SMU Class of 2013/2014 Forum

[Thirteen]

I'm glad that we weren't closed today

[Texasboundanddown]

New rankings are out, not that it really matters for a school like SMU.

I really dislike our writing program. Like enough to regret choosing the school. Doesn't help when the gf sends me the new rankings, with a question like "Why didn't you go to X school" and when I say "money" she says it shouldn't have mattered.

Brutal.

[fathergoose]

New rankings are out, not that it really matters for a school like SMU.

I really dislike our writing program. Like enough to regret choosing the school. Doesn't help when the gf sends me the new rankings, with a question like "Why didn't you go to X school" and when I say "money" she says it shouldn't have mattered.

Brutal.

Time for a less harsh girlfriend?

and I agree about the writing program. Coming in I thought it was going to be a great thing that they make such a big deal about it, but maybe there is a correlation between 1Ls spending enormous amounts of time on our LRW class at the expense of our other classes and our depressingly low bar passage rate.

[Thirteen]

New rankings are out, not that it really matters for a school like SMU.

I really dislike our writing program. Like enough to regret choosing the school. Doesn't help when the gf sends me the new rankings, with a question like "Why didn't you go to X school" and when I say "money" she says it shouldn't have mattered.

Brutal.

Time for a less harsh girlfriend?

and I agree about the writing program. Coming in I thought it was going to be a great thing that they make such a big deal about it, but maybe there is a correlation between 1Ls spending enormous amounts of time on our LRW class at the expense of our other classes and our depressingly low bar passage rate.

Sign up for Bar Bri

[Texasboundanddown]

New rankings are out, not that it really matters for a school like SMU.

I really dislike our writing program. Like enough to regret choosing the school. Doesn't help when the gf sends me the new rankings, with a question like "Why didn't you go to X school" and when I say "money" she says it shouldn't have mattered.

Brutal.

Time for a less harsh girlfriend?

and I agree about the writing program. Coming in I thought it was going to be a great thing that they make such a big deal about it, but maybe there is a correlation between 1Ls spending enormous amounts of time on our LRW class at the expense of our other classes and our depressingly low bar passage rate.

Sign up for Bar Bri

I hope you don't get that free course. Plus, I have Texas going to the elite eight so don't let them screw me.

My thing is, make the writing course 2 hours the second semester. Mayyybe 3 hours the first, since there is alot to learn in the beginning but this freezing February thing really showed how useless the closed brief was. Most, if not all, did not do very much work on it. The fact that they dangle the completion grade in front of you to motivate you is laughable. And evvverybody agrees. I don't understand how they haven't changed it yet. I guess we can put it on our comment cards AGAIN and maybe it will happen.

[Billy Batts]

New rankings are out, not that it really matters for a school like SMU.

I really dislike our writing program. Like enough to regret choosing the school. Doesn't help when the gf sends me the new rankings, with a question like "Why didn't you go to X school" and when I say "money" she says it shouldn't have mattered.

Brutal.

This is a legal writing school, at least for 1Ls. The focus is on that class alone; the others take a back seat.

[kalvano]

I wouldn't mind Legal Writing if they had anything remotely resembling a curriculum or teaching. Instead, we get a bunch of sample briefs and are told "These are OK, but not really that great." I can Google briefs...in fact, I did. Real ones don't look anything like what we are told to write.

I've seen monkey shit fights at the zoo that are better organized and more informative than the standard Legal Writing class.

[fathergoose]

I wouldn't mind Legal Writing if they had anything remotely resembling a curriculum or teaching. Instead, we get a bunch of sample briefs and are told "These are OK, but not really that great." I can Google briefs...in fact, I did. Real ones don't look anything like what we are told to write.

I've seen monkey shit fights at the zoo that are better organized and more informative than the standard Legal Writing class.

I agree. I get that they want to make it seem important and well put together by having "professors" teach the class but I'd rather have a 3L on law review teach it and just give us the nitty gritty on how to write a memo/brief.

Also it seems ridiculous the amount of time that goes into the brief. I could have read through all of my notes, gone through old outlines, and made outlines in all my other classes with the amount of time I've spent on this stupid thing and still had time to watch march madness. Seems a little ridiculous. Maybe I'm just really slow at brief writing but I get the feeling that it is consuming equal amounts of time for lots of other people.

