Grades are supposed to be released tomorrow, Friday, at 4pm Pacific Time. I’m completely wigged out about it. I know I have a billion things to do now and that there is nothing I can do about the grades I will get tomorrow, but I still feel almost ill about it.

By the way, I won’t post my grades here. I don’t want the world to know how I did, good or bad. I don’t want any of my classmates to compare their grades to mine nor do I want any pity from them if I sucked. 

So, I don’t know how I’m going to get through the night and then class tomorrow. I have class until 3:55pm. I’ll want to know asap how I did, but then again, I don’t want to check with anyone around me. I don’t want to share my reactions–nothing. Plus, my bus is at 4:11 so I kind of have to book it out of class.

Then Friday evening is date night. If I don’t check before getting together with Christopher, I’ll be a mess. If I check and didn’t do as well as I hoped, I’ll be a mess. If I did well, I’ll be a fun date. 

C has a 67% chance of having a lousy time tomorrow night.

Yarg. The tension is not helpful. Maybe I can distract myself with my Legal Skills assignment…

Good thing my friends and I didn’t go to observe court on Monday–we could have ended up in this court (click for article). Ew!! 

What I don’t get is how he smuggled the bag in. One has to go through security screenings, metal detectors, etc., just to sit in the gallery. Does this mean that criminal defendants are not subject to at least as comprehensive searches as the general public?!?

Today I had CivPro and Legal Skills. For CivPro, we had to draft a federal complaint for the first time. We were given the basic facts of the case (a man was hit by a car while crossing the street, then, while lying there, he was run over by a truck–fun stuff) and told to give it a shot. Since we had been reading cases about the “guts” of a complaint, I misconstrued the instructions and put my efforts into the wording of the Statement of Claims rather than the format of the whole document. 

Whoops. 

Okay, I got a lot right, but I missed plenty too. I really enjoy CivPro and hate, hate, hate that I let the prof down, so I was feeling pretty down by the end of that class.

After lunch it was time for Legal Skills, which I have to admit is not one of my favorite courses (most of you already know that). I wasn’t looking forward to it.

Today we were discussing statutory interpretation–that is, how to determine and/or argue what the statute (the written law) actually means. We had an in-class exercise where 6 of us were selected to be judges and the rest of the (small) class were split between being on the prosecution or defense teams. The defense had motioned for dismissal of one charge because, under the statute, an airplane is not a “vehicle.” Obviously, the prosecution wanted the court to interpret the statute (part of the PATRIOT Act) the other way. 

Before we even heard arguments, my “colleagues on the bench” were inclined to interpret in favor of the prosecution. I was on the fence…okay, I was pretty sure that in this context, the word “vehicle” did not include airplanes. After the arguments, I was more convinced. The defense argued cogently and they argued the law. The prosecution railed about needing to save lives and to keep the terrorists at bay, but they didn’t argue the law.

Unfortunately, my “colleagues” were not of the same opinion as I. The vote was 5-1. It was hard to stand out as I did–it was clearly an unpopular position and, in fact, some of the prosecution and the other “judges” had been downright snotty about it. But I held my ground–the law seemed pretty clear.

Turns out, this wasn’t a hypothetical case. It was part of the Richard Reid (“Shoe Bomber”) trial. The defense there put out almost exactly the argument my classmates had…

…and they won their motion.

I got it right. 

That kind of made up for the crappy complaint.

Monday was MLK, Jr. Day and so we did not have classes. To make the schedule work out right, the school has declared that today we follow our Monday class schedule. Okay…um…got it.

Then our Torts professor has some event out of town on Friday so we only have Property that day, and Thursday we usually only have Contracts, but that class isn’t meeting formally.

So this week I have two Mondays, no Wednesday, Thurday “off,” and half a Friday. And I have not been getting enough sleep for various reasons (4.5 whole hours last night…joy).

Don’t they use sleep deprivation and date confusion as torture at Gitmo?

Seriously, though, I wish I could get more into the swing of things this trimester. Like my colleagues, I just don’t quite feel like I have my feet under me yet. Being sick in the first week didn’t help, but even so, I haven’t hit a good rhythm between classes and studying. I got all my reading for the (convoluted) week done over the weekend, but I still feel sort of unprepared, like I’m forgetting something. 

