Archive for the ‘law school’ Category

C.A. Esquire: You best hide yo’highlighters; hide yo’Books; hide yo’Notes

Posted: September 9, 2011 in 1L, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, esquire in training, law school
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The picture is from a blog called intelligent challenge, which I found to be pretty interesting read, check it out.

A jaunt through my imagination, which rests in a certain degree of reality, if you will allow me:

Well obviously we got a punk law student in the library.  They trolling around between stacks, snatching your books, tearing up yo’notes and just causing chaos to your already crazy law school life.  So you need to hide yo’highlighters, hide yo’books, hide yo’self so you don’t get snatched up by them punk law student forcing you to do a tortious act.  You might just find me purposefully committing a harmful act upon said punk law student’s body through a volitional movement of my arm as my fingers are clenched in a fist formation and I give that punk law student a menacing look with my eyes and yell out “you deserve this smack across yo’face you punk law student.”  Obviously there is no defense to that besides protecting my chattel from conversion.

Those stories you hear about the brutality of law students punk-ish behavior- somewhat true.  Well you have all sort of folks in law school.  But recently I could not but wonder if I had finally met that tell tale sign of law school- the criminally desperate acts carried out by law students to stay ahead of the curve.  I will spare you the details here, plus I have vowed to not focus on that grading aspect of law school beyond knowing what I need to do to achieve, but people are ruthless.

I want to say that it wasn’t intended, this behavior I encountered, but I might be painting myself to naive.  I just feel like people should deserve the benefit of the doubt, but once my good faith has been lost there is nothing that can win over my loyalty (I tried searching for Pride and Prejudice in the law library but did not find it.)

One of the classes we have is Legal Writing, all I will say about that class right now is that its like Chemistry Lab, required pain in the ass.  I am sure I will come up with some optimistic twist for how that class is important, but right now there is not much good will for towards it.  For this class you get to learn the tools of law- research, legal memo writing, citing, distinguishing and analgozing.

The classes are divided up into sections- like 4 sections of 200 1L’s, who are then broken up into smaller legal writing classes of say 15 each.  Essentially all theses smaller legal writing classes are doing the same assignment but they have different components or aspects assigned to them, the end result being you will need all the same books for the most part regardless whose class your in.  This is where the competition gets brutal.

I went in and finished most of my research early in the week.  I left the harder more involved stuff for later because, well, I got lazy.  BAD FREAKING IDEA.  I came back and my books had disappeared.  I couldn’t locate them the next day.  The following day I came back and found some books but others were not to be found.  I had maybe 2 hours of assignment left, it took me four hours more then it should have.  I had to come up with creative ways to do the research in order to get by without the specific books I needed and not resort to the online research because my books were not to be found (I guess to understand this statement you need to understand the ethical stuff about law school and also specifically the stricter legal writing standard we are supposed to uphold).  What was terrible to see were people who had started the assignment late, they were screwed.  Eventually the books materialized, but it was bad news bear for folks.  Sometime in my disdain for folks heartlessness and disregard to the sanity of others I went looking for Jane Austin.

Lessons from law school- don’t freaking procrastinate, stay on top of your stuff and finally become a kick butt researching sleuth or find an good attorney because you will be committing a whole bunch of tortious activity.  (Also, to my recollection nothing was stolen, no books were damaged, I merely was exaggerating in order to entertain myself- but I hear some law schools foster that sort of environment.)

C.A. Esquire- The 1L Way: Constantly Feeling Stupid?

Posted: September 8, 2011 in 1L, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, esquire in training, identity, law school
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I have shared some practical advice about law school so far.  I haven’t really elaborated on my own thoughts about the law school experience, so in this post I thought I would make things personal.

