Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Wrapping up the First Semester

This will probably be my last post for a few weeks.  Taking the night off, but about to step into the buzz-saw.  Finals start on Tuesday. 

I should probably have studied over the Thanksgiving break and I did do some law in a flash cards.  However, I'm glad I took my son to Disney.  It is one of the few chances he gets to see his Arizona cousins.  Plus, I am trying to do this law school thing without him having to suffer for it. 

My sump pump died the other night, but thankfully I have two of them.  The other one, though, was already broken.  I was able to take parts from both units and put together one fully functioning unit.  I was going to pay a plumber to put in new ones, but I'll probably just do that myself.  Trouble is, we just had massive rains and the stores all sell out of sump pumps when that happens.  The plumbers are always swamped replacing sump pumps, too.  People don't test their sump pumps.  At least most people don't, including me.  They only find out they're broken when they need them and they don't work.

Anyway, I've got one functioning unit that should hold me over for the next few days until the stores get a few new ones in.  I was going to have a plumber replace them, but I think with any luck, I can replace the broken one in about an hour.  So, I'll probably tackle the project myself.  I'll buy two, though.  One spare for when the one I rigged eventually dies.  The thing looks a zillion years old and it's put together from two units that had each previously failed.

I'm glad that this semester is ending.  It's been a fantastic escape from reality.  I plan on finishing up my 1L year as a full-time student, regardless of what happens in the coming year.  However, in the Spring, I'm going to evaluate things and might change course.

If my grades are really good and I can keep my scholarship, I'll probably just continue to go full-time.  If I lose my scholarship, I may still go full-time if I can schedule all my classes two days a week.  (For instance, if I can get them all done on Tuesday and Thursday.)  If not, I may drop back to part-time.

That's a long ways off, though.  In the mean time I just need to be ready for exams.

I'm getting there.  Wish I had more time, but everybody else probably does, too.  Won't really know much until the grades come back.

2011 is coming to a close and I'm in much better shape than I was a year ago.  Not a great year, but better than 2010.  If I can make it past 2012, in 2013, a lot of installment debt (both personal and business) will be paid off.  2014, the same story.  By the time 2014 ends, the difference in monthly debt-service, alone, will be almost $4 grand.  Life will be a lot different then.

I also need to refocus on rebuilding my business.  This past semester has been a thoroughly enjoyable and much-needed escape from reality, but it's time to put my shoulder back to it and get this company back on track. 

So a lot of upside on the horizon.  More than ever, I'm sure that I need to continue to own my own business and continue to look for diversification opportunities, and to build my law practice over time.

So, lots of good things if I can just survive 2012.  The mayans say we're all done for in 2012, anyway.  However, 2013 is when things really start to change and by the end of 2014, if I can get through law school and retire all this debt, my life should be monumentally better than it is now.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Okay, Civ Pro Outline is Done... ready to move forward

I finally have a workable outline for Civ Pro.  You hear law students talk a great deal about their outlines, which are basically summaries of all the law they had to learn in a course.  They can range from maybe as few as 10 pages to as many as 200.  Depends on the student and how much they feel they need in the outline versus how much they feel they already know by heart.  It basically serves as your study guide for final exams.  In theory, if you know your outline, you know all the law you need to know to do well on your final, which is the only graded assignment in most classes.

Civ Pro gave me a lot of trouble, but only because I might as well have been cranking a music box and making a monkey dance all semester.  Really, I just didn't have a clue.  Once you understand the framework, it's not so bad, but it's like they taught all the elements and then at the end, you're just supposed to understand how they all work.

Sort of like if you took a class on the anatomy of an elephant without ever having seen one (or any similar animal) before.  Maybe one day, they start with what an eye is.  The next day they describe the hooves.  The next day they describe the ears.  They finally get done describing all the parts, but what is it?  Does it look like a kangaroo?  A babboon?  What was missing from Civ Pro was an explanation of what the thing looks like from the macro-level.  Literally, the class consisted of the rules.  Every day, we'd learn a handful of rules with an overall theme of, say, "discovery". 

Now, I have an outline.  Now, after sitting in the class for over 3 months, I finally feel like I can START to learn the material.  Time is ticking away, though.

This was, by far, the worst of my subjects.  That's why I tackled the outline first.  I honestly think that in my other classes, putting together my outline might be a 2 or 3 hour task.  This one?  All told, I probably have 20 hours into it and I still don't know it.  I just have it all mapped out.

