1 down...3 to go

Hi All:

The exams have begun! I had my first law school exam yesterday. Civil Procedure was pretty tough, but it was a fair exam. I struggled with some of the multiple choice questions, but I felt reasonably confident about my essay answer. Of course, those of you who know me probably predicted that, as soon as I walked out of the room, I would start worrying about Torts. This is exactly what happened. I had to force myself to unwind from the exam and take some brain time. I watched the last episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm and took a nap. As soon as I woke up, it was back to the grind. I covered a lot of ground last night (making note cards) and went over the entire course. My buddy Justin came over to the house today and we repeated our study strategy from Civ Pro..a full review of the course. 10 hours later, we were pretty much wiped. We had only taken a 1/2 hour break all day, and we were feeling it. I think that talking out the problems in the courses is a great way to study. I know that I will still feel a little panicky tomorrow as I realize that there is only one day until my exam, but I am prepared for that. I plan on taking it easy on Friday night since my next exam is not until Tuesday. The days are going by in a blur. I keep forgetting that this is Wednesday!

Well, I am going to sleep now. I hope that everyone is keeping warm. Here in Chicago, it is a blistery 10 degrees F!

Study blues and a lesson in Civil Procedure...

It has been over 10 years (not counting the LSAT) since I last took an exam. 10 years. Normally, this would be something that might send me into a panic, but for some reason I am calm. I keep waiting for the exam panic to hit, but so far, there has been nothing. My outlines are done, I have done a single complete review for Civil Procedure (mastering the most difficult case of the year in the process) and am now just doing some fine tuning on my studying. I have attended every class and have kept up with the reading and my note taking all year, so I know that I have the materials to succeed. If I should worry about anything, it is that I will fail to expound on some key topic that might keep me from getting the “As” that I want in all of my classes. My classmates are in full blown panic/study mode, but the strange thing is that, as I go though my (voluminous) notes, everything seems familiar. This isn’t to say that I know everything and am fully prepared for my exams, but I know that it’s in there. I liken my brain right now to a disorganized office. Everything that I need to know is in there, but I have to put it all in my file drawers for accurate and quick access.

The general malaise of exam studying has already kicked in. I have rapidly lost track of the days of the week, and I am now looking forward to getting the first exam under my belt. I will be so glad when I walk out of that Civil Procedure exam.

Speaking of Civil Procedure, I will now bore all of you with a law lesson. We will be discussing Semtek International Corp. v. Lockheed Martin Corp. This case was the most complicated case of the year in our class, and you will soon see why. The plaintiff sued the defendant (Lockheed) for breach of contract and other tort claims in CA state court. Because the defendant and the plaintiff are residents of different states, the defendant was allowed to (and chose to) move the case to federal district court in CA. The CA federal court found for the defendant and dismissed the case “on its merits”. The plaintiff then refiled the same claim in Maryland state court. The defendant moved it to federal court again (but not on the ‘different state” grounds as before since Lockheed Martin is considered a “citizen” of Maryland), but the federal court threw it back to the state court (too complicated to explain here). The defendant also tried to enjoin the plaintiff from bringing the suit again because the federal district court in CA had already ruled in its favor. I think that you can appreciate how someone found innocent doesn’t want to have to defend himself all over again. The doctrine of res judicata is one of claim preclusion; courts use it to prevent people from endlessly litigating claims after final judgment has been entered. The CA federal court upheld the claim as subject to res judicata, so technically, the plaintiff should not have been able to bring suit in Maryland. The problem is that, even though the federal could precluded the plaintiff from bringing the claim again, there are no laws or statutes that govern whether a state court has to follow what the federal court says. In a way, this is a preservation of the states’ 10th amendment rights. The Supreme Court had to decide: what law does a state court follow in federal claim preclusions? The answers for other court decisions are all easy. If the preclusion was given by another state (say, the state court in CA instead of the federal court), the Full Faith and Credit clause of Article IV of the Constitution holds that state courts must follow the decisions of other state courts. If the preclusion was given by a state and the plaintiff brought the case to federal court, there is the Full Faith and Credit statute. This forces federal courts to follow the decisions of state courts as binding. If a federal court precluded the claim and the plaintiff tried to refile in another federal court, federal common law (federal judicial decisions) would hold that all federal courts giver deference to a federal district court decision.

This brings us to the problem. In this case, we have a federal court decision on a claim that is being re-litigated in a state court. The defendant is saying that the federal court precluded the claim from being re-litigated, but does the state have to follow what the federal courts say? What about state’s rights? What law of claim preclusion should be followed? Are you still awake at this point?

In this case, the Supreme Court used the judicial decision (federal common law) of Erie RR v. Tompkins. In that case, the Court held that the laws of the state in which the federal court sits would govern cases brought in federal district court. In the current case, the district court of CA passed judgment. Thus, the law of claim preclusion followed by the Maryland State court should be the law of claim preclusion of the state courts of CA. So, in the end, federal common law dictated that the law of the state in which the district court sits will be the deciding factor. When you consider the Full Faith and Credit Clause and how it works, this actually makes a lot of sense. So what happened? Well, the claim was NOT precluded under CA law, so the P could make its case in a Maryland state court. After all of that effort (and all of those lawyers’ fees), the plaintiff gets his day in court again.

Isn’t the study of law fun? If you were able to follow this, you too could be studying law! Note…I wrote all of this from memory, and this is only ONE case from part of a single class this semester. Multiply this by 2(roughly 2 cases per class, with more cases in other classes), multiply this number by 26 (average number of class meetings) and multiply that by 4 (the total number of classes I am taking). This may give you all some sense of the amount of material I am dealing with over the next 2 weeks.

I am SOOOO looking forward to the holidays...

Hello again...

Don’t worry. I am still alive! I have received some frantic voice mails over the past few days from people concerned about the lack of updates on the blog. Rest assured that I am still here in Chicago, plugging away at law school, and eagerly awaiting my vacation over the holidays.

The sheer amount of work that has piled up over the last month is daunting. In addition to the normal reading assignments, the time came for me to compile everything into outline form for more efficient studying. This took quite a bit of work. To give you some perspective, my complete notes set for Constitutional Process alone was 175 pages! I was able to pare this down to a more manageable 75 pages. Now, multiply that by 4 classes and you get some idea of what I (and every law student) am up to this time of the year. People are starting to panic a bit, but I know that the next few weeks will be the real crucible. I am taking heart in the knowledge that the end of the first semester is in sight. I have almost made it through my first phase of law school, and it feels pretty good.

Of course, before I get there I have to contend with exams. For each class there is one exam, and this determines your grade for the entire class. Period. No other grades, just one exam. No pressure there, huh? When you factor in that I have not taken an exam in just over 10 years, this does seem to be an almost heart attack-inducing handicap. For some reason, I am not worried. I have between 2 and 3 days between exams to cram, and I think that I can do it. I have kept up with the reading all semester, so there should not be any surprises as far as that is concerned, and I have plenty of practice problems to work on so that I can test my grasp of the materials.

It is hard to believe that 3 months has gone by. I just hope that the rest of law school goes by as quickly. Of course, then it will be time to study for the bar exam (ugh), but so far, so good. I just hope that I will be able to keep up with the blog a little better next semester.

Thanks again to all of you for supporting me. It really means a lot.

I am still updating....honest....

Well, it’s been a while but I am still alive and kicking. The last few weeks have gone by in a whirlwind. There has been a lot going on, but the gauntlet of the first semester of law school is almost complete. The stress level has started to rise among my classmates, and I have started to feel the tightening of the “exam noose”, to coin a phrase from “A Christmas Story.”

In law school, tests are administered differently than they are in undergraduate school. The entire semester’s worth of material is distilled down to one test for each class. That’s it. A single test can determine whether you will be entertaining offers from the big firms or scrounging around trying to find work after law school. 3 months worth of 2 hour classes are in a single test for each class, a 3 hour essay/short answer/multiple choice examination. This is a pressure packed powder keg. I think that I am pretty much in control, but the only way that I will know is when I sit down in front of my computer next month.

There are no real complaints about law school now. Getting called on by the professors is something I no longer stress about. The reason for this is Professor Roberts in Con Law. He still calls on me, and I look forward to it. He doesn’t do it maliciously; I am usually paying attention while others are surfing the internet. I think that he knows too. Contracts is great. I am still enjoying Contracts as one of my favorite classes. Torts is all right, and Civil Procedure is fine as well. I am a little sad that I will be bidding farewell to Civil Procedure and Torts after this semester. They will be replaced by Criminal Law and Property next semester.

What’s going on in Chicago? Well, there are some developments in my personal life that I will not go into right now (I know, you are all thinking “artful, this is the point of a Blog”.) Yes it is, and when the time is right, I will fill you all in. My weekly Sunday breakfast with my brother is still the highlight of my week, especially because my parents call us during the meal. As strange as it might be to say, our family seems closer now than ever before even though my brother and I are in Illinois and my parents are in Virginia. I can’t understand it…I am 34 years old and I miss my parents. I think this is just a testament to how close my family really is. This extends to my other family here in the US as well. My uncle sent me a great pep talk email after one of my (numerous) “gloom and doom” blog entries. His e-mail helped me to realize that I don’t need to stress. I haven’t stressed since! I also appreciate all of the support that all of you have sent my way.