Law school is this constant feeling of wanting to check yourself for the “stupid gene.”   I kid you not, each day I struggle to remind myself that “I am not stupid.”  I have done “stupid things” and I have experienced “stupid situations” but that doesn’t make me stupid.  (Repeat after me if you feel the same way- “I am not stupid”)

I spend a good amount of time reading the cases, pouring over the supplements and reviewing my notes the day before class.  It is not like I am wasting my time and neglecting to put effort into the assigned material.  But when class starts, I kid you not, when the professor asks a simple question like “Mr. Stupid, what was the procedural posture of stupid v dumb”, I am utterly lost.  Procedural what?

Its not a hard question, in fact, after your second class in law school you will know precisely what is being requested of you by that question.  No, rather, for me its this feeling of not being able to adequately express in a proper way the response that summarizes my understanding of the “procedural posture.”  Granted this is really a simple example, there are far worse experiences where I gave significant amounts of “praise the Lord’s” that I wasn’t the one called on for that question- BUT, I volunteer my heart out when the professors open forum it, in the hopes that they won’t stare down at their call sheet and be like “oh, Mr. Shaikh been elusive, avoiding eye contact, craning over his notes, so lets CALL ON HIM!”

I don’t think I am afraid of being called on, nor is it the idea of looking silly (stupid) in front of my classmates, silly I do that voluntarily already, so its not something I have to worry about.  I can’t precisely say where the “stupid” comes in regards to this aspect of my experience because its hard to pinpoint, but one thing I figure is a cause is the idea that I am being outed for being utterly lost in comprehending the reading.  Plus its a ego factor to, I spend the day prior to class, or weekend, trying to grasp the reading.  I come to a point where I feel I understand it, but when I go to class there is this feeling that I been caught without my clothes on because I can’t even understand the basis of some of the Professors questions.  I ask myself “is Professor Law speaking English?”

Working on the language theme under stupid,  I feel/experience that law school is taking “you” through a systematic way to “think” like an attorney (obviously, thats why people want to go to law school, not to become Iron Chefs).  To “think like an attorney” you need to do the things that go with it- speak like an attorney, have the vocabulary of an attorney, etc.  Now whether or not law school is really preparing you to “practice the law” is highly debatable, but for the most part the law school pedagogy seems to be designed to mold you into being a certain way.  Which for many people is problematic because they spent years trying to be themselves prior to law school!

Law school is in essence this experience of full immersion in Law- law is a culture, law is a language, law is a society- and like any new society you try to immerse yourself in it, to become part of it.  I guess in a way they require you to “assimilate” but I never was one to assimilate and prefer the idea of acculturation.  The feeling stupid feeling might just be my unfamiliarity to this new “lawistani” way and, or, my unfamiliarity and subsequent knee jerk reaction to delineate the boundaries of acculturation.

Big Swell, “The Wedge” (Newport Beach, CA) and Photographing Surfers

Posted: September 7, 2011 in 1L, Affad Shaikh, law school, photography, Surfing, the wedge
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Big Swell at the Wedge

newport beach ca august 29 2011 affad shaikh

To keep my sanity I have tried to take some time each week to develop a hobby and skill in an area of interest that I haven’t spent much time pursuing.  Photography is something I have found to be fascinating.  The ability to capture a moment and make it last forever is captivating for me, further, to share across mediums to people across the world is even more enticing.  Mixed media and art in general is something that I am attracted to.  I find that my passion in art is directed to political and social messages.  I believe art has a immense way to shift perceptions and develop support in a way that changes society.

Photography is a hands on hobby, one that requires the practitioner to be an active participant in its process.  It takes immense investment in equipment to really get into it.  This monetary barrier keeps away lots of folks, and thats probably for the better (debatable?).  Besides equipment there is software and hardware now that requires substantial amounts of cash to manipulate the images.  But if you can overcome all these hurdles and the barriers to learning the new hardware and software ins-an-outs don’t turn you off.

But I chose to pursue photography as a means of retaining my sanity during law school.  There are probably significant benefits and other aspects of my interests that I could explore, but why waste your time now?

