Friday, December 16, 2011

Fun Time is Over

"Fun time is over.  And I guess it's enough.  But just for the record, it was a little too rough."
-'Til Tuesday "Sleeping and Waking"

(NB:  'Til Tuesday's "Welcome Home" album?  Freakin' awesome.)

Okay, exam season is over. I can do things like spend a half hour watching a Beatles documentary with my son, now. Won't know grades for a few weeks, probably. As one prof pointed out, he's grading about 300 essays. It just takes a while to plow through all that.

I just can't say one way or another. For the most part, I got most of the stuff I should have onto the paper. Just not always in the way I should have.

For example: on one question, I categorized a death-bed gift as an intevivos gift (an unconditional gift given during life) and not as a gift in causa mortis (a gift given in anticipation of impending death, conditional upon actual death). The reason I categorized it this way was that the donative intent was simply that it be a gift.  When the donor then survived, he did not want the gift back (as you would if it were a gift in causa mortis).

The optimal answer would have included something like, "donative intent is demonstrated by the fact that, upon survival, the donor did not want the gift back."

Instead, I said something to the effect of, "the gift was given without conditon with the words 'this is yours'." Then, in the next paragraph discussing bailment, I said, "Because it is an intervivos gift, and not a gift in causa mortis, the donor does not want the chattel back,"

So, it's in there, but not in the most optimal way.  Is it wrong?  Yeah, maybe.  Is it right?  Yeah, maybe.  Is it something in between?  Yeah, probably. 

Another example? In my torts exam, there was an action for wrongful death. What I did, which wasn't really right, wasn't really wrong, was to first discuss the underlying torts. I discussed battery (it wasn't). Then discussed negligence (it was.) Then discussed actions for wrongful death and the fact that damages are nuanced a wrongful death action.

The optimal answer would have been to discuss wrongful death based on the underlying torts. So, it's all in there, just in the wrong order / format. Basically instead of:  "Discuss Battery.  Discuss Negligence.  Discuss Wrongful Death", it should have been:  "Discuss wrongful death and the underlying tort."

This seems like a distinction without a difference, but this is one of those gigantic differences between b-school and law school.  B-school is all about decision making tools and it is driven by the "it".  Find "it".  Everything is driven by "it".  You don't have to find a perfect answer.  You need to find a justifiable business answer that you can move your organization towards.  If you make money?  You got the right answer.  Here's your bigass bonus.  Do it again next year.

Law?  Law is war with words.  The 90% right answer loses to the 91% right answer.  So, attorneys almost never arrive at "it".  They arrive at a 95% right solution, then obsess about the possibility that their opponent might find a 96% right solution.  Nothing is ever right or wrong.  It's always a shade of maybe.  You just pray that your maybe is better than the other guy's maybe.  (This, of course, refers to cases that go to trial.  Most of the time, the law provides a pretty definite answer, and the matter never reaches trial.  In law school, though, everything we study is based on decisions at trial.)

In another case, on a 30 minute bar style essay, I forgot to mention consideration in a contract. The prof had hammered that point nearly every day since the class began. It wasn't that I forgot it, per se. It's that time ran out and I didn't have enough time to go back and check if I was missing anything. That'll be a gigantic point deduction, I'm sure. I did discuss a lot more issues than most people probably did, but missed one of the biggest ones.

It's just hard to compose a great answer in 30 minutes or 60 minutes, or sometimes even in 90 minutes.  Figure a 650 word bar-style essay in 30 minutes?  If you could do that and still truly produce high quality work, you could write 30 novels in a year.  It's just hard to get all that in there, that quickly. 

So, at this point, all I can say is, I haven't got a freakin' clue how I did.  I feel good enough about my exams that I'll be stunned if I have to repeat any classes, but beyond that, no guesses, really.  If you told me I got a C, I wouldn't be shocked.  If you told me I got an A, I might be overjoyed, but not shocked. 

My worst grade will come in Legal Research and Writing, I'm sure.  I can get my memo back, with a point tally, today.  Since I'm going back to sell back my books, I'll go ahead and get it.  That won't tell me my grade, per se.  On Monday, though, the grades for LRW should be posted.

Beyond that, most of the profs have indicated that we should be looking for our grades closer to the January 7th, than sooner. 

Funny how expectations have dropped.  I started off hoping for a top class rank and transfer to U of M.  Then, devolved to hoping for maybe a top 10% class rank.  Then, hoping for a 3.3 so I can keep my scholarship.  Then, hoping for mostly Bs.  Then, just praying I do well enough that I don't have to repeat any classes.

I would like to get a law degree, but won't be doing this if I have to repeat classes.  It's just not that important to me. 

There are, absolutely, some brilliant people in this class, though.  Much smarter than anything I remember.  It is somewhat taking me back to my days at the Weatherhead School at CWRU.  I'd go in there thinking I was smart and was going to work my balls off, and would end up getting a B in Quantitative Methods, behind a gaggle of engineers.  I think it's going to be largely the same experience, here. 

I do worry that perhaps I'm just not as sharp as I once was.  Motorcycle accidents, age, whatever.  I'm probably not working with as much mental horsepower as I once was.  Who knows.

I just don't know what I could have done, with one exception, to do better.  I knew the law pretty well.  My performance wasn't really due to lack of preparation.  Perhaps a really good study group would have helped.  Who knows.  There are just some realities about my situation, with family and all, that make it tough for me to do that sort of thing. 