I will get back into discussing some of the interesting aspects of the law next time. We are studying Equal protection under the 5th and 14th amendments right now in Con Law, and I find the subject fascinating. I will also keep you all apprised of my plans for the summer (job, research, classes…who knows at this point?).

GO SOX!

Yes, there is a bandwagon and I jumped on it. Most of you know that I am NOT a baseball fan. I think that the season is too long, the players are too coddled, and the games are too long. At the same time, I can appreciate the jolt of electricity that the White Sox World Series win provides for the city of Chicago. Here in Chicago, we have gone through the usual skipping of autumn and it is now the beginning of the 10 month winter. The Sox have not won a World Series since Walt Disney was in high school 88 years ago (literally, I saw the graphic). Although I am not a baseball fan, I can appreciate the accomplishment and am happy for my friends who are Sox fans. Tomorrow morning, there will be a lot of bleary eyed Chicagoans making their way to work, but all of them will have a smile on their face because their team is a world champion.

Most of the rest of the last 2 weeks has been a never-ending cycle of work. I have just completed a major legal writing assignment (one that will be worth almost ½ of my final grade), and I am tired. At the same time, I feel pretty good about how the weeks are going. I am gaining a better understanding of the law every day and am feeling more comfortable volunteering in class. I am able to get through the reading at a faster clip than before, and I am finding myself with small bits of free time. My friend Aaron came to visit last weekend, and we attended a Chicago Bears football team. Of course, I was stressing about the work that I was not doing, but here it is Wednesday and I have already caught up. I am not stressed even though I have just a month of classes left. Thanks to my friends and family, especially my brother and my roommate, I have been able to keep a proper perspective and not stress out too much. Thanks to all of you who have contacted me directly to encourage me. Although my posts have been fewer and farther between as the weeks have gone by, that doesn’t mean that I am not thinking of everyone. The rest of the week looks pretty good. I have done my reading for tomorrow and Contracts reading for Friday. I would like to get an early start on my reading for Monday, but my class outlines need to be completed. The weekend looks to be a lot of fun (well, a small part of it anyway). After class on Friday, I intend to get a lot of my reading for Monday done. I am then going to dinner with a group of friends to celebrate a birthday. On Saturday, I will be at the library during the day and attending a party in the evening. On Sunday, the day will be spent in the library, but that is all right as I have more than enough work to do. After last weekend, I intend to take advantage of all of the weekends to come.

The only bummer is that I have not been to the movies in 3 months. I think that the last movie that I saw was the Wedding Crashers. Serenity, The Constant Gardner, and a History of Violence have all come and gone, but I have not watched them. With the new Harry Potter film, the Chronicles of Narnia, the second Underworld film, and Walk the Line (the Johnny Cash biopic that is on my list of movies to see) all coming out within the next couple of months, I intend to take advantage of my student discount and catch up at the movies during the holidays.

Well, it’s 11:30 now and I still have some work to do. It never ends!

A serious entry...

It is pretty hard to figure out things to write. I have found myself in the conundrum of trying to please my audience without really focusing on why I started this blog in the first place…namely for maintaining my own sanity while I start this new part of my life. Allow me to apologize (again!) in advance if the entries are boring; I won’t take it personally if you tell me that this is so.

The weeks have been flying by. Before I knew it, over half of the semester has flown by. My life is pretty simple at this point. It consists of work and school. I try to fit in the occasional football game every once in a while and I still get my workouts in, but the monotony is starting to get to me a little bit. For those of you who don’t know, allow me to put my current life in perspective with my immediate past. Last year at this time, I was flying around 4 days a week. Most of these trips were overnight trips for the company I worked for, Bio-Rad. I was a field scientist for them (based out of Chicago, but covering around 14 states). The life was pretty fun. I was the consummate business travelers and knew where are the electrical outlets were at the most out of the way airports (Grand Forks, anybody?), ‘where the coolest restaurants were in most cities around the Midwest and Colorado (the Rio in Fort Collins is still tops), and access to some of the coolest science tools a geek like me could imagine. I had an expense account, a free car, a nice salary, and the support of my superiors. With this as the backdrop, many of you might wonder why I left it all behind. In all honesty, this move to law school is something that I thought about since getting my doctorate 5 years ago. I started my research into law school when I started my fellowship in Chicago. I knew that I wanted to work in intellectual property litigation, focusing on biotechnology, but I figured that the best way to get the experience that I need was by working in academia for a bit and then switching over to the private sector. With 4 years of this behind me (2 years for each), the time was right for me to make my move. Now, here I am, a 34 year old student. It is hard living on less than half of what I used to earn, but at this point I am thankful that law school take up so much time. There isn’t any time to go out and spend any money. I have many friends in law school, especially within my 2 study groups, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to socialize. I have forgotten how much energy 22-24 year-olds seem to have, as my fellow students can seemingly move from an evening of drinking straight into marathon studying. I have to recognize my limits in this regard.

So here I am, halfway through the first semester and beginning to feel it. I am thankful to have a great support system in place-my friends in Chicago. Over the last 2 weeks, the most important thing is that I have regained contact with 2 very close friends. My friend Mike and I have seen each other through thick and thin during these last 4 years, and due to a combination of my travel schedule and some stresses within his life, we lost touch. This is now behind us and we are speaking again. I have also regained contact with my friend Missy, a fellow law student and one of my best friends from my time at Northwestern. I tried to pull away from many of my friends as law school started just to keep my focus, but Missy has always been one of my closest confidantes. I screwed up royally by shutting her out. Now my sanity is returning, and I can’t help but think that it is more than coincidence that I am communicating with Missy again. So, to Mike and Missy, thanks for your patience with me.

The list is still long of people that I have been shutting out, but with these 2 lifelines intact again, I hope to work on the rest. Missy, Mike, my roommate Eric, and my older brother have been awesome in helping me through this first semester. I can almost see the end in sight. The thought of exams are not filling me with dread (yet), my classes are completely manageable, and I am getting a handle on balancing my life as a student with my life as the Artful Blogger.

I'm back!

Well, it has been an eventful few days! It all started on Friday. As you might recall, I was on call for Torts last Friday. When the professor called on me, I nailed it! I was pretty happy about knowing the case and having the professor let me go on with no corrections. The high lasted until Contracts class. Halfway through the class, the professor called on me for the first time, and I tanked. I was horrible. I might have felt better had I not known the answer, but I knew the answer. I just froze like a deer in headlights. My friends tried to make me feel better, but I just wanted another chance.

One of the nice things about law school is the anonymous grading policy. This way, students can interact with professors without having it influence your grades. After tanking in class, I sent the professor an e-mail apologizing for my performance and my desire to have another chance. I have a feeling that my contracts professor takes it as a personal failure if we fail her, and she is my favorite professor. But first, there was the weekend.

On Saturday, my roommate and I had some friends come over for a night of relaxation. We even ended up having a live band, as one of my classmates is a fiddler in a bluegrass band here in Chicago. He and the band came over after finishing their gigs, and they set up in my living room. They were awesome, and everyone at the party enjoyed it. Morning came too soon, and Eric and I set about cleaning the apartment. I ended up finishing up my Civil Procedure work for Monday and enjoyed a pretty good football game in the evening.

With Monday came the dawning of the new week. In Con Law, Professor Roberts called on me (again!), and I did all right. In Civil Procedure, we were studying about how jurisdiction is assigned among the states. I was just ready to get started on the afternoon’s work. I finally got home at 9 PM and finished work at 11 PM. Tuesday arrived with Torts and Contracts. In Contracts, I figured the professor would not call on me, as she hardly ever calls on the same people 2 days in a row. She ended up calling on me, and this time I didn’t freeze. Furthermore, she was very encouraging. Even though she never responded to my e-mail, I think that she appreciated my efforts. It has been a very long time since I had a professor who has challenged me as much as my Contracts professor, but I know that I am getting an excellent education in the theories of contracts because of it.

The rest of the week looks to be pretty relaxed. I will start work on my outlines tomorrow, as there is no project due in legal writing (yes!).

I'm on call today!

The weariness of the end of the week has really set in, but the weariness is tempered by my knowledge that I only have 2 more classes to get through. That’s the good news. The bad…well…worrisome news is that I am on call today in Torts class. Being on-call means that you have to be ready to answer questions on any of the assigned questions. The system works differently in each class. For Civil Procedure and Contracts, we are always on call. Professor Greenberger in Civil Procedure usually chooses 2 or three students and calls on them for the entire class. Every class has a different set of students. Professor Taylor in Contracts calls on everyone at anytime, but she usually asks one question at a time. Even though I am a bit nervous about the always on-call thing, I still think that Contracts is my favorite class. Professor Roberts takes volunteers until someone doesn’t volunteer. He will then call on people directly. This is fair, but we end up hearing from the same people (myself included) every single class. I don’t raise my hand in Con Law anymore because I didn’t want people to get sick of hearing me. Professor Weber is, by far, the most fair when it comes to being on-call. He goes by the alphabet (last names). Now, at the beginning of the semester, I organized an Excel spreadsheet with contact info for everyone in the class. Thanks to the alphabetical sort function, I have been able to pinpoint when I will be called on. There is only one name ahead of me for today, so I know that I am up. Professor Weber’s system really is a double-edged sword. I can relax most days because I know that I am not on call. The problem is that, since I know I am going to be on-call, I had better be fully prepared. I think that I prepped pretty well in this class, but things can change under the penetrating glare of the law professor.

