Moving South For The Winter

This winter, I will be in Austin, interning for Justice Willett of the Supreme Court of Texas! My original plan was to apply for the spring, but I'm adaptable; I learned of a possible opportunity, moved up my timetable, and fortunately it worked out.

Besides the great opportunity in the internship itself, I will now be able to take secured transactions in the spring, and potentially I can torture myself with another round of moot court!

Mercedes, Love, And Berkley

Student Bar Association elections were held today. I wasn't up for anything because my position has a year-long term, but I did secure a couple of campaign promises from the new executive president. If we can believe Berkley, SBA will be getting us 1) an ice machine, and 2) big paper plates in the student lounge instead of small styrofoam ones. I was just acting on the concerns other students have shared with me, so I turned down her offer to get a plaque dedicating the ice machine in my honor.

The Results:

Exec. President: Berkley Scroggins
Exec. Vice President: Trisha Dixon (uncontested)
Exec. Secretary: Erin Wiegand (uncontested)
Exec. Treasurer: Jessica Walters
Parliamentarian: Callan Searcy (uncontested)

3L President: Justin Schneider
3L Vice President: Rett Gray (uncontested)
3L Secretary: Jon McNeely (uncontested)

2L President: Glenn Orman
2L Vice President: Victoria Honey
2L Secretary: Andrew "Utah" Garrett

1L President: Ashley Yearick
1L Vice President: Nicholas Chu
1L Secretary: April Holland

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.