Student Diary: Amy Ridgeway, 3L
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Student Diary: Amy Ridgeway, 3L |
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Now that I have some distance from my WA State Bar Exam experience, I thought I’d pass on my thoughts about the Bar Exam in case some soon to be graduates might find them of use. I still have about 2 ½ weeks before I find out if I passed or if I have the “opportunity” to go for round #2 this July and retake the Bar Exam. The results get mailed out on 2 May, and then posted on the WSBA web site on 5 May.
My reality was that I work full time and live down south in Lacey, so making it to UW roughly 5 nights a week to sit in bar review classes was not going to happen. So I chose to do home study. Both of the bar review courses offer a home study option. I would rather have sat in the classes, but home study seemed to work fine for me. But I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a disciplined and scheduled plan of attack in your study efforts. I went up to UW for the very first and the very last nights of bar review—I figured that the first night would encompass recommendations for the bar review process, and the last night would give some good tips for the last 10 days and the Bar Exam itself. Then each night after work, I spent anywhere from 2 – 4 hours listening to lectures (the course I took posted the in-class lectures within a few days of the class itself), reading, and working on my outlines. I took leave the 2 weeks before the Bar Exam and the week of the Bar Exam, and I felt as though I needed just about every minute of that time to go over my outlines and practice essays. Do the practice essays they give you. The feedback was invaluable, and the model answers and checklists I received after submitting the essays formed the basis of my last 5 days’ study materials.
As for the Bar Exam itself, I strongly recommend that you stay in a hotel near the Meydenbauer Center. Several of my law school buddies & I stayed at the Coast Hotel, which was about a 7-minute walk from the Meydenbauer Center (but they also had a shuttle van). They also seemed to be the least expensive hotel that was close in (and no, they are not paying me to say that ?). Wherever you stay, make your reservations early. Some of my friends waited too long and could not get rooms. More people take the Bar Exam in July than in February, so I assume there will be even more competition for rooms. I also went up the day before the Bar Exam and did a recon of the Meydenbauer Center itself. That helped me feel a bit more comfortable that first day since I knew exactly where to go the next morning to sign in, where the restrooms were located, and where the room for hand writers was located. Get there early the first day just in case there is an issue with your registration—I saw a couple of people whose registration had a glitch for some reason—certainly not something that you want to deal with 5 minutes before the exam starts.
I hand wrote my Bar Exam—if you hand write, be sure to take both liquid white out & the tape type of white out. Fortunately I had both. I preferred the tape kind, but it tended to get thrown off track, so I resorted to the liquid type on a couple of occasions—I was glad I had it. One of the bar review essay graders recommended that I begin taking 1000 mgs of Ibuprofen at least 3 days before the Bar Exam & then throughout the Bar Exam, which I did. Then at night after the 1st day and 2nd day, I rested my hand in a bucket of ice for a while & then I used a Thermacare wrap for my writing hand. That regimen kept my writing hand in pretty much top shape and I was able to write all 3 days without a problem.
I also recommend that you wear earplugs and keep them in during breaks. Although the hand writing room was very quiet, having ear plugs in really helped shut things out & helped me focus. During the first break on Day 1, I made the mistake of taking them out and when I got a cup of coffee, my law school buddies were all clustered around. One of my fellow grads asked “so how did you like that Family Law question?” I immediately thought that I didn’t see any Family Law question in that set—there was a question that had community property issues, but it was not family law. I then immediately started thinking that I had screwed up and missed the call of the question, but then I got mad at myself and told myself that I have worked hard—the other person was wrong, not me. My discussion that night with my buddies confirmed that my belief was right. After that experience, I pretty much kept to myself during breaks & lunch and kept my earplugs in. Once I was done with a set, that was it—nothing I said to anyone nor anything they said to me could change what I had written, so I just concentrated on flushing my memory banks from the previous questions and not let them affect the rest of the questions. I would recommend however that the first night you determine which topics were tested that day, because that means that some topics might not get tested the 2nd day. For example, although we did not have an Indian Law question at all, had we had one on the first day then I would have wiped it off the list of topics to be tested the 2nd day.
