"Your Juris Doctor Has Been Mailed"

Earlier this week, the law school sent out an email to the May graduates, congratulating us again on our accomplishment and informing us that our Juris Doctor diplomas had been mailed. The email included a link where we could view our diploma.

For me, seeing that email, viewing my diploma, was actually more gratifying than the graduation ceremony. At the ceremony back on May 7th, we had not received our exam grades. In fact, just the day before the ceremony, I took a final exam for the class of "Complex Civil Litigation." That last exam turned out to be perhaps the most difficult one of my entire law school experience. Afterwards, I joked to my friends that I ended my academic studies at FSU College of Law "not with a bang, but a whimper." So, there remained for me an uneasy feeling about the exams as I went through the graduation ceremony.

Now, though, I know my grades and my GPA. And while it will be September before final class rankings are issued (due to some students from my class finishing their graduation requirements in summer school), I know my degree is there, permanently.

A few days ago, the Admissions and Records Office printed my transcript, and it was nice to see "Juris Doctor Cum Laude" typed at the end...

There is really no time to enjoy it, though. One month from now is the Florida Bar Exam. For almost every job in the legal field, I need two things: My J.D. and admission to the bar.

I am halfway done with the Kaplan PMBR bar prep course. They are doing a great job teaching me what I need to know, but what I did not anticipate was the volume of information in the course and how fast we have to learn it. It really is very much like getting ready for law school final exams- just stretched out over a longer period. In an earlier blog entry, I said that I could not maintain that kind of intensity for such an extended time frame, but it looks like I am going to have to.

This past week, my class took a six hour practice MBE (which is 1/2 of the whole exam). I got 58% of the questions right.

58%.

While it is slightly comforting to know that we were only expected to get about half the questions right, and that the top people in my class were scoring at 65% or 70%, if I score 58% one month from now then I will fail the bar exam.

I have work to do, and new material from the bar prep course is being put to us every day.

So, this past week I saw my diploma and it felt good. But bar preparation, combined with the stress of the job search makes right now the most anxiety-filled time of the whole law school experience, at least for me.

I will keep moving ahead, though, treating this like an adventure and remembering, as my mom told me, "It is a privileged adventure." Not everyone gets to head down these paths. Really, I am lucky to be here.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

The Week in Between

Tomorrow, I start my two-month bar preparation classes with Kaplan PMBR. I suppose that I will keep writing entries here at least through taking the bar exam, as it is also a huge part of the law school experience.

The week in between graduation and the start of bar prep, I got a chance to relax a little before the intense study kicks up again. One of my friends stayed for a few days after watching me graduate. We had a nice visit, dined at some good restaurants, and went to Panama City Beach. It was my first trip to the shore since coming to law school. Specifically, we went to the beach at St. Andrews State Park. It was absolutely gorgeous. I’d seen white sand and turquoise blue water before (Bradenton, Florida in 1996), but the experience in Panama City Beach dazzled my friend. It was the most beautiful beach she had ever seen in her life. She called her mother in south Texas to say, “L’agua esta azul, azul, azul!”

During the trip, I decided that Bay County and Panama City would be a neat place to work. I will keep it in mind when sending my resume to trial attorneys…

But tomorrow, I will be in class from 9am to 3:30pm in Tallahassee. Then it is study, study, study tomorrow evening before rising early to be at class again at 9 am.

Students who have been through bar prep before warned me about the drudgery of what is ahead. We'll see. If bar prep is as intense as getting ready for final exams, then they are right. There is no way that I can sustain that kind of effort for two or three months straight. Exam season, at least for me, is like engaging the afterburners.

Not counting "exam season," however, law school on a daily basis was actually enjoyable. I imagine that the intensity of bar prep will fall somewhere in between the two poles of daily law school life and "exam season." Hopefully, by the end of the day tomorrow- or at least by the end of the week- I'll have a good read of what is required.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

Partying with the All-Stars***

It is over, sort of.

Last Saturday, I dressed up in a fancy gown, hood, hat, and along with approximately 240 of my other classmates, walked across a stage at the Civic Center in the FSU College of Law graduation ceremony. It will still be a few weeks before final grades from this last semester are posted and our degrees are officially conferred. In the words of my mother, though, “It was a great day.” Some of my family and friends were there, and we celebrated afterwards by going out to eat and then to a FSU baseball game.

Of all that went on Saturday at the ceremony, the program bulletin was the most interesting thing to me. It listed all of the graduates, along with various accomplishments we achieved during our three years. The program also provided which students are going to graduate with honors, pending the outcome of this last semester. Those who are in a position to graduate cum laude had an asterisk by their name. Those set to graduate magna cum laude had two asterisks, and those who could finish summa cum laude had three asterisks next to their name.

Out of the entire graduating class, only four students had ***. I know each of the four fairly well. In fact, my last social outing as a law school student was in the company of two of them…

During this past “exam season,” I only took one evening off to have some fun. The occasion was a going away party for one of my friends. He is moving to Miami to take a job with a law firm, and he was also one of the four students with *** by his name in the graduation program.

The party was at his house, and it was one of the most enjoyable that I have experienced in law school. He and his wife own a couple of cats, and I always like it when there are animals around to keep me company. An additional *** student came by, along with a number of other all-star students whom I now know are set to graduate with honors or high honors.

The talent of these students has always amazed me. In addition to being the best scholars in our class, they are excellent gardeners, wood craftsmen, marathon runners, and musicians. They are just good at life, generally. Whereas for myself, I struggle at keeping a clean apartment.

One friend of mine was in fact a professional musician prior to coming to law school. At the party, he and our Miami-bound host entertained us by taking turns singing requests for pop songs from the 80s and 90s. With only one acoustic guitar, they kept us entertained for hours.

Their display of talent showed me another change in technology that was not around when I went to parties as an undergraduate. Using their hand held I-phone, Droid, Blackberry or whatever you call it, they were able to take a request, search for the chord pattern of the song on the Internet, and then play it while looking at the small screen on their device.

My favorite songs were those that the former pro knew by heart. With only the acoustical guitar, he performed amazing ballad-style covers of hits from Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and SirMixaLot.

Not only were the songs very well done, the lyrics were shockingly hilarious.

The other ***student at the party enjoyed the music more than anyone. But at one point, she watched me as I listened and said, “This is going to be a blog entry.” Her comment surprised me, as I did not know that she read my blog.
As the hour became late, she also said what I was beginning to think for myself: “I really need to be studying right now.”

But that night, it was just too much fun. We both stayed much longer- until the two musicians’ voices became tired.

I do not think the indulgence hurt my exam performance, and I am glad I took the time to party with some *** and ** students. It was great to see their talents and personalities in a somewhat different light.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

The New Importance of Clothes

For me, the most disappointing thing about law school is how I'm physically aging. This is one area of life where I believe it is actually mentally healthier to stay in a state of denial, so I won't say much more about it. Still, as I get older I am beginning to see even more the importance of clothes in society.

Earlier this week, a friend who works in the state legislature invited me to lunch up at the Capitol. Real estate lobbyists hosted the meal, and it was open the public. I asked him if how I was dressed was okay- blue jeans and a polo shirt with my shirt tail out. He said it was fine. I took him up on the offer and walked five minutes east on Pensacola Street from the law school to the Capitol.

When I arrived, however, I realized that I would have been much more comfortable in a suit. Everyone else was in professional attire. While I tried to smile at them, they did not smile back at me the way they would have if I had been in a suit. I could almost read their minds: "He's not one of us. This is just some man off the street looking for a free lunch."

I don't hold it against my friend for inviting me at all. He's younger than I am. I now understand that when you're young and you dress down, people don't care as much. He could have pulled off jeans and a loose polo. But not me. Not anymore. This is a threshold I've crossed since coming to law school.

When I'm among people in professional attire, I now need to be in professional attire, too. I am a "man," now. No one calls me "kid" anymore, the way the salesmen out on the car lot in Las Vegas did when I worked with them five years ago. A "man" needs to already be successful and look like he's successful. A "kid" still has success waiting for him in the years ahead. I can't pull off the Gap or Old Navy look in a crowd of professionally dressed people anymore- if I ever could pull it off.

I've noticed this change from comments people have made to me this year, too. One day earlier this semester when I came to school in a suit, a law school administrator looked at me and said, "You don't look like a student. You look like you are already a lawyer, years beyond school."

"I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not," I replied.

This past week, one of the librarians stopped me and told me that she had decided I was a chameleon. "When you are in a suit," she said, "I think that a lawyer has just walked into the library. But today you are not in lawyer clothes. You are in jeans and you look like a different person."

Of course I would like to remain forever young, but this change I am going through has some benefits if I learn how to play it right- especially when I am wearing a suit...

It is officially exam season. I have to hit the books even harder. This will probably be my last entry until after graduation.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

Adjusting My Attitude

Almost every day now, someone asks me what it feels like to "almost be done" with law school.

From my sales experience, I know that I need to come up with a better answer than what I've been saying.

The smile on the face of the person asking me that question inevitably changes to a frown of confusion once I've given my long-winded answer.

My answer, more or less, goes like this:

"Really, it doesn't feel like I'm almost done. It just feels like one more hurdle that I have to clear in this whole process. I still have to take the final exams and pass the final exams. I'll go through the graduation ceremony not 100% sure that I've actually graduated. Then I have to spend about two and a half months getting ready for the bar exam while I wait for my degree to be officially conferred. At the end of July, I'll take the bar exam. Then I have to wait for results, which won't be released until mid or late September. Somewhere along the line, I've got to find a job. Assuming everything goes right in all this, I still won't become a lawyer for another six months from now- as one firm neatly pointed out to me in a recent job interview. So really, it does not feel like I'm almost done."

A poor first year student who innocently asked me the question and then listened to my rant, sheepishly responded, "Well...Good luck with that process," and hustled off.

While all of the above is true, I know my attitude is what counts. After that 1L student hurried away from me, an interview I'd seen with Joe Montana came to mind.

Joe Montana, a former NFL player for the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs, is the greatest quarterback whom I personally have ever seen play the game.

This interview that came to mind took place a few days before he was to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. A reporter asked him what it felt like.

I can't remember Montana's exact quote, but it was to the effect that being inducted into the Hall felt like "the end." It felt like the last event before they piled the dirt on his coffin.

The reporter gave him the same look that the 1L and the other students have given me after my response to their questions about what it feels like to almost be done with law school.

By the time of Montana's actual enshrinement speech, however, he had adjusted his attitude. Here is an excerpt of what he said, taken from http://www.profootballhof.com:

"The Hall of Fame is a tremendous, tremendous honor. I had a very difficult time with it in the beginning cause I don’t think I was looking at it in the proper perspective. I saw the Hall of Fame as an ending point. I mentioned to a couple people that in some ways I felt like, wow I'm only 44-years-old, I feel like I’m in my grave, in my coffin, alive, and they’re putting, throwing dirt on me, and I can feel it, and I’m trying to get out. And it wasn’t until this weekend, these past three days, these gentlemen behind me [his fellow inductees], spending the time with them, that I think I really got the true meaning of what this is all about...I‘ve now seen the light, that this is not an ending point, this is a beginning point. This is the beginning of the rest of my life, post-career, with a new team. And take a look at these guys, what a team it is."

While graduating from law school is of course not the same thing as being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, this upcoming graduation ceremony will be the most significant achievement in my own life, thus far.

Yesterday, I went to a house party with some of my fellow law school students. At one point, as we all sat around a TV watching the NCAA Final Four games, I looked at each student and thought about how lucky I am to be here. Four or five years ago, I would have been elated to know that such a scene was in my future. I am surrounded by very intelligent and talented people at FSU Law, people who will go far in society.

Being invited to study with such a group at such an institution, to graduate with them, means that I have an obligation to be positive. I have an obligation to bring hope to people who come into contact with me.

So, it feels nice to "almost be done." The graduation ceremony will be the culmination of a lot of hard work, and a gateway into what I hope will be a bright future. There will always be more hurdles to clear, but I am looking forward to the challenge and the rewards that come from clearing them.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

A Squirrel's Escape, and the Best Ice Cream Ever

As I carried my laundry back from the washroom at my apartment complex on Friday morning, out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a grey blur darting past me through the grass.

I turned and saw that the blur was in fact a squirrel, running full speed toward a large pine tree.

What was amazing was how fast this creature was moving. I've seen squirrels scurry away from me when I approached them. I've seen them run and hop out of the way of cars on the road, and I've seen them run from each other in the trees.

But this squirrel was not moving like that. Its tail was stiff, and it did not hop at all as it sprinted. Every muscle in its body seemed to be focused on generating speed and in keeping a beeline for that pine tree. It shot through the grass like an efficient, low flying bullet.

I thought, I've never seen a squirrel move like that. I've never seen a squirrel move that fast in my life.

But a second later, I understood why it was moving with such concentrated urgency.

All of a sudden, a magnificent hawk descended from the sky, its wings spread wide and talons outstretched. It came in right behind the squirrel and flew within a couple of inches of the tail.

The squirrel proved to be fast enough, though. It made it to the base of the tree. The hawk had to land short to keep from hitting the tree, but the squirrel hit it going full speed and disappeared around the other side of the trunk.

The hawk stood on the ground for less than two seconds before it flew up to perch on a nearby clothes line pole. It looked around, and then studied me for a few seconds before flying off.

The hawk did not stay still long enough for me to get a good look at its features other than its white and brown underside. It was probably either a red shouldered hawk or a red tail hawk. The squirrel escaped, but I do not know if it later succumbed to a heart attack...

After finishing my laundry, I headed out to the law school for "Admitted Students' Day." Each spring, FSU Law hosts such a day to entice those high quality applicants who have been fortunate enough to gain acceptance as part of the incoming fall class. As a law school ambassador, it was my job to give a tour of the campus facilities and resources. I did my best to convince these prospects that if they are committed to going to law school, then enrolling at FSU would be a good choice.

After the tour ended, I took the students to the law school rotunda where they were serving "Marble Slab" ice cream. I had never tasted Marble Slab ice cream before, and I got in line behind dozens of others who were waiting to be served. I felt sorry for the worker doing all the dipping, but he must have had very strong wrists and hands.

When it was my turn, I ordered vanilla ice cream with a cookie dough topping. The server scooped what I thought was a rather small portion of vanilla, and then literally put it on a cold marble slab in front of him. With two spatula-type instruments, he kneaded the cookie dough into the ice cream.

As I watched him work, I noted that the ice cream itself had more the density of a paste or a dough than the cream I was used to. It did not break up as he worked with it. After a few moments, the server put the ice cream in a paper cup and gave it to me with a spoon.

