No Longer a 1 L

I am done with classes and although I dont have grades yet I am officially no longer a 1 L!! :) I have survived!!

Co-workers

So you may or may not know that I am working right now as a tutor for a non profit that focuses and college prep and access for foster kinds in the state of Kansas. Generally I like what I do and my kids never fail to amaze me, although not always in a good way. The other day a student, lets name him Red, told me that he was in foster care (actually JJA care) because he was caught selling pcp and marijuana. Yes, sweet, innocent Red, who is only 13 years old, is a DRUG DEALER. What has our world come to?? Anyways, my students and their JJA (juvenile justice authority) problems are not supposed to be the topic of this.

The real topic is co-workers. We are a small non profit, I am in the only Lawrence employee and there are 2 tutors and 3 full time employees in Topeka along with another tutor flying solo in the Manhattan/JC area. Everyone is really nice but I tend to wonder what some of the full timers do full time.

The one who irritates me the most, lets call him Bill (for his love of a former president) is supposed to do all the activities, campus visits and fun field trip like things we do. He attempts to plan cool things but goes about it in the wrong way. Like today, we were supposed to go on a KU Tour, an event planned by Bill, all day with some of our 400+ students in the area. I say supposed to because the event, that has been on the calendar for MONTHS, got canceled about 7 minutes before it was supposed to begin today because no one was going to show. Yes, the event has been on the schedule for months but Bill geniusly decided that calling to remind everyone about it LAST NIGHT was a good enough attempt to get people to come when they haven't heard about the event since atleast March. REALLY?? These people are all in foster care. Foster care doesn't work that way. You have to plan out trips with 8-10 crazy students, you cant just decide to get up and go. This isnt even the first trip that this has happened for. My very first event as a tutor was to a financial aid conference and not a single student showed up. My second was supposed to be to KC to a community college but once again, not a single student showed up (maybe because they all had school). Bill is a repeat offender and I will continue to wonder what he gets paid for cause he doesn't really do a lot.

To make things better, my students were the only ones who knew about the trip, cause i have reminded them about it for weeks, managed to get themselves put on "restriction" what ever that means. All I know is they can't leave the house. What did they do? Who knows? My curiosity may just kill me? Was it because they failed state inspections earlier in the week? Did the Abominal Snowman (one of the house parents, named this for her love of Ug like boots and outrageous hair style) finally go postal on them all and eat them alive? Did the dog that runs around the property with big scary sores and ticks pass on some sort of life threatening communicable disease that caused them all to be quarantined? Who knows but thanks to them landing themselves on restriction and Bill ot planning anything more than 12 hours in advance I have the afternoon off work.

4 weeks until my glorious summer begins

Thank god. I am almost done, there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel and my plans are made. I initially was thinking that i would consume my life this summer with the law, however a lack of paying law jobs, and law jobs in general in Wamego KS will mean that i get a summer away from the law i have come to despise over the past year.

Really I am excited about my summer off. I will be moving home to Wamego for 3 months of good bonding time with mom and fighting time with my little brother. The puppy will have a fenced in back yard that she can run in day and night and I will have absolutely no living expenses beyond my car and insurance. It is going to be fabulous, I just cant wait.

To keep me busy during the day I am doing some summer camp like activities with my tutoring kids (in manhattan, topeka and lawrence) so i will be on the road. Additionally I am hoping to get a part time gig at a bank or retail in Manhattan. I need the money so I am really wanting to work around 60 hours a week all summer long.

Hopefully I will find out soon that I got into WCL and then i can spend all my free time plotting the big move back to DC and making plans for living arrangements (possibly with the boy!!) and fall classes.

Overall I think it is going to be good. My goals for the summer are to pay off some debt, relax and ignore the law, stay in touch with friends/reconnect with those of I have lost touch with, scrapbook like a wild woman and get into WCL and all ready to move and convince my mom to move with me to DC!

Outlining

Yeah, law school revolves around outlining. I am not exactly sure why but it is what we are told to do. It is what we spend our entire lives doing. I can outline with the best of them. Give me an article on molecular bio and i may not be able to understand what it is saying but I can outline what it is saying. I know, a stupid skill.