So the “big swell”- wondering what the heck is that?  Well it has something to do with water, ocean, waves and surfing, if you made those connections, then there really isn’t much else to enlighten you on.  But I can help you figure out “the wedge” element- that is basically the portion of beach in Newport Beach peninsula that is wedged between the outcropping of a rock jetty.  When the southern waves come in right, the conditions are just perfect, there are 30 foot waves that smash into the beach!  Last week we had the pleasure of having the “right conditions” and since I couldn’t brave the waves to surf myself, I decided to take out the Nikon D90 SLR to capture the surfers and body boarders braving the “the wedge”.

But the thing with photography is that you can’t just go out and “point and shoot”.  That’s not the purpose of an SLR and you shouldn’t be using the SLR in the “automatic” setting!  To learn SLR techniques the internet is full of amazing resources.  I did a quick google search for “surfing photography tips” and pulled up hundreds of sites devoted to sharing some great techniques to capture those perfect shots.

Personally I found shutterbug.com’s “How To Shoot Dramatic Surfing Photo’s” ; Travis Owney’s “Surf Photography Tips and Short Recount of My Thrashing” along with “Surf Photography 101” by Mike Baird all to be really helped me make the most of my trip to the wedge as a photographer.

C.A. Esquire- The Most Important Weapon in Your Law School Arsenal

Posted: September 5, 2011 in 1L, Affad Shaikh, briefing cases, esquire in training, law school, orientation
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Its my third week of law school now.  I have ditched my comfortable apartment, along with the local coffee shop and am taking up permanent residence in the dreaded library.  It’s disturbing because it’s so quite here.

Anyway, there is so much to share from the past two weeks have been an immense learning curve (steep as Half Dome).  One thing that I have come to realize is that the case briefs are the most important weapon in your law school arsenal for success.

I have slacked on properly briefing my cases, but, regardless, when viewed from the “law school big picture” perspective, makes complete sense to brief your cases independently from the beginning.  If you are not in law school, then start thinking like briefing your notes for whatever subject you are studying.  Briefing your cases is not just about the case you are reading, its a total system of attacking the law school reading you are doing.

During orientation week they tell you and teach you all sorts of stuff.  I can say safely that most of the things they advised me on, I have thrown by the wayside.  They said “supplements are like crack”- yes, supplements, or commercial outlines, hornbooks etc. are like crack, they allow you to survive the madness that is law school and should be used in moderation, also you need to KNOW HOW TO USE THEM TO YOUR ADVANTAGE.  Supplements can help you or hurt you, short term or in the long term.  (I will leave the elaboration for another blog post)  Another thing they show you how to do is do your case briefs.  Learn how to do the brief the way they teach you, but ditch it after the first week of trying it and do it the following way:

  1.  Look at the reading assignment for your class, jot down all the cases and the minor cases mentioned in the text.  Also jot down the major themes or issues that the text is addressing.  If you are so miserably lost that you have no clue where to feasibly find this information out, let me let you in on a secret- read the table of contexts, read the titles and look for words that are repetitive; this will give you a good grounding on what subject are, or substantive issue, the reading is addressing.
  2. Hit up your supplements.  I got commercial outlines keyed to my textbooks and I also got further explanations on the substantive issues for my classes.  Take your cases and issues and match them up in the supplemental books.  I will sit down and read the explanations book first to get direction for the legal issues I am supposed to be understanding.  While I read this, I highlight and write in the margins the things that relate back to what I have on my jotted down notes.  I then hit the commercial outline and read the cases that we will be going over in class.  I don’t highlight or write in these at all, I focus on just reading through the case briefs provided in the commercial outline. (Don’t have supplements, not to worry, see below for a quick fix.)
  3. I hit the books, I read over the assigned reading, I work in my case briefing into the book, I take my notes in the book as well.  BUT LISTEN, DO THIS FIRST: skim to the Problems and Notes, or Notes and Questions section, you will find this after each significant case.  Read through that first.  Most likely you will find the most important facts and reasoning of the court highlighted there, you will find the rules or facts that change up the courts decision etc.  Reading that first can be a better compass on what your reading if you do not have supplements.  Once you finish this (and highlight, note as you see fit) read your cases, one at a time, just read first, then go back and read for issue, holding, reasoning, facts etc.
  4. Use a color coding briefing process- which technically in the short term will keep you from having to do individual case briefing- but will not prevent you from having to do the case briefing at some point before you midterm or final.  I have a system where I use 5 highlighters that identify the various parts of the case brief.  I go through reading the case a second time looking and identifying those various parts of the case brief.  After a while you book is going to look like a rainbow, but better a neon rainbow you can refer back to in class while your half asleep then to stare down at the book while your professors eyes glare down at you and you can’t make sense of anything on the page or recollect anything you read at 3AM in the morning.  Here at least you will know when you look down at your book, GREEN is the procedural posture- and respond as such.
  5. After class or better yet before class, you should write-up your case briefs.  Make sure you make marks or take notes on the things our professor points out and incorporate those into your case briefs.  With the volume of information being so intense, this little service the professor provides can save you from having to shift through thousands of paragraphs worth of information trying to figure out the black letter rule, facts and reasoning to apply on your midterm or final. (this part I need to work on)
I hope I summarized my process in a way that makes sense.  There is obviously more to this, what I have tried to do is quickly figure out what works for me, what other law students have advised me about and place it in the context of how I am approaching law schools bigger picture, academics is all fine and dandy, but I am more in-tune with the practice aspect and I need the tools of the trade from my law school experience, not necessarily the intellectual, or lack thereof, meandering through law school figuring things out experience.

C.A. Esquire- Lessons for a Smooth Transition to Law School

Posted: August 26, 2011 in 1L, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, esquire in training, Law, law school
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Law school, if you haven’t already heard or realized, is not like other experiences.  The honeymoon is very short lived.  Having finished my first week of classes, all I have to say is that I am worried about sustaining this pace of work, the demand is not anything I have experienced so far (…and this is the first week!).

Some lessons I am walking away with are the following:

Law school is a demanding mistress, don’t mess around with her

It’s all true- the first day of class horror stories, the reading expectations, the feeling of being completely stupid when you know you are not.  The thing is none of this is going to be easy unless you understand that this Law School thing is like an affair you are having, except it’s an affair that has to be all consuming.
You can sneak around, going to the beach, but take your books, take your supplements.  Do not do anything without your mistress.  If you want to succeed in law school, the course material needs to be on you all times, readily accessible.  Do not allow a moment of time to be wasted.  In fact, before you go to law school make sure you understand that this is the level of expectation necessary and get your act together. Prepare to psychologically devote your whole being to Law School.
If you treat it with the utmost disrespect, know that you will have your arse handed to you come finals or earlier, in class.

There is no sleeping around…

It might have been easy to flirt around with like say biology or anthropology in undergrad.  But Law School is a demanding jealous mistress.  You have no life outside of the time you need to devote to making her happy.  You can not sleep around with, I don’t know, a demanding girl who needs some extra special attention because she found out Justin Bieber is dating some twit.
What I learned was that the mistress is not happy with distracted lovers either.  I have run around trying to take care of housing, my laptop (for Steve Jobs retirement I donated to his pension and got me a MacBook Pro, yaay!), my ongoing nightmare with my car.
Whatever you got going on, make sure that you handle it and are prepared to devote yourself fully to classes when they start.  Its a headache otherwise.

