Frequently Asked Questions from New Students

The questions below are adapted from a speech I have given at orientation for the last 15 years or so. They are offered as a quick way to get an idea of where to find things, how the school operates, and what some of the academic rules are. There are a couple of questions at the end that are just advice from me based on having attended Lewis & Clark myself and on the conversations I’ve had over the last 22 years with countless law students. I hope you find some or all of it useful. Good luck in your first year of law school.

Martha Spence (class of 1984)
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
spence@lclark.edu

Where do I find out what the rules are?
What grades do I need to get to stay here long enough to get out?
What courses am I required to take to graduate?
Does anybody here care what I think about this place?
What about academic integrity?
What if something comes up that keeps me from being able to continue this year or later?
What about exams?
What about grades?
When do I know what my Spring schedule is?
How do I find out my grades?
How will I get information about academic rules, registration, exams, and so on?
How does the school communicate with me?
How do I register next year?
Is there any formal academic advising?
Any advice on the secret to learning law?
What about these folks sitting next to me in class?
Anything else you think we should know – maybe something about life while in law school?

Where do I find out what the rules are?

The student handbook is called "What's What." You can find it on the web site under "Registrar." Sometimes you will be given additional information specific to a particular activity - for instance, during exams or registration. Some departments at the law school have their own sets of detailed and specific rules contained in handbooks or handouts. These include the library, career services, and the clinics.

What do I have to do to stay here long enough to get out?

The "What's What" has information about the required grading curve and about the consequences of not maintaining the required grade point. You have to have a 1.7 yearly and cumulative grade point average at the end of your first year. That's a C- average. You have to maintain a 2.0 yearly and cumulatiave grade point average at the end of each subsequent year and at the time of graduation. That's a C average. One probationary semester is allowed if you fall within a certain range of good standing. If you fall below a 1.6 at the end of your first year, or if you fall below a 1.8 at the end of any upper division year, you will be academically dismissed. We determine good standing at the end of each academic year, not at the end of each semester. Don't fret. I'm telling you this simply because you need to know what the standards are. The vast majority of you have nothing to worry about when it comes to good standing. We average two or three academic dismissals a year. We brought you here to stay not to send you away.

What courses am I required to take to graduate?

This is laid out in the "What's What." Anyone entering Fall 2008 or later must earn 88 semester hours.  A minimum of 72 of those hours have to be graded or required hours which means you can take about 16 ungraded credits - not counting legal analysis and writing which is required. You have to write two papers.  One is called the WIE, or writing intensive experience.  The other is called the Capstone. You need to take a seminar, any seminar - you can tell the seminars because they have the word "seminar" in the title. You have to meet the professionalism requirement which means either taking a class called regulation of attorneys and ethics, or you may fulfill the requirement by taking our downtown low-income clinic course. Other clinical experiences do not meet the professionalism requirement. Only the downtown low income clinic contains a built-in professionalism class that runs with the clinical experience. Your upper division required courses are very few. You need to take Constitutional Law II if you begin as a full-time or day student. You need to take Constitutional Law II, property, and criminal procedure if you begin as an evening or part-time student. You must also meet the professional skills requirement by taking a minimum of two hours in any of the courses designated by the curriculum committee and listed on the web site as meeting the professional skills requirement.

You also need to meet something called the residency requirement. This has nothing to do with where you live or where you go to school. It has to do with the number of days you attend class and whether you are a part-time or full-time student. Essentially it allows you to take part-time semesters and graduate in less than four years.  For many students this means they can mix full-time and part-time semesters, and still graduate in three years or three-and-a-half years.  For students who find an exciting clerking position while in school, this means they can work more than 20 hours per week -- in any semester they are taking a part-time load.  This can help cut down on borrowing and it's great experience.  If you want to know more about this because you plan to mix part-time and full-time semesters, come visit me in the spring when we do our registration for the upcoming year.

