A Woman in Law School

Yo! Did you notice that I moved?

You can find me over at http://awomaninlaw.wordpress.com

And for all you 1Ls out there I posted a new weekly giveaway contest.

Check it out...all the cool kids are doin it!

I need a change. For all you readers out there I'M MOVING!

TO BE CONTINUED AT NEW BLOG:

http://awomaninlaw.wordpress.com

I hope all of you will continue to follow me over there. I like wordpress' layout better and hopefully, I won't lose my blog roll lists so easily.

There are other reasons why I need the change as you'll soon read.

Thanks.

We were told grades would be posted this week, but so far nothing.

I'm really nervous. I tried so much harder last semester and I really want to know that hard work pays off.

I've been dreading this moment since I was told grades would be up this week. Last semester we weren't given any warning so knowing the moment is coming is killing me.

(deer in headlights pose)

That was a horrible mess...


It's now thankfully out of my hands. Who knew that little Blue Book could be so evil? Whatever happens I'm glad I stuck the write on competition through because I can already say that I learned so much just from trying.

Tomorrow I start with the Judge!

Technically, I shouldn't be talking about my law review competition. However, as I don't care and half my class already mentions it on Facebook I feel like I can blog about it.

I hate it.

I've procrastinated, which means I'll be stuck to a chair with Leechblock ensuring my ass isn't on internets.

It is the most boooorrriinnnnggg topic EVER! And yet, I have somewhat mastered it in procrastinator's time.

So when you're out drinking beer and relaxing this weekend think of me, stuck to a chair, looking psychotic and twitching over my Bluebook.

You may follow me under Kel Law or username: Kelsmishaps. I'm new to twitter so any recommendations as to who to follow? Any other bloggers out there that tweet?

Lawful Lady tagged me and I'm just getting around to it.

Best Memory of my first year of Law School:

Wow, I suck because I really can't think of many great memories. I was really excited to get my grades back after the first semester because it made me realize that I was capable of passing. I was also very happy to know that I'm not a horrible writer. Writing has always been a weakness/phobia of mine.

Worst Memory of my first year of Law School:

The day I let my opinion run rampant and lost a good friend. Here's the thing, law school is a horrible place to really let your opinion and/or concern be known.

My first semester I made several good friends and tried to balance studying and friendships. After receiving my grades I knew I could do a much better job and vowed to really try second semester to improve my grades. In my attempt to study smarter I realized that some of my friends didn't like the fact that I was spending more time focusing in class, rather than on facebook or goofing off. These friends started talking poorly about me and expressed "concern" about my "behavior." In defense, I suggested that they too could probably benefit from taking classes a little more seriously, and then shit flew everywhere.

So here is what I learned about law school:

• classmates coming straight from undergrad still have a lot to learn in terms of their communication style, and from life in general.
• in addition, classmates coming straight from undergrad also have a lot to learn in terms of what "professionalism" really means. Law school is a professional school; what you say and do now I'll remember. So, while it's difficult to keep your mouth shut and hold your head high it might just help you become a more professional person in the long run. Yes, I said things I shouldn't have; yes, I apologized, however, continuing to bad mouth someone is just stupid. I'd rather be remembered as a hard worker than as someone who just wants to gossip.
• thus, I've come to believe that insecurity causes law school drama-----stay far away!!
• So far I have not met the best friends of my life here, and I feel much like New Kid who has a great post summing up similar thoughts.
• Always ALWAYS remember that you're in law school to get a job. Start working on your professional skills now. This includes learning how to listen, practicing patience, and building a strong work ethic. Yes, I want a summer vacation, however I also want as much experience as possible to help me become a better future employee.

Wow, that makes me sound extremely bitchy, gunner-like, and nerdy. Being slightly older than the typical law student has really left me a bitchy person when it comes to discussing law school. I'll admit it, I hate the drama of law school, however I'm beginning to realize that I enjoy the work that I'm doing.

So, in some ways my worst memory has really turned out to be a good thing for me. It really helped me re-focus on why I am in law school, that studying is important, and that my classmates aren't the kind of people I want to truly be myself with.

You?

Yes, law school is a learning experience, and not just by way of books. I learned a lot about myself and the type of lawyer I want to be.

First semester:

• I skimmed reading, and quasi-book briefed.
• I focused more on my research and writing course than my other four courses combined.
• I relied on other people's outlines.
• I didn't group study.
• I made it a point to work on friendships with classmates.
• I actively participated in professional opportunities on campus.
• I was too proud to ask questions, or admit that I didn't understand concepts.
• I took weekends off, for the most part.