I was not able to make it up for any of the bar review in-class practice essay sessions, and I was concerned that that would put me at a real disadvantage in being able to complete the essays in the allotted time. I was able to complete all the essays in the allotted time, and I never left early even though there was 1 or 2 sessions that I might have been able to leave early (but you’re locked in the room the last 10 minutes of the session, so I would have left just under the wire had I left early). I spent that extra time reviewing my answers, and that was a good thing—I was able to make sure that I underlined key points and words, plus on one PR question, I had completely skipped over 1 sentence that had an issue in it—I had just enough space left to address that issue.
I had assumed that if necessary, we could start fresh on a new sheet of paper. (For those using ExamSoft, this is not an issue as you can edit what you have typed.) On my Article 9 question, I suddenly realized that I had mixed up the analysis of 2 secured interests in my discussion starting out on the backside of the 1 page answer sheet allotted per question. I assumed that I could go up & get another sheet & just start over again for the backside. Nope—what you get in the packet is what you get. Fortunately I was able to white out those 3 lines & rewrite the correct analysis discussion legibly. It was a good lesson to learn, and I’m glad that I had sufficient time to take care of it. I also did not realize that they had scratch paper attached at the back of the questions until the 3rd session. Minor point, but they did not tell us in the instructions and I was so focused on answering the questions that I did not see that scratch paper was attached at the back of the question sheets. I wound up using the question sheets for my scratch paper initially, so all was well.
For my test strategy, as soon as each session started, I went through the 3 questions in the set & wrote down what the call of the question was, then I wrote down the acronyms for the mnemonics for that topic (in case I had a brain cramp while answering the question). I just marched through the questions and answered them in the order that I got them. My bar review course recommended to do easiest first, then the hardest, and then the last one—but my strategy seemed to work OK for me.
I am cautiously optimistic on how well I did. I do not feel as though I missed the call of any of the questions, and I do not feel that I royally screwed up on any of the questions. If I need to retake in July, it’s because I failed to hit enough issues and it’s not due to the bar review course’s lack of preparing me. Finally, good luck to the soon to be graduates—hopefully I will not see any of you in July @ the Meydenbauer Center because If I do, that means I did not pass the Bar Exam. :( My final post will be a smiley face or a frown face, depending on my Bar Exam results. In any event, I will be in a good mood in May—the same day the Bar Exam results are mailed out, my family and I leave for 9 days in Florida at Walt Disney World!
T-36 hours or so until the Bar Exam! I thought I’d post one more time before I hit my outlines & review my graded essays one more time before heading to bed. Several of my fellow law school classmates are heading up to Bellevue tomorrow afternoon to stay at a hotel for the duration of the Bar Exam. It would really, really be sad to go through all this hard work and then have I-5 traffic snarls keep me from getting to the Bar Exam on time.
Do I feel ready? No, but then I rarely ever feel ready for any test I take. There’s always something else that I could have done in my mind. So those of you taking classes this semester, think of us poor souls this Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday as we try to write/type our hands off in 2 hour and 15 minute chunks. One way or another, as of 10:30 this upcoming Thursday, I will finally be able to relax for the first time in a long time. Wish us luck!
Early May I will either post a smiley face because I’ve been inviting to join the WA State Bar :) or a frowny face because I have the opportunity to retake the Bar Exam. :( I am striving for a :) !
Finally, best wishes to SU School of Law students and soon to be students! I can’t say enough good things about the staff and faculty at the law school. I’m proud to be a member of the alumni.
