Lovely, lovely

I just had a lovely lunch with two alums who work at one of my top 3 firms in town. It was awesome. I love it when the school sets stuff like this up because it is such a relaxing atmosphere, and I feel relaxed like I can be myself. The food was great. The conversation better. And they were both really candid about their jobs. Hurrah. I love it when i do something "extra" and it is totally worth my while.

Update: Zuska asked for more details, and instead of burying it in the comments, I thought that I would put it up here:

they were both litigators and newly christened partners. One of them works under a partner who is reputed to be the best litigator in town. For whatever that is worth. I asked them both about family lifestyles and if it is possible with litigation. The woman, who has one child, an 11 month old, said that it is hectic sometimes and the hours can be long, but she does a lot of it at home in the evenings when her daughter is asleep. The man, who has a 3 and a 6 year old, felt the same--it's demanding, but exciting. It is hard to plan for long term big things, like europe vacation etc, but they both enjoyed what they did so much that it didn't seem to bother them all that much.

I thought that it was interesting and significant that both of their spouses have more of a 8-5 job gig. And it seems like that really give the partners more peace of mind.

Notably, they said the people with permanent smiles on their faces at their firm are the trusts and estates people. They envy the real relationship that develops with T&E attys and their clients. They said that some clients seem to look at them as family advisors. In litigation they felt that you really don't get to know the client as well because they aren't in a "get to know you" mood. They have a problem, 99.9% of the time dramatically affecting their wallet and they want it fixed, yesterday.

One last comment they had was that litigation can be tough because you never have win/win situations. it's you win or you lose. period. and that can be heartbreaking and hard to pull through.

hindsight and procrastination

hindsight:
I think (know) I am really going to regret doing the SBA thing. I really don't see eye to eye with the pres, who I am reasonably certain lives in outer space because he sure isn't a part of this world. Sigh. He's a leap before you look kind of guy... but in an odd way. He considers leaping off of three different cliffs, then picks one and goes. Sounds like looking first, but he doesn't and this is what is so frustrating. He's not a long term planner/thinker/dealer with consequences person. Double sigh. If I were not in an elected position, I would quit. Truly I would. Because the amount of mental pain I'm going to have to go through is just not worth it. Alas, I was a sucker and ran for soemthing. And now I'm stuck with it. And it's practically against my religion to just be a flake. I wish I didn't have such scruples. Oh well. I won't think about that today. i will think about it tomorrow.

Which brings us to procrastination.
I had family in town this weekend, so that means that since Wed last I have done practically zip, zero, doodah. Where to find inspiration to get on it? Threat of failing doesn't make me do, it just makes me freak out. Sigh. Quadruple sigh.

Still, it could be worse. I could have the bar tomorrow. good luck all you bar takers.

Drowning

I don't know when my summer got completely psycho, bit it is, and I tell you: It's killing me. Seriously I have slightly less than two weeks for 2 papers, one of which is awhole grade, the other is half my grade... the other half of that grade is multi-choice. and we all know how I feel about that and then I have the MPRE.

And to put a little icing on that ulcer, I've found out that my Law Review topic is due the first week in august and the first required submission (not first draft, read: publishable draft) is the first week in October.

Someone please come and shoot me now.

BTW--is anyone else having problems getting to volokh.com?

Do I really want to graduate when...

I see the shellshocked looking recent grads as they come into their last week or so of studying for the bar. Seriously, these people look spent, most look like they could use a shower, and the tension in the library is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Poor souls. Oh, the things to look forward to.

Spring schedule and networking

We have to register for both semesters at the same time at my school, which I suppose is a good thing because it forces you to focus on more trees. When I initially registered, I did NOT sign up for moot court. I just thought: 1) it's one piddly credit that destroys my entire winter break, 2) based on my experience this year, I think that I will suck at it, and 3) meh.

But now I'm starting to think about OCI and fall interviewing in general. And for whatever odd reason most of the attorneys that firms send to our school are litigators. I'm thinking that even if I don't ultimately take moot court, it might be helpful to register for it (since the transcript shows what you sign up for) just so I can play both sides: sure I want to try litigation; sure I want to try transactional.

