Law School Research Forum

[JJM007]

Hello, as stated I am looking for some opinions for some research I am conducting as part of an assignment for one of my current classes at university. I had to pick a community and find out various info on said community. I obviously picked the community of law school/law students/law in general because I am considering going to law school myself so I thought what a great time to conduct this research. That being said, I am assigned to write a few papers pertaining certain topics of the community.
For this paper, I am needing to write a paper on the folklore in law school --if you have no idea what that is, it's simply: beliefs, knowledge, and customs of the common people in law school or that have been in law school. It encompasses stories, songs, jokes, dances, methods and styles of dress, proverbs or customary sayings, and even the use of certain material objects.
I would be eternally grateful if you would leave your thoughts below. No answer is wrong as this is an open ended question intended to gather information.
If you decide to participate in this simple survey, please use the following format:
- Name (just first name, you can use a real name or fake name/alias, I just need it for citing purposes)
- Which Law school you attend (also for citing)
- A piece of folklore you believe a lot of students follow; e.g. dress/proper attire, common sayings or jokes, methods of studying or to be successful in law school,or maybe it's a physical object most/everyone uses to aid their studies.

That is all, if you participated, I really appreciate it!

[Sievert]

Nice try, but it doesn't work this way.
Here is the better way of analysis.

[paradiselost9]

Hello, as stated I am looking for some opinions for some research I am conducting as part of an assignment for one of my current classes at university. I had to pick a community and find out various info on said community. I obviously picked the community of law school/law students/law in general because I am considering going to law school myself so I thought what a great time to conduct this research. That being said, I am assigned to write a few papers pertaining certain topics of the community.
For this paper, I am needing to write a paper on the folklore in law school --if you have no idea what that is, it's simply: beliefs, knowledge, and customs of the common people in law school or that have been in law school. It encompasses stories, songs, jokes, dances, methods and styles of dress, proverbs or customary sayings, and even the use of certain material objects.
I would be eternally grateful if you would leave your thoughts below. No answer is wrong as this is an open ended question intended to gather information.
If you decide to participate in this simple survey, please use the following format:
- Name (just first name, you can use a real name or fake name/alias, I just need it for citing purposes)
- Which Law school you attend (also for citing)
- A piece of folklore you believe a lot of students follow; e.g. dress/proper attire, common sayings or jokes, methods of studying or to be successful in law school,or maybe it's a physical object most/everyone uses to aid their studies.

That is all, if you participated, I really appreciate it!

I have nothing but cynical, jaded ramblings about my physical law school and most of its students. There’s one data point for you. I have no idea about what folklore a lot of other students follow. People tend to not dress like they’re poor because most people here have never been poor. P-C culture wrt women is very strict, and minorities/LGBTQ is a close second. P-C culture wrt poverty isn’t very strict. Common expressions are making tacky puns out of legal phrases, like “Race Judicata” and “Blawg,” which have little taste or make no sense. About three students in my 80-student section use tablet and stylus instead of paper and pen(cil). Maybe that’s an upcoming trend. It’s a bunch of white people at a good school: we dance for money to the song of prestige.

[QContinuum]

People tend to not dress like they’re poor because most people here have never been poor.

What exactly does "dress like they're poor" mean? I don't recall ever meeting a single T14 student who had a habit of rolling into class decked out in expensive apparel or wearing expensive jewelry. Most everyone I've ever met showed up dressed very casually.

P-C culture wrt women is very strict, and minorities/LGBTQ is a close second.

I do know a lot of people - generally conservatives - who complain about "P-C culture," but I've never really been able to detect any silencing of anyone. Much to the contrary, at my T14 the most prominent and well-funded student groups were conservative. The most outspoken students in my Con Law section were conservatives. We always received far more visits from high-profile conservative lawyers and judges than their liberal counterparts. And of course, it was well-known that conservative students had a leg up on the clerkship game via their FedSoc connections. If anything, from a casual glance at the speech taking place on campus, the "man on the street" would likely assume our community leaned to the right.

[paradiselost9]

People tend to not dress like they’re poor because most people here have never been poor.

What exactly does "dress like they're poor" mean? I don't recall ever meeting a single T14 student who had a habit of rolling into class decked out in expensive apparel or wearing expensive jewelry. Most everyone I've ever met showed up dressed very casually.

P-C culture wrt women is very strict, and minorities/LGBTQ is a close second.

I do know a lot of people - generally conservatives - who complain about "P-C culture," but I've never really been able to detect any silencing of anyone. Much to the contrary, at my T14 the most prominent and well-funded student groups were conservative. The most outspoken students in my Con Law section were conservatives. We always received far more visits from high-profile conservative lawyers and judges than their liberal counterparts. And of course, it was well-known that conservative students had a leg up on the clerkship game via their FedSoc connections. If anything, from a casual glance at the speech taking place on campus, the "man on the street" would likely assume our community leaned to the right.

I think you know what it means for a person with money to dress casually and a person of no money to dress with what they have. It's subtle and paints with a broad brush. People with money tend to be able to match their outfits how they want, wear what fits in the way they want, have more pieces of clothing, have something proper to wear for an occasion.

Our P-C culture comes from the students and the dean I guess. Every few weeks the dean emails us about women's struggles, arranging some panel discussion in support of female issues. Female students are emboldened. They raise their hands with comments about gender bias in old cases.

[nixy]

Female students are emboldened. They raise their hands with comments about gender bias in old cases.

JFC this is one of the stupidest comments I've ever seen.

[paradiselost9]

Female students are emboldened. They raise their hands with comments about gender bias in old cases.

JFC this is one of the stupidest comments I've ever seen.

I wouldn't call their comments stupid.

[QContinuum]

I think you know what it means for a person with money to dress casually and a person of no money to dress with what they have. It's subtle and paints with a broad brush. People with money tend to be able to match their outfits how they want, wear what fits in the way they want, have more pieces of clothing, have something proper to wear for an occasion.

I've really never observed the "subtle" distinction you cite. I've only ever encountered a vanishingly small number of law students who cared about "matching" or "varying" their outfits. As for "something proper to wear for an occasion," I'm not aware of a single law student who failed to don formal wear when required.

I suspect the subtleties you observed may have been largely in your head. You knew (or suspected) which students came from working-class backgrounds, and which came from UMC/1% backgrounds, and expected to see a difference, so voila, you "saw" the difference you were expecting to see.

Our P-C culture comes from the students and the dean I guess. Every few weeks the dean emails us about women's struggles, arranging some panel discussion in support of female issues. Female students are emboldened. They raise their hands with comments about gender bias in old cases.

"Every few weeks" hardly sounds like a lot, especially compared to the bonanza of high-profile conservative speaker/panel/lunch events - at least several every week - at every top law school in the country. It seems weird that you'd feel aggrieved by there being a panel on women's issues every few weeks. Surely no one forces you to attend. You can happily grab lunch instead with the latest visiting FedSoc bigwig and listen to them rail against Roe.

As for gender bias in old cases, surely it isn't debatable that many famous pre-Warren Court Con Law cases were overtly racist, sexist, what have you.

[nixy]

Female students are emboldened. They raise their hands with comments about gender bias in old cases.

JFC this is one of the stupidest comments I've ever seen.

I wouldn't call their comments stupid.

You're not very funny.