The Republic of T.

Barman Rides Again

A while back I reviewed Barman, Alex Wellen's memoir on his last year or law school and his experience preparing for and taking the bar, and working for a law firm in New York. It was one of the books I picked up when I was doing intense research on law school (BTW, the applications are still coming in; the latest from Catholic Universit Law School, one of the schools I'm less likely to consider when I do apply).

Since then, I've had the pleasure of striking up an email correspondence and friendship with Alex. And though I'm a few days late in doing so, I wanted to acknowledge the publication of Barman in paperback. When it comes to books about the experience of going to law school—though the closest I've come to that experience thus far was a walk through a law library—I rank Alex's story among the best I've read thus far, because he's not so much giving advice as he is telling his story, and telling it an accesible, humourous voice that's also entertaining to read.

If you missed it in hardback, and you're interested in reading about one guy's experience with law school, the bar, and practicing law, you should pick up the paperback. (I have the hardback, which I'll take with me when to get autographed when Alex's promotional tour brings him to DC.) Alex gives his own reasons why you might want to pick up the paperback even if you have the hardback.

(1) The packaging: The cover is glossy, vibrant, and fun, and the book is compact,

(2) The paperback contains images of the innovative table tennis paddle that started it all, and

(3) If you buy the BARMAN paperback on amazon.com between August 24th and the 31st, I'll send you a free Candy Barman. (Legal Disclaimer: While supplies last and reasonably doctored-up proof of purchase required.)

The paperback became available on the 24th, but with work, family and jury duty commanding my already challenged attention span, the date slipped by me. So, I wanted to take the opportunity now to put in a word for a Alex and his great book.

What I Don't Want to Become

Via Ernie The Attorney.

It's been a while since I've written about my law school ambitions. They're still a factor, though lately I've been doing a bit of soul searching about what I should do with my life, and about what my calling in life really is. I have a somewhat longer post about that process coming up if I can manage to write it in a way that makes sense to anyone but me.

I've been exploring the inner reasons—the good ones and the not so good ones—why I think I want to go to law school and what I where I want to be if I manage to finish law school. But today, I came across a post that reminded me of exactly what I don't want to become if/when I manage to get into and complete law school.

At our partner lunches people talk about how it's awful that summer camp doesn't cover the entire summer, or how they don't know how to avoid giving the nanny a holiday bonus, or how they don't know why their kids hate them. They hate us because we're never home. They hate us because we're pulling out our Blackberries all weekend while we pretend (and they can tell when we're pretending) to enjoy being around them. They hate us because work is #1, and they're #2 -- or #3, or #4. It's sad. Because it's not like years from now we're going to regret not checking the Blackberry more often. It's sad because time passes really quickly and it starts to feel like "too late" very quickly. That's what keeps people here. By the time, maybe eight months into your first year, maybe a year a half -- but not much longer than that in most cases -- by the time you realize what this job is doing to you it feels like you're stuck. "It's too late." And so you hope it gets better. And you hope, and you hope, and you work, and you work -- and then it's no better, and even more so, "it's too late."

*shudder*

There's even more to consider in the Anonymous Lawyer's response to a question from one of his commenters, who is considering law school himself.

…Your question is "In other words, is there any hope for a young, aspiring attorney to have both a good legal career as well as to simply a good life?"

The answer, in my opinion, is that it is unlikely if you are a well rounded balanced person. But, some are happy, if they have a natural talent for the law, and they like it for itself.

Being a "good" lawyer means a massive dedication to work, and its a dedication that resembles that of the Prussian General Staff to the Kaiser. We don't question, at least in litigation, the moral nature of what we do, and we don't care. We care about winning, and if we win within the rules, that's what counts. At this point, I hate to loose with a passion, but I get no joy whatsoever out of winning. Just more billable hours is all it amounts to. Moreover, all lawyers in a firm (and I'm in a Western firm which would be regarded as small anywhere else but here) are in a cut throat economic competition with each other mandating hours far beyond what is sane. You may have, if you are lucky, one real friend in a firm, maybe two, but everyone else is an acquaintance ready to stab you in the back for an extra dollar. Most will gladly crawl over their fellows dead bodies when the time comes.

