More after finals!

I am in the final stretch before my first law exams. I have one next Friday and then one the following Monday. I plan on being back here within a couple days of the last final to blog about some very cool developments on the Gay Rights front. I have just been to busy making sure I am not going to completely bomb my first exams and have to go back to bringing people more ranch dressing for their salads. See you in a week!

Scary as Shit

Me = The Litte Girl

Final Exams = The Bird

Scary as Shit indeed

Practice Exam

The practice exam was a complete wash. The Prof said there wasn't even a B paper in the stack. You could see the panic fly around the room as all of us wondered if we could get a management job at Burger King. However, some good did come out of it. Our Prof who was nice enough to give us the exam in the first place, went even further and spent the entire 2 hour class going over the mass majority of mistakes (alliteration anyone?) and giving us some much needed tips on what to do in future exams. May thousands of blessings fall upon his head for that. Then our Civ Pro teacher gave us last years exam to look over.

So, while bombed the practice, I know what is expected. I got the main points of law, I just didn't analyze enough. Paralegals are taught to be very very short and sweet. I have to get past these preconceived notions I have from being a paralegal student and start thinking like a law student. Armed with that knowledge and some supplemental study books, I feel more secure about finals in 3(ish) weeks. Lets hope I am right :)

PWNed by my Practice Exam

Our Crim Law Prof sent out an email today with the model answer for our practice exam we took Wednesday. From the answer he sent I can see that I am going down the right road, I got most of the charges dead on and made the correct arguments. however I can see that I am not going into nearly enough detail and making my answers and thorough as they need to be. I hate not knowing what to expect and how exactly to nail a question. As someone who had an easy time of it in undergrad making good grades, figuring out what the teacher wanted and giving them that, law school is making me feel inadequate and moronic. I know I am neither of these things and I possess what I think is a good legal mind. I just don't know how to get that across on my paper. Ugh! I can't wait until this is old hat and no longer the issue it is now. Am I a 2L yet??

Still Here,

I am still here. School has been keeping me quite occupied (for the record I loathe outlines).

In a fit of generosity my Crim law professor has decided to give us a practice exam. Perhaps the way the entire 1L summer class turned pale and started drooling at the word exam has given him a hint that the majority of us are terrified of the first test, or perhaps he is just a nice guy, I vote for both. But I have been trying to prepare for that as I would a graded exam just so I know what I have gotten myself into....told ya I was a nerd :)

Plus, I am feeling the stress of school and being a noobish 1L. In fact, I am becoming convinced every night before I fall asleep that I am going to:
A) Flunk out of law school
B) Put Hayden and I in the poor house between not working the 1L year and trying to find a job after I graduate. Pretty soon we will have to tie a "Will Look Cute for Kibble" sign around Piggy's (our shih tzu aka Radclyffe) neck and send him down the street door to door. (I jest and exaggerate here, I promise)
C) Never learn the secret that EVERYONE knows but me about succeeding in law school

In the light of day these ideas make me laugh, but for those moments between shutting your eyes and falling asleep, these are true... I'll be glad when this first test is over and I know what to expect. Type A personalities like myself hate the unknown. Or maybe I will just starting drinking a bottle of wine before bed....who knows.

Hopefully I will have some more to post soon :)

Paralegal v Law School

Criminal Law class is really bringing home the difference between my training as a paralegal, and what I am learning in law school. Today we were talking about mens rea, an issue I was familiar with but never really had to think to much about as a paralegal. Now, as a future attorney, I have to think about it a whole lot more.

As a paralegal you are trained to think about the law only so much so that it helps your attorney. You have to understand the elements of each case so you can find cases that are on point with your clients, you have to be able to draft legal documents and you have to know how to follow your attorney around and pick their head up when they forget it.

As a lawyer you have to know how to actually handle the client's case. How are you going to defend them, can they raise certain defenses, what is the other side going to do and how will you handle that, what would you do as the prosecutor? I naively walked into law school thinking oh, I got this, this is all old hat. And yes, some of it is old hat, some of it is familiar and some of it makes me feel like the legal idiot I was when I first started down this road. I am dead thankful for my paralegal background because it gave me case brief skills, introduced me to legalese and the fundamentals of the legal community. But in law school its a whole new ball game. I am challenged in every class to think in new ways, keep my emotions out of the case (I will never be able to practice in criminal law, I would be GREAT at it I think, but I don't think I could leave it at the office), and see the other sides POV, even when I think it is moronic....

