Law School

I have already been accused of going over to the Dark Side. No, I haven't begun rooting for the Yankees, nor have I switched to the GOP, but I am going to Law School. (Did you note the capital letters?)

After years of laughing at lawyer jokes and making snide comments about bar associations, it was time to learn how the other side lives. Rather like an extended cultural exchange, for I've even found an attorney who wants to go to seminary!

It all began, it seems to me, when earlier this year I read a fascinating account (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/01/29/070129fa_fact_groopman) written by an MD of how doctors think, how their minds work, in the practice of medicine. I have always been intrigued, in much the same vein, with the whole legal process and how lawyers think <insert lawyer joke here>, and after reading a few books on the subject (Scott Turow's "OneL" and Martha Kimes' "Ivy Briefs" were two of the better ones) it dawned on me that I might enjoy studying law.

Two realizations quickly followed. One was that I had no intention of going away to a campus-based law school; it was too expensive, too demanding, and I sure didn't want to be away from home that much. The other realization was that I certainly wasn't ever going to actually practice law, so the dreaded bar examination was thereby finessed.

The obvious solution was to make application to an online law school (headquartered, you'll probably not be surprised to know, in California) http://www.nwculaw.edu/cgi-bin/nwcu where, come July 1st, I'll plunge into the basics: the law of contracts, torts, and civil procedure. It's not Harvard Law School, of course, but it is a "real" law school and will cover much the same territory as residential schools and give me a general sense of what a legal education entails. Freed from the constraints of the bar exam I can progress just as quickly or slowly as life allows, and with on-line video conferencing and live discussions I'm able to participate in the law school process as much as technology allows.

A good friend, a nearly-retired physician, traveled the same road several years ago, and for the same reasons, and his encouragement, as well as that from another friend who's an active member of the local bar, gave me the push I needed. It promises to be an interesting and challenging couple of years, and, I trust, just enough fun to keep the process alive. But, please: no more lawyer jokes.