6 F a l l 2 0 1 4 C A N A D I A N L a w y e r 4 s t u d e n t s
Study Study
right!
1
IT
AIN'T
GONNA
BE
EASY
Bad
news
for
all
those
magic
bullet
hunters
out
there.
Sadly,
there
are
no
shortcuts
to
law
school
success,
according
to
Kathleen
McCandless,
who
collected
the
2006
University
Gold
Medal
for
Law
at
the
University
of
Manitoba's
Robson
Hall
law
school.
"If
you
want
to
do
well
at
law
school,
I
can
summarize
it
all
by
saying
there's
no
way
around
hard
work,"
says
McCandless,
now
a
lawyer
at
Win-
nipeg's
Pitblado
LLP.
Sticking
with
the
advice-you-probably-don't-want-to
hear-theme,
Emily
MacKinnon
says
there
is
simply
no
getting
around
the
assigned
readings
for
each
class.
"There's
such
a
huge
volume
that
it's
very
easy
to
start
thinking
about
what
you
can
cut
out
or
skim
through,
but
it'll
just
end
up
being
too
much
when
the
exams
come
around,"
says
the
2012
Law
Society
Gold
Medallist
at
the
University
of
British
Columbia,
now
a
litigator
with
McCarthy
Tétrault
LLP
in
Vancouver.
"I
always
read
them
on
the
assumption
I'd
never
have
a
chance
to
do
it
again,
which
means
very
active
reading,
always
with
highlighters
and
sticky
tabs
in
hand."
2
DO
THE
READING
No matter what your undergraduate specialty
was, law school is a different beast altogether.
So what do you need to know to tame it?
Michael McKiernan asked a law prof and a
group of first-rate former students to share the
secrets of successful study.
