law school

Get busy livin or get busy dyin

I know I haven’t blogged enough when I am tempted to title the post as “An Update”, but there could be no more boring a post title than that, and I refuse.

I’m in my fourth and final year of law school. This year’s subjects are Wills and Trusts, Remedies, and California Community Property. Our schedule is a little different this year: these 3 classes finish in September, and Sept-Dec we have Capstone, which is a course intended to prepare us for the Performance Test, which is a portion of the Bar Exam. Then in December I begin my Bar Review course, and take the Bar in February.

Exactly one year from today will be the Sunday evening before Bar Exam week. The test is 3 days, Tues/Wed/Thurs consisting of 6 essays, 200 multiple choice questions, and 2 Performance Tests. Just describing it is enough stimulation for now, and I’ll post more about it in the future, but after this week’s applicants take it, my countdown begins.

That’s enough about school, except to say that I still love everything about it. I say with no disclaimer that I am going to miss it. I’ve loved gaining the knowledge, studying the cases, and sharing with my classmates. Here’s my post of when I announced I was attending – see if you detect any less excitement now than when I began.

And in other news, last year, darling son Sam, who is also an endurance athlete said to me ever-so-sweetly: “Mom, I want to do an Ironman with you before you are too old.” Without even the faintest tinge of humor.

In what turned out to be a much, much bigger commitment that I imagined in my wildest dreams, I once made a promise to my children that whatever they would ask or allow me to do with them, I would do. It was based on my belief that you meet your children where they are if you want to be close to them. This promise has taken me to the top of black diamond ski runs, down rapids in a kayak, to art museums in New York City, to road trips across America.

So, on September 7, 2014, Sam and I will be competing in the Rev 3 Cedarpoint Triathlon in Sandusky, Ohio. Just to refresh: It’s a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. I started training in January in Tennessee; Sam’s doing his training in Colorado.

Distance training involves a progressive program of adding longer/more often/more intense workouts over time. Over the months leading to September I plan to do several shorter triathlons. There’s one in Tullahoma in June, a great race in Chattanooga in July, and I’m looking for a half-Iron for August. I’ve done a couple of half-marathons since the new year, with a couple more coming up. I’ve got some 5, 10, and 15ks mixed in as well, and then triathlon season starts this spring.

Watch for race previews, race debriefs, and pics of the adventure. Suggest a race if you know of a good one. And you’re welcome to come to Ohio in September – the race is held at Cedar Point Amusement park, which is where my team support will be as Sammy and I are out on the course!

Thanks for reading!

February 23, 2014 3

Kid swag.

I know, I know, I know. I know I just posted a whole series of posts about hanging out with my kids. But sometimes you have a day like today, and you just have to get it down on paper. Or gigabytes. Or whatever.

I talked to all 4 children today. That’s not completely unusual, since I chat with each of them several days a week, and sometimes it all falls on the same day. What I want to post about is the content of those 4 little chats.

#1.

Ben is in Loveland, Colorado, where he lives with his girlfriend, Kirsten, and their 2 lovely dogs River and Suzie.

Ben is a senior at CU Boulder, a political science major. He’s a 4.0 student (which eats away at his 3.5 gpa mother), and is beginning his search for law school. He is an adventure junkie: skiing, kayaking, mountain biking, bouldering, ice-climbing.

Here’s his Facebook status for today:

Switching to an entirely local and organic diet this month as a project for school. I’m so excited to be not eating corporately produced food. The current food system we have in this country is not safe or secure. It is contributing to anthropogenic climate change and the unnecessary suffering of millions of animals. We support this terrible system with every dollar that we spend for every single meal, three times a day. I challenge everyone to have at least ONE MEAL in which everything you eat is local, sustainable, and raised without pesticides, antibiotics, or petroleum based fertilizers. If you are serious about being thankful for your food, you should really think about the global implications of what it is you are eating. Cheers to a healthy diet and a healthier planet!

