A Law School Horror Story You Sadly May Be Able To Relate To

What's your law school horror story? You know you have one.

onMarch 6, 2018 at 12:09 PM

Given the huge response to our post about the trials and tribulations of law students — law school horror stories, if you will — we decided to turn these tales of terror into a recurring feature on Above the Law.

Welcome to Foreseeable Harm, a series where we take a look at some of the most appalling stories, straight from the law school trenches. These are real e-mails and messages we’ve received from real readers. Take a look at our first horror story:

I went to a Top 14 law school and auditioned onto my school’s External/International Moot Court competition team in my 2L and 3L years. My 3L competition was about a constitutional law topic (which I don’t recall) and the oral argument was held at another high-ranking law school. Each team had to go through several rounds of oral argument in front of 3-person panels composed of volunteer “judges” — practicing or retired alumni of the law school, mostly.

A bowtie-wearing elderly gentleman acting as a “judge” on one of the panels commented that I needed to learn to speak English.

I am Asian. It was in the Deep South.

A younger member of the panel was so embarrassed. He hastily added that, as the husband of an English as a Second Language (“ESL”) teacher, he had no problem understanding me.

My teammate, a White male, and the opposing team, composed of two White males, did nothing.

We shook hands with the “judges” and left the room. I held up for the rest of the 3-day competition, went back home to the Northeast, called my mom, and cried.

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What’s your law school horror story? You know you have one, so feel free to email us (subject line: “Law School Horror Story”) or text us (646-820-8477) and tell us all about it. We may feature some of them here in an upcoming post on Above the Law.

Staci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.