PT-LawMom

A little more than a month until orientation and I’m getting excited. I’ve read “One L”, “Getting to Maybe”, “Law School Confidential” and the wicked scary “Brush With the Law”. I keep picking up my CivPro Examples and Explanations book… and then putting it down again. I think it will make more sense once my casebook arrives. I know, I know. Half of you are telling me to drop the books and relax before four years of hell begin. The other half are saying, “What?!? You mean you don’t already have your E&E highlighted, tabbed and indexed? Time is running out!!”

The school had another admitted students event recently and I met a handful of my future classmates, several of whom live near me. They are all well-educated, mostly close to my age and working in interesting fields. I think we’ll have some great discussions. I just hope their work/school experience doesn’t help them kick my tush to the bottom of the class ranking scale. LOL! Seriously, though, I think this summer will bring a lot of challenges and a great chance to meet some new like-minded people. I was pleased to hear that most of them are working (there are at least two that are NOT and will be in our part-time program, which I think is patently unfair!) so we’ll mostly all be facing similar work/school balance challenges.

I’m still waiting to hear from the financial aid office about summer loans but they assure me I’ll get a loan and all will work out. I’m actually fairly zen about this. I trust them… for now. I’m going with the old schoolteacher saying - you have an A grade now and it’s yours to lose. This is very unlike the old me who would fret about every little thing. I think motherhood has stripped away a layer of neurotic tendencies. I just don’t have the time or energy to worry about things that haven’t technically gone wrong yet.

Speaking of things potentially going wrong, I had a strange conversation today. I was recently assigned an additional partner at work. We finally got the chance to sit down and have our “get to know each other” chat today. When I told him I was going to law school at night, he seemed a bit shocked. He told me that he went to school part-time for 1L and then switched to full-time (if I had a dime for everyone who has said that, well, you know…). Then I mentioned my schedule. Mind you, when I was hired I specifically chose a non-litigation desk so that I could leave at a reasonable hour (no 4:30 filing deadlines to meet). They assured me it was nooooo problem and said that the firm has plenty of other people to help if necessary. Well if you’d seen the look on this guy’s face, it was obvious no one shared that with him. Not much I can do. His last secretary worked until 5:30 or 6 and they moved him off her desk. I can’t do that, law school or not. Right now I have to be walking out the door at 5:20 at the latest if I want to be sure that I’ll make it through rush hour traffic to my son’s daycare by 6:30 (usually arrive earlier but one accident could — and has in the past — mess everything up!) That’s why this big firm has a night word processing department. Hey, I get it. Word processors are just not the same as your own, personal secretary. But it’s not my fault he gets in around 10 a.m. when I’ve already been there almost two hours and doesn’t ramp up until the late afternoon. I’m experienced and efficient. Get me a document before I leave and I’ll turn it around. We can make this work. But the undercurrent of the conversation concerned me a bit…. I need this job, the healthcare coverage and, most of all, the salary, at least for the next two years or so. Hopefully this issue won’t rock the boat.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 3:45 am and is filed under Law School . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.