I finished my last final (Complex Civil Litigation) on the 10th and headed to Las Vegas with my girlfriend on the 13th. We stayed at the Tropicana.

The gaudy, cheap, dated Tropicana.

We stayed up until 4:00 AM every night and slept until noon every day. It was fantastic.

I played Elton John’s red piano at Caesars Palace…

…and Susie learned about ancient Greek sculpture.

But mostly we played poker. Low limit hold ‘em.

We played for about eight hours every day, and in the end, I left a few hundred dollars up.

Before the trip, I read Steven Lubet’s book “Lawyers’ Poker: 52 Lessons That Lawyers Can Learn From Card Players.”

According to Lubet, “Great poker players are master tacticians. Not only do they calculate odds with lightning speed and astonishing precision, but they also cunningly anticipate and manipulate the actions of their adversaries. In short, they boast skills that every lawyer can envy.”

Lubet claims, “The theory and practice of poker will be immediately recognizable to every attorney who has ever made a strategic choice in the face of uncertainty.”

Do you buy it? Do you think most people would? More importantly, should I consider putting “Poker Player” on my resume?

Technorati Tags: Resume, Poker, Lawyers

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My Products Liability professor asked the class whether we’d prefer to take an in-class final or a take-home final. An in-class final, he explained, would take 3 hours; a take-home final would take 48. Seems like an easy decision to me: the in-class final is the way to go. Of course, I was the only person in the entire class who felt that way.

I just completed my exam and turned it into DePaul’s maximum-security exam drop box.

Aside from the time I spent sleeping and eating, I spent almost all of the past 48-hours writing my exam answers. I did treat myself to a brief cardio workout, though. I really spoil myself.

I did most of my work at DePaul’s mock courtroom, which is used by the advanced Trial Advocacy classes and the Moot Court team during the year. But classes and moot court are done for the semester, so nobody else was using the mock courtroom, so I commandeered it.

Because students can complete the Products Liability take-home exam during any 48-hour period between April 30th and May 11th, I can’t share my answers with you. But don’t let that ruin your day; I can share this with you:

Every now and then, to clear my head, I drew the mock courtroom’s Dry Erase board. Here are some pictures of my best work:

Time for you to play psychologist: based on my Dry Erase drawing, what can you tell me about my state of mind as I was taking the Product Liability take-home exam? Also, based on my Dry Erase drawing, what grade do you think I will receive on the exam and why? (If you guess this correctly, you’ll get a personalized congratulatory e-mail from me in a month or two!)

Technorati Tags: Final Exam, Take-Home Exam, Exam, Summer Vacation

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