Taking a 2 day break

Loyal Improvilaw readers:

Due to the looming trial level brief deadline, I will be taking a 2 day break from blogging, eating and sleeping.

Thanks for understanding,

I.

Whoa!

Two friends from back home came to visit me this weekend. While I really wanted to see them, and missed them a lot, and had a great time while they were here, I am going to be swamped the rest of the week as a result. My schedule tomorrow:

10-11:00 Criminal Procedure
11-11:30 Meet committee member to discuss org newsletter
12-1:00 Judicial Intern information session
1-4:00 Finish journal cite-checking
4-5:00 LexisNexis class
5-8:00 Work on reading for Tuesday
8-9:00 Eat dinner. Make sure S.O. still remembers me
9-10 Go through mail, pay bills, clean house
10-11:45 Watch TV, hang out with S.O.
Midnight Go to sleep and prepare to do it all again tomorrow.


Sometimes, I feel like there just aren't enough hours in a day. My schedule for Tuesday is even worse!

Here's to hoping that your week is filled with free time,

Improvilaw

Oh yeah, I am supposed to be learning stuff here

Sometimes, I forget that the real purpose of law school is to learn to be a lawyer. It seems like a lot of what we do all day outside of classes can have little to do with academics. You go to hear various presentations, worry about finding a job, try to socialize with other students, etc, and through most of it, there isn't a lot of talk about lawyering. Or legal theory.

I chatted today with two students who would like to try and change things so that teaching and learning are more the focus of discourse at the law school. I honestly hadn't thought about "learning and teaching" in so long, that I had to just sit and listen to them for a while. My school claims to have a more "practical" approach to legal education. That's terrific. Unfortunately, only about 10% of the professors seem to teach us anything practical. The rest of the time, it's just a bunch of theories. I find some of them really interesting, but no one talks about THE LAW outside of class.

Before I started law school, my ridiculous idealism led me to believe that we would be having discussions about THE LAW in coffee shops all the time while wearing plaid skirts with tall brown boots, and possibly berets.

I don't even own a beret. Maybe that's why all those sophisticated legal discussions never occur.

Note to self: purchase beret, plaid skirt and smart looking brown boots. Tortoiseshell glasses too!

SBA - to run or not to run?

Last semester, we voted for SBA representatives after we knew people for about 2 weeks. At the time, we all thought that all SBA does is plan Bar Review. Later, when I found out that they had a lot to do with Orientation and budgets for the student organizations, I wondered why I had voted for the biggest drinkers in the school to represent us. If someone's biggest life skill is that they can play highschool drinking games better than anyone else, should they really be put in the position of representing our class?

I am not sure.

As a result of my pondering this, the fact that women are totally underrepresented on SBA and that there are NO non-traditional students in the group, I am considering running.

However, I don't feel I am that popular or that I can drink enough to pull it off. What do you think? I could care less about planning drinking and partying, but I really care about this school and what happens within it. Should I come for the policy and stay for the beer, or forget about this altogether?

Are you a feminist?

Are the days when the word "feminist" was considered repugnant over? Do we still need feminism? Why?

I was searching for online freebies (a hobby for poor law students like me) and came across the NOW website. I have only looked at it once before. Perhaps because feminism is no longer popular. I am not sure. Anyway, I was saying "hell yeah" to all lot of the t-shirts and stuff in their store, and wondering about whether I consider myself a feminist (I do) and whether anyone else still does (if they do, they aren't saying so).

Do we still need NOW? I think that some people I know do. I know some women who seem to have given up all their "power" in relationships with men. I see others for whom the glass ceiling isn't a social or institutional construct - it's of their own making.

Hopefully, some of my readers will respond and we can get some discussion going.

Voter registration time is coming!

I have worked for a voter registration organization since 2004, mostly volunteering in the late spring through mid-fall registering people to vote at music concerts all over the Midwest. I really like it, but I would also like to see the organization grow. Big. Rock the Vote is corporate sponsored and spends a ridiculous amount of money just to register one voter. The organization I worked for registers each voter for less than $3.00. (This is the lowest per registration amount among all voter registration orgs.)

I wish that I could figure out a way to work for this organization during the school year in more of a law-related capacity, but I haven't quite worked that out yet.

So readership, are you registered to vote? If so, do you actually get out there and cast your ballot? If you aren't registered, why? Comments welcome!

Property law

Why oh why do they have to use terms like "servient estate" and "dominant estate" in property law? For some reason, I can't get this terminology to stick in my head and keep having to force myself to remember which is which.

For the record: the dominant interest is the one who has a right to do something (like cross your land to get to theirs)
The servient interest is the one upon whose land the easement exists. (Like the owner of the path from your land to the road)

Fun, isn't it.

NY Times Select now for free to Student and Teachers

Well, it's about time! Students and teachers (anyone with a .edu email address) can now access New York Times Select online for free. New York Times Select is the subscriber-only part of the NYT website. Previously, you had to pay $49.95 (or $7.95 a month) just to see these articles. I just couldn't afford that much. I can't imagine that there were many students who could.

To apply for a login, just use your school email address. The nerd in me is rejoicing at this, because the newspapers where I live just aren't as fabulous as the Times. Then again, what paper could be?

Prestige whoring seminar today

Remember how some people refer to trying to get into the highest US News ranked school as prestige whoring? Well, once you get into lawschool, there is a new kind of prestige whoring.

Today, I am going to an informational meeting on moot court and journal participation. As you may know, getting on law review is one of the most prestigious law school credentials. Years after you have started practicing law, you will still be asked whether you were on law review during school.

I don't think my writing is that great, but I think I will attempt to write on to law review. Usually, students receive a packet with write-on materials right after their last exam at the end of 1L. I doubt I will get it, but as my long checkered academic history tells us, you never know unless you try! Law review is a great way to improve my writing (and citation), and to get to be a little bit more intellectual than you might in regular classes. At least I think it is. We shall see.

I will post more about the meeting when I return from it.

Spring has sprung!

When I woke up this morning, it was so beautiful outside that I wanted to skip my criminal procedure class. Not that I learn much in there anyway. When it comes to being monotone, this professor wrote the book. I am sitting here now blogging when I should be paying attention. However, he isn't saying anything that's not in the book. I should be reading the book in a park somewhere and enjoying this beautiful day.

I hear that the weather will be going steadily downhill the rest of the week, but for now, I feel great and am loving wearing sandals to school.

Fun little quizzes

Even though they are time-wasters, I love taking quizzes like this:

Your Career Type: Enterprising

You are engertic, ambitious, and sociable. Your talents lie in politics, leading people, and selling things or ideas. You would make an excellent: Auctioneer - Bank President - Camp Director City Manager - Judge - Lawyer Recreation Leader - Real Estate Agent - Sales Person School Principal - Travel Agent - TV Newscaster The worst career options for your are investigative careers, like mathematician or architect.

What's Your Ideal Career?

Hilarious Yale Law Review article on law school culture

This Yale Law Review article is hilarious. I can't believe they actually published it. As an extra added bonus, they mention my favorite band on page 1689.

It basically analyzes the different players in law schools. It was written a while ago, and refers to gunners by the old school term, "turkeys."

Enjoy!