Panza Maurer Law Library
Academic Success and Professionalism Program (ASP)
The primary mission of the Academic Success and Professionalism Program (ASP) is to help all NSU law students develop fundamental skills that provide a solid foundation for success on law school exams, the bar exam, and the practice of law.
These skills include:
- critical reading;
- logical and strategic thinking;
- problem solving;
- effective written and oral legal analysis;
- time and stress management; and
- professional identity formation.
To accomplish its mission, ASP offers a comprehensive set of courses, individualized counseling, and other programming, from 1L through bar exam preparation, to assist our students in making smooth and effective transitions from layperson to law student and, ultimately, to licensed attorneys. Assisted by staff, highly qualified ASP Professors of Practice support NSU law students throughout their law school careers and while studying for the bar exam.
These study aids focus on general law school success strategies. All of these study aids are available online through the links below.
If you need help accessing any of these materials, please contact a Reference Librarian.
- Academic Success Study Aids Access via West Academic Study Aids Local and Remote for NSU College of Law only. This list provides access to all of the academic success materials provided through West Academic. A curated list of the most popular items is below.
1L of a Ride by
Assigned as required or recommended reading at law schools throughout the country, 1L of a Ride provides a candid, comprehensive roadmap to both academic and emotional success in law school's crucial first year. Legal education continues to evolve and so does this classic work. Told in an accessible first-person voice, covered topics in this updated, revised, and expanded fourth edition include pre-planning, top student fears, the first-year curriculum, the Socratic and case methods of teaching, effective class participation, the top habits of successful students, essential study techniques, legal research and writing, exam strategies, maintaining well-being, online learning, career planning, and much more. Combines comments from hundreds of law students, empirical research, and authentic samples of signature documents from the 1L experience, including exam questions, Socratic dialogue, and student case-briefs, class notes, and course outlines. McClurg is an award-winning professor who taught at six different law schools.
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9781684679386Publication Date: 2021-05-07
A Weekly Guide to Being a Model Law Student by
This book gives law students weekly checklists explaining the skills necessary to successfully navigate their first year of law school. Each chapter provides a checklist of things to do that week, such as briefing cases, going over notes, outlining classes, or doing practice questions. When a new concept is introduced, this book clearly explains the concept and its purpose and provides examples. Instead of merely providing advice, this book lays out a detailed plan for students to follow. It also includes a bank of over 100 short, medium, and long practice questions in six first year subjects.
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9781628104448Publication Date: 2015-07-24
Get a Running Start by
The first of its kind, this book offers a global overview of the first-year curriculum in a single volume. In short, accessible lessons, Get a Running Start covers all the major concepts taught in each of the courses most commonly offered in the first year of law school: criminal law, torts, civil procedure, constitutional law, property, and contracts. (See also a companion volume, Stay Ahead of the Pack: Your Comprehensive Guide to the Upper Level Curriculum, which covers the most common 2L and 3L courses: administrative law, business associations, criminal procedure, evidence, personal income tax, and professional responsibility.) Each of the courses comprising this book is written by a specialist in the field who is a decorated teacher with years of experience in the classroom. In this volume, they have distilled that experience and expertise to produce the tool they wish they had when they first were thinking about and then actually began law school: a clear, concise introduction to the entire first-year curriculum. Get a Running Start is a valuable tool for first-year law students, giving them a running start on their law school careers and putting them in the best position to enter the profession. By reading through all the lessons for a course, first-year students will get a complete overview of each course early in the semester. As the semester goes forward, students can accelerate their learning and comprehension by reviewing individual lessons when preparing for class. As the semester comes to a close, the lessons in this book provide an invaluable framework for outlining and exam preparation. Get a Running Start is also the ideal introduction for undergraduate students. For formal pre-law or Introduction to American Law courses, this book will provide students with a comprehensive overview broken into concise, digestible chunks that are ideal for further development in lecture or discussion sections. Outside the classroom, Get a Running Start offers a stimulating introduction to fundamental legal concepts that will engage those who might be thinking about going to law school and citizens who simply want to know more about the law as a central feature of public life. Among the many features of this book readers will find useful and attractive are: An introductory chapter offering advice on how to structure a successful preparation and study process starting with the summer before law school and running straight through exams. Insiders' advice from successful law students and recent graduates on class preparation, course selection, career development, and managing the stress of law school. Short lessons that provide readers with an introduction to the major concepts for a day or week of law school classes in 10-15 minutes. Complete course coverage that will allow readers to get a global overview of a first-year law course in the span of an afternoon. Frequent use of examples and hypotheticals to illustrate major points in an available way. Short "Takeaway" summaries at the end of each lesson that highlight the main points and provide a quick reference or refresher. "Bonus" lessons offering quick primers on topics such as legal reasoning and statutory interpretation.
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9781634596831Publication Date: 2016-04-08
Learning Outside the Box by
More law students than ever before come to law school having been diagnosed with a learning disability. The purpose of this book is to provide research-based learning strategies for law students who learn differently. If you are a student who has been diagnosed with a learning disability or if you simply have a unique learning style, you may need to outline differently, read cases differently, and approach law school in a more active, engaged, and efficient manner. This book offers learning strategies grounded in empirical research to help law students who learn differently maximize their academic success. "Learning Outside the Box provides a concise map to the tricky terrain of law school success while simultaneously offering practical and emotional support to readers with nontraditional learning styles. The book will benefit both prospective law students and those current students who see a 'mismatch between how law professors teach . . . and the way in which [the students] learn' (p.19). These readers may find it most useful simply to skim the text initially and then reread pertinent sections later as the content becomes applicable to their studies. In addition to students, law school faculty members, administrators, and staff responsible for counseling law students should also become familiar with this text. The book is recommended for all law school libraries." -- Barbara Glennan, Law Library Journal's "Keeping Up with New Legal Titles"
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9781531001018Publication Date: 2011-01-01
The development of “interprofessional skills” - responsibility, accountability, coordination, communication, cooperation (sharing one’s own expertise and creating shared knowledge), assertiveness, autonomy, mutual trust and respect, and an open-minded willingness to learn from others – is critical to the successful practice of law! This page features print and electronic resources around Interprofessioal Skills.
