A Day in the Life

Sampling An Elective Course

The Spring Quarter started this week and the students are returning after a relaxing spring break for the final quarter of the year.  One of the GREAT parts of our curriculum is that during this quarter first years get to take an elective class in addition to their core classes which include Criminal Law, Contracts, Civil Procedure and Legal Research and Writing.  The offerings this year include American Legal History with Professor LaCroix, Copyright with Professor Picker, Health Law with Professor Malani, Parent Child and State with Professor Buss, Roman Law with Professor Epstein , Trade Secrets with Professor Strahilevitz and Trademarks & Unfair Competition with Professor Landes.  First years choose one of these electives and will be taking these classes with second and third year students.  As you can see, there are a broad range of topics being covered and this gives first years an opportunity to start sampling different areas of interest. 

American Legal History is survey course that examines major themes and interpretations in the history of American law and legal institutions from the earliest European settlements through the Civil War.  Parent, Child and State examines the legal rights of parents and children and the state's authority to define and regulate the parent-child relationship. Among the topics discussed are children's and parent's rights of expression and religious exercise, termination of parental rights and adoption, paternity rights, the state's response to child abuse and neglect, the role of race in defining the family, and the legal issues raised by the development of new reproductive technologies.  Another popular course is Roman Law, a seminar that develops a skill in analyzing legal problems according to the processes of the Roman civil law, in contrast with those of the common law.  No knowledge of Latin is required!! 

This sampling of elective course will hopefully give you an idea of the number of exciting choices students get to make during their second and third years when there are no required courses.   

On Message Boards, MySpace, and Anonymity

Recently, there has been a lot of coverage, criticism and commentary about an anonymous message board with a sometimes pre-law focus. Leaving aside the very interesting  first amendment and privacy issues raised by these types of boards, I thought it might be useful to discuss how an applicant's 'online presence' can affect his or her application.

The recent explosion of MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, as well as blogging and public photo sharing has made a ton of information available about applicants. The 'Googlestalking' of 5 years ago now seems quaint, since we can read poetry, see pictures of weekend exploits, and find out which schools you are really interested in on your blog or MySpace page. I would bet that most admissions officers have, on occasion, looked someone up online after reading their file, so be aware that what you or your friends put on these sites may come back to haunt you. We are also hearing that many legal employers are checking online sites during the employment process to assess candidates' maturity, discretion, and character. 

Online message boards are also very popular with applicants, providing access to a community of applicants, law students, lawyers, as well as the randoms that any web community attracts. While most boards require at least a valid email to post comments, others are completely anonymous, allowing anyone to post. As with MySpace and Facebook, I would bet that many, if not all, law school admissions officers have browsed through these boards looking for their school, or applicants. Be careful how you represent yourself on these boards, because even anonymous applicants (and students) reveal themselves inadvertently, or are revealed by others. Message boards can be a wonderful place to meet fellow applicants and exchange information and viewpoints on law schools, but I would also urge you not to substitute internet opinions for actual visits and data.

Spring Break!

It's quiet around here this week, as the students are gone for Spring Break. (We administrators are still here!) We asked 2L Sara Feinstein to fill you in on what our students tend to do with their time off:

"Spring Break at the University of Chicago is perhaps one of the more important milestones – especially for a first year law student.  As a second year, it marks the end of winter quarter and gives a brief respite before we return and kick into full gear for the home stretch.  Though I enjoyed my winter quarter classes (Constitutional Law 3 with Professor Strauss, Administrative Law with Professor Gersen, Evidence with Professor Buss, and work in the Clinic for Juvenile Justice), a break to catch up with friends, family, and sleep is much welcomed.  For 1Ls, this is the break during which they celebrate having completed 2/3 of their first year.  At this point, they have completed half of their finals, and more importantly, have established friendships with upperclassmen so that they know who to turn to for the good outlines. 

"During spring break, the students at the U of C engage in a number of different non-law activities.  However, it should be noted that many of the activities are done with groups of friends from the law school.  One group that opted to lay on the beach in Aruba for a week, another few friends jumped on a plane to spend their time exploring Spain, and another group of 16 1Ls have attempted to adversely possess the Dominican Republic (and after property, they can laugh because I’m reaching to make a pun there).  Two other groups decided to pursue more school sponsored trips and travel via student groups – one is currently working with Habitat for Humanity and is building homes for Hurricane Katrina victims (see, a few U of C students DO care about others!) and the other group traveled to Japan with the Japan Law Society and is being wined and dined by various Japanese law firms.  Other students, such a myself, opted to go home and spend break catching up on sleep and rekindling friendships with friends that do not happen to attend the U of C. 

