cold-call-prep

/law-student-uk:cold-call-prep

1. Load ~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/law-student-uk/CLAUDE.md → module list, lecturers, learning style.
2. Apply the workflow below.
3. Identify reading (case name + OSCOLA citation, lecturer, module, syllabus context).
4. Predict 6-10 likely questions across categories (Facts / Holding / Reasoning / Application / Policy), weighted to lecturer's known tendencies.
5. Drill using Socratic pattern — ask, wait, push back, narrow when stuck. Don't give answers.
6. Post-drill summary: strong/shaky/missed; what to re-check before class.

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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 pound 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 solicitor or barrister yet. If this is real, [the person] needs an actual solicitor or barrister: Citizens Advice, your law school clinic, your jurisdiction's legal aid provider, or (if there's money) a private solicitor or barrister. 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 pound amounts, "my landlord/boss/parent/friend," "I got a letter/notice/claim," deadlines measured in days. Any one of these is a trigger.

Purpose

Cold-calling in UK law seminars lives or dies on preparation. The seminar leader 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/uk-legal-plugins/law-student-uk/CLAUDE.md → current modules, lecturers, learning style
• User-provided: case name / case text / casebook pages / reading list

Workflow

Step 1: Identify the reading + lecturer

• Case name and OSCOLA citation (e.g., Caparo Industries plc v Dickman [1990] 2 AC 605)
• Lecturer (from ~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/law-student-uk/CLAUDE.md module list — tone and focus vary by lecturer)
• Module / 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

Lecturers in UK seminars cold-call in recurring patterns. Predict across these categories:

Facts-level (warm-up):

• Who are the parties? What happened? Procedural posture?
• What did the court below decide? The Court of Appeal? The House of Lords / Supreme Court?
• Why is this in the casebook? What doctrine 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 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?
• What obiter dicta does the case contain?

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?
• Is this case consistent with the previous line of authority?

Policy / theory:

• What's the policy the court is protecting?
• Does this rule make sense? Alternative approaches?
• Does a law journal article (cite one from the module reading list) challenge this approach?

Lecturer-specific flavour (from ~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/law-student-uk/CLAUDE.md notes):

• If the lecturer is known for hypo-heavy sessions, weight Application/Hypo questions
• If policy-heavy, weight Policy/Theory
• If fact-heavy Socratic (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:

1. Ask Question 1. Wait for answer.
2. If right + well-reasoned: acknowledge, move to Question 2.
3. If right but sloppy: don't let it slide. "You got there, but explain — why does the court's reasoning support that?"
4. If wrong: don't give the answer. Ask a narrowing question. "What facts does the court rely on?" Walk them to it.
5. If stuck: narrow further. "Before we go to the holding — what's the procedural posture?"
6. 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 seminar 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"]
- [if shaky on OSCOLA citation: "confirm cite against BAILII: www.bailii.org"]

## Questions likely to come up in seminar:
- [top 3 of the 10 — the ones the lecturer is most likely to lead with]

Integration

• case-brief: if the student hasn't briefed the case yet, offer to run /law-student-uk: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-uk:socratic-drill [subject].
• flashcards: if the case's rule is one the student should memorise, offer to add to the flashcard deck.

What this skill does not do

• Be the lecturer. The actual seminar can go anywhere. This skill predicts patterns; lecturers 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 lecturer has known hobby horses, capture them in ~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/law-student-uk/CLAUDE.md module notes and the skill can weight accordingly; otherwise, it works from general patterns.