Real Law School Horror Stories

[@LegalEagle]

Got law school questions? Ask in the comments!

[@kiritokaiba6854]

LegalEagle what school would u recommend for becoming a criminal lawyer ?

[@claire4897]

What did you like about UCLA’s law school? Your experience at UCLA?

[@tianolamas7832]

Hey legal eagle, as someone that is not attending a higher tier university for my bachelors would that affect in the long run for when I start applying towards law school?

[@SlendyMctendies]

Just fyi, Solid State Drives are not immune to crashes. A crash can occur from either a hardware malfunction OR a software based malfunction. Granted, Solid State Drives have no moving parts and are less likely to crash due to sudden movements and become damaged, but that still doesn't mean a computer with an SSD can't crash. Just figured I'd throw in that bit of information. With you being a civil lawyer (if I remember correctly), I could see this info potentially being useful if it's not something you were already aware of.

[@prophetherbandderp2733]

I have more like a youtube question, i guess it is kinda rude and picky. is it not cheap, showing some hardcore destruction while talking about 5 by Richter Earthquake? Obviously people who never been in earthquake may find it startling, but this image seemed over the top for a 5.

[@dorkmax7073]

Californians don't get out of bed for anything less than a 6.0 on the Richter Scale

[@heidihansen5793]

I grew up in California. That is accurate.

[@tvtrauma7024]

Coda Mission Accurate

[@JohnBrown-pq9tj]

I didn't bother getting up for a 5.4 aftershock of the Ridgecrest quakes. But a 6.0 would have had me crawling under something.

[@cameronsmith3047]

I got nothing on you califonians, but when the 4.1 hit de i littereally thought it was just people having sex. (and yes if you live in a trailer sex can make your house shake...and cabnents open)

[@jameson1239]

Yeah live on the ring of fire problem is we’re drilled from basically pre K to get under the desk and count to 60 twice

[@JellyWaltzov]

About the gunner - he might as well be as smart as he looks. Some people just don't do as well in the academic world as in the real one. I know a lot of all A students who are complete idiots IRL and vice versa. My point is, don't be discouraged if your grades are not the best. And don't judge other people on grades alone.

[@floex831]

Jelly Waltzov I’m the gunner type. I read voraciously and can remember things very quickly. But I was a HORRIBLE student. I was cocky. Didn’t do all the homework but always aced the tests.

[@gilbertoflores7397]

Well with my experience with people who sound smart, like philosophy students. Is that they don't translate that well to written test, or they over think simple solutions and basic answers because they want to approach the question from a totally unnecessary angle. Law is sometimes rooted in dated ways of thinking, and the "ethics" or "morality" is where a philosophy students can shine by debating and questioning such topics with the best law professors, But again, talking and demonstrating your understanding of the knowledge that is required by said professor is usually different, when it comes to the test. That's probably what happen to him. Especially if it was the first term of school, they will quickly learn that thinking and questions of philosophy isn't the best strategy when it comes to doing well in law classes.

[@Athrun000]

I'm like that as well. We seems smart in class because when Lecturers ask questions, it is usually for new topics. I'm able to grasp the logic behind the question; but of-course that doesn't translate into good grades.

[@Killzoneguy117]

Honestly, that's a little reassuring. There's a few gunners in my class and virtually every time I try to answer a question, they always beat me to it and are usually always right. It's very intimidating. I don't know how they did academically but goddamn it, does it leave me worried about my prospects for finding a good articleship after all of this.

[@nomad82912]

I have a diploma in biz studies+accounting, a degree in accounting+finance and working on my professional qualification. My friends who got a pass for their diploma or 3rd class/pass degrees were the 1st ones to get jobs. They were the ones that went out to find work experience while still studying and had better interpersonal skills while the rest of us who got 1st or upper 2nd class were real nerds who were more comfortable with our lecturers.

[@TheWackness64]

"When I was sitting for the California bar exam. . ." no need to continue end of horror story.

[@pep590]

Lol! Classic!

[@chrisquirk3561]

Regarding the gunner, I think they did poorly for a different reason than just sucking at tests. by my 2L year i noticed that i did poorly on exams where i felt my understanding of the subject matter was very strong, and similarly i did very well on exams where my understanding of the subject matter was just ok, but needed work. The more confident i felt leaving the exam, the worse i did. This is because law school exams have a specific code that you need to crack, and it doesnt involve just being right. Some of you may know it as IRAC or CRAC, but in general when you have an ironclad grasp of the subject material, when you look down at your exam and think, wow i got this i know exactly how to answer this question, you tend to just go right to the "correct" answer without really considering any alternatives. This is the key part to law school exams. Professors want you to explore all sides of the issue, not just charge through the problem to the correct answer, because something you read told you it was correct. When you study hard and "know" the answer 100% you typically are so confident in your response that you fail to recognize or address some of the other things the professor is looking for. This is what constantly cost me on my exams. When i confidently knew the right answer, i never bothered exploring the "wrong" answers to explain why they were wrong. this is where i think the gunners lose out on so many exam points. Compare that to exams in classes that i was not as strong in... when i looked at the exam question i would often have no idea what the right answer was. This uncertainty led me into doing an analysis from different sides of the issue, and because i didnt really know what the 'correct' answer was i just picked the one whose analysis seemed best to me. This comparative analysis is really what most professors look for, because this is what typically makes a good lawyer. anyone can read a book and regurgitate the contents to a question, but the best law students are the ones who can adequately work through a problem where they dont know the answer and arrive at a good conclusion.

