Just a quick update. After knowing my mentor for about a month, I must say that they're extremely useless for academic, social, sports, etc advice. In fact, the only shred of good advice they've given me is what to wear to our semi-formal, or rather, what not to wear.
In spite of all of that, I think they're incredibly amusing. Quite a character. I was genuinely very pleased that they received an offer from their top choice for their 2L summer job. I think that says good things about the quality/character/likeability (not a word I know) of the students here, and that makes me happy as well.
Of course, this could all change. They have yet to lavish me with expensive gifts. =P
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Legal Market- Justifiable Optimism?
Whew. I've been meaning to update this thing regularly, as in at least once or twice a week. I've got a number of topics that I'd like to write/vent/blabber about, and so little time to do so. Well, I guess the whole time thing is kind of my fault since I overloaded myself with some arguably useless intramurals and clubs and am attempting to keep up with my TV shows and still venture out once or twice a week to "socialize"...
Anywho, the point is not to whine about my life. Well, this post's point isn't to do that. Maybe the next one. I'm not sure how that one will go. Maybe something like "I waste my time with silly things and now I don't have time to do the important things... wahhhhhh"
I digress, terribly. The point of this post is the legal economy! Woo! Now, folks, I realize I'm just a lil fresh 1L here with my training wheels still screwed ever so tightly on, but I try to be somewhat observant and whatnot of the upperclassmen. I try to learn things from them. Sorta. And so when the 2L's and 3L's were moaning and complaining about the state of the legal market, I was understandably somewhat concerned (to put it mildly) I mean, I'm only going to have like 150k of debt. No, probably more than that. Who cares about employment?
I heard the horror stories of last year's class and how a number of them could not find jobs. I heard that this year's 3L class had also struggled. And the 2L's this year had a general mood of doom and gloom heading into their OCI's.
And now? Well, the 3L's still got a bit shafted. BUT, the 2L's seem to be doing much better. Granted, I only know a few of them, but it's not like the ones I know are standout students or anything. Far from it, really. And I recently heard from most of them that they had numerous callbacks. And now I'm hearing that they have job offers! Woohoo! Some of them even have multiple offers, which is always a nice sign.
Of course, as the 3L class last year learned, a job offer for your 2L summer doesn't necessarily translate into a post-graduation job offer, but it certainly seems like there's cause for optimism for this year's 1L class. If the 2L class is doing better than the 3L's, we will surely do better than them right? After all, the recession supposedly ended last year.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-09-20-recession-over_N.htm?csp=usat.me
I've heard that the legal market and the billable hour may change in the wake of all this and there might be fundamental change within the legal market, but that's all over my head. All I know now is that, from this law school at least, things are looking optimistic for once.
Anywho, the point is not to whine about my life. Well, this post's point isn't to do that. Maybe the next one. I'm not sure how that one will go. Maybe something like "I waste my time with silly things and now I don't have time to do the important things... wahhhhhh"
I digress, terribly. The point of this post is the legal economy! Woo! Now, folks, I realize I'm just a lil fresh 1L here with my training wheels still screwed ever so tightly on, but I try to be somewhat observant and whatnot of the upperclassmen. I try to learn things from them. Sorta. And so when the 2L's and 3L's were moaning and complaining about the state of the legal market, I was understandably somewhat concerned (to put it mildly) I mean, I'm only going to have like 150k of debt. No, probably more than that. Who cares about employment?
I heard the horror stories of last year's class and how a number of them could not find jobs. I heard that this year's 3L class had also struggled. And the 2L's this year had a general mood of doom and gloom heading into their OCI's.
And now? Well, the 3L's still got a bit shafted. BUT, the 2L's seem to be doing much better. Granted, I only know a few of them, but it's not like the ones I know are standout students or anything. Far from it, really. And I recently heard from most of them that they had numerous callbacks. And now I'm hearing that they have job offers! Woohoo! Some of them even have multiple offers, which is always a nice sign.
