A Law Student's Ringbinder

Changes

2009-09-06T22:50:00.001+01:00

Now that I’ve finished the Back-to-School series I’m moving over to wordpress. I’ve been toying with the idea of a move – and a change in direction with my blog.

So here is what will be happening – firstly, since I am no longer a student I’m changing my website to simply my name – travisthetrout and will be moving over to wordpress – so please update your links / reader.

Secondly, as I want my blog to have a more “grown up” feel my student and a lot of my organisational blogging with be done over at Organisation for Students – so please feel free to check me out over there as well.

Back to School Series – Tackling the Home office [part 5]

2009-09-06T15:37:00.001+01:00

This is the final part in my back to school series. Law Minx asked for tips on tackling the thesis monster – unfortunately as I’ve never had the delights of doing such a thing myself I found anything I would say would be somewhat unhelpful. That said, a large chunk of her problem appears to be keeping the paperwork under control – and that I can help with.

Firstly I’d like to stress the importance of confining paperwork / study materials to one area of the house (side of the room if you live in halls).This helps improve your concentration when you are working and relaxation when you are having a time out. I always used to work while in bed as a student – which was a dangerous habit to get into as bed really should only be used for sleeping, otherwise you get into difficulties sleeping.

The next thing to do is be ruthless with your papers. There is always an overload of information – usually stuff that you don’t need and don’t use. If you are going to keep stuff “just in case” at least have a proper way of organising it – its not like electronic copies where you can just search for it. This is also a great way of clearing the clutter before starting a new academic year.

So we’ve got rid of the unnecessary paper and dumped it in the recycle box. Next step is to organise it. I do like keeping electronic copies of everything and but for those of you who simply love paper as it is easier to read / annotate etc you are most likely not going to get by without a filing cabinet of some kind. I know they are not particularly cheap but they are a god send when it comes to organising papers/articles and general bits and bobs. For everything else you can have the usual folders, and box files. The cheaper alternative to having a filing cabinet is metal box file.

After you have decided what you will use for the purpose of filing the papers, the next step is deciding how you will organise it. Labels should be usable – you need to know where everything is and unless you files are actually people’s names, alphabetically filing rarely works.

Assuming you’ve already split the papers into the large general topics. The way you split it next is very important. I am using the example here, where you are writing coursework, you’ve researched everything under the sun that’s remotely linked to your topic of choice and have photocopied books and printed articles / journals and legislation – everything you could get your hands on. If you have stopped using the material and just want to keep it “for future reference” a good, simple way to do it is simply find everything on that topic, band it, put it in a box file and label it – and put it on a shelf somewhere.

If still using the material it is more important to organise the papers in a way that is reflective of how you see yourself using them. For example my last piece of course work had 3 main arguments. So to start with I split the material into these categories. Then within each category – there was:

the essential material – the weighty articles backing up everything I had to say
the opposing POV – the stuff that developed a counter argument, or provided an interesting reflection.
the stuff that I may refer to, if I couldn’t find something strong - a lot of what I found at the beginning of my research ended up in this category – as I found as my research developed I found stronger arguments and more developed points of view.
and finally the stuff that I wouldn’t use but wanted to keep.

Each page/bundle is labelled with where I got it with a post it detailed why I want it and I what I intend to use it for. And that is just the basics – I will also have highlighted and annotate the materials.

In another file I will keep everything I’ve written to date, every draft and all my rough notes. I also used to photocopy particular arguments/notes on a particular topic and include them with the research papers on the matter as well as in my working file – so that when I looked at a particular file I knew what was going on.

Once you’ve filed the papers away into a filing cabinet in terms of research project and your general subject files. hopefully you’ll have less clutter and a more organised space.

Drinks with: LPC Students

2009-09-02T22:51:00.001+01:00

Yesterday after work we had what was our first reunion post – LPC. Most people have now returned from their summer of travelling to start training contracts or job hunting. The stats are as follows: 4x with Training Contracts, 3x non law jobs, 2x law jobs, 1x no job. Quite a variety.

There was a sort of familiarity about being back in our usual haunt surrounded by friendly faces, yet undoubtedly things have changed, there was a new sense of competitiveness and tension. Particularly when 2 friends were talking about the fantastic interview they had last week that they really thought they got – unfortunately it turned out to be the same place, for the one job. So they decided to analyse the differences between their interviews until they were blue in the face. It is clear as long as we are all searching for a training contract there will be a certain tension.

Graduation is in three months – lets hope there will be a lighter atmosphere then.

Back to School Series – Blogging Round up [Part 4]

2009-08-31T22:12:00.001+01:00

There is always a wealth of organisational tips for students floating around the web, no more so than the September Back to School season. So I've decided to put together a collection of some of the more recent additions that I found worth a read.

A few of our very own law students have been tackling the back to school topic (whether intentionally or not) and have come up with a few gems:

The Uni Looney about to embark on his second year of law school has put together a great list of advice for those starting out at university. Not just for law students, but words of wisdom beneficial to everyone.

Scots Law Student tackles the issue of students going paperless (a well informed post which is worth a read) and taking a laptop to college (addressing issues such as security and backing up).

Michael of Law Actually has also recently written up the conclusion of his open source law student experiment - even if you're not considering going totally open source there is still some information contained within that applies to all, or may just inspire you consider going open source.

From our friends across the pond there has been a lot of blogging from law students detailing their return or first impressions of law school. A few weeks back we had the 10 commandments of law school from fearfully optimistic ( a collection of tips equally applicable to us), and more recently we had an excellent post on note-taking "You're a law student not a court reporter". Over at Legal Geekery the importance of eating correctly (an often looked over
topic) was brought into the spotlight with regards Snacking.

Of course we can’t just take advice from law students, there is other useful stuff out there. Lifehacker the indispensible source of geeky goodies brings us another great back to school series and I would have to recommend reading both Classic ways to boost your note-taking and GTD explained for Students. GetOrganizedWizard blogged How to become a smart student over the summer but I thought it was worth a mention even this close to the new semester in case people hadn’t seen it yet. Ian’s Messy Desk also does a great organising post: how to be an organized student some of the tips given are just common sense but the post is a nice straightforward to the point posting which sums everything up so I thought it was worth a mention. And Organisation for Students talks about getting all moved into halls and includes a list of items to pack.

And finally in the inevitable lists department we have:
Top 100 tools for learning in 2009 although a lot of them you will have used before or probably won't find that useful - it will be useful to have a quick glance down the list when you have some free time.
Online Universities weblog provides us with 100 best back to school hacks. Again a good list to glance over, and is probably more relevant for students just starting out covering everything from moving in, to organisation and time management.

Deafness – a mix of fear and frustration

2009-08-30T23:39:00.001+01:00

I’m taking a break from the B2S series to vent my frustrations. I'm ill which for me equates deafness which only adds to the insanity I'm feeling as I am confined to bed drinking tea on bank holiday weekend no less. As I've mentioned before I'm Hard of Hearing (HOH). A while back I met a guy whose hearing level was similar to mine – but he learnt sign language at school (where as I rely totally on lip reading). Annoyed that I was never taught to sign at school I decided to sign up for evening classes in sign language to start mid-September.

This of course was not as simple as I would like - it is one of the few classes that you cannot sign up with online at my local college. I emailed them and they suggested I go in to see them between 9 and 5 which of course doesn't work for me as I'm in work / commuting to work from 6am until half 6pm. The remaining option was phoning them. Given that I lip I hate phones, but I braved phoning them in my lunch hour - this turned into a disastrous conversation - I couldn't understand a word they said and they couldn't understand a word I said and so I didn't get signed up to the class. Very frustrating.

Now I know there are deaf people are lawyers - but for me the fact that I'm HOH was what put me off trying to become a barrister - that said I still worry about being able to cope as a solicitor. It is a hard thing to get people to understand what I experience, and I've found there is a distinct lack of support. Here in the UK both the Group for Solicitors with Disabilities (now lawyers with disabilities division of the law society) and Deaf Lawyers UK seem to be MIA. I've emailed both a few months ago now and failed to receive any response. I have debated whether my attempt to reach the lawyers with disabilities was lost during the change in organisation even though they say it shouldn't have been. As for the deaf lawyers their website hasn't been updated in a long time. Compare this to America where there is a regular blog and a twitter presence of deaf lawyers – and generally a good sense of community.

I find the UK's lack of support a great disappointment and in many ways it is discouraging – as it doesn’t bode well for coping in the future. You’d think with all the advancements in social media – it would improve.

I received little support through school and university - but I've always considered myself self sufficient. However, more recently I've found myself to struggle more, due to a mix of deteriorating hearing and a much more busy work environment, where lip reading is more physically exhausting and probably also hindered by my own unwillingness to announce to the world my difficulties. I have many fears about being able to be a solicitor one day - for example my difficulties in using a telephone confidently - some days it just makes me want to pack it all in. It just seems hard enough to qualify these days without admitting to the fact that you may not be able to do some aspects of the job that should be the most straightforward part.

Back to School Series – Get Organised [Part 3]

2009-08-30T12:29:00.002+01:00

How to get organised for the new academic year:

This third installment of my Back to School Series is focusing on those who see the new academic year as an opportunity to finally get some organisation in their lives. Whether they have just started university, or didn't quite get the grades their hoped for at the end of the last year.

My last posts for undergraduate and LPC students will suit those who already are organised but just need a little help. This post is more for those who just simply are not organised but want to turn over a new leaf.

Have a goal

The thing about turning over a new leaf and getting more organised is that you will usually have something that you want to achieve / get out of it. It is important to work out these goals. Even if you just change one simple thing - you've achieved a lot.

My 2 goals at university were broad - get a 2.1, make lifelong friends. During my first year of university I enjoyed doing the minimum work possible, I never did the prep, and I always answered "I'm sorry, I don't know" in class. I had the lifelong friends but was never going to get my 2.1. My goal then was to change that and become more organised. The main problems I identified were: that I enjoyed having fun, none of my mates went to university which was a bad influence and I kept putting off the work only to do it half heartedly on the way to class (if I was lucky). I changed this by developing a schedule. I'd get up earlier - do the work in the morning before anyone else was awake - I'm only talking about getting up at 9am rather than midday - wasn't too much of a hardship once I got used to it. I'd then have classes during the day, stay in uni (so no distractions) and do a bit of a write up of the days notes and then come home to dinner, relaxing with friends, and go out most nights of the week. The perfect work-life balance - I was more happy and my grades shot up.

Of course this sort of intense timetabling won't work for everyone - but the key is - identify your goals, work out what needs to be changed to achieve them, and change one of these things if not all to get closer to your goal.

The first steps to achieve these goals

For most goals the thing in common is the need for a little more organisation. There are 2 things everyone should have - even if you have nothing else you have started the long journey to getting organised. These two things are an academic diary and a to do list.

The Diary.
Shopping for the perfect diary is never easy. I've currently got two diaries that I've previously blogged about – the Moleskine diary and my to-do-list diary. Both of which I'd highly recommend for anyone deciding to get organised. I enjoy having a *real* diary rather than just using something like Google calendar as notes can be made at any time so you don't forget.

The moleskine diary is a pocket diary - there are many different styles and you should choose on based on how your day plays out. Some people need a page a day to schedule their appointments - detailing everything, others a page a week as they simply write things like "9am contract lecture" in the Friday box.

It is important to have a timetable that you've made for yourself as well as the scheduled classes - have a better idea of when you are going to do prep work and the fun stuff.

The To-do List.

The important thing to note is a diary can often double up as your to-do list. Here I've used a desktop diary to detail everything where as here, the pocket diary is sufficient to keep a little tickable list. Of course many people prefer to go the electronic route with RTM for example, or my favourite - mini task (see previous blog post here).

Finally, if you are really not the organised sort, the way I got my bf organised my be something to try - scrap piece of paper - write what you need to do on it (in his case what he had to do to complete his final year project) and use blue tac to stick it above the bed. Get some satisfactions out of scribbling off everything you've done. worked wonders for him.(of course there is still the tattoo option).

Once you've done all these things (or even any of these things) and stick to them, it will be easier to stay organised: as I’ve often found - Simple things are often the most effective.

The Back to School Series will continue with a collection of other people's postings that I would recommend, and my additional post on saving your home from thesis monsters (which I am writing at law minx's request).

Back to School Series – For the Undergraduate [Part 2]

2009-08-29T17:49:00.001+01:00

The main difference between the undergraduate experience and the LPC experience that I blogged about in part 1 is that everything (or the majority of things are done on the computer - sometimes whether you prefer it or not).

This post is not so much about HOW to study at undergraduate level - as the range is too broad - instead I've detailed three types of tools that I used at undergrad (out of the wide range of software I’ve tried over the years) that worked well for me, and that I believe that you can’t go wrong with. Any of these methods will serve their purpose with the right motivation and preparation over the course of the academic year.

1. Ready Made - Little/no set up required

For a single service look to Notely (this can also be used by those aspiring to be more organised in the new academic year as it is very straightforward to use.) I used this during my undergraduate degree and found it to be a great addition to my studying routine (see previous detailed posting on it here). For those that don't like wasting time getting their services from the far reaches of the web - this is a useful service. However, for some people Notely may have more features than they know what they do with, which is why sometimes juggling only the things you need works better, for example I used to use google cal, google docs (see previous posting here) and remember the milk.

2. Use of a wiki to provide more creative freedom

Need your own voice to do what you want? A wiki is the solution. As I mentioned in my LPC Post PBworks (PBwiki) is a great online wiki, simple to use and edit. The benefits of the wiki are obvious - mainly the freedom to design it as you want.
PBwiki is useful because it is an online service (great for the LPC when I didn't take my own laptop to uni).

As an undergrad, I took my laptop everywhere so as an alternative to doing everything online, is the downloadedable Linked Notes (I use Basic) which is great for general note taking - it creates a tree like structure for your notes. It also links pages automatically for you. This works well if you incorporate your own glossary for legal terms or cases. For example you would keep a page entitled by a case name, and write about it on that page, and then any time you refer to it on any other page within linked notes it will automatically link in and you can just click on it to read the information - this is a great function as to do this in most other note-taking methods, you will have to manually put it in yourself. The downside is something like if you've entitled a page with a common term like property it will link in each time even though you may be using it in all different contexts - of course it is all in the wording and you learn to get round this easy enough.

3. For Every Student: the classic

I know that everyone knows about onenote (see previous detailed review here) by now, but you really can't beat the classics. The ability to dump all your thoughts, link pages, create the layout with a certain amount of freedom means it works well both for the organised and those who need a more relaxed approach.

Another great thing, particularly when it comes to coursework and revision is the search function for quickly highlighting and finding the things you need. Just type in the search term and all the pages with the term change colour to be identifiable. Very useful.

And as silly as it sounds I also loved simple things such as the ability to make it pretty. and getting the satisfaction of ticking off things on my to-do lists.

The Back to School series will continue soon with how to get more organised. Feel free to share what works for you and/or ask questions.

Back to School Series – LPC perspective [Part 1]

2009-08-27T22:41:00.001+01:00

For those starting the LPC this year the thing to remember is computer use less, notetaking more. It was a surprise at first not to be joined at the hip to my laptop, but with practical based classes, and a couple of hour long seminars the last thing anybody wanted to do was mess around with their computer. Things to remember:

1. Get the supplies

So go out and buy LOTS of sturdy notebooks (and pens). Some people use the ones with plastic dividers in them others use file paper. I used a mix of both. The notebook was for preparation and in-class notes, then I'd either write up or type up my notes neatly which would then be added into my folder, along with the tutor's handouts. You will also do a lot of highlighting and annotating of textbooks - something I had not done a lot of before starting the LPC. So get a bunch of multicoloured highlighters, sticky tabs and erasable pens (which can be a godsend for keeping the textbook tidy if you are not great at writing neatly like myself.) A big bag is also a must – the books are heavy (that, or a small bag and strong arms).

