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Brittney Pescatore just graduated from the College of William and Mary where she double majored in English and government. Check back often to read her always evolving and interesting thoughts. Subscribe to her RSS feed

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All Grown Up

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

August 4, 2008

The new crop of 1Ls has been invading the neighborhood over the last few days and I feel about this the way the youngest child feels when her newborn sibling comes home from the hospital: suddenly, I don't get to be the baby of the family anymore.

No one is cooing over me and talking about how cute I'll be when I grow up to become a lawyer. Now I'm like the clingy preteen who needs to learn how to take care of herself but still wants someone to show her how to bluebook.

The salt in the wound: in less than two weeks, these 1Ls will hop off to a free pizza-filled orientation and I will don my uncomfortable new suit and head to twenty-nine interviews with different law firms. That's not a typo -- I really do have to squeeze twenty-nine interviews into the five designated days for the law school's Early Interviewing Program (EIP). At least I won't be in it alone; the entire 2L class will join me at a hotel in midtown where we will make our way from suite to suite trying to remember how to pronounce each firm's name long enough to last through the 20 minute interview.

While I wish I could once again be scarfing down free food at orientation events and meeting other doe-eyed new law students for the first time, it isn't such a terrible thing to be on the other side of 1L year. Armed now with a complete mastery of the law (or something like that) and a feeling of triumph for having survived the introductory courses, I feel a little relieved. I'm told the worst is behind me.

Spending a series of twenty-minute periods bragging about myself and convincing firms that I want a ridiculously well-paying job at their lavish establishment -- I think I can handle it.

Check back every other week for new installments of Brittney's thoughts on her post-William and Mary life and times.

You Will Not Be Tested On This. So Do You Care?

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

July 10, 2008

With no paper deadlines approaching and no exams to prep for, law students need a different outlet for our need to debate law and policy. Fortunately, there's that presidential election on the horizon. Lately, I find myself frequently engaged in political discussions and while even the wonkiest of us all tires of too much banter about the Beltway, it's been fulfilling way to satisfy my craving for intellectual provocation over the summer months.

Whether someone is discussing the significance of a politician's latest gaffe or speaking in weighty abstractions about the merits of the electoral system overall, I like surrounding myself with the healthy debates of passionate people. I'll chime in myself often enough, but my real pleasure comes just from observing others and getting excited about the future that my peers and I will help craft. Law school is full of potential leaders and visionaries; one day we will be the ones running for president, crafting legislation, or writing case laws.

I think that during the school year, these sorts of thoughtful discussions don't happen often enough. We are reluctant to fill our heads with any information that we won't be on an exam. It's an opportunity missed; the things we learn in the classroom provide depth to our understanding of current events and engaging in that sort of application of our education as we learn is likely to be even more fruitful than doing it once the academic year comes to a close.

There might even be room for such debate in the classroom, but presumably fears of alienating certain ideologies and injecting lessons with bias lead professors to draw a strict line between what's said in class and what's said on the news. The reasons for keeping politics and policy discussions out of the classroom may be compelling, but there were more than a few times over the past year where I found myself disappointed that certain current events hadn't come up. Maybe the upper-level classes will allow more room for these kinds of discussions, but I suspect that there will still be a struggle against the innate student impulse to tune out anything said in class if we're clearly not going to be tested on it. Until my focus narrows once again, I plan on enjoying the debate that surrounds me this summer.

And the Living is Easy

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

June 27, 2008

After one full month of summer, I'm wondering how I'll ever go back to the law student schedule that awaits me in the fall. I love coming home at the end of the day and not having to feel guilty when I plop in front of the TV or open a magazine. All of this extra time has not only enabled me to enjoy my less productive hobbies; I've also managed to squeeze in time for that self-reform I'd been anticipating all year. With regularity and determination, I work out, cook, clean and cross things off of my "to do" list. The other day I did a load of laundry despite the fact that I still had at least a week's worth of underwear to last me. It's like I'm a whole new person!

There are things that I miss about the school year. Having dozens of people around to potentially go out with all the time was nice, even though we rarely had the time to venture beyond the law school walls. I miss sleeping late on the weekdays and thinking of Thursday night as the beginning of a weekend. There are certainly perks to student life and maybe in a month and a half when it's time to return to all of that, I'll be ready. For now, I'm relishing the 40-hour work week, the bustle of Central Park on a warm sunny day, the novel sight of a clean apartment, and all of those other uniquely summer joys for a law student.

A Common Cause

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

June 12, 2008

This summer seems to be about gaining focus. At my internship, I'm working in the area of media law and my long-standing interest in the First Amendment is growing even stronger. This past weekend I headed to the ACLU membership conference in D.C. to represent the law school chapter. I heard from speakers on a variety of issues that really matter to me. Almost everyone who addressed the conference was a lawyer, a journalist, or both.

