Saturday, August 28, 2010

Review of Law School Expert Podcast

The Law School Expert Podcast by Ann Levine

Ann Levine has appeared on this blog before when I reviewed her absolutely phenomenal guidebook "The Law School Admissions Game."  I found it to be almost without fault, and far and away the single most helpful resource for getting into law school that I have ever encountered.

That glowing praise aside, I have also mentioned Ms. Levine and LawSchoolExpert.com at other times.  The site is basically a portal for her services as an admissions consultant for law school applicants, but it does contain a highly useful blog and links to her podcast.

The blog is a good resource, but not the type of thing I would write a full review for.  The podcast, on the other hand, deserves some consideration.

Podcasts that aim to provide a service can be wonderful, but they tend to suffer from a common problem: They are either put out by one person, and suffer from narrow minded, one size fits all opinions, or they cull information from a variety of resources, but are unable to help the listener sort the good from the bad.

The LawSchoolExpert podcast deftly avoids this by combining the expertise of host Ann Levine with the real-world stories of 3-4 guests on each show.  Ms. Levine's expertise is well documented on her website, but additionally has been noted in her excellent book as providing an insider guide to the law school admission process.  The guests, on the other hand, complement this nicely with anecdotal stories of their own experiences, including what worked and what didn't.  The listener gets the best of both worlds!

Part of the reason it works so well is the way Levine handles the podcast.   I have no idea how she selects her guests, but they usually represent a nice cross section of the audience the topic is aimed at.  For example, in her podcast on applications for "non-traditional" students (i.e. those with significant prior careers) she managed to find some who had been in completely different fields, some with strong credentials, some with weaker credentials, and even a variety of different ages and genders.  The rest comes from her expert wrangling of these personalities during the podcast, as Levine makes sure to ask each questions to bring out the most useful information.  Finally, she caps it off with a strong editorial of expert opinion, making sure to point out anytime a guests experience is a rare exception, so listeners can use the information correctly.

The podcast covers a variety of topics, again, generally focused on law school admissions, current or former students will find little useful information.  The podcast publishes very irregularly, but that is part of the beauty.  Rather than forcing out a show every week, episodes are published in half hour blocks about important topics, and it is easy to locate past shows that relate directly to your own query.  I would recommend listening to all of them, but searching by title and topic is an option as well.  They can be located in iTunes, or directly from her site here.  They are hosted by BlogTalkRadio, which apparently allows listeners to call in live, however I have never known this to happen.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Orientation Is Much More Fun When You Are A 2L

Last week I had the opportunity to assist with the 1L orientation at school.  It was a really nice experience for me, and additionally I would like to think that I helped some 1Ls feel more comfortable with the experience.

We started giving a nice campus tour, which I really enjoyed.  (I was an professional tour guide in undergrad, and it remains one of my favorite job experiences).  I also tried to make it a point to show them not just buildings, but the places they would need to know.  Where offices were, good places to study, places to print, etc.

Then we got to herd them all across busy Maryland Avenue into the library, the only room big enough to fit all the new students.  That intersection is particulary tough for pedestrians, but by the middle of the first month of school, you just dive across uncaringly.  It is funny to watch the 1Ls wait for the walk signal and then fearfully dart across.

Here is where orientation as a 2L is much better.  While they all sat and listened to the Dean (actually, a pretty engaging presentation, and he updated it from last year!), and then got a solid hour of "Honor Code Hypos," I got to relax and catch up with my fellow volunteers about their summers.  It is amazing how nice it is to NOT be stuck sitting in a crowded auditorium for hours on end.  I did make it a point to listen to the Chief Justice's speech before he administered the honor code oath.

Really, the best part of the day was lunch, where I sat with a group of students and gave them as much info as I could about law school.  I tried to answer as many questions as possible, but they didn't really have many, so I just talked about mistakes I made my first year.  "Get to class at least 15 minutes early the first week so you can sit in a chair." That kind of stuff.  Study guides actually do help, but are really expensive.  These kids seemed to have it pretty well together, they seemed most nervous about actually attending class.  "Can you skip?" No. "Do the Professors skip?" No.  "What do you call the professors? Dr?" No, Professor Last Name is a good, safe, pattern.

According to the Dean, they are the best credentialled class ever, which sounds about right.  I got to say, Good Luck to you all, and I will reiterate what I said to my group at lunch, if you ever need any help, just ask.

Monday, August 23, 2010

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

And I am actually pretty excited! Wish me luck, and good luck to all the new 1Ls!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The End of an Era

Well, it is official, my first legal experience is over!  That's right, my summer judicial internship ended this week.  I thought I would take some time to reflect on the experience.

First of all, it was completely amazing, and exceeded every expectation.  I went into it sort of on a lark, simply not knowing what I was looking for midway through my first semester when it became time to apply.  I just signed up, filled out the necessary forms, and submitted a resume.

