Other Law Commons^™

The Fourteenth Rule, R. Lawrence Dessem

Faculty Publications

Thirteen Rules for Taking Law Exams is vintage Phillips perhaps most significantly because of its wit. Rather than writing his essay in a straightforward manner, Professor Phillips satirized the common mistakes that are so prevalent in law school examination answers. Professor Phillips' first rule (“never spell correctly any word which is central to the content of the course”) is, in part, justified because such errors “weaken the teacher's resistance so that he will more readily accept greater errors to come.