Law Student Professional Development and Formation by
Law schools currently do an excellent job of helping students to 'think like a lawyer,' but empirical data show that clients, legal employers, and the legal system need students to develop a wider range of competencies. This book helps legal educators to understand these competencies and provides practical ways to build them into a law school curriculum. Based on recommendations from the American Bar Association, the American Association of Law Schools, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, it will equip students with the skills they need not only to think but to act and feel like a lawyer. With this proposed model, students will internalize the need for professional development toward excellence, their responsibility to others, a client-centered approach to problem solving, and strong well-being practices. These four goals constitute a lawyer's professional identity, and this book empowers legal educators to foster each student's development of a professional identity that leads to a gratifying career that serves society well. This title is Open Access.
Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781108776325Publication Date: 2022-04-21
Leading in Law by
Leading in Law provides a comprehensive treatment of leadership education and development for law students. The book is designed for law schools and legal educators to prepare their students to exercise leadership in law firms and legal organizations, as well as other roles they will play in society. There is a dearth of books and instructional materials on lawyer leadership and especially about how law students can learn about and hone their leadership skills during law school. Leading in Law offers a research-based approach to developing these skills at a behavioral, rather than conceptual, level. In the law school market, this is the only text on lawyer leadership that offers a systematic and practical approach to leadership development and provides a thorough consideration of the context and challenges associated with being a leader and providing leadership in law settings. The book draws upon a leadership development model, which is evidence-based, practical, and used extensively in other professional disciplines (e.g., business, healthcare, and education). Leadership is considered within the context and challenges associates with effective team building, ethics, decision-making, innovation, diversity and inclusion, adversity, and emotional intelligence. Moreover, key aspects of effective leadership by lawyers--not only for lawyers with a firm or legal office but also for lawyers as public servants, in nonprofit organizations, and in many other "callings" where lawyers function--are identified and described. Chapters begin with a roadmap of key ideas ("The Lead-In") and conclude with a summary section ("Following Through"). The individual chapters present current research findings, case studies provided by law school students, and practical guidelines for thinking and behaving as a lawyer leader. At the end of each chapter are a set of questions ("Reflections") meant to stimulate students to think more deeply about the materials presented in the chapter. Reflection questions can be discussed in a classroom or group setting or be assigned as exercises to advance students' appreciation and understanding of what it takes to be a lawyer who provides leadership and makes a difference.
Call Number: KF273 .P65 2022ISBN: 9781531021009Publication Date: 2022-07-01
Educating for Well-Being in Law by
Bringing together the current international body of knowledge on key issues for educating for well-being in law, this book offers comparative perspectives across jurisdictions, and utilises a range of theoretical lenses (including socio-legal, psychological and ethical theories) in analysing well-being and legal education in law. The chapters include innovative and tested research methodologies and strategies for educating for well-being. Asking and answering the question as to whether law is special in terms of producing psychological distress in law students, law teachers and the profession, and bringing together common and opposing perspectives, this book also seeks to highlight excellent practice in promoting a positive professional identity at law school and beyond resulting in an original contribution to knowledge, and new discourses of analysis.
Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781351104395Publication Date: 2019-07-19
The Legal Career by
This coursebook addresses key topics in the evolving legal profession and the business of law. The book features chapters on the traditional law firm; the corporate client; the emergence of alternative legal services providers; legal technology; access to justice; employment and diversity in the legal profession; and legal education reform. Students will learn from detailed, insightful interviews of a broad range of legal industry professionals, including the general counsel of an international company; chief litigation officer of a Fortune100 company; director of knowledge management at a Biglaw firm; a legal innovator who founded a pioneering legal process outsourcing company; a legal industry consultant; and a legal tech startup CEO and co-founder. Interactive exercises and questions for reflection and discussion are included throughout the book. Read reviews of this title here.
Call Number: KF297 .L43 2017ISBN: 9781634599139Publication Date: 2017-08-04
Excellence in the Workplace: Legal and Life Skills in a Nutshell by
Excellence in the Workplace: Legal and Life Skills in a Nutshell provides tools and techniques for success on the job and in life to students and lawyers beginning their careers. It progresses from preparing for the first day of work, to work-life balancing. Designed for easy reading and reference by students, the chapters can also be used as teaching modules. The authors: Discuss fundamental lawyering skills such as analysis, research, writing, oral communication, and time management Introduce the characteristics of emotional intelligence, effective interpersonal relationships, models of professionalism, conflict and stress management, and generational differences Offer practical advice for building a successful career, creating a career plan, assessing a job offer, negotiating a salary, managing money, and maintaining a work-life balance The text includes student reflections about real-life situations
Call Number: onlineISBN: 9781628105629Publication Date: 0/16/07
Effective Communication for Lawyers: A Practical Guide by
Effective Communication for Lawyers is an essential guide to communicating in the radically and rapidly changing environment of professional law today. Offering a deep dive into understanding communication as behaviour, as well as practical tools and insights, it connects theory to practice in order to improve client communication, support the current transformation of legal work and prepare readers for future developments and disruptions in the legal professions.