Next week, I am going to call the wife of one of the clerks i worked with for my externship. She's at a firm in town that I love for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is they expect people to want and have lives outside of work. They are hurting for good women associates ... even more for good women partners. It seems like almost all of their women have babies and call it good. In any case, they also have a really really rocking real estate department, and I am so into property. So what's the trauma you ask, networking. Oh, I hate it. I feel so awkward and uncomfortable. The only trick that I've learned so far is that I relax if I force myself to smile. Relaxing makes me seem more personable, I think anywy. So, point: wish me luck. It's just a call to see if we can do lunch, but I think it will really be the key to getting interviews at that firm to start with.

What are your networking secrets?

Holy Cats! Only three more weeks until...

• The MPRE
• finals are over, which means I owe 2 papers and a MC test

Suck. I'm in deep doodoo. Breathe.


____________________________________


Update: A fire is officially lit under my tush. I've just ploughed through 2 of the books I thought would help me on one of my papers. I'm hitting 2 more today and some law review articles.

I will survive.

Wow, it finally happened, the post that I didn't post

I've just spent that last 10 minutes writing a post about a conflict I have with a prof. I tried to be as vague as possible, but ultimately, I think if the right person were reading, they'd have me. And so, this is the first time I will not be putting down my real thoughts about a law school issue because of fear of discovery. No one is ever anonymous on the web. Sigh. I could have used the catharsis that comes from bitching too.

Do you like your SBA?

Do you think that they are useful? What do they do? What do you think they should do?

I went through my first year with the SBA being largely our cruise directors. There were a couple of more academic issues that they settled, but by and large they were the party committee. Well USNews rankings came out around the time that we had elections for this coming school year. Let's say that our school was not delighted with the rankings. So most students felt that the SBA failed them. That maybe we should be less concerned about cruise directing and more concerned about increasing our reputation. Well and good, and I ran for office (a minor office) on that theory... as did the guy who won pres.

now that we are in it, we are finding that we have a conflict because we only have so many monetary and people resources and we don't think the cruise directing was that good either. So now we are trying to decide how party the SBA should be and what we can realistically do as student reps to increase our rankings.

In the meantime, I'm dealing with our account being overdrawn, the board members not seeing eye to eye on what we are supposed to be doing, and deadlines looming for orienation cruise directing. Sigh.

So it's time to figure out 2L classes

So my school does an odd thing (at least i think so): you have to register for fall and spring cases at the same time. It's a good thing/bad thing. I like it because if something doesn't work out on your fall schedule you know to fix it for spring right away and vice versa, But i don't like it because I don't know how I am going to feel or still be interested in come spring.

So right now, I've signed up for fall:

• Bankruptcy
• Business Organizations
• Real Estate Finance
• Appellate Practice

I will now also have one credit of law review. I only need to take 12 credits a semester to graduate, thank you summer school. now I'm nt sure which substatnitve class to drop. Originally, it was appellate practice. Now I don't know.

Spring is:

• evidence
• con law 2
• and something i can't remember

I'll also have 2 credits of law review and two credits of TAing for a 1L class.

yeah so that's it. I'm not as excited about it as I was when i signed up.

So if you are a prospective law student mom, and you ask a law student mom what it's like, do you want to hear the truth?

I've been pondering this lately. Our admissions folks routinely send me emails of moms who are interested in law school and want the low down on feasibility. And i've been giving it to them. There are lots of factors, not the least of which is what is your goal and how does that relate to grades. Because frankly, if you want to do a federal clerkship and work for a schmancy firm etc, then being a mom in law school is a whole lot tougher because you really need to be at least in the top 10%. If you don't need top 10%, then no sweat. I generally give a run down of what my 1l schedule was like, how I studied and when and realistically how that affected my family time. I also tell them that without my husbands support with my daughter, I would be dead in the water. Shoudl I not be sharing this? Should I be more encouraging. I mean, I don't feel like I am discouraging; I say repeatedly that a mom can be successful, but it does mean some sacrifice and you have to have your head screwed on straight.

What do you think? Too much honesty is bad? good? I hate to ever think that someone didn't go to law school because I made it seem too hard. But it isn't easy, and while I have enjoyed success, it's been a crap load of work. I would have wanted someone to be honest with me.