Now that the semester is half over, I figured I’d tell you what I’ve been doing. I’ve wanted to write about the things I’m doing this semester because I think it shows the diversity of opportunities at Michigan. Though it’s very uncharacteristic of me to take “practical courses,” I find myself taking only practical courses this semester! My general philosophy usually is, “Hey, I’m spending enough money to be here in what is most likely my last go around at formal education so I’m going to take the classes that pique my interest. Bar Exam be damned!!” After working last summer, however, I realized I actually enjoy practicing law (cheers I chose the right profession!). So, coming back to school, I was looking for classes that would allow me the opportunity to engage the law on a more practical level.

One class I am taking is the Child Rights Appellate Clinic. The goal of the course is to learn how to write, and then actually write, an appellate brief dealing with the termination of parental rights. I picked this clinic because I had an interest in appellate work and wanted to see some first hand since I only did trial work last summer. I’ve learned appellate work can be frustrating! If you weren’t the trial attorney, then you only have a paper record regarding what happened at the trial level. A lot gets lost when you try to confine life to paper. Additionally, when you are reading the record and analyzing it looking for legal and factual issues, you notice when the trial attorney made a mistake. Now, people make mistakes, but it’s crucial for a trial attorney to notice mistakes as soon as possible and put objections on the record because if they let something slide, I can’t bring it up on appeal. Doing this appellate work has definitely given me a greater appreciation for trial attorneys.

I am also doing an independent study at the ACLU in Detroit once a week. I go to Detroit once a week and assist the ACLU staff attorneys with research, writing memos, etc. I also meet with a supervising professor every other week and submit journal entries about the experience. Impact litigation is a very different beast from the kind of work I did last summer. In impact litigation, the goal is to use litigation to try and change the law. A lot of time is spent trying to strategize what law we want changed, the best strategy to attack the current law and then finding the right plaintiff as a vehicle for that change. A common legal phrase is “bad facts make bad law.” Because judges have to contain their opinions to the facts of a case, the ACLU tries to find plaintiffs that are very sympathetic and have had their rights violated. When you have the right kind of facts, a plaintiff can demonstrate to the court the unintended consequences of a law or the absurdity of applying the law to this person in the manner it had been applied in the past. The kind of work I did this summer, however, was very client-based rather than cause-based and we didn’t really do a lot of prescreening of clients. At the ACLU, however, most of my time has been spent investigating a group of potential plaintiffs and finding out if their potential claim is the kind we want to bring. Impact litigation, by its nature, is slower and very deliberate. It’s a very interesting contrast to the fast-paced work I did this past summer.

Finally, I am actually taking two “normal” classes: jurisdiction and evidence. Most law schools teach jurisdiction in their 1L civil procedure classes. But we’re MICHIGAN!! And we do things differently! We teach it as an upper level course and combine it with conflicts of law. Jurisdiction is one of those “unspoken requirements” that you don’t need to graduate, but if you want to clerk you should have it. I’m actually enjoying it more than I thought. My professor is a very good at running the class and poses really thought-provoking questions to us. I will probably never think so hard about jurisdiction issues when practicing law, but it has been a fun thought exercise and interesting to see the practical effects of high-minded theory.

I decided to take evidence after I ran into some evidence issues this summer (I also ran into jurisdiction issues and sort of had to wing it—with research of course)! I found the issues interesting and wanted to learn more about the theory behind the rules. My evidence course is more focused to the practice of law. We don’t read cases. Instead, we read the Rules of Evidence and then play around with hypotheticals. It really demonstrates the interconnectedness of the rules and how the rules substantially shape trials.

Despite a semester of going practical, I’ll be heading back into the land of classes that cover subjects that will not be on the Bar Exam! I’ll be taking First Amendment, Family Law, Employment Law and probably a seminar. Doing more practical classes this semester has been enjoyable and it helps me further in my quest to determine what kind of law I want to do. I’m just trying to get a broad range of experiences to best find in what area of law I belong (definitely litigation). The best part is that Michigan definitely provides the opportunities to do that.

Well, we’re back in school. Football has started, as have Project Runway Wednesdays and Thursday Beer Nights. I can hear the band practicing from the Phid porch. Back to classes, student organization commitments, and being cold-called in class.

Coming back to school as a 2 ½ L was crazy. The week before classes even started we had OCI. OCI is the on-campus interview process where tons of firms and other employers come to campus (well, they come to a hotel north of campus) and interview roughly 20 students a day. It was incredibly exhausting. I was pretty fortunate in that my interviews were pretty evenly spread out over the four days of interviewing. Some people had eight, nine, even eleven interviews in a day! By the third and fourth day, you’ve repeated your shtick so many times you can only hope it sounds new and unrehearsed and that an employer can still read enthusiasm from behind your glassy, bloodshot eyes. The other challenge is to remember the name of the firm for which you are interviewing.

