Posts Tagged ‘Legal Methods’

So fantastic news. We didn’t actually get our Legal Methods exams back, but the professor sent out a mass email detailing the good news and the bad. The good news – and it certainly is good – is that for the first time in years, no one failed the exam! Yes that’s right. We are rock stars. The bad news? None of us mentioned any facts. And apparently facts are important when you’re a lawyer? (According to the professor, “Ours is a fact-dependant profession and this I either failed to convey or you declined to learn.” I think from now on any time a professor calls on me, I’ll respond with, “I declined to learn that.”) Ah well. Failing Legal Methods would be an inconvenient humiliation I just did not need right now. So I’m happy.

Know what else makes me happy? Writing class! The first five minutes of class was productive: we were informed that our memo outlines are now due a week later (which gives me back my weekend) and the actual memos are due four days later. The rest of class we spent eating Halloween candy and building things with Play Doh from our writing instructor. It was a pretty good class.

Oh, the first memo! I got it back. She had individual conferences with all of us to discuss what we did right and what we could improve. Apparently I got confused about the structure and I need to re-arrange the whole thing, but she said my analysis was “great.” Re-writes aren’t required, but I’ll probably do them. I really like our writing instructor (see above re: candy and Play Doh) so I don’t want her to think I’m not taking her class seriously (even though see above: candy and Play Doh).

The other interesting thing going on for 1Ls is choosing our spring elective. We have three required classes next semester (property, constitutional law, and criminal law) and we get to choose our fourth out of seven options. It’s some kind of lottery system where we rank all seven options in order of preference and the Registrar endeavors to assign as many of us to our top choices as possible. I have it narrowed down to two top choices. One is a class that sounds really fun. It meets three times a week for an hour each session and you spend the first two classes learning about some aspect of lawyering and then the third class you actually apply what you learned by assuming the role of an attorney in a given situation (like a custody battle, for example). The other class is all about statutory interpretation. The reason I’m considering it is that it feels like it might be more useful in the long run and more impressive to a judge (I want a clerkship after graduation). The other thing to consider is that for the first class, we’re graded on a paper and a final exam. For the second class, we have two papers and a final exam. (Now that I think about it, that should end the debate right there.)

So I’m not sure what to do. Do I take the fun-sounding class with the less harsh grading? That class is guaranteed to be huge and maybe I should think about taking the statutory interpretation class which will be much smaller. The powers that be keep telling us we should be cultivating relationships with faculty for letters of recommendation down the road and that would be easier to do in a 20-person class rather than a 100-person class. Then again, next semester I’ll be taking four classes instead of three and I already feel like I couldn’t handle any more coursework so maybe I should try to take it easy with the elective. Decisions, decisions.

Then again. Maybe I should just take intellectual property.

Any 2Ls or 3Ls have advice?

So my first exam is over. It was a relatively low-stress affair considering the class is pass/fail and (almost) everyone passes. My section was known to be the tough section (as one classmate who had the notoriously not tough section put it, “Well you guys had it tough because you had to, you know, like, read cases and stuff.”), but the test wasn’t too bad.

I met up with some friends to go over the cases that were assigned to go with the exam and found it to be far more helpful that I originally anticipated. In my past life, I never found study groups or group work in general to be anything other than headache-inducing. Relying on people is just…:::shudder::: I have a problem. Anyway! So we talked through the cases for about two hours and then goofed off for a little while before dispersing.

I went to bed at 10PM in order to be well-rested for the exam. An hour later I was up playing this game on Sporcle. The restaurant below me had its music blasting again and for some reason winter has hit New York and its home base is my apartment. I probably got about four consecutive hours of sleep with half hour naps strewn in for good measure. But I felt pumped for the exam and I was ready to get it over with. I had a breakfast of champions (Special-K) and got to school in plenty of time to get the seat of my choice. (Choosing the right seat is paramount for someone like me; I get distracted very easily.)

It was a four-hour exam, but the test instructions said that we should be able to complete it in three.

Um.

What?

I pretty much wrote for four hours straight and hardly anyone in the room left early. Prior to taking the exam I thought four hours seemed like an impossibly long time to be stuck in a room. It was the quickest four hours of my life. I brought water and yogurt and consumed neither. The test didn’t feel especially difficult (although I reserve the right to change my story when I get the professor’s comments back), but I kept getting myself confused during the first part and much of the test time was spent editing and clarifying. The frustrating part was that I knew I could craft a great answer if I had like a week to work on it. The second part was almost fun to write because he specifically asked our opinion about a case on statutory interpretation. I had to give short shrift to that part of the exam though since I only allotted an hour and half to it. I couldn’t edit it as thoroughly as I would have liked, but the question was pretty straightforward.

So here’s hoping I’m done with Legal Methods forever!

In other news, this weekend should be chock full of awesome. My friend rented out a section of a bar to host an event and there’s going to be $2 drafts and $3 well drinks. Should be a fun time. On that note, I’m off to Bar Review.

I had a pretty low-key weekend that consisted mostly of reading for class. In Civil Procedure, we’re behind in the syllabus so (like any normal person) I allowed myself to fall behind in the reading and made sure I only read as much as we were likely to discuss in a given class period. But on Thursday the professor threatened to catch us up in the syllabus this week so I wanted to make sure I had it all done.

