Need a letter of recommendation?*

For Whom I will Write Letters:  

Actually, it is clearer for whom I will not write letters.

If you did poorly in my class (B- or worse).  It is better to get a letter from someone else than a mediocre one from me.  This should be obvious, but I will simply not write a letter if you did worse than a B.
Those who need instant responses (see below).  Writing letters of recommendation is only one part of my job--I simply cannot drop everything else that I am doing to write a letter.  Since most programs want the letters to evaluate the student's maturity and organizational ability, asking or demanding an instant letter is probably not a good idea.

One other note: markets have shifted so choosing law school or graduate school should only be the decision of someone with a passionate interest and very high ability.  Other folks will be wasting time and money, as neither option is a good way to delay entry into the job market.

Conditions To Which You Agree

1. You will complete fully all factual parts of any required forms (there are limits to this for web-based forms, of course).

2. You will provide me with a typed list of 3-5 adjectives or adjectival phrases that capture some of your distinctive strengths, specifically those that I've seen and that you think THEY want to hear about.

3. For each of these "strengths," you also will provide me with a brief anecdote that illustrates that particular strength; this example also should be something I observed in our work together (or plausibly could have observed).

7. You will email me a heads-up email, alerting me to the need to get your letters out/

By the way and just in case the above conditions sound burdensome, this is an effort at both burden-sharing and efficiency.  The less time I have to spend on administrivia, the more care I can take writing a decent letter. 

  Please let me know what happens with your applications.  The information is useful for the next generation, plus I am curious about what happens.

*  Much of the text above was lifted from Prof. Paul Dawson's website.  One of my big regrets from my Oberlin experience was not taking any of his classes.