My second semester of law school was tough, because I had to find an internship, and they use superfluous workload as basically a way to ensure students who might not be able to pass the BAR drop out. Most of law school guarantees that you will pass, because the loans cost so much and they have to report drop out rates and failure to pass the BAR to accreditation entities. So the determining factor for if you pass or fail is admission. It skews the kind of people admitted into law school towards those inclined to navigating paperwork and bureaucracy, which is a personality and value set that is more likely to be female than male. Broadly it's reflective of our public school systems generally favoring females. The LSAT took the logic portion of the test out, which skewed in favor of white and Asian males.

The second semester was the first one where I had randomly assigned professors that were truly not qualified to do the job and my education quality suffered. In constitution law, no less. Didn't cover dormant commerce clause at all. Textbook was utter garbage. I ended up just reading the entire cases printed off West law, and using a study guide to prep for the final, because class was zero value added. I had a student comment to me after the final, "that multiple choice on Marbury versus Madison was HARD--how can we be expected to know what the main issue of the case was?" And I very indelicately replied, "well there was only one right answer. The Supreme Court said Congress can't statutorily change the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court beyond what's defined in the Constitution." Guy goes, "well I got that question wrong then." (I actually like this guy, he's a fellow sports car driver, the education system has done him a disservice.)

Now keep in mind I also worked an electrical engineering job half time while I was in school. And that was tough. I had to wake up at 5am, work, then do homework, then go to school, and the drive to work. All the other students got to work on their first graded appellate brief, I had to write 3 engineering documents for work before I could start on the brief homework. I made the top 30% of the class in grades and Dean's list that semester. So I'm fairly proud of that accomplishment. I had my mid year performance review with my employer after the semester and it is officially documented in my employee record that I dropped to half time and completed all of my workload, thus my part time arrangement with full time law school is workable for the next 2 years.

This year it is going to be harder. My mentor retired so now there is no alternate to help me when I need schedule relief. I now need to train my alternate, I have a guy picked out to train. This semester I have work trips over the weekends for engineering on site support. I also have a substantial project to run which was just awarded. My husband and I also bought our first house, and we are trying to finish completing maintenance, like floor refinishing and stripping and repainting cabinets. Move in set for end of October. Luckily, when God gives you more work, he also makes sure you can handle it. My capacity to accomplish things sure seems to be expanding.

The first week of school, I had a professor tell me that I wouldn't be a good fit for a DOJ internship because they get up and go to work at 5AM. I said, I get up to work at 5AM. And he said, no you don't get it, they get up and WORK because they're motivated. And I said, I already get up to work then, that's not a big difference. He said, they're very dedicated to their cause. Would you skip your 3 year old's birthday party because you had a brief to submit?

I relayed this conversation to my mother, because I could not figure out why this conversation went downhill so fast and it left a pit in my stomach. My mom goes, Jacqueline, he was insulting you. That's why your conversation went downhill. That teacher is not your friend.

I don't know why that teacher had such a weird reaction. I took two classes with him and an got A- in them. He's buds with several DOJ attorneys and he made several comments to the class about how the lower hiring standards at the DOJ meant we would be able to get internships there more easily. I hated interning at the DA's office so vehemently, I think I'm going to do oil and gas title work after I graduate instead. Oil and gas people are normal. They wear square toed cowboy boots.