2. Have a system for taking good notes

The best way to take notes in my opinion is to focus on a number of things. Firstly there is always a lot of preparation to do. For each class there is a chapter or two (sometimes 5) to read in preparation. Information is good to know in advance of class but if you have time its good to read again after class and go through noting the important parts. There can be a lot of information, not all of it is given the same weight.

My style of notetaking for the LPC, might not be useful to everyone, and is not limited to the LPC can also be used for undergrad, but I find it great for the preliminary notes. When preparing for class I will have read the required reading and completed the accompanying work. (usually a set of questions, forms to fill in etc). Then I will only write one page of the notebook, leaving the adjacent page blank. In class we usually would go over the prep work (or at least the parts people were struggling with) the blank space would allow me to note down the extra things people said, whether they were specifically answering the question, exam tips or simply points of general interest. I also did this for in-class exercises - complete the exercise, leave a blank page, annotate.

It is also useful to highlight key things in your notes - so you can have a quick answer for when the tutor calls on you. I always used to highlight, section numbers, civil procedure rules, and forms etc.

3. Prepare NOW for Later

Passing the LPC is based on the strength of your notes (one of the reasons why everyone *borrowed* my notes). What you do with the mess of class notes really depends on how the individual learns - hopefully by the time you are completing the LPC you will know what works for you. Some people like to type up all their notes - make it neat print it off and stick it in their file and never look at it again until exam time. For some people that works just fine. But that is not the way I learn. For me it needs to be visual. I need to work with the material not just tidy it up - so my methods as mention elsewhere in my blog are to use the material to create additional material - hence the number of lists, tables and annotations in coloured pen that make up my notes.

4. Enlist the help of the computer

Although on the LPC a lot of the work is done on paper. But having a good way to organise notes on the computer still helps particularly if you are the type it all up type. During my LPC I used two main notetaking methods (although there were others I used - see here for my notetaking posts).

For mac users you cannot beat circus ponies. Simply wonderful notetaking software. With a great visual impact - pretty much a virtual version of the regular notebook. You can add pages, divide pages use lined, plain or squared pages. A linked contents and index made automatically and you even have the swooshing sound as you turn the page. Can also be exported to the web - I used this and shared it with classmates.

For windows, the closest equivalent is One Note - which I used religiously during my undergrad, but stayed clear of during my LPC as my needs weren't the same. Instead I used PBwiki (now called PBworks) (which I also used during undergrad). PBWiki is the classic online wiki, no set up required, simple and easy to use. just type and link everything in. (see here and here for previous posts on PBwiki). I chose this for several reasons the freedom it gives to create and link pages in a way that suits, the fact that it is online and I can access it anywhere and The actual method I used to organise this is simply in a layered format with everything linked in, including web links etc. great for painting the bigger picture. But some people may consider this a waste of time if it doesn't fit in with their study methods. As anything done on the computer (unless you print it off) cannot be taken into any of the open book exams.

Finally build up a good stockpile of weblinks, and don't underestimate how much the information out there can help you.

5. Enlist the help of friends

On the LPC I found colleagues more willing to help each other than undergrad (as we were in the same group until march, sitting together everyday - it would be hard not to become good friends.) So upon starting the LPC, get to know people and be friends, you may only be together a year but they can be a great support system.

As a lot of what we do it open to interpretation and also because we get so much work, it is interesting to see where others place the focus of their studies. Different people will put different importance on different things, and it is nice to see a different perspective. Additionally it is important to note that if you enjoy a subject you are more likely to work harder at it and create better notes - if you had a subject and find that your notes are lacking head straight to the person who enjoys that subject - there will always be something that you can return the favour with.

The back to school series will continue with the undergrad posting.

The Back to School Series [Intro]

2009-08-26T21:26:00.002+01:00

It is officially the BACK TO SCHOOL season. In the shops, in the news, in the blogs. So now it is my turn to jump on the bandwagon. I’ve decided to do a collection of posts aimed at different types of students based on my experiences rather than wax lyrical about all the “you-can’t-live-without-this” school tools. It is not going to be all the BRAND NEW AND SHINY things that are being advertised like mad, but rather the classics, that never fail to disappoint. I will also do a posting on a collection of other people’s materials that I have enjoyed, used and would recommend.

My first post will be aimed at those starting on the LPC. When I first started this blog, that was the position I was in – and it will be nice to do a little reminiscing while I am at it. The post will focus on the need for a paper system, rather than always being on the computer and how best to get started now, to save time later.

The second post will be aimed at the undergraduate with the hefty workload, multiple subjects and a predisposition for being organised.

The third post will be aimed at those trying to get organised, and that are in need of a simple and quick fix to solve all their problems.

And then my final post will delight in what else is out there (from some of my favourite blogs) that I recommend reading.

Haruki Murakami [Daily Commute]

2009-08-24T22:51:00.001+01:00

Over the past week on the train I’ve indulged in two Haruki Murakami books:

After the Quake

A thin, slender book, which seemed somehow the right kind of book to take on my 6am train – however, in hindsight a collection of short stories was probably not the best Murakami novel to start with.

After the Quake is a collection of short stories showcasing different people’s experiences after the earthquake and focusing on the individuals friendships and relationships. Painting a picture. Elegantly written and incredibly imaginative. I love his style. That said, I felt like some of the stories were cut too short and the many isolated incidents left me feeling empty.

Having read After the Quake I was inspired to try out another of Haruki Murakami’s books – a more well known one this time - Norwegian wood.

Norwegian Wood

My boyfriend bought this book a while back, attracted simply by the Beatles reference. I was uncertain whether I would like it as we don’t really share the same tastes when it comes to reading material.

The story has a sort of sweet sadness to it – a tender love story told from the perspective of a man remembering his university days. The scenes and emotions are captured perfectly and I came away feeling a strong connection with the characters. A truely captivating book – I almost forgot to get off the train.

Worth a read.

Expectations

2009-08-23T20:07:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I went to a self-defence seminar on pressure points and ground fighting. The seminar was for people of all fighting abilities including newbies like myself and my ~~unsuspecting victim~~ friend.

I am 5 ft, 6.5 stones, have a slight build – and I’ve always thought I stand no chance against any attacker. That said, the seminar inspired some confidence. It was an amazing feeling to be able to get someone twice my size to back off.

The 3 hour class focused on different techniques that can be used. The instructor gave the example that a fighter can withstand a severe beating, and being kicked on the shins mid-fight – but will still feel pain at 2 o’clock in the morning when he walks into the coffee table in the dark. It is all about expectations – he is not expecting to bang his shins therefore it hurts – he has not mentally prepared for it. We tried out a number of attacks that can surprise an attacker to allow you to fight, or run. We then practiced this in a number of situations such as face to face attacks, being in a headlock, being on the ground and being pinned against the wall. Obviously we were practising with friends and trying to not hurt them too much – but it worked – I can only imagine the effect if you tried it when scared and fighting to hurt and get away.

I had never considered self-defence classes before – but I would say I’d recommend one to everyone to prepare for anything that may happen. Practical benefits aside – it was also a great chance to unwind, and meet new people.

Apologies.

2009-08-23T19:47:00.001+01:00

Apologies for not being around much, as I’ve tweeted, I lost my internet connection over the past couple of weeks (due to moving flats and the mix up with the internet provider etc etc). But hopefully from here on out I shall be back to normal.

Review of Rape Legislation – My views.

2009-08-05T23:12:00.002+01:00

It was reported today in the Times that -

Ms Harman vetoed the review at the last minute because she has wants the legislative proposals are toughened up to better address the concerns of women.

…

Ms Harman is understood to want a more radical overhaul of the law which could include targets for prosecutors and police to secure more convictions.

I shall never understand this country’s obsession with TARGETS. Yes, the conviction rate is pretty much non-existent (for many reasons) – but if there is not enough evidence there is not enough evidence – rape unfortunately is one of those things that women do lie about and it would be unfair for those falsely accused to be convicted of such a serious crime – simply to meet government targets rather than having anything to do with evidence. I am not saying nothing should be done – as a rape victim myself (whose case got nowhere I will add, through no fault of my own) – I do believe that not enough is being done. But in no way is meeting quotas going to help. Although we aim to protect women and victims, we cannot and shouldn’t make the law too one sided.

Campaigners say that women face a culture of disbelief and delayed responses from police, which can mean vital evidence being lost, and that more training is required to ensure that rape is treated as a serious crime.

They also suggest that juries need more guidance. Research has found that many believe that if a women did not do everything to fight off her attacker, or if she had been drinking, she was complicit.

I do agree with these comments in the times article – based on my own experience with the police and with friends. 2 years ago I was raped by one of my best friends in my own house after a night out. It was a confusing experience (because it was a close friend rather than a stranger, and because our mutual friends were torn over who to believe) so I didn’t go to the police right away. I left it a few days. Which was wrong in their eyes – and to them it was me “covering my tracks” and they accused me of lying and simply cheating on my boyfriend. They used the fact I didn’t tell my parents against me (given that they live abroad I didn’t want to worry them at the time, I told them when I saw them face to face). And the used the fact that I had been drinking against me. It was also dealt with by a male police officer which also made me feel uncomfortable. They also accused me of not telling them things (when I did), ridiculed me and made me feel worthless. This was at a point when I had lost my best friends, been kicked out my house, was commuting an hour to uni and was *trying* to study for my 2nd yr law exams on top of being raped.

I would hope that not everyone experiences the same thing I did with the police. I think support needs to be there for people to encourage them to go to the police in the first place – low conviction rate, why put yourself through all the stress. Secondly, this issue is a sensitive one, and one that should be dealt with accordingly. That said, my issues, based on my experience are with the system are nothing to do with the law (although it does need a review) and everything to do with the police. At the time I knew there would not be a conviction, but I hoped by reporting it it may help some other person later down the line.

It’s been 2 years now, and there is many a night I still cry myself to sleep and many a day when I burst into tears for no reason. Sometimes simply because there was just so many unresolved issues. That year was the worst year of my life, trying to piece my life back together and salvage my 2.1 after my miserable exam performance. Even now some things aren’t the same. I could never expect the law or the police to solve the issues I have but it would have been nice to feel at some point during the whole thing that someone was on my side.

My rant over. Let them continue to fight amongst themselves.

A month has somehow passed me by…

2009-08-05T22:29:00.001+01:00

It’s official – I have been in my current job for a whole month (monthly appraisal is on the horizon). That said, this week we finally started the job we were employed to do. I now have a desk – which really makes all the difference.

Training Contract applications have obviously been eating up my time (and everyone else’s time) along with the move (still moving house as the bf has decided to go to Spain and I’m doing it myself) – so life has been pretty full. But I’m determined to get back into my blogging / twittering again as I’ve been neglecting them.

Moving House: Signing the Contract

2009-07-30T05:30:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I finally got to sign the contract of my new flat. The annoying thing about commuting is that nothing is still open when you get back home – such as estate agents – who won’t hand over the keys until you have signed and initialled every page of the contract. Day before yesterday tried in vain to reach the estate agents before it shut but it was really not my day – half four train was cancelled and there was something down on the line so all trains were terminating at my stop (even if they didn’t normally stop) causing chaos.

The main signing of the contract I left (dangerously) to my boyfriend he sorted out the payments, ID checks, Insurance etc. Yesterday’s xkcd’s comic really fitted the bill so I will share it here (click picture to enlarge):

Again must dash to work – but I shall be writing a series of posts about organising the move soon.

Week Three: Drama.

2009-07-24T22:45:00.001+01:00

Commute has been easier this week with only a 9-5 day and armed with a season ticket.

Last week I blogged about concerns with regards inter-office competition and general impressions, there was one thing I overlooked – workplace flirtation.

Everyone is beginning to get to know each other better, the new team are clicking, gotten past the “getting to know you stuff” and moving onto the digging deeper stuff. We are now prepared to answer back to the office tease (who threatens to remove people from his Christmas card list on a daily basis), become Facebook friends and have more of a laugh as a team.

All of these are good things, the thing is one of my fellow colleagues engages in the sort of flirtation that I thought only occurred in high school. He knows I have a bf and that I am not interested, so the flirting is not as extreme now as the beginning of the week. But given that we work together his efforts to make me laugh/kill me/annoy me is distracting, not that I don’t mind a good laugh, but it’s disturbing the office and we’ve been getting complaints. Sort of guy who is funny with everyone though, hoping he gets bored and moves on to his next “babe” soon.

Daily Commute: End of the Orange Week

2009-07-24T21:02:00.002+01:00

So far this week the theme book wise has been orange. with another two orange covered books to add to the pile:

Yesterday’s Book: Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You (Marcus Chown).

Concise book on quantum theory, supposedly for the ordinary person – but I still found it a bit heavy first thing in the morning and only made it to chapter 4. That said I would definitely like to have a second stab at it another time. Excellent review here for those considering having a read.

Today’s book is still on the go, I’m reading Survivor (Chuck Palahniuk) another one of my bf’s holiday reads. My bf was like don‘t read it as he hated it. But personally I’ve found it really good so far, even though it’s a bit bizarre and the chapters are numbered backwards. But more on this when I finish – today was too much daydreaming and less reading.

Daily Commute: Facing my fears

2009-07-22T20:26:00.002+01:00

Book Review: The Tiger that Isn’t: seeing through a world of Numbers (Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot).

Another day, another book. I have just noticed that orange definitely seems to be the theme so far this week (must try making one of those rainbow bookshelves which I am ever so jealous of).

The book itself is a GREAT read. Described as a “popular mathematics” book and more specifically a statistics book I was initially put off. Despite having studied Additional maths at school, like most law students, maths has never been my forte (and I’m terribly out of practice for that matter). However, this book actually makes numbers less scary. It makes sense and provides you with interesting facts, putting a new spin on what you read in the papers.

To give you an idea of the topics discussed, I will give you an example:

In 1997 the labour government said that it would spend an extra £300m over five years to create a million new childcare places….

So is £300m to provide a million places a big number? Share it out and it equals £300 per place. Divide it by five to find its worth in any one year (remember it was spread over 5 years), and you are left with £60 per year. Spread that across 52 weeks of the year and it leaves £1.15 a week. Could you find childcare for £1.15 a week? In parts of rural china, maybe.

The book hits a number of topical issues, from knife crime, the impact speed cameras, the discovery of new genes, taxes and cancer. The results are surprising, and never once is the book boring (and I usually find numbers boring) it is entertaining, well written and intriguing. Very readable. Makes me wish someone would put the swine flu figures into context.

On a side note, the authors do a programme on Radio 4, More or Less. Shall have to have a dig around that later.

Daily Commute: The comfort of a legal thriller

2009-07-21T19:27:00.002+01:00

Book Review: Judge and Jury (James Patterson)

Today’s reading choice was my usual easy-to-read-lose-my-head-in-the-clouds type book. A donation from my mother (who usually only reads magazines but has recently discovered that books make good holiday reading).

Judge and Jury as anyone can guess from the title is a legal thriller. Good read, good pace, but predictable. Maybe I just read too many of these things (and watch too many crime dramas), but I pretty much second-guessed it all.

That said, I’d read it again and I’d recommend it purely for the entertainment quality.

Suggestions for crime / legal thriller books anyone? (I love Kellerman and John Grisham books so there is no need to suggest any of them, lol).

Daily Commute: learning about Germans.

2009-07-21T07:02:00.003+01:00

Book Review: A Year in the Scheisse getting to know the Germans. (Roger Boyes)

My bf bought this book when we were travelling in Europe last year (although I believe he actually bought it in Italy rather than Germany for some bizarre reason). Asked his opinion on it “okay”. So never bothered to read it then I had legal reading and Oscar Wilde to get on with at the time. Digging around our book shelves (which are now 3 books deep thanks to my LPC material and cookery books) I came across the book and though I may as well give it a go.

