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.