1/2 Way to the Bar

Today was the last final of my third semester of law school and I am now half done! (Provided I haven't failed, etc., etc.) Due to the extremely large gap between my last post and this current post you can probably sense that it was a really busy semester.

The classes: Constitutional Law I, Evidence, Criminal Law, Legal Profession, and Information Privacy Law. ConLaw this semester was about governmental powers; next semester we get to talk about the fun things, individual rights. Evidence was a course about the rules used to determine what people get to use to prove their cases in the courtroom. Criminal Law was a highly theoretical and somewhat philosophical class. Why is crime criminal? Why do we punish? How do we punish? Who decides what actually constitutes a crime and why? Legal Profession was the class that, in theory, helps us know what the rules are to be ethical lawyers and forewarns us of the mental health and substance abuse problems we are going to be facing in future years. Information Privacy Law was my one elective and was a survey about where a right to privacy and the law are in conflict (HIPAA, FCRA, FISA, etc.). The professors' nickname for the third semester is "Murderer's Row" and not because we learn about murder, but because they try to bury us in the law.

The jobs: Teaching Assistant and Admissions Ambassador. The good news is that the ABA has rather stringent requirements about how much law students get to work on top of their course loads, and so my school has interpreted that requirement as people who are full time students (12 credit hours or more) are not allowed to work/volunteer for more than 15 hours a week. This is a good thing for the insane people like myself who delude him/herself into believing that s/he can carry 14 hours of graduate courses and work like s/he did in undergrad for 30+ hours a week. It can't be done without creating a nervous breakdown, especially since those same people are the ones with membership and officer responsibilities in half the clubs at the school. However, I really enjoyed both of the jobs I did this semester. The TA position required me to attend Contracts class with the section of 1Ls who have the professor I had last year. Then I held sessions a couple of times a month to try to help them develop the skills necessary for law school success and break the Contracts stuff down into a slightly less confusing form. The position with the Admissions office was pretty awesome because I got to hang out in the office for a few hours a week and answer the phone; however, I somehow managed to get the shift during which people rarely called, so it was paid study time.

The clubs: Black Law Students Association, Animal Law Group, Hispanic Law Student Association, Ag & Environmental Law, and a couple more. For the most part, I pay dues so I can show up to the meetings and eat food without feeling guilty about it. But, I am the secretary of BLSA and the founding president of the Animal Law Group. That's right, I started a group; I found a number of people who love and care about animal welfare like I do and we banded together to form the Animal Law Group. We've also affiliated with the Animal Legal Defense Fund so that we can tap into a national network of groups that are interested in the effect of law on animals. I've been really impressed with this organization (ALDF) and foresee myself being a member for quite a while to come. I attended the 15th Annual Animal Law Conference the first weekend in October and attended a series of panels over a wide variety of animal law issues. The conference was in Portland, Oregon at the Lewis & Clark Law School. Their campus is absolutely gorgeous and I was introduced to a bunch of really tasty vegan recipes as well as having an opportunity to meet a bunch of law students from all over the country with a passion for law and animals. I also met several lawyers who have been at the forefront of the Animal Law movement and have opened doors and created opportunities so that I get to go to the faculty and say, "I want to do this" and only one or two will tell me, "You're out of your mind."

The cats: Tigger and Mango. Tigger and I have been together for over a decade now and he is a grumpy, old man of a cat that for some inexplicable reason adores me. Mango is my newest addition to the family menagerie, although he is here with me in Oklahoma City. Mango used to belong to one of my classmates, but she got married and didn't believe the fiance when he told her that she would have to get rid of her cat. So I now belong to Mango, a large long-haired pale orange cat. I believe that he is part Maine Coon Cat, that is how big he is and how long his hair is. Tigger has finally, begrudgingly, agreed that Mango can stay and will even cuddle with him provided it is really, really cold outside.