The last 2 days have gone pretty well. I have gone home to study instead of studying at the library. I have a dining room table that is in this little breakfast area in the kitchen. I can spread out there and not seem very isolated. When I want to be isolated, I use the desk upstairs. The classes have been good as well, and the days seem to pass by in a blur. There always seems to be work to be done, and I realized with a shock that I only have 2 months until final exams. Yikes! It’s time to work on those outlines. It has also started to get cooler in Chicago. This is perfect because it will allow me to save a bit on my heating and cooling bill. The Chicago Winter seems to be lurking right around the corner. Here comes the snow and the frozen Lake Michigan!

Should Sam's Club guard the parking lot?

Well, it’s Wednesday morning. I only have 2 more days for the weekend, and I am glad. The usual tiredness starts to creep in on Wednesdays, but at least I have done all of my reading for Friday’s Torts class. I just have to worry about Civil Procedure and Contracts for the rest of week.

Torts was up first on Tuesday, and we continued our discussion of the duty owed by landowners to people on their land. We covered an interesting case where a woman was robbed in a Sam’s Club parking lot and lost $18,000 worth of jewelry. The robber had hidden beneath her car. This was in the middle of the afternoon in a neighborhood not known for crime. She ended up suing Sam’s Club for negligence in performing their duty to watch out for her! The court recognized that for Sam’s to watch over their entire massive parking lot where there had not been any crime in over 10 years was a little to much to ask, and I agree with them. While I recognize the importance of being safe when shopping, I would only expect there to be a duty when I am in the actual store, not when I am in the parking lot. I am sure that some of you may disagree with this line of reasoning, but I see it as the job of the police to make sure that the parking lots are safe.

Over lunch, my study group and I met to continue outlining Constitutional Law. I am feeling better about my handle on the material. With the beginning of October looming, I have targeted the first week for outlining each of my classes for September. During lunch, I was also able to get some of my legal writing finished. I flipped through Contracts and it was then off to Contracts class.

In Contracts, we continued the discussion of moral obligation as the basis of a valid contract where there is no contract. Prior to this class, I had assumed that there is a lot of difficulty in enforcing any contract that is not written, and to some degree, this is true. I have been relieved to discover that there are some remedies at law for contract disputes. After Contracts, I headed home and went grocery shopping. I then studied for a few hours, finishing up Con Law for today. I worked a little more on my legal writing assignment and headed to the gym for a quick workout. My life at this point isn’t terribly exciting, but I suppose this is a good thing. It helps keep my focus.

Week 6 kicks off...

Well, Monday has come and gone. This weekend was interesting and a little restful. I spent most of Saturday in the library trying to prepare for Torts for the coming week. The good news was that I was able to finish all of my Torts reading with no problems. The bad news was that this was what my Saturday consisted of. I was able to watch the Bears game on Sunday, but then it was of to the library for my study group. 4 hours later, I was done. It was not much of a relaxing weekend, but I was able to get some rest in.

The first class of the day was Con Law. We were discussing the taxing and spending power of Congress and the Civil War amendments. In reading some of the opinions of the court, all I could think was it was a good think that the decisions are not final and that the court turns over. In the 20 years after the Civil War, the power of Congress to enforce the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments was severely limited by the Supreme Court. The Court’s reasoning was that Congress had no legal right to pass laws that eliminated discrimination. They said that slavery was over and racism was not a problem. What the heck? This was in response to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. We would have to wait almost 90 years before a federal statute ensuring that discrimination would be prosecuted would be passed.

During lunch, I did my Contracts reading for tomorrow and worked on Civil Procedure. Civ Pro was interesting because we were discussing a case in which a plaintiff alleged violation of his civil rights under 24 USC §1983. This statute states that a plaintiff can sue law enforcement if they can prove 1) that their Constitutional or other rights were violated and 2) the officer who violated these rights were acting under color of law. What was interesting was that this was an appellate case (3 judges), and 2 judges agreed and one didn’t. The court upheld summary judgment in favor of the officers. This pretty much dismissed the case and ensured that it would never go to the jury. The point of view is what intrigued me here. The opinion painted a picture of 2 officers who feared for their lives and took actions to save themselves. There is nothing wrong with that. The dissent, however, painted a picture of a black plaintiff stopped on the side of a deserted highway in rural Texas late at night. The officers never arrested him, but they told him to lie down face down on the ground. The plaintiff refused to comply, and the officers’ affidavits state that they shot him (he survived) because they feared for their lives. Now, summary judgment should only be granted if the defendant’s can refute the facts in this case or show that there are no facts that a reasonable jury might find to be contrary. The fact that one of the judges dissented told me that there was enough of a question of fact that this case should have gone to the jury. Although I was starting to feel tired at the end of the day, this discussion woke me up.

I had another study group meeting right after class and then it was off to the library for 4 hours. I am now home and am unwinding by watching Monday Night Football.

No title today, just a post!

So it is Friday morning, and I am feeling the weariness of the week setting in. Only 2 more classes to go, but the work does not end. I recognize that I really need to find some downtime this weekend. I have decided to enjoy my downtime on Sunday. Of course, this means that I will have to get all of my work done tomorrow. At this point, however, the reading just seems routine and less of a hassle. I am getting better at picking things up, and I am noticing that the amount of time it takes to pick things out is getting lower and lower.

This really hasn’t been a particularly eventful week. Wednesday kind of came and went, and I must confess to wiffing a couple of questions in Con Law and in Civil Procedure. I wasn’t sure that I was right when I answered, but I really should start developing a thicker skin. Although I have always had a fear of failure, I have always learned so much more when I have failed that not. I suppose it is better to fail at this stage of the game than during exams.

The positive thing about this week is that I am finally back on a workout schedule. I had worried that working out would sap my energy, but the reverse has been true. I guess there is something to the whole “endorphin rush” of working out.

I really do not have too much planned for the weekend. I am having dinner with some friends tonight (after I finish my reading for Monday’s Con Law, of course). I intend to work out tomorrow morning and then head to the library for the day. I will probably watch the ABC evening college football game when I get home on Saturday night. I hope that I get all of my work done on Saturday. I do need a day to rest my head. Of course, my study group will be meeting on Sunday night, so at least I will get some work done.

A note about the update delays and what happened on Tuesday...

As you might have noticed, my updates have started to come later and later. I apologize for this. The problem is that my evenings have been getting later and later. Last night, I walked through the door at 11 PM (don’t worry, Mom, it was perfectly safe). Needless to say, I was exhausted. Look for my posts before noon each day for a recap of the previous day.

Tuesday started with Torts. Actually, Tuesday started slightly before Torts. I was in the Starbucks line an hour before class started and I noticed Professor Weber (my Torts professor) getting in line behind me. I nodded “hello” to him and commented that he shouldn’t take it personally that I was getting Starbucks before his class. He laughed and said that he definitely needed it before our class. During class, there was a lively discussion about the duty of a third party to prevent harm when they know that it is possible or if they are in charge of the individual who might harm someone else. We studied a California case where a psychiatrist didn’t warn a murder victim of the danger she was in. The psychiatrist in the case was treating an individual who announced his intention to kill the victim. The court found that the psychiatrist was liable, and this sort of threw me. I always understood patient/physician privilege to be inviolable, but the caveat is that this trust cannot be violated unless there is likelihood that harm can be prevented. The dissenters in the case had a hard time with this. They argued (quite correctly, in my opinion) that real treatment is only successful when the patient has trust in his psychiatrist; without this trust, treatment will fail. Of course, in the case cited, it looks like the psychiatrist wasn’t doing a good job to begin with. I volunteered in class, and Professor Weber called me out by name. I was glad that I was right (in this case).

As soon as class was over, I bolted to the gym. On Monday, I discovered that my lunch cardio workout really gave me a lot of energy that lasted me through the day. I repeated this on Tuesday, and the results were the same. I showered and got back to school in plenty of time to review my Contracts for the afternoon.

In Contracts, we continued our discussion of unjust enrichment. Unjust enrichment covers cases where one party is enriched at the expense of another party, and the second party deserves some type of compensation for his efforts. The 3 theories of obligation in contracts covered thus far include bargain for exchange as consideration, promissory estoppel (where there really was no agreement, but there was a reliance-induced detriment that resulted as part of the deal), and unjust enrichment. I scored some points when the professor asked why, in a particular case, promissory estoppel was not used even though it had all of the right elements. I raised my hand and answered that promissory estoppel had not been established as a valid theory of obligation in 1901, the year of the case. It was only accepted in the Restatement of Contracts in 1932. I think that the rest of the class was a little surprised, but the professor had mentioned the development of the theory in previous classes. I am so glad that I had it right. My confidence in class is slowly building, but I am still not at the point where I will raise my hand every time.