One of my law school study group friends summed it up quite nicely when he said that studying for the Bar Exam is like taking all your law school final exam cram sessions and then combining them all back to back at one time. I wound up having to work all day Saturday to finalize a critical system that goes live on Monday—that’s the bad news. The good news is that Saturday was my last day at work until after the Bar Exam. I have a great boss—she told me that she expects me to keep my BlackBerry shut down for the next 3 weeks while I cram for and take the Bar.
I feel like a broken record, but until I began experiencing it myself, I had a hard time believing it when folks talked about the stress and intensity of this period. All I know is that I’ll do my best because I certainly would rather not go through this again. I really have to control my tendency to be snappy and wish that everyone would just leave me alone with my outlines and essays. I did tell my husband and 2 boys that they could pick what we do on the evening of Friday, 29 February. That’s the day after the Bar Exam! :) I figured that it’s the least I could do for forcing them to put up with the whole law school experience and me for the last 4 years.
One other good piece of news is that our Chevron bill has gone from about $500 a month down to $211—not driving to Seattle four nights a week really cuts down on the need to buy gas more than once every week or so. OK, back to outlining for me. I’m working on Civil Procedure tonight—Torts will be tomorrow. For those SU Law students, good luck in your courses. For those getting ready to start this summer, welcome to your upcoming journey!
Well I need to retract any statements that I have made in the past about how hard it was to juggle work, family & law school. In some ways that was a piece of cake when compared to juggling work, family and preparing for the Bar Exam. Every day reminds me of Groundhog Day—I get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, and listen to lectures and then outline and practice essays until around midnight. Then it’s time for me to go to bed and repeat the sequence again. On the weekends I’ve been spending 10 – 13 hours each day listening to lectures, studying and writing essays, and I still feel a bit overwhelmed. I just keep telling myself that this too shall pass, and all my other friends are in the same boat.
Home study Bar Exam prep seems to be working out OK so far. Actually it’s better for me in some ways because I can replay parts of the lectures as I create my outline. If I need to hear something over again, I can just rewind it back some & listen to it again—that technique doesn’t seem to go over very well in real time classes. (: One thing that is pretty exciting to me is that some things that I never really felt comfortable in my level of understanding in law school are much clearer now than they were then.
Essay writing for the Bar Exam is a radically different proposition than it is for most law school classes. Law school essays often seemed like IRAAAC, with some P (for those of you not in law school, Issue Rule Analysis Conclusion Policy) thrown in, whereas it seems that Bar Exam essays are IRaC, no P (not much analysis, just enough to tie the rule into the fact pattern). Imagine getting 1 or maybe 2 paragraphs chock full of facts and then having 45 minutes to determine which of about 21 different areas the call of the question is about, plus analyzing the fact pattern and writing a max of 1 page (front & back) to talk about it. Imagine doing 3 sets of 3 essays each for 2 days, then writing 6 essays on Professional Responsibility on the 3rd day, and you have the WA State Bar Exam. (:
Well I hear my Admin Law outline calling my name, so I’d better go…..Good luck to everyone in the new semester, and congratulations to those of you who have found out that you were accepted to Seattle University School of Law.
Well I am now unofficially a Seattle University School of Law alumnus—I say unofficially because until my final grades have been submitted, I am not an official graduate. I felt pretty good about my finals, and I am hoping that my professors will feel the same. :) My very last final was Employment Law and at several points during my final as I stopped to take a breath, I thought that this was my very last final ever in law school. But I did not spend much time dwelling on that thought as I had a final to finish! I enjoyed all 3 of my courses my last semester, but I think that I enjoyed Employment Law the best—it was very real world and I felt as though this course provided me info that I could put to use right then and there. It probably also helped that several of the causes of action we discussed were ones which I had either seen or heard of occurring in my employment history.
The graduation ceremony on 12/22 was wonderful. I had my family there and my dad and step-mom flew up from Florida for graduation and to spend Christmas with us. Several co-workers, both past and present, attended the graduation as well. Hopefully I will remain in touch with my study group classmates, as well as the other friends that I have made during law school. The ceremony itself seemed to go by in a blur. It was strange to think that I have spent so much of my last 3.5 years with my fellow graduates, but will probably not see many of them again.
