Now that I’m in “Work you to death phase”…..

September 7, 2007 — Shannon Quadros

Fellow 2L law school victim, Luke Gilman echoed the oft-repeated truism of the ladder of law school life which goes something like this: “Scare you to death, Work you to death, Bore you to death”. These allegedly represent your three years (in my case 3.5-4yrs) in law school.

I don’t think I was ever really scared my first year. Okay maybe a little when my hair started falling out and when my cholesterol shot up 45points in 6weeks. But it wasn’t out of fear. I was just burdened more than I had ever been before. So I thought.

My 2L year is a kaleidoscope of multiple bright points that however small unto themselves, have this aggregate effect of making me feel like I’m on the rack. While I can’t tell you enough about how much I’m actually learning about methamphetamine production and use ( courtesy of the Houston Journal of International Law) and spousal abuse and infliction of emotional distress (My Moot Court arguments); I will say that along with that and my classes in Constitutional Law with Prof. Peter Linzer (probably the most interesting class I’ve taken in law school thus far) and Family Law with Prof. Tom Oldham, my cup certainly runneth over.

I will have to also account for Factor X, in this regard, who sailed into my life mid-summer. I guess no man, not even this Brown Boy, can live as an island, so I’ve now found myself juggling many-a-thing besides law school and a full-time job. I certainly do hope that the “bore you to death” phase is all that it’s cracked up to be. I for one am looking forward to the day in law school, when I can confidently say “gosh I’ve got nothing to do”.

Posted in Blogging, Evening student, Friends, Houston, Houston Journal of International Law, Law school, Life, Moot Court, Part-time, UH Law, University of Houston, Work. 2 Comments »

So you need a lawyer?

July 6, 2007 — Shannon Quadros

Ever since I got into law school and particularly since I started wearing my UH Law Center t-shirts and hoodies, I’ve had quite a few people -total strangers even- ask me for legal advice. Little do they know that they have a better shot at getting our President (happy birthday Georgie, by the way) to pronounce  ’nuclear’ correctly than they have at me being able to save them from incarceration/financial ruin or any other such dastardly result.

Who can help however is the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program. You’ve heard of volunteer firefighters well here come the volunteer lawyers. We just don’t have the beefcake calendar. Probably for very good reason: There’s nothing like law school to thin out your hair, make you have a huge beer and french fry fueled belly and have sloppy and unkempt facial hair - and that’s just the female law students!

I quite fancy being able to help out with the HVLP when I get my street cred and state licensure but if I end up doing anti-trust, which indigent multinational in Harris County would I serve? I guess it would go the way of my attempts at helping out the Houston Food Bank when I told them that instead of having me lift boxes they should probably just let me do their taxes - everyone would be better off that way.

So if you find yourself out of reach of other sources of legal help and have nowhere else to go give HVLP a call ( 713.228.0732 )

And don’t forget to say ‘thank you’ because free legal service cost someone money. Most likely one of my future colleagues that could have been using it to wine and dine future summer associates such as myself. After all as Abe Lincoln said, ” A lawyer’s time and advice are his stock in trade.”

Posted in Houston, Law, Law firms, Law school. 2 Comments »

Overheard at Spamalot

May 23, 2007 — Shannon Quadros

King Arthur: “Patsy, why didn’t you tell me you were Jewish?”

Patsy: “Well Sire, it’s not normally the thing you say to a heavily armed Christian!”

I had the good fortune of stumbling onto a ticket to see Monty Python’s Spamalot courtesy of BelleWeather. If you haven’t had a chance, dear reader, to give this hillarious play a go, I’d highly recommend it. If, for nothing else but the concluding sing-a-long to “Always look on the bright side of life”.

Posted in Art, Houston, Humor, Media, Movies, Theatre. No Comments »

Legal writing - The most criminal of all enterprises

May 10, 2007 — Shannon Quadros

Houston-based criminal defense lawyer Mark Bennett writes a remarkably interesting blog that I discovered courtesy of Gilman’s Blawgraphy . Bennett is part of a husband and wife criminal defense team (I hate to think what happens in that household when someone doesn’t take out the trash!) and through his blog chimes in on the world of Criminal Defense.

Bennett (Mr.) posted on the need and use of Plain English which is one of the most refreshing things I’ve read in a long time. His blog goes up on my wall of shame/fame (i.e. BlogRoll) and should be added to your daily dose of legal fiber.

Bennett claims to be a radical too. If we all could learn to be. If only just a little.

Posted in Blogging, Communication, Criminal Law, Custom, Houston, Law, Law firms, Legalese, Tradition. 1 Comment »

That’s why they call it the blues

May 10, 2007 — Shannon Quadros

Examinations, especially law school examinations are anti-climactical at best. My contracts exam was no different.

When he walked into our classroom, on the first day of class, our contracts professor, Anthony Chase, told us “Contracts are about the blues. You’ve done me wrong and now you have to make it right.” After our examination on Tuesday, Prof. Chase has several members of our class singing the blues. We had a 178 question multiple choice exam. ‘Not too bad’ you may say but this 178 question beast had to be finished in 3 hours. So that’s 180minutes for 178 questions so a little over a minute per question. ‘Still not too bad’, I hear the peanut gallery retort, but what if I told you that many of the questions were a half page to a page long? Do you think you could just finish reading a question like that in under a minute?

