At some point between graduating from E&H with a B.S. in Environmental Science and taking every environmental law elective offered by ONU, I knew a good bit about the Clean Water Act. Since then, though, I have never had reason to look back at any environmental statutes. During my study of the CWA, I remember thinking that the citizen suit provision would be interesting to use sometime.
Patti McKenzi, a third-year law student at USC, however, has taken her study of the CWA to a new level and gave notice to Richland County, South Carolina, and state and federal officials, that she intended to utilize the citizen suit provision and sue them for $36.4 million for failing to enforce environmental laws. After receiving her notice, SC officials fined Richland County $830,549.00.
Another law school professor has banned the use of laptops in her classes. Professor June Entrman, from the University of Memphis, “nixed the computers in March because she felt they were turning her students into stenographers and inhibiting classroom debate. The full AP report is available here.
During my first year of law school, ONU did not have wireless in each room and I hung on every word the professors said. By my second and third years, however, we had a wireless connection in each room and I spent more time than I should have on blogging, IM’ing, and general surfing.
These distractions of having internet were outweighed, though, by the benefits of having an internet connection in class. First, more times than I can count, I was able to pull up cases via Lexis that were being referred to and skim along with the lecture. Second, by having a searchable version of codes, statutes, regulations, etc., I was able to find them much faster than people flipping through the index of a code book. An added bonus of this was not having to carry the huge code book around too. Finally, by typing my notes during class, when I got ready to do make outlines, I could copy and paste a substantial portion of the information.
For me, having a laptop during class was certainly more of a benefit than a distraction, although I can see how it could go both ways.
Not that long ago, when bar results came out the last time, I had a lot of sleepless nights and refreshed the results page about one million times. Last week, however, the most recent bar results were released and I did not even notice. I never will forget that feeling - knowing that I had finally passed and would never have to worry about that again.
I did, however, want to congratulate Seth Baker from Clintwood and Jennifer Sturgill from Wise. The full list of Virginia’s 345 new attorneys is here.
Today, Jerry and I attended the Bar Leaders Institute in Abingdon. Several interesting topics were covered and I met several folks I had heard a lot about.
Probably the highlight for me was meeting Robert Grey, ABA President, who gave an exceptional talk over lunch. Grey is without a doubt, one of the best speakers I have ever seen.
All of the other speakers and panelists were also good and informative.
Noticeably missing were fellow bloggers, Steve and Chad.
GET YOUR LAW DEGREE ONLINE . . . Are you hooked on legal weblogs? Do you get offended when you tell someone about your favorite “blawgs” and they think you’re talking about your favorite “blogs”? Do you subscribe to the belief that real lawyers really do have weblogs? Are your favorite blawgers more important to you than your best friends? Do you spend time reading The Volokh Conspiracy even though it’s nice outside?
Ironically, some of the smallest, and newest, law firms may provide some of the greatest competitive pressure in favor of technology training. Such firms, employing some of the newest technology, and staffed with some of the most tech-savvy recent law school graduates, may be much more nimble and adaptable than their older, larger cousins. Client praise for such firms may cause larger law firms to focus greater efforts on technology skills training.
Interesting. During my few years in law school, a few Lexis and Westlaw classes were about the extent of my “technology training.”
This article says that “[e]ach year, almost half of the country’s bar examinees will fail their state’s bar exam.”
If you have joined the ranks of those who must retake the exam, be reminded that you are in good company. Throughout history, many governors, members of Congress, mayors, attorneys general, military generals, law school professors, and judges have failed the bar exam as first-time test takers.
Hillary Clinton and the late John F. Kennedy, Jr., were two of the more famous politicos who were exposed as having failed their first bar exams–JFK, Jr., failed his second time around, as well–and Kathleen Sullivan, Stanford Law School’s former dean and a renowned attorney in her own right, was one of more than 4,000 examinees who did not pass the California Bar Exam.
I ended up doing the BarBri home study course (highly recommend), the MicroMash course (save your money), and the PMBR course (essential).
The BarBri is obviously the superior product for reviewing for the essay questions. Any one who takes the MBE without preparing with PMBR is basically rolling the dice, in my opinion.
The MicroMash bar review offered some nice features, but the materials were poor and the course as a whole was not that helpful.
As reported here, law schools want recruiters out of their schools until the U.S. military lifts its ban on open homosexual service members. They do, however, want to keep getting federal funds.
Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, several members of the bench said schools opposed to the military’s policy could simply refuse the government’s money. And Justice Sandra Day O’Connor added that there is nothing stopping schools from allowing recruiters while still making their objections known by posting disclaimers.