The OCI rituals were rather hilarious and I’m sure an anthropology or sociology student observing the process would come up with some very interesting theories and conclusions. The first funny thing was what one law student referred to as “the student freak-out room.” Because all interviews take place in a hotel north of campus there is a student lounge where the students can hang out between interviews, prepare for the next interview, eat, nap, and check “the Big Board” looking for any remaining open interview slots and double check the assigned interview rooms. Can you imagine 300+ (my unsupported estimate) law students kept in one room with no internet (or at best spotty internet access) dressed to the nines, practicing their spiels, nervously gossiping for four days?! It’s a struggle because you’re not supposed to talk about interviews and callbacks openly because it’s rude but yet those are the only things on everyone’s minds so conversation was often limited to the age-old stock question: “How was your summer?”

I generally hung out in the hallway where there were comfy sofas and chairs and some actual sunlight from the courtyard. Of course, waiting in the hallway has its risks too. Employers would walk down the hallway constantly and sometimes you can’t tell the difference between a law student and an interviewer. Speak at your own risk for fear of being overheard saying something stupid!

When it is time for your interview, you walk up to the hotel room door which will have the interviewer’s schedule for the day on it. Imagine 20+ law students lining a hotel hallway waiting outside doors, folders open, trying to absorb every last bit of information about the firm before the interview. When it’s time for your interview (and law students are accurate to the minute) everyone knocks on the door nearly simultaneously. The visual of an entire hall of law students knocking on hotel doors simultaneously is fantastic!

The door knocking, however simple it seems, presents its own unique challenges. No one wants to be the first to knock, but once that first knock happens, the rest follow almost immediately. After knocking, you wait for your interviewer to come out and invite you in. You have to be careful to knock hard. I knocked for one of my interviews and waited. Five minutes passed…ten minutes passed (that’s half of your interview time!!)…then the dilemma: do you knock again and risk sounding rude and impatient or do you just continue to stand in an empty hallway and risk missing your entire interview? I opted for option one and it turned out fine. I screwed up the fragile system later on that same day too. My watch (everyone NEEDS some way of keeping time at OCI) is always five minutes fast and I read it as real time. For one of my interviews, I looked at my watch, thought it was time and knocked. Everyone in the hallway just stared at me. I didn’t account for the five minute cushion! I knocked five minutes early! It was one of those moments when you turn bright red and wish you could shrink out of existence. I felt so bad and was hoping that the people inside hadn’t heard me. But they did. Again, however, I apologized profusely and everything turned out alright.

Once you’re in the interview, the amusement continues. Interviewing isn’t particularly amusing, but the environment is. You are dressed in your fanciest suit and the interviewers are also in their suits (or business casual depending on the firm). So you have two professionally dressed people talking in a hotel room with the beds leaned up against the wall overlooking either the pool or the parking lot. Generally people don’t envision their professional careers originating from twenty minutes in a hotel room with a stranger. I find the disconnect comical. Some people attempt to make some witty remark about the beds but that’s only good for your first interview or your first two interviews because it gets stale fast and isn’t terribly original.

When your interviews for the day are over, you imagine you’ll go home, eat dinner, research your firms for the next day and have a good night’s sleep….HA! You aren’t done when your interviews are over because there are firm receptions every single night. Firms will reserve space at local bars and restaurants and host receptions where students can meet and mingle not only with their interviewers but also with other attorneys in the firm.

Some firms hosted their receptions the night after they interviewed students which I preferred because the interview is done which for me meant less pressure. Some firms hosted receptions the night before they interviewed so you could potentially meet your interviewer before your interview. These I was less fond of because I worry about exhausting all the interview-type topics and then having less to discuss for the actual interview. Some people preferred meeting their interviewers the night before because the environment was more casual. So it’s really all about personal preference. Whether you are attending a reception the night after your interview or the night before, the most important thing to remember is that YOU ARE STILL INTERVIEWING at the reception! There will be alcohol and food but you have to stay in professional lawyer-mode. This can be difficult when students are attending more than one reception in one night. If you’re lucky, you’ll be home by 9:00 or 10:00 pm and only then start preparing for your interviews the next day which will probably begin before 9:00am!

It’s a whirlwind four days and just when you think it’s over, firms start calling you back to interview in person at their office so 2Ls are out of town nearly every weekend. It makes you wonder when we ever have time for class!

I recognize it’s been far more than a month since I have last blogged and I greatly apologize for that. Same old excuses: exams, exams, blah blah blah. No more about exams!

So I’m halfway done with my summer job and it’s been really fantastic. I couldn’t have asked for a better job. I am in DC this summer—I definitely plan on moving here after graduation and am only applying to DC firms for fall OCI (more later).

I’m a summer law clerk (“law clerk” has such a better ring than “intern” don’t you think?) for Bernabei & Wachtel. It’s a private public interest litigation firm. I had no idea that there existed an entire world of private public interest firms! It’s great because I am getting firm experience and training (and getting enough compensation to stem the avalanche that is my student debt!) but still doing public interest work which gives me the warm fuzzies inside. Private public interest is a great middle ground between a large corporate firm and a non profit public interest summer job.

