All posts filed under: Student Advice

Temple-Law-Library

How to Get the Most Out of Your Law Library

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Welcome to the law library!  Not just a physical space with desks, printers, and laptop chargers, we offer numerous services – in-person and remotely – to students and faculty.  We are happy to help you in any way that we can. Research Help For research help, please stop by the library’s Research Help Desk and ask one of our reference librarians.  There is no appointment necessary, and we have evening hours.  If you can’t make it in person, you can call (215-204-7891) or email (tulawlib@temple.edu) your inquiry.  Even if your question is not specifically about legal research or the law library, please feel free to ask. We also offer 1-on-1 research meetings for more detailed questions.  Are you trying to find specialized legal or interdisciplinary sources for a research paper?  Do you need to do a preemption check for your journal note, but don’t know where to start?  Do you want a refresher or introduction to a database as you prepare for your summer position?  One of our reference librarians will meet with you to …

Fishtown, Philadelphia

My Philly Neighborhood: Fishtown

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After living outside of Pittsburgh for the past few years, I moved to Philadelphia to attend Temple Law. With only an outside knowledge of the city and its neighborhoods, I searched through Craigslist for something that was within walking distance of the law school. I knew my first year would be insane, and I figured I’d spend most of my time in the library anyways. The result: I ended up on 13th and Diamond, at the edge of Temple University’s campus. Surrounded by undergrads with — how should I say this — different social schedules than me, little to no restaurants, and no good cafes, I ended up spending most of my time in the library without much regret.

My second year, all that changed.

Student Studying at Table

How to Enjoy Thanksgiving and Finish the Semester Strong

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The Thanksgiving holiday is just around the corner and the atmosphere at the law school is getting tense. Exams are approaching faster than we want or expected, and you have classes to prepare for, outlines to write, flowcharts to create, flash cards, LRW memos – anxiety is rising. At this point in the semester, you may be thinking to yourself, “When will I have the ahah moment?” “When will the light bulb go on for me?” “I haven’t started / done much work on outlines. So and so has this great 50-page outline already.” “I can’t even keep up with my class prep and get my memo done.” “How can I bring all this material together?” “I bombed my practice exam!” Etc, etc. Remember: Everyone who has ever been in law school (including myself and the rest of your faculty) felt the same way at this time of year, especially during their first year. I can still remember how I felt around this time of year. I was ready to quit, and felt like I could …

Stressed Out

Life Happens: Succeeding in Law School In Times Of Adversity

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I wish I could say I had an easy first year of law school. I didn’t. Tragedy came into my life with full force that year. Starting in June, my grandfather’s health started rapidly declining as he battled congestive heart failure. That August, my little sister returned from Tanzania. She spent six weeks dodging malaria while she studied abroad, and two days before she flew home, she contracted it. She spent a couple of weeks quarantined in Abington Memorial Hospital a few floors above my grandfather. That September, I started having attacks again. I can’t remember when I experienced my first attack. I do remember I was finishing up my junior year of college. The pain was so intense, I couldn’t sleep through the night. I called a close friend to bring me to the hospital, certain that I’d be diagnosed with appendicitis. I wasn’t. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me. So, they gave me some aspirin and sent me home. Yet two years later, during my first year, the attacks were back with …

Student on Stairs

Living Forward but Understanding Backward: The Importance of Self-Assessment and Reviewing Class Materials

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We are more than half way through the fall semester, and for many law students, late October is a time for looking ahead to what is in front of them. You have settled in to a routine, finals are on the horizon, and you may be asking yourself questions such as, how much more reading can there be? When am I going to outline? Will I travel for Thanksgiving? Looking ahead is critical because knowing what you have to do and when you have to do it keeps you focused and on task. And really, time marches on no matter what anyone does. The semester will end and finals (like winter) are coming. Just as important, however, is looking back at where you have been. Like a coach or player at halftime, now is the time to think about self-assessment and adjustment. Granted, you don’t have a score to use as a measurement of your performance, but you can think about your classes, how you have approached them so far, and whether that approach is …

Philadelphia Art Museum

My Philly Neighborhood: Fairmount (aka the Art Museum Area)

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Living in Fairmount is like living in the city, but with training wheels.

