The Reflection

The Lawyering Vent

I’m having a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad attitude about lawyering (not the class – the profession), and I am hopeful that if I vent, it will go away.  So, PLEASE taking this in the light that it is meant (a bad day reflection on my chosen career).  Here are this weeks overarching, stereotypical, conclusions about lawyers:  

1. Lawyers (as a whole) are not sewn from the same socially supportive fabric as teachers.  I draw this conclusion, not actually from any recent experience in the law school, as I am immersed in the environment and that closeness sometimes keeps me from noticing what is missing.  But rather, I draw that conclusion from my experience outside the law school, in Philosophic Theories of Education, where I find myself suddenly able to breathe.  (And I add the disclaimer that I am in no way passionate about learning philosophic theories of education – on the contrary, I have already found myself yawning through a discussion of relativism)

1. In a class this week I learned that it is without doubt that some time during my career my own ethics will conflict with the requirements of my profession and at that nexus I will have to make the choice between staying with or leaving the profession.  Strangely, I don’t remember that discussion in my education to be a teacher or even an anthropologist.  I don’t remember ever being told that someday I would be required to do something that I thought was morally and ethically wrong.

The Start of the Second Year

Tomorrow the law school will explode with orientation for the new group of 1Ls. Which means I’m about a week away from starting my second year of law school. Well, I actually started my externship at the Missouri School Board Association today. I love my new chair and I now have yet another email address!

I have high hopes for the new semester! As well as taking 16 credit hours, I will be on Law Review and a TA for Legal Research and Writing. A TA is pretty much like an AI at IU, except without the tuition waiver. I know it’s going to be a busy semester, but I’m excited about my classes. In addition to the externship, I am taking Constitutional Law, Education Law, Professional Responsibility, Philosophic Theories of Education, and Fall Moot Court.

So after much reflection, web surfing, and numerous conversations with mentors and friends, I’m trying to steer this crazy legal career thing. It’s just a seedling of an idea, but I’m thinking about education public policy as a place to start. I decided on this after researching my dream job and working backwards. I am frantically researching Washington DC law firms for a job for next summer.

Now if someone would just kick me in the butt and make me keep this blog updated!! Sometimes I have so much to write that I end up writing nothing at all.