[Episode 13 – Housewarming (2)]
“My wife's a great cook, isn't she?”
“Yes!”
“Donguk. What's wrong—.”
“Unnie, it was really, really delicious.”
The food was truly praiseworthy. If I were Donguk hyung, I would've been bragging too.
“I'll pack some for you when you leave. Take it with you.”
“Really? Is that okay?”
“It's not like the two of us can finish all of that anyway.”
“But still, Unnie brought those all the way from Korea for you, Oppa⋯.”
“It's fine. This guy can't eat the same thing twice. If there's any left, I have to eat it all. So I'd actually be grateful if you took some.”
“Goodness. Oppa, you were that kind of person?”
“Hmm? Ah—I was raised a bit delicately, you could say⋯.”
“So that's why you're so interested in famous restaurants, Hyung.”
“But then, did you bring all this food from Korea, Unnie, for a husband who tires of food so easily?”
“Ah, only the soy sauce marinated crab, kimchi, and side dishes were brought from Korea; I made the rest here.”
“Even so. You must not even be over jet lag yet⋯.”
“It's alright. Some people I know from Korea are here in the East, and I figured we'd be having housewarming parties a few times, so I brought extra on purpose.”
“A few of my training institute peers and seniors are in this area.”
“Ah-. But are you sure you can give it to us?”
“There's plenty, plenty. Take it. Honey, when they leave, let's pack some for them. Ah, right, Heon, didn't you say you can't eat at the apartment?”
“No, I can. They said it's fine as long as I don't prepare raw fish.”
“Hmm?”
“If you give us some, we'll eat it gratefully, Sister-in-law!”
After the meal, we helped sister-in-law clear the table quickly and sat back down.
Everyone wanted to help with the dishes too, but sister-in-law firmly refused, saying she was uncomfortable with that, so we couldn't.
In the meantime, Donguk hyung brought out a new wine so we wouldn't feel awkward, and the conversation naturally shifted to school-related talk.
*
“Your roommate is in the JD/MBA joint program at Columbia?”
While sharing various stories about law school programs, the topic turned to Columbia Law School.
Being a rival school, it was frequently a point of comparison.
I'd only mentioned Jennifer Lin because she came to mind, but the subject changed to “passion.”
“Yeah.”
“I heard that program is brutal. Must be a passionate friend.”
“Heon's no slouch in the passion department either. He's taking Torts, Contracts, Crim, and Procedure all this semester.”
To earn a Juris Doctor (JD) degree at NYU Law School, you had to complete a total of 83 credits within three years.
Therefore, you needed to complete roughly 28 credits per year, or about 14 credits per semester, to graduate smoothly.
While credits varied slightly by course, all first-year courses were four credits each, with the exception of Lawyering, a course taken throughout the entire first year, and Procedure, which taught civil litigation procedure.
Lawyering and Procedure were each five credits. Since Lawyering was a class taken over the full year, it could be viewed as 2.5 credits per semester, while Procedure was a course completed in a single semester, making it a five-credit course for that semester.
“You know.”
“What? You're taking all of those? Wait, is that even possible? Weren't you limited to 15 credits per semester?”
Donguk hyung and Sein already knew, but this was Michael's first time hearing about it.
“It's possible if you get the Dean's permission.”
At NYU Law School, you couldn't register for more than 15 credits per semester without the Dean's permission. I'd registered for 19.5 credits this semester.
“You got permission?”
“Yeah.”
“Why go through all that?”
The first year of law school is the most important.
The reason people say that is because the summer internship after your first year determines your future career.
To get an internship at a good law firm, you need two things. One is appealing to the firm's recruiting partner through “Wine and Cheese” events, and the other is your first-year grades.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that your first-year grades determine which law firm you'll join three years later, and for good reason: it's the time when you establish the basics of being a lawyer.
While you choose mostly electives in your second and third years, the first year requires you to take mandatory courses in so-called Black Letter Law—the legal principles and precedents that form the foundation of Anglo-American law.
Therefore (since everyone takes the same courses), it becomes possible to distinguish the outstanding students from the merely excellent ones. In other words, relative grading is possible.
Do people think NYU Law grads don't have to show their grades?
Just because the school doesn't confirm directly with the law firms doesn't change the fact that applicants still have to submit their transcripts.
New York's top law firms draw applicants from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and other T14 schools, so grades are crucial for getting hired.
Competition doesn't end just because you got into a top-of-the-top law school. And that competition doesn't end just because you got into a top law firm.
The reason Michael asked, “Why go through all that?” was because cramming all those required courses into one semester made it difficult to manage the crucial first-year grades.
“I'm only taking three courses. ‘If you're not confident in your grades, it's better to take only three courses in the fall semester of your first year while you adjust to school life.’ That's one of the few good tips my brother gave me in my entire life.”