My firm is a very small firm—3 partners, 1 associate, 2 fellows, 1 permanent law clerk (who really just wants to be a writer and still hasn’t taken the bar!) and 3 law clerks (obviously we have our support staff as well) and they specialize in plaintiff-side claims of employment discrimination (race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, etc.), whistleblower protection, retaliation and sexual harassment. I’ve had so many opportunities to do real substantive work. I just finished researching and writing a reply brief opposing a motion that was filed in federal district court last week!

I still feel like I am “playing lawyer” sometimes. In school, you are always writing for yourself (and your professor) and so you are the only one really affected by your work. Plus, in legal practice and in my moot court, the cases and clients were completely fictitious. But when you have to explain your research to a partner and work side-by-side with a client, you realize just how important your work can be. The attorneys and the clients rely very heavily on my work. For instance, one of our attorneys actually argued my brief in court! I was so proud to hear her use my arguments in court but yet I was so nervous watching the judge’s reaction and hoping he would find my research and arguments persuasive. It can create a lot of added pressure to do well and be thorough. It’s difficult when someone else’s money/job/reputation is at stake.

This summer has definitely made me realize I want to be a litigator—it’s a major accomplishment if you know whether you want to be a litigator or a corporate attorney after your first summer. It often takes students awhile to figure that out. But I have always been someone who knows what she wants—I did apply ED to Michigan after all! Litigation is very interesting and quite exhausting at times. Just like school, when you have a deadline coming up you work late nights—whatever it takes to help your client. There is always something different in litigation as well. Even though my firm specializes in employment law, I’ve done research on attorney-client privilege (which coincidentally was the Michigan Law Review writing topic this year!), party use of pseudonyms in cases, §1985(2) claims prohibiting conspiracies to interfere with people’s civil rights, employer liability for employee torts, etc. I’ve also had a number of opportunities to meet with clients and potential clients, doing their initial intakes, observing their consultations and drafting demand letters and correspondence for them.

In my spare time (is there any?) I’ve been procrastinating on a paper for my seminar last semester! Such a bad habit! Most of my spare time has been spent researching firms for OCI. OCI happens the week before classes start. Students can bid for up to 30 firms. You interview over 4 days (sometimes 6 interviews in one day!—the 2Ls looked so glazed over after OCI!) and then during the fall firms call you back and fly you out to their offices to do a full day of interviews, meetings with partners and I have no idea what else. I suppose I’ll find out in a few months. There are so many employers coming to Michigan and all of them are prestigious firms. 2Ls and 3Ls are great resources at this time—I have friends in so many different firms whom I can ask for the inside dirt on their firms and how they have felt about their summer experiences in their firms.

I’m only applying to DC firms in the fall. Most students apply for 2 markets but if you spread yourself too thin across many markets, your chances of an offer decreases substantially. I love DC and know I want to be here after graduation so I have no need to apply to other markets. DC has been fantastic this summer and I can’t wait to be here permanently. I’ve been able to catch up with so many college friends who are in the area. There have also been Michigan Law happy hours to connect all the students here this summer. We have quite a large number of MLaw students here this summer. Just last week I attended a happy hour just for current and former Phiddies (people who lived in the Phid house). My family is coming in for the 4th of July this weekend. I’m very excited to do a number of the touristy things with them like the monuments and museums, but also some of the more town-y things like going to Kramerbooks and Afterwards Café, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the fireworks on the mall.

DC is just such a great city for a native Midwesterner like myself: it has the cultural offerings of a large city and yet doesn’t feel overwhelming like New York or Philadelphia. Leaving my car at home, however, was bittersweet. It’s so convenient to be car-less in DC and I’ve even joined Zip Car this summer for grocery shopping and excursions to Target. When you take public transportation, you never have to worry about who is going to be the designated driver (my dad wasn’t too happy to hear that public transportation may have increased my “socializing” but he was very happy that he didn’t have to worry about me!) :) Yet I miss my car. As a Midwesterner, I come from a driving culture and I really love driving down the highway in the summer with the windows down and the stereo blasting. But now I can do that with Zip Car!!

So the summer has been going great! I hope the summer has been going as well for anyone who may read this! Now maybe I’ll get a start on that paper :)

Even though I won’t be around for preview weekends, I was trying to help the admissions office as much as possible by partaking in the email-a-thon. I don’t do phone-a-thons because I have a phobia of randomly calling people I’ve never met and trying to have a forced, awkward conversation. Some people are amazing at starting up phone conversations—I am not one of them so I prefer to email admitted students. Plus, it gives me more time to think about answers to the questions admitted students ask me. Having been here now for three semesters (it’s crazy to think I’ll be halfway done with law school in a month and a half!) I realized in answering student emails just how immersed I’ve already become in law school jargon and in law school life. I forget some of the things that people really want to know before coming to law school. So I thought it would be a helpful entry to post some of the questions students have asked me via email and my responses to those questions to help other students who may have the same questions. Answers will be edited only to make the answers more generally applicable to a wider audience and in case I accidentally told someone something silly or incorrect over email.

