In 15 minutes, 1Ls across the country are allowed to start submitting applications to summer employers that are members of NALP (mostly, big private firms and some big non-profits), and employers are allowed to begin contacting 1Ls. While the current state of the economy has created some uneasiness among those people who had hoped to work for big bucks, everyone else just seems happy (and overwhelmed!) to begin to think about the exciting opportunities available to us this summer.
Personally, I hadn't really thought seriously about working for a big firm until a few weeks ago, when I realized that it couldn't hurt to apply to a handful of places that have practice areas specific to my area of interest...I could send out a few targeted applications, see who (if anybody) took the bait, and then decide whether I really want to work in "biglaw" (or in my case, "biglaw" or "midlaw") this summer, or whether I'd go ahead with my original plan to work at a non-profit or governmental agency or two.
Of course, I didn't really think about how long it'd take me to send out "a few targeted applications." First, I had to think about what cities I'd be willing to go to. Then I had to run advanced searches to find firms in those cities that have the specific practice area I want. Then I had to make a freakin' spreadsheet: firms, contact people, specific names of special practice groups. Write specific cover letters. Fix up resume. Prepare e-mails, with attachments specific to each firm.
What seemed like forever hours later, I've got a bunch of drafts in gmail ready to send tomorrow. Now it's nearly midnight, and I haven't even started my con law reading for tomorrow, and we've got a special guest speaker coming to class expecting us to be knowledgable about a recent CT Supreme Court case. I guess a working lunch isn't the end of the world, especially after a nice, long relaxing holiday weekend...
**
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Belated Harvard-Yale Recap
From our Dean:
****
Cat & I spent part of the Harvard-Yale weekend together! Cat cooked a *fabulous* dinner (THANK YOU!!) for us and two of our best friends on Friday night, and we consumed a substantial number of cookies and a not-insignificant amount of alcohol in her blissfully warm Cambridge apartment before I had to head out into the blustery night.
Saturday was the storied Game day, full of a blistering cold tailgate, an even colder shutout of a game, and some post-Game parties. The extent to which I partook (or didn't partake) in the aforementioned activities is absolutely not an accurate gauge of my fan-dom, but it was FREAKING COLD. And the bed was SO warm! Plus, it kept the sting of our loss a bit out of mind...
We did manage to get out into Cambridge for dinner (and I wore my blue & white striped shirt with pride!), which was tasty and full of good college friends currently in law/grad school at Harvard, Yale, and MIT. There was more drinking and reminiscing and catching up on each others' lives, then I was back to the comfort of a toasty cocoon in the midst of a crisp New England fall....an absolutely scrumptious brunch on Sunday, and I was more than content with my version of Harvard-Yale in Cambridge, despite a lack of direct football observation. I was tempted to stay forever, had there not been work to return to...
All in all, a *very* enjoyable weekend! And next year, we Elis will welcome ya'll down in New Haven. Word is, we party better.
**
Having reported earlier on our Faculty Basketball win, I now have received a fuller report from our bloggers in Cambridge:
In the Student Basketball Game, Harvard 60 - Yale 44. While our intrepid but outnumbered student team fell to a human wave of HLS players, moral victory was secured by our team' s support from 65 Yale Law Students, who traveled to the game to support our team. The YLS contingent vastly outnumbered their (fewer than 10) Crimson counterparts in the crowd, who were playing at home.
In the YLJ/ HLR Touch Football game: YLJ 20 - HLR 13. In the first play of the game, third-year student ABC went deep for an 80 yard touchdown turn. On the second play of the game, starting receiver XYZ broke his nose on a tough play on the outside, but we are advised that he is doing fine on the morning after.
In the Undergraduate football game, our offense was stymied, and Yale lost 10-0.
(And finally, while I am shocked, shocked to learn that some of our students engage in gambling, apparently our YLS poker team -- featuring several former professional players -- also prevailed over its HLS counterpart).
****
Cat & I spent part of the Harvard-Yale weekend together! Cat cooked a *fabulous* dinner (THANK YOU!!) for us and two of our best friends on Friday night, and we consumed a substantial number of cookies and a not-insignificant amount of alcohol in her blissfully warm Cambridge apartment before I had to head out into the blustery night.