I am very proud of the fact that I have earned my JD from Seattle University. Earning a JD is a dream that I have had for a long time, and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to make my dream a reality. Law school has been a wonderful experience for me—at least most of it has been! I still can’t say that I love the Socratic method, but I realize it’s a necessary evil. I also thought that I was a fairly intelligent person before I came to law school, but I grew to realize that law school is crammed full of very bright individuals. On one hand, law school taught me that I’m not quite as smart as I thought I was (what happened to the high achiever GPAs from my undergraduate & 2 graduate degrees??), but then I learned that I am stronger than I thought. Law school has enabled me to better analyze situations and better articulate my thoughts. It has broadened my mind and made me rethink my previously held positions on several areas. All in all, I am very glad that I made the decision to go to law school, and to attend Seattle University School of Law.
Finally, I need to encourage each of you to make sure that you do not lose sight of what is near and dear to you. It is really easy to become engrossed in the study of law and for those of us who also work, to let school and work consume all your time and energy with very little left for family and friends. I owe my husband and 2 sons a tremendous debt of gratitude. They have been my cheerleaders and put up with my moods and virtual non-existence in their lives, especially during finals and during most of Legal Writing II (or so it seems).
The next hurdle for me is the Bar Exam on February 26, 27 & 28. On January 2nd I start Bar Review. I have decided to do the home study program—driving back and forth to UW (where the bar review courses are located) would eat up a good 3 – 3.5 hours a night commuting back and forth from Tumwater where I work back to Lacey where I live. I feel that time could better be spent reviewing and studying, so I will only drive up for practice exams and maybe a few of the subjects that I did not take in law school. The strategy I have plotted out means I’ll be hitting the books and the audio tapes for a good 3 – 4 hours a night at a minimum, then pretty much the entire weekend. But I’ve essentially been doing that for the last 3.5 years, so I should be able to suck it up for another 7 weeks. :) One somewhat scary thought: the results from the Bar Exam are scheduled to be released on 2 May, and on 3 May I fly to Florida with my family to meet my sister and her family for a week at Disneyworld. So I figure it’ll either be a really excellent celebratory vacation, or else one in which I’ll drown my sorrows in milkshakes at Epcot Center. I am planning on it being a celebratory vacation!
I’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and a terrific start to the new semester.
Tomorrow evening will feel rather strange, for it is the very last evening that I will ever walk into a law school classroom as a student! It’s hard to believe that this day has finally arrived—it has been a long 3 ½ years, but a very rewarding one. A couple of us soon to be graduates will bring some cookies & snacks into E-Evidence for our classmates since that’s the very last course that we have tomorrow night.
However I don’t really have any time to savor that milestone—I really, really need to buckle down and complete my paper for E-Evidence since it’s due next Tuesday. I have way more material than I can ever fit in unless I use ¼ inch margins with size 8 font, but I don’t think that would go over very well. So I’ll write and then cut to get it down to a max of 15 double spaced pages.
This Saturday I’ll meet with a small study group for Public Health Law to prep for our exam on Tuesday. Then I get a week to study for my Employment Law final on the 19th. December has been and will continue to be a massively hectic month. Work has been very hectic, and I just got back from Spokane for business. Then my dad and step-mom should arrive by December 19th for graduation and to spend Christmas with us; on December 21st there will be a Baccalaureate Mass and reception at the Law School for graduates; and then the next morning at 10:00 AM on December 22nd, we graduate. :)
Good luck to those of you who are submitting your applications or getting ready to do so, and congratulations to those who may have gotten the word that they have been admitted. I’m not sure if they have started reviewing applications and notifying those fortunate enough to be accepted at Seattle University School of Law yet, but if they have and you got the good news, congratulations. And if you are currently a law student, why are you reading this and why aren’t you in Sullivan Hall in the law library studying?! And why am I typing this instead of working on my paper?? :)
Well I had an excellent Thanksgiving weekend. I ate too much and I spent a lot of time taking care of my sleep deficit. One would think that I’d be full of energy since I only have 3 classes this semester, but it’s almost as though I’m more tired than I normally am—my body must know that the finish line is almost within sight. :) Unfortunately that means that I failed to accomplish one of my primary goals for Thanksgiving weekend: to have a good rough draft of my E-Evidence paper completed by the end of Thanksgiving weekend since time is getting short. The good news though, is that I did finish virtually all my research for the paper and I have an outline done. So hopefully that means that it won’t be too painful and involve any all-nighters to get done!