When I tasted it, I decided immediately that this was the best ice cream I had ever had in my life. The thickness and richness also made the serving much larger than I thought. One cup filled me up. I did not go back for seconds, despite it being the most delicious ice cream I had ever tasted.

This Marble Slab ice cream beat a longstanding record. Previously, the best ice cream I had ever eaten was on a summer day in Wake Forest, North Carolina, when I was about five years old. I was living at my grandmother's house, and all my cousins from that side of the family were there, along with my parents and my brother. I played in the yard with my cousins while the adults all sat around and talked.

The adults also set about making homemade chocolate ice cream, which we were all eager to taste. I remember my dad turning the churn by hand for what seemed like forever.

When it was finally ready, I remember how delicious and cold it tasted. Like the Marble Slab, the texture of that chocolate ice cream was different from any other I've ever had, too.

In later years, we made homemade ice cream again at family gatherings, but it was with an electric churn that did not need to be turned by hand. It was also never quite as good as that first time in Wake Forest.

The Marble Slab ice cream that I had on Friday was better, though. Here is a link to their business:

http://www.marbleslab.com/

After I finished eating it in the law school rotunda, I went to watch Florida State's baseball team take on Wake Forest at Dick Howser stadium. Wake Forest University's campus used to be in that town of the same name where I once lived with my grandmother and ate homemade ice cream for the first time, but the university moved to Winston-Salem some years before I was born.

It was an enjoyable day.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

The Flub

Earlier this week, the professor in one of my classes created a neat game to help us understand the practical aspects of some of the broader ideas and themes of the course.

She passed out a sheet with the instructions and problems, and gave us a few minutes to think over our answers. Then she took out a football.

The professor randomly tossed it to one of the students in the class. After he caught it, she told him to answer the first problem on the instruction sheet. After he did so, she told him to throw the ball to another student.

As soon as that first student answered the problem, I knew I was in trouble.

I had completely misunderstood the directions, and my answers were way off from what the professor was looking for. No sooner did I realize this when the football was in the air again, heading right at me.

I didn’t catch it. I ducked out of the way and let the ball land with a hard “BAM!” on the table in front of me. It bounced to the floor.

Everyone in the class went silent and just stared at me. The ball rolled ever so slowly to the middle of the class.

I mumbled something about an incomplete pass or a fumble, but it got no laughs. The professor looked at me with a blank expression.

I stood up, walked to the center of the room, picked up the ball, and returned to my seat.

Everyone was waiting. I stared down at my paper for a moment. Eventually, I said that I had misunderstood the instructions, and read off my totally irrelevant answer.

Everyone was still waiting. But I had nothing, and there wasn’t enough time to think. For the first time in my law school career, I froze.

Crickets chirping.

Finally, the professor offered me the dreaded, “tail tucked between my legs” escape that I had heard offered to other students in other classes a few times before:

“Would you like the assistance of co-counsel?”

I quickly answered, “Yes.”

Law school goal #8: Go the entire three years without embarrassing myself when called on in class/ Always be prepared and never have to ask for “the assistance of co-counsel.”

Result of law school goal #8: Fail.

One of my friends sitting behind me offered to take a “lateral.”

I tossed the ball back to him, nearly knocking over his water bottle in the process.

The rest of the class went on with the game, tossing the ball back and forth and giving the correct answers. Apparently, I was the only one who had misunderstood the directions.

After class ended and I was walking out, the professor gave me a smile of what I took to be pity.

It was a nice start to the day.

Hopefully, I won't have a similar misunderstanding when the professor passes out the instructions on final exam day.

Beware the Ides of March,

Nathan Marshburn

The Last Resume Goals

The last remaining goals for my law school resume are to make the Dean's List one more time and then, more importantly, graduate with honors. Right now, my GPA puts me in that position, but it is close and I am trying to hold it.

Because of the law school curve system, a grade in the 80s is actually not bad, compared to the rest of the student body. For example, only 3% of the students in a given class may receive a grade of 98 to 100. The professor does not have to give anyone such a grade if he or she so chooses. 5% to 15% of the class may receive a grade from 93 to98, 10% to 25% may receive grades from 86 to 92, and so forth.

Right now, my GPA is 85 point something. While this would have sounded horrible to me in high school or as an undergraduate in college, it actually places me inside the top 25% of my class in law school (There is also an "upper level" GPA that excludes first year courses, but I am not sure this figure is relevant for graduation honors).

An average of 86 or better during a given semester will earn you a spot on the Dean's List. If your overall GPA is higher than 84 when you finish law school, then you graduate Cum Laude.

Grades have been my primary focus during law school. I have not held a job during the school year so that I could spend more time on academics. The Mock Trial Team has been my second highest priority, but I have not done much above the minimum membership requirements for that organization, and I have only competed in the minimum number of required tournaments.

This is not the story for many of my colleagues. Some have families to support or otherwise need the money, and thus do not have the luxury of using only loans to get them through school.

Another group of students elect to work during the school year with the hope of making connections that will lead to a full time job. Landing a career job, after all, is the end game here. There are two basic ways to get a career job: 1) Through outstanding grades and extracurricular accomplishments, or 2) by making a connection with a person who can open a door. A few of my friends took jobs as part time clerks at law firms after becoming frustrated with their grades.

Given the amount of time that I have devoted to classes and studying, I would like my GPA to be higher than 85 point something. But there it is. We will see if it was worth not trying to make connections by working during the school year, or enhancing my resume by putting more effort into the Mock Trial Team.

If I held a job during the school year, my grades would take a big hit. If I had competed in more Mock Trial tournaments or held an office in the organization, my grades would take a hit.

Last year, I had a conversation with the newly elected president of one of the major law school organizations. She also worked as a clerk at a law firm, and had family issues that took up a lot of her time.

I asked her, "How are you going to do all that and still keep decent grades?"

She replied, "My game plan is to land a job before my grades crash."

But the real wonders are the students who have other major time commitments and still make the top grades in school. Some of my friends hold an office on the Law Review, the school's most prestigious student organization, in addition to having a part time job, in addition to being a member of other premier law school organizations. And yet they will graduate Magna Cum Laude or Summa Cum Laude.

What can I say? More power to them. I've done the best I could in law school. It is too expensive to come here and not try hard. If I had law school to do over, I really would not do much differently. At least that is my thinking right now. Perhaps I would make more of an effort to join the Law Review, though I know I would not have enjoyed the work that is required of its members. I also might make more of an effort to publish a paper, though again, this would not have been enjoyable.

In order to graduate from FSU Law, every student has to take a "paper class" and write a paper of publishable quality. The paper is your grade in lieu of a final exam. I worked very hard in my "paper class," and it turned out pretty well. That paper got me one of my highest grades in law school. It was the first law school class that I ever "booked." Writing that darn paper was also the most exhausting experience I've had in law school. It was the first time in my life that I ever wrote something substantial using only a computer. Normally, I hand write everything first and then type it up (a system that would be completely unacceptable in a law firm that utilizes the billable hour model). By the time I finished my final draft, I had stared at a computer screen for so long and hard, bounced back and forth so much between my paper and Westlaw or LexisNexis, that my eyes literally felt like two golf balls bouncing around inside my skull. The dizzying sensation stayed with me for about three days.

So, it was not a close decision about whether or not I would try to write a second paper in law school (as is required of Law Review members).

