Knowledge Management for Law Students
Not being able to make sense out of your notes shows down the learning.
I. Opening: The Problem (Validation)
Opening: The Problem
By week 3 of my 1L year, I had 47 Word documents scattered across three folders.1 I couldn’t find last week’s Contracts notes when I needed them for this week’s assignment. I had files named “Torts Notes.docx,” “Torts Notes 2.docx,” “Torts ACTUAL notes.docx,” and my personal favorite, “Torts notes FINAL for real this time.docx.”
The breaking point came during my first round of midterm prep. I spent two hours—two hours I didn’t have—just finding and opening files, trying to remember whether we covered assault in week 3 or week 4 of Torts. My “system” (if you can call random Word documents a system) had devolved into full-text search of my entire Documents folder, hoping the right phrase would surface the right file.
I knew there had to be a better way. I’d seen classmates with color-coded notebooks that seemed to magically produce the right case brief at the right moment. I’d heard whispers about apps with names like “second brain” and “networked thought.” But here’s the problem: I didn’t have time to become a productivity expert while drowning in casework, reading assignments, and the general chaos of 1L year.
As an uber-geek, this was embarrassing. I _should_ have had this figured out. I’m the person who experiments with technology so others don’t have to reinvent the wheel (that’s literally why I write this newsletter). However, there’s a difference between knowing better systems exist and actually having the time and mental bandwidth to implement one when you’re buried under three case readings due tomorrow.
So I did what any reasonable law student would do: I tested everything I could find during fall break when I had exactly 48 hours before the chaos resumed.
Here’s what I tested, why most systems failed for law school specifically, and the simple setup that actually works. More importantly, I’ll show you how to implement it in 30 minutes this weekend—not “when you have time” (you never will), not “after you migrate all your old notes” (you don’t need to), but right now, starting with one class, so you can stop the Word document chaos before finals.
The answer, for me, was Obsidian. Not because it’s perfect. Not because it has every feature. Because it was simple enough to start immediately, powerful enough to handle connections across classes, and free enough for a student budget.
Let me show you how I got there.
II. What I Tried (And Why Each Failed)
A. Word Documents (Where I Started)
What it was:
This is where most of us start - just saving notes as .docx files. My system (if you can call it that) was a mix of approaches that evolved messily over time. I started with folders by class, which seemed logical. Then I’d have files like “Week 3 Notes.docx” inside the Torts folder. But then I’d also create “Consideration.docx” because that concept came up multiple times. And sometimes I’d just name a file by date: “9-15 Crim Law.docx.”
The inconsistency wasn’t intentional - it was survival. I was creating whatever file structure let me get to the next class.
Why it failed:
The fundamental problem: Word documents can’t talk to each other.
I had “Torts Week 3.docx” but when the professor mentioned assault in week 7, I couldn’t remember if we covered that in week 3 or week 4. I’d have to open files sequentially, scanning for the concept. There was no way to see how last week’s discussion of intent connected to this week’s discussion of battery. No way to link when the concept of “reasonable person” appeared in both Torts and Criminal Law.
Documents just piled up. By mid-semester I had separate files for “Intent - Torts.docx” and “Intent - Crim Law.docx” but no way to see them side-by-side or understand how they related.
The breaking point:
Studying for my first Torts midterm. The professor asked us to “synthesize the semester’s cases around the concept of intent.”
I spent 2 hours just finding and opening files, copying relevant passages into a new “Midterm Study Guide.docx” document. Then I had to manually re-read everything to see the connections because the structure of separate files had obscured the relationships between concepts.
As an uber-geek, this felt like failure. I knew computers were supposed to make organization easier, not harder.
B. OneNote (The Obvious Next Step)
Why I tried it:
OneNote came free with my Office 365 student subscription, which meant it cost me nothing but time to try. I saw other students using it - in the library, you’d see those distinctive OneNote notebooks on screens everywhere. It promised organization with notebooks, sections, and pages. A hierarchy. Structure. Exactly what my Word document chaos lacked.
