Welcome back! Today, we’re talking with Law School Toolbox tutor (and former law professor) Jason Jones about a very important aspect of law school exam success – using legal rules. 

Some of you might be thinking, “Duh, of course, I know how to use legal rules. It’s all we talk about in class and I have them all in my outline.” But, we see A LOT of exam answers – where students swear they knew the rules going in – that really don’t include rules at all.

If you want to set yourself up for legal rule success, tune in! 

In this episode we discuss:

• What's the rule supposed to accomplish in legal writing?
• Why it's important to have accurate, complete rule statements
• Common issues students have with using legal rules effectively
• What a bad rule statement looks like
• Do you need to memorize your rule statements exactly? 
• How do you know if the rules in your outline are correct and easy to use?
• Is it okay to just look up the rules in a commercial outline?
• Alison and Jason share examples of what do to (and not to do) with rules in legal writing

Resources

• A Formula For Rule Analysis Success (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/formula-rule-analysis-success/)
• 3 Steps to Using Cases to Explain the Law (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/3-steps-using-cases-explain-law/)
• How and Why: Deepening Your Legal Reasoning (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/how-and-why-deepening-your-legal-reasoning/)
• Legal Writing 101 podcast (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/podcast-episode-11-legal-writing-101/)
• Getting to Maybe: How To Excel at Law School Exams (https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Maybe-Excel-School-Exams/dp/0890897603)

Episode Transcript: Download the Transcript

If you enjoy the podcast, we'd love a nice review and/or rating on iTunes (or your listening platform of choice). And feel free to reach out to us directly. You can always reach us via the contact form on the Law School Toolbox website (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/contact).

Thanks for listening! Good luck with those rule statements!

Alison & Lee