Book Smart, Brain Dead

The one thing that irks me about Facebook is the tendency for some people to make their lives look picturesque. These people want you to believe that life throws them no curve balls. In all honesty, sometimes I attempt to do this. Maybe I feel embarrassed or ashamed in having to admit a fault, a mistake, or just a bad circumstance that I'm going through.

The one thing I struggle most with is trying to please everyone. "Can't we all just get along!" is my mantra. If peace can be had wherever I'm at, I'm all for it. If someone voices dissatisfaction in something I've done, I can condemn myself to the point where it really starts depressing me.

I know looking forward into my future that this tendency to please people will come to a head. Legal issues  are commonly messy, often solved with a fair dose of compromise. Not everyone gets what they want. Will I be able to accept a client's criticism of an outcome if things don't go as planned?

One thing that's helped prepare me for this is observing my father and how he conducts his practice. He tells stories, I ask questions. I'm fascinated by how he handles sensitive situations while maintaining integrity and the favor of his clients. 

Law school instructs you in what the law is and how to advocate, but "people skills" is a more valuable asset developed by time and experience. 

I am ineffective if I cannot clearly communicate to my future clients and work with them towards a favorable result. 

One day I was browsing through my father's legal materials while I came across a recent copy of the Tennessee Bar Journal. The first few pages were dedicated to listings of practicing attorneys who had been suspended or disbarred because of unethical/stupid behavior in handling their clients' legal matters.

I sat in disbelief as I read how some of these attorneys got into trouble. One attorney failed to notify his client of the result of his case that went on appeal. Another signed agreements with indigent female clients for sex in exchange for his legal services.

Honestly, law school can't change your behavior, morality, character, and overall how you conduct yourself in front of others. It simply provides you with some knowledge and a little bit of know-how. The rest is up to you...

Looking Back on 2010

"There's no way you can do this again"
"You have a wife and a kid, you simply don't have time for this"
"Even if you try, you'll fail"

Rewind to January 2010. These thoughts were viciously swimming in my mind night and day. I knew what I was getting into. Second year if law school is a "slug it out" year. 4 classes, most of them are dense. And they last 9....long...months.

And let's not forget that 3 out of 4 have cumulative finals.

But to any upcoming second year student, I tell you this: it can be done, and done well.

Anyone who knows me closely knows that I'm a perfectionist. It can become a disease if not handled properly. This year I was constantly making sure I had everything down, worrying I might miss something. In the end, I did phenomenal this year. I surpassed the already high bar that I set for myself at the beginning of the year.

And it amazes me at how many students just try to get by. I understand this is simply training grounds, but deep down we are planting seeds as to how we will conduct ourselves as attorneys. I want to be the best. Not so that it leads to a better income, not for the recognition.

But because when I meet with a client, I want them to know that I'm the best. That I'm the most skilled person who can handle their legal needs. And I firmly believe that what I do now in my studies has a direct affect on who I'll be 5-40 years from now.

But, I step down from my soapbox....

My wife, Heather, has given me alot of grace this year. She's allowed me to study late at night while she took care of Violet. There were many Saturday mornings where I was with my study group while she was at home. She directly contributed to my success.

In the end, my formula for doing well in law school is anti-climactic. I don't take shortcuts. I slug it out. I don't back down. I don't let up off the gas. I simply...keep.... going.

I can't tell you how many demons I faced this year: financial, physical, mental, psychological. They became shouting, sometimes screaming, distractions. They were hard to ignore, I learned how to tune them out and hone in.

To any law student, I offer this advice:
Tune distractions out. Hone in on perfecting your craft as a law student. Read and brief EVRY case. Outline class material. It amazes me that some second year students still don't outline. Learn to write well-organized essays that address every possible legal issue. Find a good study group that challenges you. I can't tell you how much my study group has contributed to my success. Finally, think logically. Don't randomly answer a multistate question because your brain hurts. Think through it by process of elimination. That is all.

See you soon, third year

Line of Demarcation

I'm in a reflective mood. Mostly because today marks the halfway point between my first step towards my dream and the fulfillment of that dream.

In a sense it's as if someone hit the fast-forward button, I can't believe it's gone by this fast. Strangely enough, it also feels as though it's taken forever to get here. This year was full of obstacles and setbacks, which served more as distractions trying to keep my eye off of my goal.

And yet, I can only look back and laugh at the grace and favor God has poured out in 2010. Countless times where there seemed no way it could work, yet it did. All signs pointed to failure and instead I walked into success. There were critical moments where I simply had to believe, in my core, that this is what I was called to do. And man, was God faithful!

Let this line of demarction serve as a testament to how good God truly is.

