Fun Things!

I've tried all semester to keep a school - rugby -social life - sleep balance. It's mostly worked, and now that I'm in exam week, having a few hours every day to feel normal is even more important.

I stopped by school the day before my first exam to get something out of my locker. I was only there for ten minutes, but the stress level was palpable. I felt sick just being in the building surrounded by stressed out 1Ls. So this is what I've been doing for fun since classes ended:

• 4.5 mile walk/hike in Franklin Park with Izzy
• drinking with classmates at 2pm after our first exam
• watching the Pats demolish the Jets 45-3
• Christmas sweater and white elephant gift exchange party with my rugby team
• tour the Museum of Fine Art's new Art of the Americas wing with BrandonB
• dinner at a Mass Bar event with QC; the food was cooked by Top Chef seasons 1 and 8 contest Tiffani Faison
• puppy play date for Izzy and Remy
  
• Northeastern basketball vs URI. They lost, but the grad students got free food and great seats
• law school party after our first exam
• finally going to the gym and lifting - twice so far!
  
• Watching the Pats (currently up 33-0 over the Bears) win again
  

Fun things still to come:

• ice skating on the rink right by my apt. It finally opened on Saturday! I was planning to go with Dan today, but we were rained out :( Hopefully I'll go Monday or Tuesday.
  
• going to Our House East for the school-sponsored party after the last exam on Wednesday
  
• Boston Pops concert with my mom and Justin's mom on Wednesday night

I promise I've been studying too. I've been to seven optional reviews in the past week and a half. This post is the necessary antidote to the craziness of the previous post.

After that, I'll be driving to VA, for my sister's PhD graduation from Virginia Tech, and finally, back to Maryland. I'm looking forward to being on a school schedule again and having a few weeks off over Christmas.

The things I know now

I have a fantastic teacher for property who often says things like "now that you're lawyers" or "now that you have lawyer-brains." Today, during one of our review sessions before finals, she explained this by comparing how far we've come since the first weeks of school. Which is true, but I still think it's a little scary to be held to "lawyer standards" after less than 1/6 of my schooling.

I just read an article in WaPo that required using my lawyer-brain. Basically, 6 women are suing Wal-Mart for discrimination against female employees. It's a class action suit that started in California in 2001 (that's the procedural history for ya). Wal-Mart is challenging whether it's an appropriate class action. The women won the right to certify as a class in federal district court, and the appeals court upheld with a 6-5 vote. The Supreme Court just granted certiorari, meaning they'll hear arguments this spring.

So how does my lawyer-brain respond to this, especially during this crazy period leading up to finals?

Oooh, that's a Rule 23 issue! We just learned that last week. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (the Bible for law) Rule 23 - Class Actions says that (a) a class must meet these four prerequisites: numerosity, commonality, typicality, and representativeness. Wal-Mart says the class doesn't meet commonality, which says there must be a common question of law or fact for all members. Yes, they're all female and employees, but that's not enough in common - some are hourly, some salaried, and they work all over the country and under a variety of job titles.

(a) makes sense to me and you need all four. (b) is trickier - types of class actions - and you need to fit in (at least) one category:

23(b)(1)(A)- kinda like Rule 19 required joinder - you need all the people added to the class that way everyone gets the same result.

23(b)(1)(B) - kinda like A except it has to do with if the result would hurt those not joined. Not sure if I get this...

23(b)(2) - the big bad company is being a jerk (cigarette companies, credit cards) and the only way to make them stop is a big class action creating injunctive relief. This, I get. It's Erin Brockovich.

23(b)(3) - there is a clear common question of law or fact and it's most efficient to have one giant case.

Wow. That was a good review, but sometimes I want to turn this off. I have a plan for not going crazy this week - that will be my next post.