Lawyer Under Construction

AWOL No More...

2006-10-26T23:34:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I know that I haven't written anything in here for a while. There are a couple of reasons for that: 1) Man, they really aren't kidding when they say your 2L year is busier than your 1L year, 2) this semester has been full of interviewing, and rumor has it that potential employers will look you up online to learn more about you -- I've been staying under the radar just to be safe. 3) I've been just plain lazy.

Anyway, now that 1) the semester is starting to calm down, 2) I have a job, and 3) I fel motivated again, I'm going to try to post again with some semblance of regularity. A lot has happened in the past 10 weeks that is definitely rantworthy. So for the 2 of you that still regularly read this, hoping and praying for a shred of news from my pitiful law school existence, Stay Tuned!

My Last Day

2006-08-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

Today is my last day at Nossaman. I'm going back up to Berkeley this weekend, which is funny because I started working here the day after I came down. It's a little weird to think that this is my last day, partly because I feel like I just started. I can honestly say that it's been a whirlwind summer. I cleaned out my desk yesterday, so there's not too much left except some legal books that I'm using to finish this memo. I'm really going to miss the firm but more importantly, the people. On the other hand, I'm also looking forward school, and the fact that I won't have to wake up at 6 AM anymore.

Today also marks the end of my quasi-daily posts (the last two weeks' worth of posts are still coming!). School starts on the 21st, and I'm going to be using next week to prepare for 1) On-campus interviews, which start only a few weeks after school does, 2) law journal training, and 3) APALSA. My schedule next semester looks pretty good -- better than my schedule last semester when I had almost no chance to blog. I definitely foresee me having lots to talk about when school starts. In the meantime, I'm going to say T-T-Y-L. Here's to a great summer, and a great coming semester. I'll see ya'll back in Berkeley.

Lunch: In a sort of fitting bookend to my summer, I and a bunch of associates ate at the Bonaventure Brewery. Jeremy sent out an email to all the associates inviting them to join us at the Brewery for my last lunch. We were surprised when almost all of them came (8 to be exact... it's a very partner-heavy firm), which was remarkable since they apparently don't have associate get-togethers very often. It was pretty flattered to see that all of them cared enough to make time to come to my last lunch today. In a way, I'm going to miss these daily lunches, but then again, staring at my small pot belly and my brand new double chin, maybe I won't miss them too much.

And Then There Was One

2006-08-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is my last week at Nossaman. The twelveth week, week numero twelve-o. Both Adam and Ashley's weeks ended last Friday, and so I am now the only summer associate in the office. As if timed to coincide, I also don't have too much work. I've asked around for more work to do, but people seem to be either busy or not in the office. So I am left in my office with little to do.

It's okay though, because last night at the End of the Summer party at a partner's home, I got an offer to come back next summer. Woohoo! As I may have explained before, it is the penultimate goal of the 1L summer associate to get an offer to come back to the firm next summer, even if that summer doesn't want to come back. Why? Because it shows to employers (with whom you'll be interviewing in the coming semester) that you were a good proto-lawyer, and it is that real-world experience above all that employers want. Conversely, not receiving an offer after your 1L summer suggests to would-be employers that you did something that caused the firm to believe that you wouldn't make for good lawyer material. It's a very interesting dynamic, and something I'm glad to have come out on the right side of.

Now all I have to do is figure out what to do the rest of this week...

Lunch: Quick bite at Trimana Grill with Ron Grace, our summer coordinator. All of my usual attorney lunch buddies are busy with work and Adam and Ashley aren't here, so its to nice to be able to eat lunch with someone other than myself. I had a ceasar chicken wrap, and it was delicious. The lunch with Ron also doubled as an exit interview and a chance for me to tell him about the highs and lows of the summer. All in all, I give Nossaman two thumbs up.

Classy People Spell It "Theatre"

2006-08-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

Wow it's already been three weeks since my last post?? This is crazy. Anyway, I've been keeping an informal track of my activities in the Blogger archives and I'll be posting back-entries soon.

So this is my second-to-last week here at Nossaman, and I can't believe 2L year just around the corner. Adam's last day is tomorrow, as is the last firm event, a field trip lunch. In something of a last hurrah, the firm is taking us to the theatre tonight, to see a performance of Curtains, starring David Hyde Pierce. I don't get to the theatre very often (my last live performance was Mama Mia in Vegas), and so this is something of a treat. Tonight will also feature the return of co-summer Ashley, after a 2 week stint down in the Orange Country office. All in all, tonight looks to be a very exciting evening.

Lunch: Phillipe's with high school buddies Mike and Ben. The firm took us to Phillipe's last week, and I loved it so much I had to go back. Mike and Ben really liked their sandwiches. I got two sandwiches plus pasta salad, and they were DELICIOUS. Unfortunately, I also feel right now like I'm gonna puke.

Summers in SF

2006-07-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

Whew! I just got back today from a whirlwind trip to Nossaman's San Francisco office. My duffel bag is still sitting here next to me.

I flew up to Oakland yesterday morning at 8AM, met Adam and Ashley at the airport, BARTed over to the Embarcadero, and met the other Nossa-summers (including Nossa-Boalties Krystal and Thomas), whom we had just seen only a few weeks ago in Sacramento. This is the view from the lobby of the SF office on the 34th floor:

Nossaman flew us up there to not only check out the SF office, but to also attend a deposition clinic presented by a couple litigation partners. We learned the ins and outs of getting what you want out of a witness, protecting your own witness if she is being deposed, and learning what to ask and what not to ask. Despite lasting about 6 hours, it was entertaining since they filled the presentation with war stories about nightmare witnesses. We also got to watch several videos of difficult (read: bitchy) witnesses, and how the attorneys dealt with them. For lunch, they brought us tasty sandwiches and salad.

After the presentation, we went to dinner at Enrico's, an italian restaurant in North Beach, where we got a chance to chat with the attorneys as well as the other summers. I also got in some good Boaltie bonding time with Krystal and Thomas.

The summers:

From Left: Adam, Krystal, Ashley, Thomas, Heather, Mari, and Yours Truly

The firm shacked us up in a pretty nice hotel for the evening, then Adam, Ashley and I flew out of Oakland in the morning, landed at LAX, and got back to the office in time for a Partner-Summer associate lunch.

Lunch: Steve Wiman, a litigator, and Alan Ickowitz, a bankruptcy attorney, talked to us about their practice over salad, a particularly mustardy potato salad, and chicken and beef wraps. Alan holds a special place in my heart because he was one of the two Nossaman people who interviewed me at Boalt back in February. Steve is the head of Nossaman's litigation practice group, and so he's not too bad of an attorney either.

After lunch, Steve pulled out a video of one of his own nightmare depositions, where rather than the witness going nuts, the opposing counsel actually lost it. It was actually quite amusing to hear (the depo video focuses only on the witness-- the attorneys are off-camera) the other attorney flip out and proceed to go on a diatribe about how Steve and our firm ("your office has two floors for god's sake!"), representing an employer in a worker discrimination suit, was oppressing her client along with the legal system, judges, Congress, the President, dictatorships in other countries, and pretty much the rest of the world. Steve told me later "I think she forgot to take her medication that morning."

Judge Dredd? Not So Much.

2006-07-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

Today, Tracy the Librarian took Adam, Ashley, and I to the courthouse to meet with Judge Hess, a California Superior Court judge. We sat in his chambers for a few hours as he talked about what it was like being a judge, how he got to the bench, and what not to do as a freshly-minted lawyer. We then got to ask him questions about anything. I asked him about his thoughts on elected judges, especially in light of the Judge Janavs controversy.

All in all, a very informative session. It definitely helped remove a lot of the mystique and mystery that surrounds a judgeship. After all, judges are people too.

After I got back, Ron, the summer coordinator, stopped by my office to give me a midsummer review of my work at the firm thus far. The verdict? "You're doing fine. Keep up the good work." Whew.

Lunch: A quick bite with the summers and Jeremy, the newbie associate.at La Salsa on the ground floor of my building. I had a Ultimo Burrito or whatnot. We ate outside, which was a good idea except for the fact that I was sitting in direct sunlight, in a dress shirt and slacks, in LA heat wave temperatures. On the bright side, my burrito never got cold.

Go Dodgers!

2006-07-06T17:23:00.000-07:00

Today actually went by rather quickly. I'm working on a new project right now -- an insurance litigation case with Tom Long. It's refreshing to be able to go into Lexis and actually pull up cases, knowing that there's got to be something there, rather than struggle through Google and the rest of the common internet looking for random bridge facts. I would much rather have too much information than not enough.

There was an MCLE thing today, about legislative intent. I went mistakenly expecting there to be free food. There was none. Instead, I learned about how to find the legislative intent behind any bill I wanted. No soup for me, as the saying goes.

The Dodger game last night was a lot of fun. It was my first ball game, and I'm glad I got the experience. I have never been a big baseball fan, since they always looked exceedingly boring on TV. Turns out that baseball games in person are, well, a whole 'nother ball game. The firm has season tickets and about 8 seats in a primo spot near home plate. Apparently they've held these seats for decades, and partners use them when they want to schmooze clients. Jeremy came with us, and he did not hesitate to remind me that my experience was not typical of the average baseball fan, who usually has to pay high prices for nosebleed seats. For dinner, we porked out on Dodger Dogs, nachos, peanuts, ice cream, and other assorted junk food, all compliments of the firm. It was really nice just chilling out in the balmy summer evening air, with my legs up on the seat in front of me, chatting with other attorneys. I ended up having to leave at the bottom of the 8th inning so I could make it home before midnight, but I would definitely go to another game, if only for the food.

Lunch: Trimana again, except with Ashley and Adam 2. Original Adam was out of the office today doing document review in Redondo Beach, so it was just the three of us. I got a BBQ chicken wrap and fries this time, you know, to mix things up.

Long Vacations Are Never Too Long

2006-07-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

Nossaman was especially gracious this 4th of July weekend and gave us Monday off in addition to Tuesday, so today is my first day of work this week. It's interesting because my experience has been that half-weeks always feel longer, probably because anticipation of the weekend causes the time to pass much slower.

Lunch: With with Ashley and Adam 2 unavailable (doing other food-type things with partner-type people), I and Adam went to Trimana near the office to grab something quick and cheap. Since we're going to a Dodger's game tonight, I ordered a [relatively] healthy chicken ceasar wrap and fruit instead of fries. My reasoning is that the fruit will counteract the effects of the Dodger dogs, nachos, and maybe even dessert. I guess we'll see in a few weeks.

50% Completed

2006-06-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

Today marks the end of my 6th week at Nossaman, the halfway point of my 12 weeks here. The last 6 weeks have pretty much flown by, and the next 6 are going to go even faster (heck, we only work 3 days next week due to the 4th of July vacation). I definitely don't feel like I've gotten too much done, but that's a different story.

Today's Field Trip Lunch: Melissa, one of the associates and a sometime vegetarian, took us to a vegan restaurant near the Beverly Center. Though we were all somewhat skeptical, it was actually better than I expected. We all shared a vegan nacho plate (with cashew cheddar cheese and tofu sour cream), and I had a vegan burrito with fake bacon bits. Adam 2 ordered a vegan reuban (with vegan meat and vegan thousand island dressing), which he said was "disgusting." My food was pretty darn good, and the "bacon" tasted exactly like the real thing. The cheese on the nachos was a little funky at first, but by the end of the meal they tasted more like real nacho cheese. Before we left, we all got vegan chocolate chip cookies, which also turned out to be almost as good as the real thing. As weird as some of the food was, I think I might actually go back sometime.

LAX Timekeeping

2006-06-29T17:48:00.000-07:00

I came into work really late today, and nobody cared. I had a dentist appointment this morning east of home, and so I had to drive extra far to get to work. My commute ended up taking 2 hours, and so like I said, I came in really late.

Tonight, we're going to Lucky Strike, a nifty-looking bar/lounge/bowling alley in Hollywood. It's one of the highlights of the summer I hear, and it should be fun. I'm a little rusty since my bowling club days in high school, so I think I'll just try to wing it.

Lunch: I went with Jeremy and Bryce to an infrastructure lunch at a nearby hotel. A group of abotu 80 lawyers, engineers, architects, and politicians were having a roundtable discussion there regarding the planned expansion of LAX. I'm a natural fan when it comes to future construction plans, so I went. The food was pretty good, consisting of tortilla soup, meat and rice, and ice cream dessert with coffee. The presentation about the future of LAX was given by a representative of the MTA, and was more interesting than I expected because of all the different plans put forth by different mayoral administrations. Apparently, the infrastructure practice group is more than just bridges.

Shhh!