I also probably could have done 3 outlines in the time I spent, but I kept starting, stopping, stepping back, trying to find a better integrating perspective, going back to something I'd worked on previously.  This was a mess.  Not sure how I could have done better other than getting a good commercial outline on day one and using it.  Who knows.  I doubt I'd have used it, though.  I needed the looming spectre of a final exam to make me sit down and try to internalize all this.

Contracts is the next one.  It's not going to be easy, but I have a good outline, there.  Just need to learn it.  Love the prof.  Love his method for teaching it.  Both the prof and the method are a little crazy, but then, so am I. 

The outline for Property will be not too bad.  A few holes to fill in for the outline, but the subject is straghtforward.

Torts, that's been by far my easiest class.

Spent the weekend going through LEEWS again and kicking myself for not doing this before my final memo.  It would have given me what I needed to address all the shortcomings that I know are in that thing.  If I get a B on it, I'll be amazed.

Now, though, the time crunch is on.  I can literally count the remaining full days I have to study.  I have Wednesday, but a chunk of that day will be spent getting things in order for the trip to Disney I'm taking Logan on.

I'll have time to study on the plane out and the plane back.  I might have some time to study in the park.  I'm thinking of just taking my law in a flash cards to study while waiting in lines.  Thursday and Friday it's just me and him in at Disneyland.  Saturday, the family will be there.  Might see if I can fob him off on one of them and find a place to sit down and study.  I'd still be in the park and still sorta move with the swarm, but might not wait in line for rides if he has somebody else he can wait with.  Then, Sunday, return trip.  Again, time to study on planes and during layovers.

After that, school on Monday and Tuesday, then the semester is over.  5 days off (Wed thru Monday) and then the Contracts final.  A day off and the Civ Pro final.  4 days off then the Property final and 1 day off and the Torts final.

Generally speaking, the finals will go from hardest to easiest for me.  That gives me almost two week's worth of full days off plus whatever studying I can do over Thanksgiving break.  (Probably just law in a flash.)  Full days of studying generally involve a lot fewer hours than I'd like.  I wish I could get in maybe 12 or 14 hours, but in reality, it almost always ends up being only 4-6.  Usually closer to 4.

Right now, I have it mapped out that I'll use 5 or 4.5 days to keep blasting out Civ Pro.  3 or 3.5 to tie down Contracts.  3 for Property.  2 for Torts.  Combined with studying after school a little here and there, studying on vacation, I think that should be able to get me through this.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

2 more weeks to finals

This week is half done.  After this, two more weeks and finals start.  On Friday, I have a citation quiz and that's it for legal research and writing.  I'll have 3 day weekends for the rest of the year. 
At this point, if I had to put numbers to it, I'm 70% ready for Torts.  60% for Property.  40% for Contracts.  30% for Civ Pro.

I now know what I need to do to prepare for Civ Pro.  Contracts, although I'm stronger at the moment, I'm less sure how to get to where I need to be for the final.

The fact that Law School is going to be a series of compromises is really coming to roost, here.  Days when I don't have my son, I can get in like 5 or 6 hours of studying in the evenings.  Days when I have him, I'm lucky to knock out a half hour or hour.  It's not that he ties me up at all.  It's just that between feeding him, taking him to practice (and he ALWAYS has a practice to be taken to), unwinding a little bit, there just isn't much time left over.

In the grand scheme of things, though, being a father is still job #1.  It is the integrating value of my life.  Everything else needs to fit into that.  It's the most fun, most rewarding, most satisfying thing I've ever done and I fully intend to enjoy every minute of it.  I may have 2.5 years of law school left, but I have only about 7 more years with my boy.  In theory, I could do law school some other time in my life.  However, once Logan is moved out, he's gone.  After that, I hope he'll always be part of my life, but not like this.

I need to study pretty much every available minute of this coming weekend.  I'm going to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving and will try to haul books around Disneyland with me, but I doubt I'll get much quality studying in.  I'll do what I can.

I have a lot of work to do and with just a little less than three weeks to my first exam, I'm running out of time.  Sorta regretting committing to Disney this year, but see previous note regarding raising a kid.

I also don't want to make it sound like I'm making an excuse for performance in Law School.  It would be easier without other committments, but no way do I think I wasn't given ample chance to perform to my potential.  I just pray, pray, that I get to the next semester without having to repeat any classes.

I think at this point, just spitballin', that if I have to repeat a course, that's going to be game-over.  I want this, but don't want it that bad.  So, that gives me all the more incentive to just do the best I can.  Trouble is, you have to repeat any class that you get less than a C in, which means a C- is as good as an F. 

