Moot Court Wrap Up

I have somewhat of a shorter entry this week and it is coming a bit later (it is a three-day weekend). I hope to bring back some deeper analysis next week, but on re-reading this, I think there is some worth in these late at night ramblings.

I. Case of the Week:

As I think back to this week, no case stands out as particularly interesting. I know I said I was going to talk about easements, but for some reason I just can’t get excited about disputes between parties pertaining to who has a right to the underground sewer pipes. In the words of our property Professor, “when you buy a house with plumbing, you believe that the effluent (this was his word and I have not yet figured out if this is the proper legal term or just how he describes the contents of sewers) must be able to go somewhere,” but just like the situation in that case, my Property (reading) is backed up and unknowingly filling the basement of my mind. In case you have not figured it out by reading these ramblings, let this be a reminder that I am full of s*#t. The reason for lack of preparedness (I still at least read all of the cases, unlike some of the students in our section [see last weeks post on passing in class]) was because I was working on our case for the moot court competition. Between getting all dressed up in my suit and standing in front of a panel of “mock judges” and a altogether independent presentation in our legal writing class called “senior partner meetings,” where a group of us associates in training presented legal research to the “senior partner,” I almost felt like a lawyer. My partner in the moot court competition even gave me a yellow legal pad before we had our day in court, but let us not get ahead of ourselves. Before my ego gets completely out of control, I must remember that my legal understanding is still trailing behind the costume, and there is still a lot to learn before anyone should trust me with their legal affairs, but that is what this is all about—this law school experience that still feels so new—and this was certainly a week were I felt first how far I have come along and secondly, how far I still have to go.

First, how far I have come: in preparing for moot court, I wrote an opening statement, I prepared a witness, I wrote questions for direct, I prepared questions for cross, and then I gave my open, directed my witness, crossed the opposing witness and objected to the other sides questions. I had no idea what I was doing. My understanding of litigation is entirely based on David Kelly and Law and Order, but somehow the “thinking like a lawyer” that our professors talked about so much at the beginning of the year has begun to pervade my thoughts, because in the midst of this exercise (completely hypothetical) I really began to believe our arguments. I believed in our case whole heartedly, and I felt what it might be like to make arguments for your client because you believe that they have rights.

Second, how far I must go: this is a summation of the advice given to me from the panel of judges: Look at the judges. It is important to make eye contact. This goes together with not using your notes too much. I used my notes as a crutch and know that I could have directed my client without them, but thus far my law experience has been all on paper, so it was difficult to stand up and intuitively react to a “legal situation.” Next, I told a story in my opening argument, but I also needed to outline the law that we were going to use and ask the judges to apply to the facts we were going to show in our “story.” There was a lot more, but one of the judges gave the advice that we shouldn’t think too much about this stuff. It was our first opportunity to get involved with litigation and we will have a lot of time to build on the experience.

II. At Lawge

Since I have been pretty involved in the moot court this week, I really have not kept up with the legal word outside of law school, but if you really need to see how the law applies to our everyday life, just go to any newspaper website and type in the words law, legal, court, etc. and you will get some story. I hate to disappoint my readers, all 3 of you, but this is going to be a short post this week. Don’t worry though. It is getting cloudy in Seattle again so it will be a lot easier to sit at the computer and write blog posts than it was in the last week of clear skies and sun.

III. Gossip Column

I have to say I was pretty impressed with the attitude of those fellow moot court participants. Everyone took it seriously, but from what I saw no one took it so seriously that they were not cordial with the other competitors. Even though there were six winners from 40, most of us were there just to improve our skills at lawyering. And for those who won, well, there were not real surprises. There are some people whose charisma and seemingly perpetual preparedness seem to just put them one step ahead of the curve and if the rest of use can put our egos aside for a minute, we can enjoy studying with these colleges. There are a few students, not the brightest, who seem unable to do this. They relate to this whole experience as a competition with the rest of the students and not as a collaborative learning experience. I understand that we have an “adversarial system,” but outside of the courtroom we are all trying to become the best lawyers we can be, or at least that is the ideal that I strive for. It is for this reason that I do not tell my grade to anyone, and I do not ask for anyone’s grades. I also try and compliment those students who do well in class, and for those who bomb, well, I will make fun of their ignorance on this blog.

IV. Judicial quote

I think this quote accurately describes how I felt about my mock court experience:

"I used to say that, as Solicitor General, I made three arguments of every case. First came the one that I planned--as I thought, logical, coherent, complete. Second was the one actually presented--interrupted, incoherent, disjointed, disappointing. The third was the utterly devastating argument that I thought of after going to bed that night."
-Robert H. Jackson, Advocacy Before the Supreme Court (1951)