Fear & Loathing In December

As of Wednesday night, I have no more reading for any classes this semester. I have one more class remaining where we’ll go through the intricacies of Summary Judgment and a couple of review sessions on Monday and Tuesday and then our first final will be Wednesday. For those who haven’t been to law school, the best way to describe finals is that it’s similar to the scene in that movie “The Paper Chase.” If you haven’t seen it, basically it’s about a guy with really bad 70’s hair (complete with a really bad 70’s ‘stache) who makes it into Harvard Law. Near the end of the movie is a great scene where everyone is cracking under the pressure of preparing for finals. Hotel employees are chased by rabid law students, people are running through the halls of school shouting, and utter chaos is unfolding. In reality, there is no chaos in the halls and if any law students have accosted any hotel employees, we haven’t heard of it. But the outward chaos in the film is a good indication of the inner chaos every first year law student goes through at this time.

Why the big deal? Inexperience for one. None of us have taken a law school exam. We may have taken practice tests, but those usually aren’t graded and they really only show us that law school exam are noting like our undergrad exam. Then there’s fact that, unlike undergrad, law school is competitive. In undergrad, if you get a 95% on the final, you get an A. As Hers pointed out, in law school if everyone else gets a 95% too, that outstanding effort earns you a C. Finally, we all should, in theory at least, be of similar ability. There is no full proof way to evaluate how well an applicant will do in law school, but the best indicator is GPA and LSAT (think SAT for law school wannabes) scores. Everyone here has similar GPAs and LSAT scores meaning we all have an equal shot at success in law school. However, traditionally, we’ll lose about 20 students this semester. Some will drop out, some will simply be asked not to come back. (And if you say no school is going to turn down tuition from a willing student, think again. Albany is trying desperately to improve its ranking among other law schools and one way for it to do that is to raise its bar passage rates. If you’re carrying a D- average, your odds of passing the bar aren’t looking to good and the school would just as soon drop you now to prevent you from dragging the class average down when it comes time to take the bar.)

Now I know some people read this and say that it sounds like I’m stressed and I appreciate the concern. Truth is that I am stressed a bit, but it’s not the ulcer inducing, cold sweets at night kind of stress. It’s the motivating kind of stress that makes you work 12 hours a day to understand “blasted RAP” in hopes that you’ll manage a C or (dare to dream) better on the final.

I now return to my regularly scheduled review of the statute of frauds.

PS-If the typos I've corrected so far are any indication, I should stop blogging after studying all day. At least finals are in the morning.

The double edged sword

Sometimes the curve goes your way, sometimes it does not.

Today was the last day of my lawyering class (well for the semester, anyway). And while we were sitting there basking in the glow of not have to worry about Neumann (our book, which is appropriately named. We look at that book with the same amount of distain Jerry would have towards his overweight mailman. We even refer to it in the same tone. Note to readers: this is a Seinfeld reference, feel free to skip it if you don’t watch the show). Back to my story. As we are sitting there our professor tells us how much she’s enjoyed us, we’ve been a lot of fun, etc. Then she starts to talk about the memo. That’s right, the dreaded memo. The one his and I have been ranting about on this blog. She tells us that this is the best batch of memos she has ever read. Sounds great, right? Nope. The class is graded on a curve, so an A paper last year might easily end up a C- paper this year. I guess I got assigned to the wrong class.

Example of the curve not being such a bad thing: My property class. We have the zaniest property class. While all the other property classes were reviewing this week we STARTED the most confusing and difficult section of our class: The Rule Against Perpetuities, which will be hereinafter referred to as “blasted RAP.” Other classes had weeks to learn this; we had 2 days. That’s fair. Anyway, “blasted RAP” basically states that a conveyance (deed/ will) must be vested, if at all within 21 years of the life in being. Sounds straight forward but with items such as fee simple subject to partial divestment, springing executory interests, contingent remainder subject to partial divestment , the dreaded Rule of Conveniences (which 1) is not in our book, 2) Is not in any of the outside supplements one can buy for the class and 3) NO OTHER CLASS IS LEARNING), precocious toddlers, fertile octogenarians and unborn widows make “blasted RAP” the most mind numbing, curl up in a fetal possession, cold sweat inducing topic that we’ve covered to date. But thanks to the magic of the curve I could get a 5% on the final ( a very real possibility) and still walk away with a C.