Saturday was the storied Game day, full of a blistering cold tailgate, an even colder shutout of a game, and some post-Game parties. The extent to which I partook (or didn't partake) in the aforementioned activities is absolutely not an accurate gauge of my fan-dom, but it was FREAKING COLD. And the bed was SO warm! Plus, it kept the sting of our loss a bit out of mind...
We did manage to get out into Cambridge for dinner (and I wore my blue & white striped shirt with pride!), which was tasty and full of good college friends currently in law/grad school at Harvard, Yale, and MIT. There was more drinking and reminiscing and catching up on each others' lives, then I was back to the comfort of a toasty cocoon in the midst of a crisp New England fall....an absolutely scrumptious brunch on Sunday, and I was more than content with my version of Harvard-Yale in Cambridge, despite a lack of direct football observation. I was tempted to stay forever, had there not been work to return to...
All in all, a *very* enjoyable weekend! And next year, we Elis will welcome ya'll down in New Haven. Word is, we party better.
**
Friday, November 21, 2008
Groupies
When I was trying to decide where to go to school, one of the things that was most attractive to me about Yale is the "small group" system of instruction for 1Ls. During the first few days of orientation were were kept in suspense about "whose group" we were in...but then when we got our class assignments, people had an instant identity as part of one of the 12-13 (I'm not actually sure how many there are) small groups of 15ish people.
Each small group has all of their classes together, and one class that is ONLY those 15 people plus a professor and two or three TAs (3L students who are primarily there to serve as mentors/buddies and legal writing helpers - ours like to take us bowling and out drinking, and occasionally they give us tips about how to write memos, or what classes to take, or how to get our dream summer job). The professors really make an effort to get to know the people in their small groups, and they tend to serve as a good first letter of recommendation writer...plus, the seminar style of the small group class is awesome (especially for con law, which is my small group class, where discussion really helps you work through complicated issues).
By default, the people in your small group are the people you see most often. Literally, every single day. Sometimes for 6 hours of class! So you have to like, or at least be able to tolerate, the people in your SG.
I really really love my small group! It took us a while to get bonded at the beginning of the semester, in part because we all also had friends in other small groups and through activities...we were pretty independent, as a bunch. But as we began to get tougher assignments and as we spent more time together, we found out that we all get along really well...luckily, nobody in our small group is a "gunner" in our larger classes, so we have begun to make snarky comments to each other on gchat during class making fun of said people who seem to want to just listen to themselves talk. You'd be amazed how much bonding can go on in a group gchat window!
We've also started hanging out a lot more outside of class...this week, we went out for drinks three nights in a row! It helped, of course, that we just turned in our big project for the semester - our "open universe" mock appellate court brief. So it's time to - finally! - relax, breathe, sleep, and socialize again. This weekend is the annual Harvard-Yale football game (and the annual HLS/YLS basketball game!), so a bunch of people are making the trek up to Cambridge, myself included. Go Bulldogs!
Each small group has all of their classes together, and one class that is ONLY those 15 people plus a professor and two or three TAs (3L students who are primarily there to serve as mentors/buddies and legal writing helpers - ours like to take us bowling and out drinking, and occasionally they give us tips about how to write memos, or what classes to take, or how to get our dream summer job). The professors really make an effort to get to know the people in their small groups, and they tend to serve as a good first letter of recommendation writer...plus, the seminar style of the small group class is awesome (especially for con law, which is my small group class, where discussion really helps you work through complicated issues).
By default, the people in your small group are the people you see most often. Literally, every single day. Sometimes for 6 hours of class! So you have to like, or at least be able to tolerate, the people in your SG.
I really really love my small group! It took us a while to get bonded at the beginning of the semester, in part because we all also had friends in other small groups and through activities...we were pretty independent, as a bunch. But as we began to get tougher assignments and as we spent more time together, we found out that we all get along really well...luckily, nobody in our small group is a "gunner" in our larger classes, so we have begun to make snarky comments to each other on gchat during class making fun of said people who seem to want to just listen to themselves talk. You'd be amazed how much bonding can go on in a group gchat window!