[@adrianghandtchi1562]

Chris Quirk that’s amazing

[@nathanphillips3251]

That’s very interesting; I saw the same senario in my engineering courses. Memorizing facts about machines and systems becomes prohibitively tedious without understanding the interactions of the components. Many of my peers memorized their way through the degree because the tests didn’t force you to read between the lines. The questions just asked for the memorizable facts in weird ways to try and trip you up. It was not very effective

[@shut0p]

Thank u sm for taking the time to write this

[@kenlandon6130]

@@nathanphillips3251 same here i take ap physics c mechanics at my high school which covers calculus based mechanics that would normally be a second year class in college. my teacher said that a lot of college students who get As in the college class get 3s (equal to a C) or fail when the ap exam is administered to them as part of the pilot testing of the questions by College Board. Why? Because many professors give very memorizable tests, while the ap exam gives you all the formulas but forces you to apply them in unusual way under strict time conditions so you actually have to understand the material and also write thorough solutions and explanations of why you arrived at your answer rather than just write the correct answer itself.

[@JasonB95]

I advise every law student to beware of computer crashes. I had a horrible experience in my second year where the day before a moot court competition my hard drive totally went out. Even with the Dropbox services available I, thinking nothing's going to happen to my stuff, did not back anything up. I lost all my notes and files and it was tough recovering from it. So be sure to protect yourself from these experiences guys. p.s. I love the new video editing by the way!

[@LegalEagle]

I feel your pain. It's awful. You can never have too many backups. (thanks! working hard to always improve)

[@imnotdavid7954]

Everything you're working on should be within the dropbox folder on your computer. That way you don't have to make any active choice to backup. It's happening for you passively all the time.

[@chrisquirk3561]

I had my intellectual property final on my cell phone after my computer crashed. this comment gives me nightmares just remembering that experience

[@Stettafire]

Every student, period. Or in fact, anyone who uses a computer. Get an external harddrive, or two of them. Don't trust cloud storage, or flash memory. Flash memory can be unreliable, USB drives can get lost super easily, but they're good for transferring files or travelling, just don't rely on them for backups. Store up-to-date versions of your files in at least three places at ALL times. Not when you can be bothered backing up your stuff, literally 100% of the time. So, flash memory + computer + external harddrive and + cloud storage for good measure. Alone they are all pretty terrible, but together and the chances of you screwing yourself over is very slim.

[@Ermac97]

I would even be aware of computer crashes during finals AND the bar! My computer decided to become unresponsive during my Wills & Trusts finals, causing me to handwrite it and during the PT portion of the bar, my computer's battery died. Horrible experiences.

[@julietcoalton1144]

WHY AM I HERE? I AM GERMAN! I DON'T STUDY LAW, I AM AN ECONOMETRICS MAJOR! IF I WERE TO STUDY LAW IN THIS COUNTRY MY DEGREE WOULDN'T TRANSFER! WHAT AM I EVEN DOING. btw. we have all been alan at some point

[@master_ace]

Juliet Coalton I am a computer science student in uk lol

[@misteryace21]

Same, I'm a biomed student, what am I doing here??

[@romicor9]

Pharmacist. Three tough exams to be able to practise in the USA. Also, I'd have to pass the TOEFL with merit.

[@BekkiUndSo]

me. but I study art history and archaeology x'D

[@alexknight4433]

I'm in greece and I study tourist business administration, but it's still fun to watch.

[@coldsteel9214]

Law school: The place where average grades (Cs) constitute a horror story. :-)

[@LegalEagle]

[a thousand law students started sharpening their knives]

[@MusicalInquisit]

It might even constitute a horror story for some high schoolers.

[@LordMabalon]

It was a horror story for us in physical therapy school as well. At the school where I went, if you got three grades below a B your entire time there, you were summarily expelled and could never return. If you got anything below a C, you had to repeat the entire year.

[@karyuetng6296]

*what* ?? Cs are average grades?? More like As if you're Asian and you get extra tutorial classes if you even get one B.

[@EebstertheGreat]

In most graduate schools, C is a really bad grade, and getting a C in every class might even persuade you to drop out. It is not unusual to get straight As. Law school is more competitive, so I guess that's probably not as true, but straight Cs is still definitely bad, not average.

[@pyrotheevilplatypus]

Similar story: I'm a teacher with my sixth year (two masters degrees). Two days before my dissertation was due (an international approach to special education - an analysis as to whether or not "least restrictive environments" always serve special needs students to their fullest), my computer suffered a "head crash" - basically, the stylus that reads the drive dropped out of position and scratched up the entire disk making it unreadable. It's ok though! I had my dissertation saved to a USB drive! ... that a student hurled a bookbag at the next day as it sat plugged in to my mentor teacher's desktop. My dissertation was now saved to a USB drive that was in four pieces. THANK GOD I went to a votech school and knew how to solder. I had to solder the teeny-tiny circuit board back together. I then borrowed a neighbor's laptop, immediately emailed the dissertation to four different email addresses of mine, and then watched as the LED light died on the USB drive, never to light up again.

