ambivalent comment

April 17, 2006

Concurring Opinions: Teaching Today's Students

http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/04/teaching_todays_1.html Just one little note about today's law students compared to those from the past: They are paying much more for every minute of class time. If they they think of themselves more as consumers and seem to be more demanding, the fact that they're mortgaging their futures to be there might have something to do with that. While I admire your attempt to think about how to become a better teacher of law, I'm skeptical of your ability to do so in the current system. Today's model of huge classes will never satisfy students or even challenge most of them. How can one teacher, no matter how dynamic or learned or enthusiastic, possibly engage 100 students at a time w/all their different levels of preparation, different interests, and different questions? It's an impossible situation for you as a professor, and a nearly-criminal ripoff for the student.

Posted by mowabb at 11:04 AM

April 12, 2006

Jeremy Richey’s Blawg » Useful Book for New Attorneys

http://www.jeremyrichey.com/2006/04/11/useful-book-for-new-attorneys/ To be more precise, it sounds like a good read for lawyers in firms that require billing hours and which provide them an “assistant” and who need to be concerned about building a law practice. Law students who aspire to any of those things might like it fine, too, it sounds like. While this describes a large swath of law students and lawyers, many of us couldn't care less about billing hours, are unlikely to ever have an assistant, and may never really need to build a law practice, per se. In fact, some of us might be sick of hearing about those things, especially when they're discussed as if they were the elemental to the practice of law when they simply are not.

Posted by mowabb at 10:58 PM

March 30, 2006

The Bitter Law Student: The Bulldog

http://bitterlawstudent.blogspot.com/2006/03/bulldog.html Hey, congrats on the great feedback. Whatever they want to call you, it sounds like you did an excellent job. What really matters is not what people think of you, but for whom you put your skills to work. I think the clients who are going to seek out the “bulldog” lawyer are more often those who are trying to get away with something or screw someone. If you can make sure you never work for clients like that, you're good. In other words: Be a bulldog for justice, not greed, exploitation, or other bad things. ;-)

Posted by mowabb at 10:22 PM

March 29, 2006

Screaming Bean - temping

http://babybean.blogspot.com/2006/03/well-im-slightly-closer-to-small-temp.html Ouch. I fear I will be joining you in the land of the temp job very soon. What about “document review” at a big firm? I've known law grads who have made some serious cash this way, but I don't know how common that is...

Posted by mowabb at 09:29 PM

March 15, 2006

Gideon's Guardians: passed, grrr

http://gideonsguardians.blogspot.com/2006/03/passed-grrr.html It sounds like your intern is getting some excellent experience, which is probably why she got that job. As a law student, I'm jealous!

Posted by mowabb at 12:48 PM

February 27, 2006

3L Epiphany: Dialogue: Blogs and Debate Boards in the Classroom

http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/3l_epiphany/2006/02/dialogue_blogs_.html#comment-14406362 The trouble w/students blogging about a law school class is that it would take the prof an unwieldy amount of time to evaluate and track participation. My school already has discussion boards for each class and a handful of profs require 2 or so posts/semester from each student. For some classes it's worthwhile, but for the most part the professors tell you that it's a pass/fail thing -- if you do it, you get credit. That means the quality of the posts varies pretty widely and is not necessarily useful. Plus, there's really no way to track whether anyone is reading the posts others have made. So while I agree that more online participation (via blogs or discussion boards) could be valuable to law school classes, I just don't think it would work unless classes were really small (e.g. a dozen students or less), and/or profs had a dedicated team of RAs or something to monitor quality and quantity of participation.

Posted by mowabb at 11:09 AM

February 20, 2006

Bad Glacier » But then how come I still use it over Lexis?

http://blawgcoop.com/badglacier/2006/02/06/but-then-how-come-i-still-use-it-over-lexis/ I loathe them both equally. And, in fact, anti-trust and copyright lawsuits have been filed against Wexis (aimed mostly at Westlaw, which is the bigger of the two monsters). They have largely failed. The current state of the law is that Westlaw controls via copyright the page numbers essential to legal citation. This was established by a settlement, if I agree correctly, so it hasn't been finally ruled on by a court. Well, it has been, but the settlement was the latest in the attempts to rein in the legal research duopoly we all enjoy so much today. I'll try to post more about this soon b/c the right of the peeps (you, me, and every American citizen) to their own law is a topic near and dear to my heart.

