An introduction to OUTLaws & Allies

OUTLaws & Allies is the LGBT club here at KU Law. We want to give lesbian, gay, bi, and transgendered law students, as well as our straight allies, a safe place to learn the law, meet others with similar interests, and attend legal conferences pertaining to the issues that affect our everyday lives and to have a good time in the process. We also work with the OUTLaw club at UMKC and with KC Legal, which is the Kansas City LBGT Bar Association. This allows us a unique opportunity to meet and become acquainted with other law students and working attorneys, including many KU Law alumni. Every February we attend a weekend LGBT Law Conference in St. Louis along with several other Midwest law schools. If you have any questions regarding any aspect of law school or the OUTLaws in particular, please contact me at Rrash1@ku.edu.

Ryan Rash, 3L
President OUTLaws and Allies

Getting involved at KU Law

KU Law affords students countless opportunities to tailor a legal education to meet your personality. Combined with a smaller to mid-sized student body and comparable to other reputable law schools, students receive the individualized attention foundational to a successful experience. Entering law school, I have always hoped to work in Kansas City at either a corporation or law firm. Therefore, I sought opportunities that would best prepare me for my future. KU Law exceeded my expectations.

As a first-year student, I was immediately presented with opportunities for mentorship and networking. Career Services provided me with a valuable mentor to explore the ins and outs of networking and job-prospecting in Kansas City. I was also paired with a Dean’s Fellow (upper-level student mentor) that provided a valuable student-perspective on the transition from undergraduate to law school. Additionally, the student body has countless organizations, social events, and activities to choose between. Immediately, I felt connected and involved in my law school.

As the year progressed, I began exploring more substantive opportunities to gain hands-on experience. I participated in the joint writing competition and was accepted to the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy. On the Journal, I had the opportunity to edit, review, and cite-check the work of prestigious practitioners, professors, and scholars. This perfectly aligned with my desire to develop strong legal writing and researching abilities. I also obtained an invaluable position as a judicial extern for Magistrate Judge K. Gary Sebelius through KU Law’s Judicial Clinic. This provided a real opportunity to understand the practice of law as a young attorney and apply my classroom learning in a meaningful way.

As a third-year student, I feel ready and able to tackle upcoming challenges. Additionally, each of these opportunities led to new and exciting opportunities. For example, I am currently the Senior Symposium Editor for the Journal and will help host a symposium on “The Role of the States in Federal Healthcare Reform” in February 2011. I know that the skills and experiences I had were made possible because KU Law values students having opportunities at their disposal. In considering law schools, be sure to consider not just how the classroom environment will contribute to your learning; strongly consider how the larger law school experience will facilitate your development as a young attorney. I could not be more satisfied with my choices and experiences at KU Law.

T.J. Trum, 3L

Witchcraft trials

Less than a week until Halloween and we definitely do not have a shortage of witches in the news. From Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s campaign ad to the Witch’s Wit beer label controversy, October is definitely the season of the witch!

As I’m sure you know Western culture has quite the history with witchcraft. In the United States, we have the notoriety of the Salem witch trials but, to no surprise, the trials held in 1692-1693 were not the first trials nor were they the last. So what about the others?

Wondering this myself, I decided to check out a database the Wheat Law Library subscribes to called The Making of Modern Law: Trials, 1600-1926. A simple keyword search of “witchcraft” turned up some very interesting results!

Included in the results are records of trials, such as Record of the Trial of Grace Sherwood In 1705, Princess Anne County, for Witchcraft N.p., c.1705. This is a seven-page transcript of the procedures which occurred in one case. The language can be a bit hard to follow at times but well worth a look.

Most interesting in the results was a book entitled American Criminal Trials by Peleg W. Chandler, 1841. This 441 page monograph covers what the author sees as the most important cases to date in the United States. Meant for public consumption, it reads more like a piece of literature rather than a case book. In it is a chapter dedicated to the Salem witch trials.

So why not check out The Making of Modern Law and see what you can find? Try other Halloween-related terms for the fun of it and let me know what you discover!

