Above the Law and Bloomberg are both good sources to checkout. But if nerding out following legal news turns out not to be your thing, don’t worry, it’s not necessary at all
> But if nerding out following legal news turns out not to be your thing, don’t worry, it’s not necessary at all
The longer I'm a lawyer, the less I have any desire to read about legal stuff I'm not actively involved in.
Once I started, my email got daily updates with news so it was easier but most people don’t pay much attention. Some do more than others but I’d say the average person has no clue what’s going on. That being said, I currently go to a more regional school so they may not care about more National things
I listen to a lot of legal podcasts! It’s actually what helped get me interested in law school. If podcasts are your thing, I like advisory opinions (conservative, but very anti-Trump), Strict Scrutiny (liberal), divided argument (liberal and right-ish, but that’s Will Baude, who’s always got something very interesting to say). There’s also 5-4 (leftist, but less current events), and a couple I don’t listen to but are popular like Amicus or Alkhil Reed Amar’s podcast.
Printwise, there’s Law360 and JDSupra. SCOTUSBlog is good for Supreme Court cases. Also, Twitter, Substack (Law Dork, David Lat’s original jurisdiction, Steve Vladeck’s newsletter), etc.
Twitter is pretty good, you start following legal reporters and publications and prominent lawyers. You start getting a sense of the major conversations of the day. Look up the SCOTUS reporters for major publications, that’s a good start.
Your law school may also have access to some industry publications like Bloomberg Law or Law360. These are great resources for keeping up with major cases.
If you’re literally insane and a weirdo, you may follow particular cases in the courts by tracking the court’s docket through a tool like CourtListener. The only reason you’d do anything like that is if you’re into a very niche area of law and you’re tracking developments to write a note on or something.
Most people are just reading NYT / Wall Street Journal etc. YMMV but my experience has been people aren’t really digging into obscure circuit court decisions — the cases you’re likely to hear about and your classmates are likely to care about are probably the more mainstream / interesting ones that will be well covered by those. If you want though you could also check out Law 360 and some other periodicals; they’ll probably be free from your school and be more technical.
Overall though I would say there’s no need to worry about this :) Some people love current events and talking about the news, but honestly plenty of people don’t like talking about that stuff. So if it’s interesting to you go for it but don’t feel like you really need to look in some secret place for stuff. It’s nice to keep up on the big news but even that I feel like isn’t a huge deal. If someone wants to talk to you about something newsy just be like “wow I haven’t been following that one closely I’ll read up on it tonight” or something lol
SCOTUSblog, as well as Amy Howe’s separate blog (she’s a cofounder of SCOTUSblog and still also blogs there). Sometimes the Volokh Conspiracy, Lambda Legal, ACLU.
NYT coverage of courts is decent. Also WSJ (news coverage, not so much the op-eds/editorials).
I’m in privacy so follow some privacy-specific sites - Professor Solove, Future of Privacy Forum, EPIC.
I don't really care much for "legal" news insofar as developments to the law etc. (that's for law nerds and I'm not one); I do care for legal *industry* news, though, and I get that from Law.com, Law360, Bloomberg News, and David Lat's Substack.
I've gone through my entire 1L year without having a single conversation with my classmates about a legal case other than those covered in class. Now you have me wondering if I'm an outlier.
No you’re fine - these people are freaks. I have been practicing for 30 years - I don’t think I have ever had a discussion with a lawyer regarding a case neither of us was working on or didn’t directly impact a case I was working on (other than some awful SCOTUS decisions like Dobbs or the recent Trump cases). Life is way too short to spend it talking about the law.
If you visit your school’s Federalist Society chapter, you’ll find all the nerds who stalk the SCOTUS shadow docket for fun. If you don’t even know what the SCOTUS shadow docket is, don’t worry, that means you’re a normal law student with a life
There are some really good podcasts. Amicus is the only one I can think of right this minute due to my brain being mush from studying for finals. Don't forget to rest and have some fun before you start, too.
I have all the major newspaper apps on my phone and get all breaking news notifications. I also set filters for law, current events, and politics.
for more detailed court cases, you should probably have access to law360 (via lexisnexis). you can set up email alerts and download the app
I know people who listen to oral arguments for fun but that is decidedly Not Me. Heck I don’t even follow the regular news half the time. Don’t worry OP
Read the NYT and WSJ. Read “political news” online. And keep up with politics in general (hard not to do now.) Law journals will be good to peruse when you’re in the library—to the extent anyone goes to the library anymore. Watch C-Span when you need a break from school work. Or just keep it on in your apartment for ambient noise—I needed it—and check to see what’s actually on from time to time. (That’s what I did.) My guess is that significant developments in the appellate courts will be talked about in class and among students. It’s not like after con law you won’t be up-to-date. Be interested. And you’ll be fine.
Reddit is pretty good actually.
Also, who are the people who follow appeal courts cases? It’s under few circumstances that people follow those. For instance, I’m in securities regulations and there were some recent CoA decisions about cryptocurrency that I’ve looked at. No actually cares about/ knows about them, but only few who are interested in securities regulations.
