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| Week 11: Master 3: The Blissful Master Towards the end of this week, my body feels like it’s been in a marathon. I’m tired; cranky, and stressed. Why?
This week, on top of the hustle and bustle of law school, I had three essays due for a scholarship and three additional appointments. What this actually translated into, is three more school nights that end at 11PM. L Yes, it’s awful. Awful. My body felt sore from all the thinking, writing and reading. But I finished my essays on 1) Being a New American and 2) How I’m going to save the world. I hate Friday mornings. Mornings are awful things. And I hate waking up early in the morning. I feel, not awake, and grumpy. I think my cat Luke gets this characteristic from me. He looks grumpy too when you wake him up and has this angry look. I sometimes think I’m like a monster who exclaims: Who disturbed my sleep? But after some time, approximately an hour from wake up, I get over it. My lawyering skills class is always on Friday mornings; so, I mention the whole whining on mornings. In that class, we learn more of the practical skills to be a lawyer. It’s also a small class of only 25 people. We have to research legal questions, like, if I trip on a sprinkler, can I sue? If a dog bites me, can I sue? Etc. etc. All the questions are can I sue? And we also have to write up Memorandums. Memorandums are a written brief about a client’s legal question. In a law firm, we will most likely be asked to write one of these when a client has a question whether she has a claim or not. You do your legal research. Read previous cases. Then put together a discussion on how good the client’s case may come out. We so far have had legal memos to write. They are ungraded but do take lots of work. You write your first memo and give it to your writing advisor. You meet with him or her; and they give you feedback. You write your second one; and you meet with the Third Maester. She gives you feedback and what you could have done better as well. Memos take a long time. My first memo must have taken about 7 hours. My second memo I think took 9-10 hours of written time. Did I tell you, you really only have about 4 or 5 days to write this thing? Isn’t life fun? I guess the Third Master is the youngest of the four Masters. She has a blonde hair and comes off as really personable and “cool.” She too graduated from a top law school; and worked at a prestigious firm afterwards. She always comes off as sweet and nice. No question is too stupid. You’re always on the right track. She is just all-over-kindness to the x degree. Now we have our actual GRADED Memos. And then, the blissful professor gives us the reality check on Friday. Look around you. There are 24 of you. I can only give 5 A’s. I can give 12 B’s. 4 B-‘s. I give 2 C+’s. I know none of you are used to this. You all had to get Straight A’s to come here. But law school is a different animal. Look around, one of you will get the C. That’s the way it is. Don’t worry, you’ll all still get jobs and pass. But law school is meant to break you. I think I should write a letter to make the curve more generous. We didn’t bust our lives to come to law school to be broken, did we? I mean, is the difference between an A- and B+ for substantial problems, then I can understand it. But if it’s between where you put a common, a semi colon or period, that is misplaced this curve has got to go! Ok, that was a truthful and a bit stressful on a Friday morning. Did I mention, I don’t like Friday mornings? End of Week 11 | | |
| Week 6-11 Time has gone by fast with the days melting into long nights, and long nights becoming shorter sleeps. In Property, we’re on page 500 something. That’s a lot of reading in 10 weeks you can imagine and all that information to retain.
I think in Torts, we’ve already covered another 600 pages.
However, with the 12+ hours a day, I can honestly say I have been getting used to the exhaustion. I’m not so tired coming home anymore. I have managed to get a few runs in a few gym times a week. Grandpa likes his classes to be practical. So he set up a mock deposition. I was an interviewer last week for a mock deposition. A deposition is when one of the parties deposes you to be a witness. It was in my civil procedure class with a professor who likes to call himself Grandpa. He’s about 80. And he has the funniest and amusing quirks about him. Some times he mumbles, and people ask him to speak up louder. He says, “That’s ok! My wife says that all the time.” When you get an answer right, he says, “That’s right! YEEEEEEEEEEEES!” You often see him walking around the courtyard slowly, shuffling his way through and smiling at all the students who go by. I imagined him to be a brilliant litigator during his time. At our deposition, he told us we have to squeeze our witness like a lemon. And you squeeze and you squeeze to get every drop of information you can out of him. I planned to do this. The only problem was that he had his lawyer present. The lawyer was actually a lawyer in his time as well. He was saying “Objection” to everything. So I finally had to ballzy back and say, “Oh really Council? On what Grounds!?” “Irrelevancy.”
“Council, are you instructing the client not to answer the question? Did you know this is against the Federal Rules of Procedure?”
He was ballzy back, “Council [referring to me]! You will know when I instruct the witness not to answer.” “Council, what law school did you go to? Did they teach you there about Rule 26?”
