The Language of Law School This page intentionally left blank

[ . . . ]
 in the back, you can tell when no one’s going
to answer the easy question. (7-15)
I brief every case and leave room on the page for class notes. (5-1)
I- I’m always big on balancing school and job with your life, and I- I made sure that
I- I messed around during those couple weeks (exams), I think it’s vital to your
sanity. (6-2-M)
This focus on strategies leads many of the students to speak with approval of pro-
fessors who give them overt strategic guidance, as long as the guidance turns out
to be useful. For example, students were very pleased with their professor in Class
#6 (our most inclusive classroom, taught in a local law school by a female pro-
fessor), praising her clarity and specific instructions on how to prepare for the
exams:
[The following comments emerge from an informal discussion among four students,
who are talking enthusiastically and overlapping their speech.]
6-1-F:
She definitely gears you towards // the exam- //
6-2-M:
// The good // professors can give
you signals--
6–3–F:
--She’s the most, and you know she did say that her coll-
I remember she told us- ah, the beginning of the semester, that her
colleagues have criticized her for being a spoon-feeder.
Interviewer:
Oh really?
6-3-F:
Yeah. But // I-// 
[multiple speakers, overlapping speech]
6-1-F:
// I // appreciate that so much, the straightforward//ness//
6-3-F:
// Well,//
I think the- le, y’know, play- I don’t see what the point is of playing
this hide-the-ball sort of game with students like they do in 
The
Paper Chase
 and that sort of thing, I don’t- I don’t (serve) what
purpose that serves.
On the other hand, there is some dissent from an orientation that focuses to too
great a degree on strategy and exams, as with this student from a local law school:
1-F:
But I just feel like that attitude is so pervasive here, everyone is
constantly looking towards exams an- and like when the professors say
it too, it’s like, “Ugh, can’t we just learn? Can’t anyone just wanna learn?”
1-F:
I don’t like that our- that our futures are so dependent on these
rankings in the first year, it’s so important [Student 3: Right]
[Student 2: I do not like that].
Although some studies have stressed the differences between upper- and lower-
status law schools in terms of the degree to which professors teach theory as opposed
to more practical information, this quote from a student in a local law school fore-
shadows some convergence among the classes and students of this study.
On the one hand, there are some slight differences in emphasis between some
of the more elite classes, favoring theory, and some of the less elite classes. On the

---

Student Participation and Social Difference
199
other hand, all of the classes in the study retained a heavy focus on case analysis,
aimed at elucidating doctrinal issues. This is the backbone of the first-year law
school curriculum, and professors across all schools spent much of their time in
this kind of endeavor. All of the professors also took care at some points in their
teaching to push students into thinking practically about what these legal doctrines
would look like in the setting of making arguments or putting together cases in
court, and sometimes even in terms of dealing with clients. And there was actually
considerable discussion of theory and policy in some of the lower-ranked law school
classes, whereas at one of the more highly ranked law schools in the country, stu-
dents appeared to have less exposure to theory than did some of their counterparts
in the study at less prestigious schools. Students in this elite/prestige classroom did
complain about the relative dearth of theory, noting that it was not typical of their
overall education. But the counterpoint between their complaints and the enthu-
siastic invocation of theory by students at other, lower-ranked law schools serves
as a valuable caution to those who would assume too deterministic an effect of
school status: