All Good Things Must Come to an End

Sorry for a period of relative (posting) inactivity. Luckily, the last week or so was spent in a state of relative intellectual inactivity (for both Cat & me, as both our schools had vacation until classes resumed yesterday).

Quick update: I spent "vacation" in Massachusetts. My last final (con law - which we could take anywhere in the world, thanks to the magic of the internet) was, somewhat ironically, on the morning of January 20th. After relatively blowing off that exam (reason explained more below) and watching the inaugural events while baking cookies, I had a few unencumbered days in Boston, give or take a few meetings and some summer job search nonsense. Got to see some people I love: my long-lost college roommate whose boyfriend just transferred to HLS; my former classmate who worked with me in DC last year and moved to Boston in August; Cat(!!) and her boyfriend; another friend who is doing his PhD at MIT [and who I know reads this - See, you're famous now!]. After a few more days of seeing friends and some volunteering, I had to come back Sunday evening, totally unprepared for the onslaught of beginning-of-semester craziness.

Buying books. Choosing classes. Starting clinic. Figuring out how to get paid for my TAing job. Figuring out how to get my student loan money refunded so I can pay rent. Lots of fun stuff.

In short: my new classes (two small 20ish person courses - one of which has VERY little to do with law, one large "black letter" class, and clinic) are awesome so far. Since I've only been to each one once, not too much to say yet...but I think it'll make a huge difference that we get to pick all our classes this semester - so I can't blame anyone but myself if I don't like the material/don't do the reading.

On the flip side, this semester will require some marginal amount of work beyond what was expected of us last semester (which was all "pass/fail"), since we now get graded with either "honors" or "pass." So I should redouble my efforts to stay caught up with reading, and to go to class regularly. I'll keep you updated as to how long that lasts...I have a feeling clinic might become a big time commitment that pushes some other things out, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing as my clinic involves doing stuff that I'm truly interested in.

A bunch of people have asked about how finals wrapped up. In sum: they're done, and not getting a grade makes it super-easy not to ever think about them again. In more detail:

Torts: First law school exam ever. More details here.

Contracts: Since contracts & procedure were both self-scheduled (we could take them any time we wanted between January 7th and January 21st), some people took this pretty early on to get it over with...our professor suggested that she'd do no more than take a cursory glance at our exams, so there wasn't much worry about knocking it out of the park. After reading over a couple of other people's/Lexis's outlines, I took this at 1am-3am one day. The fact pattern was truly interesting...I'd be interested to see the model answer, as I think there were a number of ways to go with it.

Procedure: It would not be an overstatement to call this the relative bane of my existence as far as exams went. We had to do a take-home essay before starting the timed portion, and I had kind of blissfully forgotten about that during the holidays. I ended up writing something relatively cogent (maybe?) examining the Guantanamo habeas proceedings from a feminist perspective. The actual timed portion of the exam (3.5 hours) had a rather extensive issue spotting question, and a relatively painless (read: we'd harped on the issue for DAYS in class) policy question. In the end, I kind of psyched myself out for this exam (the only one for which a professor is giving personalized feedback to everyone in the class, without students asking specifically)...but hopefully the extra two days of "studying" resulted in me not embarassing myself (meaning, after I actually read an outline, I knew that a state's attachment rule had nothing to do with the stapling/binding of filings).

Con Law: By the time the 20th rolled around, I was SUPER-glad that my professor had told us that he wasn't going to read our exams. He told us we didn't need to write anything, in fact. It was "for [us], not [him]," and if we wanted feedback, he'd give us comments...but there was no need to prove we knew con law on an exam, as he knew from our small group seminar that we all knew con law. Sweet. As a result, a few people just wrote "Thanks for a great semester!" or something similar...and the rest of us sort of halfway wrote something relating to the questions.

So yeah. That's the end of first semester 1L. Now we're in the big leagues, taking all our classes with 2Ls and 3Ls and getting more involved in activities and clinics. If the last two days are any indication, that's going to mean 10-12 hour days at school...no easy welcome to spring semester, I guess.

***

Procrastination Playlist

My revised "final" brief is due in 16 hours, 'flexibly.' [One weird thing about YLS is that deadlines/rules seem not to exist. Students freely hand in papers hours, days, weeks, semesters, even years late (I know one 3L who has a paper outstanding from two years ago, and he's in no rush to finish it)...and professors don't bat an eye. Deadlines, in other words, seem pretty false. Especially this semester (pass/fail grading in all classes): if we hand in a brief "late," what are they going to do - fail us??] Let's just say that I'm far from finished with my revisions. I may have just spent a few hours shopping online/cleaning my room/hanging out pre-Bar Review with some fellow 1Ls. And I took a gloriously long nap this afternoon. As I mentioned to someone at dinner earlier tonight, basically any incentive structure I may have had coming into this semester is kaput.