What I tested:
I created a notebook for each class: “Criminal Law,” “Torts,” “Civil Procedure.” Inside each notebook, I made sections for “Class Notes,” “Case Briefs,” and “Concepts.” Inside each section, pages for individual days or cases.
On paper, this made perfect sense. This should have worked.
Why it didn’t stick:
Two problems killed it for me.
First: the interface felt cluttered and overwhelming. There were tabs everywhere, a ribbon full of formatting options I didn’t need, and the infinite canvas approach meant I was constantly fighting with page layout instead of just writing notes. I’d click to take notes and end up accidentally drawing or moving text boxes. It felt like I was fighting the system instead of the system working for me.
Second - and this was the real killer: I still couldn’t link concepts effectively across notebooks. When I wanted to connect the concept of “intent” from my Criminal Law notebook to the same concept in my Torts notebook, there was no easy way to do it. OneNote has linking features, but they’re buried and clunky. The notebook/section/page hierarchy actively discouraged the cross-connections I needed.
I was still stuck in separate containers. Just prettier ones.
Time invested: About a week before I gave up and went back to Word documents (which at least didn’t pretend to be connected when they weren’t).
C. Logseq (The Outliner Approach)
Why I tried it:
By this point, I’d started reading productivity blogs during study breaks (procrastination disguised as optimization - classic law student move). I kept seeing mentions of “networked thought” and “bidirectional linking.” Logseq came up repeatedly.
Three things attracted me: the outliner structure seemed perfect for case briefing (facts, issue, holding, reasoning - all discrete bullets), it was free and open-source (student budget), and unlike OneNote, it was explicitly designed for linking concepts together.
What I liked:
The linking concept made complete sense. Type `[[Intent]]` and you create a connection. Every note could reference every other note. The graph view showed how everything connected - exactly what I needed for seeing relationships between cases and concepts across classes.
The outliner format worked beautifully for some tasks. Case briefs as nested bullets felt natural: main case name, then indented facts, issue, holding.
Why it ultimately failed for law school:
Two problems I didn’t anticipate.
First: Logseq’s daily notes approach didn’t fit law school organization. Logseq wants you to start each day with a daily note, then link from there. But I didn’t think in days - I thought in classes and concepts. I needed “Criminal Law - September 15” not “September 15” with a bullet for each class. Fighting against the daily-first paradigm added friction every time I opened the app.
Second: the very structure that worked for case briefs became difficult when I wanted to write longer-form synthesis notes or explanations. Everything was bullets. Nested bullets within bullets within bullets. When I tried to write a synthesis of “how intent works across Torts and Criminal Law,” the outliner format felt constraining.
The barrier to entry was too high when I had three readings due tomorrow. I spent more time structuring bullets than capturing ideas.
Key insight:
This taught me I needed something with a lower learning curve but still allowed connections. I needed “Word document simplicity” plus “Logseq linking power” without the outliner orthodoxy or daily-notes-first philosophy.
III. Why Obsidian Won
After three failed attempts, I’d learned something valuable: I knew what I actually needed (even if I didn’t know where to find it).
The decision criteria I learned from failing:
Must be simple to start - can’t spend hours learning the system
Must allow connections - need to link concepts across classes
Must be searchable - find notes without remembering filenames
Must work with my brain*- write in simple markdown, not fight an interface
Must be free - student budget (this is non-negotiable)
When I found Obsidian, I was skeptical. Another productivity tool? But I gave it one evening to prove itself against these five criteria.
How Obsidian met each criterion:
1. Simple to start
You can literally just start typing. It’s markdown files.
When you first open Obsidian, you create a “vault” (which is just a fancy word for “folder where your notes live”). Then you create a note. Then you type. That’s it. No tutorial required. No forced structure about how to organize notebooks or pages or sections. You organize as you go - or don’t organize at all at first.
I was taking actual class notes in it within 5 minutes of downloading it.
After the OneNote interface clutter and the Logseq outliner learning curve, this felt like opening Word - except without Word’s limitations.
