Best $200 to spend in law school

Law School is expensive, there is no way around it.

However, I would like to give this piece of advice to all incoming law school students:
Spend the $100 to lock in the Barbri price and the other $100 to lock in or get the Kaplan 1st year lectures and questions.  And do this in your first semester of law school
You should do this for a few reasons
1. you lock in prices (they only go up, so locking in the price your sooner is better).
2. you get access to lectures and questions to help you study for your 1L classes
3. after you get access to both for the 1L classes you can better figure out which lectures are better suited to your learning style and which question bank helps you more.
****side note you can get the Kaplan question bank for the bar exam for several hundred dollars if you go with Barbi, and the more practice questions the better you will be for the bar****
4. the outlines each company has helps you figure out how to do outlines for your first year courses
5. They offer free MPRE courses so it gives you more notice on which one would be better to help you study
6. you need to hear the information repeatedly and these lectures are on-demand.

My advice, spend the $200, and get access to both to lock in prices and help you figure out how you want to spend your bar prep class money.

Would I do it over again?

I try not to look back and regret things in my life or do the "would of" "could of" "should of" and "what if" analysis, but I recently had to.  A very good friend asked the question if I had to do it all over again would I go to law school full-time or part-time (and would I even go)?  Since she was asking for advice for a family member I had to really think about what advice I would give the me from 4 years ago.
I came the the conclusion that not only would I do it again, I would do it again with only changing a few things.  I would work full-time and go to law school part-time at night.  I know this means I have had almost a non-existent social life, I have had no serious relationships in the last four years, I have gained weight, lost weight, had anxiety attacks, and missed out on many family events.  Even knowing everything that I missed out on, and not knowing what my future hold, I would do it all over again.  The only thing I would change is knowing how to study for law school - I am better able to study for exams now than I was when I first started.  I know the difference now in a law school exam compared to a graduate level final, a law school paper compared to any other type of writing you may have done in your academic career.
I have really thought about this, and not only would I do it over the same way (just knowing how to study better) I would encourage other people to work full-time and go to law school in the evening.
Here are a few reasons why:

1. I am better at time management now than I was four years ago, and better than the majority of law school students who went full-time and did not work.  My classmates and I have had to juggle working full-time jobs and being almost full-time law school students.  Trust me we can prioritize and figure out time management better than most - it is how we have survived the last few years.
2. Prioritizing life has made me really see what is important.  When you have to prioritize you realize the "A" is not worth giving up family events.  I may not have been able to stay for the entire party, but I got there.  I may have been reading a casebook on the beach or in the stands of a NASCAR race, but I was able to spend time and make memories with family and friends.
3. Stress is now relative - the stress of getting everything done has become such a normal part of my day, that when I enter the practice of law full-time the panic attacks and feelings of being overwhelmed will not break me.  I made if four years with higher than average stress levels and managed somehow, I can find a way to make it work for me in the future.
4. The Type A personality has pushed me through, and while I may have been teased for it when I was younger, that personality has helped me stay in law school and not quit my job or law school.  However, I have also learned from my Type B personality friends that the balance we all need is especially important to help put things in perspective and prioritize.  Many of my classmates quit or stopped working so they could attend law school only.  The fact that I stayed with this for four years without breaking means nothing will ever deter me from achieving any goal I set for myself or anything I want to do in life.  If I ever think something is too hard, I just have to remember these last four years and I will see that nothing will stop me or get in my way.
5. I have grown and I have changed.  I may have been happy and content without ever having gone to law school, but the changes I have seen in me and in how I view the world I would not change.  I think, no I know, that the biggest change is how I view the world.  I was an optimistic person who would rather be in denial than face some of the world's cruelest parts of humanity.  Law school has helped me see the good and the bad and how it is in a constant state of flux and the people who step up are the ones who shift the tide.  I have had to come face to face with that reality and because of that I think about situations and analyze them differently now than I did four years ago.
6. I grew as a person, and made friends.  As odd as that is, it is not something that should be taken lightly.  

If you are thinking about going to law school, I highly recommend that you work full-time and go to law school part-time.  You will really see just how badly you want to be a lawyer, you will actually understand your clients better (because you have work experience out side of just being a lawyer), and you will realize that if you can do this you can do anything you set your mind to.

Why do they wait to tell you this?

Filling out the application to take the bar, usually you don't hear about it until your last year in law school.  However, being an evening student with a full-time job this advice would have been nice to know.  Thankfully, I had classmates that were a class ahead of me and gave me some of this advice.  I read this article in Student Lawyer, and thought it was funny that this advice is given so rarely.
http://www.americanbar.org/publications/student_lawyer/2014-15/december/ready_set_go.html
If you are in law school, or if you are considering going to law school save this article and look at it now, and again after you complete your first year of law school.

