Summer uncertainty looming…

For those of you who are relatively new readers here at law:/dev/null — probably coming from Facebook if the log stats are to be believed — I’ve been planning on spending my summer in Quantico to attend Officer Candidate School for the United States Marine Corps. Hoping to become a Judge Advocate in the USMC was one of my motivations in choosing NCCU Law over some higher-ranked alternatives, even meriting inclusion as 1 of my 3 resolutions for the new year.

But it’s looking like I might have to wait until 2011

I’ve known from the beginning that the biggest challenge getting into OCS has been physical fitness, largely rooted in the fact I’ve spent the years since high school doing minimal exercise.  I got back into a workout routine when I returned to N.C. State in 2005… only to break my left fibula playing basketball 2 days before the Spring 2006 semester started

By the time I was off crutches back then, I was deep into Student Government and working full-time between being a lobbyist downtown and a TA for CSC116 on campus.

That lack of exercise continued until this past July, when I started a workout routine with some 2Ls and 3Ls heading to OCS this summer. I was making quasi-decent progress but developed a stress fracture from overexertion (apparently my left leg is not a fan of exercise ). I tried to keep up with various upper- and lower-body exercises that didn’t require the use of my leg, and started brisk walking late last month.  But after finally making it out to the track yesterday for my first “real” run, my time has really fallen off a cliff and I’m back at August levels.

The 1stLt who’s helping me train suggested I wait until next summer for OCS so I can be in better physical condition and have fewer mental distractions (UNCASG, surviving 1L, etc), and my OSO wants a “no bullshit assessment” in 2 weeks on whether I’m going to proceed or wait.

So… yeah.

The stubborn side of me says to stay the course, even though I know I’m risking another injury if I try to ramp up too quickly on the physical training. The pragmatist says it’s better to wait and succeed than to go too soon and risk getting booted for being out of shape.

And both sides of me wonder wtf I’m going to do this summer if I change my plans

Summer associateship applications should have gone out weeks ago. There’s a neat study abroad program in Costa Rica that I’d love to do, but at $5K+ it’s entirely too pricy unless there’s some massive financial aid $$ available. And the General Assembly had some intern openings in the Research Division that my legislative contacts wanted me to pursue, but that closed on Friday.

So whatever the decision, I have no clue what my summer is going to look like. Normally uncertainty doesn’t bother me, but for some reason it’s really got me in a slightly restive mood at the moment.

We’ll see what happens. Have a good night folks!

Tags: 1L, Career Prospects, USMC

Things TDot Likes: Scalia’s writing

Say what you want about the man and his views on American jurisprudence, but the further I get in CivPro the more I consider Antonin Scalia a damn good author.

We’re currently going through the whole Erie lineage of cases, and I just finished reading Scalia’s dissent in Gasperini v. Center for Humanities, Inc., 518 U.S. 415 (1996).  I’ll stipulate that I’m not yet competent enough in the law to have an opinion on whether I think his reasoning is persuasive.  But his writing style? The words practically jump off the page.

Compare the majority opinion to the dissent.  The former is bland and matter-of-fact-ish, but for the dissent I can practically envision Justice Scalia saying it aloud as I read.¹ It’s not quite as incendiary as the Burnham v. Superior Court case that amused me last semester, but it’s still good stuff

Off to read about concurrent estates in Property before heading to bed. Have a great night folks!

1. It’s actually kind of like one of those badly-dubbed kung fu movies, where the voice is based off snippets of interviews he’s given and the text itself is a subtitle on the screen [↩]

Tags: About TDot, CivPro, The Supremes

NCCU Law 1Ls take Silver in K-S competition

The unexpected miracle run had to end eventually, and today was the day

But after a hard-fought trial in a rematch against Duke Law, the NCCU Law 1L Trial Team — the Legal Eagles — still finished in 2nd place in the 2010 Kilpatrick-Stockton 1L Mock Trial Competition

I’ll confess there were some aspects of the final that had me in a certifiably frosty mood when I left the UNCCH Law building earlier this afternoon, but the particulars aren’t the type of thing worth detailing in a family-friendly forum like law:/dev/null I will say our entire team turned in an excellent performance, and it’s been an honor to serve as their captain

Top 4 teams in the 2010 Kilpatrick-Stockton 1L Mock Trial Competition

Something that was worth pointing out (at least IMO) is this chart I put together of the final 4 teams.

Now I know several of my Duke Law friends will argue with this chart — as some already have — claiming that the difference in cost of attendance is irrelevant, since their salaries at summer associateships and after graduation will more than make up for the extra law school expense.

And they’re certainly right… to an extent.

But given my aspirations to spend my career in public service, on top of my acquired distaste for BigLaw, I’d be lucky to pull down in a year what the Duke grads will make in a month. Keeping that in mind, and considering both of us made it to the finals in this particular competition, as of now I’d say we’ve got the better Return-On-Investment

The folks over at Fight the Hypo wrote this entry on the topic of ROI a few weeks ago.

Aside from the clichéd “bang for your buck,” this is also one of those cases where I really can’t consider a loss as a loss: when the judges announced the results this afternoon and handed me a certificate for our team’s performance, the crowd was told “If this were a real trial, the verdict would be to acquit.”

