Benny, 2L

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.

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.

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.

I don't know about everyone else, but I love Thanksgiving. Of course the food is great, and it usually comes at that hectic time of year where you are feeling a bit burnt-out from school or work, and it gives you the chance to slow down and relax for a few days with friends and family. Well, not when you're a 1L.

The semester is rapidly coming to a close. Our last day of classes is Friday, December 5, meaning that next week is our last full week of classes. After that, 1Ls have a full week for reading week, before having our exams, which are spread out over a week. So what does this mean for Thanksgiving break, besides turkey, stuffing, and canned cranberry sauce? 3 words: outlining, outlining, and outlining. The typical way of studying for law school exams is to outline the course from start to finish (and in many classes, you can bring the outline into your exam), and then taking practice exams. As 2Ls and 3Ls keep on reminding us, it's not the outline itself that matters, as much as the process of making the outline. So yeah, that's what I'll be doing from 5 p.m. today, right through Sunday night (besides cooking the turkey, which will give me an excuse to take a break to check on the bird).

If you're reading my blog right now, you'll probably notice that the law school has launched a beautiful new website. It's much nicer than our old one, and I would encourage all of you to take a look at it when you have a chance.

I hope everyone has a great holiday.

With classes now over, finals really are around the corner. Last Friday was our last day of classes, with professors trying to squeeze in some last minute doctrinal lessons, as us 1Ls continued our transition into finals mode. It feels like ever since Thanksgiving, I have been living in the law school (it's actually not that far from the truth -- ask my wife how often she's seen me in the last week!)

Students are definitely anxious about taking their first law school exams (our first exam is this Friday, and we are done next Wednesday). The amount of material that we have to learn is overwhelming, and is significantly more than I ever had to learn for a course in college. Along with the stress and anxiety, though, comes a sense of pride at how far all of us 1Ls have come since we arrived in late August.

Looking forward, we all got our professor assignments for next semester, when our core substantive courses will be in Constitutional Law, Contracts, and Criminal Justice (hmmmm....why are all the C class in the second semester?) Luckily, once finals are done next week we have close to three weeks of vacation before getting back to the grind.

It's time to return to my old friend -- civil procedure. I'll do a nice long blog entry some time after finals wrap up, perhaps while I'm relaxing (!) on the beach in Florida.

So our first exam is tomorrow, and as you can imagine all of us 1Ls are pretty stressed out. In our e-mail boxes today, I received messages from 3 of our Lawyering Fellows (upper level students that help lead our law office) and Teaching Assistants wishing us luck on our exams tomorrow. It was a small gesture that helped remind me of why I picked Northeastern -- not only did our TAs and LFs remember our exams, but they went out of their way to wish us luck.

Alright -- off to bed. Gotta be well rested for a 4 hour property exam!

Happy New Year! We were experiencing some technical difficulties with my blog, which meant that I wasn't able to post since finals. Finals seem like they happened eons ago. Taking 3 four hour exams is exhausting, particularly at the end of what was already a long semester, and as a consequence I think I enjoyed this break more than any other break I've ever had.

Technically we were back this past Monday, although our classes don't start until tomorrow. The first three days of the semester are spent doing intensive research for our LSSC project. However, I had jury duty this week, and actually found myself seated for a two-day criminal trial that ended up taking three days because of our deliberations. This was the first time I've been seated on a jury, and the experience was really interesting, and made me excited to start my second semester in law school. Going in I was convinced that, as a law student, I wasn't going to be selected to sit on a jury. So being seated ended up being a pleasant surprise.

Co-op is also on a lot of 1Ls' minds right now. Many of us are still in the midst of applying, with the next round of deadlines this coming Monday. I expect to turn in roughly a dozen applications to co-ops in Boston, New York, Washington DC, and possibly the Bay Area and Wisconsin.

