KU Law Blog

10 Things Every Law Student Can Relate To

1) When you choose to binge watch “The Good Wife” instead of studying.

2) When you get called on in class but you’ve been on Buzzfeed for the last 15 minutes.

3) When you choose to take the stairs instead of the elevator.

4) When your professor uses the “lightning strike” method.

5) When you decide that watching “Law & Order” is basically the same thing as studying.

6) When you don’t quite know what “business casual” is, but you’re pretty sure it’s not pajama pants.

7) When your diet consist solely of whatever food is being served at club meetings.

8) When you think you can totally handle 16 credits, a research position, a staff editor position, and a part-time job.

9) When you wonder if anyone actually still uses the books in the library.

10) When you really just want to learn how to get out of traffic tickets.

— Travis Freeman is a 2L and KU Law Student Ambassador from Olathe, Kansas.

Law student reaps personal, professional rewards as CASA volunteer

I am a CASA volunteer. CASA stands for court-appointed special advocate, and my responsibility is to advocate for a child in a child-in-need-of-care (CINC) case. This entails listening and understanding my child’s needs and wishes. I speak with everyone involved in my child’s life — from family to teachers and social workers. I gather information to understand and explain what is happening in my child’s life and to voice my child’s needs and wishes in reports to the court.

Building Trust

My experience has been more than gratifying. I have been on a case for more than two years now. My child was only 4 years old when I started. It took time to form a bond and trust, not only with my child, but also with her family. In the beginning, she was nervous and timid to talk with me about things. Now, she tells me more information than I need to know with very little prodding because she is so excited to tell me what is happening in her life. We have become really close over the last two years, and I see her monthly. I email with the adults in her life more frequently.

Listening and Observing

It also took time for me to understand my child and her wishes. I had to watch her and see how she verbally and non-verbally responded to questions on a subject. For being so young, she could tell me a lot indirectly. At 4 years old, I couldn’t directly ask her what she wanted. She only understood the process of what was happening in the simplest of terms. I learned to be attentive to what she voiced and how she behaved.

Advocating

As a CASA, I advocate for what my child needs. Early on, I noticed her speech was behind and she was throwing tantrums out of frustration. I thought she could use help. In a court report, I explained the behavior I saw and recommended speech therapy and individual therapy. The court made both of my recommendations “tasks” to complete on her case plan. My child completed speech therapy and individual therapy. She now speaks clearly and can articulate her frustrations. It has been so rewarding to witness her growth.

I think as a law student being a CASA is rewarding personally and professionally. I learned how CINC cases work. I write court reports. I speak with others involved in the case, both family members and professionals. Serving as a CASA gives you experience with skills that can’t be taught. You learn to listen, not just with your ears. And you walk away knowing you make a difference — even if only to one child.

— Melanie Brewer is a third-year KU Law student from Olathe, Kansas.

If you are interested in serving as a CASA volunteer, the next training session begins February 18, 2016. Call 785-832-5172 or email mbutler@douglas-county.com for more information.

Keeper of KU Law milestones celebrates one of her own

LaVerta Logan retiring after 19 years of supporting students

After 19 years of service, the incomparable LaVerta Logan, assistant director of KU Law’s Career Services Office and 2013 KU Employee of the Year, is retiring. Logan is well known around Green Hall for her warm smile and cheerful demeanor, but it is perhaps the welcoming space she creates that resonates most with students. Logan’s office is a tribute to the thousands of students who have passed through during their years in Green Hall and still keep in touch, sending wedding and birth announcements and holiday greetings each year.

3L and KU Law Ambassador Julia Leth-Perez reflects on Logan’s legacy:

It started with postcards from faculty trips and grew into a KU Law family tradition. When I first walked into Ms. LaVerta’s office, I knew I had found my touchstone for one of the biggest undertakings of my life. There I stood, a stranger, surrounded by hundreds of photographs of smiling families. These photographs represent the life moments of faculty, alumni and students.

