How soon you forget.

I was shocked to realize how soon you forget the stress of your first year. I have been spending more time at school then normal to study. With dropping my daughter off at school, it just makes more sense time wise to go straight to school and study. Also, Monday nights, it makes more sense to go from work, straight to school to have dinner and study some more.

I walked into the library the other day and it was crammed with people. There was a tension in the air and some students appeared to be just a wee bit frantic. Why, you might ask? I certainly did....and then it hit me---I was that student a year ago, frantically trying to get my first draft of my appellate brief written because it was due the next day.

Which led me to think that the first year of law school is like being pregnant and giving birth. When you are there, in the thick of things, every little joy is a miracle, and every little pain is the end of the world. But when it is done, and a year later, you forget just how it was.

Law school is a funny thing. First year students are kept pretty much to themselves and there is little interaction between them and 2nd & 3rd year students. Oh, I recognize a few of them because I gave them tours a year ago and told them how great Willamette was, I see them in their study groups, or in the library, but other than that, I do not see them. Then next year I will have classes with many of them and I will wonder who the heck these people are.

However, I am fascinated by how fast time has flown by and how things seem like a distant memory to me. Somethings will be imprinted forever: like walking through the doors my first day of classes and realizes that I was finally walking out the dream for my life. Or doing so well at the first year appellate oral arguments. Or receiving an A in a class my first semester of law school. I won't forget those shining moments. I also will not forget the kindness of Professor Jacobson or Professor's surprising ability of jumping from standing flat footed on the floor, to landing on the 3 foot desk---and the man is in his 60's. Or his cheekiness when he admitted he was in there practicing before so he would not embarrass himself.

But I seem to have forgotten the times I was called on and probably was not prepared. I have forgotten the pain of the first draft of the appellate brief, although seeing the 1L's was a fond memory! I forget between finals exactly how stressful they are. I am sure there are many more...........

Is this for real?

I have an addiction to any court television show. Sometimes they are quite informative, sometimes they are just funny. And then I found this show.....Divorce Court. No kidding. My guess is, without researching, that there is a pending divorce and this "judge" who is really an arbitrator, will settle simple small claims through her court. Either that or these are fictional and these are paid people from the local crazy bin [I know, not very PC, but heck where do they find these people].

Case in point is this video. You have to watch til nearly the end of the 1 minute clip, but it's a doozy. So is this for real? What do you think?

What I have learned in Family Law

So, this is not intended as legal advice. But sometimes what we learn in law school is useful and have had me pondering life in the future.

If you want to live with someone, don't. Co-habitating is a bad idea. Why you may ask? I am not talking about moral reasons, I am speaking from purely legal ones. When you split up, the court will not get involved with money owed or with who owns what property. Of course, you can mitigate this by contracting around it, but even then there are pitfalls and problems.

As for marriage, Oregon's property division laws can be pretty harsh. Marital assests and property are to be divided equally. And sometimes even property you owned before the marriage. What I have learned is that I should keep everything seperate and keep meticulous records so that I can prove in court that I never intended to share my property with my spouse. Then maybe I will be able to keep it.

Follow up

So, now the school has made the news. Click on this link KPTV to watch the news story that hit the tv this weekend regarding the threats. What is so funny to me is that these students were not pictured out of fear, but I know who they are just by the sound of their voices. I am pretty sure that the students that made the threats would know too.

The whole situation is not funny at all. My commentary is that when this was first brought to the administrations attention, they did nothing until it had spiraled out of control. Had they acted without haste, it would have never happaned.

Another comment I have is this: I know one of the students accused. This was not limited to two students only. More students were involved and only two are taking the blame because the students in trouble will not give up the names. In addition, there seems to be a slight witch hunt going on. One student is not liked by the student body and this student is the one that the administration is barring from returning, even though what this student said was far less threatening then the student that returned to class.

What is amazing to me is that we are all adults and yet this is not being handled very well. And the result, letting some students get off without consequences, is not just or fair. I would argue that it is not even ethical.

Sign of the times?

What a waste is all I can say to this story: Willamette University students complain of harassment. If you clicked on the link, you now know that two law students are barred from the college for making harassing and threatening calls. I have spoken to three of the students that received the calls and listened to one of the messages. After talking to the students, it is apparent that some of the law students [and they were NOT first years] were making these calls while intoxicated.

What is interesting is there is a split in the student body on what should happen. Some of the students think it was in poor taste and the students should be given a firm talking to. Other students think that post Columbine and Virginia Tech, whether these students were joking or not, there is no excuse for it.

Either way for these two students, their careers in law are over. Why? This will have to go on the bar application and this will be seen as not "good moral charactor." So these students have spent a ton of money to go to law school, and in some very careless, tasteless phone calls, flushed their futures down the drain.

Swim, Float, Swim...

Who would of thought about some of the creepy things you can learn in law school? In my employment law class, we studied a case were a man, Barnett, sued some ex employees over a "trade secret." Apparently, Mr. Barnett had spent years perfecting a way to teach infants and toddlers self rescuing methods in order to safe themselves from drowning. Barnett hired two employees who learned the method, promptly quit, and then opened their own studio teaching the same method. Now it sounds funny.....but it is a bit disturbing. See, I went a did a little googling of this subject and found the method used. Barnett has something on YouTube that shows how it works when it is taught, but there are several videos of it being 'taught' to children. Basically it involves just tossing an infant, face first, into a pool. They will kick and thrash, and then you turn their head so that they are floating, let them gasp, and then flip them face first again. After a while the infant learns to swim, then float to breathe, then swim some more. Truly creepy. But if you don't believe me, check it out........

Motherhood, Student, Employee collide

There is one time in which being a single parent in law school bites: when your child is ill. I have had this hit home this week. My daughter was diagnosed with the childhood ailment of hand, foot and mouth disease. She is miserable and the side note is I have a milder case then her. But what does this translate to? A week of missed classes and work.

Everything comes to a stop when a child is ill. If it were just a cold, I would pack her up and take her to class with me--but this is a highly contagious viral infection and therefore, we are stuck at home. My absences stack up-----and so does the frustration.