We've also started hanging out a lot more outside of class...this week, we went out for drinks three nights in a row! It helped, of course, that we just turned in our big project for the semester - our "open universe" mock appellate court brief. So it's time to - finally! - relax, breathe, sleep, and socialize again. This weekend is the annual Harvard-Yale football game (and the annual HLS/YLS basketball game!), so a bunch of people are making the trek up to Cambridge, myself included. Go Bulldogs!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Decisions, Decisions
Spring registration has rolled around already. It's a little surreal, because I definitely still feel like I'm in my first weeks of law school. Nevertheless, we've already got to pick classes for next semester. When we arrived in October our classes were all picked out for us, but now we've got a bit more choice. Every 1L here has to take Torts, Contracts, Property, Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, and Legislation & Regulation with their section. We took four of them our first semester, and will take two in the spring. We also have a year long course called Legal Writing and Research, which is simultaneously the most boring and most useful class we'll ever take (or so we've been told). SB tells me that this type of course is called "HLS classes" by Yalies, on account of how boring they are. On the bright side, I hear passing the bar exam is a lot less stressful when you've taken the basics. **
So, even given all those requirements, we still have a little bit of choice our spring semester! We can pick among 7 international/comparative law courses. I'm taking one on international business law, which is super exciting. Other options include International Public Law, The Constitutional Order & International Law, Intro to Chinese Law, and European Legal Theories.
Then, we have one straight elective. Here, I have basically no idea what to pick. The choices are overwhelming. We can pick between larger or smaller classes, and I think I'd like to take a smaller class. So far, every class has been with a group of the same 80 folks. There, though, all decisiveness on my part vanishes. How to pick between Family Law and Disability Law? Poverty Law and Local Government Law? Everyone I've talked to is in the same spot, and we all admit to being pretty excited to find out what class we get into to. (And thrilled to be paging through the course guide.) Daily, my pre-law school worries of "Harvard Law Student: Master of the Universe" is replaced by the reality of "Harvard Law Student: Gentle Geek."
** There are other snarky comments I could add in here concerning YLS's supposed inability to prepare students for an acutal lawyering job, but they're probably not true, and anyway, we still go to school in Boston and not New Haven.
So, even given all those requirements, we still have a little bit of choice our spring semester! We can pick among 7 international/comparative law courses. I'm taking one on international business law, which is super exciting. Other options include International Public Law, The Constitutional Order & International Law, Intro to Chinese Law, and European Legal Theories.
Then, we have one straight elective. Here, I have basically no idea what to pick. The choices are overwhelming. We can pick between larger or smaller classes, and I think I'd like to take a smaller class. So far, every class has been with a group of the same 80 folks. There, though, all decisiveness on my part vanishes. How to pick between Family Law and Disability Law? Poverty Law and Local Government Law? Everyone I've talked to is in the same spot, and we all admit to being pretty excited to find out what class we get into to. (And thrilled to be paging through the course guide.) Daily, my pre-law school worries of "Harvard Law Student: Master of the Universe" is replaced by the reality of "Harvard Law Student: Gentle Geek."
** There are other snarky comments I could add in here concerning YLS's supposed inability to prepare students for an acutal lawyering job, but they're probably not true, and anyway, we still go to school in Boston and not New Haven.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Colder Calls in Boston
Since I was thinking on posting about exactly the same thing this week (and am obviously too lazy to come up with a new topic): Cold Calls Part II. In Boston, they are a little colder than New Haven. Like the weather, I guess.
Cold calling, obviously, varies a lot from class to class. There is one professor who sort of lets you know ahead of time if you're going to be on deck by picking people who are associated with the case of the day. For example, if the case set is in Idaho, and you're from Boise, it's better to pay close attention to the reading. However, this doesn't always work. Rumor has it that during the class on International Shoe, he looked at a girl in the front row and said "X, I see you're wearing shoes. Care to enlighten us on the background to this case?" Another professor literally calls on every single person in the room during every class.