…Some lawyers are better at balancing life and work than I am by quite some margin. I'm not very good at it, as you can likely tell. For that reason, I probably should have looked for work I liked, rather than have looked for work in order to try to achieve the non work goals I had in mind. You may wish to consider that. If you love the law, maybe you'd be happy in it in spite of all the jerks, mercenaries, dolts, and others who are in it. There are probably some who meet that description, although. If you love money, and some do, perhaps, if your talents are employable in the law, you can make a lot of it and that will be enough. If you seek to use the law to support a life whose interest are elsewhere, well. . .

…In the end, only you can evaluate this. And you cannot take the advice of those typing over the net. Get some direct information from those you know, if you know somebody who can provide it to you.

I guess that after I work through some stuff about why I think I want to go to law school, I need some more "face time" with some practicing lawyers who can talk to me about their take on the profession.

I don't think there's any real danger of me turning into that picture, but if I do end up in law school, I'm going to print that out and tape it to my mirror so I can read it every single day, as a reminder.

The Gay Rights Question

Via the random musings of chase.

Upon checking out the Chase's website, whose on his way to law school, and whose blog I've been reading regularly, I find him quotein g Amazon.com: Books: The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American Law, by Andrew Koppelman, as follows.

With respect to the moral arguments concerning homosexuality, it is generally supposed that "morality" can refer only to the rules that prevent persons from physically harming other persons. In light of this premise, claims that homosexual conduct is immoral are generally agreed to be not only mistaken but incomprehensible. The invocation of morality, then, is undersood to be nothing mroe than a figleaf for bigotry. [emphasis mine]

Thus, the appearance of yet another book on my "To Read" list. Based on that quote alone, I think I need to read it.

Damn You and Your Logic, Spock!

Ahhhhhh! This post at Buffalo Wings & Vodka reminds me that I've been a total slacker on my LSAT preparations this week.

During a long night of post-exam drinking, four law students--Jesus, Keanu, Lothar, and Mikey--make their way to a men’s room that contains five adjacent urinals--1, 2, 3, 4, and 5--and two stalls--A and B. Each of the law students has had three liters of beer in the last hour and must relieve himself immediately. They proceed according to the following restrictions:

--No student will choose a urinal that is immediately adjacent to an occupied urinal unless no other urinal is available and both stalls are full.
--If Mikey is at a urinal, Keanu will choose a stall.
--If Jesus chooses a urinal, then Mikey will also choose a urinal.
--Lothar will always choose a urinal.
--If Mikey is in a stall, then Keanu will choose an even-numbered urinal.

Of course it's followed by several multiple choice questions. I'm temted to work it out and see if it's actually solvable.

Jeremy's List

I've been reading Jeremy's Weblog since I started thinking about going to law school, because it's informative and funny. This week, it's a little of both, with Jeremy's list of what to do during your last summer before law school. It''s not my last summer before law school, but I think this is a list I'll keep handy for when that summer arrives.

Meanwhile, I'm still preparing for the LSAT.

What Happens

Someone, I forget who, once said that life is what happens while you're making other plans. I feel like that today. Last week, after the boom was lowered at work, I sent my coach a copy of this post. I had an appointment with him today, and we talked about it, and about the feelings I'd expressed in it.

The Paper Chase

Well, I just finished watching The Paper Chase. I guess it was inevitable, seeing as how I'm planning to chase after that particular piece of paper myself. After reading One L my curiosity got the best of me, even though I've heard elswhere that neither are necessarily applicable nowaday when it comes to depicting the law school experience.

It would be interesting to see how an updated version of this story would play out. This one felt dated. Of course I was more interested in the storyline that focused on the first year law school experience (particularly the dymanics and semi-dissolution of the study group). I could have done without the love story entirely, though it was nice to find out that Lindsay Wagner did something besides "The Bionic Woman" and mattress commercials.

I also had some trouble buying that there was much of a relationship between the Hart character and professor Kingsfield. Apparently, so did Kingsfield. At the end of the year he runs into Hart in an elevator, and has to ask him for his name. By the way, I'm hoping that law professors really aren't quite as scary as John Houseman comes across in this role. I really am.

Since I tend to rent movies in thematic pairs, the next one up is The Verdict.

