I thought I would write this blog piece about student life at NUSL. As an older and married student, one of my concerns was that I might not fit in with the rest of the student body. I have happily found that not to be the case. In fact, I have made lots of terrific friends here and really feel that I fit in. The student body and faculty have both been warm and welcoming.

Although law school can be overwhelming at times (particularly during the first year), I have nonetheless found that it affords me with plenty of social time. This past weekend, for instance, I went to see the Boston Symphony Orchestra. One of my supervising attorneys invited my wife and I to accompany her and her boyfriend to see the BSO perform Bruckner and Shostakovich. Because attendance has plummeted during the Red Sox world series games, Symphony Hall has been giving free tickets away. It was a lot of fun!

Spending time with law school friends has been an important part of my legal education. This past month, I have had lots of terrific outings with other law students: dinner with my torts professor's first year advisees, Chinatown dinner with my Domestic Violence Institute team, the Actors' Gang production of 1984 at Northeastern, a talk by Garrison Keillor, brunch in Cambridge and a few other things.

It might not seem obvious to a law school applicant that he or she should examine his or her relation to the rest of the student body, but it's a consideration that I would definitely advise you to take into account. Establishing meaningful relationships with other students will benefit you in so many ways. You will have people with which to form study groups, discuss legal issues and ultimately get through some of law school's tougher moments. All in all, it will benefit you academically, socially and professionally. Accordingly, I would urge prospective students to any law school to carefully observe the student body and note how students interact with one another. If you get the sense that you will not thrive in that setting, I think that feeling should inform your calculus of where to enroll.

In the interest of full disclosure, though, I should also note that there are times (even at NUSL) when there seems to be no time at all for one's friends and family. Thankfully, these times are circumscribed to exam week and the preceding ten or so days. I also think this is a phenomenon that is common to almost every law school.

That's it for now. Feel free to email if you have any questions! I will be back next week to write about NUSL's Domestic Violence Institute. Have a terrific week!

I thought I would spend this week's blog piece giving readers a sense of some of the issues and concerns that confront NUSL students. I thought it might be interesting to do so via four lunch-time conversations that I have had with friends and co-workers over the past three weeks. Here are some of the things that we've been discussing at the lunch table.

The Future
One red-hot topic in my cohort of third-year students is where people are going after graduation. It's really fun for me to see (and talk about) who ends up where. So far, most people who are set with a job are either going to clerk or will be joining a large firm; other employers hire later in the game. Several of my friends have already accepted clerkships and others are moving onto the second round of interviews. It's an exciting time!

Gay Identity
I recently had an interesting discussion at work about what it means to be gay. One of my co-workers contended that until the twentieth century, there were no gay people. His argument was rooted in the notion that “gayness� is ultimately rooted in identity, not preference or behavior. It was a very interesting conversation and (in my opinion) it attests to the degree to which the practice of law has become more (although certainly not entirely) inclusive. I doubt that such a conversation could have taken place a generation ago.

Long Term Capital Management
I recently had a very interesting conversation with a non-law student who I met through a NUSL friend. He is in business school and shared with me his thoughts on Long Term Capital Management. LTCM was a highly leveraged hedge fund that folded in 2000 after losing over a billion dollars a month for a four-month period. It was interesting to get his read on legal issues that I have recently been thinking quite a bit about, such as the compliance costs of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the ongoing sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Creationism at Woods Hole
One of my law school friends recently met me for lunch and we ran through the top news stories together. He told me about a story that had slipped underneath my radar: a civil suit that was recently filed in the Boston federal courthouse where we both cooped. The suit was brought by a Christian post-doctoral researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who refused to apply the principles of evolution in his analyses and writing. When he was terminated, he brought a suit alleging that he was fired for his religious beliefs. You can read more about the case here.

This past week has been a whirlwind. I have been quite busy with obligations, both law school related and otherwise. On Thursday, my teammate and I rode down to Connecticut, where we represented NUSL at the National Trial Competition. It was wonderful that the competition was in Connecticut, because it allowed some of my family members to come out and watch me compete. I had a lot of fun at this competition. I'm quite happy that I participated in both a trial competition (this year) and a moot court competition (last year) while in law school. I really benefited from each. Moreover, each netted me a plaque to hang in my office!

On Monday, NUSL held its annual "No Talent" Show. The show is a great event and this year I actually played a small role in one of the skits. It was a lot of fun. The No Talent Show is always such a fun event.

