I was grocery shopping in Wal-Mart a few days ago and walked past a bin of movies that were only $4. I saw the movie The Firm in the bin. I hadn't seen that film since it came out in 1993, when I had no thought of going to law school. I remembered Gene Hackman and Wilford Brimley being pretty good in it. I picked up the DVD case and saw that the movie was directed by Sydney Pollack, one of my favorite actors and film critics, though not necessarily one of my favorite directors. These facts, combined with my desire to watch the film again from the perspective of 16 years later and now that I am in law school, proved too tempting to resist. So I forked over the four dollars.
Gene Hackman, Wilford Brimley, Gary Busey and Jeanne Tripplehorn's performances stood out to me as better than I remembered, though overall the movie was not as good as I thought it was the first time I saw it.
Tom Cruise's character, "Mitch," is graduating in the top 5 in his class from Harvard Law School. His "On Campus Interview" experience is somewhat different than the one students experienced this fall at Florida State and in this economy. The big firms are all begging for him to come join them. He's wined and dined by a firm in Memphis, and the audience hears why Mitch became a lawyer, in contrast to why Gene Hackman's character became one. Hollywood tries to glitz up the life that a lawyer leads (before everything turns sour in the story).
After watching the movie though, I thought, "You know, even before everything went bad, there is not a single character in this movie whose life I would want." On the whole, my life is better than what they portray in this movie. The students, professors and lawyers I've met at Florida State Law in real life are more interesting characters than the lawyers in this movie. The dialogue I hear in law school is wittier and more intelligent than in the movie. And frankly, the women at law school socials are more beautiful than the women at the parties in this movie.
Maybe it's because I'm at Florida State Law. Maybe it's because a lot of life is what you make of it. Anyway, I'd rather wake up in the morning as Nathan Marshburn than as Tom Cruise's "Mitch."
When your life is better than the movies, that's a clue that things are going pretty well for you. I'm trying to appreciate this. Hopefully, it will last.
Universal Health Care Now,
Nathan Marshburn
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The Recession and Law School
The On Campus Interview (OCI) program for the fall semester is almost complete. Large firms from across the country have come and gone from Florida State to interview the best and the brightest students from our 2nd year class.
As I have explained in previous entries, OCI is for those going after the higher pressure, more financially rewarding jobs in the legal field. Law school is three years long, but most of these firms do their hiring during a student's second year of school. The idea is to bring the student on as a summer associate during the break in between the second and third year of law school. If everything works out during the summer, then the firm makes an offer for regular employment upon the student's graduation.
As a student participating in the OCI process, you submit your resume, transcript, references, and a writing sample electronically to the firm. From the submissions, the firm selects a number of students to be interviewed in person when the firm visits the campus. If the student makes the cut after the on campus interview , he or she then receives a "call back." The firm flies the student to its corporate office to undergo a full day of questions and answers from various attorneys with the firm. After that, the firm may or may not make an offer to the student to be hired as a summer associate.
From my electronic submissions, I was invited to just one on campus interview with a large firm, and that one interview is as far as I got in the process. Perhaps I should feel worried or anxious about this, but I am not. I am gaining confidence and skills as my legal education continues, and I am not afraid to go door to door after graduation until I find a job. It was my best effort during the first year of law school. I held nothing back.
The students for whom I do have some sympathy are the ones at the top of the class. These are the "superhumans" I wrote about in a previous entry. They did their best too, and the economy has made the OCI process almost ridiculously competitive for them this year. Fewer firms came to the school for one thing, and those that did were not handing out many slots. There are about 240 people in my class. Only a handful of these students were consistently invited to OCI interviews this fall. Of these handful, I know of only 2 who have received offers to be a summer associate. I know of multiple students who went to over 15 OCI interviews, then received two or three call backs, but no offers. The process is very time consuming and stressful for them, and it comes when they are as busy as they will ever be with their classes and in organizations such as Law Review, Moot Court and Mock Trial. To see what they are going through and to look at my own chances in competing for 2 out of 240 -- well, I know now that I had pretty much no shot landing a job with OCI this fall. As one friend of mine who did quite a few interviews with OCI said, "Optimism- that's so 2007."
