Is it permissible to talk about a case that particularly impacted you in an undergraduate class?

bobbutwith8characters

EDIT: In case it wasn't clear from my title, this is about personal statements.

In my personal statement right now, I'm trying to indicate that reading Supreme Court cases for an undergraduate law class grabbed me in a way that no other course material did. There is one particular case that jumped out at me, and I can write about it honestly without BSing. Reading this case was an especially important experience for me because it solidified law as a future for me when I was depressed and saw no direction in my life.

I see a few issues with this though:

1) It's pretty shallow. The impact from reading a case won't compare to the other candidates who undoubtedly have some experience in an actual law firm or other "legal position."

2) Georgetown advises, "... Stay away from legal concepts and jargon. You run the risk of misusing them, and even if you use them properly, legal language may make you appear pompous." I'm not sure if this applies to the arguments and reasoning found in the Court's opinion, but it feels better to play it safe. Also, is "commerce clause" a legal term?

3) It may indicate that I expect to deal with large, Constitutional issues in my legal career. And as that surreal short film about law school points out, "there are only three lawyers who deal with Constitutional issues. Each of them graduated in Harvard in the 1970s. Can you graduate from Harvard in the 1970s?" (Here's the film, by the way: ).

So what do y'all think? Is it a good or bad idea to write about a case that stuck out to me in an undergraduate class?

sillllyxo

LOL that video

Seeking Perfection

Generally, I would say that it is a bad idea for no other reason than that we all have interests in the law and many of us would be interested in Supreme Court cases. How does a personal statement on this topic differentiate you from other applicants?

Further citing a case related to consstitutional law you will almost certainly be talking about a topic that your reader is very familiar with. This means it may be hard to render a fresh perspective which they have not already considered.

I think you could probably find a way to straddle the line where you wouldn't appear to be arrogantly assuming you were going to deal with constitutional law. You'd be writing about this class as the initial point which sparked your interest in law which may then have developed to an interest in a more attainable area of law.

Finally, from what I have read, it seems like you may be restricting your personal statement options too much. It does not need to be solely about your past experiences with the law. It needs to reveal the thing about you that attracts you to law in general and each school in particular. Often this is done through a non-law related anectdote about oneself which is tied to the law only because it shows something fundamrntal about you which is related to your desire to practice law.

I have two main personal statement attempts that I am working on. One is about how my struggles with migraines have helped me to understand the difference between pain that you accept to accomplish some end and suffering beyond your control and how that realization has prompted me to want to be able to help people deal with pain beyond their control as a lawyer in health law. The other is a more technical one about the economic or statistical value of life and how I want to devote my life to helping to equalize it across lines of race, class, and location. I'm planning to split my applications between these two personal statements assuming they seem comparably effective once completed.

Good luck,
A fellow person struggling to craft personal statements

Alex

I'd stay away. I've read in a few books on PS that's legal personal statements are generally a no.