Sowande, 2L

It's been a fast and furious two weeks.

Last week, I finally went to the Massachusetts State House for the LSSC Project client meeting I'd been coordinating and preparing for some time. Two other students (Law Office Representatives, who also put in a huge amount of time), myself, our Advising Attorney, Professor Hall, and our Faculty Supervisor, Professor Maze-Rothstein met at State Senator Spilka's office.

We met with the Senator (via teleconference which was really great because she was out in the field, but took the time out to talk with us for close to an hour and a half), her Lead Counsel, her Aid and her new Policy Analyst. I just have to say that it went SO well. We got some excellent feedback, but more importantly, we were able to show off a tiny bit of what we learned. I was really nervous at first, but quickly became comfortable participating in the discussion because I realized how much I've grown, and felt that I was actually being closely listened to.

One thing I'd heard about law school was that students don't typically get a lot of feedback, so it seems hard to figure out where we stand sometimes. I've noticed that in my experience here, if I seek it out, I am able to get feedback all over the place, which I think is great because there are chances to be evaluated on many different fronts--not just on those two or three, terrifying Socratic moments and a final examination.

Last weekend, I traveled to Springfield to meet up with my mom, who flew into town for her uncle's memorial service. He was 96, and was the oldest of nine brothers and sisters, one of whom was my grandmother. He was a very prominent figure in our family, and I even found out that he had secured his very own U.S. Patent for a stroller safety device--I had no idea!

We stayed with my mother's cousin on Friday night, and made the drive down to Mt. Laurel, New Jersey on Saturday morning. As soon as we arrived into the small town, my mind started to buzz and I was thinking--wait a minute, Mt. Laurel, Mt. Laurel what IS it about Mt. Laurel and it suddenly dawned on me that we'd spent quite some time discussing a very famous zoning case involving Mt. Laurel in my Property class. I spent almost an hour talking about the case with another of mother's cousins, who spent a lot of time in Mt. Laurel and gave me some very interesting background. It's all about context, and coincidence!

That night, I stayed in New Brunswick with a cousin I grew up with, and he and I made the trek to NYC. I hadn't been to the city for eight years, and was in shock to see how much it seems to have changed.

Wow, I haven't updated for a while! Deadlines, deadlines.

4/1/2009 -- LSSC Presentation

We presented our Massachusetts Diversionary Restorative Justice Youth Tribunal to an audience of more than sixty (60) people! What a relief! We presented to representatives from community organizations currently involved in juvenile justice (e.g., Massachusetts Department of Youth Services), students, family members and friends. It was a great conversation, and a lot of fun to kind of "show off" what we learned over the last eight months.

4/3/2009 -- NUSL Admitted Student Diversity Reception

Oh the shenanigans! Where there is food, there will be law school students. I had a great time meeting some of the admitted students, and catching up with other current students who have been hibernating because of academic commitments. After the event, we took some of the new admits with us to partake in sustenance at a local eatery, and to watch the Celtics game (I know, I know, but a classmate was at the game with good seats so we were trying to catch her on tv). It was really refreshing to hang out with some bright eyed and bushy tailed admits! They were VERY cool people, and really asked some interesting questions.

At this point in time, everyone is gearing up for final exams. It's going to be quite the next two weeks, but the most exciting aspect of preparation this time is that I feel like I have more of a grip on what to expect, and how to write better exams. I would have liked to have had more time with the material, personally, but I feel like I'm at a different level of understanding now. New concepts we are still learning are challenging to grasp at times, but I feel like I have more of a foundation from which to base the questions I ask, to get the answers that will help me try to figure things out.

Now, please enjoy some photos from the admitted student event!

Well, I think I actually am moving downstairs this time... Blargh, ever since we lost our original roommate, things just haven't been the same. Good roommates are very hard to find, so if you are incoming, I sure hope you've already started looking.

Summer continues... of course the weather doesn't seem to agree. It is rainy... more like a heavy mist actually, and it's cool outside. I've spent this weekend catching up with law office friends on the opposite rotation, and it's been a hoot (I was going to say "incredible" but somehow that word seems a little disingenuous). Hearing about what they are doing on Co-op has been incredible. One is writing memo after memo, and a few opinions (a lot of people only get to write one or two, so I've heard) for a Federal District Court judge in Springfield. I'm not surprised since she's a super genius. Another friend has been doing a lot of constitutional law and racial disparity work with a local organization. And yet another is in New York doing immigration law. Everyone seems to be learning a lot and putting our first-year work to very good use.

I'm not sure where I'll be working for the fall just yet, but we sent in our first round of applications last week. How it works is there are co-op employers, and non-co-op employers. Those who are co-op employers are applied to, by students, through the school. I've applied to the Federal Communications Commission in Washington D.C., the Human Rights Commission in San Francisco, a local media company, and a few others.

My goal this week is to apply for more co-ops on my own. We are allowed to work virtually anywhere as long as we will be supervised by a practicing attorney, we get a certain number of hours per week for a certain number of weeks, and as long as we will be evaluated at the end of the number of weeks we've worked. So that leaves it pretty much open to whatever you can latch onto, anywhere in the world.

I'm still holding out for Viz Media, LLC, a Japanese animation licensing company in San Francisco. Persistence, persistence, persistence.

Weekends after the first year are so different. I've enjoyed a few road trips, spending time with local friends who are on the opposite rotation, being at home, and getting to see Boston when people are a lot more relaxed and the population is down to a more realistic size.

I've been working on finding a co-op these last few weeks, and evaluations for the spring are due at any moment. What's really been interesting about the co-op process has been the research part of figuring out who I should apply to. A little bit of "google-ing" has turned up some very interesting judges who I believe could provide some great learning opportunities.

The co-op office procedure is very straight forward, and the past-student views on working for those employers are very helpful. When flipping through the files available in the co-op office, which contain the student reviews, my eye tends to gravitate toward whether the job is accessible by public transportation or not.

Although I was really hopeful and excited about working for a Japanese animation licensing firm in San Francisco ("persistence, persistence, persistence"), as my summer coursework has progressed I have found myself continuing to fall prey to the lure of Bankruptcy Law.

What mystery hast thee in store, oh ye treacherous sirens of debtor/creditor relations? Pray release me from thy treacherous cognitive grasp, that I may once again possess innocence, free to discuss the bounty of knowledge and life through ear and lip unknowing and fresh as the morning dew.

Actually, pray keep me intrigued about the practice area, but pray help me to stop bringing it up in every conversation with anyone who will listen.

I've been lagging on the "bLAWg" so I'm entitled to a two-fer... at least that is what I'll tell anyone who asks.

Two things:

(1) just got an offer from the Co-op in Santa Barbara, so Bankruptcy Court, here I come;

(2) I don't know if you remember the Legal Skills in Social Context (LSSC) project my law office did [Restorative Justice Youth Court Diversionary Program for the Office of Mass. State Senator Karen Spilka see here], but it looks like it is being taken to the next level; that is to say, possible enactment.

I know, don't choke on your popcorn with excitement like I just did. [syke]. Really though, each law office put a lot of hard work into their projects, and I wouldn't be surprised if I hear about more of them being set into motion--either through legislation (like ours), or future case law, or...

Why am I eating popcorn at 12:30 a.m.? Slightly inappropriate budgeting--a $4.00 sausage (and $4.00 fried dough) at the tall ships thing, but what was I supposed to do? Pack a lunch? [Answer: yes]

***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.

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!

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.