18, and heading off to college - my brother and two best friends standing by the car as I stuffed the last few items in the trunk. My brother sweating profusely in the August heat, until I realized they were tears. I thought he couldn’t wait for me to go. I gave Ben a man hug, we held on tight. Swore we would be friends for ever. Luke, approached. Threw me a high five, said “I’ll see you” and left. After all these years, how could he be so cold?

Ben and I rarely talk anymore. Luke visited me at school all four years in a row, making the trip from Indiana to Massachusetts. He has been to every city I have ever lived in. I try to do the same. I am learning by example.

And family… well family is forever.

A friend close to my heart is leaving the city. For good I imagine. Off for upstate tomorrow morning then Colorado.

*high five*

I’ll see you.

Just got back from the Second Circuit. Good times… good times. Was supposed to sit in on Panel B (don’t know which judges were on that panel), but apparently, the Maurice Clarrett case was up on appeal and so the court room was packed [Update: Article on today's decision] . I ended up watching a relatively humorous panel up stairs instead. One appealant appeared pro se. When this 70 something old man reached his time limit, the judge interrupted him and told him that he was finished. The poor man said “but I thought I was here to argue?” The judge replied, “It matters not what you think Sir.”

Something I noticed today. Several attorneys tried to avoid facts that were bad for their case. Facts they had to have known were going to get raised. Even when asked directly, they tried to avoid it.

For instance:

Judge: Well, what action could the court have taken if your client failed to take the course?

Attorney: Well, they could have extended the deadline… Um… they could have had him explain why he did not go… ummm… ummm…. (long pause)

Judge: They could have jailed him… right?

Attorney: Well… I suppose… possibly.

And another:

Judge: So the terms of the clause say that Arbitration is supposed to happen in New York? And you brought suit in Brazil?

Attorney: Well yes your honor, the only other venue available would have been all the way down in Florida.

Judge: Well, yes, Florida is far from New York, but it is in the United States…

What are you doing?!?! The #2 meal at McDonalds is my only landmark in this turbulent world!

My friend, responding to a McDonald’s employee after ordering a #2 and receiving a chicken sandwich instead of two cheeseburgers.

I am truly sorry that persons protesting the deaths of our young men and women overseas interrupted your afternoon run to the store to purchase more Zinfandel.

The Public Interest Law Center is holding a panel discussion next week called “Exit Strategies From Law Firms.” They aren’t even trying to sugar coat life in BigLaw anymore…

I was filling out a form. I needed a piece of information. I got online, located it, highlighted it and then hit ctrl + c (copy). I then switched from window to window attempting to find the document that I needed to paste the information into. After looking at every open window more than once I realized that I was filling out…

a paper form.

Not only did the firm reject me sans solicitation on my part… they waited a month to do so. The letter is dated February 10, 2004. They sent it to me this past Tuesday.

March 18, 2004

Recruiting Director
Big Law LLP
XXX XXXXX XXXXXX
New York, NY 10022

Dear Ms. Recruitment Director,

Thank you for providing me with a copy of your rejection letter.

Unfortunately, my summer associate job search was limited to a few select firms in the NY area and I was unable to apply to your firm for the summer of 2004. Your qualifications are impressive, however, and my decision does not indicate a lack of long term interest in the possibility of working with Big Law LLP. Please send an updated decision in the fall if you continue to be interested in Michael Oliver.

I appreciate your interest and wish you success in locating a suitable summer associate.

Very Truly Yours,

/s/

Michael Oliver
of NYU School of Law

Friend: i forget, you’re on break right now?
Me: yes
Friend: how you spending time?
Me: studying
Friend: always shit that needs doin?
Me: yep. 1000 pages behind
Friend: jesus
Friend: all right i’ll cool it then
Me: ok
Me: later

I cannot believe that, just one week after securing a job for this summer, I am already faced with deadlines for summer 2005 opportunities.

Via Heidi

Interesting post over on Ernest Miller’s blog regarding the infeasibility of a la carte pricing of digital music. Miller notes:

It costs $499 to buy a new 40G iPod.
It costs $10,730 to fill it with songs purchased online at 99 cents each.

In response to a commenter’s point that there is no significance between the price of the storage device and the items being stored, Miller makes an interesting point. Namely that the iPods 40gb storage capacity increases consumers’ expectations with regard to what the size of their collection should be. I think that’s dead on and something I had not thought about explicitly.

I had a conversation tonight with a friend about politics. We ended up talking about the Presidency and minorities. Given African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Gays/Lesbians, Jews, and Women, which group do you think will have a member ascend to the Presidency first. How about last? If you are ambitious, or just have time on your hands, go ahead and rank the whole list in order from first to last.

Obviously, I have left many groups off of the list above. If you think a member of another group will get there first, please let me know.

I know this is an odd question given the fact that many are of us are in law school, but I was curious… if you could do any job, forget lack of qualifications, impossibility, etc., what would it be? Also, let me know if you have the job.

I’ll weigh in on this after you guys do. I don’t want to color the responses.

I have been doing a lot of thinking recently about the way I learn. I’ve known since I was a Noble Knight that I don’t do my best learning in the class room. In fact, I often feel “less smart” after having attended class. This is certainly not a result of my teachers and professors, who have always been of an exceptionally high quality. It has to do with the fact that I just don’t learn through listening to others talk about concepts and ideas.

Thinking back on my time in software development, I realized that the learning style that I employed in my career was the ideal one for me:

Research the concept or tool. Implement it. Test it. Receive feedback. Refine it. Test it again. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

When I came to law school, I immediately reverted to my elementary/middle school/high school/college study habits:

Read it. Go to class. Don’t think about it again until a paper or exam requires you to. Make a mad dash to understand the material. Spit it out. Forget it.

