I am no longer a 1L.

This is my last post. I am finished with finals and I am now a rising 2L. Upon reflection I kind of let my dork flag fly a bit but I think overall the blog is probably a pretty fair representation of what it is like to attend California Western as a 1L.

Here is a run down of spring semester finals and a reflection on the 1L experience.

TORTS:
Torts is a hard class. I had professor Lynch. It's a very subjective course and the multiple choice probably set the curve on the final. I downloaded law in a flash on my iphone and did all the practice problems. I can still remember the essay hypo. Closed Note.

CIVIL PROCEDURE II:
Professor Stiglitz is a difficult professor and he gives away no free points on his exams. Do practice multiple choice problems and make sure you know all the material. Our short answer essay problems had nothing to do with his questions from past exams. I'm not sure how I did on this exam. I think most people walked out feeling tricked by the professor. Closed note with a handout FRCP booklet.

CONTRACTS II:
Professor Barton wants you to word vomit everything you learned from the semester into the essay. The multiple choice is hard. I used law in a flash to study for this class. I lost track of the time a little bit and dwelled on the first question a little too long determined not to miss easy points like I did last semester. This caused me to feel rushed through the last two essays which were worth 10% each. Closed Note.

PROPERTY II:
Professor Smythe is probably the best professor I've had from undergrad to present. He is very easy going and never hides the ball in class or on exams. Open Note.

LEGAL SKILLS II:
I have mixed feelings about this class. I really liked the oral advocacy exercise. The final assignment is an appellate brief. It takes a lot of time and is only worth 2 credit hours. It also does not count against you if you're on the brink of failing out of California Western. The course material isn't exactly helpful to learning legal writing and the best resource is the professor. I think ultimately I learned the most from the student honors instructor who helps out.

For all the substantive classes I prepared all my own outlines and I went to all the tutoring sessions offered. The tutoring sessions are run by upper division students who did well in the class. I can't stress enough how valuable it is to go to these tutoring sessions even if you feel like you don't need it. You'll feel much better when you are outlining or reviewing for a topic and you have the tutor's handout and they respond to your 3:00 a.m. questions about non-mutual offensive issue preclusion or whatever.

Life as a California Western 1L:

1L is a weird experience. You have a lot of work and there is no escaping it. You're surrounded by high stress and highly competitive peers. I'll start with the bad and finish off with the great parts of the school and random personal advice.

The Bad:
California Western really pours the pressure on to do well and escape the attrition rate. The first semester the attrition rate seems like a foreign thing. Everyone is confident in their own abilities. The gravity of the attrition rate doesn't really sink in until you're in class a few weeks into the second semester. People will be asked to leave and some will leave on their own.

Certain social aspects feel like a sequel to high school life. Students form little cliques together. There are a lot of spoiled kids who came straight out of undergrad and haven't worked a day in their lives. They seemed to have had the most trouble keeping up with work though. I think this is probably a trait universal to just about every law school. My friends at Emory, Davis and UCLA have said pretty much the same thing about their 1L experience.

A few people have emailed me saying they got the 'if you can keep an 80 we'll pay for your school' scholarship and wondering how hard it is to keep an 80. An 80 is above the median and grading is on a 95 scale so it's difficult to keep an 80. I don't know what the average grade is because the school doesn't report it which means it is probably below 80. You're gambling with a lot of money.

The Good:
If you're in California Western it means you're living in San Diego. The quality of life here is incredible. The weather is great and you can run, bike, swim, surf, hike, camp, party throughout north park, south park, hillcrest, PB, OB, gaslamp. Produce here is really cheap.

There are a lot of fun student groups and ample opportunities to get involved with the campus. I didn't use the career services to find my summer internship. My friends who did said the career services are almost overzealous in finding you summer work. There are a lot of on campus interview opportunities and community service work to get involved with.

California Western is currently in talks with UCSD about merging. From what I can gather it seems like the only impediments are external political factors and maybe internal UC politics. It's looking more likely than not to happen in the next few years from the sound of the townhall meeting I posted about in January. I hope this happens and Cal Western goes public with UCSD. I wouldn't go here based just on that possibility until there is something more concrete but it's a really exciting time to be a part of California Western/ UCSD. The two schools already share a lot of resources which is another great part about Cal Western if you're interested in exploring it.


Random Advice:
I went into 1L engaged. I'm 25 years old. I love my fiance and she is a pillar in my life. I'm lucky because I get to go home to my best friend each night and she supported everything I did. Most of my friends who went in engaged or with a significant other are now single. Their grades almost certainly suffered as much as they did emotionally. I don't really feel comfortable giving relationship advice but having a life partner is a team effort so pick carefully.