The Mistress requires you to be ready with the right tools…

Yes, like any professions, being a lawyer requires you to be ready.  Honestly, if you don’t have a proper study set up at home, then you don’t have the right preparation or tools.  Your trade requires you to have a proper place to devote yourself to its practice.  First, make sure you have your own private room.  Do not share rooms.  Do not have your own room with a dozen other people living in your apartment to help bring costs down.  I realized, you already are taking out 120,000 bucks of loans, most likely, unless your blessed with a trust fund, scholarships or a decent savings.  You can afford to get your own room and have a decent living situation.  That domestic setup will be your savior, it will be your sanctuary and when you can’t stay another  moment in the library, that room will be a retreat for your continued studying efforts.
Do yourself a favor, get your own room.  Get a decent mattress (proper bed with sheets and pillows and comforter and all); your sleep is the only time you escape your mistress, if even, so it better be a comfortable sanctuary.
Get a nice large plank- go to Ikea and buy the table tops.  Buy a bookshelf.  Buy a filing cabinet, sturdy.  Buy yourself a decent desk chair.  Set up where you have lots of room to spread out your books on that study table.
Think library tables.  You need one of those at home.  Trust me, its something that has worked for me quite well.
I got more stuff to share on this, but I think for the time being this is definitely a good starting place.
(Picture above is taken by Richard Lawrence Cohen, and is titled “Studying for last law school exam”, check out the flicker stream here.  I loved this picture because it expresses how I currently feel as a 1L trying to get to grips with the substantive material in my classes.  To think that I feel like this now, what will I look/feel like when I get to my last law school exam?!)

Day 18- Chronicles of An Aspiring Esquire- Orientation Week

Posted: August 18, 2011 in 1L, Affad Shaikh, alcohol, alcohol, American Muslim, esquire in training, Islam, Law, law school, orientation, Ramadan
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So now that I got a name for my posts on law school experiences, its only proper to start the reflections for Ramadan with one that incorporates my experience with school thus far.  All week I have been at Law School Orientation (LSO).

LSO has been intense, not the content of the workshops, but rather because of all the running around I have had to do for school.  If you are applying to law school, I highly recommend not skipping out on your LSO.  It’s probably the only time where you get to see everyone in your first year class.  Each first year law class (1L) is divided up in sections and will spend all your times with the students in your sections- classes, legal writing class, study groups forming.

Which is actually another point, study groups are important, and you might be the sort that needs a study group to manage all the material covered, the LSO is the time to figure out who makes a good individual to be in your study group.

From what I have read and heard about law school, it’s an isolating experience and gets extremely lonely.  If you aren’t ready for that, than the first semester- if not year- will be very difficult to cope with.  You can’t socialize the way undergraduate years were.  You hit the ground running, in fact, I have for my first day of classes over 100 pages of reading that I must be ready for.

Once the school semester begins, you won’t talk about getting to know your peers, rather everything will seemingly revolve around the 210k dollar experience you have signed on the dotted line for.  LSO is your time to “have fun” and “socialize” with people who will make up your next 3 years of life experiences, as well as frame the professional corps of colleagues once you pass the bar exam.

But from my experience I highly recommend taking care of all your business before you get to LSO.  I found myself having to hurdle over financial aid- in fact I spent hours on the phone with the Department of Education, with my undergraduate (UNDIE) loan servicers, with the financial aid office at Law School.  I have come to love the financial aid folks at my school, they were immensely helpful and understanding.  I had a heart attack when i saw the loan amounts for financial aid and had to sign my name on the promissory note.  I have never seen that amount in my life, except at a CAIR Fundraising banquet, but yes it was immense.

Besides financial aid, I was buying books, figuring out supplements and outlines for my courses.  I was figuring out my housing situation, buying a car because my car broke down and became ridiculously expensive to get fixed.  I also was managing my budget.  I highly recommend you create a budget for law school.  The expenses are ridiculous and living without a budget is courting financial doom and disaster.  I also was dealing with my religious obligations- Ramadan and Fasting.  I will spend the rest of the post reflecting on this but all the above items I will expand upon as I experience more of what works and doesn’t work.

Its not a hidden fact that I am a fairly observant Muslim.  I don’t think many of my classmates know that I am, which goes more to the fact that I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve.  I am not interested in imposing my religious beliefs on the broader community.  Religion is an important facet to who I am and guides my day-to-day life, but it’s surely not the only thing that makes me such a dastardly good-looking unique character!

