July 2008 Study Abroad Germany

Here's the link to the blog I created for my study abroad experiences in Germany. Someday I may go in and caption the pictures. http://oculawfreiburg2008.blogspot.com/

June Post Placeholder

Alright, so I made the resolution to post at least once a month during 2008. However, given that I'm in Spain and I'm doing so many cool things, my drafted post is turning unwieldly. So, to keep my resolution, I'm putting this placeholder in place for a forth-coming post about SELECTED spanish adventures.

I could probably do a post a day for Spain I'm having so many wonderful experiences, learning so much, and meeting so many cool people.

Realistically, I doubt the placeholder will be removed before the last week in August. Additionally, I'll probably do a second placeholder for the month of July when I'll be studying in Germany.

UPDATE: Instead, I'll just link to the blog I created specifically for study abroad in Spain. http://oculawgranada2008.blogspot.com/

2/3 of the way to the bar...

I took my last two **crossed fingers** finals as a 2L today.

The first was a final for my Trademark and Unfair competition class at 9 am. I hate mornings, and I am enrolled in the funky alternative program that lets me be a full-time student but mostly attend night classes. I spent the last two days trying to reprogram my normal 2am-10am sleep schedule so that I could have optimal brain performance from 9 am to noon. The good news is that I made it to the final with plenty of time to spare and I attempted to answer every question on the exam. The bad news is I'm pretty sure I stunk up 26% of the exam (three part exam -- part I worth 50 points, part II worth 26 points, and part III worth 24 points).

This professor is fun and I really like taking his classes. We spend lots of class time in squishy policy land which makes the class go by quickly and we get to dream up fun and goofy hypotheticals. Unfortunately, squishy policy land finds its way into the final exams, and it is hard, for me at least, to write policy essays under pressure. So part II of the exam went something like this (this is highly paraphrased...it was almost a page long prompt):

Jeff and Mutt are friends who like to discuss trademark and unfair competition law. Jeff thinks that Trademark law is more likely to be used to protect seller goodwill. Mutt takes the opposite view and thinks that Trademark law protects consumers even if it uses seller goodwill rationales as a means to those ends.

Using two distinct doctrines that we covered this semester, write an essay either in support of Jeff or in support of Mutt. You should also identify and rebut, refute, or distinguish another doctrine or precedent that seems to undermine your position.

I participated in most of the delightful and wonderful squishy policy discussions all semester long. I could've sworn that I knew this stuff backwards and forwards... but confronted with a writing prompt it was like the cat got my keys (I use ExamSoft).

At 6 p.m. I had my Texas Civil Procedure final. The good news is that there was a portion of our grade that is based on participation and homework assignments, so I know I'm going to pass the class regardless of my performance on the exam. It wasn't that it was a hard exam, but my brain kind of said, "okay, I'm done." I quit at the two-hour mark when I realized that I was completely making stuff up.

Before today I had two other finals and a seminar paper that I turned in the Friday before exams started. I think that ConLaw in the hands of this particular professor is my nemesis. I went to ask a question before the exam because I was confused and needed help, and before I asked my entire question he stopped me and said, "Stop right there, you are scaring the hell out of me..." Unfortunately, the blog does not allow me to adequately convey the wide-eyed raised-eyebrow look of fright on his face. Needless to say, my confidence going into that exam was not as high as it could have otherwise been. But, that is the other class where the grade isn't based solely on the final. Maybe my participation in that class was sufficient enough that I'll pass even if my exam answer was as scary as my question.

Corporations on the other hand, is my friend. I wish I could feel that good about every final I take. If I were an undergrad, it would be an "A++++" exam; however, given that this is law school and the professor has a reputation as a really difficult grader, God only knows.

However, barring any truly unfortunate exam mishaps ::cough:: CON LAW ::cough:: I am done with being a 2L. My June blog post will be from Spain and my July blog post will be from Germany.

Time Management and Law School

Because I'm a budgeting nerd I just sat down and figured out how, ideally, my time is spent during the semester.