Make sure practicing law is something you really want to do and not just something you think is awesome from watching too many episodes of Law and Order. Law requires really close attention to detail and uses a system including some weird, archaic and poorly written rules. Law school isn't one big Law and Order exercise where you're in trial at light speed making dramatic oral arguments and slinging back scotch on the rocks with big cigars like Wiliam Shattner in Boston Legal. You're doing really tedious legal research, reading cases, briefing, attending classes, practicing hypotheticals, and reading E&Es until the cows come home. It doesn't stop or slow down and the amount of information you're given can feel like trying to drink from a fire-hose until you get a better grip fitting the legal framework together.

If you're uncertain about law school I'd recommend taking the summer enrichment program California Western offers. It's a pretty good insight to how California Western/ any law school education works and you'll be better prepared for the first 6 weeks of classes than your peers who didn't take it. I think it's 1,000 dollars which is a small price to pay if you decide you hate law school (much better than piling on 1L debt and deciding you'd rather watch paint dry). If you know you already want to practice law and you're passionate about it I'd recommend reading "Getting to Maybe", "The Insiders Guide to Your First Year of Law School", and if you really want to let your dork flag fly you can learn the minimum contacts analysis from the civil procedure E&E (MC analysis is basically the same regardless of professor or what school you go to).

Exam preparation is key. The people who did well figured out how to take a law school exam. In undergrad you can get away with 'passive learning' which is basically just reading the material and showing up for class. To some degree you do this in law school by reading and briefing cases and outlining the course. The 'active learning' aspect is crucial to doing well where you take the concepts you've picked out as important and you begin to drill them. You must take practice exams, use Bar Bri or Cali exercises, answer the questions in the E&Es and I personally really liked the Law in a Flash cards app for the iPhone.

A good strategy for closed note exams is to build an attack outline in addition to your normal outline. The attack outline should just have a checklist of things you run through to make sure you covered everything you needed during your issue spotting. To some degree you should have common answers memorized and ready to write down as soon as you spot the issue (like an introduction and basic framework of your minimum contacts analysis for civil procedure I).

Stay healthy. Get adequate rest and exercise. A few of my friends put on about 20 pounds or so over the year. 20-30 minutes of taking a break to walk around each day isn't going to destroy your GPA. If you make yourself sick/ catch a cold during finals you haven't really done yourself any favors by abusing yourself to study more. At a certain point in the semester you should probably stop going out and partying on weekends. You're just burning the candle at both ends and if you're just wasted during the day Saturday and Sunday you've fallen behind on your work. I got H1N1 fall semester. My advice is to avoid that like the plague that it is (if thats even possible). You can go back and read my posts about it if you want.

Use California Western's student tutors. They're really good. They know the material and they'll help you out.

California Western is a tough but good school. The merger with UCSD makes it exciting to be a part of the student body right now. The attrition rate is bad but if you want to practice law in San Diego it's not a bad option. They offer discounted bar prep. classes and have a pretty nice career services administration. The faculty is knowledgeable and helpful. The upper division 1L tutors are excellent. The library even comes with an ocean view. You can walk to the waterfront (NOT the bar) for coffee and studying and you can even pitch your umbrella and hammock for studying at the beach on the weekends. Just remember to hit the ground running and you'll be alright.

Goodbye readers. Goodbye blog. Goodbye 1L.




Post Script:
If you liked the blog or found it useful you can use the donate button to buy me a cup of coffee which fueled my 1L learning and blogging. Or, if you're the eccentric rich type you can pay my tuition! :D

The button is off on the side bar and you don't need a paypal account to donate (just click on one of the little card graphics when you get to that point) ------->

UCSD and California Western Merger Townhall Meeting

California Western held a townhall meeting to discuss the possible UCSD-Cal Western merger. The students asked questions and the Dean gave answers.

Highlights:

Someone asked who the school perceived as political obstacles to the merger. The Dean pointed the questioner to the San Diego Tribune without directly naming anybody.

-I interpreted this to mean USD as they didn't have exactly positive statements to make about the possibility of a UC law school eclipsing their program. Apparently the merger failed in it's last iteration due to local politics. This is odd considering the second largest city in California does not have a public law school.

I asked when the merger would be complete if everything went smoothly. The answer is late 2010 or 2011.

The person who answered the question had been present for the last attempt at merging and seemed very optimistic about the momentum the schools had towards a merger.

Why am I blogging at 2am? I misread a legal skills assignment and had to do the whole thing over from scratch. fml.