Posted by mowabb at 10:20 PM

February 19, 2006

Screaming Bean - Beanerific!

http://babybean.blogspot.com/2006/02/mom-asked-today-if-i-were-nervous.html If you didn't blow away and you have a little test coming up soon, we're pulling for you! Is it Tues/Weds?

Posted by mowabb at 02:26 PM

Life, Law, Gender: It's D.C. for the summer

http://musingsonlifelawandgender.typepad.com/life_law_gender/2006/02/its_dc_for_the_.html#comment-14119005 Wow -- that all sounds incredibly awesome! Congratulations! Are you planning to apply for an Equal Justice Works fellowship to fund the post-graduate position? The clinic you describe sounds like exactly the thing they like to fund and since you've already got a sponsor organization to work for/with, you've got the hard part done. Definitely worth looking into if you haven't -- it could save the org. you want to work for a bunch of money, give you prestige, give you some nice loan repayment (if that's an issue), and just be good all around. Anyway, perhaps since you're coming to DC, we'll actually get to meet for real. I hope you'll look me up when you get to town!

Posted by mowabb at 11:57 AM

Life, Law, Gender: It's D.C. for the summer

http://musingsonlifelawandgender.typepad.com/life_law_gender/2006/02/its_dc_for_the_.html#comment-14119005 Wow -- that all sounds incredibly awesome! Congratulations! Are you planning to apply for an Equal Justice Works fellowship to fund the post-graduate position? The clinic you describe sounds like exactly the thing they like to fund and since you've already got a sponsor organization to work for/with, you've got the hard part done. Definitely worth looking into if you haven't -- it could save the org. you want to work for a bunch of money, give you prestige, give you some nice loan repayment (if that's an issue), and just be good all around. Anyway, perhaps since you're coming to DC, we'll actually get to meet for real. I hope you'll look me up when you get to town!

Posted by mowabb at 11:57 AM

February 18, 2006

buzzwords

http://tonguebutnodoor.net/monica/archives/2006/02/post_5.html Congratulations! The papers might be a bit of a schooly drag, but I'm betting that FL co-op is going to be *nice.* They better let you kick back a bit -- you've earned it. So what's this about the commencement speaker? Were you in the running for valedictorian or something?

Posted by mowabb at 02:16 PM

February 12, 2006

buzzwords: February 11, 2006

http://tonguebutnodoor.net/monica/archives/2006/02/post_2.html Congrats on the job! Tell us more! Does this mean your last quarter of law school is going to be spent on a beach w/cabana boys, or do you have one more to do in Boston after that?

Posted by mowabb at 10:37 PM

Singing Loudly: Onward Law, Onward Writers

http://fakecurtis.blogspot.com/2006/02/onward-law-onward-writers.html Well, if getting published is all about who you know, you're likely to meet some well-connected and influential people at a place like Yale, no? But generally I agree: Law school is not much more likely to make you a better or more successful writer than anything else you could do w/your life. Sure, you write in law school and law practice, but 95% of your writing is going to be highly structured and artificial and so not great practice for good fiction. It might be good preparation for poetry, structurally speaking, maybe, but not necessarily. However, one great thing about law school/practice in terms of being a writer seems to be the stories you learn along your way. Every case is a story of life and conflict, and that's what good fiction is generally about. So a legal career could be good fodder for writing. Maybe. At least theoretically.

Posted by mowabb at 01:54 PM

February 11, 2006

Jeremy Richey’s Blawg » Fewer Law School Applications

http://www.jeremyrichey.com/2006/02/09/fewer-law-school-applications/ Yeah. Same here -- everyone said “don't go!” So what this means is law students and lawyers are pigheaded idiots who won't listen to good advice. No wonder we are a reviled species.

Posted by mowabb at 07:33 AM

February 10, 2006

Mackenzie's Weblog: February 2006 Archives

http://www.macknzie.net/blog/archives/2006_02.html Congrats on law review! It doesn't exactly sound “fun” to me, but it should be some great experience.