2006-06-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

Nossaman has librarians. And a library! It's funny because in law school, your entire life revolves around the library. The library is the de facto place where students go to study, find cases, and meet people. If you have a problem finding a source for the journal, you can ask one of the reference librarians and they'll usually be able to find anything you need. Their ability to find almost any book or document is so awe-inspiring that it borders on magical. The library becomes such an ingrained part of the law school experience that I think most students come to see the library and law school as interchangeable, kind of like how you associate bathrooms with a toilet. Or something like that.

Anyway, due to this cognitive association, you can see how it might be mildly disorienting to see a library in the middle of a law firm. What the heck? Libraries are only found in law schools! What the heck is one doing on the 30th floor of this building? And OMG there are reference librarians? That's like... finding a zebra at Sea World! Things like this are just not supposed to happen.

Lunch: The librarians (Arlene and Tracy) took us to Engine Co. No. 28, a nifty restaurant a few blocks down Figueroa that used to be an old fire station. Inside, there are lots of nice fireman-type touches, including hemets and the original sliding pole. The food was pretty darn good. I had a cobb salad, crab cakes, and a key lime pie for dessert (at Arlene's insistence). I was really stuffed, but I definitely wouldn't mind going back there again.

Riperian Randomness

2006-06-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

Today we had an MCLE teleconference lunch about water law. MCLE stands for "Something-Continuing-Legal-Education," or something like that. Essentially, practicing attorneys are required by the Bar (and the firm) to keep up-to-date about new developments in the law, since their law school education is bound to fade. Like most professionals, they accomplish this by attending continuing education presentations and conferences put on by other attorneys, at which they earn continuing education credits.

Today's presentation was put on by the head partner in the water law group, Fred Fudacz. The food wasn't too remarkable -- just some turkey and corned beef sandwiches with potato salad. The presentation was kind of fun, though. It was the first time I got to see the teleconferencing equipment (consisting of two 32-inch LCD TVs, a rotating camera, a speakerphone, and a mouse/remote control) in action. The Orange County, SF, and Sacramento offices were linked so that attorneys in each of the offices could watch the presentation and get MCLE credit. Orange County had a full room of people, Sacramento had one guy, and SF was represented by an empty conference room. Joining Fred in LA were us summers, an associate, and two other partners.

Fred's presentation on water law wasn't exactly the most riveting stuff, but it served as a good crash course on things like riparian rights, approriation rights, and the relation of those to land use. My property law course last semester didn't spend a good deal of time (read: zero) on water law, but I have since come to find out that it's an absolutely vital area of law, especially in California where we have a chronic shortage of water. All in all, the food wasn't bad, the company was great, and the lecture was interesting. I might even consider becoming an H2O lawyer myself... haha.

MFD

2006-06-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

Wow today I was way busier than I expected. Lots more bridge work plus tighter deadlines = super-busy. I've pretty much fallen into a groove with the bridge project. I'm looking through agreements, calling state departments of transportation, sorting through documents, filling in tables, and printing on nifty Nossa-letterhead.

I also have come to really appreciate my secretarial assistant Luciana. That woman gets things done. Burn a couple CDs for me to send to a client? Done. Mail out the CDs? Done. As a multi-decade veteran of Nossaman, she also has invaluable information about all the little logistical things that a newbie attorney would need to know ("Luciana, how do I dial out?"). She is the secretary for about 4 attorneys (my neighbors) and I'm amazed that she can juggle all of us on a daily basis. Granted, I'm not a real attorney yet so I'm not so much of a burden. But still, it's pretty impressive.

I also got a new assignment today from Tom Long. Litigation stuff. I've been a little litigation deprived for the past few weeks, so it'll be nice to exercise my "meanie" muscles again.

Lunch: Just me, Ashley, Adam, and Adam at Dan's Deli again. I had a regular salami hoagie, and discovered that it's not that much different from a genoa salami hoagie, despite what the deli man told me. Adam (#1), Ashley and I have pretty much concluded that it will be our de facto eatery when we're not being wined and dined by Nossaman. Ashley has actually started calling it My Favorite Deli. I just call it MFD for short.

Reign of the Summers

2006-06-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

A new summer associate, Adam, joined us today. He's going to be at the LA office for only a few weeks. Adam (not be confused with my current co-summer Adam) is actually a summer at Nossaman's Virginia office. He's in his 2L summer and appears to be so certain that he wants to practice in the infrastructure practice group that the Firm is sending him on a grand tour of all the Nossaman offices that have infrastructure attorneys: Texas, LA, and Virgina (where he's working). He just flew in from the Texas office, where he apparently has already spent 2 weeks.

Anyway, Adam (aka Adam #2, A2, Other Adam, or Juan Carlos) appears to be a very nice guy. Heck, he must be, if he can convince the firm to pay for travel and hotel expenses for a month.

Field Trip Lunch: The Pantry on Figueroa near the Staples Center, courtesy of Jeremy, a 2-month associate. Today's lunch posse was rather large, consisting of 3 summer associates (Adam #1 wasn't in today), 2 regular associates, 2 partners, and a small child (one of the associates' kids). The Pantry is a pretty nifty place, with a definite "small town 70's-ish diner-cafeteria" feel to it. I was contemplating breakfast, but ended up going with a burger and fries. The food was good, the conversation was great, and I found out that Jeremy, like myself, is a huge DMB fan.

Nonsense Fear-Mongering

2006-06-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

I was reading Peggy's xanga post about the LSAT and LSAT prep when it dawned on me how much test prep companies, even those as great as Testmasters, rely a whole lot on fear to make money.

Now that I've gotten a good idea of what not only law school but law firm life is like, I can look back at my original anxiety surrounding the LSAT and shake my head. Even though the LSAT is a very important indicator of where you'll end up for law school, it does NOT, as many test prep firms would have you believe, dictate where you'll end up working. Though going to a good law school is sufficient to get you into a "good" firm, it is not necessary (those of you who've taken LSAT prep know what I'm talking about).

The truth is that while higher-ranked schools make it easier for you to find a job, what really matters is how you do in law school. A top-ranked student at Loyola will get just as good of a job at a prestigious law frim as a top-ranked student from UCLA, Boalt, or Columbia, or even Yale.
I know for a fact that there are partners here at Nossaman who graduated from 69th-ranked law schools (av. LSAT: 159). I also know for a fact that they are making a very comfortable income.

But despite all this, here's the rub: In many cases, you might not even want to work at one of the huge "prestigious" mega-firms. They are called "sweatshop firms" for a reason.

Just my 2 cents.

Lunch: Met up with high school buddies Mike and Ben, who happened to be in Downtown. Since Mike parked in my building's "$3.50-per-15-minute" parking structure, he decided that eating close by would be a good idea. We ended up at Ciudad, the place where I went to happy hour my first week here. Turns out the food isn't so cheap when the hour isn't happy. I had a relatively ok burrito thing, Mike had some sort of salad, and Ben broke the bank with $18 fish tacos. Between the overpriced food and the ridiculous parking, I cringe to think of what Mike and Ben had to pay in total. Mike joked that he was going to have to explain to his kids that the reason they were all living in a trailer was because he decided to have lunch with me today. Actually, I don't think he was joking.

Nossa-SacTown

2006-06-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

A little known fact about Nossaman is that in addition to legal services, Nossaman also has a California lobbying practice. There are about 10 lobbyists working out of the Sacramento office that work with California legislators to get whatever their clients want made into law.

Every year, Nossaman flies the summer associates from every office up to the Sacramento office to meet the lobbyists and learn more about the lobbying process, the legislative process, and California politics.

My day started at 4:30 AM today when I woke up in order to catch my flight at 7:00AM. I met my co-summers Ashley and Adam at the Sacramento airport, and we taxied over to downtown Sacramento. The Nossaman office there is much smaller than the LA office, but it still looked very law-officey. We were soon joined by the associates from the San Francisco office, as well as the Sacramento office. This was a lot of fun, since I got to see fellow Boalites Thomas (my Nossa-buddy), as well as Krystal (working at the San Francisco office). I also met their co-summers. There were 7 of us Nossa-summers.

Kelli, one of the nice lobbyists (non-Washington lobbyists get a bum rap, we soon learned) met us and after telling us about how she injured her hand fixing a toilet that exploded, took us to the Capitol where we met a policy assistant to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, got a private tour of Gov. Schwarzenegger's office, met with a State Assemblywoman representing Orange County, and got a tour of the building by a woman named N.C. Otter. After the tour, we met back at the office, said our goodbyes, and taxiied back to the airport. Quick turnaround, but it was for the better because Sacramento is not a city where you would want to spend large amounts of time (sorry Thomas).

All in all, I got a much better idea of how California politics works, especially given that I knew virtually nothing. It's interesting to see how the Democrats in the Legislature rule every aspect of the legislative process with an iron fist much in the same way that the Republicans in Congress do for federal laws. All the summers from Sacramento and San Fran were great, and we are all looking forward to seeing each other again in a few weeks when Nossaman flies us up to SF for the deposition training.

Lunch: Before the tour but after meeting the Assemblywoman, the lobbyists and a few attorneys took us to a fancy-schmancy Sacramento restaurant where we got a private dining room. Little fried cheeseballs, a nice salad, tasty flank steak, and a delicious (and ugh rich) chocolate cake were on the menu. The highlight though was our keynote speaker Tony Quinn, a political analyst and pollster who finger is so tightly on the political scene that he is capable of predicting the outcome of most political races, both state and national. As a politics junkie, I had an absolute blast listening to him talk about everything from the Florida recount to the difference between Gov. Schwarzenegger and Gov. Davis, to why the Democrats might not actually recapture the House/Senate this November.

Life Is Like a Bowl of Oysters

2006-06-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought it was safe to celebrate my freedom from the bridge project, my supervising attorney came in yesterday 45 minutes before I left for the day and asked me to do a little more research. I worked on it for those 45 minutes yesterday, and I've been working on it all morning today. FYI, I'm not complaining. I definitely know much more than I will ever need to know about this particular bridge, and bridges in general. All a part of being an infrastructure lawyer, I suppose.

Funny quote overheard from a partner on a conference call: "Help me understand... I'm a 40 megabyte mind working in a 2 gigabyte world..." Hehe.

Lunch: McCormick & Schmick's with my partner-mentor Scott Yamaguchi (BTW, none of the people on the Nossaman website actually look like that in real life). He's a great guy, with lots of interesting insight into firm life and life as a lawyer in general. He shared a couple funny stories from his experience as a land use litigator (which, from the sound of it, you wouldn't think is that funny). He also introduced me to oysters, which aren't actually too bad. And the trout I had for the main course is hands down one of the tastiest dishes I've ever had, ever.

Free At Last

2006-06-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

So I finally finished that bridge project I've been working on for the last 2.5 weeks, and I am SO ready to do something else. Anything else. I think I'm going to start by proofreading this 70 page appellate brief. Then maybe I'll do something CRAZY.

Also, today marks a nifty landmark: I've been working for 4 full weeks! A whole month! Wowee! Whenever I ask attorneys how long they've been with the firm, they always pause to think, then give me a number in the 5-25 year range. The number is almost always followed by some sort of comment along the lines of "wow... it's been that long already?" Today, having finished a month, I can sorta understand how they feel.

Lunch: Quick bite at Oliveras St. with Boalt buddies David and Sara. David is spending the summer at the U.S. Attorneys office in the federal building, and Sara, working for a federal judge down in Orange Country, just happened to be at there for the day. It's actually a bit of an ordeal to get to the federal building since it's on the other side of Downtown. Walking, it would take about 45 minutes to an hour for me to get there. Luckily, Sara's friend (who also joined us for lunch) picked me up in his car. Giving directions to a person not familiar with downtown LA made me realize just how convoluted the one way streets are.

Just Dive In

2006-06-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

It's really hot today. Worse yet, my office overlooks the pool at the Westin Bonaventure, and the clear blueness of it is very inviting. I kinda wanna just dive in. Unfortunately, my window here in my office doesn't open, and I don't think anyone has ever attempted a 30+ story dive into a pool before (and survived). So I guess I have to content myself with staring longingly at the shimmering crystal blue water...

Lunch: One of the partners from the eminent domain practice group took us on our field trip lunch to Monterey Park for dim sum!! At Ocean Star!!!! As one might expect, I was very excited. Plenty of goodies, though for the sake of propriety, I passed on the chicken feet.

Free Ride!

2006-06-15T04:10:00.000-07:00

Last night after coming home, my Dad decided it was a good idea to get more chinese fast food. Yikes. Little did I know that my craving for "cheap 'n greasy" chinese fast food on Tuesday would see me eating three greasy meals in two days.

I forgot my wallet at home today, and with it, my Metrolink and MTA Red Line pass (the Metrolink pass doubles as a ticket for the Metro). I would have bought a day pass or something, but the thing is, I LEFT MY WALLET AT HOME. No money and no driver's license. So yeah, I was technically a "unauthorized rider."

