Posted by TDot on Oct 10, 2011 in
The 3L Life Remember when I wrote that I enjoyed being in over my head?
I’ve changed my mind 
It’s safe to say the semester is going by entirely too d*mn fast when we were more than week into the month before I finally realized it was October. Midterms are this week for the 1Ls and 2Ls, and a string of papers are due for me. I’m ready for this month to be over and we just fast-forward to Thanksgiving so I can breathe for a few days…
- The big news story from the past couple weeks has been the death of Steve Jobs last Wednesday from pancreatic cancer
The good folks over at MacRumors have this comprehensive entry of news and reflections. I found out via a Drudge Report app alert (on my long-sought iPhone) in the middle of a reception I was attending, followed by a flurry of text messages from QuietStorm, 雅雅, and several classmates asking how I was dealing with the news. Steve’s been my role model for over a decade, and the combination of his own talents and his gathering other talented people around him at Apple has definitely enriched my life (and helped me get assignments done on time). Though a good many of us suspected he didn’t have much longer following his resignation as Apple CEO last month, the news still sucks. My heart goes out to his wife and kids 
- On a less depressing note, Wednesday was a whirlwind day in general — starting with me dropping off Samson for his last round of heartworm shots!
He had to stay overnight at the Durham APS for two separate injections, but after another few weeks of activity restrictions he should be heartworm free and able to resume life as an active dog! 
- After dropping off Samson and heading to class, I then drove down to my alma mater for a videotaped interview with staff from N.C. State Libraries. A couple years ago they created a page in their “Historical State” archive chronicling former Student Body Presidents… and at some point expanded it to this Student Leaders page where they’re including folks like me too
So they had about two-dozen questions on stuff that happened in Student Government when I was around back in 2006-2009, covering stuff like my role as a Senator when I wrote or sponsored 49 different pieces of legislation, the extensive drama surrounding the Spring 2007 SSP election, my first term as Senate President when I had a less-than-cooperative relationship with the Executive Branch, and so on. Makes me glad I did a decent job as SSP, otherwise my incompetence would be enshrined for all eternity
- Right after the NCSU interview I went out west to a reception for incoming UNC-system President Tom Ross, held at the Joint School of Nanoscience & Nanoengineering shared by UNC Greensboro and NC A&T State. I’d been to receptions before back when I was UNCASG President; I expected a sit-down dinner thing where you make small talk with 6-7 other education-oriented folks seated at your table, eat, and exchange pleasantries before departing. This was apparently more of a “make friends and influence people”-type thing, because the place was swarming with politicos, judges, fundraisers, and other people famous by NC standards, with no fewer than 4 different “liquor stations” where attendees could imbibe a variety of beverages. In general I’m not a particularly huge fan of these types of big, unstructured social events — see, e.g., my abject terror/awkwardness during the “mixer” at 1L Orientation two years ago — but I appreciated the opportunity to catch up with some folks I hadn’t seen since my term on the Board ended
- Plus I got to meet Governor Easley! I saw him while talking to someone about the state budget and the budget cuts going on across the UNC system, and finally worked up the nerve to say hello. I tell him I’m a 3L at NCCU Law and the current SBA President… and he starts motioning other people over to come meet me instead
It easily ranks among the most surreal experiences of my life…
-
My lapel pin collection, now with pins from all 17 UNC institutions! (the top 3 rows)
…and when the event was winding down, on the shuttle back to the parking lot I had the serendipitous opportunity to meet Dr. J. Todd Roberts, the new Chancellor of the N.C. School of Science & Mathematics (North Carolina’s residential high school for high-achieving students). I noticed the NCSSM lapel pin on his jacket when his wife asked if I had enjoyed the event. I replied that I had, then asked if he was “the new guy” running NCSSM. We exchanged introductions, and I somewhat-imperiously asked if they sold NCSSM lapel pins anywhere; it was the only institution still missing from my collection, where I had gathered lapel pins from all 16 other UNC institutions. He told me they didn’t, and he really needed his for President Ross’s inauguration the following day… but he offered it to me anyway! I basically pledged my undying loyalty to NCSSM right there on the shuttle, and sent the school a $50 donation when I got back to Durham — right after filling the one remaining gap in my collection
- I wish I could say academics were going quite as well I’m currently sitting on a legitimate, bona fide “F” in Tax right now. Right alongside another “F” in Appellate Advocacy I. Fortunately both courses still have 80%+ of the grade still remaining to be earned, but the current standings highlight that I’m in deep sh*t academically. I’ve been trying to pare back my extracurricular activities to focus more on the papers and other miscellaneous stuff we have to do. It’s a deep hole to climb out, and will be taking me awhile to get there…
- To highlight how bad things are going, I was walking through the law clinic earlier today when Prof Tax herself called my name — in that “Go straight to the Principal’s Office young man” tone of voice that I think all teachers, from K-12 to college, have innately mastered — to make known she wasn’t happy with my sub-standard performance in her class. I pleaded my case but at the end of the day I’ve just been doing too much non-academic stuff. I promised I’d be in class on time tomorrow and work to catch up.
