The first full week of classes draws to a close and I can’t imagine doing this for another 2.5 years. Although my body attended classes beginning last Thursday, my mind only joined in yesterday. This was certainly not the start to classes that I envisioned, but I am upbeat and excited to get into the groove now. So the lowdown is that classes seem really different this semester. I certainly felt by the end of last semester that I was getting into the groove, or at least understanding what was going on. This semester it feels like all the rules have changed. Now we are expected to do nearly double the reading, and they actually get to everything. I already feel like I am careening on a rollercoaster – except that I like that. So here is the class overviews, thus far:
Lawering: Still don’t know what this class is going to be about. We have met once, and the professor just made a big deal about how great it is to take a class about the profession that we have chosen. Then we got some cookies, and our partner had to negotiate to get them from us. The text is not in yet and nobody seems to know when it will be in. This class ranks low in terms of stress thus far.
Advocacy and Research: Again, only been to this class once. This is with the same students and same professor as Legal Research and Writing from last semester. On the first day she handed back our Memos from first semester (I have not looked at mine yet) and talked to us about how NOT to focus on grades. Love her! This semester we will be writing a lot – big surprise. We will also have to present our appellate brief in moot court. I envision a lot of preparation there and I don’t even need a crystal ball.
Property: I like my professor, but the cases are long to read and we don’t spend very much time on them. Translation – lots of reading with little bang for your buck. I haven’t quite figured out what is important and what isn’t important in the readings, so I either take copious notes or none at all. When he calls on people in the class, he goes down the row so you have some sort of head up if he’s coming your way.
Criminal Law: I cried through the entire first set of readings. Now, one might want to blame this on my recovering emotional state, but really no one liked those readings. The readings are over 20 pages each night, and we actually seem to get through most of the material. There has been a lot of philosophy thus far, which I am really not getting. There are all these concepts about punishment: Who to punish, who not to punish, how to punish, etc. And then they are all linked to utilitarian or retributivist schools of thought. I definitely have a lot more to say about Crim Law, and will probably make it the subject of its own posting this weekend.
Civil Procedure II: Last semester, these seemed like the hardest readings. Now they are the easiest. Maybe just because I am not used to how the other texts are written? Civil Procedure continues to grow on me, mostly because it is like the latticework that holds all the other issues. We have started with class action suits - Federal Rule of Civil Procedure #23. It makes sense, unlike everything else right now, but sometimes it is hard to understand the way the professor asks the questions.
My goal is to read until my eye sockets swell up and start to bleed this weekend (nice visual huh), but first I am going to take a hot bath and go to one of the student bar association happy hours. Cheers!
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