Law school is a funny place, with its own rules and habits, and yes, even conflicts. Most students (I would say 80%+) use computers to take notes in class (including myself during the first semester, although I elected to make the switch to paper notes over winter break).

Some professors, however, believe that computers in the classroom interfere with the pedagogical approach, and have recently banned computers in their classrooms, and this has caused some controversy on campus. Those who believe that computers can be harmful in the classroom argue that students spend too much time transcribing the classroom discussion instead of actively engaging with the material. Furthermore, some students allow the computers (Internet, etc.) to distract (and those sitting next to them) them from important classroom discussions and/or lectures. On the other hand, students who support computer use argue that they have made a significant investment (both in the form of money, and study habits), and that they should not be punished for the unfortunate irresponsibility of a few students.

I don't see an easy answer to this conundrum, and I think that this is an issue that professors, administrators, and students are going to struggle with for the foreseeable future. As for me, I'm actually quite happy taking paper notes thus far this semester, and have seen a definite up-tick in my ability to absorb difficult material. We'll see how that goes as the semester progresses....

On another note, I'm off to DC later this weekend to see history in person at the inauguration (or at least stand in a crowd while people with much better connections than me witness history). I'm heading down with a few law school classmates who were part of a group that volunteered for Obama in New Hampshire over Election Day weekend. It will be nice to get to (slightly) warmer weather in DC, as it's been hovering around 0 degrees for most of this week. I'll try to post some pictures if I get any good ones.

As I mentioned last week, a few of us went down to the DC for Barack Obama's inauguration. It was an amazing event. After spending the night in DC, we got to the mall a little past 4 a.m., getting as close as we could (about half a mile by our calculations). It was an incredible experience -- not just being there to witness the historic event, but to also "see" the transfer of power between two administrations. Unfortunately on the way back we got stuck in several hours of non-inauguration related traffic, but the experience of being in DC was worth every second of time we may have lost on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Back here on campus, I'm continuing to interview for co-ops, and am really enjoying my classes this semester. Our LSSC project is really moving into high gear, with our Law Office splitting up into various sub-committees to deal what is turning out to be an enormous amount of work.

Off to continue my con law reading.

It took well over a month, but we finally got our first round of evaluations in for our December exams. Instead of getting a letter grade, professor's write evaluations that range from 3 to 5 sentences. Although many of the evaluations use boilerplate language, I definitely found it helpful to receive written feedback that talks more in depth about my writing, analytical and argumentation skills, and classroom participation. From what I can gather, we don't get a hard copy of the exam back with the professor's notes and comments unless we specifically request it.

Folks generally seemed pretty satisfied with their evaluations, although for most of us it's an adjustment not getting a letter grade telling us "how we did." Still, it definitely takes a lot of the pressure off, and creates a much less competitive atmosphere.

This week we have memo due in support of a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted (lawyer talk for a defendant challenging the legal sufficiency of a plaintiff's claim). If you're interested in finding out what the heck I'm talking about, this Wikipedia entry is actually pretty helpful, and explains the concept in plain English.

In our criminal justice class earlier today, Professor Dan Williams assigned two pairs of students to represent the prosecution and defense in a case using a fact pattern from an actual case in Texas from 1984. We're about 5 weeks into the semester, and this type of teaching is a really great way of applying the doctrine we have learned in class to the type of situations that we will eventually be confronting as lawyers.

The facts of the case were pretty horrific, and on first read really seemed to work against the defendant. Going into class I was pretty convinced that that the defense was going to lose this case, but one of my good friends was on the defense team, which did a fantastic job of applying the law to the facts of the case. By the end of the class, Professor Williams polled us, and most of us thought that the defense won the case.

In addition to teaching us substantive criminal law and procedure, Professor Williams tries to instill in his class many of the methods that he used as a litigator. He especially focuses on the personal traits -- confidence, self-assurance, quick thinking, and rhetorical strategies -- that are key tools that a litigator needs to be successful.