"Lamentably, spring break is 10 days this year (it will be two weeks next year – yet another reason to come to U of C!) and upon our return, we will be bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to embrace the Socratic method for another 8 weeks.  However, spring quarter at the U of C is arguably the best quarter.  The weather in Hyde Park becomes pleasant, even enjoyable at times.  We have our big softball trip next weekend – 100+ U of C students travel to UVA to play softball all weekend (last year, there may have been a bench clearing incident when a member of Harvard’s team threw at one of our base runners…) which is perhaps one of the more fun weekends of the year.  After that, we roll out the maroon carpet to welcome all of the prospective students for Admitted Students Weekend with an entire weekend of activities, receptions, and outings.  And finally, May 5 establishes the completion of the law/high school transformation when the Law Students Association hosts a Prom for the student body. And this year, there will be a Prom King and Queen."

Clinic: Immigrant Children's Advocacy Project

We at the Law School are very proud of our clinical programs. We have two umbrella clinics - the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic and the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship. The Mandel Clinic essentially functions like a public interest law firm - there are different departments (we call them projects) and in each, faculty supervise students working on real cases. Students get real hands-on experience in meeting with clients, drafting documents, deposing witnesses, and arguing cases in court. In later posts we'll tell you more about the IJ Clinic and the other projects of the Mandel Clinic, but we wanted to tell you a bit about our newest project - the Immigrant Children's Advocacy Project (ICAP).

ICAP joined the Law School this past fall, and is headed by Maria Woltjen, who has worked in children's advocacy law since 1991. ICAP is a human service and policy advocacy program dedicated to advocating for the best interests of immigrant and refugee children who are alone in the United States. Law students and bilingual volunteers working for ICAP are trained to serve as friends of the child or Child Advocates. Their role is to figure out what brought the children to the United States and advocate on their behalf. The Advocates get to know the children, help sort out their story and help identify their eligibility for asylum or special protective visas. The Advocates help ensure the best interests of these most vulnerable children. Students working in the ICAP project are bilingual in languages including Spanish, Hindi, and Mandarin.

Stay tuned for spotlights on other clinical project soon!

Which Word?

When we read your file, we really read your file. We carefully look at your resume, transcript, recommendation letters, LSAT writing sample, and especially your personal statement. When you're writing your personal statement, remember that it functions, as much as anything else, as a writing sample. Lawyers and law students write a lot. They also edit and proofread constantly. Your personal statement needs to show that you are not only good at expressing yourself, but also at making documents perfect.

Obviously, one of the things this means is making sure you don't rely on your spell checker. Remember that spell check won't save you from mistyping from/form, to/too/two, their/there/they're, and others. There are other mistakes that we see pop up all the time. Just to offer a few examples, think before you choose between these words:

effect and affect (you effect change)

pore and pour (you pore over your books)

peaked and piqued (your interest gets piqued)

penultimate and ultimate (penultimate is the second-to-last one)

fair and fare (you fare well)

prescribe and proscribe (proscribe = prohibit)

principal and principle (principle is never an adjective)

Your personal statement should show you to be not only interesting, but erudite. Make sure you're saying what you mean, and don't hesitate to have another pair of eyes look at it before you send it to us.

Admitted Student Receptions: East Coast

While Mary Beth is on the sunny West coast dining with former actors and visiting wine country, I am on the East coast, where we are having receptions in Washington DC, Boston and New York. I was lucky enough to time my visit with a record cold snap on the East coast, so there have been few comments about the Chicago weather! I had a genuine legal celebrity sighting during my trip, with Justice Clarence Thomas on my flight from New York to Washington. He seemed like a nice guy, taking time to thank and shake hands with each member of his security detail before boarding the flight.

My judicial celebrity sighting was a great prelude to the DC reception, since many of the alums and admitted students at the event had strong opinions on Justice Thomas and his judicial philosophy. Several of the alums had unique perspectives on this, since as it turned out, five of them were recent supreme court clerks, another half-dozen had been federal appeals court clerks, and one was currently  clerking for the DC Circuit. In addition to that, Gene Scalia (Chicago Law class of 1990) had RSVP'd for the event, so we were eager to hear what he had to say (he couldn't make it, but sent his regrets). Typical of a Chicago Law gathering, there was a wide range of viewpoints on the issues, with interesting arguments made on both sides. There were clearly no hard feelings, as a big group of alums headed to Morton's after the reception to continue the discussion. It was certainly a realistic view of the intellectual environment at the Law School, and I hope the admitted students found it useful!