- (On a somewhat-related note, I really dislike paper-based classes
My colleagues gravitate toward them because it’s easier to get an A on a paper you can pour hours of time into — but I just can’t seem to find the time. I miss going through a couple weeks of hell studying for exams, having a test, and being done. Having four different classes with various papers due at various points over the semester currently qualifies as the most grating experience of my law school career…)
- Even so, I’m still trying to write a brief to apply for our Moot Court Board
There’s more stuff to write about, but I think I’ll cap it for this particular entry because I really need to get back to reading for class.
I hope all of you had a great Monday, and have a great week! (and a great October! 
)
Tags: 3L, 雅雅, I ♥ Apple, NC State, NCCU Law, NCSU Student Senate, NCSU Technician, Prof Tax, QuietStorm, Samson, Serendipity, UNCASG
Posted by TDot on Aug 30, 2011 in
Randomness Meant to post this yesterday but wanted to give y’all the class rundown first 
No leprechauns nearby so far as I could tell...
I’m also noting up-front that I’m generally not the type to ascribe supernatural causes to naturally occurring phenomena.
But yesterday I was busy having a mini-meltdown over finances after a follow-up dental appointment for the crown issue I mentioned in passing last week, trying to figure out how to pay for the bar app, bar review, etc etc etc and knowing my financial aid refund was still days away.
The weather was forecast to be clear. And rather than go back to school, I randomly decided to go home instead… where it was practically a monsoon
I tried to take a photo what greeted me when I got to the apartment.
Never been that close to a rainbow in my life (except the ones I created myself while hand-washing a car). Didn’t see a pot of gold anywhere, but I’m taking it as a sign not to stress
Tags: Serendipity
Posted by TDot on Aug 5, 2011 in
The 3L Life Today was Day 2 of the ABA’s 2011 Annual Meeting in Toronto Canada, and in the ABA Law Student Division that meant an opportunity to hear from candidates for a handful of LSD offices about their plans for the future and their responses to questions from us.
One of the things I teach organizations as part of my T.I.D.E.S. leadership development presentations is that questions are usually the most potent weapon in any leader’s arsenal. So I came prepared with a pair of my own: (1) asking what, specifically, these folks will do to address the embarrassingly low volume of students seeking ABA leadership positions; and (2) with the ABA again considering an increase in the minimum bar-passage rates required for reaccreditation of law schools, how would they ensure those reforms don’t disproportionately harm the country’s 6 HBCU-based institutions?
A couple things stuck out to me in asking that second question: apparently I was the only one interested in bringing it up, and almost no one knew anything at all about it.
If you’re not familiar with what the ABA is considering, take a look at this story on Law.com. Here’s a snippet:
ABA Faces Diversity Dilemma With Proposed Change to Law School Standards
The ABA is trying to reconcile the legal profession’s need for greater diversity with its desire to push law schools to better prepare students to pass the bar. For the second time in four years, it is considering raising the minimum bar-passage-rate requirement for law school accreditation.