So our phone conversation today was all about this 30-day experiment. It’s for his environmental law class, and the students have to lessen their carbon impact. Ben and Kirsten have a little garden, they recycle, ride their bikes around town and school, and are very conscious of their activity. The professor wanted them to develop a new action, not one they are currently engaged in, so this is what Ben came up with. He first suggested a blog to publicize and explain what he does on a daily basis, but then came up with this idea, and I just love it.

#2.

Sam is in Salida, Colorado, where he is a River Ranger on the Arkansas River.

When we chatted today, it was about his schedule and the possibility of his getting the time off to go to Ragbrai, the family bike trip to Iowa. When I asked how he was liking his job, he uses the answer he’s used every time I’ve asked him that this summer: “Livin the dream, mom. Livin the dream.” He works on the river most every day, and on his day off…he goes to the river.

Sam told me about the river clean-up he worked on, the quirkiness of his little town, the upcoming river festival on the Arkansas, and how much fun we all had when the fam gathered in Salida last week.

#3.

Glenda is in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she is finishing the last studio hours to graduate with her BFA from the University of Tennessee. She’s loved the work she’s done there, but she’s definitely ready to move on.

She has plans to move to Vegas in August and hit the nightclub circuit with her hula-hooping performances. Visit her Youtube channel for a video performance – she performs under the stage name Calliope. We’re making our annual trip to TAM in Las Vegas in July to go apartment hunting. She’s scared and excited and nervous and happy. (Her words).

#4.

Amy, tonight, is at Mt. Rainier National Park, on her trip cross-country to Orcas Island, Washington for her summer job as a sea kayak instructor.

Amy graduated from ETSU with a degree in Outdoor Recreation in December, and starts her new job this week. I got to travel with her from Murfreesboro to Salt Lake City last week. We had a great time, and did a lot of sightseeing, but she was content and excited to do the second half of her trip alone. She enjoys her solitude and is comfortable in her own skin. She’s not sure of what lies ahead, and that’s ok with her.

Today’s chat was about everything she had seen in the Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. She was remembering trips with the grandparents as a child, and enjoying every view and campground and buffalo and elk baby she had seen. She is car-camping, and hosteling, and just wanted to tell me what a good time she was having.

That’s my family. I am so proud of those children, I can’t find the words to express it. And the fact that they are so happy and so healthy, and are living the lives they love in the manner they choose…a mother cannot ask for more.

As for me, I live in my little cottage on my little farm, with my dogs, and my cows, and my chickens, and my donkeys. I have wonderful friends, I love my law school, and I have a very special person in my life, who lights me up. More about him in the posts to come.

In a little bit of a morbid twist, I’ve been working on my will, and my letters to my loved ones in the event of my death. This blog in general, and this post in particular, will be part of the package that I’ll leave for my kids, to remind them all of this day, this time, and what their happiness means to me.

Thanks for reading.

June 4, 2013 2

Where have you been?

Where have you been?! I’ve been waiting and waiting!

From the The-best-defense-is-a-good-offense files…

When I logged in to write today’s post, I was astounded to see I haven’t posted since November! Where did the time go? Maybe the kids coming for Thanksgiving or my best girl and her wife visiting for a few days or taking my finals for the end of my second year of law school or going to Amy’s graduation or moving her to a new apartment or Glenda coming home for the semester break or my parents coming for Christmas or going to Las Vegas for my studybuddy’s 40th birthday or driving nonstop with Son2 from Colorado to Tennessee to reposition a vehicle or starting my third year of law school? Still no excuse, I know.

I do love being stimulated, but this has been a little over the top, even for me.

Starting with kid news:

#1 had better grades than me after fall semester, and I had good grades. That was tough to take, but I’m so proud of him. Ben is a political science major at CU Boulder, home of Ralphie the Buffalo (extra credit if you know the history of the mascot at this school). Kirsten finished her master’s in architecture this year, and they’re trying to get used to NOT living in a resort town.

#2 is in his winter semester as the asst director of the outdoor program at Virginia Commonwealth U. His group of students went on a ski trip to Breckenridge, which is why he ended up there with his Airstream B Van needing to bring it back east. I volunteered, so 24 hours later, we arrived home, where Sam slept, then drove the rest of the way alone, visiting his sisters along the way.

