Week One Is In the Bag

I'm prepared to admit that law school is pretty challenging. We're going through our textbooks at a blistering pace. I daresay I've learned more Latin in my first week of law school than I learned in my first week of Latin I back in undergraduate school. I haven't kept careful track, but I'd say I put in forty-five or fifty hours this week. The material isn't overly hard, but there's so much of it.

My time management plan has been to do all of my school work at school during the day, and to bring no work home. So far that has held up. I've been getting to school at about 8:30 and going home between 5:30 and 7:00. I bring a sack lunch so I don't have to leave during the day. I'd like to think that I can keep that schedule all semester, but in a week or two I'll start getting assignments in my research and writing classes. Then time may get tight.

Saved By Classroom Technology

I've decided to stick with my undesireable seat (front row, extreme stage left) for every class. In time, I think I can learn to love it. For one thing, it affords a stellar view of the projector screen. I was worried about my view of the white board, but it turns out there is a camera trained on the board so that it can be projected on the screen right in front of my seat. Apart from the view, I may realize some benefits from being at the edge of the professor's peripheral vision - out of sight, out of mind, you know. Finally, I am grateful to be on an aisle and near the door. Students tote a lot of baggage into the classroom these days, and it's nice to not be trapped in the middle of the row while everyone packs up. Yes, things are looking pretty good on the seating front, or I've convinced myself that they are, which is pretty much the same thing.

Seating Chart Disaster!

Since law classes involve a lot of interaction between the professor and students, professors customarily assign seats. Knowing this, more or less everyone showed up very early for Torts this morning. I managed to score a pretty good seat in the middle of the room, only to have the professor tell us that seat assignments will be fixed the next time class meets. Fast forward to Contracts a few hours later, and I stroll into the lecture hall five or ten minutes before class. Eighty per cent of the students have stuck with the same seat they occupied for Torts, but my premium seat has been taken. In this class, of course, seats are assigned immediately. For the next three months I'm trapped at the far end of the front row as shown above. The white board is not even visible from my seat.

Now I am faced with a dilemma: I have four more classes in that room. Do I stick with this awkward seat for every class, or saddle myself with remembering a different seat for each class? Truly, law school tests one's judgment at every turn.

Work Begins in Earnest

I have 92 pages to read for Monday, 68 more for Tuesday. I have always been a slow reader, but this law school reading is particularly slow going. It's not that the text is especially dense - judges' opinions are written in a more conversational style than you might expect - it's that law school teaches a very formal and verbose method of note taking ("case briefing" is the term of art). So far, I've been producing a page of handwritten notes for every four or five pages of reading.
The good news is, the assigned cases seem to have been chosen as much for drama as for their illustrative qualities. Property starts with the lawsuit over ownership of Barry Bonds' seventy-third home run ball. In Torts, it was an unlabeled crate of nitroglycerine that blew up a Wells Fargo warehouse in 1872. I'm sure there's plenty of dry reading to come (I haven't opened my Contracts text yet), but I'm loving it for now.

Orientation is Over

I'll miss the free food. The last two days of orientation did not live up to the promise of days one and two. Mostly, it has been two days of lectures over material we already received in handouts and mailings. I think most of the class just wanted to get on with it and start studying for next week. The best thing about day four? I got a handy pocket-sized U.S. Constitution to go with the hardback edition I got on day one. Law school swag is top notch.

Orientation Begins

Two days of orientation down, two to go. Last night (the first orientation session was in the evening so part time and full time students could all participate) was a gala event of sorts. Parents and/or spouses were invited, classy hors d'oeuvres were served, and each entering student was issued a handsome hard bound edition of the U.S. Constitution.
Today the glamour was toned down considerably. The main event was a practice class in which we were peppered with questions by the professor who will be teaching us property law starting next week. The students who were called on did well enough, but I can see that I'm not quick enough on my feet to be a good classroom performer. I'll want to have good notes in front of me in every class.

Why I'm Overconfident

Orientation officially begins tomorrow afternoon, so it's a good time for some positive self-speech. Here are the reasons I expect to excel at law school: 1) I did pretty well on the LSAT. I hear that LSAT scores are actually a poor predictor of future grades, but at least my scores show that I am capable of the work. 2) I've met a lot of lawyers, and they're just regular people. Obviously plenty of people graduate from law school who are no more smart or hard-working than I am. And most importantly, 3) I'm 35 years old. I've had a lot of jobs in the last twenty years, and student was by far the easiest. Law school can be twice as much work as undergraduate school and still be the easiest thing I've done in years. I'm a better reader, deeper thinker and much harder worker than I was at 22. In the words of George W. Bush, "Bring it on."

The Safety Net is Gone

I clocked out of work for the last time yesterday. I had been with the company for five and a half years. Truth be known, I was sick of the job. In fact, I applied to law school more because I hate accounting than because I love law. Even so, when it came time to turn in my badge I had a terrible feeling of buyer's remorse. Now here I am with a huge financial commitment and no income to cover it. The whole idea makes me a little sick to my stomach. Jennifer is a saint to let me do it.

A Property Parable

Contemporary Property is a surprisingly gripping read. I'm not reading cases yet - the textbook starts with a series of short readings on legal definitions of property, rationales for property rights and the like. You don't have to dig very far below the surface to find that legal ownership of anything can get very complicated. Consider this example from the book: You own your own blood, right? I mean, unlike your organs, you can sell your blood for money. So suppose you're in the hospital and the doctor takes a sample of your blood. He finds that your blood produces an unusual disease-fighting protein and patents a treatment based on it. Should the doctor have to compensate you? You didn't join any research studies, you were just sick. Did the doctor "steal" your unique genetic properties? The California Supreme Court said no. Great stuff!

First Assignment

My first assignment has appeared online: I'm to read pages 1 through 65 of Contemporary Property before the first day of class. I'm taken aback that I had to go hunting for that information. A couple of weeks ago the dean mentioned in an email that assignments would be issued a week or two before the first day of class. Yesterday I got antsy and searched for "assignments" at the school web site, and there it was. So now I'm wondering: are there assignments for my other classes posted somewhere that I don't know about? And what's going to happen to the poor students who haven't thought to check the web site?

Update: A couple of days after I posted this, a broadcast email did indeed announce that assignments were available online. All's right with the world.

A Foot of Books

I have (almost) all my books now. Everything you see here was purchased new at full price from the school bookstore. Some books could be had cheaper online, but I dithered about my purchases until Amazon.com sold out of everything. Bah!

Most of these are good for two semesters. I'm curious about the contents, but I've decided not to crack any books until I'm assigned reading. I'm sure my enthusiasm for the material will burn out soon enough. Why rush?

For Starters

Here's the story: I'm not the blogging kind. I've never kept a journal. But ever since I applied to law school I've heard so much from so many people about what a grueling and life-changing time it is, I thought I had better make some pretense of documenting my experience.
Orientation starts in one week. To prepare, I've read One L by Scott Turow and attended a couple of on-campus welcome events. One L is Turow's memoir of his first year at Harvard Law School back in the early seventies. He plays up the crushing workload and emotional drama, but it wouldn't be very compelling reading if he said it was easy. I was surprised when I visited the Bowen School and everyone the administration had chosen to speak to prospective students said exactly the same stuff. Seriously, they could have been reading from Turow's book. The time commitment is horrendous. Your relationships will suffer. The stress will drive you to seek psychiatric help. Can it really be that bad?
I'll believe it when I see it, but the repeated warnings were enough to prompt me to start this blog. If law school is really as bad as all that, I'll probably keep posting.