Open Source Law Student – Part 2

This is the second part of my free and open source law student project that I’ve conducted over the past year.  It picks up pretty much where part 1 left off, which you can read here.

Calendaring: Mozilla Sunbird and Google Calendar, Windows Live Mail with built in calendar. I tried switching entirely to Sunbird (and syncing it with Google Calendar) which I eventually got working satisfactorily. Sunbird is fine, but I still find the user interface used by Outlook 2007 to be far superior.  I truly wish that was not the case, however, as Outlook is a bloated jack of all trades, and insists on bizarrely storing everything in just one .pst file which is a disaster waiting to happen.  I readily accept that Outlook’s days are most definitely numbered.

Encryption – Around 12 months ago, I moved away from Steganos Safe on my Windows machines for the open source solution, TrueCrypt, which is far superior in my opinion. There are Mac and Linux versions available too, though I find it annoying that it doesn’t offer the ability to increase the size of an encrypted safe you have already created – a feature which Steganos Safe boasts. Although I tried the full partition encryption feature on a laptop, I mainly use encryption simply as a safe or vault for confidential data.

Although I eventually came to the conclusion that I cannot make an open source based solution work for me, it was more down to my esoteric computer needs rather than the software not being up to the job. To students making the switch from Windows to a distro of Linux, I would say the following:

Be prepared for the odd problem: I quite like Ubuntu and immediately felt at home within it. Getting one of my printers to work proved more difficult than I imagined but it’s perfectly doable – particularly with a little help from Google. There are plenty of very helpful Linux discussion boards and forums out there. Parts of the UI felt a little clunky, yet there were others which felt more streamlined and user-friendly than Windows. One thing that did bug me greatly in the early days was getting used to the ‘OK’ and ‘Cancel’ buttons being the opposite way round in Linux dialog boxes compared to Windows. It’s always the little things in life!

Ink-saving software not compatible: I like to run ink-saving software on my Windows machines which minimises the amount of ink used when printing: on XP I used Inksaver 2.0 while with Vista (and Windows 7) I’m running EcoPrint 2 Ink and Toner Saver. Both are excellent and have saved me a huge amount of money over the years. Of course, I’m not able to get either working with Linux even using a compatibility layer such as Wine (not that either EcoPrint or Inksaver is open source or free, either) but I’m not prepared to go without ink-saving software for long. On my LL.M I’ve had to do way too much printing for that to be an option.

While I’m on the subject of printing, I’ve long harboured a hatred for typical printer manufacturers and the way they have turned printer consumables into such a grossly lucrative aftermarket. While I’ve suffered with various HP, Epson and Lexmark models over the years (and a Citizen dot matrix if we’re being picky) Canon hardware is by far and away the best in my experience – both in terms of price and performance.

I currently have two printers set up: a regular Canon inkjet and a Canon multi-function machine, which is reserved mainly for scanning and copying. My regular inkjet, an aging Canon IP1500, was as cheap as chips to buy back in 2005 and even cheaper to run. I get unbranded cartridges from specialist online ink outlets which work out at just over £1 per cartridge. While their longevity might be slightly less than with official cartridges, it still represents a huge saving and a regular compatible cartridge lasted several weeks on my LL.M – or several months during regular use.  With my ink-saving software, too, I enjoy super-cheap printing – just as it should be.

While some users might be less than eager to shell out on ink saving software, it is very inexpensive and very quickly pays for itself – particularly if you ramp the saving percentage up.  As a general rule, I keep mine on 60% ink-saving - both on Inksaver and EcoPrint.

Abobe Products and Games

Another sticking point in my free and open source law student experiment has been the loss of Adobe products. I’m a heavy user of Adobe’s products – particularly Photoshop and Dreamweaver, and while I could use Gimp as an advanced image editor, for instance, I just don’t feel as comfortable using it and miss Adobe’s products. I even tried Nvu as a replacement for Dreamweaver, and while it might have cut it ten years ago, it certainly doesn’t today.  I also have some legacy PC games which I enjoy from time to time and while I guess I could try running them through Wine, it’s just too much hassle when I can run them natively in Windows. For me, the combined effect of these issues is just too great a hurdle to overcome and keep me firmly tied to Windows, at least for now.

Final thoughts

The average law student would be perfectly able to get along with just free software without sacrificing his or her grades and convenience. For the most part, a student running Linux and just free and open source solutions within that environment would be absolutely fine for the purposes of workload, file compatibility and so forth. Providing you don’t mind getting your hands a little dirty occasionally – such as installing a printer – it’s an entirely viable option. That said, if you have certain PC software that you can’t be without and don’t fancy your chances (or want the hassle of) running it in a compatibility layer, Linux might not be for you.  A more viable prospect, to my mind at least, would be to make use of the wealth of free proprietary and open source software available out there but run it within Windows.  As I found out, jumping lock, stock and barrel into the open source world is not quite as easy at it might seem.

LPC spam

I received an email a while back from ‘Young Lawyer’ about the LPC course run by BPP. I didn’t think much of it at the time.

