Looking At The World Like A Lawyer

We're almost to the end of our fourth week in law school. Many students say law school changes you and it seems that's about right. There was a time when I'd hear someone say "Watch my bag for me" and not think anything of it. Now I instantly think "Gratuitous Bailment" and wonder if the bailee (the person watching the bag) will give the requisite amount of care (which, in the case of a gratuitous bailment, is only slight care). When I hear about a lawsuit, I wonder if the court has personal jurisdiction over person or company being sued. Now that we're starting negligence in torts, who knows where my mind might go.

Holy promissory estoppel batman!

It is two o'clock and I'm sitting in contracts anxiously awaiting what will be the first of many PowerPoint questions that I don't understand. When all of a sudden I see a shadow go across the projection screen. If I'm not mistaken that shadow looks something like this:

I kid you not. We had a BAT flying around our classroom. And not just any bat. This was a kamikaze bat. The thing was diving towards us. Everybody starts getting a little jittery. I'm hiding under my contracts book. (At least I'm getting some use out of it =)). And then the teacher say's the best thing I've heard all year: Class is canceled.
I must have been the only one who heard her say this, because I was the only one who stood up. And since I was now taller than the rest of my classmates and not hiding under my book of contractual poetry (seriously poetry) I drew the attention of the bat. The bat buzzed me and I sat back down quickly. After that everyone started packing up there stuff to leave. I made a mad dash for the door. Went to find Chad and his computer so I could share this little bit of excitement with you.

My final thought:
Who is liable for the intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault and is the law school guilty of negligence? I would probably conclude that the owner of the bat would be responsible for negligence, but then one must determine who the owner is. In other words, "how does one occupy a bat?" The school owns that bat in as much as it was found within the confines of the school's property and will soon meet with a must definite taking of its natural liberties. In short if the school wants to settle this with me to forgo the cost of a lengthy trial, and it would be lengthy,(where exactly am I domiciled?), I would accept a settlement of a full tuition credit. Or a free cup of coffee. This line of reasoning would be quite entertaining if you were also a 1L. But since I don't know of any other 1Ls reading this, you'll just have to take my word for it.
Be good to yourselves and each other.

The poor Students Cookbook - Fried Fish Sandwiches

Those who know us also know that we love to cook. Unfortunately, like many students out there, we don't have money for good ingredients and we don't have time to cook really good meals. Occasionally, we'll post some of our favorite "student" recipies here (anything that's cheap and quick to make). We had some thawed fish on hand, some bread, and a few other miscellaneous ingredients. The result? Fried fish sandwiches.

Ingredients:
2 Fish filets (each about the size of about half a piece of bread)
2 slces of bread
Bread crumbs
Olive oil

(Optional)
Eggs
Flour
Cocktail sauce

Directions:
Start by coating the bottom of a non-stick frying pan with olive oil. Turn the heat onto medium and let the oil warm up. Turn the oven to broil. Place two slices of bread on a baking sheet and place some butter on top.

We bought a pack of frozen fish that we thawed before cooking the sandwich, but any fish filet will do. If you want, you can probably even substitute fish sticks for fish filets and skip this section entirely. Start by making sure the fish is completely thawed (if frozen). If you have eggs and flour on hand, dry the fish completely, roll it in flour, dip it in egg, and then roll it in bread crumbs. If you don't have eggs or flour, leave the fish damp and roll it in bread crumbs.

Place the fish in the hot oil and allow to cook for four or five minutes on each side. After flipping the fish, place the baking sheet in the oven. Keep an eye on the bread as it has a tendancy to burn easily. About one minute or so should do the trick.

Place the toasted side of the bread down and place the fish filets on top. If you have some cocktail sauce on hand, drizzle some over the top of the fish and place the second slice of bread over the top (toasted side up this time). Enjoy.

Why Did A Short Week Seem So Long?

Only four days this week. Seems like it should've been a piece of cake.

