Today was a beautiful, sunny day, which made Professional responsibility extra awkward.
Our professor brought in the head of the Minnesota chapter of Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers.
She gave us the “1 in 4 of you is going to be messed up so please get help” lecture that we got about five times last year.
Our PR class is in a smaller room with tiered seating. The window is in the back of the room.
Textbook editors must assume that no one reads the notes after cases. The notes contain the most random tangents – for example, from the contracts book:
“Like many law students, you may sometimes wear a sweatshirt quoting Shakespeare’s famous line from Henry VI, Part II: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” You may be aware that in that speech, Shakespeare was not in fact damning lawyers; the line is spoken by one of a gang of villains, and was intended to express the idea that for evil to triumph, it would first be necessary to deprive society of the protection of the law. But most of your fellow citizens, sadly, probably take those words at face value—and perhaps agree with them.”*
I have never seen anyone wear this ‘sweatshirt’ at UMN. It may be Minnesota, but we aren’t that frumpy. The Shakespeare sweater would be the legal equivalent of Leslie Hall’s gem sweaters…or her octopus suit…
*(Problems in Contract Law, Knapp/Crystal/Prince, Aspen Publishers)