To Phd or to not Phd

As I sit here and research abuse of process in relation to RIPA, I wonder whether or not this is the sort of life I wish to live. A life full of constant reading, with a large home library of assorted books on Criminal Justice, Evidence and Human Rights. A desk surrounded by empty packets of crisps and fag packets.

I am at the moment rather tempted to delve deeper into being an academic rather than trying to pursue a career at the Bar and there are several reasons why.

Firstly there has been a complete lack of interest from Chambers when applying for mini-pupillages, I do believe that I would make a good barrister (don't we all) I have a good ability to absorb knowledge, to analyse that knowledge and be critical about it, as well as being a semi-competent advocate which I have learnt from my mooting days. There may have been a small hiccup in the fact that I put perhaps a too restrictive of a date in my covering letter for when I was available, however if chambers were interested I doubt that would have really mattered. By not being noticed enough by which ever young tenant was viewing my application, I wonder how much more there is to be done, so that my CV sparkles with fairy magic glittery Bar dust. I am currently applying for lots of NGO work, however I am yet to hear back.

The amount of opportunities for work related experience of crime and human rights are vast I would suggest, however a lot of internships are unpaid and are usually for a month or so, that is perhaps too much of a period of time where I could be earning elsewhere, the internships are in themselves very competitive.

For all my (our) troubles, the lack of interest from Chambers may be a sign of the times, the Bar is very much more so competitive in terms of sheer numbers than it used to be, Chambers will receive hundreds if not thousands of applications for mini-pupillages, there again your CV really must shine.

There is always the issue of the Bar v Solicitor Advocates, where the work is going and whether or not it would be financially viable to enter the profession in this particular climate. I am told that plans for public funding in criminal trials may reduce by 20%, that is a significant drop in income for those already in practice. The thought of being self-employed and not being good enough to make a decent living is another concern.

After this analysis it may just be simpler to try and apply for a Phd and try to win some scholarship, I would be able to keep teaching criminal law, a subject though despite it needs urgent reform in some places, is quite enjoyable and has enabled me to delve much deeper into the substantive law than I ever did as an undergraduate.

I am young however, may not the youngest blogger by very early 20's, a lot of barrister wannabes come to the Bar later on in life, it would not be such a horrendous missed opportunity if I went to the Bar after a Phd or some time being an academic, this would give me a chance to 'establish' myself. As the criminal Bar will inevitably become smaller and ever more so specialised than it is now, there may be a greater link between academics and barristers, as minute points of law become more important than the general aspects.

There is however the gigantic task of writing the Phd, spending 40 hrs a week for three years, on something that I hope would not be remotely crap, but I would have thought it wouldn't be sufficiently ground breaking. I wonder if by doing a Phd, I would actually just be postponing my real desire to be in Court and say "yes M'Lud, I am obliged, [however I would submit that you are quite wrong on this point].

Difficult choices to make, I think I will keep everything up in the air. I already have a scholarship which I deferred last year from Middle Temple, I don't have a scholarship to do a Phd, though I hope as I teach at the institution they would love to keep me and give me some form of teaching award covering Criminal Law and Evidence. Another 3 years of university can't hurt too much.

Lost

I wonder

how long it will be til my head explodes, so far my current interests are battling the housing association (see post below) , bookbinding, ikea, looking at desks, seeking out ornate mirrors, sourcing artwork/prints for my flat, thinking of starting another unrelated blog, will I or wont let my lesbian friend live in my spare room as apparently she is can get quite, noisy (need I say more) pulling freshers, arranging things in my wardrobe, should I do criminal law, what work experience do I need, should I start exercising, should I get a job, should I look at my law text books some of which I have never opened.


Yet none of these are actually really important. I fear that I have go to the grown up land and that the little Peter Pan inside me has died, under the lists of things that I have/want to do are being made at 4pm after I have woken up after having gone to bed a 4am and doing practically nothing those 12 hours, nothing of use anyway.

I waste too much time, I could have filled this summer with a job, or some more work experience however I have failed to have done so. So does it get any better once you are older? Do you get to do all the things you need to do or just you have a list of things a mile long that you eventually need to do? My old flatmate's dad used to have a monthly schedule of what he would do on his weekends off!