Branded as a travel book, this book is anything but. It is apparently a best seller in Germany – maybe they ALL just wanted to see what an British Journalist living in Germany was writing about because it is not that good (maybe it is better in German?). That said it is a easy read, and I finished it before the daily train journey was over (and I was on a fast train today), so if you are looking for something to pass the time, it probably is good. It is funny (probably more so if you are a guy actually) and details the mishaps of a guy trying to find a girl to marry so he can cut his taxes, but it is neither laugh out loud funny, or I must share this funny, which is kind of disappointing. They could have achieved a lot more with this book and for those reasons I couldn’t really say I would recommend it.

Working update

2009-07-17T22:50:00.001+01:00

Another week has suddenly flown by, and I’ve not blogged about all the things I wanted to blog about. Again. So here is a run through…

Job has been taking up a lot of time because of the simply horrid commute (leaving half 5 in the morning these days), but work has been enjoyable. As anyone who reads this blog will know I LOVE organising and work is really picking up now with regards organising and using the filing system on the computer etc. Of course a lot of the general office work is dealing with endless stacks of paper being sent elsewhere in the office and we have to scan and file it all.

I want to make a good impression (given that the job is only for 3 months, but they can decide to keep us on). But there are 2 main issues. The girl I work with ( my competition so to speak) is lovely and chatty she wants to be a nurse and knows nothing about law so people overlook stuff. In contrast I am a quiet person (partially because of my deafness) and I feel I need to learn to be less passive. As an LPC student, they have higher expectations of me, and I’ve gotten a mixed reaction - as some people see me as a threat, and others are just confused as to why I am doing such a job and don’t suspect I’ll stick around. That said generally everyone is nice, and I’m loving the job.

There are downsides to the job of course, the cost of the commute, my distinct lack of desk which results in us getting kicked out of the office at lunchtime and me spending more money than I should on lunch and snacks. So will need to start spending less. And last but not least swine flu scares (need to get prepared).

Commuting I have also found to be a source of boredom – I’m currently reading a book a day (entertaining crime novels) and I have run out – so I’m taking suggestions.

Work aside, there is also the stress of TC applications at the moment. Unfortunately I’m not as motivated as I would like to be or should be, because I just feel a bit hopeless at the moment. Law vacancies are down and it is reported as being a 150% increase in the number of applicants per training contract this year, from a personal pov I know the competition is very tough to stay in the Bristol area.

Online, there has been a number of interesting reads this week. Rocket Matter have done a week of GTD for lawyers some little inspirational tips in there; Cearta blogs about the New open source law journal. From an organising point of view loads of new applications/software are popping up all over the place, so I will blog more about these when I have time to experiment more.

And finally for a chuckle, grumpy old deafies brought to my attention a delightful commercial - Deaf Metal.

Starting work….. ending Uni

2009-07-09T07:00:00.004+01:00

Well I made it back to England after a very LONG boat trip (10hrs) back from Ireland to Birkenhead. And then a 3-4 hour drive on home from there. The boat was seriously cramped, and rather boring.

After getting back on Sunday, I started my new job the next day. Obviously the usual policies apply so will probably trying and keep my work blogging to a minimum. Our first day was a training day (with all the new starters from different departments and different offices including a bunch of fellow LPCers). Training was basically about the history of the firm, the work they do, the staff, various polices etc. All very interesting, but it was a long day nevertheless.

Second day we started doing proper work – well more so, Basically we’re learning the organisation system. There are codes and passwords for everything, but you do start to get the hang of it. The problem is at the moment we (myself and another girl doing the same job) are moving around everywhere because our equipment won’t arrive for another 2 weeks – so get used to one department and then change. That said, it is interesting because you get a better feel of the firm and meet more people. From an geeky organisational POV I completely love their filing system, not had a proper chance to use it, don’t know if I will in my job, but I hope so.

On a different note I can now say my time at Uni has come to an end (although do have graduation at the end of the year). As those of you who also follow me on Twitter will know we got our LPC results this week: I got a distinction – so I’m really really pleased. Really thought I was hallucinating when I read the names on the board, but we also got the letter in the post the next day, which broke down the results: I got 82% in Commercial, 83% in Commercial Property and 77% in Employment (and passed professional conduct). So looks like the work paid off.

Anyhow got to dash and get ready for work, will blog more when I get used to my new timetable of work and get everything fitted in.

Creativity

2009-07-02T22:08:00.004+01:00

As a law student, I've never felt like I've had the time to embrace one of my other passions - Art. Today I've spent the day with artists - and its been a refreshing experience. In many ways I admire the creativity and passion of somewhat kooky artists - my mother being one of the best of them - and wish I could love my job as much as they do.

First on our long tour of Ireland was to see a Ceramic Artist Ann Marie Robinson who makes a range of ceramics, and some particularly funky teapots (available for sale at the Taylor Gallery see here for examples of her work). Ann Marie is a warm and friendly person, inviting us into her lovely home, lively decorated with some of her pieces. She likes to live in an organised chaos with lots of passion and dislikes a structured style of teaching art. What she dislikes even more (aside from being woken up at 5am by a neighbour on a daily basis) is art supplies in labelled boxes - she doesn't work in a boxed and rigid way but with a go with the flow attitude, and a little bit of chaos mixed in. Art and Boxes don't mix - probably why I was more destined for the law than the life of an artist. Nevertheless it is fun every once in a while to indulge.

Once we had acquire the teapot of our dreams (for a wedding present) we proceeded with a mad drive (across more green countryside) to get wrapping paper and a card (we ended up in what I could only describe as roundabout city with 7 roundabouts in a row and my head was turned. After a quick wrapping on the present ontop of the boot of the car we continued on to the see the bride to be (another art teacher). Felt very secret service meeting on the top of a multi story carpark (as we didn't know how to get to her house) before following her down and out of the town down even more country roads to her house.

Her house, which is really a crazy farmhouse with everyone walking in and out all afternoon coming in for a good strong brew before wandering out again - great family and traditional feel (one of the main things I miss about no longer living in Ireland). They had put together a great spread of cakes, pie and tea, simply wonderful.

Overall a very hectic day, leaving me with a desire to get into more creative things after being asked a million times if I did art too. This evenings tidying therefore has me looking through some old art work from my As and A-level Art.

[Taking another look at] Lexology

2009-07-01T23:38:00.001+01:00

Today (in between a spa treatment, notebook hunting, lunch at the Pheasant, visiting a close friend and fighting a cute kitten for my dinner) I decided to play around with Lexology a wee bit more since I got reminded of it by an email from lawcareers. Makes a nice change from Linex Legal.

Lexology, for those who have not come across it before is a service that upon registration, emails you a newsfeed (daily) of the articles published by Commercial law firms. Sort of like all the firm newsletters in the one place. and the best thing about it is that it is FREE.

Registration is easy, simply fill in a few details such as name address etc. Then choose some practice areas from the extensive choice and the jurisdiction (again you can choose as many as you please). You do get a lot of information coming through, so it is probably best to limit yourself as there is a lot of material to get through and the more there is the more likely you are to skim over it.

The information you initially get is identified by name, date and firm with a brief description. Upon clicking it you get the opportunity to read the article in a text form or in some cases a PDF document mostly about legal developments and cases. As well as hosting it on their website there is also a link to the original posting on the Firm's website.

In many ways I think this is a great service as it saves you signing up to different newsletters from different firms, and also the ability to limit it by practice area, (rather than by firm) to allow you to get rid of the things you don't particularly want to read. As a student, this resource interests me as it allows me to learn about new things and explore new interests, from sources I probably wouldn't come across otherwise. It also provides a source of inspiration. However, there is a severe risk of information overload. However, publications are usually written in a simple and easy to understand form (compared to some of the books I poured over during undergrad) which is definitely an added bonus in my opinion.

InformationOverlord recently had a look at a similar service: mycorporateresource.com - it appears to be aimed primarily at the american market and for those who are inhouse lawyers / ivolved in corporate organisations - but does provide UK information as well and up-to-date RSS feed. Also mentioned in his blog post is another service called Mondaq, unfortunately I've not had the pleasure of trying this one out - but I think that I've had enough legal reading for one day of my holiday.

Take Care.

Sorting out my Study, [Notebooks]

2009-06-30T19:56:00.012+01:00

Being at home at my parents means that I am organising my parent's stuff - however, it has also given me the opportunity to dig around my own room for some notebooks, diaries and albums from my childhood. Did the study today, here are some of my finds:

Wooden Cat Notebook bought in France in 1998. With a cat design on the front. Inside are sheets of squared paper and a pencil. I loved the style of this notebook but never found a true purpose for it - probably why the majority of pages remain unused today.

I made the cover of this one for my AS Level Art project. It was a Paul Gauguin themed book (inside I did various copies of his paintings). The cover itself is done using batik, using stock scenic imagery from his paintings. It is also very textured with different stitches, sequins, and beads, as well as being cushioned.

This is one of my favourite notebooks of all time - purely because Little Women is my favourite easy reading /feel good novel. The note book is full of little quotations, which make it an enjoyable read in its own right.

Of course anyone who reads regularly will know I'm a big fan of paper journals/diaries. Here is what has been found so far...

Now I got to decide what to do with these finds given that they are just stashed on shelves.
For the full collection check out my Flickr Set.

Job offer…Accepted.

2009-06-29T16:01:00.002+01:00

So I’ve been having a pretty relaxing time at home with the family. Unfortunately I forgot just how FRUSTRATING it can be living in the country – very slow internet (if and when it works) a severe lack of phone reception which doesn’t help when anxiously waiting to see if you got a job. The stress that I went though this morning hoping that the phone would be smart enough to pick up the phone call – or at the very least direct them to my voice mail.

The call came when I was standing in the queue at subway (the only thing my dad can “cook” for lunch). And they informed me I could have the job if I wanted it. Didn’t need to think about it – took it straight away. It’s an administrative job in a medium law firm – which in my book is pretty good going. When I say administrative its an ORGANISING job. After giving the interviewer tips on how to improve their system – I’m glad they took it in the positive way it was intended. I start next week – and everyone is like “oh you don’t get much of a holiday” I’ve had 3 weeks – that’s too long - I’m itching to get started.

That said I can now enjoy the rest of the week in Ireland.

For those still job hunting, keep at it. It will be worth the wait.

Keeping Track

2009-06-26T15:33:00.002+01:00

Life has gotten busier since leaving university and more complicated – simply because I don’t have the same rigid timetable. Unfortunately my page-a-week moleskine diary which was perfect for my studies is feeling the strain.

The solution: Purchasing a page a day desk diary (2009 ones are going cheap at the moment). I have chosen one that just says the date at the top, no times/schedule along the side – just a page for you to get creative.

Here is an example of a page:

I’ve split it into categories:

Jobs, to do list, plans for dinner, and blog.

(yes, little time & sunshine = pigging out)

Following a simple but rigid pattern to keep track of my to-dos and my job applications (will also note deadlines, when I should get a response by, and brief details of the job – there is a point where there are so many on the go it is just confusing).

In addition I’ve been noting my expenses, and notes on things I want to blog about etc (although I do a fair bit of the blog notes online).

My second example is slightly different – has the same overall structure, but I’ve allowed more free flowing thoughts:

Here I’ve had a lot more to-dos and of course packing to go on holiday – so the orange writing is my packing list.

I’ve found this idea really helps because recently I’ve been writing everything down on scraps of paper such as job application info and flat hunting info – I have so many pieces of paper with a phone number on it and no name – it was just getting ridiculous – this method allows me to pull everything together in one place with plenty of space.

I’m sure everyone has a diary method that works for them, so this is just a snap shot of my current method to share some ideas.

p.s. the interview went okay today, I hope I impressed. Should hear soon as the start date is pretty close.

Passing through…

2009-06-26T00:35:00.002+01:00

Been ever so busy of late – give me exams any day. Just thought I’d give you all a wee update whilst I’ve a spare 5 minutes.

I have successfully secured a flat for the end of next month, after much searching, viewing, and stressing. It is a 2 bedroomed new build (again) but slightly smaller, but has gas (much to chef’s delight) and a car parking space (to my delight). So I’m sure I’ll be blogging about organising a move in the near future.

In addition to flat hunting, there has also been more job hunting on the go, finished a couple more training contract applications, and a few immediate job applications. Have an interview tomorrow for an admin job in a city centre firm – nervous as hell and also stressed as this means careful time juggling and a lot of train travelling. I was unable to find suitable shoes to wear to the interview today so will have to wear my old ones, which are REALLY uncomfortable and mean I will be (most likely) hobbling home afterwards.

As those who follow me on twitter will know, I am also due to head home to Ireland tomorrow to visit the parents. So I’m attending the interview, then going home, to finish packing (because I’ve still not done that) and then heading back into town on the train and then getting the coach to the airport. Fun stuff. All in a days work.

That said, I suppose I ought to be at least trying to get some sleep. nighty night.

Grade Guru: Feedback

2009-06-23T22:48:00.001+01:00

Some of you may remember that last month I did a post about the website Grade Guru – the note-sharing website which compiles notes made by students (more beneficial to the LLB students rather than LPC/BVC).

In my previous post I (along with people who commented on my post) were questioning the service, mainly with regards to how it works, usefulness and plagiarism.

Today I got a comment on the original post from the founder of grade guru, so I thought I’d bring it to everyone’s attention as I know it will be of interest to a few people who read my blog.

The comment was as follows:

Travis, thanks for checking out GradeGuru and blogging about us. My name is Emily Sawtell and I am the founder of GradeGuru. I wanted to take this opportunity to answer a few of your questions (and those of your commenters as well). GradeGuru operates in the UK and US and this semester we saw a significant increase of notes coming from Law Students. Of course, it is still early days for our community so we’re relying on thought leaders like you to share your knowledge with the rest of the community. Currently you get points for each set of notes you upload based on the quality of the notes (1-5 stars). The quality is determined by a team of peer reviewers that work internally with GradeGuru. After 3-5 days from the time of upload, you will receive a set of points that you can then redeem on the MyRewards page for cash and other prizes. We’re working towards developing new functionality to allow you to demonstrate your thought leadership based on your contributions and activity on the site.

GradeGuru has taken a strong stance against plagiarism by partnering with TurnItIn.com, the leading anti-plagiarism tool and the platform chosen overwhelmingly by academic institutions for ensuring originality in students’ work. If students were to attempt to submit materials from GradeGuru as their own for a course that uses TurnItIn, that material would be flagged as unoriginal. Furthermore, our site is stamped with the "Protected by TurnItIn" logo. This badge sends a strong signal to students about what they can and cannot do with GradeGuru resources and is a significant deterrent from unethical use of the site - our research supports the notion that students understand the seriousness of plagiarism and the implications of getting caught.

Emily Sawtell,

emily_sawtell@mcgraw-hill.com

Sorry for an absence in blogging

2009-06-21T19:59:00.003+01:00

So the exams finished and I decided to take advantage of having free time for the first time in a while - that and the endless to do list I’m working my way through. Therefore I’ve not really been procrastinating by sitting in front of the computer.

For the majority of the past few days I’ve been sitting in a tent watching cookery demonstrations at Cheltenham Food Festival, sampling truly delicious food and making pasta. And even earlier in the week I went to the Banksy exhibit in Bristol.

Given that these aren’t really law topics I’ve blogged about these on my other new(ish) blog which deals with local stuff – but should you be interested you can have a look at my coverage of the Cheltenham food festival here.

Hopefully in between flat hunting and preparing to visit the parents – I shall have time to do some proper blogging this week.

I’m now… Unemployed

2009-06-17T11:52:00.002+01:00

So the exams are officially over, no more trips into Uni (except to collect my results). Now the pressure is on to find a job. Unemployed is something I’ve never been and it scares me.

This academic year due to relocating I obviously couldn’t continue my part-time job, and because of LPC and commuting, decided it was really feasible to get one, I could get by.

