The Holding Is Still Good Law

As the guy sitting closest to the most women in negotiable instruments, I was called upon by Professor Swenson today to give the court's explanation for its holding:

If Young, instead of leaving the check with a female, had left it with a man of business, he would have guarded against fraud in the mode of filling it up. . . .

It was also fun to share this with Amy the other day.

Voting Day

I filled out my absentee ballot today and put it in the mail. I voted by absentee ballot from London four years ago too. I'm looking forward to being able to go to the actual polls on election day someday.

At the American Embassy in Buenos Aires, my sister also voted today. She even made the Argentine news (she's in a pan of the crowd listening to the ambassador's speech).

The End Of My Law School Moot Court Career

While critics consistently choose Citizen Kane to top the best of all time list, filmmakers choose Lawrence of Arabia. My favorite scene in the later comes relatively early in the epic. We see Lawrence on a number of occasions extinguish a match by closing his fingers around it. One of his friends tries it and burns himself.

"Lawrence, that hurts!" he complains.

"Of course it hurts," replies Lawrence.

"What's the trick then?"

"The trick is not minding that it hurts."

I enjoy writing and have some reasons to believe I am good at it. Oral argument, however, proved painful last spring. Still, I volunteered to go through it again this fall. This kind of thing is probably one of the reasons why I am in the 61.95%.

There was still a lot of pain, but based on barrister feedback after the rounds, I have made huge improvements. Unfortunately, Kristina and I still didn't do well enough to "make the break." That is, we are not one of the 16 teams (of the 44 that competed) that progress to the playoffs and enter the order of the barristers.

A barrister I admire told me I have the makings of a great speaker. His feedback got me thinking about volunteering to do it all yet again, except for the fact I'll be in practice court the next time I'll be around for a competition.

For better or worse, the decision is therefore moot.

Business Organizations II; Alternative Dispute Resolution

My readers clamor for updates (or at least one of them did). Very well. I wanted to get reviews of business organizations II and alternative dispute resolution posted before I enroll for winter quarter classes anyway.

By the time you consider enrolling in business organizations II, you will already be familiar with Professor Miller's basic style. In many ways the class is more of the same, just in greater detail. However, we did touch on some securities issues that were related to mergers. In the quarter she addressed questions to the class, but did not call on anyone individually. There was nothing on par with hump day in business organizations I, but there were some good stories. One of Professor Miller's hypotheticals introduced me to Supreme Court Bobbleheads.

Alternative dispute resolution was also a good class. Professor Rogers is responsible for coming up with, "At most law schools, the third year is a joke. At Baylor, the joke's on you," and, "Where fun goes to die." He tended to call on people to describe what happened in their group exercises, sometimes looking to hear from groups whose interaction took a certain tack, but nothing with a lot of pressure. It is a practical class and an enjoyable one, but make sure you keep up with your journal entries as the quarter goes along and read your outside book early in the quarter. In a class without a final it does you no good to mess around and leave all the work until finals anyway.

A Nationally Ranked Advocacy Program

I am one of the beautiful people that made it in to the brochure for the law school's advocacy program. This is me pacing while I rehearse for moot court last spring.

If I Werent On The SBA, I Might Complain

Today I took the first midterm exam of my law school career. It seems odd to take a test without having started the day with donuts and kolaches.

Struck

According to the rumors, Britt Clark holds the all-time Baylor record for striking the most barristers in a school moot court competition. In last spring's competition however, it was me who struck the most barristers. The moot court officers asked for strikes without telling us what the criteria was. I asked about it, but nobody was able to give me a standard. So I made up my own. I struck law buddies, the leaders of every organization I was a member of, upper quarter students I had helped out in the past, and anyone who joked with me about being partial. Nobody else came close to the number of strikes I made.

This time, the moot court officers gave criteria for strikes. It wasn't nearly as demanding a standard, so I cut back my strikes considerably. Even so, my team remains the difficult one to match with barristers. I learned that my partner and I received the most strikes from barristers, by far. We must have a lot of good friends and/or major enemies among barristers. I think I'd be aware of major enemies.