In summation:

Curve in lawyering =bad

Curve in property =the only thing that may keep me in law school

We Have A Lot To Be Thankful For . . .

In the interest of law school efficiency (if you're a law student, you'd find that funny or at least mildly amusing), we had our Thanksgiving meal on Friday and it was nothing if not interesting.

It actually all started a few days ago when we noticed the fridge was leaking. So we talked to the manager and he finally sent someone up to fix it on Friday. Then, this afternoon, the turkey cooked a lot faster than we anticipated and, as a result, we were behind on the mashed potatoes, green beans, and gravy. As we were cooking the gravy, we noticed a small problem, the fridge didn't seem to be working. We're talking about a week or two worth of leftovers in the fridge and the soonest the manager said they could get to it was Monday.

The middle of preparing a tasty Thanksgiving meal is not the best time to realize that your fridge isn't working. We postponed the gravy and went down to talk to the manager who eventually agreed to swap our fridge for another. Of course, that meant cleaning out our fridge and postponing dinner even longer while we waited for the new fridge. In the meantime, we're heating up rolls in the microwave and sneaking on mashed potatoes trying to hold off on dinner. Finally, we reached the point where we couldn't wait any longer and we started the green beans and gravy. In the middle of the gravy, of course, the fridge arrived.


Between restocking the new fridge and making gravy, we managed to finish up the meal and eventually got to sit down for a tasty Thanksgiving meal. Of course, by the time we sat down to eat we were exhausted and stayed pretty much catatonic until the Husker game started.



Speaking of the Husker game, I have plenty to be thankful for, but thank God I'm not a Buff's fan. How'd that taste Colorado?

Ahhh, Miller time!

Well, it is 10:30 here and His and I just printed out the final copies of our respective memos. We are now kicking back with a nice refreshing Miller Lite. Life is good.
I know I speak for His when I say this, but if I ever have to read this damn memo again it better be frosty down in Hades.
I for one, could care less if Denita negligently entrusted her little hussie of a daughter with a jetski. And His is tired of writing about biological parents.
We turn our memos in tomorrow and will be celebrating with a nice cold beer with my section. HOLLA SECTION 9!

Have a Happy Turkey Day one and all!

Our First Day Of Law School

It seems so long ago, but if I remember correctly, it went a little something like this . . .

The Memo

It’s all us 1Ls can talk about: the memo. It’s a right of passage and its mere mention brings shivers to upperclassmen. It’s the culmination of our first semester of Introduction to Lawyering and the largest part of our grade in that class. It’s what we’ve spent the better part of a week working on it’s due Tuesday.

So what do you learn in lawyering? No, it’s not all about making cheesy television commercials or figuring out how much an ad on the front of a telephone book costs. We’re given a hypothetical case and we’re expected to progress through the various stages of litigation while learning how to write and think effectively as lawyers. We use the case to walk us through a guided research project (yes, I now know what all this numbers and abbreviations after a case name mean and I might even be able to find the case in one of those official looking books you see behind the DA’s desk in Law and Order) and now we have to take everything we’ve learned and write an objective memo highlighting what we believe is the most effective argument regardless of what side we’re on. In other words, we get to make our best guess about how a court will rule.

In putting together our objective memo, we have to follow a strict formula and we have to properly cite each source according to Bluebook rules. The Bluebook, for those who are not and have not been to law school, is billed as a uniform system of citations. The problem is that the Bluebook is so convoluted and complex that it’s impossible to follow. It seems like each professor has their own interpretations of what the Bluebook requires which I guess is realistic because different courts want you to cite cases in different ways, so it’s all about finding out what’s expected and then ignoring all the rules in the Bluebook that seem to be to the contrary.

At any rate, my memo will be turned in Tuesday and then, as Hers said, it’s off to the bar so we can forget for a little bit about all the outlining we have to do over Thanksgiving break.

Now back to my memo.

Law School Humor

It’s no wonder people hate lawyers. We actually think things like this are funny.

I've been here too long and can not form a coherent thought...you've been warned.

I’ve just spent the last four hours editing out the passive voice in my dreaded memo. So if any of the editors or writers are reading this, please, please have mercy on my horrible writing. I officially apologize to all of our readers for having to sift through my drivel. I had no idea what a horrid writer I really was.

