Sowande, 2L

Only a few weeks left in the quarter, and classes are becoming more familiar in terms of what is expected, the subjects are making more sense, and I'm getting nervous about outlining and exams. In retrospect, I chose a great lineup of courses, and I am enjoying myself quite a bit. The material feels really useful, and is filling in the informational gaps I noticed while I was on co-op last quarter.

When I began my last Coop, I'd taken the equivalent of consumer bankruptcy, and didn't have a lot of understanding beyond liquidation--i.e. [that is to say], selling a debtor's assets to pay creditors for debts owed. Well, while on Coop, my supervising attorney regularly invited me to discuss some of the matters she was working on, including reorganization plan approvals or rejections, and other matters relating to businesses in the bankruptcy context, as opposed to individuals in the bankruptcy context. I received a great introduction to business bankruptcy (which I am now taking), and because of that introduction I am a lot more vocal in class... or at least, a lot more comfortable in class.

At this point I'm hoping to combine the two, my fall Coop and this quarter's classes, into a really great spring Coop. I've applied to a few places, one of which is a Massachusetts bankruptcy judge's chambers. The rest are consumer protection organizations, and seemed like a fun opportunity to explore the consumer debtor side of things.

And now just waiting to hear back...

Bikram Yoga is so blessed HOT. And not "hot" as in "it's all the rage" but hot like blinded by my own sweat, inhaling a bowl full of boiling water HOT. And I just kept slipping and sliding all over the place. Higher traction is needed for my yoga mat.

I've been toying around with yoga for some time now, and I've always known that it can be a great way to exercise and to clear the mind. Honestly, I should participate while school is in session, but it can be very difficult to find the time. When I'm not in class, I'm reading, or on the train reading, or eating--gotta eat. But all of this brings up the importance of time management. [Who am I to be bringing up time management while on holiday break?]

My dad worked at a university and would always make me fill out these calendar-like sheets with my daily activities. The sheets were set up with my planned schedule, and with additional room for what I actually did. Many, many years later, I understand that the purpose of the forms was to compare the two--what I planned to do vs. what I actually got done.

Now, let's tie it together, shall we? Yoga and those time management sheets were, and are, meant to bring about self awareness... and, I've always thought that self-awareness is a main contributor to advancement--spiritual, athletic, academic, etc.

So moral of the posting: If I plan accordingly and get my work done, I can go sweat like a snowflake in a blast-furnace and tie myself into all sorts of uncomfortable positions for an hour and a half, and come that much closer to becoming self-aware.

This year, I won't be going home for the "holidays". [Yes, I put the period outside of the quoted material on purpose. It's habit and no, I'm not British. I just learned to do it that way and since this is a blog, I cashing in on some grammatical freedom.] It's going to be difficult, but not as difficult as it would be to have spent $700 to go to Arizona for one week. My co-op in California came with great expense and so I have to be more financially trepidatious to make up for it.

What's most important to me is making sure that I am financially secure throughout law school. To be quite candid, my undergrad was very disjointed because of finances--and a few other random things happening called "life". [Yes, I did it again.] I believe that financial security requires sacrifice, and that which is sacrificed is different from one student to the next. Some of my classmates have outside financial resources from which to take trips during breaks, or to draw upon to fill in the expense gap if they hit hard times. Others have to significantly shift priorities to be able to buy this week's groceries. The former may have to deal with travel headaches and may miss important classes and lectures. The latter may not be able to spend time with family until a later time. Either way, the goal is to get through law school, and so you do what you gotta do to get it done.

Side note--

My new housemates know good food. In my short two weeks here, we've shared a roast with several sides, buffalo meatloaf, also with several sides, a veritable bevy of desserts, and other delights. I have officially moved in with two Boston gourmets. The kitchen is stocked with a utensil for every possible thing one can do to a piece of meat, a vegetable, grains, or anything you may potentially wish to shove in your face.

Side note side note--

Do you know about the milk strike that has been going on for some time now? "60% of milk volume [could not] be delivered" in France back at the end of November. No, no, not the fromage!!!

I had to hear about this from my brother who lives in France. It's a VERY interesting situation, but where has it been in our news? Perhaps buried in stories about sports and infidelity, and how X celebrity went to rehab, again.

Good week here on the whole. I found excellent housemates who can cook their faces off, and a great room in a really beautiful house. I'll admit, I was really nervous about finding a place in a reasonable amount of time but things worked out.

Classes are coming together well too, and I am amazed at how helpful my co-op experience has been so far. My co-op introduced me, "baptism by fire," to the practical application of many different areas of law--secured transactions, intellectual property, professional responsibility, etc. The "preview" continues to shape my learning process, and classes just make more sense. Last summer, I wondered how so many of the 3Ls were so chock full of practical comments in class--answer: Co-op.

Today, I received a letter from the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary (a spring co-op I recently applied to), and they seem to be interested in me... unfortunately for the summer! That would mean I would have to switch rotations AND give up my new lease. Unfortunately, I can't afford to do either, financially or spiritually. However, I'm definitely going to see about that option for next fall because it would be a fascinating experience and I am definitely game.

By the way, it's getting much, much coooooooooooolder. This time, I have duck boots, and a selection of large jackets with which to shield myself from the windchill.

My first Co-op ended on November 20th. The Co-op at the US Bankruptcy Court was more than 400 hours of pure, un-adulterated Bankruptcy bliss.

Well, classes started on Monday, it's now Friday, and I'm in the midst of a new law school Co-op life lesson. Co-ops are available all around the world, so the opportunities are limitless. However, I lost my lease in Boston when I decided to do a Co-op in Santa Barbara. I stayed with family while there, but now that I've returned, I am having to deal with finding a new place during the first week of classes. Not fun. Luckily, a best law school friend of mine has offered her couch until I find a *reliable* housing situation. I've heard that it's a pretty common practice among NUSL'ers, and I think it reflects the campus community... just a little insider scoop for ya all.

Santa Barbara Sunset

I've selected my courses for the winter quarter, and boy are they ever business-y... Secured Transactions, Corporations, Business Bankruptcy--where is all of this going? At least I'm taking Professional Responsibility, right? I figure the timing is appropriate. *wink, nod*

About a week ago at a lunch, a fellow Northeastern aficionado asked me what happened to my public-interest focus. It's still there, but has taken up the back seat for two reasons: (1) we receive public interest perspectives in each of our first-year classes, especially in LSSC; (2) as someone who wasn't predisposed to a lot of the innards of American economics, politics and concepts of legal ownership (home-ownership, investments, etc.), I feel as though I should direct my focus toward the type of classes that are going to best prepare me for the state bar exam. Those classes are mainly business-law related courses.

I think that Co-op, on the other hand, is more suitable for exploration of public interest causes. I just applied to the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary for my Spring 2010 Co-op (yes, thinking ahead so that I don't have to concentrate on it during the quarter). If selected, I may be able to work with one or all of the House sub-committee on issues like the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), net neutrality, and bankruptcy/finance industry reform. Let's see where this goes.

It's my favorite French word. Swah nyooz monh. It means "carefully." I like it for its pronunciation more than I do for its meaning.

Anyway... I have three weeks left here in Santa Barbara. I've really settled in at my co-op, and it feels like I've been there as an employee--not as a law student. I think part of that feeling is because of my past experience as a court employee. Having an understanding of how the different "branches" of a court operate--e.g., clerk's office, judge's chambers, security--has allowed me to focus on the work that I'm doing instead of daydreaming about how files are routed through the court. Hey, sometimes a distraction can morph out of control and before ya know it, ten minutes have passed and there's a line of letter 's' streaming across a memo that's to be turned in by the end of the day. My current situation is a little sad though because I'm used to being a deputy clerk, as opposed to being a judge's "employee." But working at a time when the court is really busy and when I'm the only extern is just tops! [I'm also not used to putting the period inside of the quotes under all circumstances, but American English and grammar it is...]

My schedule for the winter quarter has come together very well, but I don't know that everyone's been so lucky. The talk of the town lately is course selection, and it can be really challenging to fit everything in, get the professors you want, and get into the most popular classes. Personally, I'm going for cut and dry. I know that I need to focus on bar exam classes so my schedule is very, very traditional. Corporations, Business Bankruptcy, Secured Transactions, and Professional Responsibility. I'd love to take advantage of the specialized classes, like International Human Rights Legal Research and Entertainment Law, but in my case if I can argue my way out of a wet paper bag, but haven't provided myself with a solid foundation in traditional legal concepts, the bar exam is going to be that much more challenging.