All first year students have to take an Introduction to Lawyering class. It's worth two credits, but it should be a four credit class for the amount of work we have to do (and I have it easier than Hers). The first week, we were asked to choose whether we wanted to represent a plaintiff or defendant in a hypothetical, semester-long case. I grabbed a folder marked "Plaintiff" on my way out the door. The file included a short memo with some basic information about the case. As it turns out, my "client" is a single mother with a daughter who was nearly three years old. The child was conceived via artificial insemination. The donor was someone the mother knew and had verbally agreed to release from any parental obligation. Now, almost three years after the birth, she wants the father to take some responsibility for the child.

Last week, we were given our first research path, which is essentially a scavenger hunt through the law library. We each received 20-pages with about 35 questions we had to answer using legal references in the library. Naturally, the questions all related to laws governing parental obligations and legal issues surrounding artificial insemination. We divided up into groups of three to work on the research path together. My group decided we'd all do the research separately and then get together to compare notes. Unfortunately, I didn't quite understand that we were supposed to each finish the project separately, so I ended up doing the majority of my research path Wednesday night. I got home about 8:00 Wednesday night.

The next day, we met to compare notes and it almost took longer to decide on final answers than it did for us to do the original research. Nothing like getting three lawyers together to argue why their answer is the right one. In the end though, I think our answers were the better for it.

The research actually wasn't too bad. The hardest part of the project was properly citing the sources. Put a comma in the wrong place and you'll lose points on the answer. We talked with the TA for the class and he told us the average for the research project is around 60%. Despite the time we've put into the first research path, we've resigned ourselves to the fact that it's going to come back covered in red ink.

Thursday night was Hers first Rugby practice. So that ended up being another late night. A four day week and two of those days we didn't get home from school until almost 8:00. Can't wait to see what next week brings.

Congratulations Lincoln!

No, not for the football game. Although it was encouraging. No our congratulations is offered to all of you that stuck with Lincoln for the past mayoral administration.
It looks like she's leaving politics behind her. YEEEEEAAAAAAAAA!
Anyway, I'm very thrilled that she's leaving because now she will have more time to devote to her cooking. I planned on linking you guys to her fabulous cheese strata recipe, but alas Time Warner wouldn't publish it. If you haven't checked out there cooking show, it is kind of cool. They talk to some local chef's in the area and get recipes. They also always throw in a Lincoln "celebrity". They went to the Mayor's house for one episode and she made this thing called Cheese strata. The ingredients:
White bread, processed ham, american cheese, frozen broccoli and cheese.
It looked delicious. In fact I would like to nominate her to take our place in our fabulous dinner group. Just kidding, we wouldn't do that to you. We miss your cooking so much =(

I'm suppose to do what to the Hooker?

I started Rugby this week. We had our first practice yesterday. I'm sitting in bed tonight instead of going out with my friends because I had practice yesterday and it kicked my butt. And everybody said it was an "easy" practice. What have I gotten myself into.
It has been decided that I am going to be a prop which means I literally "prop" up the Hooker. Which means I will probably end up looking like this guy.
I did have a lot of fun at practice. This is a totally new sport to me so I am starting at the very bottom level. We learned how to toss the ball yesterday and run a line. We learned about how to be tackled, what to do when there's a ruck, what "balls out" means (it means the balls out of the ruck) and several other things.
I also realized that I have a long way to go to get my body in Rugby shape. This is certainly going to be great stress relief for the school year.

It's not morals school...

Let me just say that I love my torts class. Our teacher, who you may have read about before, is really, really entertaining. And at 8:00 am on a Friday morning that's exactly what I need. Take today for example.
Our professor has canceled our class for the day before Thanksgiving (giving me a five day break!). We have to make up the two hours of class we are missing, so we had three hours of torts this morning. The professor gave us a 15 minute break half-way through class and gave us cookies and fruit. As a poor grad student I'll jump all over some free food.
We were discussing the tort of trespassers this morning and property damage. She asked a student (not me, I had already been grilled for about 30 minutes that morning. She was tough. But at least I wasn't the worst person in class) why the Supreme Court would make a certain decision when logically it wasn't correct. The students argument: "Well, morally it was right". And that's when she broke out with the motto of the next three years of my life:
"This isn't moral school, it's law school. Make me a legal argument".
For all of you out there who think that lawyers are nothing more than amoral parasites it's not our fault, we've been trained that way.

