Benefits of Getting to Know Your Law Professors

I'm a total loner and in undergrad, I preferred it when my professors didn't know my name. I knew I needed a different approach in law school because for one thing, my entire school has around 900 students. I had classes bigger than that in undergrad! For another, you need your professors as your legal wingmen because that's how you get intern and job opportunities. (Which I talk about HERE)

All in all, coming out of invisibility has worked out pretty well. What I didn't know until today is that getting to know your law professors and by default, letting them get to know you, leads to totally awesome presents.

My elder law professor emailed me yesterday and asked me to stop by her office. She went on vacation recently and brought me back Doctor Who sock yarn. That a very specific gift that is very obviously tailored just for me. To buy this gift, she had to know that I knit and she had to know that my favorite thing to knit is socks. Oh, and she had to know that I love Doctor Who and that two of my cats are named after the show. (Okay, the cat bit she didn't have to know, though she did.) Heck, she knows more about me than most of my classmates!

I feel so touched. Plus, more sock yarn is never wrong. YAY!

A Day In The Life Of a Summer Law Clerk

I haven't written too much about my summer clerk position because it took me awhile to decide what I thought about it. Today I was thinking about how when I first heard that I got the position, I didn't know what to expect. Not that every position is the same but I thought it'd be fun to share what my day as a law clerk looked like.

5:30 am - Wake up and lay in bed for half an hour wondering why I decided to take the one position that was an hour plus drive away.

6:00 - Remember that I really wanted to work with an elder law firm and get out of bed. Shower, dress and all that jazz.

7:00 - Get in my car and start my commute.

8:00 to 8:30 - Arrive at work. This time varies greatly depending on traffic and weather. Generally my morning commute isn't too bad and I usually just jam out to the radio.

8:30 - Head to my desk and start up my computer and try to remember where the heck I left off the day before.

8:45 - Office meeting with free bagels!! Yum! (Only on Mondays.)

9:15 - Head back to my desk and start trying to figure out this massive case I was handed that spans years, numerous lawyers, and many different practice areas. I have been working on it for ages but half of that was simply reading through a case file that was over a foot thick. Today I was trying to figure out the notes of one of the paralegals and find a legal argument for a motion that feels like it is taking me way too long to write.

10:30 - Get pulled off the motion for some legal research for one of the attorneys. Actually, this may be why the motion is taking so long. Other than the fact that the attorney was mistaken on the type of discovery request he had received, so I had to do the research twice, this was the easiest part of my day. Finally, something law school has prepared me for!

12:00 - Finish typing up the research results and go on lunch. Most days I go to Checkers because I can get a burger and medium tea for 3.08. Before hand, one of the paralegals asked if I had ever been to a nearby Amish restaurant. I said no so when I got back, she brought me blueberry pie!! Paralegals are awesome.

1:00 - Come back from lunch and a couple paralegals asked me to go get documents from the Clerks Office. The entire exchange went like this -

• Paralegal 1 - I need you to get me a deed from 1988, before the records were digitalized.

• Me - Inside my head, okay. I know I need to go to public records. Then what? Thank God for Google.

• Paralegal 1 - You'll have to find it on microfilm but it shouldn't cost too much.

• Me - Wait, what? They still use that? Starts Googling how to use microfilm.

• Paralegal 2 - Oh, grab me a certified copy of an order while you are there. Don't forget to grab enough petty cash so you don't have to pay for it.

• Me - Crap, am I supposed to have the cost memorized? 

1:20 - Try to figure out the microfilm machine and fail miserably. Eventually figure it out but then the machine glitches/freezes and won't allow me to print. Fuuuuuun. Even the clerk couldn't figure it out.

1:35 - Finally get the copy of the deed and get the order without a problem. Have a 10 minute conversation with an employee about how the Clerks Office and the local law school should work together to offer field trips. She completely agreed and told me horror stories of new attorneys getting things wrong. At least I eventually figured out the microfilm machine?

2:00 - Back at the office and so I try to get back to that motion.

