10.5.05
October and this semester is chugging along. Its been going be very quickly, which I is a good sign being that It has been very engaging and anything but boring. If a levels of alertness is any indicator, I haven’t gotten sleepy in any of the classes yet - whether it is because of the intensity of the course material, not wanting to miss any amount of the sheer amount of information, or the fact that I’m more of an evening person I’m not quite sure.
Working out some details at work on my next work assignment, it is looking more and more like I’ll be rotating onto a different division, there was talk of me staying with the current one, which at the moment I would prefer. However I am open to the new experiences, chance to work with new managers, opportunities to develop new skills and areas of expertise.
Tonight’s lecture had a mention of alternative settlements outside of the traditional trial, namely arbitration courts and mediation. Kind of liked the possibilities of what many are calling a growing area of conflict resolution, something that I think I might be interested in looking into after I get past these 1L courses. I recall M saying once that a good attorney will actually be able to keep you out of court with a fair settlement. Fair really meaning literally fair, not the largest, fattest payout, but something that both the client and other party can live with.
Of course the obvious first reaction to this idea is some clients are out for blood, either out of vengence, or while faced with a claim so serious that they are justified in going for the house. Other clients are simply more risk-loving, more the gambling type. These sort of cases are what the court was designed for. have a trial. In some ways the attorney should be able to inform the client a risk assessment of the claim, and the client’s chances or winning.
This is an increasingly relevant area of law, something that the prof said isn’t covered as much as it should be in law school. With my current courseload spread out over the next 3 semesters I think I have some time to dig more into this.
Been a somewhat frequent user of zipcar as of late, and so far I’m sold. I’ve increased my mobility in the city substantially, at a minimal cost - even reserving a car for 4 full days a month is less than the cost of a monthly payment on a used car, fuel, and insurance. this past weekend I went up in MD and found a bunch of Chinese groceries in Rockville.