Friday I had dinner in Union Square with my friend Jaye. She and I went to college together but didn’t really become friends until after graduation since she was the only person I knew who stayed in Boston; I convinced her to move to New York last year. After dinner, I ventured out to Brooklyn to see her new place in Cobble Hill (Sidebar: I’m in love with Cobble Hill.) and meet her new cat. We saw District 9 finally (loved it), got some Tasti, and parted ways. Saturday was devoted exclusively to Civ Pro reading. I went to bed fairly early and was up by 7AM on Sunday due to the musical stylings of Daddy Yankee reverberating throughout my apartment. (I suspect the kitchen workers from the restaurant I live above are to blame, but no proof as of yet.) I spent Sunday with Rachel, one of my best friends from undergrad who recently moved out to NYC from LA, studying in a coffee shop. We spent 7 hours and $22 there and I managed to get through all my torts and contracts reading. Admittedly, our studying was constantly being interrupted by bouts of conversation and catching each other up on all the various dramas recently experienced. But still, a productive day.

Exciting things going on around school this week include no Contracts for the rest of the week (!!), Legal Research being added to my schedule, the first TA session (Civ Pro) of the semester, a public interest social event, and a review session for the Legal Methods final exam. This last is on Friday at 5:10PM, an inherently hostile move on the part of the professor, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt that having the session at such a heinous time came down to room reservation issues and not some personal hatred for us. I’m sure he doesn’t want to be there any more than we do at that hour. But the Legal Methods final is next Friday and as a result, Thursday and Friday classes are canceled next week so we can study. I can’t believe it’s already that time.

I must confess I haven’t gotten into the habit of attending club events and lunchtime presentations (with the requisite free pizza). I tend to keep my participation in non-class engagements restricted to those that bear the word MANDATORY in the email subject line. But I was excited about a public interest fair going on last week. I thought it might be fun to get involved in a pro bono project and start chipping away at my 40 hours requirement as soon as possible. To my dismay, the ONE organization I was interested in was the only organization that didn’t show. I wasted some time in the computer lab and checked in again, but she still hadn’t arrived so I got her contact information from an administrator and went home. After thinking about it some more, I figured there’s no chance in hell I’m getting a paying job this summer so it’s more than likely I’ll knock out those 40 hours within one week of starting whatever internship I manage to get. So I might as well not make things any more difficult for myself by starting a volunteer project this semester.

I’m officially not allowed to start thinking about the summer until November 1, but unofficially, I would ideally like to work for a judge. Unfortunately, working for a judge doesn’t qualify for the public interest summer stipend CLS offers so unless there’s some other funding out there I don’t know about (anyone??), that leaves me stretching my financial aid award into lasting 12 months as opposed to the 9 months the financial aid powers-that-be say it is to last. I just don’t know if that’s feasible. It’s hard to tell at this point what, if any, amount is left over after my monthly expenses since it’s still relatively early and I had some startup costs to deal with so September isn’t really a representative month. But I think ultimately I’m going to have to find an internship that qualifies for CLS public interest funding.

But it’s way too soon to be concerned with that. There are more important things going on right now…like the season premiere of How I Met Your Mother. Until next time…

Legal Methods is over! Our last class was great. Sure, it wasn’t a party like another section’s last class. Or canceled like another section’s last class. We had cases to discuss and scholars’ statutory interpretation philosophies to debate. But when we had finished our substantive discussion, Professor LM wrapped up with a speech reflecting on all the work we’d done in the past three weeks, what he hoped we’d learned in the class, what he hoped we’d learn in law school, and what he hoped we’d do in our law careers. It was really inspiring and when he was finished the whole room erupted in applause. I’ve always wanted to be in a class where everyone applauded the professor at the end.

My legal writing section celebrated the end of Legal Methods with a Columbia-sponsored happy hour. I wonder how long this drinking-on-Columbia’s-tab thing will last. I hope for at least a little while longer since I haven’t really been able to take advantage much yet. I doubt all the myriad extracurricular organizations are finished trying to woo us. At least, if the ENDLESS BARRAGE OF LISTSERV EMAILS IS ANY INDICATOR!

Speaking of, I haven’t really come across anything I feel like joining. I’m sure employers don’t care, but I was hoping to find something interesting to join, at least for the social aspect. Apparently we have a softball club. Once upon a time (i.e. before puberty) I was really good at sports. I even played on a pee-wee hockey team. But if the past 15 years are any indication, I now suck at all things athletic. Unless yoga and pilates count. Which, let’s face it, they do not. But I think I might like to play softball. They said all skill levels are welcome…but maybe there’s something in the law school’s anti-discrimination policy that makes them say that. Anyway, I’ll think about it some more.

So, I think I’ve been sufficiently acclimated to this thing called law school. True, unlike a lot of other 1Ls, I haven’t gotten very far on any of my substantive classes, but my LM class consisted of more course hours than my full schedule so I’m looking forward to more free time.

I’ve heard mostly good things about my professors, but Professor Torts is on loan from the University of Chicago so he was a bit of a scary wildcard. (I heard they actually give out C’s at Chicago.) But he isn’t nearly as intimidating as I’d pictured. He kind of dances around the room and Socraticizes us in a friendly, non-threatening manner. He treats it as more of a conversation rather than a test. Torts cases are always interesting; today’s theme was obnoxious children, including one case where an adult woman sued a five year old. Awesome.

Civil Procedure…well to be honest, I’m kind of loving it. I found the reading to be really interesting. I’m definitely a rule-oriented person so I think I’ll be one of those rare people for whom Civ Pro really appeals. The professor seems nice enough. He ended class a bit early today so he could fly down to DC to do something for a former high school classmate of his…Sonia something or other.

Contracts is my small section. There are fewer than 40 people in this class. I don’t really have any thoughts on Contracts yet. It’s too soon to write it off, obviously, but I was less in love with the material than with Civ Pro, if that says anything. True, there is little that is more gorily exciting than botched plastic surgery, but the issues of law themselves just appeal to me less. So far anyway. It’s obviously way too soon to make any kind of definitive judgment.

But in any event, so far so good.