1. How do you like moot court? How time-consuming is it?

I have liked my moot court so far. Its almost like role-play. The research was arduous, but since I want to practice appellate litigation and in particular constitutional law, it’s the kind of thing I'll have to do anyway. The biggest fear for me while researching was that I’d miss an important case—but that's a worry with all kinds of research. At some point, you just don't have enough time to read everything that ever existed on a topic. We're going to start mooting (practicing) our oral arguments next week. We had to submit a 30-page brief (but it was double-spaced and in courier new which is the largest font known to man. And there were 2 questions--I had 15 pages for my part and my partner had 15 pages for his part so it actually wasn't that much space for writing). Regarding how time-consuming--it depends (obvious answer I know). I wasn't really doing anything else except the brief in the 2 weeks before the due date. Late nights, not that much sleep, but it was worth it. We submitted it on Jan. 18th and haven't done a thing since until now. Now we're going back into hardcore mode analyzing arguments, planning oral arguments, etc. But this stage doesn't require as much research (but we do have to read the briefs from other teams and know the arguments backwards and forwards because we have to argue both sides in the competition)! I'm looking forward to it. It’s a great way to get some practical experience and yet there are no real consequences involved so if you royally screw up, it’s no big deal.

Update: My team has mooted the argument a few times and the actual competition is next weekend! I have been spending much more time lately (we’re back in crunch-time mode) really digging into cases and arguments to support absolutely everything we say. You really have to know everything forwards and backwards. Oral arguments can be very intimidating. Judges can stop you at any point in your argument and ask you any kind of question they want. Sometimes they want you to clarify a point or provide support for a point but often they will ask you hypotheticals to push your argument to its logical limits which can sometimes cause people to get trapped in their arguments or end up with inconsistencies. You have to be prepared to present your argument for your entire allotted time in case you have a “cold panel.” We mooted yesterday and I had barely gotten through my opening statement when one of the judges jumped right in and started asking really challenging questions. But when the judges are done asking questions, you have to find out where you are in your presentation and keep going as if you weren’t interrupted, which can be very challenging. It’s also challenging to figure out what a judge is looking for when they ask you questions. Obviously they want a point clarified, but their questions indicate how they feel about the argument and about the case and good litigators can read judges and try to address judges’ concerns before the judges’ even ask questions. It’s best to think of it as a more formalized conversation between you and the panel of judges. I just hope all goes well in Denver! One of the great things about Michigan is that there are actually a lot of opportunities for 1Ls to get involved in moot courts while at a lot of schools it’s restricted to upperclassmen.

2. Since I have a lot of time on my hands right now - is there a particular book about law school (in any sense) that you've found helpful or enjoyed reading?

DONT DO IT!! I mean, a lot of people recommend either OneL or Paperchase (which is definitely a movie, but I don't know if it’s a book). Those are the classic law school stories but they're so DEPRESSING! My friend and I watched paperchase after 3 weeks of school and while it was fun to recognize the cases they mentioned in the movie, we realized that our experience wasn't like that at all. I haven't read oneL. I've heard that it’s far more accurate than paperchase but also incredibly depressing at times. I would personally recommend doing as much pleasure reading as you can, because that falls by the wayside at law school. I think the law school books are best saved for when you are actually in law school so that you don't create irrational fears or preconceptions. Having said that, other people would disagree and say reading law-related books before law school is helpful because they came in expecting the worst and it turned out better than the books. So it’s up to your personal judgment, but I highly recommend pleasure reading

3. If you or your friends have a car on campus, how much use does it get in the summer? I would ask the same question for the Fall semester as well, with the note that I think I'll be living in the Lawyers Club.

I do have a car here because I am only 40 minutes away from my hometown. I don't think a car is necessary, however. The only time you really need a car is for big grocery shopping which you won't do anyway once you're living in the lawyers' club. It’s easy to be carless here because there are TONS of restaurants and shops and entertainment all within walking distance. Ann Arbor is a pretty small town but because of the university, it can draw a lot of really unique businesses and cultural performances. I would say in the summer I drove my car once or twice a week (I was on a summer softball team and the fields were definitely not in walking distance). I haven't used the bus system but I know a lot of people who do and they really like it. Plus, you will have friends that have cars and (I can't speak for everyone) but I am always willing to give rides. It’s probably more beneficial to have a car here in the summer than in the winter. People do go to Detroit (go tigers!) and concerts and take trips more often in the summer because there is more time. In the winter, I would say I drive my car once every 2 weeks or so for grocery shopping or running unexpected errands. If my family weren't around here, I would probably not have needed a car. Also--parking is EXPENSIVE (on craigslist now spaces are going for around $100 a month) and hard to find during the school year so keep that in mind.

