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AilsaChauFirstPaper 2 - 02 Apr 2013 - Main.AilsaChau
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< | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | | | | |
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< | Paper Title
-- By AilsaChau - 25 Feb 2013
Section I
Subsection A
Subsub 1
Subsection B
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> | Paper Title | | | | |
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> | -- By AilsaChau - | | | | |
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< | Section II
Subsection A
Subsection B
“Like Winston at the end of Nineteen Eighty-Four,” Serge puffed, cigarette in hand, after I asked him about how he felt about his 1L summer associate callback with Pimperton Dunsfeld. Serge and I were just outside the subway station at 116th and Broadway, directly in front of the gates of Columbia University. It was six o’clock, a cold, windy February night and Serge was having a quick smoke before we headed downtown to attend an evening reception at the offices of Smith Porter & Manning, a large New York firm.
“I think I fucking love Pimperton Dunsfeld now…remember how humorless and cynical and plain miserable those associates we met at the Pimperton lunch reception a couple weeks ago were? Well, the partners I talked to during the callback were, like, the most interesting people and actually seemed somewhat self-actualized. It actually threw me off a little, how nice they were.”
“Wow, basic human decency, what a surprise,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“It was just weird and unexpected after that stupid awkward reception. I’m actually starting to think that partner track at Pimperton is this twisted survival-of-the-fittest scenario. The process will either strip you down into a sort of über -efficient super-human (if you weren’t one already), or it’ll make you shrivel up and die.”
“Sounds pleasant.”
“Of course, I fully intend to avoid the ‘shrivel up and die’ part.”
“Wait—weren’t you just ranting about how you had serious qualms working at Pimperton because they’re such a horrible soulless institution last week? And the odds are that you’ll end up like those horrible associates at the reception anyway.”
Serge shrugged. “Well, you know, may the odds ever be in my favor, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, I guess it’s perfectly possible that I’ll end up a soulless husk of a Pimperton associate but who knows? We’re all gaming some perfectly shitty odds in one way or another just by going to law school in this shit economy. Yet here we all are…” | | | | |
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< | “So do you think you’ll get an offer?” I asked. | >
> | Introduction
I am currently a law student. I am going to become a lawyer. | | | | |
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< | “Hopefully….I think it went okay and they’ve definitely converted me. But Pimperton’s interviewing about 4 people a day for 2 or 3 weeks like a fucking assembly line, so who knows.” | >
> | But what do I plan to do as a lawyer? I’m not sure what I can add beyond that second sentence, because I don’t know yet. Before coming to law school and even throughout the law school application process (when one is presumably ponders such a subject), simply just being a lawyer was the projected end-point of both my studies and career. | | | | |
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< | By this time, Serge and I had been standing around in the cold for much longer than I’d like, especially given that fact that I was dressed in a skirt suit with bare legs and high heels in accordance with the reception’s dress code. Shivering, I eyed Serge’s (much more weather-appropriate) suit trousers enviously and told him to hurry up. | >
> | By now I’ve come to realize otherwise, that deciding to become a lawyer is merely one point along the road that opens up many other roads. Based on our class discussions, I think I’m slightly further along the road to knowing what kind of lawyer I want to be. While reading the first chapter of Lawyerland, the part that resonated with me the most was Robinson’s explanation of why he didn’t stay with the S.E.C: “I don’t like being beholden to anyone.” All my life I’ve been beholden to someone or something—parents, for example—and one of the reasons why I chose to attend Columbia in the first place was because I assumed that becoming a lawyer at a firm would allow me to experience financial and thus general independence. | | | | |
<
< | “Wait, wait,” he said, taking a few more drags on the cigarette before throwing it to the ground. He sighed. “I want to quit, but then I remember that I’m in law school.” He sighed again as we headed down the steps of the subway station together. | >
> | As I’ve come to realize through our class discussions, however, taking the Wall Street path would most likely amount to exchanging one set of chains for another. Moreover, the legal profession is not immune to the vast changes—globalization, Internet, economic recession, etc.—that have fundamentally transformed the societal playing field, by now it is neither a secret nor a surprise to anyone that there is strong downward pressure on legal fees and hiring patterns. Yet many in the legal field seem to have taken the heads-in-the-sand approach to such changes, not least among them law schools. The current law school business model is premised on charging extremely high tuition in exchange for lucrative jobs for their graduates, an exchange that seems increasingly less viable or even desirable. As I am currently paying for an extremely expensive legal education, what can I do to make my law school experience help me achieve my goals and be truly worth the price I’m paying for? | | | | |
<
< | I’d known Serge since the very first week of law school when we happened to be attending the same optional orientation event, a trip to the United Nations Headquarters. Precariously thin with a slow blasé voice that sharply contrasted with his quick nervous hands, he had caught my attention with an impressively erudite discussion on the UN Art Collection. After graduating from Oberlin College with some obscure English lit degree, Serge had spent a year backpacking and working odd jobs around Europe before coming to Columbia Law School. Serge hated living in Morningside Heights (“a cultural wasteland,” he complained) and was perpetually trying—but more often than not failing—to find the time to go to Williamsburg or at least somewhere downtown for some respite. When I asked Serge why he went to Columbia or even law school in the first place, he rambled about Milton for 15 minutes and how the mind is its own place and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell and so on. | | | | |