Please someone put me out of my misery (we'll argue that I called you a collaborator with the on the VHCC and I’m sure that will satisfy both provocation tests) if I end up like that, hopefully I will be earning so much in practice that I can afford people to do this for me? Perhaps I could even be sufficiently lucky to another £7.20 on the lottery again!!

Pretending to be a grown up is hard, why can't someone else do things for me, I will happily vacate my body and go to the barrister nirvana of pupillage (A minxvention) a truly spiritual place I hear after one goes through the soul destroying process of the BVC and OLPAS.

Ohh Bother

Yes bother, why am I looking at work experience opportunities, such as being a witness helper, an independent police station visitor, an admin/paralegal, or even doing some work for the FRU(oh boy would they be up shit creek if I had to defend someone).

I think serial procrastination should probably be a criminal offence, just like having Boris as Mayor should be (I voted for Ken). Not withstanding the fact that I do in general hate bendy buses but they are the only decent way of getting round London at silly o clock in the morning and he wishes to scrap them!

So I have been investigating work experience opportunities, however some seem too onerous for the current time, and may have to wait for my potential gap year after I finish my degree to gain some more experience/live a little. Unfortunately I do not have a CV with a flowing list of relevant work experience(Minx knows shes seen it) however I do generally feel better about myself(what is blogging for?) that some people I know have NO legal work experience let alone an ACTUAL CV. I can be known to be lazy and demotivated, however these people in their 2nd year not actually having any legal work experience or not even contemplating a CV really does give me a bit of confidence that there are probably a lot of knobs that want to go to the bar.

I'm fairly (overly) set on going into criminal law, yes i know poor pay, the criminals in jail will be living a better life than me, so I a hoping that my mini-pupillage with a criminal chambers will help me. However I do wish to explore other areas of law, and had I worked harder this year and not generally covered an entire course in a week, I would have realised that whilst Admin law and Trusts are generally quite boring, when you know everything about it its actually quite enjoyable! Perhaps I should have applied this to the bane of my existence last year (contract law) Which for various reasons of my tutor being the devil incarnate I didn't quite enjoy.

I'm wondering about the potential of other work experience, and I know that chambers also like the fact that if you have volunteered or traveled that this also looks good on your application.
Hence why the BIG plan for this summer is to go interralling round Europe for a month or so!

Exam Stress and Band Review

Courtesy of the BBC I now know how to deal with exam stress! Eat lots of fruit, regular exercise la la la. Didn't mention that smoking a pack a day probably also causes more stress and a heavier reliance on nicotine, it is only CBBC Newsround so aimed at kids, and I generally tend to forget that you can't buy cigarettes if you aren't 18, so I assumed generally that people taking their SATS would already have picked up the habit. Newsround takes a very nice childlike view whilst child line seems to think that people will commit suicide through exam stress.. (ok maybe at Oxford)

Also (Law Actually avert your eyes now I mention.. facebook) if you are on facebook and you are at despair with the world then join the group "I've thought about dropping out of law school at least ten times today" It's really f'ing funny, and it shows that most if not all people are practically in the same boat as you. (Pics of Despair - it's always darkest just before it goes pitch black and Mistakes - it could be the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others are featured in their photo gallery)

Enough of exam boredom lets talk about music!
So here are my current fav tracks, if you are so inclined to listen to them.

Review of LLLS's top bands
Foals - good band you might of heard in Skins (yes Skins just generally pinch the best music, check out their myspace and play cassisus or balloons)
Scanners bit like a british version of the yeah yeah yeahs.. check out lowlife
Hercules and Love Affair good tunes, which nearly all feature my favourite singer of all time Antony Hegarty who is the front of Antony and The Johnsons (no good songs though on his myspace page first two albums are superb though, if you are into drinking a bottle of wine by yourself and having a pack of cigs)
The Rumble Strips - from the E4 Advert Check out Girls and Boys in Love.

Crystal Castles - for something completely different/electro/thrash check out Crimewave saw them live at Push@Astoria and they had a really good set.

and finally
The Strokes (not new but as as I am currently trying to beat their song reptilia on medium on guitar hero and my small pinky finger won't stretch to blue! Plus the solo is hard!