Tomorrow I need to decide whether to pay my deposit for journalism school. I'm still mulling the decision over, but over the past few weeks I've realized that, despite my ambivalence about whether law or journalism is the right route for me, the choice I've set up for myself is the right choice. I don't know yet whether my role is meant to be exercising First Amendment rights or protecting them, but it's clear that when it comes to making a difference in the world on the issues I care most about, either one of these professions provides a way to do it.

Identity Crisis, Again

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

May 29, 2008

Now that the writing competition is over, I am completely finished with my 1L year and if I've learned anything, it's to appreciate those moments when you don't have any cases to read or outlines to create. I'm trying to savor this week the best I can; I don't start my internship until Monday. So far, I've spent my time sleeping in, cooking elaborate meals (translation: meals that require more than the microwave) and even going to the gym again. I still waste plenty of time obsessively refreshing the web site where my grades will eventually appear, despite knowing that it will probably be another month before they're all in. For the most part, however, I'm living a law-free week.

I just got back from the Pulitzer Prizes award ceremony, which is held annually at Columbia. A friend got an invite and took me along. The whole experience was very exciting but I couldn't help but leave the event questioning my direction in life. I just completed my first year at law school, but as I take one step closer to earning my J.D., I worry that I'm taking more steps away from my journalistic ambitions.

Enjoying my free time this week, I've finally gotten the chance to leisurely read whole newspapers and magazines. I also spent some time looking into legal internships for the fall, only to find myself clicking through media and journalism opportunities instead. Just when I thought I had decided that I'd made the right decision in coming to law school and pursuing a legal career, I'm beginning to question it all. I really am interested in everything I learned this year and I really do think that being a lawyer can be a very rewarding career choice for me. But they don't usually give out Pulitzer Prizes to lawyers.

No Escape

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

May 14, 2008

When I walked out of my Con Law exam yesterday, I was absolutely giddy -- not because I thought I'd done particularly well, but because it was all over, One-L year officially behind me.

There's still the writing competition for snagging a spot on Law Review, but I have a full three months before I have to even pick up a case book again. Despite the temporary freedom I now face, I can't stop thinking about law. When loud shouting from the street kept me from enjoying my mid-afternoon nap yesterday, I wondered if my landlord was violating an Implied Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment.

On my bus ride home this morning, I carefully looked at the fine print on the back of my Greyhound ticket, wondering if I could discover any unconscionable contract clauses. At dinner with my family tonight, I somehow ended up going on a rant against mandatory minimums in criminal sentencing. I think the impetus was a joke about my sister being on crack. (She's not really on crack though, she insists I clarify).

I never expected to be able to escape the study of law for a whole summer, especially considering the fact I have a legal internship. I'm learning more and more that I may never be able to avoid thinking about legal issues on a daily basis. Fortunately, there is absolutely no reason I should have to step foot in a library for the next 100 days.

The Library Dilemma

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

May 1, 2008

The green grass of Columbia's campus is inviting, but untouched this time of year. A few weeks ago, a spot in the sun on the main lawns was prime real estate but as soon as finals season hit, it was a seat in the library that became a prized location.

With classes over, it's just one unstructured day of studying after another and so I usually find myself packing up my books and heading to one of the many libraries all over campus. Today will be devoted to constitutional law, which means that my heaviest casebook and my thickest study guide need to be squeezed into a backpack and lugged to their destination.

Will it be the main library on the undergrad campus, or will the sight of young English majors reading novels make me too nostalgic for the WM days of far lighter workloads? Should I hide out in the East Asian Studies library, with its ornate stain-glassed windows or would that mean risking dragging those heavy con law books all the way there only to find that there isn't an empty chair in the place? Do I dare return to the law library itself, filled with those who share my burdens, or does the oppressive atmosphere of frantic outlining sound like it might not be conducive to productivity?

I miss Swem.

Check back every other week for new installments of Brittney's thoughts on her post-William and Mary life and times.

The Power to Change the World, etc.

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

April 7, 2008

The other day, some friends and I were discussing the wisdom of obtaining a law degree as opposed to say, a Ph.D. or a masters. One thing we could all agree on was that knowledge of the law vests a certain amount of power in a person that no other discipline can match, and we liked that. This may seem to imply that me and other budding lawyers are the power-hungry, soulless monsters that we are sometimes stereotyped to be, but the appeal of wielding power is very much rooted in our more idealistic ambitions. I've found that many of my classmates share a desire to change the world for the better and it's the sense that the law is the best tool to do so that has brought us here.

