Motivation For The Second Semester

Although my classmates and I have only finished one semester of law school so far, it feels like we’ve been there for a lot longer than that. As 1Ls, we’ve already experienced some of the busiest workloads that we’ll probably ever seen in school. We’ve spent hours pouring over Westlaw's website doing research for our writing class. We’ve spent even more time in the library reading, outlining and studying for classes. We’ve taken part in a number of school and club activities. And we recently finished a dreaded law school final exam period.

After such a long semester, it’s really nice to have winter break now. For most students, winter break is a great way to relax and completely forget about school for a couple of weeks. For many of my friends, this means turning off the alarm clock and lying in bed for a few extra hours. Other friends are traveling throughout the US and some even outside the country. I personally have spent most of my time catching up with old friends, hanging out with family and my two year old niece, and doing some reading. But in just a few days, most of us will have to shift gears again, because school begins just one week from today.

So while all of us will still be relishing the finals days of vacation later this week, we’ll also have to start getting motivated for the second semester. This means finalizing travel arrangements, researching books and supplements for class, preparing resumes and cover letters for recruiting, and perhaps doing some reading before classes. And while none of these activities are singularly difficult, it’s pretty easy to put them off after a really long first semester and after the really short winter break we get at Northwestern. It will definitely take motivation.

One thing I learned last semester is that motivation is critical to doing well in law school. There are too many pages to read, too many concepts to learn, and too many students competing for top grades to do well without it.

One way to stay motivated is to think about the things that made you excited when you applied to law school and the things they want to get out of school. In law school, students are often motivated to achieve top grades, to work at a certain firm or agency, or to challenge themselves academically. In business school, students are often motivated to transition into a certain industry, to gain certain professional skills or experience, or to take two years to figure out exactly what to do. Personally, I tend to find my motivation from the academic challenge and from gaining specific skills and experiences.

For some, finding this motivation and working hard may come more naturally, but for others it could take a bit more work. This is especially true in today’s economic environment where recruiting numbers are significantly down and pessimism about job prospects reigns. It may also be true for certain law school students once grades come out in mid January.

But in my opinion, the horrors of grades and job prospects are not unique to today's law or business students and should not significantly influence our motivation levels. Students have dealt with these issues for decades, and many have ended up at the best firms and most prominent positions. So more important than grades and recruiting statistics, students should try to keep an eye on the big picture and stay focused on the higher things that intrinsically motivate them. Whether they are compelled by a higher purpose to lead, a desire to change the world, an aspiration to give back to your community, or even the desire to achieve economic gain. And in my opinion, this last factor can sometimes be just as compelling as the others. For example, I have a friend at the law school now who is motivated to work hard and make a lot of money with the purpose of supporting their family after school.

And the good news for everyone is that any meaningful purpose you have will require more than a semester's worth of effort and a single set of grades. So in the end, no matter which of the categories we fit into or how our first set of grades turn out, winter break serves as a good way to have a little fun, reflect, and find a higher level of motivation for next semester.

One Key to Law/Business School--Manage Your Energy and Not Your Time

Here at Northwestern Law, we just finished finals yesterday. It was definitely a grueling process, but I think things ultimately turned out pretty well. And even though we only finished yesterday, I've already been reflecting a bit on my first semester.

One thing I've learned in the past three months is that the first year of law school is a lot about discipline. Students spend most of the day in class and evenings in the library or other study space reading and prepping for class. But this past semester there came a point for all of us where increased discipline didn’t help--cases were too long, material got harder, our energy levels were low.

The same was true when I worked in the consulting world before school. The further anyone made it up the career ladder, the more demanding the work became. While in some cases, people can cope by being more resourceful and persuasive--which was usually my strategy--most people cope by putting in longer hours. At law school, this translates into spending more time studying and less time on other activities--exercising, friendships, and relationships. Over at Kellogg things aren’t much different, except that student schedules are jam-packed, just with networking events, socials, and team projects rather than case books.

Here at Northwestern Law, older students talk a lot about studying smart rather than hard, in hopes to get some of that time back. For some that means not actually studying until the end of the semester; for others it means reading every day to avoid pileups during the semester; for others it means not preparing for in-class discussions but instead studying for the final from day one. People spend a lot of time strategizing about how they can optimize time.

Based on my experience in my first semester of law school, I think there is similar value to strategizing about your energy level. For example, thinking about how you use social sites like Facebook, email, and g-chat might help control your mental energy or concentration levels while you're working. Taking part in activities that have meaning or give you a sense of purpose can also affect your energy, though prioritizing which activities qualify is can be a difficult process. Additionally, getting involved in activities relatd to your future career goals can give you quite a bit of energy, since these tend to be the things that you are passionate it about. And it goes without saying that investing time in friendships and relationships can be either a drain or refill to your energy, usually the latter. For me, I spent a lot of time thinking about all three of these during the first semester, as I met a lot of new friends here at school and as I put quite a bit of time thinking about professional activities. Conversely, I didn't spend much time thinking about technology, though I know quite a few people who did. Overall, I think my strategy worked out pretty well. Although I had my ups and downs in energy like everyone else, and was not at my best during mid-term week, I was able to maintain pretty high energy levels all semester and peaked right at the end of the year.

In a 2006 study, a group of Fortune 500 companies underwent a test where part of the group underwent self-management and energy management training. The study compared the results of the test group of companies against a control group of companies that did not. Using company-specific financial metrics (such as revenue, employee productivity, relationship management) to compare the two groups, the study showed that the organizations that invested more time in these activities were more profitable over time.

Personally, I like to think track and field runners as a good example of this concept, where top runners are not only aggressive in their training routines but also focused on managing their energy level. Through a long season of running hundreds of a miles, runners must eat the right foods, consume the right number of calories, keep stress levels reduced, and get a lot of rest right before competitions, all in addition to getting faster and eventually peaking at the end of the year.

Similarly, I think both students and professionals might be better off by spending a bit more time managing their energy levels.

Almost Done With My First Semester

Just yesterday my section had our Civil Procedure final exam. This exam was definitely the one that everyone in the section, and perhaps everyone in the 1L class, has been dreading. The subject matter of civil procedure is incredibly dense, highly technical, and is taught at a really fast pace. Furthermore, given a lot of people here at Northwestern end up going into corporate law, rather than litigation, many of my classmates are just completely uninterested in the class. But the good news is that it was our third exam, so we were able to adjust our strategies after a bit of trial and error on the first two exams. And we also had more time to study for it. Reflecting back now, I’m pretty happy with how the exam went. I was pretty well-prepared overall, and took a slightly different approach to preparing than I did for my first two. For my other final exams, I was a bit less organized, didn’t leave much time to go back and make corrections in the final ten minutes before time was up, and spent a bit too much time reading the questions. But fortunately, I still felt OK about those exams too, so I can’t really say for sure that my new strategy was more effective.

