Ira, 3L

Personally, I'm an Atlanta Braves fan. Always have been. Despite my fervent disapproval of the designated hitter rule, Atlanta is in the National League and I'm not barred from from liking Boston. It helps that I don't like George Steinbrenner, the Steinbrenner family, and by extension the Yankees. Other than those exceptions, I just dig baseball in general.

But I'm SO glad it's over. And I know many other 1Ls who agree. Now we can get some work done without either 1.) pretending to do it while watching the games, or 2.) actually doing the work and wishing we were watching the games. Interestingly, this all around the time that the upper-level students tell us is the threshold of the first-year--that week or couple of weeks when nearly every 1L feels like their reaching their capacity for assignments, projects, lack of sleep, stress, coffee ingestion. A couple blokes in Civil Procedure with me see no end in sight, because now football season starts in full swing. Luckily for me I don't dig football.

Don't get the impression, though, that the first year of law school is only about work, increasing your coffee intake by 300%, and making hard choices about the trade-offs outside of studies. It's not. At Northeastern, speficically, 1Ls really are the force behind the show. With half of the upper-level students gone on co-ops every three months, it's really difficult for there to be any continuity of effort in student activities. So, a lot of onus is put on the 1Ls to keep things going. This creates an interesting working dynamic.

Yesterday I was at a meeting for Dean Spieler's Ad Hoc International Programming Committee. I'm not on the Committee officially, but, hey, it's Ad Hoc and the Chair--Professor Hope Lewis--invited me. I'm the 1L Co-Chair of the International Law Society (ILS). The purpose of the Committee, mandated by the Dean, is to examine the possibility of increasing international opportunities into the curriculum, co-operative education, and the academic setting at Northeastern. "International opportunities" is very vague, but just know the Committee is basically drafting a memorandum--to be distributed to the law school's administration and faculty at large--to propose increasing the number of international classes offered and establishing study abroad programs and partnerships with foreign institutions and universities.

Awesome. The Committee is working on it. They've got it under control. Why am I at the meeting? Shouldn't I be in the library somewhere reading Supreme Court Cases on the claim preclusion (or res judicata depending on your vintage)?

Yes, yes I should. But there is much more to do at Northeastern--especially as 1Ls--that doesn't compete with your scholastic duties as much as you would think. My major platform in ILS consists of exactly the same issues with which the Committee is involved. Northeastern has some great core international law classes, but they need to be offered every quarter for upper-level students and most of them are not. Taking a class on, say, European Union Laws could be quite central in getting a co-op internship or securing post-graduation employment. More so than not totally conflicting with the 1L lifestyle, this dynamic that co-op creates forces first-year students to be active.

No. It forces us to be proactive. We know that upper-levels and the faculty are there for guidance and support, but these opportunities to shape our education and take part in more than just our studies are out there waiting for us.

Posted by Ira at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Welcome to the Northeastern University School of Law Blogs! As one of two 1Ls blogging this year, I want start off by giving you a sense of where I am now (busy, busy, busy) to where I was last year (busy, busy, busy). A year ago, I was working a full-time job, volunteering, and applying to law schools. I applied early admission, early decision, and just plain early to the schools on my list. Feel free to follow my example. Or not. Fast-forward to the present: I'm finishing my second full month at Northeastern, and, as you read above, I find the pace maintaining at a full-tilt. Or faster. Of course, I don't imagine anyone seriously considering committing their lives to three years of law school--as I imagine many of you are now so considering--would have any fantasies about it not being a heavy and deadline-ridden workload.

You may ask, then, how am I--as a 1L--finding time to write this blog? Honestly, I just sleep a little less. There is no rest for the weary, after all.

You may also ask, what is the first year like in law school--you know, besides all the "busy" and the "go, go, go?" What is the meat of it? What should I expect?

First, expect a lot of reading. That is a standard law student answer, but that's because reading is a staple and the answer holds true. Secondly, know that the professors and the administrators and your fellow students will expect a lot of initiative out of you. Your success, at the end of the day, is up to you. Even in the many group projects, your success is reliant upon how much you put into it. Everyone is here to help and, as far as I've witnessed at Northeastern thus far, is totally approachable when your have questions or problems. Yet, they are training future lawyers and thusly expect a higher level of responsibility and effort.

As a 1L you take a standard first-year curriculum. At Northeastern, you take a standard first-year curriculum and then some. This semester we all take Civil Procedure, Tort Law, and Property Law, and a course titled Legal Skills in Social Context (LSSC). I'll talk a bit more about LSSC in the next blog, but know for now that it is an intensive course--emphasis on INTENSIVELY time-consuming--that teaches in-depth legal research and writing while examining the social aspects and application of the law. Unlike research and writing courses at other law schools, LSSC is unique in that it stems straight out of Northeastern's commitment to public interest law and public service. Again, more on this later.

Monday, at or around the mid-point in our semester, all 1Ls took a Torts practice exam. Many considered it a mid-term and prepared for it accordingly. Many are now drained from having studied Torts exclusively this past weekend and neglected other pressing assignments. "Many" could be a code-name for "Ira." Honestly, I actually fall somewhere in between being totally drained and very glad it is over. A benefit to the practice exam was recapping everything we've studied in American tort law to date. It's amazing how many cases one can read in two months.

To wrap up, a word or two on living in Boston in the eyes of an out-of-towner. I moved from North Carolina where I lived the majority of my life, did my undergraduate studies, and worked. It's too easy to turn a cliche and say that the Northeast is totally different from the Southeast. I mean, it's true and it isn't. Some things are the same, some are not: people still drive like maniacs; the seasons still go Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. Yet, people do indeed talk faster and behave with more of a hurry up North. It's not unfortunate, just noticeable. Also, quite inconveniently, you can't buy beer in grocery stores. I haven't discovered yet if this is a singular Boston or State of Massachusetts practice. Stay tuned. Either way, it made two stops out of one. More stops when you're in the city--on foot or in car--is not always a cool situation.

Lastly, just imagine living in Boston when the Red Sox win baseball championships. For those of you not familiar with what Franklin Street in Chapel Hill looks like after Carolina wins big at basketball--picture pandemonium.

Posted by Northeastern University School of Law at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)