I mean, I'll come right out with it and say that I didn't grow up in an environment where business transactions, home purchases or my parents' investments were discussed at the dinner table--haha, what investments? In fact, I never had those conversations at any point in my life so I feel like maximizing my exposure to what, for some, are simple aspects of American business/life (e.g., buying a home or managing investments) will be most beneficial to my future in the legal field.

Still in love with bankruptcy law.

*chuckle*

Yes. It's Friday.

I spent today's lunch at a Families Advocating Compassionate Treatment (FACT task force meeting. FACT is forming a task force to build a treatment facility in Santa Barbara for dually diagnosed individuals (mental health and co-occurring substance-use disorders). Many have severe psychological issues (e.g., bi-polar disorders and schizophrenia), and their challenges are compounded by drug addiction and being caught in the revolving door of the criminal justice system, with very little hope for any sort of rehabilitation.

There were numerous parallels between their activities, and my law office's first-year project. For example, one of the purposes of today's meeting was to bring community stakeholders to the table, including prosecutors, law enforcement, public defenders, families, and the general public, in order to hash out and discuss the various ways of going about reaching their end goals.

I didn't say much because I was on my lunch break, and I was sort of the new/visiting kid on the block--but they are engaged in the same discussions that my law office had when we were developing strategy for our project (a state-wide Restorative Justice Diversionary Program/Youth Tribunal for at-risk youth in Massachusetts). The people present at today's meeting included concerned family members, members of the local legal community, local law enforcement, and a local university professor.

While my law office's project has gone quite far, and continues to have impact on the development of state legislation, I believe that if this organization continues to forge ahead with the involvement of at least the stakeholders who were present today, they should do well.

Bon weekend!

It's been raining off and on for almost 24 hours. I've been blamed by several people for bringing this weather from the east coast...

"Condemned to the use of words, we can never expect mathematical certainty from our language." - Justice Thurgood Marshall said it right. Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104 (1972). I'd provide the page number but it's better if you find it yourself. That case is chock-full of literary confection.

This morning I got to work excited to sit in on a hearing for which I'd done a lot of significant writing, research and preparation. The work was intense, and dealt with a lot of issues with which I was very unfamiliar. Also, the emotional charge of bankruptcy is almost ever-present but what's particularly difficult and even ironic about the work is that the lure of adhering too closely to the black-letters is powerful. Translating the arguments of individual human beings, who fear losing their homes, cars, or whatever, into something that makes sense within the Federal Bankruptcy Code requires more than a dry sensibility because the average human being just doesn't speak the language of the Federal Bankruptcy Code.

Years ago, I dreamt that I would some day translate between Japanese-speaking and English-speaking record executives. Or between French and Japanese, I don't know, pie makers. But what I am doing now is beautiful because what I do all day is translate. Translate between a pro per party and the Court. Translate between state and federal law. Dive deeply into a phrase contained within environmental law, and translate that into bankruptcy law. Haha, I feel like a gameshow host, "all this and more..."

I definitely don't do it alone. I've had a lot of excellent conversations, help, comments, support and suggestions from the Judge to the US Marshalls. I've been experiencing a lot of deja vu, and from what I recall it means that I am on the right path--or it's too late and I need to "deja vu" my behind to bed.

On a heavier note, I saw the new Michael Moore movie this evening with my mom. It's an interesting perspective and an interesting start. I'll just say that it was a little peculiar to sit in a Santa Barbara boutique theater, watching a film about wealth and capitalism in the United States. *grin*

***LSSC NEWS FLASH***

I just got an email from my LSSC Law Office 12 Faculty Mentor, Prof. Susan Maze-Rothstein, and portions of our Restorative Justice Youth Diversionary project are being incorporated into proposed legislation which will be heard tomorrow by the Massachusetts State Senate Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities. Law Office 12--and you know this.

//end LSSC News Flash

This weekend was the 23rd Annual Avocado Festival. The festival is held in Carpinteria, CA, which is actually where I grew up. (Bullhead CIty has only been home for the last 2.5-3 years.) Carpinteria is one of the main producers of avocados, and is about 15 miles or so south of Santa Barbara, CA. It's a small, sleepy California beach town where everyone knows each other, and where avocados are grown like whoah. I saw some REALLY old friends from elementary school and days spent at the beach.

The first time I volunteered for the festival was with my entire family, my mom, dad, older brother, older sister, and younger brother--in 1986. We all worked in the Pepsi booth together and had a great time. This year, my mom and I volunteered and had a great time selling event merchandise.

Enjoy the photos.