[@Stettafire]

When I was in college working on a major project with two other people (both of which were HORRIBLE at making backups) my computer died. I took it apart, repaired it with a new part, but it back together again and it survived another few weeks before dying again. I fixed the darn thing every way I knew how because while my files were safe thanks to an external harddrive, I had no ability to do work outside of class without my computer. I was broke, living off £7 a week. So I just fixed the thing in any way I could. Tape, hair ties, all manner of idocy. However, I got my assignments in and then got part time work so I could eventually afford a new computer. But, I also took up freelance computer repair, and a few people asked me to build websites for them... Then, I started writing backend web APIs... I went to university (not the same thing as college in the UK. College was age 16-20 for me and I studied another two years at a university) and then got a degree in computer science and got a job as a software engineer before I even got my official results back from the university. Resourcefulness is what keeps the human race alive ;) (Although I'm terrible at almost everything else xD)

[@jenjencurls]

With all this stories I’m thinking on saving my stuff in multiple places from now on just in case 😩😂 right now I use clouds.

[@YeeSoest]

I feel the pain. Had a big homework due at University, had it done, felt great about it...until I remembered it was a team effort and the first guy to deliver....didn't. So it was a straight ZERO for all of us. The Professor went out of his way to give us other 2 a chance to make our efforts be counted lateron but first thought was "that's it, you're done!" and I was in shivers over 3 months gobe in the wind....

[@slapdashzeal6095]

The ending to your unfortunate story was beautiful

[@nathanphillips3251]

Not as big of a crisis, but at my remote college we lost power a few hours before a report had to be submitted online at midnight. All my friends came to my apartment because I took the deep cycle battery out of my Jeep and had an inverter charging like 15 laptops.

[@OniFeez]

As a computer programmer, I'd actually recommend you have multiple sources for backups. Not just as a student but in anything really, including professionals. Even cloud isn't a bulletproof solution, because what happens if your network/gateway crashes? Hopefully your sys admin automates backups every few days, and does it in multiple ways cloud/physical etc. There's also ethical considerations for cloud services too - maybe not too relevant in the legal profession but offsite storage could be literally anywhere in the world - which could have legislative requirements for privacy data and where it's stored, and there's always the potential of someone sticking a usb into the server and lifting your files. Not necessarily likely, but possible.

[@emilfilipov169]

By that same logic it is entirely possible that the cloud company itself has a copy of your files and sells them on a black market. Not likely at all, but possible. On the notion of safety, i agree. I usually keep an encrypted USB drive, a cloud storage (Google Drive for example) and an encrypted folder on my PC. While, at the same time, i have my Google Drive synced with a folder on my PC, laptop and my phone. The chances of all of my 3 devices, Google Drive and my flash drive dying at the same time is basically non-existent. Certainly possible for the devices, but Google re-routes their services is there is problem with servers, so i don't really have to worry about the drive.

[@MatthewSuffidy]

I back up like crazy to a second system, and then to pysical -R discs when I get enough stuff. I don't do RAID or anything though. What if your drive crashes? Some pet shelter here got a randsomware attack, and it was on the news. OK but what if their drive went down. Same thing. I used a unix program called foremost to get a bunch of photos off of my parents WD NAS device cause it took a crap and it was spanning RAID and bad blocks so that is where I was at.

[@TheTam0613]

This is why I wrote old style, pen and paper, during law school. Plus it's an additional way to "learn" the information. If you can engage more of your senses, it processes the info better.

[@xieulong]

I can relate to the "gunners" story. I consider one of my friends a genius at coding, yet his exam marks are always in the 70s. I don't understand it. When ever I got stuck on a problem, he would always offer excellent solutions almost instantly.

[@LegalEagle]

You have to focus on the right things.

[@arescue]

Testing is a talent unto itself.

[@ArthKryst]

People who are good at answering in class (such as myself) are good with knowledge but not with presentation skills in written form.

[@downsjmmyjones101]

Just because you know information doesn't mean you do homework.

[@_Zom]

God I never did well on my CS exams but always got 100%+ on every actual coding assignment. Sometimes exams are just different than the actual topic the exam is based on.

[@poisonpotato1]

0:06 in my engineering class during the final, a guy shows up half an hour late, starts the test and answering questions then after another half hour screams “this isn’t Statistics” then runs out

[@FakeAssHandsomeMcGee_]

😁😂

[@donotcallmebillX]

This semester I realized that I had signed up for and was attending the wrong class... 9 weeks into the semester.

[@Dark_Mishra]

Had a similar situation, but at least the guy wasn’t THAT disruptive about it. Right professor, but wrong course final. Lol

[@evelynsnyder5866]

hahaha too funny

[@lucawits648]

I do not find it fair that the students taking the bar exam were not given extra time because of the earthquake. Does anyone else find that ridiculous?

[@supersupersomething]

Yes. 100% agreed.

[@TheSuperDerp]

If you can't roll with the punches, you shouldn't have decided to become a lawyer. I wish these people the best of luck with their upcoming careers as cashiers and valets, but they should consider their chances at a meaningful life to be over.