Number of hours in a week: 168

Hours spent sleeping: 63 (nine hours a night, because a well-rested mind is an efficient mind, or something like that, and I need a little more sleep than the average person)

Hours spent in class: 17 (one hour for every credit I carry)

Hours spent preparing for class and doing homework: 51 (three times the number of hours I spend in class)

Hours spent working/volunteering: 15 (the upper-limit allowed by the ABA)

Hours spent on student organization stuff every week: 5 (there is a little give and take here, but not much)

Remaining hours: 17

So, I have 17 hours every week for commuting to and from school, bathing, doing my grocery shopping and preparing food, hanging out with family and friends, watching tv & movies, checking my email and snail mail, having that quiet "me" hour, exercising, attending church, reading for fun and whatever else I need to do that doesn't fall within one of the above listed categories.

Spring Break and Summer Plans

March is one of my favorite months, because when you are a student it is the month of Spring Break. Unfortunately, this year (and last year, truth be told) my break was eaten up by school work. I typed up the notes in three of the four classes I will have a final exam in. I did all the financial aid paperwork for next year. I worked on my student note, a lot. The first draft was due the Monday after break.

However, in spite of all this productivity I did manage some down time. I went to the zoo with my boyfriend one day. I love zoos because it is so cool to see so many different animals in one place. I also hate zoos because it is so heartbreaking to see all of the animals forced to live in enclosures that are the barest approximations of their natural environment, and inevitably, too small.

For the second half of break I went home and spent some time with my parents. I worked on my student note. I fell in love with Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer. I worked on my note. I visited with the doctor that I worked for before beginning law school. I had maintenance done on my car. I vegged with my parents and watched a couple of movies. I worked on my student note (and no, I did not forget that I've mentioned it twice already in this paragraph alone).

One of my tasks over spring break was to fill out the application and the financial aid paperwork to study abroad over the summer. I will be spending a month in Granada, Spain learning about Islamic law, and comparative anti-trust law, and comparative constitutional/free speech law. Comparative simply means we will be looking at the constitution/laws of country "x" and comparing it with the constitution/laws of country "y". One of the countries will most likely be the United States, but I'm not going to place a bet on that. After the term in Spain I will be spending a month in Freiburg, Germany learning about trial advocacy and international human rights.

This will be my first time outside of the United States and I'm simultaneously excited and nervous about it. On the one hand, I'm going to two industrialized nations so it's not like I'm going to give up all the comforts of home, just air conditioning. On the other hand, they are two nations with histories that dwarf the US's by thousands of years and things are just different there.

I'll get eight credit hours for my two summer terms abroad. I'll also get to learn about things that I'm interested in (Islamic Law and Anti-trust) that are not offered at my school. I'll also get exposed to law faculty beyond the small number at my school. As a final perk of study abroad, I'll only have to take twelve hours each semester next year and maybe be a little bit less insane than I've been this year.

The First Time I've Been Quoted in Print

http://www.journalrecord.com/article.cfm?recid=85899

OCU student group helps promote Animal Law

by Marie Price
The Journal Record

February 5, 2008

OKLAHOMA CITY – To some, a pet is a pet is a pet.

In the eyes of the law, traditionally Rover and Fluffy have been treated as property in court cases. That attitude is changing, however, with specialized legal practices, animal law courses and organizations sprouting up around the country.

The growth seems to be fed by factors such as states beefing up animal cruelty laws over the past decade or so, a trend among owners to consider pets more like family members – some to the point of leaving them trust funds – public outrage over the thousands of pets abandoned after Hurricane Katrina and, more recently, litigation over the reported deaths of many cats and dogs from tainted pet food, among others.

About 90 law schools, none in Oklahoma, offer animal law courses.

The article continues with all the quotes of the things I said; if you know me, they won't surprise you, and if you don't, read the article in full and you'll get a better idea of who I am. It's a really nice little article and Marie did a wonderful job. I hope it will lead to more Oklahoma lawyers who care about animal welfare coming out of the woodwork.

Because I Should Be Doing Homework; Lots of Homework

If anything, this semester is even crazier than last semester. But, my new year's resolution was to post at least once a month for every month of the year, and it's January 30th. So I'm posting to meet the January quota. Because if I tried to wait until tomorrow, it just wouldn't happen and I would have broken the resolution, in spite of a sincere effort to make it an achievable resolution.

