Submitting today!! Last minute comments NEEDED!
Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 1:54 pm
New version of the essay! Please feel free to express all comments and criticisms - thanks!
"The ticking from the clock on the wall was as loud as my heartbeat as the proctor announced the five-minute warning. Looking around, I was certain that almost everyone I saw had an advantage over me with regard to this test. Aside from our educational disparities, I was also the youngest in the room. I was virtually a kid after all – recently turned twenty-two – and I was in the middle of the New York State Bar Exam.
One might assume this achievement was the result of a decision taken at an early age to dedicate my life to the law. However, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
My father was a British editor working for Reuters, my mother an American doctor. I grew up in the United States but between two very different worlds; my absent father was a giant in my mind and I yearned to follow in his footsteps. I was led by my paternal heritage to the United Kingdom, with the secret ambition of being an editor as he was. I did not intend to practice but I felt that studying law as an undergraduate would give me a new perspective and a highly transferable degree.
It was also an adventure. My class had over thirty countries represented and many of my friends spoke multiple languages. I have been fortunate that my experience included weekend trips to Florence to help a friend stage exhibitions in his family’s art museum, and to Cologne for a christening. I was able to revisit the orphanage in Yaroslavl, Russia where I had volunteered during one summer of high school. I learned conversational Italian and refreshed my French and Russian. I took advantage of every opportunity, except some academic ones. Having studied at one of the best universities in the world, my only regret is that I was not mature or dedicated enough at the time to fully apply myself to the legal curriculum. My fellow students were in the final stages of preparation to become practicing lawyers, and they approached the rigorous course load with the single-minded focus of graduate law students. My undergraduate program was in essence a professional degree, and I still had not accepted the law as my life. However, my journey became a manifestation of the Italian expression “l'appetito vien mangiando.” The appetite comes from eating.
Studying for the bar back in New York was the true turning point in my commitment to the law. My fellow students’ engagement was palpable as I entered the classroom each day. Our first torts lecture began with a hypothetical. I realized I was missing something when I looked up from my furious note-taking to see the whole class giggling at each other. As the professor came to the “punch line,” the package of fireworks exploded, proximate cause was introduced, and I turned to the student next to me. “Sorry, I didn’t catch the name of that case. Did you get it?”
“You don’t know Palsgraf?” he asked, incredulously. “That’s like graduating from college and never having eaten Ramen noodles.”
I realized I was facing an entire legal background that I would not be able to reference, regardless of my performance on the bar exam. I knew the relevant principles, but was lacking the rich details, the precedent and distinctions that were crucial to one’s complete understanding of the law. Speaking with my classmates opened my eyes to the opportunities and realities they were facing as a result of their studies. The experience threw my education into sharp contrast with that of these peers. For the first time, I felt part of a community of future lawyers, miles away both literally and mentally from the dusty, cavernous lecture halls of my British university. I threw myself into studying and, also for the first time, fell in love with the law.
My new determination led me to seek experience in the practice of law, where I found my editorial skills mirrored in legal work. Challenges such as reviewing a 150-page music recording contract for adverse provisions tested my meticulous attention to detail, sharp eye for mistakes, and comprehension of dense material. Of course, the fact that the other party had drafted the contract to favor its own interests only added to the satisfaction of spotting a point of contention. As an editor, I relished making corrections to enhance the author's meaning. But as an attorney, my pen now worked feverishly to identify and reshape the nuances that would determine the practical outcome of the agreement. As I walked out of my most recent internship interview, I reflected on the enjoyment I derived from marking up the contract exercise, red ink running rampant on the page. With seemingly nothing to lose, I had really let loose on that contract – perhaps too much, I remember thinking. An hour later, they offered me the position.
At [global online retailer], I am part of a team that provides crucial support to a company on the cutting edge of technology, facilitating the business and anticipating possibly unprecedented legal issues raised by its innovation. My compliance work ensures that a subtle difference in language – one that would appear innocuous to the lay reader – helps the company avoid an expensive investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority. In a recent commercial deal, negotiating the precise meaning of the word “acquire” provided the key to limiting the company’s liability in case of a future dispute.
I now find myself in the unusual position of being educated in one jurisdiction and licensed to practice in another. Thus, my experiences have led me back to law school. I now appreciate the law’s value and complexity and I want to study it – again – with the focus and maturity that I have since gained. After studying law and working in it as a young person, I have been altered by an awareness of how much I still have left to learn. I am ready to pursue the law as it has pursued me, to gain a comprehensive education that will enable me to be an effective advocate in each of my jurisdictions, and to create more opportunities to practice in my home country. I have discovered my passion, and I want a graduate legal education in the United States to further develop my knowledge and career. I may be an attorney, but I am now ready to be a student of the law."
