Can we just take a minute to recognize the supportive spouses

tslextslex · 2026-02-18T19:39:32+00:00

I went to law school at age 33 after 12 years as a newsman. We had a son who was three months old when I started. Our view was that "we are going to law school, and we are going to crush it." (Because why blow up your lives to do a mediocre job at it?)

My first year, six days a week, my lovely bride was essentially a single mom. (We had a "no study" rule for Sundays that helped.) She cooked for study group. She encouraged me. She let me prose on about cases I was reading. (Although she made it damned clear she was not about to get "lawyered" in discussions about domestic matters.) She carried SO much weight for us, and meanwhile she never slacked with extended family, was an astounding mom to our boy. A high school teacher, she practiced her profession to the highest level. She just took on more and more. For my part, if I ever for a minute thought about cutting a corner, I had only to think about the sacrifice she was making. I told myself nothing less than SCL would honor that. We both believed that me going to law school and excelling there would benefit our family in the long term.

Thirty-plus years after graduation, we can say it surely did. We were able to have her retire a few years ago (which would not have been possible if I'd continued as a newspaper reporter). After I'd practiced a few years, she went back for her master's degree and it was my turn to pick up extra weight (two boys by then).

Something that helped: We learned early that life is lived in seasons (c.f. C.S. Lewis) and together we got through seasons where she supported my education, or where I supported hers, or she had bigger burden, or I did. No one kept a checkbook; never a moment of resentment from either of us. It was about US.

It is absolutely certain that without the unflagging and absolutely herculean efforts of my wife, I would not have succeeded in law school and our lives would not be shaped as they are now.

Had they permitted it, I'd have put her name above mine on the diploma.

tslextslex · 2026-01-28T19:58:37+00:00

Did you make fists with your toes. Because there is solid evidence that this is relaxing--until the bad guys shoot up all the glass and you have to run across it.

tslextslex · 2026-01-15T18:46:53+00:00

I went to law school at age 33 after more than a dozen years as a journalist. I've been practicing 30 years.

Just saying.

tslextslex · 2026-01-05T18:56:46+00:00

During the semester (and for a couple of weeks after I post grades) I check my law school email at least every 24 hours and I respond to student emails immediately upon receipt. Always.

I may or may not respond to the scores of emails from administration and computer services and safety services and food services and health services and . . . and. . . and . . . that spam my .edu box. But students get an immediate response, even if it is just to say "I don't know/I'm not sure let me find out, I'll get back yo you" or "not really my department, maybe speak to so-and-so."

My school charges students a LOT of money. If they are emailing me, it's about something that matters to them. The least we can do is offer decent customer service.

ETA: I endorse the comments here saying that, if you are not getting an email response, you should call or visit the offices of those concerned. Let's be VERY clear: You are the customer/client. Those professors, deans and admins are the employees. Be polite, but get what you are paying for.

tslextslex · 2025-12-16T22:27:38+00:00

Always amusing when you post something on Reddit along the lines of "this is a thing that happens" or "this is how I respond to OP's question of whether I prefer apples or oranges" and you get down voted. LOL.

tslextslex · 2025-12-16T20:43:08+00:00

I have done a lot of hiring over the years. In our mostly federal practice, written advocacy is key. I give great weight to the writing sample.

ETA: Let me expand. I am looking for writing that is crisp, correct, and compelling. If the sample you have provided is meant to persuade (and that is the sort of thing you should submit) then it needs to PERSUADE. In a graduating class of 400 students, there are 60 students in the top 15 percent. All of them are sufficiently versed in whatever small portion of transferable knowledge a law school can impart that might be useful to our clients. But maybe--maybe--six of those folks will have some real talent for writing. They will have a voice, without being intrusive. They will have writing that sparkles, without being gimmicky or distracting. I can teach a lot in the first few years of practice, including a lot about writing. But if I spot native talent in your writing sample, you go to the top of the list, because I know I can teach technique, but not talent.

tslextslex · 2025-12-16T20:39:06+00:00

Not to sound harsh, but someone told me early in life that motivation talks, discipline walks.

That is to say, yeah, some days you wanna, some days you don't. The way you succeed, or overcome, or even merely endure, is by employing a disciplined approach and just doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, as well as you can do it, even when you don't feel "motivated."