Time Sensitive Material

"Time Sensitive Material." That's what it says on the envelopes that arrived in the mail yesterday. The law school applications are starting to arrive. I knew they were coming. I'd requested them. Still, holding them in my hand yesterday made this law school thing seem just a bit more real. I'm sure I'll have many more moments like this between now and the day I sit down in my first law school class.

Two arrived yesterday; one from American University Washington School of Law and one from Georgetown Law. For what it's worth, American ranked 56th among the top 100. They also included a little note, informing me when they would start accepting applications for fall 2005 admissions, and that they'd received about 9,600 applications for fall 2004 admissions. Georgetown ranked 14th, placing it in the top 20 schools.

I plan on applying to both. However, I'm putting Georgetown in the "long shot" category. It'd be great to get admitted and attend law school there, and I'll apply there just to have a shot. Still, given its ranking and other factors, I think it's the longest shot among the schools I plan to apply to. For starters, the LSAT scores at Georgetown are the highest of the schools that I'm considering, as is the tuition.

You're Fired

And What Thanks Do We Get?—a rather "no punches pulled," anonymous blog allegedly written a few law firm partners— is one of the blawgs I've been reading lately, as a way of getting a glimpse into the lives of law students and practicing lawyers. This one is particularly intersting as it serves as a reminder of some of the not-so-nice things that people experience in the profession.

One post spoke specifically to my experience, except from the opposite end of the experience. It was a post about having to fire someone.

I never like firing people, and I'm bad at it, and for that reason we tend to hold on to our mistakes for a lot longer than we should. We joke with each other that we have made every mistake you can in running a law firm, and even invented some, but keeping a bad employee is a mistake we have made repeatedly, and it has cost us dearly every time. We hang on for a lot of reasons: we hire people we like, for one. There is also the fact that the partners here have all endured some pretty rough handling over the time we were associates, and I think we each have in the back of our minds the promise that we made to ourselves back then that things would be different when we ran things.

I've never thought about what it might be like to have to terminate someone's employment. My experience, which kind of goes along with having untreated ADD for so long, is that of usually being the one who is shown the door. And I railed against it at times. Making the experience none to pleasant for the person who had the job of telling me to hit the bricks. The last time, I remember cutting off my supervisor (who was so nervous she had to drink an entire glass of water before she could get out the words "we've decided to let you go") when the HR person entered the room and telling her "OK. You can go now. I don't need to talk to you anymore." I think I also refused the offer to leave through the back door, choosing instead to march out the front door, escorted by the HR manager, past all the (former) co-workers of mine who'd seen me walk in that door about 15 minutes earlier.

OK. So it still smarts a little, and I'm still a little pissed about it. But honestly, until recently I hadn't really thought that it probably amounted to a pretty unpleasant experience for the people whose job it was to get me out of there. And I know the difficulties I caused as an untreated ADD'er weren't fun for anyone either: forgotten meetings, unreturned phone calls, abandoned tasks, lost documents, missed deadlines, etc. I suppose I should be grateful I lasted as long as I did on some jobs.

What gives me pause, when I think about the profesion I'm about to start pursuing, is that I still have ADD, just not nearly as bad as before. The thigns I mentioned above still happen. Just not to with the frequency or with the same degree of seriousness that they did before. But I wonder, in pursuing such a high pressure academic and professional course, if I might be letting myself in for a big of deja vu. After all, I can imagine that mistakes aren't all that well tolerated in the legal profession, since they can cost clients lots of money, not to mention costing lawyers and firms their reputations.

But then a close my eyes, take a deep breath and remind myself that I'm not planning to look for employment with a major firm or anything, and that I don't know what the experience is going to be like until I'm in it. Still, it's something to think about.

Testy

Well, I've just made it through all the practice questions in Barron's Pass Key to the LSAT. The result? Not surprisingly, I need some work on the logic or analytical reasoning questions. That I expected. So I'll be looking for more sources of practice questions on those.
In the meantime, I still have the practice tests to take and score, and the Kaplan book to crack open.

Here's what I'm wondering about. I'm taking the test in October of this year, giving myself as much time as I think I need to prepare for it. But I'm preparing for it on my own. Am I crazy for not taking a Kaplan prep course? I mean, I know that I can—if I walk out of the test thinking I utterly bombed—that I can cancel my scores if I need to. Right now my plan is to spend some time on preparation every day between now and the test. Is that enough? Or will I not know until I take the test and see my results.