Of course, as the 3L class last year learned, a job offer for your 2L summer doesn't necessarily translate into a post-graduation job offer, but it certainly seems like there's cause for optimism for this year's 1L class. If the 2L class is doing better than the 3L's, we will surely do better than them right? After all, the recession supposedly ended last year.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-09-20-recession-over_N.htm?csp=usat.me
I've heard that the legal market and the billable hour may change in the wake of all this and there might be fundamental change within the legal market, but that's all over my head. All I know now is that, from this law school at least, things are looking optimistic for once.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
More Sports!
A JAG officer said today that the military looks kindly upon those students who are stay active and participate in sports in college/law school. After all, it's the military. They want physically fit people who demonstrate the ability to work cooperatively in teams!
Soooo, this means that all those intramurals I'm in are now necessary to one of my future career options! Score! I need to do more sports, not less!
I also found out that JAG hours are fairly awesome and that they, at least at this office, play team sports together. Oh, and you get to wear a uniform (to help with the ladies ;D) and qualify for Loan forgiveness (as well as loan payment assistance from my law school) What's not to love about serving your country as a lawyer?!
Soooo, this means that all those intramurals I'm in are now necessary to one of my future career options! Score! I need to do more sports, not less!
I also found out that JAG hours are fairly awesome and that they, at least at this office, play team sports together. Oh, and you get to wear a uniform (to help with the ladies ;D) and qualify for Loan forgiveness (as well as loan payment assistance from my law school) What's not to love about serving your country as a lawyer?!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sleepwalking
I have never really been able to function well with a lack of sleep, no matter how much caffeine I consume. I've found that lately, no matter how many cans of soda or cups of tea/coffee that I consume, I will still nod off in class if the class is monotonous, even if there's coldcalling going on. I just haven't been called on much. There are days where I'm in a half-asleep daze for an entire class period.
So, clearly I need to either get more sleep or try some 5 hour energy/caffeine pills or something. I figure it's better for me to stay awake and alert in class than it is to stay up late to get briefs done, because I don't know what the heck I'm doing with briefs so it's not worth impeding class awareness for questionable returns.
Or I could try taking some naps. I've scouted out the school and found some secluded big couches that might be nap-worthy. It's really cold in the law school, so I would probably have to bring a blanket as well.
I would nod off all the time in high school and undergrad too, but those classes were easy. Here, I have no idea what's going on. Speaking of here, I found out that two of my exams are in-class closed book, no open note exams. Ack. Doomed.
So, clearly I need to either get more sleep or try some 5 hour energy/caffeine pills or something. I figure it's better for me to stay awake and alert in class than it is to stay up late to get briefs done, because I don't know what the heck I'm doing with briefs so it's not worth impeding class awareness for questionable returns.
Or I could try taking some naps. I've scouted out the school and found some secluded big couches that might be nap-worthy. It's really cold in the law school, so I would probably have to bring a blanket as well.
I would nod off all the time in high school and undergrad too, but those classes were easy. Here, I have no idea what's going on. Speaking of here, I found out that two of my exams are in-class closed book, no open note exams. Ack. Doomed.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
About Clubs (Not the Night ones)
So the feeling I've gotten so far in my scant few weeks in law school is that clubs ultimately do not matter much in terms of finding employment...
Now, allow me to add a caveat- most of the upperclassmen I've chatted with are searching for big law firm jobs, so perhaps this is different for government, public interest, etc... (but honestly, something like 90% of the kids end up doing that or a judicial clerkship here so for all intents and purposes, this is what matters here)
I had initially written a long post about this, but upon further reflection I should probably keep my mouth shut until next year when I go through OCI's and whatnot (if I decide to do that) and actually know what I'm talking about. Everything I know right now is hearsay.
Here's the gist of what I've been told/what I've perceived:
Sign up for a lot of clubs and dabble in them to see which ones you really like, and then stick with those and drop the rest. Don't worry too much about not sticking with as many as other people, or not doing the important sounding ones, it probably doesn't matter as far as employment goes- it's just for fun and networking! And, law journals are apparently really important for firm jobs/judicial clerkships, so if that's your goal, do well on the case note in your second semester.