And the adversarial rounds began. It was a fun show for everyone. After which, all of us laughed and said “Good job” to each other.
Grandpa definitely is the practitioner and cares that each one of his students grow up to be a good lawyer!
When I see him walking in the courtyard, I do stop and say, "Hi Grandpa." and he goes: "YES???" I only smile then. Fin Week 11 | | |
| Week 4 of Law School I didn’t think I was going to write anything interesting this week. Nothing seemed to be different from the ordinary. Reading amount is the same, volumes! The amount of pain is the same. The amount of stress from others as well. And then something interesting happens at the end of the week. Friday We have our torts class. (TO remind you, torts are bad things you do and can get sued for MONEY and NOT sent to jail. Lying, breaking contracts, etc.) The case we’re studying today is on a police officer. Facts: Police finds a boy, stealing in the house. Boy runs out of the house. Boy climbs the fence. The police officer, (probably being too fat), shoots the boy to stop him from getting away. The bullet hits him in the head. Boy is dead. Boy is 14 and weights under 100 lbs (45kgs). The Ruling: Trial court finds the police officer innocent because Tennessee (back water state) law says “any force” can be used to stop someone from fleeing. Deadly force is any force. Shooting someone in the head is deadly force. The father of dead boy disagrees and sends it to be appealed. Appeal court says, the trial court is right, BUT… Tennessee is stupid to have such laws. So, laws need to change. It goes up another level and the Supreme Court agree that DEADLY FORCE should not be used to stop anyone from fleeing. (Of course there are a few exceptions.) This is good and right. Why should someone who is apparently unarmed be able to be shot to stop them? A guy in our class thinks though that police have too much protection. He voices his opinion. The kid is acting and speaking arrogantly. He thinks he knows everything. I tune him out, as I have my notebook computer in front of me. I go on – organizing my notes. Then as he speaks, he misinterprets facts. The class says unanimously: “NO! Those are not the facts.” Hmmm, he must be feeling pretty stupid now in front of 80 people. Feeling defensive, he has to give another opinion. “Well, I think police officers are given too much protection anyways.” A guy in the front of class (probably an ex-officer), slams his hand down on the table. BOOM! “You don’t know anything. I’ve seen so many police officers laid off for such small things.” The anger in his eyes surfaced. It looked like he wanted to hit the outspoken one. The professor interjects and says, “That’s enough. We’re moving on. You two will never agree.” Tenseness in the air. Interesting. Him, still feeling like he needs to get the last word, “States another wrong fact.” The class once again corrects him, and an outspoken individual sitting in the row belong me says, “HEY! Three strikes you’re out! Booya!” He basically told him to Shut Up. I don’t know how to feel. This guy LOVES to correct people when they’re wrong, and I was corrected once by him when I was grilled. Now the irony is that the whole class corrected him. But was the last comment too much?? I almost did say, “That’s going too far.” But the last insult was almost like watching the a matador thrust the last sword into a dying bull. The fight was out of the outspoken one; and he collapsed. I don’t know how much of Torts I’ve learned today. I don’t know what I learned from all this. I’ve been telling all my friends outside of law school that I have the type-A, blood thirsty, uptight section. We’re supposed to be a family, according to the Dean of our school. We are a family: a very dysfunctional one. And, now I’m positive, I got placed in Dysfunctional Section 7. Week 4- Fin | | |
| Towards the end of the week, I’m reading through dense material. It’s dense because not only are we now reading cases, but we have to read, for whatever unholy reason, the jurisprudence or philosophy of law. Though this may be a potentially fascinating topic for others, it is not meant for a 1L in their first semester. Basically, I feel like its two classes in one, which is double the amount of reading! Thursday, I have three classes, which span from 9-5. After class, I have to read this philosophy on law and cases. I’m tired. I go to the library, and as I sit in a recliner chair, I realize; I’m very tired. Soon enough, I feel my eyes closing, but my body actually feels tense and my chest cavity feels like its constricting. As I close my eyes, I hear thoughts: · What’s the meaning of this? · Why do we have this system? · Property Law · Civil Procedure I wake up, with law thoughts spinning in my head. I pick up my papers and resign my resistant spirit to read them. I finish. I go home at a holy hour and have dinner with Aleksey at a Korean restaurant. I keep blabbing about the law because that’s all that’s on my mind. Thursday After Civil Procedure class, two girls were in the hallway, visibly upset. I ask, “What’s wrong?” “Nothing!” One says. The other says, “I just don’t get it! EVERYONE SEEMS TO GET IT, but me. I don’t belong at this law school.” I try to calm them down and we go through what they didn’t get together. They thank me and I said, “Relax. It’s not the end of the world.” Friday I ask my classmate next to