The first draft of our LSSC project is due in a few hours, so I should probably get back to that. Enjoy the weekend.

Since we arrived here in August, our social justice project for Legal Skills in Social Context (LSSC) was managed by two upper-level Lawyering Fellows (LFs). But as we move into the final stages of our project, the LFs transition off the project, and we are on our own. The second draft of our project is due next week, and this is the first time that the 13 of us are managing ourselves. Unlike our classes, which are "academic" in the traditional sense, the LSSC social justice project is meant to give students a taste of what it's like to conduct actual legal work in a team environment.

To facilitate management of our project, several members of our law office were appointed various positions. Along with my classmate, I am a Client Representative, which gives us the primary responsibility of interfacing with our client and updating them on our progress.

We have a long weekend coming up, which all us 1Ls will be using to get a lot of work done on our summary judgment memos that are due in a couple of weeks. Upper-levels wrap up winter quarter classes this week, and have exams next week.

Today has been the first 100%, honest-to-goodness, no doubt about it beautiful day that we've had all year (unless you're one of those people that likes the snow/sleet/slush/cold). Spring is definitely around the corner, which feels nice. Despite being a native New Englander, I always forget how nice it feels to experience the first true day of spring. My wife and I managed to spend the first few hours of the day out with some friends, and now I'm back at it, planning on spending the rest of this beautiful Saturday wrapping up the first draft of the summary judgment memo.

I'm excited to report that on the co-op front, I secured a position for this summer with the Greater Boston Legal Services Consumer Protection Unit. Started a couple of years ago to provide legal services on a wide array of consumer issues, the unit's current focus is the foreclosure crisis, including litigation, policy advocacy, and education/outreach. I'm really looking forward to working there this summer for a couple of reasons. First, I've always had a strong interest in consumer issues, and except for a short internship after my freshman year of college, I haven't had a chance to work on these issues. Second, I feel as if anti-foreclosure work -- education, policy, and litigation -- is at the core of what we need to be doing to stabilize our economy so we can get things moving in the right direction. There is so much need in communities throughout Boston for these types of services, and I'm looking forward to having a busy summer.

On a side note, we had a guest speaker in our Criminal Justice class this past week. Billy Moore was on Georgia's death row for over 17 years, and was released over a decade ago. From the moment he was arrested, Moore admitted his guilt, and was released by the parole board because of supportive testimony from the victim's family, with whom he built a strong relationship during his years on death row. Regardless of one's personal views on the death penalty, the experience helped put a human face on a lot of the material we have studied this year. Moore speaks at NUSL every year because Professor Givelber served on his legal team. Moore has since chronicled his experience in I Shall Not Die: Seventy-two Hours on Death Watch

As I've probably said before, the first year of law school feels like a marathon, with several important mile markers along the way. This past Friday we all passed another marker when we turned in what was essentially the final draft of our LSSC Social Justice project. After some minor tweaks and edits, we are going to submit it to our client. Every Law Office is putting together presentations for our respective clients, and our Presentation Subcommittee is working hard to put together our presentation for a week from this Friday. With our LSSC projects soon behind us, 1Ls are starting to anticipate moving into exam mode (although thankfully few of us, including myself, are there yet!)

Last week I had the opportunity to meet a few finalists for the Public Interest Law Scholarship. It brought back some not-so-distant memories of my interview last year, and reminded me how far I've come in the span of a year.

On the home front, my wife and I just had a (temporary) roommate move in for a few weeks. My wife's good friend from college just got a job in Boston working at the State House, so she'll be staying with us as she looks for a permanent place. At this point, I'm (sadly) home so little that I'm not totally sure I would even notice a third person living in our condo. After we picked our friend up at the airport we went out for some delicious Salvadorian food in East Boston, and then had some ice cream in Cambridge. Throughout the evening, I kept on interjecting the conversation with fact patterns from cases that I've read this year. It's an unfortunate habit that I've developed in social situations, but hopefully it occasionally makes for interesting conversation.

