Benny, 2L

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.

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.

Due to the idiosyncrasies of our quarter system, we have our spring break this week, much earlier that I ever did in college. Having spring break during the last week in February provides less opportunity (or if you're like me, spending virtually the entire break in Boston, no opportunity) to enjoy warmer weather. The first half of the break I spent catching up with friends, but I'm back at it this week, researching and writing a memo that's due a week after we get back from break.

This weekend my wife and I are going to New York on the Bolt Bus, a relatively new bus service that's supposed to be nicer than Greyhound, and provides free wi-fi. We'll see some friends, and on Saturday night we're going to see David Byrne, former front man for The Talking Heads, at Radio City Music Hall.

I've also been working hard at securing a co-op, and should have some good news to post on that by the end of the week or the beginning of 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.

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.

A good friend of mine sends out inspirational videos in advance of finals. I think their effectiveness may lie in their their ability to temporarily distract me, rather than their actual inspirational content. But regardless, here you go -- from a classic childhood film.

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.

My apologies for not posting in a few weeks. A couple of days after finals, we went on a much needed vacation. We spent nearly three weeks in Peru, which was a great way of relaxing after my 1L year. We visited lots of amazing sites, including Machu Picchu, the floating Uros Islands of Lake Titicaca, and the cities of Cusco and Arequipa.

After getting back this past weekend, I started my first co-op at the Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) Consumer Rights Unit. GBLS is a large, dynamic, and active organization that provides legal serivces to indigent clients in a variety of areas, including housing, health and disability law, family law, and of course consumer law. There are a lot of interns here this summer (at least 60), including quite a few NUSL students. The Consumer Rights Unit is one of the smaller ones here at GBLS, and although it handles a vareity of cases, the focus right now is on foreclosure prevention.

Although I have only been here a couple of days, I am already getting a sense of how complicated these cases are going to be. Because of the securitization of mortgage loans (a concept I'm still trying to get my head around), it is extremely difficult to sort out the facts of these foreclosure cases. Furthermore, in the past few months the Obama Administration has instituted several new policies that are designed to help people avoid foreclosure. So even when litigation is not appropriate, our unit is helping educate potential clients and other attorneys about the availability of these programs.

Tomorrow night I'm getting together with a bunch of NUSL friends to hear about how their first co-ops are going, and it should definitely be interesting comparing notes.

This has been one brutal summer weather wise here in Boston. While Boston isn't necessarily known for scorching summers, we expect our fair share of sun. Unfortunately, with some rare exceptions, it's basically been cloudy for the last month. I had plans with classmates to go out for drinks to a different bar with outdoor seating each week. But about half way through the summer, we've only been able to do this once.

The internship is going well. I've got a couple of very interesting cases that I'm working on, and I've had the opportunity to meet with a couple of clients, do field research, and draft legal memos, letters, etc. Unfortunately GBLS, like all legal services agencies in Massachusetts and across the country, is experiencing budget problems, just as the demand for its services is peaking due to the recession.

My wife and I went to Madison, WI a couple of weekends ago to visit my brother and his family, including our new baby niece (only one month old). My brother and I, being only 1 1/2 years apart, are very close, and my two nieces are only 2 years apart, so as a younger sibling it was interesting to see their budding sororal relationship. They're coming to town this weekend for a wedding, and I'm excited to have the chance to hang out with them again.

I'm curious: are any incoming 1Ls reading this blog? If so, feel free to ask me questions. Now that my 1L year is in the rearview mirror, perhaps I'm a bit "older and wiser" and can help answer any questions or concerns you may have. Enjoy your few remaining weeks of freedom!

A bunch of my non-law school friends decided to do a movie night this summer, so every Wednesday night we get together at a friend's house and watch a movie that we all picked. It's become a really fun tradition, and every week we pick somebody's name out of a hat. That person picks three potential movies for the following week, and we all vote on what we want to see. Tonight? I'm not sure what the final vote tally is, but I voted for Ishtar, which, from everything I've read, is supposed to be one of the worst movies (or at least biggest box office bombs) of all time. My friend who put the movie on the list, though, swears by it, and is convinced that it's thoroughly underrated. Hopefully I'll be able to form an opinion in a couple of hours.

I'm staying at work late today because I'm trying to help a client get a loan modification from her bank, and I needed her to come in and sign some paperwork. It's meaningful and exciting to do this work with clients, and to try and keep them in their homes. At the same time, I've realized over the last couple of months at GBLS how much of an uphill battle we face. We are seeing people's real struggles every day, and all of the financial institutions we work with are just concerned about the bottom line. Taking my several clients' experiences, and multiplying it over the millions of Americans who find themselves in similar straits, quickly makes me realize the rough shape that our economy actually is.

Moving onto more exciting (or at least less depressing) topics, I'm heading out to Bumpkin Island (I know, awesome name) this Friday to camp with some friends, including a law school friend. Bumpkin (I just can't get enough to saying/spelling it out) is part of the Boston Harbor Islands, which is part of the national park system. Virtually forgotten by Bostonians for a long time, over the last decade or so they've become a great destination for people who are looking for a quick, cheap, and really interesting day trip.

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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

Last week I wrapped up my first co-op. It went by really, really quickly, and it's making me realize that being on a quarter system is going to be VERY different from being on the semester system my 1L year. All in all the co-op went really well, and I spent the last week wrapping up some memos, tying up loose ends, and passing on any open cases I was working on to my co-workers.

So I have a couple of weeks off, and I'm trying to spend as much of it relaxing as possible. Today my wife and I got a new toilet installed (yeah, exciting stuff), and tomorrow morning we head out to Madison, WI (affectionately called "Mad Town") for a week to visit my brother and his family. My wife and I are actually ice cream junkies (for those of you not from Boston, despite our cold climate, we have some of the best around), and when we get into Milwaukee and pick up our car, we're going to head straight to Leon's Frozen Custard. Midwestern style frozen custard, which I've never really seen on the east coast, is a much creamier, richer, and undoubtedly unhealthier version of our soft serve ice cream. We've had it a few times, and in this oppressive August heat, it's all I can seem to think of.

I stopped by the law school today to deal with some paperwork and pick up some things, and it made me excited to be back in class in a few short weeks. Unfortunately the heat is really preventing me from thinking right now, but I'll try to put up some thoughts before class starts for 1Ls about what to expect, and how to get through what is a very exciting, difficult, and exhilarating year.

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.

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. . .