Met briefly with my faculty advisor because his specialty is Intellectual Property. I wanted to hear what he had to say vis a vis working in IT IP, but without being Patent Bar qualified.
He basically confirmed what I had been hoping: that they hire a lot of IP lawyers in the Bay Area and that they specifically look for people with computer backgrounds for the jobs.
He did advise getting qualified to sit for the patent bar, though. The general gist being that some firms may be big enough that you work just on IT related IP stuff, but midsized firms and smaller probably want somebody who can be an IP generalist. He even mentioned a prior student who had gone to MIT for undergrad and ended up doing copyright work.
I mentioned my off-the wall idea of taking the required undergrad courses. He didn't think that was off the wall at all.
I could qualify to sit for the patent bar under Category B, Option Two. Because I already have 8 credit hours in Chemistry, all I would need is another 24 hours in biology, botany, microbiology, or molecular biology.
Getting those credits probably won't be that tough, but it'll be tough to do while I'm in law school.
I'll just have to wait and see. I could also just see if I could get on in IT IP and if I don't, then so be it. Personally, the idea of working on copyright and trademark stuff doesn't interest me at all.
The other interesting thing is that I was talking to one of my classmates, and she's attending on full-ride because she applied with a 4.0 and 173 LSAT. I heard once that you can never plan on being #1 in your class because there will always be a few inexplicably mutant intellects in there. I've heard this person's contributions to class and she is going to wail, I think.
Anyway, at this point, I'm still somewhat interested in learning more about securities law and IP law (related to IT.) Those are two careers I'd probably make major life changes for. If I stay here, unless I were to luck into some major offer with a local firm, I'm still thinking family or PI.
Today was one intense day. I had to go to Lexis training at 9:00, then class until lunch. We had a mandatory career services function through lunch. Then, classes until 4:50. Then, I worked in the Library until about 7:30.
I still have a little bit of reading to do tonight, but am just taking a little downtime to relax, first.
I had originally hoped to work out a little bit today, but I think I'm just going to turn in early.
Still, I'm current with my reading and assignments. However, the work involved in this is a lot more than I had anticipated. I really underestimated how much work would be involved.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Enough Studying for One Day
I got all my assignments done in 3 of my classes. I just have one class tomorrow and I don't have the boy. So, I will be more than ready for my long day of classes on Tuesday.
I wasn't particularly good about reading this weekend. I didn't do anything on Saturday and I ended up not-starting today until almost noon.
Went to watch my son's baseball tryout and that took 3 hours. I did take one of my case books with me, though, and was able to do all my required reading while I sat around and watched.
I think parts of this will get easier as the semester keeps going. I'm still adjusting to being a full-time student. It's been a long time. Like maybe more than 20 years.
Once I get into a good rhythm with this, that'll help.
There are some things I need to do in addition to the required stuff, though. Mostly, I need to get cracking on my outlines. It's not that I'm behind on that. I haven't even started my second week. It's just that I know that is hanging over me.
Also, Civ Pro is much more interesting than the E&E I ended up quitting. Thing is, it's sort of divided into two sections. There's pleading, which is what we're doing in school right now. Then, there's all the jurisdictional / venue stuff, which I was reading in the E&E, but which we won't cover until next semester.
I saw that Toledo sort of teaches them in the opposite order than most places. We do the pleading stuff, first.
The E&E is arranged the other way around. So, when next semester starts, I'll have a leg up.
Speaking of E&Es, I should have been more diligent about finishing them all up. The Civ Pro one was like pulling teeth, though. God, what dry dreck.
I did finish the torts E&E and it's awesome. I'm already familiar with everything we're covering in class. I'm sure there'll be some little spins here and there, but it's great to basically be doing the material for the second time.
Thing is, I don't see how I'll have time to do any additional reading on top of what I'm already doing. Though, I wouldn't necessarily rule it out. I think it'd help a lot.
It's only 9:30, and I could probably finish up the assignments for the last of my non-lab classes, but I only have class for an hour and a half tomorrow, with the rest of the day wide-open and no kid for the day. I can wrap up the rest of my work easily.
This is a marathon, not a sprint. A 4 month marathon. So, I'm trying to include a lot of fitness activities and some relaxing downtime (whenever practical and possible.) For instance, yesterday, I didn't get much done because I hung out with my son all morning and ended up going to his tryout, then seeing a movie with my brother later in the day. It was an all-fun, no-law day.
I think for sporting events, especially baseball (which he does a lot of because he plays travel ball), I need to bring a book, though. Losing a few hours of study-time is not a luxury I can really afford.
It didn't bite me this weekend, but they're still taking it easy on us before ratcheting things up.
I'm still hoping I can do all this by making productive use of the vast swaths of time that I previously just flat-out wasted. It is already impacting the amount of time I spend with my boy, though. Nothing too major and I don't think he notices it, but I do.
So, ready for the week. Will probably have all my reading done by noon tomorrow and will probably have all my assignments done by the evening.
That just leaves one day's worth of torts to read, but that never really takes long.
I also wonder if doing the entire week's reading, as I did this week and last, is a good idea, because some of these cases get stale if I read them on Sunday and they don't go over them until Thursday. Figuring all that out will be part of the fine-tuning process.
So, week 2 starts and I'm still current with all the work.
One week at a time, one task at a time. Though to execute my law school strategy, I am going to need to create a little more time for a few dark arts projects. (The E&Es are one of them.)
I wasn't particularly good about reading this weekend. I didn't do anything on Saturday and I ended up not-starting today until almost noon.
Went to watch my son's baseball tryout and that took 3 hours. I did take one of my case books with me, though, and was able to do all my required reading while I sat around and watched.
I think parts of this will get easier as the semester keeps going. I'm still adjusting to being a full-time student. It's been a long time. Like maybe more than 20 years.
Once I get into a good rhythm with this, that'll help.
There are some things I need to do in addition to the required stuff, though. Mostly, I need to get cracking on my outlines. It's not that I'm behind on that. I haven't even started my second week. It's just that I know that is hanging over me.
Also, Civ Pro is much more interesting than the E&E I ended up quitting. Thing is, it's sort of divided into two sections. There's pleading, which is what we're doing in school right now. Then, there's all the jurisdictional / venue stuff, which I was reading in the E&E, but which we won't cover until next semester.
I saw that Toledo sort of teaches them in the opposite order than most places. We do the pleading stuff, first.
The E&E is arranged the other way around. So, when next semester starts, I'll have a leg up.
Speaking of E&Es, I should have been more diligent about finishing them all up. The Civ Pro one was like pulling teeth, though. God, what dry dreck.
I did finish the torts E&E and it's awesome. I'm already familiar with everything we're covering in class. I'm sure there'll be some little spins here and there, but it's great to basically be doing the material for the second time.
Thing is, I don't see how I'll have time to do any additional reading on top of what I'm already doing. Though, I wouldn't necessarily rule it out. I think it'd help a lot.
It's only 9:30, and I could probably finish up the assignments for the last of my non-lab classes, but I only have class for an hour and a half tomorrow, with the rest of the day wide-open and no kid for the day. I can wrap up the rest of my work easily.
This is a marathon, not a sprint. A 4 month marathon. So, I'm trying to include a lot of fitness activities and some relaxing downtime (whenever practical and possible.) For instance, yesterday, I didn't get much done because I hung out with my son all morning and ended up going to his tryout, then seeing a movie with my brother later in the day. It was an all-fun, no-law day.
I think for sporting events, especially baseball (which he does a lot of because he plays travel ball), I need to bring a book, though. Losing a few hours of study-time is not a luxury I can really afford.
It didn't bite me this weekend, but they're still taking it easy on us before ratcheting things up.
I'm still hoping I can do all this by making productive use of the vast swaths of time that I previously just flat-out wasted. It is already impacting the amount of time I spend with my boy, though. Nothing too major and I don't think he notices it, but I do.
