How Not to Be an Asshat in the Classroom (Courtroom)

Okay... so the title of this post is partly borrowed but it was a good excuse for using the word Asshat in my the heading. I found a link to How Not To Be An Asshat in The Courtroom written by Michael Mortimer of the Business Litigation Group in 1996, also reprinted in Plaintiff Magazine in 2008. Besides using a word (Asshat) that I find pretty darn funny, the article is really good. I also discovered an analogous relationship between courtroom and classroom behavior. I encourage everyone to read this, especially the heading "Know When to Shut Up" which is particularly important in both court and class.

One of my professors (Mr. Payne) has been trying to drill into our heads since the beginning of the program to think of being in class akin to being in court. Things you wouldn't do in court, you don't ever do in class. Clothes you wouldn't wear to court, shouldn't be worn to class. Cell phones, gum chewing, excessive paper shuffling, whispering, etc. are grounds for contempt in his classroom. He's a pretty intimidating old crust of a lawyer and so I have yet to see anyone call his bluff. We see him as The Judge, and treat his class like court. I personally like it this way. I have other classes / professors who are very lenient about the very things that Mr. Payne finds contemptible and those classes don't flow nearly as well, with students violating pretty much every rule of court especially the rule of knowing when to shut-up.

If you haven't been to court I suggest you go. I've been to court a few times; jury duty, my kid's speeding tickets, and one criminal matter in which a family member was a victim. You can learn a lot from just observing traffic court. Pay particular attention to what defendants wear to court. You won't believe your eyes.  Read the article linked above before you go, then just sit quietly in the back and act like you're supposed to be there. And don't be an Asshat.

Immersion Theory

During my first semester in the paralegal program I began using Rosetta Stone to improve my Spanish skills.  I didn’t have any room in my class schedule to take in-school or even online Spanish, so I invested in the program. 

Rosetta Stone uses something called Dynamic Immersion® which is really no more than putting you in an environment that speaks only the language you want to learn.  I need to learn Spanish, and so each lesson is taught 100% in Spanish.  There isn’t a single English word in the program; and it works. 

I began thinking about how the theory of immersion could be applied to my education.  If immersion was successful at teaching me a new language, then it should help me become more successful at school.  I decided to put the theory to work by totally immersing myself in legal studies.  There was a huge commitment involved in doing this.  My personal life suffered including television addictions (Real Housewives, Glee, 30 Rock, Community and The Office), socializing and sleeping.  I told my husband I would see him when I graduated.  Not really.  But you get the picture.

Here’s the breakdown on my immersion experiment:

1. I carried 19 credit hours and received straight A’s.  Only stellar grades will get me a job when I graduate.  Employers will request to see my transcripts so when I say stellar, I mean A’s and B’s, with emphasis on the A’s.  B/C students are not going to get jobs as paralegals.  If you don’t believe me, ask any attorney.   

2. I read everything I can that applies to the law, especially the areas I’m interested in.  I read blogs, Twitter feeds, magazine and newspapers and look at relevant websites.  I don’t skip over stuff in my textbooks either.  I keep up on the trends and follow the courts. 

3. I don’t miss assignments and I have to be throwing up or stricken with violent diarrhea and fever to miss a class.  Period. 

4. I know the names of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices.  

5. I read the U.S. Constitution.  It’s a short document.  Every American should read it, paralegal program or not!  I am ashamed that I did not know that document well.  I do now. 

6. I join organizations!  There should be chapters of paralegal organizations near you and most offer student memberships that are cheap.  Try to attend the meetings if your class schedule permits, but if you can’t, you can volunteer to do something for them from home.  Networking is really really important.  I’m not waiting until I graduate to start building my network. 

7. I volunteer.  I accept that I am going to have to give it away for free.  If you think that at the end of your two year or four year degree program you are going to walk into a paralegal job without experience you’re wrong.  The only way to get experience is to work for free.  You can volunteer at a law office or a non-profit legal service; it really doesn’t matter as long as you can put on a resume that you have paralegal experience.  In this economy, and in the current job market, experienced paralegals are not finding jobs.  How am I going to get a job if they can’t?  Check the online job boards like Monster.com for a reality check on jobs. 

8. I hope this doesn’t offend, but work on your spoken language skills.  I think college professors have to be careful about what they say to people so they don’t get into trouble and therefore rarely correct a student’s speech.  I’m just a student so I have nothing to lose by telling everyone that if you are still speaking in slang or have a strong accent (I live in the South) that makes it difficult for people to understand you then changes have to be made.  When you’re watching the news does anyone speak like they’re from the Jersey Shore, Brooklyn or the Deep South?  No.  That’s because broadcasting schools teach people to drop the accent.  Also lose the contemporary slang.  Is anyone else tired of hearing the word “Dude?”  Or how about those who pronounce “ask” as “axe?”  Saying “I axed her a question” sounds like a crime has been committed.  We all get into these little habits and we can all get out of them.  If we are going to be whispering Rules of Civil Procedure into an attorney’s ear in a court room some day, he/she needs to understand what we are saying.  For the record, the word “nuclear” is pronounced “noo-klee-err” not “noo-kue-lerr.” 

That’s it for now.  I’ll go into more details about each of these areas of immersion and share whatever information I have.  I have 21 credit hours so I am literally immersed but I plan to post at least weekly this semester. 

Thanks for reading.

Lynne Koenigsknecht

The Paralegal Student

First Post: Taking Down the Christmas Tree

I am trying to get organized for the new semester.  I've completed one term in the Paralegal program at Guilford Tech Community College (http://www.gtcc.edu).  I am reinventing myself by going back to school at this point in my life and I have taken an immersion approach to the field of legal studies;  more on my theory about that later.

I have a lot of ideas for this Blog.  I already have a list of things to share with all of you about school and getting jobs, and stuff I think we should all learn about the field that school may not teach us.  I also have a lot of tips about technology having been in that field for a number of years.

So this Blog is for and about being a paralegal student.  My hope is that after I finish school in a few years I could perhaps hand the Blog over to a new student, passing the torch as it were.  For now, since it's my first post, I'll keep in short.  Since school starts back up in less than a week, I know that if I don't take the Christmas tree down it will stay up until Spring Break.

Lynne Koenigsknecht
The Paralegal Student