Top Ten Things I Learned

Top Ten Things I Learned in the First 2 Days of Law School

1. We are learning process, so that we can apply it, because there is NO WAY that one could learn all of the law.

1. If there are some boys on the roof of a shed on a person’s property and that person throws a stick, intending to hit one of them, and it hits a different child, (causing him to lose eyesight in one eye), the person can be held liable, even though he didn’t intend to hit that particular child.

1. There is enough reading to keep you busy every day, all day and it is not easy reading either

1. A five year old child can be held liable for torts such as battery, as long as it can be shown that he has substantial knowledge that his action could result in harm.

1. There is no possible way to unpack your apartment in the evenings during the first week of law school.

1. An insane woman who beats her caretaker can be held liable for her tort of battery

1. In contract law, punitive damages are not awarded, because they might actually deter people from breaching contracts which through their breach may cause a net gain for one of the parties.

1. There is an entirely different process of citing references than that used in the rest of the academic world. For example a citation of 276 F. 245 (8th Cir 1921) means the particular case can be found in Volume 276 of the Federal Supplement on page 245 and the case was heard in the eight circuit in 1921. At least I think that’s what it means – I’m really just learning.

1. Most lawyers write more pages than novelists.

And the number one thing I have learned in the first two days of law school is if you are going to be carrying a backpack full of law books and a laptop computer on a five-ten minute hike back and forth to the parking garage and up and down six flights of stairs, DO NOT wear new shoes that MAY give you a blister.

Tomorrow my body will be at law school, but my mind and my heart will be at Templeton where they are having their first day of school.