So, ready for the week. Will probably have all my reading done by noon tomorrow and will probably have all my assignments done by the evening.
That just leaves one day's worth of torts to read, but that never really takes long.
I also wonder if doing the entire week's reading, as I did this week and last, is a good idea, because some of these cases get stale if I read them on Sunday and they don't go over them until Thursday. Figuring all that out will be part of the fine-tuning process.
So, week 2 starts and I'm still current with all the work.
One week at a time, one task at a time. Though to execute my law school strategy, I am going to need to create a little more time for a few dark arts projects. (The E&Es are one of them.)
Friday, August 26, 2011
Law School First Week Verdict: Big Ass Bag of Awesome
Okay, the first week is done and I have to say, Law School is awesome.
I know that part of this is that bizarre enthusiasm that old people bring when they come back to school at an age where they really shouldn't. I feel like I really got an extra shot at something and I'm really glad for the opportunity. I don't have to do this. I have an education and a way to earn a living already.
The thing I like about this is that the subject is fascinating. It is a bit astonishing that something that impacts our day-to-day life in so many ways is something I'm so utterly ignorant of. So, the education, even if I never practice law, is worth it.
Every day, I have an "ah-ha!" moment, where something clicks and I understand something that I truly, truly had no idea of, before.
I heard somebody say that law school should be fun, and based on my previous education (largely computer and business-related), I thought, "yeah, whatever, Sparky. Education is to be endured, not enjoyed."
Now, that wasn't always true. Some subjects, I really enjoyed. I almost always liked my Marketing classes, for instance. Marketing, like law, is an attempt to apply a science to the realities of everyday human existence.
Anyway, back to the reasons for law school awesomeness. One of them is that, although the class is probably 65% male, of the women who are here, it seems like fully half of them are supermodel thin. And the other half are almost all attractive.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a pathetic old man. Deal with it. Obviously, if this were really my main concern, I'd be clawing people's eyes out to get into the college of nursing. Probably better job and earnings prospects there, too.
The neatest thing about all this is the energy of a university. I really like the University of Toledo. I know the name "Toledo" doesn't exactly conjur up images of a great place to spend your youth, but after having been on this campus, I'd recommend it to anybody. The campus is beautiful. Toledo is a nice-sized town: big enough you can get anything you want. Not so big that we have big city problems. (For instance, if there are gangs here, I've never seen any evidence of them. Also, rush-hour traffic, here, is virtually non-existant. My brother moved her a few years ago, and that was one of the first things he noticed. "There's no traffic here.")
It has revived my interest in perhaps doing something that would lead to a professorship somewhere, at some time. Who knows when or where. I'm not that sanguine about getting a degree in the Ph.D. program here in Manufacturing Technology. So, where and when I get a Ph.D. is largely up in the air. The clock is ticking and perhaps this is something I just won't be able to do.
Also, I'm glad I made the choice of University of Toledo Law. I obviously haven't studied law anywhere else, but the profs here are awesome. They're really making the material interesting. The students are friendly. Overall, I think this is a great environment.
I've heard people say that some majors are better than others for going into Law School. Various people say their major taught them critical reasoning skills, superior language skills, whatever. I'm going to throw my hat in the ring on this one. I'll say that Information Systems is at least as good an academic discipline as any other and perhaps a lot better than most.
I remember once talking to a law student about "code". Of course, I was talking about computer code. She was puzzled and we talked past each other for a few minutes until she realized that she was thinking about the legal code. The reality is that computer code and the legal code are very, very, very similar.
If this, then that. If this and this and this, then that. Computer code and legal code are a set of formalized rules. You apply them to a situation and that's how you get your result. If you don't like the result, you need to apply different code.
I have heard others say that the best preparation for law school is the hard sciences, like physics, chemistry, etc. I think that may be true. However, part of it is that you have to be extremely smart just to pass in subjects like that with a minimum grade.
The other part, though, is that the thinking is very structured. You're learning rules, rules, rules and then applying them to the real world to see what happens.
At this point, I'm getting very interested in both Securities law and Intellectual Property Law. I wish my undergrad education were sufficient for me to qualify for the Patent Bar. It doesn't. However, because I already have 8 hours of Chemistry, I could qualify if I took 24 hours of various science classes. (Subjects like Biology and Botany qualify, yet information technology classes don't. Go figure.)
I guess the bright side is that I could take all those classes at a community college. The downside is that this would represent one year of full-time study or probably two years of part-time study. At this point, I'm not looking for ways to prolong my education.
I figured the more I got into this, the more I'd be aware of what various options are in the law, and it would change my goals. I think that's really true.
In the mean time, I'm current on all my reading and assignments, but there's going to be some work involved this weekend. I will try to stay current during the week, but with the biz, helping coach my son's football team, etc., the weeks are pretty full. I also need to get my sleep schedule more regularized. I stayed up way too late a couple nights this week.
Workouts continue to be something I need to squeeze in here and there. I hope to hit it at least 4 days a week. So far, I'm on a good trajectory fitness and weight-wise. Need to keep that going.
So, with one week down, I'm one week closer to final exams. I feel pretty good so far. I'm not learning huge chunks of information. My pre-law studies have generally given me the bulk of the material. I'm spending most lectures learning what the prof wants to see and how things are structured in the prof's mind.
Also, the best advice I ever got was not to spend too much time briefing the cases. 2L and 3L students seldom seem to create a formal brief for each case. I've been book-briefing, and it's been more than enough. I have even heard people say to skim, not read each case. I've been actually reading them and generally I retain enough that I can participate in class.
I also need to ratchet down my participation in class. I knew this was going to be a problem, but I'm gonna start looking like a gunner if I don't tone things down. It's just the nature of my personality, and probably just a sign of general insecurity that I will sometimes try to show everybody that I know a lot about X, Y or Z. I am trying only to contribute when nobody else is raising their hand, or the point I'm asking about isn't an obvious one.
So far, so great. I'm treating this as a one-semester adventure at this point. The rest of the roadmap won't be clear until I have my Fall 1L grades. So, everything at this point is focused on Fall exams.
I know that part of this is that bizarre enthusiasm that old people bring when they come back to school at an age where they really shouldn't. I feel like I really got an extra shot at something and I'm really glad for the opportunity. I don't have to do this. I have an education and a way to earn a living already.
The thing I like about this is that the subject is fascinating. It is a bit astonishing that something that impacts our day-to-day life in so many ways is something I'm so utterly ignorant of. So, the education, even if I never practice law, is worth it.
Every day, I have an "ah-ha!" moment, where something clicks and I understand something that I truly, truly had no idea of, before.
I heard somebody say that law school should be fun, and based on my previous education (largely computer and business-related), I thought, "yeah, whatever, Sparky. Education is to be endured, not enjoyed."
Now, that wasn't always true. Some subjects, I really enjoyed. I almost always liked my Marketing classes, for instance. Marketing, like law, is an attempt to apply a science to the realities of everyday human existence.
Anyway, back to the reasons for law school awesomeness. One of them is that, although the class is probably 65% male, of the women who are here, it seems like fully half of them are supermodel thin. And the other half are almost all attractive.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a pathetic old man. Deal with it. Obviously, if this were really my main concern, I'd be clawing people's eyes out to get into the college of nursing. Probably better job and earnings prospects there, too.
The neatest thing about all this is the energy of a university. I really like the University of Toledo. I know the name "Toledo" doesn't exactly conjur up images of a great place to spend your youth, but after having been on this campus, I'd recommend it to anybody. The campus is beautiful. Toledo is a nice-sized town: big enough you can get anything you want. Not so big that we have big city problems. (For instance, if there are gangs here, I've never seen any evidence of them. Also, rush-hour traffic, here, is virtually non-existant. My brother moved her a few years ago, and that was one of the first things he noticed. "There's no traffic here.")
