Law Megathread: the stunner off the top rope that everyone but the defense saw coming

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Law Megathread: the stunner off the top rope that everyone but the defense saw coming

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Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

Whitlam posted:

Big goongrats to you.

Thanks, I'm still kind of shocked. Just came out of nowhere and now I've already signed on (there's a wage list and standard contracts, so no haggling, and really no need to think twice).

Mr. Nice! posted:

I like to think tenement funster is the job fairy. He died for our sins.

G-d bless

# ? May 29, 2019 13:00

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# ? May 16, 2024 22:07

Pook Good Mook: Aug 6, 2013; ENFORCE THE UNITED STATES DRESS CODE AT ALL COSTS!

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Hurray for sucking at the teat of public money

# ? May 29, 2019 13:41

Whitlam: Aug 2, 2014; Some goons overreact. Go figure.

Pook Good Mook posted:

Hurray for sucking at the teat of public money

Woop woop. I pay taxes, which pay my salary, which I pay taxes on, which pay my salary, which I pay taxes on, etc.

# ? May 29, 2019 13:50

Kawasaki Nun: Jul 16, 2001; by Reene

Ooohhh yeah baby, you pay taxes? That's that poo poo Papa loves.

# ? May 29, 2019 13:51

Whitlam: Aug 2, 2014; Some goons overreact. Go figure.

Have to pay a higher tier union fee too now, bad boy :biglips:

# ? May 29, 2019 13:59

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

Whitlam posted:

Have to pay a higher tier union fee too now, bad boy

Oh poo poo I gotta change union too, can't be a advocate union member anymore. I'll be a pleb in the jurist union.

# ? May 29, 2019 14:09

SlyFrog: May 16, 2007; What? One name? Who are you, Seal?

Unamuno posted:

anyone else have experience with having a big ol' mental breakdown and wandering the earth like kane from kung fu? thinking of giving that a spin, even though i've never seen that movie and am only quoting pulp fiction like a poseur.

Mr. Nice! posted:

SlyFrog was a partner at a decent sized firm and did just that.

Nice piece of fish posted:

Isn't he on more of a spirit quest to find the meaning of life? Or is that the same thing? My kung fu is weak.

I like to think of it more as "becoming Lebowski".

sullat posted:

A spirit quest to navigate through the mysteries of the long-term disability insurance system, IIRC.

Okay, pretty much this too. But I prefer to think I am trying to learn to abide.

Nice piece of fish posted:

Holy poo poo. I just got an offer. On a job I really loving want. Public sector. No pay cut. What the hell is this? What the hell is this day?

This is loving awesome. Congratulations!

# ? May 29, 2019 14:41

thehoodie: Feb 8, 2011; "Eat something made with love and joy - and be forgiven"

Nice piece of fish posted:

Oh poo poo I gotta change union too, can't be a advocate union member anymore. I'll be a pleb in the jurist union.

Wait, are lawyers unionized where you are? Or just virtue of the particular position?

# ? May 29, 2019 15:04

sullat: Jan 9, 2012

Oh yeah, keep in mind long-term disability payments *may* be taxable income, depending on how the premiums were paid while you were working. Couldn't hurt to double-check that and start withholding if you need to.

# ? May 29, 2019 15:08

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

SlyFrog posted:

This is loving awesome. Congratulations!

Thank you. I'm still kind of reeling and half waiting for the monkey paw finger to curl.

thehoodie posted:

Wait, are lawyers unionized where you are? Or just virtue of the particular position?

Yeah. Attorney union which also is the bar association (kinda, it's complicated), it's like a union light with regulatory and disciplinary powers regulated to it, it lobbies, does strikes and has member services such as insurance deals etc. There's also a bigger law grad union that is pretty much just a union. I need to join that one now.

It's scandinavia dude, everyone's unionized.

