I'm writing live from....the library. It feels like only yesterday when I first arrived at NUSL, met my classmates, bought my books, and stepped into our beautiful new classrooms at Dockser Hall. Now, with less than a month until the end of the semester, it feels like all of the 1Ls are slowly but surely starting to ramp up for finals. Except for LSSC, all of our class evaluations (remember, no grades at NUSL) are essentially determined via a final examination.

Right now, it feels like half my law office it at the library, reading for classes next week, writing memos, outlining for finals, and generally running around trying to get as much done as we can. As stressful as it is (because law school is stressful, no matter what people tell you), it's amazing to feel your mind slowly morphing into that of a lawyer. Not that we're there yet -- not by a long shot -- but it's definitely a neat feeling.

I would love to write more, but I have a memo to edit, and more more more to read. I'll be back next week, hopefully with a bit more time to write.

Before I get into discussing co-op, I received a question from a reader about Legal Skills in Social Context (LSSC), which is a cornerstone of the 1L experience here at NUSL. I'll stick to talking about the "social justice" component of LSSC, and will not be covering the research and writing component. If you are interested in hearing more about the research and writing component, please let me know.

The issues that we discuss in the social justice component include race, gender, and class differences. In our first semester, our focus has been on how individual lawyers, and legal institutions more broadly, address (or don't address) and account for (or don't account for) differences in these areas. The dynamic in every law office (translation: LSSC section) differs significantly. For some law offices, these conversations can often become quite difficult and contentious. In others, the challenges are not as significant. It really depends on the group dynamic. The purpose of the social justice component of LSSC (aside from the inherent value of having these discussions) is to prepare each law office for its second semester project, where we will represent an organizational client in an actual legal project. Thanks for the question, and feel free to post a comment if you are looking for more information. I would also encourage you to check out the link, above.

Now to co-op. One of the primary reasons that students decide on Northeastern is the co-op system, which gives each student the opportunity to have 4 3-month long internships throughout their law school career (for more on co-ops, you can look here). Co-ops starts after the first year, and students are either on the summer/winter co-op rotation, or the spring/fall rotation. I've elected to be on the former, which means that every June-August and December-February until I graduate I'll be out in the field working for a different organization, firm, or agency, doing actual legal work. Co-op gives law school students to apply what they have learned in the classroom in real world legal settings.

Because I am going on co-op in the summer (when students from virtually every other law school are also interning), I need to start applying soon, with my first deadline next week. I am leaning towards doing my first co-op in a government setting, where I hope to continue to build on my legal research and writing skills. For me, I am looking at the first co-op or two as a chance to build my general legal skills, as opposed to gaining expertise/experience in a specific area of the law. NUSL works with close to 900 co-op employers, and you can find a representative list here. Students have access to a comprehensive database, and students also often develop their own co-ops, meaning that instead of applying through NUSL's co-op office, they apply directly through the organization or firm.

Co-ops do vary significantly in how much they pay. Oftentimes co-ops with legal services organizations or small non-profits come without pay, while co-ops with large, big city firms can be several thousand dollars per week. For those co-ops that pay little or nothing, there are a variety of supplemental funding sources.

Back to work -- memo, reading, and more reading. See you all next week.

My apologies for taking a while to post. Law school has the tendency to occasionally consume everything in its path, and that's exactly what happened the last couple of weeks.

Despite the challenges, one of the main reasons that I'm really enjoying my first year in law school is all the opportunities to get involved on campus. I wasn't involved much in campus activities when I was an undergraduate, and I was amazed to see how many opportunities there are to get involved here at NUSL.

There are a few types of student organizations here at Northeastern. The first focus on issues/topic areas, such as labor law, international law, and family law. I've joined both the NUSL chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Constitution Society. Although I personally haven't done so, there is lots of opportunity to get involved in the direct governance of these groups by being elected Chair, Treasurer, etc. Because of NUSL's co-op system, a lot of the responsibility for managing student groups falls on 1Ls (at any given time, half of the upper level students are off campus on co-op).

There are also groups that represent the needs of specific cultural and ethnic groups, such as the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA), the Black Law Students Association (BLSA), the Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA), and others.

Finally, students can also get involved through student government via the Student Bar Association Council (SBAC), which is the formal elected representative body for NUSL students. Students representatives on the SBAC interface with the administration on a wide array of issues, including admissions, co-op, and curriculum, and also represent law school students on the university-wide graduate student senate.

I hope everyone enjoys this last weekend before this election. Next week I'm thinking of talking about the co-op application process (which we 1Ls are just starting), but let me know if you have any suggestions or things you would like to hear about.