Call Number: onlineISBN: 9781839106910Publication Date: 09/13/22
Beyond Smart: Lawyering with Emotional Intelligence by
Everyone is familiar with "IQ"—intelligence quotient. Most lawyers put their IQ scores up there with their SAT and LSAT scores as generally acknowledged evidence of their competence. But what is your emotional intelligence quotient? And why should you care? "Emotional intelligence"" (EI) is the ability to recognize, understand, and regulate our own and others' emotions. Industries worldwide have incorporated EI into their education, hiring, training, and management programs to maximize performance. Beyond Smart: Lawyering with Emotional Intelligence is the first comprehensive guide to understanding and raising emotional intelligence in the unique context of law practice. It explains the origins of EI, a lawyer's historic role in developing the concept, how lawyers compare in EI to other professionals and how to determine your level of EI. Beyond Smart also outlines how: Emotionally intelligent lawyers are smarter, better practitioners—as negotiators, litigators and judges, make more money, and are physically and mentally healthier; Emotionally intelligent law departments and law firms profit from more effective leadership, greater performance, enhanced teamwork, and increased client satisfaction, as well as lower attrition, healthcare and professional liability costs; Emotionally intelligent practices can thrive in an increasingly competitive and technologically complex marketplace, even outperforming artificial intelligence; and Individuals, workplaces and law schools can take steps to raise emotional intelligence. This user-friendly, practical resource is designed for today's legal professional who desires to improve their communication, client service and leadership skills and create a high performance, high functioning workplace
Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781634259170Publication Date: 02/02/18
Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry by
Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry Auditors, accountants, lawyers, consultants, and other highly educated and trained professionals frequently hold impressive credentials and offer clients specialized expertise in complex areas. At the same time, these professionals understandably focus on the analytical and technical components of their jobs, sometimes to the point of excluding or ignoring important soft skills critical to the success of their careers and practices. In Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry: Principles, Tasks, and Tools for Success, veteran auditor and entrepreneur Andreas Creutzmann delivers an essential discussion of often overlooked professional competencies that can mean the difference between career, engagement, and business success or failure. In the book, you'll find accessible guidance on critical soft skills that can make a difference between fulfilment and success and failure on a professional and personal level. You'll learn to handle the blending of home and the home office, how to effectively manage staff, how to market yourself and your firm, practical strategies for client and colleague communication, and how to find happiness in your day-to-day work. Each chapter stands alone and can be read in any order. They provide professionals with invaluable skills for navigating the modern--and digital--reality of work, showing you how to combine your professional education with the latest research and common sense on everything from client management to firm marketing. Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry uses the field of auditing as a template and guide, but it is highly relevant to all skilled professionals - including lawyers, consultants, medical professionals, and others. The book is a must-read for any knowledge worker trying to add to their toolbox of practical skills. Critical guidance for practicing professionals on how to build often overlooked soft skills Most highly educated and trained professionals aren't lacking in analytical or technical skills. Lawyers know the law, accountants understand double entry bookkeeping, and doctors know anatomy. However, many of us are less familiar with often overlooked--and equally essential--soft skills: client management, communication, staff and employee management, and others. In Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry, accomplished auditor, entrepreneur, and consultant Andreas Creutzmann walks you through how to build critical competencies, from self-marketing to balancing work and life when your office is in your house. The book is made up of numerous, self-contained chapters that can be read in any order, and it demonstrates how to navigate increasingly digital and insistent professional demands on your time, effectively manage client and colleague relationships, and sell new clients on the services your firm offers. An essential roadmap to achieving personal and career success, Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry is an indispensable resource for lawyers, doctors, accountants, auditors, and any other extensively skilled professional. It offers practical tools in functional areas that are frequently neglected in formal professional training.
Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781119875550Publication Date: 2022-05-04
Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks by
The go-to book for new lawyer success at leading firms and schools, Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks contains critical advice new graduates need to thrive. Completely revised and updated, the Third Edition includes vital new information on navigating a hybrid work environment. The new edition also includes expanded guidance on networking, client service, business development, time and project management, and many other topics. The goal is simple: to help new lawyers start strong, because experience is the most effective way to learn. With an easily readable style, Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks helps new lawyers finesse unwritten rules and stay afloat in a challenging profession. The book contains hundreds of tips with inside information from successful lawyers nationwide. Humorous, real-life examples illustrate the lessons along with checklists to provide comprehensive advice quickly. The book has been called a "game changer" and partners at firms nationwide recommend it for associates.
Call Number: KF297 .C57 2022ISBN: 9781647085490Publication Date: 2022-06-01
Multicultural Lawyering by
This book is a mix of policy, legal history, professionalism, and lawyering skills. It asks readers to explore multiculturalism through several different lenses. First, readers explore the reasons behind calls for diversity in the legal profession, examining how ordinary people view the culture of the law. Next, readers explore their own cultural backgrounds, consider implicit bias, and examine how to best navigate their own cultures as they interact with legal systems. Then, readers examine how to best represent clients with a particular focus on understanding client goals and helping translate client values and culture into legal system values and culture, while always remaining cognizant of their own values and cultures. Finally, readers explore case studies where failure to appreciate culture has had critical consequences. The book provides perspective through essays about multicultural values in legal systems in other countries. It can be used as a textbook in a multicultural lawyering course or seminar, in a professional identity and culture course, or as a supplement to a clinic, skills, or doctrinal course. Lawyers and other legal professionals can use this book to explore multiculturalism and its effects in the legal system.
Call Number: KF300 .O43 2021ISBN: 9781531020415Publication Date: 2021-03-01
The Good Lawyer by
Every lawyer wants to be a good lawyer. They want to do right by their clients, contribute to the professional community, become good colleagues, interact effectively with people of all persuasions, and choose the right cases. All of these skills and behaviors are important, but they spring from hard-to-identify foundational qualities necessary for good lawyering. After focusing for three years on getting high grades and sharpening analytical skills, far too many lawyers leave law school without a real sense of what it takes to be a good lawyer.In The Good Lawyer, a follow up to their book The Happy Lawyer, law professors Douglas O. Linder and Nancy Levit combine evidence from the latest social science research with numerous engaging accounts of able attorneys at work to explain just what makes a good lawyer. They organize the book around the qualities they see as crucial: courage, empathy, integrity, realism, a strong sense of justice, clarity of purpose, and an ability to transcend emotionalism. But as the authors point out, each one must be apportioned in the right measure, and achieving the right balance is difficult. Lawyers need to know when to empathize and also when to detach; courage without an appreciation of consequences becomes recklessness. And what do you do in tricky situations, where the urge to deceive is high? How can you maintain focus through a mind-taxing (or mind-numbing) project? Every lawyer faces these problems at some point - they're inherent in the nature of the work - but if properly recognized and approached, they can be overcome. It's not easy being good - quality is less something one grasps and hangs onto than a goal that requires constant striving and attention - but this engaging guide will serve as a handbook for any lawyer trying not only to figure out how to respond to difficult situations, but how to become a better - meaning both more competent and more virtuous - lawyer.
