On Friday I signed up to take the Bar Exam in the great state of Illinois.

If you plan on robbing any Chicago convenience stores or slipping on any Chicago (THERE, SANDY!!!) sidewalks, please wait at least nine months…at which point I will have taken and hopefully passed the Bar and MPRE exams.

On Saturday I went to Neil Strauss’s book reading.

Strauss wrote THE GAME: PENETRATING THE SECRET SOCIETY OF PICKUP ARTISTS, which recounts how the author rose to fame within the PUA (pickup artist) community and “sarged” (scored) some of the most beautiful women in southern California.

After the reading, I sarged Strauss’s mom.

Well, sort of. She and I talked for about an hour. I didn’t get her phone number…or her e-mail, but she did take mine and she said that she’d send me a message. We shall see.

Kidding aside, she and her husband were some of the cooler people I’ve met in Chicago.

On Sunday I got to work on my final law school paper. It’s about the James Frey scandal and the lawsuit that followed.

Basically, a bunch of MILLION LITTLE PIECES readers got together and sued Frey’s publisher, Random House for fraud. The case settled for a couple million dollars.

What do you think? Did Random House commit fraud in publishing a memoir that contained fabrications and advertising the book as “brutally honest”?

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Wills, Trusts, and Estates class was canceled. Of course, I didn’t figure that out until after I showed up for class and nobody else was there.

I called my friend and asked if class had been canceled. She said that it had been and that our professor said so at the end of last class. So I opened up my notes from last class and read, “NO CLASS NEXT WEEK!!! DON’T FORGET!!!”

I showed up to class ten minutes early because I had nothing else to do, I hung around the classroom to see if anybody else might have forgotten…which would have made me feel a little less incompetent.

Finally, two minutes before class was (not) set to begin, somebody showed up and said, “Where is everybody?”

“Class was canceled,” I said.

“Really? I don’t remember Prof. O saying that.”

“Who’s Prof. O?” I asked.

“Wait a second. I’m on the ninth floor, aren’t I? Wrong floor! Never mind!”

She had meant to go to room 805, not 905…leaving me the only student in a class of 100 who had forgotten about the cancellation.

(By the way…I’m reading through the Cartoon Caption Contest entries…I think y’all can do better….)

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Greetings, Counselors! And welcome to part 5 of Law School Blogger’s 10-part series: Shameless Ripping off The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Game.

For those of you new to the blog, here’s how it works: I provide you a drawing and you come up with a funny caption for it. In a few days, I’ll decide who wrote the funniest caption, and then the winner wins absolutely nothing whatsoever. Sound like fun? Yes? Yes.

Today’s drawing comes from LSB cruiserweight commenter Counselor Rachel, and here it is:

Technorati Tags: cartoon, new york, new yorker, ripoff, contest, competition, drawing, book, books, opinion, risque, law school blog, lawschoolblogger, lawschoolblogger.com, lawyer boy, lawyer, boy, rick lax, law, law school, legal, education, blog, writing, class, school

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I just wrapped up my last-ever spring break.

(Real lawyers don’t get spring break—right?
It’s a student thing—yes?
Yes.
Moving on…)

Here are the photographed highlights:

First I became a superhero: Black Suit Man.

Then I hosted a fancy dinner party.

Derek the Djembe player stole an unbaked brownie bite.

Counselor Elliot scolded him.

And I was left to clean the mess.

A few days later, I let Cyborg Sandy read Lawyer Boy.

And she liked it so much that she insisted on having her photograph taken with the author.

One day I wandered around the city and got lost in the rat race.

I found myself at Schubas, where Tally Hall was playing to a sold-out crowd of teenagers…

…many of whom were clumped together in the least-threatening mosh pit I’ve ever seen.

After the show, Zubin in Blue and I in my tie thought about whether we should get something to eat.

We decided that we should.

And now I’m back in school. Got a 22-page Negotiations paper due tomorrow, actually. I encourage you to write words of encouragement below.

Technorati Tags: spring break, photos, chicago, rat race, dinner party, clean, cleanup, clean up, pan, brownie, browny, scold, elliott, downtown, nonfiction, memoir, characters, plot, law school blog, lawschoolblogger, lawschoolblogger.com, lawyer boy, lawyer, boy, rick lax, law, law school, legal, education, blog, writing, class, school

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Today’s Guest Post comes from Counselor Chuck: 

(Pictured here with Counselor Fruvous)

Admittedly, it was a long time ago. Dick Nixon was the President, Spiro Agnew was the Veep, and we were still fighting another war that we could not win. I was a 3L with only two months left in my law school career. While time has eroded some memories, there is one I will never forget. I was scared; not about graduating, or about finding a job, but about passing the bar exam. It was at times all consuming.