Next Semester: I will be taking 14 hours, although hopefully I'll get credit for fifteen. The extra credit hour is dependent upon getting accepted to join Law Review. To get accepted I have to write a case comment of publishable quality (I've already met the threshold requirement of having a class rank in above a certain point). A case comment is a baby-scholarly article that is supposed to show the Board of Editors that you a) can write and b) can use the Blue Book, i.e. the incredibly convoluted citation system that lawyers use because lawyers aren't happy unless things are complicated. I say baby-scholarly because the bulk of the paper is laying the historical foundation leading up to the case being discussed and then telling what happened in the case in slightly less verbose terms than the court that wrote the opinion. Then you get to either agree or disagree with the court's decision provided you can find somebody else who already said what you want to say. It's a lot of research and summarization and not a great deal of original thought (well, not a great deal of original thought that is actually going to be used in the paper proper).

Hopefully, I'll be able to post a little more regularly next semester. I don't know if the semester is going to be as busy as this last one, but it probably will be, especially if I do make the Law Review. I've also started a third job that I'll be working into my 15 hours of allowed work per week.

Grades won't be out until next semester (late January/early February), but I'm not super-worried. However, I am a neurotic law-student so there is a little bit of concern for my performance and fear of failure that I'll be living with until they come out.

Things to do Before Law School

The thing that I most wish I had learned is how to use all the fancy do-hickeys in Microsoft Office, specifically Word and Outlook. I'm an excellent typist, but I've learned that I knew jack-squat about how Word (and Outlook) could make my life easier. {My law school provides a license for Office with enrollment so I'm using it; however, if you are a WordPerfect aficionado by all means learn how to do the tasks I'm mentioning using Perfect.}

Seriously, if you're going to law school spend some time in the preceding year doing the tutorials that come with Word.

• Learn how to make and use section and page breaks effectively and efficiently.
• Learn how to format headers and footers.
• Learn the differences between footnoting and endnoting and the way to format each.
• Learn how to use styles for consistent formatting of text.
• Learn how to use the Outline view for organizing a document before you begin writing it.
• Learn how to make a table of contents and a table of authorities.

If you do only one of these, learn the ToC and ToA because it'll make your life easier when you write your appellate brief in the second semester, and you won't really have the time to learn how to do it then. The next highest priority should be using the Outline View because it will be really useful for exam prep as well as organizing your writing assignments before you draft them.

The next thing I wish I'd spent some of my time doing prior to law school is brushing up on grammar and writing mechanics. I've heard that our Legal Research and Writing department is a tad bit more draconian about grammar than other schools may be, but with good reason. Poor writing skills and an inability to observe the rules of "good" writing will follow a law student for his or her entire career unless bad habits are corrected at the outset. The faculty has regaled us with stories of judges taking poorly written briefs, bloodying them up with red pen by correcting mistakes, and posting them on the bulletein boards in their chambers. I don't know if there is a shred of truth to those stories, but having worked in a doctor's office, I know I was certainly tempted to do similar things with badly drafted letters from insurance companies.

Finally, I wish I'd revisited civics. In conjunction with reviewing civics, I wish I'd spend a little bit of time learning about the judicial branch and the Supreme Court. I hadn't thought about any of these things since junior high, and they are kind of important background information for learning about the law. This doesn't have to be a super-intensive review; watching the School house rock videos should be sufficient, or there is the ever-present Wikipedia to brush up with.

I think people who read the Harry Potter Books, especially Book 5, have a fair idea of what awaits them in law school, except for the whole magic thing of course.

1. The insane course-load and schedule Hogwarts students (especially 5th years) have is similar to that of a first year law student.


• They have Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures and Divination (if you're Hermione Granger there is also Ancient Runes).
  


• A first year law student has torts, civil procedure, contracts, legal research and writing, criminal procedure (or law) and property.


• They have Quidditch practice, Gobstones club, visits to Hogsmeade, and Dumbledore's Army.


• A first year law student may join organizations such as BLSA, FedSoc, ACS, SPELA, etc.


2. The extreme importance of exams.


• They get year-end exams, and O.W.L.S. and N.E.W.T.S.


• A law student gets semester-end exams and then there is the dreaded bar.


