Day Two: Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Quote of the Day: “You don’t have to be the Dalai Lama to tell people that life’s about change.” - John Cleese

Today I have Evidence again, and then Intellectual Property.

I attended a Yogalates class last night, which is allegedly a merger of yoga and pilates (as, duh, the title might suggest). Having never practiced pilates, I cannot attest to the accuracy of this assertion – the course seemed like a slightly left-of-center form of yoga to me. Basically less stretching, a little more movement, which was nice for me because the stretching, while relaxing, is often painful in the shoulder area, because that’s where I tote all my tension.

Anyway... I noticed while reading the requirements for OCI that a lot of firms want us to have experience in moot court. That’s basically a competition in the law school where we’re divided into pairs and have to write an appellate brief and then argue in front of a trio of mock judges. The winners proceed to New York to compete in the National finals. But that’s not the point. The point is I’m volunteering to write another pain-in-the-butt brief and then go in front of another trio of judges to give an oral argument. I must be out of my mind… but boy, do I want a decent paycheck. The things you’ll do. John Cleese (of Monty Python) once said, “I’ll do anything for money.” Life lessons from Monty Python, Chapter One.

Here’s the description from the website:
Developing effective oral and written advocacy skills is critical to success in law school and beyond. The Moot Court Program offers experiential learning opportunities in which students can develop these important skills in one of six possible competitions. Students who participate in each receive instruction in both brief writing and oral advocacy, write an appellate brief, and participate in practice and final rounds of oral argument.

Intellectual Property Moot Court Competition
The IP Moot Court Competition deals with intellectual property issues such as patents and trademarks. Team members have participated in the Giles Sutherland Rich Moot Court Competition which is sponsored by the American Intellectual Property Law Association. Team members could also participate in the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition which focuses on trademark and unfair competition issues. The top four finishers from the fall internal competition will advance to the following spring's external competition which could be either or both of the competitions listed above. There is recognition for best brief, best oralist, and best overall. No scientific background or training is required to compete in this competition.

I sure hope this change will be a positive one...

Professor Meier walked in and first thing, before saying hello or even cracking a smile, spat, “This looks like more than thirty-two people!” I guess there was supposed to be a cap on the enrollment, but the school let a lot of LLM students in (foreign exchange students). After a moment, it became clear why: she is on a two-year hiatus from her IP practice in a law firm to teach, so she has the personality of a sharpened steel rod. Ahh, well.

I am feeling rather idiotic, because I left the majority of my summer wardrobe at home… in particular, all my summer shoes. So I’m pretty much stuck wearing either red suede clogs or my worn-out blue slip-on Sketchers all week. I guess nobody really cares, right? I did discover that there’s a Famous Footwear shoe store just up the road I had hitherto remained ignorant of, I have been squirreling away a gift certificate since Christmas, and I think the time has come to utilize it – they’re having a buy one, get one half-price sale. I love shoes. Hopefully they’ll have some RocketDogs and Sketchers – that’s all it takes to make me happy.