I know it’s a cliché, but I’m gonna say it anyway: I can hardly believe it’s only been two weeks. Quite apart from the actual amount of material we’ve covered -- which seems, from the perspective of my tired brain, like quite a lot, but from the perspective of how far we’ve gotten in our enormous textbooks, like hardly anything -- I am quite certain that no other semester in my academic career has so quickly and thoroughly engaged my interest, mentally fatigued me, made me so anxious about my abilities, or so rewarded increased effort. To put it another way: it’s hard, but worth it.
I’ve spent the last several days dealing with mounting anxieties surrounding my note-taking and studying habits, or lack thereof. I’m not sure whether to blame myself, for being sort of lazy about both of these things all my life, or Metro State, for never really making it necessary to overcome that laziness. Regardless, something had to be done. As of today, I’m feeling much better about it. I have a study schedule for the week (though that will be altered drastically, I’m sure, when Eleanor arrives); I have settled, for now, on a method for briefing the cases I read; and I am beginning to form at least a vague picture of how I might condense my various notes throughout the semester, in order to have an outline to study come finals. (For any law students reading this, I have found the book Law School Confidential -- particularly Chapter 8 -- extremely helpful in all of these steps.) I’m starting to feel like a real student. And even better, I think I’m beginning to understand what the hell all these cases are really about.
So: stress levels down, confidence levels up. All things considered, if I really have found the right track for myself after a mere two weeks, I probably should be grateful. Of course, I’m remaining open to the possibility that this new-and-evolving plan will turn out to be useless, and I’ll have to start from square one. Not looking forward to it, but remaining open.
Beyond all that, I should mention the most important thing, which is this: so far, I absolutely love law school. My two “substantive” classes (Torts and Civil Procedure) are so, well, substantive (“having a firm basis in reality and therefore important, meaningful, or considerable,” per New Oxford American Dictionary). Every reading and every class session are filled to the brim with truly important information. Contrast this with the typical philosophy course, in which at least half of each class is wasted by the students’ incoherent rambling, and the other half, on occasion, by the professor’s only somewhat less incoherent and rambling lecture. The readings are good, and may be important for a test or final paper, but even then they’re not “important” in the sense that knowing them may mean the difference between being a good lawyer or a bad lawyer, winning or losing a case. The awareness that what I’m learning may make a difference in other people’s lives (to say nothing of my own) just adds an incredible sense of urgency and significance to everything. Maybe it’s exaggerated, but it’s there, and if nothing else it makes absorbing this enormous amount of detail a great deal easier than it might otherwise be.
So anyway, on to Week Three and the implementation of my new study plan. I’ll let you know how it goes.
---
P.S. According to the professor, Civil Procedure is actually considered “trans-substantive.” But whatever. You get my meaning.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Calm Before the Storm
Yesterday was the final and, interestingly, most helpful day of my orientation -- despite also being the only optional day. I guess the second half of the day was pretty typical of the rest of the week: Lots of general you-can-do-it encouragement sprinkled with handy facts, this time mostly on the subject of note-taking and studying. But the first part of the day was all about how to brief a case, i.e., how to read a judge’s opinion (explanation of how and why a case was decided as it was) and break it down into its significant parts. It’s been made very clear over the past week that we will be reading a lot of cases (thousands), and that much of our success in law school will depend on our ability to brief these cases in a way that helps us to understand and retain the relevant facts therein. Unfortunately, this has generally come in the form of a hearty, “Make sure you’re briefing those cases!” but without any explanation of just what in the world that actually meant, and I get the feeling that most of the class, like me, was getting steadily more anxious about it. Anyway, long story short, one 1.5 hours session sufficed to lay these anxieties to rest (at least for me), and I am already reading the cases differently, with a better eye for what I’m really trying to get from the text. It’s a good feeling.
Most of the rest of Orientation was helpful, if not particularly substantial. Probably the most important part for me was hearing over and over again, from current and former evening students, that this really is possible: I can do well in law school, and even do “extra” things like be on the Law Review, if I want, while still having at least a little time to spend with my family. At one point, we spoke with a panel of evening students, one of whom said he has a full-time job, a wife, and two kids, and is ranked very high in his class, and in his three years of law school he has almost never had to do school work on a Sunday, reserving those instead for family time. That was tremendously reassuring.