Another long blog—but you know you love it.

So I realized I haven’t blogged in awhile (and by realized I mean I received a friendly reminder!) so I’m going to try to get back on track. I always have difficulty during the beginning of semesters because I am a very routine-oriented person and it takes me awhile to get “in the groove” so to speak. But I should be settled enough to at least blog before dinner!

This is the Third and Final Chapter of my 1L year because of my summer-start-ness so this is my third semester in a row. So technically I am now a 2L, but no one here thinks of us that way and we don’t even consider ourselves 2Ls.

The one perk we have over the fall starters right now is that we have electives! We are currently in our last 1L doctrinal course (criminal law) but we chose all our other classes and I needed it! Not that the doctrinal courses are bad, but I was ready for some new people and new topics to explore. I also delight in making my own class schedule so I am essentially done for the week on Wednesdays and don’t have class after noon (except on Tuesdays).

I was expecting, however, this semester to be more laid back than last since I am commonly told that 1L year is the hardest. But I feel even more stretched than last semester! I am on the ACS moot court team and my team’s brief was due only a week and a half after classes started! So I was trying to figure out my schedule, do reading for my new classes and yet still finish researching and writing my part of a 30 page brief for a competition! Next week my partner and I hope to start mooting the argument so we can (hopefully) knock the socks of the judges in Denver. Yes, moot courts = free trip (most of the time). I’ll be in Denver, my other friends doing moot courts will be all over the place, including LA, New York and Chicago. I don’t know about other law schools, but there are an incredible number of moot court opportunities for 1Ls here at Michigan.

It’s also that time of year for 1Ls to be in the midst of hard-core summer job searching! We weren’t allowed to contact anyone before December 1. A lot of desirable firms don’t take 1Ls or if they do, their spots fill up incredibly fast, so people try to get their letters (resumes and cover letters) out as soon as they can after December 1. Some people “mail merge” (some voodoo type of computer thing I don’t know how to do because I am basically as computer-illiterate as someone can be while still functioning in this millennium) and blanket entire markets (cities) with letters—upwards of 200 letters sometimes! Because I am primarily a public interest kind of person, I only applied to a very few, small, public interest-specific law firms in DC. I had no idea that small private public interest firms existed! But I figured it would be worth a shot.

The main public interest hiring thrust occurs about now in January/early February. Most of the early letters to firms were answered with some very nice rejection letters asking us to apply next year as 2Ls. My friend received a hilarious rejection letter stating that their firm was so small that they don’t take summer associates. In fact, they don’t hire anybody! I also angrily threw away a letter that misspelled my name. For all the care and precision in our cover letters and resumes, firms could at least spell our names right; its only on every piece of paper we send to them. There are also always stories of students receiving rejections from firms to which they never applied! So no one takes rejection too seriously. I only received one interview from my December mailing and it just happened to be the job I accepted. Just like grades, there’s competition to see who gets interviews where and who gets offers from where. But some people received a lot of interviews but had no offers and then some people like me only get one interview but that turns into an offer. There’s really nothing predictable at all except that everyone does get a job. It just may not be paid. But, as the ever so wise 2L & 3Ls have told me, the most important thing about your 1L job is that you find something interesting so you have something to talk about when you interview in the fall for those large, desirable firm jobs that pay loads of money.

For now, my mission is to try and cope with the summer starter burn out! Yes, I am already affected and I can’t imagine it’ll get better as the semester goes on. Other 2L & 3L summer starters warned us about this, but no matter how much someone warns you, you simply aren’t prepared for the burn out. That was why my strategy to get through the semester would be to take only fun classes and save the rest of my requirements for next year when I’m (hopefully) refreshed! I knew the one thing keeping me going this semester would have to be genuine interest in my classes, which I did find. And I am again engaging in the futile mission of attempting to outline during the semester and reading ahead. I’m feeling more pressed than in previous semesters to do this because I have one class that is backloaded in the semester and won’t start until March! So I’ll have a huge crunch trying to write my seminar paper and studying for exams in March while adding another whole new class to my schedule! In the words of Tim Gunn (Project Runway reference anyone?) you’ve just got to “make it work!” For now things are going smoothly and I’m settling into my comfortable rut. I can’t even fathom that in 3 months from now, I’ll be half-way done with law school! CRAZY!

Our torts exam was three and a half hours of typing as fast as you can and as much as you can. Walking into the exams, we knew the general format. It is very helpful that the law library stores old exams from professors. They are great study aids. Though the exam was exhausting, I actually did enjoy it. Torts was always fun for me because I enjoyed reading the hysterical and totally outlandish scenarios that Prof. Clark could cook up.