The thing about the Metrolink and the Metro is that there are no turnstiles or other things to physically prevent you from boarding the trains. Instead, the authorities conduct random checks on the train to make sure everyone has a pass. If you're caught without one, you're slapped with a very heavy fine plus community service. In other words, the public transit system is run on fear.

And it's very effective.

Even though some might envy my free ride, I was absolutely terrified every time the train stopped that MTA police would come on board, and I would have to explain myself in front of all the other riders, none of whom forgot their wallets at home. The ride home on the Metrolink was no different, and so combined, I experienced on my commute home roughly an hour of pure terror. Of course, without my ID, I'm not sure they could have done anything like write me up. No, I think that had I been caught, I would have just gotten the boot. Yeah, I'm never forgetting my wallet ever again.

Lunch: QDoba again with some associates. I had no wallet and hence no money, but one of the associates was nice enough to pay for me. I was planning on getting a taco salad after my orange chicken lovefest the past few days, but the steak quesadilla called to me and I heeded its call. I need to go to the gym. Like, right now.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Bridges!

2006-06-14T05:08:00.000-07:00

The bridge project is almost done, or at least I think so. It'll be nice to work on other projects. Then again on the bright side, I can probably tell you about every interstate bridge in the country.

Lunch: Partner/Summer Associate lunch with Bob, a healthcare lawyer, Scott Yamaguchi, a land use litigator and my "Nossa-mentor," and Julia Stift, a tax lawyer. We had chinese fast food. Ugh. Two days in a row now. On the other hand, the food was much tastier than yesterday's Panda Hut.

One of those Tuesdays...

2006-06-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the days in the office just drag, especially if there is an ongoing project that lasts weeks. After a week of doing the same thing, it can get kinda monotonous. On days like this, leaving the office for lunch is when things get interesting.

Today, my co-summers were AWOL and all the associates were out of the office for a conference, so I grabbed lunch for myself. I was craving some cheap n' greasy Chinese food, so I walked across the bridge to the Bonaventure. I don't know if the people in Panda Hut are always friendly, or if they were just excited to see an asian face, but my chow mein and orange chicken was served to me by a chipper and very generous gentleman. The register lady was equally as cheerful, with lots of smiling and money-exchanging. To top it all off, a grandmotherly looking woman came from a back room, pointed at me, said something to the register lady in chinese, then they both laughed. I'm not sure what that was all about.

Coming back to my office, I got in the elevator with two older men. They were having a conversation about how much Skadden lawyers billed ($3 million) and how much they worked (sweatshop hours). I smiled, partly because it's true that Skadden attorneys are crazy, and partly because I was still laughing at the crazy Panda Hut people.

As I was getting off at my floor, one of the men turned to me and said, "You're laughing. You must be a lawyer from Skadden." Before I could answer, the other man said "no, he's a lawyer with Nossaman." I chuckled and stepped off the elevator. Technically, neither of them was right.

Slow Day

2006-06-06T04:11:00.000-07:00

Not too much going on. Just this bridge project. I think it's starting to get to me.

Lunch: Genoa salami sandwich at Dan's Deli by the Water Court. Did you know there's a difference between Genoa salami and regular salami? I sure didn't. Also, there is a distinct lack of recyling facilities around here. I always feel like crap tossing glass into the trash.

Monday Monday

2006-06-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

Wow it's already been 2 weeks. Crazy.

Today went by quickly, only because I had so much to do in terms of meetings and research. At this rate, my summer is going to fly by.

Lunch: QDoba, a mexican restaurant that apparently only exists in Downtown LA and Phoenix, AZ. The "Three-Cheese Burrito" I got was huge, though two of those three cheeses was actually just this nacho-cheesy kinda thing they squeezed into it. Still pretty tasty though.

A Case of the "Fridays"

2006-06-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

Every Friday is a like mini-senioritis. It's not uncommon for me to lose my incentive to work. It doesn't help that the casual-Fridays dress policy here encourages a feeling of laid-backness.

Lunch: Salami sandwich and chips at Dan's Deli, in the Water Court next door to the MOCA. Adam, Ashley and I hiked across Downtown to look at the Bradbury Building, then ate on the way back. Given that this impromptu sightseeing was required by a partner for some transaction he was working on, we might try to bill for some of the walking time...

Up And Down

2006-06-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

The interesting thing about working in a high rise is the fact that your ears pop riding in the elevator. If there are other people in the elevator with you, there is added entertainment as you get to watch everyone repeatedly open and close their mouths to make their ears pop.

Lunch: Four partners took Adam and I to the L.A. Police Academy. Apparently there is a cafe there with cheap and tasty food that you can eat while listening to the sweet sounds of the firing range. Unfortunately there were no people at the range today, but the food was tasty and we got to check out the gift shop. Personally, I'm jonesin' for one of those "LAPD Internal Affairs" baseball caps. And no, it's not nearly as wacky as the movie would have you think.

Go Metro

2006-05-31T15:03:00.000-07:00

No train today. For various reasons, I needed to take the car, and all I have to say is UGH. It's nice I guess to get the comparison between transit options one day after the other, but the thing is, I now rememeber why I hate driving so much. Can't wait to get on the train tomorrow.

Tonight is some dinner function about dispute resolution. All I know is I have to wear a suit, and I get free dinner. I'm in.

Lunch: Partner/Associate Lunch. Another summer lunch series where we meet with partners and they tell us about what they do and we get to ask questions. The lunch was in one of the conference rooms, and it was catered. Taco salad and little beef burritos. Pretty tasty.

All Aboard

2006-05-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

Fresh from my Memorial Day weekend, I decided to take the train to work today. OH MY GOODNESS what a difference! No worries about changing lanes, speeding tickets, following too closely, falling asleep behind the wheel, or of course, TRAFFIC. Just a nice leisurely 30 minute ride on the Metrolink, followed by a nice, leisurely (somewhat bumpy), ride on the Metro Red Line, and then a nice, leisurely, 2 block stroll to my office. If LA had more rail, I would be way less stressed.

Lunch: Some random salad bar place (I think it was called "Salads 2000," despite the fact that we are currently in 2006) underneath the Paul Hastings Building. Ashley is a huge healthy salad-a-holic, so she got a huge healthy salad. Adam had a baked potato with cheese and chicken. I had a roast beef sandwich. With salad on the side, of course.

One Down

2006-05-26T16:57:00.000-07:00

Wow has it been a week already? Time really flies. I feel like I've been working at Nossaman for ages.

I have been commuting to and from work by car for the last week, and I don't like it one bit. I'm going to look into my transit options. There's a Metrolink station not too far from my house, and as soon as I figure out how to read the timetables, I think I'll try using it next week. Nossaman reimburses for parking or transit, whichever I choose.

One of the cool things about working in a laid-back firm is the Casual Fridays. I like the idea of wearing jeans and sneakers to work, even if it is once a week. It IS pretty funny though to see partners and other people commonly considered "stuffy" wearing jeans and hawaiian shirts.

I'm meeting up with some other Boalties after work. They're working across the way at O'Melveny and MoFo, so it should be interesting to see how they like life in the "Big Firm."

Today's Field Trip Lunch: Julia Stift, one of the tax attorneys (and a fellow Chino Hillsian) took us to Langer's, by MacArthur Park. Definitely some of the best pastrami daip I've ever had. Later found out that Karla, a relatively young and very friendly attorney with whom I was chatting about cooking and the Food Network, is actually a partner with over 15 years of experience. I guess not all of them are stuffy after all.

Take THAT Opposing Counsel!

2006-05-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

I spent all day today reading pleadings. I think I have a taste for litigation (as opposed to transactional) work, because even though the binder was roughly 500 pages, I enjoyed reading every bit of it. It's like a reading a novel, where the excahnge of memos and motions etween attorneys is builds up tension, until it rises to a crescendo and each court ruling being a mini-climax.

Adam and Ashley were in me office all day, sorting through encroachment permits. Good bonding time. At one point during the pleading reading, I came across a really good argument made by my assigning attorney. I pumped my fist in the air and screamed "TAKE THAT!," to the surprise and horror of Adam.

Lunch: Just the summers and I at a random restaurant. I guess what that 2L said about free lunches isn't true everywhere. We don't have ALL of our meals paid for. Then again, $8.50 isn't too much to spare given the posh meals we get the rest of the week.

Real Live Work!

2006-05-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day I had real assignments. I spent all day working hard. Apparently, being a lawyer has nothing to do with law school. I'm glad I went to law school though, since I wouldn't understand half the things I was reading but for Contracts and Civil Procedure.

Lunch: CPK with the summers plus Melissa, Brandon, and Jeremy, a first-year associate. To get there, we had to navigate our way diagonally through The Bonaventure which, if you've been there, you know is like a labyrinth on crack. Luckily, we made it back without losing anyone.

Home Depo

2006-05-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

Today, Ashley, Adam, and I met with our summer coordinator, a nice young associate by the name of Ron Grace. Ron took is to lunch and discussed our summer calendar of events. Highlights include bowling, Roscoe's, day trip to Sacramento, two-day trip to San Francisco for a deposition clinic, theatre, and of course, cup stacking. Also noteable was a series of "Field Trip Lunches" whereby each Friday, an associate takes us to lunch to a divey hole-in-the-wall restaurant that is "representative of their personality."

After lunch, Ashley and I sat in on a deposition ("depo") being taken by Tom Long, one of the partners and an experienced litigator. Besides us, the people in the room were the witness, his lawyer, a stenographer, and Tom. It's interesting because I found that depositions are as much a game of poker as they are a tool of justice. The witness had every incentive to avoid answering as many questions as possible, and Tom was trying to ensure that the witness couldn't tell that he knew when he was lying. I fell asleep for a part of it, but I chalk that up to food coma.

Ashley, Adam, and I went to happy hour after work at a restaurant on the ground floor of the building. We thought we were staying late (6:00PM), but when we got to the restaurant, there was a table full of partners and associates who had obviously gotten there an hour or so before us. We summers got a separate table, and Tom Long later joined us. I recounted to him my story about turning the wrong way yesterday, which in retrospect I shouldn't have done because soon thereafter, Tom had created a nickname for me: "Wrong Way Yeh." Very witty.

Lunch: Cafe Pinot, across the street from the U.S. Bank Tower. Very fancy, and probably very expensive. I had a Kobe Beef burger, and we got some sort of tuna-avocado-sushi-thing. Tasty.

Quasi-Lawyer Me

2006-05-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

The summer associate job is a means for firms to recruit new blood. They treat us like real lawyers, pay us like real lawyers, and pamper us to no end, in an effort to convince us to stay. I have my own office with a great view, a secretary, and even my own personalized memo pad. Pretty nifty.

One of the things I distinctly remember being told about the summer associate experience is the free lunch. One of the 2L's told me that she never had to pay for lunch her entire summer. Pretty sweet. Of course, the firm she worked at was a little larger than Nossaman, so I'm not necessarily expecting that to be the case here. Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to start working out or something because the food is tasty, and tasty food = fatty.

Today's Lunch: Chicken Marsala at The Bonaventure Brewery. Brandon and Melissa two second-year associates, took us. Not bad. Apparently the firm likes to have a lot of mixers and happy hours there, so I'll probably be seeing more of it.

My First Day

2006-05-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

What a whirlwind 48 hours its been. My parents drove up on Saturday and helped me pack. We drove down Sunday morning, got home by Sunday afternoon, I worked on CLR until midnight, woke up this morning at 6:00 AM, and left for work by 7:30.

It was raining this morning, so mind-numbing traffic is as certain as death and taxes. To make things worse, downtown LA has a series of one-way streets. Lemme tell you, one-way streets and I do NOT mix. I made a right turn onto Flower Ave, only to have a woman with an umbrella wave frantically at me and scream "nononono!" I didn't understand why she was screaming that until I looked up and saw a wall of headlights. Crap. I made a quick U-turn in the intersection, dodged about 4 cars coming crossways, and finally made it into the office at 9:30. I was supposed to be there at 9AM sharp. Not a great way to make a first impression, I suppose.

Anyway, it turns out that everyone here at Nossaman is very easygoing. My co-summers, Adam and Ashley, are 2L's from USC Law, and they were here last summer as 1L's. I spent pretty much all day learning policies and procedures, filling out forms, learning to use the phones, and learning to use the billing software. We also got a grand tour of the office, and I met 50 attorneys, none of whom I can remember at this moment.

All in all, not too bad for my first day. I didn't do any "real" work -- apparently that's coming in a few days. Except for the commute, I could get used to this sort of work...

One Down...

2006-05-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

Torts final today. Just 3 more to go before I reach 2L-ness...

The Admits Are Coming! The Admits Are Coming!

2006-04-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

Today is Admit Day, the day when those who've received an acceptance packet for the Class of 2009 come to Berkeley, see the crappy facilites, make shallow judgments, and after meeting the people and the professors, decide to come to Boalt.