Now, allow me to add a caveat- most of the upperclassmen I've chatted with are searching for big law firm jobs, so perhaps this is different for government, public interest, etc... (but honestly, something like 90% of the kids end up doing that or a judicial clerkship here so for all intents and purposes, this is what matters here)
I had initially written a long post about this, but upon further reflection I should probably keep my mouth shut until next year when I go through OCI's and whatnot (if I decide to do that) and actually know what I'm talking about. Everything I know right now is hearsay.
Here's the gist of what I've been told/what I've perceived:
Sign up for a lot of clubs and dabble in them to see which ones you really like, and then stick with those and drop the rest. Don't worry too much about not sticking with as many as other people, or not doing the important sounding ones, it probably doesn't matter as far as employment goes- it's just for fun and networking! And, law journals are apparently really important for firm jobs/judicial clerkships, so if that's your goal, do well on the case note in your second semester.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Overbooked
It's not something that only airlines do. Between intramurals, clubs, schoolwork, social life, and other obligations, I feel wayyyyy overbooked. There's a lot of things I want to do so I'm going to be bummed if I'm going to have to eliminate some of them. Here's how my week looks...
Today- free after 7pm
Tuesday- in law school from 9 am until 5pm, softball in the evening until 8ish
Wednesday- in law school from 9 am until 5pm, meeting at 5:15pm, another intramural in the evening from 9pm until 11 or so.
Thursday- in school from 12 until 5. Meeting at 4:30 that I'm going to be late to (a training session) and then an intramural event until 8ish again. Bar review at 10pm. Thank god Torts is canceled in the morning.
Friday- In school from 12 until 5. Training session from 5 until 9pm.
Saturday- training session from 9 am until 1pm. tournament from 1pm until 4pm.
Also, there's homework and whatnot to worry about.
Still, I think overbooking is good. My advice to any future 1L's is to sign up for every single thing that interests you and maybe even some things you're not sure about. If you have the slightest interest in it, give it a try. There's no obligation (I sound like a TV ad) and you might find that something you thought you'd be really into really isn't as good as you thought and something you thought wouldn't be that great is in fact, fantastic. Get of your comfort zone and try as many things as possible. You can always politely remove yourself later.
Clubs that are mainly about inviting guest speakers are particularly good because your lunch hour is usually free (unless you have meetings) and there's free lunch. No work for you + free food = awesome.
Today- free after 7pm
Tuesday- in law school from 9 am until 5pm, softball in the evening until 8ish
Wednesday- in law school from 9 am until 5pm, meeting at 5:15pm, another intramural in the evening from 9pm until 11 or so.
Thursday- in school from 12 until 5. Meeting at 4:30 that I'm going to be late to (a training session) and then an intramural event until 8ish again. Bar review at 10pm. Thank god Torts is canceled in the morning.
Friday- In school from 12 until 5. Training session from 5 until 9pm.
Saturday- training session from 9 am until 1pm. tournament from 1pm until 4pm.
Also, there's homework and whatnot to worry about.
Still, I think overbooking is good. My advice to any future 1L's is to sign up for every single thing that interests you and maybe even some things you're not sure about. If you have the slightest interest in it, give it a try. There's no obligation (I sound like a TV ad) and you might find that something you thought you'd be really into really isn't as good as you thought and something you thought wouldn't be that great is in fact, fantastic. Get of your comfort zone and try as many things as possible. You can always politely remove yourself later.
Clubs that are mainly about inviting guest speakers are particularly good because your lunch hour is usually free (unless you have meetings) and there's free lunch. No work for you + free food = awesome.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Note to Future Law Students
Really check out the parking situation before committing to a school. A guaranteed parking pass is not the same thing as a guaranteed parking spot.
Not that I'm saying that the parking situation should determine where you go to school....but hey, if it's neck and neck between two schools and one has better parking than the other...!
Not that I'm saying that the parking situation should determine where you go to school....but hey, if it's neck and neck between two schools and one has better parking than the other...!
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