Sarcasm levels vary a lot also. I think that the vast vast vast majority of professors are extremely gentle with people who are having trouble, and move on quickly if you can't answer the question. There are, though, one or two who I'm pretty sure feel nostalgic for the days of the Paper Chase. After all, twenty years ago many of them were sitting more or less in exactly the same seats we're in now. And their professors were not nice, or so we've been told. Consequently, every now and then, you hear of a professor saying something on the extremely sarcastic side. For example, I've heard the following exchange took place after a professor asked a yes/no question.
Hapless Student: Is the answer...yes?
Professor Snark: Could you come up with a shorter and more accurate answer?
Cold calling, obviously, varies a lot from class to class. There is one professor who sort of lets you know ahead of time if you're going to be on deck by picking people who are associated with the case of the day. For example, if the case set is in Idaho, and you're from Boise, it's better to pay close attention to the reading. However, this doesn't always work. Rumor has it that during the class on International Shoe, he looked at a girl in the front row and said "X, I see you're wearing shoes. Care to enlighten us on the background to this case?" Another professor literally calls on every single person in the room during every class.
Sarcasm levels vary a lot also. I think that the vast vast vast majority of professors are extremely gentle with people who are having trouble, and move on quickly if you can't answer the question. There are, though, one or two who I'm pretty sure feel nostalgic for the days of the Paper Chase. After all, twenty years ago many of them were sitting more or less in exactly the same seats we're in now. And their professors were not nice, or so we've been told. Consequently, every now and then, you hear of a professor saying something on the extremely sarcastic side. For example, I've heard the following exchange took place after a professor asked a yes/no question.
Hapless Student: Is the answer...yes?
Professor Snark: Could you come up with a shorter and more accurate answer?
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Too Hot for Cold Calls
One of the things that most, if not all, incoming law students are afraid of at the beginning of first semester is being “cold called” in class. Some people saw the movie “The Paper Chase” or read “1L” [personally, I refused to do either] and determined that professors want students to look stupid or screw up in front of the entire class. Luckily, at my school, that is most certainly not the case – although each professor has a different way of cold calling (or not), they’re generally a good-natured bunch, and the modified Socratic method actually does force you to learn quite a bit (which is good, in a semester where we’re graded pass/fail - or, as the Dean says, "pass/pass").
Each of my four professors has a different method for the use of cold calling. My torts professor, Guido (who S.G. wrote about here), likes to assign a section of the class to be “on call” for each section of cases. Supposedly, people sitting in that section are supposed to be extra-vigilant in their reading so that they’re ready to answer questions…but usually, so many people volunteer that everyone forgets who’s on call in the first place.
My procedure professor expects everyone to be prepared to talk about the reading, but he usually hints as to whom he’s planning to call on during the next class so that those people can be ready. In procedure, we’re often asked to take on the persona of a Supreme Court justice and give our opinion about how we’d have ruled on a particular case – to be put on the spot like that is sometimes scary, but it helps you really understand the underlying legal principles (and it can be fun to pretend to be Scalia or O’Connor...especially when it results in the professor doing impressions of the esteemed justices).
My small group class (with only 15 1L students) is constitutional law. For each day of class, only one person is on call. I’m on call tomorrow: I’m supposed to be the expert on the various affirmative action decisions of the Court. I’m a little worried I’ll get some of the dissenting opinions mixed up, but our professor isn't too aggressive, and the seminar style of the class means that everyone pitches in to help you out if you’re not sure of an answer – small group love.
In contracts, my professor calls on just one or two people a day, out of the blue – no warning. Today I ended up being on call for AN HOUR AND A HALF, and it went just fine since I’d done the reading. Talking with the professor about the arguments in the case definitely made me focus on the most important points, even if it meant that I was too busy participating in class that I didn’t get to take notes. [And, a friend of mine, who heard that I'd been put on call, decided it'd be funny to frantically gchat me for the entire time...hilarious.] Luckily, my small group members (with whom I have all my classes) sent me notes before I even left class...as the work piles on, we're realizing that it's a good idea to stick together to get stuff done. Speaking of work...back to my brief (due Monday! eek!)...