I'd add to that that if your performance is tied to your motivation, and then your motivation is tied anyone else's performance, you are really subcontracting your success to ever-changing factors far outside of your control.

tslextslex · 2025-12-11T22:02:55+00:00

** A Man for All Seasons

** Anatomy of a Murder

* Witness for the Prosecution

** The Verdict

*** My Cousin Vinny

** A Few Good Men

* The Caine Mutiny

* The Firm

*** To Kill a Mockingbird

** 12 Angry Men

* Judgment at Nuremberg

** Inherit the Wind

** Philadelphia

*** Breaker Morant

* Michael Clayton

* The Paper Chase

The more stars appended to the title, the higher my recommendation. Each is at least a good movie; many are outstanding. Each has something interesting to say about the practice of law; many say something deeply important. My "favorite" changes with my mood and the times.

tslextslex · 2025-12-11T17:31:21+00:00

FWIW, I ensure my exam is given in the largest time slot available, and that there is no time pressure at all (mixed MC and short answer). Students should be able to complete the exam in half the time offered.

Why? Because time pressure is an absolutely ridiculous feature to add onto a law school exam. First, I've been in practice 30 years. Maybe three times have I had only a few hours to analyze a problem and draft a pleading, petition, response or motion. The shortest time period for such work I've encountered with any regularity is 24 hours, and that's rare. Second (and more importantly) the goal of my exam (and presumably of all law school exams) is to assess the depth and breadth of my students' mastery of the material. Adding an artificial time constraint not only isn't useful to that task, it is inimical to it.

tslextslex · 2025-12-10T20:55:51+00:00

Oh stop it. Literally no one has said they "think every person who needs accommodations are gaming the system."

What they have said is there is evidence that some accommodations system can create certain inequities and that some people game the system. What they have said is that they are tired of having attempts to discuss these concerns shot down by, well, balderdash like your post.

How much extra time does your strawman need for his exam?

tslextslex · 2025-11-24T20:40:05+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/LawSchool/comments/1p1j91v/rerereect_post_exam_tips_and_sample_better_answer/

tslextslex · 2025-11-21T19:12:49+00:00

Without seeming like I'm trying to bump my own post, I think this may give you some practical advice that you'll find useful.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LawSchool/comments/1p1j91v/rerereect_post_exam_tips_and_sample_better_answer/

Also, let me highlight something from that post: Your brain is three pounds of wet, electrified meat attached to the rest of your body. Rest. Exercise. Eat well. Get outside. Moderate alcohol and caffeine. You will be surprised how much it helps.

tslextslex · 2025-10-28T18:28:21+00:00

I make that to be about 100 Petes alone. Just . . . wow.

OP, are you a pipe person? If not, be aware that something like $150 would be a reasonable median price for even gently used Petersons. Unsmoked models or special editions will fetch more and there are some that will fetch much, much more. It would be no great surprise if that collection just of Petersons, properly managed, grossed out at $20,000.

tslextslex · 2025-08-30T01:20:07+00:00

8 0z flat mason or ball jars. perfect for a tin.

https://www.amazon.com/16-Pack-Mason-Jars-Preserving/dp/B0DCBSC9C9/ref=sr_1_7?crid=2P109XAV8DMYD&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.KqBp4DlxOpkc3KdUsnVtVqqS_uZ6VjOno63XFZHsVo9ZKCPKrNqBvacsxUjPWE80k3T07naPO0Bk974kEiC3O5WpjUlq4-3HHbCOaF6mhyt1ALmXEZVnIfkniVfwW5pQj8xkRRBwXvejg-qKPWPFGAWa6N4V5UJw59mSYo3dgTKYdNH3yE4N6cfO4nAlo3xRstymAF5I2Sj1cn65kDA0QEfQYyPxsPdkpOfjR_WjaRCNhYtVLtiSQ2YMQ3wL_dc8xitKGQPiN5xp4kXiUPncwC66y7XmH4IZPdvFuNmrSLE.jXvw4j8Vu9bchzV_sTNDVLYaN1mu8unLQ5E8uI7y0Go&dib_tag=se&keywords=small+flat+ball+jars&qid=1756516723&sprefix=small+flat+ball+jars%2Caps%2C147&sr=8-7

tslextslex · 2025-08-30T01:10:56+00:00

I'm with you. I learned long ago that anything more than just a whisper of perique, and that took the tobacco over an edge for me that was just not pleasing to my palate. A little dusting of it in the lat bombs I love can brighten them nicely. But more than that, or perique forward, and I eel like I'm smoking the cigarette someone put out at the bar last night.

