Six-month checkup: Rookie year couldn't be better

Earlier this week, a law student showed up at our office in downtown Louisville. She was interviewing for a job as a summer law clerk. I was asked to sit down and speak with her. Like most tasks in my first six months as a lawyer, I had about 15 seconds to prepare. But unlike some of the more nerve-wracking ordeals of my rookie year — motion hour, the first few depositions, mediation, trial prep — this one was a piece of cake. Shoot the breeze with a law student for half an hour? No problem. In fact, the experience gave me an excuse to take a short and wistful stroll down memory lane. Just a year ago, I was in a similar position, scratching my head over employment prospects in a dismal job market and wondering if I had made the right choice.

With all the negative press about law school — click here for my previous posts, or here for Exhibit B in the Huffington Post —I felt compelled to offer this student my unsolicited thoughts about why being a lawyer is so great. Even after just six months, I can't imagine not being a lawyer. Sure, it's stressful at times, and the hours are long, but the experiences I've had since last August have been among the most rewarding of my adult working life. I've sued a bunch of giant companies like this one and this one and this one on behalf of injured people who otherwise would not have recourse. I've had the privilege to learn from some fantastic lawyers and judges with decades of war stories and experience under their belts. I've learned about wide-ranging areas of the law — train derailments, banking, medical devices, worker's compensation, prescription drugs to name a few — and gotten a taste of how much more there is to learn.

Although some of it has been terrifying, I can't think of a more invigorating experience than going head to head with another smart attorney, with my client's interests on the line. I realize that not all law students are looking for that pressure. There is plenty of other legal work out there that can be rewarding. At the same time, I'm sure there are many law students and freshly minted lawyers out there who are kicking themselves about the huge level of law school debt, the terrible job market, and the stressful/disappointing/unrewarding nature of their newfound careers. Just don't count me among them.

Interview: Harrison Rich on picking U of L Law, getting a #1 class rank, and finding a killer job

Don’t feel bad if you don’t know Harrison Rich. You’re probably not alone. He’s the well-dressed guy from Bowling Green who usually sits in the back row during class. Quiet. Easy going. Not a big talker. But there are a few things you can learn from Harrison, especially if you’re thinking about applying to law school. For starters, his class rank is 1. He’s a law school exam destroyer who enrolled at Louisville despite receiving offers from other schools with far more “elite” reputations. He also isn’t an invincible robot (see below interview response on how he bounced back after getting a C+ on an assignment). Still, for the most part, Harrison has annihilated his law school classes over the last three years. He generously agreed to answer a few questions from me as part of my ongoing efforts to write about the ups and downs of legal education in the River City. A few of my other interviews: read about the former rock star who became last year's top student, or the 2L who will be next year's law review boss, or the oral argument champ from my 1L year. 

Name: Harrison Rich

Age: 26

Hometown: Bowling Green, Ky.

After graduation: Baker Botts LLP in Dallas, Texas

Harrison Rich

3L at U of L: How did you end up going to law school at Louisville?

Answer:  Although I am not originally from Louisville, I had roots here because I attended the U of L Speed Scientific School for my undergraduate engineering degree.  I had some pretty good offers to go to out-of-state law schools, as well as an offer from the law school in Lexington (which I could not accept out of principle...Go Cards).  Ultimately, I selected the school that would allow me to graduate with the least amount of debt.  I also ensured that the school offered certain coursework in intellectual property, because that was the sole reason I wanted to go to law school. 

3L at U of L: What did you do to prepare during the summer before law school started?

Answer: Honestly, I played a lot of golf and sat by the pool.  I do not think there is much you can do in terms of studying to prepare you for your first year.  The only book I read was "Acing Your First Year of Law School."

3L at U of L: Most law students are used to being part of an elite academic group, but few of them do as well as you did during your first year. What do you think set you apart?

Answer: First, I brief every case.  Essentially, I read the case and "book" brief it first.  Then, I go back through and type my case brief.  I love the case brief because I can easily find the information I need when I get called on.  I also do not have to furiously type down everything the professor says because most of it is already in my brief.  I use the case brief to review the cases before each class if time permits.  I do not have a good enough memory to book brief a case, not review it, and then confidently go into class.