<
< | As we stood on the platform waiting for the train to arrive, Serge yawned and stretched his arms, “Remind me why we’re going all the way downtown for this reception? I hate talking to strangers and I have class at 8:30 in the morning tomorrow plus a shitload of readings to do that I haven’t done.” | >
> | Limitations of law school
After approximately seven months of law school, it’s become increasingly clear that what we law students learn in law school does not fully prepare us for law practice. The law we encounter in the classroom—mostly in the form of appellate judicial decisions—is largely formal, normative and often presented as the inexorable conclusions of the judges’ rational weighing of things like precedent and interpretative canons. However, as one professor once reminded me, the cases we read in our casebooks are essentially “freaks”—that is, a tiny, unrepresentative percentage of legal problems that manage to batter their way up to appellate court. Moreover, justice does not always come from the courts or even a lawyer’s knowledge of the law. Robinson, for instance, is able to secure a shorter sentence for his Serbian-Fujianese client because he knew how to manipulate others and use extralegal methods to achieve his objectives. Reading about how Robinson dealt with his client starkly drove home the point that the actual practice of law shapes and is shaped by the attendant peculiarities of human behavior, whether they be clients, third parties, judges, or lawyers. Unfortunately this is a fact that I find myself overlooking when dealing with doctrine and abstract legal theories in class. | | | | |
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< | “I also have class at 8:30 tomorrow and unlike you, I’m actually behind on my readings. Anyway, it was your idea to come,” I replied. “And everyone’s going tonight, because god knows whether 99.99% of us would ever have the chance to ever darken the doors of Smith, Porter & Manning ever again. Think of it this way: it’s like going to a zoo. Except instead of seeing animals, we get to gawk at the typical Smith associate in its natural habitat.” | >
> | Practical experience
Given that there are more things in law than those dreamt of in the casebook, a truly effective legal education cannot simply be contained within the classroom. One way to gain practical experience outside of the classroom while still attending law school is through participating in clinics and externships after first year. The practice-oriented nature of clinics and externships provides the opportunity to gain practical lawyering skills such as dealing with clients, solving actual legal problems and learning how to effectively work with other lawyers in a team context. | | | | |
<
< | Serge laughed. “Since you put it that way”—Serge grinned—“but you know, I think you got it the wrong way around. I think we’re the animals in the zoo. Plucked from the wilderness and placed into this weird alternative-reality version of our natural habitat, we live and breathe and shit in it until it’s all we know…and we’re immediately fucked as soon as we’re released into the wild again, outside in the real world.” | >
> | People
Another reason why I think that participating in a clinic or externship would be beneficial for my legal education is that participating in a clinic or externship would provide me with the valuable opportunity to meet and interact with clients with real legal problems. I feel this is important because (as someone who has specifically moved to America for law school) the staggering majority of Americans I currently meet and know are law students, law professors, or lawyers. This is not only an extremely limited sample of people, but I’ve noticed that for the most part many people involved in the legal profession (whether they be lawyers or law students) are a relatively homogenous group when compared to the population at large. Common characteristics include attending a private college as an undergraduate (mostly east coast or the slightly more exotic locale of California), upper middle class, liberal arts background, etc. However, there is a world outside of the legal profession, and a sizeable amount of clients will be from that external world with very different experiences, needs and expectations than the average law student. We have discussed in class how the true medium in which lawyers work in is power, the ability to influence and shape and behavior of people. Consequently, if I want to become an effective lawyer, I will need to better understand the needs and desires of people beyond the narrow strata of people I currently interact with. | | | | |
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< | “You realize,” I said, “that we weren’t plucked from anything. We all chose to become law students.” | >
> | However, as a lawyer, I will not only have to work with clients, but also others like fellow lawyers and judges, all of whom are former law students. My current classmates especially are important in this regard, because they will be my future colleagues. We have discussed the importance of building a good network in law school, and this is something I need to focus on more rather than devoting the majority of my time to schoolwork and fretting over grades. | | | | |
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< | “I know we did,” Serge said, his voice distant and nearly drowned out by the rapidly-approaching train. “I chose to go to law school, the same way I chose to apply to Pimperton and go to the Smith reception tonight. I chose all these things.” The doors to the train opened but Serge paused just outside the door, turning slightly towards me. “As much as any of us who are risk-averse control freaks can truly be said to have a choice.” | | |
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AilsaChauFirstPaper 1 - 25 Feb 2013 - Main.AilsaChau
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper" |
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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
Paper Title
-- By AilsaChau - 25 Feb 2013
Section I
Subsection A
Subsub 1
Subsection B
Subsub 1
Subsub 2
Section II
Subsection A
Subsection B
“Like Winston at the end of Nineteen Eighty-Four,” Serge puffed, cigarette in hand, after I asked him about how he felt about his 1L summer associate callback with Pimperton Dunsfeld. Serge and I were just outside the subway station at 116th and Broadway, directly in front of the gates of Columbia University. It was six o’clock, a cold, windy February night and Serge was having a quick smoke before we headed downtown to attend an evening reception at the offices of Smith Porter & Manning, a large New York firm.
