Boston Saga, Part 3: The One L Crucible

I got to sit in on a few CivPro classes with the legendary Arthur Miller (note: not the playwright). If you've ever read One L by Scott Turow, I think the evil Contracts professor was modeled off of Miller. (I also envisioned the Contracts professor in The Paper Chase.) It was interesting sitting in on the class, and rather enjoyable (although I attribute that in large part to the comfort of knowing that I would not be called on). I found the Thursday CivPro class to be fairly benign, especially considering Miller's reputation.

But on Friday, the gloves came off. Friday also happened to be Harvard's Alumni Fall Visit day (or something), so the back of the classroom was filled with (mostly not-too-recent) graduates of HLS. Many of them were now prominent lawyers and judges, and many of them had had Miller when they attended HLS. Given this audience, it seemed Miller felt the need to "show off" a bit. And by "show off" I really mean "be sadistic to some 1Ls." I felt bad for the poor soul who was the day's cold call victim for the Erie case. But I must say the student took all of Miller's jabs in stride. He even managed to engage in a bit of witty repartee himself, though Miller took care to have the last word in every exchange. But by far the worst comment of the day was, "Whatever happened to the vaunted interdisciplinary education of our Harvard law students? Did we make a mistake in admitting you all?" It even made me cringe. Frankly, law school (and especially the first year) is hard enough when you're asked questions out of the case and the following notes. Some of Miller's queries came from beyond what students should be expected to know (and yet he made it seem that the answers should be obvious). It's the kind of "hiding the ball" stuff that drives many a 1L crazy. I can only hope that Professor Miller eased up a bit once his audience of alumni departed.

After CivPro Honor and I went out to lunch with several of her classmates. Alas, I was ID-less at the time and could not partake of the lunchtime spirits. Honor assured me, however, that the Pumpkin Ale was quite tasty. (And it was -- I did sneak a sip.) Though I didn't get a chance to talk much with Honor's classmates, they seemed like a good bunch.

Once lunch wrapped up, Honor was off to her Legal Research/Writing class. I waited out in the hallway and did some reading. After that, we went to a "happy hour" held on campus - basically a kegger sponsored by the Students Against Domestic Violence group. We felt very safe drinking in the courtyard that had been designated a "Rape-Free Zone." Thursday night we had dinner at a cool little Thai place.