Edit:

I read this article:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/28/ucsd-looking-law-school/

A lot of the comments came from individuals who lack reading comprehension skills. So here is the tl;dr response for critics: 1) there is no increase lawyers created by this merger and 2) California Western is already financially viable so there would be nearly no strain on the state to support the school.

Exciting News: California Western and UCSD Panel

I am delighted to share this email the students received today regarding a possible merger between California Western and UCSD.

For many years, California Western has explored ways to expand our decades-long partnership with UC San Diego while strengthening our mission to educate and serve. Today we announce a significant development in this endeavor and I want you, our students, to be among the first to know.

Late Tuesday we announced that representatives of California Western and UC San Diego have formed a joint committee to consider an affiliation that would lead to the creation of a public law school in San Diego. Click here for the news release we distributed.

The proposed affiliation holds many potential benefits for our law school. Joining with UC San Diego creates new opportunities for research and collaboration while honoring our mission and values. It enhances the reputation and visibility of our faculty, alumni, and students. The proposed affiliation offers each of us the opportunity to be a part of something larger than ourselves, the chance to provide a living legacy to our region that will make a lasting difference for years to come.

I anticipate some media coverage of this development. As the news becomes public, you may hear or read about it in the workplace, online, or in social situations. I encourage you to share your questions and comments with Assistant Dean Kathleen Seibel or myself.

I also invite you to attend a students-only town hall meeting to learn more about our conversations with UC San Diego and what they might mean for you and the rest of the California Western family.

Tuesday, February 2
12:15 – 1:05 p.m.
California Western Auditorium

As we move forward in these conversations, our first commitment remains you, the California Western family. You make us who we are and we could not do this without the support of the faculty, staff, alumni, and students whose commitment and accomplishments allow us to consider this exciting proposal. I will continue to bring you updates as events unfold in this process.

Sincerely,
Dean Steven R. Smith

------

I plan to attend the meeting and I'll report back with any details.

Here is where the link leads:

Media Contacts:

Judy Piercey, UC San Diego – (858) 534-6128 or jpiercey@ucsd.edu

Pam Hardy, California Western School of Law – (619) 515-1545 or phardy@cwsl.edu

Local Educational Institutions Form Joint Committee to Consider

Establishment of UC San Diego School of Law

January 26, 2010 – The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) and California

Western School of Law (California Western) this month formed a joint committee made

up of faculty and administrators from both institutions to consider an affiliation that

may lead to the establishment of a UC San Diego School of Law. It is envisioned that the

law school would be self-supporting and no state or UC San Diego campus funds would

be needed to make the new law school viable.

Formation of this committee follows initial consideration of a proposal from California

Western to UC San Diego, according to Paul Drake, UC San Diego’s Senior Vice

Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

“We believe the proposal has sufficient merit to explore the possibilities together,”

Drake said. “A UC San Diego School of Law would enhance the research, teaching and

public service mission of the university.

California Western Dean Steven R. Smith added, “The increasingly robust ties between

our two institutions, built over the past three and a half decades of dual and joint

degree programs, co-sponsored symposia and cross-institutional teaching, led us to look

at the possibility of a combination as the next logical step in our relationship. This could

create a public law school for San Diego with no start-up costs – and without creating a

new (de novo) law school, or generating more law school graduates.”

The joint committee will explore ways in which a UC San Diego School of Law might

build on existing strengths, enhance other academic disciplines and create unique

broad-based areas of exploration in law, science and technology.

In addition, the joint committee will consider the following issues with regard to the

proposed affiliation:

• Faculty – integrating and respecting existing California Western faculty and

planning for new hires;

• Students – attracting students with strong credentials;

• Finance – ensuring that the law school continues to be self-supporting as a public

institution;

• Governance – maintaining consistency with University of California, American Bar

Association, and Association of American Law Schools standards; and

• Transition – charting a smooth transformation into a UC San Diego School of Law.

“At a challenging time in the university’s history,” Drake said, “this proposed affiliation

would present an opportunity to advance the long-term vision of the University of

California system and this campus.”

Noted Smith, “The San Diego region could benefit from having a law school that helps

advance and support its most important science and technology industries, today and

tomorrow.”

If the Joint Committee determines that the proposal should advance, a planning

document will be submitted to the UC San Diego Faculty Senate and administration, and

to the California Western faculty and Board of Trustees. If these bodies endorse the

committee’s recommendation, it will then be sent to the UC Office of the President for a

final evaluation and decision. There is no firm timeline for making a determination.

###

About UC San Diego

Founded in 1960, the University of California, San Diego is ranked the best value public

university in California by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine and the 7th best public

university in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. Named the “hottest” institution to

study science by Newsweek, UC San Diego is one of the nation’s most accomplished research

universities, widely acknowledged for its local impact, national influence and global reach. For

more information, please visit www.ucsd.edu.