2. Connections that actually work
This is where Obsidian does what Logseq promised but with less friction.
Double bracket linking: type `[[Case Name]]` anywhere and you’ve created a link to that case (or created a new note for it if it doesn’t exist yet). Want to link to a concept? Type `[[intent]]`. Want to see everywhere you’ve mentioned a concept? Click that link.
The graph view shows you how concepts connect visually. When I typed `[[intent]]` in my Torts notes, I could see it linked back to my Criminal Law notes. When I linked cases that dealt with similar issues, the graph showed me the relationships I’d been trying to track manually in Word.
Unlike OneNote’s buried linking features, this is the primary way you work in Obsidian. The tool actively encourages the connections I needed.
3. Actually searchable
Search finds text across all notes instantly. Not just titles - the actual content of every note.
I can search by tags: `#consideration` finds every place I used that tag. I can search for exact phrases. I can search for “intent AND battery” to find notes that discuss both concepts.
Instead of remembering “which file was that in?” or “what did I name that note?”, I just search the concept. The search is fast enough that I use it constantly - it’s become my primary navigation method.
4. Works with how I think
Obsidian uses plain text markdown. Markdown is just text with simple formatting: `**bold**` for bold, `# Heading` for headings, `- bullet` for bullets. You can learn the basics in 5 minutes and ignore the advanced features.
This matters more than it seems. I’m not fighting a proprietary structure. I’m not constrained to an outliner format. I can write case briefs as structured text, class notes as flowing paragraphs, and synthesis notes as whatever format makes sense for that content.
If Obsidian disappeared tomorrow, I’d still have readable text files I could open in any text editor. They’re not locked in some proprietary format. (This matters when you’re building a knowledge base you’ll need for bar prep years from now.)
5. Free
Core features are completely free. Everything I’ve described - linking, search, graph view, markdown files - costs nothing.
There’s paid sync ($8/month) if you want to sync between devices using Obsidian’s servers. But you don’t need it - you can put your vault folder in OneDrive or Google Drive for free automatic sync. (That’s what I do.)
For a student budget, free isn’t just nice - it’s non-negotiable. This tool would need to save me dozens of hours to justify even a small subscription cost, and I wasn’t willing to bet on that up front.
The combination is what made it work: simple enough to start immediately, powerful enough to grow with my needs, and free enough that trying it cost me nothing but an evening.
IV. My Simple Setup (The 30-Minute Version)
Before we start: You don’t need to set this up perfectly. You don’t need plugins (yet). You don’t need to migrate all your old notes or create an elaborate tagging taxonomy or design the perfect folder structure.
You need to start taking notes in a system that connects concepts. That’s it.
You can refine this later. For now, let’s just stop the Word document chaos.
Step 1: Download and Install (5 minutes)
Go to [obsidian.md](https://obsidian.md) and download the app. It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
When you first open Obsidian, it’ll ask you to create a “vault.” Don’t let the fancy terminology intimidate you—a vault is just a folder where your notes live. That’s it. It’s not encrypted by default (despite the name), it’s not locked away somewhere mysterious. It’s literally just a folder on your computer.
**Important decision:** Create your vault inside OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox. This gives you automatic backup and sync across devices for free. I put mine at `OneDrive/Law School Notes/` so it’s always backed up and available on both my laptop and desktop.
Create the vault. You now have Obsidian installed. Told you this was quick.
Step 2: Create Your Folder Structure (5 minutes)
Inside your vault, create these four folders:
```
Law School/
├── Classes/
├── Cases/
├── Concepts/
└── Weekly Reviews/
```You can do this in Obsidian’s file explorer (on the left side) or just create them as regular folders in File Explorer/Finder—remember, these are just normal folders.
**Why this structure:**
- **Classes folder:** This is where daily notes from each class go. Inside here, I have subfolders for “Criminal Law,” “Torts,” “Civil Procedure,” etc. Each class gets its own subfolder.
- **Cases folder:** Individual case briefs that you’ll link to from your class notes.
