The Shark

performance anxiety

[justin gosling]

I've checked my school's website a lot over the past week to see if grades have posted. The sad thing is that I have continued the ritual even though I know they won't show up until the first week of January (at the earliest). A watched pot never boils, right? Maybe I can postpone grades forever. Or, maybe I'm really hoping the record's office will mess up and post 'em early.

There are few things worse than taking an exam and then waiting for several weeks before knowing how you performed. Heck, I had several multiple choice exams and they could easily run each answer sheet through the Scantron machine on the way out of class. Although, cringing at the buzzsaw sound indicating someone missed every question might not be the best way to enter winter vacation.

It's odd not knowing where you stand when compared to your classmates (especially because class standing weighs so heavily on many future events). I realize we are all in the same place we started at the beginning of the year, but now that finals are over I want immediate gratification. I can't even approximate relative performance because many of those I talked with after the last final said they can see themselves equally receiving incredibly high or low marks. Very frustrating.

I thought I would enjoy a carefree, grade-free vacation, but I think I'd rather know my GPA just so I stop speculating and enjoy the free time before Spring '08.

new year, new laws to break

[justin gosling]

One of my strongest memories of my childhood is reading newspaper articles at the end of December that alerted readers to new laws coming into effect on January 1. It's funny because I don't remember many "traditionally important" events, but Cheerios, sugar, and these new laws stand out in my mind. I don't think there is a link between this experience and my decision to enter the legal field, but I certainly was captivated by idea of new law. "What was wrong with existing law?" "Why didn't they think of these things before?" Granted, I was nine and probably would have thought bicameral was either an open-minded desert animal or two pieces of candy.

The best part was digging through the those serious laws in search of one or two that seemed silly. While I may not have understood the nuances of the legislative process during the third grade, apparently I could spot pork and shady influence from a mile away.  Humm, maybe I can find a silly law litigation firm somewhere. That sounds legitimate, right? Okay, maybe not. Either way, the creation of new laws forces lawyers to pay attention to changes in their practice area. Wait, does that mean we never escape the learning aspect of law school? The horror!

Naturally, I still look for silly laws, but I think the amusement threshold was a lot lower when I was nine.

kindle: already up in smoke?

[cynthia foster]

Mark and Gene, over at Law School Innovation, put together some interesting commentary on the implications of the Kindle and other electronic book-readers for law school students.  The general consensus on the internet and beyond seems to be that law school students will reject the Kindle before it even makes it out of the gate—particularly because the small size of the readers is prohibitive for all those 1ls who simply NEED to frenetically take notes in the margins and highlight every other word.

run for green law while you've still got the chance

[justin gosling]

Just in case you are wondering, I'm fine with speculation about raising first year salaries from 160K to 180K and eventually 200K. While fat paychecks are one of the main reasons we enter law school, I'm not so sure these rosy predictions are guaranteed (especially if a recession is on the lips of many economists). Something sounds suspicious when you raise pay to lure talented first year associates, raise client rates to offset the salary increases, and then expect clients to absorb higher hourly rates despite an economic downturn. As the article correctly points out, that is fuzzy math.

The take home point is that some practice areas will be hit harder than others. We should plan accordingly.

So far I've been only looking at certain elements of prospective employers, such as only checking to see if they specalize in specific practice areas that interest me, rather than stepping back to get a picture of everything the firm does. Now, due to recent economic developments, I'm taking a broader approach when evaluating each firm. I hate imagining a recent graduate taking a job with a firm because it dabbled in a favorite practice area, only to find out said firm is also heavily dependent on something like structured finance.  With all the mortgage problems this year it's quite possible that our recent grad will be looking for a new job in 2008, and I really don't want to suffer a similar fate when the great software licensing fiasco of 2012 hits.

a junkie speaks out

[justin gosling]

Hi, my name is Justin, and I am an addict. Phew, feels good to get that off my chest. Apparently I built up a huge tolerance for caffeine over the semester, and my body didn't react well when I pulled the java IV after exams were over. Healthandgoodness.com says "[t]he mental and emotional crash from stimulants is nothing to take lightly. Abruptly stopping stimulants of any kind can lead to depression, nervousness, irritability and even suicidal thinking." I'm not so sure I was suicidal, but I was certainly irritable and mildly depressed for the last five days. What I thought was postpartum depression from not having any school work was just my body adjusting to life without Joe.

I wasn't returning phone calls and literally sat on the couch playing video games until I decided to sleep. The most telling post-caffeine story: I drove my wife to Sacramento for a holiday lunch where I planned on visiting friends or hitting up the driving range while she was hobnobbing. The result? I went to the movies and fell dead asleep in the car for several hours while waiting for the "pick me up" call. Keep in mind that this was on a prominent downtown Sacramento street. At three in the afternoon. Just terrible. The good news is now I can now claim to be the subject of an unscientific human study on the effects of caffeine withdrawal (you feel like poo for about a week, but there are no lasting side effects).

