Current mood = angry

I just received a rather disappointing scholarship offer from my school. Fortunately, there's still enough time to get my transfer applications together. (I'm applying to SoCal schools only -- sorry guys. But with a better name school on my resume, I'm sure I'll be able to move back East after school. Only 2 more years!)

Best things about my summer job so far

1. I'm an extern. That must be more impressive than an intern right? Why else would they make up a new word for it?

2. I get to sit in on conferences and hearings that no one else gets to see. Last week I got to sit in on a settlement conference and tell the defense lawyers involved how much I thought the jury would award the plaintiff. It was pretty cool. (Of course, the defense attorneys dismissed everything I had to say as foolish, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, I was right and they were wrong. So there.)

3. A real live judge reads what I write and uses it to make rulings. It's really cool to spend a day researching a particular issue and have the judge tell you that because of what you wrote, she decided to rule one way or the other.

4. Flexible hours. No explanation needed.

5. Close to coffee shop. See #4.

Things I would have done differently

Here is my second advice for incoming 1L's post. Here are a few things I would do differently if I could do the year again (which I wouldn't -- there's not enough money in the world... but anyway).

1. Exercise more: Law school is exhausting, but I shouldn't have used that as an excuse to cut back on my workouts. It only made me feel unhealthy and even more exhausted in the end. And there's nothing more frustrating than trying to get back into shape once you're out of shape.

2. Not get hooked on coffee: With all the free coffee that the school gave out in those first few weeks, you would have thought they got a commission for every one of us that got hooked on the stuff. Over-caffeination led to some of my less stellar moments this year. For example, trying to sit through a meeting with a professor after I had so much coffee that I had the jitters.

3. Study with someone else during first semester: First semester I didn't really make an effort to find a study group. Second semester, I studied with one friend for just a few hours 2 days before each final. (I studied on my own too obviously.) I found that it was much easier to keep on track when I studied with someone else -- I'm perfectly willing to waste my own time by procrastinating when I should be studying, but I didn't want to waste someone else's time. I felt like I got more done in less time. (My grades were about the same with or without the study group though.)

4. Be friendlier the first week of classes: I am going to something of a regional law school. 99% of my classmates went to undergrad at one of 2 schools. I felt a little like the new kid in junior high on my first day. I obviously wasn't rude to anyone, but I think I would have felt at home faster if I'd smiled and made small talk with my classmates a bit more during the first few weeks. Even though it felt like everyone knew everyone but me, I'm sure that wasn't really the case.

Recommended (and not so recommended) Books to read before School Starts

One thing I've noticed about law school is its tendency to turn people into sheep. People tend to do things just because those who went before did them without too much thought as to the benefit. So much as law students have done before me, I will be offering a series of blog posts with my advice for getting through first year. **I hope my humble thoughts will help someone. Baaaah**

Anyway, I am the type of person who likes to do a little research before I do anything, so I read a few books on lawschool before starting. This post contains my thoughts on those books.

1. Law School Confidential
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312318812/qid=1150927457/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-1219677-9061562?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

I would say that 99% of the people in my class read this one before starting school. I was no exception. The book includes advice on all aspects of law school from how to prepare for class to how to find a summer job. I thought the section on class preparation was especially helpful. I adopted a modified version of the highlighting system with great success and used the time I saved by not having to brief to do my outlines and catch up on my TV watching schedule. I have also gone back to the book for advice now that I am starting to prepare for OCI.

2. Law School for Dummies

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764525484/qid=1150927556/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-1219677-9061562?s=books&v=glance&n=283155">

This book contains much the same information as Law School Confidential except it was written by a aw student who attended a lower-ranked school. What I should have done was buy Law School Confidential and leave this book at the store. I wouldn't say reading it was a waste of time, but I didn't get anything new from it.

3. Slaying the Law School Dragon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471542989/qid=1150927605/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-1219677-9061562?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Here's a book written by someone who attended law school before World War II. I get the impression that it was one of the first books on surviving law school ever written. It contains some interesting stories on practicing law back in the day and some random facts about writs, where case names come from, etc. I consider it more of a novelty item than a must-have guide. If you have some spare time and your library has a copy, it's not a bad book to read. I wouldnt' call it a must have though.

4. Law 101

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195132653/qid=1150927645/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-1219677-9061562?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

This book provides an overview of the courses taught during first year in every law school. It's intended as the non-lawyers guide to the basics of law. Each chapter goes through an area of law and provides explanations of some of the topics that are covered. I found having a big picture overview of the law very helpful because most of first year is spent bogged down in the details of individual cases.