"The ticking from the clock on the wall was as loud as my heartbeat as the proctor announced the five-minute warning. Looking around, I was certain that almost everyone I saw had an advantage over me with regard to this test. Aside from our educational disparities, I was also the youngest in the room. I was virtually a kid after all – recently turned twenty-two – and I was in the middle of the New York State Bar Exam.
One might assume this achievement was the result of a decision taken at an early age to dedicate my life to the law. However, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
My father was a British editor working for Reuters, my mother an American doctor. I grew up in the United States but between two very different worlds; my absent father was a giant in my mind and I yearned to follow in his footsteps. I was led by my paternal heritage to the United Kingdom, with the secret ambition of being an editor as he was. I did not intend to practice but I felt that studying law as an undergraduate would give me a new perspective and a highly transferable degree.
It was also an adventure. My class had over thirty countries represented and many of my friends spoke multiple languages. I have been fortunate that my experience included weekend trips to Florence to help a friend stage exhibitions in his family’s art museum, and to Cologne for a christening. I was able to revisit the orphanage in Yaroslavl, Russia where I had volunteered during one summer of high school. I learned conversational Italian and refreshed my French and Russian. I took advantage of every opportunity, except some academic ones. Having studied at one of the best universities in the world, my only regret is that I was not mature or dedicated enough at the time to fully apply myself to the legal curriculum. My fellow students were in the final stages of preparation to become practicing lawyers, and they approached the rigorous course load with the single-minded focus of graduate law students. My undergraduate program was in essence a professional degree, and I still had not accepted the law as my life. However, my journey became a manifestation of the Italian expression “l'appetito vien mangiando.” The appetite comes from eating.
Studying for the bar back in New York was the true turning point in my commitment to the law. My fellow students’ engagement was palpable as I entered the classroom each day. Our first torts lecture began with a hypothetical. I realized I was missing something when I looked up from my furious note-taking to see the whole class giggling at each other. As the professor came to the “punch line,” the package of fireworks exploded, proximate cause was introduced, and I turned to the student next to me. “Sorry, I didn’t catch the name of that case. Did you get it?”
“You don’t know Palsgraf?” he asked, incredulously. “That’s like graduating from college and never having eaten Ramen noodles.”
I realized I was facing an entire legal background that I would not be able to reference, regardless of my performance on the bar exam. I knew the relevant principles, but was lacking the rich details, the precedent and distinctions that were crucial to one’s complete understanding of the law. Speaking with my classmates opened my eyes to the opportunities and realities they were facing as a result of their studies. The experience threw my education into sharp contrast with that of these peers. For the first time, I felt part of a community of future lawyers, miles away both literally and mentally from the dusty, cavernous lecture halls of my British university. I threw myself into studying and, also for the first time, fell in love with the law.
My new determination led me to seek experience in the practice of law, where I found my editorial skills mirrored in legal work. Challenges such as reviewing a 150-page music recording contract for adverse provisions tested my meticulous attention to detail, sharp eye for mistakes, and comprehension of dense material. Of course, the fact that the other party had drafted the contract to favor its own interests only added to the satisfaction of spotting a point of contention. As an editor, I relished making corrections to enhance the author's meaning. But as an attorney, my pen now worked feverishly to identify and reshape the nuances that would determine the practical outcome of the agreement. As I walked out of my most recent internship interview, I reflected on the enjoyment I derived from marking up the contract exercise, red ink running rampant on the page. With seemingly nothing to lose, I had really let loose on that contract – perhaps too much, I remember thinking. An hour later, they offered me the position.
At [global online retailer], I am part of a team that provides crucial support to a company on the cutting edge of technology, facilitating the business and anticipating possibly unprecedented legal issues raised by its innovation. My compliance work ensures that a subtle difference in language – one that would appear innocuous to the lay reader – helps the company avoid an expensive investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority. In a recent commercial deal, negotiating the precise meaning of the word “acquire” provided the key to limiting the company’s liability in case of a future dispute.
I now find myself in the unusual position of being educated in one jurisdiction and licensed to practice in another. Thus, my experiences have led me back to law school. I now appreciate the law’s value and complexity and I want to study it – again – with the focus and maturity that I have since gained. After studying law and working in it as a young person, I have been altered by an awareness of how much I still have left to learn. I am ready to pursue the law as it has pursued me, to gain a comprehensive education that will enable me to be an effective advocate in each of my jurisdictions, and to create more opportunities to practice in my home country. I have discovered my passion, and I want a graduate legal education in the United States to further develop my knowledge and career. I may be an attorney, but I am now ready to be a student of the law."