A lot of friends, unable to find a job have just increased their part-time job hours, or returned to the job they had pre-LPC, others are running away from it all and going on holiday, and some have been lucky and found a job just doing anything. I’m the only one who seems to still be hanging on. Silly thing is I know if I was still in my home town, or university town, I’d not be having these problems – trying to get a foothold in a place where I know precisely one person – my boyfriend – is not helpful.

For someone who likes to be in control – a somewhat “carefree and meaningless existence” stresses me out – give me exams any day – at least I know where I stand.

Sorry about mild rant – should be pleased the exams are over, really.

Another exam down… more incidents - Share you own exam mess ups.

2009-06-11T18:47:00.001+01:00

Just another quick posting. Finished the elective exams today – so only got professional conduct left. So thankfully feeling a lot more relaxed now even though I’ve still had a rather hectic afternoon arguing over car tax in the post office. Apparently I’m too complicated.

Those who follow me on twitter will know very well by now that it appears to be impossible for my provider to hold an exam without some interruption or incident.

Examples include speaker announcements every 10 minutes, being locked out of the exam room and starting late, lost exam papers, and numerous errors in the papers.

So I invite you all to comment about your exam disasters, in the hope that my provider isn’t so bad after all.

Another Cool Video:

1 Exam down…

2009-06-08T18:32:00.002+01:00

Just a quick message whilst passing though, having a relaxing few minutes before going back to tackle planning.

Employment exam DONE! We started the exam half an hour late because no one could find the papers and then there weren’t enough papers – complete and utter shambles. But generally the exam was manageable, got discrimination question which I didn’t want. But you can’t have everything.

Trying to resist the urge to post about the Omagh Bombing verdict - Relatives of the Victims won £1.6m damages against IRA. The 1998 Bombing is still one of those things I remember like yesterday. So more on this later.

On a brighter note: Awesome video to get you motivated (or dancing).

There is even a Brooklyn tribute to this mashup.

Exams start tomorrow.

2009-06-07T10:01:00.000+01:00

So the exams start tomorrow – it hasn’t hit me yet. I really hope I remember I need to get up at 5.30 to get to the exam on time, given my current “awake time table” is like 9am – 3am. Early night tonight methinks.

I am most prepared for Commercial, which isn’t until Thursday, and I re-wrote the textbook for the module, which is now finished (my hand however is suffering).

Employment is tomorrow, so today will be spent with final cramming. I’ve tidied up my notes, which honestly aren’t very good, due to the distinct dislike of my employment class. It took me to week 8 to even understand ANYTHING we were doing. I get the contractual stuff, the tribunal stuff, numbers, and layering of claims and and the like, I need to work on. Hopefully, it’ll be enough to go though the motions and not really understand it.

Commercial property is on Wednesday. I still have to do the practice paper – which hopefully will get done on Tuesday, so not a clue what the exam is going to be like (hopefully similar to property). Not looking forward to leases element. If I can just keep my head together and read the lease without skim-reading hopefully I’ll be okay. Planning on the other hand I’m worried about, only gave planning a day revision which may have been a bit stupid given we’re guaranteed a question on it.

Oh well better get to work.

This Captures how I feel Perfectly..

2009-06-04T09:15:00.002+01:00

Another Cartoon by Legally Drawn: The Life and Times of the paranoid student.

OLDER than me, but I don’t love it any less

2009-06-03T10:13:00.002+01:00

Been busy, so a little late catching up with my reading. But as you probably all know Tetris is 25 yrs old. So I share with you some of their old advertising:

For the timeline of Tetris ads and see how they have changed see the collection over at Adfreak. Be sure to check out the last one, I think it’s pretty cool, that or revision is driving me insane. :)

BRING ON THE TRUMPETS:

2009-06-01T13:22:00.002+01:00

Okay, old ad (not seen it in ages) but its getting posted around by some friends (procrastination at its best), and during exams its a good laugh and makes me want to scream bring on the trumpets in random in appropriate places, or out the window at unsuspecting passers by.

For more procrastination the natural confectionery co have more videos on their youtube page. Classic.

Revision (& Evolution)

2009-06-01T00:47:00.002+01:00

End of another day’s revision – and missed all the sun must to my disappointment, having to endure the torture of watching those below me walking around in their shorts and t-shirts. My back hurts, from hunching at the desk and both my hands have seized up (whose stupid idea was it to make write-your-own-textbooks, oh wait that was mine).

Progress report: 2 more Commercial workshops, 5 Commercial Property and 1 Employment.

I’m going to sleep now (for 100 years) so I leave you with: - Legally Drawn’s latest illustration: Evolution - love this.

Microsoft’s Bing: I’m stuck in 2006 with MSN Search.

2009-05-29T10:20:00.002+01:00

Decided come take a break from revision retirement to have a quick blog about Microsoft’s Bing: the rebrand of Live (previously part of windows live) and even before that MSN Search.

For those of you who don’t know I worked for the them back when it was MSN Adcenter back when it was MSN Search (2006), which is why this story caught my eye over all the rest that have been floating by on my screen these days.

In my opinion a rebrand is no good, simply due to the fact that everyone knows it is Microsoft, they are not offering anything better than Google. It has been said that:

The name is short and designed to give people the opportunity to say things like, "Just Bing it," as they do with Google.

So once again Microsoft are trying to be Google, whether they have learned anything since the previous rebrands remains to be seen. The only thing they have appeared to come up with to challenge Google is more targeted searches and more comparison – possibly quite good for general consumers.

At MSN we were briefed in the need to increase Microsoft share of the search engine market. The market which as everyone knew was being heavily dominated by Google and even yahoo!. (Currently Google 64% and Microsoft 8.2% and it was something similar back then). As stupid as it sounds but we were also encouraged to use Google rather the MSN Search, during our days at work as it was more efficient – so it seems that they couldn’t even convert their own employees. That said we did get into the habit of using both, and for a lot of the searches we were doing (products/site we were advertising) as they were pretty mainstream (e.g. halfords, ebay, various banks) there wasn’t much difference.

It has always been the more targeted searches that have been difficult – law for example, nightmare to search for, even when you say UK only you still get jurisdictional clashes. With Bing it remains to be seen just how targeted they can get (although the review at ars techica (link at bottom of page) gives us a pretty good idea.

In my eyes no matter how much rebranding they do, Google has such a dominant stance, Microsoft are only ever going to be taking baby steps – unless the come up with something radical – which in all their previous efforts they have failed to do so. (Of course Microsoft will maintain it’s not trying to take on the Google, which they blatantly are). And while Microsoft may have thought that they were getting one over with hitting the gap in Google’s market, create more effective comparison searches, Google of course is upping the challenge with Google Wave.

However, I still enjoy a basic fluff free search. Which honestly, the basic MSN was good for. :P And I’ve got to say I’ve only used Google since the 2006 change to Windows Live (which I hated), will Bing make me take a stand back on the other side?

Try to do – cute UCLA squirrels video

2009-05-23T12:03:00.002+01:00

In case you haven’t already seen it this is adorable - just wanted to pass it on – suitable for another coffee break.

And we’re STILL going on about the Skills exams

2009-05-22T12:28:00.003+01:00

(I apologise in advance for the rant)

Those SMART students are still banging on about how the failure of a skill shouldn’t deprive them of the ability to get a distinction on the LPC. I’m sure if I had failed on I would feel the same – but at the same time I can’t help scream at these poor folks that skills are no less important – if you can’t do these things – how are you supposed to make a good lawyer as it is not all about the academics from here on out.

I’ve never been strong in the academic department – but I’ve always known that despite the fact I get case names muddled up I know the content and have the ability to make a good lawyer. A measure of a good lawyer isn’t the number of cases you can round off. A friend of mine who is an undergraduate Business Student had a module which *touched* upon the law and she and her friends were comparing how many case names they got down in that exam on facebook. They have no intention of entering into the law.

This is not to say that the skills exams did not strike fear in my heart Tackling the skills of Advocacy and Interviewing as a half deaf student is probably my most terrifying experience on the LPC. But if nothing else it has increased my confidence in my ability to do such essential skills and enter the profession as a half deaf student. Still secretly hoping I can stay clear of advocacy though professionally. In the exam they tried to solve my “problem” by putting me as the prosecution as I wouldn’t have to “respond” and essentially wouldn’t have to hear what anyone else said and simple make my submission. Taking the bull by the horns I asked to be defence. The offended person in me always wants to show I do everything just as well as everyone else, if not better.

In practice though, unlike interviewing if you don’t hear something, you can’t exactly ask someone mid submission to repeat what they said. Also standing side by side I lack the ability to be able to lip read. In the exam it all came down to being prepared and second guessing what the other side was going to say – I went into that exam with no notes – hoping to prove once and for all that no one can say that I lack ability. I succeeded.

For this reason it irritates me that others put up complaints about failing skills and therefore not getting a distinction – sure it may have come down to a simple mistake, but they probably went in there thinking they couldn’t fail and there are those of us who are prejudged and fighting that all the way.

Advanced Cat Yodeling

2009-05-19T23:54:00.002+01:00

In case you haven’t seen it yet… something to keep you amused on your next coffee break:

Study Ball: To make sure we study…

2009-05-17T23:43:00.002+01:00

Study Ball (with timer) to keep you chained to the desk.

(Curiosite).

Tips: Improve your writing

2009-05-17T11:04:00.002+01:00

I may soon been following Michael at Law Actually and taking a temporary leave due to stress of exam revision. I plan to implement this at the end of the week. Until then I shall be gracing your computer screens with a few little Exam / Study tips before I go.

#1 Loosen writing grip to banish pain (lifehacker)

As very appropriately posted earlier this week – lifehacker writes about writing with a light hand. My hands always get bent out of shape during exam period (I’m not kidding) due to excessive writing (I have to write to learn) and my long nails meaning that it is impossible to hold a pen the same way as everyone else (and no its worse if I cut my nails as I then can’t write due to the fact that i’ve been writing with long nails since I was 8 and anything else seems abnormal).

But I will say that writing better improves study, enables you to last longer in the 3 hour exam before you want to start crying and generally means that your hands don’t come out bent out of shape and you are swearing off pens forever – they are actually not that bad.

#2 Try to keep your writing readable in an exam

If the markers can read it, you are more likely to get the marks, and if you’re borderline, maybe your appreciation for their eyes will swing it, maybe not – but if the idea is down on paper, don’t risk not getting the mark because no-one can read what it says.

#3 Open book exam? Make sure YOU understand it.

This is where preparatory work is essential – open book exam and you get to take in the notes – ensure that your notes are readable and clear, so you don’t waste time reading some scrawl that turns out to be off topic anyway. You should know the material well enough anyway to know what’s important – but clear structured notes can be a god send when time is running out, and you can’t think straight.

Revision – and exam feedback

2009-05-16T00:09:00.002+01:00

So I’m behind by four days, hopefully I will catch up soon enough (before the exams if I’m lucky).

Everyone is still all about the results, end of “term” is approaching and no one can be bothered about the work – even the teacher – but if the compulsory exams are anything to go by the last few workshops are just as important as the earlier meatier ones.

A friend and I were talking about wanting to actually know HOW we did in the compulsory exams – after all the best way to learn is to learn from your mistakes. Was it stupid mistakes? Lack of technique? Not reading the question? forgetting the obvious things in fear? I’ve always found it important to get proper feedback. However, besides the skills we don’t seem to be getting any constructive criticism. The tutors have said their doors are open for those who have concerns. This is for people who failed or are borderline I’m assuming, and not for the likes of me who likes to pick at everything?

Been going back over the exams, Property I know my failing was failing to read the question on one, lack of review of a topic I was going to read but I decided to celebrate my birthday instead, and thirdly confusion over one question in which all students were arguing over the right answer (who was right we’ll probably never know). Business I was happy enough with I wasn’t expecting to get the mark I did. and Litigation I know that a good number of the marks in Criminal was because the teacher hadn’t taught us the information that was required for a 25 mark question. But I don’t feel that what I have deduced from the vague memory of the exams will help me prepare for the electives any better.

Has anyone gotten feedback on the LPC regarding compulsories? or is this such an LLB thing I’m wishing for?

Non Legal Job – Response from my tutor

2009-05-13T10:18:00.002+01:00

As I posted earlier – I’ve been thinking of applying for a non legal job this yeah (in amongst all my other apps) – maybe I won’t hear anything – but it has been sent.

My tutor, who has been in charge of the exam results and rushing around trying to get them out in time finally got back to me with his views:

don't think this would damage your TC chances, & non-legal jobs can help develop your transferable skills which employers are keen on

Perhaps a paralegal job might make your CV/applications stronger, but if you want to do something different (or something which is a more attainable & realistic way of earning some cash) then go for it!

Past LPC students have spend a year travelling before coming back & securing a TC, so it didn't do them any harm!

His response was pretty much as I expected. I’ve also noticed that this week’s Letter of the Week on LawCareers is entitled “Where have all the paralegal jobs gone?” and it suggests if you can’t get one though applications or speculative CVs the solution is… apply for a role in a different profession to gain commercial experience. So sorted then.

Next hurdle to overcome – getting an interview…

A friend in need of cash to pay her mortgage as her TC start date has been pushed – is constantly being told that she is “overqualified” so not being offered interviews – so she is now getting very frustrated. It’s straightforward to explain your situation in a interview context – much harder on paper. So maybe they won’t even consider interviewing me if this is the case.

Results Day:

2009-05-12T22:11:00.002+01:00

Let out of class early – everyone hurried out the door to join the HUGE queue for our brown envelopes.

I am relieved and very happy to say the exams went well, my stupid mistake in property that had me wailing luckily didn’t cost me and business was like 10x better than my mock.

Skills exams went okay too, nice commentary – such a relief. Unfortunately a lot of people weren’t so lucky with their skills which resulted in the tears of many hopefuls wishing for a distinction.

Thankfully we seemed to lack the over-analysis of results like we had at undergrad – but the rumours of being “ranked” at graduation has suddenly seemed to put on the extra pressure I neither want or care about. The only pressure I have is, keeping up the standard in these upcoming electives.

[End of the Week] 10/05/09

2009-05-10T23:55:00.001+01:00

Revision keeps getting in the way of blogging *sigh*. I am proud to say I’ve just passed my 100 posts mark :)

Here are some links from this week. The rest can be found at my new tumblr blog which I started this week – to keep more of distinction between my blog and my random stuff on the web.

Law Related:

Jealous of the American’s who get - law in a flash iphone apps (reviewed at iphone JD). I never find flash cards that useful – but with exams approaching, all information is good information.
interesting article on Westlaw’s rise to fame / success: I had never really thought about this before. Worth a read.

Twitter related:

Matthew Homann put together a list of his “best” tweet: 100 tweets. If you weren’t already using twitter and following him – I don’t really understand why you want a pdf of them – but he has done so anyway.

Non Legal Job – still look worthwhile on TC applications??

2009-05-10T10:31:00.001+01:00

I’ve always said I’m severely lacking in legal work experience – therefore in an ideal world I would LOVE to walk into a Law related job at the end of my exams. I never thought I wouldn’t want to… but then I found a job that just screamed “I WANT IT” at me. So I proceeded to fill in the application form with more enthusiasm than training contract apps I’m afraid to say – not because I want it more than a training contract (I don’t) but because I actually feel I have a chance of getting the job and it isn’t as demoralising as TC applications – yes an actually chance not to have my application thrown out due to lack of experience and bad grades.

Application is almost finished just got to check over, give references and send it off – and then await to see if I get a reply. Of course I might not get a reply – they might question a law students desire to work in an office job – and give the job to someone more “passionate about the job”, even though I’ve sung my little heart out with passion in that application (as with all my applications).

