Summer Pre-Law Program and My Intro to the Case Method

Ever since high school, I’ve always preferred energizing teachers who were entertaining and able to get me to pay attention for a full class. Unfortunately these teachers have been in the minority, even at Stanford, because many teachers focused on research more than on being an effective teacher. The good new is that business school and law school are quite different. Both have some pretty unique teaching methods to keep students engaged and participating in class (case method courses, learning team discussions, multimedia simulations, experiential learning courses, and interactive lectures).

King among these is the case method. The case method is a teaching approach that consists of presenting the students with a case putting them in the role of the decision-maker facing a problem. While some schools employ this more than others (for example Harvard Business School and The University of Virginia Darden), many schools do make use of it, and it's hard to debate that the case method is best at keeping you attentive in class.

In a case discussion, students are forced to constantly pay attention to what's being said, to continually integrate everything as the class moves forward, to synthesize 4 hours of reading the night before, and to think one-step ahead of the discussion. You do this all while being prepared to jump into the conversation and provide relevant, timely, and insightful comments. This is a complete 180-degree turn from my time at Stanford, where many of my classes were often about professors dumping thousands of facts into my head.

Most people think the case method exists only in business school, but that's not true at all. The case method, originally called the casebook method, has been around in law school longer than in business school. For a given class, a professor will assign several cases from the casebook to read, and the professor will ask students questions, pushing students to discuss legal rules and think critically about the ambiguous situations. As part of the experience, students discuss opposing viewpoints, and the professor will debate with students by asking and answering questions (i.e. Socratic Method). This is all done to stimulate thinking, empower students to come up with ideas, and illustrate concepts and theories.

Just last week, I experienced this in my Summer Law Prep Program at Northwestern. The summer prep program is for incoming first year students who want to get a head start on law school before classes actually begin. The program received applications from most of the incoming Northwestern class, and they selected 30 or so participants. We spent the full day, from 9:00am to 4:30pm, taking classes, listening to panels, reading legal cases, and participating in case discussions. During the week we learned from various members of Northwestern Law's faculty, met with current students, and visited attorneys at the sponsoring law firm based in Chicago. Just this past Wednesday, this law firm was gracious enough to host us at their offices and provide us with a nice meal and chat with us about working in the legal industry.

For me, the program really helped illuminate what it really takes to do well in case discussions. I also noticed how the case discussion at the law school is different from the case discussions in business school. In law school, the discussions tend be a bit more focused than b-school discussions. Also, law students tend to focus on the minute details of a case, whereas MBAs are more interested in the broader implications of the case. Additionally, in law school the cases are shorter, more technical, and care more about building consensus, whereas business school cases often extend for an entire class, are more cross-functional in nature, and value the individual perspectives of the people.

That said, the one similarity I found is that for the truly engaged participant, the case method can help to refine your professional leadership style. Think about it for a second. Just like working the real world, as a student you have to analyze a variety of difficult issues and engage in high-stakes discussions where the results that have complex economic and political effects. In preparation for the discussion before class, you have to uncover the issues at hand, develop supporting analysis, and come up with recommendations, all under time pressure and with limited information available. In the classroom, you must articulate your response in front of smart and sometimes critical classmates, most who have different perspectives than you and many whom you want to impress. These are the experiences business and legal leaders go through every day, and in a case discussion, you get the chance to practice that over and over again. I am excited to take these these types of courses at both business and law school. And I'm thankful to have a head start because of my summer program at Northwestern.