About California Western School of Law

California Western School of Law is the independent, ABA/AALS-accredited San Diego law school

that advances multi-dimensional lawyering by educating lawyers-to-be as creative problem

solvers and principled advocates who frame the practice of law as a helping, collaborative

profession. Please visit www.cwsl.edu for more information.

-----

I kind of laughed at "This could create a public law school for San Diego with no start-up costs – and without creating a new (de novo) law school, or generating more law school graduates.” I guess the market is saturated.

Its an exciting time to be at California Western. I kind of found it odd no public law school exists in the second largest city in California.

Well, time for homework. Tomorrow is another day.

Licking my wounds and my thoughts on transferring.

I got called on in Civil Procedure and it didn't go well. The professor asked me about a procedural step. I had it in my brief but I felt like I might have written it down wrong so I stumbled and didn't really regain any kind of momentum. Anyway, I got chewed out in front of the class. It seems a little gratuitous but whatever, I'm not going to dwell on it.

Grades come out Friday. I've overheard more than a few over-confident conversations about transferring. To transfer you need to be in the top 5-10%. That means you have to do better than 90-95% of the class. I don't know why people are counting their chickens before they're hatched. From what I've read, no one should count on transferring. There are a variety of reasons for people with high lsat scores to pick a t3 or t4 school: close to home, scholarship, etc... In order to transfer a person has to beat out these students and the rest of their class. Because the exams are graded on a curve, you have rock the exams harder than everyone else. In short: you have to be the Ted Nugent of law school to transfer.

It is important to be happy with your choice of law school and assume you're going to remain in your school and in the job markets it feeds into. In this case I'm happy with California Western (maybe grades will change my mind... but today I feel good. heh) and I'd be thrilled to have the opportunity practice law in San Diego. I love this place and I don't want to leave.

Grades, The Curve and UCSD

Grades come out next week so I feel like I should make a post about the curve without knowing what my grades are.

I do not like the curve at California Western.

The curve forces about a quarter of the class to fail out. This happens even if all the students perform well. The negative effect on students is two fold. First, those in the bottom quarter are left in an enormous amount of debt. Second, it reflects poorly on the school if they are admitting such a large volume of students that are doomed to fail.

I've heard the argument that California Western drops these students to improve their bar passage rate. After all, there is no point in going through 3 years of law school piling on debt if a student is incapable of passing the bar. The school could still maintain a high bar passage rate by simply raising the standards (gpa/lsat) of admission. This would cause the rank of the school to rise and maintain the bar passage rate.

Some posit an argument along the lines that some students are poor test takers on the lsat or slept through undergrad and still deserve a shot at becoming a lawyer. I would be O.K. with this if the school did a better job of informing the incoming class of the exact nature of a law school curve. I really think there is a 'failure to warn' on the part of the school. This could be ameliorated by publishing the curve and where each student's lsat score from the previous years lined up with where they landed on the curve. This information does not exist (as far as I know, feel free to correct me with a link).

This leaves me wondering why the school admits so many students it will simply fail out or ask to leave. The only rationale for this behavior that I can think of is to collect tuition.

Curves exist at law schools around the country and I'm rather opposed to systems that force good students completely out of the school or limit the number of As that can be given. I would suggest moving to an undergraduate grading system where displaying knowledge of the law and lawyer-like thinking gives you an A regardless of some irrelevant detail the professor is forced to use to differentiate between an A and a B.

My own grades:

I'm not really sure how I did. I studied hard and hopefully that pays off. I'll probably post my grades here so incoming students can see what I did and how well I did. My only concern is that I've revealed enough about myself that someone from my section will find it, realize who I am, and take the information the wrong way.

My impression of the tests is they're pretty standard law school exams. You spend much of the semester studying how to do well on a law school exam and the students to figure that out first will likely get the As.

I have a feeling I probably didn't do as well as I wanted which means I will have to change some things after talking to professors/ tutors. So far I've kept on track this semester. I started outlining this weekend and so far things look good. I'll adjust when grades are released on Friday.

UCSD Rumors:

A few faculty members at UCSD talk about a merger between the schools as if it is already a done deal. The rumor buzzing around the school is the next edition of the school news paper will be released when the committee to discuss a possible merger/ buyout/ whatever comes to a decision. A few of my professors keep having to cancel their office hours to serve on the committee. These are all rumors, so who knows. Hopefully we become UCSD. That would make me happy.