This past week has really made my head spin academically in terms of how major judicial decisions get made. Before law school, I at least had the thought that our judicial branch was a neutral arbiter of the complex, often controversial cases that we hear about in the news every day. Judges, we think, at least theoretically, are supposed to act from a neutral position, ignoring their personal beliefs and the politics of the day to settle a dispute based on principle.

In both Criminal Justice and Constitutional Law this week, the influence of the judges personal values on decisions become abundantly clear (at least to me). In Constitutional Law, we read some of the landmark abortion cases, including Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood. In both cases, it became clear to me that both the majority and dissenting opinions were relying as much on personal beliefs (perhaps couched in, or influenced by, constitutional and legal principles) as they were relying on the principles themselves. The same goes for Criminal Justice, where for the last couple of weeks we have been studying the 4th Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures. Although constitutional analysis obviously dominated the majority and dissenting opinions, the justices' core values and beliefs were the driving force behind these opinions. I'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing. Rather, the role that personal values play really hit home this week.

This weekend I have two fantasy baseball drafts (yes, I'm a slight fantasy baseball geek, but not that much of a fantasy baseball geek because I've never been good enough). The guys I'm in the league with are from all over the East Coast (friends, friends of friends, etc.), and we are meeting on Cape Cod this Sunday for the "big" event. Hopefully the weather will hold up.

Our Law Office finally (almost) wrapped up our year-long social justice project with a presentation yesterday to our client (the Mental Health Litigation Unit of the Committee for Public Counsel Services). We had a full room, thanks in part to cannolis from the North End and custard buns from Chinatown (nothing packs a room like free food). The presentation went off without a hitch, thanks to our Presentation Team, which put in a ton of hours the last couple of weeks to put together a fantastic product.

A few of us are now out on Cape Cod, relaxing a bit for what will probably be the last time before we enter pre-finals mode. A few of our professors have started to talk about what our finals will look like, and I'm beginning to realize that we only have about a month left in our first year. It's really nice being away from the hustle and bustle of the city and school, relaxing with friends, doing minimal amounts of work, and trying to get some rest.

Our next major assignment, due this week, is a final draft of our summary judgment memo. We are also going to have a chance to present oral arguments to our adjunct professor, which is the first time that we've really had an opportunity to engage in a quasi-adversarial situation in law school. It should be a lot of fun, especially because I'm going up against one of my best friends here at NUSL.

Alright -- off to Provincetown to watch some of the Final Four.

Hard to believe, but we only have one week of classes to go before reading week. It seems as if, all of a sudden, everybody is gearing up for finals -- outlining, taking practice exams, etc. Going through this process a second time will hopefully be a bit easier, because I have a sense of where to allocate my time. First semester I spent a lot of time putting together detailed outlines, and now I'm realizing that I, and many of my classmates, may have gone a bit overboard, or at least didn't put allocate our resources as efficiently as we could have.

Today is the nicest day we've had all year -- high 60s or lower 70s. Unfortunately, most of us are in the library or at home studying, not lucky enough to actually enjoy the weather. This is a long weekend, with Patriots Day (otherwise known as Marathon Monday) coming up. I actually have a couple of friends running this year, but I probably won't head down to watch the marathon because (you guessed it), I'll probably be studying.

So that said, I may not be posting as much over the next couple of weeks. But when I do emerge from this finals-induced cocoon, I will be a 2L, starting my co-op GBLS, ready to tell you about how I'm applying everything I've learned this year to real legal challenges and issues.

The Northeastern University campus has, all of a sudden, gotten really quiet, maybe because the undergrads are done with classes for the year, so it's just us poor law students and a mix of random graduate students that are still here on campus. It actually makes for a great studying atmosphere, and I've spend the last few days away from the law school building, and in the Snell Library, which is the main university library. Getting away from the somewhat hectic 1L finals mode is nice.

