School: The Final Lesson

For various reasons, my last set of exams is serving as a kind of crescendo for the law school experience. First, I didn't pay much attention for the first two months of school because of the near-daily practice required for the National Trial Competition. Second, many of the professors' lectures during this semester were just flat-out awful (sit in for a few hours of Baldwin's constant rambling or Raum's PowerPoint sessions and you'll be asleep, too).

That's why the studying for this set of finals has taken an interesting turn. I'm finding that it's easier to comprehend the applicable subject matter by studying court opinions and law review articles, rather than the assigned textbook or my lecture notes. In a sense, I guess, this semester of law school has taught me the value of independence; having someone talk at you about a subject doesn't necessarily help you absorb it any better. The big point of law school turns out to be that you don't need law school to learn the law.

I don't feel cheated, though. There's a value to that final, ironic realization. I do wish it could have come a bit cheaper.