Spring Classes!

[palsgraf_polka]

I just registered for my Spring classes! I am taking:

Ethics for Paralegals

and

Organizing and Analyzing Evidence

I cannot wait for the evidence class. I am so excited.

And the ethics class is only 1 credit, and is only 3 sessions. So, I'm going to find a legal aid society to volunteer at so I can A) get experience for a future resume and B) parlay this volunteering into my Paralegal Internship class I will be taking in the Summer quarter. I'm going to start investigating the volunteering now so after classes get out on 03/15/08, I can start. For the internship, I only need 3 hours a week, so I'm going to see about what I can do. I would love to work with the legal aid society and help out the people who can't afford it. Oh god I'm becoming so fucking liberal. Next I'll become a vegan and stop using deodorant.

Comments

[toohipanna.livejournal.com]

and spend lots of time squatting over a mirror painting pictures and writing poetry to your vagina.
oh the huge manatee..

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

That picture never fails to crack me up.

[mia76.livejournal.com]

Would love to hear about the classes. ;)

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm taking Legal Research and Legal Writing. My legal writing class focuses mostly on the formats for writing legal briefs and legal memos and how to determine what you need to put in those memos. How to look at a case and determine what was the legal question (or questions) being asked, and once you determine this, how to pare down the decision into a few short sentences but not leave out legally relevant facts. It's actually very challenging and I struggled with it a bit before finally catching on and now I'm pretty good at it. Legal Research is just that; we are taught all the different methods for legal research, the authorities, how to cite them, the resources available, etc. We use the law library where our class is held along with Westlaw. I don't know if you have the same kind of electronic resource like that in Holland (BTW, I just looked at your userinfo to confirm you are indeed in Holland and saw that you have an interesting school history. Are you of Muslim Indonesian descent? I had an internet friend in Rotterdam who was Indonesian who took me on a tour of Amsterdam when I was there in 1996 and he said there were a lot of Indonesians in Holland because Indonesia was under Dutch control for a long time- and you lived in Ann Arbor which is a strong Muslim neighborhood in the US. Sorry, I digress.) but it's really cool to have all that at your fingertips below. Although, if I had my choice, I'd rather have a certain cannibal lawyer on my F-List be my Legal Research and Legal Writing teacher. :) But I am enjoying this quarter, even though it is challenging.

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

Oh! And I forgot to ask - are you interested in moving back to the US and going into our legal system? Or are you interested in working in the legal system in the Netherlands? I'm curious.

[mia76.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness, I'm too tired to do a JD. LOL. Maybe be a paralegal but not a lawyer. A lot of my friends from my Indonesian university are doing JDs now but I'm paranoid about American law schools!

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

You can go to school to become a paralegal here in the US...that's what I'm doing. Although iron_chef_gein maintains that he will get me to go to law school before he dies. So we'll see how successful he is. :)

[mia76.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm going to be taking similar classes too in March. Also studying pretty much about what to put in legal documents and making legal arguments and auditing and stuff! I also struggle with it because... Well I tend to like to write a LOT but when it comes to legal essays (in school) my teachers would say I'd be too wordy and I should keep it short and use less words but specific ones and not to be too descriptive. It's just complicated! I'm scared about starting the paralegal work once I pass the bar.

My parents are Muslims and I'm confused. LOL. And I'm in Indonesia right now. But I can't change the location because I LOVED being in Holland! I have ADD so through my bachelor's degree I studied but didn't have time to make friends. And in Holland I made so many friends. I miss them, so it gets me sentimental! A LOAD of Indonesians are in the NLs studying law because we use Dutch law. =)

PS: What were you doing in Holland in 1996? Vacation? =)

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

My parents are Muslims and I'm confused.

I completely understand. At my last job I worked with several secular Muslims (Persians who left Iran at the time the Shah was ousted and the Ayatollah came in to power), so I'm used to it.

But don't you worry about the extremism that is going on in Indonesia in general and within the government? I would worry about those kind of things. Then again, things are a little extreme here in the US right now.

I lived in London, UK for 6 months in 1996 in a school program. At the end of school I backpacked around Belgium, Holland, France and Spain. That was how I ended up in Amsterdam with my Dutch Indonesian tourguide that I had met on the internet. :)

[iron-chef-gein.livejournal.com]

Have no fear: the vegan/liberal stench phase will pass after about 18 months of working with insane pro se clients, giving way to misanthropic anthropagy. Let me know when it happens-- I've got some great barbecue rub recipes for you.

BTW-- glad you're feeling better, Aems. Me too.

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figure my cynicism will bleed back in with time. And yes, I am feeling a lot better. And glad to see you improving too. <3