Wednesday, September 26, 2007

My law school experience

I was studying before class, in the class room, while another student played Chopin. Pleasant enough music to study by. He stopped, looked at me and said "you really enjoy law school, don't you?" Enjoyment was really my law school experience.

Much of it was because I found it mentally rewarding and did not feel stressed about employment. When I started I had been offered a job and had a place I intended to work when I graduated. Over the summer after my first year I went and worked there and really enjoyed it, and was pleased to watch the business continue to improve (sales tripled every year until the year they hit 27 million dollars in sales).

I took tax classes because I liked tax, the same for antitrust and a number of other classes. While I got off to a rough start, by the end of law school I had brought my GPA up to between the top third and the top 40% (we didn't have precise class standings), had taken time to tutor English Writing across the street for relaxation and I got a position clerking for the Utah County District Attorney.

Then my friends lost control of their own company, I got a rather nasty letter in the mail withdrawing the job offer I had already accepted and I found myself, rather late in the day, looking for work.

I probably should have taken the chance to convert the job at the D.A.'s office to a full-time job, but I had a friend who really needed a job, so I resigned mine so he would get hired (and he got a job to support himself and family). But that really isn't talking about law school any more.

I really enjoyed law school. I'm sad Ray Davis died so early, I'd have loved to have seen him at the reunion, and wish Gene Jacobs were in better health, I'd have liked to have seen him one last time. But law school was a great experience for me, even if I enjoyed it perhaps a bit too much.

Now I'm still trying to find time to write a book on negotiation, to expand my generalized conflict theory (cf http://adrr.com/adr4/ppp.htm -- for a collection of links to essays that sets out my approach) and to go back and rewrite all of http://adrr.com/ to remove the typos and mistakes that crept in with the software and approach I used to put the site together. There is just never enough time.

But I still enjoy life.

6 comments:

Keri Brooks said...

I can definitely relate to your enjoyment of law school. People look at me funny when I tell them that I enjoy the intellectual challenge that comes with the law. Thanks for the reminder. I tend to forget it sometimes.

maisnon said...

Overall, I loved law school, too. I think there is some kind of mindset that says that you have to hate it, or at least say that you hated it.

My younger brother just started, and nearly all of my coworkers and law school classmates have made the "If he decided to go to law school, you didn't do your job as a sister" joke.

smith said...

I also want to say thanks for your blog. It's nice to get a professor's perspective on the whole law school experience.


Law School Experience

smith said...

Even applying to law school is extremely expensive and time consuming, let alone enrolling. Many law students drop out during their first year, and many others rue the day they ever enrolled.can you suggest few while considering a good law school.
Online Law Programs

Stephen said...

BTW, I'm not a law professor and have never played one in a movie.

Stephen said...

Though on-line law schools are an even greater dead end blight than the traditional schools.