Law in Contemporary Society

View   r2  >  r1  ...
DanielRosenfeldSecondEssay 2 - 07 Jun 2017 - Main.DanielRosenfeld
Added:
>
>
Revision 2 is unreadable
Deleted:
<
<
META TOPICPARENT name="SecondEssay"

Goals for the Last Two Years of Law School

-- By DanielRosenfeld - 07 Jun 2017

Before I entered law school, three years seemed like a long time. Now that I have finished a year, the remaining two years doesn’t seem like long at all. Therefore, I have developed the following three goals to guide my last two years.

Goal One: Balance Theory and Practice of Law

Both of these are crucial for my career. Practical knowledge enhances my value because my value as a lawyer is in part determined by what I’m able to do for my clients. Theoretical knowledge is important because it will help guide my longer-term strategic-thinking. That includes not only what I can do, but whether I ought to do it or not.

After graduation, my knowledge of practice will impact my leverage. The more I can do, the more valuable I am and the more leverage I have to shape my career and my life. Therefore, I will attempt to gain practical knowledge, through externships, clinics, and pro bono opportunities.

However, law school is likely the last time I’ll be able to devote my time to theory and thinking. In practice, I won’t have the time or opportunity to take entire courses devoted to developing my legal analysis.

The goal then, is to balance preparing myself for practice and taking advantage of the opportunity to think about how the law is and ought to be structured. In order to do this, I’ll need to think critically about classes (Fed Courts, Evidence, Admin Law) and when to take them, who to take them with. I’ve been cautioned by professors to make sure I take classes and encouraged by practitioners to get as much real world experience as I can before graduation.

During my first year, I was skewed heavily towards theory, doing only two pro bono projects to develop my practice skills. Over the next two years, I want to shift the balance towards learning practice skills, but not at the expense of stretching myself intellectually.

I’m unsure of how to balance this precisely, but I imagine I’ll end up oscillating around a median, rather than finding a sweet spot. I’ll follow what is interesting to me at the time and then build off of that.

Goal Two: Explore

Law is unusual among professions in that it is prominent in culture. Most people have some idea of what a lawyer does. However, after one year, I understand that what a lawyer does is vastly more complicated and varied than represented in popular culture. Before law school, I dreaded “commercial” courses like Contracts and Property. To my surprise, I loved them.

So, the obvious lesson from this is to explore as much as I can. I’m constrained by my time limit and need to acquire practical skills. However, within those constraints, I’m going to try to take as many courses as I can to expose myself to as many areas of law as I can. Where I can’t take courses, I can go to lunch events in different areas. There are so many different areas of law (anti-trust, communications, entertainment, sports, criminal) and I want to know more about all of them, or at least more of them.

Eventually, I will need to specialize. I’m fortunate the Columbia doesn’t require a “major.” However, before I specialize, I want to know more about the different kinds of law.

In undergrad, people often expressed a wistfulness about selecting a major, as selecting a major closed the doors to other majors. However, my desire to explore is not a desire to avoid choosing, it is a desire to make the most informed choice possible. I’m not nervous about specializing, but I want to know more before I do so, as I’ve learned this year how much I don’t know.

Goal Three: Maintain Balance

I came to law school because I thought it would help me achieve my best, well-rounded, self. I want to be a well-rounded lawyer, with a life outside of the law. I would be very disappointed in myself if I started neglecting my family, my friends, my physical health, my mental health, or my favorite (pre-law) activities because of law school or the law.

First year, I made time for my pre-law school friends and family. I talked with my two best friends on the phone once a week each. I talked to my brother every Wednesday. I talked to my parents on the weekends. I tried to weight lift as often as I could.

Sadly, I failed in many respects. I did not read a single book for pleasure during the school year (outside of winter break). I failed to go to the gym often enough and gained weight. I didn’t invest enough time in my old friendships and they suffered.

In next two years, I want to rebalance my life, away from the law. It is good to enjoy law school, but I don’t want to lose the person who I was before law school. I was a guy- sorry, I AM a guy who likes reading science-fiction, playing tennis, talking about politics and philosophy with people. During my 1L year, my life was slanted away from those thing, and towards the law. During the next year years, I want to reverse that, to achieve a healthier balance. I don’t want to exit law school overweight, friendless and a Kent Scholar.

Conclusion

Two years is actually not that long a time. In order to maximize my time at Columbia, I’ll need to be thoughtful in my course and extracurricular selection, trying to balance learning theory and practice. In that balance, I also want to explore the limits of Columbia’s curriculum. Finally, I want to make sure that I don’t lose myself, and that I practice maintaining a balanced lifestyle. If I can’t do it during law school, I don’t have a hope of doing it as a lawyer, when the demands on my time are much more severe.


You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines:

Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules for preference declarations. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of these lines. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated ALLOWTOPICVIEW list.