Monitoring your progress toward graduation is your job. However, the registrar or I will be glad to meet with you to go over your transcript with you and discuss what you need in order to finish.

Does anybody here care what I think about this place?

Two students are elected as voting representatives to every standing faculty committee and two students sit as voting representatives at faculty meetings. The faculty committees decide policy, rules, set curriculum, and hire new faculty. The dean regularly holds open sessions to which any student is invited to come and ask questions or voice opinions. Students are also free to make appointments to talk to any administrator about any concern or idea they may have.

What about academic integrity?

The law school has an Honor Code. This means you are on your honor not to cheat. The Honor Code is in the "What's What." Read it. It's a violation of the honor code to fail to report a violation.  We do not have very many honor code hearings but when the situations have called for it, honor committees have imposed serious sanctions up to and including dismissal from school. If you are not sure if something is a violation, ask. You can ask your professor, you can ask me, you can ask the dean, just ask. If something in you says something might be on the "edge" of the code, ask. Trust your instinct. Note that sharing outlines or notes, studying together, and talking over class assignments is NOT a violation unless an instructor has given an explicit instruction not to discuss something.

What if something comes up that keeps me from being able to continue this year or later?

Every year at least one student will find that family or work or personal issues demand immediate time and attention and that law school cannot realistically be a priority. Family and health, work needs, are all important and taking a semester off or taking a lighter load temporarily in order to get things settled may be the right choice. Should you find yourself in this position, please come talk to me before taking any exams. While it may seem hard to slow down law school or stop for a short time, in the long run it may be what allows you to thrive and succeed at it. Never hesitate to ask what your options might be.

What about exams?

Most of your courses in law school are graded by means of one examination that occurs at the end of the semester and that tests on any of the material you have covered during the semester. Exams are taken anonymously. You use an exam number that is issued to you by the registrar each semester. Typically exams will be the length of time that matches the number of credit hours for the course. For instance, if you have a civil procedure course that meets twice a week for one-and-a-half hours each time, a total of three hours a week, the course is worth three credits, and the exam will usually be three hours long. A professor may give a shorter exam, a professor may tell you it's a three hour exam but you can check it out and take it home for 24 hours to work on it. There are lots of variations although you won't see many of those during your first year. Typically, in the first year your exams are scheduled - the Fall and Spring exam schedules are posted on a bulletin board next to the registrar's office and on the web site.

Exams that are not scheduled at a specific time are called "open" exams. This does not mean they are "open book" -- it just means they are unscheduled. An unscheduled or open exam may be picked up at specific times of the day on any day the registrar is open during the exam period. The exam is in an envelope.  It is time-stamped out, you go to one of the specified rooms on campus to take the exam and then you turn it in to the registrar when you are done. Again, if you have such an exam, the registrar will get you information about the rules shortly before the exam period begins. You can see the exam schedule on the bulletin board next to the registrar's office or on the web site.

What about grades?

First of all, it's too early to start thinking about them and I shouldn't even have put in a question about them but my thinking it's too early won't stop you wondering, so here goes. Our grading scale goes from A+ -- not that I ever saw one on my transcript -- to F -- luckily I dodged those as well -- and the number equivalents go from 4.3 to .5. We have a mandated curve at this school. Any professor who uses an exam as the primary basis for a grade in a class that has an enrollment above 25 students, must have an average grade of 3.0.  A grade point average of 3.0 is a B average. This means an awful lot of you are going to get your first C+. The majority of the practicing bar lived through the experience. So will you. Keep in mind that as of six months out of law school over 90% of our graduating class is working in the field of law. Mathematically speaking, 90% of the class cannot be in the top 10% so congratulate yourself if you find yourself there and do not despair if you are not.

When do I know what my Spring schedule is?

There is a Spring class schedule posted on the bulletin board next to the registrar's office that is color-coded so you can see what times your Spring classes will be. The registrar will be sending out your spring schedules later this semester.

How do I find out my grades?