It has revived my interest in perhaps doing something that would lead to a professorship somewhere, at some time. Who knows when or where. I'm not that sanguine about getting a degree in the Ph.D. program here in Manufacturing Technology. So, where and when I get a Ph.D. is largely up in the air. The clock is ticking and perhaps this is something I just won't be able to do.
Also, I'm glad I made the choice of University of Toledo Law. I obviously haven't studied law anywhere else, but the profs here are awesome. They're really making the material interesting. The students are friendly. Overall, I think this is a great environment.
I've heard people say that some majors are better than others for going into Law School. Various people say their major taught them critical reasoning skills, superior language skills, whatever. I'm going to throw my hat in the ring on this one. I'll say that Information Systems is at least as good an academic discipline as any other and perhaps a lot better than most.
I remember once talking to a law student about "code". Of course, I was talking about computer code. She was puzzled and we talked past each other for a few minutes until she realized that she was thinking about the legal code. The reality is that computer code and the legal code are very, very, very similar.
If this, then that. If this and this and this, then that. Computer code and legal code are a set of formalized rules. You apply them to a situation and that's how you get your result. If you don't like the result, you need to apply different code.
I have heard others say that the best preparation for law school is the hard sciences, like physics, chemistry, etc. I think that may be true. However, part of it is that you have to be extremely smart just to pass in subjects like that with a minimum grade.
The other part, though, is that the thinking is very structured. You're learning rules, rules, rules and then applying them to the real world to see what happens.
At this point, I'm getting very interested in both Securities law and Intellectual Property Law. I wish my undergrad education were sufficient for me to qualify for the Patent Bar. It doesn't. However, because I already have 8 hours of Chemistry, I could qualify if I took 24 hours of various science classes. (Subjects like Biology and Botany qualify, yet information technology classes don't. Go figure.)
I guess the bright side is that I could take all those classes at a community college. The downside is that this would represent one year of full-time study or probably two years of part-time study. At this point, I'm not looking for ways to prolong my education.
I figured the more I got into this, the more I'd be aware of what various options are in the law, and it would change my goals. I think that's really true.
In the mean time, I'm current on all my reading and assignments, but there's going to be some work involved this weekend. I will try to stay current during the week, but with the biz, helping coach my son's football team, etc., the weeks are pretty full. I also need to get my sleep schedule more regularized. I stayed up way too late a couple nights this week.
Workouts continue to be something I need to squeeze in here and there. I hope to hit it at least 4 days a week. So far, I'm on a good trajectory fitness and weight-wise. Need to keep that going.
So, with one week down, I'm one week closer to final exams. I feel pretty good so far. I'm not learning huge chunks of information. My pre-law studies have generally given me the bulk of the material. I'm spending most lectures learning what the prof wants to see and how things are structured in the prof's mind.
Also, the best advice I ever got was not to spend too much time briefing the cases. 2L and 3L students seldom seem to create a formal brief for each case. I've been book-briefing, and it's been more than enough. I have even heard people say to skim, not read each case. I've been actually reading them and generally I retain enough that I can participate in class.
I also need to ratchet down my participation in class. I knew this was going to be a problem, but I'm gonna start looking like a gunner if I don't tone things down. It's just the nature of my personality, and probably just a sign of general insecurity that I will sometimes try to show everybody that I know a lot about X, Y or Z. I am trying only to contribute when nobody else is raising their hand, or the point I'm asking about isn't an obvious one.
So far, so great. I'm treating this as a one-semester adventure at this point. The rest of the roadmap won't be clear until I have my Fall 1L grades. So, everything at this point is focused on Fall exams.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Week Almost Over
The week is almost over. I only have one session of Research tomorrow, then weekend. I really need the weekends to get ahead on my reading, etc. So far, so good.
I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I'm enjoying classes, though. This has been fun so far. I'm still adjusting to the schedule and trying to figure it all out.
This is taking more time than I initially thought. At this point, I really can't say much about anything. I think I've got two mid-terms and I will have writing assignments throughout, but I won't have any idea how I'm doing until the first set of exams.
I just need to keep working on the outlines.
I was current enough, though, that I watched a movie yesterday. I also missed Logan's Wednesday football practice, but was able to go today.
Tomorrow, I have some catching up to do at the biz. However, this is my weekend without the boy. I'll do my best to be productive.
I need to run both days, and mow the lawn, too. It'll be a full schedule.
In any event, attending class is a blast. I should have done this a long time ago. Pretty soon, one week down, 15 more to go.
I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I'm enjoying classes, though. This has been fun so far. I'm still adjusting to the schedule and trying to figure it all out.
This is taking more time than I initially thought. At this point, I really can't say much about anything. I think I've got two mid-terms and I will have writing assignments throughout, but I won't have any idea how I'm doing until the first set of exams.
I just need to keep working on the outlines.
I was current enough, though, that I watched a movie yesterday. I also missed Logan's Wednesday football practice, but was able to go today.
Tomorrow, I have some catching up to do at the biz. However, this is my weekend without the boy. I'll do my best to be productive.
I need to run both days, and mow the lawn, too. It'll be a full schedule.
In any event, attending class is a blast. I should have done this a long time ago. Pretty soon, one week down, 15 more to go.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Long Day...
Just had my first Legal Research and Writing class. It took forever today. The class wasn't that bad. However, we got an assigment that is due on Friday.
Other sections got different due-dates on this one, probably to avoid having all 130 1Ls clogging up the library all at once trying to access the same handful of volumes in the exercises. Some didn't seem to have to get this done until late next week.
I ended up staying in the library until almost 8:00. The assignment took me about 4 hours, total. This will be, hands-down, my least favorite class.
I LOVE the way Law School classes are taught. Generally, there's only a final exam, or maybe a mid-term (worth about 30%) and a final. It's up to you to stay current with the material and show up to the exam ready.
I have strengths and weaknesses like anybody, but three of my academic strengths are:
Logical ability
Ability to write
Ability to do well on a test
I won't delve into the weaknesses just yet, but suffice to say the strengths should give me at least a fighting chance at a good grade.
Research and Writing is more like an undergrad class, though. Lots of assignments. To top it all off, I'm pretty sure a lot of them aren't graded. Maybe sort of check-mark graded to see if you did them, but not much more beyond that.
The nice thing is that the big paper in this class is due in early/mid November. So, this class actually wraps up early. Instead of a 4 month course, this one is really more like 3.
Well, it is what it is. I need to try and pull down an A in this class just like all the others.
I was in the library so long, I wasn't able to help coach my son's football team. That was a stretch to begin with. They asked for dads to help coach, and I told them I'd help when I could, but couldn't always be there. The way things are shaping up, I'll be lucky to be able to help once or twice a week.
Time management is going to be tough. One of the reasons I dislike Research and Writing so much is that so much of the work needs to be done at the school, in the library. If I have a mound of reading to do, that's not a biggie. I can do it at home and still be here for my son.
I do envy the 2Ls and 3Ls. It looks like the school does what it can to let them take their classes all before noon so they can head off to their internships and part-time jobs. If I get to that point, my life may get simpler.
Until then, one day at a time, one week at a time. I need to double check my reading assignments for tomorrow. I think I may have a chapter or two to read before I go to bed.
Other sections got different due-dates on this one, probably to avoid having all 130 1Ls clogging up the library all at once trying to access the same handful of volumes in the exercises. Some didn't seem to have to get this done until late next week.
I ended up staying in the library until almost 8:00. The assignment took me about 4 hours, total. This will be, hands-down, my least favorite class.
I LOVE the way Law School classes are taught. Generally, there's only a final exam, or maybe a mid-term (worth about 30%) and a final. It's up to you to stay current with the material and show up to the exam ready.
I have strengths and weaknesses like anybody, but three of my academic strengths are:
Logical ability
Ability to write
Ability to do well on a test
I won't delve into the weaknesses just yet, but suffice to say the strengths should give me at least a fighting chance at a good grade.