Anyways, it is less than 3 weeks from finals and I havent started the daunting task of outlining. Yes, you notice a little bit of panic in my tone, simply it FREAKS ME OUT that I havent started but there is nothing I can do but start. Too bad I have to work on oral arguments and civ pro before I can get around to starting. It just never seems to end!

SCREAM IT LOUD

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK KU!!!!


Hawks--- play your hearts out and WIN. I want out of school on Tuesday!

I have choice words for the ABA

The American Bar Association gets my panties in a twist and sometimes I think they are down right stupid. Yes, that is what I said. I can't believe that we have to make up SNOW DAYS. HOW RUDE!! Snow days are a gift from God and shouldn't be devalued by forcing us into Friday evening make up classes. GRRR.

We missed one glorious Wednesday afternoon about a month ago and I therefore missed Contracts, Civ Pro, Con Law, and Lawyering. Now I have stupid assigned make up sessions for Contracts, Civ Pro, Con Law and Lawyering. GRRRRRRR. Did I mention that I really don't like stupid ABA rules right now???

In the interest of full disclosure...

I actually like Lawyering today!! (yeah, it doesn't always make me crazy) For those of you who have read my past postings about Lawyering or as I often refer to it, the bane of my existence, you may wonder what has created this change of heart. It actually is quite simple, they CANCELED class for today and tomorrow!! It is 60 and sunny out so you will be able to find me walking the puppy or lounging on the patio reading for class tomorrow.

Well I am still in class and they are talking about federal question jurisdiction, which is more complicated that I originally thought it would be so I should pay attention.


Oh and Cloe doesn't really have creepy eyes as it may appear, that is just what the flash makes them look like.

Attorney's 26-Year Secret Kept Innocent Man In Prison

What kind of career path am I getting into? I don't really know what to say about this but here is the article:

This is a story about an innocent man who has been in prison for 26 years while two attorneys who knew he was innocent stayed silent. They did so because they felt they had no choice.

Alton Logan was convicted of killing a security guard at a McDonald's in Chicago in 1982. Police arrested him after a tip and got three eyewitnesses to identify him. Logan, his mother and brother all testified he was at home asleep when the murder occurred. But a jury found him guilty of first degree murder.

Now new evidence reveals that Logan did not commit that murder. But as correspondent Bob Simon reports, the evidence was not new to those two attorneys, who knew it all along but say they couldn't speak out until now.

Alton Logan's story cuts to the core of America's justice system.


Simon met Alton Logan in prison, where he's spent almost half of his life.

Asked if he still counts the months and days, Logan told Simon, "There’s no need to count the months and the days. Just count the years."

Logan said that during the first five or six years he was "consumed" by anger. "Then I come to the realization that 'Why be angry over something you can't control?'"

Logan, who maintains he didn't commit the murder, thought they were "crazy" when he was arrested for the crime.

Attorneys Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz knew Logan had good reason to think that, because they knew he was innocent. And they knew that because their client, Andrew Wilson, who they were defending for killing two policemen, confessed to them that he had also killed the security guard at McDonald's - the crime Logan was charged with committing.

"We got information that Wilson was the guy and not Alton Logan. So we went over to the jail immediately almost and said, 'Is that true? Was that you?' And he said, 'Yep it was me,'" Kunz recalled.

"He just about hugged himself and smiled. I mean he was kind of gleeful about it. It was a very strange response," Kunz said, recalling how Wilson had reacted.

"How did you interpret that response?" Simon asked.

"That it was true and that he was tickled pink," Kunz said.

"He was pleased that the wrong guy had been charged. It was like a game and he'd gotten away with something. But there was just no doubt whatsoever that it was true. I mean I said, 'It was you with the shotgun-you killed the guy?' And he said, 'Yes,' and then he giggled," Coventry added.

The problem was the killer was their client. So, legally, they had to keep his secret even though an innocent man was about to be tried for murder.

"I know a lot of people who would say, 'Hey if the guy's innocent you've got to say so. You can't let him rot because of that,'" Simon remarked.