Google, China and International Law

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100113-714153.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

Google announced today that it may pull out of China. This announcement came in response to China hacking the gmail accounts of human rights activists. Google has made several concessions in order to operate in China and this seems to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Google de-censored just about everything they agreed to censor to operate in China. www.google.cn actually returned search results this morning for Tienanmen Square massacre.

This presents an interesting intersection between business and international law. Yahoo! already has some experience as to whether U.S. first amendment rights extend to other countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LICRA_v._Yahoo!

I wish I had something more insightful to say but I really don't. Hopefully the internet remains as free here as it always has. If whether U.S. rights follow U.S. organizations to foreign markets comes up again hopefully the courts decide to ensure the rights of U.S. businesses.

And while I'm talking about Google, I now have Google Analytics installed. I've got visitors from Germany, Stanford University and California Western. Hello world!

Half way there.

My civil procedure and contracts finals are done.

Civil procedure-

I walked into the exam and when it started I got sick. I couldn't think so I got up, went to the restroom and ran my wrists under some cool water. I came back, sat down and did as well as I could. I think I messed up the first few multiple choice questions and I'm not sure how well I did on the essay. Its probably not an A but I also didn't fail. So glass half-full I suppose.

Contract-

What the fucking fuck was that? 90 minutes to type as fast as you could in issue spotting memorized racehorse word vomit. I type between 90-100 wpm. I typed the entire time and I still missed two issues by virtue of the fact that there was not enough time. At the end of 90 minutes we had to stop typing and move onto the multiple choice. The multiple choice had easy questions and medium questions, but nothing terribly difficult.

I hit a ton of issues and had some decent policy points to make. I know I hit a few things that only people that memorized every slide, the cases and their outline would have gotten. However, I missed a statute of frauds issue and I didn't address specific performance (even though it wasn't valid for either party in the fact pattern it still needed to be addressed, I ran out of time).

Anyway, I knew the whole syllabus and all the material forwards and backwards and I likely still didn't get an A.

Two more attempts left. I'm still swinging for the fences, but these exams are hard.

The penultimate week

My first final is civil procedure. It is next Saturday at 8am.

I recovered fully from being sick. I lost 10 pounds but I'm gaining it back. I didn't weigh very much to begin with.

I rolled through studying this week. I'm at the 70 hour mark between classes and study hours. I worked with a few study groups, took practice tests and updated all my outlines.

I have some positive and negative remarks about California Western. I'll start with the negative and end with the positive:

Negative:

-The library is not open 24 hours. This is odd. I like being there late and studying. I guess this is somewhat of an uproar as there is a facebook group and a petition to leave the library open. The general feeling is that the tuition is at an all time high and the student services are at an all time low.

-The attrition rate weighs pretty heavily on the student population. It makes everyone stressed and depressed.

-This last comment isn't so much a complaint about the school as it is something I feel like venting. There is one student in my section who for whatever reason has gone out of his way to become disruptive in class. I think he claims he will be in the top 5 or 10 percent. I have my suspicions.

Positive:

-The review sessions put on by the Women's Law Caucus are very helpful. I went to a contracts review session and they gave me an outline to augment/ correct my own with. They also taught me how to engineer an attack outline and how to approach my contracts exam.

-The tutors are extraordinarily helpful. They even proctor practice exams. The tutors also give feedback and help explain complicated hypotheticals and practice problems. They also cut straight to what is applicable to the exam.

-My legal skills professor is very pleasant. She went over my final memo for the class and gave some helpful suggestions.

Evaluating myself:

Property - I did well on the practice exam. I even nailed a pretty hard future interest problem which had language that could be interpreted two different ways. You had to determine the intent of the drafter and argue for two different parties. I like the future interest problems.

Criminal Law - I did well on the practice exam. The professor for this class wants very concise answers and does not like irac. I feel like I am going to be OK during this final, but its the kind of test that if you misread a question or miss the call of the question you could bomb the final.

Contracts - This class gets a mixed review. The professor wants us to essentially write an essay about everything we have learned and apply it to a fact pattern. This means outlining the course during the exam and sticking in facts. I am fine with this. However, the format makes me uncomfortable. Its a race horse issue spotting exam. The professor also only allows 90 minutes for the essay portion and then you are not allowed to go back and edit it.

Civil Procedure - I have a firm grasp on the material for this course. Unfortunately, so does everyone else. I think the professor scared everyone into studying like mad. Another negative point is that the exam is going to be 'easy' according to the professor, which means it will be difficult to differentiate myself from the rest of the group. This is also an exam where if you misread the question you can bomb the final.

