Legally Brunette

The rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated.  I’m just a law student.

There was much cheering and rejoicing in the Legallybrunette House o’ Luv last week - 1st semester grades were finally returned, and I did NOT flunk out of law school.  In all actuality, I did fairly well - I maintained a B average, which is a lovely way to start out.  ESPECIALLY considering that, as the holiday break wore on, I became more and more convinced that they were going to take one look at my final exams, laugh uproariously, and condemn me to a life of flipping burgers.  Seriously.  I had anxiety nightmares about this.  My sweet, sweet husband - bless his heart - kept me doped up with wine and Christmas cookies, ensuring that I stayed fat, happy, and quiet.  I’m firmly convinced that this is the only thing that kept him from cheerfully duct-taping my mouth shut - because when I wasn’t drinking or eating cookies, I was obsessing about my grades.  The conversations tended to go like this:

Me: OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG I’M GOING TO FLUNK OUT OF LAW SCHOOL AND THEY’RE GOING TO TATTOO ‘LOSER’ ON  MY FOREHEAD AND I’LL HAVE TO WORK IN FAST FOOD FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE AND MY MOM WILL HATE ME AND MY BOSS WILL LAUGH AT ME OMGOMGOMG!!!11!!1!!

Husband: No, honey, that’s not going to happen.  You did fine, you’re smart, you studied your butt off.  I’m sure you did great.

Me: BUT YOU WEREN’T  THERE - YOU DON’T KNOW HOW IT WAS!  IT WAS A WAR ZONE IN THERE!  PEOPLE WERE COLLAPSING IN THEIR SEATS! THE TEST LITERALLY KILLED PEOPLE! SERIOUSLY! THEY WERE CARRIED OUT ON STRETCHERS!

Husband:  No they weren’t.

Me:  OK, you’re right.  But it felt like that.

Husband: *sigh* Here.  Have a damn cookie.

It’s nice to finally be able to listen to the ‘Legally Blonde’ Broadway soundtrack without having an anxiety attack.

This semester is much of the same - Torts, CivPro, Legal Research/Analysis and we had the added bonus of Professional Responsibility.  Yay.

I learned a lot last semester, though - and not just about the law.  I’m refreshing and revising my study schedule and outlining earlier in the semester, and working on my flash cards as I go rather than a panic 3 weeks before the midterm/finals.  I’m also learning to say “no” much better.  Last semester I did too much outside of school, and that is going to stop this semester.

It’s good to be back.

For the non-geeks out there, FTW is shorthand for “for the win” - which is geek-speak for “freakin’ awesome”.

http://www2.cali.org/

Our Torts professor - bless her heart - has assigned us a bunch of CALI exercises  as extra credit for our midterm.  The midterm is worth 15 points, and if we get a 60% or better on 14 specific CALI exercises (mostly dealing with intentional torts), she’ll give us 5 bonus points on our midterm grade.  That’s a HUGE percentage, and a huge relief for us sad little 1L’s who are going ballistic over midterms coming up in three weeks.

Plus, you know, I actually learn stuff when I do the exercises.  Awesome.

I’ve gone through about half of the assigned ones - I need to actually go through them again and use them to make notecards/flashcards for the midterm.  They’re insanely helpful, so try ‘em out.  Seriously.

Of course, the drawback is that I’ve been totally addicted to the immediate feedback that the CALI exercises have, and I’ve done exercises all day instead of actual reading.  So now it’s 8pm and I still need to read.  And I’m tired.  *yawn*  CivPro does not interest me at all - I really should have done that earlier in the day when I was more awake.

Now I’m just procrastinating.  *sigh*  Back to work.

 That’s the sound of my head hitting the desk.  I am SO very tired.

This morning = court. Nasty custody negotiation where OddFellow taught me some interesting tactics to get the opposing party to agree to what we wanted. Lots of subtle manipulation and negotiation tactics that I need to learn. Thank God we’re only a few blocks away from the courthouse - we were able to negotiate what we wanted for our client without having to go into an actual hearing, so I ended up running back to the office and drafting up the order then and there. It’s nice to be confident enough with my drafting skills to be able to do that.

