[Warning: Language]
This is the latest work of our talented students at George Washington Law School. This hilarious video was done by GWU students including Peter Biberstein of our highly respected Promissory Notes group. The group sings at many of our events. You will have to forgive the language of the video, but it is pretty funny. It seems on the verge of going viral with over 300,000 views on YouTube.
The talent of singers and performers in our school is extraordinary. Now, if only U.S. News & World Report ranked raw talent . . .
Here is the extraordinary cast and crew from GWU:
Writers: Brittany Bisnott, Matt Linden, Jerry Newhall
Director: Matt Linden
Camera Operator: Jonathan Clark
Video Editing: Decker Ringo
Audio Recording and mixing: Aaron Joachim ’10
Vocalists: Peter Biberstein, Brittany Bisnott, Sam Dworken, Emilie Pinkham, Matt Linden
Actors: Student 1: Peter Biberstein
Student 2: Brittany Bisnott
Gunner: Dan Gerken
Doo-Wop Girls: Sam Dworken, Emilie Pinkham, Julie Unger, Jenny Webster
Professor: Alison Shurtleff
Hiring Partner: Julia Tyson
Featured Extras: Corey Ershow, Jon Gaffney, Josh Prentice,
I have always told my students that the single greatest personality trait for success in the law is a sense of humor. While that ship has sailed for some who come to law school, these students show that you do not have to become a one-dimensional slug to succeed in law school. We are very very fortunate to have everyone of them as part of our community.
Jonathan Turley
Just for the record, I briefed/typed every case I was supposed to, and had my stack of flash cards. I followed the procedure, back then, indicated for the successful law student . Other non school related stresses notwithstanding, and there were plenty, I did indeed manage to graduate ( at least in the top 1/2) — but I must say, mostly to placate my parents who were devastated when my older brother had busted out of law school and , not incidentally, to avoid the draft for another little bit.
The gunners/grinds, etc., had a dimension different from the rest, and it did not necessarily correlate with being smarter, or even finishing higher in the class, or getting on law review.
And, again for the record, “gunner” is one thing (s/he always had that clerkship/partnership always in mind), participation another. In first year, there was no choice. The prof would call on “mr. so and so” whether he was prepared or not. Better be ready. Being willing to volunteer wasn’t the criteria for whether you ‘participated’.
Maybe things have changed a lot. Sure believe/hope there are more “hands on” classes that cater to the like of the disillusioned idealists who went to law school 1) for the justice side of the equation and 2) to do good.
Being a brain and/or making a big killing (I could name names from my own class) are not necessarily the only two defining features of the successful law graduate. Some are great. Some rather lower life. People are people.
GW JD:
Lighten up. I also worked full-time in the evenings when I attended law school because I was married with an infant. But I still managed to make law review. None of that makes you or me special, frankly, and if you lose the ability to laugh at yourself and at the general absurdity in every day life in the process, what’s the point?
As they used to say on Laugh In, “verrry funny …. but shtoopid.”
Sorry to dump cold water on the festivities. Have your laughs, everyone. Seriously, the video is a disgrace to GW Law. The gunner will still win, now and later. The gunner described by Mike above did in fact finish second in the class.
As a matter of fact, the way to do well in law school is to prepare for each class, up to two hours for each classroom hour, and then to participate actively in the classroom discussion.
The class participation helps everyone. The first student to answer may have a only a partial answer or even be wrong, but the response can prompt others to see aspects they had missed. Everyone gains. But no one gains from the snickers in the back row from the unprepared losers.
Now, there may be negative peer pressure from the less prepared. Peer pressure is one of the strongest forces in the universe. The US Navy runs its carriers by means of the positive peer pressure in their crews. Positive peer regard can benefit everyone. It can encourage all students to study harder.
And negative peer pressure can destroy even the strongest and most intelligent students, as all levels of education. These folks on the law “Revue” are mocking the students who work hard, put in the time, and help all in the class by participation. Some able students will cave in to the pressure. They will not participate in class because of the derision from the malingerers. Their preparation will go to waste.