But some of the best students here actually enroll in all the paper classes they can. They prefer writing papers to taking final exams. Again, more power to them.

Three final exams remain for me. One exam is scheduled for the day before the graduation ceremony. The chances to distinguish myself and tag my resume with law school accolades have almost entirely come and gone, now. I've had successes and failures, but I've given my maximum effort short of making myself miserable.

I hope I can perform well enough on these last exams to hold the line and always be able to put "graduated with honors" out beside my degree.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

Three Directions

I was watching a game on TV one day when Lee Corso, an ESPN college football analyst who played for Florida State said, "Life is about change, and your ability to adapt to it."

In my first semester of law school, I readily made the change to this new environment and to living in my small apartment in Alumni Village. School has always been enjoyable and an easy adjustment for me. But an even bigger change is coming in just a few months- after I graduate and take the bar exam. I am trying to get ready for it. The difficulty is figuring out exactly how I need to change. It can be mentally exhausting. Job openings in this economy are scarce. Interviews are even scarcer. If I get an interview, I need to wow the employer. I need to hit a home run.

My experiences in law school have shown me a few things that I do not want to do. For example, working under the billable hour system is not for me. I will not bother going into details as to why I dislike that system, but unfortunately, this aversion wipes out many avenues of employment. Most law firms utilize the billable hour model.

I've managed to narrow my thinking about the future to three directions, each of which requires a very different mindset. In no particular order of preference, they are:

1) Plaintiff's Civil Litigation Attorney:

I would be good at this.

Much of my focus during law school has been in developing skills as a trial lawyer and a knowledge base in personal injury/wrongful death/workers’ compensation practice.

Personal injury, workers’ comp and wrongful death became primary choices for practice in large part due to my experience as a law clerk with Parks & Crump, LLC in Tallahassee. It is much more satisfying to see the face of the client I represent, to know them as a person, and to fight and win a personal victory for them. I would not be happy working for the other side, billing hours day after day to a faceless client, helping (in the words of Mr. Crump) Goliath defeat David.

In order to succeed in this field, though, I need to take on more "walking around stress" than I have as a student. To be a good advocate, I have to be willing to go into fights for my clients on a daily basis. My clients' cases will always be one of if not the single most important thing in their lives at that given time. My clients will put a lot of hope in me. The partners of the firm, my fellow attorneys, the paralegals, will all have expectations of me. Their livelihood will depend on how I perform. To take on this kind of responsibility and high stakes gamesmanship will require disciplined thinking on my part. I will have to become a somewhat different person than I am now.

To succeed in job interviews for a plaintiff's civil litigation attorney, I need to already be thinking like this. I need to get ready.

2) Criminal Defense Attorney/ Public Defender

I would be good at this.

Back on September 10, 2010, I wrote a blog entry about my pro bono work with the Leon County Public Defender. It was an enjoyable experience.

In order to be a successful criminal defense attorney in private practice, you almost have to put in your time with a Public Defender's Office or State Attorney's Office. Many people make careers there, particularly in the Public Defender's Office. The "walking around stress" would be cut down some, as the state will take care of my salary and the livelihoods of my support staff. Criminal law is more fun than the civil side, too. On the other hand, I would be in court a lot more. Parks & Crump typically goes to trial only about twice per year. As a public defender, though, I will have the daily stress of almost literally holding a person's life in my hands. The words I say to a jury, how I act in front of them and the judge, will decide if my client (guilty or innocent) goes free, goes to prison, or perhaps goes to the lethal injection table. To get ready for this job, I need more independent study of criminal law and procedure. Most of my electives in law school have been to help me prepare as a civil litigator. I never took Criminal Procedure-Adjudication ("From Bail to Jail"); I never took Dean Logan's legendary Criminal Procedure-Police class ("Cops and Robbers"). I also skipped the criminal pre-trial drafting courses that many students interested in this area of law took. Still, I have all the confidence I need to be successful here. More than any other area of law, I think I could quickly become competent here.

But to succeed in these job interviews, I need to already be thinking like a criminal defense attorney. I need to get ready.

3) Sales in the legal field.

I would be good at this.

There is a possible option to not practice law altogether and instead go into a sales career, either with the bar prep company which I now work for as a student, or with the publishing and internet research giants used by law schools and law firms- Wolters Kluwer, LexisNexis or Westlaw.

I already possess many of the fundamental skills necessary for success in sales, though it did not come naturally. By nature, I am an introvert, but my experience in auto sales before coming to law school opened up a new world and a new way of thinking to me. After a few months practice, I finally began to instinctively see a situation and think, "Now what would the good salesman do?"

The mindset needed to be successful in sales is what I already have to a large extent, but it is a 180 degree turn from what I need to be a successful trial lawyer. In sales, it is not good practice to dislike anyone. Anyone. But for a trial lawyer, there are different rules.

For example, earlier this semester, I had to prepare for a Mock Trial tournament. Our case was a criminal one, a murder trial. I was the prosecutor, and my chief assignments were to tear up the defendant (an accused throat slasher) on cross examination and then tear him up again in my closing argument before the jury.

In getting my mind ready, in drafting my cross examination questions and in practicing how I would say them, I was aware that it was affecting my job as a sales rep for my bar prep company. I was not as friendly to people. I did not bother studying them as much to pay attention to their likes and dislikes. I also was surprised when I began forgetting some students' names. In sales, I learned tricks to remember peoples' names. But in getting ready for this trial, the tricks faded in my mind, and so did the names. I was thinking instead about how to get the jury angry with the defendant, about how to make the jury feel moral revulsion over what he had done.

Now that the Mock Trial tournament is over, I am good to go for sales interviews again. But if I start to get ready for other types of interviews, criminal law or civil litigation, I will lose this edge...

All right, that's enough complaining. I am graduating from a top 50 law school in two months. I am in much better shape than most people.

It would just be less tiring to know exactly how I should be training my mind right now. As it is, I worry about being mediocre or indecisive in interviews. But we'll see where I land.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

Birmingham and Mock Trial

Today in Tallahassee, I found pollen on my car for the first time this year. I also turned on the air conditioner in my car for the first time since September or October. During my drive to school, I saw a dogwood tree in full bloom. I am glad that the cold weather is fading away...

And last weekend, I had the privilege of competing in my final Mock Trial tournament. I was part of a team that Florida State Law sent to the Texas Young Lawyer's Association (TYLA) regional competition. This tournament is one of if not the most popular Mock Trial tournaments in the country. It is a national event, with many of the law schools in the country sending a team to their respective regional contest. Our region includes Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. The regional winners go on to Houston in April for the finals.

The Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham served as this year's regional host. The city has a beautiful courthouse where all the teams competed. My team did fairly well. We beat Barry University, the University of Miami, and lost a close contest to the University of Alabama. Our 2-1 record wasn't quite good enough to reach the semifinals, so we were done with the competition on Saturday night.

This gave us the opportunity to see a little of the city. During our trip, we stayed at the Sheraton in downtown Birmingham. On Saturday night, Kid Rock performed right across the street. To my surprise, he has quite a following. Kid Rock groupies filled up the rooms of the hotel, and well before the concert began my hall was littered with beer bottles and empty cigarette boxes. I enjoyed mingling with the fans before I hit the town Saturday night. I was used to their thick southern accents, but to hear guys speaking the southern working class dialect while wearing all black and eyeliner was a bit unique.