This is not the law school's fault by any means. The Career Placement Office does a great job in reaching out to employers and getting them to come to campus to network with the students. I landed my own terrific legal job this past summer through the Mach Speed Interviews, which the school hosted in February. Money is tight everywhere right now, and the school is doing the best it can with employers who have scaled way back.
This is a great law school. We'll all find jobs eventually, though they may not be as high paying as some of us would have hoped.
Universal Health Care Now,
Nathan Marshburn
As I have explained in previous entries, OCI is for those going after the higher pressure, more financially rewarding jobs in the legal field. Law school is three years long, but most of these firms do their hiring during a student's second year of school. The idea is to bring the student on as a summer associate during the break in between the second and third year of law school. If everything works out during the summer, then the firm makes an offer for regular employment upon the student's graduation.
As a student participating in the OCI process, you submit your resume, transcript, references, and a writing sample electronically to the firm. From the submissions, the firm selects a number of students to be interviewed in person when the firm visits the campus. If the student makes the cut after the on campus interview , he or she then receives a "call back." The firm flies the student to its corporate office to undergo a full day of questions and answers from various attorneys with the firm. After that, the firm may or may not make an offer to the student to be hired as a summer associate.
From my electronic submissions, I was invited to just one on campus interview with a large firm, and that one interview is as far as I got in the process. Perhaps I should feel worried or anxious about this, but I am not. I am gaining confidence and skills as my legal education continues, and I am not afraid to go door to door after graduation until I find a job. It was my best effort during the first year of law school. I held nothing back.
The students for whom I do have some sympathy are the ones at the top of the class. These are the "superhumans" I wrote about in a previous entry. They did their best too, and the economy has made the OCI process almost ridiculously competitive for them this year. Fewer firms came to the school for one thing, and those that did were not handing out many slots. There are about 240 people in my class. Only a handful of these students were consistently invited to OCI interviews this fall. Of these handful, I know of only 2 who have received offers to be a summer associate. I know of multiple students who went to over 15 OCI interviews, then received two or three call backs, but no offers. The process is very time consuming and stressful for them, and it comes when they are as busy as they will ever be with their classes and in organizations such as Law Review, Moot Court and Mock Trial. To see what they are going through and to look at my own chances in competing for 2 out of 240 -- well, I know now that I had pretty much no shot landing a job with OCI this fall. As one friend of mine who did quite a few interviews with OCI said, "Optimism- that's so 2007."
This is not the law school's fault by any means. The Career Placement Office does a great job in reaching out to employers and getting them to come to campus to network with the students. I landed my own terrific legal job this past summer through the Mach Speed Interviews, which the school hosted in February. Money is tight everywhere right now, and the school is doing the best it can with employers who have scaled way back.
This is a great law school. We'll all find jobs eventually, though they may not be as high paying as some of us would have hoped.
Universal Health Care Now,
Nathan Marshburn
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Hope, Motivation and a Word About Patrick Swayze
As I've said in past entries, the decision to attend law school is turning out to be the best choice of my professional life. I think I am setting myself up for a happier life than if I did not make that choice.
Though some people would disagree, to me law school itself is much easier than any job I've ever held. Learning new things in class from highly intelligent professors and being around young, energetic and smart fellow students will never become mundane for me.
Still, the longer I stay in school and the more the memories of bad jobs I've held fades, it sometimes is difficult to motivate myself to get up and study.
Over the years I've taught myself little tricks to get going when my mood is telling me otherwise. Many of these tricks I've learned by listening to successful people talk about how they go through life.
One such inspiration came recently. Patrick Swayze was a starring actor in probably my favorite romantic movie, Ghost. I once dated a girl whose favorite movie was Dirty Dancing. She could quote the movie verbatim, including Swayze's famous line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." Swayze died in September of this year from pancreatic cancer.
