Know Your A B PLTCs

It's a remarkably sunny day here in Vancouver, which is not to say it's warm - there's this Mistral-like wind blowing about that's put the chill, maybe fittingly, on this last day of winter. And coming spring means summer is soon after and, for graduating law students - the real world.

A lot of people ask me if the lawyer transformation is complete upon graduation, or if we really lost our soul those three years ago. (We only draft Faust's contract, not sign it.) The answer is no, that before the bar call, there is a year of articling, the key portion of which is (at least in this province) a ten-week stint of tender loving PLTC.

This is the Professional Legal Training Course, for which I attended an info session last week. It appears that after a summer of glorious frictional unemployment and an Italian trip during which I'll celebrate finally being done school - there's more school.

PLTC involves taking comprehensive courses at a building downtown in eight areas of the law, four of which I had (either successfully or not) avoided up until now: Creditor's Remedies, Family, Real Estate and Estates (also just as real). We're also responsible for four assignments: Advocacy (my client has a bloody knife, how do I tell him I won't hide it for him) Writing (Dear client, stop waving that thing about, it's not making you look any more innocent) Interviewing and Drafting. The last week culminates in two three-hour exams and them blam, we are professionally, legally, trained.

So to sum: in five weeks, I'll be 16 weeks away from being 10 weeks away from only being 9 months away from being a lawyer.

Thaw-water order also in effect

Here I am writing an essay that involves a European dispute about garbage, the treatment of television within the European Union as garbage, and then I go out to pick up dinner and I see this garbage:



Snow! I'm all for seasonal weather that reminds you of Christmas, but that's for when I go back home to Calgary where the stuff is available 9 months a year, not in Vancouver. I can't imagine this helps end the boil-water order we're still under.



This totally takes the fun out of a Thai food run.

Transcripts also required

I head back to Calgary this week for a brief vacation. This Vancouver summer has been great, warm weather, a little rain, but I suppose I really crave the unpredictability of an Albertan summer - August snowfalls, flash flooding, etc.

I'll be visiting friends, hopefully taking in a movie or two, as well as carting some of my things from home back to Vancouver (this includes my squash racquet, meaning M, you are officially challenged to a squashing duel). Hopefully with at least one successful articling interview in less than three weeks, I'll be staying in this town for a few more years at a minimum.

I'll try and post some photos from Cowtown - as so far I've been lucky at getting some great vacation shots already this summer.



Oh, and since registration is finally done, here's the official list of classes for the third and final year:

Securities Regulation, Real Estate Trans, Land Use Planning, Admin, Media & Entertainment Law, Civil Procedure, European Union Law, Trusts, Conflicts and Appellate Advocacy.

I'm taking applications for potential study buddies. Post your cover letter in the comments below.

Those Marvin Monroe tapes work wonders

If memory serves correctly, there was a mass cull of chickens in this province many months past due to fears of avian flu (the flu du jour at the time). I'm not sure how many they slaughtered in those fateful abattoirs, all I know is they missed one little chicken, for certainly, the sky is falling!

The city woke up to a few centimeters of snow this morning, and panic hit the streets. (Unfortunately, it was not due to rage-infected zombies as would have been cool.) I have never seen such a quick transition from snowflake #1 to talk of a snow day. I admit, I was surprised to see snow in this famously green city, but I couldn't help but think that Albertans would be laughing and telling the snow to "come back when you've got something interesting to tell me." Snow, being a solidified form of water and unable to construct speech, would fail to make a witty response.

Anyway, I do hope tomorrow is a snow day. The first week back after holidays are always pretty tough. One can't just step up unprepared to the foosball table. On top of that, we are getting exam marks back and surveying the damage. The prognosis is stable, so far, but that could all change with a subject known as Criminal Law.

They tell us there is no wrong answer in law school. But clearly, when you are given a fact pattern and asked to either acquit or convict a woman, and every single person except you acquits her, the maxim must fail. If I were to be right, and this were a real case, news bureaus would be busy trying to come up with a new graphic for their latest headline: a Grand Miscarriage of Justice.

But hey, maybe things will be alright. Stranger things have happened. Snow has fallen in Vancouver. (Someday zombies, someday).

And a blimey new year!

I shouldn't be surprised, but Calgary is experiencing unseasonably warm weather. Nor should I complain, but this puts a damper on the whole "let's brag about Vancouver weather" shtick I had planned for my return. Alas.



The first few days back have been filled with Christmas errandry (I think I may have just invented this word but it sounds like it should be real) and far too much Grand Theft Auto on the Playstation. As much as I like studying the law, there's nothing like committing hordes of unlawful acts in a video game setting. And adding jetpacks to the mix is an unexpected plus.

Not much else to report at the moment, the call to relax is too strong. So I'll take this opportunity to say happy holidays to all my friends around the world. At last tally, some of you were in Japan teaching English, Ontario learning English, England relearning English ('appy 'olidays Sean). Some of you are in Vancouver slogging through law school with me, and those still in school in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia I feel for you too, and those that are in the working world, merry Christmas, save me a job for when I get there!

Miss you all, (this means I expect comments people! And yes, you can post without being a member.)

On having not caught 22

Ah, December. A beautiful month sullied only by the appearance of excruciatingly painful final exams. I still find it hard to get used to this whole "no snow" thing here in Vancouver. I mean, I can see it on the North Shore mountains, it just never makes it past those North Van houses (typical, hoarding snow like they do wealth.) It is almost as if the snow is beckoning me back home, over the mountains. Nice try, my frozen friend, but I'll manage with these warm climes at least for the next little while.

On that note, it is only two weeks until I touch down in cowtown for the holidays. It will be nice to relax (pending, of course, a law memo, a feminism paper, and a complete draft of a future television show). I haven't done any Christmas shopping for the family yet, but if history is any guide, that can be accomplished in one fell swoop at the ol' Future Shop. Ah, engineers: technical gadgetry shall be thine Achilles Heel.

I'm looking forward to doing some actual reading over the holidays, and not just cases upon cases. Maybe I'll finish Catch-22, which heretofore I've only been reading in segments at Kingston laundromats for the past 3 years (oh, how I love my basement apartment washer and dryer, don't ever change!). I'm positive that'll be the funniest book I've ever read, when I actually finish it.

To be talking about Christmas is just plain weird, though. It only struck me recently, that exactly one year ago, I hadn't even written the successful LSAT exam that would eventually take me to law school. (The incredibly unsuccessful one still being fresh in my mind at that point.) Now here I am, and everyone's freaking out about whether they'll stay in law school. I guess you just can't win as a lawyer... unless you win your case and get a share of those sweet, sweet punitive damages.

Bloggo uno

Elmore Leonard once said an author should never start a novel with an account of the weather. It's lazy, pointless and overdone. Since I'm not sure what the rule is on beginning a blog, I'll mention that it's rather chilly and overcast. Rain is inevitable.

It's t-minus one week till exams start here at law school, which means I should be doing something more productive. That said, this blogging deal is quite fun, I rather feel like Mr. Burns enjoying this "so-called 'iced cream.'"

That my stress level is not yet at its peak indicates I'm either way behind in my studying or, what I'd rather believe, that everyone is making too big a deal of first year law exams. For starters, they count for nothing, our exams in April being worth 100%. So, in the absolute worst case scenario, it still means nothing. Let's do like David Brent and just "chill out, alright?"

Although I've never been one to go into anything unprepared, and I shan't start now. Arrested Development isn't on tonight, so there'll be a chance to do some work. Much like there was last night, when Real Property reading quickly devolved into reworking my screenplay. (Though I do considering writing a funny scene paramount to understanding equitable mortgages.)

Back to the books...