"Well, the vast majority of the public apparently believes that, but if you check with attorneys or ethics committees or you know anybody who knows the rules of conduct for attorneys, it’s very, very clear-it's not morally clear-but we're in a position to where we have to maintain client confidentiality, just as a priest would or a doctor would. It's just a requirement of the law. The system wouldn't work without it," Coventry explained.

So that was the dilemma. They couldn't speak out, they felt, but how could they remain silent?

for the rest of the story go here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/06/60minutes/main3914719.shtml

BBQ-smoker-turned-'Robocop' chases off drug dealers

people taking law into their own hands.... interesting take on it... i found this on CNN.

By Rusty Dornin
CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It's midnight on the streets of Atlanta, and bar owner Rufus Terrill patrols his neighborhood with a rolling crime fighter of his own creation. Meet "Bum-bot," as Terrill describes it; others in his neighborhood call it simply, "Robocop."
art.bumbot.cnn.jpg

This former BBQ smoker is armed with a water gun to chase off bums and drug dealers in downtown Atlanta.


It's a barbecue smoker mounted on a three-wheeled scooter, and armed with an infrared camera, spotlight, loudspeaker and aluminum water cannon that shoots a stream of icy water about 20 feet.

Operated by remote control, the robot spotlights trespassers on property down the street from his bar, O'Terrill's. Using a walkie-talkie, Terrill belts out through the robot's loudspeaker, "That's private property. You guys need to get out of here."

Terrill is chasing out unsavory-looking characters from a street corner that resembles a drug dealer's dream at night. More than 20 suspicious people were seen huddling in the dark in the front driveway and side parking lot on this night. Some were seen openly making drug deals. Video Watch "Bum-bot" in action »

But during the day, it's where young children frolic on a nearby playground at a the Beacon of Light Daycare Center in downtown Atlanta. It has become a nightmare for day care operator Lydia Meredith.

"This whole square is enveloped with homeless people and drug dealers, defecating, urinating, prostituting -- the whole nine yards. And the overflow of that behavior, we get to cleanup every morning," she says.

Meredith says people often toss used syringes and condoms onto the playground.

Terrill, an engineer by trade, is also a board member at the day care center. Tired of cleaning up after the shady characters, he decided to take action. That's when he built his downtown Darth Vader of sorts.

"He's a neighborhood vigilante," says Meredith, "and when he came up with this -- you know, I call it Robocop -- I said, 'Praise God.' "

The daycare center is a block from a homeless shelter. Meredith has a security guard at the center who leaves in the early evening. "They know when the guard leaves," she says. "They know when the cleaning crew leaves and then here comes the drug dealers to prey on the homeless people."

Anita Beatty, the director of the shelter, is suspicious of the barbecue-smoker robot. "I just think the whole 'Robocop' spraying people is a little freaky. We really need some police protection in this neighborhood. I think it's confusing the issue. I think the issue is homeless people. They are being confused with the folks who prey on them and sell them drugs," she says.

Atlanta police patrol the area, but say it's difficult to stay on top of the large number of people who roam the streets in the area late at night.

Police Major Lane Hagin says the robot is definitely a different crime-fighting idea. "There's no problem with the robot going up and down the street or being visible or any of the other things it does -- with the exception of spraying water on people."

Hagin adds, "Then, it becomes an assault no matter where it happens."

So far no one has filed charges against Terrill or the robot. But one homeless man who declined to give his name followed Terrill and his robot down the street and laughingly told him, "I know about you. I can sue you for assault."

Terrill says he's not hurting anyone and often sprays the water to the side of loiterers as a ploy to get them to move on. He's also not about to back down.

"If you're throwing condoms out on the side of the playground, if you're throwing needles, you're throwing crack pipes out there, I'm not going to let those kids be out there like that. I'm going to stop you."

Terrill bought his bar four years ago knowing nothing about the restaurant business. He ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of Georgia in 2006. He's had ongoing problems with people breaking into his bar and stealing things, but it was the day care center problems that spurred him on to create the robot.

