So How's Law School?

Ok, so my brother asked the question, so I'll give my two cents on what law school means to me so far. Thus far, it has been pretty great getting to learn these little things. Law if very logical, or at least it tries to be, especially the common law. The U.S. has a common law base with a codified law "dressing," if you will. So things make sense when you think about it. Like contracts, for example. The laws on contracts are the way they are b/c you want to be able to rely on deals you make. Otherwise you'd never trust anyone, you'd never make deals, and everyone would be worse off. So you make certain requirements that need to be met before anything can be called a contract. Once you have one, there are few things that will break it w/o cause, which gives further support to a contract system. The rules are basically there to make things predictable and flowing.

Not all law is fun or exciting, obviously. But the general stuff that we're learning right now is pretty cool. I take contracts, civil procedure (basically, the rule for litigation), criminal law, and lawyering (a practical class that teachings research, legal writing, proper citation, etc.). My favorite is CivPro b/c my teacher, Sam Issacharoff, has a brilliant mind. Things that are either boring or don't make sense come together when he speaks cause he always brings you back to the big picture. My other teachers are great, though. I could use a little more depth in Crim, but it's still interesting reads.

What is really cool is that I can continue to do service projects. Only now they're called advocacy projects, and they involve some sort of legal know-how. For example, I went yesterday to observe the immigration court proceedings for detainees to make sure they are being respected, their rights are being upheld, and that they aren't getting railroaded. I record what I witness and some public report will be written to publicize any abuses or problems (that may or may not be illegal). I am also going to get started with a project exploring immigrant detention centers. There isn't enough space for the amount of people detained, so they send them places that sometime Immigration even forgets where they are, nevermind family members. And I'm getting involved with a project trying to help people who were sentence for life w/o parole for crimes they committed while under the age of 16. They were charged as adults and given a sentence to die in prison. For the last two projects I will most likely be doing some legal research, but neither has started yet.

I'm hoping not to be too overwhelmed when things pick, but I generally like to be overworked and stressed than bored...though I guess I could never be bored here. There is just too much damned reading. Even if I finish the reading, I have to organize my notes so that the cases and statutes and treatises we read remain useful in my mind and not just my notes.

That's the update.