The funny thing is that I know I will revisit the coffee gods next semester because I like to burn the midnight oil and the academic dean hasn't returned my phone calls about the "no classes before noon" idea. Next semester I'll just have to ween myself off the black stuff rather than go cold turkey.

summer diversity lovin

[petra pasternak]

The Veen Firm is thinking hard about the cases it will be investigating this summer, because by June, the San Francisco plaintiffs’ shop would like to enlist a law student - or two - to help with the work.

Partner Anthony Label said some of the actions the catastrophic injury plaintiffs handle involve brain injuries, where the lawyers employ experts in the latest imaging technology. Students would get hands on experience working with attorneys investigating and developing evidence, he said, taking key depositions and, “if the stars align, we may have a trial.”

The Veen Firm is one of several expected to participate in the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association’s first diversity fellowship program, to be rolled out next summer.

on the lookout for your job opportunities

[justin gosling]

California legal beagles just got one step closer to having another judicial employment opportunity come 2009. The U.S. Senate just passed a resolution moving a vacant Court of Appeals seat from D.C. Circuit to the Ninth Circuit. Don't print out another resume just yet however, the seat will not materialize until January 21, 2009 and that is assuming President Bush signs it into law—which is likely.

Okay, so this is not the greatest news in the world if you're looking to book that judicial internship over summer 2008, but there is a silver lining. The Ninth Circuit currently has one vacant seat that was created when Judge Trott moved from California to Idaho during his senior status move in 2004. The seat has remained vacant because politicos disagreed as to whether Judge Trott's old seat should remain in California, or follow him to Idaho. Signing this legislation may help move along the appointment process of Judge Trott's old seat, though it's still not clear where it will call home. If the seat stays in California and we experience a rapid appointment, then the judge will probably employ at least one law student. Hooray!

Translation: I was wrong, print out another resume just in case.

an emotional attachment to paper

[abony holmes]

I finished my final final a few hours ago. Immediately upon leaving the exam room, my fellow classmates were doing shots in the quad. But I had other things on my mind. Hundreds of pages of notes, handouts, practice tests and problems, photocopies of commercial outlines I refused to buy at the bookstore—all of it in my locker and backpack, itching for this very moment…

But I hesitated. Some of those papers took hours of hard work to create. They cost me my freedom, my peace of mind, my ability to watch SpongeBob reruns all day Saturday morning. In undergrad, I had no qualms about recycling every last paper and selling every book when my classes ended. Now, it seems wrong.

So all of my stuff is still in my locker. I didn’t want to drag it to the after exam festivities, but I couldn’t let it all go. Maybe when I return from break, I’ll have some idea of what I want to do with it.

now what?

[justin gosling]

Fall '07 exams are over and it's a little weird. I was extremely happy wrapping up a full semester of work when I finished the last exam—I even had a great hangover as proof—but now things seem different. After sleeping in for the first time in two weeks, I've been hit with the realization that I have absolutely nothing to do. Seriously. It's odd going from the normal law school load straight into the feeding frenzy of exams and then having zero items on the calendar. Looks like it's just three weeks of me, a handful of movies, and trying to talk myself into visiting the golf course despite the freezing winter weather.

I usually revel in the freedom of having noting to do, but not this time. It's all that undirected "study energy" trying to escape, but it's blocked by the knowledge that there isn't anything on the line. Sure, I could tackle the weeks of neglected housekeeping or start preparing for next semester, but neither of those options sound appetizing. I thought about doing the Tough Guy contest, but that isn't an option because it is held on January 27 and school starts on the 10th (it has nothing to do with me being a wuss).

Really, I should be tying up any loose ends for the summer job search, but what else can one do other than sending out more resumes? I'm sure the feeling of having no direction will pass and it shouldn't take long before I settle into a nice routine of watching Days of Our Lives and promptly taking a nap every hour on the hour. I guess I'm just confused as to why there was so much hype for the stress of exams, but no warning about the immediate crash and lack of direction that follows.

thank you lexis, for this very merry xmas

[abony holmes]

I’m a conspiracy theorist at heart, so I’ve taken a lot of joy in discussing the evils of Lexis and Westlaw with my fellow classmates all year. Think about it: these are big profitable companies.  We are poor, lowly law students.  Why are they kissing our asses so much?  What do we have to offer them that’s worth the schwag?*

But this post isn’t about my conspiracy theories. It’s about how the schwag has made my holiday season just a little brighter. What I’m about to admit to will out me as a huge hypocrite: I have thousands of Lexis points. Thousands. I log on every day for no reason other than to get more points. I’m on a first name basis with Amy, our Lexis representative. I have two water bottles. The marketing worked on me.

And I’m glad it did, because this year I’ve spent a grand total of $40 on Christmas presents for friends and family. Everything else is courtesy of my Lexis points. The one thing that beats out my distrust of corporate ass-kissing is my love of free stuff. 

*In case you were wondering, my theory is that they want us to grow dependent on their service so when we start working we can’t do legal research without spending vast amounts of money and time using their services. After several years of courting law students and keeping us dependent, they will have cornered the market on legal research, no one will use books anymore, and slowly they will make little changes to the law until one day they rule the world! 

Or just the first part is true …