Posted by mowabb at 03:23 PM

January 29, 2006

divine angst: looking at it all differently

http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2006/01/looking_at_it_a.html I'm thinking perhaps your link to e spat goes to the wrong post -- it goes to TGIF, but she seems to have had more of a perspective shift in the post after that. Yes? But, and so, also, never forget what an artificial and just plain strange environment law school is. If you're feeling off-track, out of the loop, or like you're doing something wrong, that's a GOOD thing! Stay outside the tiny little exercise wheel that will be your peers' rat race and you'll be much happier in the long run -- almost guaranteed.

Posted by mowabb at 10:05 AM

buzzwords: Check out how awesome the law students at Georgetown are!

http://tonguebutnodoor.net/monica/archives/2006/01/check_out_how_a.html Hey, how come you just get love in your comments about this and I just get heckling? I feel so, um, singled out. Or something. Be that as it may, someone expressed wonder the other day that this Georgetown protest drew so much attention, and it did quite a bit of press. I was thinking the reason for that (and the reason it made so many of us so happy) is that it's so rare that anyone in the Bush administration actually has to see or hear dissent of any kind. As far as we know, they have no clue people protest their every speech and appearance b/c at nearly every appearance the protestors are kept so far on the margins that neither the object of the protest nor the media eyes and ears can even see or hear them. But at this Georgetown event, the protest was loud and clear, front and center. No wonder it gives us hope!

Posted by mowabb at 08:23 AM

November 09, 2005

Greyhame: Law and Law School: Old Law Books

http://greyhame.org/archives/2005/10/old_law_books.html Amen! I wrote a 35-page note in support of a free legal research system supported by the federal gov't and my journal editors laughed at me. The legal profession is one where the status quo is often maintained even when there is no longer any rational reason for it. Makes me want to run screaming from this “profession,” but, well, we can still work for incremental change, I guess...

Posted by mowabb at 10:47 PM

October 17, 2005

divine angst: learning to think like a lawyer: am I there yet? is it supposed to hurt this much?

http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/10/learning_to_thi.html Hey, don't worry. What you're looking for isn't there, so don't be concerned that you can't seem to find it. What I mean is that you can't figure out the underlying legal principle for many cases b/c many cases aren't based on any real underlying principles. Many cases are decided as a means to whatever end the judge thinks is correct, and later academics come along and try to harmonize the case with others and extract some underlying “principle” that seems to explain them all. That's the cynical reading, but in many cases it's true. A less cynical and also true reading is this: Even when a case is decided on an underlying principle, few single cases will give you the full legal principle within that single case. That's because the principle developed over time in a sort of process of accretion as one decision built on another and another until finally, one day, a judge said, “Hey, looking at all these previous cases, it looks like this is the rule. So here's the rule!” And bang, there's your underlying legal principle. Your professor has read that case that's last in the line, so he/she knows the rule. You might even read that case next week and by then the rule will seem very clear to you. Or, maybe you'll never read it and you'll always wonder where the rule came from. Or maybe the rule has never been written into a case and is just out there in a bunch of academic theory, in which case you might be trapped in the cynical reading of things, as described above. All of which is to say the law is just a bunch of stuff people have made up. There's no there there, so don't worry about finding it. Listen to the prof when he/she announces the rule, write it down, remember it, try to figure out a way to make it make sense for you, regurgitate it on an exam, and move on. Then when you're in practice you can start making up the rules based on your own reading of the cases and see if you can persuade anyone to see things you're way. If you do, eventually some professor will be teaching your reading of things and future law students will be thinking you smoked way too much crack.

Posted by mowabb at 09:04 PM

October 12, 2005

Scoplaw: Feeling Good – Feeling not-so-good.

http://scoplaw.blogs.com/scoplaw/2005/10/feeling_good_fe.html#comment-10255323 I feel you on the nostalgia for past literary studies. I was never studying in Scotland, but what I wouldn't give for sinking my teeth into some literature and criticism about now instead of law law law. Sometimes the nostalgia is very strong; I think fall brings it on especially, for some reason...