Each of my four professors has a different method for the use of cold calling. My torts professor, Guido (who S.G. wrote about here), likes to assign a section of the class to be “on call” for each section of cases. Supposedly, people sitting in that section are supposed to be extra-vigilant in their reading so that they’re ready to answer questions…but usually, so many people volunteer that everyone forgets who’s on call in the first place.
My procedure professor expects everyone to be prepared to talk about the reading, but he usually hints as to whom he’s planning to call on during the next class so that those people can be ready. In procedure, we’re often asked to take on the persona of a Supreme Court justice and give our opinion about how we’d have ruled on a particular case – to be put on the spot like that is sometimes scary, but it helps you really understand the underlying legal principles (and it can be fun to pretend to be Scalia or O’Connor...especially when it results in the professor doing impressions of the esteemed justices).
My small group class (with only 15 1L students) is constitutional law. For each day of class, only one person is on call. I’m on call tomorrow: I’m supposed to be the expert on the various affirmative action decisions of the Court. I’m a little worried I’ll get some of the dissenting opinions mixed up, but our professor isn't too aggressive, and the seminar style of the class means that everyone pitches in to help you out if you’re not sure of an answer – small group love.
In contracts, my professor calls on just one or two people a day, out of the blue – no warning. Today I ended up being on call for AN HOUR AND A HALF, and it went just fine since I’d done the reading. Talking with the professor about the arguments in the case definitely made me focus on the most important points, even if it meant that I was too busy participating in class that I didn’t get to take notes. [And, a friend of mine, who heard that I'd been put on call, decided it'd be funny to frantically gchat me for the entire time...hilarious.] Luckily, my small group members (with whom I have all my classes) sent me notes before I even left class...as the work piles on, we're realizing that it's a good idea to stick together to get stuff done. Speaking of work...back to my brief (due Monday! eek!)...
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Election Day Post-Mortem
Now, 24 hours later, the gravity of last night still hasn't really sunken in for me. Of course, it was the topic of conversation all day today - most classes spent a significant portion of the class period, if not all of it, discussing the presidential election, the in-limbo Senate races, and the various ballot initiatives (Arkansas, really?!?). Still, inauguration day is a couple months away...and my heart ached to be back home in DC last night as the returns were coming in, as much as I loved watching the historic event with my classmates.
While lots of people went to smaller viewing parties at friends' homes, a bunch of people also watched the night's events at school. We had fruit, cookies, lemon bars, and abundant bottled water to get us through...I added a couple bottles of Mountain Dew, since it had already been a pretty long day (full disclosure: I didn't have class till 1, but woke up at 8:30 naturally...still, I made myself stay in bed till 11:30 because I knew I'd be a wreck otherwise). Most people were constantly refreshing CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and fivethirtyeight on their laptops - one girl's dad apparently works at CBS News, so he gave us the "insider" word that they were going to call it for Obama a couple minutes before 11. (Of course, we fivethirtyeight addicts already knew that PA/VA/OH - or any combination of two of the above, or maybe even just one - was going to be enough).
Celebration ensued. Interestingly, a TON of the LLM students were in attendance, and they seemed near the most excited! The African-American crew was also elated, as expected...but honestly I think the general population at school didn't see this as a "race thing" as much as a "human/national progress" thing [there are, of course, conservatives at school - a vocal minority, to be sure - but by this point in the night, most of them had realized what McCain's camp knew weeks ago: the man is old, Palin's a wacko, and Grant Park wasn't set up to be the location of a concession speech; moreover, nobody can deny the historic nature of the win].
There was champagne! Corks were popping! One bottle was apparently brought back after a failed attempt to celebrate in 2004.
We watched the speeches. I was misty-eyed the whole time, but I was crying unabashedly by the end. Oh, to be in that park...but the energy was still electric.
We walked home, my roommates and I, only to find along the way that a ton of the university's students had assembled on Old Campus to celebrate. They didn't get the same treatment as some kids in Baltimore did (Don't tase me!), but they were jubillant nonetheless - the enthusiasm was undeniable as people ran to greet one another and be a part of the hysteria.