Now that I know more about the law and the way it works, I find it everywhere and things that once seemed dull are now inspiring. Products liability sounded boring before I first read cases that gave consumers a way to demand more from manufacturers. I thought property law would be a snore until I saw the way that it is at the heart of all relationships between people. Everyday on the front page of the New York Times, there are stories about how the world is changing and underlying all those stories are the very legal principles that I've been learning about in class.

Sometimes, I think that I would've been happier if I'd pursued a graduate degree in English. Then I could read literature I love all day long. Other times, I wish I'd gone straight into journalism and taken a job with a newspaper or magazine, writing about current events and important happenings. But ultimately, I'm happy with where I am. It's true that case books aren't as enjoyable a read as a good novel, but the power they hold within is worth sifting through the legalese. While I still love media, I think that my place may be in making the news instead of writing about it. And if I change my mind, I can always take out a bunch more loans and go back for another degree after law school. I think, however, that my J.D. is all I will need to commence with the world-changing.

The right choice for me, the right choice for you

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

March 11, 2008

Last week was Admitted Students Day at CLS and two friends of mine from college came up for the occasion. I like the idea of having more WM alumni populating the halls of my law school and so I tried to provide as persuasive an endorsement as I could. I meant every word I said to my friends - I love it here; law school is interesting; the people are great. I worry, however, that my baggy eyes and stressed-out tone may have suggested a different theme. Having turned in my Moot Court brief a few hours ago, the frantic feeling of being overworked is finally beginning to subside, but I still have an important paper due on Friday and although Spring Break arrives at the end of the week, it seems too far off to get excited about.

Despite the ubiquity of due dates, the past week or so has been no exception to my endorsement of Columbia and of law school in general, and I hope that a little bit of normal, deadline-induced anxiety didn't suggest otherwise to my friends. They were both were gone by Saturday night and so didn't get to see the lighter side of law school. That night, my classmates and I got all dolled up in our long-neglected formal wear and headed to Barristers' Ball, also known as law school Prom.

Crowded around the open bar with my spiffy-looking law school friends, I spent some time reflecting on what it was like to be an admitted student myself, just a year ago. I was appreciative of having options but wouldn't have minded if someone had been willing to just tell me where to go. I also remember thinking that I couldn't wait to be on the other side of the more worrisome things in my life - making a law school decision, writing my honors thesis, finding a summer job. I suppose I could've foreseen the circularity of my concerns even back then, but with a year gone by I'm sort of surprised and amused to realize that I'm still stressing over choices about what to do with my life, with deadlines that seem far too near, and with padding my resume the right way.

Despite the fact that hard choices and demanding assignments never seem to go away, I stand by my claim that it would've been nice to have someone make my decision easier for me last year. So to those WMers who are facing the decision of where to go to law school, I'll help: come here!

My Triumph over February

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

February 28, 2008

Earlier in the month, my Property professor took a few minutes out of the beginning of class to explain the findings of a study on law students' morale. It turns out, he said, February of the 1L year is the peak point of stress for us. Taking this statistic to heart, my professor tried to persuade us to stop freaking out and reassured us that everything turns out okay in the end. Unfortunately, hearing the empirical truth that I had just entered into what will probably be the most stressful month in my life did not. stop me from freaking out.

Now that the month is coming to an end, I certainly understand where the statistic comes from. I fortunately landed a summer job offer early in the month, but many of my classmates have been going on interview after interview trying to snag employment for the summer. At the same time, those of use who did not opt into special Moot Court programs are now struggling to meet the ubiquitous deadlines for the foundation program, handing in drafts of our briefs. This all comes on top of a continuous and heavy reading load for our classes. Add cold weather and minimal hours of daylight and you've got a pretty perfect recipe for some morose law students.

While February was rough for me, surviving it feels like quite a victory. Maybe I wouldn't feel this way if the month didn't conveniently conclude on a Friday, but I have a sense that March will be better and that I can approach the work ahead of me with new confidence, forged in the battle of February. If the statistics my professor cited are correct, I'll not only never be as stressed again in law school, but never again in my life. There was, however, one more disheartening aspect of that study: while lawyers don't have as much anxiety as first-year law students, their stress level is still about twice that of the general population.

What I Wanted to be When I Grew Up

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

February 14, 2008

So, having been confronted with the humbling fact that THE Elizabeth Derby reads this blog from time to time, I feel compelled to take a break from all of that overachieving I've been doing to update. Bear with me, please, because one of the things I greatly underestimated when I committed myself to becoming one of those hard-working types is that running on only a few hours of sleep each night makes stringing coherent sentences together very difficult.