After ushering my friends out the door under the guise of "briefing," I sat down to do some edits. And failed. In the interest of further procrastination, I thought: "Well, I guess I could write a blog post..." but I had really no idea what to write about. So I present to you the playlist that's been on loop for me the past few days. A great sorta-hipster friend of mine sent me (via snail mail! it still exists!) a mix CD of some of her newest favorites...and I, trusting her hipster taste, have been bopping along ever since [NB: I'm not a huge fan of ALL of the songs below, but making a playlist is an art, I'm told, so I'm presenting it here in full...].

1. My Dick - Mickey Avalon
2. Way Too Much - Chromeo
3. Many Moons - Janelle Monae
4. Something/Blue Jay Way - The Beatles
5. Fake Palindromes - Andrew Bird
6. If You Fall - Azure Ray
7. If She Wants Me - Belle & Sebastian
8. It's Not You It's Me - Coconut Records
9. The Wildfire - Mando Diao
10. Before I Fall to Pieces - Razorlight
11. Tired of Being Sorry - Ringside
12. You Were Always the One - The Cribs
13. Dropkick Queen of the Weekend - The Dudes
14. Skull and Bones - The Ordinary Boys
15. Old Enough - The Raconteurs
16. Either Way - Wilco
17. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
18. Ayo Technology - Milew
19. Tenderoni - Chromeo
20. Forever Lost - The Magic Numbers
21. All 'Cause of You - The 88

And now, back to "edits"...

**

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!)...

This Blog is Temporarily Suspended...So I Can Focus on the Economy

Well, not it's not *really* the economy...more like "geez, this is more work in a week than I've ever had to do before [except maybe when I wrote a 40-page graduate qualitative research paper in four days - but let's just say that was a BAD experience, in which I actually locked myself in my office, and one which I hope never to repeat again], so I probably won't have time to blog again before the weekend."

Things I gotta do:
* Twelve page memo (this only after reading 10 cases, about 400-500 pages total, maybe?) due Thursday
* Pleading written assignment due Thursday
* Compile a list of biographies for a journal-sponsored conference I signed up to help with
* Contracts reading for "tomorrow" which is really today since it's now 4:15 am; torts, procedure, and con law reading for Wednesday
* Secure at least one for-sure partner for my non-law-school-job, and work a bunch of other contacts

So....I hope you'll cut me some slack. I promise, my thoughts about Cat's school's new grading scheme are coming; plus, updates and other random stuff.

We Get Free Cable...Turns Out That's Not Always Good

My roommates are both gone till Sunday (so like, 5 or 6 days away from school - in the first month! I'd freak out...but then, we don't have grades, so....), so I have the apartment all to myself. It's been awesome. Even though I love them dearly, and I lived all of last year with anywhere between 5-8 roommates at a time, it's going to be super-helpful* if I can take advantage of the distraction-free* environment to work on my writing assignments this weekend.

*Note: It's very unlikely that any real work will be done if I'm in the apartment. It's too tempting to watch tv. I've watched approximately 6 hours of Law & Order in the past two days [that's part of my education, right?!?]. Plus 3 hours of the Golf Channel. And a couple hours of football. And Project Runway. And Top Design. Perhaps the only deterrent is that our couch isn't particularly comfortable after the first hour. Obviously, though, that hasn't stopped me yet.

Boo. Writing assignments. We have a 12-page memo to write by next Thursday for our small group class (con law), wherein we're supposed to make arguments based on a "closed-world" set of 9 cases that have been given to us by our professor. We have to submit a draft to be edited by our TAs before it's seen by the professor, so not particularly a be-all-end-all situation, but I think the consensus is that we don't want to look utterly stupid. We also have to write a complaint (in partners) for our procedure class. Also due Thursday. C'mon, professors...coordinate?

On the good side, this week has been nice (and will continue to be so) because a couple of my professors have canceled class. I can sleep in till basically whenever I want tomorrow and Monday. I should use that time to work on my writing assignments. I will likely just do laundry, and work on my non-law-school-job work. Oh well. One to 3 am is the most productive window of the day, right?

A few random things:

* Lexis/WestLaw free printing (only of law cases, but since that's all I read these days...) is amazing. It saved me from spending $130 on a contracts book. I actually like the red Lexis logo printed on all the pages. And the rewards programs for using their services seem sweet, since I'd be using them anyway. My law student self looks back on my high school debater self [which unabashedly flirted with debate guys that had Lexis passwords, in hopes of getting to use them] and says, "Whoa! My own Lexis password! I'm on top of the world!"

* Note from my apartment's management (seemingly directed at the undergrads that live in many of the other apartments), paraphrased:

"It has come to our attention that there has been drinking in the hallways. Parties are not allowed in the hallways, or on the steps, or in the parking lot. We'll evict you if you keep being loud. Thanks for being great tenants."

We love our management. Yeah, not long ago we were those obnoxious undergrads (and we try to avoid seeing ourselves as the grumpy grad students), but it's a little ridiculous to have thumping base radiating through our door at 4am. On a Monday night.

* You know you're back in school when you start planning for your school vacations. We have a week off in October (it's fly-back week for 2Ls doing firm interviews, and everyone else just gets a vacation), so I've been planning my escape this week. One small group is organizing a trip to Costa Rica. I have two trips planned for the bookend weekends - one to the Midwest, and the other to a city/state I haven't been out west.