I’m going to start making OddFellow take me to court more often. It takes time away from my work at the office, but it makes me much more comfortable in that environment. I am not a very open public speaker or terribly outgoing, so this is *definitely* going to be a learned skill for me. I also tend to be very passionate in my speech when I feel strongly about something - so I need to learn to curtail that and be more measured in my conversations with people. The more I watch OddFellow and others interact in the courtroom environment, the more I’m learning how I want to develop (and, conversely, what I DON’T want to do!) as an attorney.

I felt bad for one poor guy we saw - we was defending himself pro se in a debt defense action. We only caught the tail end of it - seems that he had a contractor he had hired to do some roof/gutter work hadn’t held up his end on the bargain, so the homeowner just stopped paying him. The contractor filed suit against him to claim on the debt. Today’s hearing was simply an administrative hearing - something about allowing the contractor to modify the complaint - and a trial was scheduled for November. This poor guy was trying to plead the facts to the judge, and she kept trying to tell him that this was just to deal with this one issue - and that he’d get his “day in court” in November. He just was not having ANY of that. Poor thing - I can understand his frustration, but that’s when he needs to hire an attorney to help walk him through the process.

Ah well. Off to try to clear some stuff off of my desk before the weekend. Tonight: homework. Tomorrow: homework. Sunday, homework. You sense a trend? Midterms are coming up, and I’m determined to be ready for them.

I’m in my favorite little coffee shop, eating my lunch and working on my case briefs for Thursday. I work in a small downtown area, so I get to see a wonderful array of folks walk by as I sit here. Added bonus - they always play some neat music. Today’s selection seems to be ‘The Best of Johnny Cash’.

In any case, an elderly woman just zoomed by in her power wheelchair, with a little girl who looked to be about 2 on her lap. Both the little girl and her (assumed) grandmother just had the biggest grins on their faces as they rode by.

Awesome.

As a little FYI for anyone who is using Yeazell’s Civil Procedure 6th ed, this site has been quite helpful when writing my case briefs. They have briefs for all the cases in that book, and they’re fairly well done. And it’s free. Free = awesome.

*sigh* Back to work.

Seriously. I’m SO ready for the weekend.

This whole “weekend” thing is really an interesting concept. When I worked at home, I looked forward to the weekend, but I didn’t really crave it. Now that I’m working an office job I find that I REALLY crave the weekend. It’s not even the time off - it’s being home. I’m a huge homebody, and I really love just being home.

That, and I’ll admit - I hate taking showers. Before you freak and think that I’m a dirty hippie who only showers once a month, that’s not the case. I do shower daily, otherwise I feel icky. I just hate the necessity of showers. I don’t like getting wet, I don’t like having water on my face, and I don’t like having to face all that first thing in the morning. If I had my druthers I wouldn’t take a shower until noonish. (Which is what typically happened when I worked at home, and what still happens on weekends.)

For the record, I also don’t like swimming in lakes, pools, or oceans. I like LOOKING at the ocean - but I’d prefer not to have to touch it. I do enjoy hot tubs, but that’s because it tends to be a more recreational/community thing rather than merely for the purpose of getting wet. I also enjoy baths, but that’s a very self-contained warm, relaxing thing. And there’s usually bubble bath involved, which makes everything better.

In any case - I’m really, really looking forward to tomorrow. I can drink coffee and sit in my chair and read my casebook and generally be a putz. Weekends = ZOMG awesome.

In other news - I still love law school. Torts and CivPro are awesome classes - the professors are hard but fair. Legal Thinking, however, is going to cause me to go grey before my time.

Do you have a different opinion than the professor? You’re wrong.
Are you looking at the situation differently than the professor? You’re wrong.
Do you ask a question? You’re wrong.

And she speaks in such a bitchy, condescending tone of voice. I can handle difficult people, but condescending people make me want to slap them across the face. I could literally *feel the rage* in the pit of my stomach as I walked out of that class, and most of my classmates were in the same boat.

I’ve calmed down, though, and I’m trying to look at it as a positive exercise. I’m going to have to deal with bitchy, condescending people in the legal system - judges who think they’re better than me, other attorneys who are assholes, etc. So I’ll take this as a lesson in dealing with difficult people, and look forward to the end of the year. *moan*

Tonight - a night off, and then I want to try to get all the reading done for the upcoming week this weekend. I have to at least do Mon/Tues’ readings, and I found that on Wednesday night I was just too tired to concentrate, so I didn’t get a lot done. If I can do it all on the weekends, I think I’ll be better off.

Is it the weekend yet?

