Overheard

Lately I have been keeping notes of what I overhear at law school.  I wish I started this sooner, because I heard some really crazy crap being said during my first year of law school, but there has been some interesting stuff said.

For example, I was at an internship and I saw a letter of resignation from a co-worker who had quit saying, "I hope to come back to work for you in a few years, maybe after I make partner at a firm."

I almost bust up laughing.  It's pathetic that some people think that they are going to make partner at a firm within a couple of years from my school.  And no, it's not a top 25 school.  It's closer to top 50.  To be honest, when I got in, I felt really smug.  I thought Here I am, going to a school that's in the top fourth of all law schools.  I felt like a regular bad ass.  I flaunted it to everyone.  Of course nobody heard of my school, but when I told them about the U.S. News and World Report ranking I felt smug.  Of course, most lay people don't care one bit about that, nor do they know much about it, nor do they understand how much stock employers give to those cursed numbers. 

I didn't really use www.top-law-schools.com during my first year.  But I feel I did OK.  Above the median at least.  Not great though.  Not good enough for law review.  I wonder if I used all those law school tips and tricks they use, you know, like type really fast and remember your outline verbatim, or make flash cards and use them in your study group and do leews.  I wonder if I did all that crap if I would have made law review.  I did law school by just trying to study my butt off and rereading cases over and over.  I didn't buy the outlines or the hornbooks.  I didn't join a study group.  I didn't read outside books such as "Winning Law School" or whatever it is called.  I just put my head to the books and thought I would to better based on how much time I spent studying.

Of course I constantly get to hear about someone's internship.  How they secured summer employment.  One guy was pretty smug about it, but didn't want to share how much he was earning.  In his words "it's not the pay that's important, it's the prestige."  Let me tell you this now kid, if they are not paying you much, there's probably not a lot of prestige.  Sometimes it's hard to not laugh at this stuff.

Oh, and the girl who was going to Hawaii, well, she must have went, because she missed every class this last week.  It must be nice to have your future secured for you.  I overheard (due to her sitting in front of me during my Evidence class) that she has a daddy that is a partner at some law firm I've never heard of.  No wonder she can look at Crate and Barrel websites during class on her brand new Macbook Air and jet set at her leisure, missing class and not giving a damn.

And yet, here I am, no connections.  No job.  Daily going to Simplicity and looking for work.  Maybe I'll get something that pays $10 an hour.  That way I can scrape by this summer and get ready for 3L.  Hell, maybe when I get out of law school I can bump that up to $12 or $15 an hour.  I best not get too greedy though.