I had a very similar experience around this time last year. Having seen Stanford Law just the day before, I remember being distinctly unimpressed with the building and the classrooms. The intro video featuring Dean Edley malfunctioned, loose springs in the auditorium chairs were poking my butt, the classrooms were falling apart, the student panels were boring, the tours were boring, and Berkeley in general smelled like pee. "Well, at least there's free food here," I thought.

Then, at the activities fair, I talked to people from the BTLJ, APALSA, and ALJ. Awesome people. Then I met some 2L's and 3L's, and became even more impressed. They took me around the School, showed me the student group offices, and then took us to Telegraph for boba. By the end of the day, I was still very much disappointed with the environment, but very much impressed with the atmosphere.

One year later, here I am in a BTLJ shirt (I don't have an APALSA shirt right now), ready to coerce some pre-1L's. Hell, I might even grab some and take them around.

As for the atmosphere? It turns out my intuition was right. A friend of mine told me that I was one of the only people she knew who was genuinely happy at law school. Conincidence? I think not.

Boalt Hall, Back Again

2006-04-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

The U.S. News & World Report rankings of top law schools for 2007 is out, and everyone here at Boalt is happier than they've been for a while. Boalt Hall is back in the Top 10 after a 3 year absence. Woohoo!

The facilites are still crappy, but Dean Edley has been doing a great job of getting top-notch faculty and increasing funding for several public interest programs. One of the original reasons I decided to come to Boalt despite the fact that it has one of the most downtrodden classrooms I've ever seen, is the fact that all the people here were super-friendly and just generally awesome. Since coming here, I've never regretted it. So here's to Boalt... may its rankings continue to rise.

Foxtrot + Torts = Awesome

2006-03-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

Haha I love how I can always count on Foxtrot to be dorkily awesome...

Yodelay-hee-hoo

2006-03-07T11:57:00.000-08:00

Ohmigod... I'm sitting in CivPro II right now and Prof. Bundy just whipped out a guitar.

We're discussing subject matter jurisdiction today, and the case is Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Mottley, about plaintiffs injured in an accident on a train and their subsequent inability to have their state claim heard before the Supreme Court because they did not raise a federal question in their "well-pleaded complaint."

Back to the song -- I forgot the name and artist of the song he's playing right now, but it's about trains. It actually has like, nothing to do with jurisdiction, subject matter or otherwise. I suspect he just needed an excuse to show off his mad James Taylor-like skills.

Anyways, Mottley is an interesting case, and the topic today is pretty interesting too. I for one, have been wondering what subject matter jurisdiction (or "SMJ" as those in the know call it) was, ever since I first heard about it in CivPro last semester.

Yikes... now he's yodeling. But at least he can hold a tune. He's actually not half bad...

*applause*

Awkward

2006-03-06T00:37:00.000-08:00

Have you even been in the situation where someone is pursuing you, and you know that they really really want you, but you don't return their feelings, you don't want them, and thus are stuck in the uncomfortable situation of having to tell them the truth, knowing full well that you're going to break their heart? You know that feeling? I'm facing just such a situation -- with Northwestern Law.

Northwestern accepted me last year, but deferred me until Fall 2006, citing my need for "work experience." I would have said no and been done with them if it wasn't for the full ride they were also offering, should I accept. Wow. It's nice to be wanted.

I paid the nominal deposit and kept Northwestern on the backburner. After I came to Berkeley, I forgot I even had them on hold (I think it happened somewhere between the promissory estoppel in Contracts and the res judicata in CivPro).

Anyway, I was reminded suddenly one February morning when I received an email from the Northwestern Law APALSA welcoming me. Soon thereafter, a steady stream of emails about Admit Day, upcoming events, and even housing filled my inbox. Yikes, I thought... I should probably tell them what's up.

My guilt over forgetting about them was finally sealed when I received a FedEx package at home. When I opened it, I found this:

Holy Crap! The Northwestern Law admissions packet!

"It's so nice!" I thought. And for a split second (emphasis on the split), I considered going to Northwestern. Alas, my bonds of friendship and loyalty, not to mention my housing, financial aid, and faculty connections already had roots that ran deep to the heart of Boalt Hall.

So today, I mailed out the rejection form to Northwestern. I know that somewhere soon in Chicago, an admissions officer will be crying. But it's for the best. And maybe -- just maybe, we can still be friends.

Bruins > Bears

2006-03-02T23:26:00.000-08:00

A lot of my friends have asked me whether, now that I'm up here at Cal, my loyalties lie with Berkeley. My answer is pretty much an unequivocal "HELL NO." My loyalty lies with my undergrad institution, my first love, UCLA. How deep are those loyalties, you ask? Well, enough to wear a UCLA sweatshirt deep into "Bear Territory" at tonight's Cal vs. UCLA game.

I went with a couple of other UCLA alumni/Boalties, as well as a handful of Cal alumni/Boalties. I never went to any basketball games while I was an undergrad, so it was my first UCLA basketball game. Yeah, I know -- it's kinda sad. It was billed as a pretty big game though, as both teams were tied for first at the top of the Pac-10. Thus, the winner of this game would be the undisputed conference leader. Needless to say, the Haas Pavilion was packed:

As the picture indicates, UCLA people were put in the nosebleeds. At the half, Deana (a Cal Boaltie) and I decided to just stand at the entrance to one of the lower sections. The result was a much, much better view:

Here's UCLA showing Cal what's what:

It was such a good game... it even went into overtime. Luckily, UCLA didn't disappoint as they eked out a win at the last minute.

The final score (it's fuzzy because my hand was shaking from the excitement):

All in all, a very good game. Not bad for my very first time.

Nossa-men

2006-03-01T17:50:00.000-08:00

While I was sitting in Torts ASP yesterday, I got a phone call from "unavailable." I checked my voice mail afterward, and lo and behold, it was a partner from Nossaman extending me an offer to work in the L.A. office for the summer. "Nice," I said calmly.

No just kidding. I think I screamed a little.

You see, I only applied to one summer job. While friends of mine were mass mailing and sending out emails left and right to judges, nonprofits, and firms, I and my friend Thomas took the path of least resistance: sign up for OCIP, have one single on-campus interview, have one single callback interview, then pray and knock on wood. I guess that approach (combined with the 12 thank you notes) worked, but I think the advice I'll be giving to 1L's next year is to definitely NOT do what I did.

Today, my buddy Thomas also got an offer from the Nossaman office in Sacramento. We're both pretty darn excited. Apparently, the entire firm has some sort of field trip to Sacramento in the middle of the summer where they gather up all the summer associates from all the offices and show us how real lawyers lobby it up over there. I'll probably see Thomas there. It should be fun.

Hallelujah! This summer I'm comin' home to L.A.!

Legal Writing Sucks

2006-02-27T13:05:00.000-08:00

Before I go further, let me make it clear that I've never pulled an all-nighter ever in my life. But law school has definitely brought me to the brink several times.

Here's a timeline of the typical last-minute legal brief, as experienced last night/this morning:

1:30 PM: Get back from APALSA Tahoe ski trip

2:45 PM: Sit down in the library and "begin work" on brief due the next day

5:00 PM: Stop surfing the net and start reading cases for the brief

7:34 PM: Look at how many more cases you have to read; despair.

8:01 PM: Go to dinner

8:32 PM: Eat dinner at Asian Food Ghetto

9:37 PM: Get back to library from dinner/boba run

9:41 PM: Keep reading cases; start typing

10:48 PM: Look at the three paragraphs you've written; despair

11:30 PM: Keep reading cases; ignore the library staff anouncing that the library is closing at midnight

11:53 PM: Look at the three-and-a-half paragraphs you've written; sigh

12:03 AM: Leave the law school; sigh heavily

1:13 AM: Sit down at home and begin paper again

1:48 AM: Keep writing paper; make tea

2:21 AM: Start on sixth paragraph

2:55 AM: Curse at self for not starting paper earlier; keep writing

3:27 AM: Notice that you're starting to write things that don't make sense; struggle to keep eyes open.

3:28 AM: Surrender to fatigue; take a "nap" on your futon

6:31 AM: Wake up; curse; start paper again

6:32 AM: Find that in your half-asleep stupor, you've written "The Country of Algeria is excited to begin training" (perfect capitalization and everything) under the section in which you were supposed to discuss the legal definition of "employee."

6:43 AM - 9:58 AM: Type type type; finish paper

10:02 AM - 10:30 AM: "nap" on top of your bed

10:50 AM: Leave for school

Anyways, those ~20 hours were quite the adventure. As much fun as they were however, I think I'd like to try to avoid doing that ever again. Ever.

"Thank You!" x12

2006-02-23T23:19:00.000-08:00

Callback interviews are a lot like Christmas. Granted, there are no jovial Santa-type figures (unless you count some of the partners that interviewed you), but they do involve the bittersweet process of writing thank you cards.

It's common practice to send thank you cards to the firm after having an callback interview. Of course, handwritten ones are more genuine and thus more effective than emails, and so they are preferred whenever possible. As much of a hassle as it is to write the cards, its usually not too big of a deal since you only usually interview with 5 or 6 attorneys in any given callback.

In my case, I interviewed with 12 attorneys. This was the result:

Don't get me wrong -- I'm glad they called me in for an interview. *knock on wood* But I mean, c'mon. Twelve handwritten thank you notes is pushing the bounds of human physical ability. As I signed my last card and sealed it, I was pleasantly surprised and somewhat relieved to discover that, contrary to expectations, I didn't spontaneously develop carpal-tunnel right there.

Bar Fight

2006-02-21T16:36:00.000-08:00

In many ways, law school is a break. It's a nice three-year breather situated between two colossal tests: the LSAT and the Bar Exam.

The LSAT is a bitch. Anyone in law school who has lost weeks and months off their lifespans prepping for the test will tell you that it's almost not worth it. The sleepless nights, the immense stress, and the seemingly endless LSAT problems somehow meld together into a nightmarish cocktail of living hell. The best part is that like the SAT, your score is only useful until you get accepted to a school. After that, it means nothing. For example, I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard the phrase "LSAT" mentioned since coming to Boalt.

The Bar Exam is bigger than the LSAT. Way way bigger. The California Bar is a three-day ordeal covering such topics as Property, Constitutional Law, and Trusts & Estates. Most 3Ls devote their last semester in law school to studying for it. And of course, you can't practice law until you've taken it.

The fact that law school is something of a valley between two standardized test peaks is something I think all law students try not to think about too much. But eventually, the time comes to face The Beast, and the recent law graduate discovers what he or she is made of (turns out it's mostly case law with some doctrine filler).

Given the amount of stress that a life-altering test of this magnitude can impose, it's probably not too heartening then to discover (for us Californians at least) that the California Bar is the hardest bar exam in the country. Mayors, famous attorneys, and even prominent legal scholars have all failed it. On the bright side if you fail, at least you''ll know you're in good company.

*goes back to not thinking about it*

Callback City

2006-02-17T21:56:00.000-08:00

Callback interview with Nossaman today in their L.A. office. 4 hours, 6 sessions, 12 attorneys, no holds barred.

They seem like a really good firm in terms of letting their attorneys actually have a life. Everyone was really friendly too, and they all seemed to like where they were.

I think the interview turned out okay. And until I hear back from them, that's all I'm going to say for now. *knocks on wood*

Valentine's Day in Law School

2006-02-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

...is pretty much like every other day in law school. Except Prof. Bundy was super-awesome and gave us candy hearts before diving into a discussion of personal jurisdiction and service of process. He also took some time to talk to us about his Valentine, Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson.

Justice Jackson turned out to be a pretty amazing guy in terms of intelligence, achievements, and good looks. He also wrote a 1952 concurring opinion in Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer in which he made an eerily prescient comment about the limits of Presidential Executive power:

"... The Executive, except for recommendation and veto, has no legislative power... With all its defects, delays, and inconveniences, men have discovered no technique for long preserving free government except that the Executive be under the law and that the law be made by parliamentary deliberations.

Such institutions may be destined to pass away, but it is the duty of the Court to be the last, not first, to give them up."

[---]

Also, in something that kinda overlaps with the "Boalt = Crusty Old High School" series, there were candy-grams that people could buy from the African American student group and have delivered to other peoples' lockers. I didn't receive any, but that's okay because I can feel the love from my friends, and that's all that matters, right?

I was somewhat jealous of all the candy that people were eating in class, but it's no biggie. Prof. Bundy's candy hearts kept me going, even if they DID taste a little like crunchy Pepto Bismol.

Today in Torts

2006-02-13T10:20:00.000-08:00

So today, we were discussing the levels of duty of care imposed on landowners toward visitors and trespassers. It turns out that there are special rules when the visitors are children. Naturally, I had a brilliant and enlightening question for Prof. Charo:

Me:
So like, you know how you mentioned before that children are viewed by the law as essentially mentally impaired?
(I was leading into an even more brilliant point)

Simple enough question, right? What I didn't expect was her answer:

Prof. Charo:
Yes, but don't put that in your blog.