- **Concepts folder:** Cross-cutting ideas that appear in multiple classes (jurisdiction, negligence, consideration, intent).
- **Weekly Reviews folder:** End-of-week synthesis notes where you connect dots across classes. (We’ll talk about this workflow in a future article, but create the folder now.)
That’s your structure. Simple, expandable, not overthought.
Step 3: Start With One Class (10 minutes)
Pick one class—whichever one you have next. We’re going to create one note using a simple template.
Create a new note in your Criminal Law subfolder (or whatever class you picked). Name it something like “Criminal Law - September 22” (use today’s date).
Here’s the template I use for class notes:
```markdown
# Criminal Law - September 22
## Topics Covered
-
## Key Cases
- [[Case Name]] - one-line holding
## Concepts
- #intent/criminal
- #premeditation
## Questions for Office Hours
-
## Connections
- This relates to [[previous note]] because...
```What’s happening here:
- The `[[Case Name]]` syntax creates a link. When you type `[[` Obsidian will show you existing notes to link to, or you can just type a new name and it’ll create the link anyway (the note doesn’t have to exist yet).
- The `#tags` make concepts searchable. I use a hierarchy: `#intent/criminal` and `#intent/torts` so I can search broadly (`#intent`) or specifically (`#intent/criminal`).
- The Questions section is my favorite part—I always think of questions during class but forget them by office hours. Now I just search `#questions` later.
Save this as a template (we’ll set up the Templates plugin in Section VI so you can insert it with a hotkey, but for now, just copy-paste it when you create a new class note).
Step 4: Create One Case Brief (5 minutes)
In your Cases folder, create a note for one case. Any case. One you’re reading today is perfect.
Here’s my case brief template:
```markdown
# Garratt v. Dailey
**Course:** [[Torts]]
**Date:** February 3, 1955
**Tags:** #case-brief #intent/torts #battery
## Facts
[What happened - keep it brief]
## Issue
[The legal question the court had to answer]
## Holding
[The court’s answer - the rule]
\\## Reasoning
[Why the court ruled this way]
## Notes
- Connects to [[another case]] because...
- Professor emphasized [whatever they emphasized in class]
- This is the leading case on [concept]
```Notice what we’re doing:
- The course is a `[[link]]` so you can click it and see all cases from Torts.
- Tags make this searchable: `#case-brief` finds all your case briefs. `#intent/torts` finds all cases about intent in Torts.
- The Notes section is where you add connections to other cases or concepts—this is where the magic happens.
Step 5: Use Minimal Tags (3 minutes)
Here’s my entire tagging system:
Structural tags:
`#case-brief` - for all case briefs
`#concept-note` - for synthesis/concept notes
`#class-notes` - for daily class notes
Content tags (examples):
`#consideration`
`#hearsay`
`#jurisdiction`
`#intent/criminal`
`#intent/torts`
That’s it. I don’t have an elaborate taxonomy. I don’t have tags for priority or status or reading difficulty or anything else. Just structural tags to filter by note type, and content tags to find concepts.
The rule: Don’t overthink tags. You can always add more later. If you accidentally type `#considersation` instead of `#consideration`, search will still find it. This is a notes system, not a filing system—it’s okay to be messy as long as it’s searchable.
Step 6: Try It for One Week (2 minutes to commit)
Here’s your commitment: Use this setup for ONE class for ONE week.
Not all your classes. Not all your old notes. Just one class, starting with the next lecture, for seven days.
Don’t migrate your old notes yet. Don’t reorganize everything. Don’t try to perfectly tag everything. Just take notes the way I’ve shown you for one week.
After one week, you’ll know if this works for your brain. If it does, expand to more classes. If it doesn’t, you’ve lost one week of notes (which you can still read—they’re just markdown text files).
But I’m betting that by day three, you’ll start seeing why linking concepts changes everything.
V. What You’ll Notice After Week 1
After one week of using this system, here’s what will actually be different—and what won’t be perfect yet. Let’s be realistic.
