In that iconic scene from "The Paper Chase," John Housman tells his law school students he's going to teach them to think. "You teach yourselves the law, but I train your minds. You come in here with a skull full of mush; you leave thinking like a lawyer." And with the penmanship of a drunken chicken with a quill strapped to his leg.

At least that was my experience. If my skull was full of mush when I arrived for my first contracts class, my hand was full of it when I walked out of third-year Conflict of Laws.