05.16.11

the worst part of law school

to be perfectly honest, the worst part of 1L wasn’t the memo. or the brief. or the whole trying to figure out how to be a law student thing.

THIS. the AFTER. the WAITING. THIS is the wost part.

12:57am. I need to get up early to go to the gym and then work on my law review write on competition note for the rest of the day. but what am i doing?? laying awake thinking about the things i know i forgot on my crim law exam. the brilliant point i can’t remember if i made on my con law exam. whether or not i went back and made sure my regulatory state answer made sense (hint: it didn’t. i have no idea what nonsense i even wrote on that exam).

this is the worst part. i am doing so much better not worrying about it the way i did after last semester; i was a wreck. i couldn’t eat or sleep or do anything. and it all turned out okay. tonight was the first time i thought about it. but it is killing me. i should be getting at least my advocacy and crim law grades soon. most worried about crim law for sure. but just like last semester…there’s nothing i can do about it now so just stop worrying. i have less than a week before i start work at the prosecutor’s office so i should focus on that and not speculate over something i no longer have control over. it also worries me that i wasn’t freaking out during finals; i stayed calm. that may not be good. i’m used to freaking the fuck out about everything.

i’ll report back.

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04.21.11

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BEST. ORALIST.

okay, get your giggle out about being the best “oralist” haha. everyone i know that’s not at law school is having a hay day with fact that i won best oralist in the 1L class :P

moral of the story: i probably had the shittiest lsat score of everyone in my class. my grades are like…okay. but hard work (sometimes) pays off here!! so your first year of law school you will write some combination of memorandum(s) and a brief. most schools also require you have an oral argument to defend your brief. after hours and days and weeks of practicing with friends and members of the moot court board, we finally got to do the real thing for our professors and a panel of practicing lawyers. they asked us questions throughout and were given a bench brief so they were familiar with the problem.

then each professor (there were 18 writing/advocacy sections) picked their best oralist to represent the class in competition. the 18 winners then battled it out in a grueling seven hour competition where the top four advocates would advance to the final round, which was yesterday. we had to do four arguments total- two on brief, two off. so i’ve spent the last three months researching to defend a government action as being constitutionally permissible under the establishment clause and then, with only like two days to prepare, had to formulate an argument for the other side!! somehow, i got through that madness and moved on to the top 4.

we got to be real lawyers. like REAL ones. like we did the argument in the moot court room (which is my favorite place ever i decided) and there were two federal judges and a lower court judge presiding and we all stood up when they came in and there was a bailiff!! i’m getting excited just thinking about it again haha – anyway, we started the arguments and the questions were pretty crazy but totally manageable. then the judges picked the winner and they picked me!! there’s like 280 people in our 1L class. so. insane.

now, i’m not posting this to praise myself or whatever, but just to say look. i tried getting into law school TWICE. i couldn’t take the lsat if my life depended on it. once you get in, you’ll figure it out. i’m hanging in there. i’m hoping my grades are better this semester, and i’m trying my very, very best. that’s all you can do. that’s all you can ever do.

even though i have my second round of finals starting up again on thursday, i’m doing alright. nice little boost of confidence going into the worst part of the year :P

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03.12.11

the new bible

thanks, erin condren for my new favorite planner!!

i’ve had two good ones before, but this shall be the new permanent one i’ll use until i have to be a grown up and get a filofax. check it:

i ordered it last week so hopefully it will ship soon!! watch the video she posted- it’s seriously the best planner ever. i’ve allocated two hours later in the week to play around with it as soon as i get it in the mail :) i can’t wait to plan the rest of my semester with it!!

on that note, appellate brief hell begins tomorrow when class is done at 3:40. nineteen days and counting. i have to re-write half my argument by wednesday. i can’t complain; i had all week to work on it and chose to study instead. also, tomorrow = what a day to have a makeup class – the day right after spring break!! oh well, excited to be starting off the week (relatively) prepared and excited to get going on the last part of the semester. it took me almost three half days to do my property outline but it is finally DONE. i’m writing this post to procrastinate working on my con law outline which is currently a blank document titled, “con law outline.” fantastic. bring it.