Legal Skills - The final memo is all that is required. There is no final. My legal skills group is a 1/4 of the full section. My group has some good writers who certainly communicated with the professor more than I did throughout the semester. I had my professor look over my paper and outside of a few minor errors everything seemed ok. I have my doubts as to whether I will get the A. I certainly will not fail or anything, but I don't know how my writing reads compared to others. From what I can tell the top papers are somewhat of a toss up as to who gets the A and who gets a B. This class is not included in the GPA to determine if the school asks you to leave or not.

If I took all my finals right now I would not fail them. Hopefully I can polish things up a bit and get a few As. But who knows? Nothing in law school is a given.

finals month.

I started grinding for finals. It is, for lack of a better word, a bitch.

Status:

-2 of my outlines are behind, but they are my strongest classes.

-2 of my outlines are up to date, but they are my weakest classes.

-I am attempting to finish all the course work for legal skills today and still get civ pro reading/ briefing done for tomorrow.

I took a few practice tests last week. The practice tests are a rough experience. I have to get my minimum contacts test down to a science. Contracts seems like a race to the finish. You have to write like crazy and always argue both sides even if the other side is a poor argument.

Some people are reading ahead to the finish so they can start studying. I've opted out of this. I'm better at learning the material by reading/ briefing, going to class for the corresponding lecture, and then incorporating it into my notes. I learn the concepts best by reading, writing and listening to them back to back.

This Thursday-Sunday are going to be exam days.

I am very anxious about all this. I've never really worried about grades because I've always done pretty well. I went to a really competitive undergrad too and I didn't even worry this much about my thesis. I think the nervousness stems from three parts. 1) I've never done this before. Summer enrichment helped but it definitely has nothing on the pressure presented by fall finals. 2) I see three or four people that are consistently outworking me. They are in the library from 7am to 9 or 10pm. You're not supposed to worry about what others are doing and just focus on making sure you can apply the concepts but I can't help but end up slightly intimidated. 3) The exams are all or nothing. It feels like the fall semester really sets the tone for the rest of law school and summer job prospects.

Anyway, wish me luck.

'I have more questions than you have answers.'

I answered questions for about 30 minutes in class the other day. The professor for civil procedure is probably the toughest on the students and the class has more of an 'academic boot camp' feel to it than the others. I handled the questions pretty well. At one point the professor attempted to create a hypothetical to elicit a certain response from me. I answered all his questions correctly. He just didn't ask the question the right way to get the answer he wanted. He finally laughed, phrased the question correctly and as I was thinking about the answer he said 'See, I have more questions than you have answers.'

I laughed because it was painfully true as my mind raced to find an appropriate answer.

After rephrases and the scribbled out drawings on the board about who lived where during whatever time period and what state the parties all lived in I got a little confused and fumbled on the last answer. I did my best to work through it and I think I did alright.

Next weekend is Halloween. For whatever reason California Western students take this holiday really, really seriously. They treat it like a Catholic treats Fat Tuesday before lent. I guess there is a parallel (admittedly not the best analog, but I like it so shut up) there in that after Halloween everyone gives up their freedom to go out and starts putting in 8-12 hours a day, every day, until finals.

Some students haven't caught on quite yet to how hard this work load is. You can get away with not reading or not briefing once or twice but its painful to catch back up. If you don't read or brief for a class and do nothing to learn the material otherwise you have effectively put it off for another day. It takes about 50-60 hours per week of going to class and studying outside of class to learn and know the material cold. To learn it well enough to answer any kind of questions you could get away with 40. So lets just say 50 hours/ week. If you only put in 30 hours for a week you've backlogged 20 hours of learning for yourself. If you do that two weeks in a row you have a 40 hour backlog.

Thats not to say it isn't irrecoverable. Its just going to be an excruciating experience.

I played soccer all through high school pretty competitively. Our coach, who we not so affectionately called, 'the soccer Nazi', would make us run 60-50-40s. You have 60 seconds to run a lap around the field and without stopping you have 50 seconds to run the next lap and without stopping you have 40 seconds to run the last lap which leaves you breathless, dead tired and wondering why you ever thought soccer was fun.

The fall semester feels about the same. The beginning is 40 hours/week, the middle is 50 hours/week and the end is 60 hours/week to the finish. I think the school recommends 70 hours/ week for the whole semester or something ungodly like that but that would probably leave you with the social and networking skills of a turnip.

My outlines are looking good. My tutors like them and have given me their input. I'm going to start taking practice tests this weekend.

One last sprint to the finish.

Sleepless in San Diego

I'm usually lights out and asleep before midnight but for whatever reason I'm wide awake and figured I'd make a post.

I had a few bad days last week. Monday and Tuesday it felt like my brain went on an involuntary mental vacation. I tried to grind through it but just came home retaining nothing. Wednesday onward went fine.