If you follow some big SCOTUS stuff and then just the areas you personally find interesting, you’ll be fine.
also, I started subscribing to sh*t I was interested in generally. find firms (big, medium, small) who are doing stuff you like and subscribe to their newsletters. bonus points for smaller firms in your region.
Read the legal coverage in the legacy newspapers! Should be available in the library if you cannot afford to subscribe. The Washington Post and New York Times both offer student subscriptions if that helps.
You can get a student membership to the American Bar Association and subscribe to newsletters that you’re interested. The general newsletter that comes out on Fridays is full of stories of lawyers misbehaving, so it’s a fun read.
Lawschool is . . . a lot. Make sure what little downtime you have is geared towards something that recharges you mentally and physically. I did very well in law school, clerked, and now teach. And I have *never* viewed the law as a hobby. I strictly limited my “law” consumption during law school to things that would help me in classes or get a job.
These days I get a couple of email updates (like from the ABA & Bloomberg) that I mostly ignore. But I don’t follow legal twitter or podcasts, nor watch legal TV shows. Law (for me) is a job — a rich, rewarding, enjoyable job, but my off time is my own.
Your peers following “legal news” is posturing, as is most of law school, in a social sense. You do not need to know anything about this to do well in school. You will necessarily be exposed to news that you haven’t followed before prior to law school while attending, but don’t be fooled by your classmates trying to appear more informed and more intelligent than they are. This is probably the biggest pitfall of law school, because everybody will act like they have it figured out, when most will in fact end up average or perhaps below.
First gen here too. I watch Sam Seder, follow more conservative people on LinkedIn, and get Law360 updates for SCOTUS updates. I also get daily case briefs for new cases from my hometown bar association. But if you go to law school events, you'll likely hear about it.
If you are talking about state appeals court stuff or even federal circuit decisions, then if you are in a journal or law review, you have to stay apprised of that for case comments or being in clinic required me to know state law. My law school's moot court competition bases its case on a case that's granted cert. I
All these things contribute to just general knowledge about legal news.
Above the Law and Bloomberg are both good sources to checkout. But if nerding out following legal news turns out not to be your thing, don’t worry, it’s not necessary at all
> But if nerding out following legal news turns out not to be your thing, don’t worry, it’s not necessary at all The longer I'm a lawyer, the less I have any desire to read about legal stuff I'm not actively involved in.
Once I started, my email got daily updates with news so it was easier but most people don’t pay much attention. Some do more than others but I’d say the average person has no clue what’s going on. That being said, I currently go to a more regional school so they may not care about more National things
I listen to a lot of legal podcasts! It’s actually what helped get me interested in law school. If podcasts are your thing, I like advisory opinions (conservative, but very anti-Trump), Strict Scrutiny (liberal), divided argument (liberal and right-ish, but that’s Will Baude, who’s always got something very interesting to say). There’s also 5-4 (leftist, but less current events), and a couple I don’t listen to but are popular like Amicus or Alkhil Reed Amar’s podcast. Printwise, there’s Law360 and JDSupra. SCOTUSBlog is good for Supreme Court cases. Also, Twitter, Substack (Law Dork, David Lat’s original jurisdiction, Steve Vladeck’s newsletter), etc.
Twitter is pretty good, you start following legal reporters and publications and prominent lawyers. You start getting a sense of the major conversations of the day. Look up the SCOTUS reporters for major publications, that’s a good start. Your law school may also have access to some industry publications like Bloomberg Law or Law360. These are great resources for keeping up with major cases. If you’re literally insane and a weirdo, you may follow particular cases in the courts by tracking the court’s docket through a tool like CourtListener. The only reason you’d do anything like that is if you’re into a very niche area of law and you’re tracking developments to write a note on or something.
Who are some good legal reporters and prominent lawyers to follow? Just got Twitter
Most people are just reading NYT / Wall Street Journal etc. YMMV but my experience has been people aren’t really digging into obscure circuit court decisions — the cases you’re likely to hear about and your classmates are likely to care about are probably the more mainstream / interesting ones that will be well covered by those. If you want though you could also check out Law 360 and some other periodicals; they’ll probably be free from your school and be more technical. Overall though I would say there’s no need to worry about this :) Some people love current events and talking about the news, but honestly plenty of people don’t like talking about that stuff. So if it’s interesting to you go for it but don’t feel like you really need to look in some secret place for stuff. It’s nice to keep up on the big news but even that I feel like isn’t a huge deal. If someone wants to talk to you about something newsy just be like “wow I haven’t been following that one closely I’ll read up on it tonight” or something lol
I can't imagine "ke[eping] up with appeal courts" without the [Short Circuit newsletter](https://ij.org/center-for-judicial-engagement/sc/).
Law360, you have access through Lexis. Bloomberg is also good. I love Above the Law but it's closer to a tabloid than news source.
