"The law doesn't care
that you're nervous.
I do."
Margaret Holloway, J.D. — former federal litigator, 14 years at the bar, 8 years coaching pre-law and 1L students to the grades, scores, and confidence they came to law school to earn.
The proof keeps getting louder.
Every student below came in stuck. What changed wasn't their intelligence — it was how they were being coached.
I had taken the LSAT twice and plateaued at 155 — good enough for maybe a third-tier school, not good enough for where I wanted to go. Every prep course I tried gave me more practice tests and the same generic explanations. Margaret was the first person who actually watched me work a logic game and said, "I see exactly where you're losing points — and it's not the rule you think it is." Three sessions in, I understood the flaw in my diagramming. Eight weeks later I sat for the test again.
"She didn't just teach me logic games. She showed me how I was thinking about them wrong — and then fixed it."
First semester I was on academic warning after midterms. My Contracts professor cold-called me in front of sixty people and I froze completely — couldn't even state the holding of a case I'd briefed three times. I found Margaret two weeks before finals. She didn't sugarcoat it: "You know the material. You're panicking before you even open your mouth. We're going to fix that." We did mock cold calls every session. She'd interrupt me, challenge me, push me exactly the way a professor would. Finals I argued both sides of a promissory estoppel question for four minutes straight without breaking.
"Academic warning to law review. That's not an accident. That's eight weeks of work with someone who actually understands what 1L asks of you."
Four attempts. 161, 159, 162, 161. I was beginning to think 162 was my ceiling and I should just accept it. My parents had spent thousands on every brand-name prep course available. I came to Margaret as a last resort before I gave up on Columbia entirely. She spent the first session doing nothing but asking me questions — not about the LSAT, about how I read, how I process conditionals, how I handle time pressure. By session two she'd rebuilt my approach to logical reasoning from the ground up. The fifth time I sat the test, I knew within the first section that something was different.
"Four attempts, four prep courses, one tutor who actually changed my score. The difference was that Margaret treated my brain as the variable, not the material."
Three places students break.
Three ways we fix them.
Stop plateauing. Start diagnosing.
Most students fail to improve because they practice more of the same mistakes. Margaret identifies the specific cognitive pattern breaking your score — then rebuilds it. Logic games, logical reasoning, reading comprehension. All three, from the ground up.
- —Diagnostic session to map exact failure points
- —Custom diagramming system for logic games
- —Timed drilling with real-time feedback
- —Full-test strategy for pacing and triage
The Socratic method is a performance. Learn to perform.
Professors aren't testing whether you read the case. They're testing whether you can think under pressure. Margaret's mock cold calls are indistinguishable from the real thing — because she designed them to be. Contracts, Torts, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law.
Every doctrine, in its proper place.
Con Law is the course where smart students discover that memorizing holdings isn't enough. You need the architecture — the doctrinal framework that lets you argue any fact pattern. Margaret builds that architecture with you, panel by panel.
Sessions are 60 or 90 minutes. Package rates available. All work is one-on-one — no group sessions.
The first session is free.
A 30-minute diagnostic call. You describe where you're stuck. Margaret tells you exactly what's happening and what to do about it. No obligation.
Book a Free Diagnostic Call
Fill this in — Margaret will reach out within 24 hours to confirm your slot.
Free: The Cold-Call Survival Checklist
The exact framework Margaret uses with every 1L client in their first week. What to have in front of you, how to buy time without sounding lost, and the one move that defuses 80% of professor pressure.
- ✓The 4-part case brief structure that answers any cold call
- ✓How to pause without panicking
- ✓What "I don't know" actually sounds like when you do it right
- ✓The issue-spotting shortcut for any fact pattern
14 years in the courtroom. 8 years in the classroom.
Margaret Holloway clerked for the Eastern District of Virginia, litigated federal civil cases for a decade, and has been coaching law students since 2017. She knows exactly what professors are testing for because she's been on both sides of the podium.
For parents: If you're here because your student is struggling and you're not sure they'll ask for help themselves — the diagnostic call is the right first step. It's private, it's free, and it gives you a clear picture of what's actually going on.