Law School and Poker

I have begun law school in earnest and I am really enjoying it.  I am taking Civil Procedure with Shaun Martin, Torts with Christopher Wonnell, Criminal Law with Jean Ramirez, and Legal Writing and Research with Lisa Pearl.

My weekly schedule is fairly full, but I have only one class on Fridays from 10:30-11:30 am, so it looks like I will still be able to play the 40 game once a week on Friday for most of the day and evening and into the night, depending on how I'm running and how tired I am.  Last week, I stayed until 4:45am in the morning because the game was so good.  Of course I only won $281, but that's not the point.

Interestingly enough, the class I thought that would be the most interesting and the one I would like the most, is actually my least favorite, criminal law.  I don't know for some reason, the material just doesn't "speak" to me.  Possibly because I am not particularly fond of the professor or her style, but whatever.  And ironically enough, the class I thought I would like least, Civil Procedure, is actually my favorite.  Professor Martin is engaging, energetic, quick-witted, and super fun to be in class with.  And the material is actually fairly interesting, and much more "technical" than other substantive areas of law.  It's likely my engineering background makes this area of study enjoyable to me.

I'm amazed at exactly how important language and its usage and meaning is in the study of the law.  Back in the Clinton era, I was fairly disgusted with Bill Clinton's response to a question with the response it "depends on what the meaning of the word is is."  I now have new appreciation for that quote.