 I’m grateful that I can read rather quickly. What my comprehension is at that rate of speed I’m not sure but I felt like I got a good effort in. Many of my classmates were clamouring for an essay based exam. As if that would be any fairer. We’re all subject to the grade curve anyway. Some of the smartest people in our class still turned in their exams in before time, so has anything really changed? I don’t know. All will be revealed when grades come out. And then the real reason anyone was really fighting for great grades - Law Review- will have been decided.

As first year law students we hang so much of our hopes and dreams on the sharp precipice that is the Law Review cut-off. Eager to make a Faustian bargain just to be privy to the academic elite and walk behind the law school velvet rope to be part of Law Review. Is it all worth it? Is it all that it’s cracked up to be? I don’t know. I want in as much as the next guy.

Law school and Law review in the end is just like any competitive endeavour really. Like making the finals in the Olympics for example. The unfortunate reality is that people seem to only remember who won.

Posted in Anthony Chase, Contracts, Education, Houston, Law, Law Review, Law school, UH Law, University of Houston. No Comments »

My name is Inigo Montoya. You didn’t let me in your law school. Prepare to die!

April 12, 2007 — Shannon Quadros

The ladies at the admissions office at the University of Houston Law Center are certainly a motley crew. They are generally harassed by the prospective masses only to be largely forgotten once we’re in. I happen to deal with them quite frequently because I’ve taken a vested interest in how my law school is run and I try and help them out as much as I can with regards to feedback about the admissions process, the look of the applications material etc. So I was generally quite pleased when they started writing a blog about the admissions process at the UH Law Center. If you haven’t read it and are a prospective student, you certainly should.

With them quoting Inigo Montoya and telling you why an e-mail address such as ‘SexyMama2006′ is virtual insanity they deserve a pat on the back for their efforts to demystify the admissions process. I think it’s a grand idea. Grand enough to warrant a link on my wall of shame i.e. my blog roll.

Posted in Admissions, Blogging, Communication, Houston, Law, Law school, UH Law, University of Houston. No Comments »

Overheard at a cocktail party

March 25, 2007 — Shannon Quadros

I repeat this only because I can’t tell whether I should laugh or cry about it. You decide.

So I have a friend who, quite like me back in the day, is involved in a million and one social/networking things around town. My friend, let’s call him Bubba, is part of the Rotary Club, the Downtown Alliance, the Art Crowd, the Young Professionals Group at the World Affairs Council etc. Bubba has a happy knack of throwing a great cocktail party. Lots of people from all around the world, at least 20 languages spoken between the bunch and almost everyone has a good story to tell. Last night was one of the most well attended ones I’ve been to and I don’t think I’ve seem as many representatives from the consular corps in Houston is a very long time.

So there I was trying to see if I could get a soccer team going to play a few pick-up games by Rice University or at one of the fields at University of Houston, when a potential left-winger ( and by left-winger I mean someone that plays forward on the left side in a football match ) and his girlfriend join in the heady discussion on whether our possible motley crew might actually get off the ground.

After all the talk about cleats and shin-guards was over and done with I had a chance to engage the left-winger and his significant other ( “S.O.”) in the usual pleasantries that accompanies a Yellow Tail Riesling ( which I have to admit was quite good ). After a few good laughs about  ” what’s a lady like you doing with a fella like that” talk S.O. prods in with a question or two of her own:

S.O.: Aren’t you seeing anyone right now?

BrownBoy: No, not right now. Women, you know, are an awfully expensive habit.

S.O.: I would think that with your effusive personality that you’d have a girlfriend. A personality like yours, it makes up for so much.

BrownBoy:   [                                             This space intentionally left blank                                            ]

Posted in Dating, Friends, Houston, Humor, Networking, Relationships. 2 Comments »

Underrated but overperforming; University of Houston Law Center- The little law school that could.

March 24, 2007 — Shannon Quadros

Thanks to Gilman for pointing out Vault’s article on the most underrated law schools. Houston as a city gets a bad rap. From being boom town in the 80s where “if you got out of bed, you made money” ( according to a retired lawyer from Fulbright & Jaworski ) to a place that elicits winces when you state that you live there.

What a lot of people don’t know about UH Law Center and the University of Houston s the dismal amount of funding it gets compared to other state schools. In fact much to most Texans’ chagrin, there are only two Tier-1 universities in the great State of Texas: UT-Austin and Texas A&M. California by comparison has 10, New York 8. What does that bode for Texas? Well as large as we are and as much populace as we have that resides within our borders we simply don’t have as many well funded academic/research institutions as we should. University of Houston suffers as a result and UH-Law Center shares that burden.

This doesn’t undermine the level of scholarship that UH as a university is capable of but a cutting-edge academic research institution can’t be had without financial support from the center. The curious thing is that once you have an institution going, it will spin off and self-fund through a great extent but not without the original impetus of state funding.

Frankly UH Law Center, UH and Houston as a whole really is worth it ladies and gentlemen. In fact there’s a whole website dedicated to just that.

www.HoustonItsWorthIt.com

Posted in Houston, Law school, Rankings, UH Law. 1 Comment »