When we left the hotel, my teammates and I took a cab to a section of town called "The Five Points." This area had a good feel to it. We discovered a cool little place called The Blue Monkey Lounge tucked at the end of a cobblestone street. My teammates' company, the atmosphere, the music, the drinks, and the women there were fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and all of us, I think, appreciated blowing off some steam. If I am ever in Birmingham again, "The Five Points" is a place to which I would return. Here is a link to the Blue Monkey Lounge website: http://bluemonkeylounge.com/

As far as the competition itself, my only regret is that I did not get a chance to go in more trials. Each time I compete, I feel myself getting stronger, getting better. I was conscious of how good I felt once the trial got going. Sure, I was nervous before and during the competition. That will probably always be there, and sometimes the nerves show through a bit. But I was also aware of my confidence. It is not an overstatement to say that for certain flashes during the trial, I felt invincible.

That feeling, that rush, is the best thing the Mock Trial Team has given me. I have learned and continue to learn a lot about how trials work and what I need to do to win. And, foolishly or not, I now believe that I can beat anyone in a courtroom on a given day... Bring in the top trial lawyers in the country. I'll go head to head with them. Bring in anyone with style and presence: President Obama, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise from A Few Good Men, I'll take on whomever walks into the courtroom. This is silly boasting, I know, but it is really a great, rare feeling when this kind of rush hits me before or during a trial.

Anyway, my Mock Trial competition days are over, and I am a little sad about that. I think that if there was a 4L year in law school, I would stop focusing so much on my grades and instead compete in as many tournaments as I could. Once you really start learning what to do, Mock Trial can become addictive.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

Preparing for the Practice of Law

My decision to go to law school was a way to hit the reset button on my life. I was not happy with the direction I was going, and I wanted to learn skills that would make me more valuable in society- a trade that would make me more employable.

Prior to law school, the closest I had come to learning a trade was sales. I had also worked for the Post Office, but this simply involved brute manual labor. Working for the Post Office did nothing to prepare me for any sort of other job.

Sales was a fascinating experience, though. I took a job with a car dealership in Las Vegas. Management put me out on the lot, and the veteran salesmen were amused to watch me crash and burn with one customer after another. It was clear to everyone that I had no idea what I was doing. But I was paid totally on commission, so I was only really hurting my own wallet. Management watched me, though. If I got a qualified buyer in and seemed to be making progress, they would send over one of the three or four "closers" who worked there to make sure the deal got done. One closer, a sharp guy named Rod who was originally from Hawaii, would actually kick me under the table if I said something wrong to a customer.

Sales was a complete fog to me at first, but I eventually began to learn some things through failed experience, watching what the veterans did, and reading a very good book on selling.

I continued to work in auto sales after I made the decision to return to school. Ironically, in the five or six months in between my decision to go back to school and the start of classes, I became pretty good at my job. It was probably due in part to the fact that I was more relaxed. I had made my decision. There was no need to push too hard, as I knew I was leaving soon.

Anyway, management began letting me close my own deals. During one of our weekly sales meetings, a manager had me stand up. He told the group that my progress over the past few months had been tremendous, and he wanted me to share the secret of my success with them. I said that I simply found a part of the deal that I believed in. I got excited about it, and I tried to convey that excitement to the customer...

Now, less than three months from graduation from law school, I find myself trying to learn a new trade again. The practice of law will be far different from law school . Law school gives you some fundamental tools, but school is largely a world unto itself. There are also certain similarities between the practice of law and the art of selling, but there is no doubt that I have to get myself into a new mindset. Here are two of the most stark adjustments I am trying to make:

1) Changing the importance of being a nice guy.

In sales, "Make the customer like you" is a cardinal rule if not the most important rule of all. My sales performance improved once I began thinking of the business as "the science of being liked." You never argue with a customer in sales. You may win the argument, but you will lose the sale.

In law, I am not convinced that being a nice guy is important. Sure, you should always be courteous and polite. But your client is not hiring you to be a nice guy. Your client is hiring you to win their legal argument. Particularly in trial law, I think this holds true. Many of the trial lawyers I am meeting strike me as being confident to the point of arrogance. I do not hold this against them. You almost have to be arrogant and stubborn to be successful. Time and again in law school, I have heard that law is an adversarial system, and I've seen a little of how contentious it can get. If I am always being humble, trying to adhere to the science of being liked, then I am probably not serving my client very well.

In sales, ideally you want the whole process to be so smooth and pleasant for everyone involved that the same customer will come back to you again and again and also send you referrals.

But in trial law, you want to inspire fear- or at least hesitation- in the other side. There are some great lines from the movie, The Verdict, starring Paul Newman. Newman plays Frank Galvin, an attorney representing a woman in a coma due to the medical negligence of a Catholic hospital.

At one one point in the movie, another attorney, Mickey, asks him, "Do you know who the attorney for the Archdiocese is? Eddie Concannon."

Galvin replies, "He's a good man."

Mickey: "He's a good man?! He's the F***ing Prince of Darkness! He'll have people in there testifying that they saw this broad Tuesday on a surfboard in Hyannis!"

...Hopefully, in sales no one ever calls you the F***ing Prince of Darkness.

2) Eye wear.

Repetitive motion jobs take their toll on parts of the body. I observed this in the mail carriers I worked with and the health problems that they experienced.

If you're going to be a lawyer, you might as well resign yourself to the toll all the reading off computer screens is going to take on your eyes. Several people I know have had to get glasses or stronger prescriptions since coming to law school. My own vision has slightly worsened- though not to the point where I need glasses (my dominant performance at table tennis over the Christmas break convinced me that I don't need glasses, yet).

Losing my eyesight has always been a big fear. I always thought that people who wore glasses could not see anything beyond a certain range- that it all literally turned to black after 500 yards or so. As my own vision has suffered some wear, though, I am relieved to learn that vision loss does not quite work that way. I can still perceive color from far away.

One day, I was looking down Jefferson Street at a stoplight. It had to be over 500 yards distant. The light looked like a fuzzy prism and had no clear borders. I thought to myself, "Now, three years ago I would have been able to see the circle of that light clearly. It would not be fuzzy."

But I could still see the change from green to yellow to red.

That's good enough, I guess. As long as I can perceive color and light from as far away as I always have, and as long as I can clearly focus on things close to me, I'll take it.

In sales, this was obviously not a problem. I was outside on the car lot most of the time, and got to stretch my eyes, so to speak, by looking at the mountains on the horizon outside of Vegas. Or I could look up at the huge tower of the Stratosphere casino. Planes also came in for a landing right over our dealership. I could see strange white passenger airliners with no markings on them but a red stripe down each side. Rod, the closer from Hawaii, told me that those planes carried the employees of Area 51 back and forth. They landed at a location called JANET at the airport, which stood for "Just another non-existent terminal." Who knows if Rod was telling me the truth.

There are other changes to my mindset worth noting, but this entry has already taken too much time. I need to get back to studying Complex Civil Litigation.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

3L Stress

Beginning last semester, and increasing this semester, I sense a new kind of stress among some of my fellow students graduating with me in May. The tension is completely related, I believe, to the pressure of finding a job.

Florida State Law has an outstanding career placement record- perhaps better than any of the other ten law schools in this state. We will all land jobs eventually. But the current condition of the economy has hit almost every occupational area hard. The legal field is no exception. Fewer of the big law firms are hiring. It is harder than in years past, I think.