Honestly, taking five out of the eight required courses this semester was no easy task.
Among the required courses, Property Law and Constitutional Law could be taken in the second year, so it was typical to take one or two of Torts (civil law), Contracts (commercial law), Criminal Law, or Procedure (civil procedure) in the spring semester.
By doing so, it was certainly easier to manage your grades in the 1L “Black Letter Law” courses that law firms care about.
“I told you, he's secretly passionate. He's taking all of them while working as a research assistant too.”
“Oh my god! This guy's got issues, he's got issues.”
It was my second life.
“Wouldn't it be fair to start with at least this much of a handicap?”—that was a joke. But there were things I'd wanted to try in my first life but had been too cautious to attempt because they felt beyond my ability, and now I wanted to try them all.
Having lived once, I'd realized something.
That it's better to regret doing something than to regret not doing it.
And more than anything, I felt like I could do it all.
I couldn't deny Sein's assessment that I was “secretly passionate.”
“That reminds me. Would you perhaps be willing to prepare for the Moot Court Competition (Moot Court Competition; mock trial competition) with me?”
“What?”
And that alone wasn't enough.
I was still hungry.
“Is everyone a little less full now? Shall we eat the cake our Sujeong bought?”
***
East Harlem,
an apartment on the corner of 3rd Avenue and 100th Street.
“I'm home, Mia.”
“Tired?”
“I'm tired. Mia, have you eaten?”
“No.”
“Then should we go out to eat?”
“Didn't you just say you were tired?”
“I am tired, but I don't want pizza. I want something tasty and nutritious. Ah, but I don't feel like walking out either. Should we just get delivery from ‘Crescent Moon’?”
“You hate that place.”
“I do, but I think it's better than pizza.”
Mia could sympathize with her feelings. She'd felt exactly the same two days ago.
“Ah! Wait a minute.”
She ran into the kitchen and opened the cupboard.
There they were!
The Korean instant foods Heon had prepared for them.
“Jen, shall I make you some?”
“Make what?”
“Something tasty and nutritious. Instant food.”
“What? Don't joke. I don't even have the energy for that.”
“I'm not joking. Heon made it a few days ago, and it was really delicious.”
“Really?”
“Yeah! You'll like it if you try it too. Korean instant food is totally different from anything we've had. I'll make it right away.”
“You know how?”
“It's instant food, how hard could it be? If I don't know, I'll just call Heon.”
She wasn't entirely convinced, but she was too tired to suggest eating something else.
“Okay. Make it tasty.”
“Okay.”
“Ah, by the way, where did Heon go?”
“Yeah. He said he was going to a friend's place for dinner today.”
Jennifer looked toward Heon's room.
She hadn't even looked that way when Takashi was there, but these days she often found her head turning in that direction.
“Ah, Jen, so what did you decide about the Moot Court Competition? Are you doing it?”
“Yeah. I went to the interview.”
Someone Like Me (1)
“Extracurricular Activity (Extracurricular activity): Special activities beyond the standard curriculum—physical education, arts, volunteer work, hobbies, and the like—in which students participate voluntarily.”
In North American education, extracurricular activities occupy a very important part.
Anyone who has submitted an application to a North American university would know this well. When comparing applicants with similar grades, schools prefer applicants with diverse and abundant extracurricular activities.
It doesn't stop there. To get into a prestigious university, special activities aren't simply bonus points—they're a requirement.
For example, there are stories that Harvard pays attention to applicants' literary special activities, Yale to arts, and Stanford to sports-related activities—to the extent that they are considered obligatory for admissions.
Quite a few people probably know this much.
But there's something people don't know well: the importance of extracurriculars doesn't end with college admissions.
They also serve as important factors for law school admission, and even affect getting hired at a law firm after graduation.
“You want us to enter the Moot Court Competition?”
“Yes.”
Law school has various extracurricular programs. Among them, there are exactly two that law firms look at most highly: Law Review activities and Moot Court Competition experience.
Law Review is a type of legal specialty journal. (Or, also called a law journal.)
It is an activity that publishes writings (mainly in the form of scholarly articles) by law professors, judges, prosecutors, or lawyers on the latest legal issues. Students who participate in Law Review can develop deeper knowledge and perspectives on currently debated legal issues, and furthermore gain opportunities to publish their own thoughts, making it a special activity that allows them to get ahead of other students.
It exists at nearly every law school, and is a must-do activity especially if your goal is to become a law professor or judge.
The other is the Moot Court Competition (moot court competition), a mock trial competition that anyone wanting to become a lawyer at a large law firm should seriously consider.
“It would be nice if we did it⋯. But isn't it difficult?”