Me:
*meekly* How'd you know I had a blog?

...weird.

My Hero

2006-02-10T15:37:00.000-08:00

In WOA, we're working on writing briefs for a semi-fictional case in which some former partners for a law firm are suing their former place of employment in the grounds that they were forced to retire in violation of the ADEA (which outlaws discrimination on the basis of age). Mod 6 is representing the plaintiffs, and of course my Mod is defending the law firm. Later in the semester we're going to face-off in oral arguments.

Right now, my Mod is researching cases to support our argument that the EEOC (who is representing the plaintiffs) can't file independant charges without the individual persons having had done so already. Alternatively, we're arguing that partners in law firms shouldn't be considered "employees" as defined by the ADEA.

One of the cases we're using to support our side is EEOC v. U.S. Steel, a 1990 case whose opinion was written by none other than that champion of workers' rights, Samuel Alito. I think it's funny that, given all the press about how Alito is so conservative and an opponent of individuals' rights, my Mod and I were relieved and somewhat excited to find this gem of an opinion that supports our position perfectly. Of course, this also has everything to do with the fact that our position is also anti-"little guy."

I guess this is what it's like to work for The Man. :-)

Anonymous Lawyer

2006-02-09T15:33:00.000-08:00

Thomas told me about Anonymous Lawyer, an awesomely hilarious blog that chronicles the exploits of "a fictional hiring partner at a large law firm in a major city." I couldn't not pass it on, it being related subject-wise to my own blog and all.

The entry from Sunday:

A few readers alerted me to some recent problems with the Blogger service that hosts this page. There was apparently a service interruption earlier this week. This is why computers will never replace associates. Computers break down. But associates can work non-stop provided the punishment is set high enough for those who disappoint. Computers can't be punished. There are no incentive programs I can devise to make my Internet connection faster or my hard drive less likely to crash. But tell an associate he won't make partner unless he stays in the office for the next 96 hours working on a brief, and he'll do it. Every time. Or we'll fire him and find someone willing to make the necessary sacrifices. Computers don't learn their lessons either. My associates know the punishment for mistakes and they don't repeat past ones. Computers keep crashing, with no worry about the consequences. Devise a computer that can hear me screaming, and quiver in fear -- then maybe I'll hire him. Until then, I'll stick with people.

Hahaha wherever this Anonymous Firm is (have a feeling it's somewhere in SoCal), I definitely don't want to work there.

Of Property And Popcorn

2006-02-07T22:56:00.000-08:00

What's the difference between Property class and AP classes in high school? Not much apparently.

The last couple of days Prof. Volpp has been showing us movies in lieu of lecture and discussion. While the documentary about the Emeryville Shellmound came as a much-needed break last Thursday, we thought it was more of a "treat" than a regular thing. I mean, I was told that the first year of law school was the most grueling year of your life. Nobody said anything about movies.

Apparently, the in-class movie thing wasn't a fluke because Prof. Volpp showed us another movie today: Up For Grabs. It's about the litigation that arose out of a dispute between a couple of baseball fans over the historic 73rd home run ball hit by Barry Bonds in 2001. It runs kinda long, so we're actually going to finish it tomorrow. Combined with the fact that Property was cancelled yesterday, this means that we have no new reading this week, at all.

While I'm not complaining by any means (both documentaries are fascinating), it's a little unnerving. Maybe it's the fact that the guilt complex that drives us law students to constantly fill our time with studying is triggered when we spend an entire class period enjoying ourselves. Or maybe it's because this all seems like some sort of elaborate trap. I'm half-expecting a buttload of reading for next week as perhaps some sort of karmic payback.

Digest

2006-02-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

New back-posts:

1/10/2006: I See Different People
1/16/2006: Property... Finally!

Quote of the Day

2006-02-07T09:52:00.000-08:00

“Aww... are you finding law school unsatisfactory? If you want a more clear and definite answer, go to engineering school.”

-Torts Prof. Charo, responding to a student who felt that the law was "too uncertain."

Thank You Testmasters

2006-02-06T16:26:00.000-08:00

Oh my freeking goodness. I never thought this would happen, but stuff I learned in LSAT prep has actually helped me in law school.

[Stop reading if you don't care about technical legal jargon or other law school nonsense]

I'm reading Burnham v. Superior Court of California for CivPro II, in which the Supreme Court was faced with deciding whether service of process that granted jurisdiction over an individual physically present but lacking minimum contacts with a given jurisdiction was compatible with the Due Process Clause. The Petitioner's argument was that since past Court rulings had established that presence was not necessary in order to satisfy Due Process, presence was also not sufficent to satisfy Due Process. The Court ended up ruling against him, noting that the Petitioner had messed up his logic. While presence was not necessary, it was sufficient.

For those of you who have taken Testmasters- doesn't that sound familiar? Holy S&!*#. After I took the LSAT I threw my books in a corner, convinced that I would never need them again. What do you know... I guess sometimes logic does find its way into the law.

Also, shame on the Petitioner's lawyer for not paying better attention in LSAT prep.

Digest

2006-02-05T12:45:00.000-08:00

Posted a couple of back-entries:

1/9/2006: First Day of School, Spring Edition
1/23/2006: Day of Reckoning
1/31/2006: Things That Make You Go Hmmm

So Like, Tell Me About Yourself

2006-02-02T16:03:00.000-08:00

As many of you may know, the second semester of 1L year is job-huntin' season. We have two free summers during law school, and we are expected to make full use of them in order to expedite our conversion to The Dark Side (i.e. get legal experience). What's interesting is that the job offer you get for the 2L summer is the one that usually becomes your permanent job, because (unless you're inept) it's expected that you will receive a job offer at the end of the summer. Thus, where you decide to work for your 2L summer is a very important decision to make.

If it's true that the 2L summer is the make-or-break, life-altering, fate-sealing, end-all-be-all of summers in the law student's life, then it's equally true that the 1L summer is nothing more than free time to dick around. Well, to an extent. Employers during interviews for 2L summer jobs don't really care where you've worked, as long as you've been doing more than just working at IHOP all summer. Most 1L's get jobs with judges, non-profit organizations, public defenders, DA offices, and once in a while, law firms.

The nice thing about Boalt being one of the top-tier law schools is that we don't have to actively solicit interviews if we don't want to. Instead, the employers come to the school and hold interviews on-campus. It's nice because that way we don't have to drive/fly/taxi to wherever the office is, and also because law students are lazy.

Anyways, I had a job interview today with Nossaman, Gunther, Knox & Elliott, a mid-size law firm. All four of them. Just kidding. I was interviewed by two partners, who were very nice people. So how was it? Pretty fun, actually. It turns out that as long as your resume and other materials are solid, all that the employer is really interested in is what kind of a person you are. As a result, the interview is pretty much just a 30 minute conversation with the interviewers.

I got a good vibe from them and from the firm in general, so I'll see how it pans out *knocks on wood*. I have a couple of applications to various judges and whatnot too, so I'm waiting to hear back from them too. From what I've heard talking to 2L's and 3L's, there's no need to worry, since everyone eventually ends up with a job... *knocks on wood*

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

2006-01-31T14:11:00.000-08:00

Today in property, we learned that it's illegal to pay for blood (like, you know, for a blood bank) in cash. However, check is okay.

Dusting Off

2006-01-31T11:00:00.000-08:00

I think that one of the downsides of the winter vacation, as short as it was, is the tendency to forget and then lose your work ethic. Then when you get back to school, the work hits you like an angry linebacker on steroids. It doesn't help either when the vacation has also sucked out all your motivation to study. If its true that your first year of law school is like drinking out of a firehose, then it's doubly true that your first few weeks after winter break is like being thrown in front of a fire truck.

No, I haven't stopped updating my blog (though I appreciate the concern). I've just been taking an extended vacation from it. This doesnt mean that I haven't been writing entries... I just haven't been posting them (sweet sweet Blogger). Check back in the coming days for back-entries about my first 3.5 weeks of spring semester.

Also, it probably doesn't help that I've been hooked on watching the first and second seasons of Lost (thanks Thomas... thanks for NOTHING). Everyone should watch it, and watch it soon. Unless you're a law student.

Coloring Book For Lawyers, Part 1

2006-01-30T16:53:00.000-08:00

This morning, Shawn, our Torts ASP instructor, gave us a packet of hypos. This was on the back. I looked it up on Google and apparently it's part of a series, so you'll be seeing a couple more in the coming weeks. Personally, my underpants are blue.

Day of Reckoning

2006-01-23T21:50:00.000-08:00

Grades came out today. The mood in the law school was decidedly somber.

In general, law school is a pretty friendly place (well, okay at least Boalt it is). People are willing to share notes, talk about the material, and study together. There are only two exceptions to this comraderie: grades and jobs.

I guess it's the idea that you 1) don't want to appear arrogant by tooting your horn if you've done well, and 2) don't want to offend/piss off/make cry anybody who didn't do as well as you. I haven't experienced it yet, but I hear the same rationales apply when job interview time comes around.

As a result, only close friends share their grades. To everyone else, you just give a vague answer when asked about grades.

"I did fine."
"I did okay."
"I did as well as I expected"
"I did well"

I have a theory, though. When people say they did "well," it means they got at least one H. When people say they did "very well," it means they got at least one HH. I haven't figured out the rest, though I'm working on it.

So I'm sure you're all wondering how I did, right?

I did fine. ;-)

Property... Finally!

2006-01-16T16:31:00.000-08:00

First property class was today, and Prof. Volpp started it off with a slightly teary reminder to us to not let school and work take predence over our interpersonal relationships. Apparently it was her mom that recently died, and so she wanted to emphasize the fact that people aren't always going to be around forever.

I can tell that this class is going to have a significant social policy aspect to it. After all, what is the nature of property but the right to exclude others? And excluding others is usually the cause of injustice.

Take for example, the case we discussed today, Johnson v. M'Intosh. It was an early 1800's case revolving around the land rights of Native Americans, where the Supreme Court ruled that Native Americans had no ownership rights in the U.S. The rationale was that the U.S. government derived its rights from the Europeans, who derived their right to own the land from their "discovery" of the land and their "conquest" of the uncivilized indigenous people. Why did the White man get to "discover" the land when it was so obvious that it had already been discovered before? Justice Marshall's reasoning was that the Native Americans were too primitive to make "proper" use of the land.

Go ahead and let that sink in.

It looks like property will be an interesting class.

I See Different People

2006-01-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

Last semester, my entire schedule was set and pretty regularized. Every day of every week, I saw the same people (namely the people in my Mod and my uber-Mod, 4, 5, 6). Our schedule was especially taxing, and so I rarely saw non-1L’s. I also rarely saw people outside my uber-Mod, since each uber-Mod had a different schedule setup. For example, I never saw people from Mods 1, 2, or 3, since their schedules were so different. As a result, I simply concluded that they didn’t exist, like Wyoming. I even had a name for them: the "Mythical Mods."

Now that some of my classes are electives, I’m seeing lots of people I’ve never seen before. I can only assume that they are either 2L’s , 3L’s, or people from the Mythical Mods.

As I sit here now in the library, I’m looking around and seeing completely foreign faces. I’m also seeing people who I used to only run into in the hallways. During passing periods, I notice that almost everyone in the locker room is foreign to me. In a way it's nice to know that the law school is so diverse, but it's also weird, like in high school when there were people at your graduation you were only seeing for the first time.

First Day of Class, Spring Edition

2006-01-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

So I had my first day of class today. Everyone agreed that it felt a little weird to be back in school, and the day felt pretty weird in general. A sense of "I shouldn't be here... what am I doing here? Why am I back in school?" pervaded everything. It's definitely going to take a little while to get back into the swing of things.

This semester, I'm taking a heavier load than last semester:
Property
Torts
Legislation
Written and Oral Advocacy
Civil Procedure II

My Torts prof, Alta Charo, is very peppy, which is nice given that our class starts 15 minutes earlier in the morning than Crim last semester (8:45 AM, bloody hell). She seems a little less organized than say, super-structured Prof. Talley in Contracts, but at least she has a structure, unlike Prof. Westen.

Legislation is taught by Prof. Phillip Frickey, who apparently pioneered this entire field of study. He co-wrote our casebook, for example. I guess you could say it's the quintessential "lawyer" class, since it's all about how to split hairs on the meaning of words in a law. Today, for example, we spent the entire period discussing what "approach" meant for the purposes of a left-turn traffic law (If a statute makes it illegal to make a left turn when cars are "approaching" from the opposite direction, and if you make a left turn as soon as the traffic light turns green but before any of the oncoming cars have moved yet, is it technically illegal?). Anyways, the material is kinda interesting. Seems like it'll be useful. Prof. Frickey is engaging, but hard to follow. I've heard that despite the dry material, it's wothwhile and it'll pay off in the long run. I hope it's true, because I know a lot of people who are already thinking about dropping it.

