Queen's Law Life: 05/01/2004

My Laptop Arrived!

The friendly UPS guy dropped off my Mac yesterday. From reading posts on discussion boards, advice from sempais, and the Queen's Law site itself, it seems like a good idea to bring an ultra-portable laptop with me to law school. And, I'll tell ya, this new Apple is SWEET! :)

Finally, I am practicing what I preach. For years I have been enumerating the virtues of Macs to anyone that would listen, without actually owning one myself. (I know, I know!) On my advice, my girlfriend bought a beautiful iBook last year - and still loves it - and a colleague just bought a new G5.

The only problem with my new machine is that it didn't come with a word processor. (What's up with that, eh?) I'm deliberating between forking over the dough for Office 2004 or buying Apple Works. Honestly, it pains me to think about installing anything remotely connected with Windoze but, and I hate to admit this, I'm used to Word. What do other users think?

Legal Research Skills

I spent about an hour going through this slideshow on building research skills. It seems like it was put together by the Law Library and we will probably have to sit through it again during Orientation or at the beginning of term, but I figured it might be good to familiarize myself with tools like FindLaw.com and the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms.

Artist -- Patrick O'Keefe

Fellow Law School Bloggers

One site worth checking out includes a fellow blogger who might be joining me at Queens in the fall if it wins out over the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Alberta.

And this blogger also went back to Canada for law school. It seems he completed his undergraduate degree at Princeton and decided to pursue his law degree at Dalhousie. For me that's interesting because I quiz my true-blue New Yorker friends about Canadian law schools and, sorry to say it, Dal just doesn't show up on their radar screens. On that note, one friend I asked about Queens said, "wow, isn't that the Yale of Canada?"

Also, here's a head hunting site for lawyers and legal professionals. I suppose I may be using their services in the not-so-distant future. It's interesting that in their "WorldWide" map of jobs there's nothing listed for Africa. Are there no lawyers in Africa? ;)

Readings

I've decided to dedicate a couple evenings a week to prepare for September. I figure, at the very least, it will be good for me to start reading academic papers again. It's been about 5 years since I graduated from UVic (B.A. - Philosophy) so I'm a bit nervous about getting into the swing of things. On my reading list this week:

- the 2003 Orientation Guide to Queens that still happens to be online
- an old Contracts exam from 1997- an old Legal Professions exam
- some old Legal Ethics exams from American University in Washington, DC
- another discussion board - Greedy Canada - that seems to be geared for practicing lawyers (rather than students). I'm planning on reading through the posts for nuggets of helpful advice. I'll keep you posted if I find anything. :)
- an Op/Ed article from the New York Times about academia and activism - from what I've read, I completely disagree with this guy

In my search of the Queens website, I came across this link. Nice pic! Could it be that the folks at the law library have a sense of humour?

Word of the Day: res judicata
and other Legal Terms and Latin Phrases from Queens.

Canadians in International Law

An interesting article was posted in the Globe and Mail on Saturday about Boutique Law. The article states that Islamic, "[sharia law] is part of a worldwide move toward privatizing everything, including the legal system." ... "Corporations are renewing efforts to be allowed to sue nations. And corporations like Enron and WorldCom rewrite the law in the sense that they know they'll largely get away with it." I'm reminded of the myth of Progress.

For all who don't already know, Canadian Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour was named U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights earlier this year. Way to go!

Also in the news, Canada has been re-elected to UN human rights commission this month.

***

On another note, my girlfriend thought readers might not be aware of "SoHo" that I mentioned last week. So, here's a bit about SoHo, New York. SoHo stands for "SOuth of HOuston" (pronounced HOW-STON). Houston is a street in Manhattan that runs east-west and divides neighbourhoods like SoHo, NoHo, Greenwich Village, and Tribeca. SoHo has been known as a Mecca for hippies, artists and galleries since WWII but recently the rent in the area is so expensive that now its residents are increasingly investment bankers, movie stars and celebrities.

Preparing for September

Here is my To Do list and how it’s progressing:
1. Buy a laptop. At this point, I’m 99% sure that I’m going to get a Mac. My biggest selling points were 1. it’s 4.6 lbs, 2. its battery life is “up to 5 hours,” 3. AppleCare support is awesome, 4. I can afford it (with an education discount). So, alas, my wonderful, clunky IBM Thinkpad will serve as a pinch hitter. All in all, I’ve been happy with this Windows XP Pro-based machine, except that I’m sick of updating Windows Security patches all the time, downloading the newest virus protection software, et cetera, et cetera. Just thinking about switching to Macs gives me relief.

2. Find an apt in Kingston

3. Get to Queens before September 6th (first day of Orientation). (It almost seems like the whole semester is already planned out! Check out the exam schedule. It's almost eery that it's already up!)

4. Enjoy my summer!

This entry is via email

I'm typing this in my email program (who prefers to remain anonymous). I don’t know if this will work but I guess I'll find out soon.

Wikipedia’s entry for L.L.B. is quite good. Didn’t know the bit about “Bachelor of Legal Letters.”

Precedence

When I first started fishing for nuggets of insight, I signed up for the EZPost: Canadian Law Schools Forum . Of course, in the beginning I didn't know which law school would accept me so I was most interested in the Need Advice Section. BTW, I applied to UBC, Western, Windsor, Queens, Toronto, Osgoode, Ottawa, McGill, and UNB. I found the board to be a wealth of info. Check it out.

There's another board called the Law Discussion Board which looks good, but seems to be focused on American law school students.

I should mention the Canadian Law School Blog. It was started by Brent in 2002 when he started UBC and he did a pretty good job relaying the ups and downs of his life at law school. He has since passed the torch onto another guy, Setu, who will be at the University of Western Ontario. So, for all you out there interested in Ontario schools, you'll have a selection. For those interested in other schools, well maybe there are some blogs out there that I don't know about. On the international level, check out this law school blogger in Turkey.

Ever wonder if you LSAT/ GPA is high enough? Canadian Law Schools by the Numbers has the answer. Check out Queens by the Numbers.

My First Entry

Well, here I am. I just jumped on board the blog craze. I figured, as I have been scouring the Net looking for law school info, there are either 1. other students doing the same thing and haven't found the nuggets of info that I can share or, 2. folks in the future who may find these insights useful.

I've been trying to find books to prepare me for law school. I read OneL by Scott Turow and it got my stress level up. I would highly recommend it. Just keep in mind that it's quite dated and it's American. As far as I know, there has yet to be published a Canadian counterpart. (Hmmmmm. . . )

So, as you can read above, as of September 6th, 2004, I will be part of the student body at Queens University, Faculty of Law.