Monday, November 22, 2004
Law School Breakdown Averted
I've just survived my first law school near breakdown, and everything is fine now, thanks.
Thursday evening we had our last class meetings for Legal Research & Writing II, which is broken into sections of about 20 students each. The topic was general information on our upcoming moot court oral arguments, plus our assigned dates, courtrooms and opponents. My section's professor couldn't make it, so had arranged that we'd meet with another section to receive this information. About halfway through the class, those of us in my section started to look a bit nervous. We had finally spotted that on our assignment sheets, we were all listed as arguing the opposing side from our briefs.
After class we got together (some people hadn't yet noticed the discrepancy), and there was disagreement over whether this was an error or whether we were all changing sides for argument. This had been done in some sections last year, but generally those sections had some advanced notice in order to prepare. Our first arguments are scheduled for next Tuesday (after Thanksgiving), and our professor wasn't even available!!!
Of course I got all freaked out over this the longer I dwelled on it. I have exams, and reading, and a 5 hour drive each way for Thanksgiving, and where do I start, and what's the point of giving our opponents a copy of our brief when nothing we say will be related to anything in the brief and what was she thinking and is this a mistake but if it's not a mistake where do I start, I really think the side I briefed was the better side, and how can I say "if the court has no further questions, I rest on my brief," when I'm done if my brief has nothing to do with what I will have just finished saying, and AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
So I sent off an e-mail to the professor as soon as I got home, which was at 10:15, and then with The Girl's help I managed to put it out of my mind for the rest of the weekend and move on with the birthday celebration. But it was still there, lurking in the back of my consciousness, until today, when I finally received confirmation that it was indeed an error, and we will be arguing our own briefs.
Thank god. All better now, nothing to see here, move it along.
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Thursday evening we had our last class meetings for Legal Research & Writing II, which is broken into sections of about 20 students each. The topic was general information on our upcoming moot court oral arguments, plus our assigned dates, courtrooms and opponents. My section's professor couldn't make it, so had arranged that we'd meet with another section to receive this information. About halfway through the class, those of us in my section started to look a bit nervous. We had finally spotted that on our assignment sheets, we were all listed as arguing the opposing side from our briefs.
After class we got together (some people hadn't yet noticed the discrepancy), and there was disagreement over whether this was an error or whether we were all changing sides for argument. This had been done in some sections last year, but generally those sections had some advanced notice in order to prepare. Our first arguments are scheduled for next Tuesday (after Thanksgiving), and our professor wasn't even available!!!
Of course I got all freaked out over this the longer I dwelled on it. I have exams, and reading, and a 5 hour drive each way for Thanksgiving, and where do I start, and what's the point of giving our opponents a copy of our brief when nothing we say will be related to anything in the brief and what was she thinking and is this a mistake but if it's not a mistake where do I start, I really think the side I briefed was the better side, and how can I say "if the court has no further questions, I rest on my brief," when I'm done if my brief has nothing to do with what I will have just finished saying, and AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
So I sent off an e-mail to the professor as soon as I got home, which was at 10:15, and then with The Girl's help I managed to put it out of my mind for the rest of the weekend and move on with the birthday celebration. But it was still there, lurking in the back of my consciousness, until today, when I finally received confirmation that it was indeed an error, and we will be arguing our own briefs.
Thank god. All better now, nothing to see here, move it along.
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Posted by Rogueslayer at 2:40 PM 
