apalsa faculty lunches

I love APALSA-faculty lunches. APALSA gathers about ten students and invites a faculty member to eat Potbelly's with us in a classroom. It's a pretty informal gathering where the invited professor talks about his/her career path, research interests, and answers students' questions. Last year, I went to two of them. The first one I went to was Professor West's (obviously, it was amazing) and the second one I went to was Professor Margaret Chon's. This year, I also attended two of these events. I went to Professor Khanna's and Professor Laycock's (today). Here are my reviews! Obviously, the only really objective review is Prof. Laycock's lunch since it is still very fresh on my mind. Sorry about boring you guys. I use my blog for documentation purposes sometimes. I know for a fact that I had a wreck sandwich all four times.

Fall 2008

West: I doubt Prof. West remembers (about the event itself) but I asked him what my chances were at obtaining approval to study at Waseda. I was (as I am still today) one-track minded. The study abroad at Waseda program was one of the main reasons why I was so happy to get into Michigan (and one of the main reasons why I was upset at Penn and Columbia). He was pretty confident that I could go (and if there were any problems, he was confident he could solve them) and so I was very satisfied. He talked about his recent book about "love-judges" and it was highly entertaining. The lunch took place before I had to take Criminal Law with him for the Winter semester so I got to scope out my future 1L professor. Killed two birds with one stone.

Winter 2009

Chon: I didn't ask Prof. Chon anything but we found out that we were from the same neighborhood back in Buffalo! That was a cool moment. I took German for three years at the high-school she attended. She is a Korean-American who like me went to high-school in the Williamsville School District and studied at Michigan Law. I learned a lot from that lunch about how hard it is for schools like Michigan Law to achieve faculty diversity. I actually fell in love with her. I dragged Tina to another lunch event where she spoke about ...I don't remember what. Yeah. She was a visiting professor for the Winter semester.

Fall 2009

Khanna: I was taking Enterprise Organization (EO) with him when I went to the lunch event. It was pretty fascinating to hear about how he became an academic. So yeah, that was it actually.

Winter 2010

Laycock: I loved loved loved it! I actually had zero expectations. I was genuinely interested in the other three professors prior to the lunch talk. I have little interest in whatever he taught (he is leaving Michigan Law for UVA). What I liked about him was his personality! He talked about how he always followed his wife around to wherever her career path took her (and him). It was amazing to hear how he followed his girl around and was reprimanded by his own father for doing that. I wish I took a class with him. Well, not really. But overall, it was a great experience! He was also very gracious and intelligent when answering students' questions.


This is the last full week of classes! So many good-byes. Thursday will be the last time Prof. Logue will teach me. I desperately want him to teach a class in Winter 2011 that I haven't taken (there aren't any classes left that he teaches regularly that I haven't taken...unless he starts teaching the seminar Tax Policy Readings again). I would totally use my last priority for that...but I don't think it's going to happen. I don't know if I'm ready to say good-bye to Prof. Logue. I'm going to be so jealous when Sally and Tina are in his class next semester.  I'm not sure if tomorrow is my last day with Prof. Kahn. I'm not really ready for that either. Oh no. I get too attached. I still have next week before I have to worry about saying my byes to Prof. Avi-Yonah and Prof. West. It was an excellent semester.