Research and Writing is more like an undergrad class, though. Lots of assignments. To top it all off, I'm pretty sure a lot of them aren't graded. Maybe sort of check-mark graded to see if you did them, but not much more beyond that.
The nice thing is that the big paper in this class is due in early/mid November. So, this class actually wraps up early. Instead of a 4 month course, this one is really more like 3.
Well, it is what it is. I need to try and pull down an A in this class just like all the others.
I was in the library so long, I wasn't able to help coach my son's football team. That was a stretch to begin with. They asked for dads to help coach, and I told them I'd help when I could, but couldn't always be there. The way things are shaping up, I'll be lucky to be able to help once or twice a week.
Time management is going to be tough. One of the reasons I dislike Research and Writing so much is that so much of the work needs to be done at the school, in the library. If I have a mound of reading to do, that's not a biggie. I can do it at home and still be here for my son.
I do envy the 2Ls and 3Ls. It looks like the school does what it can to let them take their classes all before noon so they can head off to their internships and part-time jobs. If I get to that point, my life may get simpler.
Until then, one day at a time, one week at a time. I need to double check my reading assignments for tomorrow. I think I may have a chapter or two to read before I go to bed.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Okay, that was AWESOME!!!
Really, really enjoyed my first day of class. Really enjoyed the lectures, etc. I think this semester is going to fly by.
A couple of things dawned on me today.
First, prior to classes starting, I was hoping to do well on the exams by learning black-letter-law better than my classmates.
Trouble is, black-letter-law isn't that hard to learn. Really.
So, I don't think that's going to be much of a differentiator.
Second, the kids all sure do seem smart. Maybe they're not. Maybe I'm reading a lot into this. However, generally speaking, everybody in law school did pretty well in undergrad and takes tests well.
I do have some other things to use and fall back on.
For one, I'm pretty sure not many of the other students boned up on dark arts before they started class. I have a leg up there, for sure.
The other thing that occurred to me is that everybody is going to be taught the black-letter-law, but that doesn't mean they'll write well about it.
Anyway, I think I'm really, really going to like law school.
Though this is a stretch, I'm entertaining a stretch-goal of trying to work for the CFTC. That would be my dream job in the law.
Okay, the not-so-awesome parts.
1. Parking sucks. They advised us that if you don't get a parking spot before 9:00 (even though my earliest class is at 10:10), then there will be drama.
2. Leaving was tight, too. On Tuesdays, I need to haul ass across town so I can get Logan and get him to football practice. Try as I might, I ended up bringing him there about 10 minutes late. I can shave the drive time just a tad by parking more strategically, but generally speaking, it's just gonna be hard to do.
3. Lunch? Went to the grill at the student union and it took 40 minutes to get a cheeseburger. When I got my food, I asked the girl, "Is it always like this?" She said, "Yeah, pretty much". So, I can't do that again. I may just have to try to grab a bag of chips to knock off the hunger and do the best I can. I seldom buy a good lunch from a nutritional standpoint. Eating a bag of chips is still bad for me, but less bad than a cheeseburger and fries.
My son's football team asked for volunteers to help coach. I told them I'll help when I can. As much as I don't want it to, this is impacting my time with my son. Not so much the quality stuff. I can find time for that. It's just the little slack time I used to spend with him.
Oh well. Nobody said this would be easy or without sacrifice.
Work? Not too badly impacted. I'll only be able to come to work for a few minutes, first thing in the morning, on Tuesday and Thursday, but will be in the office for a good chunk of the day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Also, the workload during the week isn't so bad, but I really need to use the weekends to keep up.
It's not going to be a cakewalk by any means, but I feel pretty good about things so far.
Oh, and an ego boost today. A girl asked if I wanted to study with her. I tried very hard not to raise my hand in class, but did, several times when the prof was waiting for somebody to answer. If anybody else had their hand up, I kept mine down. Don't want people to think I'm a gunner.
However, I may want potential letters of recommendation. I want to make an impression on the profs.
Now, let's hope these kids aren't all as smart as they seem. Right now, they sure all seem pretty smart and with-it.
A couple of things dawned on me today.
First, prior to classes starting, I was hoping to do well on the exams by learning black-letter-law better than my classmates.
Trouble is, black-letter-law isn't that hard to learn. Really.
So, I don't think that's going to be much of a differentiator.
Second, the kids all sure do seem smart. Maybe they're not. Maybe I'm reading a lot into this. However, generally speaking, everybody in law school did pretty well in undergrad and takes tests well.
I do have some other things to use and fall back on.
For one, I'm pretty sure not many of the other students boned up on dark arts before they started class. I have a leg up there, for sure.
The other thing that occurred to me is that everybody is going to be taught the black-letter-law, but that doesn't mean they'll write well about it.
Anyway, I think I'm really, really going to like law school.
Though this is a stretch, I'm entertaining a stretch-goal of trying to work for the CFTC. That would be my dream job in the law.
Okay, the not-so-awesome parts.
1. Parking sucks. They advised us that if you don't get a parking spot before 9:00 (even though my earliest class is at 10:10), then there will be drama.
2. Leaving was tight, too. On Tuesdays, I need to haul ass across town so I can get Logan and get him to football practice. Try as I might, I ended up bringing him there about 10 minutes late. I can shave the drive time just a tad by parking more strategically, but generally speaking, it's just gonna be hard to do.
3. Lunch? Went to the grill at the student union and it took 40 minutes to get a cheeseburger. When I got my food, I asked the girl, "Is it always like this?" She said, "Yeah, pretty much". So, I can't do that again. I may just have to try to grab a bag of chips to knock off the hunger and do the best I can. I seldom buy a good lunch from a nutritional standpoint. Eating a bag of chips is still bad for me, but less bad than a cheeseburger and fries.
My son's football team asked for volunteers to help coach. I told them I'll help when I can. As much as I don't want it to, this is impacting my time with my son. Not so much the quality stuff. I can find time for that. It's just the little slack time I used to spend with him.
Oh well. Nobody said this would be easy or without sacrifice.
Work? Not too badly impacted. I'll only be able to come to work for a few minutes, first thing in the morning, on Tuesday and Thursday, but will be in the office for a good chunk of the day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Also, the workload during the week isn't so bad, but I really need to use the weekends to keep up.
It's not going to be a cakewalk by any means, but I feel pretty good about things so far.
Oh, and an ego boost today. A girl asked if I wanted to study with her. I tried very hard not to raise my hand in class, but did, several times when the prof was waiting for somebody to answer. If anybody else had their hand up, I kept mine down. Don't want people to think I'm a gunner.
However, I may want potential letters of recommendation. I want to make an impression on the profs.
Now, let's hope these kids aren't all as smart as they seem. Right now, they sure all seem pretty smart and with-it.
Monday, August 22, 2011
My Actual First Day
I was apprehensive about this first day in Civ Pro, but turns out the prof is awesome. He's really doing all he can to spell out what you'll need to do to succeed in his class. This is not a "hide the ball" professor at all.
He was literally saying things like, "don't write this down. It won't be on the exam."
He even provided us with a rather comprehensive set of notes for the first few classes. Not sure if he'll do this all year, but it's a great start.
When I think about my goals with Law School, one of them, obviously, is to do as well as I possibly can.
Near as I can figure, this will boil down to the following:
1. Superior Logic Skills
2. Mastery of the Academic Material
a. Ability to hit a curveball
b. Raw intellect
c. Work Ethic
d. Judicious use of time
3. Dark Arts
4. Test Taking Ability
Really, the only thing that matters is #4. The other items are just there to get you to #4. In most classes, including this Civ Pro class, there will be exactly one graded assignment: the final exam. Ace it, you ace the class. Bomb it, you bomb the class. No mercy, one shot.
What this prof did was take 2a. "Ability to hit a curveball", out of the equation.
Some law professors have a habit of teaching all their lectures in such a manner that you are given minimal practical information that will help you on the final exam. Some people call this "hide the ball".
