To all you thousands of 1L’s, welcome to law school.  I’m sure you’re finding that the rest of us continuing students are nothing but the nicest, most helpful, non-surlyiest, most jubilant people you’ve probably ever run across.

You should see us around Christmas when finals come along, and we are so ensconced in the Christmas spirit that many of us forgo shaving in order to grow our own Santa beards and consume enough frozen pizzas and $6 bottles of ____ that our bellies jiggle like bowls full of jelly.  You too can look forward to this type of care free lifestyle if you take our advice.

Steps to Success:

1.    Read the dissenting and concurring opinions.  No ifs ands or buts about this one folks.  Ask anyone.  And if you believe this one, I have a Toyota that was supposed to be recalled on four separate occasions that I can sell you.  But seriously, if anyone asks you about a dissenting opinion just stand up and quote Reece Bobby from the film “Talladega Nights” and say “If you ain’t first, you’re last”.  Then explain that you live your life a quarter mile at a time and sprint out of the class.  Professor Lind will love that and won’t yell at you at all.

2.    ABC method to classroom participation.  Always Be Contributing.  Seriously.  No matter how banal or irrelevant of a contribution you can make, make it.  You 1Ls and 2Ls are naturally amazing at this and predisposed to wow not only your professors, who are very, very interested in what you have to teach them about the law, but your fellow students as well, who would much rather hear about your own personal stories than learn about the class.  After all, the majority of our 1L Criminal Law final  covered what Jerry saw on an episode of “The First 48” and why it was all wrong.

3.   Work as hard as you possibly can.  Then work harder.  Prior to undertaking a study of the law, a mentor to one of the writers posed the question to him, “Mr. [Future Writer of Barely Legal], do you want to be stupid for the rest of your life?”  The wisdom that was later gained from the above quotation- and gained only after throwing-up during the very first final, after grades were given and on the first day of ASP- is that law school is hard.  To succeed admirably will demand a great amount of work.  And no truer words could be spoken after reading the 2010 Entering Class Profile.  Which brings us to our next point:  Law school is competitive.

According to the Office Admissions publication the 2010 Entering Class has an individual that performed as a background dancer to Jerry Springer on “Dancing with the Stars.”  Another individual was a background vocalist for a Grammy award winning singer.  If you think for a second that such gifts will secure you a trophy come time for the SELA Talent Show, well then surprise!  The 2010 Entering Class also includes a Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ready to roundhouse you off the stage.

A quote by Coach Jack Reilly probably better and more succinctly conveys the point we are trying to make, that is, “It’s not worth winning if you can’t win big!”

(editing comment, don’t publish: Brazillian Jiu Jitzu is a grappling discipline that wouldn’t teach you how to roundhouse anyone.  Please adjust accordingly.)

Look around. How many of your classmates have or are using a computer while you are reading this article. Most, right? And how many of those computers have Word as the installed word processor. Again, most, right? But, how many of those computer users know how to save time and effort by using Word shortcuts and other time saving tools. Not many, right?

Let’s start with the basics and begin with some of the shortcut keys. BTW, these tips are designed for PCs but might work in a Mac by substituting the command key for the control <ctrl>key. If I used a Mac I could tell you more…but I don’t. Almost all are also designed for use in any Windows program and not just to Word.

Copying, pasting and cutting: to copy – highlight your text and use <ctrl> c. (For the real basics, this means hold down the control key and press the c key at the same time.) To paste, put your cursor where you want the copied text to go and <ctrl> v. To cut, highlight the text and <ctrl> x. Once cut, text can be pasted other places with <ctrl> v. Want to copy or cut an entire document, <ctrl> a to highlight the entire document, then copy or cut.

Finding and replacing: with an open document, <ctrl> f opens a box where you can type in what you are looking for. <ctrl> h allows you to not only find but replace. Forgot to italicize a case name throughout a document? <ctrl> h allows you to find and italicize normal text, using the format button and choosing italics from the font list that comes up. <ctrl> z will undo your last action, BUT only the last action. So if you accidently delete your entire document don’t do anything else before <ctrl> z.

Want to format, bold, underline or italicize while typing. Use <ctrl> b, <ctrl> u, or <ctrl> i respectively. And everybody knows a double click with the left mouse key will highlight a single word and triple clicking will highlight an entire paragraph so I won’t mention that one. Change your font, try <ctrl> <shift> f. Pick the font you want to use.

How many times have you wanted to copy something from a website and paste it into your document, only to find the formatting is completely messed up. You can solve this by using the paste special command from the RIBBON menu. Home tab, paste icon, then paste special. This will open up a dialog box where you will choose unformatted Unicode text. Everything you copied is now in the same typeface and style of your original document. Works great for importing text from the web or when copying and pasting information from Westlaw or Lexis into your writing assignments. Helps avoid those messy font differences!

Using the newest versions of Office? Use the customize feature to set up your Quick Access Toolbar. Why try to remember under what tab page setup appears. Put it in the QA toolbar. Same with the save as icon, so you can save your appellate briefs in more than one place easily. In 2007, click on the Office button and select the Word options button, then customize. Choose All Commands and add all the commands you need. In Office 2010, use the File button, then customize and again add any commands you use constantly. BTW, the paste special command mentioned above can easily be added to the QA toolbar.

For 1Ls, consider creating a template for legal research. Easy enough to do. Open a new document, add a header, then a footer with the honor code, save as a template document. Next assignment, open the template, save as a document. Now all you have to do is remember to sign the honor code.

All of these commands can be accessed through the tabs at the top or icons within each tab. But, why take the time to search for the footnote command (under the references tab, then insert footnote) when you can add it to your toolbar.

So, these shortcuts won’t save you hours, but they will all save you seconds which add up to minutes, which make you more efficient and more cost effective, and ultimately, a better law student and a better lawyer.

The Property Law Society hosted a successful panel discussion on September 22 at the Harre Union. Speakers for the event were Valpo Law Professors, David Hollenbeck (Land Use, Municipal Finance, Local Government, and Workers Compensation Law) and David Myers (teaches Property, Entertainment, and Media law). The two presented an in depth analysis on 5th Amendment Takings Jurisprudence, including discussion on 14th Amendment Jurisprudence in takings analysis. In addition to the legal opinions on major takings cases, the two also provided multiple perspectives on takings issues from both a private property owners position and a government entity looking to exercise its police and regulatory power. Students from all years in law school were present and actively participated in the discussion. The students also provided unique perspectives from their experiences living in other portions of the country were takings issues impacted their communities.