Call Number: K115 .L56 2014ISBN: 9780199360239Publication Date: 2014-06-02
Soft Skills for the Effective Lawyer by Call Number: KF300 .K597 2017ISBN: 9781108416443Publication Date: 2017-08-07In this groundbreaking book, Randall Kiser presents a multi-disciplinary, practice-based introduction to the major soft skills for lawyers: self-awareness, self-development, social proficiency, wisdom, leadership, and professionalism. The work serves as both a map and a vehicle for developing the skills essential to self-knowledge and fulfillment, organizational respect and accomplishment, client satisfaction and appreciation, and professional improvement and distinction. It identifies the most important soft skills for attorneys, describes and applies hundreds of studies regarding psychology, law, and soft skills, and provides concrete steps and methods to improve soft skills. The book should be read by law students, attorneys, and anyone else interested in how lawyers should practice law.
The Education of a Lawyer: Essential Skills and Practical advice for Building a Successful Career by
The Education of a Lawyer is a delightful read that provides invaluable advice about the practice of law. Written for aspiring and young attorneys, the book is a font of wisdom on a range of topics: legal writing, speaking, handling clients, staying current on the law, and managing all the relationships typically encountered by lawyers. Derived from the author's decades of experience as a lawyer and teacher, the book is filled with stories and telling anecdotes. Some are hilarious, some are cautionary, but nearly all contain a nugget of practical insight that readers can apply to their own practice. Specific topics include: How to speak effectively to any type of group Techniques to polish your writing and create more useful legal documents and correspondence Manage relationships with judges, opposing counsel, your local legal community, and clients How to stay current on the law Improve your legal skills throughout your career Decidedly original and consistently entertaining, The Education of a Lawyer will make readers laugh, think, and nod in recognition. And most importantly, it will help readers to become better lawyers. Book was published September 2014.
Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781627227544Publication Date: 2015-06-07
The Introverted Lawyer: a Seven-Step Journey Toward Authentically Empowered Advocacy by
A stereotype bias exists in law school and legal practice favoring the garrulous extrovert. While loquacious law students, professors, lawyers, and judges thrive in a world dominated by the Socratic Method and rapid-fire oral discourse, quiet thinkers and writers can become sidelined. Introverted, shy, or socially anxious law students and lawyers often question their place in the legal arena, though research reveals they offer much-needed gifts to the profession, including active listening, empathy, contemplative analysis, and impactful writing. As legal education and law practice adjust to economic shifts and changing client mindsets, this is a prime opportunity for the legal community to make room for subtler voices. The Introverted Lawyer invites that dialogue into the legal profession. This book explains the differences among introversion, shyness, and social anxiety and how each manifests in the legal context; describes how the extrovert bias in law school and practice detrimentally can impact quiet individuals, fueling enhanced anxiety in a vocation already fraught with mental health issues; explores how quiet law students and lawyers offer greatly needed proficiencies to the legal profession; and finally, presents a seven-step process to help introverted, shy, and socially anxious individuals amplify their authentic lawyer voices, capitalize on their natural strengths, and diminish unwarranted stress. The Introverted Lawyer provides practical, tangible steps for individual growth, as well as a sound platform to enable caring professors, law office mentors, and bar association representatives to educate themselves, their students, and developing lawyers about this important and often overlooked issue. The first half of this book: (1) Explains the differences among introversion, shyness, and social anxiety and how each can manifest in the legal context. (2) Explores the impact on quiet individuals of the push toward extroversion in law school and law practice. (3) Highlights greatly valued proficiencies that quiet individuals offer the legal profession through nurturing instead of repressing innate strengths. Further, to help quiet law students and lawyers become authentically powerful advocates, the second half of this book outlines a practical seven-step process to empower introverted, shy, and socially anxious individuals to amplify their voices without compromising their quiet assets. With increased self-awareness and a holistic approach, and buoyed by collaboratively compassionate and motivating professors and law office mentors, introverted, shy, and socially anxious law students and lawyers will transform the legal profession.
Call Number: KF300 .B75 2017ISBN: 9781634257725Publication Date: 2017-08-01
Lawyers Anger and Anxiety by
The book first examines how anger and anxiety are related and the symptoms and costs associated with them. You'll also find advice on seeking happiness through all the stages of your career, and discover valuable tips for staying satisfactorily employed during the most stressful of times. There's also help for those living with a stressed-out lawyer, both at home or at the office.
Call Number: KF300 .N46 2010ISBN: 9781604429497Publication Date: 2011-07-16
Lawyering from the Inside Out by
Law is a varied, powerful, and highly rewarding profession. Studies show, however, that lawyers have higher rates of alcoholism, divorce, and even suicide than the general population. Stress creates these poor outcomes, including the stress of dealing with other people's problems all day, the stress of spending excessive amounts of time at work, and the stress of being disconnected to what is most meaningful in life. Through mindfulness and emotional intelligence training, lawyers can improve focus, get more work done in less time, improve their interpersonal skills, and seek and find work that will make their lives more meaningful. This book is designed to help law students and lawyers of all experience levels find a sustainable and meaningful life in the field of law. This book includes journaling and other interactive exercises that can help lawyers find peace, focus, meaning, and happiness over a lifetime of practicing law.
Call Number: KF300 .M37 2018ISBN: 9781107147478Publication Date: 2018-06-07
A Civility-Based Model for New Lawyers by
This book is a must read for new law graduates before they start to take on the issues of their clients. It stresses the critical behavioral qualities that will help or hinder their ability to credibly undertake the client's issues, separate and apart from all of the psychological baggage that they have accumulated over the years. Hiring partners of firms will also find this book useful in helping their new hires to get off on the right foot as they undertake whatever form of mentoring provided. Finally, with the mastery of these interpersonal skills and an understanding of the issues discussed in this book, a rewarding career and personal contribution to a viable road for enhanced civility must follow.
Call Number: KF300 .F54 2021ISBN: 9781641058308Publication Date: 2022-03-01
The Flourishing Lawyer by
The Flourishing Lawyer offers an empathetic guide for members of the legal profession to cultivate their personal and professional well-being, identify and develop their individual strengths, and define success on their own terms. Drawing from lessons and research from the fields of psychology, health care, sports, and medicine, this book is an affirming guide to becoming a better contributor to the profession while living a flourishing life.