But having cleared out my inbox recently (I go through phases when I’ll delete 1000 or so emails en masse), I came across it again, and this time it grated on me a bit.

Seriously... spam for the LPC – what’s the world coming to?

In fact, it reminded me an awful lot of the time when I bought an iron from Amazon. A few days after it had arrived, I received an email from Amazon with a product list of their 20 top selling irons.

I’d just bought the frickin’ thing – what did they think I wanted? TWO irons? One for each hand?

Geez, Louise.

But this isn’t their only LPC-themed mass mailing. I also stumbled across a “write an essay for their competition and win a place on the LPC” email from 2010.

OK, never mind the fact there was a second email, the LPC is the PRIZE?

I’ve always thought of the LPC as more a punishment than a prize. Don’t tell me writing the essay was the treat?

Law School Magazine

I hate the pompous drivel that make up so many law school magazines - created and edited by the usual Machiavellian chancers who will no doubt go on to become parish councillors in later life.

Other law schools don’t even bother with that.  They just dump a stack of copies of the Student Law Review on a table in the foyer and leave it at that.

But enough is enough.  There’s a gap in the market which needs a-filling and I think I’m the right kind of cynical sod to do it. 

So here’s the first edition of ‘The Law School Today’ – the law school magazine with a difference. I think we’ve got a cracking line up of features.

August Dissertation Update + The Office

In the last two weeks my dissertation has really taken shape, with the result that I’m around 3,500 words over the limit with still the conclusion and another small section to write.  That said, I don’t think I’ll find it too difficult to edit out the majority of the surplus; there’s a lot of garbage in there!  I’ve about a month until it’s due in, so feel I am more or less on track and will be very pleased to see the back of it. 

I’ve really stepped up the pace recently: last week, particularly, I was more productive throughout Thursday, Friday and Saturday than I had been for the previous few weeks combined. All was going well; my focus was singular and (relatively) razor sharp (ish). And that was the point that I stumbled across the American version of ‘The Office’.

To cut a long story short, I’m now in the middle of series 4 (and bearing in mind that both series 2 and 3 are over twenty episodes long, I’ve chalked up some serious watching time in the last few days). I literally can’t get enough of it.  I remember catching a couple of episodes of the first series in late 2005 when it was aired on the BBC, having been a long time fan of the British version. My thoughts at the time were positive but can’t say I was captivated by it. Having just watched series 1-4, however, I have to admit that for me, the US version far exceeds the British one and stands quite possibly at the top of my list of favourite comedies of all time.

I can’t believe that I’ve missed seeing such a fantastic show for so long. 

Graduate Careers Market – a voyage of discovery

Or should that be misery?

The legal blogosphere is full of doom and gloom at the moment – more so than I’ve seen for a while and I include the US blawgosphere in that. And when those guys are down in the mouth, you know things are bad.

I saw some really shocking statistics from a couple of US law graduates the other day about just how few of them graduate with *any* job, never mind a legal job.  Graduate jobs of any description seem darn hard to come by at the moment.

In the meantime, graduate recruitment specialists are lining up to help – (at least it keeps one industry flourishing I guess). I’ve always been a bit sceptical about the value of careers advisers, but that doesn’t mean to say they’re all about as useful as a tintack in a jockstrap. I think half of the problem is that many students roll up with unrealistic expectations of what a careers adviser can do for them. Just proceed with caution and with limited expectations would be my advice; you can’t expect miracles.  If you can’t help yourself, somebody else isn’t likely to either.

Our generation of students moaned incessantly about just how hard we had it, but I think it was still preferable to what next year’s students are going to have to contend with. And they’re still years away from having to be launched headfirst into the soul-destroying maelstrom that is the graduate careers market.

But who knows – things might pick up? 

Dissertation Update

Yes, in between job apps, work, blawging and all the rest, I am managing to get a bit of this damned dissertation done. I’ve written my first 1200 words so have at least got the thing off the ground.

As ever when writing extended papers such as these, my planned structure has evolved  - nearly out of all recognition.  Come to think of it, I think ‘blown out of the water’ might be a more suitable phrase.

But it’s actually all quite positive. I’ve successfully wrestled the myriad of disjointed fragments that my dissertation synopsis consisted off into one (vaguely) harmonious whole. For the most part, I’m very happy that I did choose this topic, despite my somewhat wobbly start.  I feel I know where I’m going with it, have got a rough but logical chapter outline and feel I’ve given myself good scope for whacking plenty of critical analysis in there. Yes, the dissertation seems to be firmly on track, people.

Let’s hope I’m still saying that in a few weeks time.

Legal Outsourcing

As a favour to an MSc student, Lee, battling with his dissertation, I’ve agreed to put together a short post to help publicise the survey he’s running.

It essentially concerns the management of risk in relation to outsourcing legal services – which may or may not light your fire – but it’s worth a gander all the same.

Lee’s keen to hear from as broad a selection of the legal sector as possible, including those entering the profession, so please go ahead and add your two-penneth.
 