I'm faced with an additional challenge this week because I'm going to try to take a little trip down memory lane, to the age of 14. The occasion for this nostalgic reflection is that my little sister has recently reached that golden age herself and hearing her grand ambitions makes me wonder how my own have held up. When I was 14, I was flexible with my dreams - I was content to be either a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist OR President of the United States. Obviously, I would've preferred to accomplish both (hey, Jimmy Carter wrote a novel), but I didn't want to be too unrealistic.

While the presidency seemed slightly less desirable as I became more and more aware of the uglier side of politics, I still sort of have that sense of destiny I felt when I was the same age as my little sister. I certainly haven't ruled the Pulitzer out. Nonetheless, as 14 fades farther and farther into the past, the seemingly endless range of possibilities I felt at the beginning of high school has considerably narrowed. I've admitted before that my choice to go to law school was largely influenced by my sense that it closed the least amount of doors to me. With a J.D. under my belt, I reason, I can certainly still be a politician or a great writer or, if I so chose, a lawyer. But with triple-digit loans in my future and that sense of competition that makes me want not just what I think is the best job, but what everyone around me thinks is the best job, it's hard to fight the pull of big firm life.

With that possible future so near, I'm starting to think more and more of how my 14-year-old self would feel about this. One of many in a giant law firm? I don't think she would be too impressed. My little sister certainly expects more of herself; I think she is planning on being both an Olympic gold-medalist and a Rhodes Scholar. So why should I settle?

Columbia recently announced plans to enhance its already-impressive Loan Repayment Assistance Program, which helps students who go into public interest work pay back their loans in a reasonable amount of time. Working to serve the public interest sounds like something a 14-year-old me could be proud of. My sister's birthday and Columbia's announcement have combined to make me reconsider the path I had sort of stumbled on. I guess I don't have to figure out what I'm going to be when I grow up just this moment, but it's reassuring to think that I can still be ambitious and idealistic when I think of the future. And maybe I should start working on that prize-winning novel. It'll be another 13 years until I can run for President anyway.

My Plan to Overachieve

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

February 5, 2008

This semester is already shaping up to be far more demanding than the last. In addition to three foundation classes and an elective, we're kept busy with Moot Court, a class that consists of working with a partner to write an appellate brief on a fictional case. Moot Court culminates in oral arguments to be given before judges after Spring Break. Although the course is only graded on a pass/fail basis, the program is a competition and I don't want to make a fool of myself when I go up against an opposing team. If that isn't enough motivation to take this seriously, the brief I write will likely become the writing sample I use when applying for jobs with firms next year.

Despite the heavier course-load, this semester is a lot more interesting than the last. I find courses like Constitutional Law and Property to be more compelling than Contracts and Civil Procedure. Moot Court may be a lot of work, but it's exciting to get a sense of how the law might work in practice. The more intriguing material, combined with my disappointment over last semester's lackluster grades, have motivated me to work harder and take law school more seriously.

This necessarily means that I have become far less fun.

This past weekend a bunch of friends headed to Vermont for a ski trip. I stayed behind and spent most of my nights in the library until it closed. On Sunday, my neighbors had noisy Super Bowl parties. I put on my headphones and spent the evening on Westlaw. I know that last semester I made similar pronouncements about my commitment to studying and my declining social life, but this time I really mean it. I don't care how good the drink specials at that bar downtown are or who has changed their Facebook relationship status, nothing can shake my focus. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go read ahead in my casebook.

Take Two

BY BRITTNEY PESCATORE '07

January 14, 2008

I have my first class of the semester in an hour. I remember in college what the first day of each semester was like -- going over the syllabus, doing introductions, discussing enthusiastically all of the intellectually enriching good times that were ahead. Law school is a little different. I spent all day yesterday doing the reading for today and am pretty confident that I will not have a moment of free time until this weekend. Going to class and getting the reading done are already taking up just as much time as last semester but now I need to squeeze in some extra hours to get out summer job applications.

Despite the workload and the now-familiar anxiety about getting called on in class, I'm excited about the months ahead. The classes seem more interested than last semester; now it's Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Property, and my elective, Critical Legal Thought. Moot Court also looms on the horizon and as terrifying as the thought of writing a legal brief is, it's exciting nonetheless.

I still haven't gotten grades back in any of my classes from last semester, which is probably for the best. I check the Lawnet Web site everyday, curious but scared. I have no idea what to expect from my grades and have spent the past month trying to mentally prepare myself to be in the lower half of the class.

So the semester begins, with a bit of excitement, a bit of dread, and a lot of uncertainty about how I'm faring in this whole game.