Orientation is a great time. Administrators and honored speakers pump you up and scare you to death about the next three years. You get to take care of administrative stuff like parking passes, student IDs, and the like. My favorite part is meeting people. I met probably fifty people that first day, only to realize the next day that I most likely wouldn't have class with any of them until next year. It's really too bad, because every person I met was super intelligent, had a very unique background, or shared both traits.
After the speeches, we had the opportunity to meet with two legal professionals that graduated from Willamette. We had an attorney that works at a private firm that handles mostly IP work and the honorable judge Angel Lopez in the Multnomah County Circuit Court (Portland's county). We discussed ethics and professionalism. I was very impressed by both lawyers and their view of the system. I was very interested in judge Lopez's insight into criminal law. I always thought that ethics were more of a solid code than an issue for discussion,but I was wrong. Welcome to law school, Lee.
With the day over after lunch, I headed home. Before starting orientation, I spent almost a straight week getting everything in place for school per the advice of Law School Confidential and a number of other prep books. I highly recommend LSC as a primary source, but not as an exclusive source for your guide to law school. Up to this point, it has been spot on concerning the experience. So with nothing better to do, I sat down and did my Civil Procedure homework. As an English major, fifty pages was about an hour read depending on the book. When I saw twenty pages, I did a double-take. "That's it?" I thought. Two hours later I realized that I was definitely beginning law school. I also realized that I had some serious back pain.
I had opted for a cheap stacking office chair because it resembled a library chair and I didn't ever recall having a problem with them as an undergrad. Now that I think of it, I also don't recall studying in four-hour blocks a couple times a day. Needless to say, I took it back to Office Depot and got a comfortable, well-supported chair that fits my desk (a folding dining table) perfectly. It has casters, so to prevent damage to the carpet, I grabbed a couple sturdy doormats from Walmart because those plastic floor protectors are way too expensive.
Thursday and Friday, we got an intro to legal study from our Legal Research and Writing (LRW) professor. The people in that class will not only be the same for the remainder of the year, but for every class as 1Ls. Time to make friends. We have a great mix of people and I am really excited to work with them. Luckily I found Chris, my new study buddy and carpooling partner that lives practically right next to me. Bonus!
That's a wrap for orientation. Let the intellectual beating begin!
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