After class, it was off to the library to continue reading. I covered Constitutional Law and most of my Civil Procedure class for today. The rest of the evening was spent on my legal analysis class assignment. Because it is a writing assignment, extra care had to be taken with regard to citation and references as well as style. I finished up around 10:30 and walked to the El with a couple of buddies. At 11, I was home and thoroughly exhausted. My roommate Eric returned from a concert not long after, and we watched the premier episode of My Name is Earl, the new Jason Lee comedy that we had DVRed. This is a funny, clever show. It has true cruelty in it (a la “Seinfeld”) but there is also a sweetness about the character. We laughed several times throughout the episode, and I am looking forward to next week’s installment.

I have energy again!

Monday started with the usual Constitutional Law class. Once again, I found myself kind of wishing that Professor Roberts did not know my name, as he called on me first in class. Unlike some other professors, I think that he calls on me because I do my reading and engage him in discussion. He isn’t trying to trip me up. The topic in class continued the discussion on the Commerce Clause and the powers vested in Congress by the Constitution. The 3 cases we discussed were US v Lopez, US v. Morrison, and Gonzales v. Raich. These cases all dealt with the definition of the narrow range of Commerce powers held by Congress. The first case dealt with the constitutionality of the Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1990. Congress tried to justify passage of the act by stating that guns in schools have a detrimental effect on interstate commerce. Even though I support school zone anti-gun legislation, even I thought that the government was overreaching its constitutional authority in this case. I might have felt differently if I didn’t know that Texas (the site of the arrest for violation of the gun policy) already had a similar law as a state statute. Since the state governments should really retain their police powers as guaranteed to them by the 10th amendment, I felt that the Supreme Court decided this case correctly. In the Morrison case, however, I felt differently. The original plaintiff was the victim of sexual assault by 2 Virginia Tech football players. As is the galling custom in NCAA division 1-A football schools (at least it seems to be the custom), the university let the players off with less than a slap on the wrist…and this was for SEXUAL ASSAULT. I started to get a little mad reading this case. The plaintiff sued the defendant under the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, a federal statute that makes it a crime to commit crimes against women. In this case, I was conflicted because the state statutes had clearly failed the woman. She had to drop out of college, as the alternative would have been attending classes with her assailant! Once again, the Supreme Court struck down the law as unconstitutional because it overstepped the authority given to Congress under the Commerce Clause. The final case was one from earlier this year. This was the medicinal marijuana case. The California Compassionate Use Act allowed individuals who needed marijuana for medicinal purposes to use it even though this was in violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act, passed during the Nixon administration. Here, the state statute was struck down, as the Court felt that this law was in the purview of the Commerce Clause. The Court’s reasoning was that Congress has the right to regulate those things that are part of interstate commerce. Since there was a chance that the marijuana could enter interstate channels for sale (in violation of other states’ laws), the Court struck down the California statute. At the time of the ruling, I thought that the Court was being a little ridiculous. I mean, these people are dying and we want to take away the one thing that might alleviate the pain? After reading the decisions and the dissents, however, I agreed with the Court’s reasoning. Unless there is a way to ensure that this marijuana never enters the channels of commerce, the CSA should remain in effect.
After class, I hurried to the gym for a quick lunchtime workout. I hope to make this part of my daily routine. I definitely felt the difference as the day went on, for I had plenty of energy through the afternoon and into the evening. I returned in time for Civil Procedure, where we continued our discussion on Rule 11 of the Federal Rules (sanctioning of attorneys and plaintiffs for bad claims, fraud, or claims made in bad faith). Once again, I found myself becoming more and more impressed with Professor Greenberger. Even though I am always on edge in his class (worried about being called on and being under the microscope), I always learn a lot.
After class, I spent a few hours in the library working on Contracts for Tuesday and beginning the redraft of my Legal Analysis Rule Synthesis. I actually reached home at a reasonable hour yesterday (7:30 PM).

Three days worth of activity...sort of...

Well, the week is over. It is hard to believe that I have been in law school for a full month now. It is starting to wear on me a little bit. There is always so much reading to do. I also haven’t focused on anything else outside of my classes. In some ways, I guess this is a good thing, but in other ways it is not so good. I realize that I need to learn how to turn my brain off on occasion, and I have never been able to do that. Even when I was on vacation with my other company, I would check work e-mails while I was on vacation. I think that there is a lot to be said for my father’s advice to learn how to meditate and relax. If I can learn how to do it during the turbulent first year of law school, I think that it will be a skill that will serve me well in the future.

Torts was the first class today, and Professor Weber has started the section on the ordinary duty of citizens as it relates to tort liability. The line of reasoning posed suggests that everyone has an obligation to help those in need as long as we ourselves are not in harm’s way. Furthermore, physicians who try to help are immune from liability under the Good Samaritan laws in many states. These are things that I never used to stop and ponder. For there to be a law guarding physicians means that someone somewhere sued the doctor who saved his life! What a world we live in….

Contracts was after lunch, and I was on the ball and ready. I wasn’t called on, but the extra effort that I have been putting into my contracts reading is finally starting to pay off. I hung out with some friends on Friday night and watched “Fight Club”. Saturday morning came too soon. I went to the grocery store and bought things for the week. I came home and baked chocolate chip cookies. It was the first time I had baked in the new place, and my Saturday afternoon study group seemed to like the results. Over coffee, bagels, and cookies, we outlined our Civil Procedure class. I was extremely tired at that point. I think that your brain only has so much capacity for concentration, and I know that I will be testing the limits of that capacity this year.

Sunday arrived, and with it came brunch with my brother at the Original Pancake House. Now, here is a headscratcher. On the back of the menu, there were locations listed for over 50 Original Pancake House franchises. How can the restaurant claim to be “the Original” when there are over 50? I intend to find out which one of the 50 is the original. Everyone needs a hobby! As soon as I came back to the apartment (well, after my brother and I hung out for a while), I got straight to work on the reading for the week. I started at 11 and ended at 6 PM. That was not a typo. After that, I went to the gym, and now I am typing this. I hope those of you who like reading this were not too disappointed in not seeing a post, but my life is not extremely exciting right now. Stay tuned, though, because that can always change….

The smell of the highlighters aren't so bad.....

Well, another day has come and gone. At least today started out pretty well. I was able to sleep in and get to school in time to do my Constitutional Process reading done. I passed the time before class watching some of the Roberts confirmation hearings. It was being streamed on CSPAN online. Legal Analysis was painless, but it was still long. One hour and 40 minutes is a long time to sit still for a class. The lunch hour was spent at an IP lunch sponsored by the Chicago Bar Association. We were able to meet several members of the association who made their living in IP law. It was interesting and made me look forward to the day that I will be done with law school and out in the real world practicing.

In the afternoon Civil Procedure class, we continued our discussion on sanctioning attorneys for frivolous lawsuits. Professor Greenberger is trying to teach us to think like lawyers. I enjoy his class because he offers so much more than a strict lecture.

The rest of the day was spent in the library. I grabbed a quick bite to eat with some of my study, well, I guess they are my friends, not just my study friends. We went back to the library and have been here ever since. In that time, I knocked out Con Pro for Monday and finished up Contracts for tomorrow. 2 more classes for the weekend!

On another note, today marked the 39th anniversary of my awesome folks. Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Confirmation hearings and other musings..

I think that it is an exciting time to be studying law. The confirmation process of Justice Roberts (maybe soon-to-be Chief Justice Roberts) has been an education into how the Senate Judiciary committee decides who gets to sit on the highest court of the land. What is even more interesting is the type of questions Judge Roberts is “answering”. Many of the cases referenced by the Senators are cases that we have studied in Constitutional Law this semester. I hope that all of you get a chance to watch the confirmation hearings. I would like to think that I would find them just as fascinating if I were not in law school. Maybe all of you can tell me.

I apologize for the absence of a post yesterday. It was another busy day, but it was also very productive. I met with some of my study group to hammer out some of the details for Contracts, and the review really paid off. Later in the day, the professor was doing her usual Socratic question and answer, and the person being asked a question didn’t know where to go. Because of the review, I knew the answer, but Professor Taylor doesn’t like volunteers. I guess I was mouthing the answer, because she pointed to me and I gave the answer. Thank the law gods that it was correct. In all honesty, I probably would not have gotten all the answers right yesterday. I am just thankful that the time she called on me, I got it right. The rest of the afternoon was spent on cases for Civil Procedure and Constitutional Process. I really enjoy Con Process. The professor, Professor Roberts, is a good man. He seeks volunteers instead of barking out names as part of the Socratic method. Of course, if there are no volunteers…..


