WonL
The random thoughts of an architect-turned- lawyer from the deep south living in Washington, DC...
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Call to arms
Okay, since Gangsta Ambimb no longer thinks I am special enough to specifically recommend me as being in his special paragraph of GW bloggers that are must reads, I figure it's about time I posted something about school. I guess I have been avoiding it, because things have gone quite crazy around school these days. On a happy note, the sauna issue has been remedied and I am, in fact, finding it a bit chilly now. I shall keep my mouth shut. Last semester, I went through some of the oddities of law school. These past few weeks, some strange occurrances seem to be creeping into our daily lectures. It should be noted that thus far, the professors seem to be holding the reigns of abnormality. On the other hand, I guess when you have so many brilliant minds on one faculty, there are bound to be a few points of overlap.
Our first conflict in the Tort v. Civ Pro War ensued a few weeks ago. Perhaps it was more like a battle, or even a display of passive aggression. Regardless, the interaction that unfolded was quite comical to watch. It all started one warm night in Lerner. The class was marching along in Torts at a surprising rate. PT (professor torts) was astounded at the vast amount of knowledge we came into his class with and even more amazed at our retention levels . Not only could we figure out what an "act" was, but we grasped "intent" in only two weeks. PT decided to throw a curve ball in our direction by bringing up summary judgment, a concept learned in Civil Procedure. A hush came over the crowd, as everyone frantically turned to their neighbors in search of a Civ Pro book. Oh no, thought the students, wrong day! Again, PT threw a question to the whole class regarding summary judgement. Again, he recieved no answer. I can only assume that at this point, every student simultaneously thought up the best approach to this situation: when in doubt, play dumb. I assure you, we did that very well. So well, in fact, that PT began questioning just what we had learned thus far in Civ Pro. Again came that deafening silence. PT, in realizing he would get no where with us, decides to talk himself through the situation aloud. He first asks what book we use, then if someone could send him our Civ Pro Syllabus, and he ends with resorting to the unimaginable...the decision to contact PCP (prof. civ. pro.) All we really heard was "that's it, I am going to talk to your father and you are in sooo much trouble." Two days passed and we were all nervous to see PCP that Thursday. Would he be mad at us for not retaining the vast knowledge he shoved into our little heads last semester? Would he think that we were trying to make him look bad in front of this visiting professor? Had we just sealed our own fate? PCP began class as if nothing had ever come to his attention. In fact, nothing was brought up for over an hour. Then, without warning, PCP raised his weapon, took aim, and fired with an "Okay, short lesson in Torts: you have an act, you have intent, you have cause...that's all there is to Torts. Moving on..." Target hit!
The following week, thinking for sure we would walk into Torts to see the white flag of surrender being raised, we found PT with other plans. He had called PCP and they discussed a cease fire. In discussing the terms of the treaty, PT was allowed to put together his own "lesson on Civ. Pro" to hand out to his Torts class, and then take 30 minutes to go over it. It was mandated that PT did make it very clear that he did not teach Civ Pro and that anything that PCP said was correct. Thankfully, it was a short lived war with very few casualties.