So that’s it. I am fully oriented. Now begins the real deal. Of course, as I said, I’ve been reading the books already. I have advance assignments that amount to roughly 100 pages of reading -- not much, I’m sure, compared to what’s coming -- and I’ve completed about half of it. Some of it’s a little confusing, but this is often because a certain piece of reasoning will hinge on, say, a Latin phrase I’ve never heard before. It’s been suggested that we read each case the first time without worrying about such things, or highlighting or taking notes or anything, and I haven’t done the second reading of any cases yet, so I haven’t looked up those Latin phrases (or other, presumably English, words I don’t know). Apart from such stumbling blocks, though, it’s not seeming too impenetrable. I suppose I should be thankful I’ve spent the last decade or so reading philosophy. If I can manage even an educated guess as to what the hell Kant is talking about half the time, I ought to be able to handle anything any law professor can throw at me. I just need to learn the jargon.
All in all, I’m feeling pretty good about where I am as I await my first real law class. Apart from feeling academically prepared (as much as I probably can be), I feel good about the rest of the class, too. My fellow students in the evening division seem, on the whole, engaged, intelligent, serious, and agreeable. (Yesterday’s sessions were split into mixed groups of day and evening students. At one point, I was part of a small group with three day students, clearly fresh from their undergrad, and let’s just say, they helped lay to rest any lingering misgivings about being in the evening program.)
For the weekend, we’ve got Dashiell’s birthday party at Grandma’s tonight, Amy has her baby shower tomorrow, then book club tomorrow night.
Oh, and yesterday, we ate carrots right out of the garden! (OK, we washed them off first.) And the sunflowers are finally blooming, and I just discovered a second pumpkin growing beneath the leaves, and the mystery plant appears to be producing a squash-like something, and some of the corn looks like it’s about ready to fall right off the stalk. Gardening is cool.
Most of the rest of Orientation was helpful, if not particularly substantial. Probably the most important part for me was hearing over and over again, from current and former evening students, that this really is possible: I can do well in law school, and even do “extra” things like be on the Law Review, if I want, while still having at least a little time to spend with my family. At one point, we spoke with a panel of evening students, one of whom said he has a full-time job, a wife, and two kids, and is ranked very high in his class, and in his three years of law school he has almost never had to do school work on a Sunday, reserving those instead for family time. That was tremendously reassuring.
So that’s it. I am fully oriented. Now begins the real deal. Of course, as I said, I’ve been reading the books already. I have advance assignments that amount to roughly 100 pages of reading -- not much, I’m sure, compared to what’s coming -- and I’ve completed about half of it. Some of it’s a little confusing, but this is often because a certain piece of reasoning will hinge on, say, a Latin phrase I’ve never heard before. It’s been suggested that we read each case the first time without worrying about such things, or highlighting or taking notes or anything, and I haven’t done the second reading of any cases yet, so I haven’t looked up those Latin phrases (or other, presumably English, words I don’t know). Apart from such stumbling blocks, though, it’s not seeming too impenetrable. I suppose I should be thankful I’ve spent the last decade or so reading philosophy. If I can manage even an educated guess as to what the hell Kant is talking about half the time, I ought to be able to handle anything any law professor can throw at me. I just need to learn the jargon.
All in all, I’m feeling pretty good about where I am as I await my first real law class. Apart from feeling academically prepared (as much as I probably can be), I feel good about the rest of the class, too. My fellow students in the evening division seem, on the whole, engaged, intelligent, serious, and agreeable. (Yesterday’s sessions were split into mixed groups of day and evening students. At one point, I was part of a small group with three day students, clearly fresh from their undergrad, and let’s just say, they helped lay to rest any lingering misgivings about being in the evening program.)
For the weekend, we’ve got Dashiell’s birthday party at Grandma’s tonight, Amy has her baby shower tomorrow, then book club tomorrow night.
Oh, and yesterday, we ate carrots right out of the garden! (OK, we washed them off first.) And the sunflowers are finally blooming, and I just discovered a second pumpkin growing beneath the leaves, and the mystery plant appears to be producing a squash-like something, and some of the corn looks like it’s about ready to fall right off the stalk. Gardening is cool.
Monday, August 10, 2009
It Begins
Tonight is the first session of my week-long Orientation at DU, which will run Monday through Friday, roughly 5-9 each day. It’s a remarkably full docket (little legal jargon for ya there). Tonight alone we are scheduled for a box dinner; tours; a welcome from the Chancellor, the Dean, and the President of the Student Bar Association; an Introduction to Law School; an Introduction to Student Affairs; an Alumni Council presentation; a talk on something called “Denver Partnership with Community Day;” a talk on the student health center; something on “Colorado Lawyers Helping Lawyers;” a presentation on Lexis Nexis (a legal research tool); and an introduction to the various administrative departments -- all in three-and-a-half hours. The other four evenings are similarly packed. I only hope things aren’t too rushed to be especially helpful.