But I haven’t been in school for over six years, so I experienced a bit of “culture shock” to the degree with which people drink alcohol and everything evolves around alcohol.  Aside from law schools infamous “BAR REVIEWS”- the events have nothing to do with law school education, and everything to do with getting drunk and disorderly at a local bar; every social interaction has been around the idea of getting smashed or drinking beer.

Aside from the fact that I am fasting, I don’t drink alcohol.  But being in this environment plays with my head.  I found myself thinking about how I wanted to hang out with these folks and I could go and just drink soda or something.  The toying around with my head was really difficult to deal with.  I was fasting, breaking of the fast wasn’t until after 730, the socializing started at around 6.  For an hour and half I could not drink anything so I would stand around and have to explain to people why.  But the awkward position of being in a bar telling people I am an observant Muslim whose fasting, so couldn’t drink or eat anything, but then the scenario begs the question- well isn’t drinking alcohol against your religion?

Yes, by the way, the two things people probably know about Islam is that alcohol and pork are forbidden, “Allah’s curse will smite you down” if you touch the forbidden things- at least that’s how I thought of it as a kid.  But the whole situation smacked of religious hypocrisy, so I decided that I couldn’t compromise myself, especially during this month of Ramadan, and go to these social gatherings.  I am sure there are Muslims out there who don’t have the same strict religious observance as I do, so they might drink.  Don’t hold them as an example of all Muslims, and don’t hold me as an example of all Muslims- we are each individual Muslims, as such allow us to have our individuality.

(I just pray that I would never come to a time in my life where I have to test myself with such a situation.  The reality of the situation is that, there will be plenty of these opportunities, American business culture is premised on alcohol and getting drunk.  I have heard of interviews for law firms taking place at bars over drinks.  What a difficult set of circumstances!)

Besides the bar and drinking scene, I also realized to what extent my professional life was ”Islamic culture sensitive”- A LOT!  Meetings during Ramadan would not have food or drinks, as a show of respect to the Muslim participants.  There were meetings where that wasn’t the case, but for the most part the majority of folks there were understanding so I did not have to explain I was fasting.  Which was all the more awkward to have to tell people I am not going to eat during lunch, or during the welcoming breakfast for LSO events.

For the most part LSO was great, now its over with, which means I can begin to jump into the books and tackle Contract, Property, Civil Procedure, Torts and Legal Writing.  To really benefit from the LSO experience you have to be there, so make sure you make yourself completely available to jump in and reap the benefit of your LSO events!

Hello My Name Is….

Posted: August 17, 2011 in 1L, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, esquire in training, Law, law school
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Crazy folks that took their time to vote- all 15 of you, probably 7 of them were my sister!- I want to thank you!  It was great to get feedback on what name to use for the next three years of my life when talking about my experiences in LAW SCHOOL.

Some of you took the opportunity to suggest some other names, many of which were really great!  I wish we could do another vote to figure out what to finalize, but there was a bit of a overwhelming majority (not really, just 1 more than the runner up, but this isn’t a pure democracy, its my world so I can tip the scale) that chose a specific name to roll with and I don’t want to disappoint.  But before I get to the finalized name I wanted to share some of the suggestions I found really funny or just down right ingenious.

  1. Raising the bar with Affad Shaikh
  2. Aspiring Esquire in Training
  3. and, Arbiter No More
All of them are GREAT!  Like I said earlier I wish I could do another poll and get which one would compete with the winner of the original poll, but its time to decide and the decision is….
CHRONICLES OF AN ASPIRING ESQUIRE

Day 13- Chronicles of an Esquire in Training

Posted: August 13, 2011 in 1L, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, esquire in training, Islam, Law, law school, orientation, Ramadan, suhaib webb
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Today was the first day of Law School orientation, all future posts on my law school experience will be under a title yet to be determined, but for now I began using “Chronicles of an Esquire in Training”.  This Ramadan my reflections focused on the idea of sufficiency.  Particular focus has been on the idea of eating sufficiently.  But sufficiency is not limited to just eating food, obviously.  I told you about how you should try to use this Ramadan to go on a journey in which you could lose yourself in your inner reflections.  Well no journey is going to be a success if you do not plan for it, and here is where I pull out a hadith- The Prophet SAW said “There is no wisdom equal to good planning.”