Blogger Bugs

Many of our friends and family are checking our blog on a regular basis, which we really appreciate. Some of our friends who check the Web site on a regular basis have mentioned that they're not seeing regular updates on the blog. Than, one day, there's suddenly three or four new updates that appear to have been posted some time ago.

The problem is that the browser saves a copy of the Web site on the computer's hard drive and instead of loading the latest version, it loads the copy off the hard drive. I've added some HTML that will hopefully take care of the problem, but if you notice that it's been a few days between updates, you might want to want to open our blog and press SHIFT-F5. This will force the browser to load the latest version from from Blogger instead of loading a saved version from your hard drive. Alternatively, you can place a question mark (?) at the end of our URL and this should do the same thing (you can add this to your bookmark if you want).

Hope this helps,

-Legallyboundblog's Technical Adviser

New York DMV's Office Moto: "Good Luck"

Hell is the New York State DMV. We've lived in this state for less than a month and we've been to the DMV five times. That averages out to more than once a week. I know going to the DMV, wherever you happen to live, is never a fun experience, but believe me when I say that the New York State DMV is one of the more hellish experiences any person can ever hope to endure.

Just before school started, we dropped by the DMV to get our New York State driver's licenses. The DMV is setup so that everyone has to pass through an information counter first. The clerks at the information counter make sure all your paperwork is in order and, if you're lucky, they'll issue you a number so you can sit down and wait a bit longer. You can think of the information counter as Cerberus perched on the river Styx. We presented our applications along with our passports and Nebraska driver's licenses as proof of ID. The New York State DMV, however, requires an additional non-picture ID (a Social Security Card was about our only option). Dejected, we returned home determined to return the next day.

With our applications, Nebraska driver's licenses, and Social Security Cards in hand, we returned the next day and managed to get past the information desk. They took our pictures , gave us a number, and told us to have a seat. The one positive thing I can say about the DMV is that it was the easiest eye test I've ever had. Hers and I went up together and they had Hers take the eye exam first. They had her step back and read the first line on an eye chart posted behind the counter. While she read the letters back, I began memorizing the first several lines (figuring that, surely, the guy wouldn't ask me to read the same line as Hers). Sure enough, when it was my turn, I was asked to read same line as Hers. By that time, I could've read the line with my eyes closed.

Of course, New York doesn't possess the requisite technology to print out a drivers license at the DMV. They took our Nebraska licenses and gave us a piece of paper to use as a temporary license. They told us we'd have our real licenses in about a week. Until then, we had to make sure to bring out passports if we needed ID.

Then came the car registration. Last week, we returned to the DMV with an envelop full of paperwork for registering our car. We offered up the envelop to the DMV Gods who began sorting out what was required and what was not. The woman who was helping us inspected our lease agreement and quickly folded it up and handed it back to us. She finished going through our paperwork, setting aside the paperwork we needed to register the car. At the end, she told us we had everything in place except for a certified copy of the title from GMAC. She gave us the DMV's fax number and told us we could have GMAC fax a copy directly to the DMV. She also pointed out that the effective date on our insurance policy was too old. The effective date had to be within 45-days of the current date. Dejected, we returned home, called our insurance company and asked them to issue new proof of insurance cards with a more recent effective date, and then called GMAC to ask them to fax a copy of the title to the DMV.

With everything in place, we went back to the DMV after classes this afternoon. Once again, we waited patiently to get to the information desk. We talked to people in line and found that most of them were recently rejected by the information desk as well. We wished each other luck as we headed up to the information desk. Once again, we offered up our folder containing all the documents we were told we needed and the gentleman at the information desk went through them all, found the copy of our title in the back, and said we had everything we needed with the exception of the lease agreement (yea, that's right, the same lease agreement they tossed aside so quickly during our last visit). Because we're registering a vehicle leased in another state, we have to pay sales tax for the remaining payments in New York all at once. As it turns out, they need the lease agreement to figure out sales tax.

