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Law School
JD
Within a month or two after starting law school, I was at a career services thing, and they spent a minute stressing that the degree we were pursuing is a Juris Doctor, not a Juris Doctorate. Although I understand that some people might be confused, people should know what their own degree is. I was given a pamphlet about a Republican candidate today (the Republican part isn’t important, but still…), and one of the statements in there was about him receiving a Juris Doctorate from Washington University. That just irritated me. Thought I’d mention it, because I’ve seen “Juris Doctorate” on a few attorney websites and all over our Luther class letter.
Apr 2009last day of class!
Yes, I have finally finished all my law school classes. Now I just have three finals to take, a settlement agreement to write, and twenty-one 1L summary judgment motions to grade for citations. I’ve been playing bass a little more, which has been wonderful. I’m playing for a friend’s church choir this Sunday as part of an ensemble. It should be fun. Carl will be home in two weeks. TWO WEEKS! This is quite exciting. He won’t be staying for as long as we had originally planned, but it will be good to have him home. He’s such a wonderful guy, and I miss him terribly. Um, right now, there are a bunch of dead ants in my bathroom, all over my shower. As in, a couple hundred of dead ants. I sprayed the cracks in my shower with Raid today, and they’ve just been pouring out and dying. It’s quite gross. And a great thing to share, no? Not sure if this is something to mention to my landlord. I think it may be more a circumstance of where I live instead of the house being defective. Also not sure if this is a good thing to mention generally. Anyway, that’s it. Carl will be home in 15 days, and I graduate in 23 days!
Apr 2009almost done with law school!
I have a grand total of nine classes left. Four tomorrow, three Wednesday, two Thursday. And then I will be done with class for a long time! Three finals, then graduation. And Carl comes home for a couple weeks. Next year, I’ll be working for a law firm in Kansas City, Missouri. I’m not going to say the name because I really don’t want my blog to come up in searches for it. That would just be weird. I’ll be defending asbestos manufacturers though. I’m very excited about it. It’s a really great firm, and I’m looking forward to working with all of them. Recently, I’ve been playing bass more. I really do miss it. Anyone know of an orchestra I could play with next year? There’s a civic orchestra with whom a Kansas appellate judge plays. That would be fun, but I’m a little hesitant to try and play with them. Okay, I’m done.
Oct 2008end of October, beginning of November
Here’s my schedule for the last few days of October and the first few days of November. October 30: Carl leaves (for a year) most likely; pick up a speaker at 10:30pm October 31: Law Review symposium all day; Bluebook relay (I will coach my team to victory); comparative law paper due November 1: nothing yet November 2: step-nephew’s baptism in the morning with reception at noon; Ali’s bridal shower at 3pm; church at 5pm November 3: Law Review paper due November 4: disability law paper due I’m worried about those six days. It’ll be fine though. Ha, fun.
Sep 2008searching for a job
We’ve entered the job-search phase, which is an immensely terrifying thing. I alternate between a sense of optimism and hopelessness. Legal areas that interest me include intellectual property, criminal law, immigration law (refugee/asylum), public international law, and litigation generally. A clerkship would also be lovely. If anyone actually reads this, and anyone has any sort of job opening, let me know. I’m writing three papers this semester (yay!). My topics are: enforcing immigration law using criminal law, specifically aggravated identity theft, where the mens rea requirement is disputed and conveniently massaged to include more immigrants in its scope; whether children with disabilities can sue under sec. 1983 when their rights are violated under the IDEA; and international copyrights (using international treaties and individual national laws) protecting composers and performers of folk songs and contemporarily composed music. Fun, no?
Sep 2008Lawyering "Tips of the Day"
I’m a TA for Lawyering again this year, and my professor wants me to give a “tip of the day” when I’m in class (which is once a week). And because I have not written anything on here for a while, I thought I would share my wisdom with the general public… or no one, as the case may be. Week 1:
Sep 2008right now
This year is going to be crazy. I’m hoping it will be fun though. I’m doing all sorts of writing things, some trial stuff, and then three classes on top of that. A squirrel just ran up to the sliding glass door. Leibniz was waiting. But then both of them kind of leapt upwards and backwards. Terribly funny. Life is good right now. My house is messy, but I’m happy.
Aug 2008disastrous interview
I had two interviews today, one of which wasn’t really an interview, and the other of which was a disaster. I started talking and then I started thinking, “Shut up, shut up, for goodness’ sake, Rachel, shut up,” but I kept talking. He asked all sorts of questions that I didn’t know how to answer (e.g., “Why didn’t a law firm hire you last year?”), and he told me that my writing sample is on a topic that make people’s eyes glaze over (Burmese refugees are terribly boring, I guess). He seemed like a great guy, and I would love to work for him, but I don’t think the feeling was mutual. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to get a job there.