Today was a day without volunteers. We were studying the Supreme Courts cases dealing with their commerce powers. According to our Constitution, Congress has the right to regulate commerce “among the several states”, meaning that they can regulate interstate commerce in many shapes and forms. Of course, the interpretation leaves a lot to be desired in some cases, and the interpretation of the Commerce Clause has changed with the court. For example, to prosecute businesses under the Child Labor Act, the court has ruled that even if the products are made within a state’s borders and even if the violations were done at that one site alone, Congress has the right to legislate and prosecute for violations of the Act if any of the products produced crosses state lines. It is a pretty broad power, and the cases have been interesting. Today, Professor Roberts wasn’t having a lot of luck with volunteers, so he called on me! He even knew my name because of sitting at the same table as me during an intellectual property lunch. I escaped unscathed and survived to address another issue later in class. It is a good thing that I am keeping on top of my reading.

Civil Procedure was this afternoon, and it was another interesting session. We addressed a rule of Federal Civil Procedure in which attorneys can be sanctioned by the court if they bring frivolous cases. Yes, attorneys can be sanctioned by the courts. So, my question is, where was this during the “McDonalds made me fat” litigation that was later thrown out of court?

I spent the afternoon doing my reading for Torts. I stayed to finish Civil Procedure for tomorrow and headed home. It is now 10 minutes to 10, and I am spent. Tomorrow I have legal analysis and Civ Pro. The weekend is almost here!

Monday is here! Yeah! NOT!!

There are a lot of things that are going through my mind as I make my way through law school. I suppose that this is a result of never doing things the easy way. Prior to starting school, I had a job that required me to be away from home 3-4 nights per week. I am now home every night. I was living in a studio, and I moved to a duplex owned my older brother. I also have a roommate. Finally, I had a pretty good job, and I gave it up to pursue my goal of becoming an independent patent litigator. Now, most people would approach any one of these event with trepidation and dread. In my infinite wisdom (HA!), I decided to do everything at once. Just when I think that I can’t handle things anymore, I am able to put things into perspective with a little help from my friends. All of the worries and troublesome aspects of my life seem infinitesimal when compared to some of the struggles faced by some of my friends and family. In deference to their privacy, I will not elaborate further. Many of you will know that I am talking about you. I hope that my complaints and whining within my blog don’t seem too trite. I think that the sense of perspective that all of you have provided me has been extremely helpful. Know that I am thinking about you and praying for all of you.
OK, enough of the serious stuff. What happened to the Artful Blogger today? Well, Constitutional Process had us discussing the separation of power between the federal government and the states. There has always been some contentiousness among the states and the feds concerning the extent of power the federal government has under the 10th amendment and the enumerated powers of Article I in the Constitution. The Supreme Court has swung like a pendulum through the years. John Marshall, the first Chief Justice, was a Federalist comrade of Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. He favored a strong central government, and his decisions during his time often came down on the side of his leanings. After the Civil War and through modern times, the court has always come down on the side of states’ rights. While many of their decisions seem to be designed to protect states rights, at other times it seems as if the court is avoiding having to rule on controversial issues by hiding behind the 10th amendment. One of the legacies of our esteemed deceased Chief Justice Rehnquist will be this states rights leaning.
Lunch was a little less stressful. I met up with one of my former colleagues from Bio-Rad and the new person who took over for me when I left the company. They bought me lunch from Cosi. Over a very quick lunch, I gave my replacement the run down of the territory and (hopefully) provided some insights on how the territory is set up. I also tried to give pointers on how to cut down on traveling. I know many of you are probably rolling your eyes right now (the Artful Blogger giving advice on cutting down on traveling? RIGHT!).
The afternoon Civil Procedure class was painless as well. We were looking at the rules for amended pleadings and what happens if you change the party names on a complaint after you have filed it with the court. Although this class seemed to be boring at first glance, I look forward to it now. The professor has some great insights into the legal profession and he shares a lot of things that are not in the text. While he is considered our most hard-nosed teacher, I think that the class is slowly beginning to have a grudging respect for him.
After Civil Procedure, I worked with my group in Legal Analysis trying to complete our assignment for Thursday. It turned out all right. The next few hours were spent in the library trying to finish my reading for tomorrow. I am excited about Torts tomorrow because we will have our discussion on medical malpractice.

The weekend

Well, the weekend is over. I can’t really say that I feel as if I had a weekend. I was able to relax a bit on Saturday and watch a couple of football games, but sandwiched in between the games was 4 hours of Torts review with my study group. At least I had a chance to sleep a little later than normal. This morning, I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. My folks called to let me know that they were back in town, and I was relieved. When I was younger, my folks used to always worry about me when I was traveling (and they still do), but somehow along the way, I started to be the one who worried. After that, I got up, showered, and headed out to meet my brother for breakfast. Over breakfast at Clarke’s, we caught up. He drove me downtown to pick up a book tat I had forgotten and dropped me off at the library in Lincoln Park. I stayed at the library for 5 hours and was able to get a lot of work done.

My reading for Torts was really interesting. It was all about medical malpractice. Apparently, the standard of care for physicians should only match the requirements of their specialty. The burden of proof for negligence falls on the plaintiff. If this is the case, one would think that more cases would be challenged in court. The problem is that the insurance companies are often browbeaten by plaintiff attorneys to settle. The result of this is doctors paying more and more when they shouldn’t have to. The Tort system does need to be reformed (ambulance chasers like John Edwards notwithstanding), but it should be done carefully. I have seen cases where there are real instances of malpractice and I have seen more cases where the malpractice is just an attempt to extort money. In one of the cases where there was real evidence of malpractice, one of my friends was involved. I was struck by his honesty when he told me that all he wanted was an apology, and the fact that the doctor was hiding infuriated him. With the state of medical malpractice now, it is no wonder the physician chose to duck and cover, as the system as designed punishes honesty and rewards silence.

The rest of the evening looks pretty relaxing. I plan on watching the Ravens game and maybe reading a couple of more cases. Tomorrow, it all starts up again!

A heck of a Wednesday (but Thursday was OK)

I know, I know…I promised to write a long entry in my blog last night. I am sorry. Yesterday was a bit of a hard day. It started off promising enough. I woke up at 5 am and trudged to the gym. I had a great cardio workout (thank-you, iPod) and was showered and ready to go downtown in plenty of time. Constitutional Process was first and was very interesting. I raised my hand again near the end of class and did all right in describing the case in question. Afterwards, I went to the library to work on Civil Procedure. There was a welcome luncheon for the IPLW program (the Intellectual Property program at DePaul), so I went to that. Over a lunch of great sandwiches and company, all of the participants learned about what the program has to offer us. My head is already spinning with the sheer amount of information that I have taken in over the last 4 weeks. After that, it was off to Civil Procedure class. Civil Procedure was pretty painless, and I was out to the library by 3 PM.
The only thing I had on my agenda was my legal writing assignment, and I quickly learned that I shouldn’t procrastinate when it comes to dealing with my writing assignment. What I perceived as a 3 hour assignment quickly mushroomed into an epic work session that was not over until 11 PM. That’s right. 11 PM! I made it home by 11:35 and was in bed by midnight. I woke up at 6:30 to put some final touches on my assignments, and I was out the door and downtown by 9:45. Legal Analysis was relatively painless, but I started to feel the end-of-the-week exhaustion slowly creeping in around mid-afternoon. Following Civil Procedure, I went to the library and worked on Torts and Contracts until 6:30. I was home by 7 and watching the NFL (yes!) by 8 pm.
This weekend I will have a longer entry…..really….I will….

......(grumble)......

The day after Labor Day always comes with the dawning of one truth: fall is here. The kids are heading back to school, the mass transit systems are busy, and people seem to have these sad, glum looks on their faces. In spite of this, I look forward to the fall and winter. True, winter in Chicago tests one’s patience, but with football season, snow, and Christmas, there are too many things to look forward to.
I got up a little later than usual and made my way to school. Torts was pretty interesting. The concepts that we are currently covering include liability in the face of local custom and in the face of statutes that were not enacted to protect against liability. I actually packed my lunch today, but tomorrow there will be lunch provided by DePaul (yeah!). I spent most of the lunch break preparing for my Contracts class and doing my reading for tomorrow’s Civil Procedure class. I came home early to get the rest of the reading done. It felt good to have some down time at home. I even found the time to make banana bread. It was my first time making banana bread, but it came out pretty well. I was able to finish my Civil Procedure homework in plenty of time.
Tomorrow will be a long day (ending at 9 PM), but I promise to post a longer entry.

A Message to Julie.....