* Things my schoolmates have written/done this week (I'm feeling more and more inadequate by the day...):

• WashPost op-ed on the financial crisis/bailout plan
• Reflection on David Foster Wallace [one of my favorite writers ever] in NY Mag
• Showing of a documentary about post-9/11 life in America

Training Day

Today was a bit of a breakthrough for me. Not one of those beautifully poetic "everything in law finally makes sense to me - I *will* be a great lawyer!" sort of breakthroughs, though...more like a "finally, I can make it through a day of classes without being haplessly lost at some point" breakthrough. For the past week or so, I've been pretty solid for two of my three full-day-of-classes classes, but today my high school debate experience proved unexpectedly useful in a discussion about federalism (summarily abbreviated as 'fism' in my notes, as has been the case since 9th grade) and centralization/decentralization (aka the states CP in high school policy debate).

When I got unexpectedly called on in my small group (I read most of my con law cases on the computer rather than printing them out - I think this makes me somewhat vulnerable to the target of 'let's try to find someone who's surfing the internet' cold calls in small group, but I prefer to save some trees...and some money...so I guess a few targeted questions is the price I pay instead), I took a broad sweeping guess at something as vague as possible (I really had no idea what he was asking, and I had only just read (read: skimmed) the opinion about an hour beforehand) - and it turns out that me saying the word "...goal...?" was just what he was looking for. Score.

Then, in an in-class brainstorming session, I managed not to sound like an idiot when comparing centralized and decentralized models of power. That's some states counter-planning for you.

This was in the afternoon, following a morning in which my procedure class was presented with our 'client,' for whom we're supposed to write a complaint this week with a partner. We got to pepper him with questions for about an hour, and it was really quite interesting to think about how the process of client intake happens, especially in cases like this hypothetical one, in which an individual is alleging some sort of (religious? gender?) discrimination. I felt like I managed to ask a few interesting, probing questions - and I was doubly impressed by everyone else's line of questioning. Clearly, we really have no idea what we're doing, and there were a few light moments, such as: "Other than not using condoms, how do you practice your [Catholic] religious beliefs?" ...but come next Wednesday when our assignment is due, we'll have taken our first step toward being competently practicing lawyers from a school that our professor insists doesn't really teach us how to practice.

**

Also, since some people have asked - Appendix A: General Weekly Schedule [and yes, this is cross-posted from TLS: why write it twice?]

My daily schedule really depends on the day; on Monday & Wednesday I have six hours of class between 830 and 4, so I don't really get much time off during the day - I usually spend the hour or two break prepping/finishing reading for my last class of the day. Sometimes I (gasp!) take a nap after class ends, and then there are group/journal/activity meetings at 6 till maybe 8 or 9. Reading and studying happens after that, sometimes till 1 or 2 - but I'm trying to get on a more rational schedule (sleep by midnight or so), or else I worry I'll have to result to Cat's level of tea (in my case, coffee) intake. [As a completely random side-note, my 2am bedtime/830am class has created a weird situation in which I now gchat occasionally with one of my former employees in India...he's at work across that period, and finds it hilarious that I'm awake then.] Mondays usually involve a big group viewing of Gossip Girl.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have class from 830-10 and then have a break till 4pm (class 4-6). I use that break in the day to catch up on e-mail, do reading, and take care of personal errands and my outside-of-law-school job. Again, evenings are meetings and reading. Thursdays are also Bar Review at a local bar...

Fridays are pretty chill, with class in the morning and sometimes lectures or various legal writing instruction; there is always a school-wide happy hour Friday afternoon. People go out on the weekends (weekends being loosely defined as Wednesday-Saturday nights) for sure.

And, also per request - Appendix B: How Classes are Going

Class difficulty is hard to describe, and I imagine it varies WIDELY across professor and individual student, based on what your interests are and where your background is, too. I would say so far my classes would be something like this [1 = easy, 5 = very hard]:

Contracts: 1 or 2...very little reading, just two cases maybe for each class. Things are pretty easy to follow and the professor doesn't move too quickly. She also told us it's the "easiest class ever."

Torts: 3? Everything in this class is covered extensively in past outlines, and the grand concepts aren't that hard to grasp, but so far, for me, understanding how everything interacts at a granular level has been pretty challenging. The professor's been teaching the class for 50 years, so he knows his stuff - and expects us to, too!

Procedure: 2. Not too much reading, and we've so far had a pretty big emphasis on policy analysis, which is more my thing. The readings are more "plain English" than in torts, and things have been building on each other pretty well so far.

Con Law: 4 to 5. This is my "small group" seminar class, so our professor expects a great deal of interaction. He assigns a lot of reading and speaks quickly when he gets excited about an important point...I'm just learning how to really soak up his class, and today, I think, was my real "breakthrough" (though it might just be because we were talking about a topic that I have comparatively extensive knowledge in - that's not saying much, though...).