Posted by mowabb at 02:35 PM

October 04, 2005

Will Work for Favorable Dicta: Day 986 of my captivity...but it's all good.

http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-986-of-my-captivitybut-its-all.html Jobs are overrated. Here's a little fact to make you feel even better about everything: Not only do I have no job, but I haven't applied for a single one. Not one clerkship, fellowship, or real job. See, you feel better, don't you? ;-)

Posted by mowabb at 09:52 AM

September 07, 2005

divine angst: some early morning musing

http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/09/some_early_morn.html Good question, and I agree w/both Dave and Jennifer. I'd bet you could make your reading more efficient b/c you probably won't really need to know most of the minute details you're struggling to digest each evening -- at least not for an exam. You may need to know those details someday in practice, but that's what research is for. So I'd say your goal w/your reading should be big picture. The details only matter insofar as they're crucial to the reasoning of a case so that you can do what Jennifer mentions -- apply what you learn in that case to new facts. So instead of reading for every detail, you can try to read for the big payoff: What did the court find most persuasive/important about this case and on what did it base its decision? How does it distinguish this case from others with similar facts? If you're reading restatements it's different. If I recall correctly, in Contracts the restatement *is* the law so you might be expected to understand what the restatement says so you can see how courts apply that to facts in the cases you're reading. Still, you probably don't need to know most of the little details -- only those that really determine the outcome of the cases you're reading. Of course, it took me at least a semester to figure out how to filter the outcome-determinative stuff from the rest, so that's why everyone tells you to brief every case and try to understand it all in the beginning -- that way you're more likely to get what's important. However, if you find you're missing what's important b/c you don't have time to cover all the material, you can start skimming a little more and see if you can find a better balance between retaining older stuff and breezing by extraneouus detail. And, of course, all of this could be completely wrong. I do go on, don't I?

Posted by mowabb at 08:23 AM

August 13, 2005

Frolics and Detours: Westlaw is bullshit.

http://frolicsdetours.blogspot.com/2005/08/beef.html That is so sad. I pay no attention to their stupid games and consequently have almost no points to worry about. I hope I will never beg a Wexis rep for anything.

Posted by mowabb at 09:41 AM

July 29, 2005

AndrewRaff.com: It's a wrap

http://www.andrewraff.com/weblog/2005/07/28_its_a_wrap.php Congrats! I bet it's a strange and bittersweet feeling to be done and now needing to search for jobs and all that, but it's still got to be great knowing you may never have to take a big, high-stakes, psych-out test again in your life. I really cannot wait for that day when the last hoop is jumped. Sure, there are always more hoops in a legal career, but once the bar is behind you it's different. You are a lawyer -- or will be in Nov. Again, congratulations!

Posted by mowabb at 08:13 AM

The Neutral Zone Trap: Shazam, Barzam!

http://emcpan.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_emcpan_archive.html#112258985227518581 Congratulations! Now I think it's time for some audio blogging. Or how about you make a Law Schoolhouse Rock song? Since you just crammed all that law into your head for the bar you should be well prepared to teach us all something in song, right?

Posted by mowabb at 08:07 AM

May 28, 2005

Two-Timing the Cosmos: “Dear Heather, we at Apple don't care about you or your stupid computer problems”

http://twotimingthecosmos.blogspot.com/2005/05/dear-heather-we-at-apple-dont-care.html Ugh. Very sorry to hear about your Apple support troubles. I've had some good and some bad w/Apple support over the years, but the bad can seem really bad. I hope they actually fix it this time. So what's this about not being able to use a Mac for the Bar? Which Bar are you taking? Are most states like that?

Posted by mowabb at 08:14 PM

April 29, 2005

divine angst: bags and more bags

http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/04/bags_and_more_b.html Timbuk II bags are great. I have one, but I found it on closeout from a reseller (in kind of ugly colors) for abotu $30. It's one w/out a built-in laptop sleeve so I use a Marware Sportfolio as a laptop sleeve inside the messenger bag. It's a little pricy, but if you ever find you just want to haul the laptop around outside of your regular bag, the Sportfolio has handles, a shoulder strap, and an external pocket for small items. It all works great. Happy moving!!