Call Number: KF300 .B755 2022ISBN: 9781639050949Publication Date: 2022-07-01
Law Student Professional Development and Formation by
Law schools currently do an excellent job of helping students to 'think like a lawyer,' but empirical data show that clients, legal employers, and the legal system need students to develop a wider range of competencies. This book helps legal educators to understand these competencies and provides practical ways to build them into a law school curriculum. Based on recommendations from the American Bar Association, the American Association of Law Schools, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, it will equip students with the skills they need not only to think but to act and feel like a lawyer. With this proposed model, students will internalize the need for professional development toward excellence, their responsibility to others, a client-centered approach to problem solving, and strong well-being practices. These four goals constitute a lawyer's professional identity, and this book empowers legal educators to foster each student's development of a professional identity that leads to a gratifying career that serves society well. This title is Open Access.
Call Number: KF272 .H36 2022ISBN: 9781108745659Publication Date: 2022-05-05
NSU Main Campus Resources
- Suicide and Violence Prevention ProgramIf you or someone you know is suffering and you want to know how to help, call a Suicide Prevention hotline for 24/7 assistance:
1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433)
1-800-273-TALK (8255)
Or text the Crisis Text Line:
Text "HOME" to 741-741 - NSU Law's Office of Student ServicesA link to the webpage for NSU Law's Office of Student Services.
- Student Wellness at Nova LawA student organization dedicated to raising awareness of mental health and wellness in the legal profession.
- Student Medical CenterA resource that provides quality primary healthcare services for NSU students.
- Henderson Student Counseling ServicesCounseling services available for NSU students. Services include: treatment for anxiety, panic and depression; anger management; financial stress; social struggles; chronic illnesses; substance abuse; suicidal thoughts; break-ups and divorce; assault; and many other areas affecting a students quality of life.
STUDY AIDS AND EXAM PREPARATION RESOURCES
Aspen Learning Library
The Aspen Learning Library platform features various study aids including the Examples & Explanations and Glannon Guide series.
These highly popular collections help law students master complex subject matter. Please see below for details on the subjects covered by these study aids.
LexisNexis Digital Library
LexisNexis Digital Library offers the largest most flexible legal eBook library available, which includes the Understanding and Mastering series. Please see below for details on what subjects these study aids cover:
West Academic Study Aids Collection
The West Academic Study Aids Collection contains hundreds of trusted study aids to help you succeed in law school including the In A Nutshell series, the Short and Happy Guide, and various Hornbooks. Please see below for details on some of these subjects that these study aids cover.
These study aids generally focus on exam preparation. All of these materials can be accessed electronically through the links below:
If you need help accessing any of these materials, please contact a Reference Librarian.
Mastering the Law School Exam by
Mastering the Law School Exam is designed to provide students with a knowledgeable, reasonable, and rational voice to navigate the intricacies of law school exams. This book is practical rather than theoretical where the emphasis is on providing the type of detailed examples necessary to show students precisely "how to do it" and "how to write it."By working with numerous illustrations in the context of substantive law, students learn to:Fill the gap between what the professor refers to as learning to "think like a lawyer" and the actual means for doing so.Create a successful path from note-taking--to outlining--to exam writing.Identify the basic skills that exams seek to test and the precise manner in which they are tested.Become familiar with the general types of law school exams through examples and detailed analyses of sample answers.Use the language of the law in the writing of issues, statements of the rule, and analysis of the facts.Draw appropriate inferences from the facts.Improve close reading skills as well as writing skills.Be pro-active by taking formative assessments in a variety of subject areas and formats.Simulate exam conditions by writing exams under timed conditions.Target assessments according to identified learning objectives.Self-assess by following detailed grading rubrics.Use formative assessment to improve learning through identified feedback mechanisms.Draw appropriate inferences from the facts.Organize their thoughts to write an organized analysis.Develop a facility with adapting the "IRAC" structure of legal analysis to answer multiple-choice questions, write essay answers, and address varying performance test tasks.
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9781634592253Publication Date: 2023-01-10
How to Write Law Exams by
Written for every law student who ever wondered how to get better grades in law school, How to Write Law Exams: IRAC Perfected provides students of all levels with a detailed, comprehensive, and practical guide to success on law school exams. What's more, How to Write Law Exams applies equally to all subject matters, making this text an ideal supplement for every law school course. Focuses on law school and bar exams rather than the kind of assignments seen in legal writing class. As such, the book helps students improve their grades in all of their substantive courses, not just in their first year legal writing class. Provides readers with a proven and easy-to-implement means of maximizing points on a law school exam. Rather than repeating vague generalities about grammar and style or providing simple bullet-point lists as other writing guides do, this text breaks the well-known IRAC method of legal writing into comprehensible segments and gives students the tools needed to master their law exams. Provides readers with detailed student-written examples of the IRAC method in action. Annotated with line-by-line critiques, these sample essays show readers exactly what can go wrong in a law school exam and how to fix those problems before they appear on a graded paper. Combining in-depth analysis, easy-to-understand writing, and innovative design features, How to Write Law Exams: IRAC Perfected is the answer to every law student's exam questions.
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9781647080990Publication Date: 2020-09-14
The Eight Secrets of Top Exam Performance in Law School by
This work teaches the eight secrets that will add points to every exam answer you write. You will learn the three keys to handling any essay exam, how to use time to your advantage, issue spotting, how to organize your answer, and the hidden traps of the IRAC method. Once you have mastered these skills, you can put your knowledge to the test with sample exam questions and check your answers against those provided. A special section on how to do well on other types of exams, such as open-book, multiple-choice, or policy exams, is also included.
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9780314183583Publication Date: 2007-10-30
Law School Exams by
Law School Exams: A Guide to Better Grades is the complete handbook for students seeking to improve their performance in law school. This book offers a concise and practical strategy that can be applied to almost any law school exam, regardless of topic or level. The new edition offers unique insights by reducing the exam format to a series of repeatable steps. It also teaches students how to "prepare for exams, instead of preparing for class," with proven time-management and outlining techniques. The main focus of the book is on law school exam success, but it also includes comprehensive guidance on reading, note-taking, use of supplements, and common mistakes made by law students. The latest edition adds guidance for in-person and online testing, and three new practice exams with model answers (on the topics of Torts, Property, and Contracts). Law School Exams: A Guide to Better Grades is an impactful resource for students who are beyond the first semester and struggling to improve their grades, as well as for brand new students who want to start strong in law school. Alex Schimel is a longtime professor, university administrator, and a leading subject-matter expert on law school academic success.
