Stick to your day job [John]

Its almost February and law students are out in full force looking for summer internships. With the economy in the toilet, the search is even harder--especially if you are looking for a paid internship.

Catholic law has so far been great in assisting us with the search. From their online job bank to there career center, they have been a great help. The unfortunate part is that everyone is using them and it is hard to stick out to companies when everyone is applying to the same jobs from the same job bank. However, being in DC for ungrad has definitely help generate some leads for the summer--and I'm greatly appreciative of everyone that has been willing to help me.

So to all my fellow law students---good luck with the search!

TGIF

The weekend is finally here (although the work never stops). This week has been particularly grueling since we had classes last Sunday. After my first semester, I have learned to appreciate these weekends early in the semester when you can actually relax and take Friday and Saturday night off. That unfortunately will change in about a month. Much less case reading for me this semester. Property is the only class where I am extensively reading cases for every class. Lots of theory-based stuff and essays for Leg/Reg and to a lesser extent Crim Law (which still has some case reading, but not exclusively). My Lawyering and Written/Oral Advocacy classes are overlapping somewhat right now in their content. Whereas last semester I was learning how to think like a lawyer, this semester I am more so learning how to actually be a lawyer. Enjoy the weekend.  

P.S.  23-13 Steelers (although I will be rooting hard for God's team). 

P.P.S. Congratulations, Michael Steele. You have an unenviable task. Let's get to work!  

It is a great day! [John]

Our New RNC Chairman!!!!

It is a great day for the GOP and its an even better day for America. Chairman Michael Steele is exactly what our party needs. He is an amazing communicator that can get out there an carry the message of the Republican movement.

It is also a great day since my memorandum was turned in. The next step is to argue my position (opposition to the motion to disqualify) in front of a judge (my teacher). I am given 5 minutes to argue my case and then my opponent gets 5 minutes. Even though it isnt really graded, it will be great practice for the appellate arguments in front of real judges we have in April.

Gotto love eminent domain [John]

So a few weeks ago we discussed the Kelo decision in property class. I dont know why we jumped immediately to that, but we did. Anyway, as we all know, it was one of the most blatant judicial activism moves in the 21st century. After reading O'Connor's scathing dissent, there is no doubt in my mind that they incorrectly ruled. Now, years later, the Kelo house is still a bulldozed lot and the City of New London has not began the economic development that they claimed was "absolutely necessary" for the future of the city.

And the papers never end... [John]

So for the last two weeks, I have been working on this memorandum in opposition to a motion to disqualify counsel. It is due Friday, but I am at the point where I just want to pull all my hair out.

Anyway, today I had my first meeting in regards to Law Review. At CUA Law, we have four journals: Law Review, CommLaw Conspectus, Journal of Contemporary Health, and Journal of Law, Philosophy and Culture. To get on one of these journals, we have to enter a writing competition that occurs over Spring Break. Though I'm not too excited that I will be in the library for the whole break, I am looking forwards to this opportunity to write for one of the journals. It's a closed packet competition, which means all the material we need for the paper is in the packet (so no outside research!)

Still Want to be a Lawyer?

I just came across this story on the Drudge Report. 

I am taking a class called Lawyering this semester that teaches students how to actually work as a lawyer. The first subject we are learning about is the client interview. Every student is going to have a simulated interview, one-on-one with a "client" (played by a professional actor). I am very much looking forward to it, and it should be a very enlightening experience. It is so easy for law students to get bogged down in reading cases and thinking conceptually and philosophically about the law (and that is important), but they forget that the law is essentially a people business. Cultivating relationships with clients and potential clients is probably the most important part of a lawyer's job. And in the case of the poor lawyer in the story above, the clients may sometimes even supply the fertilizer. =)  

Beating Bad Precedent

Well, the one very useful thing about reading a million cases in law school is that you definitely learn how to construct your own legal arguments. One of the more useful learning experiences is seeing how judges justify their decisions in cases that reverse precedent. I mention this because John said in his last post that he was writing a memo for a position that seemed to run contrary to the case law. From what I have seen so far, there are two ways to handle a situation like that. First, you distinguish the hell out of your case from the "bad cases". Sometimes this can be very difficult, and in case reading you can see brilliant judges straining to distinguish their case from "bad" precedent. "Well in that case, the defendant threw a tomato at the comedian, but in this case defendant threw a banana." Not overly persuasive is it? However, I have read cases where judges have made distinctions that are not much less ridiculous. The other way to do it is to embrace the bad cases and somehow construct an argument that makes it seem like your position is completely consistent with these cases. This is obviously extremely difficult to do. The great Benjamin Cardozo routinely employed this strategy in his decisions. Although, as my contracts teacher would say last semester, all Cardozo opinions should come with a disclaimer: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. 