Second Semester:

• I actively read and book brief for all classes.
• I focused on my core courses rather than on research and writing.
• I attended every class, and made no excuses for myself.
• I focused on what my professor's were saying and why they were saying it.
• I let several friendships unfortunately slide so that I could keep up on my coursework.
• I worked every weekend, often in tears.
• I gave myself Friday nights.
• I utilized breaks between classes much better than fall semester.
• I still attended several professional events but I was pickier about which ones to participate in.
• I regularly met with our academic support staff to talk about my studying habits, which I highly recommend.
• I outlined over spring break which lead to my outlines being done prior to finals so that I could study and refine the outline's content.

In all, I studied like it was a sickness. I pushed myself moreso than I ever have before...now I just have to wait to see if it paid off. If improving my studying doesn't improve my grades then I know that I may have to look at how to improve my exam writing skills.

Like I said, I unfortunately let some friendships slide this past semester. Law school is a professional school and in some ways I need to keep that notion of professionalism in the forefront at all times. I learned that it's difficult to balance a social life with law school without looking like a complete "gunner" bitch at times. But it's my choice. This balancing will only get more difficult as time passes, so I may as well start practicing this balancing act out now.

In addition, I'm just now finding classmates that I look forward to hanging out with. That in itself always takes time. It may very well be true that those who are your friends the first year aren't your friends that last year. We'll have to see.

So I've been missing...

and feeling very un-bloggy.

Enough of that! Back to getting some readers!

So, I really pushed myself the last two weeks of finals. I was at the library every morning, ready for eight hours of group study time. It sucked...majorly. However, I'm really glad I pushed myself toward group study because I learned the material so much better than I would have just on my own.

As you know, I asked Nosy Nancy to study with me, which turned out to be a great decision for the both of us. Then another classmate, B, joined us so we were three, and three was a great number. Together the three of us worked on our outlines and talked through concepts outloud. B was great because he always had excellent questions to challenge us.

The three of us worked happily together until the day before our first exam when two other classmates joined us. So my small little group ended up being five people throughout all four exams...and we worked amazingly well considering how tired, scared, irritated and angry we all were.

Our last exam was six hours long, with a three hour multiple choice test (not as easy as you would think). Our professor put copies of a multiple choice book on reserve for us to work through and familiarize ourselves with her style, the only problem was that my fellow classmates liked to hide the copies. In addition, the gunner in our section told me that it was rude of me to take two copies of the book. I looked at her as politely as I could and said hell no, one copy for five people is NOT workable. This is the same gunner who asked six long ass questions of our professor, knowing that we were standing outside her office for close to a half hour.

As much as I tried to be helpful and not resort to childish tactics like that of the gunner and my fellow classmates I couldn't help but feel compelled to travel down that path. This is what law school does to you.

NOW RUN!! RUN AWAY FAST!!!

Since my last final I've been relaxing, cleaning, and spending a lot of time thinking about how I want to approach my 2L year.

I've got a busy summer ahead with room for plenty of postings.

Now I've just got to see if anyone out there is still reading...HOLLA BACK!

I've been a horrible blogger.

You see, there's this thing called law school which has eaten all of my time.

So...

My oral argument went well. Our judges were local attorneys which made me prepare even more. I was very, very nervous about oral arguing and after 12 minutes I couldn't believe how easy it was.

After that, I spent a lot of time on my brief. When it was good and turned in I quickly switched gears into outlining. I'm proud to say that my outlines are all done! Which means I can focus on learning and applying my outlines prior to exams. So far I've completed two exams with two to go!

It's been hell but in a week I'll be done!

However, my summer is crammed with lawyerly-like goodness. :) I'll leave that for later!

So over at Feministe Jill asked what would you do if your law firm paid you $80,000 to not work for a year. The question's background can be found over at Law Ingenue for those of you who haven't heard of Skadden's offer to its associates.

So what would I do...

Well, several ideas come quickly to mind like:

• getting and being pregnant in a low stress fashion,
• traveling the world with only a backpack,
• live in the country with a house full of dogs,
• gather all my friends in far away places for one hell of a party,
• MUSEUM HOP!
• live in Tokyo in spring,
• find the best coffee shops and read good books in them,
• take cooking lessons in Thailand and India,
• have one hell of a spa day,
• do all of the above with J.

You?

I found a post over at Jezebel interesting. I immediately thought of law school and all the trash talking my classmates and I involve ourselves in. The study states that men and women trash talk equally, which I found odd.

This semester I've actually sought out more male friendships because they don't trash talk. They may trash politics or sports but I've rarely heard them gossip the ways women do.

While it's difficult to remain nonjudgemental when it comes to work, (and let's face it, law school is a workplace) I still believe women are far worse than men when it comes to trash talking and gossip. Whether it's discussing outfit choices, snide comments, or personal preferences women judge all the time.