We all have had our personal issues to deal with too. One friend got hit by a car on her motorcycle yesterday, several of us have been sick, several relationships are struggling, and there has been death and illness in families too. It just feels “off” so far this trimester.

Oh well, as Scarlet O’Hara would say, eternally hopeful, “Tomorrow is another day!”

This morning I met the girls and went to observe oral arguments in the California Court of Appeal, 4th District, here in San Diego. It was quite interesting…even where it was located, which is in the Copley Symphony Hall building, which isn’t exactly the first place you’d expect to fine a courtroom. 

The Court of Appeal (by the way, that’s not an error–it is Appeal, singular, in California) is a 3-justice banc. Today, we saw two different panels, although the first one was only for the first case and that took all of 30 seconds as one of the sides did not show (whoops!). The second panel had the justice who gave us our student oath back in August! We saw three different cases (including the first quickie), the last of which was very detailed and had us students thinking about things we’ve learned in CivPro in particular.

The case was about some woman who got a huge divorce settlement–millions, in fact. She had that money in safe investments and then her preacher told her about this financial advisor he was using. She switched to this guy, and he put her money (with her knowledge and, apparently, approval) into all sorts of risky investments. She lost between 2-3 million buckos. 

She is now suing the bank that is the successor in interest of the trust company that held (?) these investments. The bank/trust company apparently did not have anything to do with suggesting or advising her in her investments–they just executed them.

Why, you are probably asking, isn’t she suing the financial advisor?
Because he killed himself. 

Clearly, this was a juicy one, especially since it hadn’t even gotten out of pleadings! The plaintiff had filed 6, count ‘em 6, amended complaints before the court finally said “Enough.” But I guess it wasn’t enough since now it’s up on appeal. But the lady’s attorney sure didn’t help her today. He came off combative, defensive, argumentative, and he didn’t answer direct questions without the justice asking having to say, repeatedly, “that isn’t what I asked–answer my question…” He was literally red-faced by the time he was done. 

The bank’s attorney, on the other hand, was calm and effective. By the time she completed her presentation and Q&A by the justices, the Bank looked like a total victim in this mess. 

Can’t wait to read the opinion when it is issued!

Yes, it’s nice to be able to study Property in shorts in January. I’ll cop to that.

I’m waiting for my Legal Skills class to start. Actually, this is a make-up class because we had to have a computer training class during our normal class time last week. Woo hoo…not. 

But at least I’m here and feeling mostly better. I have a 300-lb man on my chest, figuratively speaking, and I get really tired quickly, but overall, definitely better. 

After this is Torts. Luckily, it’s in the same classroom so I don’t even have to move. Then I’m done with classes for the day since Contracts has been cancelled. Good thing since I already feel behind. My afternoon will be devoted to reading and briefing. 

Really. 

No, I mean it this time.

Thursday evening, my throat started hurting. Friday I woke up fully sick, but determined not to let it stop me from going to school since it was probably just a cold. I hitched a ride with Christopher downtown early, and in the time between when he dropped me off and my first class, I got worse. 

Chills. Never a good sign. And achy and my throat felt like I was storing ninja stars in it. I called C and eventually he picked me up. I was almost asleep on the ride home. Then I felt better once I got home, then worse, then better. I was running a low fever (I almost never ever go over 100, even when at my sickest) and the sinuses decided to join the game making breathing a stunt.

Still, I fought it and thought for sure it was a cold that I could beat. Took my zinc and started drinking teas and a brew of fresh ginger, lemon, and honey (that stuff is a cure-all, I think) and eating soup (as well as chips and the hottest salsa I could stand–to open the sinuses), but yesterday I suddenly got much worse and moved from the couch to the bed, fever going up.

I got some sleep, though the dreams were insane. And, at some point in the middle of the night, I woke up absolutely soaked with sweat. Hopefully, that was the fever breaking. This morning I got up feeling, at first, really pretty good. As I lay in bed, I took stock of my symptoms–I didn’t feel fevered, my nose was breathable, chest still felt a bit heavy, and my head was a touch achy. Then I actually got out of bed and realized that I am as weak as a newborn kitten. 

But my fever has not returned (yet), so I think I may be over the hump. I managed to do some homework this morning and I’m back on the couch, but I’m definitely weak, weak, weak. 

So football is on (the early game as I write) and C just brought me another ginger/lemon/honey concoction…I think I’ll try to read some CivPro and maybe take a nap before the big game.

