Jessie Zaylía's Law (and Law School) Blog

I realize that for some of us, this is getting down to the basics, but that's precisely why I'm writing about it. What, exactly, is the legal question?  And how do we get to it? Many 1Ls will notice that professors often pause during lectures, look to the the frightened students in the peanut gallery, and ask, "So, what's the legal question here?" Some brave students--the Gunner likely beginning the trend--attempt to answer this question. The Broad: "How should the court decide?" Uhh... no. The Slightly Confused: "Whether the buyer relied on the seller?" No... that's the issue.  But that's a good try. The fact is that almost nobody explains how  you're supposed to figure out what the hell the legal question is ! Another fact: I didn't know what in the world anybody meant by the mysterious legal question until my second year of law school, while I was taking a course on advanced legal writing. Even then, the professor d...

What I am about to share with you is the one piece of advice that I wish somebody—anybody—would have told me as a fresh, green 1L: the key to legal argument lies in asking “why” twice. Allow me to explain. But before I do, come with me on a journey of realization. Keep in mind, although I direct this blog post to 1Ls, many attorneys have not yet grasped the ask-why-twice concept. (To provide a bit of background, the legal positions that I have held in the short two and one-half years that I’ve been in law school have provided me with opportunities to read, analyze, write, distinguish, edit, and otherwise flesh out scores, if not hundreds, of briefs, memoranda, motions, and orders. Specifically, when I worked in the chambers of two federal judges, I read many poorly reasoned briefs and noted how this affected the judges’ decisions and opinions of the attorneys. I only provide this information so that you understand that I have seen time and time again the consequences of poor legal an...