As we approach the best holiday of the summer between Memorial Day and Labor Day, I realized that our time out of class is almost halfway over. What a better way to commemorate a half way point then by running down the numbers?
43: Days off I had before I started my summer job
76: Books that I've checked out from the library since my last final
13: Days that I've actually had to go to work
3: Days of work that were spent doing "orientation" activities
83: Emails that I received before I even had email access at work
5: Days of work that were spent in Orlando doing "training" (read: training, imbibing in adult beverages, and attending amusement parks)
199: Dollars per night my hotel in Orlando cost
5: Days that I've actually had to work
38: Hours that I've actually billed to clients during those 5 days that I've actually worked
5: Work-sponsored happy hours I've attended since I started a little over two weeks ago
2: Times I've actually had to pay for lunch since I started
1: Law review article that I've had to edit
Overall, the summer has been pretty solid so far. Enjoyed sometime off, had some fun in Florida with the expense account footing the bill, and already earning time-and-a-half for those overtime hours. Plus, people work hard and play even harder where I'm at this summer.
I guess I'd better enjoy it while I'm still an intern, because apparently once you sign full-time, the wining and dining ends and the firm owns you. Or so I'm told. Almost makes me wish I could just stay in law school for a little while longer...and work a few more internships...hmm...
Getting your rocks off...
So the techies have their day once again. The new Apple iPhone comes out today. My boss cracked a joke that everyone is out of the office today because they waiting in line to get one.
Just curious to know who is getting one, who has one, and what everyone thinks of it. I probably won't get one until at least v2, only to avoid the pitfalls common with anything so brand spanking new. Also I severely lack the funds for a $600 phone. I found several reviews, some good, some bad, and some hilarious. Check out some reviews here and here. Comments are welcome regarding the coming revolution...
See, Everyone Gets Bad Grades
Someone from Harvard *yes, one of those top law schools* recently found our site by googling "Bad law school grades."
Do that bad this semester? Hoping to transfer here?
Do that bad this semester? Hoping to transfer here?
Grade Deadlines and Everything Else that is Wrong with the World
It's that time of year again.
As June grows to a close, law students everywhere start to get impatient and down right angry at times because its been 6-to-8 weeks since they took their last final, and still no grades. Blawgs start pointing out what is wrong with the grading process: grad(e) me!, We Pay Them To Eat Bon Bons, Good, Better. We even did it ourselves about this time last year, oh, and when we finally got them.
This year most of us just got our last grade this last week -- but for some reason we didn't seem to bitch about it as much as we did last year (I'm tallying that one up to the senior slide already starting...).
Anyway, given how prevalent it seems to be that some professors are consistently getting their grades in late, I thought I'd share a story that was shared with me last year when I was bitching about my grades taking so long:
One of the law schools in [our law school state] holds professors' paychecks if they are late getting grades in. Given this, you'd think that would provide motivation to get them done on time, right?
Well, there is one particular professor who, around the end of each school year, goes down to the bank and takes out a loan because he doesn't want to be bothered with grade deadlines. The bank willingly loans him money because they know that he will inevitably get all of his paychecks so he isn't a risk, plus they are happy to charge him interest in the meantime.
The individual that shared this story with me had this professor his 1L year. He didn't get this professor's grade until the summer after his 2L year.
This just goes to show two things:
1. Apparently filing out loan paperwork is more desirable then grading exams, and
2. Even withholding professors' paychecks is not enough of a step to make some profs turn their grades in on time.
Is there any good way to hold professors professionally accountable? If we were active clients of theirs and they didn't return our phone calls for 7 weeks wouldn't we have reason to complain to the State Bar Association?
As June grows to a close, law students everywhere start to get impatient and down right angry at times because its been 6-to-8 weeks since they took their last final, and still no grades. Blawgs start pointing out what is wrong with the grading process: grad(e) me!, We Pay Them To Eat Bon Bons, Good, Better. We even did it ourselves about this time last year, oh, and when we finally got them.
This year most of us just got our last grade this last week -- but for some reason we didn't seem to bitch about it as much as we did last year (I'm tallying that one up to the senior slide already starting...).