Also, this is making me think about my life.  Midlife really is hitting me.  I'll be in my late 40s when I finish (that's putting it charitably.)  If I spend 5 years learning the ropes from somebody else, that'll put me in my mid 50s when I'm ready to hang out a shingle.  Of course, I could hang out a shingle sooner and may have to if nobody will hire me.  Still, learning the ropes under somebody else is the way it's supposed to be done. 

Anyway, that's all for another day.  Right now, I need to be ready for the citation quiz on Friday (it shouldn't be that bad, but it is 20% of our grade).  Then, I need to study my balls off to learn Civ Pro and Contracts, and fill in the gaps on Torts and Property.

I'm starting to feel stretched a little thin...  The crunch is on full-tilt-boogie.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Civ Pro, Richmond, Pleading and Practice...

If you're reading this, you're in my P&P section.  I was totally lost until today when I started cramming for the practice exam tomorrow.  Seriously, I didn't have a clue as to what I needed to study.

Sat down and waded through the material and it all makes sense today.  That outline that was going around the central table in the lobby today is a little sketchy.  Use it, but double check everything. 

Still, that was a little bit inspiring because it seemed to show that the material can be learned.  It was encouraging.

As I dug into it, I was mostly reviewing all the powerpoints and comparing them to the syllabus.  Only got about halfway through.

I feel like I finally understand what's going in on the class, now.  I still have a long way to go, but for the first time, I know where to start and what I need to study.

I really couldn't care less about the practice test tomorrow.  No grade = who cares.  However, just these past few hours of cramming gave me a roadmap of what I need to do to get there on this subject.  This was the only class where I was just flat-out lost and now I feel a lot better.  




1.  If you're using the E&E, Pleading and Practice is sections III thru VI.  That's like 400 pages, though.  I'd only go through the sections I needed some more clarity on.  It also doesn't match up very well with the course outline and/or all the other outlines I see out there.  (Didn't read those pages, but did read the first part of the book on Jurisdiction and lord, it's a drag.  I'm not looking forward to Civ Pro II in 2L year.)  I guess you can always use the examples to act as practice test questions, though.  The E&Es are always good for that.

2.  Be careful on the outline that got e-mailed out today (you know who you are... if you have to ask, it wasn't you).  Found a few sections where I don't trust the rules they reference.

3.  The sections to focus on in the Themsis Law School Essentials is pp. 38 thru 92.  Honestly, this thing looked like it was taken directly from the syllabus.

4.  The part of the Kaplan 1L Edge Program to focus on is pp. 363 thru 389.  Tighter summary, but you pretty much have to know the material already for it to make sense. 

5.  As always, you can use the syllabus and match the numbers on the right to the notes/ppt downloads.  Didn't help me.  I think that's why I was so lost up until now.  However, doing this, along with checking another source or two worked great.  I only got halfway through, though.  This is pretty time-intensive.

6.  Haven't gone through Law in a Flash:  got bad reviews from some folks.  However if you want to try, use the Part II box, and get the pleading cards out of the Part I box.  (Cards 421 thru 493).
7.  Not sure how much of Legalines Civ Pro I'm going to do.  It's basically Section VII on, so almost 200 pages.  I want to make sure I hit all the black letter law, though.  I'll at least skim it and focus on the law, maybe not so much the cases. 

8.  If you don't want to go through all that, either because of time or expense, like the syllabus says, you can use the Understanding Civil Procedure Book and go through chapters 8 thru 12. 

Happy hunting, guys.  Not too worried about anything that's not-graded, but close enough to crunchtime to start getting religion.  I know this comes too late to help for the practice test, but I feel pretty confident this will get me through the final.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Closing In...

Turned in the final memo today.  It amazes me that I could spend so much time on the thing and still come down to the wire on it.  I was making corrections up until the minute it was due.

I don't feel that good about it.  If I got a C on it, I wouldn't be surprised.  It's done now, though, so no need to obsess.

What makes this paper different is that it needs to be structured with all the arguments, according to IREAC, which is a version of IRAC.  (Issue, Rule, Application and Conclusion.  IREAC adds "explanation".)

That seems straightforward, but it gets tough when the issue doesn't break down neatly.  I also had trouble stuffing cases into my issues.  It's all done now, but it was harder than I thought.  Sort of kicking myself, but what can be done?

Also, the other factor is that the paper is competitively graded.  So, it's not enough to do well.  To get a good grade, you have to do well relative to the rest of the class.  There will be enough people with good papers to fill out the top of the curve.  Right now, I'd be happy as a clam if I could swing a B in the class.  I guess we'll just wait and see.  Worst-case, I just need a grade higher than C-, or else I'd have to repeat the class, and I honestly would probably just drop out of law school before I'd repeat any classes.

