Updates and Empty Promises

I have not spoken to many of you who read this blog in a while, and really I have not posted here in a while as well, so it's time for some housekeeping.

I successfully finished my first year of law school. Although I don't have my grades yet and I'm pretty sure I bombed Criminal Law, I'm confident that next year I'll be moving on to my second year as a law student. This is a very good thing for a few different reasons, but mostly because my grades won't matter nearly as much and I'll be able to take classes that interest me more. So what lessons have I learned from my first year in law school? What wisdom can I impart? Here are a few items from the top of my head:

1) Whoever said that "technicalities are the soul of the law" is dead wrong. Technicalities may be the lifeblood of the law, but policy is the soul of the law. The policy is what drives it, it is the ephemeral force that shapes it and guides it. But technicalities are the lifeblood - without them, there is no way to give voice to the policy.
2) The first year of law school is not as bad as everyone says it is.
3) A good lawyer makes all the difference in the world.

Right now I'm an intern for a federal judge in downtown Manhattan - that's as specific as I want to get here, so if you want more details just contact me in person. I'll be NYC all summer, with perhaps a trip somewhere at the end of August before classes start up again. A few weeks ago I went to Costa Rica for a week, and that was a ton of fun. I'll post more about the trip soon.

Which brings me to my empty promise. I always like to think I'll post more regularly, but I usually fail. So this time I promise nothing. Nada. Zip. Hopefully, you'll get another post sometime soon.....who knows, maybe this will backfire as well and I'll start posting regularly....