If I got a law related job offer at the same time, I’d take it – I would love it more. But at the same time I don’t want to pass over on a great opportunity and hold out in the hope of something better – at a time when jobs are hard to come back, and I’ve rent to pay.

However the question on my mind is what are the implications if I do get the interview, or even a job offer – should I take a non legal job, forfeiting the opportunity to LOOK for legal experience therefore, potentially damaging my training contract applications again and showing a “lack of commitment” Or will the experience in any working environment still serve a purpose in strengthening my applications. Obviously I’m still applying for legal experience / paralegal type stuff – but no luck so far, and preferably don’t want to spend another year as a commuter. But at the end of the day, I need the money and I’ll take what I can get.

Sign Language

2009-05-08T11:18:00.002+01:00

I had my first proper sign language conversation last week. Only to find how much I had forgotten and how badly I learnt it in the first place. I “self-taught” myself sign language a couple of years ago.

Honestly I have never found the need to learn sign language; and have been described as totally lip, meaning I only lip read. (and use subtitles of course). The fellow signer was completely surprised that I had not been taught sign language at school – he was, and he went to a public school. Is this a service schools are supposed to provide if you are deaf? I had never thought about it?

Inspired upon meeting this guy I was amazed at the power signing had – lip and signing go hand in hand – there is so much expression – maybe I have lost out on a lot. So post-exams, I’m going to be hard at work – getting my sign language, further than a few cute phrases.

Upon reading comments on other blogs, I’ve realised a lot a law students are learning, wanting to learn sign language, so I wanted to ask – How does everyone go about doing this? and what makes it easy? and how often do they actually use sign language – actually anything they want to tell me about their experiences would be interesting. Or even another language – I’ve not acquired language skills – my greatest failing as a lawyer2b probably.

[Note-taking] Teaching notes

2009-05-07T12:47:00.002+01:00

As I mentioned earlier in the week I was going to do a piece on teaching notes before I started babbling on about GradeGuru which I think this appropriately fits in with.

The tutors always seem to have these “perfect” template of notes – that they absolutely refuse to let you see or get copies off. They are both for lectures and workshops – and the reason they don’t let you have them is because if we did, we’d have no reason to need them – the odds are they aren’t teaching us any more that what is contained in those notes.

GradeGuru was all about sharing notes and collaboration between students. If someone shared such notes – everyone would be passing with flying colours – particularly in open book exams such as those we have on the LPC.

I’ve recently noticed that when I know I am going to be taking notes for someone else I put in a great deal more effort into those notes. A friend had a firm event in London, asked me to cover our horribly late lecture, and pass her the notes. Knowing that if I didn’t give her good quality notes she’d lose out, I took a higher standard of notes than I would have had it just been for me (at 6pm after a full day who is really concentrating anyway?). So it made me think – if I tried to get into the mindset that I would be “teaching” people from my notes and effectively trying to create my own set of teaching notes – the quality of my actual notes would increase. They would of course not match the perfection of actual teaching notes, but would still be an improvement on my notes – for the benefit of my studies. Which in no way is a bad thing.

Teaching notes of course is not about getting the fullest information – but the most important (teachers will always add in the general interest aspects to try and spice up the dullest of topics). It should be a piece of paper (or more than one for the chunkier topics) that consolidates all your understanding of a particular topic. The actual content will vary depending on the topic: but it should be the mechanics of it and how it interrelates to the rest of the course.

I hear you say why is this different from the 30days note taking or the revision note taking you normally do – the idea is this is not for revision. This is for getting the most out of the classes you have left so you don’t have to revise for them. We have classes up until a week before the exams, it is a hard thing to absorb new information as well as revise the old. Teaching notes allows you to do more comprehensive notes at the time, write them up while they are fresh in your head (which most of us aspire to do the majority of the time anyway, but fail) and complete the topic in full – leaving little need to go back at the crunch time.

So in summary – play tricks on your mind, pretend that your notes are destined for greater and better things than passing the exam to create better notes NOW to save on revision time later.

[Note-taking] GradeGuru

2009-05-05T22:40:00.001+01:00

I was pointed in the direction of Mashable’s article on GradeGuru by a RT on twitter (thanks @loopyginee) and since I was contemplating blogging about “teaching” notes today (which I shall now do later) I thought this was an appropriate post for the day.

GradeGuru as mashable points out allows you to upload (and download class notes) – this has an option for UK universities – and even more importantly English law – which few collaboration sites do (There is of course a wide range of topics if you fancy learning something new, but the notes available are not displayed in the most coherent order as there is not a topic 1 through to 10 type of set up).

You can search by university/course as well as a range of other options. There appears to be nothing by way of LPC material – but for LLB students – there is some 150 notes on contract law just to get you started.

Of course this is by no means a substitute for your own work / note taking and despite a rating system you don’t know how good the material is – for example I read a piece by a Business and Language student from a pretty low university – and honestly, the quality wasn’t good – but I can see how it would help a more unmotivated student than myself. However when you typically borrow notes from a friend for a class you have missed – you will subconsciously pick someone who you know will have good notes. So gradeguru is not a substitute for asking friends first, but of course there is no reason why they might not be on the site themselves.

But if your own university has a collection of notes that is worth looking at – there is things on my university page that I remember doing at undergrad – and at least you know they are specific to your course. Of course half of the notes credit my ex-professors – I’m sure they’re not liking their notes (if copied straight from textbooks / lectures) being posted on the internet. What it is a good source of, is information on exam questions for LLB students. Which you can never have too many of.

Ironically today I was discussing with a fellow student about plagiarism today on the trip home. She was telling me about a class mate who lent notes to a “friend” who then copied her notes, used them in her coursework and both got done for plagiarism. Apparently the friend who copied failed to own up and they both got reported to the SRA. So after that story I don’t know how much I’d be willing to share with someone I didn’t know – at least not until I had finished the course.

Given that the site is not much use to an LPC student I won’t be signing up (have no idea how payment for uploads works) but you can view 10 notes with no sign up – so it’s worth having a browse.

[End of the Week] 03/05/09

2009-05-03T23:37:00.001+01:00

Hard to believe that we have entered May already – given that it is: a) Bank holiday weekend, and I’m enjoying my final weekend of pure freedom and that b) my 30 days… are quickly disappearing I’ve had little time to blog, but here are a few of the things that interested me this week…. (and don’t worry this is (hopefully not) a swine flu zone).

Law related:

From Bitter lawyer – a funny column entitled “You’re fired, I’m sorr-jealous”
American’s never cease to amaze me: ATL: One guys response to jury duty

Twitter Related:

Funny Video: Real life Twitter
UK Law Student on twitter? Join the twibe (p.s thanks to Marcus for creating this and following my blog).
TWITTER trade mark application for drinks – brought to my attention by @London_Law_Firm - Azrights blogs about why the application would fail.

Other:

This week I’ve attended events at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival – I’m not very jazzy but fun nonetheless. Cheltenham is a beautiful town and frequently holds festivals with the science festival and the music festival coming up in the next few months. Additionally not part of the cheltenham festival series is the food and drink festival.

[Revision] 30 days… Simplified Action

2009-05-01T13:01:00.002+01:00

A fellow classmate asked me how I did it. Not so much my 30 days scheme, but just revision in general. She found it hard to get motivated, especially this early on when there is not the same pressure as when you hit cramming mode.

Last exam period my classmates were plotting my early demise so that they could acquire my very well protected folder for the exam. I’m always happy to help fellow students, and many of my classmates know if they miss class I’ll be happy to help them out. So it wasn’t a surprise when I was approached with a “what do I do question?” from a student who in the last set of exams copied a checklist I made on Resolutions the morning of the BLP exam, only to be ever so grateful when it came up as the first question.

So here is the advice I gave to achieve a much more simplified action plan to tackle last minute revision (some of this I’ve mentioned before). Even if you do nothing else – this will get you through.

All our elective exams are open book – so it is important to know your materials inside out. You can spend so much time looking for the right page. During your normal revision plan – note what things go together – putting references by page number or source in the margin can be more helpful and time saving. Examples of things to link:

relevant law in the statute book
chain of events – what happens next in time;
or additional notes on the same thing in a different place e.g. the theory behind it in one place; how to draft it in another and updates in another.

Know the exam style – know examples of what will be asked and how you can answer them. i.e. what is important to get down. Help with this can be drawn from sample questions / mock exams or asking your tutor if this were to be on the exam what would you be looking for.
As I’ve mentioned before structuring exam questions before the exam is a very helpful part of revision. Not to the extent that you have it written word for word - but almost like a flow diagram of different options and what little things you might forget about in the stress of the exam. e.g. compensation for lack of s1 statement if claimant is successful in main action.

AND FINALLY

Key points; essentially for ensuring you understanding of a topic and to help you cover all aspects of the course – quicker. For example we had a letters of Credit lecture the other day, everyone had spent hours reading about them trying to understand what the whole thing was about – the lecturer came in talked for 15 minutes – and it just clicked for us. The Manual had said what was on 6 powerpoint slides in about 100 pages.

For my full 30days action plan see: 30days…30workshops

Lunch with law students – life after the LPC?

2009-04-29T16:05:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, I finally had the time for a quick lunch to catch up with a fair few of my group. The question on everyone’s mind was: 7 weeks left, then what?

Between us there are is a varied mix; and everyone seems to fall into one of the following categories:

training contract
deferred training contract
further education
travelling/working abroad
job hunting – paralegal work/anything to pay the rent
changing part-time job to a full time job in retail/sales etc
moving home / trying to get out of debt

For me the choice is further education or job hunting. A group of law students get together and the recession/lack of jobs rant continues. I’ve always said I never want to be a student again – therefore the LLM has never really been a tempting option for me.

Generally the number of postgraduates in any discipline has increased (due to the recession), apparently it is easier for students to spend more money and build up more debt, instead of trying to find a job.

It is bad enough the everyone feels that they have to get a degree just to get any old job these day. And you have to wonder if, more and more people continue to do postgraduates, will it turn into an issue of: a degree isn’t enough - you need a masters as well. Suddenly, I feel very under-qualified (and very broke).

A lot of people on the LPC are doing a masters as well: will this be more favourable with potential employers, even though in reality it is for something to do with their time? Well firms seem to be encouraging it as well: Simmons & Simmons are even offering their trainees to undertake a legal MBA at their expense. I suppose with law it is always a case of, the better you look on paper the more chance you have of getting that interview. But should I really be pressured to undertake a masters because “everyone else is doing it”? I should think not.

I think I’ll just stick to the job hunting for now (although I’m guessing after a couple of jobless months I’ll be wishing otherwise). However, I would be interested in people’s thoughts about the advantages and disadvantages of the LLM.

[LPC] 30 days, 30 workshops

2009-04-28T00:00:00.002+01:00

With exams at the beginning of June, it doesn’t hurt to be a little prepared: bearing this in mind, I devised a study schedule for these 30 workshops (the content of which is examinable) as part of a revision plan, with 31 days in May this leaves one day free to be *completely* work free (starting early because I’m away bank holiday weekend). This then leaves a full week before the actual exams for CRAMMING and the usual exam PANIC.

(Picture: My rough schedule).

The key to this system is to go about things in a relaxed manner – just get as much done in the most efficient way possible.

Each day I’ve scheduled preparation for ongoing classes as well as revision sessions. For the days I’m not in uni I’ve designated a “catch up” slot for the times I’d ordinarily be in uni, for doing additional work on things that I didn’t have time to do because I was in class. For example today:

Morning class
Preparation for Patents and Copyright class next week: I did this afternoon waiting around for a Commercial property lecture. This involved a reading list of various information and legislation, as well as questions on the set reading.
Because of the lecture, didn’t get home till late, so didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but started working down my checklist which I have devised as a general outline (see below).
Because I had a full day in Uni – on Wednesday when I have no Uni, I’ve marked the morning as a catch up session for both today and tomorrow’s work.

I appreciate that everyone has different systems and the way I work might not appeal to everyone – but one thing I think is useful no matter what way you is the general list I go through with regards to each workshop when revising.

What I do for Each Workshop (Class):

1. Check that I have all the material required: quite often we are required to print off material from the uni resources or look up stuff on the web. The first thing I always do is check it is all there. and then file it in order. For example, today I printed off revision questions on contract law that we did as pre-workshop work for commercial law/sale of goods and Traders’ Guide from Berr.gov.uk. ALSO be ruthless and get rid of things you don’t need – more paper you have longer it takes to get through. I had a whole crate of paper to recycle which I removed during my compulsory subject exams.

2. Review set pre-reading: When completing the reading first time round everyone attacks it with a highlighter. But NOW that you’ve actually done the class you have a better idea of what is important as the stuff covered in class has the most potential to appear on the exam – so using my workshop notes, I use a different highlighter and markup and annotate the pre-reading.

3. Write up Notes: Whether you type or write up your notes, it is a good idea to put them in a more organised and coherent way (of course some people can use the notes they made in class straight off): the important thing is to UNDERSTAND them and be able to NAVIGATE them.

4. Summary Page of Key Facts: Sometimes depending on the material of the workshop I feel it is important to do a separate page of KEY facts. This is particularly good if the exam you are studying for has multiple choice questions – this can even be just a list of the most important sections relevant to a topic.

5. Charts/checklists/flow diagrams: Frequently a topic will be capable of representation in a visual manner – E.g. steps that need to be satisfied before you can move onto the next thing, or a particular procedure that needs to followed before legal action can be taken. Vital information – a good summary to flesh out and keep you on track is great in an exam.

6. Legislation / Documentation: make sure all legislation, contracts, leases etc are correctly highlighted and annotated cross referencing between general notes and these documents is also pretty helpful. I like to also set out scenarios: if X happens, Y will apply, but if A happens both Y and B will apply, etc.

7. Tabbing: one thing that always amazes me in exam rooms is the extreme use or lack of tabs – no one ever seems to use in moderation. but in open book exams, tabs need to be labelled, coloured coded or be in whatever format that helps you to find your way around your notes with ease. I like to take the opportunity when revising to straighten this all out.

8. Exam Technique: always important to review exam technique, whether this is a list of everything you must talk about in a particular question; hints provided for by the tutors and the revision questions you have been provided with.

This may, at first glance, seem a lot to do – but today in the space of 2 hours (which was all I could spare today) I completed the first 4 points for my first workshop. The last four are the less time-consuming ones and I will be able to complete them in mu catch up session on Wednesday.

Wikis in the law firms? Who took up the offer?

2009-04-26T19:07:00.003+01:00

So last week I was thinking about twitter and collaboration wikis in the classroom. Today I came across some old American (of course) articles and a slideshow (posted below) about the use of Wikis within law firms.

Do Wikis Belong in Law Firms?

View more presentations from Connie Crosby.

As a student I’ve not had the full experience of working in a firm so I cannot comment on the use in a law firm. However, I did spend 2 months turning a local charity into a paperless office (single-handed, I might add) and the use of a wiki, I feel would have been very beneficial to their objectives.

Why are Wikis a good thing? There is an ability for each person to contribute and organise material without feeling they need to rely on other people’s computer skills. Wikis are easy to update and everyone knows when changes have occurred. In addition the Commercial Wikis are relatively cheap, especially for the smaller firms.

However, there are some downsides as always – wikis are more likely to integrate and work alongside some existing system – due to time and costs. In addition, as I’ve stated with regards student wikis – it is important that everyone is enthusiastic about the project and gets involved. It only works when everyone collaborates and contributes content.

I see no excuse why a wiki couldn’t be used. Especially now, when I’m sure most people actually know what one is. Last year there was all this pushing towards wikis for the legal profession, I wonder how many actually embraced the idea?

See also: Go Forth and Wikify (CJO); Article from KM Space on the Rosen Wiki; Law Firm Intranet on ILTA 08.

[End of the Week] 26/4/09

2009-04-26T18:07:00.002+01:00

After last weeks “holiday” [End of the week] we are back to a more legal related one this week.