Anyway, given how prevalent it seems to be that some professors are consistently getting their grades in late, I thought I'd share a story that was shared with me last year when I was bitching about my grades taking so long:
One of the law schools in [our law school state] holds professors' paychecks if they are late getting grades in. Given this, you'd think that would provide motivation to get them done on time, right?
Well, there is one particular professor who, around the end of each school year, goes down to the bank and takes out a loan because he doesn't want to be bothered with grade deadlines. The bank willingly loans him money because they know that he will inevitably get all of his paychecks so he isn't a risk, plus they are happy to charge him interest in the meantime.
The individual that shared this story with me had this professor his 1L year. He didn't get this professor's grade until the summer after his 2L year.
This just goes to show two things:
1. Apparently filing out loan paperwork is more desirable then grading exams, and
2. Even withholding professors' paychecks is not enough of a step to make some profs turn their grades in on time.
Is there any good way to hold professors professionally accountable? If we were active clients of theirs and they didn't return our phone calls for 7 weeks wouldn't we have reason to complain to the State Bar Association?
Why I love my Summer Job
So I've been at work for about 2 weeks now and it is nothing like the legal job I had last year. Last year I routinely wrote 10-20 page memos for various partners and would never get any sort of feedback on my brilliant musings. However, this summer is different; last summer was litigation, this summer is something very near and dear to my heart and what I plan on doing with the rest of my life. A recent conversation with one of the partners:
Lance: This [legal writing project] is nothing like I have ever had to do before. It takes forever.
Partner: How long have you been working on it?
Lance: About 8 hours.
Parnter: How much have you written?
Lance: About a page.
Partner: That's typical for your first time, sometimes I will work on [legal writing project] for just as long and have very little to show for it.
Lance: (thinking to himself) Wow, I can bill people for sitting at my desk and thinking. What a great job; 8 hours of work and 1 page of work product.
Any idea what field of law I am working in? No guessing by fellow Bitches...
Need another hint: I got paid the other day for doing six hours of "internet research." In the words of Yakov Smirnoff, "What a country!!"
Lance: This [legal writing project] is nothing like I have ever had to do before. It takes forever.
Partner: How long have you been working on it?
Lance: About 8 hours.
Parnter: How much have you written?
Lance: About a page.
Partner: That's typical for your first time, sometimes I will work on [legal writing project] for just as long and have very little to show for it.
Lance: (thinking to himself) Wow, I can bill people for sitting at my desk and thinking. What a great job; 8 hours of work and 1 page of work product.
Any idea what field of law I am working in? No guessing by fellow Bitches...
Need another hint: I got paid the other day for doing six hours of "internet research." In the words of Yakov Smirnoff, "What a country!!"
It's Only Been Two Days
There are over 20 interns at the place I'm interning this summer. In the midst of orientation, icebreakers, and filling out employment paperwork, I discovered a few things:
1. The intern that sits next to me was born in 1985. (He was coming down the birthing canal as I sat at my desk eating paste.)
2. During the identify-who-the-random-interesting-fact-belongs-to human bingo icebreaker, I discovered that I am the only one who is married. Furthermore, I am the only one who owns a house. (I'm beginning to wonder how many of them are still living with their parents).
3. Only five of us have actually graduated from undergrad and 4 of those are in grad school.
4. The intern that sits next to me is one of the ones that has graduated, so I'm guessing that he is probably one of the older ones. (He was born in 1985, mind you.)
5. When I suggested happy hour, several of my new co-workers pulled out their fake ids.
6. This internship is making me feel old.
7. This internship is making me wonder why exactly I went to law school (apparently I was just as qualified to do this while I was still in undergrad?)...
8. We were given 15 hours of online self-study training & tests to complete with only 13 hours in our schedule blocked out. After 8 hours, I'm already done...so maybe age does bring wisdom? (More likely that one good thing I've learned in law school is how to sort out the relevant from the bullshit in order to cram to take a damn test).
And it's only been two days. (The plus side is that when one of the firm's partners took a group of 4 of us out to lunch yesterday he spent most of the 90 minutes talking to me. Probably because his kids are older then half of the other interns.)
