University of Kansas School of Law
From left: Law students Jennifer Hackman, Professor Bill Westerbeke, Joni Bodnar, Ashlyn Lindskog, Andrea Horvath and Suzanne Hale.
I began a little routine during my last semester of my 3L year at KU Law. It starts with dragging myself out of bed and giving myself a pep talk as I blankly stare into my closet for 10 minutes.
“OK, Ashlyn. You can do this. You can be a person today. You’re almost done. Who cares what anyone says … leggings are absolutely pants.”Read More
Second-year law student Maureen Orth aspires to be a litigator, and just halfway through law school, she’s well on her way.
“While you learn a lot in your first year, there’s a lot that you don’t understand until you’ve actually seen it,” Orth said. “Getting to be in the courtroom and getting to see different proceedings has really helped flesh out my academic coursework and understand how it all fits together.”Read More
It’s February of my 3L year, and I am flying high. Instead of reading for my one real class, I go to trivia night with my roommates. Instead of writing yet another draft of my Law Review note, I watch “The Bachelor” (#TeamWhitney). Instead of stressing out over Lawyering assignments, I plan weekend trips to visit the friends I can finally make a priority in my life again.
Man, I hate myself just reading that. I’m sorry.
Here’s the thing: Like anything else you’ve jumped into blindly, it gets better with time. Read More
Andrew Torrance never thought he would be a law professor. “I thought I would be a veterinarian, or maybe a doctor,” Torrance said. “I was accepted to medical school in Canada, but I decided to do a Ph.D. instead. I think my deferral to medical school is still in force, so I suppose it’s not too late to become a physician.”
Torrance always had a passion for science. While pursuing his Ph.D. in biology at Harvard, he developed an interest in policy, and a mentor encouraged him to consider law school. Read More
It’s 12:55 PM. My web browser is open and my fingers, clammy with sweat, have just finished typing an email crafted to execute a very particular objective. My cursor hovers over the “send” button. It has to be hit precisely within 15 seconds of the clock striking 1:00 – no sooner, no later. The extensive time trials I conducted earlier through Microsoft Outlook had confirmed as much. I’ve chosen to sit on the blue couch outside the school’s Career Services Office as I’ve reasoned it would afford my data packets the shortest route to my target’s computer. I have a pretty good idea what the odds are, but I know if I can pull it off the returns will be incalculable in comparison. It’s 1 PM. I count to 10. I hit send.
Less than one minute later, my target emerges from the office. It’s already over.Read More
First-year law students Cody Wood, left, and Ethan Brown
When I started law school, I thought that I had things pretty well figured out. I mean, I had survived for more than four years on my own in undergrad, and that had worked out for me.
Not so, my friends, not so.
Things are different here. Classes are (basically) in a whole new language. I’m surrounded by incredibly brilliant people (I think we can all agree that this is not the norm for undergrad campuses). Even my shopping trips in law school are quite different from how they were in undergrad. Read More