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9781531023768Publication Date: 2022-01-01
Law School Exams by
Recognizing that law students operate under severe time constraints, Professor Calleros employs a reassuring, accessible style that makes points quickly and clearly. Starting with creative examples and illustrations from familiar, nonlegal contexts, the author introduces students to new concepts by analogy and then advances to more complex legal examples. Exercises and practice exams, with a focus on essay questions and model answers, help students identify their strengths and weaknesses, plan strategies, and organize their efforts. Law School Exams: Preparing and Writing to Win offers techniques for maximizing scores on several types of essay questions, as well as on multiple-choice and other questions. Exam anxiety is tackled by a helpful, positive perspective: the right amount of stress can serve as a motivator. Students get help in reducing anxiety to a productive level by learning how to place exams into proper perspective. Stress-management techniques are introduced, including, stretching, meditation, and listening to motivational music. The Second Edition introduces new sample flow charts into the presentation, and additional examples, questions, and sample answers appear throughout the text. Hallmark features of Law School Exams: Preparing and Writing to Win: --accessible, reassuring style o points are clear and concise for students under severe time constraints --creative examples and illustrations from familiar, nonlegal contexts o introduces students to new concepts by analogy o then advances to more complex legal examples --exercises and practice exams organize student's effort o identify strengths and weaknesses o focus on essay questions and model answers o help plan strategies --addresses techniques for maximizing scores o several types of essay questions o multiple-choice and other objective questions --tackles exam anxiety o helps students understand that a small degree of anxiety can motivate o shows how to reduce anxiety to a productive level --place exams into proper perspective --prepare thoroughly --adopt stress-management techniques: stretching, meditation, motivational music
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9781454834274Publication Date: 2013-04-02
Law School Secrets by
This book answers the most-asked questions of first, second, and third year law school students. Exam Preparation: How long should my outline be? What should I include in my outline? What secondary sources should I use? Are study groups effective? Should I swap outlines with other students? How do I prepare for open and closed book exams? And much more Writing the Exam: What is the best way to read the exam questions? How do I schedule my time? How do I organize my answer? When do I need to assume facts? How do I impress the professor? And much more
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9780314278920Publication Date: 2012-01-26
Law School Exam Study Aids by Subject Matter
Aspen Learning Library
The Emanuel's Crunch Time and Friedman's series available in the Aspen Learning Library are a great resource when preparing for law school exams. Please find the subjects that are featured in each series listed below:
LexisNexis Digital Library
The Questions and Answers series in the LexisNexis Digital Library are a great resource to prepare you for your law school exams. The subjects that are available are listed below:
West Academic Study Aids
The Acing, Exam Pro, and Gilbert Law Summaries series are available on West Academic for law school exam preparation. The subjects that are available are listed below:
CALI Podcast Lessons for Exam Preparation
- CALI Lesson: Top 10 Tips for Successfully Writing a Law School EssayIn this podcast, Prof. Jennifer Martin discusses the top ten mistakes law students make in law school examinations. These are poor issue spotting, poor knowledge and understanding of the law, poor application of the law to the facts, giving only conclusory answers, lack of organization, errors in the facts, failure to understand the role you are given in the examination, padding, fact inventing, and question begging.
- CALI Lesson: Tips for Multiple Choice Exams in Law School PodcastProf. Burnham, provides students with advice on multiple choice exam questions in this podcast. Prof. Burnham goes into the different aspects of a multiple choice question: the stimulus, options, key, and distracters. Additionally, Prof. Burnham discusses the different types of multiple choice questions such as questions that test a student’s ability to recall information, those that draw on materials discussed in class, and those that require analysis. Students are taught how to respond to the call of a question, apply IRAC to multiple choice questions, as well as different tactics for eliminating options in a question. At the end of this lesson students will know how to decipher what type of question is being asked, how to spot the specific issue in the question, and how to eliminate the other choices.
Quimbee Lessons for Law School Exam Preparation
- Quimbee Acing Your Law Exam VideosTwenty-four video lessons designed to assist law students with exam preparation.
The Bluebook
The Bluebook will be the main citation guide that you will use in your law school career. For generations, law students, lawyers, scholars, judges, and other legal professionals have relied on The Bluebook's uniform system of citation in their writing.
The Bluebook by
A Uniform System of Citation: The Bluebook is the definitive style guide for legal citation in the United States. For generations, law students, lawyers, scholars, judges, and other legal professionals have relied on The Bluebook's uniform system of citation in their writing. In a diverse and rapidly changing legal profession, The Bluebook continues to provide a systematic method by which members of the profession communicate important information to one another about the sources and legal authorities upon which they rely in their work.
Call Number: KF245 .B58 2020ISBN: 9780578666150Publication Date: 2020-05-20
- Bluebook Library Guide This NSU Law LibGuide provides further Bluebook citation explanation.
- Lexis+ Bluebook Exercises A link to the Lexis+ Interactive Citation Workstation Bluebook exercises.
The following resources are designed to provide assistance with Bluebook citation.
Cite-Checker by
Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook on Casebook Connect, including lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities. Access also includes an outline tool and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes. Concise and easy-to-use, Cite-Checker is your guide to The Bluebook, the citation rules most commonly used by practitioners. Deborah E. Bouchoux's building-block approach covers primary authorities first, followed by secondary authorities and the use of quotations, signals, and abbreviated forms. In every instance, each rule is clearly explained. Numerous examples and exercises place mastery of the rules within everyone's reach. New to the Fifth Edition: Overview of changes in the 21st Edition of The Bluebook A new section in Chapter One on how to construct any citation New figure explaining the meaning of phrases used to show weight of authority, such as per curiam and en banc Examples for citing bankruptcy cases Professors and student will benefit from: Plain-English explanations of The Bluebook rules Numerous examples of commonly encountered citations Exercises with answer keys in the appendix A complete overview of citation form Useful information on citation topics, such as unwieldy Internet URLs, and how to use on-line tools for cite-checking A logical, step-by-step format that builds skill and confidence Practice Tips in every chapter A special section on preparing tables of authorities for briefs and court documents
Call Number: KF245 .B68 2021ISBN: 9781543832808Publication Date: 2021-02-23
Legal Citation in a Nutshell by
Learning legal citation is one of the difficult (and sometimes admittedly annoying) tasks that students new to the law face. This book is designed to ease that task. It initially focuses on conventions that underlie all accepted forms and systems of legal citation. Building on that understanding and an explanation of the process of using citations in legal writing, the book then discusses and illustrates the particular rules of The Bluebook and the ALWD Citation Guide for citing cases, statutes, and all other major legal sources. Its unique appendices provide a useful reference resource to aid students in formulating citations.