I'll argue that this is more like facing a pitcher with a good slider. It's possible to still hit a home-run. You just have to recognize the pitch and adjust accordingly.
This prof is throwing 60 mile per hour batting practice. Everybody should be able to put a bat on the ball. So, unlike hitting against a curveball pitcher where maybe you hit .350 to lead the league, this is more like you need to hit 16 out of 20 balls out of the park.
Also, by not-throwing curveballs, a little bit of luck is taken out of the equation.
When you face a curveball pitcher, the hitters fall into several categories:
1. Hitters who just can't hit a curveball. They can't track it, they can't hit it.
2. Hitters who CAN hit a curveball, guess right, track it and smack it.
3. Hitters who can hit a curveball, but guessed wrong.
No matter how good you are at hitting curveballs, there's always the chance that you'll guess curveball when there isn't one or the converse.
Yeah, being a good curveball hitter puts you ahead of all the hitters who can't hit a curveball, but it introduces an element of luck.
This prof has taken luck off the table, entirely.
So, a lot of brute, academic force is going to have to be applied, here.
I can still hope I have some advantage on all the other items.
I also was trying for the life of me to understand what the exam would be about. There was no way to know based on the reading. However, after about 60 minutes of our 90 minute class, it got crystal clear. I think I know what I need to know for the final. I don't have all the details, yet, but I have the basic skeleton of what I need to be focusing on.
We have a part-timer in our section and he said that all my profs are really good ones. (The ones he'd have picked if he had the choice.) It looks like basically, they took the incoming class and divided us into two groups. All my classes have all the same people in them. I won't meet the other half of the class this semester at all, probably.
The only exception is Legal Research and Writing, which is broken up into more than two sections.
Today is my DWOMS (day without my son.) I am caught up on reading. I need to spend a half hour or so on reviewing today's class, but other than that, I'm caught up for the moment.
I rented the movie "Priest". I'll watch it while running on the dreadmill and hitting the rower.
I've set some basic rules for myself to get through law school.
One of my basic premises is that I waste enough time in the day (with blogging and facebook) that I could get a law degree if I re-directed my efforts.
However, I can't BOTH waste time like before AND do law school.
So, renting movies and watching them on the couch is out.
However, I've carved out a small exception for myself if I'm doing exercise. I have enough time for long rower and treadmill sessions tonight. I am looking forward to seeing this movie.
Granted, if schoolwork intrudes, I have to be more efficient with my workout time. However, I think I'll always be able to squeeze in 5K on the rower.
I'm also glad that I'll be able to watch Logan's football practice tonight. Watching him play sports is one of my biggest joys in life right now. That, and just being around him in general.
So, so far, so good.
He was literally saying things like, "don't write this down. It won't be on the exam."
He even provided us with a rather comprehensive set of notes for the first few classes. Not sure if he'll do this all year, but it's a great start.
When I think about my goals with Law School, one of them, obviously, is to do as well as I possibly can.
Near as I can figure, this will boil down to the following:
1. Superior Logic Skills
2. Mastery of the Academic Material
a. Ability to hit a curveball
b. Raw intellect
c. Work Ethic
d. Judicious use of time
3. Dark Arts
4. Test Taking Ability
Really, the only thing that matters is #4. The other items are just there to get you to #4. In most classes, including this Civ Pro class, there will be exactly one graded assignment: the final exam. Ace it, you ace the class. Bomb it, you bomb the class. No mercy, one shot.
What this prof did was take 2a. "Ability to hit a curveball", out of the equation.
Some law professors have a habit of teaching all their lectures in such a manner that you are given minimal practical information that will help you on the final exam. Some people call this "hide the ball".
I'll argue that this is more like facing a pitcher with a good slider. It's possible to still hit a home-run. You just have to recognize the pitch and adjust accordingly.
This prof is throwing 60 mile per hour batting practice. Everybody should be able to put a bat on the ball. So, unlike hitting against a curveball pitcher where maybe you hit .350 to lead the league, this is more like you need to hit 16 out of 20 balls out of the park.
Also, by not-throwing curveballs, a little bit of luck is taken out of the equation.
When you face a curveball pitcher, the hitters fall into several categories:
1. Hitters who just can't hit a curveball. They can't track it, they can't hit it.
2. Hitters who CAN hit a curveball, guess right, track it and smack it.
3. Hitters who can hit a curveball, but guessed wrong.
No matter how good you are at hitting curveballs, there's always the chance that you'll guess curveball when there isn't one or the converse.
Yeah, being a good curveball hitter puts you ahead of all the hitters who can't hit a curveball, but it introduces an element of luck.
This prof has taken luck off the table, entirely.
So, a lot of brute, academic force is going to have to be applied, here.
I can still hope I have some advantage on all the other items.
I also was trying for the life of me to understand what the exam would be about. There was no way to know based on the reading. However, after about 60 minutes of our 90 minute class, it got crystal clear. I think I know what I need to know for the final. I don't have all the details, yet, but I have the basic skeleton of what I need to be focusing on.
We have a part-timer in our section and he said that all my profs are really good ones. (The ones he'd have picked if he had the choice.) It looks like basically, they took the incoming class and divided us into two groups. All my classes have all the same people in them. I won't meet the other half of the class this semester at all, probably.
The only exception is Legal Research and Writing, which is broken up into more than two sections.
Today is my DWOMS (day without my son.) I am caught up on reading. I need to spend a half hour or so on reviewing today's class, but other than that, I'm caught up for the moment.
I rented the movie "Priest". I'll watch it while running on the dreadmill and hitting the rower.
I've set some basic rules for myself to get through law school.
One of my basic premises is that I waste enough time in the day (with blogging and facebook) that I could get a law degree if I re-directed my efforts.
However, I can't BOTH waste time like before AND do law school.
So, renting movies and watching them on the couch is out.
However, I've carved out a small exception for myself if I'm doing exercise. I have enough time for long rower and treadmill sessions tonight. I am looking forward to seeing this movie.
Granted, if schoolwork intrudes, I have to be more efficient with my workout time. However, I think I'll always be able to squeeze in 5K on the rower.
I'm also glad that I'll be able to watch Logan's football practice tonight. Watching him play sports is one of my biggest joys in life right now. That, and just being around him in general.
So, so far, so good.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Day Before Classes
I am finished with almost all my reading. I just have a few pages to read for Civ Pro. E-mailed the prof for clarification on some pages he wanted us to read.
So far, most of the reading that's been assigned has been in page numbers. In all the other cases, and most of the Civ Pro cases, it's obvious what the prof wants you to read. A clearly discernable section or topic begins on the first page and ends on the last.
Except in this assignment, the first page is basically not the start of anything and the last page isn't the end of anything. I e-mailed the prof for clarification last night, but haven't heard back, yet.
This prof also wants us to use an outdated textbook. My guess is so he won't have to go back and change the page-numbers for the reading assignments.
Civ Pro is, I think, the hardest of our 1L subjects. I fear based on this initial introduction that the class may be harder than it needs to be.
Still, I'm pretty much ready for my first days of class. I was tempted to read ahead a little bit, but I won't. I'll treat this as a marathon, not a sprint.
I'm already eager to get going on my Summary Outlines. I'm a little worried that they aren't finished, yet. Hahaha! All in good time.
Today, I realized that the reason being in school is making me so much better at everything else is that it essentially eliminated my margin for error on everything.
When you don't have a lot to do, who cares if you mow the lawn today or 3 days from now? Who cares if you update your books at work today or next month?
When time gets tight, though, there's a time for everything and everything needs to be done when the opportunity presents itself.
My strategy for doing this is mostly to incorporate what was previously just wasted time in my life. The hours I spent blogging or surfing facebook, or just all-around screwing off.
I really do think I can finish law school using not much more than what had previously been nonproductive time. Of course, my grades will tell if I'm right or wrong.