I had two huge fears regarding the torts exam. 1) I was afraid my electronic bluebook software (our exam taking software) wouldn’t work. I find laptops so unreliable and I seem to be cursed with weird and unexplainable laptop problems, like when mine makes a very angry “PEEP” sound and freezes after coming out of hibernation. Or that when my laptop does successfully come back to life after hibernation, the icons on my desktop have all shifted down two spots. 2) My other fear was that the questions wouldn’t be weighted equally and I would have to do the math on the spot to figure out how much time I should use per question. Now, its not that I can’t do math, its just that I become very anxious about the notion of doing mental math quickly. Not my forte.

Well, fear number 1 did not materialize for me. But fear number 2 did happen. Thank goodness I was sitting next to my friend who was a math major as an undergrad. She calmly ran the figures in her head and told me I had “x” amount of time on question 1, “x” amount on 2, etc. Total lifesaver. I probably could have done it by myself were my mind not locked in fear, but its always great to have someone double check your figures.

Next order of business was the distribution of ear plugs. I had no idea this was a normal part of law school exams. But, as a 2L had told me, without earplugs, you might just go mad due to the sound of 50 people typing furiously on their laptops. I decided to try the earplugs. Partway through the exam, just for the experience, I took out my earplugs just to listen briefly. It really was enough to make someone go crazy. It could be likened to water torture but with the incessant “click, clickity click” of laptops.

When it was all over, my fingers could barely move and my brain was numb. I felt like the entire semester of torts had just oozed out of my brain through my fingers into a completely incoherent exam file. But I was happy it was over and some friends and I went to a bar for lunch and had a beer to celebrate surviving our first law school exam. The rest of the day was devoted to nothingness. I watched baseball, ate really delicious but really unhealthy foods and watched a number of movies. The 2 and 3L’s had told us to plan on doing nothing for the rest of the day after an exam because your mind just needs a break. Well, I took that advice to heart. But the next day came far too soon and I was back at the library at 8 AM to spend the whole day studying for the contracts exam. The biggest challenge for me for the contracts exam was just feeling confident. Even fake confidence helps at some level. The goal was simply to avoid freaking out and freezing during the exam.

We knew Prof. Ben-Shahar’s exam would be difficult, and it was, but I felt alright about it. We had 2 hours of 30 multiple choice questions that were the most difficult multiple choice questions any of us had ever seen. The most frustrating thing afterwards was that there was no way to gauge how you performed. A general comment by many students was, “I could just as easily have gotten 3 questions right as 25 questions.” But there wasn’t much time to dwell on the multiple choice because we had to pick up the take-home portion of the exam by 11:00 AM. The take-home portion was 4 essay questions, limited to one page a piece with 6 hours in which to complete it. Some of the questions seemed simple. But simplicity is a dangerous thing because if it seems easy, then there’s probably something else and more complicated going on underneath the surface. You become paranoid you’re missing something. For me, the biggest challenge in the essay portion was staving off exhaustion and apathy. After 2 hours of the hardest multiple choice in the world and writing 4 essay questions while the summer sunshine beckoned, I just wanted to be done and go home. It took a lot of discipline to devote all my attention to the exam itself instead of thinking about how much I wanted to be done.

I know the exam experience sounds awful the way I describe it, but you already know exams are not the most pleasant things to do, yet everyone has to go through them and everyone survives them. The best part about Michigan is that you’re going through the toughest times with a great group of people who are suffering equally. Hey, misery loves company and I couldn’t really ask for better company with which to commiserate. Every part of the semester that wasn’t exams was great and when I take the whole semester into perspective, I really enjoyed myself and don’t regret anything. I certainly don’t regret leaving the library early some days to watch a movie or eat dinner with friends. I don’t regret skipping studying on a Friday night to go to a party or go putt-putting. In all, this semester was a very good experience. I haven’t had any existential crisis wondering if I should have done something else rather than law school. I know I belong here and I am very happy with my decision not only to attend law school, but to attend Michigan.

I apologize that this entry has been so long in coming; but life (or exams!) sometimes gets in the way. About a month before exams, our contracts class ended because Prof. Ben-Shahar was leaving the country. Though it was still a month until exams, the end of a class meant the thought of exams would be the ever-present worry for all students and the inevitable topic of discussion for the next four weeks.

I had never started studying for exams so early and I had never seen a place so crazy before exams. It wasn’t quite the scene in Paperchase (a movie about the 1L year. I recommend watching it, but not until you’ve been in law school for a few weeks already or it can freak you out), but the tension was palpable. I place blame on a number of factors that made the pre-exam period so stressful.

1. Commercial study aids: Some people find them helpful, others don’t, but so many people were preoccupied with which study guide to use even after Profs. Ben-Shahar and Clark were very clear that you don’t need a commercial study aid and were very hesitant to recommend any materials outside of class readings and class notes. In my one semester, limited experience, the one I found most helpful was not an outline, but a book of case briefs. I found it most helpful during the semester for contracts because sometimes the cases got confusing and the case briefs sometimes explained the holding more clearly or made the facts more clear. During my exam study, I found the case brief books most helpful to refresh my memory of the holdings of the case, rather than re-reading the entire case. But I probably would have done the same without them. I don’t even know if they helped at all considering we summer starters won’t get our first semester scores until late September.