I remember when the media announced that he had contracted the disease. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat, and people usually die within months of diagnosis. It is the same disease that took Professor Randy Pausch, whose inspirational "Last Lecture" is definitely worth viewing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo.
Patrick Swayze also gave a fascinating last interview of sorts with Barbara Walters. You can watch this on YouTube as well. The entire interview is useful, but one phrase in particular struck me. Swayze expressed frustration that the tabloids were predicting when his death would occur, saying things like he only had five weeks to live. "You know," he said, "hope is a very very fragile thing in anyone's life." It was tough on both him and his family to constantly hear when he was going to die.
As I get older, I appreciate ever more just how fragile hope is in this world. At one time in my life, I was game to argue about religion and all sorts of other beliefs with anyone, anywhere. Now, though, I see that if a belief gives people hope, and it does not cause harm to others, then I shouldn't try to tear it down. Life is difficult enough for us all without me trying to stir up angst and debate over things that really might not matter so much in the end.
Even more, now that I am in law school, I see an opportunity to actually manufacture hope for people. Lawyers are powerful figures in our society. As I learned from my experience this summer with Parks & Crump, bad things had happened to our clients, and we were often the only bright ray of hope they had in their lives.
So, I try to think of my future clients when I'm lacking in motivation to study. I need to be as good a lawyer as possible. I need to learn the subjects as well as I can, because people will come to me with their problems, and I will hold important parts of their lives in my hands. I need to be prepared for the fight so that I can say, win or lose, I did my best for them. I did my best to bring hope home for them, and that very often I succeeded.
My own personal hope is do this for my clients while providing comfort and security to my own family. That is why I get out of bed in the morning and go to the law school.
Off to study.
Universal Health Care Now,
Nathan Marshburn
Though some people would disagree, to me law school itself is much easier than any job I've ever held. Learning new things in class from highly intelligent professors and being around young, energetic and smart fellow students will never become mundane for me.
Still, the longer I stay in school and the more the memories of bad jobs I've held fades, it sometimes is difficult to motivate myself to get up and study.
Over the years I've taught myself little tricks to get going when my mood is telling me otherwise. Many of these tricks I've learned by listening to successful people talk about how they go through life.
One such inspiration came recently. Patrick Swayze was a starring actor in probably my favorite romantic movie, Ghost. I once dated a girl whose favorite movie was Dirty Dancing. She could quote the movie verbatim, including Swayze's famous line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." Swayze died in September of this year from pancreatic cancer.
I remember when the media announced that he had contracted the disease. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat, and people usually die within months of diagnosis. It is the same disease that took Professor Randy Pausch, whose inspirational "Last Lecture" is definitely worth viewing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo.
Patrick Swayze also gave a fascinating last interview of sorts with Barbara Walters. You can watch this on YouTube as well. The entire interview is useful, but one phrase in particular struck me. Swayze expressed frustration that the tabloids were predicting when his death would occur, saying things like he only had five weeks to live. "You know," he said, "hope is a very very fragile thing in anyone's life." It was tough on both him and his family to constantly hear when he was going to die.
As I get older, I appreciate ever more just how fragile hope is in this world. At one time in my life, I was game to argue about religion and all sorts of other beliefs with anyone, anywhere. Now, though, I see that if a belief gives people hope, and it does not cause harm to others, then I shouldn't try to tear it down. Life is difficult enough for us all without me trying to stir up angst and debate over things that really might not matter so much in the end.
Even more, now that I am in law school, I see an opportunity to actually manufacture hope for people. Lawyers are powerful figures in our society. As I learned from my experience this summer with Parks & Crump, bad things had happened to our clients, and we were often the only bright ray of hope they had in their lives.
So, I try to think of my future clients when I'm lacking in motivation to study. I need to be as good a lawyer as possible. I need to learn the subjects as well as I can, because people will come to me with their problems, and I will hold important parts of their lives in my hands. I need to be prepared for the fight so that I can say, win or lose, I did my best for them. I did my best to bring hope home for them, and that very often I succeeded.
