Going To Law School

My "real school" issue was with nickle and diming. Top school top students are probably weird and emotionally dead, but in a useful way.

yeah i wouldn't even want to know what it's like there, to be honest. i'm just glad i'm almost out.

another thing i'm tired of is patronizing people and sexists but they're everywhere. still why do they have to be in my classes?

Harvard Law financial aid was the most awful and demeaning of ANY institution I have ever had the displeasure of working with, and I have woked with many of them. I have heard very different stories from graduates of NYU, Yale, and Chicago, however. HLS had its share of trainwrecks and morons, but was big enough that there were more different types of people slightly less godawful than the majority of law students.

It's weird hearing these stories, the people at my school are so friendly and nice. Of course I'm nobody's competition, so that may be it.

yeah i think institutions are going to treat people like shit just because they can, doesn't really matter who they are xp

Which is worse - studying on a friday night or doing nothing on a friday night? Those are my options right now.

Studying on a Friday night is worse. Get out a movie/get a six-pack/go to bed early. Pick it up tomorrow.

Doing nothing is one of my fave things nowadays.

u right

getting a beer from the fridge.

Ditched. Feels like highschool again, except I do more drugs now.

ok, not ditched but spaced out on. I'm stoned anyway so I'm not going anywhere.

Burt, have you given any thought to ditching the Halfling's Leaf for a semester or so?

I ask, not out of a tsk-tsk place, but from experience - I smoked a good bit prior to school, but tended to not do so during the semester. It helped me feel...I don't know. Sharper? Less likely to make excuses for myself? I mean, something like weed is something that everyone who uses it has a very personal relationship with, so you may find that you can function perfectly well with it as a presence in your life.

Tell me to fuck off, if need be. Just trying to help. You've got a good handle on things, and I think you've got a good chance of doing well this semester, and bring your GPA up to summer associate levels. Damn the torpedoes, dude. Fuck the gunners.

I don't really do it that much. My life is neither healthy nor well functioning, so better that than other alternatives.

I don't know, I just don't seem to get this law stuff. Especially legal writing. Man.

Burt, your writing here indicates that you can do it, and do it well. The idea is just to grind out an understanding.

A HUGE hurdle for people (myself included) is the concept that the only way to become a great legal mind is to be a scholar. A great deal of people (myself included) arrive at law school used to being one of the smartest people in class and able to get by with minimal study. Law is simply a different animal. You have to put in the time, learn all the different doctrines and iterations thereof, and then learn how to apply something through it.

Think of it this way:

Each body/area of law is like a maze.

At the law student level, you are learning very basic mazes, but a lot of very different mazes.

At exam time, you need to run your facts through those basic mazes.

Once you're out in the big, bad world, you begin to learn larger and larger and more complex and subtle mazes through which you will run your facts.

The one consistency is the need to take time to learn the maze.

Don't fight it, Burt. Seriously. The biggest hurdle is the one you set up for yourself.

I'm here to help as I can, man. Seriously. I wish I had started a thread like this early my first year.

Reading this Property stuff, I think we need to give feudalism another try.

hey, there's a Cardozo talent show coming up. should I do an interpretive dance to the UCC?

(UCC = Uniform Commercial Code, for those of you in the lay)

Feeling kind of regretful about law school in spite of everything. Don't really have a clear picture of why I'm doing it or what I want. I miss having a lot of time to practice and play in bands. I'm bored out of my mind with Contracts and Con Law. No interest in the prestigious biglaw jobs, no interest in govt or public interest.

Welcome to the next 15 years of your life. You've earned it.

yay!

15 years?

I think that sentiment represents a good 90% of our fellow law students up there. Contracts is pretty interesting, but I also found accounting to be really something special.

Con Law is painful, though. The cases ... they take forever!

"15 years?"

You think this shit ends when you're out of school?

i don't think you've given ENOUGH time

what is he, retiring at 40?

guess u cd retire at 40 if you make partner pretty early (32?) but good luck w.that

if you make partner generally you stay there until you are 92 and they wheel you out

No. I think he's going to default into a bigfirm job and hate his life and still feel compelled to succeed, and drift out of the job at around 40 years of age.

I'm going to reconsider after the end of the year and my summer internship and all. I might consider dropping out if the economy isn't even worse by then, which it probably will be. Oh, I see how they get you now.

OneL Summer: "Oh The Economy is Bad"
TwoL Summer: "Oh, I've already invested two years of my life, why not just get the degree?"
Graduation: "Well I have the degree and it's not like I'm qualified to do anything else"

rite?

I imagine being a lawyer is one of the securest professions during an economic downturn tbh; you can always make the switch to insolvency if things get rly bad, or firms insolvency practice doubled in 6 months o_O

our firm's

My roommate hates law school enough that she didn't do an internship her first summer because she was looking for a full-time job outside of law. Unfortunately, the economy IS bad so she's now well into, "Oh, I've already invested two years of my life, why not just get the degree?" I hope she is able to get a job.

Hurting, welcome to my world. Except you actually have good grades. What's another realistic option for a career for you? My field, writing, is toast. I don't even get the 8 zillion freelance job spams I used to years ago... maybe one or two trickle in every week.

Good luck making partner from a school like Cardozo or Brooklyn ... our best bets is to start our own firm, though you could very well go full elite, Hurting.

Yeah, I don't have many options. It's the liberal arts major's curse.

I worked in journalism, which is in bad shape. I could maybe get my last job back - decent pay but doesn't go anywhere (although I guess if I really shake a leg I could get some kind of supervisor position or a job in the main office in Cali and move there). Even teaching - my other backup plan - is tough right now. NYC is mulling big cuts, probably not hiring many out-of-system people.

Is there any point in joining this Phi Delta Phi thing? $75 sound like 75 good reasons not to.

I imagine being a lawyer is one of the securest professions during an economic downturn tbh; you can always make the switch to insolvency if things get rly bad, or firms insolvency practice doubled in 6 months o_O
But the real estate/conveyancing people have taken a hammering, shirley?

well every dept is a bit quieter tbh but prop is always busy and always hiring, tht stuff never seems to get old, bare in mind it's all commercial conveyancing tho so not damaged by any housing slumps

Wish I had your optimism!

i work in a litigation boutique practice... we're pretty flat out and not expecting to slow. i've heard some of the big firms' property practices are doing nothing but defaults right now. it'll recover quicker than other industries though, that's my prediction.

What the hell am I going to do this summer? I have to focus on public interest/government stuff, but I simply can't find any internships to apply to! I get maybe 2-3 results on pslaw.net, no results on idealist.org, etc. etc. Time to work the family connections. ;_;

Law school really does absolutely nothing to help you; it's like you hand them huge amounts of $$$$$$$, and in return you get a decent professor or two. That's it. No nice, comfortable facilities ... no assistance in anything law related outside of how to read cases. Lovely.

btw phi delta e-mail person made dumb mistake of putting all names in the "To" line. Everyone on the list now knows who fell below 3.2, which is kind of sad. I couldn't help but think of a couple people differently after that, and I wish I never knew.

gah law school is so frustrating and pointless and life-sucking
(appellate brief due Monday)

yeah, mine's Tuesday.

I got malicious prosecution - defending a successful summary judgment motion of. What's yours?

Sometimes it's like we're the same person. Sometimes it's like everyone in law school is the same person.