2. The Law School itself: This factor, though it contributed to the stressful atmosphere pre-exams, is actually a good factor. Early and throughout the semester, MAP and FYI (groups to help 1Ls and beyond) held many meetings on strategies of outlining and study tips and joining study groups. The one thing I learned from these presentations was that everyone has a studying style of their own and you can’t really teach someone the “right way” to outline. Some people don’t outline at all, some people spend the majority of their studying in study groups. The key is to find what works for you. Though this was the overwhelming message of all exam prep presentations, students would still ask questions at the end of the presentations looking for the “right answer.” We all want the right answer: the “right” way to study, the “right” way to read cases, the “right” law, etc. But one of the things I have found simultaneously very freeing and also very frustrating about law school is that most often there simply is no “right answer.”

3. The Curve!: Law school grades are on a curve, meaning that you are graded not on how you do as an individual, but how you do compared to your fellow students. I know this may seem obvious, but I had never been graded on a curve before and wasn’t exactly sure how it worked so I thought I would err on the side of too much information, as usual. Some professors have a very narrow curve, meaning there are very few high or low grades and everyone tends to fall within a narrow middle range. Other profs have a flatter curve which allows for more higher grades, but also more lower grades. The curve has an interesting effect on students. It simultaneously decreases stress levels and increases stress levels. It decreases stress levels because you don’t really have control over your grades to an extent. All you can do is study very hard (which everyone did), get a lot of sleep, do your best and hope for the best. You can’t control what your friends do and how they’ll perform on the exam. If you are merely on par with your fellow students, you’ll get a “B” (so I’m told). That’s not the end of the world now is it? A number of professors, moreover, have shared that exceptionally high grades only really matter if you want to clerk for the Supreme Court or go into teaching. The on campus interviews (OCI) cannot select students for GPA, so as long as you can interview well, a less than stellar GPA won’t prevent you from getting a job—not just any job but a good job. My dad is a Michigan Law School alum and when I was discussing the stress surrounding exams and grades, he gave me this tidbit of totally made up advice: “‘A’ students go into teaching, ‘B’ students become judges, and ‘C’ students get rich.” When I asked my dad which category he fit into as he is neither a teacher, nor a judge, nor rich, he stated, “d—none of the above!”

Yet the curve also greatly increases the stress level of this school and every law school that uses a curve (which is the vast majority from my understanding). It seems almost instinctual, but students inevitably worry more about how their friends are studying and how much their friends are studying rather than worrying about their own studying, even though simply spending more hours studying in no way guarantees better grades! There arises a tension between one of Michigan’s great selling points and the dreaded law school curve. Michigan is a place where students are definitely competitive, but not cutthroat and do not sabotage each other and are encouraged to study together, but with the curve, you can’t help but wonder slyly about how your friends are studying and how much they’re studying. Perhaps it wasn’t so difficult for other students, but it took me a very concerted effort to focus on myself and not anyone else, and not to feel guilty when I took a half-hour break to watch a baseball game instead of studying. I was still studying anywhere from 10-14 hours a day the week before exams. Granted, I have no idea if any of that will pay off since I have no grades yet, but it comes to the point where you’ve done all the studying you can do and you just relax and do your best on the exam. Unfortunately, the unpleasant effects of a curve are felt at nearly every law school. Seeing the effect of the curve here at Michigan has made me appreciate that I am here and not at another law school where the emphasis on collaborative student study is not as strong. Yeah, the curve kind of sucks, but I think the collegiality of students here counteracts the more potentially destructive effects of assessing students on a curve.

We’ll call this blog entry “Exams Part I: Preparation.” I promise to follow shortly with an “Exams Part II: The Battle and the Aftermath.” I am trying to enjoy my 10-day break between semesters as much as possible, short as it is. But the fall (and football season!) are fast approaching and I am definitely getting excited for the rest of the law students to return and for some new classes.

This entry came to me while I was giving a tour to some prospective students yesterday. I was asked what I found to be most surprising about my adjustment to law school. Clearly the class schedule, pedagogical approach and system of evaluation are different, but everyone expects them to be different and so aren’t surprised when they are.

The most surprising adjustment for me was that I have a more active social life here than I did during my undergrad years. I am sure there are many factors that account for this. It is summer and, for the most part, the weather is beautiful! Who wants to be cooped up inside when the sun is shining? Just the other night we Rainmakers (the 1L summer start intramural softball team) celebrated our first victory. Instead of heading straight home, we went out for a beer at a bar. Probably against my better judgment, but it was so much fun.

The fact that it's summer also makes focusing on school work that much more difficult. It feels like summer school or a summer camp sometimes instead of the first semester of law school. Plus, since there are no tests or quizzes throughout the semester to track our progress or keep us on task, there isn’t the urgency to finish all the work. There is the sense that you can always catch up tomorrow so it’s okay to go out tonight.