#3 is in what may be her final semester at UT. In a painful twist of irony, she’s having to defend a French class she took IN FRANCE in order to get credit to graduate. The less said about that the better.

#4 graduated from East Tennessee State University in December. She’s applied for a job with the parks department of Johnson City and is eagerly awaiting an answer. She has a kickass plan B, so I’ll wait for that post until she hears the result of her interview.

As for me, I’m now past the halfway point in law school, the bar exam notwithstanding. That’s an entity unto itself. I have 23 more tuition payments, 23 more months of school. If you’re keeping track, this year’s subjects are: Evidence, Corporations and Business Organizations, Professional Responsibility, Legal Analysis and Writing, Legal Research, Employment Discrimination, and Cross Profession Ethics. It is as much work as it appears to be. Do not think, as I did, that law school is top-loaded. I love the topics; the challenge is cramming the daily 12 hours of study into 4 or 6 hours.

In training news, son Sam has decided he wants us to do a triathlon together before one of us gets too old. And of course by triathlon, I mean the big bad one. We’ve decided on the window of Mar-Sept 2014, so we’re looking at races all over the world to find an iron distance we want to do. That gives us the maximum time to train, and before I start my big push studying for the Bar. Stay tuned for details.

I’d like to say here that I’ll do a better job of blogging more regularly, but we all know I’m kidding myself. It’s not that I don’t have a lot to write about, but you already know that. However, it is a nice refuge from the intensity of my academics, so here’s my empty promise to try to do better.

And, for no good reason, here’s a face:

Thanks for reading!

January 25, 2013 1

Recap of the recap

Good Friday morning!

Same disclaimer this time: if you’re not a fellow law student, this post will be uninteresting and law-nerdy, but I again promise I’ll be back to my usual adventure-blogging, kid-bragging, right-bashing, food-porning self on my next post!

A friend commented on my last post, and I then tried to comment on the comment. WordPress was rude enough to tell me that my comment was too long, so I had to resort to an entirely new post. Thank you, WordPress, but I’LL decide when I’ve talked too much!

Here’s Kayla’s comment:

Gayle,

First off, congratulations!! Having sat there through that test, i know what a dragon it was to slay so i commend you for doing it on the first shot! And enjoy the free books in 3L Secondly, thank you for taking the time to lay out how you succeeded! Since i, unfortunately was not successful, i really enjoy hearing how others made it work for them…i have two months to re-prepare and am working thru 2L now, so hearing that it can be done is inspirational. I know that your blog is aimed towards a general audience, so any more detailed advice you have for this next go around would be highly appreciated again, congrats! And keep rocking it out thru 2l and beyond!

Kayla evans

Kayla —

Thanks so much for your comment. I’m happy to tell you anything I can about what worked for me. I mentioned in the first blog that it’s limited to just that, and that I wouldn’t presume to tell anyone what might work for them. My undergraduate degree is in education, and while there are some fundamentals about learning that are universal, our backgrounds and experiences all influence how we learn and retain information.

Here’s more detail about what happened with me. About halfway through 1L, I was getting the usual 65’s, and while I accepted that that was an average grade, I didn’t seem to be improving, and Concord’s guidance was…you guessed it, “Keep working on IRAC”.

(I even joked, any time an essay was due back from being graded, about making a drinking game out of how many times they would say that! It cheeses me off because I think that’s a technical skill that a) is relatively simple to pick up, and b) is simple to refine once you have the skill to properly analyze the fact pattern. However, I’m the student and they are the professors, and as a couple of them read my blog, I’ll keep my commentary to a dull roar, and trust that the years and years that Concord and its professors have been teaching have allowed them to refine the teaching process to be as successful as possible.)

Anyway, because my progress seemed to be so flat, I researched some outside sources and found, with my study buddies, the Checklist-type program I mentioned in the blog. It held appeal because of the endorsement of so many students, both in their school exams and on the FYLSE. I committed to it, paid the money for the books and the program, and implemented this Checklist as a way to issue-spot the tests. I used that system all the way through finals in December (I’m in the class that had 6 months between the final and the FYLSE), but as I began studying intensely for the test in February, I began to realize that memorizing a checklist and really, truly understanding the material were 2 vastly different things.