*yawn*

I am quite certain that, by the end of the semester, I will absolutely, positively despise law school with an unholy passion. Every law student seems to.

But at this exact moment in time? I <3 law school. Seriously.

Last night was our first night of “real” classes. Over the course of the orientation period, the Dean of the night program had collected all of our email addresses, and had sent out a number of emails with either class assignments or directions on how to get the syllabus. Anyone who has done their law school homework (ie: if you’ve watched Legally Blonde!) should know that classes start fast and furious from day one. There’s no coddling period. They rip into you immediately, like the tasty fresh meat that you are.

Yet I would say that a good 25% of my fellow students had not done the readings before class last night. In all actuality, they should have done the readings for Monday and Tuesday nights over the weekend - because by the time we get done with classes at 9:30pm, it’s 10:30pm before we get home. Most of us still have full time jobs, which means we have to be at work at 8am. As soon as you get off of work you head off to class, when the fun starts all over again. So there’s really no time to catch up on homework between Monday and Tuesday’s classes. (Unless, like me, your boss takes another personal day and you’re in the office by yourself. CivPro, here I come!)

In any case - back to school. Our professors seem to use the Socratic Method, which is pretty typical for law schools across the board. (Again, if you had watched your Legally Blonde, you would have known this!) Yet there were a number of folks who had not read the assignment sheet, and a) didn’t have the little “who am I?” card the professor wanted filled out, and b) had not done the readings. So they got called, and didn’t have the answers. I can certainly understand not having quite the right answer the professor is looking for - this is our first foray into the Socratic method, and it can be a bit intimidating. But to not have done the reading? The mind, it boggles.

Legal Reasoning? ZOMG, I’m going to die. I know it. The professor speaks very slowly and carefully. I thought I was literally going to die of boredom. The risk with a class like that is that you zone out and miss stuff. At least when the professor is talking a mile a minute, you HAVE to pay attention.

I was very proud of myself in CivPro. I had done the reading, and thought I had a firm grasp on the case we were discussing - but the professor seems to want a LOT more detail in his briefs than I had done in my notes. (Good to know, guess what I’m doing this afternoon? *grin*) Once I realized what he was asking folks, I was able to skim through the case, make some notes, and when I got called I was able to answer and sound pretty much like I knew what I was talking about. Prepared, at least. It was a weird sort of adrenaline/euphoric feeling. Instead of feeling intimidated, it just made me want to go back and learn the cases better so that next time I’m called, I can do even *better*.

The Socratic method can be tough - but I found that it really helped cement the concepts in my head. And it mentally forces me to be prepared for class - since I’m a big weenie and don’t want to look bad in front of my classmates. Peer pressure can be a good thing, I guess.

Saturday was - by all accounts - a very good day. I went down to school and signed up for my parking pass, bought some books, and got my student ID. Thankfully, the lines for all three of these things were minimal at best. I was done by noon - but not before spending obscene amounts of money on required books and study materials. I also picked up a little mini-Black’s Law Dictionary, which will live in my bookbag for emergency use. (I still prefer the lovely big one that a fellow law geek gifted me with last spring! *smooches*)

I’m still both amused and annoyed that during *six hours* of orientation, they couldn’t be bothered to tell us the more practical aspects of being new students.  We had to figure out things like parking passes, email addresses, student ID’s, and the like on our own.  I certainly understand the concept of being adults and being able to figure out all that yourself - but really, it would have taken them 10 minutes to say “You need to go here for ID’s, here for parking, and do this for your email address.”  Seriously.

On the plus side, we got our Lexis and Westlaw accounts on Thursday.  Oh, sweet, sweet Westlaw.  Total, 100% full access to Westlaw.  I’ve died and gone to legal geek heaven.  It’s sweet, sweet heaven.  Seriously.  I can’t even begin to tell you how totally awesome it is. *happy swoon*

I spent Saturday afternoon with friends and their 4 month old baby - which was beyond lovely. It’s been eons since I’ve had the chance to just hang out with folks, and we had a wonderful time just hanging out and chatting. I got to sample some of my friend’s wonderful home-baked bread, which is always a treat.  I figured it was worth my while I catch up with friends while I can, because Lord knows my time is going to be severely limited here very, very soon.

Went home, picked up the hubby, and had sushi for dinner. Cheap-ish sushi = love. We saw Blades of Glory at the dollar theatre, which was just beyond funny. That was the best $3 I have spent in AGES. We just *cackled* through the whole thing. I’m sure it helps that we both enjoy watching competitive figure skating, and I will admit that I have a weakness for Will Ferrell movies. I almost feel dirty saying that, but it’s true.

