I Watched The Paper Chase

I had never seen it before. The classroom and study group scenes looked surprisingly familiar. You might think John Houseman's character is a caricature, but some professors really do seem to take pleasure in making students look bad in front of the class. Even the nicer professors will pick a student and ask questions until they come up with one the student can't answer. I guess lawyers are supposed to be used to that.

Election Day

Think of the most rabid student council campaigner at your high school. Now give them a political science degree and maybe experience on a couple of congressional campaigns. That's who runs for student government in law school. It has been a week of wall to wall emails, buttons, t-shirts, flyers, candy and baked goods. They weren't allowed to hang posters in the halls, thank goodness.

Important Nonacademic Skills

I've had two weeks to work on it, but I still can't gracefully get out of my car with all my law school gear. On a typical day I have my laptop bag and five or ten pounds of books. With the bag over my shoulder I can get everything in one hand, but even with a free hand I can't get everything out of the passenger seat, past the steering wheel and out the driver's side door without flailing like Mr. Bean. Sure, I could just walk around the car to get my stuff, but I'm convinced that with practice I'll be able to move smoothly from car to campus without opening two car doors.

Bye Bye, Syllabi

In about half my classes, the syllabus has ceased to have much meaning. Reams of reading is assigned in the syllabi, but the professors move through the material at a pace determined by how well they think the students are getting it. In no case is the professor ahead of the syllabus, but a couple of them are miles behind. One professor has dodged the whole issue and said, "Just read fifteen or twenty pages past where we ended the last class." For a meticulous planner like me, it's just maddening.

Why not just grind along through the book while the classroom discussion falls behind? To some extent I've tried to do that, but it gets me into trouble. The reading is so voluminous and so dense, I can hardly remember what I read three days ago. Sometimes I open my reading notes at the beginning of class and they might as well have been written by someone else.

Contract Law Gets Weird

I think of law (and I think most people do) as, at its best, a codification of common sense. There are a lot of rules we all expect to be bound by, and we write them down so they can be applied even-handedly. By that standard, contract law has gone way off the rails. It's only week two, and we're getting into some bizarre, esoteric concepts. If I write you a letter promising to give you my shoes and sign that letter in my blood, is it a contract? No. If you sign a letter granting me a one month option to buy your house, is that a contract? Yes. What if the letter says the option costs one dollar, and I don't pay you a dollar? Still a valid contract. Suppose I sign a letter that says if you pay me a dollar today I'll pay you a hundred dollars next week. Not a contract.

How did it get so weird? My theory is that people only enter into contracts in situations where they think litigation is likely. Because contracts are being litigated all the time, the courts are constantly having to come up with new exceptions and justifications that bend the law to fit unforseen situations. The result is this ugly amalgam of rules, exceptions and special cases. But that's just my theory. Maybe by the end of the semester all areas of law will look grotesque and counterintuitive to me. Or maybe some ephiphany will reveal the serene logic underlying contracts. Let's hope for the latter.

Rain + Old Construction = Wet Mess

The Bowen School of Law occupies a lovely building built by the WPA in 1933. On most days, it's a thrill to walk the halls of a monument to depression era industriousness. On days when it rains, the place is a maze of trash cans and carpet dryers. Seriously, this is a five story building. How can the ceilings be leaking on the first floor?

Back From Labor Day Weekend

I made a point of reading ahead a bit so I could ignore school over the weekend. That may have been hubris. Today was fine, but I'm going to have to read like a maniac to stay ahead of my professors through the end of the week. My resolve to do no work at home will be tested.