I had my first law school experience yesterday (9am-4pm Saturday!).  The day consisted of various different activities.  One such activity was meeting up with a couple of lawyers to discuss several different “What If…” scenarios.

Our group had one young lawyer, probably late thirties, early forties, and one older lawyer (probably 60-ish).  Regardless of age, they might as well have been named Laurel & Hardy. The Older lawyer always wanted to interject his opinion, and once he finished, he would lean back and fall asleep for another 5-10mins. BUT, whenever he did add his opinion, the younger lawyer would say something like “Well, why do you think they did that?”, to which the older lawyer replied by repeating his opinion again (I guess he reasoned that if we didn’t agree, we must not have heard him. lol)

The most nerve-racking part of the day was the sample class.  It probably wouldn’t have been so nerve-racking if after the first 5-10mins we didn’t all realize that our case briefs didn’t have the answers to the questions that were being asked. (e.g. Why was a federal court looking to state court laws in Food Lion v. ABC? *I knew the answer to this one. ) It’s also a bit unnerving wondering if the next person to be called on is going to be you and whether or not you’ll be able to answer the question. (I’m still trying to tell myself not to be nervous, I’m paying to be in that room, the teacher is being paid by money from my pocket….but that doesn’t work. =P)

One of the biggest problems was trying to use lawyer-speak. We all wanted to at least sound intelligent, but we’d end up saying things like “The reason they demurred a remittitur was because the appellate federal circuit court justice motioned a breach of trespass for conduct of disloyal damages.” (Don’t even try to figure it out, it doesn’t make sense!)

Almost everything that is said in class has to be backed up by some kind of precedent and if not by precedent, then by some form of legal reasoning. We’re told the reasoning for this type of teaching is because a judge, who may side with us, is going to want to know what the basis is for our argument.

Overall, it was a mildly stressful experience, but I did get to meet several professors who seem like they really want to make the law school experience a great one.

Most of you already know this but for those that don’t, this past tuesday I ALMOST rolled a perfect game! I finally got around to scanning the score sheet. Have a look!

In the second frame, I managed to completely miss my mark and took out the 7 pin. The others were pretty solid hits with only a few Brooklyns. =)

…Or other more expletive moments. This week I got a preview of the workload ahead of me at JMLS. At first, it had me worried, but then I realized it’s just going to be an insane amount of reading (not for me of course, I’m the Georgia “Rain Man”, I’m just trying to talk from the general student’s perspective) followed by an insane amount of briefing.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy, Law School’s Just Gotta Be Easy!….right?

In the JMLS orientation packaged I received, it contained the following:

• Parking Pass Form - Apparently, the $11,0000 tuition doesn’t include a parking space in their parking garage. =(
• A Sample Case Brief - This is definitely helpful, but probably would have been more so if the original case text was provided with it. =P (EDIT: The case was included as the last one.)
• 5 Sample Cases - These five cases I have to brief prior to the upcoming orientation (week of the 14th). The first one is Food Lion Inc. v. ABC. It was a very good read and I somewhat remember when this being on the news in the early 90’s. (EDIT: There were really 6 cases! )
• An Ethics Package - This is full of sample situations that ask “What if?”
• Small Note - On the front page, in a line I pretty much skimmed over, was a little requirement that said I needed to read a book called “1000 Days To The Bar:…” Knowing it wouldn’t be something I would find in B&N or B-A-M, I had it rushed delivered from Amazon.com on Friday and it should arrive on Monday.

In addition to all of that, my first week assignments are available now. Without exception, they all follow this format:

• Read Chapter X/Pages X-XX in case book.
• Brief all cases.

Incidentally, I also found one of my Professor’s Course Syllabus somewhat amusing. Here’s an excerpt

“Aspen publishes a book called Casenote Legal Briefs, keyed to the Yeazell text. The book contains pre-digested briefs of the cases in your text. You should not purchase this book, because I do not permit the use of these materials in this course….Any such books that appear in my classroom will be confiscated. “

I’ll keep that in mind as soon as I finish placing my order on Amazon. THANKS! =)