Call Number: KF245 .T47 2016ISBN: 9781647087487Publication Date: 2021-10-11
Understanding and Mastering the Bluebook by
View updates to The Bluebook® and printing differences in Understanding and Mastering The Bluebook® (printings in 2020, 2021, and 2023) here: https://caplaw.com/sites/umb/ The Bluebook® provides the rules for legal citation, but can be intimidating and frustrating to use. With its simple building-block approach, this survival manual teaches how to understand and master the essential rules for legal practitioners. Rules are fully described and illustrated using: Clear explanations and illustrations of the basic components of legal citations; Step-by-step instructions for building citations to the most common authorities cited by legal practitioners; Detailed guidance for citing legal materials to both print and electronic sources; Examples, comparison charts, illustrations, and bullet-point explanations designed for quick mastery of basic Bluebook citation rules; Tips, hints, and cautions to help users avoid common citation errors; Cross references to the controlling Bluebook rules; and A user-friendly format gathering The Bluebook's scattered rules for each authority into one place. For readers interested in further practicing their citation skills, Linda Barris created Mastering The Bluebook Interactive Exercises, an online learning tool. The new edition will coordinate with both Understanding and Mastering The Bluebook, Fourth Edition and The Bluebook, 21st Edition (both out summer 2020). Each copy of Understanding and Mastering The Bluebook, Fourth Edition includes a discount code for 20% off the purchase of Mastering The Bluebook Interactive Exercises.
Call Number: KF245 .B37 2020ISBN: 9781531019150Publication Date: 2020-08-01
Study Aids and Books
Legal Writing and Analysis by
Buy a new version of this Connected Casebook and receive ACCESS to the online e-book, practice questions from your favorite study aids, and an outline tool on CasebookConnect, the all in one learning solution for law school students. CasebookConnect offers you what you need most to be successful in your law school classes - portability, meaningful feedback, and greater efficiency. Legal Writing and Analysis, Fourth Edition, is a concise text that still has all of the clarity of Linda Edward's writing style and process-based approach. In a sequence that mirrors legal practice, students learn to read and analyze the law; discuss and write about legal issues; compose office and email memos, professional correspondence, and briefs; and prepare oral arguments. This book teaches students how to use analogical reasoning, in addition to rule-based and policy-based reasoning, as a tool for synthesizing cases, how to organize a legal discussion using analysis and reasoning, and how to use precedent in persuasive legal writing, particularly with regard to cases. Key Features of The New Edition: Thoroughly updated Discusses how to write an office memo via email Demonstrates how to use the optional "deep issue" format when writing issue statements Features expanded coverage of analogizing and distinguishing cases Adds updates to the citation rules, consistent with current citation authorities CasebookConnect features: ONLINE E-BOOK Law school comes with a lot of reading, so access your enhanced e-book anytime, anywhere to keep up with your coursework. Highlight, take notes in the margins, and search the full text to quickly find coverage of legal topics. PRACTICE QUESTIONS Quiz yourself before class and prep for your exam in the Study Center. Practice questions from Examples & Explanations, Emanuel Law Outlines, Emanuel Law in a Flash flashcards, and other best-selling study aid series help you study for exams while tracking your strengths and weaknesses to help optimize your study time. OUTLINE TOOL Most professors will tell you that starting your outline early is key to being successful in your law school classes. The Outline Tool automatically populates your notes and highlights from the e-book into an editable format to accelerate your outline creation and increase study time later in the semester.
Call Number: KF250 .E378 2015ISBN: 9781454857983Publication Date: 2015-01-14
*Please be aware that this resource is only available behind the Circulation Desk*
Making Your Case by
In their professional lives, courtroom lawyers must do these two things well: speak persuasively and write persuasively. In this noteworthy book, two noted legal writers systematically present every important idea about judicial persuasion in a fresh, entertaining way. The book covers the essentials of sound legal reasoning, including how to develop the syllogism that underlies any argument. From there the authors explain the art of brief writing, especially what to include and what to omit, so that you can induce the judge to focus closely on your arguments. Finally, they show what it takes to succeed in oral argument.
Call Number: KF8870 .S28 2008ISBN: 0314184716Publication Date: 2008-06-06
The Elements of Legal Style by
With expanded coverage in this new edition, The Elements of Legal Style features additional sections, many more examples, and a thoroughly researched appendix that contains 80 major statements on prose style--what it is and how to attain it. Inspired by Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, this book clearly (often wittily) explains the full range of what legal writers need to know: mechanics, word choice, structure, and rhetoric, as well as all the special conventions that legal writers should follow in using headings, defined terms, quotations, and many other devices. Garner also provides abundant examples from the best legal writers of yesterday and today, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Clarence Darrow, Frank Easterbrook, and Antonin Scalia. If you want to make your writing clearer, more precise, more persuasive, and above all more stylish, The Elements of Legal Style offers the surest--and the most enjoyable--means to that end.
