August 25, 2006

Another Week Down, Many To Go

The first week of 2L was mostly uneventful and certainly anti-climactic compared to last year's first week. I miss the excitement and newness of it all, but not the fear and uncertainty. I'm definitely happy to be on this side of things this year. My schedule, as expected, is going to work out very well for me and the LawChildren, so I'm happy about that. My classes are okay, my professors seem nice and it should be a pretty manageable semester. I'm not sure how helpful any of those comments are for parents contemplating law school, but I guess my advice today would be that if you make it through the first year, it's downhill from there. I'll let you know if I change my mind about that.

Just to make sure I don't become too comfortable with things, however, LawBoy was tackled in the last two minutes of football practice last night and dislocated his thumb. We spent three hours in the ER last night followed by an hour with an ortho this morning, and the bottom line is that he's out of football for the next three weeks at a minimum. He's completely disappointed, especially since the first game of the season is tomorrow. He'll be cheering from the sidelines, but he'd much rather be on the field.

I'm wondering if maybe this blog has served its purpose. I don't foresee having much of anything new to say about school this year. I'll probably update from time to time, but I think I may have exhausted any advice I could possibly give to new law students in a similar situation. I'll write if I'm inspired to share something that I think might be helpful, but otherwise I may just fade into the 'sphere. But I'll be reading, so don't stop writing!

Posted by LawMom at 02:18 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

July 30, 2006

Housekeeping

I'm cleaning up and reorganizing my blogroll (over on the right). I've tried to re-categorize the blogs I have listed to make them easier to find (and keep track of) and to clean up some of the blogs that are no longer active, but it's a work in progress. If I put you in the wrong category, please let me know. I stil have some adjustments to make....

Posted by LawMom at 09:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 28, 2006

Book Review: Indefensible

One of the things that I missed during law school was the time and leisure to read non-law related books. I read every night before I went to sleep during school, but it was slow going and took me forever to finish any given book since I couldn't keep my eyes open for more than about one page. One of the many things I looked forward to in anticipation of summer break was the time to read some non-law related, entertaining fiction. I was able to do that, but strangely enough it seems like every book I picked up ended up having some kind of court room scene or legal dispute in it. Either most books do and I just never noticed it before, or I'm being haunted by the law.

One of the books I read was David Feige's Indefensible. Mieke was kind enough to lend me her copy and I have enjoyed it immensely. Fiege's writing is engaging and vivid and the narrative flows. He writes about a day in his life as public defender in the Bronx and the stories, as you would imagine, are fascinating. I'm sure I would have enjoyed this book whether I was in law school or not, but reading it after spending the summer working in a prosecutor's office has made it even more interesting and relevant to me. I am astounded at how similar the scenes and stories he describes are to what I have seen every day this summer. Granted, my little rural prosectuor's office is not the Bronx, so there are some differences. But the similarities are striking, and I think it just goes to show that criminal law is criminal law no matter where you go. The American criminal justice system is what it is and the effect that it has on the lives of defendants and victims is pretty much universal. I'm not sure I would have realized that if I hadn't had the experience I've had this summer before reading it.

I highly recommend this one to anyone interested in criminal law, whether you want to be a prosecutor or a defense attorney. I think this would also be a great book for someone to read before entering law school, along with OneL and A Civil Action.

Posted by LawMom at 01:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Wrapping Things Up

I have one more week left in my summer internship, then just a couple more weeks until classes start again. I can't believe the summer is nearly over already. It seems like just a couple of weeks ago that I was worrying about finals and about starting a new job. I have certainly loved every minute of my time at the prosecutor's office. It's been eye-opening, to say the least.

Next semester's schedule is very manageable and should make things much easier than last semester's disastrous schedule. I have classes 3 days a week, and hopefully will be able to use the other 2 days to study so that I don't have to do very much on the weekends. I'm definitely looking forward to getting back into a regular routine and to going back into the city on a regular basis.

I wish I could go back in a time machine to last year at about this time to talk to my pre-law school self and try to reassure her that everything was going to be just fine. Last year at this time I compared my anticipation of law school to my anticipation of the birth of my first child. In many ways, I was correct...the waiting part of it was similar. The end product of law school can't quite compare to the end product of labor, but the answers to the questions I was asking are exactly what I predicted they would be.

Is it going to hurt as much (read: be as difficult) as they say it is? (No! )
Am I going to be able to handle it? (Yes!)
Is everything going to be okay? (Yes!)
Is it all going to go according to plan? (Not even close.)

Posted by LawMom at 01:12 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

June 22, 2006

What I Learned At Work Today

When touring your county's 600-cell jail facility with the Grand Jury, it's best not to wear really cute shoes with 3-inch skinny heels because they will probably make it very difficult for you to walk up and down the grate-like stairs throughout the jail. Also, if said shoes were, say, hurting your feet while you were in court in the morning, you're going to end up with giant and painful blisters after the tour and you'll have to drive home with bare feet.

Other than painful feet, my internship rocks. This has got to be one of the coolest experiences I've had in my life, and I become more certain every day that I will end up in criminal law. I am so lucky to be doing this for the summer.

Posted by LawMom at 04:13 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

June 01, 2006

I Wish I Could Go To Work Today

That's what I said to Mr. LawMom this morning. This internship? Totally rocks. I am learning so much and having a great time doing it. I won't give many details here because I am way too easily identifiable, but I kind of wish I didn't have to go back to school and that I could just work here forever. There are no cushy office chairs or fabulous lunches or other summer associate activities, so it's not exactly your stereotypical summer internship with a big firm. I'm sharing one office with 3 other interns, but it doesn't matter because we're never in it since we're in court almost every day. Seriously, the hands-on learning I'm doing is astounding and so much fun.

I will say, however, that so far the law school classes that seem to be the most useful for real-life lawyering are far and away legal research and writing. I was asked to write a memo on my very first day, and spent lots of time sending silent thanks out to my awesome legal writing teacher for teaching us such practical skills. I've researched and written quite a few since then, and the attorneys I'm writing them for are appreciative and keep telling me they're "just what they need." Hopefully that means I'm doing it correctly. It kind of feels like shooting into the dark sometimes.

Today is the last day of school for the LawChildren. They're excited. Me? Not so much. Expect light posting for the next few weeks as I'll be splitting my time between trying to juggle criminals and children. Should make for a fascinating summer.

Posted by LawMom at 01:55 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

May 22, 2006

Workin' 9 to 5

I'm leaving in about 10 minutes to begin my first day of work as a legal intern. I haven't had a real "job" in 12 years. (I'm not counting my substitute teaching stints. And this one doesn't really count since I'm not getting paid a dime.) I'm wearing a lawyer-ish uniform (black suit, blue shirt, conservative jewelry and very cute shoes) and I am very nervous. I have no idea what to expect.

Posted by LawMom at 07:46 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)