1. How would you describe the risk attitude within your law firm?  - Good to Poor

2. Would you agree that your Partners are committed to establishing a risk aware culture? - Strongly Agree to Strongly disagree

3. Is risk management actively undertaken within your firm? - Yes/No

4. Who manages the risk process within your law firm?

- Head of Risk

- Senior Risk Partner

- Chief of Internal Audit

- Other

You can check out the full questionnaire here.

Lawyers and fountain pens

While I’m certainly not a pen connoisseur, I have owned a few nice pens in my time. For whatever reason, I’ve tended to go through alternating spells when I might write with a fountain pen continually for a few weeks, followed by months of reverting to the ubiquitous biro – and usually a cheap and tacky one at that.

Fountain pens are often considered to be the reserve of the traditional professions as well as the more pretentious members of society. Lawyers, on the whole, tend to fall into both of those categories. Throughout my ‘vocational placements’ I’ve witnessed several lawyers using a traditional fountain pen, though, I admit, they are very much the exceptions to the norm.

That said, there are some very funky and modern looking pens out there which won’t break the bank either. Michael’s tip of the day: The Writing Desk stocks an excellent range of pens, paper and inks and I’ve dealt with them on and off over the past few years with excellent service every time.

During my LL.M I’ve witnessed a few students writing with fountain pens – more so than during my LL.B. I even saw a female student answer her competition law paper writing with one. I can’t say I’ve ever answered an exam with a fountain pen – save perhaps for my SATs in way back in year 6 – and I certainly wouldn’t fancy doing it at this level.

I have two fountain pens at present – neither of which has seen much use over the past year: a Faber Castell cheapy and a relatively expensive Sheaffer Legacy.

 

I don’t find fountain pens lend themselves to use for scrawling down lecture notes – though I’ve seen a few students this past year try to disprove that theory. It all depends on your writing style, I guess.

People write with a fountain pen for differing reasons. For me, it’s usually because I get fed up with biros. There is also something quite satisfying about writing with a good pen – particularly if you find a quirky coloured ink you like.

My favourite inks to date are a vibrantly rich turquoise/blue and deep green though I’ve experimented with quite a range.   I also found that a bright orange makes for great, striking annotations.

I’d be very interested to hear from members of the blawgosphere who might use fountain pens and for those that don’t, why not?  To those that do, have you ever dared answer an undergrad or postgrad exam with one?!

Dissertation Doldrums

In the past week or so I’ve been somewhat troubled over my apparent lack of motivation to press ahead and crack out this dissertation. Although this could be attributed to pure laziness or post-exam buzz coupled with that summer-of-fun mentality that so often hits students, on reflection, I think my ill-timed inertia might be understandable.

Besides the hot weather we’re experiencing at the moment – exacerbated by my monster PC pumping out serious heat in my office – I think the postgraduate schedule conflicts with the natural yearly rhythm that’s ingrained in all law students.

The final stage of the orthodox academic cycle can be expressed thus:

Hot weather + sunny days = summer

End of exams = summer = (fun + no academic work)

Obviously having the dissertation spread out before me for the rest of the summer – we’re supposedly to spend 10 weeks wrestling with the beast – throws something of a spanner in the works. For every academic year that I can remember, the end of exams always signalled freedom from the shackles of academia – a chunk of downtime in which we could do exactly as our little hearts desired. Facing up to the reality that things are different this year has not be easy.

Fortunately, I’ve already arrived at the conclusion that procrastinating over this final hurdle of the LL.M won’t do me any favours. I’ve already done a chunk of research for it yesterday – adding considerably to my ‘depository’ of resources as well as hitting some proverbial dead ends – and have my first allotted meeting with my dissertation supervisor tomorrow.

Hopefully, that meeting will provide some help in tracking down a couple of killer sources which the university and their myriad of subscriptions seem to have circumvented entirely.  Actually, to be clear, it’s not the tracking down which is proving the problem - it’s the cost of them.  I’ve heard my uni are quite generous when it comes to subsidising sources for postgrad dissertations so fingers crossed I won’t be dipping into my personal funds over this.

Law School for Cretins – UK Edition

I realise that the true hay-day of ‘the dummies’ series of books has been and gone several years ago now and I think it’s fairly common knowledge that the vast range of topics on which these books exist almost beggars belief. It should come as no surprise, then, that there is a genuine ‘Law School for Dummies’ – pitched at US law school. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before a UK edition of an equivalent title rears its head?

I’m all for good preparation and self-help (up to a point) though I’ve never been a big believer in self-help books per se – perhaps because of their generally patronising approach which invariably promise the world and fall woefully short or the fact they tend to lead the reader on a helter-skelter trip into the bleeding obvious. I’m not quite sure who would actually buy Law School for Dummies: potential students, the interested lay person – if such persons exist – or desperate students looking for shortcuts to success?

In the case of the latter category, sound, useful advice is always a good thing, I guess, though I feel that while some study techniques are more conducive to success than others, there are very few shortcuts or quick fixes to be found out there. Study methods are also a matter of personal taste – a fact I highlighted in my recent ‘How to revise for a law exam’ post.

I’m also not sure that dumbing-down the law school experience, what it demands from students and offering supposed shortcuts to academic success can be a good thing. The graduate market is already over-saturated with second-rate law graduates churned out from former polytechnics and encouraging more like ‘Paul-shouldn’t-have-gone-to-Uni’ to leap into the breach can surely only exacerbate the problem.

In fairness to the US edition of the book which I’ve electronically thumbed through (at least the limited preview available on Amazon, anyway) it did seem to strike a reasonably cautious tone in warning of the hard work ahead and so on. That said, the closing chapter is entitled, ‘Ten little-known Law School Secrets’. Yeah, good luck with those.

Maybe I’m being overly harsh here. Still, I find it vaguely troubling that the title ‘Law School for Dummies’ even exists. It can hardly stand as the proudest addition to a law student’s bookshelf and supposing you were gifted such a book for Christmas? I should imagine that such a present would take some serious bouncing-back from.

Abercrombie & Fitch worker banished to stockroom for breaking ‘look policy’

From the Daily Mail 16/06/09:

A disabled law student is suing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch for discrimination, claiming it made her work in a stockroom because her prosthetic arm didn't fit its public image.

Riam Dean, 22, was just days into a part-time job at the U.S. firm's flagship London store when she says she was asked to leave the shop floor.

She was born with her left forearm missing and has worn a prosthetic limb since she was three months old but insists she has never allowed her disability to get in her way.

[Dean] was also given a uniform of jeans and a polo shirt, although the company handbook does state that sales associates can wear their own clothing as long as it is in 'Abercrombie style'.

Miss Dean, ... normally wears long-sleeved tops to disguise the join between her upper arm and artificial limb, says she was told to buy a plain white cardigan to wear over her uniform.

But matters came to a head a few days later.

'A worker from what they call the "visual team", people who are employed to go round making sure the shop and its staff look up to scratch, came up to me and demanded I take the cardigan off.

'I told her, yet again, that I had been given special permission to wear it,' she recalled.

'A few minutes later my manager came over to me and said: "I can't have you on the shop floor as you are breaking the Look Policy. Go to the stockroom immediately and I'll get someone to replace you."

'Afterwards I telephoned the company's head office where a member of staff asked whether I was willing to work in the stockroom until the winter uniform arrived.

'That was the final straw. I just couldn't go back.'

Miss Dean, who has just sat her final law exams, is due to take her case to the Central London Employment Tribunal later this month and is seeking damages of £25,000

 

Aside from the rather shocking issues of (alleged) discrimination here, it’s the fickleness of companies when it comes to uniforms which always astounds me. With a casual dress code such as the one Abercrombie & Fitch employed, policing the uniformity of the ‘uniforms’ with such uncompromising rigidity is frankly bizarre. Let’s remember that this debacle essentially kicked-off over a white cardigan (the same colour as the polo shirts which Abercrombie & Fitch require their shop floor workers to wear) and which the branch manager had verified as being suitable.  Anecdotally, I’ve heard recently of a well known chain in the British high street which employs a more conventional uniform and implements a ‘black sock only policy’.  This aspect they police in the manner of the Gestapo, yet inexplicably turn a blind eye to a couple of workers arriving to work in jeans and permit them to work at the tills.

More often than not panics over uniform are induced by a visit from head office – a guaranteed way of ensuring the management adopt a misguided and delusional sense of prioritisation in the immediate future. (Read as *more* misguided and delusional than usual). It’s ironic that employers worry excessively over policing uniform standards when it is the conduct and work ethic of their staff which remains the real problem.

But credit to Riam Dean here for having the fortitude to make a stand over this.  Perhaps she took employment law as an option on her LLB.  ;-)

Interestingly Abercrombie & Fitch settled over allegations of discrimination back in 2005 for $25 million.

How to Revise for a Law Exam

Just before the exams started, I mentioned that I might release a revision-method type post. I so often make these promises of posts which never subsequently appear so thought I’d make good on my intentions for once. I realise the exam season is pretty much over for everyone now, but I guess it might be of interest to procrastinating students next year looking for inspiration or a boost of motivation. I’m not sure this post will provide either, but the revision method I outline just might be of interest.

Way back during my A-levels, I discovered a method for revising which worked fairly well and which I’ve gone on to tweak over the past few years. I feel I’ve graduated to a revision system which works well for me, though I realise everyone is different. From personal experience, I think many students’ approach to revision is, to put it mildly, less than optimal, though I recognise that we all learn in different ways. Ultimately, though, your method needs to work well for you – and if it does so, who am I to suggest something else? That said, it doesn’t hurt to mix things up occasionally and to try a different approach; what works for me might work well for you also.

I think one of the biggest mistakes students make is to start learning the material before they’ve got a damn good set of consolidated notes. The fact that creating those notes is actually an effective means of ‘breaking you into’ the revision process is an added bonus. Taking your time at this stage can reap huge dividends later on.

Hardcore Notes

The basic objective here is to know the topic backwards - literally. That way, coupled with an effective plan in the exam, you are well placed to answer virtually any essay or problem based question on the topic at hand.

In essence, I create a list of structured points, which form the basis of my revision notes. The order is crucial and spending a fairly long time on perfecting those notes is time very well spent. If the exam is open book, think about using the natural structure of the casebook as a pointer for the order of the notes. When under the pressure of an exam, this might just save your skin and anything which means you worry less about the order of the material has got to be good – particularly when pulling out the relevant content for answering a problem question. The idea is simple: you then learn those notes inside out, being able to dip into them at any point, picking out the relevant parts for a problem question or being able to follow it through coherently for discursive essay question.

I’ve always referred to these notes as ‘hardcore notes’ – and please, don’t look at me like that! The ‘Key Facts’ books published by Hodder Education form an excellent structure for hardcore notes; in fact, for many of my subjects I used those as the basis which I complimented with my own notes. The better organised you are throughout the year, the easier it is to compliment the structured notes with your own content, of course.

Each point is usually supported by authority. Connecting case names to a particular legal principle is one of the more fun parts of the revision process where you can inject some creativity into what is often a boring and monotonous process. For instance, if there is a batch of successive cases and associated principles connected with a sub-topic, using mnemonics and the like can help recall the order.

Certain content lends itself to being tabulated and doing so adds structure around a sub-topic that can aid in recalling it. For instance, I tabulated the legal principles regarding fraudulent and wrongful trading for my recent company law exam and assigned a distinctive colour to each.

Tough Times

Certain legal topics are just killers and incredibly dry – I’m thinking back to contract law in my first year and property law, and equity and trusts, in my last. I found the only way to conquer them was to brute-force the facts into my brain. And the emphasis really is on force here; as Nigella Lawson might say, ‘this is no time for restraint’. The first step in this process involves writing out the hardcore notes by hand and then, taking it section by section, regurgitating it from memory –either through writing and/or repeating them orally. Of course, it’s crucial to pay careful attention to the order. Then, it’s a question of repeating, repeating, repeating. It’s not a method for a faint-hearted: I would go through several hundred pages of A4 paper over the course of the revision process, scrawling out regurgitated content. But seriously, once you get going, it’s not as hard as you might think. Doing so much writing has other benefits too: as you recall the facts faster as the process wears on, you find yourself writing faster – excellent practice for those impending exams. I also feel that it strengthens the writing muscles, meaning you don’t succumb to the dreaded ‘writer’s cramp’ as easily.

To spice things up, I would also practice writing the content out from memory on computer. Later on when you really know your stuff, I found it useful to brainstorm the material, using A3 sheets. I found a white board and dry wipe markers particularly efficient for this, and far less wasteful. I have even created powerpoint presentations on the material I’ve been revising. Quite how you do it doesn’t matter, but the more time you spend immersed in the material and practice reciting it in various ways, the better and more comfortable you will feel applying it in the context of an exam. I have, on occasions, even resorted to pacing around the house recalling it orally from memory. Others I know record the material and listen to it repeatedly. I never found this worked well for me as my brain tended to switch off far too easily.

In addition, I create gap-fill tests as another means of learning the material – even creating the template is a good learning experience. I found this an excellent way of learning the basic order of the notes early on in the process. Finally, as you are nearing the end of the revision process, applying the knowledge you now know very well in practicing past papers is an excellent means of final preparation – providing you don’t get too hung up on the specifics of the question in hand.

Revising the Revision Process

My hardcore notes started out at about 2.5 pages, Times New Roman, 12 point font. Over the years, they were becoming progressively longer – Company Law, Directors’ Duties weighed in at a heavy 7 and a bit pages with a ‘narrow’ margin. Back in 2005/2006 I found the need to consolidate the hardcore notes down in further by making a flowchart printed in landscape mode, in even more succinct language. This serves as a useful exercise in condensing the material down – an excellent means of revising. Making good use of colour at this stage can better improve your chances of recalling the material quickly and accurately in an exam by helping to focus your mind’s eye in recollecting the content on the page. Practicing recalling the content of the flowcharts can be done in writing, orally or through roping a friend into testing you. The flowchart makes this possible as you’re just following simple points on a list but the knowledge is in your head to expand on any point if called to do so in the exam. Don’t try thrusting the hardcore notes in front of them and asking them to test you; I think we’ve all had experience at some point in our academic lives where you’ve roped some poor soul into ‘testing’ you who hasn’t the foggiest of what they’re doing and end up pulling you up if you get a mere word out of place or for explaining something which doesn’t match verbatim what s/he has on the sheet in front of them. A very frustrating experience – for both parties involved.

The flowchart is perfect for ramming the order of the material firmly into your brain – which is so crucial in answering a question in a law exam. You know the general content of the hardcore notes by this point to be able to expand sufficiently on any principle, but with so much material floating around in your head, the flowchart helps to make more sense of the overall structure. I always make sure I stick to the same means of ordering the material in the flowchart – usually left to right rather than clockwise as this makes the structure more fluent if it is (as it almost certainly will be) spread across more than one page.

Generally when revising – by which I mean actually recalling the material - I would always work through a topic to completion rather than setting myself 50 minute chunks of work-time and the like. Whether it’s a perception thing or otherwise, I always seemed much more productive that way.

So there it is: my technique when it comes to law exams and revision. It works for me and works well but it doesn’t come with guarantees. It was good enough to get me a A’s at A level and a First for my LLB but hey, what do I know? Some people revise through postcards or post-it notes stuck on their walls – I’ve always found that a little too much of a ‘soft touch’ approach for my tastes. My technique calls for dedication in spades but then it yields worthwhile results too.

Knowing the topic so well also means you are far less likely to have revised it but avoided answering it in the exam because you ‘didn’t like the look of it’. Using this method as an undergrad and postgrad, I have never prepared for a subject and then not answered it in the exam.

And Finally

Revision group work can be useful, when used in moderation and at the right stage. In my experience, it should be used quite late on, close to the exams when you know your stuff and you can effectively test each other and straighten out the one or two remaining queries. But the bulk of the work should be done and dusted by then as group sessions can so easily turn into an excuse just to ‘catch up’ socially and wind up being totally unproductive. And a word to the wise: it’s time to socially shun the guy who utters late on in the game, “uhh, I haven’t started revising yet”. 

Lawyer in ‘waitering’ funds law degree by dropping trousers

From Roll on Friday 01/06/11:

Times are tough for law students. And with tuition fees are rising to £9k a year at most universities, and with the LPC now costing the thick end of £13k - they're only getting tougher. Those who've been sold the lawyer dream are likely to be lumbered with debts in excess of £40k before they even photocopy their first bundle.

Nothing like starting with a positive, is there RoF?

Lawyers who can't rely on the bank of mum and dad are having to come up with ever more ingenious ways of staying afloat and paying off debts.
We've seen adverts offering female advocates in the US the chance of propping up their earnings by giving topless lap dances whilst also dispensing legal advice.

And there’s always conventional ‘modelling’ ... ahem – see this week’s earlier post.

Now it's the turn of the men. Specifically 22 year-old, UWE law student Alex Hemsley, who's confessed to the Mail that he's been supporting himself through law school by semi-naked waitering. Hemsley works as a Butler in the Buff - which seems to mean showing your bum to tipsy women on hen weekends for £25 per hour.

It might be helping to pay the bills at the moment but will revealing his money making scheme to the world have any negative consequences for Alex’s legal career? There can’t be that many firms who would approve of a future trainee solicitor of theirs strutting about in the partial nuddy getting his sweet-meats out on request for a bunch of drunk and dirty old women.

Unless he’s hoping to argue that he’s merely ‘showing commercial awareness’.

I just hope there’s no squirty cream involved!

I don’t know – maybe I’m just jealous. I didn’t work during my LLB, but I did during my LLM. It wasn’t glamorous but it paid the rent – and, guess what, I got to keep my clothes on. Which is just as well; I think I would have had to have done a lot of bench presses with my constitutional and administrative law textbook before I was close to being butch enough for these kind of shenanigans.

Perhaps a job for which the average pasty-faced law student [speak for yourselves RoF] - more at home with Chitty on Contracts than the Chippendales - might not be suited. But it seems to be working for Helmsley, who's managing to pull in £1.5k in a good month.

I wonder where these women slip their tips. 

According to Hemsley, his new financial solvency, has led to improved grades: "I’m now on track to get a 2:1 or first. I’m then hoping to do a master’s in law before becoming a solicitor."

What kind of reviser / studier are you?

It’s revision / study season and in recognition of the agony students are currently going through, here’s my latest version of ‘what kind of ... are you’.

I think this will be something all of us in the blawgosphere can relate to, though perhaps we should keep the fact we exhibit behaviour falling into some of the less desirable categories to ourselves.  ;-)

	What it really means	We Say	Try	Why
The Crammer	You know you should have found that motivation to start revision before now but, you know.... things... kinda.. came up. (hmm.. they always do, don’t they?)	If you do well in the exam(s), you won’t have deserved it. And you know, deep down, that’s true. ;-)	A bit more dedication next time / learning from past mistakes, eh?	Despite what you’ve told yourself all these years, you don’t actually work better under intense pressure.
The Self-Righteous ‘Low Voltage’ Student	You’re as cool as they come and, guess what, you haven’t even done 10 minutes of revision. Oh really?	We all know you’re actually bricking it / have been studying like a neurotic beaver* for the past 6 weeks - or both.	Counselling / drowning yourself	No one likes a clever dick*
The Sunshine Student	You’re a narcissistic, sun-worshipping a-hole, sat on the grass around campus ‘revising’... we all know you’re really ogling students of the opposite sex.	We hope you sit on a thistle, get badly sunburnt and stung by a wasp.	Sitting at your desk once in a while. Just face it, sitting outside ‘starring’ at a page is about as useful as peeing in the wind.	Revision shouldn’t be enjoyable
The Couch Potato	You’re as lazy as sin and you couldn’t care less.	God bless you	Getting off your fat ass once in a while.	Do you want to be stuck in an endless cycle of re-takes, only to be ultimately failed and given a ‘diploma’ instead of a degree?
The I-need-my-daily-dose-of-Prozac	You’re a hyperactive freakoid buzzing in and out of your revision notes (and around your increasingly frustrated peers) like a demented gnat.	Try and get a handle on things.. you’re bringing everyone down with your negative energy.	Staying off the coca cola and candy.	Everything in moderation remember. Wait! That shouldn’t apply to revision!
The Serial Retaker	“This time is the final practice run... no, for real this time.” Don’t tell me, you’ll really, really study hard for the retakes?! :p	You’re f*cked	Doing everyone a favour and drop the hell out	You’re just not cut out for Uni... better accept it now than later.
The Steady Eddie	You’re not exactly going for pole position, but you’re hopefully on course for a ‘desmond’ (2:2) if you hook everything up...	Turning the wick up... relying on a few post it notes stuck on walls at this level just doesn’t cut it!	Pulling your freaking finger out!	Because who wants to be relegated to the ‘also rans’?!?
The Slut	You’ve flirted your way through classes this far and have suddenly been left in a panic realising you might have to actually do some work to pass your exams.	No, writing the examiner a seductive note at the end of your script, offering sexual favours isn’t going to get you a first class degree.	Wearing a longer skirt and/or less revealing top and do some God damn work.	Because your ultra short skirt and pert, bouncing jahooblies are lovely and all that, but flashing your goods at the lecturer just won’t cut it any longer.
The I’m planning to cheat in the exam	You’ve spent the study season cramming every spare inch of your casebook(s) with study notes / devised some other (more fraudulent) plan.	We know, you’re just playing the system to your advantage / outright cheating :p	Playing fair for once in your cheatin’ life	You’ll only cheat yourself in the long run... yadda, yadda, yadda... but seriously, what if you’re caught?! :-/

*And please, no sniggering at the words ‘beaver’ or ‘dick’. :p

Pupillage Portal Survival Kit

As the Pupillage Portal application deadline fast approaches and applicants across the land are succumbing to 1st degree panic attacks and worse, the Pupillage Portal Survival Kit may be just what you need to, well, survive this mad dash to the finish.

It contains:

Copy of the pupillage portal for cretins – yeah, I’m still beating that dead horse.

A bumper pack of caffeine tablets

3 bars of choc actually – yes, we’re still trying to shift the stock which didn’t sell.  (It’s not been a hit, sadly).

12 sachets of super-high-caffeine instant coffee - it's actually common garden soil but what the heck.  If you're battling with the Pupillage Portal, you're a glutton for punishment already.

Novelty USB key for backing-up your saved applications, appropriately in the shape of a wigged barrister... anything for that extra motivation, you know!  :-)

2 special fold-out 1 handed computer keyboards – so you can complete two apps at once when you're really cutting that deadline fine.

Double pack of condoms - well, you never know!

2 waterproof matches - used to prop your eyes open when filling in the umpteenth application.

Newspaper headline letters already cut out - so you can craft those hate letters in advance to chambers which reject you or the  designers / code monkeys of the pupillage portal.

A trashy novel - if things get really bad or you want to slap yourself around the face with it!

2 OLPAS emergency flares (actually sticks of dynamite to be lit and held for an indeterminate period).

Any takers?

Studying law – USA style … in 60 seconds or less

I stumbled across a post packed full of nuggets of law school wisdom on the quirky blawg of a US law student, curiously named Moonshine Project.  Check out the full post.

Studying - Go apeshit at first… try a little bit of everything. Highlighters, lowlighters, reading every word, skimming, taking notes, making up rap songs about cases, haiku, you name it. … Don’t guilt yourself into a traditional method if it’s not your style.

Great advice.  It’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking you’ve got to adhere to old-skool ways to be successful.  Not so.

Romance - This may sound formulaic, but trust me. Weeks 1-5, KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS. Make friends. There is PLENTY of time to shack up in weeks 6-15 and thereafter, but once you forego the opportunity to get to know lots of people (not just the sexy ones) and instead burn bridges with short-lived stress-induced relationships (don’t fool yourself into thinking they’re more than that) you will never be able to undo that choice.

WELL KEPT SECRET: You will make some very wonderful friends in law school – chances are your future Wifey/Hubby isn’t the skank you saw dancing on the table at Bar Review… [well, steady-on... don't rule anything out*] but the girl/guy who brought you skittles in contracts because they knew you were on call.

* My comment.  ;-)

Good advice, but likely to fall on deaf ears.  First year law students tend to be a randy bunch and waiting 6 weeks might be a tall order.  In fact, there’s usually a few female law students who are scheduling appointments with the abortion clinic by the time the first reading week comes around.

 

Attire - For first impressions, go business trendy. What the hell is business trendy? I don’t know… wing it. Girls: try some sharp jeans with a blouse that isn’t buttoned up to your chin (I made this mistake on my first day, which is forever memorialized in our student “facebook”) and a notable accessory to add some personality. Boys: jeans and a polo, or button-up/blazer if you want to be a little extra schwanky.

Wow.  What a difference.  You’d be hard-pressed to find any student in a blazer in most UK law schools (including most of the lecturers), save for when it’s moot court season, of course.  In fact, I’ve seen first year students practically roll up in their PJs.

    Caffeine – Love it!

Can’t argue with that.

Adventures - Have em!  The last thing a lawyer wants to hear about is your friggin journal. They LOVE to hear, however, about that time you were in the City and almost knocked Carlos Santana out with a flashlight.

Hehe... love it.  I’ve no idea who Carlos Santana  .... oh, thanks Wikipedia.  But seriously... who?  :-$

All great advice though!  :-)

What to get the law student (or graduate) who has everything?

Hat tip to Katie Luper for this one but her post got me thinking.

What would make a good Christmas gift for a law student/grad?

Ideas so far:

- Post it notes?  Statute books, or a bumper collection of biros? 

- An expensive, pretentious pen?  An expensive and pretentious moleskine notebook or diary to go with said pen? 

- A DVD boxset of This Life, or Ally MacBeal etc. ..... funny how you don't hear those mentioned much now!  Thank God they seem to have finally died their death.

- I should imagine that a pupillage or training contract (or a means of fast-forwarding your way through your law degree and into a job) is at the top of a lot of our lists.

- For the more traditional or conservative, what about legally-themed ties or socks or maybe something a touch more frivolous?   For instance, for that special legal lady in your life, what about legally-themed lingerie - perhaps not with horsehair wigs, though.

Any other ideas?

Lawyers – the circle of life

From Calamities of Nature 15/04/11

That’s aaawwwful! 

Granted, law is supposed to be one of the most despised professions of all, but there are surely worse things someone can do in life.

For instance, your child might always come to you one day and proclaim that they’re not interested in being an astronaut any longer but instead want to be a:

- car salesman,

- estate agent,

- insurance broker,

erm, prostitute ?

In all seriousness, though, is choosing a career in law really that bad?

I was astounded talking to some colleagues recently who, it turned out, a) wouldn’t choose law if they had their time again and b) would definitely discourage their kids from choosing it.

I know Tesco Law ABS might shake things up a bit, but surely the future isn’t THAT gloomy?

How was it for you?

I was amused to see on Friday that the poll, “2009: Was it good for you?” on the Junior Lawyers site recorded a greater number of negative than positive responses. I’ve just checked again and the same proportion of yeses and noes holds sway:

BTW: two of the yeses are mine so I guess there’s quite a lot of misery out there.

The Ultimate Pupillage Portal Guide

 

Sick of those Pupillage Portal applications?  Tired of trying to snare that elusive pupillage, only too aware that you’re surrounded by countless others in the same boat, all poised to pounce on the same opportunity?  Yes, it’s that time of year again: BVC-ers past and present have all joined the pupillage race, and have flocked to the Pupillage Portal in droves to submit those precious applications.  Fortuitously, help is at hand with the the brand new book, The Pupillage Portal for Cretins – which Law Actually is proud to endorse.

Penned by long-time ‘rejectee’ Carly ‘the chancer’ Collins, the book leads the reader on a helter skelter tour of how to play the portal to your advantage, whack in ‘crazy good’ pupillage applications and otherwise help you keep your head while all around you other would-be barristers are losing theirs.

It provides a no-nonsense guide to Pupillage Portal best practice which should stand any pupillage-seeker in good stead when going about those dreaded applications. It tells the applicant how, what and when to click, with additional computer mouse exercises for those who aren’t ‘natural mousers’.  What’s more, it comes with helpful pointers on exactly what chambers are looking for in candidates and a chapter dedicated to never-seen-before secrets of what’s really necessary to gain a pupillage. 

The later chapters are jam-packed with interview techniques and a sure-fire list of how to flirt, lie and possibly kill beg your way into a pupillage – should you get that far.

What everyone’s saying:

“Long overdue” – Lawyers of Tomorrow

“If you’re looking to maximise your negligible chances of gaining a pupillage, this book gives you the competitive edge you’ll need to out-compete your peers”, immoral BVC tutor, receiving a cut of the book’s sales.

“It’s like a personal trainer for pup-port apps”, Abigail, 23, fond of shortening words.

“It’s high time such a book hit the bookstores” – God knows.

“Lovely stuff” – Shakin’ Stevens

“This book’s perfect for the IT-adverse, the mindless chancers out there and all of the other hopefuls who have suffered too much past rejection and have just plain-run-out-of –ideas.”  - The Modern Barrister.

At just £14.99, can you afford NOT to buy a copy of The Pupillage Portal for Cretins today? 

Buy The Pupillage Portal for Cretins and get a FREE BAR* of choc-actually – the perfect treat to get you through those mind-numbing applications!!

It’s the chocolate for the Pupillage Portal season.

*While stocks last.