Law School

Though law school is a fair amount of work, there are also a lot of opportunities for some fun. SBA has almost weekly social activities, for example, happy hours, karaoke, and evenings out in Cincinnati. We've also got the Barrister's Ball this weekend. This is going to be at the Contemporary Arts Center in downtown Cincinnati, and we're all going to dress up, dance, eat dinner, and look at the art. The proceeds benefit the Spina Bifida Association of Cincinnati, so it's for a great cause and should be a lot of fun.

In addition to theses school wide events, my section has been great about planning extra activities. We've had nights out to celebrate birthdays, dinners with whoever can make it, and we went bowling last weekend. (Patrick, one guy in our section, scored four strikes in a row. I had the honor of scoring the least amount of points in both games played, but I made everyone else feel real good about themselves). Since we start later on Wednesday, we've decided to start getting coffee beforehand. Hopefully we will be able to meet with some professors at this time and get to know a little bit more about them.

Break is over and I'm back for a second semester here at UC law. Last week was our first week back, and it was a little rough getting back in the habit and practice of briefing cases and doing all the reading. I think I just have to get used to the work again after three weeks off.

We have two new classes this semester - Property and Criminal Law, which take the place of Torts and Contracts. I am enjoying both of these classes so far. Criminal Law tends to be what most people think of when they think of "law" so it'll be nice to learn what it is really about.

We had a long, three-day weekend this weekend which was nice even though we've only been back for a week! I went ice skating down on Fountain Square on Friday evening, which was a lot of fun. Although I have lived in Cincinnati all my life, I have never been down to the square downtown to ice skate there. It was really pretty, still somewhat lit up with Christmas lights, and it wasn't too cold, so the weather was great. It was a nice, relaxing way to spend an evening (and we topped it off by going to Graeter's to get some ice cream. Black Raspberry Chip is always delicious, even in winter!)

We're at the end of Christmas break now - classes start next Monday. It was nice and relaxing break. My older sister surprised my parents by flying in from Costa Rica for the holidays, and my oldest brother and his wife came in from California, so we had the whole family together. We spent the break playing tons of board games - it was a lot of fun.

I spent a lot of my break reading. Since we read so much during the school year for classes, I do not have much of a chance to read for pleasure. I have always loved reading, however, so I really enjoyed having a chance to sit down and re-read books that are my favorite or catch some new ones. Right now I'm reading The Killer Angels. It is a book that my friend's dad loaned to me (it was actually loaned a couple months ago but unfortunately I haven't been able to read it until now!) and its the story of the battle of Gettysburg. I am really enjoying it - the movie Gettysburg is one of my favorites, and I can connect the characters in the book with images from the movie.

I sent out a couple job applications and resumes over the holidays, but many of them want to see grades, so I am waiting patiently for all those to come in. We just got the booklist for our classes a couple days ago, so I have been seeing which books I already had and which I needed to get. They've also put the syllabi up for my classes, so I can start reading again. It's hard to believe that the second semester is already here!

It's hard to believe that today is the last day of classes. The semester has really flown by, its seems like just yesterday I was sitting in orientation. Exams are looming; I've got four over the next two weeks. Fortunately for us 1Ls, they've separated out the exams nicely - we've got 2 next week and 2 the week after that. We've been hard at work reviewing, finishing up our outlines, and creating flow charts.

The most important thing with exams is to practice. In most of my classes, my Professors have given sample exam questions. It's one thing to think about the answers and understand the concepts, and its quite another to actually explain your thinking in writing. These exams are not about regurgitating memorized information, but actually applying the doctrines that we have learned.

Another important thing with exams is to stay relaxed, and you can do this by staying away from the people who are really stressed out. Those people will often stress you out with their fretting. I'm fortunate in my section, because everyone has been pretty good about being relaxed and not stressing out. We also help each other out.

One of the organizations I got involved with at UC Law is called Student Court. When an undergrad gets a parking ticket at UC, they can appeal that ticket to us. The appeal is a mini-court case. The student gets assigned a defense attorney and a prosecuting attorney is assigned as well. We research the case, meet with the client, take pictures of the scene, and then actually have a court date where the client takes the stand and gets cross-examined by the Prosecution.

The great thing about Student Court is that it gives first years some practice being in court and arguing in front of a judge. We have to do this at the end of a class next semester, so it's good to try and become familiar with the process as early as possible. So far I have had two cases. My first case, I was prosecution on a meter violation, and it was the first case of the year, so I was a little nervous. The case went pretty well, and the judges had a lot of helpful comments to help me prepare for next time. I had my second case last week, when I was actually working defense for a meter violation, so it was interesting to try and argue the opposite side. It was amazing just how more comfortable I felt arguing this second case, with the one practice behind me. The judges once again had some really helpful comments, so I think next semester when I have to argue in front of a real judge, I'll be much better prepared than if I had not done Student Court.

The biggest change from undergrad, for me, is only having one exam for each class. It was kind of intimidating to hear that most of my grade would depend on my performance on one test. I was used to writing papers for my undergrad classes, or if we had tests, there were usually two or three.

Fortunately, the school understands this fear and there have been a number of programs to help ease the stress and prepare us 1Ls for our first set of exams. Section advisers, 2 and 3Ls for each section, have met with us to answer any questions we have as well as talk about their own exam preparations and what to expect from our professors. We've also had exam panel meetings, where a number of different students talk about different styles of studying.

Exams are still a bit away, but its nice to have some idea of where to start.

Hello everyone!

I am really excited to start this blog and begin to share my experiences with all of you. Hopefully this blog will help you to understand what the real first year experience is like at University of Cincinnati College of Law.

A little bit of obligatory background information. I've lived in Cincinnati my whole life - I just graduated in May 2009 from Xavier University (and have already informed my family and friends that while I may root for UC football, I will ALWAYS root for Xavier Basketball during the Crosstown Shootout). My undergrad degree was in Political Science as well as a special honors program at Xavier called Philosophy, Politics, and the Public. I have no idea what exactly I want to do with my law degree, but am planning to keep my options open and try a lot of different things to see what I like.

recap of where we are in the year: We started with an orientation week in late August and are now just over halfway through the semester. As a 1L (the law school term for a first year student) my schedule was set for me. Like all the other 1Ls, I am taking Constitutional Law I, Civil Procedure I, Torts, Contracts, and Legal Research and Writing this semester. Constitutional Law and Legal Writing I have just with my small section - 20 students or so that I have every class with. The other classes we have with mixes of other law students, so I have at least one class with the other 1Ls.

My section's schedule is pretty nice - we start each day at 9:00 and get out each day by 3, and on Fridays we get out at noon. We don't have class straight through of course; there's a break for lunch at 12:15 every day, which is usually when group meetings are schedules, so there's free food a lot. We also have breaks in between the classes, a chance to catch up on homework or start work for the next day. Today my section only has two classes, Con Law and Contracts, so I have a nice break to get a lot of work done without distractions.

I'll hopefully update the blog about once/twice week, basically describing my experiences as a 1L at Cincinnati Law so you guys can get a picture of what the life is really like.