I am feeling the stress a little myself- not so much because I'm worried about finding a job. There is always room for a good lawyer, and I have the tools to become a great trial lawyer. Even if it is September before I get a job, one is coming. The stress, for me, arises from not knowing exactly what the next chapter is, along with hoping I do not rush into a situation where I will be unhappy- while at the same time making sure that I do not pass up a golden opportunity. Also, there is the peer pressure. Many of my friends are in the top 10% of the class. Most of these students do in fact already have jobs lined up. When they ask me where I am going and what I have lined up, I have to say, "I do not know, yet."

Last semester, these same top students were probably feeling a stress similar to what I am feeling now. Last semester, they were applying for judicial clerkships. A judicial clerkship is a prestigious position in which a person works for a specific judge. The judicial clerk reviews pleadings and other documents submitted to the judge for the accuracy of the legal arguments. Clerks also help judges with research and in drafting opinions. In short, clerks work side by side with the judge and do much of the heavy lifting.

For federal judicial clerkships, the top students from the best law schools submit their application materials via OSCAR (The Online System for Clerkship Application and Review). The judges then cherry pick whom they want to interview and hire. One of the best things a new lawyer can have on his or her resume is a federal clerkship. The clerkships typically last one or two years. Large law firms will be more than happy to hire a student fresh out of law school, and then hold the job for that student while he or she works as a judicial clerk for a couple of years.

Last semester, when the window on the OSCAR system opened for applications, I remember a friend posting as her Facebook status, "Let the rejections begin!" Another student commented, "Let the anxiety begin!" Both of these students received well deserved clerkships and will be working for federal judges after graduation. The FSU students who were not selected still have a wealth of options available.

Even if I had the top grades to get a foot in the door with OSCAR, I am not sure that is a job I would enjoy or one in which I would excel. You have to be tremendous at research and legal writing (and legal writing is a completely different animal from writing a blog, believe me). You must have the ability to become competent in different areas of the law in a short amount of time. Much of what we learn in law school is so complicated and related to logical reasoning that I compare it to math proofs or algebraic equations. Working as a judicial clerk, for me, would be like having to sit in a room and quickly solve proofs and equations, one right after the other, all day, every day. Judicial clerks finish their tenure with a wealth of great legal experience, especially in dealing with the arguments on paper.

I would not want to have to go up against a former federal judicial clerk in an appellate brief writing contest.

But standing in front of a six or twelve person jury at a trial- that is a different story. I am more comfortable there, and I have a lot more confidence in my ability to win. Using the law and facts to persuade a jury is much more up my alley than analyzing all sides of the legal arguments for a judge.

Anyway, we will see what happens. I think the immediate future is largely unknown for most students in my class at FSU Law. It is not unnatural for us all to feel some anxiety about that.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

Staying Off the Roof

Brutally cold weather has swept through the northeastern United States over the past few days. The AFC championship game in Pittsburgh was played in single digit temperature, with a wind chill below zero. A picture on the Internet showed a car in New York City completely encased in ice after a water pipe broke. This part of Florida has been cold, too, with temperatures dipping into the 20s at night.

Last week, a professor gave our class one of the best reasons for going to law school that I have heard in a while. He told our class about watching a construction worker walking around on top of a roof near his office. A harness and tether laid on the roof, but the worker was not using them. Perhaps the harness was heavy and uncomfortable. It was a hot day. The professor then began to explain some of the legal consequences if the worker happened to fall and be injured or killed.

"I used to tell people," he said, "that I went to law school so that I did not have to go up on roofs."

I had to smile at the simple honesty of his reasoning. It made me think about one of the reasons that I enrolled in law school.

In the not too distant past, I was employed by the U.S. Postal Service as a mail carrier in the Washington, DC area. Without getting into too many details, it was not a job that I enjoyed or that I was very good at, though I gained a new respect for the people who do that kind of work.

Working out of the station in northern Virginia, I was required to put in 10 or 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, doing heavy lifting all day long. My weight was 155 lbs. when I started the job. After six months, it was down to 135 lbs. And then there was the cold. Trying to do all that lifting of endless crates of mail in a bone chilling wind, trying to finger through stacks for individual magazines or letters when I could no longer feel my fingers, always being told "Go faster. You have to move faster," was too much. I opted to go back to school.

Last weekend, I saw a picture on the Internet of a mail carrier in Maine, bundled up and trying his best to do the job in the elements. It was more than sympathy I felt for him. I was genuinely empathetic.

So, I suppose I could say one of my reasons for going to law school was so I didn't have to deliver mail in the cold.

Part of my motivation as a lawyer will be to do a good job for working people like the guy in Maine when he comes into my office. I was fortunate to be born with a high enough IQ to get into law school. I was fortunate to be raised in an environment that allowed me to receive the education that I needed to get into law school. When my roof needs to be repaired, or I use the Post Office to send a package somewhere in the dead of winter, I realize that service is being performed by people whose job I would not want and that I probably could not do very well.

I can be a good lawyer, though, and fight a good battle for the mail carrier or construction worker when he or she comes into my office with a legal problem. That is my arena, my sphere.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

The Places to Study

At least as far as I can tell, there is no correlation between law school grades and where a person chooses to study. But it is interesting to watch the study habits of my colleagues.

Personally, I like the second floor of the library. There is an open area of nine tables where I usually sit. It is the only section of the library where talking is permitted. Many of the same faces greet me each day when I come into the library and head over to those tables. One of my friends has taken to calling our group "The 2nd Floor Library Club." Last semester, the 3L students who comprise The 2nd Floor Library Club held a potluck at the library during exams. The food was surprisingly good, with home baked cookies and cupcakes. There was also fresh fruit, pretzels, doughnuts, bagels and some nice beverages. I brought a box of "Cheez-Its," which nobody ate.

The atmosphere on the 1st and 3rd floors of the library is decidedly different. You are expected to be completely quiet here. There are far more cubicles than tables on these floors, so that you are boxed in when you sit down. Quite a few of my friends prefer this environment. They usually sit in the exact same cubicle for hours on end, and I can only see the tops of their heads when I walk past the desks.

Still another group of students avoid the library altogether as much as possible. A couple of my friends who are at the very top of my class are rarely seen in the library. I asked one of them why she did not study there. She replied that the library freaks her out. She can feel everyone's stress in there. I cannot argue with her system. She has the GPA to back it up. In truth, most of the married law school students go home to study rather than to the library. Law school takes enough of their time away from being with their spouses.

The law review house, just outside the main classroom building, is probably another popular place for some of our best and brightest to study. I've been inside a couple of times as a visitor. The law review is the most prestigious extracurricular organization at the school. Accordingly, the house is quiet, comfortably furnished, and had a nice aroma both times I was there.

Still, I prefer the space of the 2nd floor of the library. It is much larger than my apartment, for one. Also, I am trying to enjoy the freedom to study at my own pace, to move around and talk to my law school friends, while it lasts. I like being able to take a quick break by looking up from my textbook and asking a friend at the next table about the upcoming Florida State basketball game. Some of the students in law school are real characters and comedians. I appreciate listening to the jokes they make at the second floor tables, too.

In about six months, after we graduate and take the bar exam, these same students will scatter all across the state and the country. The places we study, and perhaps how we study, will become very different.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

The Drive to Florida

Classes for the spring semester begin on Monday the 10th. Yesterday, I made the 10 hour drive back from North Carolina to Tallahassee. As I headed down Interstate 95 South, the time alone in my car gave me a chance to think about the Christmas gatherings with my family, and to contemplate the future.

