The Inevitable

I can't believe it happened on the first day! Now, remember, I have been preparing for class since before orientation. I did all the orientation assignments and then started reading all the first chapters of the books to get a feel for the subjects. I even read the entire Legal Research Suvival Manual. I just knew I was prepared! And then it happened.

The professor asked us to pull out our briefs* on a certain case and I just couldn't believe what was happening to me. All I could pull out was some other work I had done for the class. But he must have told us to brief this particualar case because everyone else pulled out their beautifully typed briefs with all the right headings or their thoughtful hand written analysis. My mind was spinning. What to do? As the professor passed by glancing at everyone's work, he gracefully moved past my flurry of notebook pages to the next person, giving out encouraging words about the neatness and thoroughness of all the other students work.

What happened? How did I just totally miss an assignment? And on the first day?

The short answer is that I was just overexcited and didn't write down the assignment when it was given. When I looked back over all the things I did since Friday, I remembered reading and repeatedly pulling out the case which was handed to us in our Friday orientation session. (I could claim fatigue, but everyone else had been there all day, too.)

To make my blunder worse, the professor had made a pretty big deal out of the case by showing us the opening scene of a famous law school movie dealing with the case. How could I forget to brief it? I don't know, but I certainly should have asked one of my classmates what we were supposed to do with the case. All I did was read it and put it back in my notebook after thinking "They sure used a bunch of strange legal terms back in the '20s. I'm glad I don't have to figure all this stuff out right now. Maybe the professor will explain what it all means in class."

And of course, I was called on in class, but the answer was easy mainly because it was set in a paragraph all alone. What was the holding of the court?

Lessons learned? Right down all assignments and ask a classmate (or even the professor) when I'm not sure about an assignment.

So even though I briefed the case during the class discussion of the case and even though the professor gave us a book-briefed version of the case, I still came home and briefed the case.

*A brief of a case in law school is a "written synopsis of the important points of the case." Helene S. Shapo et al., Writing and Analysis in the Law (4th ed. 2003). [I hope this cite is right.]