This was very surprising for me since I admittedly had a more low-key and limited social life at Haverford. I have always been a very serious student and only played if I had spare time. Here, however, I have been trying to commit more time to socializing and enjoying the company of my fellow students, but I fear I may have gone too far in the other direction on the academic/social scale.

In recognition of the ongoing struggle within myself regarding whether to study or to play, I’d like to share one of my favorite comics with you. While at Haverford, after a particularly stressful week, my dad sent me a Calvin and Hobbes comic (my favorite comic in the world) that extolled the virtues of a balanced life.

Disclaimer: for those who don’t like comics, I apologize, but Calvin and Hobbes was awesome. And for those who are technologically savvy, I apologize that I will be describing the comic as opposed to pasting it in here because either I can’t do it, or I just don’t know how to do it.

First panel: Calvin is looking out his window wistfully at the newly-fallen snow while his school books are open on his desk. He says to Hobbes (his stuffed animal tiger who is alive only to him), “In the short term, I’d really like to go out and play.”

Second panel: Calvin looks down at his books and contemplates, “But in the long term, I’d like to do well in school and become successful.”

Third panel: Calvin and Hobbes are sledding down a hill. Calvin concludes, “But in the long long term, I know which will make better memories.”

I am one of the proud “locals” of the Ann Arbor area. I am originally from Toledo, Ohio, which is only 40 minutes south of Ann Arbor, so I am a Midwesterner through and through.

Despite my Midwestern roots, I headed east to Haverford College for undergrad. At Haverford, I became very interested in women’s issues, especially in the context of constitutional law. I have marched in DC, interned with the Feminist Majority and volunteered as a sex educator at my local Planned Parenthood for their teen clinic.

I applied early decision to Michigan for a number of reasons. Aside from my childhood allegiance to Michigan and the university’s proximity to my home and family, Michigan’s academic standards and programs are unparalleled. The Law School offers great opportunities for those interested in consitutional law and women’s issues. There is a journal of Gender and the Law, the Women’s Law Student Association, and Professor Catharine MacKinnon literally wrote the book on Sex Equality and the Law.

Though I was excited to be here, I was incredibly apprehensive about starting law school this summer. Our summer semester is shorter, so our classes each day are longer. Summer starters take three classes instead of the usual four. Even so, I haven’t spent so much time actually in class in quite sometime. Torts is four days a week for an hour and a half and contracts is five days a week for an hour and a half. It feels like a marathon. Legal Practice is a great relief since its only two days a week. I also haven’t had a class before 10:00 am since high school. It was painful adjusting to 8:30 am torts class.

I already knew what I wanted to study when I came here and figured I would just have to suffer through the requisite 1L doctrinal courses in order to take the electives that really drew me to Michigan in the first place. I was worried it would be an especially long summer considering our classes were torts and contracts: two areas of law in which I never had any interest and seemed rather boring at first look. Happily, I was very wrong.

Professor Clark (torts) and Professor Ben-Shahar (contracts) are incredible professors. Prof. Clark is so enthusiastic about tort law that you feel privileged just to be sitting in the room listening to him. But he is human too. He references his children often, including whether to give your child the “even Michael Jordan got cut” speech or the “maybe you’re just not good enough” speech when he/she is cut from a sports team for the first time. And the subject matter isn’t nearly as dry and boring as people think. Strict doctrinal study would be dull, but the fact that we read cases to get to the doctrine makes everything more interesting. Reading torts, you would think every person who ever got sneezed on suffered some kind of life-altering irreparable injury. People fall between trains, lose eyes by falling down, have legs amputated due to imperceptible taps and break knees on amusement rides. It sounds morbid, but you wonder how these things happen from such seemingly insignificant accidents! Due to his style and the fascinating cases in tort law, I have already decided to take his class in sports law.

Prof. Ben-Shahar is equally as excellent. Contracts for me is not as interesting as torts. It involves a great deal of economics, a subject in which I certainly never had any interest nor any previous knowledge. But again, when people are accidentally selling their houses while intoxicated or attempting to claim a harrier jet from Pepsi because it was in a commercial, you tend to get sucked in. Prof. Ben-Shahar is brilliant and we work so hard for the smallest acknowledgement that our answer was suitable and not way off the mark. A slight nod from Prof. Ben-Shahar or a quick emphatic “yes” can make your day. One day in class Hank (also a blogger, and fellow Phid House member) made a comment and Prof. Ben-Shahar stated, “I think I agree with Hank here,” in his quiet, unassuming way. For the rest of the day there was a slight glow about Hank and he walked a little taller. Everyone is really excited today because Prof. Ben-Shahar is hosting our section for burgers and beer at his house tonight (rumor has it he went to culinary school as well so expectations are high).

I apologize for the length of this blog, but I like to err on the side of too much information. You certainly can’t criticize me for leaving out details. Subsequent entries will not be nearly as long, but I had to set the stage somehow.