TIBAYAN, NEIL BRYAN S.

2011-0088

January 12, 2014 ADLAW - WEEK 1

EXERCISE 1-1 1. John was cited for contempt by the judge. 2. The decision was written by Judge Johnson. 3. The brief was revised by her boss. EXERCISE 1-2 1. John Smith committed the crime. 2. The clerk read the verdict. 3. The judge did not understand Marys argument. 4. The Community Theater presented the play. 5. Mark played Christ. 6. Shucks provided the lighting and the community orchestra performed the music. 7. Everyone enjoyed the play. 8. Many people saw the accident. 9. The police made 5 arrests. 10. The court ruled the testimony as inadmissible. 11. The law students held a party after the exams. 12. Tom invited me to the party. 13. The President read the State of the Nation Address. 14. Susan obtained a job at the District Attorneys office after law school. EXERCISE 1-3 John Smith presented the feature paper. He argued that capital punishment is wrong because the state does not apply it uniformly. Minorities and the poor are more frequently sentenced to death than whites and the rich. In addition, the poor cannot afford proper legal counsel. Our legislatures should abolish the capital punishment to eliminate inequalities. EXERCISE 1-4 I love the law. In my mind, there are no alternatives as to what I want to become. There is only one profession I want to practice and one institution that I would want to be a part of. This love story started at home. Same as every child, my first heroes were my parents. I was never pressured to walk the same path they did. I saw how people looked up to them and I just thought that I wanted that for myself. I have watched countless movies involving courtroom dramas and read my share of novels by John Grisham. I admired the formality of proceedings in open court as well as the dialogues made by the characters. Suffice it to say, I wanted to be like my parents, like the heroes of the movies and novels. I wanted to be a lawyer. Years passed. I expected law school to be a struggle, but I was still surprised at how hard it actually is. I would sometimes read a provision of law more than ten times and I would still not appreciate its meaning, let alone write something about the law. I have three semesters left before I would have the tools that I need to pass the bar exams. I am now in the process of acquiring arguably the most important tool, legal writing. As a child, I pictured myself inside the courtroom, debating with other lawyers, unaware that I didnt consider legal writing as an important aspect. I know better now. If I am to impress the examiners, I realised that I have to extract everything I can from the legal writing class I enrolled in. I have mentioned that I am a working student. Where else would a guy with my dreams work but on a courtroom. I see lawyers conduct arguments in front of our judge, day in day out. More importantly, I see lawyers file every motion, pleading and whatnot in our sala everyday. In reality, not every lawyer writes like a poet. Some would pass of a nights worth of work as a memorandum which they had sixty days to prepare. Maybe
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TIBAYAN, NEIL BRYAN S. 2011-0088

January 12, 2014 ADLAW - WEEK 1

they didnt pay attention to their legal writing class. Maybe they didnt have Atty. Cantorias as their professor in their legal writing subject who, by the way, I am privileged to have. There is a reason why there are a certain number of English units that a prospective enrolee must have before he is allowed to be in law school. The course is aptly named Advanced Legal Writing, since it would be a waste of the professors time to teach everything from scratch. There must be a certain level which I must already be in. Whether or not I am in that level, I expect to gain everything else in Advanced Legal Writing. This course is placed one semester before all the review subjects are made available, which implies how important and vital the course really is. Therefore, I expect to gain the confidence I need to impress the examiners through my writing. I expect to gain the necessary tools so that I may be able to write a proper motion or pleading before a judge and not have an employee of the court mock my paper for being weak. I expect to able to improve my legal vocabulary, to add flair to my papers and to enhance my written communication skills. I expect all of these not only to impress my clients to be able to justify my fees or to put fear on the opposing counsels, but more importantly to live my dream of becoming the heroes I admired when I first fell in love with law.

EXERCISE 1-5 1. The homeless man hungrily looked at the food in the shop window. 2. The company imported fine china. 3. William slowly ate the meal to fully enjoy it. 4. The children at the amusement park had fun. 5. The dancers zigzag across the stage. 6. Anne lived to the fullest. 7. His crime surprised his friends. 8. He spoke a loud to the crowd. 9. Mack lectured the child. 10. The court found that the company discriminates against women. 11. John and Mary decided which curtains to buy. 12. The workers completed the job. 13. Mrs. Smithers told me to change the design. 14. Our leaders must act now or a disaster will happen. 15. Bills employer needs a summary of the new case. 16. The president needs to act on the economy. 17. The letter shocked Linda. 18. He tailor altered the pants but not the coat. 19. Mary cut her paper under 20 pages. 20. Minorities elected the mayor.