"Paper-moments"

Do you know this moment of relief and exhaustion, tiredness and happiness?

You start in the semester highly motivated! New Seminar, an interesting and fascinating topic! You love the discussions in class – thought-provoking and exciting.

Seminars are great – there are no exams! You can actually enjoy what you are discussing. You do not have to fear that you might have forgotten everything in three month. You live life here and now. But…there is a hurdle. A Paper. You have to write a paper. Yes, everybody has to write a paper. You as well! You will not receive your degree if you have not written at least one LLM-paper. And papers can be cruel. Papers are cruel at least at some point and if it is only bluebooking your footnotes in the end.

Maybe in week one – because you have too much energy and motivation, you start thinking about a topic. Unlikely, but it could happen. This is actually the fun part. Your mind can wander. You can think about this or that. You are free. If you do not like something, you just leave it out of the scope of analysis. You come up with ideas; ideas which are real ideas – new, exciting, creative and waiting to be tested and challenged. They need not make sense yet. It is fun, not yet serious. But sooner than you expect, the first deadline approaches: you have to present your idea to the Professor. Suddenly, it becomes work. A first outline must be drafted. Some research must be done. But still, all this is relatively easy – if you learn something during your LLM, it is how to present and argue some (maybe under-developed) ideas, and convince the professor to let you pursue your way.

So assumed your professor agreed to your topic, you maybe start thinking about starting to think about how to research and write the paper. Maybe this includes some research. But most likely it will not go further than thinking. There is just too much else to do. Externship. Readings. Parties. Sports. New York. Moot Courts. No momentum for papers…for now.

But then, the moment comes: you decide to stop surfing Facebook and to start to write. Everybody knows the feeling sitting in front of a blank page, the cursor blinking without mercy. But then you start. And the flow will come, where you type and type and type. And type. There is nothing better than this moment when you are racking your brain, trying to make an argument. It works out well in your head – you think at least. But it is so hard to get it on paper. Then you type. You rearrange. You reformulate. Word for word – suddenly they match perfectly and create a wonderful logic. The moment you read the paragraph you have just typed, and everything makes sense now – priceless. Unfortunately, these moments are as rare as they are special. Because, as you might remember – there are other things to do as well – things which are fun, too, and easier achieve.

And suddenly there is this moment, when you realize that time is flying, and deadlines are approaching. Interestingly, everybody seems to have this moment at the same time. There is a point in time where everybody is talking about…papers. Not so much about contents, but about still blank pages to fill. How much pages do I need? 25? Really 25? Double-Space? At once, the library is full again! Everybody is typing like mad. Nights get shorter. The energy drink consumption increases. Pages fill up.

Eventually, this will lead you to the moment when you realize that you have written too much. Frustration. How the hell should you shorten all these valuable words, which were typed with so much dedication and commitment. And obviously, this thought is brilliant – how can you even dare to think about to just delete it!

But as deadlines come closer, this moment fades out. Soon, you work like in a tunnel. You do not see anything, but the light at the end. You want to finish. You do not ask questions anymore. For instance, you do not ask yourself why you did not start earlier. You do not ask yourself why all papers are due on the last day of class. You do not ask yourself how you manage to do all this at the same time - you just do. It is now, at latest, when you realize how cruel papers can be. Nothing is left from the enthusiasm you initially had. Nothing is left from the belief that this paper can have an impact. You just want to get it done.

And somehow, you do not know why and how it happened, there is this moment of relief and exhaustion, tiredness and happiness: when you watch with dark circles around your small eyes the printer print your work. Done. Finally. What a moment. Good night.

Deans' Cup

What was announced as the “single largest event in law school history”, and was aimed to be the pre-game to great celebrations, turned out to be a great disappointment.

On Thursday, Columbia’s Levien Gym opened its doors to host what is by now an important part of NYU-Columbia rivalry: the Deans’ Cup. Once a year, NYU and Columbia Law Schools assemble a team of students, exercise hard, and compete in a charity basketball game for pride and honor. Now, it is necessary to show color: Bright Blue or Purple-Black?

