PROVO — Lacey Maddox decided against studying the Napoleonic Code in law school in Louisiana. She decided to study common law, instead.
The decision was perhaps one of the smartest moves she's ever made.
It certainly made it easier to find a new school after she was forced to leave Tulane Law School in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the gulf coast.
That's because every state except Louisiana bases civil laws on British common law. Louisiana bases its civil law on French law, the Napoleonic Code.
Like thousands of other New Orleans residents, Maddox evacuated hours before the storm. Due to damage on Tulane's campus, the law school will not open at least for a semester. Its 1,000 students were displaced Some went to law schools in Texas and other places in Louisiana.
Maddox, however, ended up at Brigham Young University.
"It was luck, basically," said Maddox. "I had done a JAG internship with the Army in Germany. My supervisor is from here. His family lives here. His dad went here. They had an extra bedroom."
Maddox arrived at BYU on Sept. 7, three weeks into fall semester.
She arranged the transfer from her parents' home in Spartanburg, S.C., where she had evacuated to a day before the storm.
"Of course we were aware of the fact that students from Tulane Law School were interested in investigating the (BYU) law school," said Carl Hernandez, BYU law school's dean of admissions. "We were courted by five or six students who were investigating."
Maddox is the only Tulane student who is attending. BYU officials classify her status as a visiting student for one semester.
While BYU accepts visiting law students, they normally have to have applied the previous spring.
"The dean of the law school sought permission from the university for Lacey to apply and be accepted to the university as a visitor under some very special circumstances," Hernandez said. "I think that was over a weekend that it happened."
Important to Maddox's hurried application process, Hernandez said, was that she understand and abide by the school's Honor Code. She also had to obtain a letter from an ecclesiastical leader affirming that she can live according to the code.
Maddox said she hasn't had a problem with it: "I don't drink and I don't smoke, so it hasn't affected me."
Tuition money that Maddox paid to Tulane will be sent to BYU.
BYU law students rallied around Maddox, who Hernandez described as arriving with practically only a pen in hand. Students helped her find books. An alumnus donated a laptop computer.
Maddox was three weeks behind in class work, and plunged into school.
"I'm taking five classes, which is a lot, and I was going to do that next semester, and hopefully I can graduate in May," she said.
Although Maddox is hopeful she will graduate on schedule, she doubts she will complete specializations in European legal studies and maritime law. BYU offers neither of those specializations.
"Everybody has been very nice and very friendly," she said. "I like to have my life planned. It's hard."
Maddox also participates in a fencing club in Orem, which she says helps take her mind off of uncertainties, such as whether her apartment survived the hurricane, what happened to her car and how she will find a job after graduation. She has not returned to New Orleans since the hurricane.
Maddox had job interviews lined up at Tulane. She wants to work for the government.
"My goal was to find a job this semester and decide where to take the bar."
Now that she's in Utah, the job search will have to wait as she focuses on graduating on schedule, and getting her life back together. She is slowly rebuilding a wardrobe. She needs to buy a suit for job interviews.
BYU has been assured that the Tulane law school will be open next semester, Hernandez said. But Maddox isn't so sure.
"I think the school itself can get up and running. It's having the basic necessities for students — food, water and a place to stay," she said.
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com