# ? May 29, 2019 16:10

Fuzzie Dunlop: Apr 14, 2013

Valentin posted:

Finally have the chance to sit down with some of my NY bar review materials (taking it through Kaplan) after wrapping up graduation/family stuff. Am I correct in guessing that much like law school itself, bar prep is going to be a mostly straightforward endeavor which anxious type-A people have overcomplicated with inane bullshit? Not that I expect the bar to be easy, but generally I found throughout law school that my classmates engaged in over-elaborate studying rituals mostly to quell their own anxiety rather than to actually learn, and this looks like more of the same.

bookmarking this post for when i fail later

I'd say, overall, yes you are correct but there are some caveats.

The first is that, even if you were pretty relaxed in law school about studying, the stakes are so high for the bar that you can't help but feel some stress and really push yourself. The bar is a pass/fail test given every 6 months on which your future employment depends. As a "relaxed" law student myself, the calculus of when and how much to study for the bar was totally different from school. In law school, some extra studying and stress is mayybee going to move you up half a grade. But for the bar, you've set aside these 2 months to exclusively study, you never have a great sense of when you know "enough", and the consequences of failing are dire (or at least a giant pain in the rear end). I often found myself thinking, "What are the odds the next 2 hours of work make the difference, 1%? .5%?" Even that low it made sense to keep pushing. I passed comfortably and probably "over studied" but I'd do it the same again.

Second is that there's just so much material for the bar you're never really "done" studying. It's a constant cycle of learning new material and refreshing the old stuff. It's the truth that you'll never know more law than on the day you take the exam.

Also, even if you're going to pass, the acts of taking the test and waiting the 2-3 months to get your results are a lot more pleasant if you feel like you put all you could into studying and were comfortable with the material.

Basically, your classmates are probably going overboard if they're pulling 12 hour days, not sleeping, and getting physically ill. But no joke you should be doing 8-10 hour week days and maybe 3-5 on the weekends (with a full day off here or there) for 2 months. And as far as the "rituals", you should just stick to whatever the study plan is from your course, anything beyond that is probably overkill and your course would have enough work to keep you fully busy.

# ? May 29, 2019 16:11

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Fuzzie Dunlop posted:

I'd say, overall, yes you are correct but there are some caveats.

The first is that, even if you were pretty relaxed in law school about studying, the stakes are so high for the bar that you can't help but feel some stress and really push yourself. The bar is a pass/fail test given every 6 months on which your future employment depends. As a "relaxed" law student myself, the calculus of when and how much to study for the bar was totally different from school. In law school, some extra studying and stress is mayybee going to move you up half a grade. But for the bar, you've set aside these 2 months to exclusively study, you never have a great sense of when you know "enough", and the consequences of failing are dire (or at least a giant pain in the rear end). I often found myself thinking, "What are the odds the next 2 hours of work make the difference, 1%? .5%?" Even that low it made sense to keep pushing. I passed comfortably and probably "over studied" but I'd do it the same again.

Same here. I was a pretty lazy law student when it came to studying for each and every exam. But I treated studying for the bar like it was a job. I had bar prep class for 6 hours a day for a month and then I'd study 3 hours after that. When that was over, I'd go to the library at 8 AM, bring my lunch, and stay there until at least 5:30. I have no idea how comfortably I pass because in my state you only found out your score if you failed, but I was pretty confident the morning after the last day after the test haze cleared.

The biggest part of prep for me, especially in the last couple of weeks, was test taking skills. I spent at least half my day taking practice tests or writing out essay answers, then reviewing my answer and how it was right or wrong. Packing more law knowledge in my head got less helpful as I went along. It became more important to be able to quickly organize and regurgitate what I already knew.

# ? May 29, 2019 16:21

Pook Good Mook: Aug 6, 2013; ENFORCE THE UNITED STATES DRESS CODE AT ALL COSTS!

This message paid for by the Men's Wearhouse& Jos A Bank Lobbying Group

Fuzzie Dunlop posted:

I'd say, overall, yes you are correct but there are some caveats.

