I’m curious to hear your reaction to the Texas Supreme Court’s decision to return the children seized by the Texas Department of Family Protective Services (DFPS) from the FLDS’ Yearning for Zion Ranch. I’ve read the court’s decision and a few news reports. Admittedly, my reading has not gone much beyond this surface level. So if you have insight that I lack, have at it…
Notwithstanding my serious misgivings about the sect and the lives children are apparently forced to lead there (expressed in this thread), I think the court’s approach strikes an appropriate balance between keeping kids with their families by applying the statutory standard to which state agencies must adhere when dealing with cases like this.
Continue reading ‘Reaction to FLDS decision’
The Great Waiting continues. Much weeping and gnashing of teeth accompanies each visit to Cardinal Station, our school’s site for students to pay bills, register, and receive grades. 23 days since our last exam and 29 since our first, there still no grades.
The only grade I have so far is from Lawyering Skills and that class ended in April with our Appellate Brief. Dr. Bombay wondered last week whether other schools run on similar timelines. So, do you? Are you still waiting for Spring semester grades? When you were in school did you wait long? Did you even care how long it took to get grades back? Were you ever prevented from getting a job or internship by delays in receiving grades.
Continue reading ‘Where, O Where Are My %$$#(& Grades?’
One of the things I was rather surprised by during my first year of law school was the number of rules that professors had regarding behavior of students in class. Perhaps my age is getting the best of me, but I had assumed that the days when professors had to lecture students on raising their hands, not eating a meal during class, holding conversations with neighbors, surfing the internet on laptops and other disruptive behavior ended when I left undergrad. And that was ten years ago.
Of course, when I was in undergrad no one but the tools ever brought a laptop to class.
I am a big fan of limited rules in class - I would rather let my fellow students police behavior through good old-fashioned peer pressure than waste class time having the professors do it. I’m sure I can do a better job getting my neighbor to quit surfing Perez Hilton in class than the professor can.
Continue reading ‘No Drinking In Class’
Mrs. Bombay and I were at a cocktail party yesterday for a dear friend of ours who was just named to the directorship of high powered organization here in town. While there, I met his daughter, who is going to be matriculating at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rodgers College of Law to study Native American law. The entire Hypo Staff wishes her the best on her journey.
The conversation obviously swerved towards the first year experience, and some of the same consideration we’ve voiced here. Specifically, about the cost of attendance, and how law school debt can force you to make career choices that you might otherwise avoid. She said she selected Arizona not only because of its preeminence in the field of Native American and indigenous people’s law, but also because the cost was such that she didn’t have to worry about the debt affecting her career choices. Continue reading ‘Best Party Ever.’
It’s all over save for the shouting now, and I’ve been trying to come up with some overarching theme, some great lesson I’ve learned from my first year in law school. But truth be told, I can’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned a tremendous amount myself, my friends, this whole process, but I can’t distill one single lesson that I think everyone should know about being an evening law student.
I think this is because far more than day students, evening students have a diverse set of experiences outside of law school that affect how the process goes. Someone have no job, so have soft jobs that let them study at their desks, and some have complete soul-crushing jobs that cause you to show up late to your exams. Problems with your spouse or your children don’t go away because you’re in school. Hell, they might get worse. People will still get sick, have babies, loved ones may pass away. In short, life does not stop just because you chose to go to law school.
And maybe that’s the lesson. Maybe the most important piece of advice I can give is that all the talk of the transformative power of law school, of teaching you to “think like a lawyer” doesn’t mean that you have to change who you are. And that is not a bad thing.
