Ray's J.D. (Juris Doctor)

2L: Required Materials

School Website (eJuris):

The Online Student Handbook has information that you ought to know about. If you have any bumps in the road in your journey, this is where the rules of the road are found.

The course syllabus for each class is vital. It gives you everything that you need to know in order to progress at an acceptable rate in the program. If you follow their workable program, and do what they tell you to do in the syllabus for each course - it will get you to the finish line.

The study hours log is the OFFICIAL study hours log for the program you are in. You are responsible for filling it in and submitting it to the school once you take your final exams (that three hours of finals counts, so you send it in right after you complete the final exams!).

A note on the study hours log: Keep it current. You can do whatever you feel is best in tracking your hours, but do not get behind in putting them down on the weekly log sheet. Little sheets of paper get lost... it would be unimaginable to try and recreate any time records you might misplace, don't let that happen, and keep excellent time records from day one.

HOURS:

We are required to study 864 hours per year, but that is broken down to 216 hours per course in 1L. So, just because you might feel the need to study a lot more in one subject, do not let another one fall behind.

IMPORTANT - 216 hours PER COURSE, 864 hours for the year.

Now let's look at the other materials that you will acquire for your 2L year.

Case Books:

These are the heavy, expensive text books that incorporate a lot of discussion about cases in the subject that you are studying. It is a text book, but it uses cases to show examples of what they are teaching you.

Commercial Outlines:

The Commercial Outline is a book that cuts more to the core of what you want to get from the large Case Book. NWCULaw suggests either Gilbert's or Emanuel's Outlines depending on the course. I personally prefer the Gilbert's for a number of reasons, and although I had Emanuel's for 1L, I purchased Gilbert's and have not gone back to Emanuel's for Outlines since... all the way through 4L! Here are the links to the 2L Gilbert's:

Gilbert"s Agency, Partnership and LLCs (Gilbert Law Summaries)
Gilbert's Criminal Procedure
Gilbert's Real Property
Gilbert's Remedies

Clancey's Outlaws:

(Michael P. Clancey is the Dean at NWCULaw) This is a set of CD's which place very important information on audio CD's for you. When I signed up for NWCULaw, they sent the CD's to me (for the entire program).

They are now available on the school website, and I do not know if they mail the CD set out anymore - they do not need to, and it is very simple to just download them. While I have the CD's, I downloaded the audio files.

One of the projects that we have to work on is the Vocabulary Assignment. The Vocabulary Assignment IS the Clancey's Outlaws, so allow me to explain that right now... the assignment is to have the term (issue), and you might as well keep the definition that is in the Outlaw's, but the school wants an EXAMPLE, or an EXPLANATION of what the term is - they do NOT want a new definition, they give us that!

A number of students have had the Vocabulary Assignment kicked back to them because they gave a new definition, which is time consuming enough. Worse, when you look at the Vocabulary Assignment, you just see the terms, you have to actually LOOK AT the Clancey's Outlaws - which are available on the website in PDF format... that is where you get the definition.

How I do the Vocabulary Assignment: I simply copy and paste the whole PDF into a new document. I then clean up the Outlaws so that they only include the terms and the definitions, and then I edit and clean up the definitions... and THEN I go out and find examples or explanations of what they all mean.

This is also time consuming, but if you do it right the first time, you need not do it a second time... and in the process, as planned, you learn stuff that is helpful later on! I have never had any assignments kicked back to me... so...

Other Audio CD's

NWCULaw "requires" two sets of Sum and Substance Audio CD's and one Law School Legend set. In the list of required materials on the website, you can view what these are. I won't discuss them here other than to say they are "required materials."