Adventures in Legal Education

Today was collaborative learning day at the law school (no, not officially, in case you - as I - can imagine a world in which the law school would sponsor this bookended by health awareness weekend and hump day). In administrative law we broke into small groups, my group being assigned first to be administrative agency heads discussion our opinions of Obama's new Executive Order ______ (and as you drift away to the seashore I'll play out the sounds of seagulls and ocean waves while you assume I'm saying intelligent and specific legal stuff), afterwhich we rebroke into special interests groups and subsequently broke into twos to debate ____ (WOOOOOSH WOOOOOSH ooooh seashells!).

In Negotiations - which is always kind of legal improv theatre minus the clinking cocktails - we also broke into small sections with each group assigned an ethical dillemma that we then had to act out for the rest of the class with an ensuing conversation. People are getting pretty creative today. A student for instance fell to his knees with his head buried in his hand screaming out "MY B**CH OF AN EX-GIRLFRIEND JUST GAVE ME AIDS AND I WANT TO SUE HER!" I call it Raw Law - it doesn't get any realer than this. I hate to admit that this actually is a fairly effective learning tool; ok, not necessarily the screaming expletives part (although it does seem to accompany many aspects of much of our homework so perhaps it's not that different), but the small group discussions do tend to stimulate *actually* looking at the text and issues more closely. I'm not a huge fan, necessarily, but yes... it can work better than writing holdings word-for-word in agonizing detail on a whiteboard while... bad memories, bad memories NOOOOOO! Still, if we are begining to be creative about our learning, I would vote for the incorporation of a trapeze and/or some waterslides. Oooh maybe one of those bouncy inflatable castle things.

As my legal education spins into the outer reaches of the Fabulous Litigious Milky Way, my legal "career" expands into further speculation. One externship opportunity got busy with itself - amoeba style - and now there are three mercurial infant "opportunities" - two summer possibilities related to dispute resolution at various centers, and one fall opportunity with the civil division of the Seattle Prosecutor's Office. Sadly I can't take more than fifteen credits for externships (equivalently, the academic credit for working full time for one quarter). While dispute resolution is really a field that calls to me, the prosecutor's office's civil division works with a lot of health administrative details and other really fascinating things. It also would objectively be fabulous experience both for professional skills building and the potential for networking. Also, the summer schedule of classes is slightly more interesting to me than the fall schedule. Oh and the prosecutor person called my credentials "impressive," which stoked my ego. Of course, nothing will be secured or clear for at least a month. I have a tentative interview in May for the fall externship and am in vague email contact for the summer deals.

No doubt something will work out. But for now, time to compose a rap about Federal Evidence Rule 404(a)(2) ... Oh wait already been done (and yes, we saw it in class and I am sorely dissapointed not to find it on youtube for you). Maybe a rock opera.