[@otisthecoonsmaster2611]

fruityrudy21 you sound like an uneducated fortnite player.

[@nmotschidontwannagivemyrea8932]

fruityrudy21 you realize they can retake it, right?

[@hollyrosumny2777]

Yes. That's silly.

[@Chinayesok]

Ya it’s the C students that go on to become judges! :)

[@Ermac97]

@John R Watters II What I gather from your story is that the judge took judicial notice of the math? Makes sense.

[@JohnBrown-pq9tj]

@John R Watters II I loved my Family Law prof responding to a student who didn't like that we had to explain the law to a judge in this practice brief she assigned us. To his complaint that, "Judges already know the law, why would we have to explain it," she just burst out laughing.

[@singingcoversweekly3108]

Do you have to get straight A's to be a solicitor/ Lawyer??

[@timothyernst8812]

A students become professors, B students become judges, and C students get rich.

[@liamtahaney713]

"this is Vegas, after all, so I probably believe that this judge was an insane person who threatened the burglar with a firearm." This quote right here is the kind of commentary that keeps me subbed

[@annaeverette8960]

This story got a genuine laugh out of me, and I sort of gave up on laughter for the rest of the week already. (TY, Legal Eagle)

[@dorkmax7073]

Your DJ name could be DJ JD

[@mathnerd97]

He is Devin James, after all.

[@tompool3452]

Horror Story - my friend missed half his paper because he didn’t turn over to reveal another set of questions on the back page.

[@cosminxxx5287]

in romania u do about 5 years of law school than you must work 2 years under a lawyer that ,after those 2 years, will sign a paper that let you be a lawyer. normaly that shouldnt cost anything,but 99% of the lawyers ask between 15.000 and 35.000 Euro (thats over 45.000 dollars) wich is the cost of a 2-3 rooms apartment .for a signature.and thats afte you did 5 years of school and 2 years of slavery under a lawyer that will do almost anything he wants with you since he knows you need his signature on a paper and without that all those at least 7 years will worth nothing. and that money is on top of what you pay for school.this in a country were a factory worker or fastfood worker earns about 400-500 dollars per month at most..So yea, being a parent of a kid that wants to be a lawyer in Romania will cost you a big chunk of your nerves cause you will never know if he turns out to be a good lawyer and get those money back.

[@dorianleakey]

Is there any movement towards changing that? Because its a nutty system. Your name just reminded me of one of the very few Romanians I ever properly met.

[@sorayaimperial]

It's pretty much the same system in Portugal but usually it isn't as expensive. 35.000€ is crazy stuff. Usually about 5 to 10k that you pay to work for a lawyer for one or two years until you can apply for the bar exam. If you get lucky and get involved with some charity association or NGO, you won't have to pay, just your own expenses.

[@WhereWhatHuh]

Judge with a gun? I can top that. In my navy days, another sailor -- he was 6'6" and 300# of muscle -- told me a story that he and several family members went hunting in a jeep, with his mother in the passenger seat. On a side hill, the jeep overturned and rolled side over side. While it was rolling down the hill, his mother spotted a ten-point buck and shot it through the windshield.I questioned the veracity of this tale, to which he said, "Are you calling my mother a liar?" (that is to say... don't believe sea stories, and that's what the judge told you -- a sea story).

[@WhereWhatHuh]

That would be calling his mother a liar... Did I mention he was 6'6" and 300#?

[@WhereWhatHuh]

The game for him, in telling this story... Was to get me to call his mother a liar. Neither one of us believed that it happened.

[@dorianleakey]

This seems sincere, in which case you are saying its OK to be beaten up in order to win an argument

[@timothywilliams8530]

I had a friend of the family went through the LSAT and at the end realized he was one number off on his answer form.

[@forgottenfamily]

Thought your final story was going to end with "I became a lawyer"

[@RedwoodTheElf]

Ah, college debt. Like Blackadder, I bet you felt like a Pelican. No matter which way you looked, there was a great big bill in front of you.

[@durandal5505]

My law school horror story: Failed every single subject in the midterms. Luckily passed them all at the end of the sem. :D

[@Jessie_Helms]

I match a lot of how you describe a “gunner” and I get fairly average grades. I’m in Ministry school, not law, but it’s a neat parallel. Never think that the guy that seems to always have an answer for the teacher is the smartest, and never think the quietest person is dumb.

[@rudyspective1870]

5:35 Haha! We Californians are so Hardcore, not even an earthquake can scare us from passing the bar! I am ready!

[@Luckcat16]

I was so terrified during my first law school exam that I missed the last page of the exam. You know....the one with ALL of the questions. My dumb behind just treated the whole thing like an issue spotter. I did a lot of crying when I figured it out. Silver lining: the worst thing that could happen to me happened and I didn't fail.

[@jordansullivan5764]

Yeah I'm graduating with $250k worth of debt from Berkeley.

[@LegalEagle]

Getting off light!

[@alexknight4433]

You could've bought a ferrari with that kind of debt.

