Ratio Decidendi

180371 asked: ...i heard links have really good biscuits- can you confirm whether this is true or not/

thankssss

THEY DO INDEED. In fact everything they had in their pantry was pretty good. Tons of juice and other drinks (use your imagination) in the fridge too!

Can’t teach a set of old notes new tricks.

Okay my last post was literally a few minutes ago. But I had an afterthought.

What am I going to do with all my old notes?! I have printed copies of my Tort Law and Contract Law “Bibles” that I brought into the exams, and I feel like it’s almost a waste since I put a combined total of at least 40 hours into each of them. Must resist urge to sell to freshmen…

What a summer it’s been.. so far.

And here comes the inevitable “I’m back!” post that starts it all again. I know I go away a lot but you all know I always come back. :)

First of all, to my new followers: thank you so much for the interest! I’m always up to get some feedback. For those of you who remain my followers, you guys are awesome and you know who you are. I do it for you guys (partially, anyways).

Finishing up my work at Linklaters was a blast. I had the opportunity to work firsthand with some (relatively) important stuff. At least at the time, I thought I was doing important things. Ahem. My last post made on Day 3, which was a Wednesday, was the calm before the storm; I ended up staying until 2 A.M. at the office the very next day. The funny thing is, I find that Linklaters (and any other firms that my friends have worked at) encourage interns to leave early. Go figure. But I personally chose to turn down their hospitality and ask for as much work as I could possibly physically and mentally handle because, realistically, I would legit pay big money for an internship at such a prestigious firm. The fact that I was given the opportunity to work for my dream firm meant that I was going to take advantage of the situation as best I could, and have no regrets looking back on my two weeks of awesome.

The reason I’ve been off tumblr for the past little while is mostly due to traveling and just overall being too busy to write a decent post. I left for Canada shortly after my internship ended to attend my sister’s graduation, and subsequently went to China to visit some relatives. It was all good fun and I was glad to leave Hong Kong, but I surprisingly missed the hot, humid, sticky and overall uncomfortable weather. Looks like I’m turning into a local Hong Konger.. zohmygoodness?

SO that leaves me with FUTURE PLANS, what’s going on for the rest of summer? Well get this: I have another TWO AND A HALF MONTHS OF SUMMER TO GO. I hate it. I’m missing school a lot already. I’m getting that summer feeling you get when you’ve had too much fun and relaxation and miss the feeling of having deadlines and other such fun school-like things. And I really do wish my exchange were after another year of school here in Hong Kong.. but go figure, not everything is the way you want it to be. Though I am looking forward to posting tons of epic stuff about my time at Cambridge and my travels around Europe, so there’s definitely something to look forward to there. ;) You’ll see it all here first!

HIt you guys soon when there’s more interesting stuff to update on. 

Day 3: How Linklaters Will Change My Life

So as many of you know, I was given an internship position at Linklaters this summer. I’ve just finished the third day of my 2 week placement, and what I’ve learned has already far exceeded easily more than I’ve learned in 2 months of law school. 

After taking Contract Law in year one, I figured I knew quite a bit about contracts. The concepts and the way contracts work seemed so clear in my head. But just yesterday, one of the more senior partners who’s had an immense amount of experience walks into the room where my desk is, and gives me a research problem to work on. She quizzes me on my fundamental knowledge of Contract Law, and I fail miserably. This was a HUGE eye-opener to me.. Contract Law was always my best subject (out of my law courses) and I thought I knew exactly what she was talking about. But it turns out my attention to detail was far lower than the standard that was expected of a solicitor at a firm of their calibre. 

Needless to say, I shat my pants.

Since then, I’ve put a combined 10-12 hours of work on my contract research assignment, and I’ve finally been able to understand the concept inside out. The partner is expecting me to present what I’ve found and apply it to a factual scenario she gave me (a business law scenario that I received a crash course on from the Managing Associate I share a room with) and I’m feeling quite prepared given that I have another few days to look at it.

Oh, and then there’s the Managing Associate. This guy is GREAT. I’m in his room, he’s a completely chill, casual guy, and he’s funny as hell. But when he’s serious and doing his work, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The thoughts that seem almost reflexive to him in response to issues and problems are like ‘eureka’ moments for me. He’s taken the time to find me work to do, hook me up with people who can tell me more about the law, and has even taken the time to tell me his thoughts on the profession and what he thinks are the most important core values in the job.

I feel like I finally understand the purpose of law school, and what it takes to make it in the world of the legal profession. And I’ve only just finished first year. In the years to come, I know I’ll perform at a level surpassing any that I’ve ever worked at before, simply because the inspiration I’ve been given in only the first THREE DAYS of my internship has already caused me to completely change the way I view law school and being a lawyer. Imagine what I’ll be like after the whole two weeks are over!

There is absolutely nothing to complain about, and honestly, it’s the best, most life-changing experience I’ve ever had the opportunity to have.

Mark my words, tumblr, I am going to work for Linklaters one day.

MUGSHOT!

Will continue updating as the internship goes on.

Criminal Law

I sat in on a murder trial in High Court last week. Thinking back on how that went, I really don’t see myself becoming a criminal lawyer (at least for the time being). 

I sat in for about an hour and a half of the trial. It was exciting to see how much hype there was about the case, but in the end it was the barrister drilling one small factual point with the witness, a cute old lady, for almost the entire time. He pulled out a map, methodically pointed out a couple of roads where the accused was seen after the murder, and made the witness state more than once that it was those exact roads where she saw him. Needless to say, the excitement wore off quick.

It sounds sad, but I actually see myself having more fun arguing about ambiguous clauses in contracts than going through criminal cases. 

Anonymous asked: hey dude great little site you got going here! just read your post exam post, you're a year one law student and you're interning at Linklaters already?

Hey, thanks for the question! I really wanted to do some work at a good law firm this summer so I decided to apply for Linklaters and a couple of chambers for some barrister experience. Luckily enough, after they read my resume and cover letter, I guess they liked what they saw and decided to take me on after an interview.

It makes things tricky in that I’m going to one of the top firms straight away, but to be optimistic, that means I can focus on trying out different types of firms in the coming years without just looking at how they’re ranked, which will give me experience with a couple smaller firms, firms that handle other types of suits (i.e. not commercial), and basically any other qualities that are important in deciding where I want to work in the future.

On Being Employed

It’s funny thinking back to when I was a kid and wanted to be older all the time. My summers used to be occupied with lots of sitting at home playing games or going out to play basketball, and I was never really productive. But now that I’m getting older and having more responsibilities, it puts life in a completely different perspective for me.

This summer I’ve been working with an awesome firm called Next Step Connections in Hong Kong as a Program Coordinator for some students in the US coming over to do internships. It’s great work, the people are nice, and there’s really nothing to complain about. It’s just interesting that as my first real paid job where I’m hired full-time, my life is put a lot more into perspective, and I see things in a different way. I can’t only move on my own schedule anymore, but have to adapt to what others want. I can’t just sit at home when I want to, I have prior commitments that I need to run out and deal with. It’s a pretty big transition, but it’s definitely fun and I’m not sitting around being bored all the time anymore.

Now to find a way to work my consistent gym schedule back into my work days..