The Pirate Debacle

I witnesses the blood bath first-hand. While completing my undergraduate degree in Music Business from '02-'06, I was able to see the falling record sales. The impact of illegal downloading was evident in decreasing sales charts and analyses.
I even did a presentation on the impact of illegal downloading in a Speech class, I showed the before and after effect of Napster, Limewire and others. The reaction was cold. At least half the students in my class  most likely engaged in illegal downloading. My data seemed to have no effect, I couldn't persuade them that deleting their P2P program was "right"; that artists were entitled to money for their work.

I was convinced that those who downloaded music illegally, by whatever means, deserved to be punished a la Copyright infringement suits courtesy of the RIAA. Then the lawsuits actually appeared, and received so much bad press that the RIAA ended up looking like greedy rich men stealing from hard working Americans.

There was the single mom ordered to pay a 7-figure judgment for a handful of songs still located on her computer. Probably not the best candidate for convincing people to stop downloading illegally. Pirates retaliated by downloading more; far from the RIAA's desired intention.

Today, Limewire has been ordered to shut down. So what. You can't stop illegal downloading. No amount of court injunctions can stop it. Pirates are too far scattered across the globe. Ease of access to Copyrighted material is too easy. Within 5 minutes I can download uTorrent and find the latest HD releases on Pirate Bay and begin downloading them.

So what's the solution? Not lawsuits. You can't "sue" Pirates into behaving correctly. Sure, you can get a few of the Pirates fined heavily, maybe even jailed for a short period of time. But you've caught one while tens of millions skate by. It's the law of diminishing returns in full effect.

There are fake ISP's, people who download off of public ISP's, their business' ISP, so how to do go about catching them? You can file a John Doe lawsuit in the interim, but then you have to convince the ISP's to hand over the information of their customers. Some will comply, but most fear the public backlash. But then they must weigh fines for failure to comply against losing their customers' business.

As an attorney in training, I must acknowledge that the law is very clear. Pirates are infringing Copyrights, no matter how a smart defense attorney can paint it otherwise. Copyrighted material makes up 99% of the content that's downloaded through P2P and torrent.

There is no simple solution. You have to convince Pirates that your album/movie is worth purchasing.
Good luck with that....

So Sue Me

We've all heard the bad one: The multi-million dollar award for a hot-coffee at McDonald's. Sadly, these types of cases get stigmatized and characterized, changing the public's perception of attorneys and the judicial system for the worse. The public loses confidence, assuming that "anything goes" these days. I was relieved to learn during my first year of law school that nothing could be further from the truth.

Most of these seemingly outrageous outcomes arise from tort actions. A tort is a civil wrong: you slip and fall due to a wet floor at Walmart, but no signs warning of the wet spot were posted. Bingo! A cool mil headed your way, right?

Not so fast there, money bags. First you need to be injured, incur medical expenses, miss some work, you know, shed a tear or two. Then you need to prove that you weren't put on notice of the wet floor. You pay your best friend to say he was there with you and didn't see a "wet floor" sign (kidding). In reality, you need to get the testimony of some witnesses. People that were there who can vouch for you.

Then comes the hard part: proving Walmart was on notice that the floor had been mopped and yet failed to warn you. Seems easy, right? Wrong. A wet floor is a wet floor. You need to prove an employee or agent of Walmart either caused/knew of the wet spot (actual notice), or should have known it was there (constructive notice).

Then there's the jury, which is a crap shoot. If you comes across as a douchebag, they'll stiff you. Don't overplay your emotions, or they'll think you're just plain whiny. Somewhere in the middle where you tug at their heartstrings is the place to be.

So, you've proven Walmart caused the wet spot, the jury likes you and decides to give you only $500K, you're in the clear, right? Think again.

You've still got a judge who can lower the jury's award (remittitur) if he thinks they were too sympathetic. Let's say you've got a greedy one, and he lowers your award to $250K.

So, you only got a quarter of what you wanted, but now it's over right? Nope.

Walmart will appeal the verdict and will argue everything and the kitchen sink as to why the trial judge and jury screwed up the case. Oh crap, the judge told something he shouldn't have to the jury. It affected their judgment and the verdict amount. Back to square one. New trial. New jury.

While this is in no way conclusive of the potential legal hurdles, it represents a hundredth of a percent of potential pitfalls that can cause your Walmart windfall to go awry.

Let's ignore the fact that at this point, you owe your attorney $100,000. Doh!

Where's My Coffee?

Alot of times friends and family ask what my schedule is like. Usually it comes up at social occasions. One close friend simply calls me "The Robot". Lol. There are some days where that is a pretty accurate description.

