Denver 2013 Forum

[lawlec48]

Hi everyone- I haven't joined in on this site, though I have been checking on it occasionally for a while now. I am all set to attend DU. I was at the ASD, but I didn't have time to join up with anyone, but I look forward to getting to meet you all once school starts.

Just curious, is everyone planning on working in Denver, or is anywhere in Colorado your main choice? My wife and I met in Colorado Springs, and I really want to settle my family down there once school is done. For anyone who is a native, any ideas/experience with finding legal work in Colorado Springs?

As an out-of-stater, I planned to work in Denver or the metro area when I was looking into attending DU versus my other options since I knew DU was strong in Denver. I'm pretty clueless on the legal markets outside of Denver, but I imagine they are more limited due to opportunity, except for government jobs... at least it is more limited in my area, which is outside of the major cities in Wisconsin (Madison/Milwaukee). Outside of Denver, I can only imagine I'll probably only look back into WI and where I have some connections. That or if I want to work in a specific department or organization without a Denver office, or that I can luck myself.

[lawgirl99]

Mathies, I would appreciate any info you would like to share about the Environmental program. Like why you chose to go that route, what kind of job do you hope to snag in that field, just anything useful. I've read your other post and you you're very insightful on the law school experience and the connections that need to be made.

Everyone else: Whats the dilly o on the 500.00 parking past? And are the less expensive parking passes far from the law school?

I actually chose DU specifically for the environmental/natural resources law program, over other schools, even much higher ranked ones. (I also started in the MLS/LLM before the JD, which takes some explaining, but can post on that in a different thread). I want to practice environmental law, specifically water law, and Colorado is the best state to do that.

DU has TONS of environmental and natural resources law classes, I mean just about everything you can think of. Enough that you can actually specilize with the JD here. There is also an environmental law clinic and the Water Law Review, both of which I did while in school. Of course there is also the LLM in Environmental Law.
We have great professors for envrioemal law like Cheever, Latios, Pring, Don Smith and others. There are also a ton of internships the school has set up over the years for environmental jobs. Plus a really active enevrionmtal law society and several big EL and NR meetings at the school each year . Outside the school there are bar subsections for environmental and natural resources. BTW something I should note, DU's focus is more on Natural resources Law than Environmental Law, they are the same but different to, basically NR issues are bigger in the west than the east, and EL issues bigger in the east than the west, but they are basically, in laymen's terms, the same things.

Also environmental law is not just limited to public interest, all the large firms here have environmental law departments, the EPA regional headquarters is here, plus tone of medium sized and small firms do the work as well. You can make lots of money in environmental law, so its not just PI jobs (but there are plenty of those organizations here as well).

Check out http://law.du.edu/index.php/enrlp for more info on the opportunities for environmental law at DU.

Matthies,

Can you please tell me more about your experience on the Water Law Review? Is it possible for 1L's to join and if yes, how?

Thank you!

[Matthies]

Matthies,

Can you please tell me more about your experience on the Water Law Review? Is it possible for 1L's to join and if yes, how?

Thank you!

The Water law Review is a write on competition. It has three parts. First part your given an excerpt of an article with all kinds of errors, like misspellings, missing or wrong punctuation and stuff that you have to fix using the Chicago manual of Style (if you don't have one and can afford one get it, otherwise you may have to wait for other people to use the library copy). Then there is a bluebook section where you have to fix or find all kinds of obscure BB cites. Finally there is a written part where you write a case summary or compare/contrast some cases or whatever they decide the writing part is going to be. From everyone who turns in the packet they pick like -7-12 people each semester. You can compete any semester, I did it second part of 1L. I would wait till then to try so your more familiar with the Blue Book. Once your on you can stay on as long as you want, but if you want to run for baord you should make sure you have 2 years on, becuase you will need to be an artcle editor before your can run for EIC.

Once you're on the Water law review you will have 2 atcricles a semester to work on, at least one case note/summery to write, and maybe a book note, court report or something else. You can get published as often as twice in each issue if your stuff is good enough accepted by the board.