WOA seems like it'll be fun this semester. We get to write argumentative briefs (as opposed to objective memos), and at the end of the class we get to practice trial technique and make oral arguments before a panel of judges. It's also always nice to see our super-sweetheart instructor Lindsey.

All my Property classes were cancelled this week, due to a death Prof. Volpp's family. :-( I've heard from people who took property last semester that it's probably the hardest of the first-year core classes. I've heard good things about Prof. Volpp, so hopefully it won't be so bad.

CivPro II is tomorrow. I'm really excited because I love CivPro (there's something oddly alluring about rules and procedure), and Prof. Bundy is considered one of the best professors at Boalt.

[---]

Second Semester

2006-01-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

Sooo here I am back in Berkeley. It's a kind of weird to be back. It's even weirder to think that it's only been 2 weeks since I was here. It's even more weirder (can I say that?) to think that two weeks can feel soooo long even though it's the shortest winter break I've had since high school.

Class starts tomorrow bright and early at 8:45am, 15 minutes earlier than last semester. Luckily, for me at least, it ends at 3:00pm, 2 hours earlier than last semester. Seriously, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the extra time. Maybe I'll learn to knit.

I haven't bought my textbooks and I haven't done the reading for the first day of class tomorrow. I've decided to extend my vacation for just a few hours longer.

[---]

Happy New Year!

2006-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! It's kinda scary to think that I'm going to be back in Berkeley in only a week. Then again, what better way to ring in the new year than prepare for law school?

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-25T11:29:00.000-08:00

Man this has been a hectic past couple of days. I think the worst thing about having finals end only 3 days before Christmas is the fact that since we law students don't have any time to shop for gifts while studying, we're forced to get all our shopping done at the last minute (the worst time to do it). In past years, I would scoff at the people who were out on Christmas Eve doing "last minute shopping." "Should've done it earlier," I would say. Last night, standing in line at Borders just before closing time, with gifts piled up to my chin, I reached a sort of understanding.

Target looked like it got hit by a tornado, especially the toy and electronics sections. The mall was jam-packed with people, and the lines everywhere were out of control. Drivers are also especially bad this time of year. I think its because they're too busy thinking about the people left on their lists to notice other cars... or other people. Yesterday for instance, I almost got hit three times. One of those times I wasn't even in a car.

Anyways, I'm glad that Christmas is finally here. It's like the shopping day off. Come Monday, it's going to be nuts again as people return stuff and go post-Christmas bargain-hunting.

I learned my lesson this year. From now on, I'm doing my Christmas shopping in August.

Home For The Holidays

2005-12-22T22:36:00.000-08:00

Welp, after a good 5 hours of traveling (walking -> bus -> BART -> AirBART shuttle -> airport -> airplane -> car), I'm finally home for two [measley] weeks of vacation. The nice thing about Christmas vacation in post-high school education is the fact that there's no homework during the vacation. You can just relax and not worry about having to finish a paper or read a case or something.

Well... okay there is one thing I have to worry about. Starting December 1, we plucky law students are allowed to send letters to potential employers requesting jobs for the upcoming summer. Most people I know put off the stress of sending out dozens and dozens of resumes and cover letter until after finals. Now that finals are over, the stress doth rear its ugly head once more.

Alright enough with the bitching. This whole employment application thing shouldn't be too bad once I get the hang of mail merge. Postage is gonna be expensive like a muther though...

[---]

Wait a second... it took me five hours to get home? Shit... And I took a plane too. I should've just hitched a ride with someone driving down. It would've spared me the inconvenience of having to walk to the bus stop in pouring rain... or being squeezed in the back of a place to the point where my butt fell asleep...

Free At Last

2005-12-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

I haven't left my apartment for 4 days. That's right- for almost 100 hours, I've seen nothing other than the walls of my little 1000 square-foot piece of Berkeley heaven. Granted, it's been raining like a mofo these past couple of days and so I wouldn't want to go outside even if I could, but still its the principle of the thing.

I got home after running some errands on Saturday, and I immediately dove into learning everything there is to learn about criminal law. Prof. Westen's final is a take-home final, and so after we download it from the school server, we have 24 hours to write up our answers and upload it back to the server. Not too bad, assuming that you've studied. As of Saturday, I hadn't studied. So for 2.5 days, I stayed in bed, with my laptop in my, well, lap, reading Westen's memos and outlining, leaving my covers only if I needed to use the bathroom. Then, yesterday at 1:40pm, I took a deep breath and downloaded the final. 24 hours later, I've written over 3000 words, proofread it, and uploaded it back to the server.

Holy moly, I guess I'm done with finals.

I think my first act as a free man will be to do my laundry (free men require clean underwears). Then maybe I'll actually leave my apartment building. I should check my mail.

Contracts Final Tomorrow!

2005-12-15T23:17:00.000-08:00

About 60% of it is going to be short answer and multiple choice. There's only going to be one essay question. How weird is that? Everyone is freaking out about the non-essay section too.

I remember a time when students greeted multiple choice questions with a sigh of relief, while essay questions were to be feared. Not anymore. In law school, essays = chance to bullshit/grab partial credit points. Take that away from us, and we're left with the prospect of answering questions that might actually have *gasp!* a right and a wrong answer...

CivPro Final Tomorrow!

2005-12-11T19:05:00.000-08:00

Finals Weeks = Final weeks...

2005-12-09T17:41:00.000-08:00

...of my sanity.

Before coming to law school, plenty of people told me "you need to save your personality and your social life to disk before you enter law school, and then reboot it when you graduate."

I guess the point of this cumbersome and somewhat technically incorrect analogy was to emphasize the fact that law school would take up every single waking hour of your life to the exclusion of friends, fun, and frivolity.

After coming to Boalt, I quickly learned that this wasn't necessarily true. I had plenty of fun and my share of frivolity, with plenty of studying time to spare. I'm convinced that whoever said that you couldn't have a life in law school was obviously not a Boaltie.

But now that finals are around the corner, I'm realizing that there may have been some truth to that saying, at least during finals. Every single day this week I've been waking up early, going to class/review sessions, then outlining in the library until my brains fall out. Each day, I've gotten home no earlier than 1:00am, only to go to bed and start again the next day. I haven't had time to call friends, email, blog, or even cook dinner. To everyone who I've been meaning to call: Sorry! Chris will be back in a few weeks.

So here I am, on a Friday night, in the library. *Looks at watch* Shit! I gotta get back to work!

[---]

P.S. if you see any new blog entires, the likelihood is that I already had them pre-written and pending in Blogger. Just one more reason why I like the Big B better than Xanga...

THIS Is What I Came to Law School For

2005-12-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

Today in contracts we learned whether or not you have to pay that squeegee guy who comes over to your car when you're stopped at a traffic light and squeegees your window without your request and then expects money for it.

Turns out that his expectation of being reimbursed for his "benefit conferred" isn't legally enforceable because there was no bargain or negotiation for the exchange. They even have a name for these types of people: officious intermeddlers.

So pretty much, if you don't pay him, he can’t sue you for the money. He can still probably break your window though.

Finally! Some practical knowledge!

The End Cometh...

2005-11-30T10:39:00.000-08:00

A surefire way to tell that the end of the semester (and thus, the impending Doom that is finals) is near is when you get to the end of the assigned readings for your classes.

Yesterday, I finshed the readings for Contracts and CivPro, and the last readings for Crim are around the corner. I have to admit, it's a little weird. It's kinda like saying "goodbye" to a good friend. A good friend that weighs 10 pounds. And sits on your back. Every day.

Normally, this isn't really a big deal since I had as much, if not more reading as an undergrad. However, I feel a certain... affinity for my law readings because, unlike undergrad, I did all the reading. Every. Freeking. Single. Page. Now that's devotion.

Hell, after reading 1,000+ pages over a span of 14 weeks, you'd become attached to your textbooks too.

I think that some of the weirdness also stems from the fact that the end of reading means there's nothing left to do but study for finals. O_O

Pop Quiz

2005-11-29T09:27:00.000-08:00

My buddy Thomas, who sits next to me in Crim, was like “Soooo good....”

To what was he referring to?

A. Today’s lecture about complicity/aiding and abetting
B. The cute girl in the third row
C. The cute guy on the other side of the room
D. Prof. Westen’s handwriting
E. The ~~Bailey’s Irish Crème~~ Kahlua “special additive” in his coffee

Turkey Day!

2005-11-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

Goin' home for Thanksgiving today. When I get back, it'll be T-minus 2 weeks until finals.

I've been flying up and down California a lot these days, and one of the things I'll definitely be looking forward to is the airport security people making me take my laptop out of my bag to be screened separately.

Have a good Thanksgiving!

This Is the Sound of Studying

2005-11-21T11:35:00.000-08:00

Two and half weeks until finals!

I was told by many people that the atmosphere around the law school would get really stressful as finals approached. I can't say that I sense that yet, though for a couple weeks now, there's been an undercurrent of unease as I suspect that many 1L's are beginning to freak out in private.

I think a lot of the stress has to do with the fact that 100% of our grade is based on the final. No midterms, no papers, no quizzes. If your first year in law school really is like drinking out of a fire hose, how is one supposed to study for such a beast?

It turns out there are a lot of different ways to tackle the massive amounts of material that they throw at us. The most popular way to do it is with outlines: 10- to 30-page pieces of academic flotsam filled with nuggets of knowledge. Essentially, we take everything we've learned the entire semester, boil it down to the important stuff, then put it down in bullet-point form.

At the beginning of the semester, lots of 2Ls and 3Ls were telling us to start early- as much as a month and a half before finals. I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to wait a little bit and start... this weekend. It turns out that the combined experience of 2Ls and 3Ls contains more wisdom than I initially thought. Outlines take a really really long time to work on. I spent this entire past weekend working on my Contracts outline, and I only got through a third of the course.

Of course, I could just do the easy thing and buy commercial outlines, but much of the learning actually comes from writing the outline yourself. Alternatively, I could opt not to outline at all and use my undergrad studying strategy (wait until a few days before the final then cram- really bad idea), but where's the fun in that? If you're the type that learns by doing stuff (whether it be taking notes or talking it out with a friend), then outlining is definitely one of the better ways to help you get as much out of the proverbial fire hose as you can.

Looks Like I Owe Someone $5...

2005-11-20T11:26:00.000-08:00

I got my elective assignments for next semester. As some of you may recall, the process for choosing the electives was somewhat complicated, involving evil robot hamsters.

I bid on 5 electives, and expected to get my #2 and #3 choices. This is because my #1 choice, CivPro II, had 1L enrollment capped at somewhere around 10. And given that it was being taught by one of the best professors at Boalt (he brings his guitar to class and sings songs about discovery... that's pretty badass), it's easy to see why the odds weren't exactly in my favor (somewhere around 1.5 students per mod or something).

I was so sure that I'd end up with Legislation and Constitutional Law that I made a bet on it (not sure with who though). I entered my choices, prayed a little, then waited anxiously as the hamsters did their thing.

Well this past Thursday, the registrar announced our class assignments, and lo and behold, I got my first and second elective choices. Woohoo!

Here are the classes I'm taking next semester:

Property
Torts
Written & Oral Advocacy
Civil Procedure II
Legislation

I'm pretty jazzed that I'm getting such a solid schedule. Apparently, nobody made any effort to fix the machine that randomly picked our classes, so some people I know actually got conflicting classes. I think the best part about next semester is that I get out every day no later than 3:30 PM, which, while compared to my undergrad schedule, is actually pretty pathetic, it still beats leaving school at 5:00.

What I Learned in Law School

2005-11-19T18:46:00.000-08:00

Dear Mom and Dad...

Boalt = Crusty Old High School, Part 3

2005-11-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

A little known fact: while the nasty mildew and other crap on the outside of Boalt Hall would lead one to believe that the school is "poorly maintained," it turns out it's just natural weathering, owing to the fact that it was built in the early 11th century by French Visigoths, who carved the school out of a limestone rock formation.

Deep Thoughts From Today's Classes

2005-11-14T17:32:00.000-08:00

A summary of what I learned today, in convenient, easy-to-digest haiku form:

Crim:
Attempted murder
Nobody got hurt from it
Why is it a crime?

Contracts:
I say "potato"
You think I say "tomato"
Is there a contract?

CivPro:
The jury was drunk
SCOTUS says that it's okay
But it still seems wrong

haha... I really enjoy haiku, and I don't know why.

Network like a Polaroid Picture

2005-11-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

Yikes! I haven't updated this for a while. But I have a good excuse! I've been working. Net-working.