I love chocolate chip cookies. I don't know of anyone who doesn't, but I really REALLY like them. I don't eat them often, as I gained a few while traveling for Bio-Rad and am currently trying to work it off by training with David. On occasion, however, it is still nice to chomp down on a few (not too many, mind you) and reminisce about some of my happier days as a graduate student. What does one have to do with the other? Well, as I have already mentioned, I used to live in a house in Baltimore with my best friends Aaron and Julie Fraley. After I had lived there for a month, Julie's brother Mark joined us. Even though I was going through some of the most stressful times in my life, Julie and Aaron were there taking care of me. There is no other way to explain it. My connection to God and my connection to walking the right path started in Baltimore in a 3 story house on Hull Street. I had 2 rooms upstairs (a bedroom and what Julie euphemistically called the "rumpus room", a room where the boys could gather, watch movies, and play video games). Aaron was (and remains) the best friend a guy could have and Julie is probably the most amazing person I have ever known (sorry, Aaron, but you would have to agree with me here). Anyway, Julie is a great cook and also happened to be a great shopper. Every Sunday during football season, she would go shopping after church (never mind that she had been up for hours preparing her stuff for church like Aaron did), and Aaron and I would clean up after each service and interact with the youth. Invariably, many of the youths would come over to watch the Ravens game at our home, and Julie would always walk in with bags of groceries. Of course, being the nice guys that we were, we would relieve her of some of the, ah, choice items.
This brings me back to chocolate chip cookies. The supermarket where we shopped (SFW, formerly Metro) had the most amazing chocolate chip cookies. Their only close rivals were the ones made by Costco. Poor Julie would go shopping and get the cookies for everyone, but by the time she got settled and ready to rest after a long day, the cookies were mostly gone. Now, Julie is a cookie fiend like I am. We share that in common. Two weeks ago, I turned 34 years old. I was feeling kind of down (see the post), and except for Eric's purchase of a Shrek cookie for me and some wonderful e-cards from a few friends, there was no other celebration. I know that I am too old for celebrations, but still....
This past Thursday, I received an odd gift box via UPS. IT was cardboard and covered with Marvel Heroes stickers. Inside, I had gifts from my family, the Fraleys. Gail (my other Mom) sent me a wonderful gift, a $25.00 gift card to Best Buy. Winter and Noah, (Aaron and Julie's little ones) sent me a card and a wonderful picture of the entire family. I am looking at it as I type this entry. My buddy Aaron included a Justice League goodie bag (yes, exactly what I said) and some books on Johnny Unitas and Walter Payton, two heroes of the NFL. I also received a wonderful card from the adults.
Finally, we are back to the cookies. Also in the shipment was a container of chocolate chip cookies. These were similar to the ones from those Sundays long ago. When I saw that they were in there, I smiled. I knew who it was who was responsible for those cookies. Of all of the gifts I have received over the last few years, this one was probably the most meaningful. Keep in mind that I have received some pretty nice stinkin' gifts over the years (and my brother bought an iPod for me to boot this year, one of the best gifts I have ever received). I put aside everything else in the box (not even looking at the cards), bit into a cookie, and was transported to a happier time.
Thank you, Julie, for making my birthday something special. You are the best!

Ode to Firefly (oh, yeah, and the rest of Thursday)

Thursday was the day that I finally felt that I “got” it. Things are slowly starting to make more sense, and the flow of the lecturers and the concepts that are being discussed are becoming more and clearer. I am getting excited about studying the law, and I am not at the stage where I dread coming to classes (that will probably be around exam time!).
Yesterday, I got up at 5 to head to the gym, as I had a training session with David. Unbeknownst to me (but knowst to him…those of your who have seen Spaceballs will get that), he had cancelled our session for the day. I still ended up getting a workout in, and then I was off to Legal Analysis for 2 hours. In Legal Analysis, we are supposed to be learning to think like lawyers. No, not in terms of billable hours! We are learning how to break down cases into their essences and come up with arguments as to why certain situations do or do not break the law. This process is called synthesis, and I can already see where this ability will be essential to anyone in the legal profession. As I mentioned earlier, I am just starting to get it, and I am looking forward to trying my project for next week’s class (actually breaking down a case into rules and a synthesis report). I can’t believe that I am looking forward to my homework!
After lunch, I went to the library to tackle some more Civil Procedure. This is another class where the minutia tends to be the most important part. The professor was in a good mood yesterday, and I know that I am on the right track. As students were struggling for answers when they were questioned, I was able to find the appropriate sections within my own notes. We even knocked off a little early! I went to the library to work on my Contracts assignment for Friday. If you remember, Contracts is my favorite (albeit most challenging) class. Since I had already completed my Torts reading for Friday, I wanted to devote the entire afternoon to the questions at hand in Contracts. After 3 hours, I thought that I was ready for the professor. I guess that I will find out this afternoon.
The trip home was a bit taxing. I had no problem getting on the Red Line train, but halfway through the journey, the train stopped due to a track fire. The train sat motionless for 30 minutes. When it finally started moving again, it did so in fits and jerks. I reached home an hour later than usual. I immediately set about cooking dinner. My plan was to relax (yes!) by watching “Firefly” and eating some chicken curry. My roommate was having a poker game downstairs and generously invited me to play, but I was thoroughly wiped out by the day. I didn’t want to do anything that required thinking. With my chicken and rice in hand, I made my way to the bedroom, settled into the large chair there, and started watching episodes 7 and 8 of “Firefly”
Now, for those of you who might be reading this to get an understanding of my day, you might want to stop right here. The rest of this entry (well, except for my comments on an Ovation channel documentary on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and Lerner and Lowe’s My Fair Lady) will be an ode to “Firefly”. Of course, before I started watching the series, I had to surf the cable channels to see if there was anything else on. I noticed the aforementioned documentary on Ovation. I switched over and watched. It was interesting how the creators of My Fair Lady took Shaw’s classic and not only created a masterful musical adaptation but also a work that extended and expanded upon some of the themes merely touched on in “Pygmalion”. The overall effect of watching the documentary was one where I am now compelled to revisit the musical and watch it more closely for some of the themes explored in the documentary. At the ripe old age of 34, I have found that revisiting some of my favorite works (books, movies, etc) from my younger days often is a voyage of rediscovery.
I must now turn my attention to “Firefly”. I must first provide a little background on why I am interested in an old Fox television show that only lasted less than one season. This summer, I went to the theater to see “Revenge of the Sith”. Amid the usual dreck of forgettable trailers for forgettable movies, there was a trailer that blew me away. There were fast moving images of spaceships, intrigue, posturing….and horses in a western town??? The name of the film was “Serenity”, a film that was an extension of “Firefly”. Now, I had missed this series when it first aired on Fox. It was on Friday nights and it was an hour long. I have a problem with following weekly hour long dramas nowadays because if you miss one episode (a la “24”), you end up missing some significant plot developments. “Firefly”, however, was created by Joss Whedon, the genius behind Buffy and Angel. He is one of the best writers working in Hollywood today. Those of you not familiar with his television work might be surprised to know that he is responsible (well, story wise, at least) for the genius of the original Toy Story. “Firefly” is the story about a crew of smugglers/cargo movers in space. The premise is that, in the future, a centralized government controls the civilized portions of space, but the outlying frontier pretty much lawless, much like the frontier of the American West of the late 1800s/early 1900s. Each crew member has their own story for why they are on the ship, and several mysteries are hinted at in the early episodes. Whedon is a master of dialogue and storytelling. I very quickly found myself becoming involved with the characters themselves. A hallmark of good writing is how soon this happens, and for me, it happened darned quickly. The drama is balanced by humor that is sometimes nuanced and sometimes over-the-top, but the humor is always relevant to the situations. All 8 episodes that I have watched have been excellent. I am somewhat sad that I only have 8 episodes to go, but I am happy to know that the stories might continue indefinitely on the big screen. If you have not yet experienced the “Firefly” universe, I highly recommend checking it out.

I am so tired right now (is this starting to sound familiar?). Today was typical. I was out the door by 7:30 and downtown by 8. I had a little more reading to do in Constitutional Process, and I wanted to get it done. The class seemed to drag a little more than usual, and to break the monotony, I volunteered in class. Thankfully, I was right. I think that my note taking skills are definitely improving. After class, I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then commandeered a study room to go over the work that I had to do for Civil Procedure. I live in fear of being called on by the professor, so I prepared as best I could for the class. Sure enough, there came a pregnant pause in the class. The professor had been picking on 3 of my friends all class, so I raised my hand to deflect the aim. I answered the question, and the professor said that I was close but not quite there. At that point, someone behind me raised their hand and said the exact same thing that I had just said (word for word), but this time the professor exclaimed “that’s it!”. I kind of shook my head, thinking that I was going crazy. After class, I asked my friends if this, in fact, had happened. They were with me on this. They said that I said the same thing as the other person. Oh well, live and learn. At least I am getting over my fear of volunteering. The afternoon was given over to doing my Legal Analysis Assignment.
I then went to the Grand Lux Café and met my friend Susan for dinner. I have known Susan for over 4 years, and we have become pretty good friends over that time. Over a great dinner of shrimp, a chicken sandwich (for me), Asian nachos (for her) and beignets for dessert, we compared notes on our lives. I am sure that I bored her to death (as I am now doing to you, dear reader) on the details of law school life, but she was very polite and listened. After dinner, I hopped on the El and made my way back home. Tomorrow, I have training with Dave in the morning before class (ouch), so I have to get to bed now. Until tomorrow!

