Just because... I finished my exams. And ended up unemployed.

 First things first: I passed my second state examination yesterday.

I wasn´t really happy about this yesterday, because the oral examination was a 5-hours-lasting mess. I mean, a examiner can ask you questions. Nice answerable questions, where you have to say something about. And they can ask the other type of questions. About the last paragraph you would´ve never learned, just because this paragraph is so unbelievably unimportant. So unimportant you have never heard about it during seven years of studying and legal clerkship. And you will probably never hear about it the following 30 years of working as a lawyer.

So, my grade wasn´t was I dreamt about and this just sucked. But well, 25% of my former colleagues didn´t pass the exam at all, so from today´s perspective I´m happy that I PASSED MY BLOODY EXAM, YEA!!!!!!

Which leads to that fact that due to insurance reasons today is my first day of being officially unemployed. This is kind of strange. I always had a plan. When taking the A-levels back in June 06 I knew I would start studying in October that year. After studying I knew I would do my legal clerkship. But today.. I don´t know what I will do in four months. I have no plan beyond June 8th (and the plan is going on vacation and spend time with my sweetheart). I´m not really worried about my future, I´m sure I´ll find a job. But for a to-do-list and plan-making obsessed person like me it is really strange to have no plan.

Ah well... I have one: Packing my suitcase. Write a guide for my brother how and when to water my plants during my vacation. Watch a movie without feeling guilty because I should better learn. Yes, sounds good, I´ll do this now...


I´m linkin up with Lisette from Northern Belle Diaries today, visit her blog!

 

 

One last weekend in law jungle. Learning craziness takes over.

 This weekend is the last one I will spend in law jungle. It´s a secret place only law students have ever entered. And since then we are fighting throughout this raw and incomprehensible thicket. 

This weekend I have to fight with hanging lianas of penal law, climbers of administrative law and the giant tree of civil law. And there are the promising flowers of tax law orchids, but careful -  if you look at them too close you will get lost.

So, of course every law student starts the fight through the sheets, unscared and brave, prepared with the mighty weapons of statute texts, bright-shiny markers, textbooks, commentaries and the hope to get what was promised as "student life". 

And then, we get into the big Facebook-ambush. Straight forward. It´s a big island in the middle of the jungle, promising an escape of white and blue. And as you´re already bloody exhausted by the hard five minute work you´ve already done (preferably flipping a book open and reading the index) you choose to stay juuuuuussssttt for a little, a tiny little while. 

And the crucial problem is: Now you´re trapped in just another jungle. But one which makes so much more fun (and sense). I mean, isn´t it vital to know what happend last Friday night (while you were trying to learn)? And who can live without knowing what pictures your neighbors at your daily photo challenge took? Facebook as well knows how to show you what your blogging friends are doing, so you just have to take a sneek peak at the latest posts.

Luckily, many other law students also find their way to Facebook island during their time in jungle and soon a little chitchat is going on. Mainly about what you should (and don´t want to) learn and you soon work out a strategy - you´ve done enough for today, the others haven´t done more than you. It´s okay to stop learning.

And yes, facebook cares for you. Really, it does. It collects all your browsing behaviour just to give you that subtle reminder on the right sidebar that you have to prepare for life after law jungle. Because once I´m out I will go on vacation. And I haven´t booked a hotel for next Saturday night. You see, it was like a act of self-defence to follow Facebook´s friendly advice to click through booking.com and expedia.com and hotel.com and trivago.com..... That´s how I landed in travel jungle, which is placed amidst of facebook island.

So trapped in distraction suddenly a hole opened under my feet and I landed here, because shirking away from learning isn´t enough. I had to tell you *LOL*

And now I´m going back to my tax law books, which were patiently waiting for my return. Stupid things, they just never run away when they have the chance to...

Legally blogging

Today I´m participating in a blogging series for the first time. It´s the absolutely unique Legally Blogging series and the heads behind are those wonderful ladies - this is their story:

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The Legally Blogging idea was dreamed up by three ladies who all met in blog-land and instantly clicked.  You could say it was love at first sight.  The immediate connection stemmed from the one thing they had in common: Law.  Obviously, as time went on, they discovered they had much more in common than just law, but that was a great starting point.

Here they are!

They decided to join forces and start a blogging series, to show that lawyers aren't always what you'd expect.  The main goal of the series is to connect with other legal ladies out there and meet some great new people.  Every week, the hope is to showcase a new person in the series.