By Karen Sloan (07-22-2011)
Nearly 70 percent of the entering class at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law was black in 1998. A decade later, that figure hovered at around 30 percent — the lowest percentage among the country’s six historically black law schools.
The catalyst for that shift was a 1999 letter from the American Bar Association urging the school to examine its admissions standards and low first-time bar-passage rates. The school responded by accepting students with higher credentials, but the percentage of black students began to decline as the average Law School Admission Test (LSAT) scores rose.
That experience highlights the dilemma now confronting the ABA. The organization is trying to reconcile the legal profession’s need for greater diversity with its desire to push law schools to better prepare students to pass the bar. For the second time in four years, it is considering raising the minimum bar-passage-rate requirement as part of a comprehensive review of law school accreditation standards.
Definitely take some time to read the full article, there’s a lot more in there.
Three initial points I want to make on this:
- I totally agree with some form of a “bright line” cutoff with bar passage rates and accreditation. While many of those advocating for the cutoff seem to hope it will lead to fewer accredited law schools and (theoretically) fewer new attorneys as a result, I’m of the more-economics-oriented belief that the simple existence of the cutoff will incentivize law schools to better serve their students. People respond to incentives, it’s as simple as that.
- I also agree with The Chief’s quote in that article about other schools having a harder time complying with a heightened cutoff before HBCUs. NCCU Law in particular has enjoyed passage rates well above the state average for most of the past decade, even while joining FAMU Law and SULC in taking in the broadest array of students in the nation. The schools facing the biggest challenge will be those whose business model is based on being a diploma-mill, bringing in thousands of students a year just to get as much federal student aid $$$ as possible.
- But, while it’s true other non-HBCU law schools will have a steeper hill to climb, HBCUs will still face an acute challenge because of the timing of this proposal. It comes at a time that could be considered a “perfect” storm” for them: industry complaints of all law schools churning out too many incompetent students with JDs, prompting industry-wide reforms, while the economy has basically imploded with no hope of an immediate recovery. The publicly-funded HBCUs are facing substantial budget cuts and an inability to raise tuition at whim, while both public and private HBCUs face a steep drop in the alumni and corporate donations that enable institutions to improve things like their academic support services. Couple that with fewer paying jobs available for their students to raise $$ for bar prep courses while in school — prep courses apparently being the primary method for learning bar material at high-performing law schools — and you’ve got all the ingredients for a cow pie of a proposal.
I’ve gotta head to bed so I can get up for an SBA “Roundtable and Idea-Raiser” in the morning, but wanted to put that issue on the radar for my HBCU-attending colleagues who didn’t know what was coming down the pike.
Have a great night y’all!
—===—
From the law:/dev/null ABA Annual Meeting-related archives:
Tags: 3L, ABA, ABA Annual Meeting 2011, ABA-LSD, Cooley Law, FAMU Law, NC State, NCCU Law, O Canada, Serendipity, SULC, The Chief, Vanderbilt Law
Posted by TDot on Jun 6, 2011 in
The 3L Life As a 1L, there was the miraculously timed fire alarm when I was late for CivPro.
As a 2L, there was the random phone call from an expatriate in Mexico asking me for legal advice.
Now as a 3L, there was… a kitteh trapped in an engine
A few weeks ago I started jogging with a classmate to recover from exam-induced sedentariness. And with my Intellectual Property class stretching into the wee hours of the night Mondays / Tuesdays / Thursdays, that meant running on the illuminated gym track next to NCCU Law instead of the nature trail by my apartment.
We’re walking back to our cars afterwards and I notice I’m parked next to Co-Counsel. I also hear a very loud and very distressed-sounding “meow” coming from the front of her car — sufficiently loud and sufficiently distressed-sounding that, rather than a cat, I suspect one of my classmates is crouching behind the passenger side trying to play a prank of some kind
I look around the vehicle and don’t see anyone behind it. I look inside and don’t see anything moving. I look under and don’t see any thing at all.
