Getting Ready For Exams

Around half the professors offer optional review sessions between the last day of class and the final exam. In my experience, the professor will just show up and answer any questions students have. Today's review for International Criminal Law was an exception: The professor give a two-hour synopsis of the entire course. It was grueling, but very helpful. I'm glad I went.

Ending My Career as a Full-Time Student

Can tomorrow be the last day of classes? It snuck up on me this semester.

This exam season is high stakes for me. For the last two years, I've been taking every opportunity to pick up extra credit hours so that I can have a light schedule as a 3L. That means that this semester will be my last chance to effect a big swing in my GPA (I took sixteen graded hours this semester. Next year I'll never have more than eight.). Goodness knows I'm going into cram week with a better handle on my coursework than I had last semester, but I still have a lot of work to do.

Mock Trial

We finally had the mock trial that Lawyering Skills has been leading up to all semester. It was surely the most fun I'll ever have taking a final exam. I bullied witnesses, I drew diagrams, I pointed accusingly, I marched up and down in front of the jury box. My performance might have been a little over the top, but my classmates were entertained. Later this week I'll serve as a witness for some other students' trial.
After two years of law school, I still have yet to go to court and watch a real trial. I should make that a summer project.

The Law is a Moving Target

I don't remember this ever happening in undergrad: Today in Advanced Civil Procedure, the professor started off class by saying something like, "I know you had an assignment for today on the syllabus, but two days ago the Supreme Court delivered an opinion that changed a lot of what we learned in chapter six, so we're going to revisit that material instead." Indeed, Perdue v. Kenny pretty much put four or five pages of the textbook into the shredder.

The experience goes to prove something we're told by our professors all the time: we're not really in law school to learn the law. The law changes, so we're always going to have to look that up no matter how well we think we know it. What we're supposed to be learning is the methods of legal research and analysis. Then again, if we don't pick up a little law along the way, we won't get very far on the bar exam. Back to the books.

Registration Woes

Web registration for summer and fall classes was available to rising 3Ls as of 7:15 this morning. I wanted a spot in the well-regarded and rather exclusive Judicial Clerkship Practicum class, so I was at my computer at 7:14. That wasn't good enough. At least twelve of my classmates type faster than I do, because the class was full by the time I clicked "submit".

I attended a sort of interest meeting for the class at which the professor said in so many words that she would likely enlarge the class if there was sufficient demand, so I sent her a quick email. We'll see what happens.

Joining the School Bureaucracy

The student government has appointed me to sit on the Faculty Publications Committee (three or four of the faculty committees include some token student representatives). I don't know enough about the Faculty Publications Committee to say whether this means that I have earned the respect of my peers or that I was just the first guy dumb enough to take the job. I think my only duties will be to attend a few meetings and report back to the student government, which should be easy enough. At minimum, I'll get to rub elbows with a few professors, and that can only be a good thing.

I don't have much of a handle on the relationship we students are expected to have with our professors. In some contexts (class) they can be very intimidating--deliberately intimidating, one often suspects. In other contexts, they're perfectly affable. Then, of course, individual professors vary in their approachability. It's all a terrible strain on my underdeveloped social skills.

I Like to Win

I really like to win. At Scrabble, at chess, and especially at school. So when an assignment comes along that smacks a little of competition--like the mock trial we're having in Lawyering Skills next week--I struggle to check my competitive streak so my classmates don't think I'm crazy (well, so they can't tell I'm crazy). It's all I can do to keep myself from working on this project sixteen hours a day.

Work at Last (sort of)

I have been (tentatively) placed in an externship in the fall. I had an interview today with my prospective placement. This is one interview that should be hard to screw up, since I am the only candidate for the job. Even so, I won't call it a sure thing until I get the final word.

Legal Ducks

The Bowen school is across the street from a large park, complete with ponds and fountains. As such, it is not uncommon for one to be menaced by ducks on one's way into the building.

Teaming Up

This week has been all about finding partners for projects. In the next two weeks I'm going to need a partner for the mock trial that serves as the Lawyering Skills final and two partners for a moot court competition in the fall.
The whole process sends me back to the many hours of my childhood spent on playgrounds not getting picked for this or that team. Fortunately, I'm better at lawyering than I ever was at kickball, so at least these days my classmates aren't actively avoiding having me on their teams.

Yet Another Interview

I subjected myself to another on-campus job interview yesterday--my only interview so far this spring, but my tenth or so since I started school. This one went pretty quickly, and my history with these on-campus interviews is not good, so I don't expect anything to come of it. I have two more applications out there, but my best guess is that I'm looking at a second summer of un- or underemployment.

The good news is, this spring is the last time I'll be looking for clerk work. The next time I send out resumes, I'll be asking for a permanent job.

Peer Reviewed and Peer Approved

I just got the email notification that my law review paper passed muster. Thank goodness. I like legal writing well enough, but if I had been asked to rewrite this paper I might have stuck a pencil through my hand.

The upshot is, I can now call myself a law review "member," as opposed to an "apprentice." That makes it sound as if I've joined the Freemasons or something. Decisions about which papers will be published are probably still weeks away.