..... and you know what? I LOVE EVERY EFFING SECOND OF IT, so ignore the petty bitching I may do about it from time to time.

Student Loan Forgiveness

MSN just posted an article about a Facebook group trying to push for a bill that will cancel out all student loan debt. Wow...

I don't know if I agree with that. On one hand, the Type A side of me is think "Great!!! One less thing for us to worry about!" But, on the other hand I feel like I have the education, I will (hopefully) reap the financial gains from said education, so shouldn't I pay the for the education? I borrow the max amount I am allowed. Some people think this is stupid, but to me it allows me to not work if I choose not to, and allows me to focus completely on school. My grades are great because of this and I feel that it is debt well incurred (ask me again in 10 years, lol.) Now, this doesn't mean I don't agree with the forgiveness programs for lawyers, nurses and other fields. I hope to take advantage of those programs myself and benefit from both the forgiveness of some percentage of my debt, and help some people out in the process. My sister-in-law works in a hospital as a Med Tech and instead of forgiveness, she receives X amount every month on her check to pay toward her student loans. That is great. But to totally wipe out all student debt? I don't know, you can walk into Target, blow $3000 bucks on a plasma and then want the price forgiven. You are enjoying the TV, you need to pay for the TV.

However, the article does bring up bill coming through this year. One that caps payments at 15% of your income and then forgives any portion left over after 25 years, if there is any(I also think they are lowering interest rates too, I could be mistaken). Now this is a great idea. It allows people to make payments that does not conflict with their income, especially in these times, and it forgives a portion if you still have some left. This combined with different payment options, to me, gives people a little more leeway to pay their debts. It also teaches responsible borrowing.

What do you think?

Supreme Court FTL

The Supreme Court turned down the challenge to the "Don't ask, Don't Tell" policy citing that the policy contributes to the necessary cohesion of the military.

What?

So knowing the guy standing next to you is gay will make your unit less cohesive? If this is true, and gay people are still that freaky and threatening to the other members of their unit, why not spend some time educating the phobes within the unit? Teach them that everyone is different (and that's OK), something I thought we all learned in kindergarten, and that just because your bunk buddy is gay, doesn't mean he wants to screw you.

But instead of spending sometime educating people, and forming cohesion through genuine friendship, the government instead sees fit to preserve cohesion by forcing people to live stealth, to not get married, if they are lucky enough to live in a state they can, and to pretend they basically have no life outside of their military role. I call BS.

From what I understand the military strongly is in favor of family support and ties, knowing that military personnel need it more than most people do. Too bad they feel that only state sanctioned families count.

Week 2 down

This was the first week that us Summer 1L's had both classes we are taking this semester (Crim Law was canceled last week due to the prof attending a conference) and I feel like things are going to be ok. I have to say it is taking up a lot more of my time then I thought it would. I am usually doing homework until 9pm every night and I am finding that my time isn't stretching nearly as far as it did in undergrad, where I was able to make A's with minimal effort. However, it is mostly busy work, ie. reading, briefing, making sure I have pulled the most important legal jargon out of the reading, that is taking the most time.

Whether it is a combination of some legal knowledge and interesting classes, or the fact I am ignorant as to what I am in for, I don't seem to be as worried as my class mates are. I guess finals in 6 weeks will let me know which on it is. Until then I am going to keep doing what I am doing and find time for myself and my beloved.

1L at Last

I have been away from my blog for a few weeks. I have been winding down my undergrad career, graduating, spending time with family and myself, and getting ready to become an offical 1L. As of yesterday I started my first year at Law School. 2 days in and I am amazed at the difference between attitudes between grads and undergrads. People are nicer, more willing to take a few minutes to talk to you and give you thier veiws on what got them through and so on.

I dont feel as nervous as the others in my section seem to be, but I chalk that up to the fact I have been working with legal jargon and forms for the past few years. ALthough I was suprised to see my legal education taking to the next level, I feel like I have been spending the past few years learning what each part of a car is used for, now I get to step back and see how they all work together to make the car run.

I look forward to the next step in my career and hope that I can keep an eye on the prize when my first law school stress meltdown hits :).