Category: Law School

My thoughts on the law and law school.

My Oral Argument

I have to present an oral argument in a week for a mock moot court case we’re doing in Legal Skills. It involves a police officer who, while off-duty, beat a man. There are two issues that I must argue. First, whether the court of appeals has jurisdiction to hear the plaintiff’s appeal. Second, whether the officer acted under the color of law. I represent the defendant (police officer) and kind of have my back up against the wall.

I did a practice oral argument for Legal Skills today. It went OK, but I was nervous and it showed. Apparently, I said, “um,” 51 times in ten minutes. Someone was actually counting. I was advised to reference my case law before the judges do; this will put me on the offensive as opposed to the defensive because I will be able to highlight the stronger analogies. I also need to be less monotone and more detailed, however my pacing was good and I was direct and clear.

The final question asked of me was, “How do you arrest an unconscious man?” To which I replied, “I would like to conclude my argument here…” I had no answer… I froze… but, now that I’m home I know how to answer it. So, I guess that’s one roadblock I know how to avoid when the real argument comes up.

The Economics of Beanie Babies

Here’s an interesting passage from Ty, Inc. v. Publications Int’l, Ltd., a case I recently read in Introduction to Intellectual Property. The case is concerning whether Publications Int’l is violating Ty’s copyright by publishing books with images of Ty’s Beanie Babies. The description of Ty’s marketing strategy is used to set up the differences and similarities between children’s and collectors’ approach.

As a marketing gimmick, Ty deliberately creates a shortage in each Beanie Baby by selling it at a very low price and not producing enough copies to clear the market at that price. As a result, a secondary market is created, just like the secondary market in works of art. The secondary market gives widespread publicity to Beanie Babies, and the shortage that creates the secondary market stampedes children into nagging their parents to buy them the latest Beanie Babies, lest they be humiliated by not possessing the Beanie Babies that their peers possess. The appeal is to the competitive conformity of children – but also to the mentality of collectors.

As far as I’m concerned, the best use for Beanie Babies was to wipe the dust off computer and TV screens.

Ready Set Go

Two very stressful activities just happen to coincide for students – Christmas present shopping and final exams. The assumption is that we should put off shopping and focus on finals, but that’s kind of a Grinch thing to do. And, exams don’t really take that much time. However, it looks like I’ll be doing the […]

Update 2009: It cuts off.

Shows This Semester

The Queers (somewhere in Boston / Cambridge) – I enjoyed this show because it was, well, outside of my comfort zone. And, it made me functionally deaf for 48 hours. I’ve never heard an old man scream so loudly. Is it sacrilegious in a punk-rockish kind of way to say that about Joe Queer? Jenny Lewis […]

Update 2009: It cuts off.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday, I sat in a Contracts review session from noon to 7pm and took 20 pages of notes.

Today, I sat in a Civil Procedure review session from 9am to 4:30pm and took 22 pages of notes.

I imagine that yesterday and today are what going to a conference would be like as an actual lawyer, except the conference would only be one shorter day and it would be followed by two days of skiing or golfing and a tax write-off.