So, There Are These Rules...

Third week on the job, now. One of my partner supervisors asks over lunch, "How's everything going? Is everyone in the group being nice? Do you like the work? Everything going okay?"

Me: "Everyone's awesome: incredibly nice, and giving me really interesting work. I was so relieved when, after she realized I knew the law and had good coverage of the substantive issues, Linda [the associate I was working for on a specific project; obvi, not her real name] was so patient with my Bluebooking errors."

Partner supervisor: "Yeah, don't worry about that. I explained to her that we love Yalies, and we realize that they don't actually teach you guys how to do that stuff. You got the important things."

Me (thinking to myself): Phew.

Not like I'm totally out of the woods or can just refuse to learn the rules (as I've explained, I'm really trying!), but it was nice to know that I'm not a total screw-up. And I guess it's good I brought my Bluebook with me for the summer. Clearly, I'm going to be needing it.

***

Tales from the Front Line: First Week on the Job

Tomorrow I'll start my second week of my 2L summer firm job. It's hard to believe I'm already 10% done...because it doesn't feel like I've done all that much yet! We had almost two days of orientation sessions, and every day features at least a lunch or breakfast gathering if not also an after-hours social event. Plus I'm always tempted to see my YLS and other friends after work. In short, these are long days. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't exhausted come Friday afternoon.

Everyone in my office (a BIG office: think 500+ lawyers, 40+ summers) has been unbelievably friendly and helpful. My assignments are interesting and related to things I know about, even if I have to ask some questions about format and "how do I use...?" the various administrative and research tools.

Entirely superficially: my office is beautiful, and out of the way enough that I'm not distracted by people constantly walking by (only quibble: my chair is a bit too short - but then, I'm short, so I might be asking too much to have a chair that boosts me up high); the out-of-office lunches have been fantastic (three restaurants I hadn't tried before but were gorgeous and scrumptious); and we're in a great location right on top of the subway.

On the home front: while we arrived to find that our sublessors didn't leave us plates, that was pretty easily addressed by a trip to IKEA. I also managed a pretty ingenious hack for shower curtain rings: I grabbed some 2" binder rings from Office Depot. The weekend has been a nice chance to recharge, take care of some errands, and try to catch up on some lingering tasks for school. I spent the afternoon in the sun, reading some articles I need to cite for a paper and making some phone calls for clinic. Just the break I needed before tomorrow's 8:30am meeting...

***

Blue Booking . . . Again

I don't usually read the Volokh Conspiracy, but SB sent me this post on abolishing the Blue Book, which I thought was (a) interesting and (b) timely given the number of people now trying to write onto law reviews.

What Questions Do You Have for Us?

Now that our 2L year is over (well, except for those papers-without-due-dates that SB is still working on), we figure you've heard enough of what we've thought to tell you...so, like in a law firm interview, we thought we'd ask you, our loyal readers, "What questions do you have for us?"

We reserve the right not to answer questions that we might deem too personal, for example, but everything is at least up for discussion. Ask away in the comments; we look forward to hearing from you!

***

"What if we went to a *real* law school?!?"

The Invisible Man law student advises prospective law students worried about bad grades on final exams affecting them: "...just go to Yale and take every course pass/fail." [NB: Technically, it's honors/pass, but he gets the idea.]

To those of you out there taking traditional law school finals, I salute you.

**

Professors Say the Darndest Things . . .

An exchange between a student and an older professor in class today:

Student: Is it OK if we use short-hand on our exams? Like DPC for Due Process Clause?

Professor: Yes, but please don't write your exams like you Twitter.

More on My Bluebook Incompetence

I'll admit it: I'm not a good Bluebooker. Not even close. My small group professor 1L year (where we get basically all of our legal research & writing instruction) was not in any way a stickler about us learning proper citation form (he said he cared more about content than form), so I sort of just winged it and hoped for the best. The professor I do research for says, "I don't care how you cite stuff, just make sure I can find it." [Can you see why I like working for him?] I've been on two secondary journals for multiple semesters, but I've never had to do more than a handful of pages of Bluebooking at a given source cite, and most of the citations are pretty basic. However. This semester I became an articles editor for one of my journals....and that means I have to do a lot more Bluebooking, while trying not to look like a complete idiot.

So don't judge me too harshly, please. I'm trying to learn, I really am. But to give you a sense of just where my baseline is, here's a transcript...I was gchatting with a mutual friend of Cat & yours truly today:

me: Geezus. Ordering of citations?!?! RIDICULOUS.

J [HLS student]: haha

I get e-mails about that!

me: I didn't even know it was a thing until last week.

J: "Dear journal, juts reminding you that this is one of the most commonly neglected rules."

me: gah

totally insane

J: ordering of signals as well

me: yeah

I figured that out just TODAY.

J: hahaha

me: who'dhaveknown!??!

J: it's such bs!

me: I am such a bad law student.

I am going to be such an incompetent summer.

J: lol

me too!!!

me: I can't even Bluebook.

me: but now, with my "I know how to order stuff" knowledge, that's like the only rule I'm honoring.

it's zero-sum, man.

and ordering cases? whoa!that was mind-blowing!

...

me: yeah

I'm pretty much gonna be like "sorry, people, I'm a bad Bluebooker."

"Don't assume anything I said is correct."

J: Good idea, SB.

***