Always Read the Directions

Last week being spring break, I had plenty of time to work on this week's Lawyering Skills assignment: a closing argument. It was a good one, too. Unfortunately, when I double checked the syllabus today I realized that the assignment was a closing argument not for the case we've been working on all semester, but for a new case that was distributed just before spring break. I guess a little extra practice never hurt anyone. I still have two days to do the right assignment.

The Gloves are Off

Last year, most of the cases we studied had pretty basic facts: dog bites neighbor, neighbor sues. That sort of thing. Some of the cases in my upper level classes, by contrast, are laughably complicated. The Business Associations and Class Actions textbooks in particular are full of stock fraud cases and the most esoteric contract disputes. Unfortunately, the complex cases are probably more representative of what I'll see in practice.

Spring Break

It's spring break this week, so I've had time to organize the blog a bit and switch to more spring-like colors. This time last year, I had a big paper to write (the same one my blogging schoolmate is writing now). This year, spring break is just a chance to take a breather and maybe get a head start on prepping for final exams. So far, I've done some cleaning around the house, but no school work at all. In the next two days I need to get it into gear so I can be on top of things when classes resume.

Final Draft

The final draft of my law review paper is due tomorrow. I turned mine in a couple of days ago, as did most of the classmates I've talked to. We were required to turn in so many outlines, research materials, and drafts over the last eight months (the schedule has nine deadlines on it) that there was little chance of anyone being behind at this stage. As I was running off the four paper copies I was required to turn in, I spotted a typo. I chalked it up to wabi-sabi and let it go. The editors need something to do.
Now, we wait. The editorial staff will grade each paper and either pass it or demand a rewrite. If my paper passes, I get the all-important advanced writing credit required for graduation and my paper gets thrown on the slush pile to be considered for publication next year.

Judges With Unfortunate Names

For tomorrow's International Criminal Law class, I have been assigned to read an opinion by Judge Sayeman Bula-Bula of the Congo. The Congo has a Judge Bula-Bula? Really? Really?

Incidentally, International Criminal Law is, as I hoped, much better than the Intro to International Law material that preceded it. Intro to International Law was basically a philosophy course about the nature of law and statehood. Zzzz . . . In International Criminal Law, by contrast, we are learning about what happens in the real world when people are prosecuted for war crimes or apprehended in international waters. Great stuff!

The Oxford Comma

I am a grammar snob. I am one of those people who takes photos of signs with misplaced apostrophes. And at some point during my formative years, I learned that serial commas were not just unnecessary but plain wrong. Then, some thirty years later, I read this in my Aspen Handbook for Legal Writers:

Although the final comma in a series (often called the Oxford comma or the serial comma) is optional in most writing, in legal writing it is required.

It is easy to see why if you consider this sentence from a hypothetical will, also from the Aspen Handbook:

I leave all my property in equal shares to Jim, Helen, Tim and Eva.

So, do Tim and Eva get a quarter share apiece, or do they split a one-third share? If there were a third comma, there would be no question. Now, after all those years of turning up my nose at serial commas, I experience a flash of cognitive dissonance every time I see a comma-separated series with or without the controversial extra comma.

Application Essays

If there is a way to write an application essay without coming off as insincere and self-aggrandizing, I haven't figured it out. Between admission, scholarships, and internships, I have had to write eight or ten such essays in the last two years. Some were successful, some were not, but they were all just awful. The worst of it is, the essays that are the most honest (in my case, these are the essays about public service, because my goal has always been to work for the state) tend to look the most sycophantic precisely because they are written with such enthusiasm. It doesn't help that I have a weakness for florid rhetoric. I hope it isn't too much in evidence in my blog entries, which I try to make as frank as possible.

Anyway, I just submitted an application essay for the Fall externship program. If I am accepted, it will not be because of my essay.