You Don't Scare Me

My contracts professor has built up quite a reputation these first 3 weeks of classes. After the near murder of the poor student last Tuesday, I see a lot of my classmates having trouble coming to grips with his rather in-your-face style of socratic method. Before class today, I overheard two girls sitting in the row behind me talking about how they were having trouble sleeping the night before contracts class because they were thinking about the seating chart and when he might get to their names. During today's discussion, he questioned (very politely I might add) another student who immediately went catatonic. After a full three minutes of awkward silence she told him that she had done the reading and prepared, but she was too nervous to function. 

I don't know why this is exactly (perhaps its just my personality), but my experience in the classroom seems to be dramatically different from most other students. I find the professor to be both amusing and challenging. I am one of the few people relaxed enough in class to recognize his incredibly dry sense of humor and get a chuckle out of his jokes. I volunteer every class because I desperately want to interact with him. I want him to know that I understand what he is saying, and I want him to challenge me (maybe I also want to let him know that he doesn't scare me). He has taken the liberty of referring to me as "Gene" instead of "Eugene" during class. Considering that I have never exchanged a word with him outside of the giant lecture hall, I suppose this might mean I have made an impression. Who knows though... maybe not. Maybe its just totally random. They do say law school is just a giant mind-f**k. I think there may be some truth to that. 

Pardon the language =).   

Third Week Law Student v. Oliver Wendell Holmes

I have been so busy the last few days that it has been impossible to create a post. I am trying to stick to my schedule of staying 2 days ahead on all the reading, but it is turning out to be quite the undertaking. Last night, the Torts reading for next Monday included 8 cases that needed to be read and briefed. I got home from class at about 1:30. Factor in 30 minutes for dinner and 45 minutes to watch Sarah Palin totally renew my faith in politics, and I did not get done with my work until after midnight. 

So far, I would have to say that Contracts is the most challenging course. Not so much because the material is any more complicated than Torts or Civ Pro (in reality con law is actually quite simple and basic once you cut to the essence of the opinions), but because of the professor. He constantly challenges what we read in the case book. When I am reading the cases, I read them several times to gain a full understanding of the facts, the issue, the holding, and the reasoning. I then read over my brief a few times, commit the new law coming out of the case to memory, think about why it makes sense and is the correct resolution given the facts, and move on to the next one. 

This has been quite an effective strategy so far in Torts and Civ Pro. My strong ability to identify the issue in a case, and to fully understand the holding and the reasoning of the court, has served me well in those courses. I have already on several occasions been able to distinguish myself during class discussions through my mastery of these aspects of the opinion.

However, in contracts, the professor is constantly throwing a monkey wrench into my neat, orderly, and concise way of understanding the cases. I find the pattern has become quite familiar. After he has thoroughly traumatized a student, and ultimately managed to pull the court's holding and reasoning out of them, you can almost feel a collective sigh of relief in the classroom. Every student is thinking the same thing: "Finally! Now that we have identified the law, we understand it, we can probably (hopefully) apply it to different fact patterns, its time to move on. We've escaped this case!"  Not so fast...

The professor will then always come back with the question, "so, now that we understand it, tell me why the decision is incorrect?" Everyone's face just drops at this point. We've just spent the last 40 minutes working very hard to understand why and how this opinion became the law, and now we have to punch holes in the dam we just built. It has become the job of a third week law student to pick apart the legal reasoning of Benjamin Cardozo, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and all the other greatest legal minds in American history. Not an easy task to say the least. 

Last week I discussed how invigorating it was just to be able to get to the point where I could follow the reasoning of these legal giants. But now, it is my task to pick and prod at them, to critique THEIR reasoning and understanding of the law. It does not get any more difficult than that. I am finding it to be the most intellectually challenging exercise of my life. At times it physically hurts my head, but I suppose thinking about the material from this type of critical perspective will ultimately be of great assistance to me when trying to master it.