Benny, 2L

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!

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.

One of the difficulties with public interest co-ops at NUSL is that many of them are, unfortunately, unpaid. The Cooperative Income Sharing Program (CISP) raises money by selling NUSL merchandise, coffee and snacks, and hosting an annual No Talent Show. Proceeds are distributed to students taking public interest co-ops. The show is this coming Wednesday, and in it members of the NUSL community, including students and faculty, perform to raise money for CISP. There's actually quite a bit of publicity for the event around campus, including this YouTube video that recently surfaced of Professor Hackney. All of us 1Ls who had Professor Hackney first semester got a real kick out of it (although perhaps it's not quite as entertaining if you haven't met him).

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.

I'm not sure who actually reads my blog, but I'm guessing that if anyone reads it, it's prospective students. Approximately a year ago, I was in the same position as you -- weighing admission offers from various law schools. Being a 1L is definitely a stressful experience, and I think that the application process is a close second. There's lots of information coming at you from different directions, and lots of different factors to balance in making your decision.

It's important to remember that there is no right decision. Deciding where to go to law school, like the law itself, is a human decision, and there are pluses and minuses to every choice we make in life. But that said, you need to think about what is important to you in a law school. I picked Northeastern because I wanted to attend a school with a strong public interest tradition, a school that valued my ambitions, and I school that wasn't overly dependent on using competition to motivate it students.

That said, remember that wherever you choose to go to law school, you will be challenged. You will have long nights, the frustrations of group projects, and by this time next year, serious bags under your eyes (or at least I do). But at the same time, it is an amazing experience, and in these few short months, my perspective on where I came from, and where I'm going, has changed immeasurably.

Of course, if I were making the decision for you, all of you would be coming to Northeastern. The students are interesting and motivated, the professors never cease to amaze me, we have a beautiful new building and classrooms, and most importantly, NUSL stands on an ethic that I can truly get behind. In the end, though, the decision of where to go to law school is a profoundly personal one, so regardless of where you all choose to go, congratulations on getting this far in the process. As always, if you have questions about NUSL please don't hesitate to post them, and I'll make sure to answer them.

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.

For those of you who have been in Boston the last couple of days, you know that the weather has been pretty awful. I wish I could report that we're experiencing some sort of oppressive summer heat, but unfortunately all we've had the last couple of days (and all we're going to have for the next few days) is rain. Although I grew up here, getting used to our unpredictable weather patterns is still something I'm not quite used to.

I just wrapped up my third week at the GBLS Consumer Rights Unit. There is an army of interns and volunteers at GBLS, so for the first two weeks I was sitting on a different floor than the rest of my unit. This week, I finally managed to find some space downstairs on my unit's floor, which has made communicating with my colleagues much easier.

Although the primary focus of any 1L curriculum is legal reasoning and doctrine, I am realizing how important research skills are. Virtually every question that comes across our desks is a novel one, because the facts of each case are unique. At the same time, it's really easy to get bogged down with a research project, because there is so much material on each issue, as narrow as the issue may seem at first. I'm relying a lot of what I learned on some trainings I went to this spring that were put on by WestLaw (one of the two major online private legal research services that are the lifeblood of any law school student).

I'm also starting to think about my next co-op. There are actually a few deadlines rapidly approaching in mid-July, so I need to start getting my resume in order to apply for those if I decide I want to do that. It's making me realize how quickly this summer is going to go by.

Now I hope you're all experiencing nicer weather than I am.

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.

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.