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Meeting a Man With No Feet: Perhaps I Shouldn't Complain So Much About Studying For The Bar Exam


There’s an old saying that goes like this: “I once complained that I had no shoes, but then I met a man who had no feet.”

My classmates are doing a lot of complaining about how much studying they’re doing for the bar exam.  And yes, I myself occasionally indulge in the art of complaining on this blog.  But maybe I have no right; I spent the night hanging out with my friend Samir, a recent med school graduate who’s about to begin his residency…working 80-hour weeks.  Plus, he’s going into plastic surgery, which means he won’t get a paycheck until he’s like 34 or something. 

More med school fun here: HawkeMedSchoolBlog, and here:AnotherGoodMedSchoolBlog. 

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Don't residents get paid a

Don't residents get paid a decent amount of money? Not like six figures, but more than the average mechanic.

I didn't know that. Could

I didn't know that. Could be.

In other news, the CAPTCHA I need to answer to reply to this post is:

"1 + 0 ="

(If this reply comes through, you can assume I got it right.)

I'm telling ya, Rick. If I

I'm telling ya, Rick. If I have to look at those feet for just one more day ....
Post something, boy! :D



Secured Transactions, Commercial Paper, And Other Words That Currently Have No Meaning To Me

 secured transactions commercial paper

I’m moving into week three of my bar exam studies, and today I learned about secured transactions…which was good because as of yesterday, I HAD NO CLUE WHAT A SECURED TRANSACTION WAS.  Swear to God.  I thought it was some sort of bank transfer that was carefully monitored. 

I’m excited to learn what a “commercial paper” is next week.  Do any non-lawyers have any guesses?  Is it a memorandum regarding a television advertisement?  Is it a sheet of paper for sale?  Who knows?!  (Well, all my classmates, for starters.  And most of the people who are reading this blog, I suspect. And these guys: MichiganLawyerBlog, CooleyLawBlog, NYLawBlog.)

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I'm not sure, but I think a

I'm not sure, but I think a commercial paper is a money-market security issued by large banks and corporations. It is generally not used to finance long-term investments but rather to purchase inventory or to manage working capital. It is commonly bought by money funds (the issuing amounts are often too high for individual investors), and is generally regarded as a very safe investment. As a relatively low-risk investment, commercial paper returns are not large. There are four basic kinds of commercial paper: promissory notes, drafts, checks, and certificates of deposit.

Because commercial paper maturities do not exceed 270 days and proceeds typically are used only for current transactions, the notes are exempt from registration as securities with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Commercial paper is defined in Canada as having a maturity of not more than one year and is exempt from dealer registration and prospectus requirements.[1]

Commercial paper essentially can be compared as an alternative to lines of credit with a bank. Once a business becomes large enough, and maintains a high enough credit rating, then using commercial paper is always cheaper than using a bank line of credit. Nevertheless, many companies still maintain bank lines of credit to act as a "backup" to the commercial paper. In this situation, banks often charge fees for the amount of the line of the credit that does not have a balance. While these fees may seem like pure profit for banks, if the company ever actually needs to use the line of credit it would likely be in serious trouble and have difficulty repaying its liabilities.

Currently, more than 1,700 companies in the United States issue commercial paper. Financial companies comprise the largest group of commercial paper issuers, accounting for nearly 75 percent of the commercial paper outstanding at mid-year 1990. Financial-company paper is issued by firms in commercial, savings and mortgage banking; sales, personal and mortgage financing; factoring; finance leasing and other business lending; insurance underwriting; and other investment activities. The remaining commercial paper outstanding at mid-year 1990 -- over 25 percent -- was issued by nonfinancial firms such as manufacturers, public utilities, industrial concerns and service industries.

Commercial paper was invented by Percy "Max" Hall, Vice President of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Bank, in the 1920's.

 Counselor Ryan, did you

 Counselor Ryan, did you finally get google???

Holy crap they stole my

Holy crap they stole my definition and put it on Wikipedia!

Where can I find additional

Where can I find additional history on Percy "Max" Hall and his Commercial Paper invention?

Google search so far has produced nil.

"Max" had a great idea when he came up with this nifty debt instrument. Great creativity for a Banker!

Way to go Max!

