Graduating on Sunday.
I’ll be 34 in June.
It was a very good choice for me.
No, I don’t have a job yet (was verrrry close a couple of times… frustrating).
Any questions?
Congrats!
Did you find the grading system for each course more of a formality? (do the work, get an A)?
Part time or full time?
Congratulations, Hello Again! I’ll be graduating from law school a week after you. Good luck on the job search - if it makes you feel any better, I haven’t found anything yet, either.
Full time.
As far as grading, my school has a mandatory curve, meaning that no more than 10% may receive an A, and the class as a whole must have a mean grade of (I think) 3.1(just over a B).The mandatory curve cuts both way though. If the professor makes the final so absurdly difficult that the highest grade is 52 out of 100, that 52 earns an A.
Certain classes are exempt from the curve, such as seminars with less than 20 people, and clinical programs. It’s usually even harder to get an A in these classes than in the larger curved courses.
Where did you attend? Congratulations - the jobs will come back (though there will be some differences this time).
If you don’t have a job yet, are you going to take the bar straight off, and if so, are you taking BarBri (I could only do it because my sainted future employer stumped up the $$$).
I am graduating from Hofstra law, as of this year #100 on the US News top 100.
In New York, a review course is pretty much mandatory as the bar exam is one of the hardest. I actually do not know anyone who is NOT taking a bar review course.
My review course begins the day after graduation and continues daily until a few days before the Bar exam in late July. This makes graduation itself somewhat anticlimactic.
This sums up how I’m feeling about it:
I took Virginia, which is one of the tougher ones too. I know a couple who didn’t take BarBri, but I would have been sunk without it.
Agreeing with everything you say, but the feeling when you walk out of the last day of the bar exam is pretty frigging awesome.
Congrats. I am one year out from my graduation, took and passed the Ohio Bar last summer. Still no job. I was lucky to land a clerkship with a firm, but they are not hiring. Tomorrow is my last day. The job market is brutal, but don’t think about that right now. The bar exam is enough, get passed that and then revel in making it through everything.
Will you tell me how to find certain points in the law regarding a lawsuit I’m involved in? I don’t want advice or anything, just the name of some books or something. I can’t tell you much about the case, either.
Thanks in advance.
Congratulations, by the way.
How long before you buy a black BMW and start acting like a total asshole at bars?
Okay, so I don’t really have a question. Congrats.
What’s the biggest difference between how the law is portrayed on TV and in movies, and what your teachers told you about how the real world works?
OMG I can’t wait!
snort Evidence: Examples and Explanations
Probably never - I’m most interested in the public sector, which isn’t known for its BMW-inspiring salaries… plus I’m rather fond of my Hyundai. But I do hope to someday spend a silly amount of money on a horse and name it Ipse Dixit.
Hm. Most shows (except The Wire) are indescribably wrong about every aspect of criminal law they touch, but if I had to pick one, it would be the idea of the “shocking cross-examination question.” You never ask a question on cross examination you don’t already know the answer to. C is for Cross examination and C is for Control the witness.
If I may hijack Hello Agains thread and answer that, its a world of a differece. Doing Cross Examination (XX) on TV is exciting, makes for good television; IRL, try doing an XX on Wed afternoon in a hot courtroom, where the judge has been over 10+ cases that day!
If I may ask Hello Again,
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How much Advocacy (especially Witness Handling) did you do? Was it theoretical or did yoiu actually stand up and do it? Same for Conferance and Negotiation
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Were you doing mostly substantive law, or was there procedure involved as well? Thats the one diff that really hit me when I came into practice, most of the time you are dealing with procedure rather than the law as such.
I did the NITA trial advocacy program, that covers the whole shebang in a fictional but hands on way. One of the exercises involved a divorce negotiation with actors playing a divorcing couple – one team’s “couple” almost came to blows! We also did a full bench trial and a jury trial. A jury of local high school students fake aquitted my fake client 
I also participated in a clinic in which we did a full hearing before the Immigration court - my partner and I prepared our client’s Direct Exam as well as 2 additional potential witnesses (who weren’t heard, because we won and DHS waived their appeal). Hofstra is very big on skills classes. I believe Hofstra was actually a nationwide leader in their clinical prgrams.
Our New York Civil Practice class was relatively, well, procedural… but realistically I learned more from my summer internships (I worked for a small firm and did a bit of EVERYTHING). I didn’t take Pre-Trial Skills, but it was very popular.
Have you ever seen The Paper Chase? I’m watching the movie for the first time in years.
Boy, times have changed. When I graduated law school in 1987 (omg) everyone who wanted a job had one lined up before graduation. Without exception.
Even I had a choice of a couple interesting offers, and I was not at the “top of my class.”
So, my question,** Hello Again**, is this: Who is speaking at your graduation?
What were your favourite subjects? I really enjoyed Constitutional Law, Equity and Advanced Torts (lots of juicy defamation cases).
No questions, but I’m posting to add my congratulations. I graduated from law school at about this time last year myself, and remember how great it felt. Well done, Hello Again!
Your best study tip?
Some dude from the Texas Supreme Court. WTF!?
For the record, Margaret Thatcher spoke at my undergrad graduation.
The crappy job market came on suddenly. For example, in 2L year, the big firms took their summer associates as usual, with the expectation that 99% would get job offers. Well, those offers are still out there (mostly) except their start dates have been put back up to 6 months (with stipend, no benefits). THIS year, they told the summer associates that no more than 30% would get offers. I’m talking about places like Skadden Arp, Latham & Watkins, etc.
Yes! Some of it is very dated (for example today the average law school has about 55% women, not the odd one or two you see in the movie) but much is amazingly true. I totally know “that guy” with the 900 page Civ Pro outline.
Favorite subjects… hmmm Criminal Procedure (4th, 5th & 6th Amendments)… Torts… Appellate advocacy… Employment Discrimination.
Most hated class – that one’s easy! Business Organizations (AKA Corporations, Partnerships & LLC)