Category: Law School

My thoughts on the law and law school.

Why Law School?

I ask this question of myself daily and never have a good answer. Today in legal writing, a class which I am usually marginally disinterested despite finding the actual skills it teaches useful, we were prompted to think about what we want out of law school and what we expect from our jobs. I haven’t thought about this much since getting to school. The work has taken over and I’ve been coasting with regard to questioning the purpose of my education. Now, I’m wondering, thanks to legal writing, why I’m here.

Thinking about this – whatever this is – makes me tense because it highlights how little I know about the life path I’m actively paying to follow. Before I got to law school I didn’t know why I wanted to come here, except that it seemed interesting. I may have told you some bullshit answer like, “Intellectual property is compelling.” If I did, I’m sorry. I had no idea what I was talking about at the time. IP is apparently, although I will have no personal experience with the subject matter until the beginning of next semester when I take an IP elective, similar to watching paint dry on a wall.

So, why then? What’s the draw? Do I like it now that I’m here?

Yeah, I like it more than I thought I would. I like that there are rules within which we operate. There is structure, but at the same time a creative mind can work within the structure (in an ethical manner) to do some good. To get a better case for their client. To gain the respect of their peers. And, ultimately, for one’s own satisfaction, to accomplish something. To be able to look back and say that I worked hard and I was sincere and I hope that I made some other people’s lives better as a result.

The day to day of law school isn’t so bad. Civil Procedure and Legal Writing on MWF and Contracts and Torts on TTh. Two classes a day. There’s a lot of free time, which I guess you could call study time, but no sane person would spend all of it in the noble pursuit of law. And those that do bug me. I’m sorry, but there’s more to life than school.

I don’t know where I’m going with this other than to get it off my head and out there. I’ve said a lot of it before, but it won’t get old. Not for three more years, and even then, I’ll be spending the rest of my life being a lawyer.

Hmmm… I’m becoming more OK with that.

Concord(s)

We went to a Red Sox game and left in the top of the 9th with the Sox up by one. Baltimore scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to win by one. I didn’t care about missing it, and from what I hear this is typical of the end of their season. We went to a couple pubs, ate seafood, and saw a lot of cops in China Town. Fascinating. The one hour drive back to Concord, NH took me 3.5 hours. Apparently, Concord, MA isn’t the same as Concord, NH. Nor is it remotely close to Concord, NH. I was going east, west, northwest, which I thought was relatively correct until I found out that I needed to be going east. We got home at 4:30am.

Circumference

I expected 90% of my life to exist within a two block radius of school that included my house, a small market, and a pizza place. I expected my days to be routine as if life was going to be bundled in little packages labeled knowledge, sleep, and relaxation. But it doesn’t really work that way. Instead, 5% of my life is at or around school and the rest is spent trying to get away from it, so that I can think about school in a way that I could never think about school at school. It is, perhaps, a naive approach. To want to be somewhere else to do what I’m supposed to be doing right here. But, I can’t be in the same place all of the time. It’s stifling.

Nervous Habits Decline

This morning while I was washing my hair in the shower with the last few drops of the concentrated camp soap I carried into the Grand Canyon, I was thinking real’ hard about how I am less stressed in law school than I was leading up to law school. My little slice of the working life grew stale as the seasons of 2005 faded into 2006. I was quite literally in a waiting game for the better part of a year and a half, and that made me a nervous wreck.

Being somewhat high strung doesn’t help. Tending to bottle up my anxiety amplifies everything. Not being or doing what I wanted (because life is about what I want) drove me into a little dark hole maintained by the sayings, “it pays the bills,” and “are you having fun at work.”

That skin has sloughed off now and left me pink and fresh in the New Hampshire wilderness. I like the macro of school. The idea of learning. The osmosis that is inevitably taking place in my mind and body that, with a dash or a pinch of hard work, will run my mind for the rest of my life.

Already, I’m starting to question everything. Feel nothing for the scared, maimed, and injured plaintiff bringing suit against Big Rich Corp. The reading sucks in most cases (no pun intended), but once in a while I get a good set of facts and a good issue and I almost want to brief the case. I almost want to raise my hand in class and volunteer information.

But, let’s not get carried away with our sentimentality. After all it is school and we’re all here because we want to make money someday.

Law School Buzz

The buzz has started and I’m getting excited about starting law school. Meeting new people and settling into an unfamiliar location always provide unique moments. I’m also a bit apprehensive about picking up textbooks (casebooks?) and writing essays (briefs?) again after two years of “mental relaxation.” It’s easy for a curious mind to enjoy learning new facts and methods, but it’s very different to enjoy the routine practice of them. I will remain of the mindset that studying will be a rewarding pursuit until I am proven otherwise.

The timing is ideal because as I near the end of my two year hiatus, I feel less invested in what I’m doing than ever. It is a frustrating place to be – a transitional place that leaves too much time for unstructured thinking. There is a constant sense that I should be doing or producing more. I am looking forward to some fresh challenges and new adventures to enrich my thoughts and creativity.

As I wrap up my life in Virginia, I will not forget all that I have experienced and learned while here. My mind has been opened to the possibility of imagination and an entrepreneurial seed has been planted. I hope one day to bring my interests in technology, writing, and people together. I need to learn more and find more humor in daily life before I can lead a project, but when the time comes I will not be afraid of trying to succeed.

Hogwarts Violates Equal Protection?

I’ve been reading Harry Potter lately. I’m not going to bother explaining it because if you haven’t heard of it you clearly don’t care. Harry attends a school called Hogwarts, which is exclusively for wizards.

To jump subjects for a bit, we are studying the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment in Constitutional Law. Today, we got to Brown v. Board of Education, a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the “separate-but-equal doctrine” established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) to be unconstitutional.

When the Court approaches laws challenged with regard to race, they look first to see if there is a sufficient state interest, and if it is closely related to the purpose of the law. Very rarely to laws using race as a classification survive this strict scrutiny.

Jumping back now, I posit that Hogwarts may be violating the Equal Protection clause. This is a bit of a stretch considering that Hogwarts is in England and out of the jurisdiction of a U.S. court and the school is fictional. But… but… but…

The book sets up wizards to be a separate race from muggles, the later of which are non-wizards. And the school is exclusively for wizards. Muggles aren’t even supposed to know about wizards.

There are a myriad of issues here… just kinda interesting to think about.