Musings of a Post 1L Summer Associate

Lance Ito has a job for the summer. Working at "Law Firm X." The work at times is rather tedious, as of right now all I do is legal research and legal memos for the partners/assoicates. However, there is no denying that I am learning a lot this summer. I am looking forward to my first "field trip" (attending a deposition, sitting in on a mediation, etc.). Just so everyone else out there realizes...law school doesn't really teach you anything about being a lawyer out in the "real world." Two interesting conversations I have had recently...

Lance: Well, I think we may be able to get around this issue by arguing that the law is bad for public policy.
Partner: Usually in briefs we don't argue for or against "public policy."
Lance: Well in Law School all our professors told us we should always make a public policy argument.
Partner: That's because they have an "ivory tower" mentality, all the law review papers they write are all about "public policy." You argue public policy in front a judge and he will laugh you right out of the courtroom.
Lance: (thinking to himself) I wonder if I can make this argument on my next exam??

Moral of Story #1- Law School does not prepare you to become a lawyer.

Partner: [After going through the facts for the case] So we are going to sue this guy, I need you to write a summons and complaint based on what we just discussed.
Lance: (trying to impress the partner) I remember those from Civil Procedure, so are we going to give him the option to waive personal service and therefore he would have 60 days to reply to the complaint?
Partner: We always do personal service so they only have 20 days, we like to keep things moving briskly.
Lance: So how exactly do I write the summons and complaint?
Partner: Didn't you learn that in Civil Procedure?
Lance: [blink...stare...blink]

Moral of Story #2- Law School does not prepare you to become a lawyer.

1 comment:

That Guy said...

I'd be screwed.