Legal research and writing causes more stress per capita than any other class during 1L. On the one hand, it’s only a couple of credits. People will tell you that the simplistic models like IRAC you learn in 1L LRW classes don’t translate at all to real practice. On the other hand, it might be the only time you learn any practice skills in law school, even if they are watered down. And it’s the only time you get regular feedback between exams or get a chance to use what you’re learning in a setting that doesn’t require you to think as fast as you can. This stress comes from law students not knowing how much time to invest in LRW.
That decision gets exponentially more difficult when LRW is ungraded. When the standard goes from beating the curve to just giving a “good faith” effort, it gets much harder to motivate yourself to give 100% to an LRW assignment. Your other classes don’t slow down when LRW assignments are due, and those classes are the ones that decide what your GPA and class rank are. A High Pass or top writer award is nice, but it’s the top 10% of the class that tend to get the prizes.
The temptation is to blow off LRW and only put in the minimal effort to avoid a Low Pass or a failing grade, which anecdotal evidence suggests is not that difficult.1 So you use all the tricks of the trade to go through the motions while providing just enough substance to trick your professor. You pad assignments with long block quotes and cite everything. You touch on all possible arguments or issues, even to mention their irrelevance. And you point out both sides of every single little argument.
If you want to be a practicing litigator, I would resist this temptation as hard as possible. You want as much practice writing for a court as possible, and while 1L LRW is about as watered down as legal work can get, it is still practice. And while IRAC and other 1L systems are probably too simplistic for professional practice, they are the building blocks of sophisticated legal analysis. You need to learn how to crawl before you can walk.
If you want to be a transactional attorney 1L LRW is, in my opinion, less important. When writing for a partner or businessperson rather than the court, there is more variability. The partner that assigns you work is going to have certain requirements for analysis, detail, and organization. Maybe you only deliver two page summaries for most projects. Maybe you are only asked to argue one side while another associate is asked to argue another and the partner likes to lay them side-by-side and find the strengths and weaknesses. So while 1L LRW tactics are basic and fundamental, they have even less use in preparing you for a transactional setting.
But when you feel overwhelmed, don’t feel bad about giving an ungraded classes the cold shoulder. When push comes to shove, legal hiring is still about prestige and stats. If your choice is between putting in an A+ effort on LRW and falling well behind on your outlining vs. keeping up with your graded classes and taking a gentleman’s pass in LRW, the choice is a no brainer. Between summer legal internships, clinics, moot court, and law review, there are plenty of opportunities to get practice if you seek it out. LRW can be helpful, but if it isn’t graded, ask yourself what that’s saying about how important your law school thinks it is.
- I believe we were told that it took real effort to get a Low Pass, much less fail. You really needed to screw up. ↩
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