The first is that, even if you were pretty relaxed in law school about studying, the stakes are so high for the bar that you can't help but feel some stress and really push yourself. The bar is a pass/fail test given every 6 months on which your future employment depends. As a "relaxed" law student myself, the calculus of when and how much to study for the bar was totally different from school. In law school, some extra studying and stress is mayybee going to move you up half a grade. But for the bar, you've set aside these 2 months to exclusively study, you never have a great sense of when you know "enough", and the consequences of failing are dire (or at least a giant pain in the rear end). I often found myself thinking, "What are the odds the next 2 hours of work make the difference, 1%? .5%?" Even that low it made sense to keep pushing. I passed comfortably and probably "over studied" but I'd do it the same again.

Second is that there's just so much material for the bar you're never really "done" studying. It's a constant cycle of learning new material and refreshing the old stuff. It's the truth that you'll never know more law than on the day you take the exam.

Also, even if you're going to pass, the acts of taking the test and waiting the 2-3 months to get your results are a lot more pleasant if you feel like you put all you could into studying and were comfortable with the material.

Basically, your classmates are probably going overboard if they're pulling 12 hour days, not sleeping, and getting physically ill. But no joke you should be doing 8-10 hour week days and maybe 3-5 on the weekends (with a full day off here or there) for 2 months. And as far as the "rituals", you should just stick to whatever the study plan is from your course, anything beyond that is probably overkill and your course would have enough work to keep you fully busy.

This is the best way I've heard it described.

The only thing I'd add is that you should do as many practice questions you possibly can. Hopefully your course materials include questions from past exams. You'll start to notice that there's only so many ways to ask questions testing certain subjects and you'll start recognizing the same questions over and over and knowing what the answer should probably be. This isn't the LSAT where questions are hard because they're vague, they're hard because there's an outrageous amount of stuff that's tested.

This goes for essays too. Even though the universe of essay questions is broader, depending on the subject there are certain things that are almost certain to come up. For example, if there's an Agency/Parnerships question, you should just be able to write out the elements of a Agency relationship in about 4 minutes, because you'll get half your points just recognizing that's what the question is asking about.

Pook Good Mook fucked around with this message at 16:24 on May 29, 2019

# ? May 29, 2019 16:22

evilweasel: Aug 24, 2002

Fuzzie Dunlop posted:

I'd say, overall, yes you are correct but there are some caveats.

The first is that, even if you were pretty relaxed in law school about studying, the stakes are so high for the bar that you can't help but feel some stress and really push yourself. The bar is a pass/fail test given every 6 months on which your future employment depends. As a "relaxed" law student myself, the calculus of when and how much to study for the bar was totally different from school. In law school, some extra studying and stress is mayybee going to move you up half a grade. But for the bar, you've set aside these 2 months to exclusively study, you never have a great sense of when you know "enough", and the consequences of failing are dire (or at least a giant pain in the rear end). I often found myself thinking, "What are the odds the next 2 hours of work make the difference, 1%? .5%?" Even that low it made sense to keep pushing. I passed comfortably and probably "over studied" but I'd do it the same again.

Second is that there's just so much material for the bar you're never really "done" studying. It's a constant cycle of learning new material and refreshing the old stuff. It's the truth that you'll never know more law than on the day you take the exam.

Also, even if you're going to pass, the acts of taking the test and waiting the 2-3 months to get your results are a lot more pleasant if you feel like you put all you could into studying and were comfortable with the material.

Basically, your classmates are probably going overboard if they're pulling 12 hour days, not sleeping, and getting physically ill. But no joke you should be doing 8-10 hour week days and maybe 3-5 on the weekends (with a full day off here or there) for 2 months. And as far as the "rituals", you should just stick to whatever the study plan is from your course, anything beyond that is probably overkill and your course would have enough work to keep you fully busy.

Yeah, it's important to realize that the bar tests you on a lot of subjects you did not learn in law school. Studying for it involves learning those new things: I needed to, for example, learn about car insurance law (which barbri assured me would not be on the test, and was). You need to put in the work to learn that new material. The studying isn't just reinforcing stuff you already know, it's learning it in the first place and you need to treat it like a set of entirely new classes that you will be graded on. You can deal with it however works for you but you can't blow it off entirely any more than you could walk into a secured transactions exam in law school not having attended any classes or done any work and expect to pass.