So, what is my schedule? I'll share it with you. But please don't take it as my attempt to "wow" you. My father is far busier than me anyways....

6AM: Violet wakes up and demands to be fed, I'm happy to oblige her
7AM: Meet my father at the park nearby (most days), run 6 miles
9AM: Violet somehow forgets I just fed her and demands more food
10AM: Walking into work, coffee in hand, always. Never walk into work without coffee
12PM: Come up for air, and lunch, perhaps Joel has a funny story to tell me
2PM: Joel tells me I have guitars to ship out, he's a demanding co-worker

Tuesday and Wednesday
5PM: Leave for school, hoping to get some cases read in preparation for next week's classes, another coffee in hand
6:30-10PM: Try to pay attention, cringe at students getting chewed out by professors, Skyping with classmates
10PM: Head home and "attempt" to feed Violet her vegetables, messy girl
11PM: Crap, more studying, and coffee
1AM: Bed time

Thursday-Sat
4:30PM: Leave from work to more work, get coffee somewhere in between
5PM-10PM: Serve nice people food, try to read cases or notecards in between tables
10PM: "Try" to feed Violet, again, messy girl
11PM-1AM: Study

Sat after 12AM: mandatory Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live, otherwise known as "Study Break"

Not so bad, huh? That's my life. Now where's my coffee...

2L in a Nutshell

I learned alot during my first year of law school. But I also had alot of unanswered questions as well. Motion for directed verdict? Summary Judgment? Interlocutory Appeal? Do these sound foreign to you? They did to me as well.

In my opinion, second year answered alot of the questions I had at the end of first year. Two of my classes, Evidence and Civil Procedure, were more of a practical or "hands on" approach. Rather than focus on pure legal concepts (like torts on contracts), they attempted to detail the "How to" approach in dealing with legal problems. For example, learning the minimum requirements for filing a lawsuit in federal court, what a pleading is and the minimum information it must contain, how to serve summons on a defendant, and so forth.

Second year seemed to last forever when compared to first year. All 4 classes meet throughout the entire year. While none of them particularly struck my personal interest, and I held no disdain for any of them, as I did for Criminal Law during first year. Personally, I hated Criminal Law. It's just not for me.

On the other hand, second year flew by. Perhaps the "nervousness" of first year was replaced by a confidence based on the fact that I had already conquered year one.

Time was extremely hard to come by this year. With a full-time job, a part-time weekend job, a wife, and a baby, I had to fight for every second of studying. I will gladly sacrifice a few hours of sleep to make sure I read all the cases.

But a new enemy somehow snuck in this year that I hadn't anticipated: distraction. I would be focusing on studying when a thought entered my mind about a TV show I always wanted to watch, or a movie I just had to see, or a new videogame that I just had to play.

I'll admit, I walked the line this year. I tried to see how much free time I could give myself and still do well in school. Going into the gauntlet of finals now, I moved past this practice. I've invested thousands of dollars at this point and it's simply not worth it. For the next 3 weeks, no distractions....

Briefing and Speaking in Public

I shy away from speaking in public. I'm naturally an introvert. Deep down it's an insecurity; not having the confidence to speak out when I have the chance.

Fortunately a well known teacher named Socrates confronted this problem head on and developed what is now known as the bain of law school students' existence: the Socratic method. Law school takes the Socratic method and applies to case studies and the concept of "briefing". It involves the students summarizing cases, focusing on the facts, the issues, and the courts reasoning for deciding the way it did.

In the first year of law school, everyone's a rookie when it comes to briefing. The first few students are really rough-edged. They're not sure what to focus on, they wonder what questions the "prof" will ask, and so forth. Some students fall on their face, figuratively, and I'm a little ashamed to admit it was entertaining.

My first encounter with Socrates' lovely concept came up in Constitutional Criminal Law. The prof asked us to divide into teams. She gave us a scenario, we were representing the defendant. I blurted out my defense strategy to my team. They agreed and decided I'd be representing us in front of the class. What??!! I didn't sign up for this! I was just giving my input!

Nevertheless, my team had made it's decision. Then came the icing on the cake: our team was called first. I stood up, legs shaking, and rattled off the legal principles as to why my client's Constitutional rights had been violated. I honestly had no clue what I was doing. I simply used my limited knowledge of the law and tried my best to apply it to the facts at hand.

Then came the rebuttal. The other side used an incorrect legal reasoning. The prof pointed this out, laughter ensued. For the moment, I had managed to squeak by without criticism from the prof. It was the first time I stood up in class and put myself in a vulnerable position.

