It certainly wasn't fiction on Friday when I looked around in Civil Procedure and saw a lot more empty seats than I remembered. Now, it's pure speculation, as I have yet to hear of anyone abandoning their quest for a law license, but there will always be the inevitable casualties of the work load and the fear factor that comes bundled with the academic study of law.
Take my Torts professor, for instance ... it's 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, on the dot, and he strolls into the classroom that's already packed with students who think that they're prepared for class, having done the assigned reading the night before. The professor walks up to the podium, arranges his materials, looks up, and asks, "Is Adam One-el here today?"
Adam raises his hand. "All right sir, you'll be helping us out with VOSBURG v. PUTNEY." Adam's face turns ashen. Our professor then proceeds to explain how he will never ask us to recite the facts of a case, because if we can't understand the facts then we don't deserve to be in law school and should get right up and go collect our 100% tuition refund. After that, he took it upon himself to show us how little we actually knew.
Personally, I walked into that class wanting to be called on. I left that class immensely glad that I wasn't.
But don't let it fool you. After one week, law school is already more fun than any other scholastic undertaking I've ever been involved in. It's so intellectually stimulating and interesting, it's like drinking from a firehose. You read real cases involving real parties with real disputes and real judges who determine a winner and a loser and then flesh out the legal reasoning for their decision. Then you extract the legal rule from the case and synthesize it with the other legal rules, exceptions, and standards that you've learned in that area of law. Then you tie them all together to form a framework for the law that shows its birth and evolution to its current point. Then you apply the principles of the framework, forest, tree, and leaf, to new situations which demand a fresh advocate to ensure that justice is done. It's exhilirating.
All in all, the first week was great. You don't have a chance to stop and catch your breath. You wake up, go to class, go to the library to read a bit more and prepare a bit better, go to your next class, come home, prepare and brief and outline for the next day, go to bed, and then do it all over again. The stress got to some people, I noticed. It was palpable. But for me, I'm not stressed at all. My anxiety is being slowly lifted away as I notice, bit-by-bit, symptoms of it lessening or disappearing altogether. It's a blessing. I look around and I see how lucky I am to be in the position I'm in. No job, no girlfriend, no worries or distractions to prevent me from completely devoting myself to this. I can just drop everything and apply myself, and I'm thankful. I feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
Finally.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
I could DEFINITELY get used to this
I am already enamored with the atmosphere here at St. Mary's. Those of you who know me know that I am not the most outgoing or extroverted person; I am quite the contrary, in fact. However, I resolved early to reach out of my comfort zone and make some friends and get to know some people at law school, and even before classes commence I can boast significant success.
Orientation on Thursday was great. I was introduced to the 250 or so (not counting evening programers) people with whom I will share intimately the foreseeable future and they are all really cool. We all shared the mutual apprehension of undertaking what, for most of us, will be the hardest and most rigorous trial we have faced to date. Then on Thursday night, we were all invited to a posh restaurant in downtown San Antonio for a "free hors d'œuvre, open bar, business-casual dress gala" where we could meet each other, St. Mary's faculty, as well as many local area attorneys. It was put on by the Student Bar Association and they did a magnificent job; it was a lot of fun. It also helps that the vast majority of 1Ls live right around the same area in the medical center vicinity. It's convenient to hang out after class and just as convenient to hang out during the weekends.
I want to share with you some valuable nuggets of wisdom that I learned throughout the weekend. After all, one of the purported goals of this blog is to demystify the law school experience to those who are not already sifting deep through the fog. First of all, a C+ in law school is NOT A BAD GRADE. In fact, at St. Mary's in particular, the first-year curve is a C+. The 2008-09 Student Handbook even explicitly states that "In all first-year courses, other than Legal Research & Writing, no fewer than 10% and no more than 20% of the grades must be C-'s, D's, or F's. No less than 10% and no more than 20% of the grades must be A's, A-'s, or B+'s." Therefore, somewhere between 80% and 90% of the entire first-year class will get grades between those stated above. Brutal. St. Mary's did have a novel take on a law school saying that I learned from my Dad, though:
In law school, the A students make law professors, the B students make judges, and the C students make money. I doubt that will soften the blow much, though, should I come face-to-face with a C+ in early 2009.
Secondly, my introduction into the legal community and by extension my career as a lawyer has already begun. I am a lawyer. A lawyer-in-training, yes, but a lawyer nonetheless. And as such, my reputation follows me around wherever I go. Those scorned in law school do not forget once they shed the epidermis of these hallowed halls. I am going to help people as best I can and try as hard as I can.