I did manage to get nearly all my readings done for the next week for all my classes, so I can focus on my paper. I also need to start pulling stuff together for my Public Health Law final. If I could go back and retake 2 courses as refreshers, I would take Civ Pro and Con Law. They have proven to be the foundation for several other classes I have taken. Contracts has as well, but I had an easier time “getting it” in Contracts, but in Civ Pro & Con Law—not so much. I did fine in both those courses, but it took a lot of work on my part, and I feel as though I did a core dump after both those classes (those of you who are computer geeks will understand what I mean by that).
In Public Health Law, we have waddled through the topic of obesity in the last few weeks, and now we are focused on guns and gun control. The entire topic of gun control and the 2nd Amendment arguments really interest me. However I admit that I am conflicted. Due to my military background, I am comfortable being around weapons and I have a very healthy respect for them and the importance of weapons safety. When I had children, I got rid of the guns that we owned because I did not want them in our house. I could not forgive myself if an accident ever occurred. Now that our 2 boys have gotten a bit older, we plan on having them go through a weapons safety program. Not because we will become gun owners again, but because I want them to know how to handle weapons and to realize how important it is to be safe around guns. So am I pro-guns or anti-guns? I’ll give a standard lawyerly type response—it depends. I am probably more pro-gun than anti-gun, assuming that guns are not misused. I will be very interested in seeing how SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) decides about the recent 2nd Amendment case that they accepted.
E-Evidence is still chugging along. My paper is my main focus, although I need to make sure to carefully read the cases we are assigned since it’s designed to be an interactive class with a fair amount of discussion. Finally next Sunday, I will fly to Spokane for work. I’ll get back just in time for class on Tuesday night, so I should have some quality study time in my hotel room on Sunday & Monday nights.
This weekend I also sat down and did my Financial Aid out-processing on-line. I will be paying $454.97 for the next eternity it seems. Actually I will make sure that I pay more than that per month so I can pay it off quicker. My oldest starts college in 5 years and his little brother starts college in 9 years. We have GET programs for each of them (program that prepays for college in WA State), but it would be nice to not have my law school student loans still hanging around.
I hope your Thanksgiving weekend was a good one. Good luck on your last 2 weeks of class!
Count down is T-minus 6 more class days and counting! :) Much to my surprise, Thanksgiving snuck up on me, and it is actually next week. That means that I need to get really serious about my E-Evidence paper. My goal is to have a good rough draft completed by the end of Thanksgiving weekend since time is getting short. Towards the end of a semester, I always feel as though I’m almost in some type of military operation that needs to be planned out to the minute. The first weekend in December, I need to leave on Sunday to go to Spokane for work. I’ll get back just in time for class on Tuesday night, so that shoots a big chunk of that weekend for working on my paper. The next weekend is the last one before finals start, and my first final is on December 11th—which just so happens to be the same day my paper is due. :( I need to study for my Public Health Law final, so I will meet with some study buddies in Public Health Law that Saturday to compare notes and war game out what questions we might be asked on the final. My last final is Employment Law, and that will be on the evening of December 18th. The good news is that I will have a full week to focus all my study efforts on my last exam.