Posted by mowabb at 11:39 AM

Ditzy Genius: Exams R Stoopid, Thank God For Slurpees

http://www.ditzygenius.com/archives/2005/04/exams_r_stoopid.html Your title sums it up: Exams *R* Stoopid! I just wanted to second the hatred of multiple choice on law school exams. I always did more or less fine on MC tests prior to law school; that's how I got here, after all -- I know how to fill in the bubbles. But on law school exams, my MC fu has just totally evaporated. If I never see another MC question on a law school exam, it will be too soon. I'm not too worried that this is going to be a problem w/the bar, though, because I think it's all about how you study. When I studied for the LSAT (or the GRE or the SAT or ACT or any of the zillions of standardized tests you've already taken in your life), you studied to the test -- I focused on the way the questions were constructed and how to eliminate answers for each question type, etc. I did fine on those tests, and I'm sure (ok, I hope) I'll do the same for the bar exam. The problem w/law school exams is I just don't prepare properly for the MC. I think really preparing for MC, for me, requires mastering nuances that aren't required for essay tests. MC questions often force you to choose between two options that are only very subtly different from each other, so if you don't know the fine detail of the law on that issue, you just have to guess. Essay tests, on the other hand, generally ask larger questions about larger issues that don't force you to make such fine distinctions. I'm a big picture guy, so give me the essay any day. I also ramble a lot. Good luck with those finals! MC or no, we all know you'll be setting the curve!

Posted by mowabb at 10:01 AM

Will Work for Favorable Dicta: Dear Satan,

http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2005/04/dear-satan.html Yikes! I hope they're just playing tough facade here and you'll still get aid. If you're talking federal aid, I can't imagine that it's too late. Sure there's a “priority deadline,” but that's just for show. If it's aid from the school, well, like I said, I hope they're just being typical “I work in a bureaucracy and I'm miserable so if I can make someone else miserable, too, that makes me happier.” If that's what they're doing, it sucks, but it's just a game and you'll win (get aid) in the end. Fingers crossed for you....

Posted by mowabb at 09:44 AM

April 23, 2005

Ditzy Genius: DVD-A-Thon

http://www.ditzygenius.com/archives/2005/04/dvdathon.html I so feel you. I really should be panicked, but I've had crap luck getting myself to focus on this studying thing. It's like a skill I just never learned. Sad. Here's hoping tomorrow goes better for both of us!

Posted by mowabb at 11:38 PM

Three Years of Hell to Become the Devil: Ethics Question

http://www.threeyearsofhell.com/archive/003268.php I got the same email (probably it's the same one, anyway). I don't care about the money as an ethical thing (if you disclose that you might get paid for posting the link, where's the ethical problem?), but I agree w/Anonymous that the money has to be coming from somewhere and I don't think that's something I want to support. If the money doesn't come from sales of personal information, it sounds like it may come from big firms trying to improve their ability to suck up the best talent from American law schools. Helping with that project in any way is about the last thing I'd want to do, regardless of how much they offered to pay.

Posted by mowabb at 08:45 AM

April 20, 2005

LuminousVoid » Finals

http://luminousvoid.net/archives/41/finals I hope you'll post your “Art of Lawyering” paper here or somewhere -- I'd love to read it. Part of me really hates this new schedule b/c I had a hard enough time staying caught up w/everything before and now that there's more packed into each week it's just that much harder. But another part of me can't complain about basically being finished with classes and finals by the first week of May.

Posted by mowabb at 06:35 PM

April 19, 2005

Sui Generis: More waiting angst

http://suigeneris1.blogspot.com/2005/04/more-waiting-angst.html You're such a trooper. So do you think waitlists are a good thing, or would you have preferred a definitive answer from those schools over this waiting game? Oh, and have you seen this?

Posted by mowabb at 08:55 PM

April 10, 2005

WonL: The Numbers Game

http://wonl.blogspot.com/2005/04/numbers-gamea-team-i-decline-to-join.html

You're right about the merry-go-round and all the stupid numbers/credentials/distinctions games. I do think some legal employers play them, though; they went to law school, too, and that's how they learned the system so they perpetuate it that way. Obviously, that doesn't mean the rest of us have to play it, and as more of us reject it, perhaps the system itself will begin to change.

Your points here are implicit in the critique of legal education being developed over at Law School Can Be Different. They're talking more theoretically, I think, but your practical experience could add a lot to what they're doing.

Posted by mowabb at 07:35 AM

April 09, 2005

Arbitrary & Capricious: Professional courtesy to fellow underachievers

http://skellywright.blogspot.com/2005/04/professional-courtesy-to-fellow.html

Yeah. And if you don't make journal or moot court you might as well drop out now 'cause you're already the most miserable failure ever. Yup.

Related: WonL has a pretty good post on this sort of thing...

