One of the most amazing ancillary benefits of attending NUSL that I hope you will come to utilize is the free admission to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. Not only will you be within one block of one of the most recognized art museum in the country, you also receive the privilege of getting free admission to the museum anytime just by flashing your NU id. For most of us negative net worth law students (but with huge earning potentials I comfort myself), it is one of the few places where we can get the VIP treatment. In any case, I went to the MFA today for their annual “Art in Bloom” exhibition. It is one of my favorite exhibitions at the Museum. Objects selected from the Museum’s collections are interpreted in fresh spring flowers by sixty-three New England garden clubs. It was absolutely awe-inspiring, for example, to see vibrant vitality of fresh flowers exhibited side by side with the stillness of a four thousand year old Egyptian statute. The exhibit was displayed throughout the Museum in accordance with the time period and origin of the art pieces. So I saw flower interpretation of Egyptian, American, European, and Asian art objects. In addition to the exhibit, the Museum is also hosting seminars and workshops on floral arrangement and home decoration as well as a Sunday brunch and an elegant tea party with music. I can’t tell you about those events because they were price prohibitive to me but the exhibit itself was absolutely breath-taking and miraculously, free!

Posted by Wen at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This past Thursday I went to my first Passover Seder sponsored by Jewish Law Student Association (JLSA) at the law school. The event is open to the entire law school community, including family and friends of law students and faculty. And like most great events at the law school, it was free. Even though I am not Jewish, I have always been curious about Jewish traditions having grown up in a predominantly Jewish community. So I invited my boyfriend, who is Jewish but had not been to a Seder since he was young, to come along and learn about the Passover Seder. It turned out to be an evening of delicious food and amazing stories. As I sat down at the table carefully prepared by JLSA students in the commons (a lounge at the law school where we gather), I was surprised to see professors, their families, students on the other rotation, the Dean of the law school, people who have never been to a Seder and people who can recite the Seder stories in English and Hebrew. It immediately made me feel more comfortable knowing how my knowledge of the Passover Seder consists of what I looked up the night prior on Wikipedia. I learned that the Seder is as much as about celebrating the exodus from Egypt as inviting the attendees, especially the young ones, to ask questions about the tradition, the history, and the religion. I also learned that I like matzah ball soup but not gefilte fish. Among the many stories I heard that night, my favorite was the story about the placement of an orange on the Seder plate.

Susannah Heschel, a professor of Jewish Studies at University of Dartmouth, was once invited to speak on a panel at Oberlin College. While on campus, she discovered Oberlin students have devised a ritual of placing a crust of bread on the Seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians ("there's as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the Seder plate"). At the next Passover, she placed an orange on her family's Seder plate and she asked everyone to take a segment of the orange, make the blessing over fruit, and eat it as a gesture of solidarity with Jewish lesbians and gay men, and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. This is because she believes the symbolism of bread suggests that being lesbian is being transgressive, violating Judaism whereas an orange was suggestive of something else: the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life. I was happy to be part of a Seder that continued that tradition. So next time you see an orange on the Seder plate, you will know the story behind it.

Posted by Wen at 9:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commencement
It’s hard to believe that the 3Ls whom I have come to trust and depend on are leaving the school for good. Even though the commencement is still one month away, there already has been a lot excitement in school because Justice Stephen Breyer is one of our commencement speakers this year. For those of you who haven’t read “The Nine,” that is Justice Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed by President Clinton in 1994 after serving on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for more than a decade. We have already read several landmark opinions by him for classes so I can’t wait to see him in person. Did you know that he is married to a British royalty?

Speaking of awesome people that come onto campus, the Northeastern Law Journal, of which I am a member, is hosting a symposium entitled To Gitmo or Bust: Practical Challenges in Representing Guantanamo Detainees. It will take place on April 25, 2008 and will consist of a keynote speech by one of the first attorneys to take a Guantanamo client, Tom Wilner, a partner at the D.C. law firm of Shearman and Sterling. Three panel discussions will follow, with panelists from a variety of backgrounds, who have all represented detainees. The Symposium is free and open to the public so please drop by if you are in the area. You can find out more about it at http://nulj.org/.

Also today, the 1Ls and 2Ls hosted APALSA’s annual 3L going away dinner at Brown Sugar on Commonwealth Avenue. As their parting / graduation gift, they each got a monogrammed business card holder. It is our way of saying thanks to all the 3Ls who have been such an amazing support for us through it all. I really am going to miss all the 3Ls.

Posted by Wen at 3:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think I have already said this once but I will say it again – as soon as you start law school, family, friends, and random people who acquire the knowledge that you are in law school will begin to think that they can get some competent (and free) legal advice out of you. Their level of trust in your opinion will not vary whether you started law school two weeks or two years ago. Furthermore, their questions will span from criminal law (can I really say no to a police officer who wants to search my car) to landlord-tenant (can I withhold rent if my landlord didn’t fix my bathroom sink) regardless of whether you have had any class in that particular area of law. Once you embark on the legal path, you become their law go-to person. As you will learn in your professional responsibility class (side point – I learned yesterday that I passed the MPRE I told you all about couple weeks ago. I can’t tell you how happy I am that I have passed the first hurdle in becoming a lawyer!), it is not a good idea for lawyers to give legal advice on areas of law they are not familiar with or have not done research on. If you’re not careful and give bad legal advice, you may be disciplined and/or sued for legal malpractice. Some people you can simply say “no” to when they ask you about a legal question that you’re not familiar with. But others, like my parents, there is simply no escaping. This past weekend, I helped my parents review documents related to a refinancing of our home – all 80 some odd pages! Even though they were represented by an attorney, they wanted me, their law go-to person, to review the documents anyway. At first I thought that I would just give the documents a quick glance since what do I know about real estate and financing law. But as I was reading the documents, I realized that a lot of terms and concepts were actually familiar to me because of my secured transaction class. For example, we learned in class that when home buyers purchase a home, they typically sign two barebones documents – a promissory note (which says something like I, homebuyer, promise to pay you, the lender, back all the money I borrowed to buy this home) and a security agreement or a mortgage document (which says something like if I, homebuyer, don’t pay, I understand you, the lender, have the right to take away my home). So actually, it was really neat to see those two documents that we talked so much about in class in real life and in action. After a careful review, I was able to find some minor errors and handed the documents back to my parents. I think they were pleased that my legal education is finally getting put to their use.

Posted by Wen at 5:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I went to an interesting AALAM (Asian American Lawyers of Massachusetts) event on Monday with two fellow NUSL students entitled “Guide through Cynicism to Success in Private Practice - Asian-American Attorneys Tell All”. Since I have been thoroughly indoctrinated in the challenges of private practice, it was nice to meet attorneys who have persevered through the obstacles and came out ahead. Some of the difficulties they shared were typical of any attorney in a big law firm – the long-hours, getting plum assignments, rigid billing structure, and business development but they also shared difficulties they faced as Asian American attorneys. It was somewhat surprising to me that the four attorneys on the panel had such varying experience. While one attorney felt that his Asian American identity rarely played a role in his legal career, others said gender/race stereotyping still exists to some extent. Still other attorneys there said that they have been able to use their Asian American identity or language or cultural capabilities to advance their career. Throughout the discussion, one message that spoke to me loud and clear is that a young attorney must take control of his/her career by actively developing competencies. That means doing a great job on the assignments you are given but also taking initiatives to take on different types of assignments if you have only been assigned to document reviews. While it was perhaps too much information to take in for a second year law student, I think it’s important that I heard it. For one thing, I feel more prepared for my summer co-op.

Posted by Wen at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)