The Reasonably Prudent Law Student

Morning, nerds! I saw a pingback on my blog this morning and realized I completely forgot to address this! Clear Admit has a Best of Blogging contest going currently for the best law student blogs, and TRPLS was one of the 25 nominees!

If you’ll check my sidebar, you’ll see the spiffy little button they sent me. (Thanks!) I kept meaning to go into my Widgets and put it up and talk about this, but then I’d forget. Or I’d tell myself that I’d do it as soon as I got out of class and, after a stupid train ride home and then 1 mile walk to my car (okay, it’s like a third of a mile walk to my car, but still, let me have this) and driving home, it’s the farthest thing from my mind. In fact, the only thing on my mind when I get home is: Sammich. Also, sleep. But mostly sammich. Also, kill the phonies.

Also I think it has to do with my subconscious hang-up about not really being able to talk myself up, because I think it’s braggy and ridiculous. So there’s that.

Deep psychological issues aside, Clear Admit nominated 25 law student blogs as part of it’s competition, and I’d like to share with you my five favorites among them. No offense to the ones I don’t mention; you all have great blogs. But these are the ones that I usually read and comment on and just plain run amok on.

(Also, ask yourself, is the dubious honor of being named here REALLY worth having me run amok on your blog, destroying everything in my path? Hm? Because I’m kind of a monster, you guys.)

These are listed in the order of whose pet I like the most.

• Dennis Jansen – This is a GREAT blog for would be law students and law students alike. Dennis does a great job of balancing his law school life with aspects of his personal life, as well as hints of what he’s up to at work. Obviously, lawyers and would-be lawyers have to be very careful when talking about the cases they’re working on, so Dennis will share with us snippets of some of the cases he’s poring over at work, things like where one party is chasing another down a busy street with a chainsaw. I don’t know. Also, he always informs us when he spills coffee on his crisp white shirt, or when the cute intern walks by as he (Dennis) is wolfing down an afternoon snack, complete with wolf-like snacking noises. He’ll share with us little conversations from class, about gunners, about clueless people, about professors that work a little blue. He’ll tell us about the time he got shot before his CivPro final (or something), he’ll tell us about Meth Molly who used to frequently accuse his dog of being a ‘big-ass-dog,’ and he’ll tell us about the aforementioned dog, and what naughty thing it did that day. But he also writes great advice columns, letting 0Ls and even current law students know what to expect when they embark on their three-year journey through Hell only to emerge as the Devil. He’s informative, engaging, and funny. And he likes glamour shots. Enough said.
• I Don’t Wear Skinny Jeans – a mystery blogger that I just call Skinny Jeans, or SJ for short. We’re tight like that. Anyway, SJ writes amazingly hilarious, sometimes snarky little posts that double as a dose of law school hilarity (and surreality) and advice columns. My particular favorite was the post describing SJ’s strategy when it comes time to pick a seat at the start of the semester. Sheer genius. I highly recommend this blog because the posts are concise and don’t ramble on forever about nothing (like mine), there are always great graphics that you probably shouldn’t look at during class because the professor will never believe that it was a case about encroachment that made you guffaw like that, and the writing style is fun and engaging and pretty slick. A great law student blog.
• Laura Bergus – Laura has a pretty great blog. I’m always amazed at all she manages to do: she’s a law student, she works, she blogs for her own blog and does podcasts and blog posts for Legal Geekery, she has a great, informative Twitter feed, and she has a hubster and a chittlin at home. Superstar. While Laura doesn’t talk about the time she got shot before her CivPro final (because it didn’t happen) or about her haircut cycles of shame, she posts really informative articles that will help law students learn a little more about the law school culture, aside from the fire and brimstone nature of it that they preach at all orientations. Her articles often have a social media slant, and what’s most interesting to me about her blog is that I can easily see, first of all, that it’s her passion, but more importantly, I can see how she is actively using that passion and merging it with what she’s doing in law school to create a career for herself. More than anything, that’s what I like about her blog. When you get to law school, you’re put on so many tracks, and you’re expected to be interviewing by your first winter break and have your first job lined up by the summer and blah blah blah, and there’s really very little room for deviance from that path of law student – law clerk/summer associate – lawyer. And the truth is that there are so many more things you can do with a law degree whether you decide to practice or not. So check out Laura’s quest to get all lawyered up, and really pay attention to how she’s managed to merge that with what she really enjoys doing, and use it as a model. I’m not saying you have to be interested in social media and technology to learn from her. But the lesson regarding mixing what you’re going into as a career with what you really just love doing and learning about is a valuable one.
• Blawgirl - I don’t have much to say about this blog, except one thing. It’s going to sound totally weird and creepy, but whatever, when has that stopped me? Here it is: Julie Anne Ines is absolutely adorable. And I love her blog because it’s an extension of her adorableness. This is one talented lady, y’all. She’s a former journalist and now she’s a law student. Her blog contains lots of graphics and hilarity and music, as well as law-oriented stuff (she’s also a law student blogger for the shark, as is Dennis up there). She’s also got mad graphic skillz, if you check out her Flickr and her Adventures of Teenie Me series. Someone get this girl a deal with Pixar – you know, if the whole law school thing doesn’t work out. She doesn’t blog as frequently as some of the other losers who waltz back in with a post per day about clothes and ridiculousness and little stick cartoons, but when she does, it’s a treat. There. That didn’t sound as creepy as I thought it would. I hope. Either that, or Julie’s already taken a restraining order out against me. Which, let’s be honest here, wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.
• TDOT - Last but not least, TDot. He’s a computer scientist turned law student, and is wonderful. Let’s be honest, there are few things I love more than computer geeks. Math nerds and sandwiches and Blackadder, really. And then computer geeks. I just find that sense of humor lovely. And TDot’s got a great, emoticon-laden sense of humor as he talks about his law school experiences and how his classes are going and how he’s doing on the emotional rollercoaster that is law school. This is a great in-the-trenches kind of blog, which is what I love about it. I highly recommend checking it out. Also, he uses lots of bullet points, and I love bullet points. Everyone knows this, you guys. Everyone.

And those are my top 5 favorite blogs from Clear Admit’s Best of Blogging Contest. Thanks, everyone!

Ugh, I have to go now. I’m having my kitchen redone and apparently they want to put in an island?! First I’ve heard about this! Jeez.