So, on this my final day of anticipation, what am I feeling? Hard to say, really. It’s not actually the first day of classes, which I’m sure will bring a whole new set of worries, but it is the day I’ll meet the people I’ll be spending a significant portion of my life with for at least the next year-and-a-half. (First-year law students, or 1Ls, are assigned to a “student unit,” and all the students in each unit take all the same classes together for the first year. And the first “year” for part-time evening students such as myself takes a bit longer than a real-world year.) So today, at least, I’m less concerned about my academic abilities and more about my social skills: Will there be “mingling” preceding the box dinner? Will the other students already have met each other at one of the pre-first-year get-togethers, all of which I have been unable to attend? And what the hell do first-year law students at DU wear, anyway? And is it different for something like this from what you would wear to class? (Some of you might be surprised to see me worry so much about clothing, but it’s a natural outcome of the combination of [a] knowing the undeniable impact of first impressions, and [b] being fully aware of my own lack of competence both in meeting new people and in dressing myself -- for which I like to blame my color-blindness, but let’s face it: that has nothing to do with whether to wear a button-up and slacks or a T-shirt and shorts, now does it?) But then all of this is balanced with the sneaking suspicion that it’s all ridiculous and baseless, and most of the other 80 students won’t know each other either, or know what to wear for that matter. And I remind myself that this is the evening program, which means my fellow students will all be actual grown-ups, not 23-year-olds who have been out drinking together all last week, but who have jobs and families and more important things to worry about than why Chris Curtis turned up in flip-flops and his shorts and T-shirt don’t even match. So to sum up: I’ve got some butterflies, but I know they’re ridiculous, and I doubt they’ll last the day.
For now, I have seven hours before it all begins, and I intend to spend it reading something unrelated to the law, drinking coffee, and just kind of hanging out. After checking the Advance Assignments page one more time, of course. Just in case...
So, on this my final day of anticipation, what am I feeling? Hard to say, really. It’s not actually the first day of classes, which I’m sure will bring a whole new set of worries, but it is the day I’ll meet the people I’ll be spending a significant portion of my life with for at least the next year-and-a-half. (First-year law students, or 1Ls, are assigned to a “student unit,” and all the students in each unit take all the same classes together for the first year. And the first “year” for part-time evening students such as myself takes a bit longer than a real-world year.) So today, at least, I’m less concerned about my academic abilities and more about my social skills: Will there be “mingling” preceding the box dinner? Will the other students already have met each other at one of the pre-first-year get-togethers, all of which I have been unable to attend? And what the hell do first-year law students at DU wear, anyway? And is it different for something like this from what you would wear to class? (Some of you might be surprised to see me worry so much about clothing, but it’s a natural outcome of the combination of [a] knowing the undeniable impact of first impressions, and [b] being fully aware of my own lack of competence both in meeting new people and in dressing myself -- for which I like to blame my color-blindness, but let’s face it: that has nothing to do with whether to wear a button-up and slacks or a T-shirt and shorts, now does it?) But then all of this is balanced with the sneaking suspicion that it’s all ridiculous and baseless, and most of the other 80 students won’t know each other either, or know what to wear for that matter. And I remind myself that this is the evening program, which means my fellow students will all be actual grown-ups, not 23-year-olds who have been out drinking together all last week, but who have jobs and families and more important things to worry about than why Chris Curtis turned up in flip-flops and his shorts and T-shirt don’t even match. So to sum up: I’ve got some butterflies, but I know they’re ridiculous, and I doubt they’ll last the day.
For now, I have seven hours before it all begins, and I intend to spend it reading something unrelated to the law, drinking coffee, and just kind of hanging out. After checking the Advance Assignments page one more time, of course. Just in case...