me, “Are you alright? You look tired.” He says, “I’ve been reading since 2AM; and class begins at 9 today.” “Uh huh,” I say. “Philosophy of law sucks, doesn’t it?” [I’ll interject here. Philosophy of law, isn’t that much about case law. It asks why the law exists. It asks what is the purpose of law? Is it to be fair? Is it for economic purpose? How should we view law? How does it operate in today’s society? Etc.] Everyone looks tired and everyone in my section is saying they didn’t sleep well because of all the reading. I think this is some stupid game – at least for this class. We have some archetypal, brilliant professor who is kind of disorganised. She assigns reading that keeps people up until 2am, and then only covers ONE case. She skips the rest of the material. She asks questions, plays devil advocate, and we never get answers. And it leaves all of us wondering: “What were we supposed to learn? What is going to be on the exam?” After the frustrating class, I learned nothing. She just asked questions and let people hijack class. Same people talk. Same people have useless comments. Two of my classmates get visibly upset about reading so much and having 3 pages covered in class. They want to stage a protest against the professor. I just think, don’t bother. No one will have the courage to risk their reputation. Anyways, the long weekend is coming up, and that’s all I’m looking forward to. [By the way, this is the standard legal fount, Courier New] =) | | |
| Week 2 of law school wasn't as intense as week 1. People seemed to have calm down one level, which for some is only a slight improvement. The schedule is still a grueling one. On one of my days, they schedule class from 9 am to 5 pm, of course with some breaks in between. It's not over. You've been in lectures on the law, and been thinking about the law. Then you have another 3 or 4 hours of reading on top of that for the next day. So if your like me, I don't bring the books home. I go home to relax and sleep and hang out with my best friend to drink a glass of wine or a glass of beer. So, I can be on campus from 9 am to 9 pm just in school work. On Thursday, I decided to take an hour run after all that (it's like a marathon everyday). But if you don't push yourself to do that last bit of exercise, I think you start slowly losing control of it all... The three important things to maintain in any rigorous regime is sleep, good eating, and exercise. These are also the three things that are very easy to put off. So why do you do the readings and stay prepared? I was cold called the other day. It's the Socratic Method, where you get called on. Usually, the calls are not bad. The questions are: -Give me the facts of the case? -What was the dissenting reasoning / concurring reasoning? In these broader questions, you'll get something right. But when I got called, I was drilled. =( THe Professor asks, "What case decided that reasnoning?" I gave the answer. "And what year was that case?" I quickly skim the page, and for some reason 1854 stands out in bold. I say it. RIGHT. "What was the principle of that case?" I answer, "Owner can take out as much as they want from their land." Right again.
Damn it. WHen will she stop... IT's usually just one question, and I'm 3/3. I'm nervous. She's smiling when she asks these questions. So lovely, and yet her questions feel so pointed like a laser burning into me. They are so specific. We read 20 pages, and she asks for a term or a legal term, hidden amongst the dense pages. I'm getting through these ok; but she definitely has a kindness that kills. "And what is that principle called?" I'm done. I forget. I say the wrong answer but before I say it (knowing its wrong), I say, "I'm nervous.", and 10 people in class raise their hands to correct me and make me feel stupid. THen I think, wow, I answer 3 right and 1 wrong, and that is what people will remember about me... Haha, life is not fair! Another student was cold called the other day. And he, obviously not knowing the facts, tells professor, "You're speaking too fast. I didn't understand the question." She repeats the question. And he says, "Actually, I didn't read the case." He receives the metaphorical slap on the face, when she quips back, "There's no use in pretending then. Is there?" The lesson here is, "If you don't know, just say, 'i don't know.'" How good of a lawyer are you? If there is only one doctor in town, and a man is dying. The man calls for help of the doctor, and says, "I might die. Please check me out. You're the only one in town." The doctor says, "I don't really have much on. But I'm not coming." The guy dies in the evening. Can the doctor be held liable for a law suit? What do you think? Why do you think that? Answer: No. Though the doctor's behavior is appalling, the court cannot (with exceptions) hold someone liable for something THEY DID NOT DO. The doctor has the freedom to refuse service, as all people do. If the court had ruled the other way, one thing they have to think of is all the consequences such a ruling would have. Can you imagine, how many GOOD doctors would have to justify themselves for not performing services - clogging the court system with patient complaints? That's your case for the week. Now the weekend comes, and I get to enjoy something called life with friends and family. Week 2 - Fin. | | |
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