Plus, while many law exams are open-book and/or open note (and so memorization plays a much smaller role) the bar is not and so you need to shift your studying strategy if it relied on notes or the book.

# ? May 29, 2019 16:30

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Good job on the job.

Public attorneys in California are also in unions. It is nice.

# ? May 29, 2019 17:07

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Is this thread busted? I can't view new posts.

E: I guess posting fixed it. Now I can.

# ? May 29, 2019 17:41

G-Mawwwwwww: Jan 31, 2003; My LPth are Hot Garbage; Biscuit Hider

This job loving sucks and I want to quit.

# ? May 29, 2019 17:48

disjoe: Feb 18, 2011

Seconded the part about doing as many practice essays as possible. I used Barbri when studying for the Texas bar and a few Barbri essay prompts matched the bar exam essay prompts basically verbatim.

# ? May 29, 2019 18:18

blarzgh: Apr 14, 2009; SNITCHIN' RANDY; Grimey Drawer

GrandmaParty posted:

This job loving sucks and I want to quit.

# ? May 29, 2019 18:33

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

congratulations, nice piece of fish! Btw what did you decide to name the cabin?

# ? May 29, 2019 19:16

Soothing Vapors: Mar 26, 2006; Associate Justice Lena "Kegels" Dunham: An uncool thought to have: 'is that guy walking in the dark behind me a rapist? Never mind, he's Asian.

GrandmaParty posted:

This job loving sucks and I want to quit.

# ? May 29, 2019 19:28

Eminent Domain: Sep 23, 2007

Soothing Vapors posted:

lol jesus

Put this at the top of the OP Phil.

# ? May 29, 2019 19:44

Vox Nihili: May 28, 2008

Valentin posted:

Finally have the chance to sit down with some of my NY bar review materials (taking it through Kaplan) after wrapping up graduation/family stuff. Am I correct in guessing that much like law school itself, bar prep is going to be a mostly straightforward endeavor which anxious type-A people have overcomplicated with inane bullshit? Not that I expect the bar to be easy, but generally I found throughout law school that my classmates engaged in over-elaborate studying rituals mostly to quell their own anxiety rather than to actually learn, and this looks like more of the same.

bookmarking this post for when i fail later

The NY bar exam is easy as hell. Cut score below the national average. Just do whatever and you'll be fine as long as you're not an idiot. You aren't an idiot, right?

# ? May 29, 2019 20:27

Vox Nihili: May 28, 2008

Nice piece of fish posted:

Holy poo poo. I just got an offer. On a job I really loving want. Public sector. No pay cut. What the hell is this? What the hell is this day?

Did you bless me? Are you the job fairy?

Oh that sweet, sweet sinecure. Like manna from heaven. I am unimaginably envious.

# ? May 29, 2019 20:28

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Vox Nihili posted:

You aren't an idiot, right?

You're asking someone that went to law school in the 2010s.

# ? May 29, 2019 20:45

Mr. Nice!: Oct 13, 2005; c-spam cannot afford

Soothing Vapors posted:

loving 5.

Told my current boss about the pay offer from the other place. He said he think�s I�m worth it but he can�t pay it so is sending me on my way with well wishes.

# ? May 29, 2019 21:16

BigHead: Jul 25, 2003; Huh?; Nap Ghost

Mr. Nice! posted:

loving 5.

Told my current boss about the pay offer from the other place. He said he think’s I’m worth it but he can’t pay it so is sending me on my way with well wishes.

I, for one, am glad that things are looking up for you Mr. Nice. :unsmith:

Your posts were pretty grim for a while there.

# ? May 29, 2019 23:43

Mr. Nice!: Oct 13, 2005; c-spam cannot afford

BigHead posted:

I, for one, am glad that things are looking up for you Mr. Nice. Your posts were pretty grim for a while there.