So I scratched the whole program and started redoing my outlines based on the Concord First lectures. I rewrote rule statements and restructured all my outlines. I listened to the lecture over and over, and did assloads of MCQs (how much in an assload? about 1500, I guess). And then it got really weird, but if you know me at all, no big surprise. My kids are grown and I live by myself, but fortunately I have an old golden retriever and a young bulldog, so I could always claim I was talking to them. I would verbally, formally explain different topics, as if I was trying to get someone to understand who didn’t know anything about them (and neither of my dogs even has so much as an undergraduate degree, so they cooperated beautifully). Something about trying to articulate, say, every aspect of an offer, for example, really made me have to have a deep and thorough understanding of what an offer is, and every exception and detail about it. It was a technique I learned through years of teaching, both at the public school level and in my personal training practice. If you don’t understand something well enough to explain it, you don’t understand it. That one exercise immediately revealed the holes in my understanding about a topic, and while it was important to the essay writing, I think it was even more important with the MCQ’s because that’s where the real substantive testing takes place.

Primary dog, Boo, and auxiliary dog, Darwin

On the mechanical side, I also wrote out my rule statements, one subject at a sitting, about 2x a week in the month leading up to the test. That was clearly a skill for the essay writing; those rule statements practically typed themselves by the time of the test. I’m kind of a data junkie, so after writing them each time (using 90+ minutes in the beginning, <45 after a few times), I graded them (with red font – once a teacher, always a teacher) and wrote the number of major errors and minor errors on my dry-erase progress chart. (Are you gaining a deeper understanding of why I live alone?)

My CDO. It’s like OCD, but the letters are in alphabetical order, as they should be.

As I said before, I did every quiz and every essay I could in CF, and listened to the lectures several times. The last month I even listened to them as I was going to sleep at night, and would start another if I woke up and couldn’t sleep. (Funny story about that, Kayla, that I’ll tell you sometime after a beer or two). But I’ll repeat here that the number 1 thing that helped me the most was listening to Prof. Bracci debrief all the past FYLSX essays. There were in module 28 of Concord First. As I listened to them, I made little tickmarks by the issue on my outline that was tested in that essay (ask me if the tickmarks were color-coded). The second most important thing was probably compressing my 2L modules so I could study only 1L in the 4 weeks leading up to the test. The payoff for that was both during those 4 weeks, and then when I restarted 2L in July after the test and was right on schedule.

I know I’ll think of some more stuff – I’ll try to just inbox you if I do. If you have any specific questions, just email or IM me or whatever social network works for you. This was probably waaaaaaay more info than you asked for – maybe WordPress knew what it was talking about.

Good luck and let me know if I can help. Insert not-helpful cliche here about how smart you are, and how hard the test is, and how everyone will be pulling for you, blahblahblah. You are, it is, we will. Get this done.

As always, thanks for reading.

August 17, 2012 3

My FYLSX experience

Oh my goodness, I’m glad to write this post!
I’ve had it in my head for weeks, but I didn’t want to cast bad juju* on my results by even writing a draft of it.

I won’t redo the whole post explaining what this test is, it’s all right here. And then I debriefed the experience here.

So here’s how the CalBar (hipster law-student speak again, for the California Bar) rolls. The test was June 26. These tests are hand-graded, of course, because of the nature of the essays, so the date the results are released is reasonable at August 10. But this is where they lose me. Instead of posting the results online, where the 800 students could log in and see immediately if they have passed, they instead snailmail the results letters from California on Friday the 10th. Then, you can call on Monday the 13th if you haven’t gotten your letter (which most of us, especially the eastern half, won’t have), give your name, ssn, dob and hold your breath.

I was at daughter Amy’s house in Johnson City, with her guy and my guy, skyping with my study buddy and made my call. Even after getting my YES, I checked the CalBar site over and over for the “Requirement Satisfied” status. The statistics are not yet available for the June test; the most recent results are for the Oct 2011 test, which had an overall pass rate of 19.1%. If you heard a scream or a shout around noon last Monday, it was moi.