I am thinking more and more about what I will do with a law degree. It's a little odd that I haven't spent that much time thinking about it.
This is just something on the bucket list. Even if it never led to a job, I'd be okay with that.
At orientation, at lunch, one of the profs was describing a guy who just graduated. He got an internship at the athletics department while in law school. He was solely focused on NCAA regulatory compliance.
His first job upon graduation? Doing NCAA compliance for Ohio State.
Just goes to show that if you really have a dream and you focus on it, you might have a shot.
Now, saying what I would like to do in the law, before attending my first class, reminds me a bit of picking a job in the Army, before I'd ever served in the Army. I knew more about what I wanted to do in the Army after 2 weeks of boot camp than I had guessed about in the 17 years prior to enlistment.
Same here. I'm ready to be surprised by what opportunities are available to me, and which ones aren't.
First, I think my dream job would be something with a government financial regulator like the FDIC, CFTC or SEC. I am not sure if I'm even a potential candidate for that sort of thing. Seems to me that top students from east coast schools are probably clamoring for those jobs. Still, if my grades are good and I rattle the right cages, who knows.
The most obvious one is one I struck off my list. However, now, I think it warrants further inquiry. That's intellectual property. With my Information Technology background, it would seem that I'd be a good fit for that sort of work, either in-house or with an IP firm. The only reason I'm not that sanguine about it is that my degree(s) don't qualify me to sit for the patent bar. My faculty advisor is an IP guy, though. I'll ask for a meeting and ask for his ideas on how realistic it would be for me to work in IP.
Other than that, honestly, I'm still inclined to hang a shingle and work personal injury. If I could work for a PI firm for a couple of years to learn the ropes, great. If not, I'll learn them, myself.
Then, the list is rounded out with family law. As long as you have marriages, some percentage of them will not work out. Folks will need a divorce attorney. I could specialize in small business divorces and military divorces.
Anyway, so far, so good. I'm keeping up with the reading, but at this point, my main concern is having a good summary outline for my exams. So far, I do have one mid-term worth 30%. That'll be nice since it'll let me know how good my exam strategy is before we get to the finals.
Also, not sure if this is true in every law school, but the Toledo Bar Association was very involved in our orientation. What a nice bunch of people. Every student was given a nice leather folio from a member of the TBA.
Apparently, the climate in the TBA is very collegial among the attorneys. Cleveland? Has a reputation for being very adversarial. Based on the attorneys I met, I find it easy to believe that this is a great bunch.
Also, Toledo Law doesn't quite have the same dog-eat-dog reputation that some law schools do. So far, the other 1Ls are awesome. I can tell I'm going to make a lot of friends through this process.
So far, most of the reading that's been assigned has been in page numbers. In all the other cases, and most of the Civ Pro cases, it's obvious what the prof wants you to read. A clearly discernable section or topic begins on the first page and ends on the last.
Except in this assignment, the first page is basically not the start of anything and the last page isn't the end of anything. I e-mailed the prof for clarification last night, but haven't heard back, yet.
This prof also wants us to use an outdated textbook. My guess is so he won't have to go back and change the page-numbers for the reading assignments.
Civ Pro is, I think, the hardest of our 1L subjects. I fear based on this initial introduction that the class may be harder than it needs to be.
Still, I'm pretty much ready for my first days of class. I was tempted to read ahead a little bit, but I won't. I'll treat this as a marathon, not a sprint.
I'm already eager to get going on my Summary Outlines. I'm a little worried that they aren't finished, yet. Hahaha! All in good time.
Today, I realized that the reason being in school is making me so much better at everything else is that it essentially eliminated my margin for error on everything.
When you don't have a lot to do, who cares if you mow the lawn today or 3 days from now? Who cares if you update your books at work today or next month?
When time gets tight, though, there's a time for everything and everything needs to be done when the opportunity presents itself.
My strategy for doing this is mostly to incorporate what was previously just wasted time in my life. The hours I spent blogging or surfing facebook, or just all-around screwing off.
I really do think I can finish law school using not much more than what had previously been nonproductive time. Of course, my grades will tell if I'm right or wrong.
I am thinking more and more about what I will do with a law degree. It's a little odd that I haven't spent that much time thinking about it.
This is just something on the bucket list. Even if it never led to a job, I'd be okay with that.
At orientation, at lunch, one of the profs was describing a guy who just graduated. He got an internship at the athletics department while in law school. He was solely focused on NCAA regulatory compliance.
His first job upon graduation? Doing NCAA compliance for Ohio State.
Just goes to show that if you really have a dream and you focus on it, you might have a shot.
Now, saying what I would like to do in the law, before attending my first class, reminds me a bit of picking a job in the Army, before I'd ever served in the Army. I knew more about what I wanted to do in the Army after 2 weeks of boot camp than I had guessed about in the 17 years prior to enlistment.
Same here. I'm ready to be surprised by what opportunities are available to me, and which ones aren't.
First, I think my dream job would be something with a government financial regulator like the FDIC, CFTC or SEC. I am not sure if I'm even a potential candidate for that sort of thing. Seems to me that top students from east coast schools are probably clamoring for those jobs. Still, if my grades are good and I rattle the right cages, who knows.
The most obvious one is one I struck off my list. However, now, I think it warrants further inquiry. That's intellectual property. With my Information Technology background, it would seem that I'd be a good fit for that sort of work, either in-house or with an IP firm. The only reason I'm not that sanguine about it is that my degree(s) don't qualify me to sit for the patent bar. My faculty advisor is an IP guy, though. I'll ask for a meeting and ask for his ideas on how realistic it would be for me to work in IP.
Other than that, honestly, I'm still inclined to hang a shingle and work personal injury. If I could work for a PI firm for a couple of years to learn the ropes, great. If not, I'll learn them, myself.
Then, the list is rounded out with family law. As long as you have marriages, some percentage of them will not work out. Folks will need a divorce attorney. I could specialize in small business divorces and military divorces.
Anyway, so far, so good. I'm keeping up with the reading, but at this point, my main concern is having a good summary outline for my exams. So far, I do have one mid-term worth 30%. That'll be nice since it'll let me know how good my exam strategy is before we get to the finals.
Also, not sure if this is true in every law school, but the Toledo Bar Association was very involved in our orientation. What a nice bunch of people. Every student was given a nice leather folio from a member of the TBA.
Apparently, the climate in the TBA is very collegial among the attorneys. Cleveland? Has a reputation for being very adversarial. Based on the attorneys I met, I find it easy to believe that this is a great bunch.
Also, Toledo Law doesn't quite have the same dog-eat-dog reputation that some law schools do. So far, the other 1Ls are awesome. I can tell I'm going to make a lot of friends through this process.
Friday, August 19, 2011
First Reading Assignments
Got my first reading assignments. Figured I'd devote a day to keeping up.
So far, I've:
Hand-unloaded a pallet off the back of a truck.
Done a set of pull-ups.
Entered a credit card statement into quickbooks.
My ability to procrastinate when faced with schoolwork is formidable.
However, I usually procrastinate by doing something productive.
If I keep this up, ironically, this could be worth the cost of tuition whether I ever do anything productive with the JD or not.
So far, I've:
Hand-unloaded a pallet off the back of a truck.
Done a set of pull-ups.
Entered a credit card statement into quickbooks.
My ability to procrastinate when faced with schoolwork is formidable.
However, I usually procrastinate by doing something productive.
If I keep this up, ironically, this could be worth the cost of tuition whether I ever do anything productive with the JD or not.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Orientation is Over
Personally, I think you should find something to do with your life that you love. One of the measures by which you can tell if you love what you do is if it energizes you or drains you. If that's any indication, I really don't like sitting down all darned day.
That'll be a problem on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have 3 classes that go back-to-back-to-back. I get a long lunch break, but other than that, it's going to be one biggo day of sitting in lectures.