What will be better:
You’ll be able to find this week’s notes. This sounds obvious, but it’s not trivial. When your professor says “remember what we discussed on Tuesday about proximate cause,” you won’t have to mentally scan through file names or open three different documents. You’ll just search “proximate cause” and find it instantly, with context.
When the professor mentions a case from two weeks ago, you can type `[[Case Name]]` in today’s notes and instantly create a connection. Click that link later and you’re reading the original case brief you wrote. No more “where did I write about that case?”
Search actually works across everything. Type “consideration” in the search bar and you’ll see every mention across all your notes—class notes, case briefs, concept notes. You can see at a glance which classes have covered it and what contexts it appeared in.
You’ll start seeing connections in the graph view. This one surprises people. After a week of linking cases and concepts, open the graph view (there’s an icon on the left sidebar). You’ll see a visual web of how your notes connect. Cases that discuss similar concepts cluster together. Concepts that appear across multiple classes show up as connection hubs. It’s not just cool to look at—it actually reveals patterns you might have missed. (Though fair warning: don’t spend an hour staring at the graph when you should be reading for class. I’ve done this. It’s productive procrastination at its finest.)
What won’t be perfect yet:
Your old notes are still in Word. That’s completely fine. Don’t migrate them unless you actually need them. If you need a specific old note, migrate it then. Otherwise, let it sit. You’re building forward, not backward.
You won’t have every concept perfectly tagged. You’ll tag some things `#intent` and other things `#intent/torts` and occasionally forget to tag something altogether. This is fine. Search still works. Tags are helpful, not mandatory.
You’ll forget to use double brackets sometimes. You’ll write “see Garratt case” instead of `[[Garratt v. Dailey]]` and then realize later you missed an opportunity to link. That’s okay. You can add links retroactively if it matters, or just remember for next time.
Your folder structure might feel slightly wrong. Maybe you want a “Outlines” folder you didn’t create. Maybe “Concepts” should actually be called “Themes.” Adjust it. These are just folders. Move things around. The beauty of plain text files is they’re flexible.
The point:
You’re building a system incrementally, not rebuilding everything at once.
After one week, you won’t have a perfect knowledge base. You’ll have one week of organized, connected, searchable notes instead of scattered Word files. That’s the progress that matters.
By finals, you’ll have an entire semester of connected notes. By the end of 1L year, you’ll have a knowledge base that links concepts across all your classes—exactly the kind of cross-cutting synthesis law school exams actually test.
Future you, studying for the bar exam, will thank present you for starting now.
VI. The Two Plugins I Actually Use
I said minimal plugins at the beginning. I meant it. The Obsidian community has created hundreds of plugins that do everything from tracking your daily habits to generating AI summaries to turning your notes into a personal website. Ignore all of them for now.
These are the only two plugins worth adding in your first month:
1. Calendar Plugin (Community Plugin)
**What it does:** Adds a visual calendar to your sidebar. Click any date and it opens (or creates) a note for that day.
**Why it helps:** Quick navigation to daily class notes. When you think “what did we cover last Tuesday?” you click Tuesday on the calendar instead of scrolling through file names. It’s a small quality-of-life improvement that compounds when you’re taking daily notes across multiple classes.
How to install:
Go to Settings (gear icon in the bottom left)
Click “Community plugins” in the left sidebar
Click “Browse” next to “Community plugins”
Search for “Calendar”
Click “Install,” then “Enable”
A calendar will appear in your right sidebar. That’s it. No configuration needed (though you can customize it if you want—I don’t).
2. Templater Plugin (Community Plugin)
What it does: Lets you insert pre-written templates into notes with a hotkey or command.
**Why it helps:** Remember those class note and case brief templates from Section IV? Instead of copying and pasting them every time, you can insert them instantly. This removes friction—when you sit down to take notes, you’re typing content within 5 seconds instead of setting up structure.