Second, I make my own outlines.  Sometimes I will look at past students' outlines in order to improve my own outlines.  I do recommend using concise hornbooks to help outline because they provide great black-letter statements and analysis.  I do not really have any notable outlining strategy beyond those two aids.  I think the key is simply keeping them updated.  It is easy to slack off on outlining during the semester, but then you are forced to make up for that by spending many hours late in the semester making them.  Instead, I prefer to keep mine updated so that I can review them.  However, I know some students make their outlines at the very end of the semester, and it works out very well for them.

Third, I try my best to pay attention in class instead of surfing the Internet.  It is easy to get distracted by e-mail, cardchronicle.com, etc., so I try to stay focused because you never know what you might miss. 

Fourth, I try to stay balanced through exercise.  I think exercise is extremely important in keeping me mentally fresh.  I run at least three or four times a week at the park.

3L at U of L: You’ve obviously done very well in most of your classes. What was your worst mistake in law school?

Answer: Well, I got extremely sick after taking my first law-school final.  I ended up in the hospital and barely studied for the remaining three finals.  Thankfully, I did well because I prepared throughout the semester.  I think the takeaway there is that students should be preparing for finals throughout the semester, instead of trying to learn a sixty-page outline in two or three days.  Additionally, I did not know that you could reschedule finals, so students should be aware of that.

Also, I royally screwed up an assignment for Professor Nowka's Secured Transactions class.  Not only did I use the wrong debtor's name, but I put the date on the document as 9-11 because I was watching a show about 9-11, which was incorrect.  I received a C+ on the assignment, but booked the class.  The lesson there is that you can absolutely blow an assignment, but still do well in a class.  Thus, there is no need to fret over a bad assignment.

3L at U of L: People say that the three years of law school amount to an academic marathon, not a sprint. Did you ever reach a point where you felt that you ran out of gas? How did you get through it?

Answer: There are three weeks left in my last semester of law school, so I would say I am just about out of steam.  Three years of law school is certainly a long time, so I think it is crucial to keep your end goal in mind.  Without an end goal, it is easy to lose sight and get off track.  Whether your goal is working for the public defender's office, finishing in the top 5%, or working for a preeminent law firm, you should keep that ultimate goal in mind each day.

3L at U of L: Baker Botts, where you plan to work after graduation, is a giant international law firm with 725 lawyers. Not the typical place for a U of L student to land. How did that happen?

Answer: I think I may be the first U of L alum to work there.  Typically, the international firms recruit from T14 schools, which makes the competition for summer associate positions extremely tough.  I was fortunate enough to interview with Baker Botts at the Loyola Patent Interview Program, a giant event with the best firms in the nation.  It is absolutely crazy.  It is set up in a big hotel in downtown Chicago, and the interviews take place with two interviewers from each firm in a hotel room.  The pace is pretty hectic.  I think at one point I went through three or four interviews with different firms back to back.  I got a callback from Baker Botts a week after the interview.  They flew me to Dallas for a second round of interviews.  They pay for your hotel and take you out to eat, so it is a pretty sweet deal.  After that, I received a summer associate offer.

As far as their summer program goes, it was amazing.  First, their program is intended to mimic what it is like to be an associate, so you get real work.  For example, I had several patent prosecution assignments that were submitted to the USPTO.  I also was in charge of another project that resulted in me leading a teleconference with the in-house counsel of a major international software company.  Second, the firm provided an excellent social experience.  We attended major and minor league baseball games, a play, in-home cookouts with partners, golf outings, a tour of the Cowboy stadium, department dinners, and a trip to a resort outside of Austin where James Baker III spoke to us.  It was truly the experience of a lifetime.  Fortunately, it ended in a permanent job offer.

3L at U of L: What are you going to be doing for the firm?

Answer: I will be in the intellectual property group.  Specifically, I will be doing patent prosecution, patent litigation, patent licensing, and counseling.  One of the reasons I chose Baker Botts over other firms was that they do not force you to decide between patent prosecution and patent litigation like most firms do.  Instead, you learn it all.

3L at U of L: What advice would you give to an incoming law student?

Answer: I would advise them to listen to the advice they will constantly hear their first few weeks of orientation and school: brief the cases, outline, review, and stay balanced.