Grades for the Fall semester are due January 18th. Some will come out before that, many will not. As grades are turned in to the registrar and she records them, you can see them on the web through a program called "Web Advisor"  You can start using "Web Advisor" shortly before school starts, and then all the way through.  It is how you will register, check your grades, and see what you are registered for each semester.  

How will I get information about academic rules, registration, exams, and so on?

The registrar has a web page that can be accessed off the law school's main web page. You can find deadlines, print off forms, look at current course descriptions and curriculum planning guides, among other things.

How does the school communicate with me?

All the offices communicate with you using your "lclark.edu" e-mail address. Check your law school e-mail. If you have another address you prefer to use, you can have your law school e-mail forwarded to that address but be sure you check it.

How do I register for my upper division classes?

Registration for the upcoming year happens at the end of each spring semester. You will get registration materials just before exams are over in the spring. You will have until early June to decide your schedule. You register online. There's an add/drop period prior to and at the beginning of each semester where you can change your mind.

Is there any formal academic advising?

In the middle of the spring semester, before the registration materials get published there is a faculty presentation on how to plan your upper division courses. This is put on by the curriculum committee and covers general curriculum advising as well as information about the business curriculum, including intellectual property, and the natural resources curriculum, including animal law.   Many students would like individual counseling as they make decisions about their upper division courses.  I am available for general advising on an individual basis.  Those who know they are interested in specializing can meet with the head of a program to do academic planning. If you are interested in specializing in environmental law, Janice Weis, the Assistant Dean for the Environmental and Natural Resources Program is the person to talk to; if you are interested in specializing in business law, Lisa LeSage, the Assistant Dean for Business Programs at the law school is the person to see. If you are interested in other specialities, professors that teach in your specific area of interest can help you with academic planning.The career services office counsels many students about planning for particular career paths.

In addition to the advising session, the faculty have written four curriculum planning guides that are available on the web site, and there is an advising blog where students can ask questions, make appointments, and access registration materials.  The curriculum planning guides are "General," "Natural Resources and Environmental Law," "Business Law," and "Global Law."

Although we do not assign individual advisors, individual faculty are willing to meet with you about your schedule, deans in charge of specific programs will meet with you, and members of the career services staff and the academic enhancement program, and I regularly meet with and advise students.  Please don't hesitate to ask any of us about how to plan your curriculum.

Any advice on the secret to learning law?

My first piece of advice is to be careful of all the advice you will get about how to get through law school. I vividly remember going to a noon session put on by one of the student groups not long before exams. Some upper division students did a panel on how to study in law school. The first person got up and explained in excruciating detail how to outline a course and stated that outlining was the key to success in law school. I took notes. I was profoundly moved. Well, not really moved but I did think I'd just learned the secret to it all. The next person began to speak and the first thing she said was "I've never outlined a class the entire time I've been in law school." Well, what to do now? The thing to do is to remember that, particularly in the first semester or two of law school, you are on two learning curves. One is learning legal analysis, legal vocabulary, how to articulate legal analysis in writing and orally, and you are learning lots of legal rules. The second learning curve is learning a little bit about how you learn. Do you take in information more readily if you hear it, if you see it, if you read it, if you talk it over with others, if you rewrite it in your own words? What makes something stick, really stay, in your mind? Build into your study habits those techniques that make the stuff stay with you. Listen to whatever advice anyone gives you but only use that which really seems to be a good fit for you. There are plenty of books about how to study effectively and loads of people willing to talk to you about their perfect methods. Just remember that the fact that it works for me doesn't mean it will work for you. Pay attention to your own instincts and know that while law school is a lot of work, it doesn't all have to be hard work. It should stimulate as well as challenge. It should make you feel more competent as well as thick as a board.