When I asked her Ms. LaVerta what I needed to succeed in law school, she gently replied, “Balance between life and school. If you put life on the back burner, you will be surprised when you are done with school and that life is gone. Allow some time, one day, one night, to just be with people, with family, and see what’s going on with someone other than yourself.” These words ring true in the photos on her walls and in my path through law school.

William Arthur Wood said, “A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” On my best days Ms. LaVerta’s smile shares my success, and on my worst it encourages me. The difference I found at KU Law is the people. People whose warmth and kindness have inspired a tradition, where the universal language envelopes a stranger and transforms them into family.

If you would like to learn more about contributing to a group gift for Ms. LaVerta, please contact Leah Terranova at leaht@ku.edu.

Postscript from LaVerta Logan

THANK YOU ALL!!!

I have been surprised, dined, received countless messages from students, faculty, friends, and family via email, LinkedIn, Facebook, telephone, flowered, hugged and photographed endlessly during the last two weeks.

I would be remiss if I did not mention receiving the best oatmeal raisin cookies (Crystal Mai) and the best chocolate chip cookies (Jake Hecker) in America! Thanks, Crystal and Jake.

I am totally overwhelmed, grateful and blessed to be on the receiving end of all this love shown to me as I prepare to move into my next season.

Love you all – Merry Christmas!

Ms. LaVerta

Your brain on law school

Before applying to law school, most people focus on when to take the LSAT, which law schools to visit, and what would be a good topic for their personal statement. No reasonable and prudent person would possibly consider the fact that his or her whole life is about to change. Right?

As it turns out, legal training basically reboots your brain. After your first month as a law student, you begin referencing law in almost every aspect of your life.

To illustrate this phenomenon, I offer 14 typical thoughts after your first month as a law student:

#1 Is there free food?

Everyone makes the New Year’s resolution to hit the gym every day and eat healthy, but after a month in law school, you realize you are wherever the free food is. When a classmate asks if you are going to the Student Bar Association (SBA) info session or the Women in Law meeting, your VERY first response will be, “Is there going to be food?” Pizza is usually the top choice for meetings, but occasionally an organization will attempt to lure you with Hot Box cookies or Buffalo Wild Wings.

#2 Are you going to this event or that one?

Eventually, you will have the dilemma of choosing which Facebook invitation is more important. Two events could be scheduled at the same time, and you wonder whether you want to listen to a debate or listen to Dean’s Fellows scare you about outlining and finals in early October. After you get an answer to your initial “Is there free food” question, you turn to question two: “Are you going to this event or that one?” Sometimes you need the wisdom of your classmates to help you decide which event is important.

#3 That’s a promise.

When you take Contracts, you will learn what can be considered a promise and how that promise can be used against you in a court of law. After that beautiful day, you will hear promises and considerations almost every time you talk to a non-law student, and you will witness law students avoid making promises for absolutely everything. You will mentally attach every person who makes you a promise to a binding contract.

#4 That’s a tort.

More than any class you take, Torts will ruin the way you see everyday life. Banana peel on the floor? Yep, that’s a tort. Friend playfully hits you? You yell, “Battery! That’s a tort.” Every hazard in the road will be a tort. You will find at least one thing each day that could be used in a lawsuit against a tortfeasor.

#5 What is the “k” homework?

Back to Contracts. Eventually you will start to refer to contracts as “k.” Your notes will say, “The k was voidable” or “Was there a k formed?” Why it is not “c” no one really knows. Get familiar with the concept of uncertainty.

#6 WWRPPD?

Now back to Torts. Why? Because this is law school and WWRPPD, “What would a reasonable and prudent person do?” is a question you will commonly ask after taking Torts. Eventually, you will answer every question in every class, “Depends. What would a reasonable and prudent person do?”

#7 This is not like “Legally Blonde.”

