The Hell Review Competition

Well, school is over. Finally. Kind of anti-climactic.

I'm so deflated and fatigued from this year of non-stop studying that I really can't write anything insightful about my first year of school. I think I just need some time to "process it all", as the life coaches say.

But I will share a little something about the Law Review Competition. This hellacious week-long event is held every year immediately after final exams and the top 40 or so students are chosen to join the school's prestigious law review.

Man against Paper: The greasy and dehydrated author battles the review.

The competition packet is no less than 1000 pages long and requires each student to write a 20 page paper complete with lengthy footnotes and to edit a doctored 30 page paper replete with errors of all imaginable kinds...and some I hadn't imagined could be in a paper.

I had heard horror stories about students not sleeping during the last two days and dismissed them as mere legal urban-legend. But I'm here to tell you, straight from the horse's mouth. It is ALL true.

I myself did not sleep for the last two days, did not shower, did not even eat (except for a few disgusting nutrition bars) and STILL was not finished when the deadline rolled around.

But I turned it in anyway.

A nerd can dream, can't she?

You know what I would really like?

You know what would improve law school by a hundred-fold?

A law chat group.

I fantasize about sitting around with 2 or 3 other classmates and chewing the fat about all the juicy issues in the law. Like: Co-conspiracy liability, too harsh or necessary for effective law enforcement? Or, no-fault insurance systems, is it time to overhaul the tort system? Or, Cardozo, why do we love him so darn much?