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Hello soon-to-be rising 2L friends!

I know youre all busy studying for


finals, but I wanted to get this to you before the casenote competition
actually began.
First of all, no one knows how to casenote. So the fact that youre
totally lost on what the hell youre supposed to do should not alarm
you. The casenote committee will be providing you with sample
casenotes that may or may not be good (because thats super
helpful). Do NOT go by them. I have attached my casenote to this
email. The bluebooking in it is not perfect, but its overall good enough
(however, I should have included the authors last name before every
supra or infra citation), but use it more to understand how you should
structure your casenote. Follow the format I used and try to include a
footnote at almost every sentence because youll almost certainly
need one per bluebook rules. Follow the white pages of the bluebook,
not the blue ones (yes, I know, you never looked at them before so it
seems stupid that you have to know them now. Thats just law school
for you though.). Its going to seem sucky, but you should honestly
read (skim) all the white pages. I took the first few days off after finals
and then spent two full days just reading over the bluebook pages
before writing. Trust me, bluebooking is one of the most important
things for how your casenote gets graded (if not the most) regardless
of whatever breakdown journals tell you.
Without further ado, heres my advice (/important bluebook rules to
keep in mind):

Actually have an argument. Make a claim. For instance The


court came to the correct decision but did so for the wrong
reasons. And then explain how it should have arrived at the
decision. Or The court weighed Factor X more heavily than
Factor Y and thus came to the incorrect decision. It should have
weight Factor Y more heavily than Factor X because Dont just
agree with what the court did. Have an argument.
Aim to have at least 100 footnotes
Cite a variety of sources. Try to include a citation to at least one
book, several law review articles, and at least one website.
Do not italicize case names (or underline them) in the footnotes.
The only time you italicize a footnote case name is if youre short
form citing it.
Do not use short form for a case unless it has been cited (either
in full cite or id. form) within the last 5 footnotes.
Know how to use supra and infra. Use supra whenever you are
referring to a law review article or book that you previously cited

to. Use infra whenever referencing a citation or section that will


appear in greater relevance later on in the piece.
When using supra for footnotes, cross-reference the footnote. On
a mac, that means you go to insert cross-reference find
the scroll down menu on the top left that says reference type
and select footnote and then click on the number footnote you
are referring to (e.g. wherever you cited the source earlier in
your paper) and then hit insert.
Make sure your cross-references are accurate before submitting
your casenote since they will be off if you add or delete footnotes
while writing your paper. You can ensure this by doing the
following before you submit your paper: select all (aka
highlight) all the footnote text; right-click on a cross-referenced
footnote; click Update Field; a pop-up box that says Word
cannot undo this action. Do you want to continue? will pop up
and you should click yes.
Book titles and author names should be in small caps.
The law reviews name should be in small caps (e.g. 4 WAKE
FOREST J.L. & POLY) but the law review article itself should be in
italics. Example: Ryan W. Scott, In Defense of the Finality of Criminal
Sentences on Collateral Review, 4 WAKE FOREST J.L. & POLY 179, 182 (2014).
When referring to a range of pages, dont use - or , use (I know, its a stupid
nit-pick thing. Just follow the damn rule though. Copy and paste from here if its
easier).
If the range of pages youre reference to starts with the same
first number, you typically cut off that first number for the
second span. In other words, instead of writing 9698, you should
write 968. But if its 98101, leave it as 98101.
Follow the general format and section lengths used in my
casenote.
Try to cite to a handful of cases, not just one or two additional
ones. Again, use my casenote as a guideline.
Read through some of the published notes on the DLJ website for
some guidance on what a note (albeit, not necessarily a
casenote) looks like in terms of its structure and argument style.

Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions before the casenote
competition actually starts. Because I highly doubt my grades got me
onto DLJ, I know that if you manage to write a good casenote, you can
get onto a journal, which is a big plus factor for the job hunt next
year ;) Finish strong! And have a great summer!

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