I've started working with other classmates. Up until now I've been working on my own and going to the tutoring sessions. I like working with others but its only good for outlining and reinforcing old material or clearing up questions or ambiguities in the classes or the readings. I'm definitely at a point where I need to review and memorize the material from the start of the semester up to this point so I can start working on hypotheticals in November.

Here is my break down class by class:

Legal skills -

This class is still lame. We've only really learned bluebook citations. Beyond that we work on IREAC. Its a particular structure for writing memos and essays for law school exams. Its nothing you couldn't learn on your own in a whopping 15 minutes. Its worth less than the other classes. Unfortunately that doesn't make it entirely worthless to GPA and maybe getting a summer internship or clerkship.

My biggest motivating factor for this class is that the professor recently came from a pretty nice firm and knows what employers want in a writing sample. Hopefully I can pull an A and get a writing sample out of it.

Contracts -

This class is a lot of black letter law.

Criminal Law -

I think our professor made a mistake. He hurried through 'attempt' and made it seem unimportant. It took talking to the tutor and pouring over the reading to figure out that this will probably be worth big points on the exam.

Property -

It is the easiest class but after reading ahead I think it might become one of the most difficult. I got called on the other day to answer questions. I did pretty well. I inadvertently used a common word that has a legal definition. The professor corrected me. One of the disadvantages to reading ahead a few classes is that you forget what you read when the class rolls around. It didn't matter. I had my brief and the case highlighted and color coded in a way that gave me all the answers and refreshed my memory.

Civil Procedure -

I answered all the questions in my Glannons study aid and it helps a lot to answer questions in class. I have a question for the professor that I'll probably ask him about when class is over.

Some random thoughts:

I'm not nearly social enough. I have friends and I get invited out I just choose not to go anywhere. I like working on law school problems with people but when it comes to going out for drinks or whatever I'd rather not spend the money. I've made some cycling and surfing friends around the city but its not quite the same as the law school social scene which can have a distinct 'high school' feel to it. I am pretty certain every law school has that same feel after talking to my friends at other schools.

I guess the hot 'blawg' topic has been whether or not to trust school sponsored blogs. Several law schools have these now and California Western is no exception. Most potential law students want an accurate view of what a law school is like so here is my take on internet resources and developing an authentic view of a law school.

School sponsored blogs-

School sponsored blogs are probably an OK source to get a preliminary idea of what attending a law school is like. Take it with a grain of salt. The authors aren't going to say anything to shake the boat about the professors, administration, career services or whatever or they likely wouldn't be asked to blog in the first place.

Independent non-anonymous blogs-

These are likely to have some good information and have impartial opinions about the school. Some of them have the same issue that the school sponsored blogs have though in that their authors might not share negative experiences they have to avoid real life road bumps.

Anonymous blogs-

Some are great and some are just rumor mills.

Blogs in general are pretty bad. They are usually a single view point with no alternative perspectives. This one is probably no exception. At least I'm honest about it. Heh.

Message boards-

These are an excellent way to get to know students at any law school in the country. A lot of the users are anonymous but will reveal themselves if you integrate with the community. They'll give honest opinions. The downside is that on any massive law school message board you'll run into 'if you're not top 14 you're worthless' trolls.

Epinions, Yahoo! Answers, Yelp, whatever your favorite ratings site is-

Yahoo! Answers is usually a cesspit of stupid. Epinions I know very little about. Yelp is generally pretty good for restaurants and getting my haircut but I don't know if I would go there for advice about law school. The ratings on these kinds of cites seem to be either one star or five. I suspect that the only people to actually go out of their way to fill out a rating and write something about their school are those that are either overjoyed with their law school choice or are super disgruntled that they failed out or that they hate studying law.

Law school numbers, US News and World Report, Princeton Review-

These are very useful. They are written by competent individuals who know the law school geography intimately. I wouldn't get too caught up in law school rankings. USNWR does not weight bar passage very highly and thats definitely a crucial part of becoming a lawyer. Always look at the different metrics these kinds of organizations use and make sure it fits with what you are looking for. Princeton review costs money but its not hard to find a free password. Law school numbers last I checked just gave a statistics only representation of a law school's make-up.

The above mostly just states the obvious. The potential law school student is really their own best filter.

Time for bed.

Mornin'!

The morning routine:

1) get up at 6, hit the snooze button.

2) actually get up at 6:15

3) make coffee

4) read news/ whatever until the coffee is done.

