Quick update on the past week

Good evening y’all

Sorry for the abrupt disappearance this past week, but the end of the semester brought a flurry of activity that I’m still slogging through. Here’s a quick bulleted update on life:

• I don’t remember what happened last Monday during the day, but I distinctly recall waking up from my first bona fide law school-related nightmare in awhile It was next semester and I was at my first CrimLaw tutorial… except I didn’t have my Keynote slides. ((Which was weird, because I put a lot of time and effort into producing high-quality visuals to go with my rapturous voice…)) So I decided that, to preoccupy the 1Ls, we’d go around introducing ourselves… except apparently several of the students had issues with each other, so when one girl introduced herself another called her a b*tch, shouting back and forth ensued, and not a single soul was listening as I tried to get them to shut up and pay attention. Then I decided to distract people with index cards, having them write down names and other tidbits about themselves instead of talking… except I couldn’t find any blank index cards.  Every time I’d find a pile of them, they were already filled out. Even a mostly-fresh pile of index cards had an occasional filled-out card included, so I was trying to gather enough fresh cards while the room re-descended into chaos. It was a strange, odd, unpleasant dream. That thankfully has a 0% chance of happening next semester or I’ll physically beat someone
• Last Tuesday was the first meeting of the NCCU Law 1L trial teams, letting them know roughly what to expect in the now-Kilpatrick-Townsend competition that will take place in January. This is now the 3rd generation of teams to compete so I’m hoping it will be a more-comfortable experience for these 1Ls now that they have both 2Ls and 3Ls available to share their experiences.
• Right after the team meeting at 1pm was the release date for my Criminal Prosecution Clinic exam, which I spent the next 48 hours grinding through. Not difficult per se, but lengthy and detailed. Impressed that police and prosecutors are able to remember all of these various statutes…
• Speaking of academics, I’m still not done. ((No one who knew me at NC State is surprised by that comment, after I somehow spent nearly all of the 2006, 2007, and 2008 Christmas breaks working on homework…))  I’ve still got 2 briefs for Employment Discrimination to finish, and a paper for ConLaw II that hasn’t even substantively been started aside from my prep work for the radio show on my topic. I had long ago accepted the probability of failing both classes given all the other stuff I foolishly piled on my plate. Tack on the fact they’re both electives that I don’t need to graduate, and you have a dangerous recipe of grade-A Motivation Killer™ to at least turn in some kind of work product.
• Not sure I’ll have time to get around to my usual guesswork “Here’s what I’m hoping to get grade-wise” posts for 3L Fall, so I’m tucking it in here: B+ in Sales, B- in Tax, A in Criminal Prosecution Clinic, D- in both Employment Discrimination and ConLaw II, for a 2.333 semester GPA. Fingers crossed for that or better. Will elaborate if the opportunity presents itself.
• Part of why I’m not finished academically is because I’ve very successfully sidetracked myself on this going solo idea and exploring the creation of a small practice incubator at the law school. I’ve spent quite a bit of time reading and researching, put together a proposal complete with financial projections, and have started farming it around among faculty at the school. I even came up with a snazzy acronym for it: the Small Practice Incubator & Collaboration Environment… because a little seasoning makes everything better!
• I had also already stacked my calendar high with stuff scheduled for last week because I’m habitual about planning ahead, so when the papers didn’t get done on time they’ve got pushed even farther back then they would be otherwise as my focus shifted elsewhere. In addition to the Crim Prosecution exam, spent Wednesday afternoon catching up with a good friend over lunch who I hadn’t seen in ages. Thursday was spent finishing up the exam, turning it in, then skipping the first TYLA trial team meeting to immediately drive down to Raleigh to help with another good friend’s bachelor party. ((He’s one of my former Student Senators and UNCASG colleagues, marrying another one of my former Student Senators. Having known both of them back when they were freshmen, and now not only being part of their wedding but knowing they’re graduating in May, reminds me (1) how old I am and (2) how blessed I’ve been to cross paths with the people I’ve crossed paths with  )) Friday was a smidge of work on the papers followed by the wedding rehearsal dinner, Saturday was the wedding, then Sunday was returning the tux to Men’s Wearhouse and finally catching up on life basics like laundry / dishes / vacuuming the disaster that had become my apartment.
• Yesterday I got a smidge bit more work done, though not before inadvertently crossing paths with MDG in the hallway at school (my Emp Disc professor). I greatly appreciate that he hasn’t reamed me out for my slacker-ness… but it was still awkward exchanging pleasantries knowing I still owed the man two papers. ((A point he gently raised with a side-eye and a “Are you going to have something for me soon?” ))
• And voila here we are at today. Behind on academics. Behind schedule on the moot court problem I’m working on. ((Haven’t had time to mention that I made Moot Court beyond a footnote in a previous MPRE entry, but I’ll be participating in Howard Law‘s William Bryant-Luke Charles Moore Invitational in February  Briefs due early January so it’ll be a busy break.))  Behind schedule on the TYLA problem I’ll also be litigating in February. But otherwise alive, breathing, and determined to make it through the vacation in one piece

That’s it for tonight’s entry. Hope all of you are doing well and enjoying the break yourselves! More to come once I get caught up

Good night!