Rib day

This week is going by much faster than last week! Today was pretty routine. I woke up early and got ready for work. When I came downstairs, I took out some ribs for dinner. There are 2 schools of thought on how to tenderize ribs before the final cooking: (1) Boiling them and (2) slow baking them. Of course, purists will argue that a third school is the best (slow cooking the ribs in a smoker), but smokers here are few and far between. The method for rib preparation was introduced to my best friend Aaron and myself by our pastor in Baltimore. Of course, Aaron perfected the technique over the many months that I lived with him and his wife Julie in Baltimore, and I have carried the technique to Chicago. It has met with great acclaim and success here. I put the 5 pounds of ribs in to cook all day (very low heat).
I then went on my merry way to work...er...school. Torts was first, and the professor was as entertaining as ever. Lunch was with Justin and Steve at the Chipotle across the street from the school, and I then made my way to the library to start on my reading for tomorrow’s Constitutional Process class. I also reviewed the cases for Contracts. Contracts, as I have mentioned before, is now my favorite class. The professor challenges me in a way that is new, scary and somewhat invigorating. No matter how well I think I have prepared for her class, this never seems to be the case when I set foot in the class. She asks questions that I have never anticipated and makes me think long and hard on the meaning of every sentence from our casebook. I want to do well in her class not just for the grade but because she deserves my best efforts. Hands down, she has to be the best teacher I have ever had.
Immediately after class, I went to the library and spent 3 more hours doing work until heading home. As soon as I came through the door, I started up with the ribs. The grill was lit, and the ribs were coated with….no, I won’t share this without getting the OK from Aaron. After all, it is his magic that made them so good and it is his secret to share. Some friends came over for dinner, and after we finished eating, I excused myself to tackle Civil Procedure reading while everyone else stayed downstairs and talked. Thankfully, Eric cleaned everything up. All in all, it wasn’t an out of the ordinary day, but I am still looking forward to the time when the synthesis of the material will begin.
That’s all for now. Wednesday beckons!

Monday, August 29

Monday is almost over now. The day started with the struggle to awaken with the normal desire to relax in bed as long as possible. I shook myself awake and was out the door, but I missed the bus by mere seconds. I thought that it would be one of those days. I walked to the El stop and marveled at the relative serenity at that time of the day. The El was packed with people, and felt like the proverbial sardine in a can, not really able to move very much until my stop was 2 away. I went to the library and reviewed my Constitutional Process notes for the morning class. The class was pretty good, as we were discussing a method by which the US Supreme Court is able to avoid controversial topics. It seems that they invoke this method pretty often. After 3 classes of Constitutional Process, I am looking forward to following the confirmation hearings of our newest Supreme Court justice. Following class, I had lunch with my friends Justin and Steve before heading to the library to review Civil Procedure before class started. Civil Procedure will be my most challenging class, I think. The professor calls on someone at the beginning of class and then continues to go back to them throughout the class. The entire class is “on call”, so to speak. I have decided to review my notes before every class in an effort to be ready when I am called on. I have already noticed a shift in my level of preparation from last week’s topics to this week’s topics. Civil Procedure was as good as ever, and I have spent the last 3 hours here in the library finishing up my reading for Contracts tomorrow. Thankfully, I was able to finish my Constitutional Law and Torts reading over the weekend, so I feel as if I am a little ahead of the game. My plan is to head home, eat dinner, and work on the disaster that is my living space that still needs work.

Sorry for the boring post, but this is really a day in the life kind of day. Mondays!!!

Saturday!

Here in Chicago, it is a beautiful Saturday. It is a little warm, but these ARE the dog days of summer. People are outside enjoying the weather, there are live bands playing, and the smell of grilling meat permeates the neighborhoods. This sounds like a great day, right? Well, I was lucky to enough to experience all of these things on my way to the library for an afternoon of studying. Although there are quite a few upperclassmen here, I have only seen a few of my classmates. Either (1) they are well ahead of the game and don’t need to come in on the first weekend or (2) I am actually ahead of the game. Either way, I really don’t care. I am here to succeed, and I think that by approaching this as a 7 day a week proposition and spending some time with the material outside of class, I will gain a better understanding of the issues. Don’t get me wrong…I would much rather be out having fun, but this is something I have chosen to do. It is a responsibility that I do not take lightly. Many of you have written to me about how you are rooting for me, and for that I thank you. Messages like those are wonderful motivations for days like these.

There was a palpable sense of relief when we finished the last class of the day yesterday. Of course, I went to the student lounge to get some of my reading for Monday out of the way, but I gathered with the rest of my classmates after a couple of hours to toast the end of our first week with a cold Bud Light (read glorified water). I went home, showered, and met up with a former Bio-Rad co-worker of mine who was in town for the day’s Cubs game. I called it an early night. The week had taken a lot out of me, but I was looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday. I woke up at 10 (!) and watched a movie that I had recorded on my DVR, RKO 281. This is one of my favorite films now and should be a companion film when anyone watches Citizen Kane. The film is based on a documentary (the Battle for Citizen Kane) that outlined the behind the scenes struggle to get the picture released. The genius of John Logan (the screenwriter who also wrote a little film called Gladiator) was to place Welles in the position of William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate who was also the basis for the character of Charles Foster Kane in Welles unsurpassed masterpiece of American cinema. Logan succeeded in drawing some parallels between Hearst and Welles to the point where the watcher gets a new appreciation of the nuances in Welles’ performance as well as idea of who Hearst really was. Liev Schreiber portrays Welles and is magnificent. He has the same voice and mannerisms, and he is close to being a dead ringer for the young Welles. John Malkovich is Wolf Mankewicz, the tortured drunken screenwriter and close confidante of Welles who rises up like the proverbial phoenix to write the masterpiece that few thought he was capable of writing. When you add James Cromwell as Hearst, Melanie Griffith as his mistress, and Roy Scheider as the head of RKO, the result is nothing less than stellar. I highly recommend this film. If you can, watch this film before watching Citizen Kane.

After watching the movie, I got myself ready, came downtown, and was at the library by 12 PM. It is now 4:30, and I am getting ready to get out of here. I plan on playing tennis with my friend Susan and then relaxing for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow is another day at the office!

Well, it will be a short entry today. Sorry, but I am extremely tired (but in a good way). Today, classes started at 10 AM, so I had a bit of down time this morning. I was able to pack a good lunch and get downtown for my Legal Analysis Class. Legal Analysis was almost 2 hours long, and I was already feeling tired from the long week, but at least I was eating lunch at the normal hour. My friend Justin is in the same section as I am (the Legal Analysis sections only have 15 people in them), so after the class, we went to lunch. We ended up heading to….any guesses….yup, POTBELLY’S.!!!! YES. I know that I said I packed a good lunch, but it would make an even better dinner. The afternoon was taken up by more Civil Procedure and then I was off to the library. I wanted to see how much work I could get done while still at school. Would you believe that I got ALL of it done? It’s true. I was able to make my training session with David with time to spare. I came home to find that my roommate had thoughtfully purchased a birthday cookie in lieu of a cake for me-complete with Shrek on it (I am quite the movie lover, as most of you know. I am now showered and ready for bed, but I wanted to update you on my birthday. It was pretty uneventful, but thanks to some great e-cards from my friends Aline, Lisa, and Jennifer (no, I am not a player. I think that only my female friends tend to send e-cards!), I had quite a few smiles to bring me through the day. I am also pretty sure that my folks tried to call me from India. I was in my Legal Writing course, so I could not answer, but the fact that they tried to call still made me feel pretty good. My best friend Aaron also called me at 11 PM his time. That meant a lot to me as well. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful people in my life (those of you reading this know it when I am talking about you!!).

I promise to have a longer entry tomorrow…oh, wait, it’s Friday…maybe the longer update will be on Saturday.

A Good Day

As I start to write this post, it is 11:40 PM CST. In another 20 minutes, it will be August 25, and I will be 34 years old. Today has been the busiest day by far, but I think that I am finally getting a handle on how to approach my assignments. I am also getting used to a schedule that allows very little time for personal reflection and too much time devoted to studying. My efforts to do my work as I wish to (reading and rereading everything and doing outside reading to boot) has not materialized as I had hoped because of several moving-related errands that needed to be run immediately following classes. At least now, I can spend the time from the end of classes until 7 or 8 pm at the law school library getting some work done. I intend to take Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons off (at least during the NFL season), so I really need to put in the extra time during the weekdays.

I have already found someone who I think will be a very good friend. Justin is from Cincinnati (yes, he was following Huggins firing this week) and is in the same IP writing section as I am. We have the same outlook on school and the approaches, and I think that we will form the foundation of a study group. This morning was a little tricky as the Con Law professor was handing out seating charts for the semester, meaning that if you didn’t show up early enough to claim a seat, you might be relegated to a bad seat. People (myself included) were piling in as early as possible to insure their spots, and the hallways were jammed. I was able to get seat 25 (my spot in all the classes) with no problem. 25 is 2 rows back from the podium and on a side aisle that leads directly to a door. I like seat 25. Con Law was interesting again today. We studied the limits of the Federal Judiciary in deciding cases. I was surprised to find that, if a case is before the Supreme Court and Congress passes a law that alters the original charge of the case, the new law supersedes the old law. This mostly comes into play with things like writs. Except for one incident, I was pretty happy. What was the incident? The professor asked for the literal translation of the phrase Habeas corpus. I raised my hand and answered “you have the body”. The professor corrected this and said that it meant “bring forth the body”. Keep in mind that I had 5 years of Latin prose and poetry classes in high school and did well on the AP Latin examine. I kind of shook my head in disbelief. Who is going to look the fool? The Professor! This will happen when students look up the phrase on their own. As soon as I came home, I consulted my Black’s Legal Dictionary to look up the literal meaning…Booo-ya! I was right. I was worried that I was losing my Latin, but I find that it’s all coming back to me in law school.