Today, our professors were tired (they stayed up, too!), we were tired, and we uniformly hadn't done our reading as assigned...but it didn't seem to matter. There were lots of Obama t-shirts and stickers and buttons on display - some worn by those just now returning from their posts doing voter protection in key battleground states. We speculated about possible SCOTUS nominations...we debated the dress...and we were shocked that Ms. Palin apparently knows less about Africa than I know about moose hunting...but in the end, we still have writing assignments to attend to, resumes to revise for the impending summer job search, and sourcecites to do...
***
While lots of people went to smaller viewing parties at friends' homes, a bunch of people also watched the night's events at school. We had fruit, cookies, lemon bars, and abundant bottled water to get us through...I added a couple bottles of Mountain Dew, since it had already been a pretty long day (full disclosure: I didn't have class till 1, but woke up at 8:30 naturally...still, I made myself stay in bed till 11:30 because I knew I'd be a wreck otherwise). Most people were constantly refreshing CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and fivethirtyeight on their laptops - one girl's dad apparently works at CBS News, so he gave us the "insider" word that they were going to call it for Obama a couple minutes before 11. (Of course, we fivethirtyeight addicts already knew that PA/VA/OH - or any combination of two of the above, or maybe even just one - was going to be enough).
Celebration ensued. Interestingly, a TON of the LLM students were in attendance, and they seemed near the most excited! The African-American crew was also elated, as expected...but honestly I think the general population at school didn't see this as a "race thing" as much as a "human/national progress" thing [there are, of course, conservatives at school - a vocal minority, to be sure - but by this point in the night, most of them had realized what McCain's camp knew weeks ago: the man is old, Palin's a wacko, and Grant Park wasn't set up to be the location of a concession speech; moreover, nobody can deny the historic nature of the win].
There was champagne! Corks were popping! One bottle was apparently brought back after a failed attempt to celebrate in 2004.
We watched the speeches. I was misty-eyed the whole time, but I was crying unabashedly by the end. Oh, to be in that park...but the energy was still electric.
We walked home, my roommates and I, only to find along the way that a ton of the university's students had assembled on Old Campus to celebrate. They didn't get the same treatment as some kids in Baltimore did (Don't tase me!), but they were jubillant nonetheless - the enthusiasm was undeniable as people ran to greet one another and be a part of the hysteria.
Today, our professors were tired (they stayed up, too!), we were tired, and we uniformly hadn't done our reading as assigned...but it didn't seem to matter. There were lots of Obama t-shirts and stickers and buttons on display - some worn by those just now returning from their posts doing voter protection in key battleground states. We speculated about possible SCOTUS nominations...we debated the dress...and we were shocked that Ms. Palin apparently knows less about Africa than I know about moose hunting...but in the end, we still have writing assignments to attend to, resumes to revise for the impending summer job search, and sourcecites to do...
***
Monday, November 3, 2008
Election Day
It's been approaching for a mighty long time, but it's finally here! The steps that the law school has taken to accommodate it have been pretty sweet. They're taping all the classes so that people can feel free to campaign, vote, go home, whatever. We're having a school-run election party, at which we've been promised, and I quote, "a non-lame" gift. And of course, the fact that one of the candidates is an alumni of the school hasn't hurt at all.
Unfortunately, my feelings on election night are basically mixed. I've already voted by absentee ballot in a state where my vote will make no difference. I hate watching the returns come in, because I find it super stressful. Plus, the fact that I have to get up the next morning and go to class is kinda sucky. Still, happy election day! Go vote!
Addendum on November 5th: It was pointed out today that the law school now controls two out of the three branches of government (presidency, majority on the Supreme Court.) I can't decide if I find that troubling or not.
Unfortunately, my feelings on election night are basically mixed. I've already voted by absentee ballot in a state where my vote will make no difference. I hate watching the returns come in, because I find it super stressful. Plus, the fact that I have to get up the next morning and go to class is kinda sucky. Still, happy election day! Go vote!
Addendum on November 5th: It was pointed out today that the law school now controls two out of the three branches of government (presidency, majority on the Supreme Court.) I can't decide if I find that troubling or not.
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