Your work on articles will be fixing other peoples articles. You will get like 10-20 pages to edit, and check all the cites for. Checking cites is a pain in the ass and the longest part of working on the WLR. You have to go to the library find the cite the professor used, look it up, make sure its quoted right, make sure the BB cite is right, then make a photo copy of it for each cite (and if our library does not have the book you have to order from interlibrary loan). Sometimes the professors will just leave cites blank and you have to guess from context what the hell they cited to!

For about 20 days, 10 days per article per semester you will be really busy with WLR work as a staff editor. But after your first semester or so you get pretty fast at it. I think I got published like 8 times while I was on the WLR. So you have a chance to get published more than on the main law review (that's the same for all the secondary journals generally more chances to get published by the staff, because they are more student content centered than the main LR which has more article from professors, while WLR has more articles from practicing lawyers and judges on water issues and has court reports which are all written by the staff)

[cassandrakirsch]

I've been swamped, otherwise I'd post more often. Anyways, I'll be in Denver on July 8th to get an apartment and I'm definitely stoked about the move!

Also, has anyone heard back from the financial aid office about the second round of scholarships?

[lawgirl99]

Matthies,

Can you please tell me more about your experience on the Water Law Review? Is it possible for 1L's to join and if yes, how?

Thank you!

The Water law Review is a write on competition. It has three parts. First part your given an excerpt of an article with all kinds of errors, like misspellings, missing or wrong punctuation and stuff that you have to fix using the Chicago manual of Style (if you don't have one and can afford one get it, otherwise you may have to wait for other people to use the library copy). Then there is a bluebook section where you have to fix or find all kinds of obscure BB cites. Finally there is a written part where you write a case summary or compare/contrast some cases or whatever they decide the writing part is going to be. From everyone who turns in the packet they pick like -7-12 people each semester. You can compete any semester, I did it second part of 1L. I would wait till then to try so your more familiar with the Blue Book. Once your on you can stay on as long as you want, but if you want to run for baord you should make sure you have 2 years on, becuase you will need to be an artcle editor before your can run for EIC.

Once you're on the Water law review you will have 2 atcricles a semester to work on, at least one case note/summery to write, and maybe a book note, court report or something else. You can get published as often as twice in each issue if your stuff is good enough accepted by the board.

Your work on articles will be fixing other peoples articles. You will get like 10-20 pages to edit, and check all the cites for. Checking cites is a pain in the ass and the longest part of working on the WLR. You have to go to the library find the cite the professor used, look it up, make sure its quoted right, make sure the BB cite is right, then make a photo copy of it for each cite (and if our library does not have the book you have to order from interlibrary loan). Sometimes the professors will just leave cites blank and you have to guess from context what the hell they cited to!

For about 20 days, 10 days per article per semester you will be really busy with WLR work as a staff editor. But after your first semester or so you get pretty fast at it. I think I got published like 8 times while I was on the WLR. So you have a chance to get published more than on the main law review (that's the same for all the secondary journals generally more chances to get published by the staff, because they are more student content centered than the main LR which has more article from professors, while WLR has more articles from practicing lawyers and judges on water issues and has court reports which are all written by the staff)

Thank you very much for all the information. This is REALLY helpful!

[JTX]

bump.
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/que ... 11436.html

DU law prof in a news story:

"I think it would be good for President Powers to take up the work of President Faulkner and ensure an honest and critical dialogue about that part of the university's history," said Tom Russell , a University of Denver law professor whose article on Simkins prompted UT's review of the dorm's name. "But I am not a person who thinks names of the Confederates or statues need to be removed from campus.

"Constitutional law supported slavery as a legal institution. That makes a difference for me. Slavery was a deplorable institution, but slavery was supported at the very highest levels in the United States, not just in the South," Russell said."

[Matthies]

bump.
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/que ... 11436.html

DU law prof in a news story:

"I think it would be good for President Powers to take up the work of President Faulkner and ensure an honest and critical dialogue about that part of the university's history," said Tom Russell , a University of Denver law professor whose article on Simkins prompted UT's review of the dorm's name. "But I am not a person who thinks names of the Confederates or statues need to be removed from campus.

"Constitutional law supported slavery as a legal institution. That makes a difference for me. Slavery was a deplorable institution, but slavery was supported at the very highest levels in the United States, not just in the South," Russell said."

Professor Russel is GREAT! Great teacher, mentor, freind. He's on my FB, just all around good guy. Way to liberal for some, and some don't like his teaching style, but the man is a great professor in my view, He taught me torts.

