Lies They Tell You at HLS

I don't want to give you the wrong impression. Attending HLS is great. I (sorry SB) would not have gone to another school, even a "better school," had I known at the time I was picking schools what I know now. Still, there are some things that they tell you at HLS that are flatly not true. Specifically:

1. "The competition is over." This was told to me, and every other 1L on the first day of orientation by no less a paragon of truth than Elena Kagan. I am 100% certain I have never been in a more competitive environment. It's possible that a more competitive environment exists, but I don't know of one, and I would not voluntarily be part of such an environment if I did discover it.

2. "1L year is the hardest year of law school." This, actually, may not be a lie, but if it's true for you, I don't think you're doing law school right. 1L year is the boring year where they make you take a bunch of things you're probably not interested in. I am confused by people who work the hardest in 1L year, because it seems unlikely to me (although I admit, not impossible) that anyone really wanted to come to law school to learn a lot about feudal property systems and how to sue someone for a slip-and-fall. I'm taking harder classes 2L year, doing more activities, and sleeping less than I did 1L year. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

So, now that I've given you two lies, I'll list a truth. They are right when they say Harvard is the "New York City" of law schools - both in that it is exciting, dynamic, populated by people with very very different interests, and has an incredibly wide range of opportunities, but also in that it can be impersonal, hectic, and lacking in a support system. There's not a week that goes by, though, that I'm not grateful to be here.

Clerkships Post Two

Cat, I'm glad you posted about the beginning of the clerkship process. We here have also just begun the official onslaught of clerkship info sessions, etc.

Unfortunately, as you mentioned, the beginning of this season seems to have created more questions than answers. Just how many judges have already hired some (or all) of their clerks for the terms for which we'd normally be applying? How many applications do we really need to submit to be reasonably assured of some success? And for people like me, is this even something I want to do? It seems like applying for clerkships isn't really something you can do sort of half-halfheartedly...so while some of my friends and classmates yearn to join The Elect and are already figuring out all the "on-plan vs. off-plan" and other obscure details of the feeder judges they plan to apply to, I can't even say whether or not I want to/need to pay attention.

Here's the long and short of my current thought process:
Unlike Cat, I don't have a real (personal or professional) reason to take a one-year stopover in clerkship world on the way to another, more permanent job. On the other hand, I'm not sure that what that 'other' job is going to be yet. And clerking seems like a good learning experience regardless of what you end up doing. But I had kind of planned to move to a specific city in the relatively short term after graduation (meaning, I think I'd like to end up there in the next 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 years), and it's VERY unlikely I'd be able to get a good clerkship there. But a clerkship for only a year - in some other random city - wouldn't be the end of the world, and I'm generally very flexible and comfortable in nearly every city I've ever been. And on and on and on, the list of maybe-yes-maybe-no factors continues.

So anyway, for the short term, I'm going to keep going to these information sessions and talking to current clerks to try to figure out whether or not I should think seriously about clerking. It would be nice if we didn't have to think about this and make a decision until after this summer: if it turns out I like my firm just fine (and, of course, they like me enough to hire me full-time), then maybe this could be a less-relevant decision. But deadlines in law school - where they exist at all - seem to be terribly unfriendly, and the timing of this process (where we basically have to decide whether we want to clerk this spring) is in no way ideal.

In any case, I'll keep you posted along the way.

Clerkships Post One

Today was the kickoff to the "search for the judicial clerkship" season, and everything is not totally well in Harvard Clerkship Land. We were told some fairly dispiriting numbers about how many of us would get clerkships in the new economic climate, and warned to keep our expectations within reason. I think the problem for many of us is that we don't know what would or would not be reasonable. I know I'm not clerking on the Supreme Court, but is it crazy to apply for a district clerkship? Should I be looking at state courts in the area I grew up? However, the clerkship folks told us that we could come in for a "blunt and realistic" assessment. That sounds approximately as much fun as going to the dentist . . . but it's really good that the Career Service does that for you.

On the bright side, it's somehow comforting (even though by rights it should be terrifying) that so many of my classmates are going to go through the process with me. It feels like we're all in this boat together, although I guess it should also feel like not all of us are going to reach the shore on the other side and it's time to start bashing each other over the head with our paddles. Nevertheless, it doesn't feel that way. Over the next several months, we're going to be sucking up the courage to go ask for letters of recommendation, worrying about our grades, and trying to determine whether we'd be willing to move to a state that we'd never set foot in before for a better clerkship together. Somehow, that seems like a bonding experience.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone?

We're now two full weeks into the new semester. Amazingly, to this point I've done all my assigned reading *before* class. I've even underlined & highlighted, which tends to fall by the wayside when one gets in a rush. It's late Saturday night, and I've even done all my reading through THIS COMING TUESDAY. I can't explain how this staying-up-to-date has happened, but I almost don't want to know the explanation for fear of somehow screwing it up/jinxing it.

[Maybe I've felt some sort of psychic pressure to do all my reading because three of my five courses now ban laptop use during class? Hard to know if that's the case. I'll leave my thoughts on no-laptop classes for another post.]

Perhaps ever more astonishing than a sudden injection of academic energy is the fact that my sudden studiousness hasn't been accompanied by a lack of out-of-class activities & social engagements. Just last night, there was a basically-the-whole-school-in-attendance Jersey Shore party, complete with themed dress-up requirements. If you don't know what that entails, perhaps it will be made clear by the following explanation of one lady's outfit, described by said lovely lady: "I Googled 'Jersey Shore slutty dresses' and just bought the first thing that came up." General reaction of the crowd to the selected dress: (J)WOW(W).

A good time was had by all.

And so, while I kind of wish I had been in DC for this weekend's Snopocalypse, things here are pretty cool, too.

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