Bookmarked

One of my favorite things about being a student is, no fooling, having a use for all the bookmarks I have around the house. Think about it: cool, free bookmarks are everywhere, but who besides a student has more than one or two books going at a time? This semester I'm enjoying an outdoors theme, using the "Arkansas Sportfish" and "North American Hunting Club" bookmarks pictured here in my Fed Tax and Decedents' Estates books, respectively.

Gearing Up for Moot Court

Looking back at my old posts, I see that I haven't mentioned moot court in months. Get ready for a flurry of posts on the topic, because it's about to start occupying a lot of my time. My two partners and I have registered for the Wechsler First Amendment Moot Court Competition at American University in Washington, D.C. (greetings to any of my competitors who arrive here after Googling that phrase). We have the month of September to write our brief, then the first three weeks of October to practice for oral arguments. That's a tight schedule--I had three months to do the same stuff last fall--but I'm sure we're up to the task.

Unexpected Swag

Yesterday a spiral-bound calendar/planner appeared in my campus mailbox. It's a classy bit of swag, but the timing is strange. School has been in session for a week. Surely anyone who needs a planner already has one. I'm just going to assume that the 1Ls got these at orientation and the administration is only now getting around to distributing the leftovers.

I'm Gonna Flunk the Bar Exam

Decedents' estates is already serving as a terrifying reminder of how little I remember about property law, a subject tested heavily on the bar exam. Interesting stuff, though.

Decedents' Estates

My semester of Decedents' Estates began inauspiciously. The professor asked me a couple of questions I didn't know the answer to, leaving the impression that I was not prepared for class when in fact I had prepared quite thoroughly. The worst case scenario, really. I'll be spending a few weeks working my way back from that one.

3L Officially Begins

Today was the first day of classes, but I only had to dip a toe into school life. I had one hour of class today and won't be back at school until Monday.
One hour isn't much to judge by, but so far my Federal Income Taxation professor seems like the best kind of professorial cliche: rumpled suit, oversize glasses, waving arms, quirky vocal delivery. He was a very entertaining lecturer (he has obviously had plenty of practice--he was reading from a stack of notes so yellowed and brittle that they might have predated the income tax itself). Here is (approximately) the line from his introductory lecture that I thought was pithiest: "Everyone supports tax reform. Saying you support tax reform is like saying you support justice. It's just a question of one's definition."

Externship Orientation

Yesterday I endured a grueling six-hour orientation for my upcoming externship. The advice from a bona fide judicial clerk was terrific. The explanation of the rules and procedures of the externship program was necessary. The two-hour ethics lesson was a real drag, given that ninety percent of the attendees had already completed a semester-long ethics course. I suppose the professor needs to have proof that we knew better if one of us commits some egregious breach of ethics.
My externship doesn't start for another week or so, but I can tell already that the workload is no joke. I'm really going to earn these two credit hours.

Orientation Week

There have been several social events in the last few days--a minor league ballgame, a barbecue, etc.--to introduce the incoming 1Ls to each other and warm everyone up for the new school year. Being the gung-ho, all-in law student that I am, I attended three. It was nice to see some familiar faces.
I particularly enjoyed chatting with a few 1Ls about their expectations and worries. That first year is so hyped and so full of pomp and circumstance that nostalgia sets in almost contemporaneously. The new students are probably already sick of us 2Ls and 3Ls hanging around them, trying to soak up their innocence and enthusiasm.

Summer Grades

Summer grades are out. Now that my GPA has the inertia of sixty-plus credit hours holding it in place, grade day isn't the event it used to be. Anyway, the infinitesimal move in my GPA was in the upward direction, so hurray for that.

Associate Editing

I have my first assignment as an "associate editor" of the Law Review, and not a minute too soon. There have been no school-related tests or deadlines in two weeks, and the lack of stress has been causing me anxiety.
I was a little taken aback when I learned that I am going to be (among other things) evaluating other students' cite checks. This repeats a pattern I have already experienced a couple of times in law school: one day you're learning a new skill, the next day you're presented as an expert. It's hard not to feel like a bit of a fraud when I'm judging someone else's performance at something I've done all of four or five times.

Clearing the Bookshelves

I sold a half-dozen textbooks this week--five to classmates and one on eBay. Like any textbooks, law books date quickly, so I was relieved to be able to unload a few before new editions made them obsolete. The student email listserv is positively alive with textbook trafficking at this time of year. When I posted my books for sale, I got my first response in four minutes.

I still have about ten books that I've been holding on to, waiting for a professor to assign them. Now that I've had some success with eBay, I may give up on the local market and see if the Internet wants to buy them.

If you're wondering why I don't save my books to review for the bar exam, no one does that, at least no one I know. Thousand-page textbooks are just unsuited to the kind of cramming that precedes the bar exam. There are purpose-built books for that, and I'll shop for them when the time comes.