Here endeth the review.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow or today as it is marks the start of the examination period. I'm a bit nervous/shit scared. I have worked out that I have 8 days revision/actually doing the work per each 5 of my exams, so it is going to be quite tight. Exams are a nerve wrecking time, people vomit, pass out under stress, and all your work comes down to 3 hours of an exam, in which you are supposed to write about 4 pages per question, 4 questions = 16 pages give or take. Not a lot considering you may have 20 pages of notes per topic ( a rare occasion but if I have done the work then I normally do have that amount) Then there is picking the topics and hoping that they do come up, question spoting (which is apparently never a good thing to do) either redoing the whole topic because you have no idea of what your notes actually mean, then if your exams are closed book you actually have to learn everything you have written down which can be an imense task in itself. Does anyone have a tip for examinations?

In accordance with examinations comes the dreaded exam result day when everyone really just wants to know if they have beaten other people and as law is so highly and boringly competitive, you get those who boast and those who are your mates and are quite shy about revealing their exam results.

What really does annoy me about exams and how they make up your grade of your degree is that no-one really knows or wants to tell us how are degrees are marked. There are various ways to do it of course and average of what you have done over the two marked years, or the four best marks over the period of two years (withstanding the fact that you have similarily consistent marks a 2:1 for example can be obtained if you have a mixture of 2:1's and 2:2's but if you were to get 4 3rd's in your 2nd year and then four 2:1's in your final year then the likelyhood of getting a 2:1 is unlikely)

So tomorrow dawns a new day for me perhaps because I actually will have to start doing the work at an alarming rate. And doing work constantly for the next 40 days isnt going to be appealing or attractive. Thoughts of exams are depressing and currently turn my stomach...

Good luck to all of you that have exams! I know that I'll need it, or by some divine intervention and hard work I can hopefully get some 2:1s this year :)

The Weather

In memorandum of Pops - delightful hamster, queen of her castle, greedy and idle like most lawyers should be. Although she lived out her last days as a vicious, blood drawing rodent, she shall be fondly remembered for her obesity, and repeatedly pissing on my hand.

Anyone enjoying the weather? A quintessentially British topic of conversation obviously.
But due to the weather two lectures for today and tomorrow have been cancelled! (not that I had any plans to go to them, as they normally throw me off what I have actually been studying as lecturers are so far forward of what I need to be studying for tutorials.

As I walked out of my ghetto chick high rise maisonette, I did see a little pitter patter of rain, but decided to go for it, only for it to turn into a full scale piss down, and after ten minutes of walking in the rain I decided to turn back and not go into university or do any work for the day, as the depression of the rain had taken hold of me(also due to the fact that I was soo wet all my clothes had become skin tight)

Interesting week perhaps this week, an inaugural lecture by my favourite lecturer and a trip to a crown court that the bar society have organised. The Bar society sent out emails and even provided a hand out for the occasion of how we should act whilst sitting in on trials. Such key pieces of advice like "do not run round the courts" and "switch mobile phones off" otherwise there could be disciplinary action such as expulsion from the society! (I'm sure this would reflect very badly on a pupillage application) Other key pieces of updated advice are that we are not to stare at witnesses or the accused, (why shouldn't I be able to stare at a witness or the accused and look menacingly at them and give them scornful faces? or even looks like "I know you did it") All these rules and regulations obviously imposed by the criminal lecturer who is organising the event, in case the bar society's members happen to be cannibalistic animals in heat, that wish to disrupt justice by answering their phones in court, and running around in open court happy slapping the judge (yawn). Also have missed a few opportunities to claim my "membership" card, and am being urged to collect it for without it I shan't be allowed into Court.. (thought anyone could walk into courts?)

Additional problems this week may be caused by the bi-weekly seminars, this unfortunate organising of events had lead me to have 3 x 1.5hr tutorials and 1 x 1 hr tutorial on the same week, and seeming as I spend most of my first week that is free of seminars thinking that I have a lot of time to do the work and find a way to distract myself from it, this week could prove to be difficult (like every second week since the beginning of term.)

