Law School | in re:

In re: Bar behind us finally

Posted on November 1, 2007 by ed

Have waiting , and waiting, and waiting, the bar results finally came out last Friday morning for Ohio. I logged onto the site at 7:10am to see and was pleased to see that I had passed, that’s right, hard to believe, a real live attorney. Anyway, I wasn’t as thrilled or excited as I thought I’d be, don’t get me wrong I was definitely thrilled, but I didn’t have any urge to run around screaming or to get overall excited. The feeling was more relief than anything else, knowing that I wouldn’t have to endure 2 months of studying again (the studying is horrible, the exam itself at 2.5 days wasn’t so bad I thought).

20 years of education and now I can give you some legal advice (not you the reader of course, as nothing on in re: is legal advice, but still, kinda an amazing thing to think)

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In re: The waiting is almost over.

Posted on October 26, 2007 by ed

There are of course many worse things in this world, but for bar takers from this past summer one of their worst things is the final week waiting for results, having folks asking about it non stop and trying to remember how they did months ago to reassure yourself. Its long been put out of our control, now its just waiting until the arbitrary 7am posting of the results. The horror of the whole thing is the studying, with failure brings another 2 months of cramming, the worst studying experience one can dream up.

So while its not life or death, and when you put it in perspective its only ‘a test’ for those of us who have been waiting 3 months for our results it feels like it and no matter what you try and do you can’t keep thinking through the scenarios, what you’ll do if you pass, if you fail, what you’ll say, how you will try and cope. To everyone with a few minutes still to go, were almost there.

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In re: bar off our backs

Posted on August 4, 2007 by ed

Well Its been over a week now of living in post bar exam bliss, all the useless knowledge that had been methodically crammed in over the course of two months has been dumped unceremoniously on the concrete floor of Veterans Memorial hall in downtown Columbus, if it didn’t end up on one of the 12 essays, two MPTs or the MBE. This past Monday brought back the stark real world reality of work, except in a post bar exam world the stark real world reality of work is hey, life ain’t too bad and work, well it ain’t too bad either – so basically until the high runs out, going to work and having my evenings free, rather then spent in the library reviewing the rules of joinder and interpleader, is quite like being on vacation, with the perk of being paid for it!

Otherwise been trying to get all the stuff done that I easily pushed aside during bar studying, mainly stupid stuff around the house. Cheers to August!

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In re: Ohio Bar Exam Begins… Tomorrow

Posted on July 23, 2007 by ed

Tomorrow the Ohio bar exam starts at 9am and for those of us studying its almost a sigh of relief to finally get to the bar (that doesn’t mean we feel prepared). Today I tried to study, but it is really hard to try and do anything meaningful last minute for an exam that is so broad in scope and that you’ve been studying for so long for. So after struggling to focus in the library today (went out of habit, seems like most others have given up on the library by now as its getting more and more empty) I went home and opened up the windows, put on some nice music and tried to relax, read a few old Ohio essay questions but mainly indulged my dog Charlie’s attempts to play. Hopefully a low key evening will lead to a good night of sleep and no problems waking up (got multiple alarms going just in case) as I have never taken a test with so much riding on it (kinda scary really). Here’s to not freaking out and getting through the 2 and 1/2 days of test taking that lay ahead of us. See you on the flip side.

Filed under: Law School, Ohio | 1 Comment »

In re: Bar exam nears

Posted on July 14, 2007 by ed

From the dearth of posts recently you may have gathered that the bar is getting closer and closer. Studying for the bar is extremely annoying because most of the stuff your cramming into your head will be long gone come August (after hopefully vomiting the information you stuffed in your head in a nicely ordered sequence that pleases the bar readers just enough to pass you) and mostly useless in the grand scheme of things, but then there is also the joy in having a general knowledge of all subjects of law (well those tested). Well back to the books, enjoy your weekends, the weather is real nice inside the law library of ohio state.

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In re: Charles Whitebread lecture at Bar/Bri today

Posted on June 28, 2007 by ed

If you are or have been in law school pretty much anywhere in the country then you probably have heard of Professor Whitebread of USC. The reason I say that is each fall he somehow visits practically a third of the law schools in the entire country (I think his site said 81 law schools this year) talking about writing essays in law school, or something to that effect (it was 1L year, which was a long time ago). Well aside from this and teaching a few courses at USC he teaches the Bar/Bri course in criminal law in 25 classes. How is this possible? How can one person do all this, it doesn’t seem to make sense and why would he want to bother with all that travel. It does help that he has quite an amazing style to his speaking (and an uncanny impersonation of small woodland creatures).

Some might complain that he narrows down the subject of Criminal Law to too little (he claims that cutting all the extra out is good as you can’t learn it all anyway and I might agree). Anyway, he is quite a legend, quite a personality and it seems he makes quite an impact on the community of law students through his efforts, although I am a bit confused about his lecture circuit where he (or is it Thompson West the owner of Bar/Bri?) gives out a free copy of his little book on lawschool and I believe a pizza lunch as well.

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In re: MRPD – Most ridiculous product of the day

Posted on May 18, 2007 by ed

Sitting in the PMBR multistate bar review class each day this week has proved to be insightful, both for learning (relearning I should say) the law school basics that we were long oh so long ago i my first year of law school and also for learning about the Hyrdacoach. Now, it took me a few days of seeing this bottle before remembering its name and remembering to look up what it is. It was worth the wait but unfortunately I have come to question how i’ve been able to stay hydrated without it.