West Coast Admitted Student Wine Messes

I just had the distinct pleasure of "working" the admitted student wine messes on the West Coast -- on Tuesday evening we met with admitted students and alums in the LA area at Paul Hastings, and on Wednesday evening we met with admitted students and alums in the San Francisco area at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.  Why "working" in quotes?  Because leaving Chicago in March to hang out at cocktail parties in California is much more a perk than actual work.  I got to catch up with some of my classmates who are practicing in California, as well as meet some of the admitted students that I had called to give the good news to over the past few weeks -- both were a trip.  (So was our celeb sighting in LA -- Rita Wilson and Bronson Pinchot were having lunch at the same restaurant we were at -- so it's no Brad and Angelina, but for my first trip to LA, how fitting to at least see someone.)  And how do we get such great firms to host these events?  Because our alums work there, and are always happy to have the chance to talk to future U of C students.  It was so much fun to listen to alums talk about their experiences at Chicago.  Obviously, I'm a bit of a booster, having liked the place so much that I came back to work here -- so it's great for me to hear that other alums are similarly enthused about the place.  Alums seconded many of the things that I tell students who are considering Chicago -- you definitely should live in Hyde Park your first year of law school to be convenient to both the academic and social goings-on at the school; the quarter system is great because it lets you take so many more classes than a semester system; the job opportunities a U of C degree can create, both coming directly out of law school and later on in your career, are simply stellar; and, your law school friends will continue to be your friends and colleagues for the rest of your life.  Good stuff.  I think one admitted student put it best at the end of last night's wine mess in San Francisco -- Wow, you really have some happy alums.  Yep, we do.  We also have some amazingly happy students -- so for all you admitted students out there, don't forget to sign up for Admitted Students Weekend -- I met a bunch of folks who are going to be there this week, and it promises to be a blast.

Theater in Hyde Park

Geographically speaking, Hyde Park is a pretty small neighborhood - only about one square mile. The opportunities within that square mile, however, never cease to amaze me. Take theater, for example. Chicago is a great theater town - we have over 300 theater companies here, ranging from nationally-known ones like the Goodman, Steppenwolf, and Lookingglass to tiny storefronts doing avant garde work. We also get nearly all of the national tours of Broadway productions, and several of them - including Wicked and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee- have set up long-term homes here. Best of all, nearly all of these theaters have inexpensive student tickets.

But one of the great joys of being in a University community is that you don't have to leave our neighborhood to get your live theater fix. Hyde Park is home to several University theater options, and a world-class professional theater as well. The Court Theater, which is affiliated with the University, is a short walk from the Law School. the company formed in 1955 when a group of Hyde Park residents produced three Moliere plays outdoors in Hutchinson Courtyard at the University. In 1975, the Court was formally established as a not-for-profit professional theater company and in 1981 they opened their first 5-play season in their 250 seat auditorium. Since 1955, they've produced more than 200 shows, including 39 of Shakespeare's works. The Court produces both classic and new works - the 2005-06 season, for example, included Man of La Mancha, Fences, and Mabou Mines Dollhouse (a new adaptation of Ibsen's work). This season opened with a critically-acclaimed production of Raisin - the rarely-seen musical version of the famous Lorraine Hansberry play A Raisin in the Sun. Raisin was a particularly meaningful show for the Court, as Hansberry grew up in Hyde Park, and the show strongly evokes her childhood here.

The University itself offers the opportunity for law students to both regularly attend the theater, and also to get involved. University Theater begin in 1898 and puts on approximately five productions per quarter in three theater spaces, ranging from large-scale musicals to small workshop pieces. Law students are welcome to audition. The University also has a very popular improv comedy troupe known as Off-Off Campus. The famed Second City Theater was originally formed as the Compass players at the University in the 1950s, and their founder, Bernie Sahlins, returned to campus in the 1980s to start Off-Off Campus. "Off-Off" alumni (as it is locally known) have done pretty well for themselves - they include Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Auburn and Urinetown librettist Greg Kotis. They've had more revues than any other comedy group, and put on a new one each quarter. The current show is called In Case of Emergency, Breakdance.

And I know what you're thinking - will I have time to go to any of these shows? Yes. Yes, you will. You can even perform live theater right here at the Law School!

How FDR Paved the Way to Brown v. The Board of Education

The Black Law Students Association is the Law School's chapter of a very active national organization. BLSA is very active at the Law School, planning many academic and social events. This year, BLSA is sponsoring a series of lectures commemorating Thurgood Marshall’s appointment to the Supreme Court. The second in this series took place a few weeks ago, when Kevin McMahon of Trinity College discussed “How FDR Paved the Way to Brown v. The Board of Education.” Professor McMahon, author of Reconsidering Roosevelt on Race, puts forth evidence that through his appointments to key judgeships and through the retooling of the Justice Department, President Franklin Roosevelt intentionally constructed the legal framework that made the outlawing of segregation possible. Listen to the talk here. (If you would like to follow along with Prof. McMahon’s PowerPoint presentation, you may download them here: Download kevin_mcmahon_power_point_slides.ppt)