We left the DMV at 3:30. They close at 4:30 on Wednesday. We raced all the way across town, grabbed the lease agreement, and raced back. We walked through the doors about 4:15 or so and once again got in line at the information desk. We watched as the people in front of us wished each other good luck before going up to the desk.

When we made it to the front, the lady who originally told us we didn't need our lease agreement began going through our paperwork again. "You guys are having a tough time with this car."

"Well, it's not easy when different people tell us we need different forms" we replied.

She went through everything and pressed the button to issue us a number. "If they reject you up there, don't come back to me because every thing's in place. If they reject you, it's because they can't figure out the sales tax." A ringing endorsement of DMV employees if I ever heard one.

We grabbed a seat and watched the big-board waiting for our number to come. As we waited, we wondered which lucky employee was going to get stuck with us. Finally, we had our answer as we made our way to window 4.

The clerk began going through the information and looked instantly perplexed. She called over a manager to help her figure out the sales tax. They took the monthly payment specified in the lease agreement and multiplied it by the number of payments remaining. Makes sense but there's just one problem: in Nebraska, we paid sales tax on a monthly basis and the figure they used for their computations included the sales tax we were paying in Nebraska. WhenHers, smart cookie that she is, brought this to the manager's attention, she started rambling on about tax credits or something completely unrelated to the point we were trying to make.

"OK, recently we received a letter from GMAC explaining that our monthly payments decreased by about $15 because they were no longer charging us Nebraska sales tax with our monthly payment," I offered. "The payment on the lease agreement is outdated and about $15 higher than what we're actually paying a month."

Finally, some kind of light flickered on and the manager explained that we had two options. They could either compute the tax using the figures on the lease agreement, in which case we could file for a refund, or we could return with the notice from GMAC specifying our new monthly payment. There was no way we wanted to make a seventh trip (I don't think either of us had the strength to try and explain everything again), so we paid the taxes and will send off a request for a $50 refund this weekend.

We did get to leave the DMV with our new plates in hand. Considering all that we've gone through to get them, I don't think I've ever been more proud of a set of license plates. They're even good quality license plates. You know, the kind that have been stamped at some penitentiary somewhere (not those cheap Nebraska plates). With any luck, we won't have to set foot in a New York State DMV anytime soon.

Everything I Thought It Could Be

I know there are at least a few people from Sandhill's visiting the blog (thanks everyone). To all of my old work colleagues I just wanted to point out that it's been over a month since I've had to wear a suit and tie. And yes, it is everything I thought it would be, it's just too bad it's only a temporary reprieve.

The law does have a sense of humor... or I'm just a dork, whatever.

I just finished reading a case for my favorite class: torts.
The case was Henderson v. The Times Mirror Company. I am not kidding you, this case is laugh out loud funny. Well, it is for a 2nd week 1L who isn't really sure that she is even spelling her name correctly anymore.
I tried a quick google search and couldn't find any good links to the case so I'll just include some snippets. The background of the case is that Henderson (the plaintiff) is suing The Times Mirror Company, et al (the defendant) for liable and other charges. Henderson is a football agent and the defendants are a coach and two newspapers who published his epithets. The coach specifically said that Henderson was a "sleaze-bag agent" who "slimed up from the bayou...."
The District Court of Colorado had way too much fun drafting its opinion. The first thing they do is site several sources on the definition of both sleaze bag and slime. Then they somehow find precedent with regards to scum and go off about the difference between sleaze and scum.
But the best part of this case is the history of the anglo-american insult which included one of my favorite Winston Churchill quotes in regards to being called a drunkard: "... Madam, you are ugly and the difference between you and me is that in the morning I shall be sober; but you will still be ugly!"
So this is just another sign of how I've submitted to the process. I am actually finding legal documents funny. And, yes, I am aware of how pathetic this makes me.


On another note:
After 1.5 weeks of law school His and I have depleted the following:
1 ream of paper
2 highlighters
4 pens (just me)
1 pad of legal paper.
And our toner is almost completely out (although that has been used for more than just the past week)

So if any of you are shopping for Xmas early, there is a list for you.