It was nice to see my aunts, uncles and cousins back in NC. Several of them asked me how much longer I had in law school, and were surprised when I replied, "Just one more semester, if everything goes according to plan." My time in school has flown by for both them and myself.

"Wow, so you're pretty much a lawyer now," one of my cousins said.

"Not quite," I answered. "I still have to pass the bar exam after I graduate."

I could not help but notice that a few family members were studying me like never before. The best way that I can describe their look is as if they thought I knew some important secret. The way they looked at me and asked me questions about school reminded me of the privilege and opportunity I was given when I received the acceptance letter from Florida State Law back in the spring of 2008.

Yesterday when I began my drive from NC, the morning was cold, overcast and drizzling. The temperature had not climbed much above the freezing mark. But as I headed south toward Florida, I could see the end of the cloud cover in front of me, growing larger. Though it was only one or two o'clock in the afternoon, the sunlight shining off the cloud edges had the colors of a sunrise. By the time I was in Georgia, the clouds were all gone and it felt warm to stand outside and pump gas into my car.

As I drove, I thought about graduation from law school. Graduation will mean the taking on of responsibility- responsibility for my clients and for my fellow attorneys whose livelihood and welfare of their families is invested in the success of the firm. At Christmas, I looked at my parents and thought about all the responsibilities they had shouldered in their lives. My dad, as the top manager for an entire county of probation officers (and a county containing the largest military base in the world). My mother, for all the disabled and mentally handicapped children she taught over the years. My mother as well for all the meals that she cooked for us as a family and all the rooms in the house that she constantly cleaned.

Each morning, my parents got up before dawn to head to their stress-filled jobs. 25 to 30 years they did this. And now, they are both enjoying well deserved retirements.

Over the break, I caught myself complaining about the hours in front of a computer screen that a lawyer must spend. But I stopped when I thought about my parents and the work of their lives.

It's my turn, now. Soon it will be "The Real World, Part II." This time, I will have a law degree from a great school. As I headed down I-95 to Jacksonville and then I-10 to Tallahassee, it became clear in my mind that not disappointing my parents is the chief motivator in my life. They worked very hard to help me get to this point. I owe it to them to do my very best to become successful- as a trial lawyer or through whatever other doors this degree opens for me.

I hope that I can remember these thoughts and this goal as I make decisions for the future.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

Losing Cool Points

The real world is fast approaching. Only one more semester of law school remains for me, if everything goes according to plan.

One of the things that I will miss most about law school is being around a bunch of bright and witty people in their early and mid 20s. My brain tells me that I am the same age as this group. If I did not know how old I was, I would say that I am 23. The face I see in the mirror is beginning to tell me a different story, though. Almost all of my friends from high school and college are now married with children. Quite a few have found me on Facebook after years without contact. It is startling how different some of them look. I wonder if I appear just as different to them.

A great thing about hanging out with law school students is that they help keep me on track with what is cool. I've never had a feel for that. When I was in high school, I remember playing in a pick up basketball game. One guy in particular trash talked a lot. I sank a shot in his face, and then tried to come up with some cool and original trash talk of my own. I can't remember what I said, but everyone stopped playing and burst into laughter. One of my teammates looked at me and said, "Dude, you just lost mad cool points." I had to laugh, too, as I'd never heard that phrase before.

While I may never be able to recognize on my own what is cool, being around students has helped. If I had never gone back to school, it is doubtful that I ever would have learned that wearing your shirt tail outside of your jeans is cool (if the shirt tail is not too long). I never would have learned that dark jeans are cooler than light jeans (the exact opposite of when I grew up), that my jeans should be so long that they are almost dragging the floor, that Mad Men is a cool TV show (I've watched three or four episodes- I guess I can see why), that Jersey Shore is also a cool TV show (though just why it is cool is more of a puzzle to me), that running in bulky sweat clothes is not as cool as running in sleek spandex type material which will keep you just as warm, that The North Face brand name is cool, that denim collars are not cool, and neither are sweaters that Bill Cosby might wear (at least such sweaters are not cool on me). I also would never have established a Facebook account if I had not gone back to school. Before I set up the account in 2007, I asked a friend which would be better- Facebook or MySpace. He replied, "MySpace is so 2006." There are also dozens of cool videos on YouTube or other websites that I never would have discovered on my own. The list can go on...

Of course, a lot of what is cool now will not be cool five years from now. And when I leave law school, I'll lose touch. It is somewhat of a concern for me, once I begin the practice of law. The school environment has made me happy. I hope I can stay happy once I am sitting behind a desk at a law firm, just me and a computer screen for hours each day. Except for the occasional interruption of a partner or other lawyer coming in to talk to me, I will be alone with my thoughts. There will be no array of law school students to study and observe and with whom I can exchange ideas. I know that I will quickly lose all of my accumulated "cool points."

While I will hate to lose this ability to recognize cool people and things, I have long since become comfortable with the fact that I am usually not cool myself. I think there has been just one night in my whole life when I passed for cool, and I have law school to thank for it. That was the night that the Mock Trial Team called me to say that I'd made the team. I was at Potbelly's club when the team members called my cell phone. Many of those who tried out were enjoying a combined social event there with Florida State's law school and medical school students. Word got around that I had made the team. Girls came up to me as I stood along the wall and asked me to dance with them. Some called me a "Rock Star" and a "Baller." A few gave me looks like I've never seen directed at me before or since that night. For that moment in time, I was cool.

We will see what the future holds. I have no idea where I will be or what I will be doing one year from now. Hopefully, my hard work at Florida State Law will turn into a career where perhaps, just perhaps, I can enjoy a few more nights of passing for cool.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

Back to the Future in the Civic Center Parking Lot

One night a few weeks ago, I left the law school library close to midnight. Walking up Pensacola Street toward the multi-decked garage where my car was located, I passed by the large and now totally empty Leon County Civic Center parking lot. It had rained that night, a warm soaking rain that made the orange glow of the street lamps reflect off the asphalt.

A lone car zoomed up from behind me on Pensacola, and then cut in front of me to zip into the Civic Center parking lot. I recognized it as an old model Toyota Celica.

To my fascination, the driver turned his wheels sharply and slid his car across the lot, nearly going up on two wheels. The driver began doing all sorts of sliding stunts at a high rate of speed. I stopped walking and leaned up against a railing to watch the show. He put his car in reverse, floored the gas pedal, then whipped the car around to speed forward. More than once, I thought the car was going to flip over.

The nighttime stunts in this large, empty lot reminded me immediately of a couple of scenes from Back to the Future, one of the great movies of the 80s and one of the best time travel movies ever made. In one scene from the film, Marty McFly has to get a DeLorean up to 88 mph in an empty mall parking lot to jump back in time and escape terrorists. At the end of the movie, there is another scene where Marty travels back to that same moment and is actually able to watch himself from a distance as the DeLorean races through the mall parking lot.

I felt a little like I was in a movie, leaning up against a railing and watching this car speeding and skidding across the lot. The driver continued his tricks for about two or three minutes before zooming out of the lot and away down Pensacola Street...

While this story has little to do with law school (and not to condone what was probably illegal activity), it was unique to come out of the law library after many hours of study and be entertained by a real life scene reminiscent of one of my favorite childhood movies.

