Speed Networking Bootcamp

Hey, you know, I didn‘t get the memo, so can you tell me something? Are we supposed to be finding jobs right now? I mean, a lot of people seem kind of interested in this topic, but, well, I’m not so much. Ok, a little. A job for next summer would be good. One that pays money would be nice. My credit card balances are really pretty persuasive arguments that I need to find a job that comes with a paycheck. Howrey Bootcamp But rather than really apply for jobs, I‘m better at just surfing around the edge of that pool. I got an email from our career office about something called Howrey Bootcamp, which is supposed to teach litigation skills. So, rather than apply, I went to the website and took the quiz, “Are You A Natural Born Litigator?” I scored an “11,” which is supposed to mean this:

If you scored 11 or above: Ever had that dream where you’re giving your closing argument, you glance up and see a stormy sky where the ceiling ought to be, and every point you make is punctuated by a flash of lightening? Yeah. We thought so. Congratulations. You‘re a natural born litigator. You live and breathe (and dream) the law.  Howrey Bootcamp® is perfect for you. This is your day in the sun.

Of course, I have never had that dream, nor have I had anything like it at all. Sure, I’ve dreamed of being an advocate in court, but there was no lighting involved and the ceiling of the courtroom always seemed to be a light sky blue. (I wonder if that‘s a color choice intended to help people stay calm.) The Bootcamp application requires a 100-word “personal statement.” I tried writing one:

Your “Boot Camp Quiz” suggests that I am a “natural born litigator.” That may be, but I confess I have never had a dream of stormy skies and lightning bolts gracing my courtroom performances. No, my litigation dreams are not stormy; instead, they are calm, collected, and when I finish speaking, a tumultuous storm is the furthest thing from my listeners’ minds. Instead, my listeners will be at peace because they will know that what they just heard was right, and that they are right to agree with it, and to find in favor of my client. And the sun will shine and everyone will rejoice, such is the clarity and power of my persuasive speech. Now, isn‘t that a better dream for a natural born litigator?

I’m sure that would get Howrey‘s attention. If that was the goal, I bet I could do even better:

Dude! I don’t need no stinking “100 words.” What I‘m all about only takes ten: I rock the hardest, and it’s all about the rockage.

Maybe I‘ll apply and see how far that statement gets me. Speed Networking In addition to looking at websites and taking quizes, my job search thus far has also included a public interest “Speed Networking” event last week at GW. Basically, it’s like speed dating, but instead of looking for a date, you‘re looking for a job. Ok, I admit it sounds a bit hokey, and I was concerned beforehand that it would be weird and awkward and a big fat waste of time. I’m happy to report I was completely wrong; the event was fun, interesting, and I learned a lot. The event was open to ten students from each of the area law schools (including, I believe, GW, Georgetown, American, Howard, UDC, Catholic, and Baltimore), all of whom are interested in working in a public interest legal job. On the other side were representatives from about 18-20 different public interest legal employers. The employers sat at tables, and the students chose to sit at those tables that most interested them. The event was divided into five, ten-minute sessions. So the moderator rang a bell to tell us our ten minutes had started, and we began talking to the employer, asking questions, answering questions, etc. Ten minutes later, the bell rang again, we shook hands, and went to another table. The bell rang again, and we speedily networked for 10 more minutes. Sound weird? It was. But like I said, it was actually fun and I think worthwhile. I had memorable conversations with terrific people from the SEIU, HALT, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, and the D.C. Public Defender Service, aka, the best criminal defense firm in the country. (Doesn‘t the PDS have the most kickass graphic on its business card?) The man from SEIU said his job was next to impossible to get because it’s such a great job that everyone wants it. Yeah, that would be me. The woman from TLPJ said about the same thing. Both offer 1-2 year fellowships for recent law school grads, so that‘s both a good way to get a foot in the door and get some great experience, too. HALT, “an organization of Americans for Legal Reform,” appears to do very cool policy work toward the goal of increasing access and accountability in the civil justice system. They didn’t say it was impossible to get a job there, but there was a funny minute during that 10-minute session when the woman from HALT asked, “So, are any of you interested in policy?” She got blank stares. I had already spoken a bit with her in the session, and if there‘s one thing you have to be careful of in a 10-minute group informational interview, it’s monopolizing the conversation. You don‘t want to be that guy who just wouldn’t shut up and let anyone else get a word in. So I held my tongue, but hell yes! I‘m interested in policy! Definitely something to keep in mind. Finally, the women from PDS were very cool and reminded me immediately of one of the huge upsides to being a PD—being professional means being human, accessible, and outgoing. I’ve talked to some law students who have summered at PDS and they haven‘t raved about it, primarily because it seemed so big that they didn’t get to know any of the attorneys or even many of the other interns very well, and they spent too much time researching and writing, and not enough time in court. I‘m sure experiences may vary, but that makes me glad once again that I worked elsewhere last summer. But, and so, these attorneys from PDS seemed to really love their jobs. They reassured me that, even though the PDS is a huge “firm,” work is spread around evenly and reasonably—one of them said she was only working on seven cases at the moment, which is manageable, and that she almost never feels like she doesn’t have enough time to really do the work necessary to present a quality defense. She said she always has access to several interns, and they save her bacon on a regular basis on the research, writing, and investigation fronts. At any rate, I‘m certain the PDS would also be a very cool place to work next summer or beyond. But I started talking about speed networking, and I’ll end there, by saying again that this was a great idea, I‘m glad I did it, and I recommend it if your school decides to do something like this. I’m not sure if the representatives from the public interest organizations found it as useful as I did, but they should know that, from a student‘s perspective (at least mine), events like this are good for them because they help students target their job searches to jobs they really want and for which they’re actually qualified. This helps employers by reducing the number of applications they have to sift through. At least, it seems like it would. FYI: Today is the deadline to apply to be an intern next summer at the Dept. of Justice. If the election goes well, that could be a very interesting job. I‘m sure it would be an interesting job regardless of which way the election goes, but I’m pretty sure I‘d enjoy it a lot more if the Attorney General is ABA (Anyone But Ashcroft). FTR (For The Record): There’s a fan in my window blowing cool air on me, but currently it is almost certainly also blowing the distinct scent of marijuana smoke into my little office space. Yes, one of my neighbors is smoking dope. Yet, it‘s raining outside. Could I be mistaken?

Posted 09:58 AM | Comments (2) | 2L

City Bikes Rocks

So after whining about how vulnerable my new Kryptoloc was to a Bic trick, I took it back to City Bikes where I bought it the other day. “Have you heard of the Bic trick?” I asked, putting my lock on the counter. The response was immediate. “Yeah. You want to exchange it for an On Guard lock?” So I did. It cost about $15 more and it‘s a lot heavier, but the flat key is supposed to make the thing a little safer. You can’t pick the lock with a Bic pen, anyway. So thank you, City Bikes! Now I see why you have a reputation as the best bike shop in D.C.! BTW, NPR is reporting on this as I type, it‘s been reported in the NY Times, and City Bikes has added a special page devoted to the issue. Oh yeah, this is going to be great for On Guard, and not so great for Kryptonite. It’s hard to have much sympathy for Kryptonite, though; it had the last 12 years to figure out how to avoid this problem...

Posted 05:06 PM | life generally

Separate But Not At Peace

According to the Writer‘s Almanac:

[Today is] the birthday of American novelist John Knowles, born in Fairmont, West Virginia (1926). He is best known for his novel A Separate Peace (1959), based in part on Knowles’ experiences at Phillips Exeter Academy. It the story of two friends, Gene and Phineas, one an intellectual and the other an athlete, and their summer together at an expensive American prep school during the early years of World War II. A Separate Peace is one of the most widely read postwar American novels. It is frequently compared critically to J. D. Salinger‘s The Catcher in the Rye (1951). It was in its sixty-fourth Bantam paperback run in March 1986, with more than seven million copies in print. In 1960, Knowles won the first William Faulkner Foundation Award for this notable first novel.

Great. I read A Separate Peace in junior high school. I bet you did, too. And now I want to know why. Why did we read that? What was the point? What makes this a good little novel? I haven’t the foggiest idea. In fact, I‘d completely forgotten about until I saw a snippet of the movie version the other night on tv. What I saw was pretty bad. And it didn’t really bring back the novel. My memory is so terrible. So do you remember the novel? And do you have any idea why every American schoolkid (or lots of them, anyway) has to read it? Do kids still read this today? p.s.: If things seem random around ai recently, that may be because they are. I don‘t know which way is up these days, but it seems some part of me is fighting doggedly not to allow the rest of me to happily fall back into student mode. Please bear with me while my multiple personalities engage in mortal combat. To the victor will go the spoils. p.p.s.: The Writer’s Almanac online version is like a blog, but it‘s not a blog. The index page shows you the current day, and entries are archived by week, but there’s no way to link to just one day‘s entry. It should just be a blog. An audioblog, even. Yeah, it should. You can sign up to get it in your inbox every morning, and that’s nice, but, well, why not do it via RSS?

Posted 03:49 PM | Comments (6) | ai books

Bikers: Beware the Bic

A few days ago when I was leaving school I started unlocking my bike and found, to my great surprise, that it it was already unlocked. Apparently, that morning, since I was late to class I had rushed in locking the u-lock and I hadn‘t properly seated the u-bolt w/in the lock before I turned the key. So all day my bike sat outside the school in downtown D.C. unlocked. It looked locked, but if anyone had grabbed the u-locked and pulled, the lock would have come right open. Luckily, no one tried it. Also, I use a cable lock in addition to the u-lock, so a bike thief would have had to get through that, as well, before taking my bike. I don’t trust cables completely because I think they‘re too easy to cut. I’ve had three nice bikes stolen in my life (two came back to me—I‘m a very lucky guy!), so I try to be serious about locking my bike. After I discovered that my lock hadn’t really locked, I also discovered that it seemed to be locked open; I could no longer get the key in to open the lock and insert the u-bolt. I guess when I turned the key w/out the u-bolt being fully seated, I basically broke the lock. So the next day I went to the bike shop and bought a new lock. I didn‘t want to spend an arm and a leg, but I wanted a good lock, so I got the cheaper Kryptonite they had, a $35 standard Kryptolock u-lock. I was bummed about having to spend $35, but glad to know I had a quality lock. And then I saw this: Your Brand New U-Lock Is Not Safe!

As you guys might remember, I recently had the nicest set of wheels I’ve ever had stolen from me. Today I was hanging out with a friend and we got to talking about that - he said his friend showed him just recently how to open a U-Lock with a ball point pen. Of course I didn‘t believe it. That is until just thirty seconds ago when I opened my own Kryptonite Evolution 2000 with a bic ball point pen! This has to be the most absurd thing I’ve ever seen. Try it. Take the end off the pen, jam it in the lock, wiggle around and twist.

Is this for real!? It kind of looks like it. The above site links to videos of people actually opening Kryptonite locks with Bic pens, and Kryptonite responded and did not deny that this was possible. The owner of City Bikes (where I got my lock) even chimed in yesterday saying he‘d found the Bic trick quite easy to replicate. Some lock owners are talking class action. And I just bought a new Kryptonite lock. Crap.

Posted 11:07 AM | Comments (1) | life generally

Amazing Race Luck

Did you see The Amazing Race last night? Did you see Colin and Christie, possibly the most dominant team ever, almost get booted because of smart play on the part of the other teams? It was a beautiful thing, but alas, the C&C team is still in the race b/c it was a “non-elimination leg.” The finale is next week. On My Own Personal Scorecard^{(r)}^, Chip and Kim are the only team remaining that deserves to win (although the “bowling moms” have done pretty well, too). If C&C win, I will lose all faith in humanity and I will be moving to Canada because it will be a sign that the end of the world is near, Bush is going to be reelected, and a long period of war and misery will soon descend upon the globe.* Mark my words. Oh, and as usual, the Yin Blog has already commented on this episode. Don‘t miss Yin’s Reality TV category for comments on the whole season. * I‘m kidding, of course. It’s a tv show, ferpetesake!

Posted 08:21 AM | Comments (3) | meta-blogging tv land

Welcome GW Bloggers!

Say hello to Idle Grasshopper (don‘t miss his great post on Schadenfreude) and Neil Chilson, two new 1L bloggers (or blawgers) at GW law school! That brings GW’s blawger total (or rather, the total number of GW blawgs I know about, since I‘m guessing there are others) to a humble 5. They include ai; Life, Law, Libido, which I’m still counting even though Scott and Matt graduated; and Veritable Cornucopia, which I‘m also still counting, even though it hasn’t updated since May. (Maybe if I keep linking to it, it will wake up?) That still seems very sad. Georgetown, Michigan, Indianapolis (see the special sections in the blogrolls of these sites for links to school-specific blawgs), and probably others are putting us to shame. (Does anyone know of other schools that have a large concentration of blogging students?) I wonder if the day will come when schools actually encourage students to blog as a recruitment tool. I mean, will blogs/blawgs become a factor in people‘s admissions choices? Have they already? Did anyone out there use information gleaned from blawgs in making your choices about where to apply?

