For LAWR students, a brainy, zany race

The occasion was the inaugural Amazing Race competition in the Legal Analysis, Writing and Research program. LAWR instructors Prof. Pamela Newell and Prof. Farina Barth ’17 hit teams of students from their sections with a series of challenges, from serious to silly, with real prizes on the line.

Among the five three-person teams competing, the winners—first-year students Lily Busler, Madison Van Althuis and Olivia Sheldon—finished the race in the shortest time. The prizes included gift cards, textbooks, even a dedicated law library study carrel, and of course bragging rights among their fellow 1Ls.

The optional competition came on the heels of the bridge academic term, which is a particularly intense time for LAWR students, and partly it was a way to let off some January steam. “The 1Ls are unique because during bridge, they only take LAWR and Research Lab,” Barth says. “Our class is particularly intense in January, and it meets three days a week. Our hope was to sample all the skills they would learn through the yearlong class and make it fun for the students.

“They came on a Friday when they wouldn’t otherwise have class, so the students who signed up did it because they wanted to. I get how stressful it is being a 1L, and this was a way to practice outside of the classroom and have a little fun as well.”

“It ended up being really fun,” Newell says. “We got some really great feedback from the students.”

In addition to exercising some of the legal skills they’ve been learning, the goal was to give students a chance to work in teams, under time pressure. “Studies have shown that students learn by challenging themselves, and competitions allow them to do that,” Newell says. “When they’re out in practice, they’ll be working with teams of lawyers—law is collaborative. And competition is fun! When the students have fun, they retain information.”

The Amazing Race, patterned after the longtime CBS reality show, took place entirely within Room 107, a large O’Brian Hall lecture hall. The students collaborated to complete legal writing tasks, such as revising a poorly written brief, putting together an argument in Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion structure and completing a citation quiz. That was leavened with Yahtzee, the classic dice game; Simon, the electronic memory game; and 3-D wooden puzzles that had to be assembled. (Competitors hated the puzzles, Newell says.) Upper-class Writing Fellows helped by timing the competition.

The idea for the event arose after LAWR faculty went to a legal writing conference in Indianapolis last summer. One law school had done a similar competition based on an escape room, and Newell read about it in an issue of The Second Draft, a publication of the Legal Writing Institute. She serves on the editorial board of the publication and plans to write about the Amazing Race for it. And the faculty is hoping to make this an annual event for LAWR students.

Among the winning team, morale was high after their victory. “It was fun being able to practice my skills and collaborate with my friends,” Busler says. “Seeing our teamwork result in a win was truly rewarding, and I am very proud about what we accomplished!”

Added Van Althuis: “The Amazing Race was a great opportunity to practice our Bluebook skills in a fun but competitive setting. It was a fun way to collaborate with friends and also show support for a program created by our LAWR professors, who have taught us so much.”

And Sheldon says, “The Amazing Race allowed me to compete, learn and have a fun few hours with some friends! It was a nice break from reading and studying, while also fine-tuning my skills in citations and legal writing. I appreciated the opportunity to participate in the first year of the program!”

In addition to the law school, sponsors for the Amazing Race included Carolina Academic Press, Aspen Publishing and LexisNexis.