Sowande, 3L

During my first week on coop, I met with Hon. John M. Mott, Associate Judge of the DC Superior Court after one of his hearings. Judge Mott is a co-op employer, and a graduate of NUSL, and a very interesting guy. He was truly gracious in taking the time to sit with me after a long hearing, to discuss his career path. I definitely have the sense that NUSL grads are a pretty interesting crowd, and particularly one that is cognizant of the importance of reaching out to upcoming generations.

Last Saturday, I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival with a group of local LGBT law enforcement officers and friends. No, I didn't dress up; no, I didn't have one of those massive turkey legs (but they have them and I definitely will next time).

One of the reasons I like co-op is that outside of the hours I work (which vary depending upon how much work I have to do), I am my own person. No out of class assignments to do, no fear of impending examinations... none of that jazz constantly hanging over my head.

Eh, so this festival is one of the largest in existence, and it's been going strong for 34 years. Seriously, check it out.

The event grounds are massive, and are reminiscent of a big village--as you can see in the photo. There are numerous booths where patrons can buy food, drinks, and everything from chain mail clothing, to cloaks, beautiful leather boots, chalices made out of wood or metal, handbags... it was amazing. The food was really inexpensive, but very good.

I plan to go back again so I can actually see some of the shows, particularly the jousting.

I can get on to the flipside of NUSL life--Coop.

I sort of held off for a bit on the Coop process for this fall because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. One thing that was suggested to me by my previous Coop employer, was that I diversify--I can't keep doing bankruptcy stuff even though I want to, okay, fine, I understand. So I held out to see what was available in other areas that wouldn't bore me to death. I don't mean tax, I would have tried a tax Coop but it wasn't too high on the list of priorities.

Toward the end of the decision-making process, I had two possibilities--the Discovery Channel (well, Discovery Communications, Inc.) or the Council for Court Excellence. At one, I would be working for the legal department at a massive media corporation in Silver Spring, MD (right up the road from home). At the other, I would be working for a public interest, court advocacy/watch-dog organization in Washington, D.C., also not far from home. Since we have a public interest requirement, and since I was up for a great stipend if I undertook a public interest Coop, I chose the Council for Court Excellence. I am hoping that Discovery will consider me again for next spring, and I look forward to getting back in touch with them in November. At this point, it's all about having to worry about less and less as I get closer to graduation. Spring Coop is no exception.

So, the Council for Court Excellence--a non-profit in Washington, D.C. that observes and reports on the operations of law, and the Federal and Local courts in Washington, D.C. My first few days have been reading, reading, reading. Jurisdiction here, for example, is a massive issue. I'll have more for ya later!

Next episode, meeting NUSL alum, Hon. Mott of the D.C. Superior Court! (Just so you know, D.C. Superior Court judges are appointed by the President.)

All,

I have four take-home exams to complete over the course of the next week... Please believe I will be heading home to Maryland on the 5:15 a.m. Acela Amtrak train tomorrow morning. It's going to be an outlining frenzy, and I will be sure to plop down in a comfortable seat in the "quiet car."

My Coop for this fall is with the Council for Court Excellence, a non-profit in DC that works very closely with the local courts, law enforcement, media, probation, etc., to streamline the court process, advocate against illegitimate, unnecessary and detrimental disparity, and to recognize the hard work of sung and unsung heroes in the industry. Fasten your seatbelts folks!

At the moment, I really can't wait to get out of Boston, and I think Boston can't wait to get rid of me. It's going to be hard to come back in the winter, but NUSL is actually what I believe makes this city great, so I don't mind putting up with Boston's deficiencies to avail myself of NUSL's curious brand of entertainment.

Up next, I want to do a review of using an Apple iPad for this quarter's classes. Stay tuned, you may be surprised by the outcome, but here's a hint--I am selling it.

We have two weeks left in the quarter and there's no shortage of work. Projects, work-study, finals... I want to do it all! But part of law school is balancing priorities--and I don't mean social priorities because those are virtually out of the window.

P.S., "get outta my way."

P.P.S., the song is Get Outta My Way, by Kylie Minogue. Excellent album.

...is Saturday, 7/24. I have to take a break from reading for Jurisprudence because this stuff is mind-bending. There really doesn't seem to be any simple explanation I've come across for even the simplest of concepts, and the textbook's included essays are incomprehensible... as far as my pea brain is concerned. Okay, a little overdramatic, but what I am picking up is, however, pure platinum.

I'm glad I'm taking this class because it involves discussion on what judges, or decision makers, or anyone who is affected by law for that matter, do when there is no clear answer. I STILL, to this day, treasure Justice Thurgood Marshall's quip abbot how "our language lacks mathematical certainty," to paraphrase his famous quote from Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104 (1972), and boy does it ever when it comes to Jurisprudence. Why? From what I can gather, it's because we all differ on when and how morality affects law, established or otherwise; and even further, what is or is not moral.

North Korea and other isolationist or homogeneous cultures come to mind constantly as I'm sitting in class, and I wonder, if there is zero outside western influence (just pretend for a moment that were possible beyond trade and other issues),, do they spend so much time wondering whether it abortion is really deserving of government sanction, or whether gay marriage should be allowed? Well, do they?! What do they do in North Korea? Part of me is actually dying to know. Wouldn't that make a great coop or project... Jurisprudence as it relates to isolationist countries. Heh, we can't even seem to figure out healthcare as a cohesive nation, and what's this about Tennessee attempting secession?! Really? Google it people. I know it's just talk at this point but you don't just throw secession out there, it's not an UNO card.

There's a lot more to it though.

In other news, I participated in a YMCA Young Achievers program with some classmates a few weeks ago, developed by our admissions office. I participated last year and it was awesome. This is my favorite event at the school, though I'm not so sure why. The students are hilarious, and I think it's fun to get them involved.

The only difficulty is that they seem to ask a lot of legal questions, which isn't the best thing because it'd be a not-so-good situation to have students go back to their friends talking about, "a law school student told us we should do this or that if we end up in X situation." Big no-no.

My response was to ask them what they thought should happen, what the law might say, while trying to get them to see both sides of the coin--should X be illegal? What law would you make? Who will it affect? Would everyone agree that it's fair, or just? I didn't have the specific answers to their questions, and if I did, I couldn't give them to the students because I'm not bar certified. But the next best thing, to me, still has to do with my position that the point of teaching or learning is not really to regurgitate the correct answer, but to get the asker or askee (yes, askee) to see that while a specific law or rule may exist, it is understood more deeply when thought of at a foundational and contextual level.

Enough slacking, back to trying to sort out these philosophical anomalies.

Er... I don't want to type too loudly, potentially subjecting myself to the wrath of the conductor who has repeatedly informed the passengers in this car that it is, in fact, a quiet car that is to maintain the atmosphere of a library. Could you imagine getting kicked out of the quiet car of an Amtrak train? It's prime-time tv fodder. Quick, someone, write that down.

So where was this "library atmosphere" the last few times I've taken Amtrak to, from, or to and from anywhere? Don't get me wrong, this is great! No screamy kids fighting over the only laptop, or chatty undergrads torturing me with their over- and inappropriate use of "like," "you know," and other colorful expletives. Let me guess, you want to go teach in S. America, right?* >.<

Apparently, this is the Acela train, so it's a little more classed up than the regular Amtrak train... Thanks to the quiet car, I can peacefully do grown-up things, like, you know, totally [bleepin] tether my new iPad to my Nokia mobile so I can read my favorite web-based gadget blogs and check out YouTube videos while listening to my Japanese animation soundtracks, all at blazing 3G speeds. Hahaha, ahhhhhh I've no shame in my game.

Actually, I've been scanning all of my class readings into PDF documents that I can work on when the mood strikes. It takes a little while to do, but I can do it easily at home with my laptop and a $10 scanner, while I catch up on episodes of "House of Five Leaves" or "Modern Family." Heck, I have eight hours to fill and there's no penalty for reading ahead or getting some outlining done.

*I'm not knocking trips to S. America. I'm just commenting on how popular it is lately among a certain younger crowd.

First week of classes--done, and what a gnarly week it was. That whole saying about 3rd year they bore you to death doesn't seem to be true at this point. This may be my most challenging quarter yet.

That said, classes went very well. I have another excellent line up that will be a lot of fun (but a ton of work). The only bar class I'm taking this quarter is Trusts & Estates. For sanity's sake, I'm also taking Jurisprudence, which is a "history and philosophy" of law course. The reason I chose Jurisprudence is that, as I've said, I'm a contextual learner. So, anything that helps broaden my knowledge base is quite welcome.

We were under a tornado watch and had a massive storm yesterday. A tree fell across a car and into our driveway. The tree also pulled down our neighbor's power lines. Check out the flicks below!

Has anyone been watching Soul Train lately? It's been on and if you haven't checked it out, you're missing out on some good television. I can remember a few of the actual moments on the show, but very vaguely because I was so small when the episodes first aired. I think it's on other web-based media sites. Look for it, some people may get some style ideas while others may revamp some dance moves that need a little reworking.

I'm starting my last week of Co-op soon. There's a new intern coming in and I though I'd leave a nice little manual for her. I like creating manuals... they're helpful projects that get passed along to grow and get fleshed out by each successive intern. They also really fill in the blanks for someone who is new to getting around the court, and getting to getting the particular job (avoidance of judicial liens, reaffirmation agreements, pulling state "fraud" case law) done. I don't know that many law interns have had as much focus on bankruptcy in classes, but I will be sure to do what I can to help. The concepts are new and challenging enough, I just wonder how much actual work can get done if one doesn't quite know where to find the documents, best treatises, or other resources that they will need.