Posted 07:14 AM | Comments (2) | law school meta-blogging

Blawg Wisdom Requests

Blawg Wisdom announces: The Wisdom Request Form! This new feature allows readers to request wisdom on specific topics. However, it won‘t work without you, the wise and generous readers of ai and other blawgs. Please visit Blawg Wisdom occasionally to see if there are any new requests (they’ll be collected in the Requests Category), then respond to those about which you have something to say. Also, please spread the word about this new feature and encourage others to share the love. Our first request has already arrived! If you have any thoughts about buying a laptop for law school (or would like to suggest other resources to investigate), please share! Remember, you don‘t have to provide definitive answers; thoughts and opinions are welcome. As always, if you write or run across law-school-related advice, please submit it to Blawg Wisdom! And as the Bartles and Jaymes gents used to say: Thank you for your support.

Posted 11:53 AM | law school meta-blogging

The Fargo Case

Class QOTD: “”This is something you have to put in a casebook.“ — Prof Evidence, referring to Wood v. Morbark Industries, 70 F.3d 1201 (11th Cit. 1995), in which a man named Mr. Wood was killed by a wood chipper made by Morbark Industries. Really.

Posted 11:44 AM | 2L

Reality is good

L. and I had the pleasure of meeting The Scoplaw and In Limine for coffee yesterday, and it was terrific to finally meet two bloggers I‘ve been reading for some time. We met at Tryst, but not surprisingly it was packed so we crossed the street to The Left Bank, which turned out to be a calm, airy place to chat. The Scoplaw and In Limine are both 1Ls at GULC, but they both seem to be taking the first year in stride—busy, taking things seriously, but keeping it all in perspective. The Scoplaw is enrolled in the infamous “Section 3,” which I guess is officially called “Curriculum B”:

Curriculum “B” was developed in 1991 by a faculty committee charged by the Dean to comprehensively rethink the first year of law school and offers an innovative and integrated approach to the study of law. ... The “B” curriculum, available to one section of full time students, requires seven courses different in emphasis from those in the “A” curriculum: Bargain, Exchange, and Liability; Democracy and Coercion; Government Processes; Legal Justice Seminar; Legal Practice: Writing and Analysis; Process; and Property in Time. The “B” section emphasizes the sources of law in history, philosophy, political theory, and economics. It also seeks to reflect the increasingly public nature of contemporary law.

In other words, the “B” curriculum (which all the GULC students I’ve met just call “section 3”) sounds like a dream curriculum to me, and the more I learn about it the more jealous I become of the lucky students who get to take it. Which would you rather take, Contracts and Torts (boring blackletter bullshit), or Bargain, Exchange, and Liability? And any class named “Democracy and Coercion” has got to be terrific. *sigh* If only my LSAT had been a few points higher...

But, and so, I look forward to hanging out with The Scoplaw and In Limine again sometime so we can continue plotting our route to complete world domination.

But in addition to making me pine for an alternative law school curriculum, coffee yesterday also made me wonder: Where are the GW blogs? If you check out The Scoplaw‘s blogroll, you’ll see nearly a dozen blogs by GULC students. If you check out my blogroll, on the other hand, you‘ll see one blog by a former GW student: Life, Law, Libido. There’s also one blog by a current GW student, Veritable Cornucopia, but it hasn‘t been updated since May. So I’m wondering, are there others I don‘t know about? Unfortunately, if I search for “gw blogs” I get lots of stuff about GW Bush, and that’s really not what I‘m looking for.
Is there something about GW students that makes them less likely to blog? Or, is there something about GULC students that makes them more likely to blog?

I do not know. It would be interesting to try to create a school-by-school blawg directory—has someone already done that? According to the blogroll at Cooped Up, IU Indianapolis also has a large number of blogs. So why do some schools have lots of blogs, and others so few?

Anyway, if you’re a GW law student w/a blog, hello! How ya doin‘? Please say hi sometime!

Posted 10:20 AM | Comments (5) | law school meta-blogging