Drinky McGlugglug

About 3 weeks ago we had our first memo due, for those of you (in my vast reader audience) that have never written a legal memo let me tell you this, it's not like bullshitting your way through an essay in english lit. You have to be thoroughly familiar with the cases that you're citing and you have to make sure that they are "on point" with the legal issue(s) in the case that you're working on ... not fun. by the way, another phrase that you hear that means that a case is on point: "on all fours" ... as in "Rhode Island v. Lead Industries is all fours with the case at bar...", sorry, i just like saying "on all fours"...anyway, the memo was due at 5pm on sunday afternoon...what do we do? we start drinking at 5:01pm. we went bar hopping that night and after the bars closed we headed over to our favorite late night drunk food place julia's empanadas. unfortunately the empanada place was closed (who'd know that they're not open at 3:30am on a monday morning?) so we decided to go somewhere else - that's when we lost someone...a person that shall rename nameless decided to go back to his dorm. against our strong protests he went stumbling in the direction opposite from us (which also happened to be the direction opposite his dorm). Well this person didn't make it to class on monday (to which a lot of folks didn't come b/c of yom kippur) so when i see him on tuesday i'm like "dude?" ... it turns out that he decided that the sidewalk would be a convenient place to take a nap so with a concrete pillow he settles in for a slumber...that's when the police show up - but the cool part is this: instead of taking him to jail they took him home...how cool is that?.

our second story doesn't have as quite a happy ending, but it works out in that no one got hurt...more on that later...time to read some torts...

1L can be funny sometimes...

i was cold called for a question by my torts professor that i didn't know the answer to...his response? "you make me sick!" ...if that sounds harsh then you really gotta know my torts prof:

on the first day of torts class we weren't supposed to have any assigned reading, so when he asked the class "who's familiar with the cases that i assigned?" about 95 out of the 100 students slinked down in their seats, including me. the other five students raised their hands and eagerly waited to be called on ... the first student that he called on gave the facts of the case pretty much on point; then the professor asked her "what do you think the judge meant when he said [insert obscure latin phrase]?" the poor girl responded "well since i don't speak latin, i have no idea". to which the professor responded "well you do know that they have latin dictionaries in the library, don't you...are you stupid?" ... i sunk even lower in my seat trying to bend his will with my thoughts "please don't call on me. please don't call on me. please don't call on me..." the prof then calls on the next person and she gives the latin translation and interprets the meaning ... to which the prof says "thank you for restoring my faith in humanity" then he turns to the first girl and says "you know what, why don't you get your things and leave for the day? you know what, why don't stay gone until you figure out if you want to go to law school? why don't you rethink your career choice?" at this point everyone that hadn't read the case is fucking freaking out! the poor girl leaves and then the prof goes to board and writes "just kidding" to which we all burst out in laughter and thunderous applause... turns out the girls that had "read the case" were second year students that were in on the joke... haha, phew! this guy has a sense of humor as warped as mine.

we work hard, so we gotta get our fun in somehow, right!?!?

more f-ed up stories to come, next time, 2 stories about what 2 of my fellow 1Ls did when they were drunk...more like cautionary tales really...

B < PL

we're now at the point where we're starting to get an understanding of the way certain justices think and whether or not we agree with that thinking. one of my early favorites is Learned Hand, after all, the man came up with the calculus of risk theory (also called the calculus of negligence). What is it? It doesn't matter - just know that it was a pretty novel idea in it's day and a very bright man just made it up out of thin air, and courts have been applying it ever since. how's that for being learned?

death penalty?

random 2am musings:
so we began a discussion in criminal law on the death penalty. professor cottrol asked "what are some reasons for keeping the death penalty?" we got the usual answers such as "deterrence" and "retribution", but no one gave the argument that is prevalent in Texas: "it's sanctioned by the bible." which i think is a load of crap. most people forget that the death penalty is sanctioned in the OLD testament under the abrahmic and mosaic covenants. people conveniently forget that these covenants were superseded by the NEW covenant, so unless you're jewish (and most texans aren't) that's an invalid argument...another thing that's not realized is that capital punishment was necessary in the ancient world. the tribal society was necessary for survival. you depended on your neighbor in those days, and anything that your neighbor did that threatened the stability of the tribe also was a threat to your very life. therefore capital punishment was indeed an deterrence and a necessary one and even the most trivial (by today's standards) infractions were potentially dangerous to society. we've evolved since then.

gaslights

Just some random 1am musings (an attempt to avoid writing my office memo):

the gaslight anthem fucking rocks - the best band that i've heard this year. i bet even the Tech Poet would dig on some of this stuff (the "59 Sound" album, maybe not the old stuff).

Being a 1L is getting rough, this is not a healthy lifestyle whatsoever. In bed at 3am every morning. Up by 9 on most mornings. class, class, class. cases, cases, cases. beer. cases. memos. beer (i don't want to go out, but it beats sitting in the library pulling your hair out and cursing dead justices).cheap, processed food (no time to cook)...this can't be good. this can't go on for too much longer...can it?

moosic

i finally got around to updating the music on my play list (see right). the list includes, for the first time in a while, some country tracks. check 'em out. you won't be disappointed ... and the gaslight anthem has totally taken me by surprise - they'll be in DC at the end of October (during fall break!!!). ok, now back to writing my office memo...

game time

i hear lots of talk from fellow students (mostly 1Ls and 2Ls) how they don't care about grades because they want to work in the public sector, rather than a private firm. I say that's bullshit. if you don't want to work for a private firm and make an obscene amount of money that's fine. but don't mask mediocrity beneath the cloak of altruism. don't pretend like your disdain for the private sector is a reason not to reach for the stars.

i say that what ever path an attorney chooses to take we each owe it to our clients to fulfill our human capacities no matter how much difficulty and sacrifice is required. this is even more so in the public sector where the (supposed) motivation is to affect genuine change. i don't know about you, but if i have someone pinch hitting for me i want a major leaguer, not someone from the farm club.

so with that said...game on.