The class

We are 20, give or take a couple of people.  Compared to a typical law class, this is quite small.  However, I have to confess I look forward to the distillation down to the more serious students who will stay the course through the full 4 years.  That appears arrogant on the face of it, but what I mean is, statistically, I know some number of our 20 is bound to leave during or at the end of the first year.  I am completely engrossed in our subject matter and the law, and would like our class discussions to move more quickly than they sometimes do.  That being said, I also appreciate our professors’ patience and inclusiveness.  So there you have it.  A war between my better self and my impatience and selfishness.  Not the first or the last time that will happen.

Criminal law is taught by a prosecutor, who was recently elected DA.  She is very knowledgeable about her subject matter and pragmatic to the core, or so it seems in these early days.  She gives little hints of her opinions but clearly has learned to walk a path of objectivity.  She appears to be impatient but reining that in as she deals with the first weeks of first year law, with us bumbling and ignorant students as lumps of clay sitting in front of her.  She wants a clear recitation of the facts, including the procedural facts, and very clearly expects us to learn the black letter law as we go along.  She makes the introduction of concepts more of a priority than I expected, as the Socratic method would not seem to include that.  In my very uninformed opinion, she fluctuates between lecture and Socratic method.  Given our green state with regard to a knowledge base, that may be the best approach.

I am anxious to be done with homicide.  I’m even looking forward to assault and battery, as a better option than discussing cases where the story always ended badly.  In a homicide case, you can be certain that someone died, after all.  I am sure this is a fatal weakness were I planning to become a criminal law attorney, but I feel the pain underlying the facts too much, even that of the defendant sometimes.  And my strong aversion to the current state of the penal system further burdens my heart and conscience, as I read about people (real people) whose lives were basically over in an instant, sentenced to 15 or 20 years in prison for a mistake that many of us would also make in like circumstances.  I am not saying I want the guilty to go free.  I simply abhor the choices and the devastation on both sides of the case.  Still, I am enjoying learning the law and can set aside my soft side when needed to argue the points of law.  I so love the logic and reasoning aspect of law.  While it seems to drive Peter nuts, I even like the progression of the law, the evolution of thought that is evidenced in the cases we read, and the ambiguity and variance in the rulings give me comfort and hope for the future that I typically find challenging when I look at human history.  Bad law can be changed.  Hallelujah.

Contracts-ah, my secret love.  I find myself so jazzed up by the end of contracts class that I can’t sleep for a couple of hours.  My mind is buzzing and I want to follow the rabbit trails to see where they may lead.  The UCC and the Restatement of Contracts, Second are my new reading for pleasure.  I have discovered some writing by some great legal minds, such as Lon Fuller's The Reliance Interest in Contract Damages.  I am tired at night but want to read.  Such a dilemma.