Tag / Law school

by Halley

Summer break…what break?

I thought applying for jobs was bad, but somehow I find preparing for interviews is even worse. Between booking flights, hotels, and figuring out the most cost-efficient and reliable way to go between the interview location, hotel, and airports, I’m this close to pulling my hair out. The sad thing is…several hundreds of dollars and many days of planning and countless emails later, I might still end up with no offer. All I have to say to anyone considering law school is two words: Hidden costs.

On the upside, my internships this summer have definitely made me feel better about becoming a lawyer (or at least getting a J.D.). Law school on the other hand still bothers me. Especially the fact that I can’t take as many seminars as I’d like….

by Halley

…and I’m back!

Back to god-awful weather in St. Louis, back to school, back to painfully dragging myself out of the bed every morning at 8:00 (by that I really mean 8:20), and back to the life of a 22-soon to be 23-year-old trying to make it in this funny world where the most emailed article on NYT for 3+ days consecutively decried the utter irrationality of attending law school. (I still can’t bring myself to read it. Ignorance is bliss xD). Ok, so there’s really nothing humorous about the dismal state of legal profession in the United States…maybe I’m just desperately trying to find something to laugh about when really I should be very, very worried. (I am, and according to one of the 304983 attorneys that spoke to us during Intersession, it’s my freakin’ job to worry – aren’t I perfect for this profession.)

A quick recap of my life since I last wrote here (which I believe was somewhere in the middle of a nightmare that i’d rather not remember, aka finals.)

  • winter break was nice. it was a surprisingly mild winter in Cleveland this year. And as usual, I enjoyed two weeks of doing not very much and the luxury of being bored.
  • Las Vegas…with family. And Grand Canyon. It was…interesting. ’nuff said.
  • ten hours drive from atl to stl, on top of the three days road trip to grand canyon means i don’t want another road trip for a very very very long time.
  • intersession, aka orientation 2.0, aka omg i’m so tired i’m almost glad that it’s over and now i have classes. actually, can I just go back to winter break, plz?
  • FDOC! (the exclamation mark is really there for the sole purpose of convincing myself that there is something to excited about on fdoc…but not really.). already I’m falling asleep in ConLaw class and the lecture in CivProc just won’t stick to me (when I actually manage to hear it in those rare moments). what a start, eh? highlight of the day: drawing decision trees in legal practice for settlement v. trial – I’m such a game theory dork; some things never change.

almost forgot, another fantastic piece of nostalgia of the day: I’m reading an excerpt from Chemerinsky’s ConLaw book. I miss that guy *sigh*.

by Halley

Week 1 of 1L

There is no question that it was a long week, but now that it’s Friday it seems that it has gone by rather fabulously. This is mostly likely a combination of the fact that it’s friday (finally!) and my tendency to color my memories in a way that tends to make them rosier than they actually were. So to recap…

I love my professors, for the most part. My contract professor was the first one that I had heard about, due to his Economic background, and I was ecstatic when I found out that I was in his class. So far, he’s living up to my expectations: he’s a total econ dork 🙂 To my delight (and some of my classmates’ frustration, I’m sure), his lectures are full of allusions to economic concepts and jargons. In addition, he’s also funny and incredibly laid back. My torts professor is closer to what you would expect from a law school professor; incredibly smart, a little patronizing (but only in the most helpful manner, of course), and overall a very caring, nice teacher. The instructors for Legal Practice and Legal Research also seem incredibly help  and nice. My LP professor even gave us “entertainment tips” for the weekend, like the Japanese festival at the botanical garden. How cute is that? The only professor that I’m still not sure about is the one for Property. Judging by the subject, I should like it…but I’ve only had the class one thus far, so we shall see what happens next week.

Meanwhile, I’ve made and stuck to a rather nice routine. I get up at 8, get to school at 9, and stay in the library after classes until around 6pm. After that I’m usually hungry and tired and either make dinner or eat out with friends and spend a couple of hours to rewind on the couch :). I don’t expect this leisurely schedule to last much longer, but so far I like it a lot. It’s pretty much like having a full time job; busy enough that I’m not bored and I always have something to do (except now since my professors haven’t posted the assignments for next week yet 😡 ), but not so busy that I don’t get enough sleep (like orientation week >.<).

All in all, I’m loving law school. Heading to the Anheuser Busch Budweiser Factory this afternoon because we finally have “california weather.”

Oh, and yay for 3-day weekend! Happy Labor Day 😀