May 2008no more class until August!
I’m about to collapse into bed. I was up until 4am working on a paper. It was fairly miserable. And then I woke up at 7am so that I could be first in line for Chief Justice Roberts’ Q&A with law students. That’s right, I’m a nerd. If you want to read about CJ Roberts’ visit, check out my legal blog. I’m relieved that classes are over, but I’m not at all excited that finals are coming. That will be the most miserable part. On a brighter note, I have a place to stay in DC now. And things will come together in general, it seems. I can sometimes be a little doubtful or pessimistic, but I’ve become a lot better about stopping that when I recognize it. Ooh, and Mark Schweizer writes “liturgical mysteries,” which are absolutely hilarious. The best place to buy them is from the publisher . I bought the box set and had them all signed. And now I’m reading the third book - The Tenor Wore Tapshoes. I’ve read the first, second, and sixth already, though spread out over the last couple months, of course. I think I’m going to crawl into bed, open up my window now that it’s getting a little cooler and the tornado warning has become a tornado watch, and read for a little bit. Then I’ll sleep and sleep and sleep and it will be so very blissful. I am also reading the Decameron, which is quite fascinating (and sometimes quite gross, explicit, or awkward). I think I’ll need to read Arabian Nights as well, just to round out my old-stories-that-have-spawned-centuries-of-elaboration education. And Chronicles of Narnia, though it doesn’t fit into the same category. I should make a book list.
May 2008Chief Justice Roberts visited KU
Last night, CJ Roberts gave a lecture through the business school. It was fairly disappointing, honestly. He read his talk, and he talked about the Louisiana Purchase. He also spent a long time on the mechanics of the Supreme Court. I understand that the audience was made up of many lay people and that he couldn’t actually talk about many of the things we really wanted to hear about (e.g., Heller), but I guess I expected a little more. Today, however, he had a Q&A session for law students. I got there 1 1/2 hours early, so I was first in line. He actually walked in while I was in line, and he said hi. It was quite the moment. I got to sit in the front row, and the session was just great. People asked all sorts of things, from what he considers when deciding a case to his view on the Constitution (although that question was also asked last night by Adam Davis and received by the audience with resounding applause) to advice for aspiring advocates. I asked the second question. I asked him about the Medellin case. In that one, which came out just over a month ago, he wrote the opinion for five justices (the conservative ones), in which the Court held that an ICJ decision (that a certain treaty required the government to notify the Mexican government of the charging of Mexican nationals) was not binding on the individual states, and so the habeas petitions filed by 51 Mexican nationals were rightfully denied. In the analysis, the majority looked to the text of the treaty, and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, and the US Constitution, and found that ICJ decisions were not self-executing treaties and could not be binding unless the Senate ratified them. My question was whether he would advise countries developing independent judiciaries to include something in their constitutions that would make ICJ decisions binding on the individual parts of the country. He didn’t directly answer this, saying that it was up to the country and he couldn’t advise them one way or the other, but he also said that if the country decides it wants to be bound by a bunch of judges far away, it’s that country’s own perogative. That seems clear enough to me. So then he taught the constitutional law class, which I unfortunately could not attend. I heard it was great. But then, in the afternoon, he and four judges who sit in Kansas (two 10th Circuit judges, a District of Kansas judge, and a Kansas Supreme Court justice) judged the final round of our in-house moot court competition. There were probably 100 students there, a number of professors, a handful of local judges, and lawyers from the firm (Foulston Siefkin) that sponsors the prizes for the in-house competition. The student advocates were excellent. The bench was really hot. The justices usually didn’t let the advocates speak for more than 15 or 20 seconds without interrupting them. The few times they didn’t interrupt, the advocates were kind of thrown off. But everyone did a really great job of advocating, especially under such intimidating circumstances. All of the judges/justices-for-the-moment gushed about how wonderful the advocates were, and Judge Tacha even said they did as well if not better than the final round in the national competition, whose problem we used. I was thrilled for the team that won - Dani and I were rooting for them from the beginning - but I was still a little bummed that it wasn’t the two of us up there. After the competition, there was a reception in the informal commons. Lots of men in suits (and not just federal marshalls) were trying to get close to Roberts, but I managed to get pretty close to him. And then he turned towards me! And he shook my hand and thanked me for my question! It was a very proud moment for me, even if it was just what the situation required. I know CJ Roberts is a conservative judge, and I don’t necessarily agree with his opinions (including the opinion he wrote for Medellin), but he’s brilliant, his credentials are absolutely outstanding, and he’s kind of dreamy. I’ve been joking about swooning. Ah, men with power. That is probably slightly inappropriate for a legal blog, but oh well. It’s been an exciting day and a half. (And today was the last day of classes, which made it even better.)