1. The intern that sits next to me was born in 1985. (He was coming down the birthing canal as I sat at my desk eating paste.)
2. During the identify-who-the-random-interesting-fact-belongs-to human bingo icebreaker, I discovered that I am the only one who is married. Furthermore, I am the only one who owns a house. (I'm beginning to wonder how many of them are still living with their parents).
3. Only five of us have actually graduated from undergrad and 4 of those are in grad school.
4. The intern that sits next to me is one of the ones that has graduated, so I'm guessing that he is probably one of the older ones. (He was born in 1985, mind you.)
5. When I suggested happy hour, several of my new co-workers pulled out their fake ids.
6. This internship is making me feel old.
7. This internship is making me wonder why exactly I went to law school (apparently I was just as qualified to do this while I was still in undergrad?)...
8. We were given 15 hours of online self-study training & tests to complete with only 13 hours in our schedule blocked out. After 8 hours, I'm already done...so maybe age does bring wisdom? (More likely that one good thing I've learned in law school is how to sort out the relevant from the bullshit in order to cram to take a damn test).
And it's only been two days. (The plus side is that when one of the firm's partners took a group of 4 of us out to lunch yesterday he spent most of the 90 minutes talking to me. Probably because his kids are older then half of the other interns.)
Disposable Summer Income
Seeing that we are all working this summer I've been looking for something to do with with all the money. Wait, I'm not getting paid. Crap.
If anyone out there wants to buy us something nice for all the advice we've provided. Please go here:
law bitch clothing...
Happy summer bitches!!!
-scalito
If anyone out there wants to buy us something nice for all the advice we've provided. Please go here:
law bitch clothing...
Happy summer bitches!!!
-scalito
Two Minute Update
So, as you might have all guessed, finals are long over, a few of our grades are in, hundreds of pages of textbooks ended up in a bonfire, and all of the LawBitches are working for the summer. We're not about to get into the game of blogging about our jobs/employers/co-workers. There may be an occasional quip here or there, but really we have virtually nothing interesting* to talk about if we are not in school and not talking about our jobs.
Given that, I guess you can expect the LawBitches to be pretty quiet over the summer. We'll be back in full force in August though, so stay tuned. For some reason I think our 3L year is going to be the year of craziness, as we really no longer care about studying (yes, for most of us the slide started last semester), we're working while in school, and we've committed ourselves to a lot of other things.
So where are the Bitches going to be at this summer? Well...
Five are continuing jobs that they held during the school year.
Two are working jobs that they actually held last summer.
Three are working in various positions for the county.
Three are working in small firms where they are either the sole or one of two law clerks.
Two (possibly three) are working exactly in the fields that they plan on going into after graduation.
Two don't start their jobs until June.
Six have been submersed in work since two days after finals ended. (Sucks to be you guys).
None of the LawBitches are working in jobs that are even remotely similar to one another -- meaning every one is in a different practice area. (Hmm, maybe we could start our own firm someday).
Six of the Bitches are already getting into the habit of meeting for happy hour. It's going to be a great summer!
*I guess interesting is relative, because to most people the stuff we blog about isn't even remotely interesting at all...
Given that, I guess you can expect the LawBitches to be pretty quiet over the summer. We'll be back in full force in August though, so stay tuned. For some reason I think our 3L year is going to be the year of craziness, as we really no longer care about studying (yes, for most of us the slide started last semester), we're working while in school, and we've committed ourselves to a lot of other things.
So where are the Bitches going to be at this summer? Well...
Five are continuing jobs that they held during the school year.
Two are working jobs that they actually held last summer.
Three are working in various positions for the county.
Three are working in small firms where they are either the sole or one of two law clerks.
Two (possibly three) are working exactly in the fields that they plan on going into after graduation.
Two don't start their jobs until June.
Six have been submersed in work since two days after finals ended. (Sucks to be you guys).
None of the LawBitches are working in jobs that are even remotely similar to one another -- meaning every one is in a different practice area. (Hmm, maybe we could start our own firm someday).
Six of the Bitches are already getting into the habit of meeting for happy hour. It's going to be a great summer!
*I guess interesting is relative, because to most people the stuff we blog about isn't even remotely interesting at all...