December 2, 2007

K.B., 3L

I’m in my third year at YLS and I have to say: I wish I had three more years.  I have had incredible opportunities here.  Last year, I directed the Temporary Restraining Order Project and Community Lawyering Clinic, served as a Dean’s Advisor for 1Ls, led the Yale Law Christian Fellowship, and became Activism Chair of Yale Law Women.  Doing all of these activities at the same time was probably a bit too much, but I couldn’t help it; I was thrilled to be a part of each initiative.

This year, I’m a bit less student activity-oriented and a bit more academic.  I’ve just submitted one paper for publication (keeping my fingers crossed), and I started writing another on financial aid and marriage with Professor Anne Alstott, a preeminent tax scholar who also teaches Family Law.  Meanwhile, I’m helping to found a domestic violence law clinic that will launch this spring.  We’re just starting to draw up a course description and syllabus.

In some ways, I feel as though my time at Yale Law School is just beginning.  I want to see the Domestic Violence Clinic come to fruition and flourish.  I want to write more papers about family law, domestic violence, and culture.  I have ten paper topics in my head that I’d like to fully develop.  There are at least a dozen more classes I want to take.  And I would love to get to know more professors, go to office hours, and learn how they got to where they are. 

I have mentioned academic and clinical pursuits, but perhaps more importantly, I would love to have three more years with my classmates.  After all, I came to Yale Law School in part because of the people I knew I would meet here.  And they are even more interesting as they leave this place than they were when they came in.  They have found their respective niches – developed interests and expertise in international human rights, sentencing, religious liberty, entertainment law, corporate finance, etc.  I wish I had more time to get to know each one of them—to sit with each over a cup of coffee or two.

Maybe I can convince Dean Koh to extend legal education for just one more year…