2:20 - Paralegal asks me to draft a "Zero sum verified initial accounting." I look at her completely blank so her and another paralegal make fun of me (gently) and walk me through it. (Did I mention that I love paralegals? Because I do.) No but seriously, I've heard of initial accountings. I even know when they are due. I've never actually seen one before.

2:30 to 2:45 - Deal with computer issues that won't let me use the software I need to draft the initial accounting.

3:30 - Finish the accounting and go back to the motion of doom. Draft one section of the legal argument but need two more. Research case law until I get pulled aside by the Medicaid planning attorney to discuss a new client he got and his likely game plan.

4:30 - Go back to the motion and start to look up more case law.

5:00 - Suddenly realize everyone is leaving and I feel like I got nothing accomplished. Head out. One thing that surprised me about the firm I work at is that they take a work/life balance seriously. At 5:00 on the dot, everyone starts packing up. Including all the attorneys. Now, they might do a little work at home but for the most part, they're done. I'm sure it helps that a vast majority of the people working there have toddlers.

7:30 pm - Finally get home. The traffic was horrible today so it took me twice as long as usual to drive home. UGH. Tired and my feet hurt.

Every day is a little bit different but this is more or less how it goes. Sometimes I go to court with one of the attorneys or act as a witness for a will signing. As for my actual work product, so far, I have written responses, conflict waivers, proofread documents, summarized transcripts of hearings and done lots and lots of research. I like most of it quite a bit.

The hardest thing for me is facing the fact that there is still so much I don't know. I am still learning the software my firm uses, I don't know how to draft things that I've never heard of before, and things like Clerk fees are completely not taught in law school. However, I am learning many of these things now so that I have less to learn after I graduate!

Plus, I really do find my day fascinating. I get to look in on guardianship law, probate, wills and trust drafting and medicaid planning almost every day. It couldn't have been geared towards my interests any better!

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How to Gain Legal Experience While in Law School

As we creep up on fall and get closer and closer to orientation season, I have decided to write a series of posts on law school to help all the soon to be newbie law students out there. As a rising 3L, I finally feel like I have finally gotten this whole law school thing figured out and if I can help others figure it out quicker than I did, I'm happy to help. 

When I started law school, I had absolutely zero legal experience. Plenty of experience in the medical field but that no longer seemed relevant. Because of this, one of my main goals going into my 1L year was to gain as much experience as I could. Two years later, I think I have done a pretty decent job. I have interned with a judge, interned with a governmental agency, clerked for a law firm and had both an office job and a RA job on campus. Both of which related to the field I want to practice in after graduation.

I think it helps when you have a strong idea of what field you want to practice in but it's not necessary. If you don't know what you want to do after graduation, try to get a wide variety of experience instead of focusing as narrowly as I did. Heck, it'll probably be even easier to find ways to gain experience.

1L Year -

Many people think that during your first year of law school, it is impossible to gain legal experience because you are forbidden (usually) from working. However, most law schools have a pro bono requirement for graduation and the best time to fulfill those hours is during your 1L year. During later years, you may have an internship or law clerk job and a full class load and you may not have the time to add pro bono to that. Plus, when it comes time to apply for a summer job or internship, you really want something legal already on your resume because many of your classmates will have nothing but part-time retail or restaurant work during college.

By the end of my first year, I had almost 70 pro bono hours completed and half of them were legal. I volunteered for legal research at the clerks office where I researched statutes that defined their duties and requirements. I interviewed a client and wrote a will which you can read about HERE and HERE. Oh and I also volunteered with a program and prepared peoples taxes. All of those programs were offered or publicized through my school but very few 1L's took advantage of them. With the will event, I was the only 1L to participate. And yes, I was asked about it in every interview I have had since then. Every one. I am about to start my 3L year and many of my classmates have just started to think about getting their pro bono hours. At this point, I have almost 300 pro bono hours and all of those hours have paid off by giving me contacts within the legal field. It's even better than networking events except you don't get the free booze.