Posted by mowabb at 09:23 PM

buzzwords: Monica Wins a Trial!

http://tonguebutnodoor.net/monica/archives/001580.html

Congratulations! I continue to be in awe of the experience you're having and how well you're doing with the massive challenges they're throwing at you. Picking a jury!? Opening and closing in a *real case*!? Crossing witnesses? It's just all so incredible, and you won!!! I'm also extremely impressed w/the amount of time and attention your supervising attorney is giving you -- helping you work out your closing for four hours? You just couldn't pay money for that kind of help and training. Dude, you're a lawyer already and you still have a year left of law school? Whatever you end up doing after this, your opponents had better watch out, is all I'm thinking. You rock!

Posted by mowabb at 01:25 PM

Avoiding Billable Hours: Validation

http://avoidingbillablehours.blogspot.com/2005/04/validation.html

Yes, congratulations! Validation of this kind is doubly good -- not only do you get to feel good about what you're doing, but you can also pay your rent while you're doing it!

Tony: If you're not going to get paid to work a legal job this summer you might be able to get credit instead. I think that's what I'm going to do...

Posted by mowabb at 12:14 PM

April 08, 2005

Samples Connection: Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince

http://samplesconnection.blogspot.com/2005/03/harry-potter-half-blood-prince.html

My plan would be not to buy the book or let myself even touch a copy until I had finished the bar. Instead of thinking of this as bad timing, you could think of it as the perfect timing b/c now you have an excellent incentive to take those last 10 days before the bar seriously and do well on the exam. Once you've passed w/flying colors, what better reward could there be than to relax w/the new Harry Potter w/out a single care in the world?

Posted by mowabb at 07:44 AM

April 04, 2005

Will Work for Favorable Dicta: It's 2am, do you know where your appellate brief is?

http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2005/04/its-2am-do-you-know-where-your.html

Thank you for this reminder of why I am so done with competitions in law school. Yech. But good luck to you. The actual competition part can be kind of fun (it's all that preparation that kills you) and it almost always feels great when it's over.

Posted by mowabb at 06:26 AM

April 03, 2005

idlegrasshopper:

http://idlegrasshopper.blogspot.com/2005/03/ahhh.html

A little bit embarrassed about being a little bit excited is a little bit weird, except that I understand because, well, who wants to admit being excited about a law school class? Then again, CrimLaw rocks, so chuck the embarrassment and just have fun.

Oh, but those people who stand left on the escalator? I want to scream!!! I suffered silently for a while, but my practice now is to be as pushy as I can make myself be in asking them to get out of the way. Most of the time a simple “excuse me” works, but not when there's like an entire planeload of tourists on the escalator w/their luggage. At that point, you just have to sigh and listen to them talk about how long this escalator is while in your head you're thinking, “yeah, and you just wasted two minutes of my life; thanks!”

Posted by mowabb at 02:22 PM

April 01, 2005

buzzwords :: March 31, 2005:

http://tonguebutnodoor.net/monica/archives/001576.html

Congratulations on the trial! I'm still just speechless about how awesome this internship sounds. You're getting experience many many law students (like me) can only dream about -- and in an incredible part of the world, to boot. I can't wait to read your posts about it, but it's good to hear that life is coming before blogging. I dream of those days.... ;-)

Posted by mowabb at 11:01 AM

March 25, 2005

divine angst: answer my questions!

http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/03/answer_my_quest.html

Hm. I think I attend one of the schools you're attending and I'll first say: Give many extra points to the school located in the place you think you're mostly like to want to stay upon graduation. You'll make connections and learn the legal job landscape in the area where you go to school, so it will be easier to start your career there, but if you're going to school in a place you don't want to stay, all that benefit will be wasted. Plus, lots of legal employers prefer to hire from local or area schools, so if you're in law school where you want to work, you get that advantage, too.

About the faculty-student relationship: At GW, I think it's ok. Not great, but not generally super-distant. It depends on you and on the professor, but all profs have office hours and my experience has been that they're happy to see you during office hours. Nearly all are also happy to talk w/you after class. Many many are involved in one student organization or another, either as the faculty liason or just as someone who supports the organization and attends its functions. I don't think there are many profs who attend social events that aren't “official” in some way -- I mean, I don't hear about profs showing up at bars frequented by students or anything, but who knows? I'm not really in the know for things like that. A good number of profs (maybe 20-30, I'm guessing) attended the recent “Law Revue” -- a sort of talent show/satirical sendup of the school and faculty. To me that shows that many of them are good sports and don't take themselves too seriously, which is good.