I write good:
Why does a political science degree do such a poor job of preparing you to write?
I know what you’re thinking, what did you learn in political science if not writing. Well, what I learned was simply this: Long sentence and big words equal A. Short sentences and easily deciphered words equal C. I wanted the A so I learned to write with highly complicated (read grammatically WRONG) sentences and highly pretentious words. Law school is about communicating what you must in as few words as possible and with words that are clear and easy to understand. This has been a struggle for me. And most of you who know me, now that I’m not passive about anything in my life. Why do I insist on writing so passively. “Be” verbs why are you so tempting?!

I’m gonna go with she hates us:
Why is my lawyering class the only one to have class this week, and the week after Thanksgiving? Why must she send us an assignment during our Turkey day holiday. Does she not realize that finals are a mere 3 weeks away and we have real classes to study for? Does she hate us? After much meditation I have found the answers to these questions respectively.

1) Because she hates us.
2) Because she wants us to know that she is the true meaning of every holiday.
3) Of course she does, see number 1.
4) Id.

Mixed messages:
I was a star today in property. The girl who sits next to me in property was gone. No one sits on the other side of me. I sit in the front row. I was stranded on an island today, where the professor looks for anything that sets you out from the crowd. Be it a coffee cup, a cub’s sweatshirt or just movement of any kind. I knew that he was going to ride me today so I bit the bullet and volunteered in a class whose mantra is “no good deed goes unpunished”. And I rocked. After my wonderful answer the professor said “I LOVE your answer”. So answer me this… why did he blow me off 2 hours later when I said hi to him in the cafeteria? That hurt.

Sated bliss:
Turkey Day is coming and His and I are excited. We hand in our dreaded memo on Tuesday, then we’re going to party like its 1999. You know, old school with a lot of booze. Please make no attempt to contact us early on Wednesday. We will then be spending all of Wednesday outlining and preparing for finals. Thursday we will be doing the same, except for in the morning when we make pies. Friday we will be celebrating Thanksgiving by cooking the 20lb bird His picked up for us. We’ll be making rolls, mashed potatoes, green beans of some sort to be determined, cranberry compote, pumpkin and pecan pie and probably a nice brandy whip cream. Then we will be watching the HUSKERS lay the smack down on the Buffaloes! After this we will slip into our tryptophan induced slumber. Then its back to outlining and studying and probably some horrific assignment from my lawyering prof.

So that’s what we have in store. Drop us a line sometime and let us know what’s going on in the outside world. PS I refuse to even reread this post, so um, yeah I’m pretty sure it stinks.

I'm not even sure what my name is anymore

We've been at the law school for 13.5 hours (I've been in the library for 11.5 hours) and we are not even close to being ready to leave. With the end of the semster all too quickly approaching his and I are working hard. Hopefully we'll still find time to post but if not we will make it up over the winter break.

Useful tidbits I have picked up along the way:

1) You do not have heirs if you are alive. End of story.

2) Laches is a doctrinal nightmare.

3) it is imperitive that all aspiring attorneys acquire an acute appreciation of ABA rule 3.1 (there is a point to the alliteration)

4) NEVER EVER EVER call your professor a Wanker when he is standing behind you.

Let The Fun Begin

It seems as if we're officially entering the finals period. My first indication was in Torts, where Professor Stevenson reminded us that we only have four weeks left before finals (actually, it's five, but she thought four would sound better to us; it did not). That was only the beginning. Today, Professor Taranto gave us a peptalk about plowing through this difficult time. Then I saw Dean Mayer, who I have Civil Procedure, in the hallway and she remarked how this time of year she can see the 1Ls' eyes glaze over with information overload. She's right too. I'm not sure how I'm going to hold everything I've learned this semester in my head and apply it to a test.

It doesn't help that I'm a bit behind in my outlines (which is to day I have Property and Civ Pro started, but not Contracts or Torts). I've attempted starting a Torts outlines several times, but I'm just having a hard time structuring it. Contracts I fear. Of all my classes, Contracts seems the most ambiguous. We read a case that lays out one set of facts and concludes there was no consideration and thus no contract, then we read another case with a very similar fact pattern and the court finds there was consideration and thus a contract. Ugh!

So the craziness has begun. We took last weekend completely off and didn't even look at a case book. I felt a little guilty Sunday night, but I woke up so refreshed Monday that it was completely worth it. Unfortunately, that feeling didn't last two long.

I have no idea what we're going to do after finals. It'll seem so weird to have a week with absolutely nothing to do.