3. The Socratic Method.


• Remember Harry's first day of potions with Professor Snape? "What's a bezoar Mr. Potter?"...


• The first day of law school in civil procedure -- "Can you tell me who is the plaintiff and who is the defendant?"...


4. The slightly sadistic faculty


• Professor Snape


• Your Contracts Professor...whomever s/he may be


5. The annoying classmate(s) who just seem to get it without any discernible extra effort...


• Hermione Granger


• ??? You know who it is in your section

To sum it up shortly and sweetly: Potions = Contracts

Herding Ducks

I had been asked to help out at graduation and pass out programs or something, but when I got there they asked me to herd the bagpipers and drummers. I had to give them cues and stuff. It was fun. One of the pipers said the job I was doing was "like herding ducks, difficult, but not as bad as herding cats."

As I was talking with one of the pipers before the ceremony, he made the observation that there must be a lot more women graduating than in the past. The reason he made that statement was because everytime there was a crying baby and he looked at it, the baby was being carried by a man. However, during the ceremony I only saw women holding the fussy babies, so I don't know if that is a good indicator to say that there are more women graduating from law school than in prior years.

This was the first graduation that I've been to where the graduates haven't been forced to walk in alphabetical order. Instead each of the graduates filled out a card with his or her name and gave it to the Dean while going up the stairs and then the name on the card was read as the graduate was being hooded. It was really cool because the graduates were able to group up according to their friendships and relationships. There were several married couples where the spouses had different last names, but were able to walk together and receive their hoods and diplomas one after another.

1/3 of the way to the bar

So it's official-- I have completed one year of law school. It flew by and yet was so long. Today was my last final of my first year. I have absolutely no clue how I did on any of my exams and I don't believe I'm going to find out until the end of June. Well except for the one old-fashioned professor who still posts his grades by exam number in the library, and his exam was multiple choice so I would hope that is a quick turn-around on the grades.

This semester's exams went better because I didn't stress out to the point of being physically ill on any of them; however, I definitely felt that all of my preparation was not 100% sufficient. I'm hoping that's a good place to be.

Anyhow, it's been an amazing year and a fabulous semester, but I just don't know what to do with myself since I don't have an official assignment until August. I'll probably be a nerd and read some law review articles for fun. Hopefully, I'll have performed well enough this semester that I receive an invitation to attempt to write on to the law review, but if not, there is nothing that prevents me from attempting to write a law review note (aka student comment) to publish elsewhere.

I'm trying to convince my school to add a course in Animal Law (not Animal Rights, but Animal Law, i.e. the intersection of Animals with all the various existing substantive topics in law). It would probably be beneficial to be able to approach the administration and demonstrate that this is an existing, current and growing field of law that is not necessarily filled with a bunch of nut-jobs. I have a meeting with the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs tomorrow, whoops make that today, to make the initial pitch and find out all the lovely dirty specifics for making the Animal Law course a reality.

For the summer I've arranged to visit friends in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend and then I'll be working for the Doctor's office for June and July, except for a couple of weekends where I need to do things in OKC. I'm also going to see if there are any legal profession related volunteering opportunities available in Georgetown.

I'll head back to OKC in August because I am one of the admissions ambassadors. I'm really excited about that because I'll get to be one of the "sage and experienced" 2Ls who helps hold the incoming class members' hands as they try to adjust to the craziness that is law school. However, if I can get a head start on my reading that would be fabulous because I'll be taking Constitutional Law, Evidence, Legal Profession, Criminal Law, & Information Privacy Law next semester. All of which promise to be heavy reading courses and all of which have exams. Yikes!

One year down and two to go!

Expressio unius est exclusio alterius

Law school doesn't exactly steal your soul, but it is very close thing.