[@FakeAssHandsomeMcGee_]

😬

[@BarendNieuwoudtZA]

I make summaries in Word, and it once crashed and corrupted the save file, so the document simply disappeared. Luckily, google drive did exist, and I had a backup. If not for the backup, I could have lost the whole semester's work for that one subject.

[@RobinNicoagain]

Wow. That gunner story is exactly like mine. I was the biggest "hikke"/gunner of my high school but I never succeeded with paper exams, never. My teachers were frustrated since during the lessons I was doing excelent. Later at the end of my university studies I was diagnosed with dyslexia. That explains a lot and I wished the diagnose would come many years earlier.

[@nadamustafa512]

I was looking for law school horror stories for the longest time!!! Thank you so much for this!!!

[@LegalEagle]

Cool. Glad you liked it. I don't want to give the wrong impression; law school was awesome. But I put up with some crazy crap along the way.

[@Nisha_Chantel]

One of my law school professors went off on my classmates for saying “kind of” in his answer. She literally yelled at him for 30 minutes straight 😭😭

[@BZ98]

Horror Stories: 1st semester : I had a legal writing paper due that I had finished, but needed to edit and my computer crashed! I had a backup on my laptop, but I also had to repair my main computer so that took a chunk of time away from editing it, on top of crucial time I needed in order to study for a Tort Law midterm that was coming up in a couple of days as well. I got really sick before my Tort Law final, which made it really difficult to study and prepare adequately for it. My 2nd semester, my laptop froze in the middle of taking my civil procedure final exam (still ended up acing it though)! These still are horror stories even after passing the bar haha.

[@solahaze8948]

4:49 "But, my lord, is that... *legal* ?" "I will *make* it legal."

[@TEllis588]

Thank you for being honest especially about the student debt. Very interesting to listen to your firsthand experiences

[@simonshawca]

So, apparently I was a gunner, never heard the term before. However, I answered questions out of boredom. When no-one would answer I would just to move the class along.

[@atlantis5001]

You weren't excatly a gunner. A gunner would instantly raise his hand to answear a question without paying attention what is the situation in class

[@shaharyarsheikh5291]

I dont know if I was a gunner but in my first year a lot of the questions used to be directed at me and because my dad is a lawyer I was expected to answer and did my best. After helping everyone with their work I got 2 out of 100 on my first ever law exam. I did ok on the final but that law school horror story stays with me.

[@samuelperezgarcia]

OBJECTION! The Earthquake cannot be a horror story if it HELPED you. 😅

[@mathnerd97]

"For another horror story, I was sitting for the California Bar Exam." I'm not sure that needed elaboration. From what I've heard from those who have taken it, that's a horror story in itself.

[@donotcallmebillX]

0:06 This semester I realized that I had signed up for and was attending the wrong class... 9 weeks into the semester.

[@calebharper7080]

We'll call him Alan S. Wait, that's too obvious. Let's call him A. Simpson.

[@AnonYmous-mc5zx]

That first story seems a tad ironic, because you'd imagine that convincing a room full of people that you're the smartest, and most confident one in said room would be an invaluable tool for a lawyer.

[@alexeilesukovvolkovich1114]

The scariest story of first year law school is that... everyone is in your business!!! I had a study partner and not soon enough people were saying that we were lovers, my buddy got mad and he broke up with me, our study partnership, that is...😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹

[@michaeldavidmontalvo2402]

Alexei Lesukov Volkovich are u a guy or girl?

[@belindamcgregor4461]

When it comes to the 'gunner' scenario, I was talking to someone about this today. We are both in university (not law) and are mature aged students. My experience is that when the tutor asks questions, there is complete silence while no one wants to answer the question (I'm not sure why as I'm sure a lot of the class know the answer). I will often answer because I get uncomfortable with the long silence and frustration of the tutor. I worry that the class think I'm a "Hermione" but the reality is I just want someone to answer the damn question and stop the awkwardness!

[@acrefray]

One of my horror stories was in a smallish group (of about 16), we split into two teams over a controversial, morally difficult case involving children. My group had to argue the defense, and the other team argued the prosecution. Within about 15 minutes, my entire team excluded themselves and watched (whilst agreeing with the prosecution), and so it was the entire class against me. It was really rather intimidating.

[@ShotgunsAndSalt]

My computer's hard drive bricked juuuuust before our equivalent of finals week last year. It's not... a good feeling so I feel you. Luckily I had backups of most of my stuff (a fleet of portable hard drives and USB sticks), but I had to access them in the library because I didn't have time to repair the laptop, because of the exams and deadlines. Once I got over the panic though I did have a backup, so I was only redoing a small amount of the work (all the stuff I'd done the night it broke). Pro Tip (edit): never rely ONLY on cloud storage, lots can go wrong with automated backing up and it's always good to have a second hard copy of your data if it's not data. Just as long as you take reasonable precautions with sensitive information (since this is a law channel), like don't leave a portable drive with a load of clients' information lying around somewhere.

[@Killzoneguy117]

In Law School right now. Second year. We do our exams on our computers using a special word processor. Thus, having laptops is extremely important. In our first year final exams, like 5 people's computers failed during the exam.