I am in search of a process that allows me to learn the law much in the same way I learned various languages and technologies in my career before law school. At work, I had no problem breaking unfamiliar programming languages down into their component parts. I tested these parts in isolation and once I understood their purpose and function, I used them in concert with other components to understood how they interacted with one another. Finally, I tackled novel problems, choosing the proper components to build an effective solution.

I’d like to change the way I approach my legal education in the following ways:

1. I’d like to work on small legal problems during every section of the syllabus. I’d like to read the material and then be presented with problems that draw out the intricacies of the particular doctrine we are studying. These short written assignments would help me understand, in a more long term way, how the various holdings in a series of cases can be used to support or rebut positions as required by a client’s problem.

2. I need a legal analysis compiler. I need feedback, not a ton of it, but I need holes pointed out, I need to know when I am being lazy or imprecise. I need to know when my argument just won’t fly (or run, if we are going to continue the analogy). Some folks seem to get this from class participation. I need iterative feedback, which takes time – more time than we have in class. I need to stop, run it, identify the errors, revise and run it again. It is this testing, that is invaluable for me. I do not want affirmation that my ideas are ok. I cherish errors, they point me in the right direction, but make me do the hard work.
3. I need a larger project to see how the parts work in concert. Some would say that this is the exam. I tend to agree, however, I would like to approach a problem of this magnitude under the watchful eye of a law professor with the goal of reaching synthesis. This, as opposed to a 3 hour law school exam, wherein you have to spew as many rules as you can remember (or find) to help defend or attack Peter Pockets as he commits batteries and assaults and intentionally inflicts emotional distress while negligently riding a defective bike on another’s property.

Please understand, I am not advocating that law school change the way it educates students (although I think it needs to). Rather, I am hoping that I can find a way to do law school on my own terms so that I actually become adept, or at least enjoy the process.

=-=-=-=-=-=
[1] Steelo is slang for style and is derived from the Spanish estilo. Via Urban Dictionary

This is currently on Blogger.com’s home page:

Mess with Texas Some of us Blogger folks are going to SXSW and to kick things up a notch we’re serving up free drinks and t-shirts Monday evening from 6:30-8:00 on March 15th over at Club De Ville in Austin, TX. We provide beer and schwag to our users because we care.

Is Blogger.com really providing beer and “low grade, poor quality marijuana” next week? I have always understood the word “schwag” to mean “bad weed.” Is there some other definition that I am missing?

Texas… always trying to be different.

Update: Apparently “schwag” refers to the free t-shirts mentioned above and, more generally, to free stuff given away as promos… Thanks to Shelley and BT

Via Cnn: Martha Stewart was just convicted on four counts.

Update: Wow. Stewart is still in the court house and her website is already updated with a post verdict message.

Ok… I am counseled, negotiated, mediated, arbitrated and litigated out. Mercy. I can’t take any more. You win.

I wouldn’t mind having his job…

Dean Gillers has an Op-Ed in the New York Times that puts a smile on my face.

The town of Killington, 25 miles outside the border of New Hampshire, voted to secede from Vermont today. The article says it was a symbolic vote and that decision will be up to Vermont and New Hampshire. Laughs aside, is this really possible? I wonder if a state has ever voluntarily given another state a town it didn’t want anymore. If it is possible, I move that Ohio just go ahead and give Cincinnati to Kentucky.

If it turns out that a town needn’t be near the border to be eligible, I’d also like to move that Ohio attempt to trade Akron for Muncie, Indiana.

This Saturday, the Pioneer Theater in New York is hosting a John Waters Marathon with a twist. The first screening is at 6:00 pm and they will be showing Waters’ films until 6:00 am. It’s free to get in but pay as you leave. $20 if you leave after the first show, $5 less for each screening you sit through. If you make it until dawn, it’s free. Includes breakfast for those who go the distance and a look-alike contest judged by Waters.

Movies screened include Hairspray, Polyester, Cry Baby, Pink Flamingos, Pecker and Serial Mom.

Having lived in Charm City for awhile, I have seen all of these movies as Waters is Baltimore’s favorite son. But fot those unfamiliar with his work, this should be a good time.

I was reading an article in the Washington Post today about Alex Rosen, an 11 year old with hyperlexia, a condition whose features look like the opposite of the reading and learning disorder dyslexia. Hyperlexia is absolutely fascinating to me. Apparently this kid could read at the age of one, but is slow to understand social speech, which makes it difficult for him to understand what others are thinking. The results?

According to the Post:

The lessons they need to learn are not in books,” Rosen said of children with hyperlexia. “Is a joke funny the second time? Not if you tell it to the same person. It’s so difficult to teach someone to be a social human being.”Rosen teaches Alex to pay attention to slang, which is an important part of social communication, especially among children. Rather than fight his natural talent at reading, Rosen has used printed text as a means of communicating with her son. Alex still speaks very formally, mimicking the cadences of written speech. He never uses the interjection “like,” the way many youngsters do incessantly, and his sentences are always grammatical and complete.

These skills helped him run for student council president — and win. He is a fearless public speaker, and his mother had to tell Alex that other children are typically nervous in front of an audience.

But Rosen worries that Alex’s lack of insight into how other people think may leave him too trusting — his personality is as open as the books he loves. Deception is beyond him, which is why Rosen actually celebrates when Alex tries to manipulate her.

“I love it when you lie to me, Al,” she told him in the presence of a visitor last week. “Because it tells me you know what I’m thinking.”

Someday, Ilene Freed Rosen sighed, her guileless child would make a fabulous husband.

Wouldn’t it be f***ed up if, in order to secure a conviction against someone who dispossessed you of your chattels, you had to prove that you “reasonably resisted?”

The rape laws in this country are wack.