So the deal is that if you like a prof and the subject he/she teaches, and you visit office hours frequently, you can have a good and fairly close relationship w/a prof and get good references, etc. My experience in this regard has been generally good, but then, I'm probably not a good person to ask b/c this has never been very important to me.

Sorry, I feel like I just told you nothing...

Posted by mowabb at 09:26 AM

Half-Cocked: Have I ever mentioned how much I hate law school?

http://blawgcoop.com/half-cocked/archives/2005/03/have_i_ever_men.html

Here here! This law school thing is *so* overrated, and I am *so* ready to be done w/this semester. I even kind of like my classes and I'm still tired of going. I shudder to think what the burnout is going to feel like at this time next year....

Posted by mowabb at 09:12 AM

March 22, 2005

divine angst: and here comes the ulcer again:

http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/03/and_here_comes.html The debt feels different to everyone. I've lived w/debt since about age 19 when I was paying my own way through undergrad (although w/help from scholarships). The debt has only grown since then after an M.A. program and now nearly two years of law school. The amount of my loans is truly astounding to some, and w/no wealthy family or other resources to fall back on, what am I doing? Living. I've never had much money, yet I've always been able to make do and live a good life, which has taught me that he, it's only money.;-) And while I might sound cavalier about all this debt, that's only b/c I have no other choice at this point. I can either let it ruin my life, or I can just accept it and keep moving. When I first started thinking about law school, I decided I'd only go if I could go for free (via scholarships). That didn't happen, but by the time I figured that out I'd mentally decided to go anyway. Dumb idea. I could have done a million other things. But I decided to do this, so here I am. And the debt really sucks, but now that it's settled on my shoulders, I have no choice but to live w/it. It only sucks when I start thinking about how great it would be to travel, or buy a motorcycle, or a new computer.... But since huge bills are a fact of law school, if you're going to have to finance law school w/loans and you can't take $130k in loans w/out making your stomach churn, I'd say these are your options: 1) Don't go to law school. 2) Go to a cheaper and lower-ranked school where you'll qualify for more merit-aid. 3) Go as an evening student or part-time student and pay as you go. The thing is, while I don't have much choice about the debt at this point, you still do. I'd take those stomach-churnings pretty seriously if I were you. Have you checked out Should You Really Be A Lawyer? yet? If not, it might be worth a look to see if it can help you find ways to either justify the debt or make a different decision....

Posted by mowabb at 04:39 PM

March 21, 2005

The Unreasonable Man: Dilemma:

http://theunreasonableman.blogspot.com/2005/03/dilemma.html If the bag you describe exists, I want one, too! The problem is that if the bag is big enough to carry that load, I'm probably not strong enough to carry the bag. As it is I have a large Timbuk2 messenger bag and it can carry the laptop and two of the most massive law books you'll ever find (or 3-4 smaller ones), but once it's all loaded like that it's no fun to bike with, let me tell you. I swear, if law books were smaller I'd read more. As it is, I sometimes just skip reading b/c I just can't deal w/hauling the necessary books around. Yeah, I are a bad law student. But if you find this perfect bag, let me know. If you don't, the Timbuk2 is pretty handy, sturdy, etc. Also pricey, but you might get what you pay for w/a bag like this.

Posted by mowabb at 09:51 PM

Notes from the (Legal) Underground: Does Law School Change a Person?

http://www.legalunderground.com/2005/03/amorality.html Sure, law school changes people, and I'd agree generally w/Buffs that too much of the change is not good for society. W/out going into it all here, this is one reason law school should be different. For anyone who agrees, please join the discussion. But I also agree w/JR that if you go into it w/a solid commitment to what you want to do, you can escape mostly unscathed and better for some positive things you can pick up in law school, including familiarity w/how a flawed system works. And although it's a little old, for more on why law exams may not be so good, see this recent criticism. Still, I'm really glad to hear that the feeling that you're seeing the world upside down wears off quickly once law school is over. I'm predicting the upside-down feeling will right itself as soon as I learn I've passed the bar and I can give the finger to law-related “exams” for good ... er, or at least until I move and have to take another damned bar exam. Dave: I resemble resent that M.A. in English remark. ;-)