5) review brief, notes and reading for first class over 2-3 cups of coffee

6) bike to class

Yesterday I got called on to answer questions in criminal law. I finally made it through socratic questioning without saying something dumb, stuttering, or rushing through answers nervously. Woo hooooooooo!

Sick as a dog

I didn't feel well all of last week and Friday it finally turned into full blown illness. I've had a fever of about 100 from Thursday night through to today.

Just because you're sick in law school doesn't give you a free pass to quit doing work. I planned on going to the library this weekend and working on legal skills until the cows come home but I don't think its a good idea for me to ride my bike around like this. I've taken the opportunity to review and outline for all my classes. Here is an update, class by class, of what I work on.

Legal Skills:

I hate this class. Its time consuming and the lectures are worthless recitals of powerpoint slides. The handholding through writing a research paper makes me especially agitated. In every other class you are presented with material (tons of it) and the professor guides you through it. That is not the case for this class. They spoon feed you everything.

The first assignment was a disaster. They pitted all the 1Ls against each other in a competition for the same books. The professor for whatever reason didn't see this as a problem until the due date came up and almost no one had turned in the assignment due to the line for books. Then the rules changed and we were allowed to use online resources. We will likely never use those books again. I think it would have been far more beneficial to get acquainted with lexis and westlaw than it was to waste hours waiting on books in the library.

Pros: I got better at writing out citations.

Cons: The ratio of time spent to material learned is all out of whack. The bluebook has mistakes in it and you have to find an overburdened TA to show you the correct way to cite. The professor seems to think this is high school.

Criminal Law:

This is a great course. Everything is clear and concise. My outline looks good and the hypotheticals are fun. The TA for the course is a brilliant guy and he is excellent about picking out and mapping out what we need to know for the exam.

Pros: The hypotheticals are like interesting puzzles you get to solve. The TA is fantastic.

Cons: It is sometimes ambiguous regarding what we need to know for the exam and tangents the professor goes off on because its something of interest to him.

Contracts:

I understand the material in this class the best. Its all really clear and my outline looks good. We just finished up consideration.

Pros: The professor is great at clearing up misconceptions after class.

Cons: This isn't a con for me so much as it is for everyone else. The professor presents the material in a really intuitive sort of way which gives the illusion of understanding to a lot of students. If you read the material and think about it though you still have lots of black letter law to memorize for the exam. It doesn't matter that it seems intuitive, you get points based on what you can put down on paper. You have to do the reading and the supplement reading to understand what the reading says about the law.

Property:

This class goes at a slow pace. I enjoy it the most. The material is really cool and the professor is excellent. I felt bad being sick in his class and visibly struggling to pay attention this week.

Pros: The slow pace allows you to keep up with reading in other classes. The readings given to you get straight to a clear point about the law regarding property. The TA is wonderful an reviews outlines.

Cons: There really are no cons to this class.

Civil Procedure:

I read and read and read and I think I get 'it' then I go to class and realize I know nothing. This is somehow my worst class. There are set rules that come into play in the timeline of an action. It seems very cut and dry until you get in there and the professor asks questions until you have completely lost track of what the rule is and your brain feels like it melted out your ears.

Pros: The rules are easy to memorize.

Cons: The application of the rules is difficult. The professor has a tendency to follow a bad thread with a student who gets called on and didn't read or didn't understand the material. The professor tries (often in vain) to lead students through to the correct answers. I wish he would question less and lecture more. The more bad answers he gets out of students the more confused I get about the correct answer .

The above has taken over my life. I work from 6am - 6pm every weekday only taking a break to eat for 10 minutes or so in the morning and at lunch. The weekends I sleep in and generally do about 4 hours/ Saturday and Sunday.

UCSD and CWSL Update:

The student news paper (The Commentary) had a big article about the relationship between UCSD and CWSL. I would provide a link to the article but after a lazy google search for it I couldn't find one.

UCSD set up a committee to work out a merger with CWSL.

http://gradlife.ucsd.edu/2009/04/gsa-announcements/

Its looks more and more like a done deal. I suppose there is something holding up the process though.

Worthy of a blog post?

Rumor mills in law schools generate ideas ranging from reasonable to completely insane. Usually they spawn out of the 1Ls mishearing or misrepresenting something from a 2 or 3L.

This rumor came from UCSD. My significant other landed a research position at UCSD. Their boss/peer there talked about California Western becoming a part of UCSD. I'm inclined to believe him.

After some quick googling it turns out this rumor has been around for ages. Who knows if it will ever come to fruition? It would certainly be a phenomenal experience for California Western students to have access to UCSD resources and UCSD could benefit their mission having their own brand of lawyers.

Anyway, this is the best I can do for a 'source':

http://jollylawger.com/?p=107