We had 2 very interesting guest speakers in E-Evidence and Electronic Discovery. If I become a practicing attorney, E-Discovery is definitely the area I would be most interested in. Public Health Law has progressed from the topic of smoking to the topic of obesity. I was amazed to find out that a chicken nugget—just one chicken nugget—has twice the fat of 1 hamburger! Here I’ve been thinking that I was having my kids eat healthier by eating chicken instead of a cheeseburger. Finally, Employment Law is still very interesting. Lots of real world discussions in the class, and some lively discussions as well.
My husband and I sat down the other night and calculated that when I graduate, it will almost be like getting a $500 a month raise because that’s roughly how much my car gas bill runs each month. I am looking forward to relaxing and catching up on sleep as much as I can. I’m also busy doing the calculations to see what combination of annual leave and LWOP (leave without pay) I’ll need to take for the Bar Exam in February. Unfortunately my reality is that I usually have a fairly low annual leave balance due to taking leave at the end of each semester to prep for finals. I plan on taking at least 2 weeks off just before the Bar Exam.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving weekend and that you enjoy your last bit of freedom before prepping for finals. Good luck!!
Hard to believe but I have only 10 more class days left in my SU Law School career! One of my fellow classmates, who also has classes on just Tuesdays and Thursdays, takes great pleasure in giving me the countdown every class we have. I have mixed feelings about reaching the end of my journey. Part of me is ecstatic because I made it (well I’ve almost made it ?), part of me is apprehensive because the 2 finals and a paper are rapidly approaching, and part of me is sad, because I have truly enjoyed my classes for the most part.
Tonight is Halloween, and I’ll get to take my 10 year old out Trick or Treating for the first time in 4 years. My 13 year old has no desire to do so, although he’ll probably just hang out with his friends. My younger son almost managed to make me cry last night about Halloween—the mom of his best friend had invited both of us to go out Trick or Treating with them, and when I told him about it last night after I got home from class, he said that he did not want to go out with them because he wanted to go out with me. When I told him that I also would be there, he told me no—he wanted to go out just with me alone because he never gets me to himself and he has wanted me to take him out Trick or Treating every year, but I couldn’t so because of law school. So it needs to be just him and mom.
E-Evidence and Electronic Discovery is going well. Last week we had to watch a webinar for one class and then write a one-page summary of what we learned. I selected the webinar on the role of technology counsel, and by the end of it, I realized that were I to become a practicing attorney, that is exactly what I want to do. So now I have a goal for when I grow up. Public Health Law has been focusing on smoking, and that is a subject near to my heart. Both my parents smoked like chimneystacks—over a pack a day. I remember growing up and our house smelling like an ash try all the time. My dad quit cold turkey when he had a massive coronary—the hospital frowned on smoking while in an oxygen tent, and my mom suffered from emphysema and wound up on oxygen 24x7 before dying from a stroke about 5 years ago. So I certainly have no love lost for cigarettes. I am glad to say that neither I nor any of my siblings smoke, and both my boys hate cigarette smoke. Hopefully they will not become smokers. My third course, Employment Law, has always been interesting. I really enjoy the format of the class, and the professor is extremely knowledgeable and engaging. We just began digging into areas such as non-compete clauses and the rights of employees to seek other employment. Last week we had a guest speaker on labor law, and I learned a bit more about dealing with unions as management. All in all, I feel pretty good about my final semester—but ask me if I still feel the same way in about a month as finals are starting to stare me in the face!
Earlier this week I signed up for my cap and gown, so graduation is becoming more real to me. Several of us have decided to get together and have lunch with our families after graduation, and I am looking forward to that. It’ll be nice to meet the families of the folks who have been my closest law school buddies these past 3 ½ years.
Good luck to everyone as you begin to prepare for the last part of the semester.