1L Summer -

Finding a legal job for the summer following my 1L year was one of the things I was most stressed about. All 1L students were advised to get something legal on their resume, no matter what. I knew that I needed to be paid to pay my rent but I really wanted to intern with a judge, which doesn't pay you. So I managed to split those requirements into two part time jobs. Two to three days a week, I worked at my school's elder law office and the other two days, I interned with a guardianship magistrate.  I got two items on my resume in one summer. Score!

I started off my job search by visiting my Career Services department and following the advice they gave me. They looked over my resume and pretty much covered it in red ink but I changed everything they said to change and sent it back. Three times. Then I had to decide whether to pursue a judicial internship through the school or privately. If I went through the school, they found them for me and I just had to apply. However, it also meant I had to pay tuition for the privilege and had specific hour requirements. If I tried to get one privately, I would have to do all the work to find one on my own but had more control on hours. Because my scholarship does not cover the summer semester, it made much more sense to look for one privately. I didn't have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege of working for free and I could limit it to two days a week so I could work for pay the other days. Of course, the idea of trying to find one by myself, also filled me with terror but I pulled on my girl pants and got to work.

I first researched all the court systems within a comfortable drive and wrote down all the departments I was interested in working in. For me, that was mostly within the probate courts. Then I researched each of those departments/judges for the different counties near me and found the email addresses for their legal assistants. Yes, those email addresses were all found thanks to Google. Yay Google. I then emailed the various legal assistants with a cover letter asking about their policies for applying to be a summer internship (making sure to use the research I did so it was apparent it was not a mass email). Then I waited. Within a week, I had received a request for a resume from one county and from another, I was sent an application. Then I waited again. Eventually, I was given the news that I had been placed with a guardianship magistrate and I was good to go! And just in case you are under the mistaken impression that I am some perfect person that never does dumb things, read THIS. I managed to get a judicial internship after answering the phone with "wuugaaaackkk!" and giving the legal assistant an incorrect email address. How awkward can I be? (Don't answer that.)

Talking to my classmates, many had a similar approach to finding a summer job with a law firm. If they didn't have a local resource to tap, they researched local firms they were interested in and started calling or emailing. Some worked for free while others got paid but most who put in the work, found a place.

I found the paid job at the elder law office at my school on accident but I couldn't have planned it better if I had tried. Since I knew exactly what field I wanted to go into, I made sure to introduce myself to the employees and professors at the beginning of the year. I would often go to the events they put on for students and I made it clear that I was interested in what they do. Shortly after the Will event I volunteered for, the coordinator offered me a job in the office. It was a combination of receptionist work and legal research for the professors and it PAID. I was sold.

2L Year -

The same professors who worked in the elder law office, got me my government agency internship for my 2L year. Because they knew I was interested in elder law, when an opportunity came up for an elder abuse internship, they passed on my name. I was actually contacted by the agency and invited to intern for them. I didn't need to apply or compete with other students for the job because it wasn't even open to the public. Sweet deal.

If you have an interest in a field, even before you can take classes on that subject (thanks mandatory 1L classes) GO TALK TO THOSE PROFESSORS and let them know you are interested in that field of law. Not only do they know enough about a topic to teach it, they know all the people who practice in that area. Seriously, if I had known how beneficial it was, I would have done it on purpose. I know dozens of people who have gotten job interviews thanks to a professor reaching out for them.

Later on, I was contacted by a professor I was taking a class with and asked to be their RA. Since I was dead broke, I accepted so fast it made my head spin. By chance, my professor was literally writing the textbook for our class as we went along so I basically got paid to prep for finals as I researched for and edited her casebook. It was awesome.

