Dear Student,
Welcome to The Law School Playbook! I’m Halle Hara, a professor of academic success and personal skills coach to law students and attorneys. I’m glad you’re here! Celebrity chef Guy Fieri has said:
There are two different things: there’s grilling, and there’s barbecue. Grilling is when people say, ‘We’re going to turn up the heat, make it really hot and sear a steak, sear a burger, cook a chicken.’ Barbecue is going low and slow.
That conjures up some images, right? Based on what we’ve learned about skimming and scanning, reading cases, if done skillfully, can be like grilling. Reading and interpreting statutes, on the other hand, can only be like making barbecue. The only way to do it is low and slow.
So, that’s easy enough, right? The very first step in reading and interpreting statutes is to remember to barbecue, not grill.
I’ll ask you to take that one step further and think of the statute as a beef brisket—the most difficult meat to barbecue. Why, to make you hungry? No, I realize a vegan might be listening. I ask you to think of that image because I don’t want you to ever forget that reading and interpreting a statute—like barbecuing a beef brisket—is a complex, tricky undertaking. Statutes are, more often than not, difficult to understand. And if it takes implanting an image of a barbecued beef brisket in your brain to remind you, that’s what I’m going to do.
And I’ll say one more thing about that beef brisket, or statute, before we forge ahead. Barbecue champions like Myron Mixon (“the winningest man in barbecue”) don’t shy away from cooking beef brisket. In fact, they take pride in it because it’s difficult. That’s what embracing a “desirable difficulty” is about. There is no getting around that reading and interpreting a statute requires a considerable amount of effort but, in the end, it could make you (and your client) a winner.
If you would like to read this episode, get suggestions for further reading, or to request individual coaching with me, please visit my website at www.lawschoolplaybook.com.
As always, do your best, and I’ll be rooting for you!
References and Further Reading
Sarah Landrum, Law School Success: Tips for Reading Statutes (Feb. 13, 2015). https://lawschoolacademicsuccess.com/2015/02/03/statutory-interpretation/.
Ruth Ann McKinney, Reading Like a Lawyer: Time-Saving Strategies for Reading Law Like an Expert 219–233 (2d ed. 2012).
Deborah Maranville, Teaching Statute Reading Bsics in a First Year Doctrinal Course: A “Handout” and Suggested Exercises, Law Teacher, Inst. For Law. Sch. Teaching 18–20 (Spring 2013).
Ira Nathenson, How to Read a Rule or Statute (Sept. 12, 2014). https://www.nathenson.org/courses/civpro/resources/how-to-read-a-rule-or-statute/.
Andrea Park, Guy Fieri on kale salads, barbeque and if he’ll change his signature look, CBS News (Aug. 8, 2016). https://www.cbsnews.com/news/guy-fieri-on-kale-salads-barbecue-and-if-hell-change-his-signature-look/.