[@LordInter]

I'm "a gunner" I hate waiting for classes to answer and take forever to get through things, specially if I have a good guess at the answer

[@dennisklomp2361]

Lord Inter Im known to be a "last ditch gunner". Some teachers ask a basic question, just to check if anyone is awake or because he had "interaction training" that week. I cannot stand those 30 seconds of awkward silence: all you can hear is the drool of morons slowly dripping to the ground. All you smell is the sour fear of social anxiety. All you can see is the teacher begging to god his class actually isnt that stupid. So I raise my hand tell the teacher that yes, pi is 3.14 and everybody can move on with this slapstick we call education. God I hate people😂

[@katie-st8nx]

yeah, one time at the end of Gr.11 though i took an open course (never again) and all of the shouting, Starbucks, phone clicking and kid behind me that literally practiced his SINGING i snapped an talk them to shut the hell up and that they were the reason our education system is failing. my teacher legitimately thanked me afterwards.

[@C3yl0]

That is called Adhd

[@angelachouinard4581]

My old college roomate had an interview in the East Bay just after passing the bar exam. The attorney's cut the interview short because they had tickets to a baseball game in San Francisco. My friend drove home and two hours later the big Loma Prieta earthquake hit. The first phone call after connections we restored was the law firm trying to confirm he was OK. He says if they hadn't cut the interview short he'd have been on the bridge when it went into the bay.

[@uberchops]

If the person from the first story was anything like me, he probably phoned it in on his assignments thinking his class participation and high test scores would get his teachers to slip him A's and B's. That was how I operated through all of grade school and it really bit me in the ass when I first went to college and couldn't get away with that anymore.

[@Starfire861]

My animation professors always tell new student to back up their files to at least 3 locations and save the final video to a site like KZbin. You never know when or if one of your backups will fail, and loosing the day before critique is an animator’s worst nightmare.

[@jmmypaddy]

As I'm approaching my second year of University, I can probably reflect and say I'm a gunner in the always answering questions, with a fairly good percentage of being right. I'm that way because that's how I engage my brain, rather than trying prove a point or anything. If anything I feel like I don't belong and my grades are nothing special, somewhere in a 2:1 to a 1st region using the UK system. I answer questions a lot because without doing so I think I would actually fail. For anybody reading this about to do uni or are doing uni and worried about their contribution, I would recommend answering questions as you can develop yourself. But if you choose not to then don't be disheartened in yourself if it appears someone else is seemingly knowing it all. They are likely just trying to keep their mind engaged in a way that suits their learning style.

[@SarahExpereinceRequiem]

And when they traced the transaction the debt was coming from inside the class!

[@Necromanced]

Bit late on this but I was doing biomed in university about 7 years ago. My anatomy tutor, who was Egyptian (I'm sure he still is but he's not my tutor anymore) was talking about his childhood, and slipped in whilst talking to about 25 students "Do you remember when you were a child and misbehaved, and your parents burned you with a match to punish you?" and laughed in that "I'm reminiscing" sort of laugh. And I'm glad he taught me. There is no better anatomy tutor than a suspected serial killer.

[@maddymathis6797]

My mock trial horror story: for the witness I was crossing, there was only a deposition I could use for impeachment/reference. At the beginning of my trial, the other team got the *whole* depo eliminated from the trial. When it came time for my cross, I realized I could ask none of my questions. I stood up there, stuttered a bit, and after what felt like hours said “I have no more questions or this witness.”

[@maryem8263]

Awe, poor Alan. Im happy you became his friend!

[@Methrael]

Good lord, looking at you in this video and then again in the ones from late 2020 - 2021, you've gone through some massive stresses. 3 years must do a lot to a lawyer.

[@meloniejen8400]

I remember we had a mock trial/argument in elementary school and it was basically an incentive for all the kids to get super rowdy and start a war.

[@jaybyrd9156]

Objection. Dude you're the best please don't ever stop and please do an episode on the arrest of Shaggy and Scooby on the 15 minute episode of Harvey Birdman ATL.

[@MusicVersa]

At the law school I attended, we had to take six classes in our first year (after that we took five per semester which I think is more common). Our first year finals were all at 1:00PM, every other day for two weeks (no finals on weekends). The final final was for Criminal Law, and by the end of studying every day for six finals I was pretty burned out. I went to bed having not completed my studying, intending to finish in the morning before the final at 1:00PM. I got a call at 9:15AM from the school support staff saying "why aren't you in your exam this morning?". Turns out that while the other five exams were all scheduled at 1:00PM, the Criminal final was scheduled for 9:00AM. I bolted out the door immediately, without completing my outline or finishing my studying, and was in the exam room writing by 9:30. Fortunately, around ten students all made the same error, so we were granted extra time to finish the exam (it was a three hour exam, so we were able to write until 12:30). Even more fortunately, I ended up with a B in the class. By far the most horrifying thing that happened to me in law school.

[@estel-randir]

I don't know why, but as you talked about the judge, I pictured Sandra Day O'Connor in my head.

[@alietheartist734]

So, I have a story, too. My best friend in law school was sitting next to me during our Torts exam. She had told me a week before that some of her keys were sticking, but I thought she’d gotten it fixed. Well, in the middle of the exam, I’m suddenly shaken out of my exam fog by her closing her laptop, getting up, and walking out. She went to call IT and the keyboard had completely stopped working. She lost 20 minutes, but came back and still managed to finish with a bluebook. Bonus round: One of my classmates got the Blue Screen of Doom during her Con law final.

