Category: Law

Law School Diary: Week 6 or 7

Dear Seattle University School of Law:

Either I’m late in reporting on week six or I’m on time for week seven. Either way, this is it.

I don’t know if this is a common experience for most 1Ls, but I’ve just gone through a self-doubt transformation. My self-doubt about mastering the material and competing with the other really, REALLY smart students has mostly gone away. In its place I found an even bigger doubt, that I’m not qualified (even in the smallest way) to advise people on matters that have a profound impact on their lives. Every decision I make, every minute of research I do and don’t do could vastly improve someone’s situation or screw them enormously.

Consider my first legal writing memo. We’ve been asked to evaluate whether the State can prove our fictional client stalked someone, so that a “supervising attorney” can advise the client whether he should take the State’s plea offer or not. I’ve meticulously researched the statute and relevant case law, laid out the likelihood that the State can prove each element. Now I have to come to some final conclusion about whether a jury will find him guilty or not and make a recommendation on how the attorney should advise the client.

Basically the client will have to choose between one of the following options:

1. Facing the risk of being convicted of a class C felony. (The state has a moderately strong case. The right jury, sympathetic to someone living near a sex offender, might return a not-guilty verdict, though.) If convicted, he’ll spend several years in jail, likely lose his business, and leave his children without support.
2. Alternately, he could take the plea bargain and move his family and home business for six months. He wouldn’t face jail time, but he’d have a record and significant expenses.

Obviously getting off scott-free is the best situation, but attempting to do that carries an enormous risk. I’m starting to get a better feel for the pressure defendants are under to accept plea offers. Yikes!

Let’s see…What else? I won lunch with a professor courtesy of a fundraising raffle held by Outlaws - SU’s gay, lesbian, bi and transgender law student organization. I put in a vote for my legal writing, contracts and civil procedure professors; I’ll know next week which one I get to have lunch with.

It’s also been the week of the sick. Lots of people are finally coming down with fall colds. With any luck I won’t catch it. (Reminder: wash your hands regularly!)

I think that’s it. Thanks and see ya next week.

-Carry

Quote of the Day

"You can tell me to go to hell all you want, but can you actually dispatch me to hell?”
- Prof. Mahmud

Law School Diary: Week 5

Dear Seattle University School of Law,

I’m sorry I didn’t write last week. To be honest, Week 4 was a real downer, and after writing a big ole whine, I didn’t feel like it was wholly appropriate to send it to you. Instead, Nick and I took off for a rejuvenating weekend on Orcas Island that relieved some of the tension and allowed me to come back with new energy.

Week 5 has been really busy, leaving almost no time for moping. We have a new legal writing professor (our old one couldn’t teach anymore due to a “change in circumstances”) and I’ve had to do a lot of catch up work for that class. And no, I wasn’t behind by choice, we just weren’t informed of everything we needed to do by our previous professor. What kind of slacker do you take me for?

I also spent a lot of time preparing for tonight’s dispute resolution competition. Our task is to interview a new client about their potential employment claim. It seems odd to see who can do this task the best, but Andy and I look at it as a learning opportunity.

To prepare we spent some time learning about employment and discrimination law, making business cards, learning about client interview best practices and stressing about whether we need to bring a box of tissues just in case our potential client starts to cry.

If it pays off we’ll kill the competition and go to a regional competition.

Property, the slowest moving class, still isn’t moving any faster than a Philadelphia prothonotary, but I count my blessings that I have one class without any homework. At least the professor admitted that no matter what his question, our answer will be wrong. I decided this afternoon that I will answer “hippopotamus” to at least one question next week. I mean, if I’m going to be wrong, I might as well be REALLY wrong.

On the upside, we spent half a class discussing the concept of stare decisis et non quieta movere. (How’s that for throwin’ down some bad ass Latin?) The concept is simple: courts must follow precedent. I thought the literal translation of the phrase, though, was far lovelier: “stand by the decision and don’t move that which is quiet.” I’m going to tattoo this on Nick’s hand to help him with his seemingly incurable buyer’s remorse.