I don't know about John, but I find it more interesting and a more worth while learning experience to argue for positions that appear to run contrary to all the case precedent.  I like having the odds stacked against me. I don't know... maybe I'm just a masochist. 

Thank god its over... [John]

Thank god this weekend has come to an end. It was one of the busiest weekends of my law school career and I definitely don't want to live though it again. It started off with the Inter-school trial competition where I was helping my friend as a witness for the defense. I received the part last minute since his other witness dropped out so I didn't have too much time to prepare. But Saturday went very well. From 8am to 5pm, we were in "court" where I was a witness for about 20 minutes in each trial. It was an amazing experience--my team did great! It really made me excited for Moot Court which is coming up very soon.

For the rest of the weekend, I was writing a Memorandum in Opposition to a Motion to Disqualify Counsel. This document was completely different then anything else I have written in law school. Instead of being objective like last semester's memorandums, it was purely persuasive. In college, I loved persuasive writing. But while writing this paper, it definitely was alot harder when all the case law was against my position. I kept wanting to put in cases both in opposition and support of my position (like in my previous papers). Finally, I got back in the groove and wrote what I think was a pretty convincing memorandum.

So basically I have been doing work since 3pm on Friday to 8pm on Sunday...never leaving my room except for the trial competition. I'm exhausted...time to go to bed :(

2nd Semester Classes

I will not be taking Con Law until next year. It is a two semester course at NYL that will span both semesters of the second year. Con Law was one of the subjects that was covered in Law Preview, which is meant to review all the traditional first year classes. I am not certain what a majority of law schools around the country do, but I would tend to think that NYL is more the exception than the rule in terms of the placement of Con Law in the curriculum. Con Law is a class that I have been looking forward to since I knew that I was going to attend law school. I am very interested to read about John's experiences with it this semester. For instance, I have long wondered how politically drive a class in Con Law would inevitably become. At NYL, for example, the professor who teaches Con Law is the former president of the ACLU. Given her background and obvious agenda, how could the class not become overtly political? Although its hard to imagine a former president of the (gulp) ACLU doing so, I would assume that in order for the class to work and to foster a learning environment, she would have to be fair and impartial. Although when it comes to Academia, nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to far left professors and their attempts to indoctrinate their students. We shall see.  

Is this Law School or Undergrad all over again? [John]

Its been two weeks since I started the second semester. And I definitely have to agree with Eugene that last semester was a lot more conventional and blackletter law. So far, this semester is much more philosophical. From the Theories of Punishment in Criminal Law to the Theories of the State of Nature, natural law and positive law in Constitutional Law, it feels like I am back in undergrad instead of being in law school. But I definitely understand its importance of these theories in the development of our legal system.

Especially in Constitutional Law--it was definitely an advantage for our class the my teacher decided to begin the discussion of Con Law with Locke and Hobbs theories of the state of nature. Most other sections began with Marbury v. Madison without ever studying or actually understanding the historical underpinnings of that decision. My teacher spent a full week (4 classes) on State of Nature, the Bank Debate and the theory of sovereignty, Chrisholm v. Georgia and many different speeches that the federalist and anti-federalist have wrote before and after the ratification of the Constitution. That class is a lot of work with at least 8 hours of reading per night (reading the dense assignments twice like he recommends) for 4 days per week, but I'm definitely enjoying it immensely!

Good to be Back

The first semester is in the books. Contracts, Torts, and Civil Procedure are history. Now it is on to Property and Criminal Law. At least for me, second semester appears to be slightly less "conventional", and by that I mean less of the type of core first year courses that everyone knows. Aside from the previously mentioned Property and Crim Law, I am also taking Lawyering, Written & Oral Advocacy, and Legislation & Regulation. From what I understand, both Lawyering and Leg/Reg are relatively new courses at NYLS and the professors are still in the process of fine tuning them. We shall see. First semester was a very memorable experience, but it feels good to be starting over. Everything is once again new and exciting. I can already tell that Criminal Law is something very different from Torts/Contracts/Property. It seems much more philosophical (that can be a good thing and a bad thing). Reading 40 pages a night on the musings of various philosophers on "what is punishment" and "why do we punish" can be both intellectually stimulating, yet at the same time extremely tedious. I'll be very interested to see where the class goes. Let's get started!  

And we are back!! [John]

So after a long hiatus , Eugene and I have decided we would get back to blogging. I apologize to all of our readers that our postings stopped after a few months--the law school workload was getting very burdensome and it was getting very difficult to make time to do anything, let alone, to write a post.

But now, after mastering the first semester, we decided to try one more time. There are plenty of things going on such as moot court, law review and of course, looking for that summer internship. So definitely stay tuned for what looks like will be an exciting semester!!