Musings from my first week

Well, the week is finally over. And as His implied, it really was the longest week. By Tuesday I was sure it was Friday. By Thursday, I thought it had to be October. And then Friday came. I love Friday. I only have one class on Fridays: Torts. Torts as you may have read is entertaining. My two hours flew by in that class. And then it was over. The first week is done.
Law School is much more challenging and demanding than I could expect, but it's doable. I've started to realize that I might, eventually, learn this stuff. It is getting easier.
But I will also say that I have never in my life felt less intelligent. (Except when playing trivial pursuit with a few of our blog readers. You know who you are.) It's an entirely new language and teaching style. And at times it's hard to adjust.
They told us in orientation to just "submit to the process". Allow yourself to be broken down. The longer you fight it, the more painful it will be. I'm not sure I'm ready to fully submit yet, but in reading through McAdams v. Windham I came across the following phrase:
"violenti non fit injuria"
Translated it means: to a willing person no injury is done.
I was willing to go to law school, so I have to put up with the constant backaches (from 50lbs of books), the headaches from all the reading, the feelings of inferiority. I signed up for law school as a willing participant and in doing so I gave up any and all rights to damages, both punitive and actual.

The Longest Week

OK, so my last post may have been prematurely cheerful. When I posted it Tuesday afternoon, I was still fresh. That evening I read Pennoyer v. Neff and that case really started grinding me down. My eyes are tired from the reading and I'm exhausted from the effort. My back is tired of lugging my laptop and heavy case book between school and the parking lot. Yesterday felt it should've been a Friday.

Hers said that Intro to Lawyering was going to be the bane of her semester. After reading Pennoyer v. Neff, I thought Civil Procedure was going to be mine. The case is ridiculous. Not only is it long, but the language is so convulated you have to really, really concentrate to figure out what the decision is trying to say. For example, here's one sentence from the case:

In all the case brought in the State and Federal courts, where attempts have been made under the act of Congress to give effect in one State to personal judgments rendered in another State against non-residents, without service upon them, or upon substituted service by publication, or in some other form, it has been held, without an exception, so far as we are aware, that such judgments were without any binding force, except as to property, or interests in property, within the State, to reach and affect which was the object of the action in which the judgment was rendered, and which property was brought under control of the court in connection with the process against the person.

Can you get any more clauses in one sentence? You can imagine entire paragraphs of this kind of stuff going on for four pages (luckily, our case book gave us a condensed version of the case; it could've been much more painful).

Luckily, Professor Mayer is a good tracher and I left my first Civ Pro class with a good understanding of Pennoyer v. Neff. Of course, as we're learning now, the courts have pretty much torn Pennoyer apart, so in a way, I read that case for nothing. Some people have suggested that the case amounts to nothing more than hazing for first year Civ Pro students.

As tiring as its been, I do think it has been a good week in many respects. I feel like I've learned alot already. Most cases (with Pennoyer being the exception) are becoming easier to read and understand and I feel like it's getting easier to brief the individual cases. The good news is that it's an early day for us. Hers is in class as I write this and my Civ Pro class starts at 9:00. As soon as I'm done (11:00), we're getting out of here for the weekend.

Torts...short for torture?

Who would think Torts could be so scary?

There is this class called Torts. It is a required class and it involves more case briefings than most. And I have what I have heard rumored to be the meanest torts teacher around. She is tough, strict and demanding. Whatever you do, I’ve been warned, don’t piss her off.

We had 15 pages to read for the first day. (That may not sound like a lot to a non-law student, but it consisted of 5 cases. There was no filler just 15 pages of judicial wonderment to read) I read and re-read them diligently. I wish I could have said the same for all of my colleagues.

There was a girl, who we will call “Elle”. She was called on and didn’t know a very simple question, she asked the professor to repeat the question. The professor refused and asked her another, somewhat easy question to which “Elle” was completely wrong.

So the next question comes, “Elle, did you even read this?”



“Well, I thought that since this was the first day of class you weren’t really going to call on anyone.”



Everyone in the class collectively held their breath waiting for the fury of the Professor to come down.