[JTX]

bump.
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/que ... 11436.html

DU law prof in a news story:

"I think it would be good for President Powers to take up the work of President Faulkner and ensure an honest and critical dialogue about that part of the university's history," said Tom Russell , a University of Denver law professor whose article on Simkins prompted UT's review of the dorm's name. "But I am not a person who thinks names of the Confederates or statues need to be removed from campus.

"Constitutional law supported slavery as a legal institution. That makes a difference for me. Slavery was a deplorable institution, but slavery was supported at the very highest levels in the United States, not just in the South," Russell said."

Professor Russel is GREAT! Great teacher, mentor, freind. He's on my FB, just all around good guy. Way to liberal for some, and some don't like his teaching style, but the man is a great professor in my view, He taught me torts.

i was intrigued by his comments. i'm hoping he's on my schedule now.

[whiskey]

2nd deposit just made. Apartment taken care of. Moving in Mid July. Hope to meet up with some of you guys before classes start.

[cassandrakirsch]

I just received an e-mail from Lacey in Financial Aid to let me know that more people accepted the scholarships than originally anticipated, so the likelihood of a second round of scholarships this year is relatively low. For those that haven't received any sort of scholarship, how have you dealt with the overwhelming pressure of copious debt after graduation? I have resigned to the idea of income based repayment and working in the public interest sector for the aspect of loan forgiveness. Still,the thought of being well over $100,000 dollars into debt upon graduation is a bit overwhelming at times.

I guess, I'm looking for ways people have justified this in similar situations.

[Matthies]

I just received an e-mail from Lacey in Financial Aid to let me know that more people accepted the scholarships than originally anticipated, so the likelihood of a second round of scholarships this year is relatively low. For those that haven't received any sort of scholarship, how have you dealt with the overwhelming pressure of copious debt after graduation? I have resigned to the idea of income based repayment and working in the public interest sector for the aspect of loan forgiveness. Still,the thought of being well over $100,000 dollars into debt upon graduation is a bit overwhelming at times.

I guess, I'm looking for ways people have justified this in similar situations.

After 1L you can take day or night classes, i know several day students who took one less class a semster and took mostly afternoon or night classes and worked at firms during the day to defer costs and get experince. Universially it was good move since everyone I know who personally did this had jobs at graduation that came from working 2/3L. Plus you can take a bit longer to graduate if you want to, you don't have to graduate in 3 years.

[JTX]

I just received an e-mail from Lacey in Financial Aid to let me know that more people accepted the scholarships than originally anticipated, so the likelihood of a second round of scholarships this year is relatively low. For those that haven't received any sort of scholarship, how have you dealt with the overwhelming pressure of copious debt after graduation? I have resigned to the idea of income based repayment and working in the public interest sector for the aspect of loan forgiveness. Still,the thought of being well over $100,000 dollars into debt upon graduation is a bit overwhelming at times.

I guess, I'm looking for ways people have justified this in similar situations.

After 1L you can take day or night classes, i know several day students who took one less class a semster and took mostly afternoon or night classes and worked at firms during the day to defer costs and get experince. Universially it was good move since everyone I know who personally did this had jobs at graduation that came from working 2/3L. Plus you can take a bit longer to graduate if you want to, you don't have to graduate in 3 years.

what is this sane advice?? no! the 4 horsemen of the ITE are riding down on you and you need to just not go to law school at all if its not T-14 on scholly.

Matthies, that sounds pretty reasonable. cassandra, i think you are right to be debt shy. its absolutely better for your long term financial health to not have a mortgage payment size student loan if at all possible. even Obama signed the "pay as you go" law.

[cassandrakirsch]

I just received an e-mail from Lacey in Financial Aid to let me know that more people accepted the scholarships than originally anticipated, so the likelihood of a second round of scholarships this year is relatively low. For those that haven't received any sort of scholarship, how have you dealt with the overwhelming pressure of copious debt after graduation? I have resigned to the idea of income based repayment and working in the public interest sector for the aspect of loan forgiveness. Still,the thought of being well over $100,000 dollars into debt upon graduation is a bit overwhelming at times.

I guess, I'm looking for ways people have justified this in similar situations.