2L Summer -

My first approach to my 2L summer was OCR but in the end, that didn't work out for me. Since I'm so focused on elder law, and those are basically all small firms, there were very few OCR firms I wanted to apply for. I did get a few interviews from it but I did not get any offers. You win some and you lose some. In this case, I lost. As we got closer and closer to summer, I started to freak out a bit. I let everyone I knew know that I was looking for a summer job and ideally, I would love something to do with elder law. I ended up getting two leads on elder law attorneys looking for a clerk so I emailed them. One ended up going to a friend but the other was exactly what I was looking for and it paid really well. I interviewed with them and I got hired right before finals and I couldn't be more pleased with it. The only downside is that there is no chance of a permanent offer because they are not planning on expanding anytime soon. The pitfalls of small firms. Sigh

Once summer hit, I started getting emails from people looking for a student interested in elder law. Once again, by making my interests clear, people passed on my name when a job offer was mentioned. Of course, I already had a job lined up but it really made me calm down knowing it wasn't as last minute as I thought it was.

3L Year -

Although my 3L year hasn't technically started yet, I already know what legal experience I am doing for the fall semester. I applied for the local elder law clinic  and thanks to all my previous work, I ended up getting accepted. Since it is during the fall, my scholarship isn't effected and I get credits for doing it. That means I can take less classes. Sweet! The way clinics work in Florida is that the Florida Bar certifies that I have cleared the character and fitness test and I will actually get to legally practice law (under an attorney's supervision). How is that not the best legal experience possible?


Final Thoughts -

If you look over all the various ways I gained legal experience, they all involved putting myself out there. I'm a classic introvert so I know how very un-fun it can be but 90 percent of my experience came from taking opportunities others weren't. By choosing to take part in pro bono activities in a field I was interested in, I not only got legal experience but I was able to interact with the people who work in that field. Those interactions later led to job offers. I got my judicial internship by taking the time to use Google and contacting perfect strangers to ask for a job. None of this is in my normal comfort level but I made it work.

It's that time again - UGH

But at the end of the semester, I get this beautiful masterpiece. Yay?

Unlike many law students, I don't start my outline at the end of the semester as an exam review. Instead, I start the semester with the table of contents in outline form and add to it each week with my in class and reading notes. I also color code it as I go. Black is from the book, blue is from the professor's lecture, red is anything regarding the exam and brown is anything I added from a supplement. Yes, it sounds over-attentive and nitpicky but it works for me. Plus, if only I had a dollar for every time a classmate asked me, "So I have "this" in my notes (from class) but the book is saying "that." What do you have?" It's very helpful to know when the professor disagrees with the book!

The only downside of my note taking? It has to start before class begins and even before you crack open the book. My first semester, I typed it all by hand and Holy Batman did that take a long time. Finally, I figured out that many publishers post the table of contents online so I could just copy and paste and then put it into outline form. Even with my new and approved method, it still takes me a few hours for each class.

So that is what I have been doing ALL night long. It's currently 5 am and I have one and a half outlines started. Since I have six classes, this should scare me but I think only three need an outline. I'm taking Evidence (needs an outline), Advanced legal research, Estate Planning (needs an outline), Remedies (needs an outline), Interviewing and Counseling, and Cuban Legal System. I only have three traditional law school exams because Advanced legal research has a end of the semester project, interviewing and counseling has an in person exam and the Cuba class has a paper at the end of the semester after our Cuba trip.

As soon as this is done, I can start reading for next week.

Oh joy.

Intro to Elder Law

I'm hoping that no one is surprised that this is the first class I signed up for last spring. After a year of basic 1L classes, I was so ready to start the classes that I was actually interested in. I've had more than a few people tell me that since I came to law school for elder law, I would definitely not be interested in it once I graduate. I don't know about that since I haven't graduated yet but I can tell you how the class went.

First of all, let me explain my survive class method. I sit in the very front row on the side because I'm basically invisible to the professor when he/she feels like cold calling. I'll talk up a storm before or after class but during? No. I never volunteer and I've probably been cold called 4 or 5 times (not counting this class that I'll explain in a bit) in the entire year and a half I've been in law school. My friends who sit in the back get called on 4 or 5 times in a month.

This class . . . I sometimes volunteered 4 or 5 times in a DAY. I turned into "that person." To used the dreaded word, I was a gunner. UGH. But I just couldn't help it. For one thing, they kept teaching about nursing homes, assisted living homes and in home care. I've worked in all three! And I came to the field with oh so many questions about Medicare and Medicaid, it wasn't even funny. It was a tiny class of about ten so even when I tried to not speak up, I got called on anyway! I was so ashamed but also, I had so much fun in that class. What a conundrum.