And then the professor went off:

“The assignment was out there, did you think it was a fake assignment? No, well I’m reminded of this movie… where there is a letter written saying ‘what are you, stupid?’. We’ll are you stupid. Yes, you are. STUPID STUPID STUPID!”

Now the professor grabs a hat that she had behind the podium and walks towards.



“Elle this might help you. It’s a thinking cap, why don’t you put it on so that you at least have some semblance of a brain. And while I’m at it, here’s a quarter go call your mother and tell her that law school isn’t for you”.

Everyone in the class starts slouching down in their chairs, trying desperately not to draw the wrath of the professor. All except for the girl sitting behind me. Her hand shot up.

The professor glares my way and asks why her hand is up. She replies “Well, I want to help Elle out”.



“Butt out and mind your own business”.



“Well, I think you’re being unreasonably rude and bitchy.” We were all kind of thinking the same thing, but no one wanted to be on the receiving end of this.

Then the professor returns to the podium and tells the class “I would like to introduce my two teaching assistants”.


That’s right the whole thing was a set up. The two “students” were actually her T.As. The woman knows she’s feared and she loves it. She just wanted to mess with us. On the one hand I find this hilarious; on the other hand, I think she may just be a bit sadistic. Regardless I will definitely do my reading for this class.

Why it’s so hard to be a Cubs fan:

My first couple of days has been a little more taxing than his’ it would seem. I have a few professors who seem to enjoy the Kensington persona a bit too much.

First instance: Property.

I have a feeling that properties will be the bane of my existence this semester (Along with intro to lawyering…don’t get me started on that). I have no idea where our professor is going with anything and I have the sinking feeling that he is actually teaching the class via an inner monologue that we don’t have access to. He loves to humiliate his students, but he does so in a “jovial” way. You know the kind that would say “you’re fat and ugly” but not to get upset because they were “just kidding”.

Well I made the mistake of wearing a sweatshirt on Tuesday. You wouldn’t think, since the temperatures in our law school hovers near artic, that this would call any undue attention to me. I was wrong. Before I had even finished opening my notes the professor says “Oh, I’m going to have to pick on the Cubs Fan” (I’m wearing my Wrigley Field Sweatshirt). My heart sank.

He then proceeded to ask me the question that he left us with during the previous class. I know he didn’t pose any question at the end of the last class, perhaps the little voices in his head can answer them better than I.

“Why don’t you have a Yankee’s shirt on.”

“Well, because I don’t have one.”

“What did you major in?”

“Political Science.”

“Well, that’s not very practical”.

“No sir, that’s why I’m here.”

“What do you do for fun?”

“Well, nothing now.”

“Do you listen to music?”

“Sometimes, but not often”

“Who do you listen to?”

“No one in particular, just whatever is on”

“Name an ‘artist”’.

I have no idea how long he is going to keep after me. What could I possibly say that will end this line of questioning? And then it dawned on me: “K-Fed”

After that, the professor moved on to a Yankee’s fan.

Classes

Somehow, I've managed to survive my first two days of law school completely unscathed. I shouldn't brag as I know this won't last, but so far so good.

Yesterday started with Professor Davis' Property class at 8:00am. This is one place where actual work experience helps. In undergrad, an 8:00am class would've killed me, but I'm used to my days starting at 8:00am. We got to the school around 7:30 and I started reviewing Property and Contracts (contracts coming directly after Property).

I think I'll enjoy Professor Davis' class. She can be strict (if you don't come prepared, she'll mark you absent), but she seems more than fair and she isn't too intimidating in class. The first class focused mostly on administrative issues (the syllabus, for instance) and some background information. As it turns out, I didn't even need to finish the reading for the first day let alone review, but it's always nice to start off ahead.

After Property is Professor Seita's Contract class. I have to move four seats down for this class, so it works out well. Professor Seita seems very laid back, so two classes in I was still looking for that prototypical abusive law school professor. Seita had just got back in town on Sunday and was suffering from six hours of jet lag, so he came across as a little distracted. Again, we focused on a lot of administrative issues, but we did cover the case we read.