Where the heck has this semester gone?! I can’t believe that we are now at the half way point, soon to be on the downward slope for Fall semester. Last week I received a pleasant surprise in the mail—a letter detailing graduation activities for my class, culminating in graduation on Saturday, December 22nd. I also realized this week that I needed to get on the ball and get my Bar Exam application submitted, so I’m busy trying to remember exactly when I got my one speeding ticket. In my former life (pre-husband and kids), I had a Mazda RX-7, and I loved driving that car. I was in North Carolina one foggy day. Unfortunately I failed to notice that the fog had lifted, and I got pulled over for speeding. Anyway, I digress—the point to the story is to keep track of when you get tickets, etc. so you can easily fill out the Bar Exam application form with a minimum of headaches.
Speaking of the Bar Exam, the results from the February 2007 just got released. Several of my friends passed the Bar, but unfortunately some of my friends did not. One of my friends who did not pass (I was absolutely positive she would) had one of those nightmare experiences on the 2nd day of the Bar Exam—her laptop locked up 3 different times during the exam. Each time her laptop died, she lost precious time, plus she also lost part of her typed out essays. She is now planning on buying a new laptop before she retakes the Bar Exam. The take away from that is to make sure that your laptop is in tip top shape before you take the Bar Exam. After 3 (or in some cases 4 or more) years of law school, your laptop more than likely will have been pushed fairly hard. So make sure that your equipment is in excellent shape. Sometimes I am glad that I hand write all my exams.
My classes are still going well. Next weekend I will focus and devote most of my energy into my paper for E-Discovery and E-Disclosure because the week after that I have to submit a 2-page outline of what my paper will cover.
On the family front, because I only have classes 2 nights a week, I can actually do some things with my family (other than constantly nagging them to be quiet so I can study). My younger son turns 10 tomorrow, so I’ll be taking cupcakes to school for his class. This year Halloween falls on a Wednesday, which means that I can also take him trick or treating for the first time in 4 years. I am really looking forward to that, and he is as well. Even my 13-year son has told me that he’s glad to actually see me some during the week!
Good luck to everyone as you begin outlining and reviewing your notes.
I was shocked last week to have one of my fellow law students proclaim “only 19 more days!” She and I both managed to have our last semester only involve classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and she was right—there were only 19 more class days left. (Of course now that it’s the end of the week, there are only 17 more class days—not that I’m counting at all.) It feels rather strange to be in the double digits since some days it seems like it was only yesterday that I started Crim Law with Professor Bond way back in May 2004. But on the other hand, some days it feels as though it was far longer than that!
I finally wrote out the rather substantial check and finished paying for the Bar Review course that I originally signed up for in my first semester. When I started law school, I thought I’d wait and see if I felt that I really did need to take a Bar review course. Finally my husband (a CPA) told me just to do it. He took a CPA review course and he said that possibly someone could pass the test without the review course, but after going through so much to get to the test, if nothing else, the peace of mind that the review course would provide would be worth it. Unfortunately neither one of the two Bar review courses is offering their course at SU for the February 2008 Bar Exam. The closest live course is at UW. Although UW is not that far from SU, I do not relish the idea of driving from Tumwater after work up to UW five nights a week for Bar review class from 6:00 – 9:30 each evening. It’s about 65 miles each way. Fortunately there is a satellite feed to Tacoma offered if enough have signed up for that option. So I have my fingers crossed that the Tacoma video satellite course will be a go.
In Public Health Law we have moved onto discussing SARS and the Flu, among other topics. I enjoy the discussions in class, and the material is interesting. Employment Law has turned out to be an enjoyable class as well. The Case File method used in class helps liven things up, and thanks to my work experiences, I find that I can easily relate to much of the material that the cases discuss. Last week in E-Discovery and E-Evidence, each student had to analyze a selected state’s discovery rules and modify them as we saw fit to capture the changes that should be made for e-discovery. This assignment was more difficult than I initially thought it would be. It seemed as though each time I made a change, I found something else that should also be change. I finally have also decided on my paper topic (we do not have a final test, but we do have to do a paper as well as some other class assignments.) My selected topic is on email and e-discovery. What must a firm or public agency be prepared to do to meet an e-discovery request involving email? What can a firm or public agency do to prepare themselves for an e-discovery request involving email? And finally, what is the current state of the art of tools out there to assist firms and public agencies in e-discovery efforts involving email?
