A Last Lesson

As we were reviewing civil procedure today, our professor wanted to point out to us how far we had come and how much material we had covered. We read over 450 pages of a Civil Action, over 600 pages of A Documentary Companion, about 500 pages of our casebook, over 35 federal rules, over 25 federal statutes, and over a dozen ethical rules. This isn't the type of "reading" like in undergrad where you read the abstract and skim over the rest. This is reading, perhaps even multiple times, highlighting, taking notes, and briefing.

Despite probably being the most work-intensive class, I think everyone's favorite class in our section is civil procedure. It might not be the most interesting, but our professor is amazing. It's funny because when I first started law school I would talk about my other professors. One who was top in her field and used to clerk for a Supreme Court Chief Justice, and the other, a Harvard grad who was also the top in his field. And while my civil procedure teacher does also have an impressive resume, what makes him so great is that he is a good teacher. And you don't need to go to top ranked law school or clerk for the Supreme Court to be everyone's favorite, and most effective professor.

Interestingly enough, that was the gist of message to us was today, as we wrapped up the review session. He gave us the same advice that he gave his daughter when she was preparing to take her first law school finals: there's more to life than these grades. First semester grades are not indicative of how you will do in the rest of law school, and how you do in the rest of law school isn't even indicative of how you will be as a lawyer. That's because tests measure how well you can take a test; they aren't always the best measure of actual understanding and certainly they don't factor in one's character.

Some people might consider these "don't worry about grades" pep-talks as cliche or even self defeating. But to me, they are perspective from people who have seen and experience so much more. Its easy for so many of us to get wrapped up in getting the top grades because as law students, that's what we've been doing our whole lives. But it is good to get a reminder from someone you respect that you are more than a letter grade or class ranking.

With fatherly advice like this, there's no surprise that this is the professor who probably gets more gifts from his students than all of the other professors. Just like the many classes before us, our class was happy to buy another tie to add to the probably 100+ funny tie collection (he wears different funny ties to correspond to each of his lessons).

And what did he wear for the final class? A Star Trek tie and he told us to live long and prosper. I'm glad he ended with something funny because as he was wrapping up his speech, there were definitely a lot of people holding back the tears. You'll always hear the stories about the professors who are so mean that they make their students cry; I feel so fortunate to have had a professor who nearly brought his students to tears because he was so inspiring and he taught us so much.