My own personal hope is do this for my clients while providing comfort and security to my own family. That is why I get out of bed in the morning and go to the law school.
Off to study.
Universal Health Care Now,
Nathan Marshburn
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Running at 1am
As I wrote in my previous entry, the Mock Trial Team Intramural Competition took up much of my time in the latter half of September. I frequently did not get home from the law school until after midnight. My class studies ground to a halt for about a week and a half.
Going for runs or jogs, however, is an indispensable part of my routine. If I go two or three days without running, I begin to feel like junk. I run two or three miles, five or six days a week. It is invigorating and keeps me feeling healthy.
Toward the end of September, it had been a couple of days since I had been on a run. I got back from the library after Mock Trial practice at midnight, and I needed to exercise. So I went for a two and half mile run around my apartment complex at about 1 am.
As I ran past a patch of woods, out of the corner of my eye I saw something rather large move. I darted to the opposite side of the road and turned to see an owl with wings spread fly up from the ground and land on a limb.
I'm not sure what kind of owl it was. Its underside was white, it had solid black eyes and stood about eight inches to ten inches tall.
I stopped my run and took a few steps closer to study this bird. It's only been a handful of times in my whole life that I've seen an owl in person. The owl did not seem frightened of me at all as I came closer. It turned its head at tremendous angles, as if looking for more prey on the ground. As I continued to stare at it, though, it swiveled its head to lock eyes with me. We stared at each other, unflinching for about 15 seconds before I glanced down and then back at the owl. But it quit the staring contest when I broke first. I left it in peace and continued my run.
Late at night, I can hear the owls often. This was the fourth owl I've spotted since moving to Florida. The other three, I saw all at the same time during a Tallahassee evening, as I noted in my blog entry for June 6th of this year.
I suppose this entry doesn't have much to do with law school, other than to note that law school extracurricular activities may force you to do your regular activities at odd times. In my case, it allowed me to see a unique sight.
Universal Health Care Now,
Nathan Marshburn
P.S. . . After looking up some information, most likely it was a Barred Owl. The National Audubon Society description of the Barred Owl's call matches exactly what I hear at night. You can see and hear the Barred Owl at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fppKGJD3Y6c&feature=related
Going for runs or jogs, however, is an indispensable part of my routine. If I go two or three days without running, I begin to feel like junk. I run two or three miles, five or six days a week. It is invigorating and keeps me feeling healthy.
Toward the end of September, it had been a couple of days since I had been on a run. I got back from the library after Mock Trial practice at midnight, and I needed to exercise. So I went for a two and half mile run around my apartment complex at about 1 am.
As I ran past a patch of woods, out of the corner of my eye I saw something rather large move. I darted to the opposite side of the road and turned to see an owl with wings spread fly up from the ground and land on a limb.
I'm not sure what kind of owl it was. Its underside was white, it had solid black eyes and stood about eight inches to ten inches tall.
I stopped my run and took a few steps closer to study this bird. It's only been a handful of times in my whole life that I've seen an owl in person. The owl did not seem frightened of me at all as I came closer. It turned its head at tremendous angles, as if looking for more prey on the ground. As I continued to stare at it, though, it swiveled its head to lock eyes with me. We stared at each other, unflinching for about 15 seconds before I glanced down and then back at the owl. But it quit the staring contest when I broke first. I left it in peace and continued my run.
Late at night, I can hear the owls often. This was the fourth owl I've spotted since moving to Florida. The other three, I saw all at the same time during a Tallahassee evening, as I noted in my blog entry for June 6th of this year.
I suppose this entry doesn't have much to do with law school, other than to note that law school extracurricular activities may force you to do your regular activities at odd times. In my case, it allowed me to see a unique sight.
Universal Health Care Now,
Nathan Marshburn
P.S. . . After looking up some information, most likely it was a Barred Owl. The National Audubon Society description of the Barred Owl's call matches exactly what I hear at night. You can see and hear the Barred Owl at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fppKGJD3Y6c&feature=related
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