To make matters worse, my professor was writing our textbook as the class was going on and she hired me as her research assistant about halfway through the semester. It was awesome because I literally got paid to read the same material we were going to cover in class, and sometimes she would assign the cases I found for her. What wasn't awesome was that she apparently decided that since she knew I had read the materials, she was going to call on me ALL THE TIME.

I'm pretty sure the class hates me.

Out of all my classes, this was the one exam I wasn't too worried about. And I walked out of there feeling the same way. Then as soon as I got home I started panicking because imagine the horror if I had bombed the test in Elder Law. I would never be able to show my face again!

Luckily, she's the only Professor who turned in grades before Christmas so I now know I didn't bomb it. (I didn't 4.0 it but I didn't embarrass myself either) But it really showed me that just because I'm a jaded 2L, I still have the potential to spaz out like a terrified 1L. I didn't sleep for two days after that exam. Good grief.

Now I just have to wait for my other grades to come out. One thing I've noticed is that Fall semester of last year, the professors really hustled to get our grades out before Christmas. It didn't seem like it at the time but looking back, I can tell that they at least tried to hurry. This year, my first exam was on the 3rd of December. It's now the 28th and still no grade. UGH. And half of the questions were multiple choice!  

Come on already!

Elder Law Stuff

So I was finally allowed to apply for the elder law concentration! My school doesn't allow us to apply to any concentration until after we finish the first year but I must have been vocal and active enough with my love of elder law because the professor told me to go ahead and apply now so I can get preference for my classes next fall. Whooooo. This is very good because my school does a bidding system so you rank one class as your top choice, another as your second and so on. You're pretty much guaranteed to get your top couple choices but the others are a crap shoot. However, if you are certified in a concentration, you get any of those requirements right off the bat. So you can put them dead last and rank the other ones you want higher. Boom!


Whoops. I wrote this WEEKS ago but apparently never got around to posting it. 

Since I wrote the bit above, we had a bit of drama. The registrar's office didn't send it to the Elder Law Coordinator because they forgot there was a reason why I was submitting it early. (We did tell them, they just forgot.) Only I didn't know they hadn't sent it. So on the day that bids were due, I wrote the coordinator and asked if there was a problem with my application. Well, yes, of course there was, they hadn't received it. So I ran over to the Registrar's office where the secretary was like "Oh my god! You're right, I totally forgot to pass that message on with your application! Oh me. Oh my." Then I found out that the lady who had the application was out of the office for the week for a conference and couldn't send it until she came back. (Long after bids were due.) I must have looked upset because the secretary promised to text the lady in charge and see if she could send it sooner. Well, I figured that was a long shot so I completely reordered my bids and hoped to get into at least a couple of the elder law classes. 45 minutes before bids were due, I get an email saying the application had been sent to the elder law center. 7 minutes after that, I got the email that I had been accepted into the elder law concentration. BOOM. Reordered my bids in the last few minutes and submitted them.

We all got our fall schedules today and I got every single class I bid on. Most of my 1L friends are all on at least one wait list if not more. DOUBLE BOOM.

My schedule isn't as bad as the other's either!

All 2L's have to take Professional Responsibilities at 8:30 in the morning (YUCK!!) but many of the other classes are scheduled anywhere from 10am to 10pm. And if you happen to want a class that is only available at 8pm, well your day is going to be a mess. And nobody seemed able to make a schedule that didn't have at least a 3 hour gap somewhere. Gaps = death. Half the time you force yourself to stay on campus and then are exhausted by the time class finally rolls around and the other half you give up and go home. Half of those times you end up taking a nap and don't make it back to school. That gap gives you a 1 in 4 chance of skipping class. Yikes!

However, I have no long gaps; a couple twenty minute ones and one hour long break at lunch time. Totally doable.

