How to Be a Lawyer - Jason Mendelson

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produced in a trial and even worse, the lawyer called as an actual witness in a case. Yuck.

      Bottom line: Even if you aren't going to be a litigator, please please please pay attention to how evidence works. All lawyers, their communications, and their work product have the possibility of ending up in court. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

      Some didn't pay attention in class, some don't think things through, and some are just plain bad lawyers. In any event, while a lot of this is common sense, some is much more nuanced so pay attention.

      This class may be boring and seemingly obvious, but there are two things to which you should pay particular attention. The first is conflicts of interest. The concept seems so simple, correct? Wrong. What do you do when you represent a company, and the CEO tells you to do something that you feel is not in the best interest of the company? For instance, the CEO says, “Please prepare a new employment agreement for me that doubles my salary.” Is that in the best interest of the company? Do you have a conflict? We'll go into this and other scenarios in depth later in the book but for now consider that some conflicts are not so obvious.

      The second is around the attorney–client relationship. It's imperative to know when you've created one, when you haven't, and when it's a bit ambiguous. Remember that it is from the client's, not your, eyes that determine whether there is a relationship. This means that you need to be careful of that three-drink advice you gave someone at a bar. You may have created a relationship that you don't want to have.

      Bottom line: This class is the building block for many nuanced real-life situations. While most of these classes are limited to “just the facts,” realize that the subject matter extends much more broadly than a law school professor is probably used to teaching. Throughout this book, we'll bring these issues into real-life examples.

      Having finished up with the mandatory classes, let's dig into electives you might want to consider.

      We believe the practice of law, whether full time as an attorney or part time as an entrepreneur, CEO, or politician, is a trade like any other. Therefore, law school properly done is professional training, not an intellectual odyssey or journey of self-discovery. While those things can happen, they're side benefits, not the purpose.

      Somehow this can get confused in law school. Perhaps this happened long ago when the practice of law was more elitist and many law professors viewed themselves as philosophers rather than professional guides and mentors. Perhaps this is due to the Socratic method or the unintended consequences of unaccountable tenure, but this confusion has inflated costs and created a glut of unemployable lawyers. Being strategic and tactical in choosing your electives will help you avoid becoming one of these unfortunate souls.

      When choosing electives, keep three things in mind. First, make sure you choose and take each class with the four core lawyering concepts as your filter; second, make sure you take classes that help you solve problems; and third, take a negotiations (i.e., alternative dispute resolution) class regardless of your legal interests.

      With that in mind here is our elective choosing algorithm:

      1 Conduct proper due diligence to protect and maximize your most valuable asset.The key to choosing proper electives is due diligence. It's shocking how many smart law students place so little value on the most valuable asset any of us have: time. Be jealous of your time, and only spend it with the very best your school has to offer.Diligence should begin as soon as you have chosen your school. Scour social media and professional networks for recent alumni of your chosen school. Begin networking with those in your city or state, inviting them to a coffee or to provide career advice via Zoom. You should ask which professors and adjuncts they liked, who they didn't, and what are the top three classes they recommend you take. In line with this book, ask more generally for advice on how to be successful in your school.Diligence continues when you arrive on campus. Networking is key to any successful law school career and should be one of your top priorities from the start. Join organizations that have second and third years at members, hopefully working collaboratively in a setting like a legal clinic or journal. Ask every second or third year you meet who they liked, who they didn't, and why.See if your law school has student rating data on professors or adjuncts. And if not, ask why not, as you are the customer. Regardless, look for online networks that rate professors, which should be reviewed skeptically if they allow anonymous ratings or comments. But review all available resources and make informed decisions.

      2 Choose courses by teacher/professor first, subject second.As the law is all very interconnected and interrelated, and the skill set applicable across all subject areas, we believe you should select electives based on the quality of the teacher, not the type of content. Spending your time with the very best your school has to offer is key to maximizing your opportunity set. Put another way, great teachers teach you a lot more than just the subject material. They'll teach you how to think, talk, debate, laugh, learn, and perhaps feel what it is like to be in the moment as an interested attorney, not a bored law student.Real Estate Transactions by an adjunct and Administrative Law by a tenured professor are two courses Alex chose with this method, and those experiences continue to pay dividends today, despite very little work with the direct content of each. Jason took a course called Blood Feuds about Icelandic law. These experiences of learning from master teachers were worth way more than any particular subject matter.

      3 Prioritize top adjuncts.As two very competitive people, we don't view tenure as a positive for the business of law schools. However, we're stuck with it, so make the best of it. Certainly, during your first year mostly you will have the standards with tenured or tenure-track professors, and plenty of opportunities to take classes with those you enjoy the most in year two or three. It's the adjuncts where there are considerable arbitrage opportunities.By finding the best adjuncts at your school, you can leverage your school's reputation for your benefit. That's because it's prestigious for practicing attorneys to teach a course in your law school, which enhances their brand. It's a level of competition and market selection that is more absent from the internal politics of tenure track positions and professorships. Our advice for choosing top adjuncts extends to choosing a law school that hires adjuncts from the real world in subject areas that you find interesting. Finally, because being an adjunct is hard work and time consuming (as Jason has experienced firsthand), the ranks are consistently refreshed, helping the content to be more relevant and timelier.

      4 Don't specialize too early.None of us know what we don't know. While a truism, keep this in mind while in law school. A lot of times, students come with some preconceived notion as to what type of lawyer they want to be. They choose a specialty early (say second year or before) based on limited anecdotal evidence rather than data, and eliminate whole areas based on nothing more than conjecture. For example, tax law might sound boring at first blush. However, once you realize that tax law is really about human behavior, incentives, unintended consequences, and power, it becomes a lot more relevant and interesting. Of course, you need a good professor to teach it this way.Instead, strive to be a great lawyer, which among other things means versatility and not being siloed. All areas of the law overlap, and to be successful, you need to understand those overlaps. Our era of hyper-specialization is driven by efficiency in allocation of resources, not by maximizing your individual potential to be a great lawyer. Realize the considerable pressure to specialize early on isn't helping your particular brand and fight it.You will meet students who have a clear path right away. Perhaps they are the offspring of a corporate lawyer or litigator who knows from day one they want to follow in a parent's footsteps. That's great, but we believe that even those who know what their specialty is would benefit from greater breadth. You learn how to practice law by practicing law, not by being in law school. Rather, law school is your opportunity to enhance what will be the substance of your brand, and you should use it to

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