I mean, I'm not there yet. I haven't got the new job, but all signs seem to be pointing to yes. And thanks. I hope this does work out for me. Either way I'm getting to go see a goon friend down in St. Pete and then a mini-vacation to orlando for a night on someone else's dollar.

I spent today looking through dozens of auto deal jackets that have all the paperwork from car sales. Car dealers are also very helpful and keep things in order and definitely don't just write on top of everything with sharpee.

# ? May 30, 2019 00:05

Kawasaki Nun: Jul 16, 2001; by Reene

Another law school success story :cool:

# ? May 30, 2019 01:26

Meatbag Esq.: May 3, 2006; Hmm which internet meme should go here again?

Soothing Vapors posted:

In it

Ah well voted 5

# ? May 30, 2019 01:26

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

Discendo Vox posted:

congratulations, nice piece of fish! Btw what did you decide to name the cabin?

Camp Ut�ya.

Soothing Vapors posted:

Yeah, that's the single best post itt, calling it.

# ? May 30, 2019 09:02

Phil Moscowitz: Feb 19, 2007; If blood be the price of admiralty,
Lord God, we ha' paid in full!

Soothing Vapors posted:

Lol

OP�ed

# ? May 30, 2019 14:03

mikeraskol: May 3, 2006; Oh yeah. I was killing you.

Soothing Vapors posted:

Nice.

# ? May 30, 2019 17:15

blarzgh: Apr 14, 2009; SNITCHIN' RANDY; Grimey Drawer

MR. Piece of Fish and Nice Piece of Nice: Congratulations!

Book Report:

Children of Ruin (the follow-up to the EXCELLENT Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikofsky) sucks. Excellent technical writing, over a storyboard clearly recycled from the first book, marred by a failure to connect us with any one character, a lack of any interesting dialogue or character development, and (apparently, because I didn't read it) ending on a dumb cliffhanger to set it up for the trilogy.

HOWEVER

Ted Chiang (Author of Story of Our Lives and Others - Book that the Movie Arrival came from)'s newest short story collection "Exhalation" is loving stellar. I'm halfway through and its just as good as the first book, if not better.

# ? May 30, 2019 17:48

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

So Children of Ruin was so bad you didn't finish it? Goddamn. How far in before you quit?

# ? May 30, 2019 17:56

Kalman: Jan 17, 2010

blarzgh posted:

Book Report:

Children of Ruin (the follow-up to the EXCELLENT Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikofsky) sucks. Excellent technical writing, over a storyboard clearly recycled from the first book, marred by a failure to connect us with any one character, a lack of any interesting dialogue or character development, and (apparently, because I didn't read it) ending on a dumb cliffhanger to set it up for the trilogy.

Personally I enjoyed it thoroughly - not as good as Time, but well-written, interesting non-human viewpoints, and having read the ending I would not say it�s a cliffhanger at all, not sure where thats coming from. (It certainly leaves open possibilities for sequels, but the story of the book is brought to a complete close.)

# ? May 30, 2019 18:28

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Nice piece of fish posted:

Camp Ut�ya.

Christ.

# ? May 30, 2019 18:40

joat mon: Oct 15, 2009; I am the master of my lamp;
I am the captain of my tub.

Discendo Vox posted:

Christ.

Is there an echo in here?

# ? May 30, 2019 19:43

evilweasel: Aug 24, 2002

blarzgh posted:

and (apparently, because I didn't read it) ending on a dumb cliffhanger to set it up for the trilogy.

uh no it doesn't.

wasn't as unique as the first book but was still a good read, and it is definitely a fully contained story. the most you can say is that the epilogue has a new, completely unrelated to the main story thing, that could be the basis for the next book.

# ? May 30, 2019 21:37

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# ? May 16, 2024 22:07

Roger_Mudd: Jul 18, 2003; Buglord

Soothing Vapors posted:

I think I see myself in here more than once. Feels right. :five:

Feels good. :five:

# ? May 30, 2019 21:39

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Law Megathread: the stunner off the top rope that everyone but the defense saw coming

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