Last semester's grades: I don't want to talk about them, other than to say that I now know why the professor's nicknamed that semester "murderer's row." The grade distributions for Legal Profession, Criminal Law/Procedure (the course depends on whether you're a "day" student or a "sunset" student), Evidence and Constitutional Law were all a little bit sucky.

This semester's classes:

Awesome! Well, mostly. I'm taking an overload of 17 credit hours, and that is driving me a little bit crazy, even though I'm really only doing the work for 16 of them because one of them is the credit for the case comment I wrote at the end of last semester and the first part of the break. I made Law Review, and now get academic credit for the paper I wrote to get onto Law Review which is just oober-cool in my opinion (I'm also too lazy to figure out how to get an "u" with an umlaut for web-display).

I'm taking Trademark Law with the same professor who taught Property to my section and Information Privacy Law. His teaching style and my learning style mesh, so the poor man is stuck with me in every class that he teaches, because on top of the educational synergy, he's teaching the courses that I'm interested in; I predict I'll have him for Administrative Law and Intellectual Property next semester.

I've got the same professor for ConLawII that I had for ConLawI, and he's the only person I know, IRL, who can use the word "normative" more than once or twice in a single, 75-minute class period. See the discussion of the word "normative" over at Belle Lettre's Blog. Incidentally, he almost always uses it in contrast to being descriptive, so I guess even though he's a law professor with a bunch of philosophy under his belt, he uses it primarily as if he were a sociologist.

I'm taking Texas Civil Procedure with the same adjunct I had for Legal Profession. He's a pretty cool guy and a good teacher, but I sincerely hope that I perform much better in TCP than I did in Legal Profession. TCP is about 10% of the Texas Bar Exam, and since I do plan on taking the Texas Bar regardless of whether I return to Texas or remain in Oklahoma, I figured I take the class so I wouldn't have to place an undue reliance on the BarBri prep courses.

My school requires all students to take Corporations, so I'm getting it out of the way this semester, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the class. The professor is absolutely outstanding, and is conscientious of the fact that most of her students haven't got the foggiest idea about what goes on in business. She's also got the knack of asking for questions and then waiting long enough for people to actually ask the questions they have. In my experience, in the law school classroom, that is an exceptionally rare ability. Law students, on the whole, have question asking issues, and it takes longer than is comfortable for them to ask them, especially in the class room. On Tuesday we discussed the latest opinion in the Disney litigation that was a result of the Michael Ovitz snafu... yes, that was back in the 90's, and yes, the litigation has just recently ended, more than ten years later. She guided us through a really interesting exploration of both the business issues and the legal issues that arose during that lawsuit and given the subject matter, was able to make a couple of tasteful jokes that help cement the key concepts in the memory.

For my upper-level writing requirement I'm taking a seminar on Firearms Law and Policy... Yes, I'm from Texas. Yes, I'm attending school in Oklahoma. No, I don't own a gun. I have no plans for assuming the responsibility of gun ownership either. But, I'm in the seminar for a variety of reasons, one of which is simply that I trust the professor to tell me if my writing sucks at the end of the term and provide helpful advice for fixing that problem.

My only complaint with the class at this point is that no serious anti-gun proponents chose to take it. The class would be much better if there were at least two of them in there. It's really hard to engage in a critical examination of a topic when virtually everyone in the room shares substantially similar opinions. I'm not a person at either end of the spectrum; I'm kind of in the middle.

I have persuaded my contracts professor to supervise my student note for law review. I'm writing about legal pedagogy and "literacy" in law school. More details will be forthcoming in future posts as well as the claim I will be making and summaries of the supporting evidence I've been able to accumulate for it. But as a preview to those posts I will make the following reading recommendation for anyone who is contemplating graduate school or professional school-- How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren.

That's it as far as the coursework goes, but I've still got jobs and student organizational stuff too. Oh, and I'm moving at the end of February. So, life is going to be crazy, crazy, crazy for the next month (well, seven weeks because that's how long I have to get the student note written).

Until next time, Happy Trails!

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