JD Law Students Blog

30 October 2006: crisp blue skies and chill breeze offer reprieve from the wet wintry mix of the weekend

For the incoming 1Ls, it is just a part of life here at VLS. Start developing a sense of humor, and fast, because these tiffs tend to escalate quickly. To all my 2L and 3L contemporaries, yup, it has begun… Why? Perhaps it’s a combination of creeping stress and assertive personalities given the opportunity of an open forum in a progressive law school that fosters expression and debate in all forms. For this, I am truly thankful. I believe that dialogue on as many levels as possible is necessary to cultivate maximum understanding. As for “everyone” emails, in my experience, filtering the junk takes less than a minute. Otherwise, on balance, they are more helpful than harmful.

But they can be harmful. Such open channels of communication do not confer carte blanche to hold forth. What I find astonishing is the lack of refinement with which individuals so often fire off their furious missives, failing to check for basic grammar and punctuation. How many hundreds of eyes pass over each of these “everyone” emails? How many professors recognize the name attached to that hastily written (and equally ill-considered) complaint/retort?

If we are to engage publicly, I would urge first-timers in the fray to elevate the tone of discourse. Please make sure that you are making sense and not just ranting; use your dog, your roommate, or that lovely maple in the library quad as a sounding board, first. If they don’t curl up and die at your initial assertions, consider proceeding with the public outing of your opinion. Remember to be courteous and keep your communication free of aimless invective and personal insult. This will most likely distract from the central thesis of your well-reasoned contention. Use proper grammar and punctuation. Pretend your professors are going to see your work. Wait a sec, they are!

It’s entertaining at times, but more often than not, I’m just embarrassed for the writer. Of course, I promptly save the email, knowing that if I ever face one of the authors in a court of law (or if they decide to run for elected office) I’ll always have a little memento of that person that I can share with the rest of the world.

25 October 2006: A chilly drizzle promising weekend snow?

All right, people, pay attention. Proper placement of punctuation is no joke. A valuable lesson in drafting, lest we learn the hard way…

My favorite season is autumn but it is also the shortest. It is passed peak season now in the northeast kingdom where I hail from and at peak in the rest of the state but in the next week or so this will dissipate and winter (dare I even say it) will be upon us. In fact when you walk around especially when it is windy, the leaves “rain” down on your head. It’s a little late now, but for next year, you can log onto to the Vermont foliage forecaster at http://www.1-800-vermont.com/seasons/forecaster.asp. This site shows you when and where the leaves change using an animation program. Also there are great scenic drives listed, but enough of me playing Vermont tour guide. During the break, which we had here at VLS this past weekend through Tuesday, I made sure to get outside and motorcycle leaf peep, the weather was perfect for it!

Need to take this opportunity to explain a “Vermontism” (or perhaps this is also custom in other rural areas), what I am referring to is the wave and the nod. When driving on a country road, preferably dirt and you pass another driver or pedestrian (most likely a farmer) you need to wave and nod. Not a Miss America high in the air contrived wave, but a barely take your hand off the steering wheel bend at the elbow kind of wave as you nod in mutual acknowledgment of the other person’s presence. It is a slow move held for about 3 seconds (I counted today to make sure). You can always tell native Vermonters since they don’t smile as they perform the wave and nod (I try very hard to not smile) and for a millisecond only they make eye contact with you and for the rest of the time their eyes are looking slightly downward and away. If you do it wrong many times they will not wave and nod back at you. You can try to master the wave and the nod, but it takes years and even then the natives will ask to see your birth certificate to verify your native status especially if you smiled while performing said wave and nod. I need to qualify this by saying that you are not a native if you are a first generation Vermonter like myself. I once asked a multigenerational Vermonter just how many generations you have to have before you are considered a native and I was told, if you have to ask then you aren’t one.

Switching gears…..So far as a 1L, I have learned that balance is very important. I had great intentions of writing my blog more often, but suffice to say my last entry was prior to the official start of school. Since that time, much learning has occurred. Here is the reader’s digest version: Civ Pro – Pennoyer was blanked over by a lawyer and then it became bad law; Contracts: call the seed company (sometimes the best solution is just communication among the parties when there is breach and not suing one another if they can work it out. wow this from a future lawyer); Torts ah torts I believe I will be posting a no swimming sign &/or no trespassing sign around the pond this year so as to avoid getting sued for negligence in case some moron wants to try to snowshoe across it this winter without permission and falls in and finally Con Law: this is the most variable area of study. I think I can spell justiciability and counter-majoritarian difficulty (Bickel) now without pausing as I type. (Did you ever notice they both come up as misspelled anyway?)

There are many a night and day that I have wondered if this decision to come to law school was a good one. Good is defined as “beneficial” in Webster’s new pocket dictionary, 2000. (Ah yes, they are also teaching us the importance of citation – seems like pretty much anything you say is not owned by you so you have to cite, it can get awfully crazy; mind you the previous citation is not in the correct format).

So in closing, break out the sweaters, turtlenecks, coats, hats and mittens, in the next several weeks you’ll need ‘em. Now wave and nod.

I am still here, gearing up for miterm examinations after Fall break. Never in my life would I have thought that I would be happy to take exams. The crux of this new found joy is the idea that grades are finally coming after weeks of briefing cases, the breakneck pace of readings and rising expectations. Feedback means it isn’t all happening in a vacuum.

I am learning so much, the whole, old world looks different. Everywhere I turn here’s a tort, there’s a tort every where a… you get the picture. To the dismay of many I have found that you can fit a discussion of contract principles into practically any conversation If you don’t believe me try to assert a right to anything without inadvertently referencing some article of the Constitution. It’s is so much more fun than it sounds.

Well enough gabbing for now, lots of studying to do!

6 October 2006: first frost in a few days time, winter’s white fast approaches.

If I learned anything last year, it’s that library air is poison if not tempered with fresh. Sure, I spent my fair share of days deeply entrenched in a carrel, crouched over dog-eared legal doctrines. But every hour, especially in weather like this, a stroll around the lawn will refresh the head.

Some of you have this figured out, but others look as though they haven’t seen daylight in a month. Don’t think nobody notices. Yes, you – you with the permanent squint and study-bent spine. Do yourself a favor; get out of the library, take in the peaking foliage, and drink in these refreshingly chill fall days while you can. If nothing else, give yourself an extra minute and take the long way to class.