More important than my effectiveness on those past exams, at least as of today, is the fact that I'm almost done with my first semester of law school, with one more exam to take on Thursday. After being in final mode for about two weeks now, I'm sitting here on the top floor of the library typing this entry excited for Thursday to finally come because it feels so close. But I suspect that the next day and a half is also going to feel very long give the pure amount of review I plan to do. A lot of my classmates are pretty open about being worn out from school now, and everyone’s looking forward to being done. It’s definitely been a test of endurance and focus. Personally, I’ve really enjoyed the process, because with all the studying finally comes a level of mastery of the material that most of us haven’t had all semester. In addition, I finally feel like I have a lot more familiarity with the legal way of thinking, which ultimately is why many of us are here in law school. It's certainly why I did. I think as a first year law student, it's definitely important to try to keep a bird's eye view of things and keep the big picture in mind.

In addition to getting through this finals period, some people are also thinking about jobs for the summer. Just a few days ago, I went to a reception downtown to meet with ten or so employers, including one company I’ve been in contact with for a few months now. It was a good mix of employers and a good number of them were dedicated to the non-profit or government space. The host speaker was Rob Huberman, the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, who I got to chat with for a few minutes after he spoke. I also spent about an hour chatting with a venture capital firm that was at the event. The firm was pretty unique in that they actually invested most of their funds in the non-profit and education space, making them more of a hybrid venture capital and venture philanthropy firm. I also made sure to talk a bit with the Broad Foundation and Education Pioneers, who in my opinion are the two pioneering organizations in the Education sector today. If you don’t know anything about them, you should look both of them up when you get the chance.

Aside from that event, just this morning, I had quick call with the head of recruiting at BCG (Boston Consulting Group) and we chatted a bit about upcoming consulting events, about the logistics for recruiting with them as a JD-MBA, and about strategies for the case interview. I also traded a few emails today with a local Chicago law firm. It’s a firm that I’m really interested in working for. Interestingly enough, the firm’s head recruiter emailed me first just to check in, so it’s nice to know that I’m on their radar. I'm really hoping to make some traction with the firm over the next few weeks and will be interesting to see how everything plays out. But as important as all the job stuff is, what’s mostly on my mind now is my last final exam.

My last exam is for my Criminal Law class. I’ve enjoyed the class all semester long, and I really like Professor Rubenewitz. While the course is a pretty easy to discuss at a high level, the content gets a bit more technical and difficult as you start digging into the details, so I’ve still got a lot of studying to do. The good news and the bad news is that the exam is actually seven hours long. So on one hand, that means I’ll have plenty of time to figure out some of the details during the exam. But on the other hand, the more time I spend on those details during the exam, the less polished my final paper will be. Like everything else here, it’s a tradeoff everyone has to figure out so everyone's level of preparation will probably be different. Either way, it’s all been a lot of fun, and I look forward to the seven hour challenge on Thursday morning, and to a really fun night out with my 1L class and with my JD-MBAs on Thursday night.

OK, time for me to hit the books again. I’ve got a lot of Criminal Law cases and rules to re-read. But keep an eye on my blog over the next couple of weeks. I plan to do a lot of general reflection and writing after exams are over.

Finals Week

At long last ….. finals week for my first semester of law school is finally under way, and the first exam day technically just kicked off yesterday. Law students all over Northwestern are immersed in their books and outlines, and everyone is looking for an edge to perform well, especially 1Ls. But this doesn’t come as a surprise. After all, law school has a reputation for being quite competitive, let alone this year when jobs are fewer, grades more important, and the market uncertain. What does come as a surprise however is that unlike me, most of the students here have ventured out of the library to do their studying at home or in coffee shops, free from interruption. So the campus seems a lot emptier than it did just a week ago.

For the most part, I’ve done a good job of staying out of the law school frenzy. I think many of the JD-MBAs are able to do that quite well, in fact most of them do it better than I do. But the last few days I’ve fed into the frenzy a lot more than usual. But can you blame me, its finals week. The days now are starting to feel like a blur, and I often miss how quickly the day goes by, as I'm reading, outlining, looking at practice tests, and having dialogues with classmates. I’ve certainly gotten into a routine the past two weeks, where it’d actually feel odd if I didn’t do any of these things.

But more interesting than the tangible things I'm doing to study is that I’ve learned some pretty interesting things going through the process. For one, I’ve definitely come to vastly appreciate what my law school professors do. Not only do they have to be familiar with all of the material they assign, but they also have such a high level mastery of it to field our questions, teach complicated subject in an understandable way, and to come up with on the spot examples and illustrations, which is pretty impressive given how hard the material actually is.

Its also been pretty interesting observing the habits of the students here at Northwestern. I've noticed that some of the students have gotten into pretty interesting routines to study more effectively. Many go into the same classrooms, meet with the same people to study, and sit at the exact same desk in the library every day. Other go to different places at different times and never study with the same people. Then there's a third group of people who have just disappeared and probably won’t emerge from the apartments until the day of the exams, just to go back into hibernation again until the next exam. I’ve definitely not seen quite a few of my classmates for the week or so.

On the other hand, a number of my peers seem really calm and collected. One of my better friends in the JD-MBA program does that really well and he always gives me a hard time for studying as much now. I’m not sure how much the calmness correlates to everyone's confidence or grasp of the material, perhaps it’s just their perspective, being used to pressure, or just a bit of ambivalence to law school. My hypothesis is that it's probably different for everyone. While I certainly took notice of this earlier in the semester, it’s become a bit more clear the past few week that there is no typical law student here.

As for me, I tend to spend more of my time here at the school now. I generally like to mix up location when I can, and I have a nice circle of people I study with, although in general the law school process is not group-focused like at Kellogg. Rather, it’s a lot about self-teaching, reading, and writing, which can feel pretty isolating if you don’t make a point to take a break every now and then. Thankfully the people here at Northwestern are pretty collegial and the JD-MBAs here have a really good support system for each other.

It’s been a pretty interesting past few weeks, but the journey just begins today, as our first final looms less than 24 hours from now, and our last one comes ten days later, as a seven-hour marathon exam. While it may sound brutal, my opinion is that we're are pretty fortunate to be at Northwestern, especially now. So no matter how things turn out, I plan to stay optimistic, enjoy the process, and hopefully write a post or two the next two weeks.

Good luck to all those with exams.

Internship Search

At last … it’s almost time for the students here at Northwestern Law to begin the daunting task of trying to find their first year summer internship. Because of a national law that says firms can’t recruit at law schools until December 1, our Career Management Center doesn’t allow companies to start focusing on first years (1Ls) until the end of the semester. Unfortunately, this means that all of the 1Ls will be stuck trying to fit their internship search in right as finals are approaching, and after that finishing up applications over Christmas break. I can understand the rationale of the rule, because it gives us students time to get accustomed to school, to meet their classmates, and get used to the workload without worrying about the job search right away. But it’s going to be tough to balance sending out resumes with studying for exams, because there is still so much work to do before finals.

