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Law School & Lawyer GAF

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
For you American lawyers. Just how bad is the bar exam? I'm tempted to want to practice in the US.

I hear for young lawyers you're very much tied to the state you're admitted in with little room to manoeuvre. Is that true?

If you put in the work and write like the graders want you to write, you'll be fine.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Did they still teach the Rule Against perpetuities at the schools you guys went to?

I was trying to explain it to a legal clerk, but we didn't even really learn it, our professor just told us its old and dumb and barely even said anything about it. The test contained a single trick question which purported to invoke the rule but actually did not.
 

chimster

Member
Did they still teach the Rule Against perpetuities at the schools you guys went to?

I was trying to explain it to a legal clerk, but we didn't even really learn it, our professor just told us its old and dumb and barely even said anything about it. The test contained a single trick question which purported to invoke the rule but actually did not.

We just learned it a few weeks ago but I'm studying in the UK. Its in statute over here
 
Did they still teach the Rule Against perpetuities at the schools you guys went to?

I was trying to explain it to a legal clerk, but we didn't even really learn it, our professor just told us its old and dumb and barely even said anything about it. The test contained a single trick question which purported to invoke the rule but actually did not.

Our prof spent approximately 45 minutes talking about it, but said we could tune him out if we didn't want to confuse ourselves. I tuned him out. It had nothing to do with not wanting to confuse myself.
 

Cat Party

Member
Did they still teach the Rule Against perpetuities at the schools you guys went to?

I was trying to explain it to a legal clerk, but we didn't even really learn it, our professor just told us its old and dumb and barely even said anything about it. The test contained a single trick question which purported to invoke the rule but actually did not.

It was mentioned and explained but more as a novelty than anything else. We weren't tested on it. In California (where I went to law school), not knowing the RAP is explicitly not malpractice.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
It was mentioned and explained but more as a novelty than anything else. We weren't tested on it. In California (where I went to law school), not knowing the RAP is explicitly not malpractice.

We have the statutory one now that just waits 90 years, I think.
 
we were taught the rule against perpetuities and we were also tested on it.

i don't remember how it works at all though. i did get an A in property so i must've known it at the time.
 

chimster

Member
Is that the one with the validating life and the unborn widow? Was on the final and I still don't understand it.


my understanding is that the rule against perpetuities relates to private trusts. You cannot have a trust which doesn't vest onto the beneficiaries. I.e. A trust established to keep a tomb well maintained indefinitely. There has to be a point in time where the trust property will be vested and the trust ends.
 

exarkun

Member
Did they still teach the Rule Against perpetuities at the schools you guys went to?

I was trying to explain it to a legal clerk, but we didn't even really learn it, our professor just told us its old and dumb and barely even said anything about it. The test contained a single trick question which purported to invoke the rule but actually did not.

They did, but I think Texas is going to change it (or have they already?) to 99 years so that it basically doesn't matter anymore. It was heavily tested on my second semester property class. Kind of sucked, keeping track of all those future interests.

If I could give anyone advice, its to take a Clinic some time during your stay in law school. Best thing I've done in a school setting, and I get to be a chief next year! Auto A!
 
The RAP is one of those things that if you did a few problems on it every day for a few months it would probably be ridiculously easy. I'm sure there's some lawyer out there who is some big time trusts/estates lawyer who just laughs at people who don't get it. The problem is its not the sort of thing that you tend to think about except for the five or six times in your life you have to otherwise.
 
Can I ask if you guys have a corroboration element/requirement in your criminal prosecution cases?

There's been a huge debate on whether or not to abolish corroboration here.

The requirement for corroborating evidence means at least two different and independent sources of evidence are required in support of each crucial fact before a defendant can be convicted of a crime. This means, for example, that an admission of guilt by the accused is insufficient evidence to convict, because that evidence needs to be corroborated by another source.

Has its pros and cons as far as I'm concerned. It can be tricky in rape cases but the doctrine has been extended to allow forms of 'distress' to act as corroboration.
 
Phew. Contracts exam today was a doozy.

1.5 hours with no reading time to hammer out an essay question plus tackle a dense as fuck 3 page hypothetical with at least a dozen tricky issues stuffed into it.

Are upper year exams this much of a time crunched pressure cooker as well?
 
Phew. Contracts exam today was a doozy.

1.5 hours with no reading time to hammer out an essay question plus tackle a dense as fuck 3 page hypothetical with at least a dozen tricky issues stuffed into it.

Are upper year exams this much of a time crunched pressure cooker as well?

It all depends on the professor. Some like to give you tons to talk about, and others don't. Just remember that everyone else is in the same boat. You all have the same time crunch, so just try to do your best. My two best grades were on exams where I didn't even finish writing everything I wanted to.
 
