Until next time, keep decoding the law one step at a time.