Law School Tutoring

What Kind of Preparation do you Offer?

We offer academic instruction to students preparing for or currently attending law school. The first year of law school can be particularly challenging. Students must learn a considerable amount of substantive law and will, in most cases, have their first encounters with the Socratic method of instruction, an effective and exciting but sometimes daunting mode of teaching. Additional preparation, instruction, and review can provide useful supplements for students facing law school's academic challenges.

General Content of Program

Our law school tutors—all lawyers who performed exceptionally well in law school themselves—engage students in a comprehensive review of the material. Through this process, we prepare students for the various forms of class participation and exam formats in a law school curriculum. Ultimately, our goal is to help make the law school experience more deeply rewarding for our students, both academically and professionally.

Most first-year law school curricula cover certain fundamental subjects, including those listed below. Our tutors may also be able to offer instruction in other courses not included in the following list.

Course Title Sample Review Topics
Contract Law
  • How the doctrine of promissory estoppel substitutes for consideration to make a contract legally binding
  • Situations in which a contract is unenforceable, such as when it is deemed unconscionable
Tort Law
  • The elements of the offenses of fraud and negligence
  • The legal doctrines of contributory negligence and comparative negligence
  • The difference between proximate causation and "but for" causation
Criminal Law
  • The importance of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
  • The Miranda doctrine
  • The differences among the various degrees of manslaughter and murder
  • Shield law
  • The difference between assault and battery
Federal Civil Procedure
  • The importance of federal rules of civil procedure
  • The bases for federal jurisdiction
  • Motions to dismiss
  • Motions for summary judgment
  • The "Erie doctrine" for applying state law in federal court
  • The requirements for class certification
Property Law
  • The rule against perpetuities
  • Future interests in real property
  • Contingent and vested remainders
  • How the statute of frauds relates to real property
Constitutional Law
  • The U.S. Constitution and its amendments
  • The difference between substantive and procedural due process
  • The different degrees of scrutiny to which statutes may be subject in determinations of their constitutionality
  • Limits on the power of the federal government
  • Fundamental rights, such as the right to free speech and the right to privacy
  • Equal protection law, including protection against discrimination on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation
Legal Writing
  • Legal research
  • Proper citation form and "blue-booking"
  • Organization of a legal memorandum
  • Presentation of an appellate brief
Evidence
  • The importance of the federal rules of evidence
  • Direct and circumstantial evidence
  • Expert testimony
  • The hearsay rule and its 23 exceptions

What Else do I Need?

  • General law school exam techniques, including "issue spotting" and "IRAC" organization
  • Moot court competition
  • The three-tier federal court system
  • Specialized courts, such as the court of claims, immigration court, and bankruptcy court
  • State court systems
  • Non-intuitive issues, such as treating a corporation as a "person" for purposes of diversity jurisdiction, or labeling a complaint filed by a defendant against a new party a "third party complaint"

What is the Schedule?

Some of our students prepare for their first year of law school during the summer before they start law school. Others begin working with us during their first year at law school. We design a program responsive to the individual student's needs.