Then I hear another meow.
Even though I’m a dog person and generally despise cats, I’m a big ol’ softie when it comes to animals in general so I was determined to figure out where this thing was at and make sure it wasn’t hurt.
Pretty sure kittehs don't come standard
Our security staff rolls up (as I’m on the ground looking like I’m about to boost someone else’s car) and I calmly explain there’s a cat somewhere. The officer gets out of his vehicle, looks at me like I’m crazy and need to be hauled in to jail… then hears a meow too.
Given the shape of this part of the lot, neither of us can get a good enough vantage point to figure out where the sound is coming from. So the officer leaves to go get a stronger flashlight while I tell Co-Counsel there’s a cat in her car somewhere.
Then I kneel down by the passenger wheel, start looking around the wheel well with my keychain flashlight, and notice I can see inside the engine compartment itself… where I discover an orange-and-white striped cat looking absolutely pitiful
Co-Counsel and Luca come down and Co-Counsel pops the hood, at which point we realize it’s a baby kitten that has somehow climbed so far into the engine compartment that it couldn’t get back out. There were too many cables and hoses to lift the kitten out from the top, but after some gentle nudging backwards it was able to move again and climbed down out of the car.
It ran across the parking lot so fast after it was free we didn’t even realize it was out of the car until we heard the same meow from 100 paces away. And the trio of us became kitteh-savers for the day
So that’s how my Monday went down I actually had a bona fide law entry ready to go for tonight, but it’ll have to be saved until later this week — have a great night y’all!
Tags: 3L, Co-Counsel, Competence FTW, IP, Luca, Serendipity
Posted by TDot on Nov 15, 2010 in
The 2L Life So the original title of this entry was going to be “Serendipity”… until I did a search through my previous posts, and found out I already used that same title a year and four days ago
I’m now becoming convinced that instead there must simply be something about November in the space-time continuum that leads to events converging just right.
Here’s the deal: our Dean for Career Services at NCCU Law sent me an email earlier today about a company looking for a law student to help with some contract review work. Now, aside from the fact that it’s an opportunity to earn experience or $$$ or both, it was an otherwise-inconspicuous proposition. Especially for a guy whose confidence in Ks was rocked until I started getting my academic life together this past summer.
But then I found out that this company is in the information technology field…
And their headquarters is based at my alma mater…
And they’re e-Partners with my department…
And their CEO gave a presentation last November… that I attended… the night before that previous Serendipity post
::cue mini-”omg omg omg” freak-out session::
Needless to say I’ve gotten -0- done on a paper I have due in Legal Letters at 9am tomorrow morning. Instead I’ve been re-tweaking my résumé for the n-th time, reaching out to friends who work for or with the company to get background info, trying to cobble up something for a cover letter that doesn’t sound totally inane, debating whether or not I should reach out to the hiring person on LinkedIn before the Career Services folks have sent my résumé (thoughts??) — the list goes on.
And the craziest part? I wanted to intern with these folks when I was in undergrad! But my Computer Science GPA was toast because I was investing all my time serving students through Student Government (since I was planning to go to law school instead of working in the IT field professionally) so I never applied. How totally awesome would it be if I got a chance to work here in a law-related capacity?!
And yes, I fully realize I’m getting totally carried away and haven’t even gotten to the point of being interviewed yet, much less getting a job. But still. Talk about a crazy confluence of circumstances…
I’m off to go work on this paper, but just thought I’d share in light of the job-related discussion that’s been taking place over the past two days on the “Is law school really worth it?” entries
Have a great night everybody!
Tags: 2L, Career Services, Legal Letters, NC State, NCCU Law, Serendipity
Posted by TDot on Jun 10, 2010 in
Technology Good evening y’all!
I promise you I haven’t forgotten about the race relations entry and $$ entry Facebook. Rarely a week goes by on the internet where someone somewhere doesn’t complain about Facebook’s privacy settings, interface changes, or some other component. Amid all the complaints — many of them legitimate — it’s easy to forget Facebook has done wonders for networking and finding people you once lost contact with.