Call Number: KF250 .G37 2002ISBN: 0195141628Publication Date: 2002-03-21
Point Made by
With Point Made, legal writing expert, Ross Guberman, throws a life preserver to attorneys, who are under more pressure than ever to produce compelling prose. What is the strongest opening for a motion or brief? How to draft winning headings? How to tell a persuasive story when the record is dry and dense? The answers are "more science than art," says Guberman, who has analyzed stellar arguments by distinguished attorneys to develop step-by-step instructions for achieving the results you want. The author takes an empirical approach, drawing heavily on the writings of the nation's 50 most influential lawyers, including Barack Obama, John Roberts, Elena Kagan, Ted Olson, and David Boies. Their strategies, demystified and broken down into specific, learnable techniques, become a detailed writing guide full of practical models. In FCC v. Fox, for example, Kathleen Sullivan conjures the potentially dangerous, unintended consequences of finding for the other side (the "Why Should I Care?" technique). Arguing against allowing the FCC to continue fining broadcasters that let the "F-word" slip out, she highlights the chilling effect these fines have on America's radio and TV stations, "discouraging live programming altogether, with attendant loss to valuable and vibrant programming that has long been part of American culture." Each chapter of Point Made focuses on a typically tough challenge, providing a strategic roadmap and practical tips along with annotated examples of how prominent attorneys have resolved that challenge in varied trial and appellate briefs. Short examples and explanations with engaging titles--"Brass Tacks," "Talk to Yourself," "Russian Doll"--deliver weighty materials with a light tone, making the guidelines easy to remember and apply. In addition to all-new examples from the original 50 advocates, this Second Edition introduces eight new superstar lawyers from Solicitor General Don Verrilli, Deanne Maynard, Larry Robbins, and Lisa Blatt to Joshua Rosencranz, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Judy Clarke, and Sri Srinvasan, now a D.C. Circuit Judge. Ross Guberman also provides provocative new examples from the Affordable Care Act wars, the same-sex marriage fight, and many other recent high-profile cases. Considerably more commentary on the examples is included, along with dozens of style and grammar tips interspersed throughout. Also, for those who seek to improve their advocacy skills and for those who simply need a step-by-step guide to making a good brief better, the book concludes with an all-new set of 50 writing challenges corresponding to the 50 techniques.
Call Number: KF251 .G83 2014ISBN: 9780199943852Publication Date: 2014-04-04
Please find below legal writing Study Aids that are available online:
A Short and Happy Guide to Legal Writing by
You're ready to take the plunge into law school (or you already have) and there is one big thing looming over you: LEGAL WRITING. You've heard that legal writing is hard. You've heard that legal writing is scary. You have not written anything since your mandatory college English class. Well, simmer down, you have found the antidote to your fear-based illness. This book takes you through the history, meaning, and purpose of legal writing in the American law. You will learn the essential form and substance necessary to craft an inter-office legal memo, helpful ideas for persuasive brief-writing, and tips for excelling in legal writing.
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9781634599184Publication Date: 2019-01-28
Examples and Explanations for Legal Writing by
A favorite classroom prep tool of successful students that is often recommended by professors, the Examples & Explanations (E&E) series provides an alternative perspective to help you understand your casebook and in-class lectures. Each E&E offers hypothetical questions complemented by detailed explanations that allow you to test your knowledge of the topics in your courses and compare your own analysis. Here's why you need an E&E to help you study throughout the semester: Clear explanations of each class topic, in a conversational, funny style. Features hypotheticals similar to those presented in class, with corresponding analysis so you can use them during the semester to test your understanding, and again at exam time to help you review. It offers coverage that works with ALL the major casebooks, and suits any class on a given topic. The Examples & Explanations series has been ranked the most popular study aid among law students because it is equally as helpful from the first day of class through the final exam.
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9781543806847Publication Date: 2019-02-15
Legal Writing Style by
Legal Writing Style promotes the art of good writing by teaching students and practitioners the tools to make their prose clear, precise, simple, and forceful. With examples of what works and what doesn't, this short but comprehensive treatise provides an invaluable resource for recasting writing for maximum impact and ultimate success.
Call Number: online onlyISBN: 9781634592963Publication Date: 2018-03-28
CALI Legal Writing Lessons
- CALI Subject Area Index- Legal WritingIncludes lessons on Drafting Memos, Briefs, and Contracts.
Quimbee Legal Research and Writing Course
- Quimbee Legal Research and Writing VideosA video survey of the basic concepts behind legal research and beginning legal writing.
Avoiding Legal Writing Plagiarism
- NSU Law PDF: Avoiding Plagiarism and Understanding Academic IntegrityProvides advice on how to avoid plagiarism and cites NSU Law's Code of Conduct and Academic Responsibility.
Online Study Aids
- ** Links to NSU Log-In Page ** Formerly Wolters Kluwer Online Study Aid Library. This study aid database puts nearly 200 popular study aids at your fingertips 24/7. Get an edge with well-known and student-recommended study resources including: Examples & Explanations, Emanuel Law Outlines, Glannon Guides, and more! Local and remote access for NSU College of Law only.
- LexisNexis Digital Library gives you access to the Library’s authoritative legal eBook content on both mobile devices and desktop platforms. You can access eBooks with active links to statutes, cases, treatises, and other materials at Lexis Advance – fostering a seamless transition from book research to online resources. You can also borrow popular electronic study aids such as the Understanding, the Skills & Values, and the Questions & Answers series. Local and remote access for NSU College of Law only.
- This legal study aids database provides access to more than 350+ popular study aid publications from West Academic, Foundation Press and Gilbert. Access to many popular study aid series is provided: Academic success, Acing series, Black letter outlines, Career guides, Concise hornbook series, E-Flash cards, Exam pro series, Law stories series, Gilbert law summaries, High court case summaries, Nutshell series, Sum & substance quick reviews, and Turning point series. New titles are added regularly. The collection can be searched by keyword, subject area, series or type. Users can take notes and highlight as they would in a print book. Font size is adjustable. Selected materials can be saved to a "favorites" section, and printing is allowed. Titles can be browsed by legal subject area. Local and remote access for NSU College of Law only.
- The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) is best known for “CALI Lessons, online interactive tutorials in legal subjects, and CALI Excellence for the Future Awards (CALI Awards)” or (Book Awards), “which is given to the highest scorer in a law school course at many CALI member law schools.” NSU Shepard Broad College of Law is a CALI member. You can find CALI lessons, many of them designed by your professors on the CALI website Local and remote access for NSU College of Law only.
- Created by seasoned law professionals, Quimbee provides you with the tools you need to succeed in the law school classroom and beyond, including case briefs, outlines, video courses, multiple-choice questions, essay practice exams, and more. Local and remote access for NSU College of Law only.
For students that are interested in learning on the go, below please find QR codes for the Law School Study Aid apps:
Aspen Learning Library
Apple:
Android:
LexisNexis Digital Library
Apple:
Android:
Westlaw Academic Audio
Apple:
Android:
