What is: The kind you write, not wear

It’s February and hard to believe that three weeks of the second semester have already passed.

The issue this semester is not confusion, but time management. The greeting to the second semester was very informal and professors wasted no time making sure we keep busy.

The highlight of a 1L’s second semester are job searching and the appellate brief/oral arguments. My colleague has done a fantastic job on describing what most of us will hear from our potential never-in-a-million-years employers. I have already received one such letter and expect more.

Appellate briefs, as I learned today, will be the main focus of my credit/no-credit legal writing class. At first, I was a bit annoyed about having to spend so much time on a project that will only get me a credit grade, but then learned about the possibility of receiving honors or best in class for the brief and/or best oral argument. These will also be indicated on your transcript and you get a fancy little certificate that shows your classmates how much better you are than them.

In a nutshell, the appellate brief is created in collaboration with a partner, and then argued in front of a panel of judges, who are really just our legal writing TA and attorneys who “volunteer” (i.e. get recognition for their “contribution to the community” and want a chance to show us 1L’s how much smarter they are than us). Some, I’ve heard, are actual judges (our oral arguments, thankfully, do not conflict with their golf games, which makes for happy judges).

For the record, however, I state that the “judges” I will argue in front of, will be of the caliber and pedigree that we mere mortals can only dream of (i.e. I will suck up because I want best brief and/or best oral argument).

A man can dream, right?

Lay Down the Law.

P.S. Briefs are not brief.