Just took a full contracts exam, and it went pretty well (but that may all change when we meet with our professor tomorrow to go over it). I'm realizing more and more that doing well on these exams is a well developed skill just like any other, and that fortunately doing well on them doesn't mean that you will (or won't) be a good lawyer. Our professors have basically said as much in class, and also recognize that exams only evaluate a pretty narrow set of skills.

So, a week from tomorrow, around 5 p.m., I and all of my classmates will officially be 2Ls -- pretty exciting stuff. As I sit here writing this blog entry, I'm wondering about all of you out there who have decided to make the journey to law school next year (either at NUSL, or any other law school). It's a tough slog, and a monumental challenge, but in the end, it's lots of fun, and will change you in ways you can only imagine right now as you prepare for your 1L year.

I have to admit, it feels really, really nice to be done with my first 1L year. My final exam yesterday (Criminal Justice) was an 8 hour marathon, and unlike any exam that I've ever taken. For the sake of brevity, I won't provide any details, except to say that I've never taken an exam that demanded so much of my (quite limited) creative talents. The festivities last night were way more subdued than those after 1st semester, in large part because I think everyone was really exhausted at what was the end of quite a long year.

I'm excited to start my co-op at GBLS on June 1, but am definitely looking forward to having the next three weeks off. My wife and I will be be traveling in Latin America until then, so I'll be back on here starting the first week on June.

With my summer co-op at GBLS wrapping up next week, I thought I'd offer a few random snippets of where I've been, what I've been up to, and what I've been thinking about for the last couple of weeks:

Went to Berkshires in Western Massachusetts this weekend with my wife and a friend. We camped for a night, checked out some of the cute small historic towns, and then spent Sunday at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. For those of you that have never been out there, it's really beautiful, and quite a spectacular experience to hear world class classical music out in the open (even if it was raining).

* * *

My fall schedule is starting to take shape. I'm probably going to be taking Evidence, Professional Responsibility (the only required class after 1L), Advanced LSSC, and doing an independent study where I will be looking at state tax law and policies. Advanced LSSC basically means that I will be teaching a 1L section of Legal Skills in Social Context, which I spoke about a few times during my 1L year. So, that means that I may be teaching some of you that are reading this blog.

* * *

On the co-op front, I was fortunate to secure a co-op for the winter quarter, once I'm done with classes in the fall. I'll be a Judicial Intern for the Honorable Norman H. Stahl, a Senior Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit here in Boston. As it turns out, the other Judicial Intern will be one of my nearest and dearest friends from law school, which is also pretty exciting. The experience promises to be an intense and challenging one, as I'm going to write approximately 20 memos over 10 or 11 weeks.

* * *

Movie night again tomorrow night -- very exciting. I voted for How to Get Ahead in Advertising, which I've never seen, and frankly, know little to nothing about.

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On another note, Red Sox fans around here are reeling from the revelation that our favorite Red Sox hero, David Ortiz, tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003. The test results were never supposed to be released, and were merely meant to measure how bad the problem was before the union and Major League Baseball decided what to do about it. Still, it's reconfirmed for many of us that the current generation of baseball players will forever be tainted by this scandal, whether they tested positive or not.

It really wasn't that long ago that I was in the same shoes as this year's 1Ls, but it sure seems like a week ago that I was at orientation, buying my books and course packs from Gnomon Copy, and generally excited/anxious/stressing out about starting law school. So, I figured I'd give a few words of of....wisdom? I suppose that this entry won't be as useful to the prospective students, but hopefully some NUSL 1Ls will read this and find it helpful.

1. Don't Stress Out Too Much
At a certain point, most 1Ls feel a certain degree of self doubt, questioning whether they made the right decision, and ask themselves whether they'll make it through the year. Remember -- thousands of people have done it before you, and thousands more will do it after you. Just take it slow, and as everyone was constantly reminding me, "Law school is a marathon, not a sprint."

