Like a pilgrim whose lips touch the sweet cool waters of a mountain stream after wandering for months through the barren desert, like a four year old child who drops the staggering weight of their backpack on the floor of the front hall upon returning from their first day of kindergarten, like the prodigal son himself upon returning from months of hedonism and worldly excess, the moment that I walked through the doors of Vic College and felt the wisdom of centuries of legal knowledge pulse through my brain, I was flooded with one overwhelming feeling— relief, sweet relief.
First things first, business school is not the worst. You learn cool things, get a lot of free food (better free food, i.e. not pizza, sorry Law), and the building is very nice (e.g. the FIREPLACE in the foyer… such opulence!). That said, the culture is much different. Exhibit A.) Suits per capita is infinitely larger than the Law faculty (even during OCI week). B.) Tipsy Tuesday, the MBA Pub Night, has the attendance of a Law Pub Night at around 9:30pm. C.) The curriculum is like intensive week for 1L’s (i.e. rife with small annoying assignments that make you want to gouge your eyes out with your highlighter) for an entire year. I never felt at home in Rotman the way that I did at the Faculty of Law.
All of the things that I missed about law school can be summarized in two words: the people. I miss having predrinks to the predrink, I miss cat videos in the reading room, and I miss a smaller number of questions in class, all of which are very much with it. Now, I realize that I wasn’t dead last year, and that the reading room was open to me, but it’s harder to stay in touch when you don’t have classes with people, or share common spaces between classes, and when you have groups who need you to step up do everything for them at Rotman. I wish that I had spent more time at Vic, and my advice to all MBA’ers this year is to do so!
As a result, the biggest challenge of returning to Law as a 2/3L (seriously, I get that question all the time, and have to explain that I’m a 2L if I started at 0, or a 3L if you go up to 4, can someone please just hold a referendum to determine the correct nomenclature?! Editor’s note: 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, 4th year is the standard nomenclature as of right now.) is integrating back into the law school ecosystem. Firstly, half of your 1L class is abroad, working diligently night and day to master very important concepts of international law, (and definitely not travelling to Ibiza or Taiwan on the weekends for raves), and in their place, you have these 2L’s, who you realize are your new graduating class, but with whom you haven’t spent a great deal of time, and a whole new class of 1L’s on top! Effectively, you are a 1L trapped in a 2/3L’s body, but without the pressures of actual school (lol sorry 1L’s).
Thankfully, I have felt the same welcoming spirit and kindness this year that I was privileged to enjoy in my own 1L year. Operation “Law School Integration” is coming along nicely. All of my old friends who saw too little of me while I was deep in the bowels of Excel have welcomed me back to their tables in the reading room; my new graduating class is sick, and I get to know them better each and every day. I’ve also met more 1L’s than ever before, and the future of UofT (and future pub nights) looks bright.
All in all, I am grateful for the gifts that my MBA year have given me, namely the deep and unbreakable bond shared between my fellow JD/MBA’s in the trenches of Rotman, grade 10 level math skills, a book full of buzzwords to use at cocktail parties, and those lovely memories of naps by the fireside. But I am very excited to dive back into the U of T law community and enjoy it’s laid back brilliance, it’s welcoming and friendly atmosphere, and all of my old and new friends. My JD is first in both my designation and my heart. <3