Posted by mowabb at 06:23 PM

Public Defender Dude: Becoming a PD:

http://publicdefenderdude.blogspot.com/2005/03/becoming-pd.html I'm late to this party but I want to thank PD Dude for the great response to my questions, and everyone else for the insight they've offered into employment situations at different PD offices. the MO and FL PD systems sound pretty cool, but, well, they're in MO and FL. ;-) But seriously, I'm hoping to be further north and west, generally. I've heard CO has a statewide system like you describe for MO. I bet somewhere I could find a central database of information on the different PD systems in each state -- does anyone know where something like that would be? About paying law clerks: I've amost never worked for free, although since starting law school, I've rarely recieved any monetary compensation. To suggest that accepting alternative forms of compensation in exchange for your time and effort as a law clerk is "whoring" -- well, I appreciate the implicit desire to protect the rights of workers, but such a sentiment also suggests an excessive fixation on the almighty dollar. That's where your comparison to Mexican farmworkers breaks down -- what can those workers get from their farmwork besides a paycheck? Nothing. They're not learning new skills or making connections to advance their careers or enrich their lives, so money becomes all-important -- there's simply no other way to compensate them for their work. If the same can be said about a legal internship, you need to find another internship, because I guarantee you that money is about the least valuable form of compensation available from a good legal internship. Sure, I would love to get paid for my internships, but I value the experience I've gained far more than I value money. If I had to choose whether to get paid or get great experience doing something I really care about, I'd choose the experience any day. In a way, that's exactly the choice I've made in rejecting the BigLaw you confess to being a part of. If I can understand your desire for dollars w/out calling you a whore, perhaps you could try and understand my desire for other values w/out calling me one?

Posted by mowabb at 07:59 AM

March 20, 2005

WonL: Journal Write-On Competition:

http://wonl.blogspot.com/2005/03/journal-write-on-competition.html Whew! I'm breathless just from reading that last paragraph. I'm glad you made it, glad you're done, and glad something I said was helpful. You'll find it was all worth it when you're in school a week early this fall to take very stupid "here's how journal works" classes and you'll be thinking, "for this I stressed over that stupid competition?" ;-)

Posted by mowabb at 01:16 PM

March 19, 2005

Jeremy Richey's Blawg: THE WEEKLY POUNDING: AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKE CERNOVICH:

http://www.jeremyrichey.com/2005/03/weekly-pounding-interview-with-mike.html Great podcast, Jeremy! Mike was a very interesting interesting interview subject.

Posted by mowabb at 02:03 PM

March 14, 2005

divine angst: Comment on Final decision received

http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/03/final_decision.html GULC might have been nice, but that *other* DC school might not be as bad as I sometimes make it sound. ;-)

Posted by mowabb at 11:19 PM

buzzwords: Alaska Update

http://tonguebutnodoor.net/monica/archives/001549.html#more Holy moly, what an incredible time you're having! And what a terrific post! You've singlehandedly restored my faith in becoming a PD! I was thinking maybe I'd just drop out of school now; spring break has been such fun, I wasn't seeing the point in going back, but now I do -- so I can be a PD in Alaska! (Shh! Don't tell my girlfriend!) Ok, so I may never work in Alaska, but the fact that you're already sitting in court and actually representing clients just blows my mind!!! You just don't get to do that everywhere, so this is going to be an incredible experience. Take good notes for the rest of us who will be stuck in class for the next two months. ;-)

Posted by mowabb at 04:40 PM

Breaking up is hard to do.

http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2005/03/breaking-up-is-hard-to-do.html I'm w/E. Spat -- Fed Courts is such a ballbreaker! It just take take takes, and what does it give in return? More mumbo jumbo about the thousand different reasons none of it makes any sense. In its defense, I suspect it's so convoluted b/c it's basically where the buck stops in our legal system and that means at its core lays human folly and a rubber room of ambivalence that's really not much fun to bounce around in, but is nevertheless unescapable. In other words, it's the human condition bashing its head against illusory ideals of truth, justice, and the American way. No wonder it's so damned frustrating!

Posted by mowabb at 07:54 AM