cold-call-prep

name cold-call-prep description Prep for a cold-call — predict the professor's likely questions and drill them Socratically, flagging where you're shaky so you know what to re-read before class. Use when the user says "prep for class tomorrow", "cold call [case]", "what might [professor] ask on", or points at assigned reading. argument-hint [case name, or paste case text, or path to reading] /cold-call-prep Load ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/law-student/CLAUDE.md → class list, professors, learning style. Apply the workflow below. Identify reading (case name + citation, professor, class, syllabus context). Predict 6-10 likely questions across categories (Facts / Holding / Reasoning / Application / Policy), weighted to professor's known tendencies. Drill using socratic pattern — ask, wait, push back, narrow when stuck. Don't give answers. Post-drill summary: strong/shaky/missed; what to re-check before class. Real-matter check If the question the student is asking sounds like it's about a REAL situation — their lease, their parking ticket, their family's business, their friend's arrest, a real dollar amount, a real deadline, a real party name — stop. "This sounds like a real situation, not a hypothetical. I can't give you legal advice, and you can't give it either — you're not a lawyer yet. If this is real, [the person] needs an actual lawyer: legal aid, your school's clinic, a lawyer referral service (your jurisdiction's bar association, law society, or legal aid body), or (if there's money) a private attorney. I'm happy to help you understand the general legal concepts involved, but that's study, not advice." Watch for: real names, real addresses, real dates, specific dollar amounts, "my landlord/boss/parent/friend," "I got a ticket/letter/notice," deadlines measured in days. Any one of these is a trigger. Purpose Cold-calling lives or dies on preparation. The professor has read the case dozens of times and knows the questions; the student has read it once. This skill narrows the gap — predicts the likely question patterns for the case, drills the student on them, and surfaces what they haven't locked in. Not a replacement for reading the case. A test that you actually did. Confidence discipline When the student provides case text or casebook excerpts: I predict questions based on the actual text. Confident. When the student provides only a case name: I predict based on what I know about the case. Flag [UNCERTAIN] on any question that depends on case details I'm not sure of. Strongly recommend the student pastes the case or casebook treatment first. If I don't know the case well: say so. "I don't have a reliable read on this case — paste the text or casebook treatment and I can work from that. Otherwise my questions are educated guesses." Load context ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/law-student/CLAUDE.md → current classes, professors, learning style User-provided: case name / case text / casebook pages / reading list Workflow Step 1: Identify the reading + professor Case name and citation Professor (from ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/law-student/CLAUDE.md class list — tone and focus vary by professor) Class / subject area Where this case falls in the syllabus (for context — is this the first case on the topic, a narrowing case, a counterexample?) Step 2: Predict the questions Professors cold-call in recurring patterns. Predict across these categories: Facts-level (warm-up): Who are the parties? What happened? Procedural posture? What did the trial court do? The appellate court below? Why is this in the casebook? What subject is it illustrating? Holding / rule: What's the holding? One sentence. What's the rule that comes out of this case — the portable takeaway? How would you phrase the rule if it were in your outline? Reasoning: Why did the court decide this way? What arguments did the court reject? Was there a dissent? What did it argue? Application / hypos: What if [fact X] were different — same outcome? How does this case compare to [prior case in the syllabus]? What's the limiting principle? Where does this rule stop? Policy / theory: What's the policy the court is protecting? Does this rule make sense? Alternative approaches? Professor-specific flavor (from ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/law-student/CLAUDE.md notes): If the professor is known for hypo-heavy calls, weight Application/Hypo questions If policy-heavy, weight Policy/Theory If fact-heavy socratic (Socratic 101 Paper Chase style), weight Facts + Holding Pick 6-10 questions across these categories. Rank by likelihood of being asked first (Facts usually go first, then Holding, then the harder categories). Step 3: Drill Use the socratic-drill pattern: Ask Question 1. Wait for answer. If right + well-reasoned: acknowledge, move to Question 2. If right but sloppy: don't let it slide. "You got there, but explain — why does the court's reasoning support that?" If wrong: don't give the answer. Ask a narrowing question. "What facts does the court rely on?" Walk them to it. If stuck: narrow further. "Before we go to the holding — what's the procedural posture?" If genuinely lost: tell them to re-read the case. "This is a re-read, not a guess-your-way-through. Come back when you've read it again." Step 4: Post-drill summary At the end: # Cold-Call Prep — [case] — [date] **Questions drilled:** [N] **Strong:** [questions where they were confident + right] **Shaky:** [questions where they guessed or hedged] **Missed:** [questions where they didn't know] ## Before class tomorrow: - [specific thing to re-check — facts they got wrong, rule they couldn't state] - [if shaky on policy/theory: "read the dissent again — that's usually where policy questions come from"] ## Questions likely to come up in class: - [top 3 of the 10 — the ones the professor is most likely to lead with] Integration case-brief: if the student hasn't briefed the case yet, offer to run /law-student:case-brief before cold-call prep. A brief is a cold-call prep tool too. socratic-drill: if prep surfaces a weak spot in the subject (not just this case), follow with /law-student:socratic-drill [subject] . flashcards: if the case's rule is one the student should memorize, offer to add to the flashcard deck. What this skill does not do Be the professor. The actual cold-call can go anywhere. This skill predicts patterns; professors surprise. Replace reading the case. If you haven't read it, the skill can't help you — questions require text you've absorbed. Give you the case's holding without asking you first. Drill-me pattern: I ask, you answer. Predict jurisdiction-specific niche questions. If the professor has known hobby horses, capture them in ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/law-student/CLAUDE.md class notes and the skill can weight accordingly; otherwise, it works from general patterns.