2. ....But Do Your Work
From what I saw, the students that end up suffering the most are those that get behind in their work. Maybe I'm more neurotic than most (check that: I AM more neurotic than most), but stay on top of your assignments, and don't get behind on the readings. Law school can be somewhat deceptive, because oftentimes there is not that much reading in terms of the number of pages. However, even 15 pages of reading in say, Civil Procedure, can be a lot, because the material is so dense and unfamiliar. Do your reading for every class, even if you don't think you understand it, and you'll be better for it.

3. Utilize the Research Librarians
We live in a world where all of us use Google, iPhones, WestLaw, etc., and forget that oftentimes the best resource is actual people. It may seem old fashioned, but when you have a research assignment, do yourself a favor and talk to one of the Research Librarians. The problem with WestLaw, Lexis, Google, etc., is that there is too much information, and it sorting through it is a tremendous challenge. The Research Librarians, in addition to being incredibly helpful, are also the nicest people at the law school (sorry fellow students, profs, staff, and administrators).

3. Finally....TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!
About half way through our 1L year, a lot of my classmates all of a sudden realized that they had stopped taking care of themselves, and attending to those things are are important to them outside of law school, like working out, seeing friends and family, and generally doing things for fun. All of us work hard, but it's important to also be easy on yourself, and take a break when you think you need one. Even an afternoon or day off will help recharge your battery, and you'll be in much better shape when you're up against a major deadline if you manage to have some gas left in your tank.

Good luck, and have fun! Now, I actually have to get to my work.

Well, the rumors that my 2L year was somehow going to be easier and less busy have yet to materialize. The common wisdom on the life cycle of a law student is that things ease up quite a bit after the 1L year. Although this year hasn't been as hard yet in the "my-brain-is-hurting-I-don't-think-that-I-can-do-this-much-longer" kind of way, I am still managing to have surprisingly little time to do things like watch the Patriots game tonight. Between classes, interviewing, LFing, TAing, and working at the library, I'm finding that my weeks are packed quite tight.

This weekend my wife and I were in Philadelphia for a wedding. Unfortunately my flight out of Logan was delayed 5 hours, and I almost missed the rehearsal dinner. Still, the wedding was a lot of fun, and I even managed to see some college friends that I haven't seen in a couple of years. I was also very impressed with Philadelphia as a city. It has the historical feel of Boston, but it also feels much bigger.

My brother and his family get in town this week for a couple of days, and as always, I'm excited to see my nieces (I'm sorry -- am I always talking about my nieces? If it bores you, I apologize, but they're lots of fun to spend time with). I'm realizing that I talk a lot with my brother and my wife about law school, but that neither have them have ever been to a law school class. Maybe it would be fun to invite them to one of my classes.

I'd love to write more, but I need to get back to writing these memos.

My last couple of weeks have been consumed by preparing all sorts of project documents for my Law Office (for those of you unfamiliar with NUSL lingo, "Law Offices" are the small sections -- 12-14 students each -- that 1Ls are split up into for their social justice project). It's been really interesting doing preliminary research on the issue that we're working on for our client, but it's also been taking up a huge share of my time.

And like that....Fall is here. This wasn't much of a summer weather wise, but as I look out my window right now it's very clear that summer is over. The leaves are changing, it's cooled down quite a bit (especially at night), the NHL season has started up again (go Bruins!), and the Red Sox are about to start the playoffs (go Sox!)

Oh!....before I forget. I got a question on my blog from a prospective student who was wondering about schedules. In an earlier blog posting I mentioned that I had a 3 week break after my 1L year, but the student didn't see this long a break on any officials NUSL calendars. I took this break right after my second semester was over this past spring. Although the break may have looked shorter on the calendar, students sometimes have flexibility in putting together their schedules. So in my instance, I took a longer break at the beginning of the summer, as my employer was happy to have my start June 1, but I also ended later than some of my friends that were on co-op. I had some friends that started their co-op as soon as exams were done, so they had a lot more time off at the end of the summer. As long as you get the requisite number of weeks in, then you're generally fine. Hope this clarifies things.