After becoming a real law student, the only part I can truly relate to in “Legally Blonde” is using legal vocabulary in everyday life. You object? Well attend law school and judge for yourself.

#8 Blackacre? Black acre?

Property. What is blackacre? Who is blackacre? Hmmm. What would a reasonable and prudent person do when encountered with blackacre?

#9 Sorry, it’s confidential.

If you gossip, that’s great. Law school is a perfect place for the middle school “Are they dating?” “I wonder if that cute guy likes me?” or “Should I send her a friend request?” drama. But when it comes to Lawyering Skills and the amazing memos you will be producing, you must learn to keep things to yourself. You can talk to your professor, the teaching assistant, and/or the librarian, but do not talk to your roommate, spouse, pet, neighbor, hair stylist, etc. You are going to be a lawyer now, so do what Tom Riddle does and have a chamber of secrets.

#10 That reading was too short.

You will come across a few classes where the reading assignment is less than 10 pages, and you will think to yourself, “What kind of trick is my professor trying to play on me?” You will discuss with your classmates and ask them if they are seeing the same page count because you feel 99.9 percent sure you are delirious and there is no way you only have to read four pages for Contracts.

#11 No one understands.

No one outside of law school will understand what you are going through. You will try to explain it, but it will be the equivalent of speaking to a brick wall. But you always have fellow law students to help you through any obstacle you face – except when it comes to the open memo.

#12 What is an outline?

The word “outline” will be used a lot during the first month of school. Don’t know what an outline is? That’s OK. Neither did most students coming into law school. I didn’t fully comprehend what an outline was until I sat with my study group and started working on one. Law school is all about the uncertainty.

#13 I am a law student.

You will try and succeed at letting people know you are a law student. It’s a big accomplishment, and everyone you speak with deserves to know you are in law school. I personally like to let people know I am in law school because this has been my dream, and I am proud of my accomplishment.

#14 My classmates are like family.

Coming from Arizona, I was worried that I would feel homesick and scared. I thought I would want to give up after a few days and go running home. But my classmates are my family. I never thought I would come into a competitive environment and feel so comfortable. I would not exchange this experience for anything.

— Rayven Ouellette-Garcia is a first-year law student and KU Law Student Ambassador from Arizona.

Transplant finds ‘second family’ at KU Law

Kasey Considine (far left) with girlfriends from the 2015 graduating class.

As I prepare to graduate this May, I have been looking back wistfully on my last four years at KU Law. My time has been split between the law school and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, as I’ve been simultaneously chipping away at a J.D. and an M.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures—although the joke is that it has just taken me four years because I love law school that much.

Considine (right) teamed up with classmate Addison Polk last Halloween for a "Toy Story"-themed costume.

Considine (right) teamed up with friend and classmate Addison Polk last Halloween for a “Toy Story”-themed costume.

All joking aside, part of the nostalgia of reflecting on my time in Lawrence is that I’m so incredibly grateful for the friends and second family I’ve found while living here. I came to Kansas as a complete transplant, with no friends or family in the area but an unshakable determination to graduate with two degrees I was passionate about. To my delighted surprise, I instead found a law school family that I now realize is unique to KU Law.

This family includes so many integral parts of the law school that keep it running smoothly, and it’s the little things the school does that go far from unnoticed. Decorating the library for Halloween and leaving a bowl of candy for students are examples of the how the law library staff brightens our days. I cannot count the number of times I have sent a panicked email to the registrar, Vicki Palmer, with a hyper-specific dual-degree student question. Her patiently crafted responses and nurturing advice serve as a gentle reminder that I don’t have to figure it all out by myself.

Then there are the inspiring, intelligent and incredible students at KU Law. I don’t have to panic if I miss a class because I have classmates who will happily fill me in as we chat before class. I have friends I can text late at night to borrow textbooks, and the equally tired but still smiling faces that greet me in Green Hall everyday make the stress and exhaustion feel a bit more bearable.