About a week ago, Northwestern Law had a law firm reception in our atrium, where a large number of law firms from various practices came to talk with the students one on one. Personally I talked a lot with the bigger firms Skadden and Kirkland, prominent Chicago firms like Jones Day and McGuire Woods, and also with a couple of prestigious smaller firms like Miner Barnhill. I’m also personally interested in the Chicago mid-sized firm Vedder Price but was disappointed to see that they weren’t at the event. At this point, since all of the resume drops for companies will start the middle of next week, I’ll spend a decent amount of my time the next few days writing cover letters and customizing my resume to what these companies might be looking for.

It should be interesting to see how things will turn out this year. For the law students, this year is going to be pretty tough. Both law firms and government agencies are cutting back on hiring this year because of budget cuts, so it sounds like there will be a lot less jobs to go around than usual. This means first semester grades will be more important than before and applying to places where you are a good fit will be critical. Overall, I think it’s definitely important for 1Ls to do something interesting this summer, that way during OCI next year, students will have something to talk about as they’re interviewing for the summer internship that will probably turn into their full-time job. This will be especially true for those students who's grades might be on the margin.

As a JD-MBA, my experience is going to be a bit different. While many JD-MBAs participate in the OCI process, many don’t work full time during the first summer. This has noting to do with our success levels in the OCI process, but rather it’s because here in the Northwestern JD-MBA program, most take a full load of classes during the summer, so the folks who do work, have a delicate balancing act. Because of this, many JD-MBAs prefer to get creative during first summer. Some work part-time, others work only during the time that we have off, and many decide not to work at all, while a select few do decide to work full-time. From a recruiting perspective, employers are really familiar with our program, so they understand, when students choose not to work. It will also be interesting to see where my JD classmates end up. I’ve talked a lot with my classmates and my section mates, and everyone seems to have lots of diverse career goals, and this year most students are keeping their options open.

My one piece of advice to everyone who's applying to school this year, JD or MBA, is to do the same. Understand the market, do your research and keep your options open if need be. That means understand the recruiting market. Know how your target industries and companies are being affected. And start researching firms and organizations that are good fits and align with your background as early as possible. And also, try to be flexible to some extent. Personally, I’m planning to participate in OCI this year, and I've found a couple of select organizations that I am currently interested in. Stay tuned to see how things turn out.

Goldman Sach Presentation

A couple of week ago here at the law school, the private wealth management team from Goldman Sachs came out to give a presentation. Contrary to Goldman’s usual pit stop down at Kellogg, this time they decided to come and recruit specifically here at Northwestern Law. It’s pretty odd that they were here on campus at the law school, since companies like Goldman spend the majority of their time on the business school campuses.

But the Goldman buzz definitely got around campus quickly when the news first came out. A lot of people were talking about the session, and multiple emails went out to our listserve in the last days before the event. The session took place at lunch on a Thursday. Minutes before the session started, the room quickly filled up. It’s no surprise that a large number of the JD-MBAs were in attendance, many of them from my year. Events like these are usually much more attended earlier in the year before classes get hectic and midterms begin.

A couple of senior Goldman advisors stood up in front of the room, introduced themselves, and then gave a mini presentation. All of them were lawyers and a couple had JD-MBAs. It was pretty obvious that the presentation was canned, and the presenters seemed more interested in giving a small pitch and answering question than making a formal presentation. Goldman’s pitch was that both law students and experienced lawyers are very well-prepared to enter the private wealth management field, given their strong communication, negotiation, and client management skills.

I don’t disagree with the pitch. But I also think there’s a bit more to it. In my personal opinion, I think Goldman was also trying to cast a wider net for the private wealth recruiting team. For one, in many business schools private wealth often takes a back seat to investment banking, which has long had the lure, appeal and prestige to attract MBA students. This has long been the case, and I don’t think anything has changed even in this economy. And second, I think Goldman is absolutely correct. In the long run, lawyers do make really good private wealth advisors. This is because they have both the soft client skills to do well and in the long run they bring clients with them to make Goldman a lot of money.

Overall the session went pretty well. Despite a seemingly canned presentation, the advisors gave a lot of information, answered a lot of questions, and were available to chat after the session. I have a JD-MBA friend here at Northwestern who is in his final year in the program now. At the time of the session he was preparing for a Goldman interview but hadn’t had it yet, so he made a point to chat with the advisers after the presentation. Turns out that just earlier this week, he finally received and accepted his offer. This is proof that sometimes going to all of these info sessions can pay off during recruiting time, especially if you target the right sessions.

In my opinion, it’s definitely nice to get an offer at Goldman this year no matter which division you work in. Kudos to one of my JD-MBA classmates for reeling it in. Law school recruiting for first year students has barely started here at Northwestern for first years. On 11/1 Northwestern Law was permitted to meet with students to advise us on our career options. In December, we'll finally be able to start sending out applications and going through the formal recruiting process. Should be an interesting couple of weeks as things start to progress. Check back for more recruiting updates along the way.

November

Hey all, after a two week hiatus I’m back to posting again. As of late, life has been mostly studying and trying to keep up with the hectic pace of law school, so the past two weeks have gone by quickly.

In the period, I’ve taken midterms for all my classes, gone to review sessions for the same classes, started the recruiting process, done a few mock interviews, started my final paper for my legal writing class, and began preparing outlines as study tools. Also, just around the corner is Thanksgiving Break and after that finals. It seems like the semester is flying by.

Despite how quickly the semester is progressing, we really have been learning a lot about the law. We generally read several hundred pages of text per week, comprised of dozens of cases on various topics. Some of the cases are interesting and some are dry, but most of us are starting to pick up the higher-level concepts more easily and conversations in class are flowing pretty well. This seems to be especially true in our Criminal Law and Torts classes. Also, the good news is that ten weeks in, most of us are starting to read cases faster, take fewer notes, and prepare for class more quickly.

We’ve also had lots of great guest speakers the past few weeks, including a couple of judges, attorney generals, law firm partners, government officially and public interest guests. Many of the students regularly attend these functions. Just last week there was a public service employers reception that a lot of people in my section went to.

In addition to all of that, we had a couple of important JD-MBA meetings. In one meeting last week, we learned more about planning our schedules for next semester and beyond. Ultimately, we have requirements at both the Law School and Kellogg, so getting everything finished can sometimes be a tricky. The Director of Academic Affairs and a panel of older JD-MBA students gave us the inside scoop about classes and the paths JD-MBAs often take. All of the law students, including the JD-MBAs, get to choose two electives next semester. I’m personally thinking about taking Business Associations (i.e. Business Law) and Employment Law but I'm not positive yet. Most JD-MBAs take Buusiness Associations because it's a prerequisite for a lot of courses we'll want to take when we come back to the law school our third year. We have a list of about 25 electives to choose from.

This week, the JD-MBAs are meeting to talk about how to approach working this summer. Unlike students at the law school or at Kellogg, the JD-MBAs take courses during their first summer. Having the option to take classes is nice for those who don’t want to work. It will be a delicate balancing act for those who do want to work, because we'll have to balance working with classes, units, and fullfilling requirements. I'm hoping to be in the latter group, but it will be interesting to see where everyone ends up.

