That attitude has served me well.
Second year does get better. Right now I’m going through each and every one of the the 50 state’s procurement websites (don’t forget Guam, Puerto Rico, and DC) and cataloging how they use the internet to secure contracts for government purchasing.
It’s fun. So so so much fun.
See? It must be fun for I have added in a smilie face 
Holy crap please kill me now. If you do that, I’ll tell you what venue, personal, and subject matter jurisdiction applies to your trial.
Yes, I am a first year and I hold down a full time job at the same time.
It blows so hard. 
We have Catholic Social Teaching instead of diversity. What a huge waste of my time. I’m going to bill the law school for those wasted hours once my sentence is served.
Here’s my advice, for what it’s worth:
I know it’s not easy, but try NOT to spend so much time on the legal writing and research course; it is such a waste of time. It is true that writing and research are extremely valuable skills, but there’s a much better way to learn them: study hard in your other courses during this first year and make law review for your second year. Then you can research and write a real article that actually interests you, not some topic assigned by your TA. You will learn so much more on law review than you ever could in the legal writing course.
Sorry, but I don’t really agree with the advice not to “overstudy” or not to study “too hard.” Sure, you should not get yourself into a state of high anxiety, but beyond that I’m not sure what the advice means – when have you crossed the line from regular study to “overstudy”? You’re paying good money for law school, and like most things worth doing, what you get out of it is proportional to the effort you put into it. I can’t believe how preachy that makes me sound, but really – the truth is, law school is not easy, and you do have to study hard!
JMHO.
I second the advice for more alcohol and not overstudying. There is such a thing as information overload.
And don’t sweat Civ Pro – when I was in law school, most of our class was just bewildered in that class. Then late in the fall semester it all started to click into place and make sense. You’ll bolt upright in bed one of these nights and say “Holy Shit! It makes sense!” And then you’ll wonder why you found it so confusing.
Cultural Diversity is a class? I always thought that was the kind of thing colleges saddled incoming undergraduates with during orientation week. Do they grade your sensitivity or something? Do as well as you can for the grade, then forget it. No one’s gonna care how PC you are when you’re drafting a contract or pleading.
Well, it depends on what you were doing before law school…
I know I’m weird in that undergrad was much harder - or I was so burned out that I was too tired care by the time I got there. On the other hand, I’m not practicing… maybe there’s a correlation.
But it does definitely get better.
I am always puzzled why lawyers throw in a few latin words/phrases -is it to confuse the rest of us,or is it to impress the rubes?
For example:
“per stirpes” (literally “in the stirrups of”-what the hell is this supposed to mean?
-“Non compus mentus” (mentally incompetent): why not just use english?
Also, the english and french archaisms, which lawyers (for some unknown reason) love to ladle into their turgid documents:
-“estoppel”: why not just say"the action should be stopped"
-“holder in fee”
My guess is, there wouldn’t be a big need for the high priests of the law, if legal documents were written in plain (contemporary) english. Imagine…bringing legal documents into the 21st century! Of course, we should be grateful that our lawyers continue to use languge straight out of the 12th century-it gives us something to discuss in our spare time!
Ralph:
While there are some lawyers who use unnecessary anachronistic Latinisms to show off, they’re assholes and never get invited to the good parties.
For most lawyers, a latin term is used only when it acts as an effective shorthand to the English meaning. Thus, “promissory estoppel” is used to describe a situation where a party is prevented from invoking a Statute of Frauds defense on an oral contract due to the other party’s reliance on his promises. “Res Ipsa Loquitur” describes a situation where a plaintiff need not prove causation because causation is clear from the incident itself. “Sua Sponte” means a court has acted on its own motion, without being asked by the parties to a case.
In those types of cases, the Latin is no different from the jargon found in other fields.
Rident stolidi verba Latina.
I’m done! I am now the world’s leading expert in government procurment! If by that, one means, person stupid enough to waste time compiling a database of the abilities of every government procural website.
tramp, far be it from me to blow your cover, but doesn’t the ABA require that jobs be held to a maximum of 20 hours per week?
I don’t know tramp’s situation, but I know that ABA Standard 304(f) states that “A student may not engage in employment for more than 20 hours per week in any semester in which the student is enrolled in more than 12 class hours” (emphasis added). Some law schools, though, offer an evening program that allows students to take between 8 and 12 hours per semester. Students in such programs graduate in four years, instead of the usual three. I believe that students in four-year evening programs are permitted to hold down full-time jobs.
“Per stirpes” means “by bloodlines”. It’s another way to divide up the property of a dead person among his descendants, as opposed to “per capita”. Heck, people are used to hearing “per capita”, I don’t see why “per stirpes” is so much harder.
Haven’t heard “non compus mentus” since going to law school. I have to agree with you on “estoppel”; I understand it represents a specific concept, but there’s a simpler way to say it. As for “holder in fee”, well, that’s a property thing. Believe it or not, those terms can be useful; it makes a big difference to some folks whether they own an executory interest or a contingent remainder subject to complete defeasance on a condition subsequent.
Small comfort, but many states are now requiring that filings and the like be written “in plain English” such that anyone can read them. Things are gradually getting better.
Law school sucks (initially) because it requires the layman to completely shift one’s mode of thought. From now on, you look at everything as:
-issue
-rule
-analysis
-conclusion.
I had a perpetual headache during first year as a result of this. It gets better. Go out and buy a video game system for Christmas to give your brain some down time.
Another 1L checking in; I have to say I am not at all that stressed, except about Property. If I have to look at one more chain of title problem, I will probably, well, look at one more chain of title problem. But I won’t be happy about it!
No. It gets worse. More boring, more painful, more like a colo-rectal exam, more time spent with total anuses.
Run like the wind.
Wow.
Now I’m beginning to understand why people have been telling me that I’d do fine in law school from my engineering undergrad. Law School sounds like Engineering without the math. Maybe more reading and fewer problem sets.
Hmmm…ever more seriously considering law school
run away, Medea’s Child. There are plenty of jobs out there that don’t involve being a lawyer.
If you think you’re serious, then definitely do two things- 1) sit in on a couple of classes before you decide, and 2) see if a local law firm will let you shadow a lawyer for a day or so, and talk to them about the actual job.
Wow, am I really weird? Because I absolutely love it. Of course, anything would have been better than continuing to hawk software solutions. We have a different set up than Ariadne’s school, which I think is helpful. We take Civ Pro next semester. This semester I’m suffering under the wrath of Torts, Property, Contracts and Legal Writing.
The only thing that has troubled me since I started school is the night that I accepted my landlord’s offer to re-sign the lease and then I wanted to back out and so spent a night tossing and turning over whether the was going to force performance (realisation hit that it was probably a valid oral contract). Another horrible day was had looking over my lease to see if I could potentially argue the liquidated damages clause as an unenforceable penalty if they discover my “illegal” cat.
Btw, since I was remiss and didn’t do it last year…thanks to Legomancer and Dewey Cheathem UndHowe for their advice on lawschool stuff last year. I remember Dewey helping me on understanding the whole “ranking-transferability” thing and Legomancer for giving me info. on where to live out here (I believe I go to the same school your wife teaches at or something). Of course, I’m such a lurker you probably don’t remember me, but thanks anyway.
can’t forget criminal. I also have to take criminal this semester. At least I’m not getting any final in legal writing.