[@NedTheUndead]

$160K for a house, where though?

[@kafst26]

Weird trick with old platter hard drives that are dying or dead. Pop them in the freezer overnight and it can shrink the metal enough to get the platters to spin freely or unstick the head enough to get another read out of it. Doesn't always work but can be a life saver.

[@IzzyThomas232]

Not a law student but an IT student. In my last semester of my degree, my main lecturer died. No good replacements came after that so all lectures for those classes stopped. Was forced to learn all my advanced classes by myself.

[@marcelblock2454]

You forgot the Kafka-esque nightmare in which a normal human being turned into a horrific creature called a "lawyer". Love your channel, I listen to your videos all the time now.

[@Nietzscheable]

Another great presentation D.J., especially as to computer issues. In my last semester, my car was rear ended and my, pardon the expression PC was destroyed. Fortunately I was diligent in backing up everything everyday to diskettes (remember those?). After law school, switched to MacBook Pros with TimeMachine backing up every hour and a separate drive every day. Why? When write a 40 page Brief and you have an equipment failure, you have a big problem. As always, good advice.

[@chinggie2]

Hey Stone, what happens in Vegas..............stays in Vegas! Love the Judge lecturing a burglar with a gun pointed in his mouth not to return to the home he broke into!... a great style as we need more Judges like that!

[@Jessnyan]

I'd love a series on the legal side of the student debit crisis. What potential regulations are legally feasible and which ones would likely be shot down? What are the legal differences of public vs private?What's going on with that public service debit relief thing that apparently no one has gotten? What kind of precedent is there for huge reforms of an industry - banking regulations? Integration? Title 9?

[@toniwasacha1495]

My law school horror stories are: 1) Someone committed suicide by jumping off a parking garage; 2) Discovered a heartbreaking law review article that I was reading was about a former co-worker ; 3) Unbeknownst to me, my teenage son put my profile information on some dating site and someone with a profane name was messaging me just as I was being called upon to analyze a case. This prof was hard core and made you stand up when you were called upon. I was very flustered and just barely made my way through his questioning.

[@craigraboteau7024]

I, in general, am not interested in law as a vocation/occupation at all. However, I love your channel and, if I had it to watch when I was a kid, I might have decided to become a lawyer. Thank you for your effort. You're pretty awesome!

[@tenhirankei]

@6:45 "back in the day when" is the phrase "old people" use to describe how life was to young whippersnappers! LOL

[@EdEddnEddyonline1]

Data backup is something my video production teachers always say to do & have it in more than 1 place

[@Jefferflakes]

"wah it only took a few years to pay off 160,000 dollars". terrifying!

[@PhillipCummingsUSA]

Most people are bad with money.

[@chinggie2]

Is the narrator related to "J Lymon Stone" of the "Rainmaker" movie with Matt Damon and his sleazy employer Mr. Stone, in Memphis?

[@0Jenna7]

I can't tell you how many times students have been frazzled and, well, horror-struck coming into THE exam of the year and the bloody computer won't start.

[@ginnyjollykidd]

To students of law intimidated by gunners, I know this works in undergrad Academia, and it might well work in Law School: talk to your professors about subjects you are concerned about. If you need to understand a concept or want to get a law reference recommendation (a passage or Lexis Nexus refers), although that might not go well as too trivial. Ask for opportunities for outside participation like mock trial. (I saw one at our State Fair, and I heard the lawyer build a case on one undeniable point after another. Wish I'd been able to stay for the whole thing. Maybe sometime.) Get to know local judges. Maybe go ride with a police squad for a shift to see what transpires. My biology department dean (also professor of several classes) always invited us to visit him in his office. Indeed, when I registered for classes, I needed his signature. So it was easy to have an excuse. He would talk about the latest fascinating thing in biology, and he'd pass on opportunities like joining the Pre - Med Honor Society. (He would sponsor candidates, and he would know their academic levels.) So I recommend casual (but respectful) hobnobbing.

[@taylorsmurphy]

7:00 - This has ruined so many dissertations, not just in law school. One day you will drop your laptop or fall off your bike or spill coffee on it, and you have to be ready to recover what you've done so far. It is easier than ever these days to just put it in a dropbox or other online, automatic update platform that keeps history of your past files. Do not risk it. The other danger is overwriting your file with a blank document. Dropbox, and I assume by now all the other platforms, let you restore from backup copies over the last several weeks. Just don't risk it.

[@kilijanek]

I had situation with similar horror of losing data to you. I lost 2TB of data, tried to recover them - 3x24h of scanning disk and software to recover data stated that it needs 2 weeks non-stop work to recover files. Yeah, my computer after 3 days reset itself do to overheating (high temperatures in the middle of summer, lack of air conditioning in dormitory...) - I lost most of my thesis back then ;) Oh, I am not an lawyer, but it is nice to hear about work of US attorneys :)

[@paranoiarpincess]

As an artist *AND* writer, I learned to backup floppy a long time ago lol

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:00 - Story 1 - Gunners 2:55 - Story 2 - Mock trial competition 5:35 - Story 3 - Earthquake 6:35 - Story 4 - Computer crash 8:15 - Story 5 - Debt , debt, debt

[@SkullAngel002]

Yep I had a similar incident with a USB flash drive back in 2011 while working on my MBA. I was traveling and periodically getting some classwork done while visiting my nieces when my flash drive completely stopped working. Fortunately I was testing this kooky invention called Google Drive so it wasn't a total loss but losing several assignments, presentations, and reference material set me back a few weeks. Definitely be vigilant about backup methods and there's nothing wrong with redundancy which is invaluable for these unexpected moments.

