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Newsletters>
Thinking Like a Lawyer
September 27, 2007
Don't fall for that thinking like a lawyer verbiage that
comes of out the mouths of the intellectual giants. Ask any
of the intellectual giants about defining thinking like a
lawyer and you won't get an answer that is intelligent,
thoughtful and useful in your future life as an attorney.
Here is the real answer. Thinking like a lawyer involves
taking all the law in a given field and turning each
element of the law into a question and then asking those
questions in relation to the fact pattern you have present.
You then find the answers either by common sense
application or by case law. If the answers are not
favorable to the outcome you desire, look for policy
decisions on how you can make them favorable by changing
the law to conform to other jurisdictions or asking that
new law be created under principles of fairness and the
common law. If that fails look to motive and emotional
issues and try to upset the other side emotionally and give
them opportunities to make mistakes so you can take
advantage of them. That's it.
We add one little twist by stating that it is taking all
the law you have memorized and then turning it into a
question and then answering the questions by common sense
or case law. If you memorize all the law in a certain field
thinking like a lawyer is like shooting fish in a barrel.
One interesting fact, there is not that much law to
memorize. So maybe if you learned the law just like you
learned everything else in undergrad you will do extremely
well. The only difference between law and undergrad is you
cannot do a data dump on the law, it must be in permanent
memory. Much of the law you memorize builds on each
element. So the more law you memorize the more questions
you ask and the better attorney you become. When the law
is in permanent memory your brain takes over and does most
of the legal analysis subconsciously so it happens
extremely fast.
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