394509_4454357157901_557214871_n — Post-results day on the Nolichucky with my sweeties #letthedrunkchickguidetheraft

At this part of the post, if you are not a fellow law student, I don’t hold you accountable for not continuing to read. It will be dull and irrelevant, and you are welcome to go have some strawberries and blackberries in cream. Wait, that’s me. Go have a snack of your own design, and I’ll meet you back at the blog when I’m ranting about religion or republicans or something.

I’d love to be able to give the top 3 Reasons I Passed. Or some wisdom about how to budget your time, or write your essays, or practice your MCQ’s. The best I can do is tell you what I did, and what worked for me. And what didn’t.

Beginning in mid-January, I reworked my 2L schedule to be able to suspend my study for one month before the test and resume study in July without being behind.
Also beginning in January, I began the Concord First Program our school provided for us that consisted of an intense study program of the test subjects.
For 5 months, I dual-studied 1L and 2L (with 2L at a compressed rate).
I took my work schedule to half-time in March – I have the world’s best clients.
On June 1, I took the month off work, suspended 2L, and began studying 1L subjects 8-10 hours a day.
I chose to discard the external, checklist-based tutoring program I had used occasionally in 1L. I feel strongly about this one, and I think I had to overcome this mentality to make the progress I made.
I wrote every essay and took every multiple-choice quiz in Concord First.
I accessed additional essays and MCQ’s and practiced those several times.
I listened to Professor Bracchi analyze all 4 essays for every FYLSE back to 2004. If I had to pick one thing that was the most important, it would be this one.
I had the best study buddy on the planet.

There you go. I know that there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat – this is what worked for me. However, not once after the test was I confident I had passed. The area I thought I had done well in, the essays, were weaker grades than I expected, and the multiple choice, which could have been in Sanskrit for all I understood them, actually were what allowed me to pass. I don’t know what the significance is of that lack of confidence, but until I heard the magic words, I didn’t think I had gotten it done.

Now it’s back to 2L, because those finals are around the corner in December. Can’t close until I repeat, yet again, how much I love this school and the study of law.

Thanks for reading!

*you know I’m kidding about the bad juju, right?? What kind of rationalist do you take me for?

August 15, 2012 3

FYLSX recap.

OK, precious posse —

Here’s the scoop.
First, thank you for being so patient with me. I know I’ve been an absolute bear, and it’s only because I surround myself with the world’s most wonderful friends that I’m able to survive this!

So…

Flew out to LA last Wednesday, and spent a day with the squeeze before reporting for duty at the Pasadena Hilton. I picked up my girl Rosine at LAX (blog post about the world’s best study partner to come – I totally get credit for recognizing brilliance when I see it…) and headed to review weekend.

314707_4222597084044_265154660_n — Best study buddy ever.

Because of my freaky-deaky online law school, as I have mentioned, all the studying is ON YOU. Which, for some of us overachieving, Hermione, type A personalities, that is perfect. We like moving at our own pace, we like figuring out what we have to know, and we truly love learning it. I’m speaking for my fellow students, perhaps out of turn, but, along with the flexibility, is the reason we chose this school.

So what a spectacular moment when we all come together for the review weekend! We’ve skyped one another, emailed, texted, called, IM’d, conference called, and class-chatted for a year and a half. We’ve stalked one another’s Facebook, we’ve tried to put a 3 dimensional face to our friends, we’ve had virtual study groups, and finally, we get to meet for the first time REAL TIME, with real faces, and real voices, and real smiles (remember when Darth wanted to look at Luke with his own eyes? Yeah, like that.)

The review weekend begins with a mock test that simulates the FYLSX (First Year Law Students Exam – have I mentioned that?). The following 2 days are a review/debrief/dissection of the test, in a room with 80-100 of my closest law school friends. I loved being in the room with all that academic energy, drive, and passion. Our reviewing professor, Professor Steve Bracci, is the undisputed hero of the weekend, and if his earnestness could get us through, we would all pass with the proverbial flying colors.

