Ah, where does the time go? For those of you keeping score at home, it has been more than three months since my last real blawg post, a fact from which I have tried to distract you by posting a couple of non-blawg posts, but I know you weren't fooled. I can only hope you'll forgive my lack of diligence and not remove me from your bookmarks entirely. Fortunately, I doubt anyone but my friends and family have bookmarked me anyway, and they wouldn't delete me, right?
Well, anyway, here it is, four-and-a-half weeks from the end of my third semester of law school, and I am behind in all my reading, overcommitted and overwhelmed, and outlines? Don't get me started on outlines. (Actually, if you could, that'd be great, as I can't seem to get myself started on outlines.) All the same, with one small exception, I'm feeling pretty good about things. What things? These things:
First and foremost, I was recently, and unexpectedly, brought on to the editorial board of DU's brand new Criminal Law Review. When I say "brand new," I mean they have yet to publish their first issue. This guy at school basically decided the time was ripe for a new criminal law review and just started one up. (Actually, I'm pretty sure it was more complicated than that, and required months of preparation, research, and sustained cajoling, but that's the gist.) It's really pretty exciting, as there really aren't that many criminal law reviews in the country, and we're going to try some innovative things to really make a great first impression with our first issue in January. First, though, we need to work on convincing people that they ought to submit that great criminal law article they have sitting around to a review they've never heard of, which has it's challenges. But I'm optimistic, and thrilled to be a part of it (even though my official title is "Citations Editor," which is bound to be, in itself, even less thrilling than it sounds).
In other extracurricular news, my duties as a teaching assistant and research assistant continue. My LP students submitted their second memo on Wednesday, and I've just finished grading all of their citations. They did not do a very good job. But then, neither did I, in the beginning. They'll get it. In any case, it's kind of fun "playing teacher," and I do get a little thrill whenever I actually see a complete, correct citation. Is that weird?
In research land, I've been given an assignment to research a very broad topic that may or may not bear any fruit, and in pursuit of which I feel I have made absolutely zero progress. (Remember that thing I mentioned that I was not feeling so good about?) The questions is, how long do I let that continue before admitting to the professor (who has made his absolute confidence in me quite clear) that I don't know what I'm doing? I figure I'll give it another week or so, and see where I am. Meanwhile, if you have any leads on modern trends expanding self-defense/defense of others/defense of property/heat of passion defenses to cover using deadly force to protect one's pet, let me know.
And then there are my actual classes, two of which have suffered to some degree as I try to keep up with all the other stuff going on. I make sure to stay on top of Criminal Procedure, as it is taught by the abovementioned professor whose confidence I am loath to shake. Con Law and Property, though, are another story. In Property, it doesn't matter too much, as I get what I need from class. Con Law, though, I think would sink in much better if I did more of the reading, and I am not helped by having actually missed two classes in the past two weeks. In any case, I plan to be more on top of things for the rest of the semester, especially knowing that the Crim Law Review is going to demand a lot of my time during the actual finals period.
Oh, and I almost forgot, I applied for another externship I am unlikely to get. It's with a federal appellate judge, and the application/interview process is very selective. But I got a good letter of reference (yup, from that professor) and threw myself into the mix, and we'll see what happens.
That's about where things stand, I guess. I'm very much looking forward to leaving town for a while at the end of the year. I just hope I don't have to bring too much work along with me. More importantly, I'm hoping I can pull everything together before then and manage not to destroy my GPA in pursuit of extracurricular resume-building activities. I'll let you know how it all turns out.
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