My schedule will be three classes on M/W from 8:30 am to 2:40 pm and then only one class on T/Th from 6pm to 8pm. I need that late class because it's a prerequisite to basically every other elder law class but since I was able to load all my other classes onto M/W I don't need to worry about any crazy long gap. I'm sure I will absolutely hate myself when it comes to reading for all three classes for Mondays and Wednesdays but my only other choice was to take a class T/Th from 10 noon and then come back at 6pm. I know myself well enough to know that I would make really stupid life choices with a schedule like that.

Basically, my schedule is better than I could have hoped for. Much much better than most!

Oh, and since I'm only taking four classes, I did enroll in a weekend course. My school has a few of these 1 credit classes where they are only one weekend long and then you are done. We'll have to see how it goes but I've heard great things about the one I signed up for and it should actually be useful.

Now back to studying for finals.

Some good news in the middle of Brief madness

So I am currently consumed with my Appellate Brief. I wake up thinking about it and go to bed (if I go to bed) thinking about it. It is my everything right now. Sorry Fiance, I promise I'll call you after it's submitted tomorrow. Our professors are laughing at us, I haven't showered in three days and half the men in our class have just given up on shaving. The other half of the men already had a beard. Don't even ask about the ladies' legs. You don't want to know.

This brief is no joke.

But right in the middle of a major freak out, I got an email.

Congratulations on your placement with the _____ Judicial Circuit internship program. 

Oh my God! I did it. I got the summer internship I wanted!! It's with a general magistrate in charge of the Elder Justice Department. It's obviously low level in the Judicial scheme but I'll get a lot more elder law and probate experience than I would with a regular Judge or Justice. I am so ridiculously excited!!

More than that, I feel like I'm actually doing this whole law school thing right. Which is amazing considering how very many times I screwed up this semester. Oh, and as a matter of fact, when I first called to ask about this internship, the second the call connected, the sprinkler system went off and hit me right across the backside. So the very first thing the hiring coordinator heard out of my mouth was "wuugaaaackkk!" and then I was so rattled as I tried to dodge the sprinklers that I gave my email address wrong. It's amazing I even got the application sent to me, much less actually got the internship!

Plus I'll be working part time at the Elder Law Center at my school so I'll actually have a little money to pay my bills. Okay, not all of my bills so I'll have to put the rest on my credit cards and play catch up later but still, some money coming in is better than no money coming in.

Now the only things I have left to worry about is this brief, finals and my upcoming surgery. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Law School does not have a finals week

Law school has a finals MONTH. And I'm stuck in the middle of it.

My brief is due on Sunday, my final oral argument is next Thursday, the next week is the last week of classes, and then BOOM. Two weeks of final exams.

Needless to say, I have been horrible about writing blog posts. I promise that I will try to come back and cover all the important things I'm skipping over once summer starts. Or at least, I will do my best.

But to catch you up for now:

Barrister's Ball was amazing! I think I've heard that at some schools, the professor's are invited for the first hour or so. Not here. Which meant we drank too much wine and danced a little more freely than we would have otherwise. We had an open bar, dinner, a live band, fortune tellers, belly dancers, free henna tattoos, and a photo box with silly accessories. How could we not have an awesome night? I know some people didn't see the point is shelling out the cash for the tickets and having to buy a pretty gown just for dinner and some wine and I can see their point. However, I feel that it was worth it just for the experience. Could I have had a dinner and wine night for much less? Sure. But it was so much more than that. Plus, I bought my gown second hand and can probably sell it back for more than I paid for it. :P

This brief is killing me! I thought the various memo's were bad. No, this appellate brief has more sections, more words, more complex issues. More everything. UGH. It's open universe which means they don't limit the cases for you like they did for the first memo's. Which mean I have spent more time researching than I have writing and I still don't have quite enough cases. We are supposed to have between 12 and 18. So if you know me in real life, don't expect to see me in the next few days.

