books
Secured Transactions, Commercial Paper, And Other Words That Currently Have No Meaning To Me
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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Book Club Queen Review
The Book Club Queen just put out a review of Lawyer Boy. It’s a good review, and I thank the Queen for it…only I can’t get over the start of the first line: “As a semi-professional magician and general disgrace, Rick decides…”
General disgrace? Sure, I spent a year after college bumming around my parents’ house, eating their food, using their computers, and watching the Price Is Right…but does that make me a “general disgrace?” I’d argue it made me a time-and-place-specific disgrace, if anything.
Anyway, here’s The Book Club Queen’s review:
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A semi-professional magician and a general disgrace, Rick decides it’s time to get his life together and join his father’s ranks in making “The Only Acceptable Career Choice.” Born to a long line of lawyers, Rick knew that it was only a matter of time until he too entered the fold. Besides, it’s hard to get girls with lines like “Want to come back to my parents’ place?”
After suffering a few sudden, crushing disappointments, he is accepted to DePaul Law School in Chicago. With a dry, intelligent wit, Rick Lax dissects the application process and his first year of law school for our amusement. Notoriously difficult, Rick’s trials and travails prove that even the most unprepared and unlikely 1L’s can survive the test of the first year, and furthermore can maintain and even nourish a lively sense of humor.
Peppered with explanations of real cases and legal jargon, reading LAWYER BOY (St. Martin’s Press / Hardcover / July 2008 / 0-312-37335-X / $24.95) is like borrowing notes from the class clown—It won’t get you an A, but it’s probably the best reading you’ll find in law school.
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Quick question: is it bad form to review my reviews?
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Rick Lax has *NEVER* been a
Submitted by linda (not verified) on Sun, 06/22/2008 - 21:30.
Rick Lax has *NEVER* been a disgrace. The only thing I can say about this review, which is kind to the book, is that he's used some convincing self-depricating humor and apparently it has worked in the eyes of the reviewer. I guarantee his parents have ALWAYS been proud of him, including during his year of deciding what to do with his life.
Describing you as a disgrace
Submitted by Elliott (not verified) on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 04:43.
Describing you as a disgrace makes your broader narrative more exciting--portraying your legal journey from zero to hero (even though you were never a disgrace--at least according to your Mom--nor have you yet obtained hero status, let alone passed the bar!). If only for dramatic effect, you might as well accept being labeled as a disgrace.
Broken Window Theory
I came back to Michigan for the week to see my friends and family, and to study for the bar. I do most of my studying at the Barnes & Noble by my parents’ house. It’s been my favorite study location for a decade, only last year, that started to change when the nearby retirement homes started bussing their female residents to the bookstore to 1) play bridge, 2) ask me whether I would marry their granddaughters.
These women are loud and I can’t get much reading done with them around. Apparently I’m not alone; a few months ago, the store put up signs that say, “Game playing is welcome before noon and after 5pm.” The rule was perfect because that’s when I study.
So…the past few days, two groups of four women have been flouting the prohibition. And the Barnes & Noble café workers didn’t have the guts to enforce the prohibition.
Sure, NOW it’s just two groups of four women…but next month…
The “Broken Window Theory” of crime prevention says that it is easier to solve a small problem before it becomes a big problem. For example, if one person spray paints the side of a building a small area you want to clean that area up before more people add their spray paint tags to the building making it a big issue.
Wikipedia explains that Mayor Giuliani used the Broken Window theory when he had the police strictly enforce the law against subway fare evasion, and stopped public drinkers, urinators, and the "squeegee men" who had been wiping windshields of stopped cars and demanding payment. Rates of both petty and serious crime fell suddenly and significantly, and continued to drop for the following ten years.
So….should I print the wikipedia Broken Window Theory entry out and give it to the Barnes & Noble workers anonymously?
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Enforce Broken Window
Submitted by Michael (not verified) on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 03:27.
Enforce Broken Window Theory? No.
Marry their granddaughters if they switch from bridge to go? Yes, but only if you need to beat their dad at go in order to be approved for marriage.
Sounds like the plot of
Submitted by Rick Lax on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 05:01.
Sounds like the plot of the next Mike Myers movie to me!
The Broken Window theory is
Submitted by Steve Pirates (not verified) on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 05:19.
The Broken Window theory is an intellectual offshoot of the City Beautiful movement. You might try to give the employees a brief on Broken Windows and City Beautiful, but if the Octet of Octogenarians gets a hold of your plot, they could retaliate with a Bowling Alone counter.
I'd use a more insurgent tactic instead. Tell them that it's haunted there. Then when they don't believe you... point out that you're a ghost yourself. And when they don't believe that, point out that they can see you so well because they are themselves to close to death.
It will either scare them away or offend them away.... either way peace and quiet. Quiet like the grave.
We actually got
Submitted by Ryan (not verified) on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 17:01.
We actually got spray-painted on the back of the building where I work about 6 months ago. We knew of the broken window theory but were too lazy to do anything about it...still no additional graffiti.
You suck, i picked 7 of
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 06/08/2008 - 00:48.
You suck, i picked 7 of clubs
Publishers Weekly Review
This is the first official Lawyer Boy review. Hopefully it will set the tone for the rest. Hmm…maybe I shouldn't put the cart before the horse….let me try again: hopefully there will be other reviews, and hopefully they will be similar.
Here goes:
First-time author Lax delivers an entertaining and sometimes zany look at the first year of law school. Although he dreams of being a professional magician, Lax realizes after college that being a lawyer—like his father and most of his relatives (he provides a family tree showing the remarkable number of lawyers who are relatives)—is inevitable. After being accepted into the DePaul School of Law in Chicago, where passenger trains "screamed past the classroom every ten minutes," he finds that the world of torts and criminal law is both like and unlike everything he had imagined. The workload is still brutal—as a professor tells him, "For the next year, the American legal system will be your girlfriend." But Lax's discoveries of what he didn't expect offer fascinating up-to-date insights such as the inevitability of the depression he develops (lawyers "are about four times more likely to experience clinical depression than the general population") and the hard fact that "[l]aw schools don't fail students like they used to. They need the tuition dollars to stay competitive."
(July)
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I found the next one: "Solid
Submitted by Ryan (not verified) on Wed, 05/14/2008 - 21:52.
I found the next one:
"Solid and funk-free, Lawyerbow lovingly tosses American ego about like a cat with string, mixing things up just enough to remind us that, when we get down to what's really important, there isn't that much separating traditional red state muscle from blue state radicalism (among other factors, least of which are the deceivers and thieves among us). All within the space of a traditional nuts-and-bolts studio summer picture, that is - the area in which Rick Lax's very-capable adaptation succeeds most broadly, its barely-hidden subtext deliberately de-politicized in favor of more a more universally guided moral compass."
You can read the full review at http://projectionbooth.blogspot.com/2008/05/iron-man-2008-b.html
Good work buddy!
Yeah, this reviewer totally
Submitted by Rick Lax on Thu, 05/15/2008 - 00:17.
Yeah, this reviewer totally 'got' it.
Lawyer Boy graduates
Submitted by Elliott (not verified) on Sat, 05/17/2008 - 20:28.
Lawyer Boy graduates tomorrow. Will that make him a Lawyer Man, or does that not happen until he has practiced law for 13 years?
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