Research and Writing and Law School. No... Really... LAW- - SCHOOL!
I am past halfway through my final semester of the Master of Jurisprudence in Labor and Employment Law at Tulane Law School. I am currently up to my eyes in research and writing drafts. But I have to say, while I got off to a slow start this semester, I have caught up and am really excited about how my paper will turn out. Not only is my paper humming along nicely, but last night, my group and I were able to pull together our panel presentation on labor unions. We decided to bring in an expert guest to do a roundtable Q&A where we asked the expert questions about things we learned or are learning in our research. It went great!
Our expert was actually a close personal friend of mine, a labor and employment attorney, Robert Weaver. Robert and I started working together in 2007 when I became President of the labor union representing the minor league baseball umpires (which I was for 12 years). Robert and I worked hand in hand to advance the work of the union, filing grievances, handling arbitrations, filing unfair labor practice charges, and negotiating several collective bargaining agreements. As the years moved on, our professional lives diverged, but Robert and I have remained in personal touch with each other. I consider him not only a personal friend but a professional mentor. No matter how busy he is, he always has time for me, whether it is for a question I am dealing with at work or my studies. So when it came time to do this panel presentation, and the Professor mentioned that groups have brought in guest speakers in the past, I knew Robert was the right one for the job.
The panel was great. Our group engaged with Robert on a variety of topics relating to unions, union organizing, non-union employers and the NLRA, union-avoidance consultants, and more. It was a great discussion that was only cut short by the time limits on Tulane's Zoom account.
I still have a lot of writing to finish on my paper (which is on the 10(j) injunction process at the NLRB and how it is organized labor's last, best, and final hope to restore the promise of the NLRA), but I am starting to look ahead to the next chapter for me... Law School.
I came to Tulane Law School for the Master of Jurisprudence program because I thought, at the time, that the idea of doing night/part-time law school for a *cough* 40 *cough* something working adult was crazy and getting a Masters from a world-class law school would be the next best thing. What actually happened was the program here at Tulane; the professors, my classmates, and the coursework only made me want to pursue law school even more. So I took the LSAT this winter, applied to a number of programs, and on August 21, I will report to my first day of orientation for the 1L incoming students at Western New England University School of Law in the part-time night program. I am both equally terrified and excited. The prospect of commuting 90 miles each way twice a week after work, getting home at midnight, and balancing work, life, and law school, is scary. But I know I can do it.
I have the amazing professors, administrators, and classmates here at Tulane to thank for giving me the push to take on this challenge. In the meantime... back to writing my Capstone paper!
Research and Writing and Law School. No... Really... LAW- - SCHOOL! © 2023 by Shaun Francis is licensed underCC BY-NC-ND 4.0