Thanks,

Dan

Hey - as much as i enjoy

Hey - as much as i enjoy someone linking to my blog... i'll note that my reference was even MORE obtuse than you suggest.

I took Secured.

I was talking about TRIBAL secured transactions.

The difference here is that Tribal land is owned in trust by the federal government - because of this it CANT be be used in a secured transaction (because it is "owned" by the federal gov. and NOT the tribe and therefore can't be used as collateral - and therefore there are no 'normal' secured transactions availiable on tribal land) ... that isn't to say that they don't exist. BUT... that is a comment for some obscure footnote in some obscure law review on some obscure indian law note.

So obviously they didn't test on that :)

If you took it in july and are still waiting -- no worries. Everyone i took it with who ran blogs - they all passed on the first time. I think there is a connection .. and therefore you will pass. Just relax these last few weeks...

Shmoo



I'm Smarter Than a Monkey!

 

The oracle said that Socrates was the smartest man in Greece because he acknowledged and appreciated his own ignorance. I must be the smartest law school graduate in Chicago because I’m painfully aware of how much I don’t know.

I just took a diagnostic test on the multi-state multiple choice section of the bar exam…and scored a 35%.

Now, the good news is that each question had four options, meaning I did better than a monkey would have done on the exam.

But I’m pretty sure that if you gave the 50-qustion exam to a bunch of monkeys, one of them would have beat 35%. Damn, back in high school, I probably could have told you exactly how many monkeys (who answer exam questions randomly) would need to take a 50-question multiple-choice exam (in which each question has four answer choices) to make it more likely than not that one of them would score at or above the 35% mark.

Tell you what, anybody who can figure out the answer to that question gets a free copy of LAWYER BOY.

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Not enough

Not enough information...although I'm sure if you asked a bunch of monkeys, one of them would answer you correctly

Pretty sure I gave enough

Pretty sure I gave enough info...what else do you need?

How smart are the monkeys?

How smart are the monkeys?

 average monkey smart

 average monkey smart

Is it 4 to the 50th power

Is it 4 to the 50th power monkeys? The problem with monkey analysis is that it's not a complete random number generator. The monkeys might influence one another, after all monkey see, monkey do. Monkeys tend to pick "B" repeatedly because monkeys think that B means banana.

 Okay, counselor Pirates, I

 Okay, counselor Pirates, I will hit up my calculator and get back to you.  My gut tells me your guess is too high, but we will see...

I bet it's .35*(4^50)

I bet it's .35*(4^50) monkeys. If you're only trying for 35% accuracy. But, I don't think it's entirely right because monkeys aren't random number generators. They're not dependent variables. If monkey-see monkey-do holds true, then they could very well all hit the same button each time (see supra re bananas)

What's up Ricky. You lawyers

What's up Ricky. You lawyers may be smart - most probably smarter than monkeys even ... but it looks like you need the help of a Financial Engineer with this problem. ;)

You'd need ~13 monkeys taking the test such that there is a greater than 50% chance that at least one of them scores 35% or better.

A single monkey has a score that follows a binomial distribution with 50 trials and a success of each trial of 25% (ie, 50 questions, 4 choices each question). This binomial distribution can be approximated with a normal distribution with mean of [50 * .25] and standard deviation of [sqrt(50 * .25 * .75)]. To get at least 35% correct on the test, the monkey would need at least 17.5 questions correct, which is 1.63 standard deviations from the mean [(17.5 - mean) / std dev]. A z-score of 1.63 or better happens 5.12% of the time [1 - (standard normal cumulative distribution function evaluated at 1.63)] meaning that a single monkey would score 35% or better with probability 5.12%.

Now we want to know how many monkeys it takes to get a 50% probability or better that at least one of them scores at least 35%. With a batch of n monkeys, the probability that NONE of them score 35% or better is [(1 - 5.12%) ^ n]. So, the probably that AT LEAST ONE of them scores 35% or better is [1 - (1 - 5.12%) ^ n]. We want this probability to be greater than or equal to 50%, so simply set this equation equal to 50%, and solve for n (consolidate terms, take log of both sides, and divide). Viola - 13.179 monkeys!