In a “it’s a small world” moment, we ran into friends in the parking lot - turns out they saw the same movie, and were sitting three rows behind us. Too funny. We hung out in the parking lot and chatted while we waited for the crowds to disperse. That particular parking lot is not set up well, so it’s easier just to wait for everyone to leave before trying to fight your way out.

Sunday was first batch of homework for school. I’ve already found something that works well for me - I read the chapter from start to finish, and then go through it again, fashioning a rough outline and making notes on the cases. We’ll see if I’m able to keep this up through the semester - it’s a bit time consuming, but it helps me to type things out to get them into my head.  I need to get a better setup at home for study - I really wish I had room in “my room” for a desk.  I might have to take out the rocking chair I have in there and put a desk in instead, but it would be super-cramped.  I really do need a permanant place to spread all my stuff out, though.

Tonight is our first “official” class.  I’m looking forward to starting - we have Torts, CivPro and Legal Reasoning this semester.  I can already tell that CivPro is going to bore me to tears, but Torts is always interesting.  Legal Reasoning is nice, since it’s all writing assignments instead of a midterm/final exam, so that should be a relatively easy boost to the GPA.  Hopefully.

As of last night, I am a law student!

Last night was the first half of our two-part orientation session, in which various professors and deans pounded into our heads that we will have no life for the next four years.  Yes, that’s four years - my program is a PT, night program.  We attend school three nights a week for four years, including summer sessions.  Because it’s PT, though, I get to work - which means that my debt load will be minimal.  I’m also lucky enough to have a boss who recently went through law school himself - so he fully understands the stress involved, and is more than happy to work with my schedule.  He’s also *very* good about pushing me to do more than the average paralegal - so I’m already pretty adept at briefing, document drafting, etc.   Once the 3L rule goes into effect, he’s going to have me up in front of a judge as well - so that’ll be great experience.  Overall, I’m terribly lucky.

But - back to school.  Instead of going over practical things - like where to get our parking passes and how to sign up for the school’s email system - we were regaled with tales of horror about how we will have no life for the next four years.  I understand that they are trying to prepare us for the worst, but really - this wasn’t much different than what we went over at the “welcome session” a month ago.   I want practical things, dammit!  Just tell me where to park!

Ha - and then we had the “student introduction” section of the evening, where we went around the room and told a little about ourselves.  I live in an area known for it’s technology and medical fields, so we have a plethora of engineers, biologists, patent clerks, and other impressive-sounding jobs in our class.  Me?  I’ve been a working/starving artist for the past 7 years.  I got tired of not having health insurance.  I took paralegal classes because I thought it might be a career I’d enjoy.  I DID enjoy it - so I decided to go to law school.  Of course, I have the altruistic  reasons why I want to be an attorney.  I am still very much tapped into my artistic community, and so many of the people involved in that community can’t afford basic legal representation.  I want to give back to them, because so many of them have helped me out when I’ve been in a bind.  Based on  my paralegal classes and working in a small firm for the past year and a half, I really *enjoy* the practice of law.  I love the mental challenge involved, and I love the interactions with the clients.  I love hearing the stories.

But really, I’m 30.  I want to start a family.  I want a stable job with health insurance and a 401K.  When you’re a working/starving artist, you don’t get to have any of that.  So I decided to go to law school because it’s a career that interests me - but also because it’s a career that I should be able to stay gainfully employed in.

Ah well - I keep telling myself that all the engineers and geneticists in our class don’t have the experience I do.  I ran a small business for 7 years, I’ve interacted with some of the more fascinating subcultures in our society, and I know what it takes to succeed.  I’m used to working 70-80 hour weeks.  I’m tenacious.  I’m intelligent.  I’m creative.  I’ll be a good attorney.  Perhaps not a *traditional* attorney, but a good one, nonetheless.

Wish me luck.

I am not dead yet
I can dance and I can sing
I am not dead yet
I can do the Highland Fling

I am not dead yet
No need to go to bed
No need to call the doctor
Cause I’m not yet dead.

Really - I’m not dead.   Just mostly dead.

