Thursday, February 25, 2010

Somewhat on track for weekly goals.

Ugh.

Well, I handed in an LE today, but it wasn't quite complete. Grrrr. Just ran out of time, unfortunately. I worked on it at home quite a bit, but I usually get enough time to finish up the details at work.

Unfortunately, my work week has been one of those weeks with MULTIPLE tiny little tasks that didn't really give me very much to wrap up the details that I needed time to wrap up.

Fortunately, this is only an LE (and therefore, not compulsory), and at least I handed in a first draft memo, and a skeleton of some will clauses that should at least garner some helpful feedback for me.

Also - the exercise of completing the LE is helpful in itself, and I did complete my thought process, just didn't have time to write all my thoughts out.

Oh well.

This week I have to work on the CE (compulsory), so I'll make sure that I have some time this weekend to take a good chunk out of it.

No news on the shoe front (I have been sticking to that goal).

Pretty excited about our Women's Hockey gold medal (woot woot).

Looking forward to reading the "Two Views" article in the current CBA National magazine where Michael Geist and Barry Sookman offer their POVs about Copyright Law. Too tired right now, though, I'm thinking over coffee in the morning. Saving it. Putting it next to the coffee maker so that it makes me smile before I get my morning brew.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

It's a Happy Wednesday So Far

... ah ... the middle of the week.

I took my goals seriously today, and sent out two resumes this morning. I'm also working on CPLED right now, and rather than thinking about shoes, I'm thinking about cuff-links ... so I guess that's somewhat on track.

I'm wearing my star cuff-links today which were given to me by a friend quite a few years ago. I really don't wear them often enough (I guess, I really only have the one shirt that requires them). Must look into buying more cuff-link-able shirts, and more cuff-links. They're big red stars, which is fittings, as she's from Texas. Sigh. I miss my friends in far away places.

As for the rest of today, I've got stacks of files on my desk that I need to clear away in order to maintain my sanity, and two client meetings. It's a full one. I think I may try and find a lunch date, too, maybe to grab a quick bite of sushi ... hmmmmm.

I'm feeling rather energized, as the spud-let had a really good night last night. So nice. So much sleep. Don't feel like I NEED my coffee, but I will still drink it (because I love it so). Ah coffee - you and I have a long and vividly recorded love affair. I don't think we'll ever leave each other, we just like each other too darn much.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

New Addition to My Sidebar

Hopefully anybody that hasn't given up on me as a blogger will notice a new addition to my sidebar.

Under the heading "Law Blogs", I've finally added a link to Slaw.

I have been a reader of Slaw for quite sometime, but with my rampant blog neglect which has been festering for quite some time, I never did get around to updating any of my links.

Hopefully, Simon Fodden realizes that I'm not breaking up with Slaw at all (heh):
http://www.slaw.ca/2010/02/23/blog-by-articling-student/

Now that I'm on a blog housekeeping roll, I'll have to make sure that all of my links are updated ... I'm pretty sure that some are no longer active. Look for a clean sidebar in the next week or so.


I've always been a fairly goal driven person, and so in addition to my blog housekeeping goal, I also need to get a few more resumes out this week. The sole practitioner that I'm articling with does not hire students back, and so I need to secure a job for September 1st. If anyone knows of an opening in a litigation or IP setting - make sure to leave a comment!

So ... goals for this week look like:
  • blog sidebar clean-up
  • finish CPLED LE
  • send out at least 2 resumes
  • try not to spend TOOOOO much time online shoe shopping for new good ol' trusty shoes that I can blitz around down-town in (sigh, the shoe industry was really not for me for a few years there, but now its' coming back around to styles that I'm coveting ... what is a girl to do?)
  • maintain my new "reformed absentee blogger" status
  • watch as much of the Olympics coverage as I can
That's not bad for this week. With next week bringing the beginning of a new month ... I'll have to come up with some more ambitious goals for then.

If You're Going to Article in Litigation ...

... make sure to have appropriate footwear.

Ha.

I've been lucky enough to lose all my baby weight, and I attribute it to many things, but one in particular is the amount of walking that I do as an articling student at a litigation practice.

Between jumping around down-town and from the office to the court-house and back again, I log a lot of walking time, which has been great for the slim-down process.

As for all my cute shoes that aren't exactly hiking shoes - they sit at the office and wait for me to return from my adventures in the good ol' trusty comfortable shoes.

My good ol' trusties are flat dress shoes that are actually made by Naturalizer, and they're on their last legs. I'm going to have to go shopping for a new pair of good ol' trusties, and I'm kind of nervous about the process. Finding cuteness mixed with comfort can be a daunting task, mix in the good deal factor, and I may have to spend a while on the prowl.

This week is swimming by so far. Other than my shoe ponderings, I've been busy drafting pleadings, sorting out medical charts, going through corporate minute books, and trying to work on CPLED.

I'm on the Wills and Estates module for CPLED right now. I LOVED wills class, very algorithmic, very logical, like puzzle solving. When I sat down to actually draft a will from scratch, I realized that I never actually had done one before. Took me awhile. This is why it is so good to actually DO all of the Learning Exercises. Now that I've got the one under my belt, in addition to the feedback that I received from my Learning Group Facilitator ("LGF"), the next one should be a lot less painful to crank out.

It seems like CPLED really is organized to help you to be successful, but you do have to do the work.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Interesting ...

... that JK Rowling is still dealing with copyright infringement claims:
Globe & Mail: Harry Potter author calls plagiarism claim ‘absurd'

AS IS George Lucas:
The Lawyers Weekly: Empire fails to strike back: Star Wars creator loses helmet appeal


IP Law is so interesting to me, but must be a bane to those with epic success.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

So, I've Been Busy?

I've had some epic blogging pauses before, but I think this one may take the cake.

I'm still here.

I'm still articling.

I'm still loving it.

Why the humongous hiatus? In an acronym ... CPLED. I'm now finished 4 modules out of a total 9. I've had 2 of the in-class sessions (where we were assessed on a mock Chambers Application the first time, and on a client interview the second time), and 2 online modules that consist of written assignments (the Debtor-Creditor module, and the Real Estate module).

The online modules consist of a weekly assignment, optional learning exercises ("LE") that lead up to the compulsory competency evaluation ("CE") at the end of the unit.

Even though the LEs are optional, I've been doing them all. It's really been worth it when it comes to the CE, as much of your ground-work is done, and you can focus on doing a good job with the writing aspect.

So why the absence in blogging? I wouldn't say that the CPLED assignments are DIFFICULT, but they are time consuming. There is a lot of reading (if you do it all, which I do), and the CEs have many subtelties that sometimes take me awhile to flush out.

Over the past few months I have started quite a few draft posts, but just haven't had the time to finish them.

So ... hopefully I can check-in once in a while and do a better job. I really did want to relate how my articling experience was going, and give a flavour for what to expect.

I must admit, though, that it can be difficult. There are, of course, confidentiality issues to consider, and so I can't talk too much about work. There is a CPLED professional integrity policy, and so I can't talk too much about CPLED. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to relate my experience without losing too much meaning through necessary vagueness.

Ah well.

In terms of my articling experience, my CPLED in-class time has been so enlightening. Being able to compare experiences with other articling students has really made me thankful for the position that I landed. I've been so hands-on, I've been able to see so many things, and I really do have confidence in what I'm doing (even when I don't know what I'm doing, I know that I can always SOMEHOW find an answer). I'm lucky that I have a principal who MENTORS. Hopefully, I can really take advantage of that resource while I still can. I'm about half-way through my articles now, so there's a light at the end of the tunnel (egads).