Yesterday, I had my first class with my only new professor this trimester–Professor Lynch for Torts 1. Here’s a picture of him, although he is much grayer now. He is a Boston “Southie” and still has a hell of an accent, although it has been softened by years of travel and education. He makes the back [a] sound that few Americans do, so that [ask] becomes [ahh-sk], for example.

He’s intimidating, but in a good way. As his locals would say, he’s clearly “wicked smahhrt,” and his biting sense of humor some people may find off-putting, but I really like it. When he was describing the breakdown of the multiple choice questions on his final exam, he explained that “There are one or two that only I or maybe Gaaahd might know for sure” and that most of the other questions are reasonable and possible to get right if one studies. He then said that there would be 3 or so that “if you miss them, you might as well put a gun in your mouth as a waste of space on this planet [because they are easy, easy, easy].” Shocking! But hilarious.

He is also the only professor who makes you stand to recite. This sounds much worse than it is, since he guides you through the recitation by asking questions. So, if you have to present a case, he will lead you through it. On the first day he also called on people and presented them with hypotheticals. That forces you to think on your feet. One woman he told to cross-examine him as if he were the plaintiff [to show how to get someone to admit to "substantial certainty" without using that term itself]. What fun!

Yes, I’m disturbed…that sounds like fun.

I have a soft-spot for Prof. Lynch. At the dinner party for the Trustee Scholar candidates last spring, one of the admissions people foisted me on him and he kindly spoke to me for a very long time. He asked very blunt questions–I think he led with “What scares you the most about going to law school?”–and answered every one of my questions with the same candor. After class yesterday I re-introduced myself to him and he immediately smiled and said “Right! You’re from Ohio and work with artists…” so I knew he remembered. He then asked “So, how is it so far?” to which I replied, “I think I must have some mental defect–I love it.”

—-

Speaking of which, must get ready for class. Today is my busy day, with 3 classes–CivPro, Legal Skills, and Property. We haven’t had Property yet this week and we all are excited about seeing Professor Smythe again. With the exception of LS, I really like all my profs this term! 4 outa 5 ain’t bad.

Yeah…tomorrow is school again. I swear I didn’t get a break in my break. Not one game of Wii, haven’t cracked into a big iTunes balance, and my butt is still bigger than I want. Poo.

Okay, I did get my hair done, so I don’t look like a witch anymore. And my teeth are clean. And I did find Lucky jeans on sale at Costco the other day. And C and I spent some time together, but not enough. All in all it feels more like I got some boring things done but didn’t have any sort of “vacation.” Poo. 

Now it is back into the books. Tomorrow is the first day of CivPro 2 and (ugh) Legal Skills 2. For LS2 we had to read this 20+page opinion from the CA Appellate Court that was almost unbelievable. You know it’s going to be a bad day if you are the lawyer for the Appellant and the opinion starts off:

This is an appeal run amok. Not only does the appeal lack merit, the opening brief is a textbook example of what an appellate brief should not be. 

Ouch! Seems the brief was an oxymoronic 75,000+ words in length (more than 3 times the usual limit) and over 200 pages long. It was also filled with misrepresentations of recorded testimony and completely lacking in supporting arguments. Its citations were mostly incorrect as well and the judges stated that the lawyer misread many of the holdings. Ouch, ouch, ouch. 

A bit of additional research has revealed that this lawyer was disbarred last year (not for this particular case). Good riddance, methinks.

CivPro 2 starts us off with Pleadings, the history of which is interesting. It is also a relief to know that things are a bit more simple now than 500 years ago. We read an example of a pleading from back then and it pretty much required a secret-decoder ring to understand!

After the first week, there will be a CivPro tutoring class as well on Mondays.

Tuesday will be my first Torts class, with Criminal done and gone. I’ll have Contracts 2 that day as well.

Wednesdays will be  3-class days with LS 2, Property 2, and CivPro 2 (plus a tutoring class for Torts, again after the first week).

Thursdays, unfortunately, starts with a Contracts 2 tutoring class (after the first…you get the picture) and then I have 5.5 hours until my only actual class that day, which is also Contracts 2. Big break in which to, I suppose, study.

Fridays finish the week with Property 2 tutoring, plus the class itself, and Torts. 

Heavy drinking starts at 5pm on Fridays.