It is probably the only moment, when the rivalry between Columbia and NYU shrouded in legend openly breaks out; throughout the rest of the year, it is rather dormant. In fact, many students of each university make use of the possibility to cross-register; interesting events or parties are shared and attended together – why should one’s law school affiliation be of any issue here? We even have shared LLM-couples and almost every LLM is part of the both LLM Facebook groups (FOMO…). And the few attempts of teasing by NYU students are usually answered by us Columbians with a mild and nonchalant smile: NYWHO is trying to make fun of our calm resort of deep thought?

Preparations for the game have been highly professional and absolutely America: The game was advertised almost from the day we arrived at Columbia Law School. Tickets were sold weeks in advance. Students have been racking their brains in a competition for the best fan-t-shirt design. Each player was introduced individually via the Facebook page. Pre-game beer and snacks were served. Materials to design posters and free swag (including quite intrusive bells) for the game were distributed. The day of the game, virtually everybody wore his or her Columbia wear.

When the game finally started, there was actually an impressive atmosphere in Levien Gym. Sitting opposite to each other, NYU- and Columbia-students competed for who is louder. A band was playing, the players were sprinting and scoring, fans were cheering. The first half was fun – both teams engaged in a hard fight, and showed their skills especially in throwing penalty shots – it was a highly competitive game.

But then, the fiasco unfolded itself. First, the faculty team lost the half-time-game. Our professors fought hard (and quite entertaining as well, to be honest) – but remained unsuccessful.

And in the second half, our Columbian players seemed to have been bedeviled. Whatever they tried, the ball bounced out of the basket.  Well, and without constantly scoring…

A sense of Class-room feeling

It may be hard if your background is working in a law firm, or writing on your PhD, to go back in time: it might take you time to getting used to classes again. So, how does a typical class look like, here at Columbia?

The professor arrives – as I realize just now, so far, none has ever been late. He greets the class, and after some administrative remarks, the game begins. Typically, professors do not like to talk (well, there are exceptions). Rather, they limit themselves to introductory remarks, and then they ask questions. Questions, questions, questions. They make you think. They lead you to perspectives you have not yet thought about. They ask for your opinion. They challenge your opinion. So it is true, Law School in the US is very interactive. Of course, it varies from class to class. Some professors use “cold calls”, some expect everybody to voluntarily contribute and only threaten with “cold calls”, some say they do not do cold calls, but then ask you without warning. This interactive nature of class makes it necessary, or more fun, if you come prepared. For every class, professors assign readings. This comes not as surprise. Weeks before classes start, professors have distributed a syllabus, listing all readings. You are expected to have done the readings. In most of my classes the discussion relies on rather than discusses the readings. Hence, the readings are precondition to know what you will be talking about. Discussions can be sometimes really intense. First, because your fellow class mates are typically interesting and clever personalities, coming from all over the world, each and everyone thinking very differently. Second, because your fellow classmates are typically prepared. And third, because typically everyone in class has an inherent interest in the very subject matter and is eager to learn.

Sometimes, professors even invite external speakers to classes. Thus, it may happen that your argument in class may be countered with a mild smile and the answer: “This is an interesting thought, but actually, you know when we drafted this provision we were thinking that…” You may discuss with THE expert in the field… Just saying, New York may have magnetic effects…

Probably everyone has written in his letter of motivation that the inspiring community and the discussions with world-leading scholars is one of the main reasons for the interest in coming to Columbia. If you come here, you will see that this is not only a wish.

And if you are here: take advantage of it! Ask as many questions as you pay tuition! Speak up! Argue! Discuss! And go for a coffee or beer afterwards! That's why you are here! 

For insights to the different course offerings, and what different types of courses (lectures, seminars, clinics, externships etc) are offered, just check out the Columbia Law website. The Law School provides a much more accurate and professional overview than I could give here.