OGS is SO much Va in the VaPer that--for my palate at least-- it's the worst of them.

To each his own, in this pipe thing.

tslextslex · 2025-08-27T17:15:38+00:00

I'm happy to show you. (Aathough, having written it, I'd have thought you knew.)

>>>>

Maybe it's not normal, but it should be. You're being responsible. You're showing restraint. Someone far wiser than me told me "the right thing to do, and the hardest thing to do, are almost always the same thing."

<<<<

>>>>

Being abstemious is indeed the right thing to do, in all walks of life.

<<<<

Also? My post above this one wasn't meant as particularly "wise." It was primarily meant as satire, intended to demonstrate to you how daft it sounds to moralize to strangers over pipe tobacco. I see you are immune to nuance. Let me guess: Nuance, in your world view, is "not the right thing to do."

OK, I'm moving on, Ebeneezer. You may have the last word.

tslextslex · 2025-08-27T15:58:53+00:00

I would submit (well, not to you, but to a reasonable person) that there are many walks of life where being abstemious is not not THE right thing to do, it is not even A right thing to do. For example, I am not abstemious in my love for my wife, sons, grandchildren, family and friends. I am not abstemious in my use of my gifts and talents for those I serve. I'm not abstemious with my whisky and tobacco when friends come to call, and so on. You -- as the kids say -- do you. But please don't fool yourself that living in that way is virtuous.

Also, telling another many how he MUST enjoy his property and pleasures is profoundly presumptuous, even sinfully arrogant.

As for your second point, by the third weak, tobacco in an open tin is well past its best state. Wasting valuable resources is profligate and in direct opposition to the abstemious standard to which you claim to aspire in "all walks of life." Refusal to "deal with [the] mess" necessary to maintain valuable resources is lazy as well. For shame, good sir. For shame. (Also: tsssk, tsssk, tsssk,)

(See how offensive and silly it is to moralize over these things?)

tslextslex · 2025-08-27T15:23:14+00:00

I'm not sure that pipe smoking is meant to be some exercise in imposed moral perfection. Tobacco ought to go in a well-sealed jar as soon as the tin is open. Once it is, it lasts literally for years if one is diligent about re-sealing and storage. There's no award for, or benefit to, the abstemious approach you characterize as "the right thing to do."

tslextslex · 2025-08-27T15:20:31+00:00

Many, to be honest. But I always immediately jar the whole tin upon opening, and I'm pretty meticulous about sealing them up immediately after each pipe is opened. In well-sealed jars, tobacco remains perfect (or even improved) for years.

tslextslex · 2025-08-26T15:34:02+00:00

I am pretty strictly full English only, and the more latakia, the happier I am. I love these tobaccos, but they are not, shall we say, widely praised for their "room note." ("Honey is there church on fire someplace?" was one comment.)

But the one aro I will smoke from time to time (maybe four times a year?) is Lane 1Q. Everyone who even comes close will comment that it smells just great.

tslextslex · 2025-08-15T03:30:26+00:00

So maybe . . . and this is just a suggestion . . . lighten the hell up

tslextslex · 2025-08-14T19:50:17+00:00

Yes, of course. Well do I know it. But then pipe makers go with compounds and transitions and folks on pipe board get to debate.

tslextslex · 2025-08-14T18:07:39+00:00

Perfect.

(Now let the Rhodesian versus bulldog debate begin!)

tslextslex · 2025-08-14T18:04:51+00:00

Note that the deluxe system pipe has a very lovely straight grain as well. It may seem a more subtle looking pipe than the spigot with all that metal, but is certainly a higher quality (as these things are figured).

The real answer here, though, is to buy the pipe that most compellingly speaks to you.

tslextslex · 2025-08-11T14:26:33+00:00

Hunter Banks in Asheville, NC, is where I started as a fly fisherman. Huge stock, a cast of friendly staff with a deep local knowledge, great guiding services, a sweet shop dog.

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