Wisdom is not this intellectual thingie as much as it is an accumulation of life experiences from which you have learned some lessons.  Life experiences that teach the best lessons are failures I believe.  I have had a lot of failures, especially those leading up to my being in Law School.  I looked at my mistakes and my failures so I could work toward a goal.  My goal was to attend law school but it required that I address the shortcomings that prevented me from getting into law school- LSAT score, GPA, credit rating, family and personal discipline or desire to go to law school.  Now I am in law school I have an end result I am working toward, I have personal achievements I am shooting for.  But oftentimes I found myself setting a lofty goal where there are significant gaps between where I am and where the result I was trying to get to.  So when you start toward your Ramadan journey, just think about realistic and achievable goals so that way you can carry out what you want to do during the remaining time in Ramadan.

Read this great article on “Goal Setting for Muslims” by Ahmed Adam.

As you focus on your inner journey of self-reflection for the rest of Ramadan take a look at this video with Sheikh Imam Ustadh Suhaib Webb at Zaytuna College giving a lecture on “Fasting, Materialism and Time Management“

 

Chronicles of an Esquire In Training- The Begining of the Year They Scare You to Death: One-(hel)L

Posted: August 11, 2011 in 1L, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, esquire in training, Law, law school, orientation, whittier law school
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I imagine a future where I can be referred to as- Affad T. Shaikh, Esq.- the post-nominal “Esq.” stands for “esquire”. I find that quite sexy and it sends chills down my spine thinking that in three years I will have a chance to sit for the bar test and take on the license to practice law. I won’t bore you with why I chose to pursue law school, nor will I go in-depth into how I got to law school, now. If you follow my earlier blog, then you know all about my civil rights advocacy in the American Muslim, Arab, South Asian and Middle Eastern community in Southern California so simply that’s what brought me to law school.

For now you should know that I am a sane and rational being that has elected, volunteered, knowingly-signed-my-life-away-to-student-debt in order to pursue a legal education and eventual career as a licensed attorney.

Also you should know that I am 28 years old and I have worked for the past five years in a non-profit full time. I should also share with you that I am somewhat athletic, that I enjoy food and I am unique. I am a practicing Muslim who identifies with my American experience but appreciates my South Asian (Pakistani nationality) heritage. I have friends, family and lots of interesting hobbies. I am human and tend to show great amounts of sympathy as well as empathy.

Slowly, I imagine as you read this chronicle, you will notice how all those things melt away until I am an insane, irrational, readily institutionalized law student.  Telling people about my new endeavor has elicited cautious, and often completely repulsed, reactions.  People see the logic in my decision to pursue law school, but most law students suggest I not attend.

So look out for titled posts “Chronicles of an Esquire in Training” (or if it catches on CEIT) where I hope to elaborate about my law school experiences, try to also tell you the lessons I learned having gone through the experience if you happen to be an aspiring law students you can better prepare yourself for law school. The first year I have been told is defined as the “year they scare you to death”; the second year is “they work you to death”; and, finally, the third year is “when they bore you to death”. The first year is also called 1 (one)-(hel)L. I already sense the ominous environment I am about to find myself in shortly.

I do not claim to be practicing the law in the State of California or in the United States. In fact, I am incompetent to offer any legal advice and nothing here is such advice. You will find my opinions and experiences and various interesting facets of the law I have met on my way towards becoming a future licensed member of the legal profession in the State of California. In essence I am an esquire in training, and this is just a sarcastic, real, obscene and frantic chronicling of my law school experience for the benefit of whoever reads this blog. Its a cautionary tale for some, for others inspirational or comical, however you take these blog posts, know that this is my REAL EXPERIENCE. So handle with care.

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