Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground

COSTA RICA Day 3 (12/29) . . . After picking up our rental car at the San Jose airport, we drove through the mountains to Arenal Volcano near the town of La Fortuna, Costa Rica. We stayed within the national park (El Parque Nacional Arenal) at Arenal Observatory Lodge. This was the view from our room, once the clouds cleared--

That's smoke coming from the top of the volcano.

MORE PHOTOS FOLLOWING THE BREAK

COSTA RICA Day 2 (12/28) . . . We spent the day in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Some of the museums we planned to see were closed on Mondays (bad planning), so we did a lot of walking around. Photos--

Our hotel in San Jose: Hotel Grano de Oro --

Austin in the hotel's courtyard, at breakfast--

A giant nativity scene in Parque Central--

MORE PHOTOS AFTER THE BREAK --

COSTA RICA Day 1 (12/27) . . . Today was a travel day--St. Louis to Dallas to San Jose in Costa Rica. Our flight left St. Louis at noon and we arrived in San Jose about 9:00 p.m. The time here in Costa Rica is the same as in St. Louis. 

Temperature when we left St. Louis: 30 degrees with light snow.

Temperature in San Jose: 80 degrees, clear.

Travelers: me and my son Austin, age 17. Here we are at the airport in St. Louis--

Our plans: We'll spend the day in San Jose tomorrow, then rent a car and drive towards Jaco on the the Pacific coast with a stop at a volcano observatory along the way. We won't have Internet during the middle of the week, but we plan to post updates here as often as we can, for the family and anyone else who's interested.

AT MY TRIAL PRACTICE WEBSITE . . . Recent posts at The Trial Practice Tips Weblog--

• "Writing First Drafts"
• "Writing Persuasively"
• "Five More Legal-Writing Tips"

The Weekly Law School Roundup #204

Here's your weekly list of good posts from the past week by law students, some current or almost current, some recently-graduated--

Hell Worst exam yet. [Virgin in the Volcano]

Experience Tips for final exams. [Musings of a Computer Scientist turned Law Student]

Revolution . . . and the Senate. [My Legal Fiction]

Change Things learned during a first semester. [1L Poet]

Evidence A brain turning off. [Balancing Acts]

Hello Do law students need business cards? [The Reasonably Prudent Law Student]

Yes Sleep-deprived, end-of-finals-induced craziness. [Starting to Melt]

Roundup Moms in the Legal Profession #129. [Butterflyfish]

Look for next week's roundup at Thanks, But No Thanks then it's back here the week after that. You can find some other recent roundups in the "At the Law Schools 2" category, as well as sixty or so older roundups from 2004-2005 here. Finally, if you want to know how I choose posts to highlight, see "How I Write the Weekly Law School Roundup." (If you have a law-student weblog that I don't seem to know about or that isn't in my blogroll, please send me an email.)

NOOK, FORSOOK . . . Says Engadget about the Nook hacks, "Hey Barnes & Noble, welcome to the wild west of consumer electronics."

FLASHBACK . . . Five years ago on this weblog --

Advice to Young Lawyers #21 (in which a young lawyer asks whether her short stories are any good)

THE WEEKLY LAW SCHOOL ROUNDUP . . . The Weekly Law School Roundup alternates between The Legal Underground and Thanks, But No Thanks, where you can find this week's Weekly Law School Roundup #203. The next installment will appear here soon, so be sure to check back.

MARKETABILITY . . . For law students, Dennis Kennedy recommends that you think in terms of a portfolio rather than a resume--

Here's what I mean by portfolio - tangible evidence that you are serious about becoming a lawyer, assembled in a way to tell a compelling story.

How do you do that, especially in a tough economy, as a law student? Something as simple as a blog reporting on developments in an area of interest can lead, over a year or two, to articles, speaking opportunities and interviews in publications or even radio or TV. If you aren't working part-time (and developing a portfolio with deatils of the work you do), you want to do volunteer work that is law-related, including ABA or other bar association activities. If you know what area of law you want to go into, look at showing initiative by attending continuing legal education seminars and asking questions and meeting people.

Kennedy's full post: "By Request: Advice for 1Ls."

AT MY TRIAL PRACTICE WEBSITE . . . Recent posts at The Trial Practice Tips Weblog--

• "Conducting Discovery by Focusing on Witnesses"
• "Illinois Practice: Documents Produced by Your Opponent Must Still Be Authenticated"
• "Choose a Citation Style, Then Stick To It"