Graduating from Law School at 36: What I Learned

I learned to make your point quickly and clearly. So, I’ll try to do that here.

Top 5 Things I Learned in Law School

1. Innominate terms can be difficult to understand (especially for non-British lawyers). The long and short of it is: The nature and circumstances surrounding a contract are just as important as the warranties and conditions within them.
2. It’s all contract law. If there isn’t a tangible written or verbal contract, there is a social contract (sometimes called “laws” or “customs”).
3. Lawyers do (surprise, surprise) play games. In English courtrooms, especially, I’ve observed this, with seasoned barristers making mistakes on purpose in order to achieve a 4:30pm cutoff time. These mistakes can manifest as hearing errors (old age and all), or misdirection: (e.g. saying “turn to page 279”, when the barrister knows they’ll have to tell everyone later that they “actually meant 379”.
4. Relationships, relationships, relationships. This probably should be number one, but it’s too obvious to list as number one.
5. One aspect of being a good legal professional seems to be the art of performing reasonableness. I’ve read it as “being the most reasonable person in the room.” In the legal profession, lawyers often see many people in their very worst circumstances. Maintaining impeccable professionalism, but still being very human, is something that, it seems, simply comes from experience.

Bonus: If you have a family, keep legal discussions away from the household kitchen table for a happier life (especially in law school). Although, the temptation is strong, as there’s nothing like trying to learn something by explaining it to a 6 year-old. Also, I learned that if there is a family dispute to remind everyone of Belfour v. Belfour (1919): agreements between family members in a domestic setting are generally considered not to form legal relations.

All in all, it was a wonderful (and wonderfully challenging) experience.

Now, back to the real world.