Law School Roundup # 210

Law School Roundup #210 is up at Beyond the Underground.

Check back here next week, same great place and time, for Roundup #211.

Great news, guys!

"Free Tranny Cams" is following me on twitter.

The internet is alternately disgusting and hilarious.

Law School Roundup # 209

Welcome to Law School Roundup #208. Without further ado:

Brrr: Winter weather. It just figures, doesn't it? (Exhibit L)

Options: On following a different kind of dream (The Corner in the Middle)

Old Beginnings: Last first day (Legally Numb)

Citizens United: In a nutshell (The Rising Jurist)

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?: On knowing when to cut & run (Dennis Jansen)

Perspective: "Well, it could be worse" (Legally Questionable Content)

Major Hurdles: 40 page papers, and ways around them (Legal Ease)

If it Looks Like a Duck: Tips on talking like a law student (An Invisible Man's Blog)

The Real Villians: Glaring and the law school food chain. (Laughing: With or at You)

Finally, a plea, for love, humor, and blog-support: Brandy has a story. Now she and her friends are asking you to reach out, in the name of love, support, and good humor (even in dark times). Think about it. (via oh hay, its kk ("For Love, On Wednesday")).

Look for next week's roundup at the Legal Underground, and then back here again in 2 weeks. If you want to be added to the blog roll, but don't see yourself up there shoot me an email and we'll get you on the wall of dis-honor. Or email me anyway. I love emails.

Kisses!

NB

Please?

I just want to be a law professor.
And then I can write things and think things and terrorize students and force people to listen to me talk- add ice cream, Sputnik, and Darwin, and you've basically just summarized all of my Favorite Things.



Someone give me a job?

In Which I Am Behind. Again.

I just got an email from my research professor- you know, the research project that has been lurking in the background, making ominous intellectual noises at me since well before Thanksgiving.

She wants to know "what my status" is, and assures me that she is "not worried" about my ability to complete these burgeoning, 45 single-spaced paged, beast by the submission deadline we set together.

It's a good thing that one of isn't worried. I am expected to reply. I suppose that "crappity crap crap" is not the credited response.

A person should not have to go into writing hibernation this early in the semester.

Excuse me, but I was promised "bored to death."

Hey, remember that hilarious little saying they have about law school? No, not "law school makes you fat and sucks all the joy out of life." The other one: "In 1L, they scare you to death. In 2L, they work you to death. In 3L, they bore you to death." Or, that old standby: "Don't worry, it gets easier after 1L year"?

Anyway, that sound you hear? After the "easier" bit? That is the sound of a hundred law school deans laughing maniacally as they roll in giant bathtubs full of your tuition money.
I have been there, and friends, unless there's a Christmas miracle in the next....48 hours...I'm here to tell you: it does not get easier. Sure, your tolerance for public shaming goes way up, which helps with the Socratic method bit. And, if you're at NoSchool, you'll never have to take Civ Pro again, which is sort of handy. But other than that, you're SOL on the "easier" bit.

2L was advertised as a grind, but interesting. 3L was advertised as the year that you got to come to class hungover, get chummy with the professors, and float around the golf course all day. To review: I thought 2L was a grind. That was before I experienced 3L, and realized that 2L was actually vacation. Part of this, I recognize, is my own fault. First there was the Journal of Fun and Wonderment, then Jail Skills Class (shiv not included). Then there was the idiot schedule, because apparently I got "fun" confused with "Admin Law" last semester. Which, in retrospect, was a huge mistake.

This is what I've bitten off this semester, friends- you may commence shaking your heads at me now.
Fed Courts: This class is full of Law Review 2Ls (hey look! Two of my least favorite things!). The two other 3Ls and I huddle together for protection, and frequently shake our head in judgment at them. The trouble with Fed Courts is that it is full of people who want to be clerks after graduation- and the trouble with that is that many of them are horribly insufferable prestige whores.* This fed courts class (via Legal Ease) pretty much sums up mine, except there are more smellies in mine.

Tax:I would love to call this the class that drove me to drink. Unfortunately, it's a bit late for that. But seriously? Tax. Four days a week. Ew. Upside? I'm going to be robbing the government of its rightful share of my income in no time.

Bankruptcy: We've discussed. Good news: the prof still thinks I'm a super genius. Little does he know that I'm a Super Duper Genius.

Corporate Governance: One day, I woke up, and thought that white collar crime was really, really cool. Then I thought that corporate law was super.** This, as far as I can tell, was not actually motivated by any real change in my circumstances, but might have something to do with the fact that my Corporations prof was adorably nerdy and loved google and talked really fast and was, frankly, kind of intense and not all that loveable. Which of course made me love him more, because sometimes I am kind of intense and fast talking and (kind of) enemy-making. And all of a sudden I took to corporate things. Yeah, I don't know.

Mergers & Acquisitions: See corporate governance. This, clearly, is why I took RICO last semester. I would like many complicated pieces to puzzle over, please. Thank you, sir, may I have some more?

Interpretation: Is all about the ambiguity of language in relationship to the law. When I got the syllabus for this class, I sent Darwin an email informing him that I was so very special and important that the law school created a class special, just for me. I can only assume this is payback for having Corporations every Friday at 4 during 2L year.

