Monthly Archive for January, 2008

Movie Review: The Paper Chase (Or: How Law School Messes With Your Head)

Published
by
Casebook Sherpa
on 01/14/08
in Law In The Movies and Law School Experience
. 0 Comments

I can’t imagine a law school blog that does movie reviews without including one on The Paper Chase.

Having watching it recently, I’ve been thinking about it a lot. And there’s probably not much I could say about the classic movie The Paper Chase beyond what’s already been well-said.

It’s the story about Hart a 1L at Harvard Law School, his adjustment to law school, and his obsession with impressing his Contracts professor, the legendary Professor Kingsfield. The setting is your stereotypical law school - professor calling on students, giving far too little time to answer questions, students competing to have the smartest answer in class, students crumbling under pressure, some figuring out how to manage it all.

Here’s a taste of it from the movie’s opening scene:
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So, I won’t bore you with a plug for the movie. Instead, I’ll bore you with how I thought the movie captured a side of law school that has really struck me as its essence. That is: law school messes with your head.

Continue reading ‘Movie Review: The Paper Chase (Or: How Law School Messes With Your Head)’

Making Sense of First-Year Law School Grades

Published
by
Casebook Sherpa
on 01/09/08
in 1L and Law School Experience
. 0 Comments

So, our grades are trickling in… finally. Still waiting on two, though.

I’m still a bit miffed that I had to pay for my second semester of law school before knowing how I did in the first semester, but I guess I’ll just have to get over it.

Needless to say, I’ve had several discussions with people about how significant first-semester law school grades really are. Frankly, I’ve never put much stock in grades so long as mine were As or Bs. I did what I thought was the minimum I could do to get by and tried not to exert myself too much. Consequently, I mostly coasted through (i.e. squandered) undergrad and was fortunate enough to get by with decent grades. I don’t share that to toot my own horn. Quite the contrary - it was a terrible way to do it and I deeply regret the time and money I wasted doing it that way.

So, this whole “grades are everything” mentality is quite new to me - a) because I’ve never studied as hard as I have for law school classes and b) I’ve never before felt as though I was competing against my classmates. Grades were just what they were. Law school is different, so I’m told. Everything’s graded on a curve, so everything is “competing against your classmates.” I understand the concept; I don’t really like it.

When I try to detach from the whole thing, therefore, it’s difficult to get a good perspective. So, I’ve turned to some trusted sources (and some have turned to me) and here’s what I’ve learned and heard… Continue reading ‘Making Sense of First-Year Law School Grades’

Lawyers’ Drop in Social Status

Published
by
Casebook Sherpa
on 01/08/08
in Career Prospects
. 0 Comments

Via Facebook, a classmate posted a link to this story from the New York Times over the weekend. The essence of the piece can be summed up in this quote: “The pay is still good (sometimes very good), and the in-laws aren’t exactly complaining. Still, something is missing, say many doctors, lawyers and career experts: the old sense of purpose, of respect, of living at the center of American society and embodying its definition of ’success.’”

Our culture’s definition of success has changed, the argument goes. Creativity and innovation are receiving the financial and social prestige once enjoyed by the classic prestige careers of doctor and lawyer.

I suppose one could join in the great lawyer’s lamentation about paradise lost. Sure, I’m also a bit nervous about what this trend means for my future career success. Just like any market, the legal job market has ebbs and flows. It just so happens the flows tend to be more common than the ebbs - which is fantastic. Though, perhaps we are entering an ebbing period…

But seriously… This story boils down, essentially, to a group of well-paid, well-trained, highly-educated, bright people no longer being the de facto coolest kids in the room. That strikes me as absurd both because of the sheer ego and insecurity involved not to mention the fact that it doesn’t change the nature of what lawyers do. (Does it?)

Creativity and passion and innovation are also required in the law to face the challenges facing society. And they are legion. It can only help that the economy has recognized that and is rewarding that initiative. Additionally, new ways of doing business, new ways of valuing talent, and new ways of defining success and ethical ways of obtaining it don’t rob the lawyer’s prestige. Rather they place new demands on the attorney’s expertise and create new markets in which to sell the counsel’s services.

Say what you want, but you have a long way to go before convincing me that the lawyer’s death is anything but greatly exaggerated.

Good Looks = More Money? I’m In Trouble!

Published
by
Casebook Sherpa
on 01/04/08
in Career Prospects
. 1 Comment

So, about a year ago (ish) I overheard a conversation about advertising in the pharmaceutical industry.

