Oral Arguments [John]

Our Lawyer Skills class is not going client interviews this year. I dont know why, but we were given a packet instead describing the procedure etc. However, today I had my oral argument for the motion to disqualify memorandum I had to write. It went pretty well. We argued in front of the judge (aka professor) and she shot questions at us. It was pretty intense...A lot more intense than the moot court I was back at the beginning of my first semester. She drilled us on the case law and wanted us to provide the authority for everything we said.

It was great practice for our appellate argument in front of a panel which will occur later in April. Since the argument is over, I have a little bit of down time before the next memo. Hopefully this will give me more time to catch up on outlining for my other classes.

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 :(

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!!

Moot Court vs. Law Review [John]

Even though it is the 2nd week of school, I have some very big decisions to make that effect my 2nd and 3rd year of law school. One decision is whether to enroll into the Moot Court program or the Law Review. In order to do Moot Court next year, I will need to complete the Soap Box prerequisite. Therefore, I need to enroll in the Soapbox in the next few days and present a 10 minute oral argument during the week of Sept. 8th.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am going to do Soapbox since I want to keep my options open. (I have to decide if I want to do Law Review later in the year.) I learned today that we have an intellectual property moot court team which is definitely something I am interested in. However, it seems the the Law Review is more esteemed in the legal field (unless I am going to be a litigator...which I doubt I will be). Either program will be great, but its a key decision that I need to make and it will effect my legal career.

On Thursday, a Moot Court representative will be talking to our class to help clarify questions we might have. I am definitely looking forwards to it.

What is your opinion? Should I do moot court, or law review?

The Library Blues [John]

Its sad...but I have been in the library so much that I am actually having dreams about it. But its the reality of law school. Especially for 1L's; much of our time is spent constructing the foundation of the law by analyzing concepts from their origination to their modern interpretations. But the library blues is definitely kicking in. I know that every time I walk into the library, I will see the same group of students at the table next to me, and the same guy in the cubicle behind me. I also know that once I get to the library, that my schedule will be exactly the same last Monday...Civ Pro, Lunch, and then Contracts homework. But, I guess thats just school. 14 more weeks.... I really miss the summer...

On a lighter note, 1L's version of moot court begins on the 27th, so my schedule will definitely be changing to accommodate the preparation of a 10 minute oral argument that I will be performing the week of September 8th!