Book Three: One L

It is Monday morning, and when I walk into the central building, I can feel my stomach clench. For the next five days I will assume that I am somewhat less intelligent than anyone around me. At most moments I'll suspect that the privilege I enjoy was conferred as some kind of peculiar hoax. I will be certain that no matter what I do, I will not do it well enough; and when I fail, I know that I will burn with shame. By Friday my nerves will be so brittle from sleeplessness and pressure and intellectual fatigue that I will not be certain I can make it through the day...Lately, I seem to be drinking a little every night. I do not have the time to read a novel or a magazine, and I am so far removed from the news of world events that I often feel as if I've fallen off the dark side of the planet. I am distracted at most times and have difficulty keeping up a conversation...At random instants, I am likely to be stricken with acute feelings of panic, depression, indefinite need, and the pep talks and irony I practice on myself only seem to make it worse.

I am a law student in my first year at the law, and there are many moments when I am simply a mess.

Great. I'm very happy to be attending a school that is known to have somewhat of a cooperative atmosphere. Sure, we'll have those kids that would be willing to string up their grandmothers for an A, there always are, but the competition aspect of law school will be less. At least that's what I've been told. Won't know for sure until I get there.

Virtually every American law school adheres to the "case-study method," which requires students to learn the law by reading and discussing in class a steady diet of case reports. Most of these are the decisions of appellate courts, designated higher courts to which lawyers carry their objections to some point of law ruled on by a trial judge. Because they deal with closely defined legal questions, appellate opinions are considered especially apt tools for teaching students the kind of precise reasoning considered instrumental to a lawyer's work.

Common law is the system of judges making law case by case. When the judge decides the law on his own by looking at what other judges have done in similar cases, he is following precedent.

Socratic method scares the bejesus out of me. I will determine early on, once the professors are introduced, whether or not I'll risk the embarrassment of offering wrong or incomplete answers or just sit quietly until my name is called.

Cases sited:
Hadley v. Baxendale, established limit on kinds of damages a winning plaintiff in a contract suit could collect
(result is not to punish to deter breach in the first place, damages are awarded to compensate for the loss)

Definitions:
Assault: intent to cause harmful or offensive contact or apprehension of that
(hmmm, "apprehension"...where does that leave us?)

Basic triad of contract law -- offer, acceptance, and considerations -- three elements required to form a binding obligation.

--I lent this book to a friend who knows someone currently working to get into law school. Will have to revisit it when it is returned to complete this post.