Has it already been 2 months!?

It's been six weeks since I last wrote up on here about how things are going.

And there is a reason for that. The past 6 weeks have been a blur. I'm currently on the greyhound back to Toronto (2$ round trip - worth the sketchiness) so that I can make it in time to watch the Drake concert and then head straight back to Windsor for class tomorrow morning.

When I last wrote, I had just finished my official orientation weeks and was ready to start actual law school classes (our first year consists of Criminal, Constitutional, Property and Contract Law as well as the Legal Writing Class that we started in mid-August). Turns out, the first week of class was cancelled due to a strike by technical workers at U of Windsor - it happened to be the hottest September day in recent memory and the whole campus didn't have Air Conditioning. So after 3 weeks of hype waiting to start law school, that was a buzz kill. The strike didn't end until Thanksgiving Weekend which means the school gym was closed until then (and there's only one gym here - Windsor always finds a way to remind me that I'm not at U of T anymore). Luckily, our classes weren't affected other than the first week.

Anyhow, when classes ACTUALLY started, I was just ready to start learning. And it starts right away. Case after Case, law after law, reading after reading. The work never stops and I've found, if you find yourself with nothing to do, you need to re-evaluate because with an exam each term, there can never be enough preparation. I won't go into the content of the classes in this blog because, well, that would just be boring for anyone just not interested in law. But - I will say that I actually loved discussing a case: "Popov v. Hayashi". If you are a sports fan, this will intrigue you too. It was a property dispute about Barry Bond's record breaking 73rd Home-Run Ball and who owned the rights to it. Check out this video on the case; it was definitely super interesting and it helped spell out the concepts we were learning in a readily applicable way. 

Back to the fun stuff. Like I talked about before, getting involved in school is  a huge deal if you can manage it while maintaining decent marks. In undergrad, I found that a higher level of involvement equaled better marks, at least for me. There are tons of clubs and student societies at Windsor Law for all types of interests ranging from the Tennis Club, to Cultural Associations (Persian Club!) and more academic-ish clubs such as Community Legal Aid. In my personal statement to Windsor, I made it clear that I intended to get involved with the Sports and Entertainment Law Society (SELS) in order to continue my involvement and passion within that field (extending from my experience from UTSB). I was lucky enough to be elected as the FIrst-Year Representative for  SELS in mid-September. The SELS exec is busy planning the conferences that will be held in second semester so I will definitely have some interesting stories once that is settled.

The roomie Sal started up Windsor's first Fashion Law society and is busy planning some awesome events for students interested in Fashion Law and all the issues that come with that. 

Probably the best thing about the abundance of student groups at Windsor Law is the fact that there is ALWAYS food at these meetings. As a starving law student, Pizza/Sandwich lunches every other day is actually so helpful. And now with the gym open, I don't feel as bad. 

On the social side of things, we had the awesome experience of going to Joe Louis Arena to watch the Leafs play the Red Wings in a pre-season match-up. The Joe is an old building but honestly has a great view from anywhere you sit - and it cost us 17$ for the tickets - no complaints. It was also fun to explain to some older Red Wings fans why we were booing Daniel Alfredsson. Poor Alfie just can't escape it. 

We also had the chance to hit up the J Cole & Wale concert at the Masonic Temple in Downtown Detroit (largest Masonic Temple in the world). Getting to the stadium was an experience on its own - it was surrounded by deserted hotels and buildings - glass broken everywhere and, where there is no broken glass there are boarded up windows. Scary. But the theatre was sweet and concert was awesome.

Back on the academic side of things, we're ankle deep in our legal education with about 6 weeks until our first exams. We had our first marked assignment the day before the Thanksgiving Long Weekend and this was definitely an experience. I was recommended by my friend Ange at Western Law to read 1L by Scott Turrow before I started school. Turrow was a Harvard Law grad who wrote about his first year in law school. I distinctly remember him saying everyone goes crazy around assignment/exam time. I wouldn't say everyone went crazy but things definitely got tense in the days leading up to the assignment. Windsor is pretty collegial and nobody is super competitive or cut throat, but that still doesn't stop people from freaking out around these times - especially for your first ever mark in law school when you are told that marks are EVERYTHING. Anyway, tip for those heading into first year, just take it easy in the days before an assignment and try to be done a few days before the date to avoid the hysteria.

Anyway, other than just an abundance of legal things, the first 6 weeks haven't been all too exciting to make an amazing blog post. But, before I finish up, I did have an incredible experience this past weekend when I headed to Toronto for the 2nd Annual Hockey Arbitration Competition of Canada at U of T run by the U of T Sports & Entertainment Law Society. I had the pleasure of meeting the organisers for this years competition as I was planning the Sports Industry Conference for UTSB earlier this year. If you recall, we worked with them for the law panel. Anyhow, they reached out for help for some of the planning for their event. I was happy to help them organise and set-up the event. The concept of the competition is a play on the traditional 'moot' or mock trial that goes on in law schools across North America. Instead of a hypothetical legal situation, the focus is on a NHL hockey player. The idea is for one team to represent the player's interests and argue why he is worth above a certain salary; the other team represents the player's team and argues why he is worth less than that salary.   I also was lucky to be a bailiff for the competition. A bailiff is basically a timekeeper - but you are able to watch 2 teams of law students compete it out in front of a lawyer with experience in the Sports Industry. It was definitely an amazing experience and the University of Windsor happened to win the whole thing and beat out 31 other teams!

The BEST part of this whole experience was something that was sprung on me two days before the event. Chris, one of the organisers, let me know that a team had dropped out due to funding issues and they needed me and Sal to participate in one of the arbitration hearings representing the team's side for the NHLer Chris Stewart. First year law students are normally not allowed to participate in these competitions because we simply do not have enough experience; we have a mandatory moot at the end of our first year which helps train us. But, we pounced on the opportunity. We had two days to prepare for it, we had never participated in a moot before let alone a hockey arbitration hearing. In order to protect the integrity of the competition and the marking, we couldn't tell our opponents or the judge that we were newbies or that we had NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE. Sal and I prepared as hard as we could on less than 30 hours notice and we were lucky to come away with a one-point victory in our arbitration competition! It was actually awesome.

Anyway, I'll check in when some more exciting stuff happens aka after all of this school work calms down a little.

In the mean time..... Drizzy.