A friend of mine made it to the pinnacle of clerkships. The Justice is lucky to get him.
I wouldn't be surprised if a few more of my classmates wind up in the same place. Our year is freakily loaded with heavy hitters. I'm super pleased for all of them.
If you're going to run an advertisement, this is the way to do it!
The Volokh Conspiracy finally got around to posting this fun little link today. Boy sent it to me a week ago. Tsk. It was also really quite late with its news about the cartoon primer I'm sure you all remember--the one where stick figures explain the subprime mortgage crisis.
I guess it's nice that whatever else is going on, at least I'm ahead of the curve on important things.
After a mandatory period of brainless post-exam mucking about I sat down to work on a piece for a professor. He had sent it to me some time ago and I had started it, but not finished it. So I did that (it was quite good and fun to comment on) and then, being constitutionally (heh) unable to turn off my computer without checking headlines and maybe a blog or two, I clicked over to the Volokh Conspiracy.
It often has interesting posts. It's on the libertarian/law & econ-y side of things, mostly, where hotshot young professor types often write. For some reason I glanced over to the side where it listed contributors. And then I looked again. There were almost no women.
See, it's the little things. Here's an article that just came through, saying the same thing in a different context.
I'm not big on despising or disparaging housewives. Some of my favorite people are housewives. I was one, a veritable Suzy Homemaker (on my good days).
But the pervasiveness of the second-tier status is maddening. Most of the time I can ignore it because in my day to day life I don't feel much affected by it--but I am. We all are. I know the school is struggling to hire more women professors, and BIGLAW is struggling to hold onto women lawyers. But are they also struggling to promote them? To make sure that the slings and arrows we feel are only those of outrageous fortune, and not those of entrenched and thoughtless snubbing?
Let us take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them. Or at least toss a few snubs back.
Are there any women out there in law school land who want to climb to the top? Who want to be Editor in Chief not for the fancy title, but because it will get her a superb clerkship and unlimited job opportunities? Who understand that any position on Law Review will open a whole lot of doors? Who want to parlay a JD into a political career? Who want to become professors of tax or corporations or antitrust? Who want to win?
Do women in law school land understand that not getting to know professors means the professors won't know them when it's time to make calls for clerkships? Do they know that professors can and will make those calls? And not just for clerkships, but for jobs?
They know there's a game, but do the women want to play it? Do they think they can play a different one? Do they think they'll win the same prizes by playing a different one?
I am extremely interested in the answers to these questions.
We had the class for the MPRE today, via video. To be fair, the guy giving the lecture was as entertaining as anybody could be when discussing rules for fees and conduct and whatnot.
My takeaway from today: anything that happened in the past is a secret, anything that is happening now you might have to report but probably not, and you can always be a commie because states can no longer refuse you a license to practice law on the basis of your communist sympathies.
My good friend and fellow blogger is going through the most horrendous nightmare. As a parent, it's hard to imagine a worse scenario. As a friend, it's terrible to see her and her husband suffer this way.
When I endured major and minor agonies, my mother would tell me they "build character." I think LL & JP have all the character they need. They are showing the most amazing courage and honor, all while worried out of their minds about their son. Although I wish I could do so much more, all I can do is stand by with comfort and my cell phone and, yes, call lawyers.
It is interesting, and not in a good way, but lawyers can be stymied by these delicate situations as much as anyone. We're 3Ls and we know we don't have a clue, but even experienced lawyers don't either unless they work in this particular field. The ones who do work in this field are amazing and I am full of respect for them.
The good news is that we had a conversation with one lawyer who was able to give us lots of information about how the process works, who can do what, and what good next moves might be. And we got the name of a lawyer who makes the agency and the hospital tremble. Now at least some of the uncertainty is gone, and the phone number of the cavalry is at hand.
I've shared lots of news with you over the past couple of years. It's been the usual mix of good and bad, although I think in general more good than bad.
Well, I'm not quite sure how to classify this bit of news: I'll be working at the Firm next fall. My clerkship applications were a bust. It happens.
Congrats to all my friends who did so well, though--you all are fantastic and the judges are lucky to get you.
I have two interviews tomorrow. Both are with district court judges in a highly competitive district. (Translation: they aren't clerkships that would make other law students bow before me in awe and admiration, but they are more than respectable.)
I am hideously nervous.
In other news: I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, or forgotten you, or given up on this little endeavor of mine. I have been trying to piece back together house and home, and doing all the usual LR stuff (I'm hundreds of pages behind in my reading and school hasn't even started yet!), and fretting over which classes I'll take. You know, stressing.
Also, I've been reading a good book in odd (very odd) moments, and I'll post about that more soon. Really.
Once in a while I'll have the same dream (with very minor variations) several times in a row. Not several nights in a row--I'll have the same dream several times within the span of a few hours or even, once, in the span of about 20 minutes. It's as though the dream is on a loop, and just keeps playing.
Today is the day judges can start calling applicants for clerkships. The judges call, and you schedule an interview for next week. There's a bit of "strategery" involved, because applicants want to schedule interviews so that their preferred judges are early and second choices are later. Once you're given an offer, the protocol is that you take it and promptly cancel the rest of your interviews. I've only applied to a small handful of judges, all here, and I'd be thrilled to get a call from any of them.
Last night I dreamed, repeatedly, that today was over and there had been no calls.
Today I will struggle to get done the 6 million things that need to get done yesterday, and I will watch the clock. Tick, tick, tick.
UPDATE: I did get a call.
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