The orientation was pretty much what I expected. Some good information in there. Some, not so good relative to the amount of time involved. Overall, I'm glad I went.
Okay, now for impressions:
1. I feel very well prepared for this. At this point, I feel pretty confident that due to my pre-Law self-study, I'm ahead of most of the students. Eventually, they'll all catch up. I'm curious to see how long it takes them to close the gap. I had a secret fear that I'd show up and that everybody would have already digested the E&Es more thoroughly than I did and that they'd all know about LEEWS. I think I'm in rare company, though. I am hoping this will give me an edge on final exams in December.
2. Tort law, according to one practitioner is dead in Ohio. Tort reform wasn't really necessary. The insurance companies just stopped being so stupid in how they handle potential litigants.
3. Met a TON of people, and I was the only one that I ran into who had an Information Systems degree. I found that odd. In fact, nearly nobody in there had a background in the hard sciences. The reason this is interesting? Apparently one of very few good fields for attorneys right now is computer science undergrad guys who are working in Intellectual Property. My faculty advisor is an IP/Patent guy. I'm going to sit down with him and try to get more information on this.
My degree: Information Technology, is like the short-bus cousin of Computer Engineering and Computer Science. This is important in a lot of ways. For one, Computer Engineering and Computer Science guys can qualify to be patent attorneys. I can't.
I'm curious how close my degree is. It may be close enough. You can practice IP law without being qualified to be a patent attorney. I'll have to do some poking and prodding around. I may get an IP concentration during my law school program of study.
4. I'm also thinking about doing a joint degree. Half the reason I'm getting my JD is a bucket-list thing, anyway. Also remaining on the bucket list is a Ph.D. If I'm going to get a Ph.D., this is the time to do it. It would probably take a year less to do it as a joint program than as two separate programs. I'll have to look into this. Unfortunately, U of Toledo doesn't seem to have many Ph.D. programs I'm interested in.
The one I'm closest to being a fit for is a Manufacturing and Technology Ph.D. with an Information Systems emphasis. Last time I looked into this, I lacked some prerequisites, but I see that the program doesn't appear to still be a joint program with the college of engineering.
The upside is that I'm relatively certain I could get a faculty position somewhere if I earned this Ph.D. The downside is that I think it would make it very, very difficult to gain employment in the law. It might enhance my credentials for a very narrow number of jobs, and it would make me look less serious about a law career to most people.
Something to think about. I'm pinging the director of the Ph.D. program, now, to see if I meet the prereqs. If I have to go back and take two semesters of undergraduate calculus, that's probably going to be a deal-breaker.
5. I'm pretty sure I was the oldest guy there. There was one woman who looked older, but turns out she's a year younger. I didn't see anybody else who looked close.
I'm just going to relax for a few more minutes and see which cases I need to brief before Monday.
At this point, the starting gun just went off.
The race is on.
That'll be a problem on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have 3 classes that go back-to-back-to-back. I get a long lunch break, but other than that, it's going to be one biggo day of sitting in lectures.
The orientation was pretty much what I expected. Some good information in there. Some, not so good relative to the amount of time involved. Overall, I'm glad I went.
Okay, now for impressions:
1. I feel very well prepared for this. At this point, I feel pretty confident that due to my pre-Law self-study, I'm ahead of most of the students. Eventually, they'll all catch up. I'm curious to see how long it takes them to close the gap. I had a secret fear that I'd show up and that everybody would have already digested the E&Es more thoroughly than I did and that they'd all know about LEEWS. I think I'm in rare company, though. I am hoping this will give me an edge on final exams in December.
2. Tort law, according to one practitioner is dead in Ohio. Tort reform wasn't really necessary. The insurance companies just stopped being so stupid in how they handle potential litigants.
3. Met a TON of people, and I was the only one that I ran into who had an Information Systems degree. I found that odd. In fact, nearly nobody in there had a background in the hard sciences. The reason this is interesting? Apparently one of very few good fields for attorneys right now is computer science undergrad guys who are working in Intellectual Property. My faculty advisor is an IP/Patent guy. I'm going to sit down with him and try to get more information on this.
My degree: Information Technology, is like the short-bus cousin of Computer Engineering and Computer Science. This is important in a lot of ways. For one, Computer Engineering and Computer Science guys can qualify to be patent attorneys. I can't.
I'm curious how close my degree is. It may be close enough. You can practice IP law without being qualified to be a patent attorney. I'll have to do some poking and prodding around. I may get an IP concentration during my law school program of study.
4. I'm also thinking about doing a joint degree. Half the reason I'm getting my JD is a bucket-list thing, anyway. Also remaining on the bucket list is a Ph.D. If I'm going to get a Ph.D., this is the time to do it. It would probably take a year less to do it as a joint program than as two separate programs. I'll have to look into this. Unfortunately, U of Toledo doesn't seem to have many Ph.D. programs I'm interested in.
The one I'm closest to being a fit for is a Manufacturing and Technology Ph.D. with an Information Systems emphasis. Last time I looked into this, I lacked some prerequisites, but I see that the program doesn't appear to still be a joint program with the college of engineering.
The upside is that I'm relatively certain I could get a faculty position somewhere if I earned this Ph.D. The downside is that I think it would make it very, very difficult to gain employment in the law. It might enhance my credentials for a very narrow number of jobs, and it would make me look less serious about a law career to most people.
Something to think about. I'm pinging the director of the Ph.D. program, now, to see if I meet the prereqs. If I have to go back and take two semesters of undergraduate calculus, that's probably going to be a deal-breaker.
5. I'm pretty sure I was the oldest guy there. There was one woman who looked older, but turns out she's a year younger. I didn't see anybody else who looked close.
I'm just going to relax for a few more minutes and see which cases I need to brief before Monday.
At this point, the starting gun just went off.
The race is on.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
The Last Day of Peace and Quiet
Tomorrow is the first day of Law School orientation. This feels like the moments right before a race. This is basically a 4 month race that ends with winners and losers after the first final exams are graded.
I'm looking at it like that: in a manageable chunk. Really, time for speculation and talk is over. Until I take the finals and get the results back, everything is just guessing.
So, like any race, whether you're prepared or not, it's starting. I feel pretty good, but who knows how I'll feel at the halfway point or at the finish line.
Let's hope I can finish strong.
I'm looking at it like that: in a manageable chunk. Really, time for speculation and talk is over. Until I take the finals and get the results back, everything is just guessing.
So, like any race, whether you're prepared or not, it's starting. I feel pretty good, but who knows how I'll feel at the halfway point or at the finish line.
Let's hope I can finish strong.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Legal Employment... worse than your worst nightmare
It's no secret that the employment picture for law school grads is abysmal right now. Frankly, I don't even think anybody is willing to explore the depressing realities for those who are graduating at the bottom of T3/T4 classes.
If I had to thumbnail, I'd say your odds of getting a job as an attorney if you finish in the bottom 50% of your T3/T4 are probably somewhere on the order of 1 in 5. Frankly, I think 1 in 5 is still too generous, but it's illustrative.
I was visiting with some new acquaintances who are all graduates of a similar law school to the one I'll be entering. It's in the same state, classes are about the same size, and from what I can gather, the general characteristics of the school are pretty darned close to the school I'm going to. (Same general rankings, historically, etc.)
Out of the 5 who I met, only one of them got a job after graduation. The job was in document review for a relatively large firm.
The real eye opener was when they mentioned the #2 graduate in their class who didn't get a law related job at all.
That was a new one for me. Time was, you could still claw your way into a great law job from a lesser school: you just had to graduate at or near the top of your class.
Granted, these are anectdotes and based on secondhand accounts, but what a nightmare out there. Take whatever you thought was a horrible law hiring environment and make it twice as horrible. That's an idea of how bad it is right now.
For entering 1Ls or folks considering applying to enter in 2012, I'd say think long and hard about this one. Really. Then, think twice.