On a non-law school related note, my sympathies in advance for the upcoming Steelers—Seahawks game on Sunday. I know that it will be a definitive Pittsburgh victory again, but I promise not to gloat too much next week!
Good luck studying...
Welcome back to Law School and a special welcome to the 1Ls. Word of advice to 1Ls: hook up with a 2L—they may be willing to share outlines, study guides, etc. from their formative 1L year! Get to know the law school library since you’ll probably be spending a fair amount of time in it between Legal Writing I & II, plus studying for finals.
This summer I took Evidence (my last mandatory course) and Legal Research Methods, a course all about electronic legal research. I can’t encourage you enough to take the Legal Research methods course. It was probably the most labor intensive 2 credit course I have taken, but it was worth it. I am now very confident of my legal research skills, and there are some outstanding sources of info that I never dreamed existed. The course actually was fairly fun, as I spent a lot of time conducting the “scavenger hunts” required to find the answers to the weekly assignments and mastery exams.
This fall (my last semester), I only needed 7 credits to graduate but in order to get those 7 credits, I had to take 8 credits. I am in Public Health Law, Employment Law, and Electronic Discovery and Electronic Evidence. One major added bonus for me is that these classes are on Tuesday and Thursday nights, so I only have to drive up to Seattle 2 nights vice 4 nights a week. That is terrific since I’ve been making that trek from Olympia 4 nights a week for the last 3 years.
Public Health Law has focused on Constitutional issues so far. We’ve gotten to discuss such fun topics such as smallpox, cholera and ferrets. I enjoy the professor’s teaching style and it’s an interesting course, so thumbs up on it so far. Employment Law is very interesting to me—because I also work full time, I have a context in which to place the topics we’ve been discussing. We’re also using a new system called the Case File system. Each week we read a couple of Case Files. Each Case File is written as though it’s a file given to an associate to research a specific employment law related topic. We’ve had some pretty lively class discussions, and so far, I am really enjoying the course. So this one gets another thumbs up. My last course, Electronic Discovery & Electronic Evidence, is the course that I was most looking forward to this semester since I work in IT. It’s team taught by 3 professors. Initially I was afraid that it would be rather disjointed, but that has not been the case so far. The topics are interesting, and they’ve already had a great guest speaker on conducting computer forensic investigations. So this course also gets thumbs up. What more could I ask for in my very last semester—3 courses I enjoy, so it doesn’t get much better than that!
I have learned how to juggle all my glass balls successfully—those glass balls of school, work and family. I’ve learned to focus and be in the moment for whatever I’m doing at that time. Compartmentalization is crucial for not only my stress level, but so my family and friends don’t disown me. I’ve learned that people who aren’t in law school really are not that into hearing about legal matters and topic, unless it directly affects them. Then they are very interested in hearing about your thoughts on divorce, bankruptcy, contracts, or whatever they need some legal info on. I am always very careful to point them towards a real lawyer.
I also have made one major life change this month—I applied for, interviewed and was offered a new job, which I accepted—I started my new job last week. It’s still in IT, but it’s an IT director position. I will definitely be able to put my legal training to good use, and I was pleasantly surprised that the fact that I am about to get my JD was a real plus. I also feel that law school has given me more self-confidence, and prior to law school, I doubt that I would have applied for a position like this. They have also agreed to let me take 2 weeks off just before the Bar Exam next February. That was important to me, because the Bar Exam will undoubtedly be an experience that I do not care to repeat.
All right, enough about my 4L experiences for now. Have a great start to the semester & good luck!