I plan to address many of these things more specifically in a series of separate posts this month. Stay tuned!

Northwestern Announces JD-MBA Professorship, $3MM Funding, and Support of JD-MBA Program

Earlier today, I received an email from the Dean of the law school, Dean Van Zandt, and he gave some really good news. He announced that General Dynamics recently made a $3 million donation to Northwestern Law and the Kellogg School of Management. The donation was in made in honor of General Dynamics recently retired CEO, Nicholas D. Chabraja, who as Northwestern law alum worked at the intersection of business and law for many years.

This gift is the first of its kind and will fund a joint professorship between the Law School and the Kellogg School of Management. Doing so, it will provide the support needed to bring Bernard Black to come teach at both campuses here at Northwestern (Northwestern Law and Kellogg). Bernard Black is really accomplished, it's great we were able to get him here at Northwestern. The donation also will provide support for the JD-MBA program here, which is amazing news for us current students. As usual it’s great to see Northwestern leading the way in the JD-MBA space. The JD-MBA program here is currently the largest and most integrated joint law and business program in the world and the first to introduce a three-year format.

For more details on the donation and the professor, check out the email from the Dean below. To see the press release that Northwestern put out today CLICK HERE. For more information on Northwestern’s JD-MBA program, CLICK HERE.


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To: Northwestern Law Community
From: David E. Van Zandt
Re: $3 Million Gift to Fund Nicholas D. Chabraja Professorship

I am delighted to let you know that the Law School and the Kellogg School of Management have received a $3 Million gift from General Dynamics to honor the retirement of Nicholas Chabraja JD’67 from his position as the company’s Chief Executive Officer.

This gift, the first of its kind, will fund a joint professorship between the Law School and the Kellogg School. It also symbolizes the increasingly integrated fields of law and business and will solidify the strong relationship between the Law School and the Kellogg School and our concerted efforts to prepare students for careers in which these two disciplines converge. The donation also will provide support for our JD-MBA Program, the largest and most integrated joint law and business program in the world and the first to introduce a three-year format.

I am also pleased to announce that Bernard Black will be appointed as the first Nicholas J. Chabraja Professor. Bernie will officially join the Law School in September 2010 with a joint appointment in the Finance Department at the Kellogg School of Management.

Since its formation in 1952, General Dynamics has grown to become one of our nation’s leading defense contractors, specializing in aerospace, combat systems, marine systems, information systems, and technology.

Nicholas Chabraja, also a 1964 alumnus of Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, has enjoyed a distinguished career since graduating from the Law School in 1967. From 1997 until this past June, Nick served as General Dynamics’ Chief Executive Officer and became the longest-serving chief executive among the nation’s top five defense contractors. Since stepping down, he has remained as Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of General Dynamics. Prior to his appointment as Chief Executive Officer, Nick held several other important positions at General Dynamics, including Vice Chairman (1996-1997); Executive Vice President (1994-1996); and Senior Vice President & General Counsel (1993-1994). Before his career at General Dynamics, Nick was a litigation partner at the law firm of Jenner & Block for 22 years. In 1986, he was also appointed Special Trial Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Nick has been a consistent supporter of the Law School and is a member of Northwestern’s Board of Trustees.

Bernard Black, a nationally-recognized expert in corporate law and finance as well as health care regulation, currently serves as the Hayden W. Head Regents Chair for Faculty Excellence at the University of Texas School of Law, a professor of finance at the McCombs School of Business, and co-director of the Center for Law, Business, and Economics at the University of Texas.

Prior to these appointments, he was the George E. Osborne Professor of Law at Stanford and, prior to that, he was a law professor at Columbia Law School, counsel to a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, an attorney at Skadden Arps in New York, and a clerk for the Hon. Patricia Wald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Black has also served as a policy advisor to the US government as well as several countries throughout the world, including Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia, South Korea, Mongolia, and Vietnam. He has authored or co-authored numerous books and scholarly articles. He received a BA from Princeton, an MA in physics from Berkeley, and a JD from Stanford Law School.

We are extremely grateful to General Dynamics for their generous gift. Please also join me in congratulating Bernard Black as the inaugural holder of this endowed professorship and Nicholas Chabraja on his retirement from a career that has been truly extraordinary.

Torts Midterm

I took my torts midterm yesterday early afternoon. For those who don't know what torts is I'll briefly explain. Tort law covers the civil (i.e. not criminal) wrongdoings that happen around you, except those happen to be under contractual agreement. It includes all the things you've heard of on TV shows like Law And Order ... battery, assault, negligence, due care, and more. The classic example of tort law that most professors give at the beginning of class is a "punch in the face," hence the picture above. And tort law answers questions like is the act a violation, who is at fault, and what is the penalty?

What business students often enjoy about torts is torts' interplay with economics. In the class we talk a lot about damage calculations, economic efficiency, risk calculations, product liability, and insurance. Many of the JD-MBAs here especially like the "Learned Hand Formula." This formula is a widely-accepted mathematical model used to test the economic efficiency of a person's risky actions, and it's used to determine if someone acted negligently or not. It's pretty interesting to do the calculation and see how stacks up against what actually happened in the case.

The midterm itself was pretty fun. We had 55 minutes to complete the exam, so it was a mad dash the entire way. The midterm only consisted of one storyline and there three short questions. On any law school exam, we basically have to read the storyline (called a fact pattern), identify the issues, discuss the relevant laws (i.e. tort laws in this case), and then argue for both sides of the case in terms of liability. Midterms usually have dozens of issues, and the more you can spot and discuss articulately, the better off you are. I asked around after the exam, and it sounded like most people typed between 2.5 and 3 pages single-spaced. I ended writing closer to five pages. I am confident that I identified most of the issues. Hopefully the rest of my analysis was up to par.

Midterms

Hey all, it’s been a few days since I’ve last written my last post. In fact, I think this has been the longest I’ve ever gone without posting since I started my blog. Well, that’s because it’s midterm week here at Northwestern, and everything has gotten pretty busy. Personally, I’ve spent most of my time in the library re-reading legal cases, catching up on chapters I skipped earlier in the semester, creating outlines for classes, discussing cases in study groups, and scrambling to memorize legal rules and theories.

Dean's Email
Just last week, the Dean of Students, Cliff Zimmerman, sent an email to the entire class, reminding us that midterms were on the horizon. In the email he told us that we’re officially half-way done with our first semester of law school. I think he intended to both congratulate us and to scare us. For me, it seems like we just began the semester yesterday, and when I think about it, it’s pretty scary to be half way through already. It’s also pretty inspiring considering the hours I’ve spent in the library, the number of times I've had to start over after not understanding so many of these legal cases, and the sheer number of pages I've read for class. This is especially true considering that as an MBA applicant, I didn’t even expect to be in law school this year.