We also got to meet most of our other professors, who have been completely available and absolutely helpful. My brother attended a bricks-and-mortar law school (hipster-speak for plain old boring law school), and he did not have the complimentary things to say about his professors that I do about mine. I’ve never waited more than 5 or 6 hours for an email response, and each time, the professors offer to also chat on the phone if we think we need extra help. And no, all this sucking up does nothing for getting me to pass the test – CalBar is the complete and final say on that; our faculty have no input.

So test day rolls around, we report to the Pasadena Civic Center – all 800 of us – with our belonging in a clear, ziplock bag, earplugs, #2 pencils, and enough nervous energy to have powered the building for the entire 8 hours. 4 essays, 4 hours, and hour break for what would have been lunch if anyone could have eaten without puking, and then 100 multiple choice questions in 3 hours. (Let me help you – 1.8 minutes per question).

And just like that, it was over.

images — “So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.”

Ok, maybe it wasn’t quite that bad, but it was pretty brutal. Results released by CalBar August 10, and I’m sure it’s an unintentional oversight on CalBar’s part that the last day for regular-cost registration for the retest is August 1. Hmmmmm.

The $10,000 question? I honestly do not know if I passed. The essays were solid, and while the grade is combined, the MCQ’s were sketchy, and I don’t know if the essays can lift me up. So retake is October, and another good time with my posse, another trip to Pasadena.

In the meantime, 2L rolls on (totally different subjects than the test subjects – an extra special bonus!)

Back to my life, my home, my friends, my work! I’ve missed you all! Thank you again for being so patient – don’t get into any legal trouble til I’m ready! =)

Thanks for reading!

June 29, 2012 6

Most boring post. Ever.

This might be the most boring blog entry in the history of blog entries. It’s just to serve as an explanation of where I have been, and where I’ll be for the next few weeks.

Underground.

When you attend a freaky-deaky online law school like I do, California insists you take what is known as the First Year Law Students’ Exam, affectionately known as the Baby Bar. It’s a great idea – the premise is that if you can’t pass this bad boy, you really shouldn’t put a whole lot of time and effort into continuing (that’s what I’ve decided is the premise). I have to fly to Pasadena the week before, attend a review weekend, and then the test is all day June 26: 4 one-hour essays, and 100 multiple choice questions.

Rose Bowl - the only Pasadena icon I know — Rose Bowl – the only Pasadena icon I know!

I am halfway through my 2nd year, but because the test is only offered in June and October, I am scheduled to take the test June 26. So, you can do the math…since January, I’ve been studying 1L and 2L subjects. #firstworldproblems

They way it works, you have 3 tries to pass this test, and an administration counts as a try. In other words, even if you opt not to take one of the 3 consecutive administrations of the test for whatever reason, that counts as a try. After the 3rd go, best wishes for your new career, which will not be the law.

I have this June, the following October, and June of 2013 to kill this mofo. I’ve been studying like crazy, all while studying all the 2L subjects (Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Real Property, Constitutional Law). I’m crabby and sleep-deprived and full of self-doubt. And I still have almost 6 weeks to go.

I should say that I really do love this school, I love the studying, the lectures, even the essays. I’m going to see this through to the nth degree, 3 takings of this test and all. I would really really really like to pass it on the first go, and I’m doing all I can to make that happen.

Which is why I’m writing this post. It’s why I haven’t blogged in days and days. It’s why I’ll be lying low for a bit. And it’s why, if you see me around, I may be in a fog, I may be short and snippy, or I may not even see you if you wave! Please be patient with me – – I’ll be back, I promise.

In the meantime, enjoy your May and June, and I will emerge on June 27th!

Thanks for reading! (and for being patient!)

May 17, 2012 12

Law School, Year One

I’m still in bed.

It’s the Monday after my First Year Final on Friday, it’s 11:30 in the morning, and I’m still in bed.