As an example: A few nights ago my friend and I went to a bar because it was a weeknight and the only place where the kitchen was still open at 10:30 at night (we had gotten out of class at 9:00 and were waiting in the hopes that another friend could join us). We're reading the menu at this bar, specifically the burger section, and all of the burgers except for two list the meat and all the extra goodies that come with that particular burger. One of the two that didn't list the meat sounded good, but if I'm going to have a hamburger I want there to be meat on it. So I ask my friend if she thought it was a meatless burger since they hadn't actually listed a meat patty as part of the sandwich composition. She made a remark to the effect that she had been wondering the same thing. Whatever, I end up having the Reuben and she has something else.

Tonight, my friend, another friend, and I went to the same bar (this was the other friend's first time there) and she did the same thing. However, she wanted a burger badly enough that she clarified with the waitress to make sure that the burger was going to come with a meat patty.

So you may be asking yourself, what the heck does this have to do with law school? Before law school I would have assumed the burger came with meat and ordered it without a second thought. Thanks to law school I am now applying canons of statutory interpretation to frigging dinner menus, but at least I'm not alone.

Expressio unius est exclusio alterius--

The express mention of one thing excludes all other. So, because the ingredients such as the onions, the jalapenos and the cheese were mentioned but the meat was not, all three of us came to the conclusion that meat would not be included. Because that is so counter-intuitive to the general nature of hamburger-mongering we were all confused. Then once we identified why we did that we had a good laugh, but law school is consuming.Tune in next time for Law School funnies...

Who knew property could be so much fun?

So, as I've mentioned before, my property professor is "constitutionally incapable" of maintaining formality. One of the effects of this is that there are frequent outbursts of uncontrolled laughter from the professor (about some things) and then from us the students (usually about other things). Occasionally, we manage to get it all together and laugh at the same things.

This past week during our Tuesday class the professor called on one of the evening students to solve a problem in our casebook concerning the rule against perpetuities. For my non-(lawyer/law-student) friends the rule against perpetuities is an evil, evil creation meant to confound first-year law students; and the confoundment {did I just make up a word?} lasts for the rest perpetuity for many lawyers--or at least until 21 years after his/her death.

The "call" of the question required that the student advise a client on the issue brought up in the problem. The student who was one of the marginally confused came up with this great answer chock-full of legal mumbo jumbo that would sound really impressive to someone who didn't know diddly-squat and is instantly identifiable as complete BS to those who do know squat.

The professor borrowed a phrase from our contracts professor, "it is kind of surreal when you string legal terms together that have no relation to one another." At this point the professor goes into a Looney Tunes, Bugs Bunny meets "Who's on first?" meets Black's Law Dictionary performance. It was really funny, but unfortunately my writing skills (and my memory) are not sufficient to rise to the challenge of recreating it for you. Let me just say that I will never have the proper meaning of mens rea in my head from here on out.

So once the professor finished he returned to the student and asked him again to answer the question. The student, without missing a beat throws out another unrelated phrase that is extremely relevant to the doctrine of consideration (which is what we are studying in contracts) but of absolutely no importance to the rule against perpetuities. "Touché," says the professor and then moves on to another student.

* * *

Learning in law school requires the use of a series of scenarios or hypotheticals to firmly establish all of the nuances of the rules and the way that they apply to given situations. It is amazingly difficult to come up with sound hypos on the fly. The professors have a hard time doing it, and in theory they know what they are talking about, so when first-year students try it there are some very funny outcomes.

On Thursday one of the majorly confused gave us all a good laugh. We thankfully moved on from (i.e. abandoned) the rule against perpetuities and began studying co-tenancies in all their glorious varieties. One of these varieties is the tenancy by the entirety which can only arise between a married couple. The variety we were spending the most time on was the joint tenancy which has all of the elements of a tenancy in the entirety, minus the marriage. Some of us were having a difficult time understanding when a joint tenancy would become a tenants in common situation and how the transmutation didn't necessarily affect all of the people who had been part of the joint tenancy.

In this case, my classmate inadvertantly proposed to the professor; he meant to create a hypo with a joint tenancy and inadvertantly said tenancy by the entirety. So, the state of Oklahoma now recognizes gay marriage, and Mrs. property professor has a husband that is scarred for the rest of his teaching career.

Stay tuned for more nerdy law school fun!