Key take aways:
-make a list of every place you have ever lived
-make a list of every job you have ever had
-look at the application often so you know what you will have to answer
-submit it sooner rather than later, once you are within the allowable window

Buy stock in index cards

Flash cards are key to law school success, even if you do an outline, make flashcards.  They will help with Bar Prep after you graduate, and they are easy to take with you as you.
White ones are the best
White Index Cards
Colored Index cards are good for things like the Model Penal Code, quoting the Constitution, or straight definitions
Glow Colored Index Cards
Rainbow Colored Index Cards

Index cards really are golden and very helpful.  If I knew how many I would go through I would have bought stock in an index card company before I started law school.

reading and briefing cases - tip I wish I knew my first year

When reading and briefing cases I wish someone had told me the benefits of color coding my notes and what I highlight.
I suggest using the green for the plaintiff/state/group that initiated the suit, orange for the defendant/accused/one being sued.  I also use pink to highlight the issue/question that the case decides and the rule or take away.  Blue can be used for noting the cases that are cited in the case you are reading or dissent if it is important.  I use yellow to highlight anything important that is not one of the above (such as another rule that I may want to remember or use the wording for it in an essay).  Purple is what I use to note what my professor feels is important in the case (either staring my previous notes or adding to them).

Notes for briefing the case can be color coded the same. My favorite pens to use for this are
Pentel Wow
Staedtler Maxum
PaperMate

Yes, there are extra colors in the above mentioned packs, but that is OK, you can use them to for other notes or if you want to note definitions or material from other sources.
A great free legal dictionary is Nolo's Free Dictionary of Law Terms and Legal Definitions

Don't forget highlighters if you are highlighting or book briefing (I am in my last year of law school and was one that never felt confident with book briefing, but I know people who can do it).
Ticonderoga
PaperMate
Sharpie

I wish I would have been given these hints earlier, I am hoping by sharing it may help others as they go through law school.

Michael H. v. Gerald D. afterwards

Michael H. v. Gerald D., 491 U.S. 110 (1989)
I have now read this case twice, once in Family Law and once in Constitutional Law.  Justia has the opinion that can be read here for free.  https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/491/110/

The case amazes me, mainly because there is DNA genetic evidence that the husband is not the girl's biological father.  In each class discussion the question of what would be different if this had been a divorced mother whose daughter had visitation to her dad compared to what happened here?
In 1989 maybe the definition of family was different than it is now, but divorce and shared custody was occurring at this time.

In any case, the aftermath is what usually interests me.
While I think I found the mother and who the husband and daughter are, it is not appropriate to post their photos or information here.  At the time this happened the girl was a child and her privacy should be respected.
However, what impresses me was that Michael kept fighting to see his daughter, and the court continued to rule against him. (http://articles.latimes.com/1992-06-21/magazine/tm-1114_1_supreme-court)

Johnson v. California = strict scrutiny - after remand

In Constitutional Law you may read a case about the California prison system and an unwritten policy that upon entering a new facility prisoners were racially segregated for up to 60 days while backgrounds were checked.  California claimed it was to try and reduce racially based gangs from fighting. This would seem like a compelling state interest based on the historic background with California Prisons and gang violence (http://www.businessinsider.com/most-dangerous-prison-gangs-in-the-us-2014-2).

However the Supreme Court determined that no matter what when there is racial classifications the strict scrutiny test must be used.
Supreme Court opinion can be found https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/541/428/
and the definition of strict scrutiny you can visit http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/strict_scrutiny

What happened after Johnson v. California was reserved and remanded was slightly harder to find out.  On page 294 of the following article Racial Desegregation in Prisons from The Prison Journal it is stated that on remand the matter was settled through mediation and the California Prison System policy would change.

Some meditation videos for law school stress reduction

29 Minutes of Guided Meditation followed by waves to help you relax and fall asleep:

10 Minutes of Guided Meditation for anxiety and worry

1 Hour of Zen Music for Studying

30 Minutes of Ocean Waves and Flute Music

1 Hour of Gregorian Chants

words are really what law school comes down to

"Words are the tools of our trade."

One of my professors repeated this so much that it became an automatic response back to her once she started it.

She is right, but not just about what lawyers write.  She is right in that words are how law school students learn and the difference in wording could mean the difference in understanding a concept or not.  I am starting to study for finals and I realize why over the last three years I consult multiple study aides when studying for exams.  The way different people present concepts may help me understand it better than the way I read it from the casebook or heard my professor explain it.  Words help students understand - this is not shocking, it is not a new discovery or profound new wisdom.

For any future law school student, don't just get one study aide, get multiple study aides.  The study aid that worked for you in one class may not be as helpful in another subject.  The library is a great place to borrow material to see what will work for you in each subject area.  If you can afford it (or if you have points that you can use on Lexis) buy the un-used (meaning new) study material.  You will need it when you review for the bar.

Graduation looms

Graduation is now under 200 days away, and I have been told I am not nice and not patient.  The stress is finally getting to me and showing.  I realize that I am freaking out, but I am not able to stop myself - I am feeling overwhelmed and don't know how to get out of it.  I try to do things that are fun, but I am still worried all the time about school and graduating and everything that it entails.  I am freaking out and people are pointing it out to me.  I don't know how to stop worrying.  The light at the end of the tunnel is starting to be seen and it scares me more than I am able to deal with.