[@KarlieJJohnson]

Could that judge be charged with a crime for keeping the man hostage and threatening him? 🤔

[@RannonSi]

7:50 Also, a back-up isn't supposed to be close to your main storage! Think of it as your back-up shouldn't be affected if your house/place of business burns down or get hacked!

[@madeconomist458]

"smartest person in the room" This might be a common experience across most graduate students. In my first year of grad school there was one kid who, I thought, was the smartest one in my cohort or at least the smartest domestic student in my cohort, and s/he really was trying to sell that image. In the end s/he failed his/her 1st year exams and was booted out of the program, and I'm still here

[@wurdnurd1]

Lol, my computer was trashed by a virus during my final semester of library school, when I was working on my final portfolio (basically my assessment for graduation); I had to scramble with less than a month to go, to reassemble all my work from scratch!

[@cubmastercherryhillcubscou4900]

I’ll second the call for a review of The Paper Chase. A fear of ending up with a professor Kingsfield (or several) is one of the reasons I didn’t pursue a law degree... I’ve often wondered how accurately it depicted Law School in general

[@stephanieoctavius]

True Story: all right this summer I had to take an online art class( It was called Women in Art History). I had to work upstate New York from June 2 to August 26th, while I took this class. I work at a sleep way camp during day and around midnight I would stay up to complete weekly assignments. I was fired 2 weeks after (Thank goodness because I really hated working there) and went back home. Anyway, in August I had to submit a huge report on MoMA. This is went all shit when left 😪: My little sister at the time had borrowed my laptop for an tech internship. The day my project was due, she returned it and I was just about to submit it. When I noticed that my laptop didn’t turn on😭. What made matters worse was I hadn’t saved my final daft to my google drive or usb. I panicked and called my mother to tell her what happened. She offered to buy a new laptop for me just so I could submit my assignments. FYI: it was due on Sunday and all public libraries were closed so I was definitely screwed. I literally had to rewrite 20 pages in 4 hours but I did it! The crazy thing is I told my professor what happened and she laughed 😂. Now I’m currently completing my thesis for B.A in special education. 🤦🏾‍♀️

[@jennero6868]

My computer froze during a final... I had to restart it... I was soooo relieved to see my work was saved on the exam program🙌🏽

[@steveverdugo8106]

As someone who is a California native I have only experienced a single small earth quake and I was still in elementary school at the time

[@state_song_xprt]

I can personally attest that that first bit about grades generalizes to a lot of fields. I've been the Allen in most of the classes I've taken, and although my grades were generally better than all Cs I was far from the best student.

[@mayusworld9860]

Computer Crash is really scary indeed.....

[@user-oi5cn8jz3j]

you should do a version of Wired’s Autocomplete interviews, where you answer the most searched questions about the law and law school

[@Davionious]

1. Reading lists measured in feet of paper not pages. 2. Finding out that understanding legislative provisions is 1% of the actual answer with 49% is judicial interpretation and 50% is distinguishing facts among cases 3. Finding out that your entire law school curriculum is irrelevant to the materials needed to pass the bar. 4. Finding out that neither the bar exam nor the entire law school curriculum explains court-room procedure.

[@fabianlawstudies9497]

Thanks for sharing the joke in the beginning and your experience with horror!

[@AboveTheHeavens]

Burned it to a CD is insane

[@JimFinley11]

Gunners? When I was the USMC's Basic School (first school post-commissioning for all officers, 6 months of mostly infantry training with overviews of the other job fields) we had several of those, but we called them springbutts.

[@hellfire722]

Imagine: Real lawyer plays Danganronpa

[@That80sGuy1972]

Objection! That sitting judge's story where you said he was insane, he was tactical, not insane. If he, as a legally knowledgable man, was insane or even just bloodthirsty, he would have thousands of legal options in his head on how to legally kill and-or maim the intruder. He chose to detain and intimidate him into never returning. I'm a former burglar among other opportunist incomes. There are two things that stop a burglar: Fear and respect. That judge did both. Fear by holding him hostage with a deadly weapon. Respect by letting him go. Tactical, not insane. Personally, it would have been all respect for me. If he lets me go, I know he is not a killer so fear evaporates. Respect because he saw me as a human being.

[@OldSquidleySpooch]

I really like your videos. They're fun, informative, and down-to-earth.

[@dexta32084]

Had a study group friend take a four hour con law exam the first semester the school offered final exams on the student's own laptop. The school's system crashed and she ended up waiting nearly the whole winter break not knowing if she'd have to retake it. IT couldn't get it back. It took a classmate with a computer engineering degree in undergrad to recover the encrypted file on the laptop.