W. Blake Wilson
Instructional & Research Services Librarian

Organization for ‘non-traditionals’ provides support and camaraderie

Today, I was chatting with classmates about media coverage of high-profile cases and how it affects the jury pool. To provide an example, I commented on the intense coverage as the nation watched a white Bronco run the highways of LA and how many of us walked away with strong opinions that day.

“How old are you?” said the classmate to my right.
“27,” I answered, not sure how that was relevant – but dreading what I knew would follow.

“Yeah, we were in third grade during the OJ thing. We don’t remember it.”

Ah yes, the life of a non-traditional student. It involves daily reminders that you aren’t quite like everyone else.

I had a job after undergrad and changed my mind about my career aspirations. I didn’t think it was that uncommon, but there are times when I really do feel – different. I’m not even old!

But to a 22 year-old fresh out of undergrad, all bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and full of youthful exuberance, I guess cynical, corporate road kill like myself might as well be their grumpy Aunt Edna.

I’m happy with the choices I made prior to law school. I’m happy that I went into the real world, faced a few dragons, signed my name on a few dotted lines and gained experience in the things we discuss daily in our classes.

And now I’m happy to have a group of fellow “oldsters” so that I don’t have to sit in my rocking chair alone, complaining about “kids today” while shaking my head in exasperation.

The Non-Traditional Law Students Association has found new life and is inviting all non-traditional students to join us. Our first meeting was a meet and greet on October 5. Our next meeting is scheduled for October 26 at 12:30 in room 203. Todd Rogers from the Office of Career Services and other non-traditional graduates will speak with us about job-hunting as a non-traditional student

Non-traditionals are generally defined as those who didn’t go straight to law school after getting their bachelor’s. Some of us have extra appendages (kids, spouses, litters of animals) and most of us go home to numerous chores, mouths to feed in some manner, and maybe even stress over the next mortgage payment. Our ages span from the mid-20s to people who have celebrated their 35th birthday several times over.

It’s a great place to meet others that are “like you” and share war stories about kids eating memos the night before the assignment is due, balancing soccer practice with law prom, and ways to maintain a family life while keeping up with your briefing.

Natalie Hull, 3L

The Power of Positive Psychology: Part Three

In the first two postings about Positive Psychology on Sept. 24 and Oct. 8, we introduced its application to lawyers and law students and briefly discussed some relatively simple steps that can lead to more satisfaction and sustainable happiness in law school and life in general.

In addition to practicing gratitude, performing acts of kindness and taking care of your body, there are some additional, more theoretical ways to combat the anxiety that can potentially derail the best laid law school plans.

The two I’d like to focus on today are the Broaden and Build Theory of Positive Emotions, and Learned Optimism.

Barbara Fredrickson of the University of North Carolina developed Broaden and Build, which theorizes that while negative emotions like anxiety and anger focus the mind and body on very specific action, positive emotions broaden a person’s capability for creativity and better cognitive organization.

A simple, yet interesting study on Broaden and Build involved researchers asking three groups of expert doctors to perform a difficult diagnosis. One group was given a small gift before the diagnosis to induce a positive emotion, another group was given a statement to read about humanistic medicine, and the third was a control.

The group receiving the gift gave the correct diagnosis about twice as fast and displayed much more creativity and intellectually flexibility. Other similar studies have shown that positive emotions are powerful enough to undo the negative effects of anxiety-ridden situations quickly and at a cardiovascular level.

If positive emotions have the potential to improve your thinking and your ability to manage stress, what’s the specific application of Broaden and Build to law schools? Perhaps it’s this, as stated by researchers Todd Peterson and Elizabeth Peterson in Stemming the Tide of Law Student Depression:

To put it bluntly, students who spend three years in law school focused solely on work, at the expense of time spent with family and friends, recreation, personal hobbies, and other activities that might induce positive emotion, seem to be putting their personal happiness at risk, decreasing their psychological resilience, and perhaps even limiting their cognitive ability.

