Outline Tips

An outline is only good if it helps you answer law school exam questions. Anything else is a
waste of time. Dont just resummarize material without thinking about how to use it.
Regular outline:
I. Offer
a. Must be definite. Must create power of acceptance in the offeree.
b. Lucy v. Zehmer. Selling farm on back of napkin. Joke? Objective manifestation or
subjective intent?
c. Leonard v. Pepsico, Inc. Harrier jet case. Reasonable or joke?
d. Longergan v. Scolnick (and so on incessantly listing cases with a phrase to
remember them by . . . )

Consider instead:

A continuum:
Offer: A NOT an offer: a
communication that communication thats too
indicates to its Case vague or ambiguous to
recipient a willingness Case constitute an offer; one
A
to be bound to the B Case that a reasonable person
terms that it expresses in the shoes of the offeree
which is complete
C would understand to be a
enough and specific joke; one that lacks
enough that the DEFINITE AND MATERIAL
recipient can manifest Offer Not Offer TERMS necessary to
acceptance by merely create the ability of the
saying "I accept": offeree to accept by
communication must merely saying I accept.
have DEFINITE AND
MATERIAL TERMS that
are clear enough that
reasonable offeree
would understand the
communication to be
an offer and not an
invitation to make an
offer.
A set of flow charts:
A series of questions:
A contract requires an offer, acceptance, and consideration to be binding.
I. Was there an offer?
a. Did the purported offer make any sort of communication specific
to the offeree?
i. If no, is there any chance that the purported offer is that
rare type of communication to a nonspecific offeree that is
either a reward or a first-come first-served advertisement
for a specific good?
b. Did the offeror intend to be bound?
i. If not subjectively, then was there nonetheless objective
manifestation of intent?
c. Were the terms definite?
d. (etc.)
II. Was there acceptance?

And so on . . . .
A timeline of Courts/case development (for Con Law):

Use exam questions as the end goal. Work backwards to your outline.
1. Presidents of Ship Overhaul Company (SOC) and Delight Cruise Lines (DCL) orally agree
that SOC will do repairs on a ship of DCL; that the job must be completed in two years;
and that DCL will pay SOC $2 million for the work. The day after the agreement, before
SOC has taken any step to perform, DCL calls and says: Weve received a better offer
from another company. Forget we ever spoke. Does SOC have a viable legal claim
against DCL?

2. Joe and Don are cousins and were very good friends. Joe told Don that Joe was looking at
a used XXZ motorcycle and it was the best looking bike that Joe had ever seen. Joe
explained that the XXZ motorcycles were not made any more and they were rapidly
becoming collector bikes. He told Don that the only problem was that the seller, Sam,
was asking too much for the bike. Joe explained that he had offered $10,000 for the bike
but the seller was asking $12,000. Joe was convinced that if the seller received an offer
substantially lower than Joe's offer that the seller would come down in price. Joe asked
Don to make an $8,000 offer for the bike. Joe was very reluctant to do so. To make Don
change his mind, Joe emphasized how helpful Joe had been for Don. Joe mentioned just
how helpful it had been for Joe not to mention to Don's wife the fact that Don was
having an extra-marital affair. Feeling that he had little choice, Don agreed to make the
offer after getting assurances from Joe that Joe would be the one buying the bike. Don
put in the mail the following signed writing addressed to Sam: I hereby agree to buy the
XXZ motorcycle you have for sale. I will pay no more than $8,000. While viewing the bike
several days later, Joe noticed transmission fluid leaking from the bike. Knowing that the
bike was being sold without any warranties because it was being sold "as is" as declared
by a large sign on the bike, Joe told Sam that Joe was no longer interested in buying the
bike. Disturbed by the loss of a potential buyer, Sam placed in the mail an "acceptance"
of Don's $8,000 "offer". The next day, Joe told Don about the bike's problem and that he,
Joe, was not going to buy the bike. Don immediately called up Sam and told Sam that
Don was revoking his offer. Don comes to you and asks you to solve his problems.
Discuss who has what rights against whom and why.