2012: so far, so good

Busy. as. a. bee.

Enrolled in 12 credit hours (plus reading & writing time outside of class). Spend approx. 10 hours per week working at the CDC as an extern. Assist a professor 2-3 hours per week. Keep house and home from falling apart. Tend to hubby and critters.

Breathe. Stretch. Repeat.

I try to remind myself to savor the cool breeze of each jasmine-laden moment, because -- stressful though they may be -- they are fleeting. Soon the miserable heat of summer will be upon New Orleans, and I'll be in the thick of intensive Bar Exam Study. Then, with a little luck and plenty of moxie, come the cool breezes of autumn I'll be hard at work at my first Lawyering Job.

So it goes that, even though I'm constantly in a mad dash where I blink five times and it's Thursday again already, I'm trying to enjoy this these last Law Student weeks and days for what they're worth.

The Most Terrible Time of the Year

For a law student, exam time is a horrific thing.

First, there’s the sheer volume of law that you’ve spent all semester learning. You must review it, delving into every nuance, and thoroughly comprehend each and every twist and turn.

Second, there’s the pressure. Your entire grade for the semester rests on your performance on this one exam. Nevermind if you came to every class fully prepared, participated meaningfully in every class discussion, and read all of the optional supplemental materials; that doesn’t matter a whit. All that matters is how you perform on that exam, and if you have a momentary lapse of reason, or your mind goes blank in the exam room, that’s it. You’re screwed.

Third, there’s the inherent unfairness of the grading system. Law professors aren’t free to assign grades based solely on the merits of each exam response. No, instead their grade distribution must align with the school’s grading curve mandate. That is, only so many As may be given, only so many Bs, only so many Cs, and so forth. Which means that the professors frequently end up making arbitrary distinctions between papers on the cusp of two grades (A- and B+ for instance) just to comply with the curve.

All of that, combined with the fact that all this studying amounts to a major time suck, makes for an unpleasant experience for law students in early December and early May.

I’ve lodged these exact same complaints before, though, so I won’t elaborate any further.

But it has begun once again for me, and I can’t help but whine just a little. Classes are over, and crunch time is now.

So it goes that my days are spent in my study, at my desk, diligently studying legal ethics, health care law, business enterprises, and trusts & estates. I refuse to become a study zombie, though, so I allow myself stretching breaks and dog-walking breaks, and I get up early and get to bed at a decent hour instead of working late into the night. (Since my exams are at all at 9am, I don’t want to fall into a night-owl routine during my study period.)

And although it's unpleasant, I will survive. I will pass all of my exams, even if I don’t come out at the top of the class. Best of all, I only have one more exam period to live through before this law school business is a thing of the past. (Although this is a mixed blessing, because after graduation I’ll have bigger exam worries, like passing the bar!)

In the meanwhile, though, I’m going offline. No facebook, no twitter, no blogging, and no internet stumbling. I shall endeavor to focus on my exams to the exclusion of such distractions. Wish me luck.

the beginning of the end of law school

Time flies when you're a busy bee law student. So it goes that I find myself already halfway through the first semester of my third and final year of law school.

I remember the day I received my acceptance letter from Tulane. It was during the days of my laid back schedule: the spring of 2009. I had received a lot of rejection letters from graduate programs that spring. On the day the letter arrived from Tulane Law, I was home alone with the kitties when the mail arrived, and as soon as I read the word “congratulations,” I started imagining a life in New Orleans. Of course, I was still awaiting other admittance decisions, and I had no way of knowing what my final decision would be. But I knew that New Orleans was relatively close by, and that both hubby and I had an affinity for the city. And the thought of moving there and attending Tulane was absolutely thrilling. I skipped giddily through the house, announcing excitedly to the kitties that we just might move to New Orleans.

As it happened, that’s precisely what we did. Two years and many challenges later, I find myself beginning the end of my law school career.

For the entire academic year I’ll be working as a judicial extern at the Orleans Parish Civil District Court for class credit. So I’ve been in the courtroom instead of the classroom at least 10 hours each week, doing real legal work which has real consequences for real people. And that’s a whole lot more fulfilling than just working for good grades. (Although I’m still doing plenty of that, too.)

As far as classes go, I’ve made the strategic decision throughout my upper years of law school to take classes that interest me and which will give me a sound knowledge base for the areas of law in which I desire to practice, rather than taking only classes in subject matter which will be tested on the bar exam; I figure I can learn what I need to know to pass the bar outside of the classroom, and I’d rather have the in-depth coverage offered in a law school class for those areas of law where I’ll actually be working instead of just being tested once. So I’m enrolled in Trusts & Estates, Health Care Law, and Business Enterprises. I’m also knocking out my final graduation requirement: the Legal Professionalism course.

Apparently, law schools didn’t used to require law students to take a course in Legal Professionalism. The thinking goes that instituting this requirement might just result in fewer crooked lawyers out practicing in the world inspiring nasty lawyer jokes and committing malpractice. So now the American Bar Association has mandated that all aspiring lawyers take course in Legal Professionalism in order to obtain that J.D. (And, now 46 states also require a passing score on a nationally-administered Professional Responsibility Examination in order to be admitted to practice in the state. I’ll be taking that exam Nov. 5th.)

And that is why, along with the substantive law of intestacy, informed consent, and derivative actions, I’m also learning what it means to competently represent a client, why trust funds can never, ever be co-mingled, and other ways to avoid finding myself in front of a disciplinary committee someday.

I’ve heard it said that 3L year is an aspiring lawyer’s last opportunity to be a slacker (after 2 rough years of schooling and before 5-10 years of hard work in the Real World before getting a chance to relax and take it easy). But that’s not been the case for me. I’m still working hard, learning a ton, and running around NOLA like a mad woman, from home to school to work and back, barely getting enough rest during the week.

Despite the exhaustion and despite the dire job market, it does feel good to be a 3L. There’s a sense of invincibility, because I’m now too far along to fail in this law school endeavor. My GPA, while not at the Top of the Class, will earn me that J.D.; there’s no question whether I’ll continue apace and finish this thing. And while I don’t yet have a post-graduation job lined up, my success is no longer uncertain. I am constantly networking and doing good work with and for the benefit of legal professionals, making a name for myself in the legal community, and I am confident that I will not only find a job, but a job that I'll enjoy. Walking through the halls of the law school and studying in the library, I feel happily isolated from all the fear and doubt that the 1Ls and 2Ls are experiencing.

Which is a good thing, because it seems like it was just yesterday that I was a scared and shaken 1L, reeling from the mental hazing that comprises one’s introduction to the world of lawyering.

And that's your seasonal update, dear readers, for now it is time for me to return to my studies.

{This post brought to you by a cancelled class this morning.}