Depression is also looming because exams are near. Friends and I are thinking of ways to get ourselves out of them such as throwing ourselves in front of a car or bus ( deemed to hazardous and potentially life threatening to be carried out) other suggestions are pregnancy( damn my biological factor of being a male) or somehow burning our hands so that we can't write. None of which will be carried out, however what is most likely is spending a period of 24-30 hours before an exam staying up, drinking red bull and trying to study an entire years worth of topic in that short space. I am not obviously an ideal student, in many respects.

S5 Public Order Act

Sorry for the fontsizes etc it has all gone slightly weird and even when I edit it back it just reverts to another weird form.

Last night whilst taking a bendy bus home from a light evening of seeing Sweeney Todd, (which by the way is highly recommended) myself and another law student encountered a man on the bus, talking into his phone saying how he had been arrested.

According to him he had 6 or so.. glasses of wine and was walking towards a bus stop in central london. A community police officer had stopped him and said that he was acting in a drunken manner. To which the man replied that he was fine and continued to walk on, the police officer did not seem to like this and told him to "calm down" to which the man's reply was "I am calm".
Apparently the Poo lice then dragged him to the side of the road, to which the man responded with "fuck off". He was then arrested so he said under s.5 of some act to which I said it could have been the Public Order Act, and was charged £80. His female friend who he also was with, who had been drinking the same amount tried to step in, however also got herself arrested.

So in my legal and slightly drunk state I advised him to appeal to the decision.
So as I got home I tried to look up the relevant legal jargon, however the computer screen was shaking at me in a disagreeable manner.

I managed to pull up some basic research though:
S5 Public Order Act 1986

(1) A person is guilty of an offence if he—
	(a)	uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or
	(b)	displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting,

DPP v Orum [1988] 3 All ER 449

A police officer is capable of being 'a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress' by 'threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior', for the purposes of s 5(1)a of the Public Order Act 1986. However, if he is not likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress by the words or behaviour used it is not likely that he will be able to arrest the person using the threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour under s 5(4) for offensive conduct, since the officer, if he is the only person present, will not be in a position to suspect that an offence under s 5(1) has been committed.

I suppose the man who liked his wine was arrested under s.5 because he swore in a public place and was perhaps viewed as being abusive, or using insulting words or behaviour.


And this
"Being drunk and disorderly is a crime and you may well be arrested or fined, rather than just told to quieten down. Being disorderly means being aggressive or abusive, or generally making a nuisance of yourself. Police can give you an on-the-spot fine of £80 for being drunk and disorderly. They can also arrest you if you are likely to be a danger to yourself or someone else, or if you are so drunk you won't remember being given an on-the-spot fine! If you are arrested you may have to sleep it off in the cells and may be charged in the morning."
from here

So he may in fact of been arrested under s.5 for using insulting words or abusive behaviour, or either for being drunk and disorderly.

Nice one Poo Lice.

Work

So whilst I spent last week mostly on mooting, and the week before was reading week, I have done no work my other subjects.

I stayed in bed for most of reading week because I could not be bothered to move and had no money to go out, what else is one supposed to do on reading week. I could have gone home however each day I was determined that when I woke up I would go and do some work however the temptations of my bed were too much.

Last week I spent a 24 hour stint on mooting and then the next day frantically trying to get it all organised and done with into a semi formal speech relying on my points, so that was about 28 hours on mooting. Only to have it fall flat on my face within the first minute, I decided to take Friday off and do nothing apart from go to a Criminology lecture which was sort of interesting I was more pissed off that I thought it was about police powers but it turned out that I had missed that lecture the week before.

So I am currrently stuck with an EU essay to do, obviously the most boring of a subject, so glad we only have it till december, I wouldn't touch EU law with a massive dildo professionally. Unforunately it seems that the topic its is on a topic I actually havent read about. Reasons for this being not out of lazyness but because I was under the naive impression that EU law like the REST of my subjects was every two weeks, however it turned out to be every week, so whilst I missed one due to my lack of organisation skills ( see any Moot post to prove this) I also missed another because I was ill - or was that just "ill" in the sense that I was hungover?