During focus groups with their target audience (doctors), the company would send in drug reps to pitch the drug and ask doctors what they think - would they prescribe that drug based on the pitch they just got? To my shock (probably shouldn’t have been) male doctors were more likely to prescribe medications that were pitched to them by attractive, young women.

Disturbing to say the least. But that story came to mind as I read this on the ABA website:

A researcher studying the impact of beauty has found that good-looking lawyers—like other professionals—make more money than their colleagues with lesser looks.

Economist Daniel Hamermesh of the University of Texas based his conclusion on the photographs of graduates of an unnamed law school. Those rated attractive in the photos went on to make more money than less-comely students, the Economist reports.

Links: original Economist story and Legal Blog Watch write-up.

Best. Mix Tape. Ever?

Published
by
Casebook Sherpa
on 01/03/08
in All In Good Fun, Funny and Hypos
. 0 Comments

So here’s your hypo for today. If you could record a mix tape (or a “CD” for you hipsters out there) of the best music ever, what would you put on it?

Here’s what would have to be on mine, in no particular order:

  1. “Born In the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen
  2. “Blister In The Sun” by Violent Femmes
  3. “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister
  4. “And We Danced” by The Hooters
  5. “We Got The Jazz” by Tribe Called Quest
  6. “Even Flow” by Pearl Jam
  7. “9-1-1 Is A Joke” by Public Enemy
  8. “Don’t Stop Believin” by Journey
  9. “Meant To Live” by Switchfoot
  10. “Cantaloupe Island” by Herbie Hancock
  11. Multiple U2 songs

What’s on yours? Keep in mind that the RIAA might sue you for doing it… so make it good!

Where 1L Property Meets Energy and Environmental Policy

Published
by
Casebook Sherpa
on 01/02/08
in Law
. 0 Comments

Sometimes Property law can really be news you can use. Other times, it can be news that keeps you from using. This story in today’s Washington Post shows how the law can work against a landowner extracting resources from his or her property. Nutshell: farm (Coles Hill) sits on $10 billion dollars worth of uranium, he wants to mine, Virginia law forbids it, lawmakers want to study it…

Underneath a plot of farmland used to raise cattle, hay and timber in south central Virginia lies what is thought to be the largest deposit of uranium in the United States.

Now, three decades after the deposit was found, landowner Walter Coles has set his sights on mining the 200-acre site despite concerns of environmental groups and residents about unearthed radioactive material that could contaminate the area’s land, air and source of drinking water.

As the United States searches for alternative energy sources, Virginia has a geological discovery in its back yard that could drastically change the nation’s reliance on foreign oil. The estimated 110 million pounds of uranium in Pittsylvania County, worth almost $10 billion, could supply all of the country’s nuclear power plants for about two years.

There’s a hurdle to clear before an ounce of the element can be mined: It’s illegal to dig for the stuff in Virginia. But the General Assembly is considering changing that.

The statute in question is Va. St. § 45.1-283 (sorry, don’t have my Bluebook handy) which states in pertinent part:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, permit applications for uranium mining shall not be accepted by any agency of the Commonwealth prior to July 1, 1984, and until a program for permitting uranium mining is established by statute.

The quantity of uranium is quite substantial and the debate raises all sorts of issues regarding use of property, environmental protection, foreign energy, nuclear energy, etc.

The Recording Industry’s Noble Cause: Death To The Mix CD!

Published
by
Casebook Sherpa
on 01/02/08
in Law
. 3 Comments

Ok, so maybe the mix CD died a long time ago (notwithstanding the killer 80s mix my wife and I burned for her sister-in-law to accompany her trip to a Bon Jovi concert). But this story reveals just how utterly insane the recording industry’s crusade against the use of legally purchased music:

Still, hardly a month goes by without a news release from the industry’s lobby, the Recording Industry Association of America, touting a new wave of letters to college students and others demanding a settlement payment and threatening a legal battle.

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry’s lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are “unauthorized copies” of copyrighted recordings.

Are you kidding me? Seriously? I don’t see anywhere in this story a suggestion that Howell is sharing the files on LimeWire or some such P2P network. He may, in fact, be doing so. But the RIAA is saying that “when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.”

I certainly understand this cuts to the heart of both the DRM debate and and the RIAA’s busines model. But it just seems silly. Actually, it seems utterly ridiculous.

A question occurs to me: how much money do the artists actually see from these lawsuits? It strikes me as the classic class action story about defrauded consumers joining a class only to receive a $.15 check while the legal team rakes in millions.