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Last Things
So today I had my official last day at the bookstore. I went in for my exit interview, and then there was a small going away gathering for me, which was very nice. But ever since then, I’ve had this odd weight on my chest, which I begin to suspect is all the sadness I had not felt before today about leaving the place after almost nine years -- nine years of complete devotion and commitment, of emotional investment . . . nine years of, in the very fullest sense, my life. I met Amy there, so without the bookstore I would not now have my wife, my son, my expected daughter. I immersed myself in the ideology of the place, so without the bookstore I would not now have my commitment to the First Amendment, or my much more developed sense of what that commitment really entails, what it really requires. I took on positions of authority and responsibility, and flourished in them, so without the bookstore I would not now have my sense of self, my awareness of my abilities, my confidence. I was surrounded by literature and great readers, and without the bookstore I would not have read as widely or as deeply as I have. At this bookstore, I learned the meaning of community. I learned to try to see the best in people. I learned more about what really matters in life. And I basically learned who I am. How ludicrously inadequate to call this just a bookstore, to call what I have just left a “job,” or the people who saw me off today, or sent their goodbyes via email, mere “coworkers.” Today I left a family, and a home.
Of course, those metaphors are truer than they may seem. Leaving a family or a home is different from leaving a job, not just because it’s harder, but because in a very important way it’s not really leaving. I feel unequivocally that I will remain a part of the Tattered Cover for the rest of my life. We have given each other far too much of ourselves to ever be truly separate.
It occurs to me that this all might sound faintly ridiculous to many people. Most people have only had jobs, after all. But I know some of my colleagues will understand, and maybe even some people who have only experienced the Tattered Cover as customers. Most who walk through its doors can tell it’s more than just a bookstore. What I’ve learned is just how much more. It can become a part of yourself.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Books, books, books...
I believe I now have all my books for the semester. For the curious, they are as follows:
I’ve been flipping through them all, which is both exciting and intimidating. On the one hand, it’s a whole new world of information to explore; on the other, more intimidating hand, holy crap am I really supposed to absorb all of this over the next four months? Maybe not. I probably don’t have to memorize the Bluebook or anything (do I?). But still. And to think, I’m only part time.
So anyway, now I wait, and check periodically to see when my professors will post their advance assignments. Then the fun really starts.
- Black’s Law Dictionary (not required, but I wanted it)
- Tort Law and Alternatives
- Civil Procedure: A Contemporary Approach
- Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
- The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation
- Legal Research and Writing
- Just Writing: Grammar, Punctuation, and Style for the Legal Writer
I’ve been flipping through them all, which is both exciting and intimidating. On the one hand, it’s a whole new world of information to explore; on the other, more intimidating hand, holy crap am I really supposed to absorb all of this over the next four months? Maybe not. I probably don’t have to memorize the Bluebook or anything (do I?). But still. And to think, I’m only part time.
So anyway, now I wait, and check periodically to see when my professors will post their advance assignments. Then the fun really starts.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Thirty Days and Counting...
Thirty days till the first day of Orientation Week. I have my schedule (which will be Torts, Civil Procedure, and Lawyering Process, Monday through Thursday evenings), have been to the bookstore to see what books I need (and am attempting to order a few from the TC to get my discount before I leave), and even have an official DU ID declaring my status as a law student. I've been thumbing through Black's Law Dictionary (9th edition, just released) and feeling the excitement of exploring a whole new world with its very own language and culture. I even got excited skimming the Bluebook -- which is basically a book all about how to cite references properly in legal writing. How ridiculous is that?
So the good news is, I'm still plenty psyched about going to law school. Of course, I guess I'm supposed to follow that with the bad news, but I really can't think of any -- which I guess is more good news. The schedule I got means we only need to worry about a babysitter one night of the week (Wednesdays, in case anyone reading this is interested), and we might even manage to save a day each week for family time. And I'm going to get some time to spend both with Dashiell and with Amy, separately and together, before it all starts, and I'm feeling like everything at work is pretty much settled. And everything seems to be going well with Eleanor (due in a little under 3 months), too. I'm not really sure how things could be going any better.
Don't I have any apprehensions? I guess there's a small part of me that recognizes the possibility that I'll end up completely overwhelmed, but, valid or not, I'm not really buying it. Maybe if I'd been leading some sort of well ordered existence up till now, I'd be concerned, but our lives have been prety chaotic for the past, oh, seven years or so, so I guess I feel prepared for whatever comes our way. New schools, new schedules, new baby -- bring it on.
I guess my only real worries are for Dashiell. He's about to start a whole new school, with all new teachers and friends, immediately followed by a new baby sister. He seems pretty excited about all that right now, but let's not forget that he has no idea what any of it really means, being not quite four years old. I definitely have anxiety around how to manage all that transition for him. Fortunately, I know he's an easygoing kid, who makes friends fairly easily. Still, I wish we didn't have to take him away from the people he's been hanging out with for a significant portion of the last three-fourths of his life.