[Billy Batts]

I wouldn't mind Legal Writing if they had anything remotely resembling a curriculum or teaching. Instead, we get a bunch of sample briefs and are told "These are OK, but not really that great." I can Google briefs...in fact, I did. Real ones don't look anything like what we are told to write.

I've seen monkey shit fights at the zoo that are better organized and more informative than the standard Legal Writing class.

I agree. I get that they want to make it seem important and well put together by having "professors" teach the class but I'd rather have a 3L on law review teach it and just give us the nitty gritty on how to write a memo/brief.

Also it seems ridiculous the amount of time that goes into the brief. I could have read through all of my notes, gone through old outlines, and made outlines in all my other classes with the amount of time I've spent on this stupid thing and still had time to watch march madness. Seems a little ridiculous. Maybe I'm just really slow at brief writing but I get the feeling that it is consuming equal amounts of time for lots of other people.

I've worked on the damn thing every day for eight days straight, and it's nowhere near ready to submit.

[kalvano]

I wouldn't mind Legal Writing if they had anything remotely resembling a curriculum or teaching. Instead, we get a bunch of sample briefs and are told "These are OK, but not really that great." I can Google briefs...in fact, I did. Real ones don't look anything like what we are told to write.

I've seen monkey shit fights at the zoo that are better organized and more informative than the standard Legal Writing class.

I agree. I get that they want to make it seem important and well put together by having "professors" teach the class but I'd rather have a 3L on law review teach it and just give us the nitty gritty on how to write a memo/brief.

Also it seems ridiculous the amount of time that goes into the brief. I could have read through all of my notes, gone through old outlines, and made outlines in all my other classes with the amount of time I've spent on this stupid thing and still had time to watch march madness. Seems a little ridiculous. Maybe I'm just really slow at brief writing but I get the feeling that it is consuming equal amounts of time for lots of other people.

I've worked on the damn thing every day for eight days straight, and it's nowhere near ready to submit.

All I can say is fuck Minnesota and Missouri.

[Texasboundanddown]

I wouldn't mind Legal Writing if they had anything remotely resembling a curriculum or teaching. Instead, we get a bunch of sample briefs and are told "These are OK, but not really that great." I can Google briefs...in fact, I did. Real ones don't look anything like what we are told to write.

I've seen monkey shit fights at the zoo that are better organized and more informative than the standard Legal Writing class.

I agree. I get that they want to make it seem important and well put together by having "professors" teach the class but I'd rather have a 3L on law review teach it and just give us the nitty gritty on how to write a memo/brief.

Also it seems ridiculous the amount of time that goes into the brief. I could have read through all of my notes, gone through old outlines, and made outlines in all my other classes with the amount of time I've spent on this stupid thing and still had time to watch march madness. Seems a little ridiculous. Maybe I'm just really slow at brief writing but I get the feeling that it is consuming equal amounts of time for lots of other people.

I've worked on the damn thing every day for eight days straight, and it's nowhere near ready to submit.

The fact that all the other schools in state don't even come close to matching the 6 hours over two semesters makes me really, really fucking sad.

I can't complain enough. And the other thing, when are we going to be writing briefs? If you get big law like everyone wants to, you ain't goin' near a final brief for a while. By then the firm will have indoctrinated you in the right and wrong ways (or at least thats what I was told). Its kind of like getting an econ degree and going to work for JP. You get there, and they're like "Hmmm thats nice, great grades, but this is actually how its done." Makes you want to just burn everything you've ever done.

And damnit at Pitt. I need Richmond to make it to the elite 8 for me to survive!

[kalvano]

I would think that learning to draft motions and trial court briefs would be more useful. My father is an attorney, and has been practicing for about 40 years, and has done maybe 15 appellate briefs.

[wellington]

I've worked on the damn thing every day for eight days straight, and it's nowhere near ready to submit.

+1

It's infuriating knowing there's going to be enough gunner assholes to keep me from even getting a whiff of anything in the A range despite my nonstop work on this brief.

[fathergoose]

It's infuriating knowing there's going to be enough gunner assholes to keep me from even getting a whiff of anything in the A range despite my nonstop work on this brief.

Agreed. I'm flabbergasted at the people who were done last week.

[Texasboundanddown]

It's infuriating knowing there's going to be enough gunner assholes to keep me from even getting a whiff of anything in the A range despite my nonstop work on this brief.