Learned Optimism relates back to our discussion in part one of this series of the “pessimistic explanatory style” of law student research subjects. As you’ll recall, such a style attributes pervasive and permanent causes to negative events, while someone with an optimistic explanatory style views negatives happenings as short lived bumps in the road.

Pessimists typically cope worse in high stress situation, are in poorer health and are at higher risk for depression and anxiety disorders. Also, in the vast majority of studies pessimists perform worse then optimists. It’s true for insurance salesman, college students, military cadets, athletes, and the list goes on and on.

One glaring performance exception? Law students! In a study by Dr. Martin Seligman and his colleagues, the law students that displayed a pessimistic explanatory style outperformed their optimistic peers. In fact, in all of the studies conducted by psychologists on the link between explanatory style and academic performance, the only academic setting where a pessimistic explanatory style has been linked to improved performance is law school.

Why? The researchers theorized:

Perhaps under the more rigorous demands and specific intellectual requirements of law school, diligent students who develop a sense of healthy skepticism are the highest achievers. In fact, careful attention to detail, considering all sides of an argument, seeing all potential pitfalls or catastrophes, attention to precedent rather than salutatory creativity, and thoroughness are typically seen as important traits for the successful lawyer.

So what’s a law student to do? Does teaching optimism to law student adversely affect the development of their ability to “think like a lawyer?” The application of this research probably relates more to the challenge of encouraging law students to turn off, or at least dial down, a pessimistic explanatory style during time away from law school.

As Seligman states, “The challenge, often unmet, is to remain prudent and yet contain this [pessimistic] tendency outside the practice of law.” After all, a pervasive pessimistic explanatory style—even in the face of improved academic performance—is still associated with all of the increased risks described above.

As Todd Peterson and Elizabeth Peterson summarize:

It is a truism in the legal world that lawyers have a hard time turning off their legal skills when they come home from work. Most litigators have had the experience of being told they were “deposing” their children as they asked them about their day around the dinner table. Personal disputes and interactions do not go well when carried out with lawyerly analytical precision. Law students find out quickly that their relationships with people outside of law school suffer when they identify a tort or breach of contract in every interaction.

Learned Optimism is a life skill that should be employed to ward off anxiety and depression. In his book Authentic Happiness, Dr. Seligman discusses a number of techniques through which an individual can develop an optimistic explanatory style. He labels them “Learning to Argue with Yourself.”

One example that should appeal to law students and lawyers is disputing a negative belief by proving through evidence that it’s factually incorrect. So if you perform poorly on an exam, rather than assuming you’ll never prosper in law school, ask what you could have done differently to prepare for that particular test. Think about other instances in which you performed well. Ask what factors were unique to the poor exam and understand that one grade will not mean the difference between success and failure in law school.

As Seligman notes, Learned Optimism is about accuracy. It’s about searching for solid evidence that disputes notions of catastrophe and permanent negativity.

Making law school friends

I remember starting law school last year and wondering if it would be hard to find friends here at Green Hall. It turns out that between small sections and Student Bar Association (SBA) football tailgates it really isn’t that hard to find people with like interests.

One of the things I really enjoyed my 1L fall semester was the small sections, which group you together with 20-something of your fellow 1Ls in one of the core curriculum classes. My small section was contracts class with Professor Peck. Between the Learned Hand Chicken Feed and the dinner Professor Peck hosted at his house, many of my good friends in school came from meeting them in my small section.

Additionally, a great thing about KU in the fall is the SBA football tailgates on “the hill”. Although basketball may reign supreme at KU from October to April, KU football has had its fair share of success is recent years. One of the traditions for KU football is tailgating on “the hill” that overlooks Memorial Stadium. Every home game the tailgate provides a reprieve from my studies, an opportunity to hang out with other law students and alumni. It’s yet another great way to meet other law students that you may not know from class.

Between the two of these and many of the other activities at KU Law in the fall, I have met some of my best friends in law school. As a 1L I would definitely recommend attending the events to meet people, and at the very least give you a break from hitting the books. I think these events help to create the collegial atmosphere at KU Law, and they are part of what sets KU Law apart from other law schools in my mind.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Matt Meyer, 2L