After Contracts, I meet Hers for lunch and we studied in the library until my 1:00pm Torts class with Professor Stevenson. We didn't have any reading due for Monday although I did have Wednesday's assignment finished already. This was supposed to be a two hour class (mondays and Wednesdays) so I figured we might get into the cases for Wednesday a little and I wanted to make sure I was prepared. Again, we covered administrative issues and some basic background. Professor Stevenson has what will probably be one of my favorite rules of any professor. It's Professor Stevenson's exclusive ability to introduce hypotheticals. She will not answer any hypothetical posed by a student in class.

Professor Stevenson dismissed us more than an hour early and that's when it hit, I really am a non-traditional student. My first thought was "Can I get a refund for the second half of the class?"

Today was Property and Contracts again. This time, we got more into the issues in both classes. Both were interesting although I'm probably going to go back over my briefs in Property.

Well, I'm writing this from the foyer and upperclassmen are beginning to crowd me out, so it's time to move along. Classes are finished for the day for me, but Hers has a few more to go so it's about time to hit the library.

Did Socrates have a good personality?

Our first week is over! His and I are just sitting here doing some light reading. His-contracts, me Property. And I think I've discovered a pattern: the best time for blogging is when I'm procrastinating on property. Blah, so boring.
Anway, orientation was great. We actually learned a lot. But I couldn't help but think that the faculty was encouraged to take it easy on us. Nobody yelled, nobody cried and when someone would say something really, really wrong the professors would just reply "well, that's not quite right, but that shows a good thought process. I'm starting to think that a "good thought process" is law school's way of saying you have a "good personality".
The classes were really helpful. Its always nice to get that first Socratic moment out of the way. I can formulate what I think is an intelligent thought in my mind, but as soon as I here my name called, I go blank. Its like I have to teach myself to talk all over again. And I'm not necessarily a shy person, nor do I tend to have many trepidation about public speaking. But this is law school and I'm suppose to be a nervous wreck.
I blame the media, and the internets. (And the two are different, because blogs don't have editors, or something.) Seriously, they can get you so worked up and anxious about the Socratic method you don't know which way is up. But I've become more familiar with it this week and even volunteered a few times. Which is great, but come Monday I'll be wishing that they would just say "no, but that does show a good thought process".

Comments

We just wanted to thank everyone who's actually taken the time to read our blog. As many of you probably know, there is a Comment link beneath each article where you can leave comments for us. We love getting comments and we try to respond to every one (eventually). Obviously, that might be a little difficult in the months ahead. We'll try to respond to as many comments as possible, but just know we do appreciate all the comments even if we don't have time to reply.

We'll Sleep When We're Dead

His and I have been really lucky the last few weeks. It's been a relatively calm time and we seem to have had enough time to get things done. Well, Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis. (We learned this phrase in Pierson v. Post and it was really one of the only interesting parts of the case). We're both trying to get better at our Latin.

His and I will be starting classes officially on Monday which means that we will need to start our studying in earnest soon. I should probably be doing some reading right now. I decided to attach a picture of our general schedule for this semester. My schedule is in red, his' in blue. The green times are lunch, dinner, and a few workouts. The black squares are our free time. Its kind of like a where's Waldo game. Can you spot our free time.

Our posts my be a bit sporadic for the next couple of weeks, but we will do the best that we can keeping up the blog. If not just to save our sanity.

I’m Going To Regret Having Said This . . .

But I can’t wait for orientation to be over so we can get down to business. There are just so many alumni panels and “surviving your first semester” sessions you can listen to. Don’t get me wrong, I think some of the stuff has been very helpful and I’m glad they didn’t just toss us into the fire, but it’s starting to get old. Even our “sample class” this afternoon wasn’t as good.

As Hers mentioned yesterday, we have our assignments for the first day already and it’s not pretty. I have 29 pages to read for the first day and Hers has even more I think. Plus, we’re going to have to brief the cases we read, which for us takes some time (although I think we’re getting better at it).

At any rate, tomorrow we’re looking at more sample classes. This time we’re covering exam essays. Plus, I think we have some more assembly style discussions tomorrow. At least we can look forward to a short day on Friday (which is good because we’re going to have a lot of reading to get done).