Earlier today I had lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen since I graduated high school in 1998. We’ll call her Melinda. She and I were close friends back in high school, but lost contact when I had to drop out of NC State back in 2000. By the time I had regular access to the internet and a phone again, her email address had changed, my email address had changed, and both of us had new phone numbers (and no mutual friends who kept in touch with us both).
Then at some point a couple months ago I found a whole raft of high school classmates when I was invited to a Facebook group for alumni of our high school chorus, and she was among them. Well over a decade had gone by for both of us: two degrees / a family / a dream job for her, and stuff y’all have already read for me.
We only talked for about an hour today before both of us had other obligations to attend to, but considering once upon a time I thought I’d never see Melinda at all until the 20-year class reunion I’m grateful to even have the option of having that lunch.
So Mark, if you ever happen to swing by my little piece of internet real estate: thanks And feel free to join our law:/dev/null Facebook page
I’m off to bed folks, getting up early to watch my successor as UNCASG President get sworn in to the UNC Board of Governors. Hope all of you have an amazing night!
Tags: NC State, Salem HS, Serendipity, UNCASG
Posted by TDot on Nov 11, 2009 in
NotFail Every now and then it’s nice to know The Big Man Upstairs is keeping an eye out for you
I had to give some friends a ride to campus this morning (they go to a certain university in an adjacent town) so naturally I was significantly late for CivPro. Unlike Professor Contracts, the standing rule for late people in CivPro is that you don’t enter if the door is shut and/or MDG has started the lecture.
And as much as I love talking about venue, I wasn’t going to press my luck
So I finally make it to campus, end up parking in a lot now thoroughly muddy courtesy of the ongoing wind/rain leftovers from Hurricane Ida, slowly trudge to the law building… and hear a sound over the wind.
It’s faint. But distinct.
I look up from under the umbrella, and think I can see 1 lone strobe light flashing.
The sound gets a little louder as I walk a little closer.
In disbelief, I pick up the pace and walk as fast as one can with a wind-tossed double canopy umbrella in one hand and a 5″ binder + 3 textbooks in the other. I get to the granite porch outside the entrance and can’t believe my good fortune.
The fire alarm is going off
For a couple brief seconds I feel bad for my classmates who had to evacuate the building in this miserable weather (mid-40s and pouring rain a mere day after we broke 70ºF), but then I realize folks will have to be walking back into class and I might have an opportunity to sneak into CivPro. I double time it to the classroom, and sure enough see a pair of my classmates walking in.
I head to the door. MDG sees me, and gives me a raised eyebrow like he doesn’t remember seeing me in class before but he isn’t 100% certain. I give him a look along the lines of “Of course I was here earlier, I love CivPro!” I walk in, make it about a fifth of the way to my chair…
…and apparently the rest of my classmates noticed I wasn’t there when class started, because the whole room busts out laughing. MDG lets me slide though since I’m in my chair before he can say anything, then he starts laughing too and goes “Well I guess we know who pulled the fire alarm.” And the rest of class went off without a hitch… though I still didn’t sign the attendance sheet, out of recognition I was 30 minutes late to a 50-minute class
He did hit me with his trademark wit before class was out though, the price I paid for being late. My left-side neighbor Karl(a) raises her hand to answer a question, and in recognizing her he slips and goes “Mr. TDot. Miss TDot. I mean Miss Karl(a). I’m so so sorry, I done married y’all. And let me tell you, y’all would make some uuuuuuuuggggllllllyyyyy babies.”
The words can’t articulate how hilariously funny it was, both in terms of timing and delivery — even though it was a (well-deserved) swipe at me, I was laughing for a solid 2-3 minutes (as was Karl(a) and everyone else in class). The man is hands-down, without any sarcasm in this statement, my favorite professor this semester.
And all because of a serendipitously-timed fire alarm
Tags: 1L, CivPro, Gang of Eight, MDG, Serendipity
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