Some of Terrill's bar patrons say they've seen a difference in the neighborhood. Susanne Coe lives nearby.

"I've seen a marked change simply with this robot that doesn't have any power of arrest. It does scare people and to be honest with you I'm grateful for it," she says.
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On this night, as Terrill and his robot make their way to the street corner, he shines the robot's spotlight on the parking lot of the daycare center. One by one, the shadowy figures stand up, walk away and saunter down the street.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, when I go up there and once I turn the spotlight on and I talk to them through the speaker, they leave," he says.





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Although this seems fairly mean and illegal (assault and battery) it is an interesting thought. It is sad that the public has to go to these means, where are the police?

Lawyering.... the bane of my existence

Ok, so you may wonder what "lawyering" is and that is totally understandable. I often wonder what lawyering is and have even looked it up in about 5 different dictionaries, including a legal dictionary. The only thing I have discovered is that lawyering is not a word. Maybe they wanted it to mean the acts of being a lawyer?? I don't know but I think the class should be called hell instead. It is more fitting.

Tonight I am complaining about Lawyering because of its lack of BS work load. This semester we have already written a demand letter, researched out the ass on topics that there are no sources for and written a motion to defeat summary judgment in this make believe, BS case that we have been assigned. Additionally we have "mediated" a case between our client and the lawyer he is suing (and when i say mediated don't think it was cool, it was more like acting out a skit). And now, tonight i set here studying for our "quiz" aka Final exam (yes, in March) and doing BS bluebook assignments. I spent 4 hours blue booking (citing legal sources) on this stupid computer program that tells me i am wrong when my answer looks just like the write answer and now have about 12 hours of reading to do for tomorrows quiz (although chance are most of it will just get quickly skimmed).

To make things better, tomorrow we are assigned yet another long memo to write for some summary judgment issue for some make believe case. It is going to be a pain in my ass for the next month and then I am going to get all of this crap that i have written back and have to re-write it. Man, this class can just ruin my day, week and year in one fail swoop.

Anyways, i should stop complaining and get to reading.

Just Another Manic Monday

So I am really going to try to blog more. I think it will be a good way to vent and relieve stress. I do kinda fear though that it will scare people away from law school and that is not my intention. I knew going into this that it was going to be hell and it is hell and in some sick twisted way I love this hell. I know, it is strange but it is true. So if you really want to go to law school, take my stories as warnings to prepare you for the insanity, not scare you away from it.

Monday's in my life have been deemed Manic Mondays. Coming back to school after a weekend off, that I should have done more homework than I actually did, always result in a bit of self inflicted stress and anxiety. As I look at my reading load for the week and think about how I spent 12 hours watching TV saturday afternoon/evening instead of reading I tend to want to kick myself.

Today was just another Manic Monday. 4 hours of class straight through, same seat, non stop is pretty close to hell on earth. I had a minor panic attack when the lightning stuck (a professor randomly called on someone) way too close to me in property and I feared I was next but luckily i didn't get called on. Prof D, in property 2, has a strange 6th sense that can smell when someone hasn't read or isn't prepared. The fact that I hadn't read and was making bridal party plans instead of paying attention made me fear for the worst but i squeeked by free and clear.

Well I should be going... summer plans need to be made. Do i work for the us attorneys office? legal aid? a firm? big or small? where? when? how much? do i take no pay?? any ideas? all advice would be appreciated. i have interviewed with legal aid of W MO and the US attorneys office but don't know if i want or will get either of those non paying jobs. Otherwise there is a firm close to home that is hiring. Well when i say firm, i mean 2 attorneys and when i say hiring, i mean willing to let people work for free for them. There is a scholarship that i can get for doing it so maybe that is where I will lean... I dont know. Any ideas or guidance would be appreciated. If i dont figure it out soon I am going to run away to a summer abroad in Turkey.

Back to Hell... aka KU Law

I know I am lame and dont update this but i am not sure if anyone reads it anyways. Just wanted to write a quick note and say that break was fabulous but made school even harder this semester because I was reminded what life on the outside of this hell is like. I miss life on the outside and want to go back? Any thoughts on quiting law school??