Now's the big crunch for finals, which are three weeks away.  I'm going through LEEWS again and starting to work whole-hog on my outlines.  Gonna start hitting the crunchtime books and do at least a few example problems every day. 

When you're young, the semesters never really seem to end.  Seems like when you're old, time always passes faster than you'd like though, and that's true for me this semester.  I feel like 3 weeks isn't enough time.

I'm still basically relaxed, though.  Unlike most of my classmates, I don't need this in order to earn a living.  Don't get me wrong.  I really want a law degree.  I really want to be an attorney.  However, if it didn't happen, I'd be fine.  I'd find a way to get by.

I do love being a student, though.  Like most experiences of youth (for instance, love), being a student is wasted on the young.  I really enjoy being around all the twentysomethings.  They don't seem to mind an old guy in their midst too much. 

I did get a little discouraged with my property mid-term, and I'm afraid I got even more discouraged when I turned in my final memo.  However, I am trying to remind myself that I can still get As in 4 of my classes, even if my memo stank.  I know what I need to do.  It's just a question of finding enough time to do it.

This semester is going to be over before you know it.  My goals are getting a bit more realistic as far as what I want to do with my law degree.  In fact, they're going all the way back to what I had intended originally.  I want to have a small practice where I handle PI, and maybe Labor and/or Family Law.  Maybe bankruptcies in this economy.

We'll just have to see how this goes.  I waited so long to go to Law School, it's hard to believe that in about a month, I'll have my first semester grades.  Fortunately for me, although I'm an obsessively introspective person in many regards, when it comes to chosing a goal and pursuing it, I really don't have many moments of doubt about whether I want to continue.  (Of course, my first C- may change that.)

Every once in a while, though, I sit back and think how cool it is that I'm actually in law school.  Lawyers get a bad rap and law school doesn't get the respect it deserves.  (I can say this as a former dispenser of this disrespect.)  However, being an attorney is still a big fat deal and graduating from law school is not something that just anybody can do. 

It'll be a heck of a thing when I graduate.  I'll be the first attorney in my family.  (Including extended family.  Far as I know there aren't any other Strebler attorneys in the US.)

Friday, November 11, 2011

Property Mid-Term Results

Finally got my property mid-term results.  This is essentially the only feedback we're going to get on how we're doing until our report cards.  (I suppose there's an outside chance that we might get our grades in Legal Research and Writing a little earlier than that, but probably not much.)

Of course, thus endeth our season of self-delusion.  The tough thing about Law School is not so much that you have to master the material, but that your grades depend on how well you are doing relative to your peers.  The much discussed "class rank" is everything in LS, specifically because you are constantly assessed relative to your peers.

Everybody who came here either thought, "I've always been an academic winner and I'll be a winner, here", or "I haven't done so well in the past, but that's because I wasn't giving it my best, and I'm going to give it my best, here" or maybe "I have good skills, but have always been able to out-work everybody and have always been successful because of it."

Regardless of what folks may think of lawyers, law schools really are filled with some smart people.  A top class rank depends on being smart, and hardworking and not just learning the material, but learning how to answer law school type exams which are a different animal than the types of exams people are used to.

Anyway, so how did I do?  Looked it up and was in the 2nd quartile in results.  Towards the top, but still far enough from the best scores in the class to know I won't be booking anything with these smart muthas all around me. 

This does put me in the range of people who might end up with a good enough GPA to keep a scholarship, though.  The school just lowered my scholly renewal requirement to 3.2 from 3.3.  So, if I can manage an A in just one class per semester, I'll scoot by.  Of course, that's hard to do.  Means you really kicked ass in the class relative to your classmates.

The prof said something sort of interesting.  It goes along with what I saw when I was in b-school.  By about the middle of 2L year, most students sort of accept their place in the class ranking.  The stop trying to think of, "gee, what can I do to get better grades?" and start thinking in terms of, "how little work can I do and still get the same grades?"

The mid-term is only 30% of our grade in the class, and I did well enough that it is basically a non-factor for my final grade.  I can ace the final and get a good grade in the class, and I could bomb the final and still bomb the class.  The mid-term won't do much for or against me.

So, it's intense here.  Everybody is going at it full-blast and nobody has resigned themselves to anything, yet.  Tough to stand out with this crowd. 

All in all, not happy with the results of the mid-term, but not unhappy, either.  I had hoped to do better, but it's going to take a little more.