It's up to you to determine whether 13 monkeys is a comforting number or not. At any rate, I would guess there are many fewer videos of monkeys doing card tricks on YouTube. =)



The Larger, Louder Half of the Performing Team

 

I’ve been a fan of Penn & Teller my whole life. I’ve seen their show three or four times, and I truly believe that they perform the smartest, most deceptive/hardest to figure out magic out there.

You might also know Penn & Teller from their Emmy-nominated TV show Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t

Anyways…Penn, the larger, louder half of the performing team had this to say about my book:

"Rick Lax is really funny and uses his background in magic to see through the bullshit and hypocrisy that make up the law school experience. I'm really glad he's getting the law degree so he has a job other than magic—we don't need this kind of competition."

IN OTHER NEWS. My Bar Exam review materials are supposed to come in the mail today or tomorrow.

I don’t know how big the books are/how many pages they have…but I do know that the tracking e-mail says that the package is THIRTY-FIVE POUNDS.

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Penn was also host of NBC's

Penn was also host of NBC's IDENTITY, a contestant on ABC's DANCING WITH THE STARS, and purveyor of a fascinating video podcast (http://www.pennradio.com/) (also, as delightfully self-indulgent as he is entertaining!).

No one knows BULLSHIT, or calls people out on it, better than Penn, so getting praised as NON-bullshit by him is QUITE an honor. Congrats, Counselor Lax, very impressive blurb!

I"m pretty sure they're

I"m pretty sure they're bringing IDENTITY back. Good show. YOu watch?

I heard it was SEXY. In any

I heard it was SEXY.

In any case, congrats, Counselor Lax. A well-deserved blurb.

You heard what was sexy? 

You heard what was sexy?  I'm so confused...

I heard that it was sexy

I heard that it was sexy too!

Counselor Lax, read the post

Counselor Lax, read the post directly before mine and substitute the capitalized words. Then substitute the voice in your head for Justin Timberlake's.

Ah, yes, everythign is

Ah, yes, everythign is better in a timberlake voice.



Bar Exam

Whenever somebody contracts some awful disease or undergoes some awful family tragedy and gets interviewed by the local news about it, they always say the same thing: “You see this in the news all the time, but you never think it can happen to you. And then one day it does…”

I think failing the bar exam is the opposite. Everybody thinks it will happen to them, but it only really happens to a select few. I realized that early on, that the math says I’ll likely pass the bar exam, so I haven‘t been too worried about it. Well, yesterday I found out that one of my friends took the bar exam six months ago…and failed it.
 
Sure, she took it during the school year, so she probably didn’t have enough time to study. But still, she’s a smart girl and she failed. Took a prep class and everything. Now it’s starting to hit home. Some people really fail this thing.

Tomorrow I’m going to figure out how to get my hands on review books. And then, beginning Monday, I’m going to start studying. I’m going to try to study all day, every day. Oh, and I’m going to work all day, every day to promote Lawyer Boy.

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Go get 'em, tiger. Gearing

Go get 'em, tiger.

Gearing up for my holiday weekend in Chicago, keep me abreast of any impending legal issues...

All day, every day, eh?

All day, every day, eh? What have you done to promote Lawyer Boy today?

uh...read your blog comment?

uh...read your blog comment?



Words of Encouragement

It's done. Law school is done. Away from the bookstores and libraries, and off to the bars and clubs for me. Time to reconnect with old friends and maybe make some new ones…because law school is done.

Kinda. See, I just took my last test. (It went okay; I'm thinking B or B-). And I'm already starting to get my grades in. Got an A in Negotiations. It was originally a B, but I argued my way up to an A.

…kidding…that would have been cool, though…

So now I'm done…except for this one paper. It's a one-credit, un-graded paper, and it has no official due date, but it needs to be done and it needs to be good. (I really like the professor I'm writing it for and don't want to let him down).

The topic is there; the motivation isn't. Any words of encouragement?

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Just do it. Nike.

Just do it.

Nike.

Thanks, Counselor

Thanks, Counselor Laurel.  A for effort, F for originality.

psh

psh

Go for it Kid! From the

Go for it Kid! From the excerpts I've read, you not only have the potential to become a good lawyer but also an exceptional writer. I love the stories in the excerpt about your dad and can't wait to read the rest of the book! I've done "battle" with your dad and his firm many times (and we are all still friends!)

Just in case you're still



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