Agreed. I'm flabbergasted at the people who were done last week.

If they were real gunners, they would not have stopped working on it until tomorrow.

#fakegunners

[fathergoose]

If they were real gunners, they would not have stopped working on it until tomorrow.

#fakegunners

Haha I guess they won't be #winning the best brief

I'll be curious to see how many people are in class tomorrow.

[Texasboundanddown]

If they were real gunners, they would not have stopped working on it until tomorrow.

#fakegunners

Haha I guess they won't be #winning the best brief

I'll be curious to see how many people are in class tomorrow.

You're kind of cutting it close if you don't have it in to be bound by tomorrow morning. You mean like people skipping to sleep?

It'll be kind of weird to be done with this damn thing and just be able to focus on classes. Does our oral arguments count for anything? Or is that completion also?

[kalvano]

I probably won't be there, and I will just have it bound up here by my house sometime tomorrow when I am done. It's just a plastic wire binding and colored cardstock. I don't see how any copy shop can't do it.

[fathergoose]

You're kind of cutting it close if you don't have it in to be bound by tomorrow morning. You mean like people skipping to sleep?

It'll be kind of weird to be done with this damn thing and just be able to focus on classes. Does our oral arguments count for anything? Or is that completion also?

I just figured people would still be tinkering with it tomorrow. And I think binding it takes like 5 minutes at Kinkos. They just print it off and throw a spiral through it.

[mbusch22]

You're kind of cutting it close if you don't have it in to be bound by tomorrow morning. You mean like people skipping to sleep?

It'll be kind of weird to be done with this damn thing and just be able to focus on classes. Does our oral arguments count for anything? Or is that completion also?

I just figured people would still be tinkering with it tomorrow. And I think binding it takes like 5 minutes at Kinkos. They just print it off and throw a spiral through it.

Kinko's took like 3 hours to bind mine today. Maybe because it's Sunday it took longer than usual. But don't plan on 5 minutes.

[Texasboundanddown]

You're kind of cutting it close if you don't have it in to be bound by tomorrow morning. You mean like people skipping to sleep?

It'll be kind of weird to be done with this damn thing and just be able to focus on classes. Does our oral arguments count for anything? Or is that completion also?

I just figured people would still be tinkering with it tomorrow. And I think binding it takes like 5 minutes at Kinkos. They just print it off and throw a spiral through it.

Kinko's took like 3 hours to bind mine today. Maybe because it's Sunday it took longer than usual. But don't plan on 5 minutes.

I heard that if you took it to Alpha Graphix and pay them like 20 dollars more they can expedite it. So maybe go Tuesday morning?

And yea, the dude at Kinkos told me Sundays are slow since they have only two people on shift. Plus, if you print it yourself and all they have to do is bind it then they can do it while you wait (and it saves the 10 cents a page printing). I'm prolly going to go that route.

[mbusch22]

You're kind of cutting it close if you don't have it in to be bound by tomorrow morning. You mean like people skipping to sleep?

It'll be kind of weird to be done with this damn thing and just be able to focus on classes. Does our oral arguments count for anything? Or is that completion also?

I just figured people would still be tinkering with it tomorrow. And I think binding it takes like 5 minutes at Kinkos. They just print it off and throw a spiral through it.

Kinko's took like 3 hours to bind mine today. Maybe because it's Sunday it took longer than usual. But don't plan on 5 minutes.

I heard that if you took it to Alpha Graphix and pay them like 20 dollars more they can expedite it. So maybe go Tuesday morning?

And yea, the dude at Kinkos told me Sundays are slow since they have only two people on shift. Plus, if you print it yourself and all they have to do is bind it then they can do it while you wait (and it saves the 10 cents a page printing). I'm prolly going to go that route.

Haha this would have been great to know 4 hours ago. Oh well.

[kalvano]

Fuck me. I need to cut like 5 pages from my brief.

Also, I am now certainly not going to a copy shop around school.

[wellington]

I don't know why I expected the binding process to be anything but frustrating and needlessly time consuming.

There's definitely some Follies material to be taken from all this, but I'm too damned worn out to figure it out.

[Texasboundanddown]

Fuck me. I need to cut like 5 pages from my brief.

Also, I am now certainly not going to a copy shop around school.

Goddamn, thats a lot of pages. Good luck, I dunno how you even cut that much.