Series so far:

Catherine - Part 1
Allison - Part 2
Jackie - Part 3
Jackie (City Girl...) - Part 4
Erica (To The Sea) - Part 5
Crystal {29 Rue House} - Part 6

If you're interested in participating in the Legally Blogging Series, just send an email to Jackie: jjstoughton [AT] gmail [DOT] com. 

We'd love to have you on board!

 

Hello @ all!

My name is Bridget from Brid´s Journey. Today is certainly one of the two days in my life I can´t wait for the postman to come. As you read the following lines I´m waiting for “the letter” with the results of my second legal state examination. Please keep fingers crossed for me :)

So, how did I end up looking out of the window waiting for a yellow car to bring good or bad news for the next year of my life?

I´m from Germany and after leaving school I decided to study law in Munich. The Faculty of Law at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich is one of the oldest and with more than 5000 students one of the biggest law schools over here. And it´s located in a beautiful building which was built in the 1840s. Of course all students love the fact that the campus of the university is no less than one of the largest and most beautiful parks in the world – the English Garden. 

After my first two years at university I decided to change to the University of Ratisbon. The reason was quite simple – life in Munich is deadly expensive. The rent for my tiny 18m² student´s apartment was over 500€. So I spent my nights working as a bartender and waitress to afford it. But as studying law in Germany starts very slow it gets demanding in the second half. You finish studies with the first state examination, which consists of six five-hour exams in all of the three branches of law (civil law, penal law and public law) and an oral examination. This was the first time in my life to wait for “the letter” and as failure rates are quite high I was so happy and relieved that I passed. From this day on you´re not a student anymore and leave university with a law degree called diploma. 

 

However, if you want to get admission to the German Bar as a lawyer you have to do a two-year legal clerkship. You have to take classes and go through some internships at court, the public prosecutor´s office, public authorities and a lawyer´s office. After the two years you take the second state examination which consists of eleven five-hour exams and an oral examination. If you pass you will be admitted to the German Bar. 

During the six months to wait for the results I started working at a small lawyer´s office in my town. We mostly do all cases, which guarantees that our working days are never monotonous. Although I´m specialized in tax law (just doing my Master´s degree in tax law extra occupational) and labor law I love the variety of cases and I´m happy that I´ve chosen a job I really like.

 

Enough said about law – let´s get to the Q&A!

1. Why did you start blogging?

 I had a private blog years ago to stay in contact with friends I met during my time abroad in London, Edinburgh and Dublin. It faded into oblivion as I was quite busy with learning for my examination, so I decided to start a new public blog a few weeks ago. It´s a bit like my scrapbook without needing any printed pics, scissors or glue. I´m not very patient in handicrafts :)

2. What do you like to do when you´re not blogging?

 I´m a proud dog owner, so I spend lots of time walking across the fields and keep my dog from hunting hares and pheasants. Besides I´m devouring almost every book that comes into my hands, I love to meet friends, travel through the world and do some photography with my DSLR (unfortunately I never have enough time to really learn how to do it a bit more professional).

 

3.  What do you find is the biggest misconception about lawyers?

I´ve gone through some rough discussions when people heard that I´m a lawyer and some big case received a great deal of attention in the media those days. Most people who have nothing to do with law just read the lurid headlines in the newspaper and start to blame the next lawyer they meet for that  - how they think - scandalous injustice. In these situations I found myself trying to defend myself and my profession, because when you take a deeper look everything was just as it has to be. But you just can´t explain certain legal procedures. They don´t understand that we are defending a client, even if he is a murderer or a child abuser, because we see ourselves as a independent body of the administration of justice. As long as there is no judgement our client is presumed innocent. We don´t identify with our clients and personally of course we don´t endorse any criminal offences. But how to explain our professional ethics to some upset townspeople?

4. What´s your favourite vacation you´ve been on?

 For a longer time abroad – Dublin and Edinburgh. For having lots of fun – Las Vegas. For a European city trip – Prague, Paris and Barcelona. For beautiful scenery – Isle of Skye, Loch Morlich (Scotland). I´ve lost my heart in so many places – but the one I love took it to Arizona, so this is my favorite vacation in my imagination till I can - hopefully - go there in May :)

  

5. What´s your best and worst home reno project?

Well, I don´t have a own house, so I´m just suffering under my parent´s home reno projects. As my dad´s mostly doing everything on his own it happens that we´re living 6 months without a kitchen, a living room or a guest toilet. But if I´ll ever have too much money or time (or preferably both) I dream of restoring an old house with a huge garden and a library :)

Thanks to Allison, Catherine and Jackie from Legally blogging for this wonderful idea and giving me the chance to join her series.To all lawyers out there, I´m curious to read your stories next Tuesday at Legally blogging!