I haven’t posted recently about school, not because I didn’t have anything to say, but because I have been so consumed with studying. Our final consisted of essays in all three subjects: Contracts, Torts, Criminal Law, and 100 multiple choice questions. Doesn’t sound so bad, does it? It’s not, until you throw the time pressure in – 1 hour each for the essays, that we could easily have used 2 hours for, and 1.8 minutes per multiple choice question. Just for fun, here’s an example:

Paolo’s daughter, Maria Elena, was getting married at home on December 25. Wanting to make the palazzo as nice as possible for the big day, Paolo signed a written contract with painter Diablo who agreed to paint the house. Mindful of the importance of getting the job done on time, the contract contained an express provision that all painting must be completed by the wedding date and that time was of the essence. To prevent any misunderstanding the writing also stated that any modification to the contract must be in writing.

After signing the contract, Diablo was offered another lucrative job by another rich client. Diablo called Paolo on the phone and offered to upgrade the quality of paint from store brand to designer top-grade if Paolo was willing to delay completion of the job until January 31. Thinking that the house maybe didn’t look so bad after all, and how much nicer it would look with top-grade paint, Paul orally agreed that if Diablo used the better paint he could have until the end of January to finish the job.

When Paolo’s wife, Strega, returned from a business trip on December 15 and asked why the house was not painted as planned, she became furious about Paolo’s new deal with Diablo. Paolo, before going to sleep in the dog house that night, remembered the provision in the contract stating that all modifications must be in writing, so he called Diablo telling him that he needed the job done by December 25 as stated in the written contract. Diablo refused, stating that he was already working on another job and could not get to Paolo’s house before the 25th. When the wedding day came and went without the house being painted, Paolo sued Diablo for breach of contract.

Will the court likely find that Diablo breached his contract with Paolo?
(a) Yes, because the oral modification violated the Statute of Frauds.
(b) No, because the written contract was modified.
(c) Yes, because the modification lacked consideration.
(d) Yes, because the contract expressly provides that any valid modification must be made in writing.

How’d that go? Did you even get the question read in 1.8 minutes?? Now add that in most of these questions, usually 2 and sometimes 3 of the answers are actually RIGHT, but only one is the MOST RIGHT.

So, I’m still in bed.

Flying to Arizona for a last-minute study session with my study partners is what made it tolerable. I blogged about them earlier; they are one of my favorite parts of law school. It’s sadly one of the things we most feel we miss attending an online program like ours. It’s the tradeoff we make for attending lectures in our jammies in our big comfy chair in our own living rooms with a glass of wine and a blazing fire in the fireplace.

My school is a 4-year program, unlike the traditional 3 years at a bricks-and-mortar. It allows me to see it in terms of my high school and undergraduate programs: I’ve finished my freshman year. My dad has always liked this little saying:

Freshmen don’t know, and they don’t know they don’t know.

Sophmores don’t know, but they know they don’t know.

Juniors know, but they don’t know they know.

Seniors know, and they know they know.

So that puts me ending the year that I didn’t even know that I didn’t know, which is pretty accurate. My reflections on this past year are:

1. Law school is harder than I expected.

2. Law school has no bearing on the Bar Exam.

3. Law school appears to have no bearing on the practice of law.

4. Law school makes for some incredible friendships.

5. When I don’t think I’m going to pass, I think of all the people who are lawyers, like Dan Quayle, Michelle Bachmann, and Judge Roy Moore, and I get sick to my stomach.

My class now gets the much-anticipated break in which we get to enjoy not studying for the first time since last January, that is delightfully tainted by the fact that we don’t get the results of our final, and consequently, the results of whether or not we’ve passed the first year. Happy Holidays!

In this break of time I want to read, work, cook, watch Project Runway with my daughters who are home from college on Christmas break, clean the house (a little, don’t get all crazy), and go out to Colorado and ski with the sons. I have to go back to a real to-do list for a while; for the past 3 months, it has only had one thing on it: STUDY.

I love law school. I know that’s not the conclusion you were expecting from all the above. I love it in SPITE of all that stuff. And I love my school in particular, imperfections and all. I love being at my own pace, I love clicking off the modules on the timeline, I love chatting with my fellow students in our virtual classroom, and more than anything, I love learning this stuff.