CA school here. We didn't learn the RAP in either Property or Wills and Trusts.

Which is fine. The only thing it will potentially cost you in your entire life is like one MBE question. But the question will be sufficiently easy that if you hear about it once in Bar prep you will probably still get it.
 

Pilgor

Member
Destroyed Copyrights. i will be shocked if I don't get an A. Fingers crossed for the CALI.

That put me in such a good mood.
 
Destroyed Copyrights. i will be shocked if I don't get an A. Fingers crossed for the CALI.

That put me in such a good mood.

The tests I destroyed are the tests I did worst on. The curve lays prideful men low. But good luck to you. Obviously if you are going to beat the curve you have to have done really well, too.
 

Pilgor

Member
The tests I destroyed are the tests I did worst on. The curve lays prideful men low. But good luck to you. Obviously if you are going to beat the curve you have to have done really well, too.

Thanks.

Advice needed. I got an RA offer to help a professor with his upcoming book. Is this worth the effort?
 
So how do you "beat the curve" anyway? I've never quite grasped how the curving system works. I've only seen examples of past graded exams where they added a few points onto the score. (67 bumped up to a 71, a 83 bumped to an 86 and an 86 bumped to 89). But apparently it can work the opposite way and they can curve you down and deduct points off your score? I've never had to deal with a curve during undergrad or my MA so I'm finding this pretty confusing.
 
So how do you "beat the curve" anyway? I've never quite grasped how the curving system works. I've only seen examples of past graded exams where they added a few points onto the score. (67 bumped up to a 71, a 83 bumped to an 86 and an 86 bumped to 89). But apparently it can work the opposite way and they can curve you down and deduct points off your score? I've never had to deal with a curve during undergrad or my MA so I'm finding this pretty confusing.

The traditional way it works is that a school has a policy, where a certain portion of the class must get a B+ or whatever. What that means is that if the professor gives an A+, he must also give a lower grade to somebody else to keep the average. So there is sort of a vortex effect, some people get a better grade than they "earned" if it was just a straight- x/100 or whatever, while others will do worse. But that leaves a huge pool of people with dramatically disparate performances getting the same grade, which is why I think of it as something of a crapshoot.

My school's policy:
http://www.utexas.edu/law/sao/academics/gradingpolicy.html

Two of my best grades were certainly not from my best efforts. Some of my B+ scores were from classes that I kicked the shit out of the test, but apparently so did everybody else. I hate the curve because I think it hurts me more often than it helped me. So I guess I'm like a B+ guy that would often get an A, but with the Curve I'm a B+ guy who rarely gets an A.
 
The traditional way it works is that a school has a policy, where a certain portion of the class must get a B+ or whatever. What that means is that if the professor gives an A+, he must also give a lower grade to somebody else to keep the average. So there is sort of a vortex effect, some people get a better grade than they "earned" if it was just a straight- x/100 or whatever, while others will do worse. But that leaves a huge pool of people with dramatically disparate performances getting the same grade, which is why I think of it as something of a crapshoot.

My school's policy:
http://www.utexas.edu/law/sao/academics/gradingpolicy.html

Two of my best grades were certainly not from my best efforts. Some of my B+ scores were from classes that I kicked the shit out of the test, but apparently so did everybody else. I hate the curve because I think it hurts me more often than it helped me. So I guess I'm like a B+ guy that would often get an A, but with the Curve I'm a B+ guy who rarely gets an A.

I wish my school had the same grading policy as yours :(

Ours is such bullshit.

Max permissible A's = 10-20%
Max permissible B's = 40-60%
Max permissible A &B together = 60-75%
A minimum of 25% must get C or lower
Median of 70-72 is enforced.


Scary when I think of how fucking brilliant all my classmates are. I haven't talked to a single classmate yet, that hasn't impressed me with their intelligence and work ethic. And apparently I have to finish in the top 40% of the class just to guarantee myself a B. It creates such a stressful, and cut-throat competitive atmosphere. Curves are such bullshit, IMO.
 
I wish my school had the same grading policy as yours :(

Ours is such bullshit.

Max permissible A's = 10-20%
Max permissible B's = 40-60%
Max permissible A &B together = 60-75%
A minimum of 25% must get C or lower
Median of 70-72 is enforced.


Scary when I think of how fucking brilliant all my classmates are. I haven't talked to a single classmate yet, that hasn't impressed me with their intelligence and work ethic. And apparently I have to finish in the top 40% of the class just to guarantee myself a B. It creates such a stressful, and cut-throat competitive atmosphere. Curves are such bullshit, IMO.