All I know is please keep me out of it! I'd seriously rather not know. And its no fun trash talking, so I'd rather not participate as well. So if you see me skipping a conversation and walking away or changing the subject it's because I really don't care to participate in trash talking. I'm here for professional skills, not to re-live the 7th grade.

Well, it has been a year since I started this little blog. I think it has been a good year, a good long year. For all you future 1Ls out there time really does fly when you're in law school. You also realize how essential time is. For example, when before I never cared much about how productive my day was, now I look at ways I can be slightly more productive. I even have friends who plan their days out 30mins at a time. It's a strange world, one that takes some adjusting.

I still recognize that as a woman I have to work slightly harder to be taken more seriously. Maybe it's just the city I live in. The other day I was told that I should pull my hair back when in front of a judge because somehow women who have short hair or hair pulled up come across as more professional. I was also informed that there are still judges out there who won't address a woman unless she is wearing a dress suit. No shit?!

The next two weeks will be hell. I'm trying a new study approach for these finals, with a new focused study partner. For those loyal readers out there you'll know her as "Nosy Nancy". While we'll drive each other nuts until finals are over, we each know the kind of work we want to put in. And we're at the same level in terms of how well we understand things.

I'm in for a ride. Let's just hope it's a good one!

Thanks to all of you who've commented over the past year! Here is to another fine year!

Sometimes I enjoy reading Above the Law, like today. So Happy Easter!

There are three weeks left until finals. OMG!

Its time to bring out the hour by hour study schedule to keep me on task. Its time to pull together a study group that actually works. Its business time.

A week from now my brief and oral argument will be turned in and over. I can't wait for that moment. I am so sick of this issue, the practicing, the cases, the editing. Even though I've put more effort into legal writing this semester I can definitely say that I've slacked on the stupid busy work she gives us. Last week we had to practice our oral arguments in front of class. Instead of doing it, I half-assed it and probably looked stupid to my classmates, but I don't care.

You've got to pick your battles in law school. I've learned that no matter how much time I spend trying to stay caught up I'm always slightly behind. So this semester I picked legal writing to be behind in because in the end you learn how to write for your employer. Writing is subjective and I have faith in my writing skills. I don't need to stupid busy work to help me improve. Yes, it probably would have been great to have my oral argument prepared but I have a whole week to do that. I have 13 other credits to worry about lady! A third of which is contracts. So bite me.

Very soon my life will consist of practice questions, outlining, flashcards and audio supplements. Oh how I wish the Easter bunny would bring me more time.

The Easter Bunny did bring me tickets to see Flight of the Conchords though. So perhaps my life isn't all that bad. Or maybe I just need more Business Time?

The oral argument is next week. Any tips? I'm having difficulty finding a theme...

And as usual, the entire experience is making me question what the hell I'm doing here.

Ahh...the stress of the final four weeks!

I'm in the middle of brief/oral argument mode. It sucks. I'm also in the beginning stages of finals mode, and am slowly starting to pull a study group together to go over endless contracts questions. Again, this sucks.

The good news is J is finally! FINALLY HERE with me. So I have added support to get me through these long nights. The work is endless but the light is near!

Well, spring break was over a week ago but I managed to get a good start on my outlining to the point where I feel good going forward. It sucked major ass to force myself to organize materials, concepts and readings but overall I think it was a good use of time FOR ME!

Why the caps? Am I slightly nerved? Yes.

People seem to forget that everyone has their own unique learning style, myself included. It takes me longer to pull material together and get to the point where I understand what is going on. That is why I knew prior to spring break that I really should utilize the time to get caught up.

I'm glad I did it. And I managed to watch several crappy movies throughout the week too.

Whenever I can I try to observe court. It's a good way to network, think fast, and see what reality looks like after law school. Over winter break I observed a lot of criminal and juvenile hearings. Today I observed what is known here as child abuse court.

It was not fun. Not only were the cases difficult to hear, it was also difficult to try and remain impartial as an observer. I suppose I didn't have to remain objective but I'm still trying to figure out what "side" I prefer and thus I try to challenge myself to see both sides.

Otherwise things went well.

When I observe court I always do the following things:

• let the baliff know I'm a law student observing. He/she usually informs the judge, who has several times invited me up to the stand to talk about law and law school.
• take business cards to exchange. Yes, I don't like doing it but attorneys love giving them out and it's easy to just hand one back. Tip: always write something about your conversation on the back to remind them of who/where/how you met, etc.
• have questions ready to ask the judge or attorneys. Most of the time the questions aren't answered, but it does set things in motion to get an interesting conversation going.
• thank the judge and baliff for letting me observe.

My favorite judge is out of town for the rest of the week which is a blessing in some ways as I should spend more time outlining...

I hate outlining...