But despite all of these warm and fuzzy feelings about accomplishment, I don't have much time this week to reflect on the past two months or to be inspired. The idea of having midterms is quite stressful, and the notion of getting evaluated in law school is pretty foreign. Additionally, for the JD-MBA crowd, most of us are a bit older, so the thought of grades is a thing of the distant past. But we’re all hanging in there, and everyone seems to be doing pretty well so far.

First Exam
Just this past Sunday, my section took our first midterm exam. It was a take-home exam, and we had three hours to complete it. While most students seemed to have a pretty smooth transaction, I unfortunately didn’t quite have the same luck. Upon logging into Northwestern’s internal website, I found that I didn’t have access to the test. Initially, I thought it was just a simple technical glitch that I'd be able to fix pretty quickly. But then disaster stuck! After about 20 minutes of not being able to grab the test, I realized that I had gotten locked out of the system and that I didn’t have access to the exam.

I tried my best not to panic and ended up calling the professor on her cell phone (kudos to her for giving it out before the exam) and then emailing her as well as her assistant, the class TA, the IT team, and our academic affairs person. I sat for a couple of hours waiting for someone to respond but to my surprise, nothing came. Instead of taking the test at 3:30pm I ended up not getting access until closer to 9:00pm. It was really tough waiting around, so I tried running to the gym, grabbing dinner, and chatting with a few friends as a distraction. After a really long day, I ended up finishing my exam a few minutes before midnight, which was the final submission deadline.

Second Exam
Just yesterday, we had our second midterm. We took the exam in class, and we only had an hour to get through it. Going in, I felt really well-prepared, because I had kept up with the reading all semester and because I studied quite a bit. I read and memorized most of the rules, took a couple of practice tests, and went though a couple of study aids and outlines, but the test still proved to be a challenge. I was a bit nervous going into the exam, but I was pretty surprised that even after the initial shock, I still struggled a bit, and after a couple of post-exam conversations, it became clear that I wasn't the only one.

During this whole process of taking my first two exams, I found how easy it was to become flustered. Most of us here in law school and in the JD-MBA program have led largely successful careers, and for most of us things have come pretty easily. But even in my first exam, I am reminded that the thing that most of us have done here at law school so far is struggle. We've struggled through cases, through late nights in the library, through thick legal theories that we don't really understand, and sometimes to try not to fall asleep in class. What I’m learning is that people who are successful in law school have to learn how to learn to struggle well....to keep control in tough situations, rebound quickly from the ups and downs, and retool themselves to finish strong.

Relation To Business
Back in the business world before school, I saw that the high-performing leaders were those who did the same in the workplace. These were the people who adapted quickly to change, dealt seamlessly with ambiguity, responded optimistically to challenges, and leveraged the resources around them to get things done. I certainly felt challenged this way the last two days, and with a couple more exams later in the week, I am doing my best to be resilient.

Finishing Up
This is especially important since later in the week I have a Contracts exam, a Torts exam, and a Criminal Law exam. I really like my Criminal Law professor, so I want to do well in that class. I also really enjoy the material in my Contracts and Torts courses, so I’m interested to see how well I understand everything. I know that the rest of the week won't be easy but I'm going to struggle through it and give it my best. Law school is certainly more work than I ever expected, but I look forward to stepping up to the challenge and growing personally and professionally as a result.

Fortunately, as a reward after my last midterm exam on Sunday, I’m planning to go grab brunch with a friend here at Northwestern. Should be fun and a nice break from all the hustling around this week.

I’ll let everyone know how the rest of my exams turn out. Stay tuned!

Cold Call

One of the things that many business school and law school students fear is being "cold called" in class. Some students think professors are out to get them, others too nervous to speak up in class, and some just unprepared for talk about the case. All those things happen here at Northwestern Law, just like every other school. Fortunately, the population here at the law school is older and more experienced than other law schools, so the students are usually pretty poised and cold calls often go smoothly. Also, the professors here are great. They're usually pretty accommodating when they engage students in the Socratic method, and they ask lots of leading questions to help us get through rather than make us stumble.

All four of my professors have different styles for cold calling. They all seem to expect different things from us when it comes to level of detail, degree of analysis, and how much they'll keep prodding after we respond. My Civil Procedure professor likes to go through cases really thoroughly. She expects everyone to be prepared to talk about the tiny little details of the case and then about how they relate to each step in the case process. To be such a technical class, she really does do a great job at illustrating the concepts as part of a bigger story and at keeping things interesting.

On the other end of the spectrum is my Criminal Law professor. He tends to be a bit more easy going about the cold call and at times serves more as a facilitator than a professor. Don't get me wrong, he's an incredibly talented professor and is one of the most knowledgeable instructors at the school, but he's also good at keeping the course interesting and putting students in the position to succeed. Because of his facilitation style, a large number of people volunteer every class. Sometimes, it's pretty easy to forget who got called on in the first place, which makes the cold call much less intimidating.

My section is about 65 people, so everyone should get called on two times for each class this semester. At Northwestern, there isn't really a system of being "on call" like some schools have, rather, the process is a bit more random. Some professors go down the list in alpha order and others reverse order. Some just draw a name from the middle of a pile. And others seem to mirror students picked from other classes that week.

Last week, I got called on in Civil Procedure. I didn't expect to get called on with only a few minutes left in class, but to my surprise I did. I also didn't expect to get a small obscure case in back of the book, as opposed to the two main cases for class that day, both of which will likely be the core of our midterm. I faired okay, but it wasn’t my best performance. In Contracts, my professor called on me today. It was pretty unexpected, but luckily I got a pretty easy case. As usual, the JD-MBA side came out when I started talking. We discussed the concept of bargaining and talked about how exploitation impacts contractual agreements. For the specific case, I argued that exploitation was okay and that the company with all the negotiating leverage was entitled to win the case. In retrospect, while my comments were probably rational based on the facts they were also "laissez faire" and a bit unsympathetic.

After class, five or six of us went into the atrium and continued the conversation for an hour or so seeing if we could come up with a better answer. But as you might guess, we couldn't. The cold call specifically and law school generally are often more about reasoning, problem solving, and synthesizing facts, and less about finding the right answer. Navigating this grey area can be really difficult, but discussions typically end up being a lot of fun.

2010 Princeton Review Law School Rankings

Earlier today, Princeton Review released its 2010 rankings of the top full-time U.S. law school programs. The organization ranks law schools in 11 different categories based on student surveys. This year, 172 law schools were eligible.

Despite long-time criticisms about graduate school rankings, law school rankings play a very dramatic role in the world of legal education. When a school's ranking drops, fewer admitted applicants accept spots at the school, and budgets are often reshuffled. Likewise, when a school rises in the rankings, the school often achieve a higher yield rate and an increase in applications. Northwestern more than most schools has historically been quite supportive of the ranking system. They believe they provide one way to measure our reputation and our progress toward their overall strategic goals.