This past week I went to not one, but two lawyer networking events. American Bar Association rules forbid 1L's from contacting potential employers about summer or future employment until December 1, but I've been told by 2L's and 3L's that these events are still a good chance to meet recruiters, talk to them in general terms about their firm, get some interpersonal conversational practice, and maybe even impress yourself on the minds of potential employers so that they remember you when they come back later for interviews.

[---]

On Wednesday, I went with some other members of the Berkekely Technology Law Journal to San Francisco for a "Women and Minority Law Student IP Summit," hosted by Microsoft.

There were several firms at the event handing out brochures and tons of sweet tchtotchkies. The main event of the night, however, was a talk given by 15 panelists representing the in-house counsel for huge tech companies:

I totally expected the Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft people to get into a Jerry Springer-like 3-way brawl on-stage, but it never happened. Bummer.

Afterward, there was a reception where we could talk to the panelists about their jobs, ask them questions about what it's like to work such huge companies, and maybe even get an email or two. I talked to the lawyers from Google, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo, and Microsoft. The Google and Yahoo people were really cool, and really seemed to like their jobs. The Microsoft people were kinda weird, though they also seemed to like their jobs too.

[---]

On Thurday night, the Berkeley Center for Law and Tech hosted a huge event where over 30 of the biggest law firms in IP came and set up tables with even more toys and junk.

I used the evening as an opportunity to learn the firms' names and get a feel for their corporate culture. I only got to talk to about 7 of the firms, but I was able to collect business cards and I think I already have a partial list of firms that I might like to work for.

Probably the most interesting thing I took away from the night was the realization that lawyers, even in their stodgy pinstripe suits and garish ties, are just like anyone else. All the lawyers I talked to were funny, weird, and even kinda goofy. Most of them seemed to like their jobs, though talking to them about firm life confirmed my suspicion that law school is a reflection of life in a law firm in the same way the SAT is a reflection of life in college: they're nothing alike.

[---]

My week of talking to the lawyers was immensely eye-opening, but I have to be honest. While making connections with people from companies like Google and Yahoo, and big firms like McDermott, Farella, and MoFo is incalcuably valuable, the sweet junk they hand out definitely comes in a close second on the hierarchy of awesomeness. Look at all this schwag!

Unfortunately, this only represents a fraction of the stuff available during the two nights. My Sidley Austin tote bag (not shown) just wasn't big enough to hold the other assorted pens, water bottles, highlighters, business card holders, photon lights, calculators, leather mouse pads, note cubes, and fishing lures that some of the other firms were offering. I think I'll be just as happy though, with my Weil foldy-useless-map-circuit-court-paperweight thingy.

Doo doo doo doo...

2005-11-07T13:16:00.000-08:00

That's the Windows start-up sound I hear every once in a while in the library or in class as someone forgets to turn off their speaker. It's a minor anoyance, but it serves as a reminder of just how prevalent laptops are in law school.

One of the most interesting things about law school is the fact that we take notes on laptops. I had always taken for granted the fact that I needed to buy one before school started, and like a good student, I got a nice Sony VAIO about a month before classes started. I guess I owe it to all the movies I'd seen about law school that showed people in class happily typing along on their sleek pieces of technological machinery.

Even after I got here, I never really gave it much thought until I talked to one of my mod-mates, Iris. "Don't you think it's odd that law school is the only graduate school where students take notes on compuers?" she asked me. "Uh... not really... well... maybe? Yeah sort of." I said. Iris (who, by the way, is a complete sweetheart- don't get me wrong) proceeded to explain to me that she planned to take all her notes with pen and paper, and that thirty years from now we laptop-istas would all regret using computers as we suffered from accelerated carpal-tunnel syndrome.

Then I got to thinking. Why is it that law students take notes on computers? I remember as an undergrad that to see someone taking notes on a computer was to automatically brand them an "overachiever" (or alternatively, "freak"). My friends in other grad schools all tell me that it's still rare to see students with laptops. But here in law school, latops are as common as... well, lawyers.

For me at least, I can definitely say that I'm glad I'm typing my notes instead of writing them. Given that my professors put handouts and slides on the web to download, it makes things that much easier. In many cases (like Talley's blazing-fast Contracts lectures), I think it would be physically impossible for students to keep up with the lecture if we were writing them by hand (I don't even want to imagine the massive hand cramps that would result... ever think about that, Iris?).

Perhaps most important of all, if I didn't have a computer at school, I wouldn't be able to write in my blog as often as I do. And I know that for many of you, that would be unbearable. :-)

Note to Self

2005-11-07T02:32:00.000-08:00

Start writing your memos a lot earlier than the day before they're due. Especially when you know they're going to be more than 15 pages long. And especially when you know you're going to procratinate like a muther.

Ugh... 14 hours, 3 cups of OJ, 2 cups of tea, 6 trips to the bathroom, and 17 pages later, I'm finally done with Memo 3. Yes yes, I know that LRW is only pass/no pass, but I'm going to use this memo for my writing sample when I apply for jobs at firms, and given that the memo is about copyright and fair use, I figure it might pique the interest of the big IP firms out there.

Haha the funny thing is, I'm not really done. I still need to proofread and print it before I turn it in tomorrow (today). Experience tells me that writing papers at 2 AM makes for seriously incoherent sentences.

Picking My Knows

2005-11-02T12:27:00.000-08:00

What week is this? 10th week? Seriously? Already? Shit. At UCLA this means that finals would be next week. Haha luckily, I'm not at UCLA. But what it does mean is that it's time to choose classes for next semester.

As you may remember from my earlier post, every 1L has to take the same set of courses no matter what school they're at. Currently, I'm taking Contracts, Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, and the first part of my lawyering skills class, which leaves Torts, Property, and the second part of my lawyering skills class for next semester. In addition to this already imposing schedule, Boalt requires us to choose two additional electives- no more, no less.

In order to take a bit of the stress out of process of competing for classes, the registrar set up this system where we submit our top 5 classes in order of preference, and some evil robot or oligarchical panel of hamsters choose two of them for us. Ideally, we're supposed to get our top 2 choices, but it's not guaranteed. You know how hamsters are.

Thus began the two-week-long stressfest that is elective-picking. The ordering element adds an extra level of complexity, since we not only have to choose five classes, but also our preference for them. To make things worse, Shawn (my ASP tutor) told us that while the robot that picks our classes is evil, it apparently isn't very smart because it might actually give you classes with conflicting class times.

Today is the deadline for bidding on classes, so after some thought and a great deal of procrastinating, I decided on my top 5 electives:

1. Civil Procedure II
2. Legislation
3. Constitutional Law: Liberty & Equality
4. Introduction to Intellectual Property
5. Constitutional Law: Basic

Seriously, this thing is a freaking work of art. I have some interest in all the classes, it's ordered so that it's unlikely that the registrar will give me both CivPro II and Con Law (both are huge 4-unit classes), and it's set so that the classes fit together well in my schedule among the mandatory classes. I definitely would've put Intro to IP higher up on the list if it weren't for the fact that there are no reviews about the professor.

CivPro II is supposed to be really hard to get into (only 10 IL's allowed), so $5 says I'm going to end up with Legislation and ConLaw L&E.

It's All About the Benjamins

2005-11-01T20:39:00.000-08:00

Today was an interesting day, namely because there was a lot of talk about finding jobs for this coming summer. You know, the one that's only eight months away.

Since law school is three years, we only have two summers in which to do something. The summer after the 2L year is the one in which most students apply to a firm and hopefully get an offer of permanent employment by the end of the summer. The first summer therefore, is the last summer ever in which we get to do whatever we want (as long as it's somewhat legally-related... law firms like to look at what you've done).

There are lots of options for the 1L student to do something cool in his/her first summer, including externing (still not sure how it's different from "interning") for a federal or state court judge, working for a government agency, working for a non-profit or public interest organization, and of course, working at a firm.

In applying to these jobs, time is of the essence. The ABA prevents 1L's from talking to either employers or the career office until December 1st, under the theory that 1L's have enough stress to worry about in their first couple of months at law school. Of course, what this also means is that EVERY 1L (at least the neurotic ones- me included) are going to send out tons of letters and resumes once that magic [*checks calendar*] Thursday rolls around.

Therefor, we don't have very much time in which to prep our materials to send out to all employers out there. In order to prepare us (both mentally as well as practically), lots of student groups, as well as the Career Development Office (CDO) are having programs this week in which they talk to us about how to choose a job, how to write legal resumes, and how to "get that summer law experience of your dreams."

Today, Shawn, my mod's ASP tutor, brought in a bunch of his mod-mates from his 1L year to talk about what they did. Some worked for federal magistrate judges, some worked for the county DA's offce, some worked for the public defender's office, and some went to firms. One guy actually spent his summer doing legal work in Thailand. Apparently what they did their first summer didn't have too much of a bearing on their ability to get a high-paying firm job their second year.

Key piece of advice from Shawn: "As long as you have a good story about your summer to tell in interviews, it doesn't matter what you do. So do something you're interested in."

Of course, working for a firm during the summer has a huge perk going for it- namely, the huge wad of cash you make. Judicial externships are completely unpaid, and while public-interest jobs aren't paid either, Boalt has a fund which gives stipends to students who pursue public interest work during the summer. Pretty cool.

The CDO had an information session about externships this evening after class, and while it was only marginally helpful in terms of new information, it did get me thinking about all the possibilities available to me this summer.

I had been planning on working at a firm this summer, but I just might end up going for the unpaid judicial externship. Sure there's no money in it, but I think it would be kinda fun to see how the legal system works from the inside. It also wouldn't hurt to be able to say you're buddy-buddy with a federal district or circuit court judge.

*sigh* ...time to dust off the ol' resume, I guess.

General CivPro Awesomeness

2005-11-01T17:18:00.000-08:00

Okay so today in CivPro, we were discussing Markman v. Westview, a case dealing with the issue of whether a judge or a jury should decide the meaning of certain words in a patent.

Vetter: Does anyone know how this case is different [from the other cases we're talked about this week]?
Danny: *raises hand* It’s about patents?
Vetter: Yes, that’s right. It’s also about two parties, named Markman and Westview.

Hahaha oh SNAP! After that, Vetter proceeded to call Danny "Captain Obvious." Haha no just kidding. But if he had, I seriously would have fallen out of my chair right there. You really don't expect a guy like Vetter to be such a smartass like that...

Halloween in Law School redux

2005-10-31T22:46:00.000-08:00

Okay so I think I spoke too soon about people not being in costume. Apparently, I only needed to wait until the afternoon for all the ~~wackos~~ creatively dressed people to come out. I was also apparently looking at the wrong class. While most of the 1L's declined to dress up, a significant number of 2L's and 3L's were a little more brave.

Around 3pm, the Boalt Women's Association and BTLJ had a joint Halloween kegger. That's right- free beer and candy just before CivPro.

This is Bryant and Bora. Bryant is the co-chair of APALSA, and today, he dressed up as a box of tissues. Bora, along with 3 other girls, came dressed as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The library staff decorated the Pole Forest for Halloween. I guess you could call it the "Haunted Pole Forest."

I also saw various witches wandering about the school, and one lady wore a full Southern Colonial-style dress, which was awesome. Maybe next year, I'll scrounge up a white sheet, cut holes in it... and go as a cut-up bedsheet.

Halloween in Law School...

2005-10-31T09:37:00.000-08:00

...is exactly the same as regular law school.

I think that there are going to be all kinds of Halloween social events held by student groups throughout the day (especially during lunch hour), but as far as I can see, nobody in class today is wearing a costume. It's kinda disappointing, though at the same time I'm glad I didn't wear a costume to class...

I think there are also some Halloween parties going on tonight in various places, but it's a Monday night-- a law school Monday night--, and so I don't think there's going to be any excitment happening tonight for anyone older than 22. There are some party-types here in law school, so I wouldn't be surprised if a few of my classmates came a little late to class tomorow.

For Halloween, I was thinking about going as a "sane" person, but then I realized that most people would see right though my disguise. Either that, or "emo", but then I realized that since I would just look like 60% of asian Weezer-wannabes, most people wouldn't even realize I was wearing a costume.

Note to Self

2005-10-29T23:57:00.000-07:00

Things to do this weekend:

[x] Print & read cases for LRW Memo 3 Outline (~15 cases)
[ ] Write Memo 3 Outline (due Monday)
[ ] Complete LRW Bluebook citation exercises (due Sunday)
[ ] Read CivPro textbook pg. 1015-1032 for Monday
[ ] Read packet on rape for Crim lecture Monday (~60 pgs.)
[ ] Find and read article for Crim group presentation (~? pgs.)
[ ] Read packet for Contracts lecture Monday (~77 pgs)
[ ] Cite-checking party for BTLJ (Sunday 10am-2pm)
[ ] Complete indexing packet for BTLJ (~2 hours, due 11/4)
[ ] Maintain sanity

Boalt = Crusty Old High School, Part 2

2005-10-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

Yup, we have a locker room. Except I remember that in high school, there was enough space between the lockers that I didn't get my ass felt up 5,000 times by people passing through while I tried to grab my books.

shakes fist at Earth's axial tilt

2005-10-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

What the poop? It's only 6:45 and it's already dark outside!

