Don't trust whitey

Well, I should know not to trust other law students who say things like "That class is an easy A." I merely presumed this meant that classes that were of this size might evade the curve. But no, Cornell insists that any class larger than 10 (that's not a seminar, problem course, or a clinic) adhere to the curve. So perhaps in the past health law was pared down to ten students, but, alas, I think we have 13 J.D. students. Now if only it could turn out that some of the J.D. students decided to become LLMs this weekend...and have notified the registrar of their change in status.

This, unfortunately, hurts me severely, as I am still quite unprepared, as I have been all semester. While I've certainly earned the shoddy grade I will no doubt receive, I will pin the blame squarely where it belongs...trying to make a class of 13 people adhere to a strict curve.

Hopefully, participation counts and hopefully everyone else was unprepared all semester long, they weren't fully prepared and simply refused to answer any of the prof's questions, leaving me to do the unpleasant work.

(deep breath, before beginning the world's longest sentence...)

That being said, with 6 hours to do the exam, I would presume, given the prof's temperament, that there will be enough time to dig through things and refamiliarize myself with the basics, and then the only problem is that the class is fundamentally normative, and things which are normative interest me so much that I am moving to the land where Corporations are king and pesky norms are forgotten and professors like Bainbridge can decry that boards are being forced to care about "minor" $140 million golden parachute decisions.

With neuroses, all things are possible

Well, I've managed to plow through about two months worth of trusts and estates thus far in the span of two days (I only worked on health law Friday). It goes to show that when you're truly dedicated to making yourself suicidal via reading law school textbooks, you can accomplish anything. The downside is that this stands as proof that I could actually get ready for health law by Tuesday, but will opt not to as reading that textbook makes me long for the day I spent going through Hockett's class notes, which, while verbose, were at least lighthearted, jocular, and not stacked toe-to-toe with ERISA, institutional liability, Medicaid statutes, and the federal anti-kickback law. Ah, proxy rules, I hardly know ye, but I long for you in comparison.

Now here's hoping that there isn't a curve for health law (not being good at gunning means that I don't know what the cutoff is, what the likely result of a curveless class is, etc., but I'm presuming based on what others who have taken it in the past have said that Beresford has never met an exam he didn't like enough to give a respectable grade.), and that everyone else has decided trusts and estates is simply too daunting while I've been forcing myself to go through it all again.

Note to self: in the future, take case-oriented classes, not statute-oriented classes.

Hoping She Accepts My Renvoi

Apologies all . . . um, two of you for the lack of my posting. I was studying for an administrative law exam that treated me as Tina to its Ike, and now I am engrossed in the exciting world of Conflict of Laws, or as the Europeans term it, private international law. For those readers (ha!) who are not familar with the subject (i.e., the sane ones), Conflicts deals with which substantive law to apply to a dispute with mulitjurisdictional elements. Exciting, right? In all candor, I do quite enjoy the subject, but would prefer not having to study for a third final. After Conflicts, there is one more exam, even, which is a thought too depressing to even make jokes about.

A fond farewell

Well, for our avid readers, meaning Matt and I, it's been obvious, but our covert study group has already lost a member. Hopefully, like in the covert study group in The Paper Chase, this member can go on to play the dad on "The Gilmore Girls" and appear as a philanderer in a Coen brothers movie, though hopefully for his sake it will be better than Intolerable Cruelty.

As for those of us who still remain, we will fight on like the proverbial Timothy Bottoms in The Paper Chase, laughing all the way to the bank until we stop getting decent jobs and see our brother co-starring in The Black Hole and actually wonder why we didn't get the job offer. For Christ's sake, they hired Ernest Borgnine...would it have been so much to pick up the goddamn phone, Bernie? I mean, honestly, it took the imbecility of millions to get Bush elected so someone might recognize me on the street based on the six-week run of "That's My Bush!"...

Timothy Bottoms says "Damn you all."

This Supreme Court obsession has to stop...

http://www.onion.com/opinion/index.php?issue=4049

Games (Good) Law Students Play

Inspired by a conversation with a fellow member of Covert Study Group, I thought it would be interesting to examine two real life situations that can be resolved in many ways: the emotional way, the cooperative way, and . . . the Law School Way. The best Law School approved solution to the following situations is the one that makes you feel like a bigger Law Dork. Good luck.

Situation 1:

The woman cleans the bathrooms has walked in on me at least three times. I don't know why she never knocks. But even that I could let slide. Today, she came in while I was in the shower to clean the bathroom. I know I should be more understanding, but the fact that she's already seen me half-naked once really bothers me. I'm going to ask the people in charge if there is a policy about knocking and if there's not, suggest they implement one.

Situation 2:

My daughter and her roommate have gotten along fine all year, but now a huge divide has occurred that they are trying to figure out. Room temperature! My daughter grew up in an old New England farmhouse and had no heat in her bedroom. In fact, we keep the house at 62 when we are home in the day and 58 at night. Cool, but we like it, and wear big sweaters. My daughter's roommate wants to keep the room at 76, sweltering by our standards.

(N.B.-- Both of these are real situations, taken from the words of those who expressed them, but edited.)

Corporations Complaining

So people complained about the business orgs. exam, clearly lacking the guidance of Edwin Starr that some of us in the Covert Study Group had.

What a 1L thing to do. If you did badly on the exam, this is probably an indication that you were either not ready for it or that the professor is a handwriting-requiring dirty son of a whore. The point isn't whether or not it's difficult; it's whether it's difficult for you relative to the other people in the class.

It may be one thing to bitch to, say, Profs. Rossi or Summers, as they've been here forever, but to the youthful and energetic, that's wrong.

So Much For Plan B

Via SCOTUSblog:

In another action on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a police officer has no constitutional right to make and sell a videotape of himself stripping off his uniform and then engaging in sexually explicit acts. In a summary decision, without ordering briefs or holding oral argument, the Court said "this is not a close case."

See also, We're Not in G-Rated Kansas Anymore:

Even so, the Lion's Den stood out as flagrantly provocative, with its garish black-and-yellow billboards, its ads on country and western radio stations and its huge stock of blow-up dolls and battery-powered sex partners.

"This is not your Playboy of 30 years ago. This is porn on crack," said Phillip Cosby, a local activist. "There's no end to the depravity."

Headline News

The always reliable NY Post, delivers with this headline on a story about a Brooklyn real estate deal involving an (in)famous religion:
A JEHOVAH TAKE-OVAH
December 5, 2004 -- Jehovah's Witnesses are knocking on DUMBO's door, and residents are fuming about it. With the approval last week by the City Council's zoning subcommittee, a controversial plan to transform a three-acre plot in that old industrial enclave on Brooklyn's waterfront into a mammoth Jehovah's Witnesses colony is on track to begin construction next year. . . .