Legal Commentary

Perhaps because I had little else to do during my free time yesterday during Yom Kippur, I started brainstorming about my final.  I think it is really a great one - a compelling story, complex but not overly so, broad class topic coverage, realistic, etc.  I told my wife it was going to be a fun exam.  Her response, having been to law school herself, was that a) no law school exam is "fun" for the student and b) surely no patent law exam could be fun.

Nonetheless, I was jazzed as I cranked away at the test last night.  It got me wondering why, and I think the answer is that - assuming even the minimal academic integrity - this is the only real chance most law professors get to do creative writing.  It is most certainly the only area where such creative writing gets counted toward any sort of tenure requirement. 

I never really enjoyed creative writing, but I kind of like it in my field of interest. Maybe this is why Paul Goldstein decided to write mystery novels.  Exam writing is also intellectually challenging because I have to maintain the precision required to generate answers that allow me to gauge how well my students understand the topic. 

I'd be interested to hear what others think.  Will my excitement wane over the years?  Is it just nuts to start an exam halfway through the semester?  Does anyone else get jazzed over writing exams?  When Prawfs did a feature on this last year, few people seemed to volunteer their exams.  Maybe that's an answer in itself...