Lawstu Cold Call Prep

When to use

Reach for this the night before class when you are on-call or fear you might be. You feed in the assigned cases (and your briefs); the skill role-plays the professor's escalating questions so you rehearse aloud instead of hoping.

Not for: answering for you in real time during class, or replacing the reading. It rehearses your understanding — it will not manufacture answers to a case you have not read. Not for exam-style issue drills (see lawstu-irac-practice) or building the semester outline (see lawstu-outline-builder).

Method

1. Load the assignment. List each case and its role in the sequence (why did the professor pair these?). Decision point: if you cannot state the theme connecting the cases, that theme is the likely cold-call spine.
2. Predict the opening. Cold calls usually start "State the facts" or "What is the holding?" — rehearse a 30-second clean recitation.
3. Build the escalation ladder. Each answer invites a harder follow-up: facts → holding → reasoning → "why?" → hypothetical variation → policy. Draft the next question after every answer.
4. Prep hypo variations. Change one fact and re-argue. Professors probe the boundary of the rule, not its center.
5. Rehearse aloud, timed. Answer in complete but tight sentences; practice "I'm not certain, but the rule suggests…" for when you are stuck.
6. Flag your two weakest cases for a second pass.

Example

Case on consideration. Ladder: "Facts?" → "Holding?" → "Why isn't past consideration enough?" → "Suppose the promise came before the act — same result?" → "What policy does the consideration doctrine protect?" You rehearse each rung so the pivot to the hypo does not blindside you.

Pitfalls

• Memorizing facts but not the why — professors live in the reasoning.
• Freezing on the fact-variation hypo; always have a "here's how I'd reason it" move.
• Reading verbatim from your brief instead of speaking; it shows.
• Over-preparing case one, ignoring the case they actually call.

Output format

Class + date | on-call: yes/likely
Per case:
  30s facts recitation
  Holding (one sentence)
  Escalation ladder: Q1 → Q2 → Q3 → hypo → policy
  Weak spot + fix
"Stuck" fallback line:

Reference

• Case-brief format feeds this directly (lawstu-case-brief); a good brief is a cold-call script.
• Socratic method: the professor tests the rule's boundary via hypotheticals — expect fact variations, not recall (lawstu-socratic-drill).
• IRAC underlies strong oral answers: name the issue, state the rule, apply, conclude — even out loud.