I tried to find a movie clip on the Internet of the two scenes from Back to the Future that I am talking about. Nothing was very good, though. Instead, I found an enthralling clip on YouTube that a guy almost as nerdy as me about the movie has posted. He retraces in his own car the route that the DeLorean took through the actual Twin Pines Mall parking lot- only it is the daytime, cars are everywhere, and he is driving much, much slower. Check it out. Or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51c-lRPokj8

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

Exams, Gator Tail and a Cold Front

My fifth round of law school exams is now behind me. As exam seasons go, this time was less stressful than the other four. Most probably, it was due to experience and that I was pleased with how much I learned in studying for exams. A couple of classes came together for me more clearly over the last three weeks once I started preparing for the exam.

Still, it was a push. I remember one day this week, being in the library at a table and reading my class notes. A very bright friend of mine walked past the table. He is a fellow third year student, and on the law review. He was also in my "section" during the first year, meaning we had all of our first year classes together. You make a special bond with those students. As he walked past my table, he and I exchanged knowing looks. We'd both been through this before, and at that moment we were both in the thicket. We both knew what had to be done to be successful. He returned to his desk, and I looked back down to my notes as we continued our hours and hours of review... Now, I wait for the grades.

Before exams began, though, I took time to enjoy a huge annual event that alternates between Tallahassee and Gainesville- the football game between the Florida State Seminoles and the University of Florida Gators. Well over 80,000 people crowded into Doak Campbell Stadium on November 27th to watch the game.

At the tail gate prior to the game, I had the opportunity to taste gator tail for the first time in my life. This was not alligator meat that someone bought from the grocery store. One of my law school friends has a brother who actually went into the swamp on a fan boat and killed this gator with a bang stick.

They deep fried the meat right at the tail gate. It looked like chicken nuggets, and at first it tasted like chicken nuggets, too. After my fourth bite, though, a sort of gamey flavor covered my tongue- almost like a chemical. I was done. It was neat to try this new food, but I am also glad that they had hamburgers.

The football game itself was enjoyable, too. Florida State routed the Gators for the first time in several years. A large number of Florida State Law students were unhappy about that, though, as they spent their undergraduate years at UF...

A few days later, another new thing happened to me. I was walking back from the Suwannee Room dining hall, up Jefferson Street toward the law school. The sky had been patchy grey with clouds all day. Now it was after dark, but the weather was pleasantly warm enough to be dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. I reached the intersection of Macomb and Jefferson Streets, where the law school is. Cars were parked everywhere. Across from the law school is Leon County Civic Center, where Florida State plays its basketball games. At that moment, the men's team was taking on the #2 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes as part of the ACC/Big 10 challenge.

As I crossed the street to go into the library, a gust of frigid air struck me from out of nowhere. It suddenly became very windy, with tree limbs bending and leaves and twigs flying all over.

I realized that I had just experienced the very front edge of a cold front. This was the night of November 30th. By the next morning, the temperature had dropped drastically. I went for a run that day in ear muffs for the first time this season. On the morning of December 2nd, I had to scrape ice off of my car windows. It is still getting below freezing at night right now...

So, exams are done. I debated going out to celebrate with the first year students. I remember well what a huge relief it was to be done after both my first and second semesters of law school. But I think I will let the first years have this moment to themselves. They have their own "sections" with whom they have bonded, and I would have to work hard to match their energy level tonight, anyway.

So, it is off to North Carolina to celebrate Christmas with the family.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

Mock Trial and Moot Court Excellence

In law school, there are any number of extracurricular organizations that can boost your resume and lead to job offers. At Florida State Law, arguably the most important three are Law Review, the Moot Court Team, and the Mock Trial Team.

But a student can not simply sign up for one or all of these organizations. Law Review has a "write-on" competition where students submit briefs or memorandums and hope to be selected. A student may also submit a paper of quality to the Law Review. If the editorial staff decides to publish the paper, then that student is also extended an invitation to become a member. The Moot Court and Mock Trial Teams each have their own tryout process to choose new members as well.

The FSU Moot Court Team has enjoyed quite a bit of success in recent competitions, and now the FSU Mock Trial Team can add to the trophy case with them. Last weekend, Mock Trial Team members Thomas Philpot, Ryan Hoyle, Eliott Smith, and Matt Minnick won the Earle Zehmer Mock Trial Competition in Tampa. Their success comes on the heels of a finals appearance by another group of four from the Mock Trial Team at the American Bar Association Mock Trial Tournament in Miami. This semester, we also had teams reach the semifinals at the Lone Star Competition in San Antonio and the Buffalo-Niagara Competition in Buffalo, NY.

As for the Moot Court Team, on November 10th I was privileged to see a second Final Four Competition at the Florida Supreme Court. In this competition, the top four new members of the team go against each other in front of the Justices of the Florida Supreme Court.

I remember last year how nervous I felt walking into the chamber, and I was not even the one competing. All the people, the high ceiling, the plush carpet, and the oil canvass paintings lining the walls seemed pretty intimidating. I wrote an entry about that experience back on November 14 of last year. This time around, I was more accustomed to the room and the presence of the justices, but I still felt nervous for my friends who were competing.

They all did great. Tara Klimek, who won the best advocate award earlier this semester at the Wayne Hogan Mock Trial Intramural Competition, also took home the prize for the best advocate here. Tara is the only person during my three years at FSU Law to be selected for the Moot Court Team, the Mock Trial Team, and Law Review. She is a real all-star.

The competition was close. Alexandra Haddad, Jourdan Neal, and Molly Drake gave memorable arguments before the justices. I enjoyed listening to them. Two of my friends (and competitors from last year), Tiffany Roddenberry and Brian Bohm, served as the principal coaches. Tiffany and Brian did a great job of preparing the four students for the experience.

It's nice to be in a place where I am surrounded by so many bright, talented, and friendly people.

*As usual, if I have used your name in this entry and you don't want it returning a hit on the Internet, please let me know and I will remove it.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn

The Tallahassee Little Theater

Last night, I experienced another pleasant side of Tallahassee. As my friend and fellow mock trial team member, John, told me, many of us in law school have our outside interests to help keep a balance in law school. A significant number of students are marathon runners, for instance. I write a blog. John's hobby is acting, and for fun he participates in community theater.

John invited me to a production of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution at the Tallahassee Little Theater. I went to see the show last night, and I was very impressed.

The story takes place in London in 1953. Leonard Vole, a financially strapped young man, has been charged with the murder of a wealthy older lady who befriended him. All the evidence is stacked against Leonard, and the only person who can give any support at all to his version of what happened is his "adoring..?" wife, Romaine. So the story and creative plot twists begin.

My friend had a large part in the play, beginning in the second act. He played Mr. Myers, the prosecutor. John did a great job. I recognized some of his antics and mannerisms from mock trial practice or competitions, and on more than one occasion he caused both the audience and myself to burst out in laughter. I spoke with John afterwards to tell him that I liked the performance. As exams are coming up, he was in a hurry to get out of his wig and costume, return home and continue his course outlines.

The theater building itself is quite nice. I did not count how many audience members it will hold, but it is small. There is no "bad seat" in the house, and the ceiling is shaped so that sound carries marvelously. A person on the back row of the audience could hear an articulate whisper from the stage.

Last night was an enjoyable evening. If I stay in Tallahassee long enough, I will certainly visit the Tallahassee Little Theater again. I highly recommend it. Upcoming productions include The Foreigner and Cabaret.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn