Advice

While this has applications outside law school, and in the greater world of professional life, a few words of advice for those who care to listen.

First and foremost, for law school students: realize that you are entering a world where you are known, you live and you die by your reputation. The reputation you get will largely be up to you. So when you're on the phone with someone, and you pull out that "I'm going to law school, so you'd better do what I say because I'm going to law school, and I know the law, and you'd better toe the line or else..." card, realize a couple of things. First, you have just justified every lawyer joke ever written. People mistrust lawyers, and believe that they're arrogant and rude. You've just proven them all correct in that assumption. The only way you could do more to prove lawyer jokes right is to go out and literally chase ambulances.

Second, pulling a move like that makes it very difficult to deal with you. It's the equivalent of the old wild west move of placing your hand on the holster, and calling the other person a coward. You've shown that you are unwilling to negotiate, and probably unreasonable to boot. You've also probably destroyed any good-will that may have existed in the first place, and in a professional context, you may find yourself taking a client to expensive, time consuming litigation when a handshake deal or a negotiated settlement would have sufficed. That's going to cost you clients, and clients talk.

Third, clients aren't the only ones who talk. The reputation you get with your fellow students can come back to help or hurt you in the future. Some day, I or another one of your fellow students may get this: "Hey, this applicant, (blank) went to school at (insert name of law school here). Ricks, you went there, right? Did you know this guy?" To be followed with a "What did you think of him/her?" You want your fellow students to think highly of you, not to think that you're going to be a headache. The choices you make in the here and now will have consequences in the there and then, some of which may not be readily apparent to you. And the bottom line is: if you act like a jerk, it's going to reflect badly on you, and on the school, which is no good for any of us.

So, while there is a time and a place for zealous advocacy, there is more often a time and place for manners, consideration, and thoughtfulness.

That's enough talk about law-school grumpiness. Now for another bone I have to pick. I've been to my local Hollywood Video a couple of times, looking for 'Cube games to rent, and any time I've mentioned that I have a 'Cube, I've gotten the unsolicited comment "Ah, man, the GameCube sucks. Xbox is much better." Never freakin' mind the amount of time and effort I've invested in making a decision in which next gen console I'd be breaking a long-held promise to my wife over. Never mind the availability of games I think I'll actually like and play. Never mind the fact that I have a kid in the house. Never mind the thought that the games I want to play on Xbox are on the PC as well (Halo, Advent Rising, Knights of the Old Republic). As someone in customer service, you NEVER tell someone that what they have is stupid unless you really, really, really don't want that customer. (sigh). More when I'm feeling up to it.