I can't tell you the number of times acquaintances (practicing attorneys) have said things like, "I advise young people that if you can do ANYTHING, anything at all other than going to law school, you should do that other thing."
Granted, a lot of that is your typical whineyness that you encounter any time you bump into an insular professional group of people, but the information I'm getting from recent grads is so much worse than anything I could have ever imagined.
It's unreal.
Now, fortunately for them, they all found a career path (tangentially related to the law) that pays pretty well. They could have gotten in with either an MBA or a JD. Just so happens that they have JDs. In fact, the recruiters for this field started hitting the law schools hard and heavy when they found out that JDs are just flat-out desperate for jobs.
So, I shared a view that I have, which is that prior to about 1970, a JD was a credential that was considered roughly on-par with an MBA as far as academic preparation for a career in business.
Granted, things were different, then. Fewer part-time MBA programs. There wasn't the proliferation of idiotic non-AACSB MBA programs. Most MBA programs were 2 years long.
So, JDs and MBAs were more analogous back then.
I shared that with the guys and they pointed out that the starting salary in this field (which would be considered okay, but not great, for a recent MBA graduate) was a tough one to accept based on their student loan debt.
OUCH.
(Contrast to their classmates who may have gotten MBAs after just one year of study, especially at the crappy non-AACSB schools.)
Law is a real pisser of a career. Basically, if you don't get on the train right after graduating from Law School, it's going to be very, very difficult to get on the train sometime later in life. Your destiny starts to be engraved in stone starting the day you start 1L. It's very hard to distance yourself from a bad 1L year, a bad degree, a bad first job. In the law, your first baby steps are pretty close to a destiny.
Also people are looking at this current economic downturn as something we'll "recover" from. Like, after another couple of bad years, we'll go back to the way things were.
Personally, I don't think things are going to go back to how they were anytime soon. Maybe not in my lifetime. This thing shows every indication of staying bad for 10 more years at least. And when they get better, they may get better very incrementally and slowly.
Honestly? I think this is the new normal. You can wait for things to get better if you want, but the people who succeed from this point forward are going to learn to fight the battle on THIS battlefield. They're not going to wait for a recovered economy to save them.
I don't mean to beat a drum of doom here, but going to law school is going to be the biggest mistake a lot of young people could ever possibly make right now.
Honestly, the prognosis was so dreadful that it made me question whether this is a good idea at all. Under different circumstances, I wouldn't be doing this. I think (perhaps arrogantly and wrongly) that what I'm doing and how I'm doing it will allow me to thread the needle here, but there's not a lot of margin for error for law school grads these days.
If I had to thumbnail, I'd say your odds of getting a job as an attorney if you finish in the bottom 50% of your T3/T4 are probably somewhere on the order of 1 in 5. Frankly, I think 1 in 5 is still too generous, but it's illustrative.
I was visiting with some new acquaintances who are all graduates of a similar law school to the one I'll be entering. It's in the same state, classes are about the same size, and from what I can gather, the general characteristics of the school are pretty darned close to the school I'm going to. (Same general rankings, historically, etc.)
Out of the 5 who I met, only one of them got a job after graduation. The job was in document review for a relatively large firm.
The real eye opener was when they mentioned the #2 graduate in their class who didn't get a law related job at all.
That was a new one for me. Time was, you could still claw your way into a great law job from a lesser school: you just had to graduate at or near the top of your class.
Granted, these are anectdotes and based on secondhand accounts, but what a nightmare out there. Take whatever you thought was a horrible law hiring environment and make it twice as horrible. That's an idea of how bad it is right now.
For entering 1Ls or folks considering applying to enter in 2012, I'd say think long and hard about this one. Really. Then, think twice.
I can't tell you the number of times acquaintances (practicing attorneys) have said things like, "I advise young people that if you can do ANYTHING, anything at all other than going to law school, you should do that other thing."
Granted, a lot of that is your typical whineyness that you encounter any time you bump into an insular professional group of people, but the information I'm getting from recent grads is so much worse than anything I could have ever imagined.
It's unreal.
Now, fortunately for them, they all found a career path (tangentially related to the law) that pays pretty well. They could have gotten in with either an MBA or a JD. Just so happens that they have JDs. In fact, the recruiters for this field started hitting the law schools hard and heavy when they found out that JDs are just flat-out desperate for jobs.
So, I shared a view that I have, which is that prior to about 1970, a JD was a credential that was considered roughly on-par with an MBA as far as academic preparation for a career in business.
Granted, things were different, then. Fewer part-time MBA programs. There wasn't the proliferation of idiotic non-AACSB MBA programs. Most MBA programs were 2 years long.
So, JDs and MBAs were more analogous back then.
I shared that with the guys and they pointed out that the starting salary in this field (which would be considered okay, but not great, for a recent MBA graduate) was a tough one to accept based on their student loan debt.
OUCH.
(Contrast to their classmates who may have gotten MBAs after just one year of study, especially at the crappy non-AACSB schools.)
Law is a real pisser of a career. Basically, if you don't get on the train right after graduating from Law School, it's going to be very, very difficult to get on the train sometime later in life. Your destiny starts to be engraved in stone starting the day you start 1L. It's very hard to distance yourself from a bad 1L year, a bad degree, a bad first job. In the law, your first baby steps are pretty close to a destiny.
Also people are looking at this current economic downturn as something we'll "recover" from. Like, after another couple of bad years, we'll go back to the way things were.
Personally, I don't think things are going to go back to how they were anytime soon. Maybe not in my lifetime. This thing shows every indication of staying bad for 10 more years at least. And when they get better, they may get better very incrementally and slowly.
Honestly? I think this is the new normal. You can wait for things to get better if you want, but the people who succeed from this point forward are going to learn to fight the battle on THIS battlefield. They're not going to wait for a recovered economy to save them.
I don't mean to beat a drum of doom here, but going to law school is going to be the biggest mistake a lot of young people could ever possibly make right now.
Honestly, the prognosis was so dreadful that it made me question whether this is a good idea at all. Under different circumstances, I wouldn't be doing this. I think (perhaps arrogantly and wrongly) that what I'm doing and how I'm doing it will allow me to thread the needle here, but there's not a lot of margin for error for law school grads these days.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Just Got My Schedule
Just got my schedule and I'm pretty happy about how it works out.
My week starts with just one session of Civil Procedure that doesn't start until 1:00 in the afternoon.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be a bit of an adventure. I have three classes and am in school from 10:10 to 4:50.
Wednesday, two classes from 10:10 to 2:30.
Friday, just one class from 10:10 to 11:40.
So, my week really doesn't start until 1:00 on Monday a nd it ends before noon on Friday. The middle is a little tough, but this is about as close as it gets to packing all my classes into 3 days of the week.
The only thing I don't like is that Torts goes so late in the day (until 4:50), but that's not such a big deal. There are only two sections for it and they are both at exactly the same time. So, there's just no changing that.
All in all, this schedule is pretty near perfect. Starts late, ends early and none of the classes start early. I'll be able to put Logan on the bus every morning if I need to. (His Mom can do this, too, but it's nice that we're both available for it.)
My week starts with just one session of Civil Procedure that doesn't start until 1:00 in the afternoon.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be a bit of an adventure. I have three classes and am in school from 10:10 to 4:50.
Wednesday, two classes from 10:10 to 2:30.
Friday, just one class from 10:10 to 11:40.
So, my week really doesn't start until 1:00 on Monday a nd it ends before noon on Friday. The middle is a little tough, but this is about as close as it gets to packing all my classes into 3 days of the week.
The only thing I don't like is that Torts goes so late in the day (until 4:50), but that's not such a big deal. There are only two sections for it and they are both at exactly the same time. So, there's just no changing that.
All in all, this schedule is pretty near perfect. Starts late, ends early and none of the classes start early. I'll be able to put Logan on the bus every morning if I need to. (His Mom can do this, too, but it's nice that we're both available for it.)
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