Links to more things worth a read:

Much Needed Legal Twitter Apps (from TechnoLawyer)
This week’s burning question at LawCareers: The Patent Troll
Charonqc: Lawcast 129: Professor Steve Molyneux - the magistrate who resigned after a complaint following his use of Twitter

And now for the more random non-law stuff:

Uncomfortable Plot Summaries (think inappropriate descriptions of movies, twitter style) list provided by postmodernbarney – some of the best entertainment comes from the comments though, where readers have made their own submissions, and hotly debated Rocky.
Newspapers24 provides links to thousands of national and local online newspapers. Can search by country/region – or search by English to find news from another country’s perspective.

[Law] Wrongly Cited regulations – confiscation orders now under review (Tobacco Smuggling).

2009-04-25T19:20:00.002+01:00

From The Times (reported 23 April 09):

Confiscation orders made under old regulations in tobacco-smuggling cases had to be quashed because the prosecuting authority had overlooked the fact that new regulations had narrowed the categories of persons liable to pay excise duty.

The report attracted my attention not just because I am interested in tobacco, but also because it appears in this case no-one was sure what the law was. Reminds me of my LLB days…

The changes had been made in 2001. And since then it appears that the regulations have been wrongly cited. Why this has only been realised now, I’m unsure. Nevertheless it appears there is going to be a lot of back – checking, over what should have been a fairly straightforward thing:

The Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office was undertaking a review of every case in which a confiscation order had been made in a tobacco-smuggling case since June 1, 2001, to identify any case in which the wrong regulations were relied on or indirectly relied on owing to the citation of Rowbotham.

So the average person could be forgiven for not knowing such a change was made – but surely, those representing the parties should have been aware of such changes.

It makes you wonder about secondary legislation and legal updates – are we always sure that what we are looking at is still relevant? The law in many ways is pretty much inaccessible to the public anyway. I can’t even access the same legal resources that I could at undergraduate level. And don’t get me started on the sheer terror everyone experienced in out PLR Exam.

[LPC] If textbook fails, Can self-made notes replace the need?

2009-04-24T13:33:00.001+01:00

The past 2 days I’ve been trying to get to grips with Planning Law (part of my Commercial Property Elective).

On a number of previous occasions I have complained about the Manuals we have been provided with as part of the course – chapters missing, spine breaking on the first day and pages falling out, out of date law even though the change was 2 years ago etc etc. Planning law has been no exception.

Yes all the chapters are there, but it appears that they fail to cover the information in the sufficient detail required for our course. We have been provided with 70-odd pages of additional notes (which are add-ons to the paragraphs in the manual which requires a lot of going back and forth and cross referencing for them to make sense and not enough room to write them in) and then there is of course a reading list and online resources we need to make use of.

Planning being the smaller component of the Commercial Property course will probably result in adding up to one question on the exam paper. So maybe the lack of coherent notes is seen as a minor issue – but I’m looking for a solution without resorting to writing my own textbook.

--------------------oOo---------------------

The question I am debating today is whether self-made notes could replace the textbook?

Obviously, initially you need a source of information somewhere. Books, Articles. legislation are the obvious sources. You could pool this together to make a good set of notes.

But of course in my experience – even with the most perfectly prepared notes, there is often the need to refer to the textbook. It is hard for us students to know what is really important sometimes – all the flow charts, summaries and lists can only provide us with the information if we know it in the first place. Notes are only as good as your teacher – textbooks provide good backup.

in my Criminal litigation exam we had a 20 mark question, which our group covered only in lectures and never in class. My group came out of that exam wondering what that question was in relation too and had answered with a lot of ramblings, other groups came out having a perfectly structured answers….

Of course, as well as my limited knowledge of a topic such as planning law, there is also the time issue – how much time can I really give to trying to make a bulky and resourceful notebook? Particularly if it is only 20% of commercial property course (like what, 6% of my whole set of forthcoming exams).

I think self-made notes could replace a text book, if time was unlimited – but in the time given, it could never come close – notes are so exam related, with little room for personal interest or historical and practical tangents.

Nevertheless – this feels like a challenge…

[LPC] Teaching with twitter – any use on the LPC?

2009-04-21T21:39:00.001+01:00

I read (and commented) earlier in the month on an article about a class where discussion was encouraged in class using twitter (Chronicle).This involved much of the discussion in class being via twitter and appearing on the projector screen.

On the LPC, we discuss things heavily – both as a group and in sub-groups working on tasks.This also includes the more practical things like conducting a negotiation. Would this work on a platform like twitter? Probably not.

On the LLB we had an couple of Internet law classes – we all brought our laptops to class and engaged in some online interaction (it was in fact that very class that got me signed up to twitter in the first place). We set up a class blog and class wiki, hoping for class participation – but it never took off. I think a total of 3 people in addition to our tutor commented, and then gave up, highlighting the need for people to get involved for something like this to work.

I can obviously understand the use of twitter in an undergrad class – keeps your students interested – and dare I say it, everyone is likely to be passing notes or on the internet anyway. But on the LPC, we’re back to good old fashioned paper (compared to LLB) and no one uses laptops. However people do tend to “show off” more on the LPC, so maybe that could be used to our advantage. People would be more willing to participate.

But before disregarding a tool like twitter, just because of lack of discussion or it merely being another distraction – you’ve got to consider the benefits:

Firstly, it would be a breath of fresh air in a three hour class.

Secondly, the advantage it has for the hearing impaired, like me. To see the discussion in writing would be a god-send – it would be like the SUBTITLES of life. My studies would be considerably easier, not to mention there would be a record of what was said (whether it was right or wrong) – no furiously scribbling notes, only to realise it’s end up more like a fill-in-the-blanks and you’ve missed the conclusion.

and finally, the potential to engage in a full discussion. Whether its because some people don’t like contributing, or someone won’t let anyone else get a word in – twitter, potentially, could allow everyone to participate and say what they think (having thought about their comment first) – there are always those interesting comments that never get heard; people are smarter than you think sometimes and people surprise you – I would like to hear that different stuff every once in a while.

[Not using] Taskbarn

2009-04-20T23:19:00.004+01:00

Taskbarn was reviewed recently by lifehacker. Lifehacker draws you in with their amusing Global Domination example (likely to get the attention of most geeks) but the tool itself seems a bit of a let down. Of course, there are some goods points to its functionality, and if it would meet your needs – it is streamlined and easy to use. Initially you have a task list – no different from most GTD task lists/to do lists – you can set priorities; assign to a particular person, or is simple is your method of choice – just enter them in a straightforward list.

However, the thing of interest with Taskbarn, which other project collaboration tools don’t utilise, is the feed. “Notes” are very like twitter (in fact you can post it to twitter at the same time). You have 140 characters to create a message, you can attach a link or a file (document/picture etc) and this will come up in the dashboard/feed for other members to see. So it’s pretty much like a private twitter about the particular project. I’ve not much use for it myself – but I can see why I might use it in the future.

[End of the Week] 19/04/09

2009-04-19T22:46:00.002+01:00

It has been a hectic week (so I’ve had little time to blog) But a nice break from the law before all the post-easter craziness starts. The parents came to stay which involved, several trips to “touristic” places.. My parents are Irish so this was a novelty for them.

Places we visited included: Stratford Upon Avon, numerous villages in the Cotswolds, namely, Bourton-on-the-water, Upper and Lower Slaughter, Stow-on-the-Wold, Cheltenham and Bristol.

As I have had a tourist focused week rather than a legal one; my links this week shall be related to this week’s adventures:

Shakespeare App for iphone/ipod touch. Great app for all his works, of course many of them you can download into whatever e-book reader you have rather than as a separate app.

I found out that Gustav Holst, composer of the planets was born in Cheltenham – went to the Birthplace museum. Learning about Holst also made me remember an interesting blawg review I read last month at Declarations and Exclusions about Holst’s planets.

Revisited my childhood with a trip to the motor museum in Bourton on the water, where the intro to Brum was filmed. A tv show I loved as a child. The place was crammed with kids, I could barely get a look in. I didn’t even realise kids these days knew was. But It was nice to feel like a child again, with no worries, even if it was just for 5 minutes.

[Employment Tribunal] Sitting in

2009-04-17T23:58:00.002+01:00

As part of our Easter work we’re required to sit in at a hearing and write a report on our experience. We phoned ahead to see if we could attend, but they knew we were coming, everyone on our course seems to be trying to fit in a session this week. Met a few other colleagues while we were there and engaged in quiet and polite chitchat.

Arrived in good time, and we sat at the back armed with paper and pen. Neither side was represented in the case we were sitting in on (2 days, we only attended 1 day). This meant that the judge started out slowly and careful, explaining the questions he needed the answer to – I don’t think he got any the whole time we were there. The only thing the parties agreed on at the end of the day was the starting date of the claimant’s employment – and even that was debated before the claimant realised that there was a typo in the documents and he did in fact start work in 2005, rather than 1995. He was actually convincingly arguing that 1995 was 4 years ago.

Due to the “mess” that the witness statements were in; we heard from the Respondent’s witness first – just so the claimant would know the case against him. Well if he knew, good on him, because I certainly didn’t know. The poor 80 year old witness for the respondent was forgetful and changing his statement every 2 seconds and getting all flustered. He didn’t even have personal knowledge of the events that took place.

I honestly don’t see how this system works because from what I saw today, I don’t know how anything gets decided. Those representing themselves have clearly been watching too much legal tv, wear ridiculously bright yellow socks and somehow manage to fit in some clothes shopping in the lunch break before we have finished enjoying our coffee.

Now, back to writing some kind of report…

[LPC] Convincing my parents the LPC is worth it

2009-04-14T02:03:00.001+01:00

My parents are visiting for Easter this week. And I know one of the inevitable lines of questioning with involve:

What do you plan to do next?
Why haven’t you got a job?
Do you even think you are going to pass?

Last year I had a challenge convincing my parents to let me change law school – I was all set to go to BPP Manchester, paid my deposit etc when my bf was offered the job of a lifetime. Some people may think it was silly to “follow” him, but my reasoning remains the same – I would want to move following my LPC anyway and I’d have a better time arguing why I was applying to X firm if I had at least done the LPC locally as opposed to a sudden move North to South. Nevertheless, this involved long drawn out arguments with my father who couldn’t understand why anyone would give up a place at BBP. But I won that challenge.

But now I am presented with another one.

Don’t get me wrong my parents understand that its a recession, and given that legal job cuts etc are in the news they believe me when I tell them – jobs are scare and I lack experience.

So instead they have pinned their hopes on my getting an immaculate result from my LPC. So in preparation from them coming I decided to look into LPC Pass rates.

QED law does a listing of the results at some of the providers. But fails to do the Big providers, probably because they were unwilling to part with such information. But in summary these were the results last year:

Provider	Distinction	Commendation	Pass	Fail
Aberystwyth	33.3%	29.25%	16.7%	20.8%
Anglia Ruskin	8.8%	47.1%	20.6%	23.5%
Cardiff	21.3%	28.5%	16.7%	23.6%
City	11.9%	34.8%	16.3%	37%
De Montfort	24.0%	34.7%	13.3%	28.0%
Leeds Met	5%	23.3%	30%	41.7%
LJMU	26.1%	39.1%	10.9%	23.9%
London Met	19.5%	24.4%	9.8%	46.3%
Manchester Met	10.6%	37.1%	21.9%	30.5%
Northumbria	29.8%	31.7%	13.5%	25.0%
Nottingham	43.0%	27.2%	7.7%	22.1%
Staffordshire	15.7%	32.5%	22.9%	28.9%
Swansea	27.7%	33.0%	9.6%	29.8%
Thames Valley	4.2%	33.3%	4.2%	58.3%
Westminster	24.7%	7.1%	16.5%	51.8%
Wolverhampton	22.4%	40.8%	12.2%	24.5%

My law school claims that they law school’s shouldn’t publish pass rates, for fear of students picking an institution because of a higher pass rate at a lower price. (They do publish the CPE/GDL rates on the website though). However, in a profession such as the law, surely people choose a law school for its reputation.

But all this information, doesn’t help convince my parents that the LPC is worth it, and certainly won’t convince incoming students who have yet to secure a training contract.

[networking] Social media recruitment – are we barking up the wrong tree?

2009-04-13T02:44:00.003+01:00

Techcrunch Europe talks about Brave New Talent this week; Real Lawyers have Blogs talks about law students using linked in.

So doing what any keen student would do, I decided to check out these out.

Brave New Talent:

So you sign up, all the information you give is the usual stuff (details I don’t like posting on the net to begin with, but here goes nothing).

So once I’m signed up, I’m a little confused about how you browse. From what I can tell it is a simple search box and you need to know the name of the employer you are looking for. Can’t seem to search by industry which is disappointing.

So decided to do some law firms, to see what I could find – yep, I found a few, London firms, magic circle firms, but no firms that I am applying for or would be interested in – this includes both top 100 firms and smaller firms. Surely a service like this is only beneficial if:

There is more than a handful of an employers - there needs to be more – granted its only started, but it needs publicity.
It includes smaller firms and employers, as there is enough connections with large firms, it should be about getting the smaller firms involved.
Its more than a PR stunt. Any firm that actually is on the site, needs to be real and properly represented and they needs to be social.
the site needs to be more social.

The service from what I’ve seen, has not attracted a lot of attention. Only 300 odd employers. Yes it’s British, and yes it’s a start up, social networking doesn’t have the same lure, concept is good, but it needs a lot of work. But hopefully the best is to come.

Linked In

Okay, linked in, is the established one, most professionals are on it. So I’ll just make a few brief points. I’ve signed up before and browsed it – but never really seen the point as a student. Companies have profiles, employees have profiles but from a students point of view I don’t see the worth if you’re in the UK. All the major law schools in the states have groups and connections, that’s good for them, but here in the UK we seem to be falling behind. It’s not essential for us. But, maybe that’s a good thing.

Sure social recruitment and social networking provide opportunities, gets you in touch with people – Brave New Talent is specifically for the purpose of recruitment – this is a good idea. Linked in, I feel like I’m being rude if I don’t already know a person, or at least met them. My fb is restricted to my closest friends and I think that Linked in will be a great resource when I finally get employed, but not before. Maybe something like Brave New Talent is what we need to bridge the gap – a place where it is acceptable to approach recruiters, and the employer’s want to be approached and will actually notice you and want to talk to you. It will be interesting to see what develops.

[End of the Week] 12/04/09

2009-04-12T17:32:00.002+01:00

Twitter:

More things to get signed up with: Tweet Law – New legal directory for lawyers/students on twitter.

Uk Politics on twitter: Tweetminster.

More things to play around with: Twitter apps.

More Freakiness:

So we studied probate, leaving assets in a will etc etc, only a matter of time before people started worrying about who to leave their facebook to. Okay, so its not just FB but Legacy Locker allows you to pass on your digital assets to friends and family in the event of your death as mentioned at Lifehacker. Interesting concept – just don’t really know where the value is in doing such a thing.

Video:

I find this rather beautiful and relaxing. Brought to my attention by Open Culture, this is worth watching:

Calling bloggers photographers and cooks:

Make your own book with Blurb – create (using their free software) a book out of your blog posts, pictures, recipes, or even memories – couple of the examples even remind me of the brochures one collects from law firms. Very nice and professional – all for the price of £7 for book and £7-10 for shipping, not back considering the potential to make a well loved book.

Still Feeling Creative: Origami Diagrams

[ipod] All music gone – memory full

2009-04-11T22:49:00.001+01:00

One train journey up the country, no ipod. I need more music in my ears than my bf complaining he is bored every 5 seconds.

Apparently this is a common problem with the ipod touch. But the solution is easy - restoring it – not so great when you are on the train to Manchester.

Restoration now done (simple) and I’m currently in the process of re-syncing all my music, podcasts and applications back on – takes FOREVER. Not a good way to spend Saturday night.

