How to Take Law School Notes You'll Actually Use
Law-school note-taking is not court-reporting. The goal is not a record of what the professor said — it's raw material for the outline you'll build over the semester. Notes that don't serve outlining are notes you should have skipped.
Why verbatim notes hurt you
Multiple studies of college students taking laptop versus longhand notes find that laptop note-takers who capture verbatim retain less than longhand note-takers who paraphrase. The reason isn't the medium — it's the paraphrasing. Verbatim capture bypasses the encoding step that puts information into long-term memory. In law school, where you re-derive rules on exams, that encoding is exactly what you need.
The two-column method
Split each page into a narrow left column (about a third) and a wide right column. The right column is your running notes during class. The left column stays blank until after class, when you review and write, in your own words, the rule statement or key question each right-column passage supports. The left column is what feeds your outline.
The single highest-yield 10 minutes in law school. Fill the left column immediately after class ends — the encoding is still fresh, and you'll never re-read raw notes anyway.
What to capture in the right column
- Rule statements the professor emphasizes — the exact language they use, especially if they say 'the rule is'.
- Hypotheticals and their outcomes. Hypos are the professor previewing exam patterns.
- Corrections to your own understanding. When the professor tells you or a classmate 'no, actually the rule is…' — write that down.
- Explicit exam signals. 'This will be on the exam' is not a joke. 'This won't be on the exam' is also not a joke.
What to skip
- Case facts the professor is reciting from the brief. You already have them in your brief. Look at your brief, not your notes app.
- Full statements of law that appear in your outline or textbook. Reference, don't retranscribe.
- Classmate answers, unless the professor engages with them substantively.
- Everything the professor said before class started. Not a note; a distraction.
Where AI transcription helps (and where it doesn't)
AI transcription is genuinely useful for one thing: producing a searchable record of the class you can query later ('what did she say about foreseeability that Tuesday?'). It is worse than useless as a note-taking substitute, because it removes the encoding step and produces a wall of text no one re-reads. Use it as a safety net for missed sessions or as a searchable archive — not as your primary notes. Check your professor's recording policy first; many schools require permission.
Handwritten vs typed
Handwritten notes force paraphrasing (you can't write fast enough not to). Typed notes make integration with outlines and search easier. The two-column method works either way; the honest answer is that whichever one you'll actually keep up with is the right one.
Where Scriba fits in
Scriba's class notes page defaults to the two-column layout with the left column pre-formatted for rule statements. Notes link directly to briefs and to outline entries by course, so the 10-minute post-class review is a series of drags, not a re-transcription. AI transcription is available per session (opt-in, per professor's policy) and lives alongside — not instead of — your paraphrased notes.
Frequently asked
Two to four pages of right-column notes for a 50-minute class. Longer and you're transcribing; much shorter and you're daydreaming.
Skim the left column only, and only for the class where the material connects. Re-reading everything before every class is a diminishing return.
Best of both worlds if you already write comfortably with a stylus. Most 1Ls don't — try it for a week before committing.
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