Finally, I learned that law is primarily a self-taught trade. The professors at law school are not there to teach you the law. They are there to teach you how to teach yourself the law. This explanation goes a long way toward explaining why law students tend to disappear off the face of the earth for 3 years before cracking the Bar and going into practice.
So tomorrow it begins. What I've dreamed of doing for so many years has finally come to fruition. I'll see you on the other side.
Orientation on Thursday was great. I was introduced to the 250 or so (not counting evening programers) people with whom I will share intimately the foreseeable future and they are all really cool. We all shared the mutual apprehension of undertaking what, for most of us, will be the hardest and most rigorous trial we have faced to date. Then on Thursday night, we were all invited to a posh restaurant in downtown San Antonio for a "free hors d'œuvre, open bar, business-casual dress gala" where we could meet each other, St. Mary's faculty, as well as many local area attorneys. It was put on by the Student Bar Association and they did a magnificent job; it was a lot of fun. It also helps that the vast majority of 1Ls live right around the same area in the medical center vicinity. It's convenient to hang out after class and just as convenient to hang out during the weekends.
I want to share with you some valuable nuggets of wisdom that I learned throughout the weekend. After all, one of the purported goals of this blog is to demystify the law school experience to those who are not already sifting deep through the fog. First of all, a C+ in law school is NOT A BAD GRADE. In fact, at St. Mary's in particular, the first-year curve is a C+. The 2008-09 Student Handbook even explicitly states that "In all first-year courses, other than Legal Research & Writing, no fewer than 10% and no more than 20% of the grades must be C-'s, D's, or F's. No less than 10% and no more than 20% of the grades must be A's, A-'s, or B+'s." Therefore, somewhere between 80% and 90% of the entire first-year class will get grades between those stated above. Brutal. St. Mary's did have a novel take on a law school saying that I learned from my Dad, though:
In law school, the A students make law professors, the B students make judges, and the C students make money. I doubt that will soften the blow much, though, should I come face-to-face with a C+ in early 2009.
Secondly, my introduction into the legal community and by extension my career as a lawyer has already begun. I am a lawyer. A lawyer-in-training, yes, but a lawyer nonetheless. And as such, my reputation follows me around wherever I go. Those scorned in law school do not forget once they shed the epidermis of these hallowed halls. I am going to help people as best I can and try as hard as I can.
Finally, I learned that law is primarily a self-taught trade. The professors at law school are not there to teach you the law. They are there to teach you how to teach yourself the law. This explanation goes a long way toward explaining why law students tend to disappear off the face of the earth for 3 years before cracking the Bar and going into practice.
So tomorrow it begins. What I've dreamed of doing for so many years has finally come to fruition. I'll see you on the other side.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Get Ready!
Hokay. So. Tomorrow is Law School Orientation, and I'm pretty fking excited. Ever since I was a small child, my dream was to become a lawyer. I'm not really sure what attracted me to it at such an early age. I suppose it just seemed so mysterious, so complex and elite, so grand and important that is steadily drew me in. Those who had mastered the law had achieved something truly great and significant. Then as I grew older, just the concept of law and order and its indispensable role in civilized society piqued my curiosity in the study of law even further. How does one, or a governing body representing each individual, craft a set of rules so as to govern man's amicable coexistence with his neighbors and to provide relief to those who are wronged? Does the law need to weighted more toward protection of man from government, business, or from his fellow man? That's all the law is, essentially: a source of protection. Unfortunately, it is not generally precedent protection; it is instead, in most cases, called upon as subsequent protection to provide relief (at law or at equity) after one or more parties have already been harmed or wronged. Such is the intrinsic nature of the adversarial process upon which our legal system is based; you cannot plead for relief from a court for something that hasn't happened yet (well, besides injunctive relief...). My goal is not merely to gain a mastery over the law, though that is a necessary step toward my greater aim, which is to utilize that mastery to help those without it. How I intend to accomplish this remains to be seen; whether it be by joining an NPO with a charitable cause, becoming a prosecutor, setting up foundations to educate and assist, or simply offering advice, consultation, and services pro bono to those who need it, I am not certain. But it will happen.
Anyway, I digress. The point of this blog is to announce my intention to begin a routine set of "1L blogs straight from St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas." As I go through the daily rigors of the Socratic Method, sifting through significant cases both archaic and contemporary, Moot Court observations, study groups, efforts to get on the Law Review, and eventually final exams, I shall take whatever time I have to share these experiences with you on a consistent basis. I must confess that I do not anticipate much interest, but it will at the very least serve as a cathartic process for myself. Time to dominate.
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