On February 8, hundreds of students and a handful of professors trekked out to the Opera House on Queen East in anticipation of the annual Law Follies. The night featured three hours of comedy sketches exploring the hopes, dreams, and worst fears of law students, complete with an afterparty raging on until the early hours of the morning.
Like any good show, the Follies started with a few commercials that encouraged keen 1Ls to buy HHighly necessary items like the highlight roller (useful for dipping in yellow paint for when you need to highlight every single word of your readings on offer and acceptance) and the Learned Hand™ for when the Prof is not keen on letting you answer the fourth question in a row.
The series of sketches then proceeded to highlight and poke fun at every aspect of law student life, from the irritation at the most innocuous of library noises when you’re cramming for a paper to the ever-present grade stress (hello, HH Hammers)! Between the short, pointed sketches and the beers at intermission, the night flew by.
The highlight of Follies, however, was the Faculty cameos. Professors Jim Phillips, Martha Shaffer, and Abraham Drassinower starred in a student-written sketch interrogating a student on whether he should go to law heaven or hell. Professor Shaffer’s quip about using a 1L research position to buff up one’s résumé for a future of selling out to corporate law firms undoubtedly resonated with many 2Ls coming out of the OCI process and many 1Ls that have yet to dive into it. In his usual fashion, Professor Phillips went off-script to wish a happy birthday to one of the students in the audience. Although other professors did not participate in the sketches, the reel of Faculty members reading mean Twitter comments supposedly made about them by their students highlighted some of the quirks for which we love our profs most.
The corporate recruitment process was, of course, a heavy presence throughout the evening. From good (and not-so-good) natured jokes about the sponsor, Borden Ladner Gervais to a hilariously crafty remaking of Dua Lipa’s “New Rules” into a guideline for in-firm week, student hopes and fears about securing gainful employment made for easy comedy.
Most of all, Follies showcased the strong camaraderie that exists among the students despite the pressure and stress. Between the slideshow of 3L exchange photos (fellow 1Ls, only two years til we’re there!) to lighthearted barbs directed at those students most involved in the social life of the Faculty, Follies was a fun and unifying night in a semester gravid with deadlines and recruitment stress.
The cast and crew worked tirelessly for several months to put on an incredible show, and to remind students in the audience to not take themselves and law school life too seriously. If you did not make it out this time around, make sure to carve out the time to go next year—the sacrificed study time and (generously sponsored) ticket price are more than worth it.
