Correction appended
The scene is quite different from a stereotypical undergraduate party.
Candlelit gourmet dinners replace munchies, and a fine red wine replaces Pabst. There is a sort of civility, but there are similarities as well.
“They’re loud!” exclaimed University graduate student Laurie Trautman.
Chatting up the rainy weekend night, 20 students — some dressed up, others wearing University law T-shirts — huddle up on couches to taste a microbrew and have a good laugh.
“The biggest percentage of law students are not holding a beer right now,” law student Daniel Wayne said.
To the observer, the lives of the close-knit community of about 550 appear confined to the walls of their intellectual prison. Undergraduates who dare to study in law students’ library might receive a severe glare if they so much as whisper to a study buddy. It is certainly easy to make the distinction between who’s who.
And with good reason.
With a roughly 60-hour per week study schedule, the National Association of Law Placement prohibits students from even working in law during their first year of studies. First-year law student Matthew Thompson said it had been weeks since he had even spoken with anyone outside of the law school.
“The workload is just soul-crushing,” law student Paul Thompson said.
Still, for many undergraduates, it is baffling that others would voluntarily sign their lives away in such a manner.
It might surprise some students to learn that talking to a real-life law student is not actually all that scary.
“I think we all just look tired. Nothing ever really stops when you’re in law school,” Matthew Thompson said. “Your whole world closes up.”
As a rule, students say, in the first year of law school, the faculty scares you to death, in the second year they work you to death and in the third year they bore you to death.
“It’s been pretty accurate so far,” law student Mary Margaret Montgomery said.
Matthew Thompson agreed.
“You spend your first year in mortal terror,” he said.
Matthew Thompson believes there’s no way to prepare for law school, and that whatever a student says is going to be wrong the first five times. To him, the law instructors are perhaps as mystifying as law students are to the general population of University students.
“They’re intimidating as hell,” Matthew Thompson said of the instructors. “They can run intellectual circles around everyone in the room.”
For some students, the best part of law school is winter break, but most students are there because they love it, which takes precedence over the guarantee of a high-paying job.
“People here are not really here for that,” said law student Gordon Kuehl, who feels University law students are less corporate-oriented than at other law schools.
“It’s really intellectually stimulating,” law student Monica Martinez said. “You get to discuss abstract things you wouldn’t talk about in a normal everyday conversation.”
The sense of family is also great in a group that is forced to spend more time than they might like to with one another.
“You are surrounded by people who have a lot in common with you,” Montgomery said. “You see the same people all the time. That’s why hooking up can be a little awkward.”
When they aren’t studying for the loathed Legal Research and Writing class and they are permitted to see the light of the world outside the classroom, the students are active in representing underprivileged clients at animal shelters and domestic violence cases. University law students are also intramural champions in the most campus sports.
The overachievers let loose when they can. On Thursday nights, the students usually get together for their weekly “bar review” — the kind that serves alcohol, not the legal association.
Law student Holly Jacobson admits that for all their sophistication, there is still a beer pong table at her house.
Moreover, the students claim to be reigning beer pong champions of the University.
“Law school’s hard, so that’s why we party hard,” Jacobson said.
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Due to an editor’s error, a number of quotes in this story were misattributed. The following quotes were said by Matthew Thompson: “I think we all just look tired. Nothing ever really stops when you’re in law school. Your whole world closes up.” “You spend your first year in mortal terror.” “They’re intimidating as hell. They can run intellectual circles around everyone in the room.” The following paraphrase also refers to Matthew Thompson: “(He) believes there’s no way to prepare for law school, and that whatever a student says is going to be wrong the first five times. To him, the law instructors are perhaps as mystifying as law students are to the general population of University students.” The Emerald regrets the errors.
Saturday night with law students
Daily Emerald
November 11, 2009
Jack Hunter
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