Tags: 3L, ConLaw II, Criminal Prosecution, Employment Discrimination, Haunted by Law School, Howard Law, K-S 1L Mock Trial Competition, Law Grades, MDG, Moot Court, NC SPICE, NCCU Law, NCSU Student Senate, Sales, Tax, Trial Team, UNCASG

Getting caught up

Hey everybody!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything here at law:/dev/null, largely due to spending Spring Break this past week trying to get caught up on life post-trial team season. I’m still not there yet, but I figured if I waited to post until I was caught up on classwork I wouldn’t have any readers left

So what’s been going on over the past week and a half here in Legal Eagle territory? Here’s a bulleted rundown:

• Wednesday (03/02/11): Finally had my nuked Gmail restored… in its entirety  I have to admit I was both surprised and impressed, and I’ll concede I was wrong in my entry predicting the worst. After making sure all of my mail was restored / downloaded / backed up / etc, I stayed up until 2am-ish to make sure I was fully packed and my trial team binder was ready for the AAJ competition I was brought in on.
• Thursday (03/03/11): Skipped classes to head to the airport, then flew down to Atlanta GA for the AAJ Student Trial Advocacy Competition regionals. The first round wasn’t until Friday night, so I spent the day with the team checking out the city.  We had lunch at the Underground‘s Georgia Peach Restaurant & Lounge — some of the best barbecue I’ve had outside of North Carolina, and their peach-blended tea was delicious too. ((I did, however, nearly choke to death at one point amid drinking said tea. Madame Prosecutor was not pleased.))
• Friday (03/04/11): The 2L team’s first round in the AAJ STAC was against the 3Ls from WFU Law. There were some initial jitters when we found out I had already met the presiding judge — the coach of the GSU Law team Christie and I dismantled at the TYLA NTC — but since we didn’t really know how to go about asking for a recusal (and didn’t even know if doing so would even be appropriate given AAJ’s chronic shortage of judges) we just went ahead and did our thing. EIC and M&M were counsel for the defense on that case and turned in a top-notch performance. It provided a big confidence boost to Tinkerbell ((Another 1L K-S veteran with me. She’ll probably object to this nickname, but as 1 of the 2 shortest people I know at NCCU Law I thought it was appropriate )) and I heading into the Saturday rounds.
• Saturday (03/05/11): And with that confidence in-hand, we torched the next two teams we faced on Saturday Tinkerbell and I were counsel for the Plaintiff for both rounds, and we first went up against 2Ls from I’m-not-entirely-sure-where. ((I think they said Mercer Law, but I can’t remember for the life of me )) The results could be summed up like this: Tinkerbell was so devastating on cross-examination, their lead counsel blurted “DAMN!” in exasperation when yet another one of his objections was (properly) overruled I also got to deliver my first “split” closing, which went over well with the jury both in its execution and content.
  

  NCCU Law's 2L and 3L AAJ Trial Teams

  We followed that beatdown with a match against the 2Ls from WFU Law, in what was hands-down the toughest match we had. Their cross-examination was sharp, and it seemed like every evidentiary ruling made by the judge was going in their direction whether it was warranted or not. Tinkerbell finally shook them off their game during her cross-examination of the Defendant, who started fabricating facts under the pressure. I was sufficiently heated at that point ((I know it’s a competition, but lying under oath? Really?)) that I was out for blood when it came time for closing arguments, and proceeded to beat the Defense over the head with their own inconsistencies. It was all very satisfying Afterwards we headed to a post-competition reception, then went back to the hotel and played spades at its downstairs bar until last call.

• Sunday (03/06/11): We found out our 2L team came in 7th place overall ((In reviewing the ballots, we swept Saturday but somehow lost the Friday night round. Even given my natural bias toward my own team, I’m still at a loss to explain how any rational judge (let alone 3 of them) could have arrived at that conclusion. When a pair of Emory Law 3Ls kicked our butts at TYLA, I admitted it to you. The people we went against that night in AAJ were far worse, while EIC and M&M easily outperformed Co-Counsel and I ::shrug:: )) and only the Top 4 would advance to the semis, so Sunday got spent checking out the Centennial Olympic Park, the Georgia Aquarium, and then packing up to head back to the Bull City. Before leaving the hotel we also ran into MDG… which was vaguely reminiscent of a 1L nightmare I used to have where I tried to hide from my teachers but they always seemed to find me no matter where I went. ((He was supposedly in town for a NBA game, not to tell me my 1L CivPro grades were entered wrong and I had actually failed.))
• Monday & Tuesday (03/07-08/11): Both of these days get lumped together because they were both spent knocking out life necessities — several loads of laundry, apartment cleaning, turning in travel-related paperwork, and so on.
• Wednesday (03/09/11): Had a business lunch with the Pickle Princess, who I hadn’t seen since the April festivities celebrating the end of my second term as UNCASG President. After catching up on how our respective lives had progressed over the past year, I gave a tour of my alma mater to a quartet of her students who were participating in a FFA competition we were hosting. Turns out one of them even wants to go to law school eventually If I ever get sick of the whole “being a lawyer” thing, I think I’d really love being a booster for N.C. State and for NCCU Law
• Thursday & Friday (03/10-11/11): These two get lumped together too, since they were basically split between watching the opening games of the ACC tournament and trying to catch up on all the mounds of schoolwork that amassed themselves between focusing on TYLA, focusing on SBA, and focusing on AAJ.