“I think I fucking love Pimperton Dunsfeld now…remember how humorless and cynical and plain miserable those associates we met at the Pimperton lunch reception a couple weeks ago were? Well, the partners I talked to during the callback were, like, the most interesting people and actually seemed somewhat self-actualized. It actually threw me off a little, how nice they were.”
“Wow, basic human decency, what a surprise,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“It was just weird and unexpected after that stupid awkward reception. I’m actually starting to think that partner track at Pimperton is this twisted survival-of-the-fittest scenario. The process will either strip you down into a sort of über -efficient super-human (if you weren’t one already), or it’ll make you shrivel up and die.”
“Sounds pleasant.”
“Of course, I fully intend to avoid the ‘shrivel up and die’ part.”
“Wait—weren’t you just ranting about how you had serious qualms working at Pimperton because they’re such a horrible soulless institution last week? And the odds are that you’ll end up like those horrible associates at the reception anyway.”
Serge shrugged. “Well, you know, may the odds ever be in my favor, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, I guess it’s perfectly possible that I’ll end up a soulless husk of a Pimperton associate but who knows? We’re all gaming some perfectly shitty odds in one way or another just by going to law school in this shit economy. Yet here we all are…”
“So do you think you’ll get an offer?” I asked.
“Hopefully….I think it went okay and they’ve definitely converted me. But Pimperton’s interviewing about 4 people a day for 2 or 3 weeks like a fucking assembly line, so who knows.”
By this time, Serge and I had been standing around in the cold for much longer than I’d like, especially given that fact that I was dressed in a skirt suit with bare legs and high heels in accordance with the reception’s dress code. Shivering, I eyed Serge’s (much more weather-appropriate) suit trousers enviously and told him to hurry up.
“Wait, wait,” he said, taking a few more drags on the cigarette before throwing it to the ground. He sighed. “I want to quit, but then I remember that I’m in law school.” He sighed again as we headed down the steps of the subway station together.
I’d known Serge since the very first week of law school when we happened to be attending the same optional orientation event, a trip to the United Nations Headquarters. Precariously thin with a slow blasé voice that sharply contrasted with his quick nervous hands, he had caught my attention with an impressively erudite discussion on the UN Art Collection. After graduating from Oberlin College with some obscure English lit degree, Serge had spent a year backpacking and working odd jobs around Europe before coming to Columbia Law School. Serge hated living in Morningside Heights (“a cultural wasteland,” he complained) and was perpetually trying—but more often than not failing—to find the time to go to Williamsburg or at least somewhere downtown for some respite. When I asked Serge why he went to Columbia or even law school in the first place, he rambled about Milton for 15 minutes and how the mind is its own place and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell and so on.
As we stood on the platform waiting for the train to arrive, Serge yawned and stretched his arms, “Remind me why we’re going all the way downtown for this reception? I hate talking to strangers and I have class at 8:30 in the morning tomorrow plus a shitload of readings to do that I haven’t done.”
“I also have class at 8:30 tomorrow and unlike you, I’m actually behind on my readings. Anyway, it was your idea to come,” I replied. “And everyone’s going tonight, because god knows whether 99.99% of us would ever have the chance to ever darken the doors of Smith, Porter & Manning ever again. Think of it this way: it’s like going to a zoo. Except instead of seeing animals, we get to gawk at the typical Smith associate in its natural habitat.”
Serge laughed. “Since you put it that way”—Serge grinned—“but you know, I think you got it the wrong way around. I think we’re the animals in the zoo. Plucked from the wilderness and placed into this weird alternative-reality version of our natural habitat, we live and breathe and shit in it until it’s all we know…and we’re immediately fucked as soon as we’re released into the wild again, outside in the real world.”
“You realize,” I said, “that we weren’t plucked from anything. We all chose to become law students.”
“I know we did,” Serge said, his voice distant and nearly drowned out by the rapidly-approaching train. “I chose to go to law school, the same way I chose to apply to Pimperton and go to the Smith reception tonight. I chose all these things.” The doors to the train opened but Serge paused just outside the door, turning slightly towards me. “As much as any of us who are risk-averse control freaks can truly be said to have a choice.”
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