P.s. For those of you who don’t know who to restore - a video on youtube stating the obvious.

[LPC] Having time… to do.

2009-04-09T09:23:00.002+01:00

Okay sometimes the LPC gets so busy it’s great having an Easter holiday. They say once electives start you have more time anyway – but for me and most of my friends – we actually found ourselves more tired. Lacking a proper break after such a long semester and such mind – consuming exams - Easter is such a warm welcome.

Unfortunately everyone lost motivation second week of electives – so Easter has become:

catching up on the electives work (the whole scary “we are half way through, we should know something” point);
preparing Easter work;
Preparing work for first class back;
and going to Employment Tribunal (which I’ve booked in for next week so my visiting parents will just have to amuse themselves).

Easter provides us, with time to just… well do. Anything and everything. so people are taking the time to go home and see family, go on a well deserved holiday in the sun, or simply de-stress and catch up on sleep.

To my surprise though I managed to fit in a dinner with my boyfriend last night, he was originally supposed to be dining (aka drinking) with workmates, so I was expecting a night in, with a nice cup of tea and his mac. Given that we live together you’d think we actually spend a lot of time together – but it doesn’t work like that – too busy, too tired.

Even better is we’re fitting in a trip back up to Manchester tomorrow and staying in the palace (again!). Don’t you just love Easter.

[Twitter] Copyrightable, infringement or simply a publishing opportunity?

2009-04-07T22:43:00.001+01:00

I’m not going to agonise over the legal issues, I leave that to the real lawyers, but just jotting down a few thoughts on the matter.

Twitter as a publishing mechanism similar to blogging has opened up a range of possibilities. Old things done in new ways, from fan-fiction to how to’s, news reporting to the daily diary, the possibilities can be perceived as endless.

As always, this raises issue of copyright. The question “Are Tweets copyrightable?” has provoked debate by many (such as The Legal Satyricon and Tech Dirt), in particular what appears to be the original source of debate Blog Maverick. My opinion? its all down to originality (don’t you just love buzzwords), but hey, it really depends on circumstances, and no doubt will one day open up fierce debate.

If we debate whether there is copyright in tweets, we obviously need to consider the other side of the coin: is there copyright infringement in tweets? Some people just tweet other people’s stuff (such as TwitterLitUK which tweets the first lines of books). or promote/link to such things. usually without permission. However, given that its only 140 characters… I figure it would be hard to prove infringement and there is a strong fair use argument (compared to say regular blogging). Being British I would say surely no one would seriously take action… but with the cases that come out of the states, you never know.

Of course there are those that are producing their own stuff. Original in their own right. As it can be seen people are using twitter a way to get published, offline as well as online. Examples of this are blogged about at FiledBy Author: Twit Lit. Such “Lit” includes 2 years of tweets in a tweetbook and short stories comprised of tweets. interesting concept – from what I have read, there is a certain novel entertainment value. Maybe I’ll try writing a book this way. Of course, books resulting from blogs have been happening for a while now (most recently it was announced that much read BabyBarista joined the ranks of the outted and to-be published blogger), but given that blogs are more “chunky” this is understandable that blog content would fill a book and generate a plot.

So which is twitter, copyrightable, infringement or a publishing opportunity? All three.

[bookmarking] I need to read this

2009-04-06T23:16:00.002+01:00

I already use Later This but today lifehacker did a review of I need to read this so I decided to check it out.

The format is similar to later this you simply create an account (the usual username/email/password) then drag the bookmarklets to the bookmark tool bar.

The purpose of it is kind of like a to–do list only a to-read list, simply click I need to read this when you are on an article you want to save for later. To read it later click read an article – couldn’t be more simple.

In comparison Later this and I need to read this, are same in functionality. Later this does the job and since its already up and running I wouldn’t change over, but if you’re looking to start new read this appears to have a much neater look.

[End of the week] 5/04/09

2009-04-05T01:52:00.000+01:00

Politics:

A bit old news now, but at the beginning of the week what everyone was talking about was Jacqui Smith’s husband’s use of expenses. This in turn has resulted in articles such as the ten most outrages claims ever the pornography of course got the top spot. In addition a more interesting take on the whole thing is the American take on the whole thing: found at geeks are sexy.

The Geeky:

Check where your username is being used elsewhere on the web, and, if you are anything like me, try and remember which ones are yours.

The April Fools’ Day Jokes:

Getting involved with april’s fools days these days, seems to either require advance planning or reusing old jokes – compared to the odd gag we used when I was a kid. Geeks are sexy put together tech jokes and there is even a database of all the 2009 jokes as well as the top 100 hoaxes of all time.

And lets not forget QwerTea; part of Narien’s limited edition NovelTeas.

Twitter:

the mockumentary receiving the attention of the twittersphere (if you were not already aware):Flutter. I love it, but gosh that must have been time consuming to do.

[Not Using] Chandler and tagged Frog

2009-04-03T01:27:00.001+01:00

Both Chandler and tagged Frog; list organise and tag things. Both are time consuming and uninteresting. My general organisation of my files and folders generally does the job for me, so they are a waste of my precious time. Tagged Frog is all about linking, tagging and searching, while chandler is more GTD and organising tasks.

But in summary, I downloaded, tried, but they didn’t tickle my fancy.

[Note-taking] Circus Ponies

2009-04-02T01:50:00.000+01:00

Okay, anyone who follows me on twitter will know how ADDICTED I am to Circus ponies. Unfortunately, I lack a Mac – so I steal my bf’s when I get a chance, unfortunately this is not often given that he’s a bit of a geek.

Another unfortunate thing is that the free trial, like most free trials, only lasts for 30 days. And as I don’t own a Mac (and as a lowly unemployed student) I don’t want to splash out on buying the software. If I did own a Mac and it was mine to use however, I wouldn’t hesitate: there is nothing better.

Circus ponies allows you to create multiple notebooks – they actually look like notebooks. Which is great. The closest I’ve found for windows is OneNote.

I’ve had limited time with this piece of software, and I’ve still a lot to learn (only 5 days left) so I can’t teach you much.

What I can say is functionality wise, it is easy and straight-forward to use. This sticky tabs / notes are the best invention ever, it is a shame they don’t export. And the clipping and link things work a dream. The Multidex, an an excellent add on for those who like to be organised, essentially creating an index in more ways than one. Beautiful.

I could rave till the cows come home, but what I will say is that Windows has a long way to go… they have nothing that comes even close.

[Training Contracts] The hunt continues… how to keep track of Applications.

2009-04-01T11:23:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was a big deadline for job applications (so no time to blog), both for vacation schemes and training contracts. Finding the time to do applications properly whilst during the LPC is challenging enough without them all coming at once. But they are done and dusted, and now its just waiting for the replies.

Awaiting a reply can be quite stressful, particularly in this uncertain time. (LawCareers.net has posted a good article: Recession Reality Check aimed at law students). I’ve had a number of small firms (that only take on 1 trainee) reply saying they had reviewed their intake and would not be hiring. But imagine my shock to get an email from Charles Russell saying they were not considering applications this year (either for Vacation scheme or training contract), particularly 2 months after the deadline – you got to wonder what they had been doing all that time.

Tip: Keeping track of Job Applications

Keeping track of job applications can be a bit of a mess. both in the composing of them, but also of noting replies and stuff. So I have a system for that.

I use my gmail account for job application as follows:

All job applications are labelled “job application” to begin with.
The Automated reply that you get from firms I use the yellow star to show the application has been received. The yellow star remains until I get either a rejection or interview so I know I’m still awaiting a reply.
The yellow star moves to the next email received from that firm if it is an additional email stating when you should hear by.
When I have received a rejection from a particular firm I use the red exclamation mark as the star (need to enable superstars) and remove the yellow star from the original email from that firm to show that they have responded.
When I get an interview the same thing applies only it is a green tick star.
The system means that any yellow stars remaining after a period of time are the ones they you are still awaiting replies on.
After interview replies, if they are rejections, but provide feedback, I will blue star these. This is because I will look at the feedback again, to help me progress, if it is a simple rejection with a contact number to phone, or they don’t have time to provide feedback, it gets the usual red exclamation mark treatment.

Whether you use a system like this or have your own method, it is worthwhile keeping on top of your job applications, it helps you know where you stand, and notice patterns between how long it takes for firm to offer an interview/reject – you can learn a lot.

[End of the Week] 29/03/09

2009-03-29T19:27:00.000+01:00

A collection of the links of interest that I’ve come across this week:

For the Linguist:

Litetype allows you to type in a foreign language and provides us with those symbol keys an English keyboard fails to have. They provide a wide range of languages, and it is easy to use. Beats having stickers on the keys like I used to have in my old job, to tell me which character was which.

Twitter:

The Guardian challenged top chefs to cut down their recipes to 140 characters twitter style. If you ask me it is nothing new and kind of confusing. Stateside, we have chef140 twittering away recipes. But still, I like a bit of codecracking and cooking, so thought I’d share.

Pictures:

cute and funny: 50 animals who hate to have baths – can’t help go “aww bless”.

[GTD] Mini Task

2009-03-28T01:04:00.002Z

This is a simple to-do list: MiniTask. I know everyone favours a to-do list one way or another, but currently – I’m using this one. It’s cute, tiny and simple to use. Each section headed in green drops down into a to-do list setting out the task – and you simply tick them off when you are done. easy. Loads of little tricks you can do with it (see website); but it simply gets the job done.

[Not Using] Central Desktop

2009-03-27T22:27:00.000Z

Yes, more collaboration Software. Started out using Central Desktop for my Commercial property module… it lasted a week – just. On the face of it, it has some neat tools. The ability to create different different workspaces, create different files, task lists, calendar etc etc.

With each document you can print, email, convert to wiki, password protect etc to suit your needs. And different documents can have different levels of protection, draft, approved etc. Even the layout and subscriptions can be controlled.

There are a host of additional functions that make this application good for general all-purpose and business needs. It just doesn’t suit my needs.

In short there is nothing wrong with this – it does the job it sets out to do, but it’s a bit bland and boring for me.

[Employment] wk3: unfair dismissal, acas code and Podcast.

2009-03-26T22:35:00.001Z

This week has been all about unfair dismissal. The changes coming in on the 6 April, and the Employment tribunal.

In the news, the talk of course recently has been about the new changes coming in, and how it really is just about common sense. The times write about the new acas code and summarises the changes as:

removing the legal obligation to deal with workplace discipline or grievance issues in a fixed way, putting the onus on employers and employees alike to deal with problems early on through old-fashioned communication and common sense.

In class we breathed a sigh of relief as we simultaneously crossed out pages of our statute book, pens gliding across the page almost unstoppable, picking up speed, until one person almost shouting asked, “where do we stop?”

A lot of changes for us to absorb, for some people it has been confusing as they know the law both before and after the changes; being new to employment law I only have to focus on the post 6 April changes.

Podcast: something you add to your podcast list if you are quick is BBC’s Radio 4 Law in Action programme, did a piece on Employment tribunals this week, which provides interesting insight into a day at the Tribunal. Only available until 31st March.

[productivity] How to survive the rush hour crunch:

2009-03-25T10:57:00.002Z

During what I call the rush hour crunch – when travelling by train you are subjected to an hour (in my case) of cramped conditions. There a varying degree of crunch ranging from the “busy, but I still find a seat…just about” if you are an early bird to “peas in a pod” if you end up travelling mid rush hour (for me this is the half 5 train).

People do very little with their time and simply listen to their ipods, talk loudly and rudely on their phone (“Hi, Just letting you know I’m on the train”) or on the rare occasion reading books. Whether we are trying to be green (or just can’t afford the parking in the city centre) the train is a good method of transport, anytime outside of rush hour, and the journey can be quite productive, but how can we extend this productivity into the rush hour?

Given that time is precious for law students, here is a list of suggestions based on what I do:

1. Getting to the station: for me this is usually a brisk walk, sometimes jog, if I’m close to getting an earlier, less crowded train. Nice spot of exercise for those days you can’t fit in a session to the gym. (less great on rainy days but hopefully we’ll have less of those as summer approaches).

2. Listen to Podcasts: I normally combine this with getting to the station, and waiting on the platform (as well as catching my breath of course). Podcasts, which I would like to hope everyone uses these days are great for catching up on news updates, topics of interest, learning a new language, learning your “nugget” for the day, or simply injecting a bit of humour into the day.

3. On the train studying: I always think that the train is a great place to study (given that I don’t get motion sickness on the train unlike a car). Nevertheless a file, manual, statute book, notepaper, pens, and highlighters do not fit comfortably on an overcrowded train. The obvious solution is use a laptop; many people do given its slim-line nature. But given I don’t use it during my day, and my bag is never enough as it is, bringing my laptop along for the ride is not usually an option. My solution, is a simple study book.

The Study Book

This is a small a5 notebook (can go smaller if you wish) – usually best to have one with identifiable sections, whether it is different coloured edged pages or subject notebooks then you can assign a section to different things. Please note this is in addition to my moleskine diary (see 4. below). I’ve split up the study book into 4 sections: To-dos, Mind dump/reviews, tasks, and internet.

To dos: These are specifically work to-dos, and will also contain a print list, as I don’t have a printer at home and we frequently have to print out things before and after a class.

MindDump/Review: Usually when I am heading home I have just finished a class. I find this a perfect time to do some notes. I basically will write a summary of what was covered in the class, what I specifically remember (usually these are the key points), any points of interest mentioned in class and draw up some diagrams about what I’ve learnt – this may be how this topic fits in with others or a flow chart showing the structure of a particular claim (i.e. what needs to be proved first?). As I am a visual learner I find it beneficial to learn like this, I can then fill out the notes later if I need to double check anything and add it to my file.

Tasks: This is usually for the morning journey. Generally when I am studying, if I find a task that I know I can do on the train / would be easy on the train – I set it aside to do on the train later and carrying on with the other stuff. Then later when I am on the train I do this task, it may not involve an entry in the notebook (e.g. when reading a lease), but the tasks section is there for the things I need to note when doing the task. The great thing about this is, I have something I can do on a train, and I free up time to do other things during my study time.

Internet: this is similar to the points of interest in the mind dump, only more general. Everyone gets flashes of inspiration, anytime, anywhere – usually when you haven’t got a computer handy. I note anything in this section (not necessarily work related), such as things I want to google/wiki; an email I want to send; a blog entry; cases and points of interest mentioned in class; research; and social networking issues. anything really – simply because, by the time I get home, all will be forgotten.

4. The daily-life catch up: Studying issues aside the train is always the perfect time to catch up on some tweaking of the diary (what I am doing and when), my general to-dos such as what to cook for dinner, grocery shopping list etc. Also get to do some vigorous ticking of what I’ve done during the day, as I’m usually productive this gives me a great sense of satisfaction.

Given the absence of a phone during the day I also listen to my messages and catch up on texts, phone calls I leave for the 10 minute walk from the station to my house.

5. If you are prone to snacking on the train, make sure you are armed with some snacks, cereal bar normally does it for me. Be healthy and get one of your five-a-day. It beats spending time waiting in the queue for some over priced chocolate bar, simply because everyone around you is snacking and it makes you feel hungry too.

6. Boredom and still got free time? make conversation. I love having a good old fashioned chat on the train, you can meet many interesting people (as well as strange people with obsessions with boats). Obviously be safe and don’t give your address etc, but a nice relaxing chit chat about the weather might be just what you need after a stressful day, and who knows you might learn something new. Also i you regularly travel on the same train, other people will to, its nice just to be able to give a friendly nod to someone else at a later date.

By doing these few simple things I’ve ended up having a more productive train journey, they can be done whether you find a seat, are sitting in the corridor or standing.

[Training Contracts] deferrals.

