crossing the divide
law school, really, was not that hard. parts of it were difficult.
adjusting to the case method was, well, an adjustment. for those without a frame of reference, imagine going to a writing class and trying to learn how to write a great novel by reading reviews of novels. sure all the elements are in there, you just get no sense of where the elements came from, why they're important, or how you, as a writer, can incorporate them. the case method is similar. sure all the law is in those cases, but you never actually look at the statutes, discuss how or why they were enacted, or what you, as a lawyer need to do to prepare for litigation. no... that stuff you cover in the optional, practical courses that everyone in law academia seems to consider an afterthought, a footnote to learning how to 'think like a lawyer.' i'm so sick of thinking like a lawyer, i'd prefer a lobotomy to another day in this ridiculous charade.
the socratic method wasn't as scary as The Paper Chase made it out to be. no, most of my professors were pretty lenient with the occasional unprepared student. we quickly learned how to game the system and maximize our professors' pleasure with our competence while minimizing our actual competence. hooray for laptops in the classroom and commercial outlines. only the elite few actually need to do the work.
navigating the bureaucracy of a law school took a little doing. the school was small enough, that after a year or two of getting to know the administration, it was actually much easier than it was at my public undergraduate institution.
the arbitrary and uncontrollable nature of the tests, while difficult, is the one thing i'm grateful for in law school. the bar exam will be like that, the practice of law, i imagine will be like that. you simply have to be prepared for whatever set of facts walks in the door, and do your best to navigate the law to protect your client's interests. when caught unprepared, the faking skills we all acquired in law school should prove invaluable.
now is when i turn the corner. i finish my studies and move forward. i stop thinking like a lawyer, i stop acting like a lawyer, and i start being a lawyer.
there's only one small hitch. my last semester, the one i'm just finishing up, i spent in our state's capital of Sacramento. i participated in the UC Hastings Legislation Clinic. the clinic was enjoyable. rather than be trapped in a classroom, with all of my conventional gripes about law school for my last semester, i was able to go play a part in our state's policy discussion and receive academic credit. in order to receive the aforementioned credit, however, i need to write up around 55 pages of journals about my experiences. i have about 30 done and hari kari is really beginning to sound like a viable alternative to finishing.
this semester i paid around eleven thousand dollars in tuition to go work, for free, for a state legislator. while the experience was invaluable, it was also grueling. i spent many long nights in the office analyzing, drafting, and briefing, and i didn't mind, because it was much more interesting than traditional law school work. now, to get my units, complete my work and graduate, i need to finish these journals. they aren't substantively hard. i kept pretty good notes. it's just so much paper that i have to generate. some of it, for units i don't even need.
these journals are the only thing standing between me and freedom from the intellectually numbing, emotionally degrading, economically preposterous exercise, i now laughingly refer to as law 'school'. i can't wait to be done. i am so anxious, in fact, that i'm writing out quite possibly the longest blog entry i've ever written, rather than finishing up. how many pages do you think i could've cranked out in the time it took me to ink this? yeah. at least a couple. that's going to piss me off later, i know it.
adjusting to the case method was, well, an adjustment. for those without a frame of reference, imagine going to a writing class and trying to learn how to write a great novel by reading reviews of novels. sure all the elements are in there, you just get no sense of where the elements came from, why they're important, or how you, as a writer, can incorporate them. the case method is similar. sure all the law is in those cases, but you never actually look at the statutes, discuss how or why they were enacted, or what you, as a lawyer need to do to prepare for litigation. no... that stuff you cover in the optional, practical courses that everyone in law academia seems to consider an afterthought, a footnote to learning how to 'think like a lawyer.' i'm so sick of thinking like a lawyer, i'd prefer a lobotomy to another day in this ridiculous charade.
the socratic method wasn't as scary as The Paper Chase made it out to be. no, most of my professors were pretty lenient with the occasional unprepared student. we quickly learned how to game the system and maximize our professors' pleasure with our competence while minimizing our actual competence. hooray for laptops in the classroom and commercial outlines. only the elite few actually need to do the work.
navigating the bureaucracy of a law school took a little doing. the school was small enough, that after a year or two of getting to know the administration, it was actually much easier than it was at my public undergraduate institution.
the arbitrary and uncontrollable nature of the tests, while difficult, is the one thing i'm grateful for in law school. the bar exam will be like that, the practice of law, i imagine will be like that. you simply have to be prepared for whatever set of facts walks in the door, and do your best to navigate the law to protect your client's interests. when caught unprepared, the faking skills we all acquired in law school should prove invaluable.
now is when i turn the corner. i finish my studies and move forward. i stop thinking like a lawyer, i stop acting like a lawyer, and i start being a lawyer.
there's only one small hitch. my last semester, the one i'm just finishing up, i spent in our state's capital of Sacramento. i participated in the UC Hastings Legislation Clinic. the clinic was enjoyable. rather than be trapped in a classroom, with all of my conventional gripes about law school for my last semester, i was able to go play a part in our state's policy discussion and receive academic credit. in order to receive the aforementioned credit, however, i need to write up around 55 pages of journals about my experiences. i have about 30 done and hari kari is really beginning to sound like a viable alternative to finishing.
this semester i paid around eleven thousand dollars in tuition to go work, for free, for a state legislator. while the experience was invaluable, it was also grueling. i spent many long nights in the office analyzing, drafting, and briefing, and i didn't mind, because it was much more interesting than traditional law school work. now, to get my units, complete my work and graduate, i need to finish these journals. they aren't substantively hard. i kept pretty good notes. it's just so much paper that i have to generate. some of it, for units i don't even need.
these journals are the only thing standing between me and freedom from the intellectually numbing, emotionally degrading, economically preposterous exercise, i now laughingly refer to as law 'school'. i can't wait to be done. i am so anxious, in fact, that i'm writing out quite possibly the longest blog entry i've ever written, rather than finishing up. how many pages do you think i could've cranked out in the time it took me to ink this? yeah. at least a couple. that's going to piss me off later, i know it.
posted by tobin at 5/12/2006 05:45:00 PM
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