On the Doan Docket

I always was a huge fan of hands on learning, whether playing with chemicals in chemistry lab or doing Congressional simulations in my political science classes. So naturally I get excited when I get to play lawyer in law school. There are times when I complain about how much work it is, but it's a lot more fun and I think useful to apply all of these concepts into practice. Here are the things I'm working on this week:

-Writing a memo to a senior partner about whether or not our client is liable for the near hot tub drowning of a 10 year old boy who trespassed onto our client's property.

-Preparing oral arguments with 4 other people in my class to prove that the defendants should hand over two geological studies in a toxic water contaminiation case. 10 minutes of debate on each side infront of other students who play judges and clerks = a lot of fun.

-And of course a few weeks ago there was another memo about whether or not our client could suspend or modify her child support payments so that she could go to the Peace Corps in Guatemala.

I've heard people complain that they came to law school to learn about real people with real problems, not represent fictional clients (I know, future lawyers complaining? shocking!). As much as I agree that we should not forget the real problems that exist outside of our bubble of law school, I think that the clinics, panels, teach ins, and many other programs that our law school provide an avenue for that. However, our classes should be teaching us the fundamental concepts and theories. I'm not sure how we can actually effect "real people with real problems" in class. It's vital to get practice with hypotheticals before we could ever go out and save the world. Plus, it's kind of fun, at least as fun as writing +10 page research memos can be.