See below for a look at this year’s school rankings and how Northwestern stacks up:
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First, here are a few of the overall rankings "Career Prospects:"

1. Northwestern
2. Penn
3. Michigan
4. University of Chicago
5. Stanford
6. Boston University
7. Boston College
8. Harvard
9. NYU
10. GULC

Second here are the rankings for "toughest to get into:"

1. Yale
2. Harvard
3. Stanford
4. UC-Berkeley
5. Columbia
6. Penn
7. Northwestern
8. Virginia
9. Chicago
10. Michigan

Third here are the rankings for "quality of life:"

1. Virginia
2. Stanford
3. Chapman
4. St. Thomas
5. Colorado
6. Vanderbilt
7. NYU
8. Oregon
9. Northwestern
10. George Washington


Here are the summary rankings for Northwestern:

Best Career Prospects: #1
Toughest to Get Into #7
Best Quality of Life: # 9 (4th among top law schools),
Best Classroom Experience #10 (5th among the top law schools)

Northwestern has held the No. 1 spot for Best Career Prospects for four of the five years that the Princeton Review has published these rankings. While the difficult economy continues to present immediate challenges to students hitting the job market, this recognition is a testament to our strong reputation. It also affirms our distinctive career-focused strategy and efforts to prepare graduates for successful lifelong careers that will span multiple employers and industries.

As a point of reference, here is how Northwestern ranked in the 2009 U.S. News Rankings:

Overall: 10th
Trial Advocacy: 10th
Clinical Training: 13th
Tax Law: 4th
Legal Writing: 10th
Dispute Resolution: 15th
International Law: 19th
Diversity: 5th

Click here for a full list of Northwestern Rankings.

Achievement

Moving into the first week of October, "Achievement" seems to be a big theme for lots of people I know. It's specifically relevant for those who are either in graduate school or who are applying to graduate school this fall. Just two days ago, I met a future applicant to Northwestern Law, and I stopped and chatted with him for about 25 minutes to give him a few pointers on how to stand out in his application and how to talk about his past achievements in his personal statement. Yesterday, a buddy of mine asked me to review some essays for HBS, including their staple essay "What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such?" Like the gentleman applying to law school, he also wanted help quantifying his past achievements. And just today, I met with a JD-MBA prospect at Northwestern. I chatted with him for over an hour about his application, and he told me about some of the things he had achieved since graduating back in 2005. He's gearing up to submit his JD-MBA application on 10/15.

I've also been doing a lot of thinking about my own achievements recently. Having recently returned to the life of a student again, it's hard not to wonder what type of grades I'll get, what types of jobs I'll have over the next few years, and ultimately what I'll be doing many years from now. Every day, I'm working to achieve as much as possible. Doing so, I can't help but think a lot about my classmates who are going through the same process. Northwestern Law has a lot of sharp kids, and it's pretty clear that many of them will achieve a lot in their careers. My entire section spends a lot of time in the library, and as a whole everyone seems pretty motivated. I have one friend in particular who I chat with quite a bit. She has as much discipline as anyone I know in the class. She has a 5am early morning study schedule, a laser focus on getting good grades, an ability to block out all the social chaos that comes with law school, and a commitment to doing what it takes to get a great job upon graduation. I am pretty impressed, and I have no doubt that she'll do really well and achieve everything she's hoping to.

My point is that thinking about your achievements is something that successful people do for a large part of their lives. It's inevitable. Although it seems a bit counterintuitive in environments like Northwestern, where the culture is overwhelmingly team-based and where most people come to leave their egos at the door, Northwestern is no exception to the rule. People here think and talk all the time about what they want to individually achieve.

I remember almost 12 months ago when I first began thinking about my achievements. I had just begun my business school applications. My first step after narrowing down the schools I wanted to apply to was thinking long and hard about every single one of my accomplishments. I was forced brainstorm all my major things I'd done in my life, decide which ones were most important to me, analyze which ones had the broadest impact, quantify how each one impacted the people and organizations around me, and finally sum up all the things I learned from the experiences. I took the process pretty seriously, especially in a year full of b-school applicants, and it took months to organize all my thoughts. But this process really paid off, and I recommend all current applicants do the same. I'll tell you why.

Conventional wisdom says that your past performance (i.e. achievements) is the best indicator of future performance. The theory is that if you've achieved a lot in the past, than you're more likely to do so in the future. Graduate schools bank on this fact when they're making admissions decisions, especially MBA programs . For example, if you've done well in a relevant job, earned good grades in a relevant major, and received strong reviews in a competitive work environment, then odds are you're more likely to be better prepared to do well in graduate school and eventually in the workforce again.

But this concept doesn't just apply to admissions, it also applies to job searching. Right now, all of my business school counterparts at Kellogg are currently re-thinking through their accomplishments, as they're starting the recruiting process. They're being asked questions such as What was your role at your last job? What have accomplished so far in school? What did you do as club president? and Why should we hire you? The number of behavioral questions can be really challenging, and during an interview you don't have time to think about your response and you don't have the leeway to improvise on the spot. You've got to come prepared to talk. And if you can do that well, then you'll probably do quite well in the interview. But don't be fooled, once my classmates get a job, it doesn't end there. They'll still be doing the same after school when they're interviewing for their second and third jobs and when they're marketing their companies, offering their services to clients, running political campaigns, and going through performance reviews.

Ultimately, what I've learned since starting my application process more than 15 months ago is that being successful necessitates a very high level of reflection on past achievements. It requires being self aware and understanding how your environments effect your ability to succeed at the same levels you have experienced before. In my own experience, the more I've thought about my experiences ahead of time, the better off I've been. I believe that the best leaders reflect on past experiences all the time. This is why they so often have compelling stories, a grand vision for the future, and are able to achieve seemingly impossible results. And in the end, their reflection gives them an arsenal to draw on not only to achieve a high level of success but to help others do the same.

MBA Diversity & Hispanic Heritage Month

This weekend, I’ve been doing a lot of research trying to finalize my plans for the NBMBAA (National Black MBA) and NSHMBA (National Hispanic MBA) annual conferences. Having recently won both scholarships as incoming business school student, I am lucky to be able to attend both conferences at no cost. Considering how fortunate I am to be in this position, I've been thinking a lot about diversity, and decided I would take a moment to talk a little about it here, especially in light of Hispanic Heritage Month.

I believe that in America today, we are in a “race” to bring diversity to our professional communities. Even in my short career, I've already learned that diverse teams are essential to success in the market place. Just as cross-functional teams are used to create value in the market, so too do cross-cultural teams offer the richest possibility to improve our businesses, laws, and policies in today's diverse economy. Hispanic Americans represent a large part of this diversity. They make up more than 15% of the US population and add immeasurable value to America’s economy and its communities.