5. One-L

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446673781/sr=8-1/qid=1150927409/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1219677-9061562?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Probably the most famous book on law school ever written. One-L details the author's experiences as a first year at Harvard Law in the 70's. I'm told that some people find reading this book too stressful; if it's any consolation, I found law school to be less stressful than described in the book, but then again I didn't go to Harvard. Apparently, not too much has changed about law school since the 70's except inflation. As I recall, Turow paid less than $5,000 for a full year at Harvard and he mentions that big firms were paying around $30,000 a year back then.

6. A Civil Action

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679772677/qid=1150927683/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-1219677-9061562?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Perfect for those who want to lose faith in the legal system before even beginning law school. This book tells the true story of an attorney who agrees to represent a group of people whose family members became sick due to polluted drinking water. The book takes place in Massachusetts just North of where I was living at the time I read it, which added interest for me. This is probably one of the most depressing books I've ever read. My civil procedure professor recommends it as a way of learning about the civil trial process from start to finish.

7. The Eight Secrets of Top Exam Performance

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0159003237/qid=1150927939/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-1219677-9061562?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

I received a copy of this book for free through a BarBri presentation on campus where Professor Whitebread came to speak to us on the topic of lawschool exams. I consider it a must read. Although much of the advice seems obvious, I was suprised how many people did not follow it. For example, the book points out that you can't get an A unless you finish the exam. It also helped to have someone remind me to outline before writing. As the book points out, it's hard to stick to outlining when those around you are furiously typing away, but good organization really paid off for me so I'm thankful I followed that advice.

Externing for a judge

I'm just wrapping up my first full week of my externship. Today, I'm working from home, which means I'm in my pjs and haven't done a damn thing all day. (Actually I am researching firms for on campus interviews, but that is certainly not related to the technology in the courts research project I'm assigned for work.)

I am working for a judge at the L.A. Superior Court. The court has a whole program, so we also get to attend lunchtime presentations on different issues. For example, we learned all about how not to conduct a deposition. My job mainly consists of research. The most fun part so far was the memo I wrote regarding a motion; I summarized the papers that the parties turned in and made a recommendation on how the judge should rule. My assignment was pretty easy, so I got the right answer and the judge went along with my suggestions. The other extern had a much harder assignment, but she also got to look more impressive because being right took a lot more effort.

I have also gotten to sit in on a bunch of court proceedings including the CA. Supreme Court arguments, motion hearings and a criminal trial. I'm surprised to see that quite a few of the attorneys were visibly nervous when speaking. I guess I assumed that all litigators would be as slick as lawyers from movies, but without the benefit of a script and the ability to turn off the camera and start again if there's a mistake, that's not the case. At the Supreme Court arguments, one of the lawyers sounded so nervous I thought he would cry.

Law Review Competition

This is about 2 weeks late, but here are my fond memories of the law review write on competition.

My school allows the top 5% to grade on, but no matter your grades, you must make a good faith effort and suffer through the write on competition. We were able to pick up our packets the Monday after finals. To add insult to injury, it cost $25 for the privilege of participating. We had two weeks to write our article and do our cite check assignment (Blue Book even though the school does not use Blue Book for the writing classes -- more brilliance).

Day 1: Picked up packet, went out to lunch with a friend, read about 100 pages
Day 2: Read the rest of the packet (It was over 200 pages), Picked topic
Day 3: Took notes
Day 4: Stared blankly at my computer screen as I sat by the pool, finally wrote a paragraph
Days 5-9: Went on vacation, did 1/2 of the cite check assignment (much time spent whining because citations gave no indication of what source they were supposed to represent)
Day 10: Wrote paper
Day 11: Wrote paper again
Day 12: Finished paper
Day 13: Took the day off, went to orientation for my summer job
Day 14: Edited paper, finished cite check assignment, put citations in the paper in proper format.
Day 15: Made photocopies and put them in envelopes, dropped off my packet, went home to work on research project for my summer job. (Yes. The fun never ends.)

I have no idea when we hear back about the competition, but I feel like I managed to do a fairly decent job. My only word of advice is that everything took longer than I thought. (For example, putting my footnotes in proper format took more than 4 hours.) So allot more time than you think is necessary to get the paper put together and edited and whatnot.