A for Today!

I've said it before, but I've wanted to be a lawyer ever since I was a small child. I remember when I was in middle school, my good friend Chris had a Halloween party at his house and I went as a lawyer. I put on a suit and tie, combed my hair over, grabbed my dad's briefcase, and was on my way. Everyone said I had the scariest costume there. I also remember that while my dad was in law school, he would bring home some piddly crap every now and then. One time he brought home a t-shirt that said KeyCite it! on it. Now, having been in law school for a month, I'm keenly aware that KeyCite is a tool featured by Westlaw to facilitate legal research by telling you what is still good law, how many times a certain case has been cited and whether or not it has been given positive or negative treatment by other judges and legal scholars. However, back then, I had no idea what KeyCiting was. All I knew was it had something to do with lawyers and (to me at least) that was cool.

The point, I suppose, is that I'm living the dream. I'm a month in. Hell, I've even gotten a midterm already. At St. Mary's, the midterms are not graded, but they are required so that the professors can give you a glimpse of what to expect on the final as well as some feedback on your legal analysis. On Thursday, my Contracts professor gave us a problem to work with. He's an outlier when it comes to law professors. Instead of teaching the rules of law, he basically engages us in class-wide debate for the full period and lets us run free. He'll bait people into saying what they really think by entertaining an answer that is completely wrong, never correcting anyone. If no one speaks up with the right principle or application of the law, he'll let us walk out of there potentially thinking the wrong thing entirely. He's big on teaching us how to be advocates for both sides of any given legal issue rather than memorizing and regurgitating legal rules. He gave us a problem about a man who was given a job as a pastor with a church in Houston. That's one contract right there (employment). This man was so good that his congregation, and with it his donations, kept growing. He did so well, in fact, that his superior promised to "always support him in his endeavors." That's one contract and one promise (our professor makes a distinction). Was there consideration? Debatable. Shortly thereafter, however, the man found out that his superior was having illicit sex with members of the congregation, but kept quiet about it. That is, until he himself was faced with charges of having sex with underage boys. He was fired from his job and his benefits revoked. He met with his superior and said, "you promised to always support me." His superior didn't care. That is, until the man told him he knew about all his illicit relationships. He then extracted another promise from his superior, who pledged to contact the head of the organization about helping the man with his criminal proceedings. That's 1 contract and 2 promises. Void as a matter of public policy? Illegal? Duress? All valid angles. Ultimately, the man was left out to dry and had to rely on a public defender and was convicted. The man brought suit against BOTH his superior AND the head of the organization for breach of contract/promise.

Our professor gave us a two-sided sheet of paper. On one side the instructions read "Argue for Plaintiff." On the other it said "Argue for Defendant." Who knows if I said anything right, but I did have a hell of a lot to say. And that was right after the class discussion, where I earned an "A for today" (his words, not mine) through my analysis of the case we had to read for class. Good times. I also got my first legal memo back in Legal Research and Writing. The professor wrote "good organization and application of the law to the facts." /flex

I'm keeping up with the reading but not doing too much ahead of what's immediately required to stay afloat. I'm also not keeping up with my outlines nearly as well as I should be. That's going to come back and bite me in the ass. All in all, things are good. Bring on Week 5!

The tension breaks..

Finally. I have been waiting all this time to be called on in class and stare down the Socratic Method. Thursday it happened, and I must say it was quite anticlimactic. However, I did surprise myself at how big a smartass I really am, even in front of 100 of my peers and in the face of a man who controls my grade in the class. It was in Contracts, and we were talking about LEWIS v. LEWIS, a case where a husband and wife were separated and the husband wanted a divorce. Mrs. Lewis was in financial trouble and signed a community property agreement divesting her 50% interest in the property she shared with her husband in exchange for $10,000 (well below the value of her interest in the property). She sought to void the contract for duress. The professor called on me and asked, "Mr. Dubinsky ... why would Mr. Lewis seek to get a divorce from his wife?"

I responded, "because he didn't want to remain married to her any longer." The professor paused, cocked his head to the side a little bit, and said, "good answer." Apparently he was looking for something along the lines of "because marriage is a contract and he wanted to void that contract," but seriously, what kind of question is that? Anyway, the point is that the experience wasn't harrowing and there is no reason whatsoever to fear it.

I also learned recently that all 1L's are required to participate in Moot Court during the Spring semester. You get to choose your partner and then you are given an issue. You write a brief arguing your position and then you are called to go up in front of a panel of faux judges who ask you hard questions to defend that position. Then the next night you go up there again and have to defend the opposite position. Teams are whittled down until 2 remain and at that point REAL JUDGES are the ones sitting on the panel issuing you inquiries.

I can't wait. Moot Court will tell me once and for all whether I want to pursue a specialization in trial advocacy. But for now, I just want to beat the curve.