DanielRosenfeldSecondEssay 1 - 07 Jun 2017 - Main.DanielRosenfeld
Line: 1 to 1
Added:
>
>
META TOPICPARENT name="SecondEssay"

Goals for the Last Two Years of Law School

-- By DanielRosenfeld - 07 Jun 2017

Before I entered law school, three years seemed like a long time. Now that I have finished a year, the remaining two years doesn’t seem like long at all. Therefore, I have developed the following three goals to guide my last two years.

Goal One: Balance Theory and Practice of Law

Both of these are crucial for my career. Practical knowledge enhances my value because my value as a lawyer is in part determined by what I’m able to do for my clients. Theoretical knowledge is important because it will help guide my longer-term strategic-thinking. That includes not only what I can do, but whether I ought to do it or not.

After graduation, my knowledge of practice will impact my leverage. The more I can do, the more valuable I am and the more leverage I have to shape my career and my life. Therefore, I will attempt to gain practical knowledge, through externships, clinics, and pro bono opportunities.

However, law school is likely the last time I’ll be able to devote my time to theory and thinking. In practice, I won’t have the time or opportunity to take entire courses devoted to developing my legal analysis.

The goal then, is to balance preparing myself for practice and taking advantage of the opportunity to think about how the law is and ought to be structured. In order to do this, I’ll need to think critically about classes (Fed Courts, Evidence, Admin Law) and when to take them, who to take them with. I’ve been cautioned by professors to make sure I take classes and encouraged by practitioners to get as much real world experience as I can before graduation.

During my first year, I was skewed heavily towards theory, doing only two pro bono projects to develop my practice skills. Over the next two years, I want to shift the balance towards learning practice skills, but not at the expense of stretching myself intellectually.

I’m unsure of how to balance this precisely, but I imagine I’ll end up oscillating around a median, rather than finding a sweet spot. I’ll follow what is interesting to me at the time and then build off of that.

Goal Two: Explore

Law is unusual among professions in that it is prominent in culture. Most people have some idea of what a lawyer does. However, after one year, I understand that what a lawyer does is vastly more complicated and varied than represented in popular culture. Before law school, I dreaded “commercial” courses like Contracts and Property. To my surprise, I loved them.

So, the obvious lesson from this is to explore as much as I can. I’m constrained by my time limit and need to acquire practical skills. However, within those constraints, I’m going to try to take as many courses as I can to expose myself to as many areas of law as I can. Where I can’t take courses, I can go to lunch events in different areas. There are so many different areas of law (anti-trust, communications, entertainment, sports, criminal) and I want to know more about all of them, or at least more of them.

Eventually, I will need to specialize. I’m fortunate the Columbia doesn’t require a “major.” However, before I specialize, I want to know more about the different kinds of law.

In undergrad, people often expressed a wistfulness about selecting a major, as selecting a major closed the doors to other majors. However, my desire to explore is not a desire to avoid choosing, it is a desire to make the most informed choice possible. I’m not nervous about specializing, but I want to know more before I do so, as I’ve learned this year how much I don’t know.

Goal Three: Maintain Balance

I came to law school because I thought it would help me achieve my best, well-rounded, self. I want to be a well-rounded lawyer, with a life outside of the law. I would be very disappointed in myself if I started neglecting my family, my friends, my physical health, my mental health, or my favorite (pre-law) activities because of law school or the law.

First year, I made time for my pre-law school friends and family. I talked with my two best friends on the phone once a week each. I talked to my brother every Wednesday. I talked to my parents on the weekends. I tried to weight lift as often as I could.

Sadly, I failed in many respects. I did not read a single book for pleasure during the school year (outside of winter break). I failed to go to the gym often enough and gained weight. I didn’t invest enough time in my old friendships and they suffered.

In next two years, I want to rebalance my life, away from the law. It is good to enjoy law school, but I don’t want to lose the person who I was before law school. I was a guy- sorry, I AM a guy who likes reading science-fiction, playing tennis, talking about politics and philosophy with people. During my 1L year, my life was slanted away from those thing, and towards the law. During the next year years, I want to reverse that, to achieve a healthier balance. I don’t want to exit law school overweight, friendless and a Kent Scholar.

Conclusion

Two years is actually not that long a time. In order to maximize my time at Columbia, I’ll need to be thoughtful in my course and extracurricular selection, trying to balance learning theory and practice. In that balance, I also want to explore the limits of Columbia’s curriculum. Finally, I want to make sure that I don’t lose myself, and that I practice maintaining a balanced lifestyle. If I can’t do it during law school, I don’t have a hope of doing it as a lawyer, when the demands on my time are much more severe.


You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines:

Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules for preference declarations. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of these lines. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated ALLOWTOPICVIEW list.


Revision 2r2 - 07 Jun 2017 - 12:43:27 - DanielRosenfeld
Revision 1r1 - 07 Jun 2017 - 04:25:48 - DanielRosenfeld
This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform.
All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
Syndicate this site RSSATOM