After 1L you can take day or night classes, i know several day students who took one less class a semster and took mostly afternoon or night classes and worked at firms during the day to defer costs and get experince. Universially it was good move since everyone I know who personally did this had jobs at graduation that came from working 2/3L. Plus you can take a bit longer to graduate if you want to, you don't have to graduate in 3 years.

what is this sane advice?? no! the 4 horsemen of the ITE are riding down on you and you need to just not go to law school at all if its not T-14 on scholly.

Matthies, that sounds pretty reasonable. cassandra, i think you are right to be debt shy. its absolutely better for your long term financial health to not have a mortgage payment size student loan if at all possible. even Obama signed the "pay as you go" law.

Thanks, everyone! Actually, the advice was great and picked up my spirits! I guess I just needed some affirmation that it is possible to manage such giant debt.

On a different note, does anyone know about the commute from Englewood to campus?

[Matthies]

On a different note, does anyone know about the commute from Englewood to campus?

Where in Englewood, its kind oa large area of south Denver, part of it is just like 1/2 mile from school but the southern part is way out there

[cassandrakirsch]

On a different note, does anyone know about the commute from Englewood to campus?

Where in Englewood, its kind oa large area of south Denver, part of it is just like 1/2 mile from school but the southern part is way out there

What's the farthest south you would recommend living in Englewood? I'm just starting to look at places in the area, since I heard the rent and location weren't too shabby.

[JTX]

google maps it, home slice. be sure to do street view!

it can be fairly hit or miss and hard to recommend an area, more like a couple square miles cna be a big difference.

if you have anything in specific, let me know here or PM. I'm trying to get up to Denver nxt wknd to meet some TLSers and check out some places. Be more than happy to recon an area for ya. or even take pix. whatever, I'm that kinda guy.

[Captain Muscles]

What's up guys!

It is looking like Sturm College of Law will be my home in the fall!

[Matthies]

What's up guys!

It is looking like Sturm College of Law will be my home in the fall!

Cool wlecome to the group!

[JTX]

What's up guys!

It is looking like Sturm College of Law will be my home in the fall!

welcome! Matthies is our resident advisor here ITT. he is a fresh grad, and, unlike so much of TLS, lives in the real world.

whats your story, bro? i assume youre a bro with the muscles bit.
see you this fall, Broseidon (King of the Brocean) [with credit to SBL].

[Captain Muscles]

Sup JTX.

I grew up in the Mecca of Bros, the South Bay near Los Angeles.

Not really that much of a bro myself though.

Looking forward to getting out of the LA area and beginning a new course of studies in Denver!

[whiskey]

Whats Up Broham?
What part of LA are you in Muscles? I'm in the Long beach area. When are you planning to make the move to Denver?

[lawlec48]

What's up guys!

It is looking like Sturm College of Law will be my home in the fall!

Welcome to the group El Capiton de buff!!! Yeah, i don't know spanish, so take that welcome with that in perspective... none the less, welcome to DU Law... we are ALL going to have to get together prior to orientation.

Once again, anyone who wants to meet up on June 12th (saturday) or some other time between June 12-16, my wife and I are going to be in town to do some apartment hunting, plus we will be moving in mid-late July, hopefully Mid as I am excited to get to Denver and enjoy the city prior to getting stuck in the library for the next three years.

[Captain Muscles]

^^Brostadamus says I will be visiting Denver sometime in late June.

^ Thanks! If I will be in the area, I am down. Nothing wrong with having a couple of beers and meeting some fellow 1Lers.

[lawlec48]

^^Brostadamus says I will be visiting Denver sometime in late June.

^ Thanks! If I will be in the area, I am down. Nothing wrong with having a couple of beers and meeting some fellow 1Lers.

Once everyone knows when they are going to be officially moved into Denver, and if JTX and Matthies are free, we should definitely have a TLS party prior to orientation. Although I have met about half of you already, or presumably will within the next couple weeks, it will be great to meet the rest of the TLS group at DU. Especially since most of us our OOS students without much of a base in Denver.

[JTX]

66 and some clouds here.

70 and some clouds in Denver. nice Colorado morning so far.

more updates later

edit @ 2;30p: 84 and some clouds. nice day. DU was a good choice OOSers.