If you have been paying attention to me at all, you know that I can't stand public speaking. Yes, I want to be an attorney anyway. I'm stubborn like that. I also wanted to be a part of the executive board in the Elder Law group on campus. And if the position you are running for is contested, you have to give a mini speech on why you should win. I almost changed my mind and was like nope, nope, nope. But I decided to man up so to speak and do it anyway. I didn't die AND I won. So I must have done something right! Now if only I could remember what I said. I can't remember because all I could focus on was the fact that I couldn't feel my hands (they went completely numb) and trying not to throw up. I had to speak for 30 seconds. Good Lord, I'm ridiculous.

And that leads me to my next bit of news. My school has us give a practice oral argument in front of the moot court board the week before our final one. In a fit of panic, I signed up for the very first spot on Monday morning. I think I was just wanting to get it over with before my brief was due but it just led to a massive amount of fear once I realized what I had just done to myself. I managed to get 3 whole hours of sleep the night before and I threw up three times that morning. But you know what? I actually did pretty well. I read too much instead of being more conversational but I didn't throw up behind the podium, I didn't cry and I didn't sound stupid. Will I panic again over the final? ABSOLUTELY. But at least I know I can do it, even if I don't want to.

I think that pretty much catches you all up and I'll try to post at least once more before final exams hit but I can't make any promises. Wish me luck!!

Well, today didn't kill me

So I did the client interview and the will write up and it went alright. I wasn't fabulous but I wasn't horrible. I could tell that he knew I was nervous at first but I calmed down and it went smoothly after the first few minutes.

Impressions:

• That big old lawyer desk does make a person feel less like a kid playing dress up. I've never sat on that side of the desk before but it really did make me feel all official and stuff. 
• My biggest worry was that he'd have a question that I wouldn't know the answer to. He did have questions but I did know the answers. Yay me! However, at least one or two, I wasn't allowed to answer because it would fall under legal advice. Awkward. 
• Secretaries are awesome and I want my very own someday. I will buy them flowers and love them forever. 
• I was aware that we'd be discussing private financial matters but I had no idea that he would just start talking about all these non-related family matters or personal tragedies. One thing I need to figure out is how to better respond to this. There is only so many times you can say, "I'm sorry to hear that." 
• Actually, writing the will was easier than the client interview. Go figure since messing up the will was what I was the most worried about. 

Right after I wrote the will, I had a meeting with my R&W professor to go over my legal brief. That's the memo where I had no idea what I was doing or how it was supposed to go. Surprise surprise, I did not do very well. I knew I hadn't but it was still a hard to pill to swallow when it came down to it. This is the first time in law school that I was told that I am below where I should be. OUCH!!

It had to happen eventually. 

Update on the Wills Event

After all that stress wondering if I was ready to interview a client. And after all the worry about if I knew enough to write the will. And after I got all dolled up in a suit and heels and wore it to class all day. Oh not to mention leaving property class early to make sure I would get to the appointment on time.

The man stood me up.

The secretary was beside herself. Apparently my appointment was the only no show of the entire event. Just my luck.

It may or may not be rescheduled for tomorrow but nothing definite yet.

Humph.


Edited to add: I got a new client for tomorrow. Apparently the secretary felt so bad for me that the second a new client came in, she assigned him to me. So YAY on getting to do this. BOO on having to wear a suit to class again. I don't mind wearing a suit in general but I dislike it for class. Class should be comfy. Maybe not pajama comfy but jeans and t-shirt comfy.

OMG I Have NO Idea What I Am Doing

Guess what??

No Gueeeeesssss.

Okay, fine.

Tomorrow I am going to dress myself in a suit, sit behind an impressive lawyer desk, interview a client and then ..... WRITE HIS WILL.

As a 1L, I am so so so lucky to do this. As a 1L, I am so so so terrified. Please don't let me screw this up.

Now obviously, I will have an attorney checking every single thing I do. And as a student I cannot give any type of legal advice at all. Even if I am asked to define what a fiduciary is, well there are rules as to what I can say. I can read the definition off of google, I cannot say well if "you . . ."

But still! I am going to be writing a will. And interviewing a client. Oh My God. Please save me. I'm so scared I will mess this up. But at the same time, so excited.

