Summer, Month I

It's been about a month since spring semester ended. After that, I spent a few days visiting my best friends in DC. Then I went on vacation for a couple weeks...I spent a lot of time at the beach. Even though it was the rainy season, there was a good dose of nice weather that gave me ample opportunity to lounge around and finish a book I've been reading and to review a few "you ought to read this article as a part of our ongoing research" assignments from the professor I'm RAing for this summer. I also drank a lot of really cheap beer and saw some beautiful waters and fish just off the coast. Overall, it was a really relaxing vacation, and a great glimpse into another country's culture.

Last week, I spent a few more days in DC (and got to hang out with Cat!) before shipping off for my summer job. I'm working for a mid-size non-profit. I've just finished my first week, and I really couldn't be happier. My supervisors are really great; I get to work very closely with the general counsel and associate general counsel every day. The perks are fantastic: I have employer-provided housing, subsidized meals, a nice gym, free espresso drinks all day, and even my own bike to get around town. Since there are only about a dozen interns here, the HR department and out supervisors have coordinated lots of cool outings for us. My co-interns are all really interesting, and since most of us aren't from the area, we've been exploring the city together.

My work, too, is turning out better than expected. While I'm not sure I was quite prepared to be spending 70-80% of my day working on contracts and agreements (and I'm probably not qualified to do so, given my lackluster attendance in Contracts last fall), I've found the work to be diverse and interesting. I've been dabbling in employment law, trademark law, federal grant regulations, internet content licensing, and banking agreements....and that's just in my first week! I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer and building some level of competency in a few areas of law. Since lots of my work will probably be related to drafting and reviewing contracts, I'll have to be careful to make sure I get the chance to do some longer writing assignments,too - I'll almost certainly need a writing sample to submit to potential 2L summer employers when they come to on-campus interviewing this August, and I'm not particularly happy with any of my written assignments from 1L.

Speaking of OCI, I'm really glad to report that my last spring semester grade was posted last week. YLS professors are notorious for taking FOREVER to grade exams and papers, so I was delightfully surprised to find that all of mine were finished within a month. Even though I'm not stressing much about grades (our system pretty much prevents it, and I'm not gunning for a SCOTUS clerkship or a spot at Wachtell), I'm still happy with how things wrapped up.

One of my other favorite things about this job: having evenings and weekends free to just explore the city, be outside, and relax. I really need to buckle down and finish the next stage of my research for my professor, but he's been pretty lax about deadlines, so I haven't exactly been proceeding at breakneck pace....and may have spent the last four hours watching "LockUp" on MSNBC with my roommates....

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Elephantitis & Epic-itis: Reflections on 1L

Among the selection of TV stations available to me in my overseas hotel room, only two are in English: E! and CNN. CNN keeps showing this horrible preview for an interview with Tarantino about his new movie, and in the soundbite he says something about how he didn't want to submit to "elephantitis...or epic-itis" in doing a movie about something "so big." I guess he was tooting his own horn, claiming to have shown restraint? Not particularly something he's known for, but...eh.

In any case, I obviously don't want to over-state anything about 1L, but it was honestly pretty big in all sorts of ways. I knew that my classmates would be amazingly accomplished and intelligent, but I was (and constantly still am!) incredibly surprised by how nice and interesting they are. I knew that my professors are foremost in their field, but I have been blown away by just how completely they've mastered the content and how compellingly they can make their point...while at the same time being gracious and compassionate. I had heard that YLS was an extremely caring small community, but I never expected to have built relationships with so many staff and administrators or to honestly feel as though everyone is so invested in others' successes.

Of course, that doesn't mean that things weren't overwhelming at times. As a former science student, I'd never been expected to do so much reading - so closely - every night. I'd never before had an assignment that I honestly felt I'd completely blundered. I've never felt so over-committed by everything I had to do, for things both in and out of class.

Given all that, I guess I'll follow in Cat's footsteps and give a few bits of advice:
(1) Don't spend your 0L summer trying to "get ready" for law school - it's not really worth it: it'll be hard to nearly impossible to predict exactly what will be helpful, and you should use the time to relax (read non-law books, travel, hang out with your friends, etc.) because you'll need all your energy for the semester.
(2) Do cultivate some non-law interests. Sign up for an art class, explore your new city-home, volunteer. Just do something that doesn't involve the FRCP or the Constitution or a Restatement.
(3) Similarly, have some non-law school friends: pay attention to your pre-law school friends, and try to make new friends who aren't in law school. When you need a break from the madness, they'll be a great asset.
(4) New school, new city, new classmates = a new chance to "start over," if you want. Feel free to explore new interests, redefine yourself a bit. If you think you've been unfairly typecast before, you can most likely break free from that and try again in a way that suits you.
(5) That said, don't feel compelled to create a new and improved version of yourself...more specifically, don't think that you have to conform yourself to any stereotypes of what kind of student attends your school - if you're not an aspiring academic, don't pretend to fill that mold just to fit in. Do what makes you happy: take classes and join clubs that are fulfilling, not just ones that will look good on a resume. Chances are, you'll do much better in things that you enjoy.
(6) Like Cat said, put effort into making friends - especially people that you wouldn't normally find yourself befriending.
(7) Eat well. Free food at lunch lectures and dinner meetings is great, but there are only so many food pyramid blocks that get repeated again and again.

Okay, back to vacation...as Cat said, we'll be writing periodically over the summer as we feel inspired!

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