These are the faces I think of as I prepare to bid farewell to KU. While I am more than ready to retire my highlighters and tabs and say goodbye to late nights spent reading cases or writing papers, it’s not so easy to leave behind the people who have helped guide and support me the last four years. They have been a challenging and life-consuming four years, but I cannot imagine what they would have looked like without my law school family.

Thankfully, I’ll never have to know law school without them.

— Kasey Considine is a KU Law Student Ambassador from Dartmouth, Massachusetts, set to graduate in May 2016 with a J.D. and an M.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures.

Mock Trial introduces undergrads to courtroom careers

Law school may be a few years away, but some KU undergrads are building their oral advocacy skills and gaining courtroom experience before they even finish their bachelor’s degrees. The KU Mock Trial team competes in simulated courtroom trials, pitting their analysis and advocacy skills against teams from universities across the country.

“At each competition you portray both sides in any given round,” said Will Admussen of Urbandale, Iowa, the team’s public relations director and a junior majoring in Economics and Political Science. “We argue both defense and witness cases. We cross-examine, direct examine, and the judge — usually an area attorney or judge — rules based on performance.”

At the beginning of each year, teams receive case packets equivalent to the product of a discovery process.

“You’re given affidavits, depositions, exhibits,” said team vice-president Jackson Laughlin, a junior from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, majoring in Applied Behavioral Science and Political Science. “You structure how your case appears. You have to figure out how to present and counter it. A lot of it is thinking on your feet.”

While the team is open to students of all majors and backgrounds, roughly half — including both Admussen and Laughlin — plan to attend law school. The program is entirely student-run, from fundraising and recruitment, to administration and coaching. KU Law Professor Chelsi Hayden serves as the team’s faculty advisor, providing administrative guidance, advising the team’s case strategy and helping with coaching sessions.

“Mock trial requires hard work and dedication. It attracts some of the brightest students at KU,” Hayden said. “I enjoy exposing students to the legal system and encouraging them to consider a career in the law.”

The KU Mock Trial team’s two 2015 seniors, Jordan Kane and David Hammack, began their 1L year at KU Law this fall.

Over the past two years, the squad has grown from eight members to more than 30, expanding its tournament schedule and sending a team to the preliminary rounds of the 2015 American Mock Trial Association National Championship tournament. Students plan to build on last year’s success, growing their roster, competing in more tournaments and bringing home more trophies.

While mock trial competition teaches all students valuable public speaking and analysis skills, for aspiring law students it also provides insight into the law school experience and the legal field.

“There’s an element of networking,” Laughlin said. “We’re building connections to the law school, and you get to know people within the community. You learn courtroom etiquette, little things that are major components of how a trial works. We’re judged by people who are going to be our bosses someday.”

For law schools hoping to attract high-performing, dedicated applicants, there’s a recruitment element as well. Many law schools have relationships with their institution’s undergraduate mock trial teams, whether they help coach students, provide funding and resources, host competitions or supply judges for tournaments. Aspiring law students consider their mock trial experience in selecting the schools to which they will apply. Everything from the campus facilities and amenities to the organization of the event, the professionalism of judges and the law school swag students bring home can leave a lasting impression.

Several KU Mock Trial alumni have gone on to study at KU Law, including the team’s two past presidents and both of last year’s graduating seniors.

“Showing these students the benefits of a KU Law degree is important for recruiting them and encouraging them to eventually practice law in Kansas,” Hayden said.

While the preparation for law school is invaluable, it’s the fun and camaraderie of the activity that motivates students to spend their weekends competing.

“The rules of evidence are loosely based on federal rules of evidence,” Admussen said. “The skill set you develop applying rules to a given set of facts are exactly what you will be doing in law school. There’s so much room for creativity and a lot of fun.”

Laughlin agrees: “We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love it.”

The KU Mock Trial Team will host the Jayhawk Invitational tournament in Lawrence Dec. 5 – 6. The tournament is sponsored by KU Law.

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