Mission: Law School Orientation

Completed.  It feels like a teacher conference week.  There was so much important, excellent information, but by the end I was on information overload.  I truly feel changed after four days of law school orientation.  I suppose that change is a really important part of the process.  I see second year students, and there is clearly this difference in them that makes them seem more lawyerly.  It is interesting to go through the process and know that that change is the goal and that I will experience it, but trying to be cognizant and reflective about it at the same time.  On some level, it makes sense.  The point is to take students (often starting out at 22 years old) and turn them into lawyers in three years.

So here are two points of the enculturation process that we have been told (explicitly or implicitly) this week.  I include them because they each effect me very differently.  On the first point, I mostly think it is a bunch of hooey, so the enculturation process was not very successful.  Of course, I carry the bias of my feelings about standardized tests and traditional grading with me.  On the second point, I do feel moved and filled with the importance of my newest endeavor.  

1. We are the best and brightest.  It used to be that it was very easy to get into law school, but then one out of three people wouldn’t make it.  Now, it is difficult to get in, but once you are there you will probably complete the process.  At MU, for our class of 152, they had over 1000 applications, which by my math means that about 15% of applicants are admitted.  Among our class of 152, the average undergraduate GPA is 3.51 and the average LSAT score is 158.  So how do I fit in?  My undergraduate GPA was 2.58 (although that was ten years ago and I have a 3.7 Graduate GPA that they DO NOT count) and I scored a 168 (97th percentile) on the LSATs. So on the one hand, there stats do make it seem like we are the best and the brightest.  On the other hand, after spending a week with some of these people, I am a little worried if they are the best and the brightest.  Although I am truly trying not to be too judgmental, there are people that said and did things this week that made me wonder how in the world they got to be here.  Although, to give them the benefit of the doubt, many of these people are also very young.  Wow, now I am really sounding judgmental, I better move on to the next point.


2. We heard a lot about the purpose of lawyers in society and the importance as a lawyer of not involving yourself directly in your client’s conflict.  There were some powerful speeches about how, despite all the lawyer jokes, people come to lawyers when the worst thing in their life has happened.  Whether it is a divorce or a murder charge, usually before they start therapy, they come to a lawyer for help in solving their problem.  They need somebody to guide them through the incredibly complicated conflict resolution process in this country and there is a lot of responsibility in doing that in a professional manner.  We will become guides to a very complicated and overwhelming process that people will be encountering at a time when they are emotionally not at their best.  On the one hand, when I write this, it sounds kind of dorky, especially knowing all the stories of crappy lawyers, some of which I have dealt directly with.  On the other hand, I already feel passion and belief in the importance of what I am going to do.  I suppose that is part of the process.

We also learned a lot this week about the law, how it fits into society, and how to start to tease the nuances of it apart.  This was very exciting to me.  I remember when Gene was going through his custody battle with Becky, when I was trying to understand the process that Billie was going through, and when I was trying to grapple with the legalese of FRD being able to live with me despite me not being his bio-parent.  At each of these times, I read cases and statutes and, on my own, tried to tease apart the distinctions and understand how a particular judge might rule.  During these times of my life, I enjoyed the intellectual stimulation from this type of Socratic thinking at times to the neglect of the other things I should have been working on.  Before orientation, I thought that this passion and excitement for the nuances of the law was limited to these particular issues as an outgrowth of my passion for them.  Now, I am beginning to discover that it is the process of this that I love.  I actually come home and want to spend my time reading, briefing, and researching the cases.  It is early, so I dare not say more for fear of jinxing the next several years.

I have also spent a lot of time this week people watching.  It is fascinating to watch as these 152 people get to know each other.  I have been told that law school is emotionally like high school and intellectually like graduate school.  Thus far, I have found this to be true.  I mean, we have lockers, shared study carrels, and we share all the same classes with 76 people.  Different little groups have formed and reformed over the week.  I have kind of floated amongst different people, making lots of acquaintances, but not any friends as of yet.  As I ask to sit or work with different groups, I get mixed reactions.  Some people are friendly and outgoing and others are exclusive and rude (one girl rolled her eyes at her friend when I made a joke—and come on, I’m funny!) A lot of the students are a decade younger than me, which makes me feel very middle age, but there are a few that are closer to my age and I am trying not to focus on age differences as it would be to depressing.

Orientation week completed.  Classes start on Monday.  I have a plethora of assignments for the first day and an apartment that still has not been unpacked.  With that, I head into the weekend.