Throughout the rest of first year I briefed twice more. I was just as nervous. Every first year student focuses on being perfect, not trying to miss anything. The first year profs understand this and graciously go along with it.  During your second year, it's all about learning to be concise. Say it in 4 words instead of 10. This is a hard concept for law students to learn.

After 2 years of having to brief cases out loud in class I still get nervous. But I've learned to prepare beforehand, reminding myself that being detail-oriented is not the point. Can I discuss the facts, issues, and result in 5 minutes or less in an informative manner? A successful second year student can....

Introduction & 1L

Law students are called L's. The number preceding "L" indicates the student's current year in law school. A 1L is a first year student and so on. I'm currently a 2L facing finals, so a soon-to-be 3L. I'm a student at Nashville School of Law (NSL), attending "full-time" which amounts to 2 nights a week. Unlike traditional law schools which have a 3-year program, NSL has a 4 year program with a much more affordable tuition.

I thought it would be beneficial and perhaps therapeutic to document the journey from 1L to Lawyer. To understand where I currently am, let me explain where I came from....

My grandfather is an attorney, my father is attorney. Anyone looking at pure external factors could suppose I would become an attorney as well. The internal was far from the truth. While attending college at Middle Tennessee State University and their Music Business program, I quickly decided I wanted nothing to do with law. I had developed a love for creating and performing music. I learned to play guitar later than most guitarists at age 16.

During college I joined a band and decided that I had found my life's calling. Long story short, I played for 4 years trying to "make it", only to discover that it wasn't working and I wasn't happy. I then began some serious soul searching, asking God what I was put here to do. To my disappointment at the time, it was revealed that law was to be my specialty. Now, I had done well in my law classes in college, but I hated the stigma of being an "attorney". But the more a dwelt on the concept of using the law to serve people, the more I fell in love with the idea of being an attorney. I began to see how I could serve people who needed help, people who were tragic victims of injustice.

I applied to attend Nashville School of Law where my father attended. I took the LSAT, arguably the worst 5 hours of my life. Once my scores were in, I sent my application and prayed. A few weeks went by and my acceptance letter arrived! I had 3 months before classes started and I couldn't wait to begin.

The week before classes started was orientation. The associate dean gave us 2 pieces of grim news: 1) at least half of us in the room would drop out before graduation (which in hindsight is 100% accurate), 2) we would read more in our first year than all 4 years of college combined (again, 100% accurate).

My first year was tough. I had virtually zero experience with the law or reading cases. Here I was reading 100+ pages a week of judge's opinions while having to look up almost every legal word in Black's Law Dictionary. But I persisted , I began to build my legal framework. Then came "the wall". It's the stumbling block 4-6 weeks into everyone's first year where your mind can't seem to hold any more information. You're learning so much, so fast. But my torts teacher gave some great advice: "Take it a week at a time; don't look at the weeks ahead or you'll get discouraged by the amount of work". That advice ended up being one of the most important elements of my first year's success.

Midterms came (play scary music here). Here was the test. Did I really have what it takes to make it through law school? My Contracts professor advised me to "outline everything". An outline is a concise framework of all the concepts you learn in a single class. Outlining helps you compartmentalize all the legal concepts in a single class while making sure you understand them. I learned to make outlines. It was extremely time-consuming. I was spending tens of hours a week studying for my midterms. Then the time came. I thought I did well. Then the waiting came. Days turned into weeks waiting for my grades. Waiting. Waiting. Checking the website every hour to see if they had been posted. Then, finally, there they were! I passed! Wait, I not only passed, I did well! It was a huge affirmation that I was on the right path.

The proceeding weeks began to blur together. I was becoming a well-oiled machine. Eat, sleep, work, go to class, take notes, repeat. Then the time for finals was fast approaching. I began to ask myself, "Can I repeat my midterm success?". I decided I would stick with my plan for midterms. If it worked then, why wouldn't it work again?

I outlined, I studied, I went to study groups with my study partners. I took the finals. I waited, and waited, and waited. Finally my grades were posted. I passed all classes with a fairly good GPA for a first year student. I was within the top 15% of my class. I felt I had overcome a major hurdle. We started out with approximately 110 student and were down to 75-80. I had made it! I now had 3 months off before second year began. I would need those 3 months off, as my wife was pregnant with our daughter, Violet.

Violet came on 12/16/2009, she was/is beautiful. After the craziness of having a baby began to unwind I began to think about my second year of law school. "Is it possible to still do well in school having 2 jobs, a wife, and a baby?". "Will I have the money to pay for school this year?". Doubts and seemingly unanswered questions began to constantly fill my mind during my 3 month break. Little did I know of the faithfulness God would display during my second year....