Pop Culture and Law School part II

In property tonight we were learning about estates and fun inheritance rules and stuff like that. For one of the problems, which has been titled the "spendthrift" problem, the professor decides to flesh out the hypo. The problem in the book read something like, "O conveys Blackacre to 'A and his heirs.' B, A's son, is a spendthrift who accumulates massive amounts of debt. Can B or his creditors touch Blackacre to honor B's debt?"

The professor's version goes, "So O conveys Blackacre to 'A and his heirs' and B, A's son, runs up huge amounts a debt living a proflagate life. B is dating Paris Hilton and trying to impress her... God knows why, and so what I want to know is can B use Blackacre to continue the farce?"

The extended question in the book was, "A decides to sell Blackacre and tour the world, does B have any recourse against A?"

The professor's version, "So A decides to look up Nichole Ritchie and join her jet-setting crowd, oh and he calls Brittany Spears too, and is there anything that B can do to stop him?"

I have to appreciate people who can appreciate how ridiculous Paris Hilton and Nichole Ritchie's fame is. Why the heck are they famous? What's worse...even though I don't understand why they are famous, I have a hard time avoiding activities that contribute to that fame such as clicking on the links to articles about them and laughing at jokes about them. It's 2:00am; that probably explains why this is such a "philisophical" post. I think I better quit before the rambling gets any worse.

Good Night and adieu!

Pop Culture and Law School

The new semester has started and I'm doing great. Instead of the "light" 13 credit hour courseload of last semester I now have a "moderate" load of 15 hours. The maximum load you can take is 16 hours; after that you have to get the special approval of the Dean and pay extra money. However, I am the person who regularly took 18-21 hours as an undergrad. I can handle it, no sweat. Oh, and I'm also volunteering at the public defender's office for a couple of hours every week.

For my classes this semester I've got the sequels to Civil Procedure, Contracts and Legal Research and Writing. Torts has been replaced by Property and then the additional course is Criminal Procedure.

Once again I have to wax enthusiastic about my professors. I am so blessed to have such wonderful and talented professors. My sequel courses have the same professors and I still love all three of them, even after receiving my grades from last semester. =) The two new professors are GREAT! My property professor is a first year professor like my CivPro professor and he is another funny rabid democrat who is "constitutionally incapable" of formality. Thus, his class includes plenty of pop culture references. Apparently he is a "Lost" or "24" addict...I don't know which because I don't watch either show. The references I've caught include "Beavis & Butthead", "Scooby-Doo", and sundry others that escape me right at this point in time. However, I am sad to say that he missed a great opportunity for a Monty Python reference. Bummer. Then my Criminal Procedure prof seems to have practiced law in virtually every state. Okay, so he's only practiced in four, but that seems like a lot. I think he is extremely funny and should take his act on the road, but stand-ups aren't typically subtle or nuanced in their jokes like he is. However, he is a Saturday Night Live watcher and regularly includes applicable references to appropriate skits in class.

Today my CivPro professor referenced The Godfather part II; unfortunately, I don't believe I've ever seen it so it went over my head. Last semester he was prone to boy band bashing (we had a case where one of the party's names was Hanson) and referencing R&B groups from the early nineties.

I have to say that I enjoy the references to pop culture because it makes class a) more fun, b) humanizes the talking head at the front of the classroom, and c) injects a little of the otherwise unknown outside world into my daily existence.

As the last part of this update our grades came out this week. On my personal scale of acceptable/adequate (average), satisfactory (slightly above average), happy (above average) & ecstatic (freakishly high) I'm pleased to report that I'm borderline satisfied/happy. For my classmates, please know that the scale only has a loose correlation to grade points; it includes external factors such as goal-setting, study habits and overall well-being. It would have been straight happy except for my contracts grade, but I goofed somewhere. I'll get the exam back in about three weeks so I can find out exactly where I goofed.

I hope all of you out there are doing well. Please if you have the time drop me a line on how your life is going because I need reminders that there is a world out there beyond Oklahoma City.

Peace out ya'll!