That’s pretty much it for the week, except for one final request: Could you please ban carrots (and other crunchy foods) from the library? It is extremely distracting to sit next to someone who is munching away in an otherwise silent room when you’re trying to read for Contracts.

Thanks and see ya next week.

-Carry

Law School Diary: Week 3

Dear Seattle University School of Law,

At the end of three weeks, I can confidently say I’m in the groove. I worked out a functional system for tracking class assignments and scheduling my workload. I settled on the Alaska Reading Room on the fourth floor of the library as my preferred study location. And I joined what seems like a productive study group.

The last move comes with a little guilt, though. See, when I partnered with Kevin and Sarah, I also cheated on my summer study partner Andy. Technically we hadn’t agreed to go steady this semester, but it still felt like a betrayal. He’s taken it well. We tentatively agreed, for example, to compete together in the upcoming Dispute Resolution Competition. All is not lost.

I also earned the distinction on Wednesday of being the first person to get a hand grenade in Contracts. Until then, the professor merely shot students, who gave the wrong answers. I’m not sure if he was out of bullets or if I was so far off track that it merited an escalation in violence. The collateral damage was bad, too; the grenade must have taken out at least eight other students. (They subsequently forgave me. Apparently, the entertainment value was worth it.)

I will recover, which is good thing because I’m still thrilled to be here. Each day is an increasing validation of my choice of law school over business school. I enjoy creative endeavors and analytical puzzles – a strange combination for sure. The further I get into my classes though, the more I understand that being a lawyer requires and exceptional talent in both of those skills. Hip-hip-hooray!

My father is probably wondering by now if I actually learned anything this week. Only the final exams will tell, of course, but I did learn some interesting tidbits:

In Civil Procedure: “For a grand total of convincing eight people, you can change the world.” (Hint: Add up the number of judges you would have to convince at the trial, appellate and supreme court levels to change the law.)

In Property: “The law is fundamentally erotic.” (It protects eros, or desire, get it?!)

In Civil Procedure: “If you know what you don’t know, then you know what you need to know.” (Actually I already knew this, but it was a good reminder.)

Finally, school was not short of entertainment this week.

In Property: “Do any of you own a house yet, or are you too young for that? Yes? Well, you’re on your way to being real estate mongrels…moguls…whatever.”

In Contracts: “If you took the words ‘know’ and ‘like’ out of people’s vocabulary, we’d all be mum.”

Thanks for the laughs. See ya next week.

-Carry

Law School Diary: Week 2

Dear Seattle University School of Law,

It’s Friday and I’ve survived another week in your company.

This week we started analyzing cases in Contracts. The word in the halls is that the professor equally terrifies and fascinates students. If I had to classify his demeanor in two words, it would be “Professor Kingsfield” – John Housman’s classic law professor caricature we’ve all come to love in a masochistic way since The Paper Chase was released in 1973.

Just in case you’ve forgotten just how tyrannical he was:

And let’s not forget this priceless scene either:

I like our Contracts professor’s teaching style a lot. I’ve learned, for example the difference between “hell no” and “hell damn no.” Our section will, no doubt, draw tightly together as a result of having him.

Props also go out this week to Josie (a fellow 1L) for winning her suit against the town of Sultan, WA. She’s not a lawyer yet, but she’s already laying the smack down in front of the Growth Management Hearings Board. As you can imagine, Small Town America doesn’t always have its act together, preferring personal interest of the people in charge over the greater good of their constituents. That bodes well for us budding lawyers, because as Josie points out: dysfunction creates a lot of billable hours.

Lastly, we did a little math this week and calculated the cost of our education at $9 a minute. (Imagine being five minutes late for class. That’s $45 down the drain!) I think I’m getting my money’s worth so far. I submit as evidence this fine piece of advice from our Civil Procedure professor: “Being afraid of winning is the worst thing in the world. Being afraid of losing is normal; it’s what motivates you. Never be afraid of winning.”

Thanks, and see ya next week.

-Carry