Like a law princess version of Rumplestiltskin, I wish I could spin that passion into grades….but for now, I’ll just have to wait to learn my fate.

If you sent me a note of encouragement, a text of support, a phone call of I-believe-in-you — THANK YOU! I’ve cherished every word and I promise to try to live up to your faith in me. I can tell you I really did the very best I could. Free legal advice for EVERYONE IN THE BAR!

As always, thanks for reading!

The minute you read something that you can’t understand, you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer.
Will Rogers

(a) Yes, because the oral modification violated the Statute of Frauds.
No. This contract does not fall within the SOF.
(b) No, because the written contract was modified. Yes. Although the
contract contained a clause prohibiting oral modification, courts
typically view a subsequent oral agreement as a waiver of the clause,
particularly when it is supported by consideration, as it is here.
(c) Yes, because the modification lacked consideration. No. The
agreement to upgrade the paint quality was sufficient consideration to
support the change in date.
(d) Yes, because the contract expressly provides that any valid
modification must be made in writing. No, for the same reason that B
is correct.

December 12, 2011 4

Study Weekend

And law school continues…

It’s so central to my life, I take it for granted everyone else knows about it, til I check and it has been weeks since I mentioned it!

So on it goes. I am closing in on the end of my first year; this program is 4 years, as opposed to most bricks and mortar law schools which are 3. My final exam is December 3, over which I am appropriately freaking out. Then the real fun begins.

Because my school is based in CA, the CA Bar requires the taking of the First Year Law Students Exam (FYLSE), affectionately known as the Baby Bar. It’s a great idea: you can’t continue in school if you don’t pass it. In 3 tries. Well, you CAN, but you get the idea. I begin my second year in January, and don’t take the FYLSE until June 2012 – halfway through my 2nd year!

Both tests consist of 100 multiple choice questions and 3 essays. Easy, right? Sure. Subjects are Torts, Criminal Law, and Contracts. They each have their interesting parts, and each have their tedious parts. The trick is having memorized the rules, the exceptions, and the exceptions to the exceptions, and to be able to analyze and answer the questions, and analyze and write the essays. 1st world problem.

So my study group is a bit unconventional. (I know, big surprise.) We have virtual study sessions where we’re on skype reviewing subjects. Sometimes we’re on the phones, sometimes we’re using email or text. But this past weekend, we went all out.

Our study group met in 1000 Oaks, California, at the home of Charlene and Rick, and their son Kevin. I flew in from TN, and Rosine and Myra drove from Tuscon. We converged on a Friday afternoon, and I don’t really know how, but we managed to squeeze in 4 meals in restaurants, hours of studying, a 2.5 mile walk, at least 4 practice tests, and loads of laughing and socializing, all before I took the redeye out on Sunday!

Charlene and Rick were hosts above all hosts. Here’s a study area:

And here’s our study tshirts:

Then there’s Rick, Char’s long-suffering and patient husband, who waited on the students beyond anyone’s imagination:

And this was the lovely environment in which all this studying took place:

And I can’t leave out Kevin, who gave up his bedroom and bathroom for 2 nights, engaged in a philosophical conversation with me (one of my favorites), let us take over his house for the weekend with no complaint (reminder: he’s 16), and was an all-around good sport about our endless probing questions into his life and interests. And can I also add this boy is a 4.0, AP, perfect SAT, Harvard or Yale prospect track star??

I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of Sparky, our beagle companion, who added so much to the group dynamic. She had a lot to say, and as she is refining her “size-reduction techniques”, commiserated with the rest of us about the challenges of that!

All in all, we had a wonderful weekend of study and friendship. We hope to do it again in February and April, before our big test in June, and we hope to do at least one of those sessions here in TN. Myra, who is in graduate school, but not law school, says she wants to work on the farm. I said to bring her boots. If we make this happen, we’ll have a throwdown/bonfire for the school posse to meet some of my TN posse.

Our little group before our walk to....breakfast, of course.

Rick, Kevin, Charlene, Myra, Rosine, Sparky — thank you for a fabulous weekend!

Thanks for reading!

October 26, 2011 1

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Gayle Jordan