I saw this in action when a young friend asked his law prof to let me sit in on a class. From the back row I saw the guy in front of me surfing the web for sports scores while the prof delivered a brilliant lecture. Fool!! I heard later that his grades were down the road a bit.
When the law students get out into reality, they will find themselves up against the litigators who put in thousands of hours of preparation, just as they learned to do in law school. They are the litigators (and judges, and law professors) who dominate the profession.
Are tabs and 3×5 cards funny? I knew a litigator who won cases with plastic tabs for all the cases and exhibits in her trial files. She tracked all new cases in her area on file cards. She wound up as a federal judge. But the Revuers are getting all the laughs.
Sorry, Revuers, but there are an awful lot of unemployed lawyers out there on the streets nowadays, and the last I heard, the firms are hiring folks proficient in law, not musical comedians. Have nice careers.
Here is the Revue definition: “Gunner – A gunner is that annoying kid in your class who always raises their hand and seems to know the answer. They would rather spend the night outlining than going to the bar, even though it’s only the first week of the term. The rule with finding gunners is similar to spotting the sucker at a poker table. If after three classes you can’t spot the gunner, you’re probably it.”
Cf. the real world technical legal definition of “former gunner”: “employed lawyer.”
I really wonder what kind of students the professors, like Professor Turley [who knows who I am], want in their classes. Do they not want prepared students who have read the cases, treatises, and law review articles, taken notes, and are ready to state the case and defend their views? Or do they really want a class full of smirking, silent fools yelling eff you to the prepared students?
And, by the way, the f-bomb is a really hackneyed and lame substitute for wit and humor, even for law students and lawyers. Is that your preparation for argument at the Supreme Court? “To my esteemed opposition counsel, if it please the court, you s**k, f*** you!!!!” See you in court, suckers.
Really, GW Law, this is not how to stay in the top 20. On the basis of this video, I would be a little reluctant to recommend the GW Law experience to a prospective law student.
— Signed by lawyer who went through GW Law nights many, many years ago on the GI Bill. I [sarcastically] apologize to the “Revuers” for preparing the best I could with the time available to me while working 40-plus hours per week, and by participating actively in classes, since it did me little good, finishing as I did only second in the class.
rcampbell, you are so welcomed! :))
hahahahahahahaha
GWU ’68
. . . no way could I have graduated a year early!
Thanks for the really, really good production.
We had those types too. Though I must say it was just another downer in a pretty constant 3 year grind with very little comic relief.
GWU Law ’67
Otteray and swarthmom
thanks, i once had to ask what lol meant
I’m still laughing. I actually remember that guy in the suit. He carried an electric typewriter and would repair to a study carrel after class. There he would read all of the assigned work, as well as the optional additional stuff, and would type case summaries on 5″X7″ index cards. He had the personality of toe jam, but graduated second in the class. This video by itself should qualify GW for the top 14.
I thought a gunner was someone who would hog the basketball and put it up from anywhere.
pete, A “gunner” is the guy in the video.
Pete: gunner = obnoxious overachiever
so, what’s a gunner?
That was terrific. Congrats to all the student participants! I don’t know Cee-Lo (as my mother used to say) from a jar of Vick’s, but I liked the song and really enjoyed the parody.
I have to add, though, that by virtue of being one of the gristled regulars to this site and knowing that some of the other regulars are practicing attorneys, teachers or are otherwise engaged in grown up lives (read that as semi-old), I found this cautionary line about accessing YouTube from Erykah quite refreshing:
“You have to be 18 to access it”.
Thank you, Erykah.
Great stuff! I don’t remember the women students at John Marshall parading through the halls like that!
erykah, I was going to post the Cee-Lo Green song but could not get it to post. Maybe someone else could.
Yes, this is very funny, but give credit to whom credit is due. That song is a parody of Cee-Lo’s hit song “F-You.” Check it out on Youtube. You have to be 18 to access it.
That is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. I just forwarded the link to a young man I know at McGeorge Law School in Sacramento.
A very catchy ditti …great voices too
Very nice….
That was cool!