When I walked by the recruiters at school, I would always ask if they could get my student loans paid off if I joined up. None of them agreed to do that, so I went into the private sector to make millions and pay off my loans. (note: I will be lucky to do the latter, much less the former)
Although it would have made me substantially more nervous to have been in their shoes, these Wake Forest students are getting the chance of a lifetime.
Less than two months after his confirmation to the nation’s highest court, Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court will be at Wake Forest University next week to judge a law-student competition.
. . .
Less than a year and a promotion later, Roberts is making good on the commitment that he made then to return to WFU for the competition.
We just got back from Richmond. It was a long trip, but we had a great time.
My family and a friend’s family enjoyed a great dinner at the Tobacco Company on Sunday night. This was the first time I had ever ate there, but the food, service, and atmosphere were really great.
Then today, I got to raise my right hand and swear to be a great attorney, which took less than a minute. However, about an hour and a half was spent listening to the over 900 names be called out.
I was “fortunate” enough to be in the “out of state” section, which means we got to sit in the back, be the last ones called, and had no school-provided reception. But, hey, I am not complaining. This also meant I was sitting with the same folks who graduated from Harvard, Yale, etc. (not exactly a bad crowd)
Thanks again to everyone who left a comment offering their congratulations.
We are heading northeast today for the swearing in ceremony in Richmond. I will be here for the ceremony which will take place tomorrow.
For some reason, I always thought the ceremony would be in the Supreme Court building. Oh well, after three years of law school and countless hours of studying for the bar exam, if they wanted to swear me in on the sidewalk of Broad Street, I would not complain.
However, it is a little strange that I will finally be an attorney on Halloween, of all days.
Update II:
Thanks everybody. I cannot explain how great it feels to have passed, so I will not even try. As one might imagine, it feels pretty darn good.
Congratulations to everyone else who passed. I had several friends on the list and some not on the list. Now I am off to celebrate by attending the Dickenson County Democratic Committee’s monthly meeting.
As most of you all know, I did not go to the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy. Nevertheless, it is the only law school anywhere near here and I wanted to point this out.
ASL announced today that it has promoted W. Jeremy Davis to Vice-President and Jeffrey Kinsler will move up to Dean.
Jeffrey Kinsler, ASL’s most published and acclaimed faculty member, has accepted the position of Dean. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my three years of teaching law and implementing various projects and programs at ASL,” Professor Kinsler commented. “I will continue to teach and focus upon ASL’s full accreditation process. My wife and I look forward to becoming more involved in the community.”
This past summer, while I was taking PMBR in Grundy, everyone I met there had a story to tell about Kinsler. I was unable to meet him during that week, but he almost seemed like a mythical character based on what people were saying.
Finally, an issue I can offer some first-hand comments on. The reports of heat in the Clarion hotel are well founded.
The “laptop takers” were at the Clarion on Tuesday while those that preferred to hand write the exam were over at the Civic Center. I was lucky enough to be in the laptop/heat stroke group. In the morning session, the temperature was not too bad. However, after lunch the heat was unreal.
I think every guy in the place had shed his coat but me. Several ladies were also shedding their coats. I kept mine on through the entire exam just to make the point that the “court attire” dress code for that event is of little value. A dress code is fine, but seems like business-casual would be more logical.
My buddy and I had planned on just heading straight over to Texas Roadhouse for dinner after the exam. Instead, I tossed that suit in a bag and took a shower. The good news is I probably sweated a few pounds off.
Just got back from Roanoke and going through email. Not much to say about the bar exam. I feel like I did well and should pass unless maybe Jerry Kilgore has some connections with the VBBE and I have been blacklisted.
As mentioned earlier, today was the MBE portion of the exam. All of the questions seemed similar to those in the PMBR books, so I should have done well.
All jokes aside, these things are hard to predict, but I can’t think of anything more I could have done. Tomorrow I head back to work and jump back into the real world.
This is the first chance that I have had to jump online and see what has been going on. Looks like I am missing out on all kinds of cool stuff.
Today was the essay day (or Virginia day). In case anyone does not know, it consists of 9 essay questions and 20 short answer questions. Tomorrow is the MBE day (or Multistate day). Tomorrow will be 200 multiple choice questions based on contracts, criminal law, constitutional law, torts, property, and evidence.
Other than the exam, the trip to Roanoke has been fun. My buddy and I went and got some coffee at Mill Mountain Coffee yesterday and walked around a little downtown. The funny part was that we quizzed each other on Virginia procedure while walking around. More than a few people looked at us like we were kind of crazy.
Everything is going well and I hope to be home tomorrow evening and back to work on Thursday [finally].
Probably the highlight for me was meeting 