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02.28.11

why it sucks that anthony kennedy && i are like the only people that care about this

this is one of the most disturbing things i’ve read in quite some time. unfortunately, this is probably a pretty accurate representation of these types of instances as a whole (and why i WILL help reform the criminal justice system in the united states):

from joan m. cheever, “back from the dead” in 2006
cited in dressler’s crim law text, 5th ed (355): (this is in reference to 589 people released from prison after Furman):

“322 of the 589 inmates were years later released from prison on parole. Of that number, 78 were re-incarcerated thereafter because they were convicted of a new crime. Of this number, 42 were convicted of drug or alcohol-r[el]ated offenses, burglary, or aggravated assault; two were convicted of attempted murder; two were guilty of manslaughter, and three committed new murders, one of whom would later be executed for that crime. Nine of the inmates who were never released killed persons in prison, tow of whom were again sentenced to death for their new crimes. Ten of the “lifers” committed suicide in prison. And, overall, seven members of the ‘class of 1972′ were later determined to be innocent of the crimes that sent them to Death Row.”

my only commentary here is that i’m surprised it was only 78 that were re-incarcerated. pretty small recidivism rate for previous death row felons, if i remember my statistics from undergrad completely. this makes me miss criminology and sociology soooooo much.

back to reading. 3 more days of class then spring break.

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02.8.11

week 5 slump

i feel the need to procrastinate. this is one of those i have no idea how the hell i’m going to get all of this -ish done before its due types of situations. so, clearly, sitting here and bitching about is far better than actually getting started on it. #duh

just for the sake of complaining, lets look at a little list of things we have to do for next week, shall we?

1) Negotiation plan (looking like it will be almost 15 pages long typed)
2) Employment Contract for k negotiation
3) First half of appellate brief (due Monday at 8:00am!!)
4) Property Reading (reading for a total of 4 classes since our prof decided it was a convenient time to make up a missed class)
5) Reading for K negotiation, con law, regulatory state, and two crim classes…..need i continue??

also need to submit like 6 job applications. trying to do that by friday. sooooooo yeah. cool.

i think i’m going to take a break from my brief until tomorrow and just read for prop or something. or go on pinterest until i get off work since i’ve been at school since 8am. gym. prop. con law. advocacy. work. blehhhh.

thanks for letting me bitch. back to the grind.

lulu xx

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01.31.11

#nerdalert

best feeling: finding THE case you need for your research.

i’m told you’re not supposed to “look” for THE perfect case because it rarely exists.  i’ll admit this is not the most factually similar case i could find but it alludes to a seminal case. o’connor, you’re my fave. i tried to go to your law school at asu, but they didn’t want me!! lame. anyway, small victories today.

i have a bunch of things i want to say now i just need to organize my thoughts and put it on paper. today is shitty already so i’m distracting myself with this brief. bleh.

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01.26.11

purpose

my most sincere apologies for my absence.

i’ve been…uh, (moping, depressed, sad…)  let’s just stick with busy.
SO i’ve been spending a lot of my time researching for my brief for my advocacy class. which is funny because in the amount of time i’ve spent researching, in the real world it would already have been filed with the court. it’s a first amendment issue regarding the establishment clause ((religon, duhhh)). basically it’s about a racist woman “having” to see a quote from the qur’an on the wall of her work at the courthouse. our prof (who i LOVE btw) had us make fake newspaper headlines to help us decide on a theme. mine was quite amusing: “annoyed window clerk seeks to prevent courthouse from promoting justice, equality, and cultural diversity.” clearly i’m arguing for the defense.

anyway, i have to show that the purpose and effect of the board that approved the display had a legitimate secular purpose and effect (Lemon test, duh). i like constitutional law, so i don’t mind this assignment at all….it just takes forever. and input please…do you guys use IRAC, CRAC or TREAT for your briefs?? evidently we use TREAT now. bye bye IRAC (if you’re a 0L and reading this, please disregard…you can deal with all of that noise in fall). it’s been a lot more work than last semester, but it will teach us a lot i’m sure.

in related news, i’ve had to spend a lot of time distinguishing between “purpose” and “effect.” you’d think that wouldn’t be so difficult. the idea of “purpose” though got me thinking about my own life generally (my GOD sjblawgs, #NERDALERT) and how i’ve kind of royally fucked up the PURPOSE of, well, my life, recently.

1) the purpose of this blog is to talk about law school, not to complain incessantly ABOUT law school. ideally, i want to encourage people to attend law school. through sharing my story about my difficulties getting in, i seek to give hope to people who are similarly situated. you can do it!! i want to write a lot more about classes, books, things i like, things i don’t like, things that work for me and things that don’t

2) the purpose of law school is to be a law student, not to allow yourself to get involved in all the drama and childish nonsense that often occurs within the walls of this place. moreover, i need to stop allowing myself to be so affected by other people. i spent more time upset at home then i did studying this week and that is NOT okay anymore. no no no. i came here to learn to be a lawyer. i need to keep that in mind. come on.

&& now, because i decided to cry over my own inadequacies for a week instead of trying to DEAL with them (or at least displace my sadness and frustrations into my work), i must read constitutional law all weekend. not that i don’t like con law. i do. but having to read for this weeks class AND next weeks class….? karma is a bitch.

xx

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