This is all my own fault too. I am the only 1L that signed up for this and although I was told that it would be highly unlikely that I would actually be assigned to a client, I had to go ahead and go to the training anyway. And then I had to personally contact the coordinator and express my willingness to do this. And then I had to go above and beyond and send an updated schedule as the program went along. They are taking a chance on me and I am very appreciative of the opportunity. I just am terrified of messing this up.  Even though there will be an attorney checking my work.

Please, if you are reading this, wish me luck!!! At the very least, it will make me feel better! Confidence is key.

I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.

Rankings Baby!

So I guess US News just updated their law school rankings because my Tier 3 is now a Tier 2 and my Tier 1 is now a better Tier 1. Cool! A few of my other maybes turned into Tier 4s which pushed them even further into my I'm not sure about this pile. So I am still stuck on the same two law schools. For now, I am okay with that. Give me a couple more weeks and I might just start freaking out about it though. April 1st is approaching so faaaaaast. ACK!

In other law school news,
I spoke with the lady in charge of the elder law clinic at the Tier 1 today and it was very informative. Not only on her program but what she said about other programs and schools. I asked her a question about their non clinic elder law options and she straight up mentioned my Tier 3/2 school. And then she talked up the elder law professors at the Tier 3/2 that I met only two weeks ago! She basically told me that if I am committed to elder law, I can't go wrong with either of these two schools. Which made me feel much better about both of them.

Now of course, she made a point to talk about all the amazing things her school does and where alumni go after graduation but she was very fair about it. It almost makes up for the bad impression I was left with after speaking to the admissions dean. Whooooo

Naivety

I worry sometimes about sounding naive about the practice of law. Especially in this economy, you should not go into law unless you have done all the research you can. For years now I have followed blogs, looked at statistics and talked to practicing attorneys.

• Job prospects for new attorneys are . . . bad. Very very bad. 
• Job prospects for experienced attorneys are almost as bad. 
• The starting salary of new attorneys are dropping and were never really as good as people thought they were. 
• Tuition rates for law school has risen completely out of control and the debt you gain by going will never, never go away. Bankruptcy? Psssh, not for student loans. 
• Law schools are graduating too many JD students for the jobs available.  
• Biglaw jobs are considered the holy grail of law but they are far and few between. Even if you do get one, your life will suck and you will hate yourself. 

So why are so many people going to law school????? I think a lot of it is that people have a natural tendency to think that bad things won't happen to them, only to other people. Which is ridiculous. I have always gotten good grades but that doesn't mean I automatically assume I will continue to get good grades in law school. I will be competing with my fellow students and they ALL had good grades in college. Sure, I will strive for the top ten percent but I have a ninety percent chance of not making that goal. If I do not get above median grades, then I will have a much harder time finding a job. If I can not find a job, I will not be able to pay back my loans and I will not be able to assist the elderly in improving their quality of life at the end of their life. 

Tangent time:

I think that the last few years of a person's life should be the time of their life when they get to stop worrying about the rat race of America. Isn't that why most people look forward to retiring? Far too often, the elderly are dealing with all the normal worries of food, shelter and clothing, along with declining health, declining mobility AND an increased chance of abuse or neglect. It is not easy to have to rely on someone else for your basic needs but many elderly people need to. And when that person they are relying on fails, they often do not have the ability to turn to others for help. Dementia, physical disabilities and lack of knowledge of resources, trap them into a downward spiral they can not get out of. This is not okay. 

End rant. Back to law and law school. I am trying to minimize the risks of law school by keeping my loans and my expectations low. I am aware that I could make more money in another career but money is not my end goal. If my debt is lower, I will not have to chase the jobs that make the most money and will hopefully have the luxury of finding a job I love, even if the pay is low. I also exclusively looked at schools that offer some form of hands on training in elder law. I am hoping that this will give me an opportunity to graduate with at least a few of the skills I will need to use in practice. 

Am I making law school a good risk? Well no, I don't think law school can be a good bet with this legal market. However, I am hoping that I am able to at least make it less of a risk. 

Give me three years and I'll let you know how it worked out for me.