Ira, 3L

Back from Maine, six days until classes start.

I have all my books and most first-day assignments and will (with a little sadness and a bit of countering excitement) soon start reading for next week. I am also a TA for the Legal Research and Writing component of first-years' LSSC course, and have to read all that they read. Good times. Let the onslaught juggernaut of the quarter officially begin.

Around making my way through The Kite Runner, which I've nearly completed, and which is powerful and fantastic, I am still sending out resumes and cover letters for post-grad jobs and for clerkships. As of last night around 2am, I sent out the last and final of my clerkship applications.

I wish there was confetti to celebrate: I now have applications in for federal and state clerkships. And now I must play the waiting game. Good thing I'll be busy.

As far as post-grad jobs go, I am applying to them like a fiend. Jobs I would all love, but essentially contingency plans in the event I don't get a clerkship. I even have one interview already, scheduled for mid-September. Hopefully, I will soon have others lined up. I am eager to write about all of them specifically--jobs and clerkships--and specific trials and tribulations and bumps I encountered while applying, but I am over-eager to not damn myself. I will write about it all once there are decisions one way or the other. What I can say at this juncture--start early. Some advised that I started way too early, researching in the spring and early summer, contacting my recommenders in the spring and having them pump out drafts by mid-summer. I disagree. When you are applying to clerkships, and then start applying for jobs simultaneously, and, then at NUSL, start applying for Winter co-op the moment you're back into classes, the earlier you can feasibly start the better.

Alright, I'm off to the gym. Or to The Kite Runner, we'll see which grabs me first. Last night I wanted to read the book, couldn't wait to sit down and grab it, then I got sidetracked with putting a final gloss on a writing sample, eating pizza and watching the original "Ghostbusters." What a fantastic, fantastic film. I think it might be the first movie I ever remember watching.

More to come...

Posted by Ira at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...but it's terribly difficult to ever completely escape law school.

The Office of Academic & Student Affairs published the lottery list for classes with limited enrollment. I got into every class for which I registered but one. So, it looks like my courselist for the fall is: Professional Responsibility, Section 1983 Litigation, International Criminal Law, and Trusts & Estates.

I'm psyched. We've already received our first day assignments for Section 1983 Lit., and I have a great deal to read and prepare for my first week as a TA in the Research & Writing class.

Plus, the work on the Journal is ever-sharpening and piling on. It's going to be a busy quarter as we work toward publication.

At the beach, while getting sunburned and going for sweltering, wonderful and exhausting runs, I've been spending the remainder reading and grilling. I finished "An Unbearable Lightness of Being," by Milan Kundera, and am near the end of "Slipping into Darkness," a crime/mystery novel, by Peter Blauner. Having plowed through the Harry Potter Series while on co-op, this quarter may mark my most well-read since before law school.

Posted by Ira at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hope all are having a great wind-down to their summers. Incoming 1Ls: you especially need to have a great one. Memories and time with friends and family are important now, as you will be relatively unreachable for about eight months.

I made it safely back to Boston and have been here a full week. I am heading to Maine tomorrow for a little R&R. Yet, as with almost all R&Rs in this culture, I am bringing work with me. I am still working on my appellate brief (see earlier blogs), and finalizing my federal clerkship applications.

On Wednesday we finally had some disposition to my clinic case that has been ongoing since March. As mentioned in previous blogs, I was part of a three-person team representing a client in Boston Municipal Court (Roxbury). Since April we have been continuing the start date of our trial for a variety of reasons (e.g., witnesses were no-shows). Wednesday was the big day. We were planning on going forward with trial come hell or high water. Then, right after calendar call, the Asst. District Attorney agreed to dismiss the case. Case closed and our client served. We got the disposition he wanted. A fantastic feeling: My first win.

In other news, I still have very little idea what I am taking for classes in the Fall. Today was the close of "Pre-registration," and now all wait for the publishing of lottery lists for limited enrollment classes. It seems like more and more classes are limited enrollment every year. The lists are expected to come out approximately 11 days before classes start, and, as per the usual at NUSL, not being on a lottery list (and thus not secured a spot in the class) means you need to show up and see if you can get in the class. Which means I have to come by the books to read for the first day, without actually buying them. Frustrating.

I can say this, though, it looks very much like I will be taking Professional Responsibility, Disability Law, and Trusts and Estates. I hope very much to take International Criminal Law AND Section 1983 Litigation (suing the cops and the Government for doing bad things "in the name of the law"), but I think I will only be able to take one. After all, adding both would make five classes on top of being a TA for the first-years' writing class and the Managing Editor of the Journal. We'll see. If I get lucky maybe I'll give it a go and see if I can handle it. If so, then I'd only have to take two classes my final quarter. And that, ladies and gents, would be golden.

Posted by Ira at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Screeching tires indeed. In a little less than five hours I will be Boston-bound. In an interesting repeat of my last DC co-op and trip home, I will very much be attemping to recreate scenes from "Smokey and the Bandit." Hopefully, though, there will be very little Smokey in pursuit.

Yesterday, I gave an oral argument of my brief in front of a panel of Appellate Division attorneys. The argument was...okay...but the experience was great. My brief and its own arguments are still very much in flux, so my oral argument got penned down with legal theories and questions that will probably have but an ancillary place in my final draft. Again, it was great experience. The more the better. The attorneys were fairly unrelentless in asking me questions, as if I was arguing in front of a Court of Appeals, and truly held my feet over the fire.

Aside from co-op, the Editorial Boards of the Journal recently had a switching of the reigns meeting (a necessary process as one rotation is leaving and one coming in), and my days since have been peppered with administrative work for the Journal. As Managing Editor, my chief function is supervision and management of the staff. So, I have been planning recruitment, retention of last year's staff, etc. If I wasn't sure before that it's going to be a busy quarter, I am now.

Now if only I had any clue as to what classes I will be taking, so I could plan meetings around that schedule, plan office hours, buy books BEFORE classes begin...etc.

Posted by Ira at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)