- real estate
- endorsement of notes, etc.
- payment of notes, etc.
- stocks, bonds, and securities
- contracts, agreements, etc.
- bank accounts, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, etc.
- tax returns, insurance, and other documents
Those of you currently in and those of you who have graduated from law school know firsthand that it isn't always as easy as you might like. But are there certain things which signal it's time to drop out? So asks a 1L student of the New York Lawyer, as posted on
TaxProf Blog on January 23. Apparently, his or her grades were below average at a fourth-tier school, begging the question "How far should I realistically expect to go?" New York Lawyer responds in characteristically dubious fashion, "Some people are better suited to being lawyers than law students. You may be one of them." Whither the power of the academic sheepskin?
Since this is
my legal blog, I'll have to include the weekly obligatory bashing of Bush Co., though I'll soft-pedal it this week with a review of Michael Mukasey, the unlucky man currently trying to resurrect the Department of Justice in the wake of the disaster known as Alberto Gonzales (you know, the
pro-torture guy?). The
Wall Street Journal Law Blog reviews his first 72 days on the job, noting his penchant for order and clarity and an undying affinity for the state of New York. But, we're left asking, is water boarding torture? Are the Geneva Conventions as "quaint" as Gonzales once proclaimed? Perhaps the user comment by "Berto" spells out what to expect best: "Obviously he hasn't been in the position long enough to know the proper answers to questions. 'I don't know, can't remember, and don't recall.' He'll get it eventually."
Legal Theory Blog, meanwhile, is spotlighting something which seems to want to fade into the corners of history and die: marriage.
Brooklyn Law School's Marsha Garrison has written an article featured in the
Family Law Quarterly entitled "The Decline of Formal Marriage: Inevitable or Reversible?" The abstract (posted on the site on January 21) begins in typically ominous fashion with the statement that "all over the industrialized world, marriage is in decline." I guess the natural questions, then, are "Should we all be working to enact civil unions and leave 'marriage' to the private institutions of religious and personal affiliation? Or are we on track now to defining the 'sanctity of living in sin'? Or better yet, the 'sanctity of divorce'?"
Personally, I'm tired of the debate, though I will admit to finding it intermittently fascinating. If nothing else, the end of marriage should spell an end to popular ideals of romance and the commercial packaging of emotional torment, which should bring a precipitous end to Celine Dion's career.
Not that she doesn't have a nice voice...