Which brings us to today: catching up on law school work, catching up with law school friends, and catching up on the law school blog

God willing I’ll be able to resume my somewhat-normal life now that I’ll have some free hours again, which in turn should (hopefully) mean more work around the blawgosphere — keep your fingers crossed! ((Unless you don’t actually like reading this stuff, in which case you can stop visiting ))

And until then, have a great night y’all!

Tags: 2L, AAJ, Christie, Co-Counsel, EIC, Emory Law, Georgia State Law, G[F]ail, Haunted by Law School, Legal Eagles FTW, M&M, Madame Prosecutor, MDG, Mercer Law, NC State, NCCU Law, SBA, TDot's Travels, The Pickle Princess, Tinkerbell, Trial Team, TYLA, UNCASG, WFU Law

Haunted by… CivPro

It’s been a couple months since the last time I had any crazy law-related nightmares. Even though the first one seemed to be like a bad episode of Law & Order, the latter ended up being about exams… with a CivPro flavor.

That trend continued this morning

Despite going to bed around midnight, I randomly woke up at 3:10am. In my dreams I was in the NCCU Law building and had just picked up my CivPro final exam. After pulling the exam from the envelope, I notice the whole thing is a lot thicker than I remember when I turned it in. I flip past the multiples to the essay, where for some reason each individual paragraph ended up on a separate page… which I guess irritated MDG, because I lost a point per page from the excess white space

There was also a disproportionate amount of red ink relative to the black text and white emptiness. After looking closer I notice my essay has a ton of spelling errors at -1 point apiece. It was really basic stuff too — one of the party names in the dream hypo was “Mr. Goodall” which I kept misspelling as two words “Good All”. Then I notice a bunch of basic possessive errors ([foo]s’ vs [foo]s’s) at -1 point each, and even a few homophone mixups (to vs two vs too and such) also at -1 point each.

And this is all on top of the fact that I never actually finished the essay

Right before I woke up, I flipped back to the front page and saw I got a D+ on the final, then calculated in my mind that I’d end up with a C for the final grade. So I don’t know if I can really consider it a nightmare since I passed the class. But I certainly wouldn’t describe it as an enjoyable experience.

And this law thing is something I want to do for a living? Someone pass the Ambien…

Tags: 1L, CivPro, Exams, Haunted by Law School, Law Grades, MDG, NCCU Law

It’s official: I’m going nuts

Went to bed at ~11:30pm last night, fully expecting to get a solid 6 hours of sleep, wake up, eat breakfast, and have an otherwise relaxed morning en route to my 9am CivPro exam.

Instead I woke up at 2:25am from a nightmare about… midterms

I dreamed I had gotten my Property midterm back. Only 14 of 30 points on the multiples and 52 of 70 points on the essay, so a D.

As I’m trying to figure out what I did wrong, several classmates who wrote their essays start arguing about the results and want to file a lawsuit against the Professor for negligently giving the typing students 10 extra minutes to finish.

A few others complained that some of the multiples had typos. An argument ensued over whether they could do a Rule 18 joinder of claims.

Then one guy in the back started talking about interpleading everyone under Rule 22 because he got a 100 and didn’t want to face multiple liabilities if they prevailed.

Then the Professor came in and wanted to implead the proctor under Rule 14, as a student in another section materialized out of nowhere to insist the Code of Student Conduct gave them a Rule 24 right to intervene.

Somewhere around that point I woke up.  w… t… f…

Tags: 1L, CivPro, Haunted by Law School, Property

Apologies to Mariel

In the Friday Drive-by a couple weeks ago I came across Mariel’s post on her occasional law school-related nightmares. Having never had anything of the sort myself, I’ll confess I was amused.

Until now…

Not sure if it’s the L&O:SVU reruns or me learning to be a drug dealer or reading about sketchy people + gunshots at other blogs.

Whatever the origins, I mentally found myself inadvertently involved in a botched drug deal where 3 classmates had been shot by a 4th, yet *I* somehow ended up with the cocaine for the deal in one pocket and the $500 cash to pay for it in the other (even though I was just trying to go to the law library to study for finals).

I woke up amid trying to (i) figure out how to turn everything over to the police without implicating myself, (ii) avoid getting sued by the dealer for conversion of the cocaine, and (iii) determine if the cash was lost, mislaid or abandoned to see if I could keep it

Needless to say, it was an experience I prefer not to repeat.

So to Mariel, I just wanted to formally apologize for being amused at the torment you endured at the hands of your law school nightmares. Apparently they’re more common than I realized

Tags: 1L, Exams, Haunted by Law School, Property