2009-03-24T22:40:00.000Z

So I’m not one of the lucky ones who already has a training contract as I’ve mentioned before. But the topic on everyone’s mind at the moment is whether to defer their TC or not. Or for those of us job hunting: the topic of conversation is what impact this will have on us – as there is bound to be a knock on effect.

The general redundancies are mounting up and the trainees are either getting told their place is secure or would they defer for x amount (not enough to live on).

I’ve 2 colleagues – same firm, same offer – one deferring, one not wanting to defer. The issue? whether they can afford to live. Another colleague – still hasn’t heard if her place is secure and she’s worried about being able to pay her mortgage should it not become available.

It really shouldn’t come down to find another job, any job to keep you going or moving home, and living off the parents again.

But at the end of the day any job is better than none, as the chances of getting on the job market seem more bleak than ever.

Thoughts?

[Commercial] wk3: Piracy, international trade and shipping.

2009-03-23T18:02:00.002Z

Used as an example of a frustration event / force majeure in shipping contracts was piracy. Modern day pirates in Somalia have of course been a cause for concern and featured in the news predominantly. However, they are of interest from a legal point of view as well - given the lack of jurisdiction, this topic has been covered by international law observer earlier this year and more recently by Oliver Hawkins (BBC, Law in Action).

[End of the Week] 22/3/09

2009-03-22T23:12:00.000Z

The Freaky:

Deathswitch: a service for sending messages from beyond the grave. When I read about this on lifehacker I thought you got to be kidding me. But still I’ve always believed in cleansing the soul every once in a while, by telling all. Maybe a service like this – is in fact one of the future – for now… just a bit creepy.

Following on Twitter:

World Of Tea: Love tea? Whether it’s simply can’t function without your morning cuppa, or you try every variety of tea out there, this feed provides interesting tid-bits about tea to break up your day. Linked to blog of the same name.

The Legal:

Lawsuits against bloggers: My ILaw tutor at undergrad introduced me to Citizen Media Law project website. I’ve dipped into it a number of times, purely from an academic prospective – but I stumbled across it again this week. They have an extensive database, one topic includes the lawsuits against bloggers. Definitely worth several return visits.

[Weekend Project] Learning a Language??

2009-03-21T19:33:00.001Z

Learning a new language has never been my forte, partly because words are different for me compared to others. But with a certain amount of will power and determination, I believe it can be done – only problem is – finding the time.

A few years ago I aspired to learn Japanese. I used a programme called Rosetta Stone. Definitely one of the best things out there, uses pictures, sounds and memory tests etc, a real interactive and involving way to learn. Unfortunately, it is very expensive to buy, which is not great for a student like myself.

So, I’m always on the lookout for cheaper alternatives – the obvious – podcasts. Open culture, provide a great round up of free foreign language links. In both audio and video, the collection provides everything from basic foreign travel phrases, to more extensive learning. Next thing, deciding on a language.

[Google] First day of Spring

2009-03-20T11:24:00.002Z

Google’s current logo is that of Eric Carle’s Hungry Caterpillar – still as instinctively recognised now as when I was a child and before my time.

But what is not to love about the book its bright and colourful. Admittedly when you go back and read it as a twenty-something the excitement fades a little. But it is still one of my greatest memories from childhood.

Today, unlike when I was a child you can get all the “merchandise” to go with the book (what is wrong with just the book itself, I wonder?) – from what I’ve seen there are plushies, cookie cutter sets and mixing bowls and mugs all bearing the hungry caterpillar illustrations. My bf bought me the mug a few weeks ago for my birthday – it was great.

See the rest of google’s holiday logos here.

[ToDo] Blist

2009-03-19T20:24:00.001Z

Blist is all about making lists and sharing the content on the web. Set up like a simple table you can formulate, create, share and blog lists. You can browse other peoples lists and create lists from their lists. Basically – a lot of lists – easy to use, easy to share.

Once you’ve got to grips with the basics, Blist actually has a lot of functionality. You can create different columns, priorities, link in different documents, import pictures, colour code and make use of symbols. Possibilities are endless, whatever you want to organise – I’m sure there is a way or blist to do it for you. Even if you aren’t sure what you want, there is plenty of inspiration from other people’s lists. It can be as simple or as complicated as you wish.

[Training Contracts] Career Log / joblog – however you like to keep track

2009-03-18T00:19:00.000Z

So you started the job hunt, done the research on the firm – now the research is about you. What to say on those application forms, what have you done with your life, can you even remember everything you’ve done?

Wiki How does a great article on How to Keep a Career Log which pretty much sums up what I do, in a nice user friendly way.

Last year I found that I couldn’t remember what I had done at school, or things that didn’t seem important to me, but might be worth remembering – for example, I forgot that I did my Duke of Edinburgh Bronze or that I never name half my computer skills, as I take them for granted.

Even though I don’t work currently, putting down on paper what I had done in past jobs was also a great idea, helped me generate ideas for answering the “describe a situation…” question on application forms.

Do whatever works for you, but its important to remember, every little thing counts – you just need to remember about it.

[Blog] Blog Editor

2009-03-17T22:53:00.001Z

So this week I decided to try using a blog editor rather than typing directly into the blogger page (yes, still such a noob at blogging).

So I’m currently using Windows Live Writer for this purpose. It is great, simple to download, then once it is downloaded you simply link with your blog (works for a range of hosts). What the writer does it allows you to type, draft, and publish posts ready for your blog. These can be typed in a preview view (and your settings will automatically be incorporated) so you know what it will look like without messing around with the formatting.

Piece of cake.

Similar service is Blogo for the Mac.

[twitter] More experimentation

2009-03-16T23:10:00.001Z

So I am getting the hang of this twitter thing a little bit more, attempted a few more replies and stuff. Building confidence. One thing that is nerve wracking for me about twitter is the fact that it is public, searchable and “out there”. spooky!

So been playing around and found a few more “essentials”:

- TwitPic: Sharing photos on twitter. Learnt about this when Jimmy Carr posted a photo of the minotaur in Cheltenham which caused quite a debate.

- Apparently personality on twitter goes a long way – i.e. you need to stand out from the crowd. The main way to do this visually is to customise your background.

- adding a button to your blog to let everyone know you have a twitter account. Examples can be found here.

- Online best colleges has a great list of tools – haven’t had the opportunity to try them out yet.

- Also a good TED talk by Evan Williams (co founder of twitter): How Twitter’s spectacular growth is being driven by unexpected uses. Interesting.

[End of the Week] 15/03/09

2009-03-15T20:04:00.001Z

A collection of the random things out there this week that I would blog about properly, but have little time.

The Geeky: Typefaces periodic table: nifty way to learn things a periodic table – all I have to do is discover what legal related thing could be memorised by periodic table. (On another note I’ve just realised how much chemistry I’ve forgotten and need to look up the real periodic table.)

The Legal: A bit dated this, but my bf drew this to my attention today on wiki leaks. I never go on wiki-leaks myself, and I think he found it on the register but basically it is a threat by Davenport Lyons to Wikileaks over publishing its threat to another individual. Quite amusing really the things lawyers will do.

The Video: An amusing video from College humour as always: Your Printer is a Brat.

The Stumble: Violinist in the metro – I won’t ruin it for you if you’ve not read it, but it makes me sad to think that our lives have got so busy in our lives that we don’t appreciate things properly.

[twitter] Juror Jonathan

2009-03-15T19:50:00.002Z

Only noticed this today, but apparently it’s been getting a lot of media attention (here, here and here). The juror, now known as Juror Jonathan twittered before and after jury duty – the tweets appear to be harmless simply informing friends about his jury duty. The defendants are clearly looking for any excuse to appeal, and clearly have no idea about the internet. I would say typical of America, but I’m sure the same fuss would have been made here. unfortunately.

I am in disbelief at how this has even become an issue. Surely everyone should get that “two angry men” is simply a reference to 12 angry men (which to be honest it the only thing most people know about jury service) and that they were not looking for help on the verdict. The verdict had already been made when he tweeted. (The Verdict is another cracking law movie, well worth a comparison with 12 Angry Men).

What needs to be fixed here, is the lack of understanding of how technology works. The one simple rule approach blogged about by Deliberations, would definitely be a good starting point.

[Updated] My Reading List

2009-03-14T18:48:00.004Z

Books to Read
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://app.blist.com/?exp1=v0#/blist/travisthetrout/Books-to-Read" title="Books to Read"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Books to Read&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
Powered by blist

Decided to do a proper reading list today – with my latest addition - “Rainbows end” – maybe now that we’ve started the electives I might have time to read.

List generated with blist. See review on blist here.

[Weekend Project] Twitter

2009-03-13T19:29:00.001Z

So this week I’ve had more free time on my hands than usual – first week of the electives, down to 3 days a week – what’s not to love.

This week’s project has ended up being quite a big one – getting myself on Twitter. Now I’ve had an account for a while, my ILaw tutor was very web 2.0 and introduced us all to the concept. A year later, more people are on it, I’ve expanded my blog subscriptions, so yes, twitter is another was to benefit from interesting blog posts.

Signing up is easy, enter some details and away you go: but actually learning how to twitter took a fair bit of reading.

You need to master the basics, but once that is done there appears to be loads of adventurous things to try.

Everything twitter blogs about everything new to twitter (there appears to be endless apps and tweaks) this is a great source of information once you’ve warmed up.

A more straightforward and easy to read explanation of apps is found at Twitter fan wiki (a pbwiki). A must have application is Tweet Deck which is one of the most talked about desktop applications for twitter, and definitely makes it easier.

Once you’ve read all about how to use twitter, then its time to find people to follow. With regards to general browsing I found a number of interesting lists to help generate possibilities:

Valebrity for all the real twittering celebrities
Twitterholic or the most popular twitterers
and here and here for the lawyers on twitter.

That should be enough to keep you amused. Of course the most useful resources for finding people to follow are actual friends and contacts as well as the people behind the blogs you regularly read.

Will update you soon about my Twitter progress.

[Tools] What’s in a name?

2009-03-12T14:44:00.002Z

I’ve got an unusual name, both first name and surname, most people make a stab at it the first time, and it is either hit or miss. Another thing I hate is repeating my name until the person I am talking to gets it right, usually I give up and just agree with them, particularly if I am never going to see them or they are going to forget as soon as they finally get it.

Started a new class (another elective) and my tutor was like “oh you’re the one with the lovely name” and I was just like, “oh… okay, thanks” and she hastily adds “ not that the rest of you don’t have nice names, I’ve just never heard it before”. I guess rarity makes it a nice name, just a pain for talking on the phone.

Recently phoned my bf’s work and go put through to all sorted, everyone asking who I was and me repeating my name a gazillion times, before someone eventually figured out who I was and got my bf to call me back. Talk about complicated.

I was put onto this site a while back: How to say that name admittedly, it doesn’t include my name or a lot of names that I have come across, nevertheless, it is a useful tool to have. A person will appreciate and listen to you a lot more if you get their name right.

I used to work for a Chinese charity and found it almost impossible to get the hang of Chinese names. The last thing I wanted to do was to phone someone up and ask for them by name, and then get it wrong. This site would have been useful then, as it contains a lot of common Chinese names. The alternative is what I had to do is either, ask someone else at the office how to say the name, or only pronounce the part of the name that you can say clearly. Luckily my job didn’t involve much phone contact – only when arranging job interviews and various appointments – nothing where I was on the phone all day.

A small thing like getting someone’s name right can go a long way.

[LPC] Exam Results

2009-03-11T23:56:00.001Z

So we got our skills exam results today, came out with all of them being competent - not that I didn't think I would, but is just nice to get the confirmation.

However, the pain about getting the exam results is the long trek to university just to get them. When doing my undergrad we received our results online, just signed into our "account" and hey presto there they are. Now my current university account still has the ability to give us our results online, but chooses not too due to administrative complications or something like that.

It amazes me that everyone has not gone the ease of the "online results" route. But even some of the most technically competent universities in the uk still use the paper method, and when they attempt to complete it online, mess it up.

It is not just that students are being lazy. Getting results online has its benefits (in addition to ease and speed). You get to do it in privacy without your classmates hanging around: one girl in my class went to her car to open her envelope, everyone else sneaked a peek in the classroom over lunch - luckily no one failed.

The other problem is of course the handwritten comments. My commentary was straightforward and easy to read, but some markers appeared to only manage a scrawl. One classmate has comments written in caps and she still couldn't read it, so I ended up reading it out to her, I'm sure she wasn't best pleased for everyone to find out that she almost didn't pass.

In the digital age, why do universities insist on good old fashioned paper results, when the online method, clearly has benefits (except when there is the problem of "hidden fails" of course, which crop up at undergrad).

[Organisation] Shelving

2009-03-10T19:39:00.004Z

I'm in despair, I am running out of shelving. My Ikea shelves can only hold so many law books. (see above for the 2 Sept and below for my shelving today That is 2 layers of books in ever cube by the way.) I have one set for law books which is full and one for music and dvds - there is only so much you can fit in a one-bed flat.

On my hunt for new shelving ideas, I came accross a great flickr pool of Ikea Shelving. It is like fantasy shelves, wild colours, and great organisation - enough to make me drool. I feel like my shelving is inadequate. More Ikea shelving is going on my shopping list for when I cease to be a student.

[Red Nose Day] What’s funny?

2009-03-09T10:10:00.000Z

Okay, so I happen to LOVE Monkey (PGTips) and he is chairing this ad so it gets extra bonus points, but seeing some well loved British ads come together for red nose day was certainly a treat.

[End of the Week] 08/03/09

2009-03-08T18:24:00.001Z

A collection of the random things out there this week that I would blog about properly, but have little time.

The Legal:

Advertising guidelines Released by the IAB according to the Guardian. Not the first time behavioural advertising has been in the spotlight and certainly won’t be the last.

Pdfs:

More tips for lawyers wanting to use pdfs in a productive way. Here, the focus is on using pdfs in legal research.

For the Desktop:

Smashing magazine has a beautiful collection of Wallpaper calenders – definitely something for everyone, regardless of style. They also have a stunning collection of normal wallpapers.

[Training Contracts] The Legal Research

2009-03-02T00:07:00.001Z

Okay, so you’ve started the search for a TC and possibly got a few ideas of what type of firm you’d like to apply for. Now you need to research the firm and find out more about it.

So, if you’ve found out the firms name, the odds are you’ve found a link to their website. This can be useful or not, depending on how much effort a firm has put into their website and whether it is up to date – make sure it doesn’t say “ deadline for 2007 Training Contracts is [date]” – this does not help you. So what next?

Student publications / websites are the next obvious step.

lawcareers which I’ve mention previously frequently do a feature on various firms (as well as providing basic information).
Chambers and Partners produce a guide (often handed out by law schools and at law fairs). This is a very useful book for students.
Chambers guide is similar to the training contract and Pupillage handbook which no student should be without – again usually provided at law fairs / law school. Both these guides come out in oct/nov, so you should have them already. If not, ask around as may be hard to get hold of a copy.
The Lex 100 – this site (and the publication) puts together a wide variety of information on top firms, specially for students – you get all types of interesting nuggets from current trainees too.
Lawyer2B – the student part of the lawyer, both interesting general career/student law info as well as law firm information.

Finally you should also check out the Professional resources & publications:

The Lawyer: all the Legal News and Information in one handy place. Interesting things include law firm guide, the Annual Reports and information on practice areas.
Legal 500: information by region, practice area, reputation search or browse the firms, find out more about what they do and their clients etc.
Legal week: more news on legal developments and law firms. A lot of firms have their own page, compiling all the recent articles about them, without you haven’t to browse the site.

[de-stress] Games

2009-02-26T12:11:00.001Z

Falling Sand Game: Up for wasting valuable time – try this game, relaxing, but ever so addictive. Basically sand falls, you make – set your creative side free.

Balldroppings: You draw lines, balls bounce – makes nice music. Also quite fascinating to watch balls bouncing around – for some reason it draws you in.