Opening Day

After a week of rain, cold, snow, and general "when is this winter going to end" dreariness, the sun has stepped onto the deck in time for opening day, which just means I would rather be at the ballgame than in professional responsibility class. But it is a bit too early to start skipping class for baseball games. While I am here, I might as well start thinking about the assignment I have to turn in in a couple of weeks, which is a description on my own philosophy of lawyering. Maybe I could just hand in a link to this blog! Speaking of this blog and ethics, I have been wondering what kind of limits a lawyer has on blogging. Certainly, there are plenty of legal blogs, but most of those focus on the state of the law in a certain area. The rules of professional conduct prohibit a lawyer from revealing information relating to the representation of a client. I think blogging about pending litigation would probably be off limits, but what about all of the crazy things I see in court on a daily basis? Because the court is an open public forum, it is probably OK to recount what happens in court, but on the other hand, prosecutors have special duties. The Washington rules of professional conduct 3.8 (f) states:

except for statements that are necessary to inform the public of the
nature and extent of the prosecutor's action and that serve a legitimate law
enforcement purpose, refrain from making extrajudicial comments that have a
substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused and
exercise reasonable care to prevent investigators, law enforcement
personnel, employees or other persons assisting or associated with the
prosecutor in a criminal case from making an extrajudicial statement that
the prosecutor would be prohibited from making under Rule 3.6 or this Rule.

That would seem to indicate that writing about all of the humorous things that happen in court might fall under the category of extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of hightening public condemnation of the accused, which is really too bad because there are some stories that I would really like to share, but long before I started this class I had determined that a lawyers ethical commitment is the most important part of being a lawyer. This class is incredibly boring, but ethics seems to be to be so indispensable to the practice. However, getting that down on paper as a philosophy is not easy. It would be easier to just recount the humorous things that people say in court.

Back from Break

Just when I was beginning to enjoy school, I had to go work full time for a week during spring break. Now doing homework again seems dreary and uninspired. Now I am counting weeks until school is over, even if it means the bar exam is on the other side of graduation. When I am at work, I feel like I have a purpose. At school, I just feel there is a lot to do that just has to get done, and while the larger purpose of getting a law degree is at the forefront of my motivation right now, I know that as soon as I have it it will be pretty meaningless unless I have some work that gives me a purpose for using it.

One thing that is becoming clearer to me is that I really enjoy doing criminal law. It doesn't surprise me that the worst grade I have received so far in law school was in my criminal law class. The worst grade I received in all of high school was in German and I ended up with a Masters degree in German Literature. There seems to be some sort of pattern there. Now I just have to find a job that will pay the bills.

This is actually very true

back burner blogging

Blogging has been on the back burner lately. Last week I was working on an appellate brief for work, which meant my extra free time was taken up with that. This weekend I needed some non-law time. It is not true that you cannot have a life outside of law school or the law, but you have to take it for yourself, because you could become totally absorbed by the work. Plus, I got a Wii for an early birthday gift, and that has taken priority to blogging, but I promise some new posts soon.