I will, however, say that once the technicalities of the job are learned, an intern can really get to enjoy the underlying forces that make bankruptcy law so interesting. The intern will have time to discuss issues, like the conflict between interpretations of "value" in the bankruptcy code as it relates to free and clear sales.

Fast forward almost a month and here I am, back at my Co-op in Boston after driving across the country from Arizona to Maryland.

We left from Bullhead City on Sunday, April 18th at about 9:00 p.m. and drove our little U-Haul, non-stop, through Flagstaff (Arizona), Albuquerque (New Mexico), Amarillo (Texas), Oklahoma City (Oklahoma), Little Rock (Arkansas), Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville (Tennessee), and Blacksburg (Virginia), arriving in Maryland at about 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the 20th. No stopping at hotels, no sight-seeing... just straight through.
It was awesome.

Then, on Thursday we drove to the local DC Metro stop (about a 20 minute drive) to ride into DC, where we gave ourselves a tour of the National Mall. I'd only been once when I was very young. My partner had never been and was chomping at the bit to go see the war memorials since he's a veteran.

I came back to Boston from the whole experience with the satisfaction of knowing that after I graduate, I don’t need to fear moving down to Maryland. My impression of the area, at least the part where we will be living, is that it is particularly well integrated--ethnically, socially, fiscally... There is a wide mix of people from working class to politicians just in the small, country town where we live, which is still close to the Air Force Base, and accessible to DC and Alexandria, Virginia where one of my best friends from high school (back in California) now lives with her husband and son.

Brandywine, Maryland is quite different from Boston. Instead of an academically-driven culture with cold city overtones, Brandywine is much slower, more relaxing, and much more country—that’s how I like things. I grew up in a very, very, very small beach town next to a small city in California, and I’ve never been much of a “city boy.” I lived in Northern Arizona, and despite the social difficulties and challenges my partner and I dealt with, we enjoyed the quiet at the end of the day, and the close family of friends we were able to make *because* of the small size of the local community.

My third year begins in a little more than three weeks. I'm ready for it. Classes have been selected according to what's going to help me pass the bar, I have a place to live, I just got my financial aid award letter for the coming year, and I have my summer study spot set up and ready to go outside on the grass next to the Curry Student Center. I've been planning out my last two Co-ops for Fall and Spring, and have begun to hunt for post-graduation employment (it's really never to early to start). Now all there is to do is finish this Co-op and head home to Maryland for a nice break.

'Tis the season, "y'all!" Law schools are sending out letters admitting, wait listing and denying students, and the most recent US News Rankings are soon to be released.

I devoted so much attention to three separate and mandatory Research Analytics/Statistics courses during my undergrad studies in Justice Studies Administration (and with a wink and a nod to the time I spent as an advertising major), that survey- and other "analytically"-based espousals have always caught the attentions of my skepticism. In my book, what's not said says more than what is said.

That's why it is so important to aggressively assertively follow up on submitted applications and waitlist letters. This does NOT mean calling every day, but could be the placement of a call to admissions when you receive the waitlist letter to let the school know you were excited to hear the news and wish to remain active on the waitlist. You may even offer to provide an additional letter of recommendation or something, who knows, be creative--but remember to smile while you are on the phone. I worked as a radio DJ for a Clear Channel Radio station back in California during my undergrad (I know, what haven't I done, right?) and every DJ is taught to S M I L E while talking on the radio to the audience, ‘cuz they can hear it.

Chin up, we are not a SourPatch Kid, we are a 1L hopeful. There will be plenty of time for lemon faces during law school so stay focused on getting in.

So yes, I am still on Co-op with the bankruptcy court, a different bankruptcy court this time in Boston. Today, I sat in on an amazing meeting regarding the Local Bankruptcy Rules. I even participated and was able to draw connections between the local rules I learned about (and had to follow) in California on my last Co-op. Some things are night and day, others are strictly 12 noon, but all in all, it was information and through processes that I would not be exposed to, "but for" Co-op.

The exciting news.

My partner got a job in Washington, D.C. and I'm flying home (Arizona) on Saturday to pack up and drive back to Maryland with the dogs. The job is very exciting and I'm really proud. Though I don't know about becoming an "east coast" person, I am all for new experiences. Plus, D.C. seems like a city with a lot of opportunity, and it's closer to Boston. So, for the remaining duration of my law school years, I won't have to deal with a 5-6 hour, white-knuckle flight to Las Vegas, 4-6 times each year.

Prepare for some cool cross-country photography and weird stories from Interstate 40.