New Kid on the Hallway

Chronologies

In the next 36 days, I need to:

• write an opening argument
• crib from my classmate write a direct examination
• crib from my classmate write a cross examination
• learn the part of a witness
• play the part of a witness in a mock trial
• be the plaintiff's attorney in a mock trial
• finish a research memo for clinic
• research some other stuff for clinic
• research even more different stuff for clinic
• spend three days on a trip for clinic
• write a statute
• write a committee report supporting the statute (i.e. find a whole bunch of facts that show why my statute needs to exist, and explain what authority Congress has for passing the statute)
• write a 17 pp paper on Christians v. gays (legally speaking, of course)
• have 2 make-up classes
• complete the application for the bar (including getting fingerprinted)
• study for exams
• take three exams

But the good thing about this is: in 36 days I will be DONE WITH LAW SCHOOL. So I can sleep when law school's done, right?

In a totally different type of chronology: I was at a law school event tonight, with one of the administrative eminences. This eminence actually went to my undergrad. Tonight I got to explain to hir that we shared an alma mater, and that, in fact, I had graduated the year before zie did. Because no one ever thinks I look my age, I then got to watch hir head explode.

I have to confess that it never gets old when that happens. One day it will stop happening, and I will be sad. But for the moment, if I have to start all over again at the bottom in a new career, it's nice at least not to look it.

Eventful day

Today I represented a client in court for the first time.

I did so by making an oral argument before our state court of appeals.

(Apparently this is somewhat unusual - the first thing I got asked was under what authority I was appearing in the court. Which I didn't know. Ooops. Although I knew we had filed a motion asking for me to appear, and it had been granted, so it was perfectly proper. Apparently my poor clinic director had a moment of thinking, "Crap! I'm not prepared to give this argument!")

So now I will never have to make my first appellate argument ever again, which is pretty cool. Here's hoping someone will hire me to make more in the future!

Those who saw the argument said nice things about how I did, but I don't think the ruling will ultimately go our way - the law doesn't really favor us. I'm just hoping that the ruling doesn't quite go the other side's way, either.

Personally, though, I felt good about how it went. I wasn't freaked-out nervous, I didn't "um," and I presented pretty much what I wanted to present about our argument. (There were a couple of things I'd have liked to emphasize more, but they weren't major, and they're all in the brief, anyway.) I actually kind of disagree with one direction we took in the argument - and I kind of think my disagreement was justified, based on the judges' questions (to the extent you can tell anything from such questions) - but then, it wasn't ultimately my call, and that's okay - that's how these things work. 

The judges were pretty darn nice - which, obviously, doesn't mean anything about how they'll rule, I just appreciate that they didn't try to make the experience miserable. Actually, it reminded me very much of what happens when early grad students present at academic conferences - the only people who feel compelled to rip their papers to shreds are dyed-in-the-wool pricks, because, really, what does shredding a newbie gain the veteran? It's like shooting fish in a barrel - it's not like it requires any skill on the veteran's part. Similarly, it's not like these judges had anything to gain from slapping down a poor lowly law student. But it was still nice to see them paying attention and nodding at things I said. 

So anyway, that was pretty cool. I enjoyed it.

And when I got in my car to drive away, the radio was playing Katy Perry's "Firework," which was kind of a nice omen.

And then I got an hour-and-a-half-long massage. (Which, actually, may have been more difficult than the oral argument. I would never have believed that my glutes could be in so much pain! But the results are DEFINITELY worth it.)

My posting frequency goes up the more I don't want to work

From I Can Haz Cheezburger?, of course. 

Continuing on a theme from my last post...

Damn, I hate suits.

I have no real objection to the concept of suits - and they look totally adorable on so many of my (younger, thinner) classmates. But I find it almost impossible to find suits that actually look good on ME.

Recently, not long before I was set to travel for a moot court competition, one of my favorite suit purveyors had a sale. (Their stuff is fairly spendy at full price, but they have awesome sales.) And since I still hate all my suits, I thought I'd give some stuff a whirl. I ordered a charcoal lightweight wool skirt suit, a black lightweight wool skirt suit, and a black lightweight not-wool skirt suit. Unfortunately, I loved the black lightweight wool jacket, but the store had sold out of the skirt, so I couldn't get an actual suit, which is what I was looking for. I loved the charcoal skirt, but was iffy about the matching jacket. I thought the black lightweight not-wool skirt suit was fine (and the jacket has a very cute striped lining), so I kept that and took it to the competition. 

(It's probably worth noting that I was deciding all this about two days before I left, when I was also trying to learn/polish my oral argument and do a ton of other stuff, so I was a little crazed at the time.)

Of course, after wearing the damn suit all day for the competition, I discovered that: 1) the jacket and skirt were both boxier than I'd thought they were, and 2) the skirt pulled a bit more about the hips than I'd thought it would. So it was not the world's most flattering suit on me.* 

And just now, I packed up the other stuff to send back, and made the mistake of trying on the charcoal suit again. And deciding that I like it MUCH better than the one I kept and wore. 

Because I really can't afford to keep both suits (and don't need that many suits right now, since I won't start a real job till next fall, and even then I don't think I'm going to need to wear a suit very often). Grrrr. I hate suits.

     
     
*That said, I don't think ANY suits are especially flattering on me. Suit jackets are pretty much all designed to nip in at the waist, which sucks when, like me, you don't HAVE a waist, or, indeed, lean toward the apple shape. And most suit skirts are pencil-y, which I like as a professional look, but they don't look very good on the apple figure, either, because they just make you look widest in the middle. The concept of a pants suit is totally appealing, but for some reason, while I can generally pull off this store's pencil skirts not-too-terribly, their pants do not fit me at all.