It's kind of funny to be writing this blog entry right now, because as I look out my window we are getting the season's first snow (while the wedding I went to in New Mexico, which I'm writing about below, was in the middle of the desert). I was not expecting it to snow this early, and usually when it does snow this early in the year, it's only for a few minutes. But so far, it's been about an hour (although it's too warm to accumulate right now).

Last weekend my wife and I went to New Mexico for a wedding. The bride and groom are old friends of mine who I worked with almost 10 years ago at a camp in Maine called Seeds of Peace, which is a non-profit coexistence camp. There were a lot of people there that I hadn't seen in years, and it was a lot of fun catching up. The wedding was about an hour outside of Santa Fe, and as you can tell from the picture below, it was quite a dramatic landscape (although I'm afraid the picture doesn't do it justice).

Besides catching up with old friends and family, the other great thing about New Mexico was the food. Virtually every dish came with a choice of either red or green chili sauce, but because I was feeling kind of indecisive, I decided to get a mix of both.

School is going well, and I'm amazed at how fast the quarter is going by. My Law Office is starting to work on its social justice project over the coming weeks, and we're going to be meeting with our client a week from this Thursday. The LSSC curriculum has changed quite a bit from years past, and I'm hopeful that shifting the project earlier in the semester will allow students to create an even better work product for their clients.

It's hard to believe, but I'm starting to think and apply for co-ops for next summer. Right now I'm considering going down one of two roads -- either working for a state or municipal agency, or for a small law firm that works in an area that I'm interested in, such as municipal law. The first co-op application deadline is in a couple of weeks, so I really need to strategize about what I want to do for my last two open co-ops.

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On the LSSC front, I can't believe that I only have 3 weeks left with my Law Office. Tomorrow morning they're actually meeting with our client, who is flying in from the west coast to meet with them. It should be a great opportunity for them to engage on a deeper level with the project.

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In Professional Responsibility today we talked about the ethics of attorney's advertisements, and we watched a couple of videos of ads from different states. Unfortunately there are a small but visible minority of lawyers out there who, in my opinion, give the legal profession a bad name, and this one in particular caught my attention (although I have to admit that it's entertaining in its own right).

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And yes, the World Series is starting tonight. Although I'm bummed that my Red Sox won't be there, I can't say that I'm surprised that they didn't make it this far. Although they scored a decent amount of runs this year, I never felt that this year's team had the lineup go all the way. So I guess I'm rooting for the Phillies. . .

This quarter is rapidly coming to a close. In a few minutes I actually start my last class of the quarter (I have a pretty great schedule -- only have class on Monday and Wednesday, but with this Wednesday being a holiday, today is my last day of class). Luckily, I only have one in class exam, and then a couple of out of class exams/assignments.

I'm starting my co-op search from scratch for next summer, and there's a good chance that I'm going to create my own co-op. I've also identified a couple of really neat fellowships that I'm going to apply for, so I'm going to be working on those over Thanksgiving break.

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A couple of weeks ago my LSSC Law Office met with our client, which went really well. This coming week the Law Office is going to be meeting with and interviewing a "key informant," essentially, an individual that can help shed some light on the group's project. It's our last meeting as a Law Office, and, reflecting back on my experience, I've really enjoyed working with my 1Ls. It's been amazing seeing their transformation over the course of the semester, and I'm excited to see what the end up doing, both in co-op and through their careers in the law.

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Is this the time of year when people start applying to law school again? Hard to believe that I was going through this process a couple of years ago, but if folks have any questions, please ask away.

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We had our monthly movie night with some friends last week, and watched The Very Same Munchhausen, a Soviet telling of the classic Baron Münchhausen story. It was....interesting, to say the least.