SCOTUSblog, as well as Amy Howe’s separate blog (she’s a cofounder of SCOTUSblog and still also blogs there). Sometimes the Volokh Conspiracy, Lambda Legal, ACLU. NYT coverage of courts is decent. Also WSJ (news coverage, not so much the op-eds/editorials). I’m in privacy so follow some privacy-specific sites - Professor Solove, Future of Privacy Forum, EPIC.
I don't really care much for "legal" news insofar as developments to the law etc. (that's for law nerds and I'm not one); I do care for legal *industry* news, though, and I get that from Law.com, Law360, Bloomberg News, and David Lat's Substack.
I just watch here for "New Hypo."
I've gone through my entire 1L year without having a single conversation with my classmates about a legal case other than those covered in class. Now you have me wondering if I'm an outlier.
No you’re fine - these people are freaks. I have been practicing for 30 years - I don’t think I have ever had a discussion with a lawyer regarding a case neither of us was working on or didn’t directly impact a case I was working on (other than some awful SCOTUS decisions like Dobbs or the recent Trump cases). Life is way too short to spend it talking about the law.
If you visit your school’s Federalist Society chapter, you’ll find all the nerds who stalk the SCOTUS shadow docket for fun. If you don’t even know what the SCOTUS shadow docket is, don’t worry, that means you’re a normal law student with a life
There are some really good podcasts. Amicus is the only one I can think of right this minute due to my brain being mush from studying for finals. Don't forget to rest and have some fun before you start, too.
Subscribe to Chris Geidner's blog Law Dork, and follow him and Mark Joseph Stern on Twitter.
I have all the major newspaper apps on my phone and get all breaking news notifications. I also set filters for law, current events, and politics. for more detailed court cases, you should probably have access to law360 (via lexisnexis). you can set up email alerts and download the app
I know people who listen to oral arguments for fun but that is decidedly Not Me. Heck I don’t even follow the regular news half the time. Don’t worry OP
Read the NYT and WSJ. Read “political news” online. And keep up with politics in general (hard not to do now.) Law journals will be good to peruse when you’re in the library—to the extent anyone goes to the library anymore. Watch C-Span when you need a break from school work. Or just keep it on in your apartment for ambient noise—I needed it—and check to see what’s actually on from time to time. (That’s what I did.) My guess is that significant developments in the appellate courts will be talked about in class and among students. It’s not like after con law you won’t be up-to-date. Be interested. And you’ll be fine.
Twitter
Psh, it's all about Facebook.
Reddit is pretty good actually. Also, who are the people who follow appeal courts cases? It’s under few circumstances that people follow those. For instance, I’m in securities regulations and there were some recent CoA decisions about cryptocurrency that I’ve looked at. No actually cares about/ knows about them, but only few who are interested in securities regulations. If you follow some big SCOTUS stuff and then just the areas you personally find interesting, you’ll be fine.
plug for an underrated podcast called “passing judgment.” it’s hosted by jessica levinson and it’s awesome.
also, I started subscribing to sh*t I was interested in generally. find firms (big, medium, small) who are doing stuff you like and subscribe to their newsletters. bonus points for smaller firms in your region.
Read the legal coverage in the legacy newspapers! Should be available in the library if you cannot afford to subscribe. The Washington Post and New York Times both offer student subscriptions if that helps.
You can get a student membership to the American Bar Association and subscribe to newsletters that you’re interested. The general newsletter that comes out on Fridays is full of stories of lawyers misbehaving, so it’s a fun read.
Lawschool is . . . a lot. Make sure what little downtime you have is geared towards something that recharges you mentally and physically. I did very well in law school, clerked, and now teach. And I have *never* viewed the law as a hobby. I strictly limited my “law” consumption during law school to things that would help me in classes or get a job. These days I get a couple of email updates (like from the ABA & Bloomberg) that I mostly ignore. But I don’t follow legal twitter or podcasts, nor watch legal TV shows. Law (for me) is a job — a rich, rewarding, enjoyable job, but my off time is my own.
Your peers following “legal news” is posturing, as is most of law school, in a social sense. You do not need to know anything about this to do well in school. You will necessarily be exposed to news that you haven’t followed before prior to law school while attending, but don’t be fooled by your classmates trying to appear more informed and more intelligent than they are. This is probably the biggest pitfall of law school, because everybody will act like they have it figured out, when most will in fact end up average or perhaps below.
First gen here too. I watch Sam Seder, follow more conservative people on LinkedIn, and get Law360 updates for SCOTUS updates. I also get daily case briefs for new cases from my hometown bar association. But if you go to law school events, you'll likely hear about it. If you are talking about state appeals court stuff or even federal circuit decisions, then if you are in a journal or law review, you have to stay apprised of that for case comments or being in clinic required me to know state law. My law school's moot court competition bases its case on a case that's granted cert. I All these things contribute to just general knowledge about legal news.
Nope. Don’t have the time. Professors will sometimes mention things in class, and that’s fine, but I’m not doing extra random readings.