Osler's Razor

For those of you who missed it (ie, by not being enrolled in Baylor Law's Professional Responsibility class this quarter), today was a strange and wonderful day in PR. We were examining the many nuances of Texas Rule 1.09, which involves conflicts between present and former clients. But, that was only part of the excitement.

Today was also "immunity day," in which students can buy their way out of being called on in class through a donation to charity. For example, to evade being called on in my class, a $30 donation was required.

Shockingly, 88 of the 89 students in my class bought immunity. Which left Mr. Guttierez, in the first row, alone to fend off a full 70 minutes of professorial inquiry. For the first case I called on, uh, Mr. Guttierez. For the second case, again, Mr. Guttierez. To his credit, Mr. Guttierez was very well prepared and gave a fine description of the cases.

At that point, though, I got kind of bored of calling on Mr. Guttierez. I made an offer to the immunized 88: Come up to the front, switch places with me, and call on me to explain the next case. At first, no one volunteered. Then, slowly, a single hand went up: Mr. Raymond Puckett had answered the call. We switched places, and I assumed his seat, trying to avoid eye contact and hunching down in the chair so as to avoid being called on. Mr. Puckett was somewhat of a slow starter-- he began barking out questions without actually calling on me. After being hectored by the rest of the class however, he called my name and I stood to answer the question. For the next several minutes, he did a passable rendition of a Baylor Law prof: Diagramming the problem on the board (pretty accurately, too), prematurely assigning me a memo, asking follow-up questions. It was, all in all, a pretty good performance (though he was a little reluctant to switch places again at the end).

So, here's to the bravest man in practice court: Mr. Raymond Puckett!