On Tuesday, I had my last day of coop at the Public Health Advocacy Institute. I have enjoyed my time there. To celebrate the end, the attorneys there took me out to a lunch, which was a nice touch. Once I left work, I attended a team leader meeting for the Domestic Violence Institute. When I got home, I set out to spend the next couple of days recovering from the past couple of weeks. In particular, working full-time and getting ready for the National Trial Competition ended up wearing me down.

Today, it's Valentine's Day, and I am taking my wife to see When the Road Bends at the MFA. Tomorrow, my friends on the other rotation are celebrating the end of their final academic quarter. Other than that, though, I will be laying low until classes begin.

The spring quarter is already in its second week of classes and I am quite busy. Things have been moving along quickly; classes are already in full swing. I am enjoying being in school for my last academic quarter. It's nice to be able to see friends right before graduating from NUSL and leaving Boston. Speaking of leaving Boston, my wife and I are going apartment-hunting this weekend. It's amazing how much further money goes in smaller cities. For instance, for a little more than what we're paying now for a modest one bedroom, we can get a spacious three bedroom apartment with washer/dryer, dishwasher, parking garage, etc. Of course, there are a lot of things that I will miss about Boston. Probably at the top of the list is its vibrant sense of community. As such, I am trying to soak it all in before we leave.

This past weekend, for instance, my wife and I got together with some of our non-law school friends, who hosted a party at their house in Dorchester. It was a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed talking with Scott, my wife's best friend's husband. He recently became a dad, and we discussed some of the issues that concern recent parents. In particular, we spent a bit of time talking about schools and racial diversity. I told him about the Seattle schools case, a recent Supreme Court decision, which held that school districts cannot use race in assigning students to particular schools. Scott had not heard of this case, so I enjoyed sharing it with him and telling him about how the Supreme Court has recently approached racial diversity in K-12 classrooms.

As my wife and I drove home from that party, I was thinking about how pervasive the law is in American life. No matter what topic is discussed at a dinner party, the law is usually somehow implicated. It's interesting to be entering a profession with such expansive reach. I cannot wait to be a *real* lawyer!

I started today off by doing some reading for jurisprudence. The material was so dense that I had to read it last night and then wake up early today to re-read it. After reviewing the assigned reading, I had a coffee and read the latest issue of The New Republic, which just arrived and (as an aside) had a very disturbing photo morph cover. Before I knew it, it was time to hit the road. My first class of the day - legal interviewing and counseling - was about to start. I really like this class; I have been conducting interviews ever since I got involved in the domestic violence institute as a 1L and now have a great opportunity to think about what I have learned in the past two and a half years. I am enjoying the retrospective that this class provides and am discovering changes that I can make to make my interviews better.

After legal interviewing and counseling, I had to rush over to NUSL's clinic offices, which are currently located a few minutes from the law school building. Once there, I met the professor who runs the domestic violence clinic for lunch. We had lunch together with her teaching fellow. We spent our time talking about the Dorchester Court project, which I involved in this quarter. I had a great time talking with this professor. She is one of my favorite NUSL personalities and is my most valued mentor. It was great to talk things through with her, but I had to literally run out of the building; jurisprudence was beginning in seven minutes.

Shortly after jurisprudence, I was in civil trial practice. During today's class, we covered direct and cross examinations. I was assigned to conduct a direct examination, which I thought went pretty smoothly. Although I hit a few snags, I think I have come a long way from where I was just a few months ago. One of the things that has really helped me get more comfortable in a courtroom setting is the National Trial Competition. Truth be told, I wish I were only a 2L so that I can do it again! I will have an opportunity for some more experimenting with courtroom advocacy in a "safe" setting this weekend, when I participate in a a trial advocacy workshop.

When I got home, my wife and I had some dinner and finished watching The Staircase, which is a six-hour documentary about North Carolina v. Peterson, which was a high-profile murder case that took place in the fall of 2003. For all you prospective students with a Netflix account, I would highly recommend putting it on your queue. The documentary was riveting and allows its audience a real inside perspective into the criminal defense team. If you're interested in the case, you can check out the CourtTV website here, but be aware that it contains major spoilers. I thought The Staircase was phenomenal and I am going to recommend it to all my friends.

Now I have to do my reading for tomorrow. I had better get going!