When it's all said and done, despite the personal reasons why we may have picked one law school over another, the main reason people decide to come to law school is for the academics. No matter what law school you decide to go to, the first year curriculum at all law schools is generally built on the same basic foundation. Here at Northeastern, in our first semester 1Ls take four classes: Torts, Civil Procedure, Property, and Legal Skills in the Social Context (LSSC). I won't waste your time going over each of the classes, but instead will focus on LSSC, the one first year class that is truly unique to NUSL.

LSSC is an intensive first year class that is intended to enhance students' legal research, writing, and reasoning skills. The course is split up into two parts. The research and writing component is taught by an adjunct professor that is a practicing attorney. In that class, we focus on legal research, and writing/reasoning. As one NUSL graduate explained to me, law school is essentially the experience of having your skull unscrewed, and having your brain replaced with an entirely new brain that thinks and acts totally differently than your old one. The research and writing component, therefore, is meant to help facilitate this process, and give students the "hard skills" they need to be successful lawyers.

The social justice component, which is taught by an upper year Lawyering Fellow in conjunction with a faculty member, constitutes the second half of LSSC. In this part of LSSC, we draw important and real connections between social issues and substantive law. In the second semester, we will apply what we learned in this class in working with an actual client on a legal project. The opportunity to represent a client in your first year is what really sets apart NUSL's one year curriculum from that at other law schools.

On that note -- I need to do my LSSC reading. Next week, I'll talk about extracurricular activities, and getting involved on campus. In the meantime, feel free to ask any questions via the comment feature on this page, and I'll try to answer the question in my next entry.

When I started thinking seriously about applying to law school nearly two years ago, I was perusing various law school admission websites and came across the Northeastern School of Law blogs. For me, the blogs were a wonderful way of getting a feel for what being a student at Northeastern is all about. It gave me a clearer picture of what NUSL is like, and made my decision to come here much, much easier. That said, I'm not blogging for this website to convince you to come (or not come!) to Northeastern. Instead, I'm hoping to follow in the footsteps of past bloggers to give you an unvarnished perspective of what life at Northeastern is about. I also figured that it will give me a chance to "check in" with myself as I navigate a challenging first year of school.

For this my first entry, I'm going to focus a bit less on my experience thus far as a 1L (there's plenty of time for that), and a bit more on how I got here, and why I picked Northeastern. Before coming to law school, I spent a good chunk of time working on policy issues here in Massachusetts state government (first at the State House as an aide to a legislator, and then for an independent state agency that focuses on regionalism and sustainable development issues). After working on these issues for close to six years, I decided to finally start down the long road of applying to law school. I wanted to go to law school for two reasons. First, I worked with many attorneys, and knew that a legal education would give me the tools I need to be a more effective policy maker. Secondly, it would give me an opportunity to connect my specific policy background with other areas of interest that I had not had the opportunity to explore in depth.

I focused my search on Boston area law schools -- I am a Boston native, and my wife just started her doctorate at Boston College, so we are committed to the Boston area for the time being. Students that are interested in law school in Boston have the fortune of having a half dozen schools to choose from, all of them with their own particular strengths and weaknesses. As I toured the various schools, met with students, and did my own research, I quickly became convinced that Northeastern is the right school for me.

Northeastern was the right fit for a few reasons. First and foremost, the practice of law in the public interest is at the core of the school's ethic and mission. I knew that once I finished law school that I wanted to continue working in the government or non-profit sectors, so in that regard Northeastern was the perfect fit. Second, I was impressed with how happy Northeastern graduates were with their law school experiences. Law school, no matter where you go, is a grind. It is challenging both intellectually and emotionally, yet so many of my friends that went to NUSL not only tolerated law school, but enjoyed it. As you will read and hear about later, Northeastern does not have formal letter grades (although we do have an evaluation system), and I think that this creates an atmosphere of camaraderie and cooperation that is unmatched at most other law schools.

Finally, the last main reason I chose NUSL is because of the co-op system. After the first academic year, students rotate between 3 month co-ops and 3 months of classes for a total of 8 quarters (4 class quarters, 4 co-op quarters). This gives students an unprecedented opportunity to "try on" different areas of legal practice, which is tremendously helpful in figuring out what you want to do after law school.

There are plenty of other things that I'm enjoying thus far about law school. My professors and classmates are amazingly committed, and there are tremendous opportunities to get involved, both on issue-based campus organizations and with the actual administration of the school. Also, most of the classrooms have moved into the newly renovated, beautiful, and state of the art Dockster Hall (I'll try to find some pictures to post in a future blog posting).

That's all for post #1. I'll be back next week, where I'll go over the main reason we all come to law school -- academics. Go Sox!