“HydraCoach has introduced the worlds first interactive water Bottle. It calculates your personal hydration needs, tracks your real-time fluid consumption, paces you throughout the day, and motivates you to achieve and maintain optimal hydration.”

Now I may be the only skeptical one (others seem to love it?), but somehow we’ve been able to survive to this day with just old fashioned bottled water (and somehow survived before event hat). As a consumer of useless gadgets I for one should appreciate this type of advanced hydration technology, but all I could do is laugh at the idea and the funny looking bottle (oh and at $30 its no more expensive then my coffee mug that doesn’t have any electronics)

Filed under: Law School, Minutiae, Misc, Tech | 1 Comment »

In re: Bar studying begins

Posted on May 14, 2007 by ed

So this morning I strode into the halls of Capitol Law School in downtown Columbus to begin my six days with PMBR, a law review course for the multistate bar exam portion of the bar exam (the bar exam is in late July). The course is not cheap and consists of taking multiple choice practice tests each morning and then reviewing them with the help of a DVD lecturer. Is it worth the $700 that the six days cost? Its hard to say, I was in part taking it because otherwise I would not be studying at 9 am the Monday following graduation, but watching a DVD and filling out forms just doesn’t seem to justify such costs? Well then again that is all BarBri will be and that is almost $3000 for their Ohio course. It seems like these kinds of courses must make HUGE profit, I don’t think these test prep programs are public companies, so that we can see what they are making off of these scams, but Kaplan seems to be raking in over a billion in revenue a year (see their site). It will be interesting to see what comes of BarBri & Kaplan class action suits and antitrust litigation for their possible conspiracy to share the LSAT market and the bar prep market.

“More than 300,000 lawyers and law students were each charged an estimated $1,000 extra for bar review courses, according to a complaint filed against BAR/BRI bar review and The West Publishing Corporation and Kaplan, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles today.
West Publishing Corp., dba BAR/BRI, and Kaplan are joined as defendants in a class action lawsuit accusing the two companies of illegally dividing the highly lucrative LSAT and bar exam test preparation businesses. According to the complaint, executives of BAR/BRI and Kaplan secretly agreed to a per se illegal market division.
BAR/BRI agreed to close its Law School Aptitude Test (LSAT) preparation course from the market in which Kaplan was the dominant competitor. Kaplan, in turn, agreed not to enter the full-service bar review business, in which BAR/BRI was the dominant competitor. The two companies then entered into an agreement to work together “strategically” to enhance Kaplan’s share of the LSAT market and to increase BAR/BRI’s control of the bar review market.” (from A Stich in Haste blog writing that he thinks such agreements should be legal)

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In re: DONE.

Posted on May 7, 2007 by ed

3 years can really pass quickly when your too busy reading dusty old cases and spending your nights in coffee shops with oversized books, smaller sized supplements and a laptop screen that is too often in gmail rather than on my notes. Sadly and gladly 3 years of law school are now over. Last Friday I walked out of the last law exam and possibly last school exam I’ll ever take. While I’ll miss law school, most of it will be for the friends rather than the sure joy of spending my time immersed in our glorious set of laws. That said I do like school, I enjoy the idea of academia, but I think I’ll relish getting out into the real world where I will be doing things besides preparing for exams. Many people I know, who went through the same exact law school as I, had very different experiences, some loved it, some hated it, some were indifferent, some still want to be lawyers and some have already turned their backs on the field. I for one think it is a pretty amazing experience and that one can go to law school without entering the world of the Paper Chase or One L, but that might be a result of having been at school in the Midwest (as one of our profs so often reminds us) compared to Harvard. It feels good to be done, but it really hasn’t hit me yet as studying for the bar exam doesn’t seem so far removed from school.

Filed under: Law School, Minutiae | 1 Comment »

In re: american writers UK prison diary

Posted on May 2, 2007 by ed

So I am attempting to study for the last exam I’ll ever take in law school (Mergers and Acquisitions if your curious), possibly in any school ever? (I do still have the bar exam looming this summer, what fun!) Nonetheless with my concentration waining, and waiting for my UDF coffee to kick in and wake me back up I did some web surfing and came across a very strange article, a diary of an American writer who spent a good while imprisoned in the UK subjected to rape and pretty horrible circumstances.

Peter Kurth the man in question was arrested after his flight for his drunken behavior (apparently from a few scotches which were amplified by his HIV medication) and air rage, from the details of the article it sounds like he did and said some pretty horrible things during the flight (and I felt he kinda brushed them aside). Anyway, the story turns strange and horrible with a diary of his time awaiting hearings, his inability to be put out on bond.

I have to admit one half of me at first did not feel as sad for him as I should have (there are many opinionated responses posted on the Salon.com messages connected to the story that go both ways, however some appear demented saying that this was exactly what he deserved..) someone who was a complete jerk on board was arrested and I am assuming at the time the plane cheered, but then of course the resulting time in prison (this is pre-conviction) where he was repeatedly raped was something no one should be subjected too. Clearly Britain has problems with their prison system, but which country doesn’t (probably somewhere in Scandinavia?) but how is it that someone being held on pretrial is holed up with the ‘hard timers’? Those that sign up to be guards I would think are more likely to have a few screws lose, allow things that shouldn’t, happen and the like. That said, the story should remind everyone that when you travel you cannot expect American laws to protect you and that other countries have their own systems – so when we complain about the way things are here (as I so often do) we should remember how well comparatively some aspects of our country function.

See the strange story “At her majesty’s pleasure” at Salon.com

Filed under: Law School, Misc, Travel | 4 Comments »

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