Feting (and Feeding) the 1Ls
For our 1L students, very few feelings compare to the wave of relief that accompanies turning in the first graded assignment of their legal research and writing class.
Their more experienced brethren remember that feeling well. To congratulate the 1Ls on their accomplishment, they helped them celebrate on Monday with mimosas and pancakes served by Law School professors and the Law Student Association.
Professors Omri Ben-Shahar, Anup Malani, Lee Fennell, and Richard McAdams showed up to take turns manning the griddles while students furiously mixed batter and popped champagne bottles. After the 1Ls dropped their memos into boxes, they lined up for breakfast.
The legal research and writing course is officially called the Bigelow Program, named after former Law School Dean Harry Bigelow, although "Bigelow" has come take on several meanings. In students' first year, they are divided into six sections, known as "Bigelow sections," with each group all taking courses together the entire year. Two Bigelow sections attend each class, except for the "Bigelow" legal research and writing course. That course is taught to only one section at a time by a "Bigelow Fellow," an academic with a two-year fellowship to the Law School. Students may refer to papers written for the class as "Bigelows."
That means this sentence, while somewhat convoluted, is perfectly reasonable: "I'm going to Bigelow (class) to leave my Bigelow (paper) with the Bigelow (teaching fellow)."
The first graded legal memo written by the 1L students may be their most difficult as they learn to research the law and adjust to a new style of writing. The course teaches them how to build a legal argument and how to argue from legal precedent-skills they may have had no reason to have before coming to the Law School. Finishing the graded memo lifts a huge burden, allowing students to focus on their remaining classes in the lead-up to Winter Quarter final exams.
What better way to relax - if only for a few minutes before their next classes - than with a drink in hand and a syrupy stack of pancakes.