Things that have happened in the past six months:

• I’ve become addicted to iTunes.  Seriously.  I’ll be sitting at my desk at work and think “Wow, you know, I’d *love* to have ‘California Dreamin’ easily accessible”, and with 2 clicks and 99 cents, I can have it.  I had to stop when I realized that in 3 months I had spent $50 on 99 cent songs.  Ooops.
• Closed down my business, although there are still a few account left to clean up.  I am SO looking forward to having that monkey off my back.
• As of this month, I’m officially employed full time in the legal field.  It’s a little weird - I had been self employed before that, so this is a heck of a change.  Luckily, I’ve found a position that will work with my school schedule, encourages me in my law school aspirations, and doesn’t mind if I wear formal shorts and long tunic shirts to work.  (Yes, formal shorts.  The folks at ‘Go Fug Yourself’ would have a field day.)
• Got married.  Weddings eat your soul.  I’m blissfully happy about the marriage, but the wedding planning sucked balls.  I can’t believe some people actually try to do that while in school.  Psycho, they are.
• Did I mention school schedule?  Because, yes, I got into law school!

Yep, after all the worry and wait of last fall, I did get into school.  I ended up applying to four programs, and got into three out of the four - not a bad track record at all!  Although I did get accepted into my boss’ alma mater, I ended up choosing a different program.   Not naming names here, but the school was listed on Vault’s “Top 25 Most Underrated Law Schools”, and is semi-frequently listed as a great value for the money.  The school has a decent reputation locally, and the night program (which is what I chose) has a really good reputation.  So…. the plusses are:

• Night program!  I attend classes three nights a week, while still being able to work full time.  In talking with others who have completed this program, the workload is tough but manageable.  I’ve spent this spring clearing out my schedule and taking care of any other obligations on my plate so I can start with a clean slate.  July is dedicated to taking care of the last few obligations from my old job, and by the time school starts in August, I should have that all taken care of.
• State school - so the tuition is *very* reasonable. 
• Did I mention that I can still work?  And I now work with an attorney who just went through all this, so it’s fresh in his mind?  And he’s willing to be flexible with my schedule to give me time around midterms/finals for study?  And he’s already planning on getting me in the courtroom once I hit the three-year rule?  Yeah, my boss freakin’ rocks.
• Low tuition + working through school = minimal debt.  I’ve worked *hard* to keep my debt level low over the past 5 years, and I’m glad that I can continue that through law school.  

Minuses:

• The administration seems to kinda suck ass.  My second choice was about $20K more expensive than the school I chose, but the administration was lovely.  Here?  Not so much. 
• Since it’s a PT program, it takes four years instead of the traditional three.  Including summer courses.  So I’m going to be in school for four years, straight, with only small breaks between the semesters.  So  much for having a social life.
• 45 minute drive each way - although I was going to have that no matter what school I chose.  The problem is that I drive a small SUV - it gets great gas mileage for a SUV (about 20 MPG), but it’s far from fabulous.  I just paid it off last fall, though, so I’m leery of trading it in for something new and having a car payment every month.  I will admit to totally coveting the Toyota Yaris (liftback version, natch!).  http://www.toyota.com/yaris/ In electric blue.

So - if there’s anyone still out there, chime in and say hello.  It should be an interesting ride. ;) 

“How does it make you feel when you have to compromise your ethics by defending guilty criminals? What do you mean, ‘comprimise my ethics’? That is my ethic - to defend people accused of a crime, whether I believe that they may be innocent or guilty. If you can’t deal with that, don’t become a defense lawyer.”

This is a brilliantly simple way to look at the concept of being a zealous advocate for your client. Since I’ve been *thinking* about going to law school, people have asked me how I can consider doing criminal defense. I don’t know if I want to actually do defense, but this has certainly made me *think* about it.

The quote is from Alan Dershowitz’s ‘Letters to a Young Lawyer’. It’s a collection of 2-4 page essays on, well, being a lawyer. Dershowitz is a wonderful writer - his style makes you feel like you’re sitting across from him on a comfy chair in a warm coffee shop, drinking lattes and discussing the practice of law. It seems to talk about the reality of practice, as opposed to the fantasy that many law students (myeself included!) have - similar to posts I’ve made to/for people looking to get into my current field. It’s kind, but it dosen’t sugarcoat the problems involved in this career path. It’s simple, direct, and thought provoking - I *highly* reccomend it to the legal professionals out there. Heck, even if you’re just intersted in the law, it’s a lovely book.