At District Court, there are no written opinions, and most of the issues presented are more or less "he said, she said" factual debates.  Two people were in a car accident, and they have differing opinions of how it happened.  I would estimate upwards of 70% of cases were pro se.  So unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of vigorously debated pieces of evidence, closely contested procedural issues, or lengthy, moving, closing statements.

At the same time, there was a lot of "lawyering" going on.  What do you do when your star witness shows up visibly drunk for court?  How about when your client's own hospital records note that he was too drunk to control his own bladder, but you need to prove that the bartender violently (and negligently) pushed him out the door?  At times like these, I got to see some lawyers put on a real show.  A great example comes from one case, when the plaintiff had been caught in several lies during cross.  She was becoming combative with both defense counsel and the judge.  Rather than attempt to address these statements on re-direct, counsel simply rested, and during closing, calmly explained how it was clearly apparent that his witness was untrained, and therefore highly credible.  It was effective.  And no, they don't teach you that in law school.  In law school, you ask for a recess of two weeks, write a memo, and prepare a detailed brief doted with case-law and statutes.

Another great piece of lawyering often came out of bail reviews, during which the public defender had seconds to interview a client and demonstrate their community ties, lack of flight risk, and lack of threat to public safety.  On the other side, the state's attorney had only a paragraph statement of probable cause written by an arresting officer to base an argument for a strong and fair bail.  Watching these lawyers work is a true thing of beauty.  On each side is someone who passed on the opportunity for a huge salary to work instead for the public.  The state is only one who can prosecute crimes in order to keep us all safe.  And for many, the public defender is the only one protecting the accused's rights.  This truly is what our government and society are based on.  And worse, these people do this tirelessly, day in and day out.  They are never noticed either, unless they mess up and a blogger picks up on it.

So I got to watch some lawyering during my internship, but the other hugely important benefit was the amount of networking.  First of all, I am so incredibly lucky to have been placed with a judge who made it a point to introduce me to every single other judge, attorney, or clerk who came through his chambers. He would look the most high powered lawyer straight in the eye, and introduce me with a fancy sounding title.

And with that networking, I think the best networking out there will come from the personal relationship I was able to develop with My Judge.  We were able to speak about legal matters as well as personal ones, and he took some serious time to mentor me on both a professional and personal level.  We discussed study skills one minute, then discussed facebook, then terrible dates we had been on.  I am fairly confident that I will be able to call on him as both a reference and source of advice in the future.

With my internship concluded, I will now sit and update my resume, get ready for school, and spend some time relaxing.  But a huge part of me will really miss getting up early a few days a week to make sure my suit was looking right and head to the courthouse.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

A New Semester is Upon Us

Well, it is the first week of August, and therefore the first class assignments for UB Law have come out.  Last year, while I was excited to get to work on my new career, the first assignments were lost on me.  I have mentioned this several times previously here, but trying to read for law school before you have attended law school is a doomed undertaking.

Although I read the cases, took notes, and even tried to come up with a "brief" format, the first few class sessions were spent mostly writing word for word what the professor said, and simply replacing my prior, useless, notes.

This year, however, I am confident I will be able to get something out of the first assignments.  Of course, the irony is that I have only minimal assignments in two of my classes, and no assignments in my three other classes!

First assignments also mean textbook assignments, so I spent this morning on Amazon.  So far, three classes are completely taken care of for a little over $100.  This is awesome.

What is not so awesome, is that my school, like an increasing number of colleges and universities, no longer has a school bookstore.  Instead, we have a Barnes and Noble on campus.  They have already declared that textbooks will not be available until a few days before class starts. They also have set aside only limited time to actually stop by and purchase your text books.  Also, all the prices have gone up.

As for textbooks, the price increase is sort of a part of life anymore, and honestly, I don't mind buying heavily damaged or marked books online, as long as they have all the pages, so it doesn't really effect me.  What kills me is that the UB mesh basketball shorts that used to be $15 are now $25.  Hoodies are  $65.  Plain T-Shirts, $25.  Come on, really?  And the other awful thing about B&N college bookstores is that they don't have any retail books or prep books.  If you are a large book chain, why not have a nice selection of leisure reading at least? Nope, just 25 or so that they are pushing.  Why not carry a ton of supplement and prep materials?  Nope, although there was a section of SAT prep books.  Why, at a law campus, would one need a college admissions prep book?  How about some Examples and Explanations?



Any new UBers, or simply first year law students, I have available the following texts, which I would let go cheap, as in under anything you would find online.  I have Property (Dukeminier), Criminal Law (if you have Rochvarg), Contracts (Ayers and Speidel), Torts (Farnsworth and Grady), and Con Law (Barnett).  Comment here and I will get in touch with you.