When I'm studying in the library after class, I use the daylight outside to gauge how long I've ~~been persuing nerdly activites~~ been there. I look out the window and if it's dark, it means that I've been there for a while and hopefully been productive. Now that the days are getting shorter and night is falling faster, my whole system is falling apart. Nowadays, when I get out of class and look outside and see that it's dark, it signifies nothing more than the fact that I've been in class all freeking day.

Backy from Breaky! ...Sucky.

2005-10-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

Crim class at 9am. The first class after fall break. It’s really overcast and pretty gloomy outside.

You can see the gloominess mirrored in the faces of my classmates. Everyone, even the normally talkative people on the other side of the room, are pretty subdued. Haha I seriously doubt that the last thing anyone wants to talk about after more than a week of vacation is the definition of "reasonableness" and the difference between negligent and reckless homicide.

Break... Hammer Time!

2005-10-14T21:43:00.000-07:00

Yay! I'm going home for fall break!

Fall break, you say? What the hell is that?

Haha that's exactly what I said when I looked at the school calendar and found out that we have a week off from school in the middle of our semester. I guess it's kinda like spring break or something. I can't blame it on the semester system though, since it appears that the undergrads don't have a similar gap in their calendar. Maybe the law school decided to recognize our stress and take pity on us? From what I hear, things will quickly speed up (people start reviewing, outlining, and preparing for finals) after we get back, so maybe that's what it is. *shrug*

Anyways, it'll be nice to go home, see the parents, eat something other than chicken and broccoli, and see friends. Who knows? Maybe I'll do some studying too.

Mod 5 <3's Vetter

2005-10-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

So in case you haven't figured out from my past posts, my mod pretty much loves Prof. Vetter. At Boalt, each mod has a discussion section alone with a professor. In our first meeting with him, we were pretty turned off by his unexciting demeanor and his tendency to mumble and slur his words.

It wasn't until we learned to look for the deadpan humor in his comments that we realized that he was actually one of the funniest professors at Boalt. When we found out that Mod 6 was contemplating making mod t-shirts, we decided to preempt them (our mod hates Mod 6... I'm not sure why) with shirts of our own. And who better to feature on it than funnyman Prof. Vetter?

We were able to whip up a shirt design within a day, featuring a Warhol-esque collage of Vetter's face and our Mod 5 slogan, "Vetter Does It Better":

Prof. Vetter loved the design too. We showed the design to him before getting them printed, and at first he threatened to give F's to anyone he saw wearing the shirt. We called his bluff (it's all anonymous grading), and he gave his OK.

We got the shirts printed through Cafe Press, and after a few weeks of coordination and planning, almost everybody had their shirts. We decided to wear our shirts together on the same day so that we could "shock and awe" Mod 6.

Today, we unveiled our shirts before the Boalt law community. It was pretty awesome. In addition to buying our own shirts, we all chipped in and bought Vetter a polo shirt and a mug with the Warhol design. We gave them to him today at the end CivPro. I also asked if he would take a picture with us...

Me: Professor, in honor of our awesome t-shirts, would you mind taking a picture with us?

Vetter: Well normally, taking pictures steals a part of my soul... but I’ll do it just for you.

Hooray! We definitely made a fashion statement today. We're also fairly certain that all the other mods were incredibly jealous. Haha it's amazing how much mod unity can result simply from a common desire to spite Mod 6.

Punk'd in CivPro

2005-10-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

Oy... I got cold-called today in CivPro, and my performance was something less than, how you say? Competent.

Today we were talking about Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides for impleader. At the beginning of class, Prof. Vetter threw a hypo at me which involved an issue of whether a defendant being sued by a person injured by a stray shotgun blast could claim, under Rule 14(a), that his damages were indemnified (not to be confused with contributorily liable) by a third party, owing to the fact that there was another hunter in the area. It's not as easy as it sounds. *sarcasm*

Anyways, despite having read the case the night before, I muddled my way through the facts of the hypo, since I didn't really have any idea of what I was doing. I gave a long, meandering, nonsensical B.S. answer, at which point Prof. Vetter stopped me and said: "So... in other words, you don't know." Then he turned to someone else. Haha ouch. Minus 12 hit points from Chris' ego.

I got a better idea of the concepts behind impleader as the class progressed, and I stayed after class for about 20 minutes with Prof. Vetter to make sure I understood them. As we walked to the door, I had this exchange with him:

Me: Thanks Professor... you know, I did read the case.

Vetter: Oh I'm sure you did. The hypo was pretty difficult. I adapted it from an actual case that involved tort liability, and I probably didn't phrase it very clearly...

*pauses to think*

...you know, actually I think it was fine.

Me: *awkwardly* Oh. Haha.

I would have to say Vetter is the best teacher of all the professors I'm taking this semester. In terms of his ability to patiently ensure that we learn the material, he's tops. He's a tall fellow, probably about 6'3", but when people ask him questions, he always stays seated and never tries to pack up his books or show any other signs of eagerness to leave. Sometimes, it's the little things like these that matter. He's a great guy, but I definitely wouldn't say that he's any less tough. :-P

[---]

On a side note, I bought Spicy Thai Kettle Chips from Cafe Zeb today as part of my lunch. Very tasty. They have got to be the most unique chip flavor I've ever had.

[---]

Seeing the forest for the... poles?

2005-10-10T14:18:00.000-07:00

If there was one euphemism I would use to describe the general layout/floorplan of Boalt Hall, it would have to be "idiosyncratic."

And by "idiosyncratic", I mean "ghetto."

For starters, whoever designed the floorplan for this place obviously had little more a straightedge and some sort of sadistic streak because there are waaay too many 90 degree blind corners in this place for it to have been accidental. As a result, there are concave "don't even think about shoplifting because I can see you" mirrors everywhere:

Second, funny things happen when lack of foresight runs head-on into budget constraints. Case in point: the Pole Forest.

This is the beloved pole forest:

Apparently the story behind this oddity is that back before the North Addition was added (you can see the entrance to it on the other side), these poles used to be part of the stacks, with shelves mounted between them. When it came time to create a passageway between the old library and the new addition, they found that the poles were actually integrated into the superstructure, and that it would be exorbitantly expensive to remove them (i.e. they had better things to spend the money on).

The result? One must take a surreal "Alice in Wonderland-esque" trip through the magical pole forest in order to get to the other side. The little patio lights strung along the top only add to the general atmosphere of weirdness.

To be fair, once you do get to the other side, you find that the was trip well worth it. The North Addition (being new and modern) is gorgeous, and good thing too, since I spend most of my time there.

Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder sometimes what this law school could have looked like had the architect not been curvilinearly-challenged.

Law School: Behind The Scenes, Part 4

2005-10-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

Grades

It's a pretty well-established fact that law schools grade students on a curve. What this means is that you are technically competing against other students. Coming into law school, I'd heard plenty of horror stories about how savage law students could be in the pursuit of grades (tearing out pages from books so other students wouldn't get to them; refusing to share notes; pushing fellow students in the path of oncoming traffic, etc). Movies like Legally Blonde and The Paper Chase also help to reinforce these notions of cutthroat competition.

I think that there is truth to some extent in these stories. Law students are, by nature, a self-selecting bunch. In other words, the only type of people who would want to go to a top-tier law school are (for the most part) very intelligent, highly motivated, and pretty darn intense. People like this tend to be competitive as well. Since these are the only type of people that apply, these are the ones that ultimately get accepted into law school.

Recently, many schools have been taking steps to discourage competitiveness. I think it's an acknowledgement on their part that they are training people who will eventually have to work together. One of the best ways to hinder, or at least obscure the competitiveness inherent in all law students is to do away with the all-consuming pursuit of grades.

Here at Boalt, they've replaced letter grades with a modified "Pass/No Pass" system. Instead of A's, B's and C's, we get Pass, Honors, and High Honors (P, H, HH) on our transcripts. There's still a curve (10% HH, 30% H, 60% P), but all else equal, P's look better on the transcript (and are easier on the ego) than a C.

There's also something called a "Sub-pass". I haven't fully figured it out, but my understanding is that it's something akin to "grade purgatory": it's not a pass, but not a fail either. From what I've heard, it's extremely difficult to get an F in a class. You're pretty much guaranteed a "pass" if you do all the assignments, turn them in on time, and take the final. It seems that one would actually have to go out of their way to get an F. As a result, the saying around here is "P = J.D."

As if this grading system weren't laid-back enough, I just learned on Friday during the Third Day of Orientation that for the first semester of our 1L year only, the registrar would be converting all "sub-passes" into "passes". In other words, it's impossible for me to get anything less than straight passes in all my classes this semester. What a freaking awesome school.

Of course while this all looks good on paper, it still doesn't obviate the fact that the self-selected law student is inherently intense. So despite the comparatively laid-back grading system, I still haven't met anyone who is willing to settle for straight P's. In fact, more than a few people I've talked to have expressed an intent to attain "straight HH's". I personally find these people to be somewhat insane, given that in my small mod section, only 3 people will be getting that coveted grade. We have a name for these kind of people: "red-hots."

Nonetheless, I think everyone here appreciates the lower levels of stress. There isn't a constant atmosphere of tension in the air (though I hear that changes come finals time). I also get the sense that students are more laid-back here. I haven't come across any books with pages torn out yet, though I still wonder sometimes if I should be walking so close to the curb...

[---]

Next time: So is there life outside of law school? Do they have extracurricular activites? What about clubs and student government? Why the hell aren't you on AIM anymore?

[---]

Just when you thought it was over...

2005-10-07T22:44:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Boalt's "Third Day of Orientation."

It was a continuation of the two days of orientation we had back in August, and all 1L's were required to attend. When I first heard that we had to come to school on a Friday (I usually get Fridays off), I was not a happy camper.

The topics included instructions on how to enroll for Spring semester classes, a reminder about the school's honor code, and distribution of our preliminary Spring schedules (I found out that my days will be starting at 8:45 AM... whoop-dee-freeking-doo) .

A significant portion of the day was also devoted to discussions about legal professionalism and ethics. We listened to a professor talk about how to be more profesional and ethical lawyers, and then we broke into little discussion sessions where we talked about hypothetical moral dilemmas.

The talk made me really think about the practice of law as an institution. The Legal Profession is more than a job; it's something bigger. When we become lawyers, our behavior doesn't just reflect on our own character, but on the character of every other lawyer in the profession as well. It's sort of like a big exclusive club that you can only become a member of after 2 life-destroying exams (LSAT & Bar) and 3 years of school. Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of all that when you're just a lowly, struggling 1L...

So anyways, the idea is that we should be more mindful of our behavior and how it is perceived by others (namely, our clients). It's kinda sobering, but I guess it's important to think about the next time I consider shredding a document to avoid discovery.

So yeah... despite all the initial grumbling, I guess that today wasn't a complete waste. Nevertheless, as awesome as my mind-blowing lawyer-ephiphany was, it was still only second to the tasty free lunch. :-)

Mac & Cheese & IP Litigation

2005-10-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

Today during the lunch hour I went to an awesome talk (and more free lunch) held by an IP litigation attorney from the San Francisco office of Kirkland & Ellis.

Unlike past talks where the lawyers give a lecture on pending cases and other interesting legal issues in the world of intellectual property, the guy today gave a sort of strategic talk about how to cross-examine expert witnesses. Since a lot of IP litigation involves experts, it's important to figure out ways to defeat the ones put forth by the other side.

Anyways, he proceeded to tell us about a multimillion-dollar case (called the "O.J. Simpson of patent trials") he worked on in which he defended some companies against a claim of patent infringement. A key part of the opposing party's case relied on testimony from a star expert witness. He successfully applied his techniques for effective cross examination, discredited the witness, and ultimately won the case.

Listening to him talk about this trial took me back to my days as a high school debater. The rivalry! The intellectual battle of wits! The sweet taste of crushing and completely and utterly embarrasssing the other team! Right now, IP litigation sounds like a lot of fun.

The attorney from Kirkland was also pretty funny. Best part of the story:

"So after completely discrediting their expert witness, I decided to call it a day and head back to California early. I was in the airport when I saw one of the lawyers from opposing counsel. He was reading a book, and so I went over and said hello (though we were on opposite sides of the case, we all try to get along because we're professionals). He said to me, 'Wow... you're heading back early today!' And I thought to myself 'Yeah, because I totally demolished your star witness. Just read your little book.'

[laughter]

Yeah... sometimes I get a little chippy."

Hahaha what a great guy... he said "chippy"...

!!!

2005-10-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

Ohcrap... Prof. Westen is calling on people in my row... I better stop writing and start paying attention...