I knew I would be practicing in Michigan, so where I would be taking the bar exam was not an issue. The only decision to be made was which of the two recognized bar review courses would I take: either the old tried and true course (Nord) or the new up-and-coming course (Josephson). It never occurred to me, or for that matter anyone I knew, that self study was an option. With a great deal of trepidation and a lot of hard work, I passed, and for that matter, everyone I knew also passed.

Last weekend, Ricky and I had a serious discussion about his impending bar exam. First of all, it appears that he will likely take the Illinois bar and he seems comfortable with that likely decision. The discussion, however, took a turn when he informed me that he was not going to take a review course, but instead intends to self study. Basically, he reasoned that sitting through the lectures (whether taped or in person) would be a waste of his valuable studying time. This is most troubling since I do not know any attorney who passed the bar by self studying. I pointed out to Ricky that if his theory is correct, why did he ever bother to attend classes during undergraduate or law school?

My question to all LSB readers: is Ricky making a huge mistake if he forgoes a review course and opts for self study?

-Counselor Chuck

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…on Spring Break…will post again soon…

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Law School Blog’s 3rd Official Cartoon Contest has come to a close. I would like to thank all the contestants for their thoughtful, clever, oft-meta-humorous entries. Alas, there can only be one winner. And, so it is with great honor that I proudly annouce the winning selection…

 
“Who can fight EPA standards on a day like this?”

Congratulations, Elizabeth! Your honorary, personalized email will be forthcoming…

Due to the high-quality (and low-quantity) of entries, I thought it fair to award two Honorable Mentions.

1st Honorable Mention goes to… Counselor Ryan for his hilariously precise descriptive explanation of the cartoon:

“Johnson, when it comes time for me to recommend you for partner I’ll remember the fact that you worked through the night on this case with a broken arm and visible blood clots in your legs, then greeted me with a smile and offered me these two bananas at exactly 9:03 in the morning.”

2nd honorable mention goes to… Counselor Pirates (who also wins the ‘Award for Effort’) as he accumulated the most funny points overall.

Thanks for playing, and a special thanks for mocking my excrutiatingly poor drawing skills. Out of respect toward me, and my sense of dignity, I ask that everyone who sees this posting to NEVER speak of it again…

Elliott

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Got the LAWYER BOY Advanced Reading Copies in the mail today.

They’re used primarily for publicity. Another thing publishers do to promote books is have their authors complete Author Questionnaires for the media. Here was one of the questions on the Questionnaire:

What kind of experience has writing your book been for you (fun, exciting, agonizing…)?

And here was my answer:

It was really easy. My editor tells me that saying this is a sure way to alienate other writers and potential readers…but it’s true; the words just came out. Never had writer’s block, never drank to excess, never pulled my hair out and questioned whether what I was writing was any good. It was just really easy and that’s all there is to it. I think the bulk of the ease had to do with the genre. When you’re writing a memoir, unlike fiction, you don’t have to think up memorable characters and a compelling plot. And unlike most nonfiction books, you don’t have to do any research.

So are you alienated?

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Part three of LawSchoolBlogger’s ten-part series, Shamelessly Ripping Off The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest, is upon us.

This week’s Cartoon Caption Contest drawing comes from Counselor Elliott:

Counselor Elliott will pick the winner, and said winner will get a personal congratulatory e-mail from Counselor Elliott himself!

So go ahead, caption away:

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St. Martin’s Press is publishing my law school memoir, LAWYER BOY: A CASE STUDY ON GROWING UP, in July.

The LAWYER BOY cover has arrived:

I’ve shown it to a handful of friends and they’ve described it as “simple,” “bold,” “immature,” “intriguing,” “feminine,” and “risqué.”

The guy who called it “feminine” said the shape of the tie resembled that of a woman’s body.

The guy who called it “risqué” was alluding to the old college dorm signal…placing an article of clothing on your door lets your roommate know that the room is being used for…that the room is being used.

We really weren’t trying to go in that direction

What’s your take?

Technorati Tags: cover, art, image, cover art, tie, blue, hanger, book, books, opinion, risque, law school blog, lawschoolblogger, lawschoolblogger.com, lawyer boy, lawyer, boy, rick lax, law, law school, legal, education, blog, writing, class, school

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