So we lost the competition… but won our case. As much as I love being #1, it’s gratifying to know a client paying us would have gotten their money’s worth

Here’s how the final competition turned out for us over 4 days:

• Round 1A:  UNCCH 1 vs. NCCU (W)
• Round 1B:  NCCU vs. Campbell 3 (W)
• Round 2:  NCCU vs. Campbell 1 (W)
• Round 3:  UNCCH 7 vs. NCCU (W)
• Round 4:  NCCU vs. Duke 1 (W)
• Round 5:  Duke 1 vs. NCCU (L)

I’d be ecstatic if my Wolfpack could keep an 83% win-loss ratio in football (or basketball, or hell any sport for that matter ) — so I’m pretty doggone happy+proud of us

And now I can finally go back to reading the cases I’m paying that $8K in tuition+fees to study

Many thanks to all of you who commented and emailed and FB’d me to send your support, it meant a lot! I’m hoping I’ll be able to repay the gesture at some point over the next 2 years

Tags: 1L, Christie, Co-Counsel, Competence FTW, K-S 1L Mock Trial Competition, Legal Eagles FTW, Tinkerbell, Trial Team

SUCCESS!!!!

Y’all…

O.

M.

G.

For serious. The final round of the Kilpatrick-Stockton 1L Mock Trial competition is tomorrow. And the NCCU Legal Eagles are in it!

The 2009-2010 NCCU 1L Trial Team -- the Legal Eagles :)

We had 3 rounds today, with our prosecution beating a 2nd Campbell team this morning, our defense knocking out a 2nd UNCCH team this afternoon, and the prosecution defeating a team from Duke this evening.

Since the finalists are based on scores, we’re actually having a rematch against Duke tomorrow — this time it’ll be our defense squad (including me) up against their prosecution.

32 teams started. 2 are left.

Wake Forest sent their best… and lost. Elon sent their best… and lost.  Campbell sent their best… and lost. UNC Chapel Hill sent their best… and lost.

I’m hoping in tomorrow’s entry I’ll be able to tack Duke onto that list

Plus our 2L trial team just found out about an hour ago that they’re going to Nationals for TYLA or NOLA or something — I’ve been so wrapped up in my own stuff I don’t even know But I know it’s a good day to be an NCCU Eagle

I’m heading to bed so I’m bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for tomorrow’s marathon. Good night y’all!

Tags: 1L, Christie, Co-Counsel, Competence FTW, K-S 1L Mock Trial Competition, Legal Eagles FTW, Tinkerbell, Trial Team

Success!! (Redux)

So last night our defense team beat UNCCH.  Tonight the prosecution team competed… and beat a squad from Campbell

The NCCU 1L Trial Team (aka the Legal Eagles): 2

Our competitors: 0

Waiting on the schedule for tomorrow before heading to bed, but we’re definitely competing in the next round at this point at either 8am or 10am I’ll let y’all know how it turns out.  Until then have a great night

Tags: 1L, Competence FTW, K-S 1L Mock Trial Competition, Legal Eagles FTW, Trial Team

Success

The defense team (my side) of the NCCU Legal Eagles competed in the Kilpatrick-Stockton 1L Trial Team competition tonight… and we won

We successfully beat a team from UNCCH Law, and now we wait until Friday night to figure out if our score was high enough to get us into the next round on Saturday morning.

Now I’ve gotta rush and study for class tomorrow Good night folks!

Tags: 1L, Christie, Co-Counsel, Competence FTW, K-S 1L Mock Trial Competition, Legal Eagles FTW, Tinkerbell, Trial Team

Help for Haiti

Wow.

Just… wow.

I missed the news when I was out of town, apparently a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti — one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, and practically a stone’s throw from Florida.  The pictures are heartrending… and more-than-a-little reminiscent of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

If you’ve got the money to spare, consider a donation to the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders. The country is going to need a lot of help to recover

Tags: 1L

CrimLaw looks like fun

Just got my CrimLaw book today courtesy of a friend-of-a-friend who happened to be a 2L selling hers for dirt cheap¹, and started thumbing through it right before bed.  Looks like interesting stuff, I’m hoping this course will be fun

Sorry that’s the extent of today’s musings, gotta head to bed — meeting in Kannapolis @ 9am to hear the Governor talk about education stuff  Good night folks!

1. Note to pre-Ls: find 2Ls early in your academic career and make them your friends. Trust me. [↩]

Tags: 1L, CrimLaw, UNC Board of Governors

A preview of Spring 2010

First day of classes ended a couple hours ago So I’m currently hanging out in the Fishbowl waiting for 1L Trial Team practice to start @ 12pm and then the Client Counseling Competition to start @ 4pm.

My schedule for Spring 2010

NCCU Law schedules the 1L Spring semester so it’s more intense than the Fall.  The number of credit hours only goes up by 1 (from 14 to 15) but we tack on a 6th class — and the difference in workload between a 2-credit class and a 3-credit class is negligible.

But even with the added work, and even though last semester’s grades were an unmitigated disaster (more on those in an upcoming post), I’m cautiously optimistic about how things are going to turn out.

Several of the 2Ls and 3Ls I hit up for advice have favorably compared Professor CrimLaw to MDG: sardonic wit, merciless grader, excellent instructor.  And now that we’ve covered service and jurisdiction in CivPro, MDG will finally be teaching us the nuts and bolts there too; we’re starting with the Erie Doctrine this week, then delving into the complaint and other pleadings.  Plus I’ll have a chance to start fresh in Ks… and hopefully figure out wtf is going on this time

Off to practice.  Have a great day everybody!

Tags: 1L, ABA Client Counseling Competition, Class Schedules, NCCU Law, Trial Team

And it starts (again)

Get home late.  Check.

Eat fast food for dinner.  Check.

Read case law until midnight. Check.

An eminently predictable start to 1L year Round 2…

Heading to bed, CivPro @ 9am — good night y’all

Tags: 1L, CivPro