Most of you will be facing for the first time in your educational careers a new kind of learning experience. You must enter the classroom prepared to discuss the material, not waiting for someone to just explain it to you. On the other hand, some of your best learning will happen as you talk about the cases with each other and discuss them in class. You will learn from your professors and you will learn from each other. You are bright, capable people each of whom has much to add to the classroom experience. Trust yourself, even to the point of taking the chance that you will fall on your face now and then.

My analogy for law school is that it's like taking up running. At first it hurts, one is not as fast as one wants to be, there are times when one just wants to say "forget it" and then there come days when your body seems to be doing everything just right and you feel great. As you take on this enterprise of going to law school you are about to exercise some new muscles. You won't always be graceful. If this were easy, you wouldn't be spending three years working at it before being allowed to get licensed to do it professionally. I think though that you will find even at the end of just a year that you have expanded your skills of analysis and articulation. You will have some new problem-solving tools. Do be careful with them and don't try to use them on your friends, family, or even irritating sales clerks. These are powerful tools and in addition to acquiring them, you will need to develop good judgment about when to use them. This is where friends, spouses, partners, and children can come in very handy. They will usually tell you when you're getting a little too caught up in using an elegant, complex legal argument when a simple statement of preference would be just fine.

What about these folks sitting next to me in class?

In a far shorter time than you can believe right now all of you will be in positions of extraordinary responsibility. Your judgment, your common sense, and your ability to understand, articulate, and argue the law may literally mean the difference between life and death for your client. It may be up to you to maintain the viability of a corporation that needs protection under the federal bankruptcy laws, whose employees would face joblessness or who would see their pensions disappear but for your ability. You may be the one that works with a community to bring about the protection of a wildlife habitat. In your hands may lie the life of someone accused of a terrible crime, or you may be the one who will fight for justice for the victim of that terrible crime. How you are perceived by these people sitting with you here in this room will have a tremendous bearing on how effective you can be for your clients. Start today making a reputation for yourself as civil, thoughtful, and clear-headed. Make it with the people who you are meeting today in your classes. Tomorrow they will be your colleagues, your adversaries, your judges, and your best friends. You start making your reputation today and your reputation is the most precious thing you have to offer your clients.

Anything else you think we should know - maybe something about life while in law school?

So, here's what I've observed in 20-some years of talking to law students. First, law school could take up every minute you wanted to give to it. There's always something more to read or talk about or review. While there is no doubt that this enterprise is going to demand a great deal of your time and that your family and friends are going to have to make some sacrifices for you to be here, don't sacrifice your family and friends. Make time for the people who are important to you. Make time for yourself. I can tell you this for sure, while you are in law school some of you will fall in love, some will end long-standing relationships, some will lose a parent or other family member to old age or to debilitating illness, some will be given added responsibilities at work, some of you will find your own personal demons go to work on you, or you will need to take care of a loved one who is suffering greatly. Should you find that the needs of your family, your loved ones, or yourself need all of your attention, come and talk to me. There are professionals available at the College of Arts and Sciences who have counseled hundreds of law students. There are counselors available through the Professional Liability Fund of the Oregon State Bar who deal with addictions. And depending on the nature of your difficulty, it may be that the best solution is to take a lighter course load or to leave school for a semester. When I mention leaving school, I know some people blanch but what I can tell you for sure is that the law school will still be here when you are ready to come back and we'll be glad to have you back. You can leave us for awhile and pick things back up. That may not be true for your relationships or your own well-being. If a parent is dying you may need to be there now, not later. We'll be glad to have you back when you decide to return and you will be the richer for having made sure that all of your life, not just law school, is attended to.

My last few words of advice on getting through law school start with this - don't isolate yourself. Talk to each other, talk to your professors, talk to me, talk to the folks in career services and the library. On the one hand, you must do law school on your own - it is very much a self-teaching, self-learning experience. Your professors are there to guide you but far more of the responsibility for your learning is on you in law school than it was in undergraduate school and in most other graduate programs.

Finally, you should expect great things of yourself - this is a great enterprise on which you are embarking. May it be a worthwhile and satisfying endeavor for you.