Anyway, last law post until the grades start coming in.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Property Mnemonics

Requirements for Adverse Possession:

Let's say you want adverse possession of an ax you found on the cusp of the arctice cirle railway:

"Ax ON Artcic Cirlce Railway cusp"

A X:  Entry must be Actual with Exclusive Possession
O N:  Open and Notorious
A C R:  which is Adverse Under a Claim of Right,
C U S P:  Continuous and Uninterrupted for the Statuatory Period


Rights of Owners?  Think of the movie, "My Cousin Vinne".  All aspiring lawyers should be able to recite every line in this movie from memory.  Especially when the Judge asks about "Two Utes?"

So, remember, 2 UTE

or U U T E

Use
Usefruct
Transferrability
Exclusion

A Bailment transfers right of ownership to one who is not the owner.

Bailment creates R7O.  Or ROOOOOOO
Right
Of
Ownership
tO
One
whO is
nOt the
Owner

Duties and Standards of Negligence for Bailments

BEE
MOO
BSG

Bee.  Moo.  Battle Star Gallactica.

If the Bailment benefits the bailee, he must use extreme care and is liable even for slight negligence.
If the bailment is of mutual benefit, bailee must use ordinary care and is liable for ordinary negligence.
If the bailment benefits the bailor, bailee must use slight care and is liable for gross negligence.

Easier to visualize in a grid. 

Along the top row, put:  Benefits - Standard of Care - Liable For
Second Row:  Bailee - Extreme Care - Even slight negligence (to avoid confusing this with Bailor, think "Bee".  Bailee.)
Third Row:  Mutual - Ordinary Care - Ordinary Negligence
Fourth Row:  Bailor - Slight Care - Gross Negligence
(No real way to memorize this, but contrast with Bailee:  Slight care is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Extreme care.  Gross Negligence is at the opposite end from Slight Negligence.)


The Four Unities of a Joint Tenancy With Right of Survivorship

TIP IT

Time
Interest
Possession
Instrument/Title


The Five Unities for a Tenancy by Entirety:

Same, but add "Marriage".

Tip Tim?

Time
Interst
Possession
Title/Interest

Marriage

Requirements to Acquire by Finding? 

We found an IED under our APC.  It was an APC IED.

IED APC

Intent to Exert Dominion
Assert Physical Control

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Halftime in the Finals Game!

Today I finished my Civ Pro exam.  My two worst subjects:  Contracts and Civ Pro, are behind me.  My two better subjects:  Property and Torts, are ahead.

One more week and the semester is over.  Nothing left but the cryin' when grades come in.

I made at least one dumb mistake on the Contracts exam that is probably big enough to keep me out of the best grades on the test.  Other than that, I felt okay with it. 

Today, I did well on the essays for Civ Pro, but I got annihilated on the multiple-choice questions.  Probably did bad enough that regardless of my essays, I'm hosed for a good grade in there, too.

On the bright side, I don't feel like I did poorly enough in either class to have to repeat it.  A C- or lower means you have to take the class again. 

Taking a little break with my son.  We went to his school book sale for a few minutes, then off for ice cream.  I'll probably get started a little with Torts tonight.  That's the 4 credit hour class.  Worth it to try and do as well as possible.

I'm really enjoying taking exams.  This is bittersweet, though.  Once the grades come in, the period of self-delusion will be over.  We'll have our grades, we'll know our relative place in the scheme of things.  1L grades are largely destiny and first semester grades are huge.  Still, after everything is said and done, I want to know how I did.  It'll be nice to have some actual grades.

Friday, December 2, 2011

First Day of Crunchtime Down...

Well, I'm finished with my first day of Crunchtime.  I think I know my Contracts outline, now.  Will reinforce it over the next 3 days.  The Contracts final is on Tuesday.  I also tightened up my Civ Pro outline.  I will be working on it this weekend, too, but a little less than Contracts.  I pretty much have 2 days to prepare for the Civ Pro exam after the Contracts exam.

Feeling good about Contracts.  As always, work to do on Civ Pro. 

I'm already feeling a little edgy and a little stressed.  It dawned on me that law school is easy until final exams time.  You don't have to do anything until final exam time.  If you want, you can sleep in every class and surf the internet.  It's only on the exams that you really have something to do, then it's learning 4 months worth of stuff in every class for winner take all exams.

I still feel pretty good.  If I get straight Cs, so be it.  I'll keep trudging along so long as I don't have to repeat any classes.

I am starting to feel bad that I've been neglecting my business.  We'll finish the year at $400,000 in revenues, give or take.  That's not a bad year, but it sure isn't a good one.  We should really be recovering back to our old sales volumes of $850,000 or so.  I know I need to spend more time there.  It's just hard to do the way they structure 1L classes.  They do it so that you pretty much are in school 5 days a week for a big chunk of the day.

2L will be a lot better.  My plan is still to try and take all my classes on 2 days a week.  Outside of class, I need to work on my business.  I've enjoyed this little escape from reality, but I need to get back to things.  Of course, this may very well mean that I won't be able to look for part-time law work, but I've always known that going to law school at this point in my life would involve compromise.

Oh well.  One thing at a time.  I have to get through these next two weeks of finals.  After that, I'll have all sorts of time to deal with things.