Law School Orientation, or "This is the song that never ends"

The law school runs on a slightly different schedule than the rest of the University. Our classes started the third week in August. Midterms are, for the most part, graded and returned. Classes end, I believe, just before Thanksgiving break. So you can see that we are on a slightly earlier schedule, at least when compared to the Undergraduate School.

It is currently the third week of October.

I still have orientation about once a week. And will continue to do so until, at least, the middle of November.

Seriously.

I don't know about any of you, but I have attended follow up orientation sessions, say once a semester, or just before finals, or towards the end of the year. UB Law takes the cake with its endless continuing orientation sessions.

On one hand, I abhor these sessions, as I get to listen to yet ANOTHER presentation on the importance of taking good notes and staying ahead of your work. Also, they tend to be during lunch. As a 1L, you pretty much never have lunch between law scholars (similar to TAs) and orientation.

On the other hand, there is almost always free pizza. So I guess that balances out the whole missing lunch thing. Also, some of them are really good. As much as I never need to hear another explanation of different types of learning styles, we have had some great training in legal research and specific exam strategies. If I was really being fair, I would also point out that most of these are entirely optional.

The other thing that keeps happening during law school is that people are always trying to sell you something. Bar review prep, commercial course outlines, legal research services, legal research help, citation services, exam prep, 25,000 case briefs, you name it. There must be more money in law school study aids than in actually practicing law. The disingenuous piece for me is the way it is presented. As a law student, I would think that we are probably the most discerning, skeptical, and otherwise fed up with BS group of consumers out there. So why do some companies resort to such base tactics as pyramid scheme referral services? Student recruiters? Why, because reps aren't allowed on campus? To anyone involved in marketing, I will give you a hint. If you insult my intelligence, or talk to me like I am a child, I will use the competitors product out of spite.

Honestly, by far the most effective ones are much more direct. They serve free pizza.

And to conclude with funny cases, a quick disclaimer. In Criminal Law we are up to homicide, some of these are a little macabre. We got to read a landmark case in which a jury decided that repeatedly dropping a 20 lbs. boulder on someone's head DOES NOT qualify as an attempt to cause severe bodily harm.

We also read a pretty good one where the court clearly stated that just because someone calls you a mean name, you can't murder them. I am not going to repeat the exchange here, but suffice to say it was on the level of "Yo Momma" jokes.