Speaking of Dashiell, I took him with me to the DU bookstore yesterday, and we made sure to go on the walkway that crosses Evans and watch the cars driving under us, and to stop in at the law school. Dash is very excited to tell all his friends that his dad's going to go to school in a castle. Leave it to him to add a little bit of magic to the whole experience.
The Castle
Sunday, May 17, 2009
What's Gardening Got to Do with the Law?
Mustard Green in Our Fledgling GardenI've been working a lot in the garden this year. By "a lot," of course, I mean something like "at all," as I've never worked in a garden before. I haven't had one in which to work since childhood, at which time I simply had better things to do, mostly involving my bike or my He-Man action figures.
Anyway, in all honesty I suppose I'm only writing about it here because I don't know what else to write about as I wait for law school to begin, and I'm not sure I have a satisfactory answer to the question of my title. I did, however, just read in a book on gardening some interesting things about water use in Colorado. Turns out it may (or may not) be against the law for me to divert rainwater from my gutters to my garden. According to one interpretation of the law, the rain that falls on my house isn't "mine," it's... the state's, I guess? Another interpretation, though, says it might be OK if I just direct the water right from the gutter to the garden, though it is not OK to collect the rain in a barrel, and then add it to the garden later. There's a little less gray area around using "gray water" (pun unintended), like dishwater, or water from the washing machine -- not that I'm quite green enough to be doing that anyway -- which should be all right. And I'm guessing running a pipeline directly from a reservoir in New Mexico to my backyard is right out.
I can't say I have any particular interest in environmental law as a course of study, but this situation does nicely illustrate what I absolutely love about the law: Every issue requires analysis and interpretation, and the human element is simply never absent. Living in a country run by common law means you can never (at least not for the most important stuff) just consult a book of laws that will tell you yes, that's right, or no, that's wrong. Every situation has its own variables and exigencies, and the solution, as often as not, will depend on two or more parties just fighting it out -- in a civilized manner in a court of law, naturally.
I'm well aware of the drawbacks to this process, but I think our adversarial system is still the best thing going, at least at heart. I don't want a book that lays out the rules and has to be followed to the letter, without regard for the particulars. I want guidelines and smart judges and lawyers with a lot of good, common sense.
Which I guess goes back to gardening after all. No book can tell me what to plant on my particular plot of land or how to care for it. It's up to me to be the smart gardener with common sense. I'm reading plenty of books, believe me, and they're plenty helpful, but I'm not going to find laws in them, just guidelines. I'll do my best to follow them, knowing what I know about the land (which admittedly is almost nil at this point), and see what happens. If the mustard greens don't make it, I'll amend the "laws" next year and hope for better results. It may be a messy system, with a lot of failure, but it's the only one likely to get better and better with each passing year.
OK, maybe this is all a bit of a reach -- or so obvious as to have been better left unsaid -- but I think there's truth in it. We tend to our laws like the flawed, human gardeners that we are, and we hope to see fruit in due time. Impose too much artificial order, and the harvest will be meager and unsatisfactory.
And I'd say the metaphor is now officially overextended.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Guess I'd Better Post Something Now
So I joined this student group for newly admitted law students at DU, and I saw that a couple of my future colleagues had set up blogs to document their first year at law school, and I thought, what the hey. Only I don't see why I should limit it to my first year. Surely years two and three (and four?) will be equally fascinating, right? Maybe even more so.
So this is my record of my law school experience, and perhaps even beyond. I imagine other parts of my life, such as they are, will bleed in from time to time -- you're bound to hear a great deal about the garden, for instance, and probably the family, especially the newest member due in September -- but I don't think it will take much effort to stay focused on the law thing, which I am led to believe will soon take over my life quite utterly.
Anyway, here goes nothing. I've tried this blogging business before, at least twice, and given it up as a waste of cyberspace. I have no reason to believe this will be any different. Consider yourself forewarned.
So this is my record of my law school experience, and perhaps even beyond. I imagine other parts of my life, such as they are, will bleed in from time to time -- you're bound to hear a great deal about the garden, for instance, and probably the family, especially the newest member due in September -- but I don't think it will take much effort to stay focused on the law thing, which I am led to believe will soon take over my life quite utterly.
Anyway, here goes nothing. I've tried this blogging business before, at least twice, and given it up as a waste of cyberspace. I have no reason to believe this will be any different. Consider yourself forewarned.
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