How to set up:
Create a new folder in your vault called “Templates”
Create a note called “Class Note Template” and paste the class note template from Section IV
Create a note called “Case Brief Template” and paste the case brief template from Section IV
Go to Settings → Core plugins → Enable “Templates”
Go to Settings → Templates → Set “Template folder location” to your Templates folder
(Optional) Set a hotkey: Settings → Hotkeys → Search “Templates: Insert template” → Set to whatever you want (I use Ctrl+T)
Now when you create a new note and want to insert a template, either use your hotkey or open the command palette (Ctrl+P on Windows, Cmd+P on Mac) and type “insert template.”
Everything else:
There are plugins for graph analysis, for daily notes automation, for Zettelkasten workflows, for spaced repetition flashcards, for syncing with external services. Some of them are genuinely useful.
None of them matter until you have the basic habit working.
If you find yourself thinking “I wish Obsidian could...” after a month of using it, then search for a plugin. But don’t start there. Plugin hunting is a form of productive procrastination—you feel like you’re optimizing your system when you’re actually avoiding the work of building notes.
Get the note-taking habit working first. Optimize later.
VII. Closing: What This Actually Solves
Remember those 47 Word documents from the opening? The two hours spent hunting for notes during midterm prep? The feeling that computers were supposed to make organization easier, not harder?
Here’s what you’ll have after one semester with this system:
Organized notes you can actually find. Not filed away in some perfect taxonomy you’ll never maintain. Just searchable, linked notes that surface when you need them. Type a concept, find every mention. Click a case name, see all the notes that reference it. This is the baseline functionality that Word documents failed to provide.
Connections between concepts across classes. Law school isn’t organized the way legal thinking works. Classes are siloed—Torts on Tuesday, Criminal Law on Thursday—but concepts like intent and causation appear everywhere. Your notes can reflect the actual structure of legal reasoning, not just the structure of your class schedule. When you study for an exam that asks you to “synthesize” (which they all do), you’ll have a web of connections already built instead of having to construct them under time pressure.
A searchable knowledge base for bar prep. This is the long game, but it matters. Three years from now, when you’re studying for the bar, you won’t be starting from scratch. You’ll have three years of notes, already connected, already searchable. Your 1L understanding of intent will link to your 2L understanding of mens rea will link to your 3L criminal procedure notes. Future you will thank present you.
A system that works with your brain instead of against it. You’re not fighting with page layouts or outliner orthodoxy or proprietary file formats. You’re writing in plain text with simple links. The system gets out of your way and lets you think.
What this doesn’t solve:
This won’t make law school easy. Nothing will. The readings are still dense. The concepts are still difficult. The Socratic method is still stressful (at least it was for me).
You still have to do the work—read the cases, understand the concepts, engage with the material. Obsidian doesn’t think for you. It just gets out of your way so you can think more clearly.
You’ll still have moments where you can’t find something, where you forgot to tag a note, where you wish you’d linked two concepts together but didn’t. This system reduces friction; it doesn’t eliminate it.
But here’s what changes:
You’ll spend less time hunting for notes and more time actually learning. You’ll spend less time fighting with software and more time engaging with ideas. You’ll build a knowledge base that grows more valuable every week instead of a pile of documents that grows more chaotic.
That’s what made it worth it for me.
Try it for one week with one class.
You don’t have to migrate everything. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to become a productivity expert.
Just stop drowning in Word documents.
Download Obsidian this weekend. Set up the basic structure. Take notes for one class for one week. See if linking concepts changes how you think about the material.
If it works, you’ll know by day three. If it doesn’t, you’ve lost a week and gained some perspective on what you actually need.
But I’m betting that seven days from now, you’ll be linking your second class into the system.
What’s next: In the next article, I’ll walk through my weekly review process—how I use that “Weekly Reviews” folder we created to synthesize concepts across classes and actually prepare for exams instead of cramming. We may have a couple of new plugins to try out and some tips on working with PDF files.
Questions? Reply to this email or drop a comment. I read everything, and I’ll answer questions about setup, workflows, or anything else about making Obsidian work for law school.
Yes, I counted. As an uber-geek, I needed to know exactly how bad it was. The answer: very bad.