Generally the lower ranked the school is the harder the curve, with the idea being that if you did really well at an okay school you are awesome. But you being in Canadian Law School, the goal is to kill you.
 

Arksy

Member
Any patent attorneys on GAF? I have a question about the AIA grace period.

Are patent attorneys in the US lawyers? In Australia they're just the people who have academic/industry backgrounds with specialised knowledge who write them. They're usually not lawyers.
 

Pilgor

Member
Ok so my question was, under the AIA, the one year grace period before the critical date only applies if there was a prior publication by the inventor?
 
Ok so my question was, under the AIA, the one year grace period before the critical date only applies if there was a prior publication by the inventor?

Pretty sure that's right, because if someone else tried to file it would just be prior art now, right? We just don't hold the inventor to his own pub for a year I think. There's no trying to figure out who invented first anymore.

Don't take this as gospel. Going solely off vague memory.
 
My concern is, does the grace period also cover past sales and public use? Wiki says no, professor says yes.

the law just uses the term "public disclosures," which i would assume is not just limited to publications. the law does not define "public disclosure" so i think the answer is that this will probably be resolved in litigation. the law just seem vague on this. i could totally see a court limiting this to publications just to make it easier to apply the rule, but i don't think it is in the language of the law. a few articles i skimmed talk about the grace period only in terms of publications, but again i did not see that in the law. it may be that the only real practical use for the grace period is when the inventor publishes.

to be honest though, i don't know much about patent law, i'm just bored. so take what i say with a grain of salt . . . i would trust your professor over wikipedia, though.
 
Congrats to all who just finished their finals!

Two... More? Why?

I live within 10 minutes of the borders of two other states. Since I'm working in a pretty small market right now and one of those two states is where I attended law school and have a lot of contacts, I figure it's best to just knock those out now while the MBE material is still pretty fresh in my mind.

Anyone else taking a February bar? It's always nice to have someone to commiserate with.
 
Oh Erwin. I do not miss those barbri lectures in the least and still shudder when I see Orville Redenbacher popcorn commercials. This time around I'm doing Themis which still sucks, but doesn't make me nearly as angry as barbri did.

Angry Grimace, do you think we are the only two on here taking February bars? I guess a bar freak out thread for two people would be a bit much.
 

mingus

Member
Good god I thought you two were starting this early for the July test, crisis temporarily averted. My deepest condolences.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Oh Erwin. I do not miss those barbri lectures in the least and still shudder when I see Orville Redenbacher popcorn commercials. This time around I'm doing Themis which still sucks, but doesn't make me nearly as angry as barbri did.

Angry Grimace, do you think we are the only two on here taking February bars? I guess a bar freak out thread for two people would be a bit much.

Probably, which is why I'm using the Law School thread. I'm just tuning Chemerinsky out now. I don't even see how this is useful. At least Singing Property lady was telling me stuff I couldn't just figure out by looking straight at the outline.
 
Probably, which is why I'm using the Law School thread. I'm just tuning Chemerinsky out now. I don't even see how this is useful. At least Singing Property lady was telling me stuff I couldn't just figure out by looking straight at the outline.

Singing property lady is batshit insane.

Epstein is still a war criminal.
 
Probably, which is why I'm using the Law School thread. I'm just tuning Chemerinsky out now. I don't even see how this is useful. At least Singing Property lady was telling me stuff I couldn't just figure out by looking straight at the outline.

Makes me happy that I'm not doing BarBri. I'm still contemplating not doing any review course. We'll see how the bar study loan goes :)
 
Interview at Slaughter and May for a summer placement. Can't say I'm looking forward to it, I've heard how incredibly intense it can be.

Has anybody here applied to Skadden, Jones Day or White and Case before?
 
So, what are some alternate summer job options for 1L's that strike out during OCI's? What did most of you guys end up doing in your summer after 1L?

Haven't got all my grades back yet, but right now it's looking like I'll end up with a B+ average, just short of A- thanks to completely botching my property exam. The only people that end up getting 1L biglaw summer jobs seem to be A average students in the top 10% of the class, so it looks like that is probably out of the question for me. Are there any decent summer job options for law students outside of firms?
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
So, what are some alternate summer job options for 1L's that strike out during OCI's? What did most of you guys end up doing in your summer after 1L?

Haven't got all my grades back yet, but right now it's looking like I'll end up with a B+ average, just short of A- thanks to completely botching my property exam. The only people that end up getting 1L biglaw summer jobs seem to be A average students in the top 10% of the class, so it looks like that is probably out of the question for me. Are there any decent summer job options for law students outside of firms?

public interest & govt internships? i don't think most people work at firms their 1L summer, even given the choice sometimes but yeah it's a good idea to get ANY legal work if you can
 
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