So, to sum up: too much work,just the right amount of nerd. You may commence pointing and laughing now, Internet. I have dug my own grave. Lucky for you, stress makes me bloggy.

 

*Present and accounted for. That doesn't mean I like to play with the others. 

*By super, I clearly mean "complicated and highly convoluted, not at all marketable." The parallels to my undergraduate literature studies are alarming, and may say something sort of disturbing about my psyche. I'm not sure what. Except that I like puzzles, and am not at all concerned about my potential employability. Puzzles! Weeeee!

Law School Roundup #208

The 208th Law School Roundup is up over at Beyond the Underground.

Check back here, same great place and time, for #209.

Basically, yes, I am a super-genius.

My last* first day of class** came and went without much pomp or circumstance. I spent the better (and by better, I clearly mean worse) part of the day in the journal office, corresponding with authors who send me bizarre emails about god-knows-what and expect immediate responses. Really, the only remarkable thing that happened was the same thing that happens every first week of classes- I got cold called.

Can we take a moment here, Internet, to reflect on the fact that I am 3L, and that the Socratic method is not supposed to be hanging over my head anymore? For most 3Ls, cold calling is a thing of the past. I, however, am apparently the class sacrificial lamb. Without fail, I will get called on in the first 3 meetings of a class- it's a running joke among my classmates, and I'm starting to think that there is a professorial conspiracy against me. I don't know why this business goes on. I have an easy name, but I'm no "John Jones" or "Sally Smith." I don't play around on my laptop in class, so it can't be that they think they're catching me unawares. And every time, they look at me like I might have something smart, or at least right, to say.

I typically don't.

Roommate blames my tendency to make eye contact with the prof, and the fact that I look much nerdier and more prepared than I actually am. Whatever the reason, regular as clockwork, I am a magnet for the Socratic method.

I came to Bankruptcy this week determined to 3L the hell out of this semester. Naturally, I did not do the reading. I didn't even know that there was reading assigned. So, when the professor asked:

"Ms. Nobody. What is the meaning of the 'free market hypothesis' in economics?"
...I was flustered. So I naturally responded: "Um. I don't know. I was a literature major. I didn't actually learn practical skills in undergrad."***

I didn't intend to be insulting, it's just that, well...I didn't. So yes, in answer to your question, my bankruptcy prof does think that I am a genius.
Chalk one up for the good guys.

 

*Fellow 3Ls, please stop calling it that. It makes me nervous.

**I can not promise that this is true. I can not promise that I will not be revisiting the idea of a phd program just as quickly as you can say "summer vacation" and "work in jeans."

***This has become an increasing problem for me as I've progressed through law school. It's not that I don't care what they think, it's just that I am prone to verbal diarrhea, and then all of a sudden, whoops, I've made an ass of myself again. I love lamp.

I'm Aliiiiiiive!

...also, back to blogging.

Vacation was a wonderful, much-needed, break from the whirling shitstorm that is law school.

Don't get me wrong. I love law school. I love law school like a fat kid loves cake, like Kenny Chesney loves puka shell necklaces, like a 4th grader love summer. In fact, I love it exactly like a nerd loves...nerd things. I also love the law school lifestyle: throw on jeans, listen to smart people talk, read some things, think some things, change into sweats, repeat.

But law school is hard work, and I was tired. I'm still tired, though much rejuvenated (thank you, FMF). All that nonsense about 3L being all golf tournaments and happy hours? Lies. Don't say you weren't warned, young ones. I'm back to the journal now, back to classes, and feeling like if I don't hit the ground running right now I may not make it.

Also, I'm taking classes. Hard classes. But, once I got over my fear of failure, I am actually glad I signed up for them. Academically, it could be a brutual semester- but I've never been so excited about what I'm doing.

It's really been an oddly zen week for me.

Anyway. I'm back around, and I promise to post. Because you want to hear about the trials and tribulations of Mergers & Acquisitions and Fed Tax, right, Internet?

I thought so.

Law School Roundup #207

Welcome to Law School Roundup #207....


New Beginnings: Learning from the past (Really? Law?)

New Horrors: Bar prep. Gross. (Starting to Melt)

Money: The cost of law school (The Corner in the Middle)

C's get Degrees: On mediocrity (JD? ...Maybe)

Parental Employment: Something to do when you can't find a job [Or: "why your parents really want you to come home."] (Legally Fabulous)

School for Schools' Sake? On graduate degrees in the humanities (The Rising Jurist)

Law School is a Half-Marathon: Except there's no free T-shirt and orange slices at the end (i don't wear skinny jeans)

Look for next week's roundup at the Legal Underground, and then back here again in 2 weeks. If you want to be added to the blog roll, but don't see yourself up there shoot me an email and we'll get you on the wall of dis-honor. Or email me anyway. I love emails.

Kisses!

NB

Law School Roundup #206

I know you miss me, Internetz. I'm getting caught up with my old friends "sleep" and "free time," and will be back to evading productivity and complaining about work in no time.

In the meantime, here is this week's Law School Roundup.