The afternoon class was Civil Procedure. The Professor here is a relatively nice guy unless he is asking the students questions. He tends to be more on the sarcastic side, but I think that he is just trying to give us thick skins. We will definitely need them in the real world. Today, we were covering what is necessary in pleadings. I had no idea that bringing a civil suit against someone required not only the requisite forms and documents but that the appearance of the complaint must follow the rules of civil procedure. If this is a federal court, there is only one book on Civil Procedure. It was a very interesting class.

After school, I had a training session with David. I was a little anxious, as the stress of the move and the beginning of law school found me catching a cold. I hadn’t worked out in almost a week, and I knew that David would be merciless. Instead of pain, however, I was happy to find that I have made some significant strides in a short amount of time. It was a very good workout, and it reiterated to me the importance of keeping up my physical fitness while in law school. I got home by 7:40, ate a quick meal, and then it was off to the study for 3 hours of Civil Procedure. Tomorrow I have Legal Writing and Civil Procedure. Hopefully, I can get a lot of reading done in school .

Is it only Tuesday?

Another full day of classes, and boy am I tired! I can’t believe that it is only the second day of classes. I had forgotten about the daily grind of classwork and evening reading. Today started at 6:30 AM. I hadn’t slept well thanks to a late summer cold with coughing fits that woke me up. I was able to get on the bus today by 7:30 AM and was on campus by 8 AM. Since my first class didn’t start until 9, I took the opportunity to go down to the Starbucks on the first floor and get some hot tea. The first class of the day was Torts, and this one was a long one-lasting one hour and 40 minutes…and no breaks! I have to admit to being a little confused during today’s discussion of negligence versus strict liability, but I think that I can clarify my confusion when I do my reviewing this Saturday. After Torts, I went to lunch with a group of students in my section. It was a unique experience going to lunch with people born in 1983, but I was able to participate in the discussion by contributing as the grumpy old man. The best part of the group was that everyone went to the library before the afternoon class to study. These are the type of students I should hang out with. They are extremely friendly as well. I think I made some new friends.

After lunch was the first Contracts class. The professor spent most of the class on expectations for the semester and her embracing of the Socratic teaching style, and I started to get a little nervous. In actuality, it was a great class. I was happy that I was able to answer all of the questions on the assigned case correctly. I was home by 5 PM and made dinner. I allowed myself one and ½ hours to relax before I started my reading assignments for the evening. 3 hours later, I was done. Have I mentioned that I am tired?

A full day of classes

After a very short night's sleep, I gathered myself together for my first day of classes. I made it out the door in plenty of time and was downtown with 1/2 an hour to spare. I was surprised to find that there were lots of students already waiting for classes to start, and I decided to get to my future classes early enough to get a good seat. The first class of the day was Constitutional Process. The Professor was a congenial sort who lectured like a history professor. I like the method of question and answer, but from the first day, the "gunners" were identified (i.e., those individuals who are trying desperately to draw attention to themselves). I am all for participation in classroom discussion if one's comments moves the discussion forward, but when you ask a question that is, at best, tangential to the matter at hand, the entire class suffers all for the sake of your ego. My patience was low for these individuals, and I was happy to find out after the class that others felt the same way. The class itself was interesting. The discussion on Marbury v Madison showed me the dangers of jumping the gun in surmising why the judge found what he found. I wrote in yesterday's entry that Chief Justice Marshall fulfilled the duties of his office in opposition to his own political affiliations. Boy was I wrong. Even though Marshall supported his rival Jefferson, he was able to censure Jefferson within the first section of the decision, writing that Marbury legally has a right to his commission as a justice of the peace. The real meat of the decision lay with the court's ability to be a check on the powers of the legislative and executive branches of government. If the legislative branch makes the laws and the executive branch puts the law into action, the role of the judicial branch is to review the law to make sure that it falls within what is allowed within the constitution. Judicial review and the ability of the court to decide if the laws are constitutional are the two most important things to come out of Marbury v Madison. This is something to think about!

After class, I decided to go and get my U-Pass. The U-Pass is a transit pass that allows students to take unlimited rides on Chicago mass transit during the school year. When you consider that a one-way ride on Chicago mass transit costs $1.75, and when you consider that I will be taking it at least twice a day, the utility of such a pass becomes readily apparent. The lines were long, but I still had time to grab lunch before heading to Civil Procedure

Civil Procedure was also interesting. The gunners were quickly ignored by the professor, and the professor was able to engage the students quite well. Civil Procedure covers the rules of how civil courts function. Yes, there is a guidebook that describes everything you need to know about civil procedure, but it is, in fact, more interesting than you might think. When you are watching courtroom dramas and you see, for example, one party destroying evidence during discovery, they are breaking the law as described in Civil Procedure. There are no statutes against it, but the procedural laws are being broken. Civil Procedure lasted for another 1 hour and 10 minutes. I am pretty happy that I have not noticed the time going by when I am in class. The professors are great, and I have no complaints. So far, law school is everything that I thought it would be.

After class, I made a beeline for the El to get to my old apartment. I wanted to finish cleaning it out so that I could give up the keys and be done with it. I had a moment of sadness when I left it, though. I liked my studio, it was cozy and it was home. I have no doubt that, with time, my new digs will also feel like home, but I am not there yet. As soon as I came home, I fixed dinner and helped Eric take some of the trash out. Slowly, the place is coming into focus. For the last 3 hours, I have been doing my assigned reading for Torts and Contracts for tomorrow. Another full day awaits me!

The weekend is over

This weekend marked the end of the formal move-in phase. My roommate Eric is now ensconced downstairs, and we spent much of the weekend getting the place into shape. There is still a lot of work to do, and I feel kind of bad that I left a lot of it for Eric to do. I didn't do it on purpose, but my studying kind of got away from me (more on that later).

There were 2 fun adventures this weekend. The first adventure started at 6:30 on Saturday morning. I was meeting some movers hired by my brother to pick up some furniture for the new place. The furniture was in Oak Park, and the plan was to load up the furniture, drop some of it off at my brother's place, and take the rest of it to my place. Now let me pause here to say that the house where the furniture was located was built in 1880, and many of the pieces were rather large. Can you see where I am going with this? The best part was when the movers and I had to disassemble a large and HEAVY spiral metal staircase to get a sectional sofa out of the top floor. The moving took up most of the day and I was done by 2:30. I was exhausted, but I spent the rst of the afternoon mounting 2 window A/C units. Most of the heat in the house goes to the top floor (duh!), and since the thermostat is also on the top floor, Eric and I were envisioning huge electric bills that neither of us are equipped to pay for. I also set up my bedroom as I wanted it. All in all, it was a productive day. We then met up with some of his friends and relaxed a bit.

Sunday came too soon. Our job today was the basic shopping (Eric had stuff that he needed and I had stuff that I needed). It has been a while since I had a roommate (well, if you don't count the 6 weeks or so that I lived with my brother last year-long story). Getting used to a roommate dynamic hasn't been that hard, however, because we are good friends. So, we went shopping for window blinds, and household cleaning stuff. I hung the blinds and put away my kitchen stuff when I came home. I spent the rest of the afternoon picking up stuff and putting things away. Around 4 PM, the time had come for me to start the long process of studying. I had been dreading this moment, for I was worried that I would get bored. I didn't want my mind to start wandering, and I really did not know what to expect from the legal texts that were staring at me, mocking me with their forbidding thickness....

I have 2 classes tomorrow: Civil Procedure (the hows and whys of courts) and Constitutional Process. I tackled Civil Procedure first. I had 50 pages to read, and I started outlining the chapters as I read. I found this to be extremely helpful and I learned a lot. Surprise, surprise..studying the law was interesting! It wasn't as bad as I had feared. Civil Procedure took me 3 hours, though, and I was dreading how long Constitutional Process would take.

I looked at my assignment for Constitutional Process. I had to read the US Constitution and analyze the legal doctrines discussed from Marbury v. Madison. I set about reading the Constitution, and I was amazed-truly amazed-at how powerful this document is. Our entire Federal Government is in this small document drafted 218 years ago. The way that the government has worked for those many years was framed by our Founding Fathers. I didn't remember getting this excited about the Constitution when I read it in government class in high school. Check it out, and you will see how impressive this document truly is. Marbury v Madison was even more interesting. This was a situation where the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court interpreted the law in such a way that it forever defined the limits and scope of the highest court in the land. Even more amazing was the fact that, in doing so, Chief Justice John Marshall went against his party affiliations. Think about this for a second. A justice putting the Constitution first and his own allegiances second......how often does that happen in this day and age? I was impressed.

After I completed Con Process, I looked up at the clock. Over 4 hours had gone by since I first sat down at my desk!! I am still concerned about whether I can keep up with all of the material, but if the material stays this interesting, there is hope for me!