Coming from Arizona, I experienced this firsthand, where Hispanics represent nearly a third of the population and where they contribute to every single part of the economy, white collar and blue collar. Hispanic Heritage Month is the period to recognize all of this value that the Hispanic Americans have had in the United States and a time to celebrate their culture. The observation of the month started in 1968, and more than 40 years later the event is still largely celebrated. The month begins on September 15th, because that day represents the anniversary of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua (Mexico and Chile also celebrate their anniversaries in September)

Here at Northwestern Law, a good friend of mine happens to be the Hispanic Heritage month Co-Chair for the Latino Law Students Association. She is currently a 2L, and she’s putting together a wide range of events to recognize the efforts of the Hispanic here in the US. Knowing her dedication to the club and to Northwestern, I am certain the events are going to be terrific.

I don’t know exactly what she has in mind, but I suspect it will be something to engage the entire community. For me, an obvious first point of reference being in law school is Sonia Sotomayor, our new US Supreme Court justice. Sotomayor is now the first Hispanic American ever to serve the court, as well as only the third woman. Not only is it a monumental moment in history, but it's also at a time when our economy needs her most.

As the economic crisis still looms over the business and legal worlds, progressive schools have realized that recruiting exceptional Hispanic and other underrepresented minority students is one of the keys to re-establishing America’s long-term success. At the top 20 MBA programs, there are still only 7% to 10% blacks and Hispanics, and in the world of Fortune 500 companies and blue chip law firms, the percentage of CEO's and Senior Partners is about half that.

Although our integration process is still far from complete, we do continue to see progress take place at top graduate schools, especially business schools. Kudos to organizations such as the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA), Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), and the Consortium Scholarship Program, which give access to Hispanic (and other minority) scholarships and professional training. I suggest that anyone who qualifies for these programs consider them as you are applying. And as usual, I'll give a special endorsement for MLT, where the best and the brightest come while applying the business school.

But for a moment, what's more important than winning scholarships and fine tuning your career is that on September 15th we all take a moment to reflect and appreciate the impact that Hispanics and all minorities have had on all of our lives. Furthermore, we should also understand that to further improve our society, it's imperative that we continue to increase the diversity in our schools as well as at all levels of our labor force and ultimately work in teams together. Only then will we be able to put everyone in our nation to their best use and collectively unlock our greatest potential for change.

Korean Popstar In My Section And Diversity At Northwestern

So it seems like my section has a lot of the really interesting people this year. Turns out that in addition to the 19 year old I recently posted about, I also sit next to a Korean pop star. My section mate, who for now wishes to remain anonymous, graduated from Korea University in 2007 with a Bachelor’s degree in English literature, but since graduation she's been making a living by singing and performing in Asia. Ultimately, she chose to come to Northwestern Law to become an international human rights lawyer but also plans to continue performing after school. My classmate is a really great addition to the section, and we've already become library buddies during the first two weeks.

While having a Korean pop star in my section is certainly unique, I think the general notion of having varied professional and ethnic backgrounds is old news to Northwestern Law, statistically the most diverse law school in the world. It's also water under the bridge for top MBA programs, which constantly aim for as diverse classes as possible. In today's professional community, diversity is the standard, so schools are trying to reflect that in their learning environments. Schools not only welcome, but also embrace, a student body enriched by individuals of various nationalities, cultures, interests, and points of view.

Practically speaking, the core of our learning model in law school, the Socratic method, continually reinforces this notion. In the Socratic Method, students must continually demonstrate the ability to work across these boundaries. They must absorb multiple perspectives while articulating their own views. They must also demonstrate the ability to work with and through other people. The capacity to confront a wide variety of issues, both legal and non legal. And the facility to build consensus amidst a variety of competing opinions and perspectives. The diversity here at Northwestern makes it a great place to learn these critical professional skills.

US Supreme Court Justice Comes to Northwestern

Next week, Northwestern Law hosts one of our most prestigious annual programs: The Howard J. Trienens Visiting Judicial Scholar Program. This year, United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be here to interact with students and faculty and provide her perspective on contemporary legal issues. In addition to various scheduled activities, Justice Ginsburg will participate in a discussion in front of the Northwestern Law community followed by a Q&A session.

The capacicity for this event was pretty limited, and the tickets were all gone in about 30 minutes. Fortunately I was able to get a ticket. And thanks to a quick email by the JD-MBA google group, a lot of the other JD-MBAs were able to get tickets as well. I am pretty excited for this event, especially given my potential longer term interest in government. Getting access to both schools for events like this is one of the things that makes a JD-MBA so attractive, and I look forward to taking part in speakers events at both. I'll let you know how the event turns out.

19-Year Old Classmate in My Section

Eight years ago when I was 18, I was a senior in high school. I had just applied to college, and I was still chasing my pipe dream of playing in the NBA as well as spending a lot of time chasing girls.

But one year ago, the then 18 year old Kate McLaughlin had other things on her mind. Instead of chasing romance or a pipe dream, Kate was tutoring college kids at on test prep strategies Kaplan, acing the LSAT, and getting accepted to law school. In her academic career, Kate skipped six grades, enrolled in community college at age 12, and graduated from UC San Diego at 17. She scored a 174 on the LSAT (~99th percentile), which is equivalent to about a 740 on the GMAT. Most people here spent 7 or 8 years doing other things before they could attain similar scores.

Kate is an unusual addition to Northwestern's roster which usually touts older, more experienced students than most schools. I'm not sure what Northwestern's agenda is here, perhaps they simply want to take a smart applicant who is a fit for the school (aside from age), perhaps they want the publicity of having Kate here, or perhaps something else, who really knows? But what I do know is that I spoke with Kate once briefly, and she seems REALLY smart. I wish her the best this year, and look forward to working with her in all of my classes.

Click here to see the original post on Kate by American Bar Association.

First Day of Law School

After eight months of impatiently waiting and two weeks of chaos during orientation, it finally happened. Just Monday I began my first day as a JD-MBA student at Northwestern Law. I can already tell it's not only going to be an incredible journey but also a long one. For one, I've got about 1,000 days until the bar exam, should I decide to take it. I've got another 200 or so days until my last day as a 1L. That will be a huge day of celebration. I've got about 100 days until my first midterm. I've got 2 days until my first "official" bar review. And finally, I've got at least another 10-12 hours or so until I can leave the library and go home from school today. I look forward to all of it.

It all started this past Monday, when I began my first class at 8:45 am. Before class, everyone was on Facebook and Twitter posting about heading to their first day of law school. I did the same, and got a really great response from all my facebook friends. My first course was Contracts As a JD-MBA student I love contracts, because the topic sits at the intersection between both business and law. The class will be quite practical in the long run, and even now it makes a lot of sense for me, since I drafted contracts regularly at my old company. The MBA side of me came out right away in the first class, when we were discussing the idea that contracts are “promises”. While most people in the class were talking about friendships and “Moral Obligation” (a term often used in contracts), I couldn’t help but bring up the notion of incentives and how those affect contracts. Personally, I believe that most of what we do in life is driven most by incentives, incentives for money, incentives to be liked, incentives to manage relationships, etc.

