Laurinda, 3L

Was the title of the first, and hopefully annual, Northeastern University Law Journal symposium. It was last Friday from 10AM - 5PM. It went really well!

The keynote speaker was Tom Wilner, a managing partner at Sharman and Sterling. He spoke about how he got into representing Guantanamo detainees when the opportunity arose.

The first panel was "Representing at Your Own Risk - Challenges to Finding and Taking Guantanamo Clients." Professor Coyne of University of Oklahoma Law, Nicole Moen of Frederickson & Byron, and Stewart Eisenberg of Weinberg & Garber spoke of flying down and meeting with their clients, many of whom are in solitary. One of the most poignant things that the speakers said was that even though it seemed hopeless at times, the lawyers were providing an important service. Not the attempt to get a hearing on the detainees status (which is important) but just flying down and interacting with the detainee and assuring them that they too were human. I know that's corny. But it really struck me because you think the most important thing is that the detainees actually have lawyers who will fight their cause and it turns out that the most important service they provide to the detainee is a human connection.

The second panel was "No News is Bad News - Cutting Through the Secrecy of Evidence." Sabin Willet of Bingham McCutchem, David Remes of Covington and Burling, and Marcellene Hearn of Richards, Kibbe, & Orbe spoke of how the comuniques from their meetings with clients had to go through DC before they would get back to them. This, however, is only if they need to discuss to the public about the situation with the detainees. Otherwise, you are breaking the law.

The final panel was "What does Winning Mean? - Representation After a Favorable Judgment" hosted. Bernard Docket who flew from Germany!, Professor Baher Azmy of Seton Hall law, and Jason Pinney of Bingham McCutchen spoke on this topic. I wasn't present for this panel but I heard that it was also very good.

Overall, the turnout, speakers and panels were great! I really hope this continues. In addition, if you do come to NUSL, unlike other law schools you don't have to test / write into Journal. All 2Ls and 3Ls are welcome as long as you do your end of things.

Posted by Laurinda at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi everyone,

For those who have toured NUSL or read the brochure, you will know that the University has decided to improve the law school (this means that the university is paying and not the law school). We have annexed the building next door aka Dockser. Last week, the school was offering tours of the still under construction building.

Another blogger and I decided to go Wednesday afternoon. We would get to wear hardhats and get a tour --so of course we were very excited. Even though it may not look it from the outside, the inside seems to be nearing completion. There will be four floors total. The ground floor will have a large commons and meeting rooms. This is a major improvement because most organizations do not have a set office. All student organizations share the one student activities room that has bins.

The second (considered the real first) floor will have the moot courtroom. This is my favorite because our current moot courtroom is nowhere near a showpiece. The tour guide also said they would even consider leasing it to a judge.

The new building will also have (I think) 6 more classrooms. This is amazing because class size has increased and this year especially it was difficult to find classrooms for the ULs. My professional responsibility class is located in two different buildings and my admin class is in the moot courtroom (hence my excitement).

Otherwise more bonus points for the new building is that it uses mostly green materials and will have a green roof!

I am incredibly excited about the new building, especially that I will be able to use it next year. Hopefully my classes will be scheduled there.

Posted by Laurinda at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the different things about this quarter is that 3 of 4 of my classes involve group projects. I don't mind group projects, but its a very difficult thing to do at this level. Unlike in college or high school where everyone is on the same schedule, law students may share just this one class where the group project is assigned. In addition, law students tend to be older and some have families (meaning that evenings / weekends are out so that they can see their family at some point).

In Admin, we had to write a regulation for a hypothetical boxing statute. Never having written a regulation before or taught how, a group was great to bounce ideas off and polish some of my own ideas. The only issue is that the only time we had available was from 5-8 on two weekdays. This group only had 4 people compared to my international business class where there is 8.

If 4 people was hard to co-ordinate, 8 was just impossible. We had to decide early that consensus was the only way to get things done and stringent use of email because no matter what time / day was chosen, one or two people could not meet.

However, as my admin professor tells us, in real life, lawyers work as a team.

In other news, Beijing is out as a study abroad option next fall. In my excitement, I had forgotten that I wanted to apply for clerkships for post-graduate employment. This means I need to be state-side in case I get interviews (which isn't a guarantee since clerkships are ultra competitive). I'm very disappointed and sad because the CUFE program looked so interesting and I had never studied or been abroad before.

Still I am planning a trip to Taiwan for after finals so I will still be visiting Asia, just for not as long as I had hoped.

Have a great week! It looks like Spring might finally be here!!

Posted by Laurinda at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've never studied abroad. I've always wanted to but during undergrad I didn't think it was worth giving up my part-time job at Smith Barney. An internship like that is extremely competitive and not something I would have wanted to let someone else get :-P Looking back, I still feel like that was the right decision because working part-time taught me how to manage my time and working at Smith Barney taught me how to work in an office environment and talk to people.

Why this reminisce about Brandeis, you may ask?

Well, in law school you may get a chance to study abroad as well!

Northeastern has a quarter system. This makes it difficult to actually study abroad. Every school is on the semester system and so its difficult to make 11 weeks work into an academic semester.

However, anyone can co-op abroad. The student who wants to co-op abroad has to take the initiative. There are a few co-op employers who are located in another country. But almost all the other co-ops have been created by former students. It's really difficult to set one up and the co-op office can't really help you, but it's been done before. You just really need to take point on it and prepare everything months in advance.

I've had one friend who co-oped in Dubai (she set it up through a network contact), one who co-oped in Geneva (set up through a posting on WeBoard and she speaks French), and one who co-oped in Hong Kong (set up through one of her mother's contacts and she is a native speaker). Clearly it can be done, but it's something that they did on their own.

One of the APALSA members emailed the list-serv about a study abroad opportunity at the Law School at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing. The program runs from Aug 2 to Dec 22 and classes are taught in English. I really want to go. However, because of the academic semester they have, it won't be timed right. If I start at the SEC in May, I can start on time in Aug. Still that doesn't really resolve the winter co-op. I'm not sure how employers may view a start date of Christmas week. Also there would only be 10 weeks for the winter co-op (if I find an employer) and the co-op program requires 11 weeks. I suppose worst comes to worse, I can skip the first week of classes?

If I do go, I will be in Beijing during the Olympics!!

Posted by Laurinda at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)