How's law school?

Soon it will be November and half the semester will have been over.

Many people ask me how law school is going.

I usually take a deep breath, roll my eyes, and say something to this effect: It's REALLY hard. Or: I study ALL the time. Followed by: There is an infinite amount of work to do but you only have a finite amount of time. So it's all about triage.

But already I'm learning some valuable lessons (legal and otherwise):

Lesson 1. When you sell or buy commercial property, you should really consider getting a lawyer. Why? Because of terms like "fee simple subject to executory limitation." Enough said.

Lesson 2. It's hard to accept that most people are smarter than you. But that cold fact has been slapping me in the face every day since the semester started. My ego hurts.

Lesson 3. In law school, TV is not your friend. Neither is Netflix.

Make room for the wind down...

"The wind down," is a tricky little paradox.

Everyday I am exhausted from studying 6-10 hours.
But,
no matter how tired I am,
no matter how late at night
and how much I desparately need to sleep,
and no matter how many chores I should otherwise be doing,

I always make room for "the wind down (twd)."

TWD is just your randomn assortment of light diversion and noncommitted amusement, such as web-surfing, blogging (yes, you've caught me winding-down right now!), watching bad TV, and flipping through clothing catalogues.

TWD is like a necessity, a normal bodily function, like peeing. In fact, it's almost exactly like peeing. See, when your mind concentrates intensely for x amount of hours, it builds up a commensurate need to dispense with mental toxins in the same way that peeing lets your body release its chemical toxins. Good water, nutrients, and studying goes IN, and bad liquid, toxins, and unproductivity goes OUT.

I used to try to fight TWD by promptly turning off my laptop and turning out the lights. But that is as futile as fighting the urge to pee. You just wind up not being able to sleep.

So now, starting from tonight, I've decided not to fight it any longer. No more feeling guilty. Everyone needs a little downtime. See? Now I can sleep soundly.
Goodnight.

I thought I had seen it all...

You won't believe what happened in Contracts class today. I'm still in disbelief now even as I write...

Prof. W, a distinguished faculty member for many years and easily older than all of our mothers, called on a student who responded in a most untypical way.

Prof. W: Mr. Matthews, what did the court say was the correct damages?

Mr. Matthews: Professor, before I answer, can I just say that you look really good today?

(The class gasps in disbelief and all eyes are on the bold Mr. Matthews)

Prof. W: Excuse me, Mr. Matthews? Is this your clever way of evading the question?

Mr. Matthews: No, really. Your jacket (a bright turqoise color) really brings out your blue eyes.

(By this time the entire class is laughing riotously at the cheeky Mr. Matthews).

Prof. W: Well, Mr. Matthews, I think you're embarassing your classmates more than yourself. Mr. Cahill (Mr. Matthew's neighbor) is redder than a beat.

(The whole class turns to look at Mr. Cahill's beat-red cheeks).

***End Scene***

I did NOT make this up! I COULD not make this up.

The Case of the Surfing Student

Today in Property class, I saw something so disturbing I had to blog about it.

Right in the middle of lecture, as the class was knee-deep in the various nuances between affirmative and restrictive covenants as compared to affirmative and negative easements, which the Restatements 3rd on Sevitudes would just as soon abolish, blah, blah, blah...I looked over at my neighbor and gasped (in my head...not out loud).

To my horror, she was surfing the Economist website and checking her email on her shiny white Apple Notebook.

What does this mean?

Here I was, straining with every last brain cell to understand these esoteric doctrines, and there she was, seemingly disregarding the whole lecture.

My mind drifted from concentrating on the prof while I contemplated the possible ways to interpret this phenomenon:

1. She's a genius, the equivalent of a legal Doogie Howser, and thus does not need to pay attention.

2. She's incredibly lucky. In her former life, before coming to law school, she just happened to have learned these concepts already.

3. She's got a man on the inside; an upper classman, a tutor, a law school gang, etc. who feeds her secret information about how to ace this class.

4. Or she's just a slacker. She figures this stuff is all in the casebook and she'll have to read it again in preparation for the exams anyway, so why pay attention now? But if that's so, why even go to class at all? In case the prof says something that isn't just in the casebook.

But what does it matter to me?

Ideally, in a perfect world, it shouldn't. I should just mind my own business, try to learn the most that I can, and just do my best, yaddy, yaddy, yaddy...

But law school breeds a sense of competition, primarily because all your classes are graded on a curve. Another person's advantage is your harm. Their pluses are your minuses. And this neighbor of mine had some kind of secret power that made her immune to lecture materials. What was it?

For the rest of class, I contemplated asking her point blank why she could just blow off lectures like that. And then I realized, in my obsession, I had just blown off lecture. Oops.

It's Fantastic, Life in Plastic

Well, happy one month anniversary (of entering law school) to me.

I'm so eyeball deep in prescriptive easements and equitable servitudes I could cry.

Here is my one month anniversary picture of me (as a lego figurine) in law school.

Legaldegook Soup

A is for amicus curiae
B is simply breach
C is for construction
(As in, "the court's construction of his speech...")

D is for dominant estates,
which rights run with the land,
And E is for equitable servitudes,
which make Property so grand.

F is for foreseeability,
G is for good faith,
H is for good ol' habeas,
as in the "corpus" you may take.

I is for intent, illegal,
and immunity,
J is for jurisdiction, judge,
and judiciary.

K is for the study of Contracts,
K is the abbreviation,
which reminds me, I should stop this poem,
and read more about "formation."

Alas, the alphabet stretches on,
But I must hit the books,
But let me end on the letter "L"
Which stands for legaldegook.