After Contracts, we had Torts. More important than why the name of the class is Torts, which I don’t actually know the answer to, is the fact that our professor is a rockstar. Professor Speta is a great speaker, is as sharp as they come, and is definitely a good entertainer. He employs the Socratic method and case method for the entire class and always seems to have an agenda for everything he does, including the specific person he calls on. In fact, he reminds me a lot of the professors I encountered visiting HBS, another school I considered attending.

My last class of the day was Civil Procedure. The class was a lot better than I expected, and a lot less dry as well. In fact, I think it may end up being one of my favorite classes. Although even if it weren’t, I couldn’t say so. Our professor just so happens to be the wife of the school Dean. So we’ve got to be extra nice all semester long.

But more than all the classes, what we did on Monday was get to know our section team members. Northwestern believes that the first step to a great career is having a strong team foundation. Developing relationships with members in your section is an important process. And although that will take time, the fastest way to start this process is through shared experience. This is probably part of why school gives us so much work so quickly.

Coming from a business background as a JD-MBA and former consultant, this topic is not new. Having worked on a couple of human capital engagements in the past, I’m quite familiar with the perceived benefits of shared experiences and with team-building activities. It’s been two days so far, but so far my section seems really great, friendly, and of course, very diverse – a staple of Northwestern Law. I look forward to working with them over the next 9 months.

What’s also great is that the JD-MBAs are pretty evenly spread among all the sections. My section has five or six and the other sections have anywhere from five to eight. While we try and succeed at integrating in the sections during the day, the JD-MBA crowd is very close. We started a Google Group list back in March, so we’ve been in touch daily ever since then. Also, we’ve already had a couple of huge gatherings before school began, including two that I organized and hosted during orientation. It’s definitely going to be a great couple of years together.

But for now, I’ve got to stay grounded in the here-and-now, because I still have massive amounts of reading to do for today, tomorrow, and Friday. It feels like I’m drinking from a fire hose, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Everybody does.

Anyhow, thanks for reading my first official post as a student. Please keep reading and feel free to comment as I continue to share perspectives on my JD-MBA experience.

First Day of Orientation

I just finished my first day of orientation at the law school today. Today's schedule was broken up into two parts. In the morning from 9am to 1pm, we went to the school to take care of a few administrative things, such as getting our bus passes, books, lockers, ID cards, Facebook photos, and free T-shirts. Pretty simple morning, especially considering I did a lot of this stuff last week at the Summer Pre-Law Program.

At 1pm all of us went to the auditorium for the official orientation events. We began with the Official Ceremony led by the Dean Van Zandt, the Dean of the Law School. He is a really good public speaker and a pretty funny guy. I enjoyed his session. After that, we had a few more speaker sessions, some of which people thought were a bit long. The best session of the day was named "The First Day of Your Professional Lie in the Law" by professor Lupo. It was a lot more interactive than the others and he's a really engaging speaker. The jury is still out as to how useful all of these sessions really were in terms of learning about the school, but for me I really enjoyed being able to meet lots of people. I'll definitely be doing a lot more of that over the next few days and evenings.

Of the people I've met so far, everyone seems to be really accomplished and interesting. For one, we have a 19 year old beginning the program, who graduated undergrad at 16. We also have quite a few older, more experienced students beginning the program. Many of these folks have worked in various industries, overseas, and in entrepreneurial roles. And we have a ton of interesting and highly successful JD-MBAs. Even though I am probably a bit biased, they definitely have some of the most impressive resumes, including a few business owners, private equity guys, hedge fund folks, consultants, non-profit managers, and government and legal services professionals. Stay tuned to my blog, as I plan to begin profiling my JD-MBA classmates shortly.

Summer Pre-Law Program and My Intro to the Case Method

Ever since high school, I’ve always preferred energizing teachers who were entertaining and able to get me to pay attention for a full class. Unfortunately these teachers have been in the minority, even at Stanford, because many teachers focused on research more than on being an effective teacher. The good new is that business school and law school are quite different. Both have some pretty unique teaching methods to keep students engaged and participating in class (case method courses, learning team discussions, multimedia simulations, experiential learning courses, and interactive lectures).

King among these is the case method. The case method is a teaching approach that consists of presenting the students with a case putting them in the role of the decision-maker facing a problem. While some schools employ this more than others (for example Harvard Business School and The University of Virginia Darden), many schools do make use of it, and it's hard to debate that the case method is best at keeping you attentive in class.

In a case discussion, students are forced to constantly pay attention to what's being said, to continually integrate everything as the class moves forward, to synthesize 4 hours of reading the night before, and to think one-step ahead of the discussion. You do this all while being prepared to jump into the conversation and provide relevant, timely, and insightful comments. This is a complete 180-degree turn from my time at Stanford, where many of my classes were often about professors dumping thousands of facts into my head.

Most people think the case method exists only in business school, but that's not true at all. The case method, originally called the casebook method, has been around in law school longer than in business school. For a given class, a professor will assign several cases from the casebook to read, and the professor will ask students questions, pushing students to discuss legal rules and think critically about the ambiguous situations. As part of the experience, students discuss opposing viewpoints, and the professor will debate with students by asking and answering questions (i.e. Socratic Method). This is all done to stimulate thinking, empower students to come up with ideas, and illustrate concepts and theories.

Just last week, I experienced this in my Summer Law Prep Program at Northwestern. The summer prep program is for incoming first year students who want to get a head start on law school before classes actually begin. The program received applications from most of the incoming Northwestern class, and they selected 30 or so participants. We spent the full day, from 9:00am to 4:30pm, taking classes, listening to panels, reading legal cases, and participating in case discussions. During the week we learned from various members of Northwestern Law's faculty, met with current students, and visited attorneys at the sponsoring law firm based in Chicago. Just this past Wednesday, this law firm was gracious enough to host us at their offices and provide us with a nice meal and chat with us about working in the legal industry.

For me, the program really helped illuminate what it really takes to do well in case discussions. I also noticed how the case discussion at the law school is different from the case discussions in business school. In law school, the discussions tend be a bit more focused than b-school discussions. Also, law students tend to focus on the minute details of a case, whereas MBAs are more interested in the broader implications of the case. Additionally, in law school the cases are shorter, more technical, and care more about building consensus, whereas business school cases often extend for an entire class, are more cross-functional in nature, and value the individual perspectives of the people.

That said, the one similarity I found is that for the truly engaged participant, the case method can help to refine your professional leadership style. Think about it for a second. Just like working the real world, as a student you have to analyze a variety of difficult issues and engage in high-stakes discussions where the results that have complex economic and political effects. In preparation for the discussion before class, you have to uncover the issues at hand, develop supporting analysis, and come up with recommendations, all under time pressure and with limited information available. In the classroom, you must articulate your response in front of smart and sometimes critical classmates, most who have different perspectives than you and many whom you want to impress. These are the experiences business and legal leaders go through every day, and in a case discussion, you get the chance to practice that over and over again. I am excited to take these these types of courses at both business and law school. And I'm thankful to have a head start because of my summer program at Northwestern.