So I thoroughly have no idea what the EU essay is on, and it pains me to even look at the two choices we have for the paper due in on Thursday. Unfortunately I also have all my seminars this week, Tort, Criminology, Eu and the subject that the devil would find most confusing Equity&Trusts.

Now seeming as we are supposed to spend 20 hours of preparation for each seminar how many hours do I now need the week extended to so I can fit in all my seminar preparation and do my Eu Law essay? I'm not a mathematican, so I cannot be bothered out of fear mainly to work it out.

With work normally what happens with students is everything is done the night before in a panic, the sort of panic that goes "AHHH why didn't I do this earlier?" "why can't i motivate myself to work harder during the day"

One of my very first lectures in my first year we had a lecturer that said "we want you to work 9-5 mon-fri and then you can have the evenings and weekends off" if only I had really listened then.

Money and Work

Note: The rant about bursaries is about people who SCAM the system, or people who have a lot of money, but seem to get more anyway.


My room smells of smoke, because I am a dirty smoker, my flat mate is an ex smoker so really hates the smell, and I also really hate the smell when I walk into my room coming back from somewhere and the room just utterly stinks of fags, but I love smoking too much to give it up, althought I will have to because I have currently no money. I have reached the end of my overdraft and I am too afraid to ask Parents Bank Plc to give me money after I recently went through my online statements and have found out that they gave me enough money to last till mid december but somehow I have spent it all!!

How people manage to actually pay of their student debt I will never understand. I have a friend who works 40 hours a week ontop of the same law degree I do, how he managed to cope I will never know, but the fact that students get a loan and then have to work really shows that there is something very wrong with the system.

For example I have another friend who gets a full loan (no grant) which in London is £1500 for the September - December period. Now they have to pay rent, now in London even in the east where I live in matchbox houses and more often than not crack dens, rent is around £100 a week. £100 x 3 months of living = no loan. So students are literally forced to go into debt because the student finances twats will not give us more money.

What is more annoying is bursaries and grants, there are a fair number of people out there who receive both, yet back home have more luxury than I do ( I do not receive a grant or bursary )
the trick apparently is to put down one parents salary and not the others, so if you have one high income breadwinner, you just lie and say that you come from a single parent family or the other parent is retired, seems to be the way.

So whilst I have no money (though I do not pay rent so shouldnt really be complaining) others have lots who really shouldnt and should be in the same situation as me!!!

Now I do not want to seem snobby, I am well off enough that my parents can help me and I have friends whose parents cannot afford to keep them whilst they are at university. I am nagging about those people who apply for grants and bursaries, and seem to get them, when they are not eligbile to do so but get them anyway!!

Perhaps I should say that I have four kids living with me in my ex council house oh sorry it's called "ex local authority" then I would get an extra grand that I wouldn't have to pay back!

An Introduction

Hello there,
Let me introduce myself. I am a 19 year old male law student with delusions of perhaps one day practicing at the bar (however without that 1st class degree lets consider that it will be impossible and that im getting into thousands of pounds into debt for nothing)

I currently in my 2nd year Law LLB at a semi-prestigious London university good for Law but not a lot else according to the Guardian and The Times.

What else to write? I have other interests which normally have a higher priority than actually do law work such as going out to clubs and waking up the next morning wondering what I have done and who I have offended.

I hope to start this blog for other law students who feel that they don't quite cut the mustard with all the other bloggers out there, who seem so enthusiatically whimisical with every post that it makes us less presentable people feel a bit crap, and perhaps for all those students who can't seem to be stuck in the library 9-5 Monday to Friday because they can't even get themselves out of bed!

The title of this blog adequatelly describes how I feel, Lost (not the tv series), completly. While I can be hardworking I'm not the type that loves to study law, (perhaps a change in degree is needed) Like most law students I feel apathetic towards a degree that ultimately decides my career. A career in law almost seems like a joke in my current situation, am I an oxbridge graduate? Do I have a 1st? Do I have a 10 page CV full of extra curricular activities? No!
Oh well High Street Solicitor firm for me then.