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

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