Law School Alternatives to Final Four Madness

Louisville has succumbed to basketball madness this weekend due to the Final Four matchup between U of L and UK in New Orleans. Plenty of law students have made the trip south for the game, and those who are staying here are taking a siesta from final exam preparation. This got me thinking: what are the best ways to pass the time for a Louisville law student outside of spectator sports? Lately, the options seem bountiful. I won't list them all, but if you're thinking about going to law school here in the River City, you can rest assured there will be plenty of diversions. I'm focusing on recreation in this list, since I've written about local nightlife in this post and this one and this one in the past.

1. Join a team. For a small law school, we have a bunch of intramural teams and other athletic clubs. I recently took a spot on the law school's IM soccer squad, cleverly named Brandeisliga. We've also had basketball and football squads (my all-time favorite name: "The Bottom 90 Percent"), and our school's softball team left today for a national law school softball tournament at the University of Virginia.

2. Toss a disc, play some pong. The school hosted a fun Frisbee competition this week on the lawn in front of the law building. Teams of students and professors (including the dean) participated, with the winners getting gift cards. Another perennial favorite if your free time is limited (always the case for law students) is the ping pong table in the law school's basement (see my amazing photo, above, of actual U of L law students playing actual pong).

3. Watch the ponies. The spring meet at Churchill Downs is less than a month away, and the track itself is just a few blocks from the law school.

4. Walk, run, or bike. I've been trying to ride a bike to class lately (I live about five miles from campus) and it's been surprisingly easy. Louisville is not always the friendliest place to be a cyclist, but there are a decent number of bike lanes. This also is the running season for the city, with the Papa John's 10-Miler coming up tomorrow and the city's miniMarathon taking place in late April. Louisville also plays host to the Ironman in August (well beyond my capacity as an athlete, but fun to watch).

5. Parking it. Spring is the best season of the year in our neck of the woods. Redbuds and cherry trees are blooming, and unless you have allergies the city's many parks are a great place to spend time. My favorites: Cherokee Park in the Highlands, Jefferson Memorial Forest in the south end, and Waterfront Park downtown.

What I'm learning about in law school: reptiles, health care, and how to avoid a long stay in prison

The Pinto -- like U.S. healthcare?

In my second year of law school, I wrote a blog post about the things I was learning in Con Law, Evidence, Professional Responsibility and other classes. This semester is turning out to be completely different from any other so far. Four of my five courses are taught by adjunct faculty, and none of them are part of the core curriculum. But even so -- or maybe because of this -- I'm learning a lot about the law and life in general. Here are a few tidbits.

• Advanced Trial Practice: in a class of just seven people, it's hard to hide. But who would want to hide when your teachers are two grizzled trial lawyers who teach law by swapping war stories, and organizing role playing activities in class. This is probably my favorite course of the semester so far. One of the techniques we're learning is David Ball's "reptile" method of trying cases, in which you convince the jury to make decisions that protecting themselves and the community, and avoid danger. 
• Medical Malpractice: doctors, social workers, nurses and other medical providers have a duty to warn certain people who are not their patients if they diagnose someone with a condition that could be dangerous to others. We're also reading about the finer points of informed consent, physician liability, and the laws that govern hospital emergency rooms.
• Health Law Seminar: this is a two-credit class that focuses on the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. We're learning about how health insurance works (or doesn't) and how our country has somehow managed to have a healthcare system that costs as much as a Cadillac and runs like a Ford Pinto.
• Negotiation: arguing with an insurance adjuster about a car wreck case is way more than starting high and settling somewhere in the middle. Our main textbook, Getting to Yes, shows how to negotiate like a pro, focusing on interests instead of positions, and inventing creative options for mutual gain. It might sound like hocum, but it works. 
• Public Defender: I wish I could say more about the criminal cases I'm working on this semester for the public defender, but, well, I can't. They involve real people facing looooong prison sentences for serious crimes, and the students in our externship program get to do actual work on their cases, including appearances in court, and in some cases arguing motions before judges. 

Although my last semester of school is chock full of great experience, perhaps the biggest lesson I'm learning is patience. At this point, many 3Ls, myself included, are ready to kick off the training wheels and dive into real practice. But we can't. Yet. It's sort of like the time you bought your first house (or car), and you're waiting for closing day. It's going to happen, but the waiting is torture. 

Law school class photo day: time for a moustache?

Today is class photo day for graduating law students here at U of L.  It's an occasion that doesn't mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but then again maybe it does. Large framed class photos line the hallways of the law school on its first and second floors, stretching back to the late 1800s. Gazing at the bygone fashions of eager young attorneys is a fascinating way to waste 15 minutes of your life when you really ought to be studying. The class portraits also become a source of attention when a lawyer does something particularly embarrassing, or especially impressive.

The magnificent (and short lived) moustache

For me, photos have always been yet another opportunity to do something eccentric. For example, I have a photo of myself in high school with my eyebrows shaved off. In another, taken in my mid-20s, I'm hanging upside down inside a ski gondola. Which is why, last week, I figured it would be a great idea to take my law school photo with a giant moustache. At home, our family is obsessed with the moustache. The kids wear fake ones, my wife decorates moustache mirrors, and we take notice of moustaches in public. I even went so far as growing a 'stache (see photo, above right) in honor of this under-appreciated form of facial hair. But after careful consideration, I've decided to sport a clean shave, a starched dress shirt and tie, and a dark suit coat for the class photo.
My decision reflects two things that I've learned in law school. First, I've learned to seek advice from those around me before making rash decisions. I am at least two or three times as likely to consult other people for advice today compared to before law school. In this case, everyone I talked to about the moustache class photo told me it was a terrible idea. Second, I've found a new level of appreciation for the art of discretion. It's taken almost three years to drill this concept into my head, but I now hold my tongue way more frequently than at any other time in my life. I still enjoy a good joke, and don't shy away from controversy, but I am keenly aware that reputation is everything in this industry, and if you're going to clown around, you'd better think about the implications carefully. So long moustache.

U of L law students win trademark competition

March Madness was over a long time ago for the Louisville Cardinals, but a pair of students from the law school won big over the weekend, blowing past dozens of other teams to win the national title at the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition in Washington, D.C. In an announcement this morning, the school said that "Marilyn Osborn and Whitney True received the award for best overall team out of 78 teams after competing at the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals . . .  They were commended on their presence, poise, and command of the issues.  The team was coached by Jack Wheat of Stites and Harbison and will be recognized by the International Trademark Association this spring." 

Blog by 1L Details Agony of Oral Argument

For a fantastic description of one of the toughest parts of the 1L year at the University of Louisville, check out Sharon Wright's blog at this link. Sharon is a great writer, and, like myself, a former journalist who is now attending law school at U of L. Speaking of which, I'm curious about the backgrounds of the folks who read this blog. Got a second? Click on the appropriate field in the survey at right.

Finished writing, ready to argue

The deadline for one of the year's biggest assignments came and went earlier this week, when 1L students turned in their appellate briefs for Basic Legal Skills. For the unacquainted, appellate briefs are another one of those 1L rites of passage. The finished product is about 20 pages of facts and legal analysis based on a single hypothetical case. Ours dealt with a lawyer who, allegedly, slept during his client's criminal trial. My task: argue that the client's conviction should not be overturned, because the sleeping was not well-documented, substantial, or prejudicial to the outcome of the trial. The briefs became an obsession for many students. I've heard the writing process compared to childbirth. We even had a fake Facebook page for the defendant (74 friends at last count) complete with fake photos, personal info and so forth. The brief itself went fine for most students, although it was a perfect example of how the bad habits of undergrad don't work in law school. A few students stayed up until 6 or 7 a.m. the night before the deadline. I've even heard of students dropping out of law school because they couldn't handle the project.

Now, however, we're moving on to the next thing: oral arguments. Spring break starts tomorrow, and when it ends we will begin preparing to face off in one-on-one speaking competitions in which we argue the merits of our written brief before real lawyers in a real courtroom in downtown Louisville. I'm pretty comfortable speaking in front of people, and the oral arguments are not a graded assignment. Still, they require solid preparation. A panel of lawyers will grill us in front of our peers, poking holes in our opinions and strategies. The video below, from a January session of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, gives you a sense of what the real thing is like. These arguments were held at the law school, and a similar session will be held the week of March 22. 

In addition to practicing for the oral arguments, there is a 1L oral argument competition that will be held at the end of March. Students will compete one on one, with the eventual winner taking home a small cash prize. It's sort of a tune-up for moot court, in which 2Ls and 3Ls travel to other schools to face off in much stiffer competitions. Moot court is one of U of L's strong suits, and we've recently done very well in regional and national competitions. For now, however, I'm focusing on avoiding some of the basic pitfalls of oral arguments (for example, the dreaded "fig leaf clutch" at the podium). And, of course, spring break.