Fairmount—often referred to as the “Art Museum Area” due to its proximity to the Philadelphia Art Museum—is located just a mile and a half from the heart of Center City, but has all the perks of living in a small neighborhood. For example, there are less people, more parking spaces, and a variety of housing options for a fraction of the cost. I have lived in Philadelphia for over six years, and I spent five of those years living in Fairmount.

Baseball in Mitt

Major League Baseball, Law Review, and Forging Your Own Path

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I have been searching for the intersection of sports and law since beginning law school in 2013. I’ve always been fascinated by the legal, business, and transactional nature of professional sports, and I knew that to increase my opportunities after graduation, I needed to graduate from Temple with a marketable and tangible work product in that area. Fortunately, I found that opportunity during my second year as a member of The Temple Law Review. All of Temple’s academic journals have a unique scholarship component. Students are asked to explore and write an article on a novel or changing area of the law and establish a practical solution. I recognized that this would be an arduous task that would take significant time, effort, and energy. Therefore, I knew I had to research a topic that I was passionate about. My advisor, Professor Ken Jacobsen, helped me bounce around a few ideas. Our dialogue focused on the labor market in professional baseball—an area of the law that was constantly litigated throughout the 20th century. Additionally, I knew …

Pope Francis

A Law Student’s Guide to Popeapalooza

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Philadelphia is in the final stages of preparations for Pope Francis’s visit this weekend. Center City is filled with welcome signs, street closures, and portable toilets as far as the eye can see. It’s Popeapalooza or Popeocalypse, depending on whether you’re feeling excited or meh about this historic weekend. So, how might a busy Philadelphia law student spend Pope weekend? Bunker down and catch up Time is a law student’s most precious resource. Classes are canceled, offices are closed, and we’re about a third of the way through the semester, so you could take advantage of the gift of some added free time and do some extra reading or writing or whatever else keeps falling to the bottom of your to-do list. Celebrate from afar You can get involved without getting too involved–relax with friends over a papal beer, check out a Pope-inspired restaurant menu, or grab a pope hat cookie from DiBruno brothers. Or, keep in touch with classmates stuck on the other side of the Pope fence by downloading the Popemoji app and …

Amanda Reed Commencement Speaker Temple Law

Looking Back: Three Things I Wish I Had Done Differently In Law School

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This past May, I graduated from Temple Law School. Let me tell you, it was a satisfying feeling. Law school takes up so much of your time and most law students are consumed with not only doing well in law school but doing law school “right.” What is the best way to read cases? How should I set up my outline? What classes should I take to prepare for the bar exam? It can be a period full of uncertainty. You might ask any of those questions to five different people and you will receive eight different answers. Contrary to what some folks will tell you, or try to sell to you in a book, there is no “right” way to do law school. Of course you have to do the work and go to class, which is true of any academic program. Beyond that, the three or four years you spend in law school are your own and you can make of them what you wish, but for what it’s worth, I would like …

Football

Win the Day: How I Found Law School Success Through Chip Kelly

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I begin this blog post with the following caveat; I am a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan. The recent success of Temple Football coupled with Chip Kelly’s first offseason as General Manager has football on the minds of a lot of Philadelphians and Temple Law students. Chip Kelly has brought energy to the Philadelphia Eagles that has revitalized the franchise, fan base, and city. On a more personal level, Coach Kelly helped me turn around my 1L year after a tough first semester. Law students are always looking ahead. We know that finals are always lurking around the corner, even in the middle of September. Without fail, a student in the first day of class will raise his or her hand and ask, “Can you tell us anything about the final?” We spend our free time planning out the semester and anticipating final grades. We wonder how those grades will stack up next to our classmates, and where our success will lead us. We worry about when to send applications out to interview for jobs we …