duke law

some pics from duke law -- first, a classroom:


by this fall, the entire law school facility will have been renovated.

this next is a shot of a clinic office (nice! most schools keep clinics in the dungeon). in law school, "clinic" means working under supervision on real cases with "live clients" which is always a little jarring when the particular clinic i'm interested in is the death penalty clinic.



what a treat to meet professor james coleman and -- an unexpected bonus! -- professor ernie young, just arrived from ut (that's texas, for all y'all thinking tennessee) law, who happened to be sitting near me, observing the con law class, and was quite generous when i pounced on him for advice about law schools. of course he had some good things to say about both duke and ut. i'm having such fun collecting opinions about this decision process, and am impressed with the overall generosity of faculty everywhere.

at each school, i try to identify one prof in particular with whom i'd love to study. at duke, that's coleman -- his bio makes him sound interesting, every course he teaches looks fascinating -- and he didn't disappoint in person. in the classroom, he was laid back and clearly having a good time, one of those natural teachers who can keep everyone's attention, keep everyone participating, keep things moving, raise issues and respond well to questions, knowing just how far to push. it took me several minutes to figure out what was so different about his class -- no computers! profs at duke have the option to allow or ban them in class. at 8:45 a.m., his class was more lively and students were more engaged than in any other (non-seminar) class i've visited. probably just a coincidence. (ok, remember that when i was last in school, the computer was a mainframe somewhere else, accessible through the teletype console, and we were proud to have advanced past punchcards.)

then i went to a constitutional law class taught by professor neil siegel, who was lecturing and leading discussion on race and equality under the constitution, specifically focusing on the famous cases of plessy and brown v. bd of ed. this stuff is so fascinating -- i can hardly wait to get going . . . but going where?!?! =)

so duke has lots of advantages: it's a great school -- very highly ranked and recognized nationally (and particularly in the south, where the death penalty is), it's actually in a death penalty state so i might be able to do internships with places like the center for death penalty litigation, fair trial initiative or the office of the appellate defender, etc., it's small (an advantage in some ways), it's much nearer to family here, etc.