The fear is real, and as much as I try I can't hold my fears at bay.  I am trying to be nice and my normal bubbly self, but it seems to be cracking and I can't keep it up.  I am afraid of many things and now the change in personality might be one of them.  I am really trying to stay my bubbly nice self and I will continue to try, but according to my mom I am not doing a good job at it.

I promise to try and stay nice and positive even as the stress closes down on me and scaring me just as badly as I was when I first started this journey just a few short years ago.

Almost there, but still so far to go

This weekend, I saw I glimpse of what will happen in one year for me.  I see the finish line, but feel like I am still just starting the marathon.  There are so many cliches that I could write, but it all boils down to this: I have come so far in three years, but feel like it has just started because there is still so far to go.  I am constantly in this weird place, where time is flying by so fast yet at the same time go so slow.  If I am lucky and I can keep working hard I will be graduating law school in one year.  This means that my life will be in this wibbly wobbly time flux that will make the year fly by faster than the concord, yet drag on so slow it will feel like a slug's pace for parts of it.  I do not know what my future holds, but I am on the treadmill that I started on three years ago and I intend to see this to the end.

I have much to do, and hope to write more.

Random Things Overheard

When in law school prepare yourself to overhear or say the following without thinking it is strange or funny:

"Embrace the suck everybody"

student 1 "what if he commits suicide twice?"
student 2 "it is one shot deal, you can attempt it more than once, but you can only succeed once."

"this weather can go right down near my tort's grade"

"this must come from California where all the hippies are"

"I am deanlier on Wednesdays"

Best one line law advice from my professor

1. Just don't beat on people.

2. I like criminals, without them we wouldn't have jobs.

City of Ladue v. Horn, 720 S.W.2d 745 (Missouri, 1986) - what started it?

If you have been in Family Law you probably read this case about a zoning ordinance that defined what a family is and said that Horn and the man she was living with (but not married to) did not fit this definition.  Well, if you are like me you probably wondered what would have started this case.
Did a neighbor complain?
Did the police just do a random spot check?
Was this a family that was always getting in trouble and the neighbors wanted them out of the area?
Who paid the legal fees to take it this far?
Looking at the date you would hope it wasn't a racial discrimination, issue.  Looking at the area and the what research was going on at a nearby university at the time you would think this area would be a little more liberal and welcoming of diverse families.  Nope!
What is believed to be the cause follows below.
Joan Kelly Horn's white daughter was dating a St. Louis Football player, who was black.  He would come and spend time at the family's home and a neighbor was upset that in an affluent white neighborhood a black man was playing in the yard with Jones and Horn's children.  Both Jones and Horn worked at the university and knew several lawyers with the ACLU, and it was the ACLU who paid the legal costs.
Please see attached link and read pages 197-199 for the full background on the story.
If the link does not work you can find the information in the book Not Just Roommates: Cohabitation After the Sexual Revolution by Elizabeth H. Peck.  I found it on Google Books.

Sadly, as of the Spring of 2014 this ordinance is still on the books and Jones and Horns with their children living in the house would still be violating it. Please see the link below and read page 65 to see what the City of Ladue defines as a family.
http://www.cityofladue-mo.gov/uploads/Ordinances/Ordinance1175.pdf 


On a happier note Joan Kelly Horn was elected to The House of Representatives

1st rule

The first rule of law school

"Focus Little Grasshoppers"  - at least it is according to my Descendant and Estate's Professor

Best line heard today

Between two classmates who are veterans

"Did you see the JAG Moot Court downstairs?" - Classmate 1

"I saw all those uniforms, thought hell no, did an about face and when on about my own mission of getting out of there."  - Classmate 2

"Yeah, I had enough of that in my 22 years." - Classmate 1

"It brought back some PTSD issues from my 8 years." Classmate 2


DE class - best line tonight
"Has anyone ever gone snipe hunting? My dad took me snipe hunting one night in Alaska when I was 5..." proceeds to tell a sad story
"I was recently told that there really is a snipe bird, but if someone asks me to go snipe hunting you remember this story and say..." - professor
"NO" - class
"or hell no" - professor

Just a comment on life lessons

Please do not name your children of any of the following:
-Botanical
-Blade
-Legend
-or do any funky spelling of what might be a normal sounding name

The first day of classes are always misleading the professors are very different than how they tell you they will be.  No matter what they say.

Ladies if your button down shirt looks like it is going to pop a button any second, think twice about your shirt and select something else.

Little children love most everything and almost everyone, we should all try to strive to be more like that.

First Days of Classes Can be misleading

Last Thursday I thought my DE professor would be the best and funniest teacher of the semester.  I was wrong - Monday she made me fear her and not enjoy being in her class.  The horror stories of other classmates have since been told to me and I don't feel like I will be taking her summer course no matter how much I like her subject.

Last Thursday I thought my Family Law professor was as scary as a military drill Sargent.  She has since shown herself to be a great teacher, who will make me think and really learn the topic.

Today I am overwhelmingly impressed by my plea bargaining professor.  I am hopefully that he keeps this up, I don't want to be disappointed by a teacher that promises to teach practical skills instead of theory and actually care about his students.