One of the more popular questions on the various law school tours I attended while choosing a law school concerned the use of laptops in class. Whenever I had the good fortune to sit in …
Read the full story »This story made the internet rounds a week or two ago but I thought that it would be a nice topic for good old Legal Geekery. Recent research into the brain may provide scientists with a pill to give people photographic memories. Basically, a group of Swedish scientists have discovered a protein in the brain that can boost our visual memories. By stimulating this protein they have increased the retention of visual images in mice by almost 1,500 times. Imagine what this could mean for the world, and in particular lawyers and law students. You could read the facts of a case once and forever remember every detail. Imagine how much easier law school would be, I mean what could go wrong?
Now this is the point where I feel like I need to bring up one of my favorite movies of all time to explain why having a photographic memory wouldn’t be enough to get you through law school. The Paper Chase:

Pretty much the best (and only) movie about law school.
The Paper Chase is a movie from the 70s (originally a book which is also good) about James T. Hart, a 1L at Harvard law school. The movie follows him through his first year and his relationship with the cantankerous and brilliant Professor Kingsfield. The movie was recommended to be by a lawyer when I told him I was going to law school. I recommend that anyone should watch it because it is a great movie with such gems as Hart puking after his 1st day of the Socratic method, Hart having an affair with Kingsfield’s daughter, a young (and thin!) Edward Herrmann, and many more great scenes.
Anywhere back to the present and why a photographic memory is not enough to do well in law school. One of the character’s in the Paper Chase has a photographic memory and can recite the facts of any case off the top of his head, yet he preforms pretty poorly in class. See being a good law student involves more than just memorizing facts, you must be able to use those facts, analyze why a case is significant, postulate about possible exceptions to the precedent, apply the decision to a future case. In short you need to think critically, yes that section on the LSAT with those questions about what movies a theater can show or the order clowns can come out of a clown car.
Well that’s it folks, the future sure looks like it’s going to be an interesting place. I planned on posting a clip from the Paper Chase here so you could enjoy the majesty that is this movie, but youtube failed me. Instead you are getting a clip from the tv show of the Paper Chase (I’ve never seen this version but I want to), Kingsfield is played by the same actor and the scene is almost verbatim from the film so it will do.
The 25th annual Trek Fest in Riverside, Iowa, featured Vulcans, Klingons, beer, a rodeo and … storm troopers?
It’s tough out there. Law school enrollments are rising [pdf] and yet fewer graduates are getting law jobs.
So here’s a suggestion for beating the competition among your law student peers: become a geek. A computer …
In my second year I took a Law and Literature class to give myself some sort of relief from the typical law school class and to coddle my much neglected theater minor self a little. …
I’ve done quite a few geeky things. Raise your hand if you know what LARPing is. Now raise your hand if you’ve spent Friday nights LARPing. By nights, I mean more than one in a row. Anyone still with me?
The City of Bozeman, Montana, took some well-deserved heat mid-June for asking that applicants to some city positions disclose usernames and passwords of their social media accounts.
At noon on Friday, June 19, the City of …
You went to a middle-of-the-road undergraduate school where the focus was more on tailgating in the stadium parking lot than schmoozing over brandy and cigars or whatever the ultra-elite do when they’re not conducting secret …
Another law student I know recently showed me some random pictures from his school and I couldn’t help but notice a few things.
1. The room the picture was taken in looked very very professional. I …
I like this new PSA campaign from the Project on Student Debt. The IBRinfo.org website is slick, it looks very non-governmental, and best of all there’s an animation explaining the Income-Based Repayment program. Did I …
At the beginning of June, Georgetown University’s Law Library released a comprehensive look at over 200 law school websites. What’s impressive about this report, besides the sheer volume (ends at page 450…) is that it’s …
Lately, I’ve been giving up vices. Cheese, weeknight partying, and gambling have all been easily removed from my day to day life. These were easy. I’d say the most difficult vice to give up has been speeding. Of all the changes I’ve gone through while growing up, this is probably the least expected
Now that I have some experience under my belt in both patent and copyright litigation, I’ve been thinking a lot about the two disciplines lately.
One of the interns here at CIS made a comment at …
First off, let me just say that I love Amazon. Give me some Prime free 2-day shipping and some low prices and I’m on a shopping spree. This is a company that’s been innovative from …
Welcome Legal Geekery readers I am Christopher Wright (@ckwright) your newest LG blogger. My biography isn’t up yet, but if it was you would know that back in my college days I used to work …
Blondini joins us this week as a guest poster.
So I have started the expedition made by thousands of law school graduates every June, lasting until the end of July. For two months we will will …