law-new-view

Bar number and good byes

2008-10-30T19:03:00.001-07:00

I received my bar number today, which means I am a fully licensed member of the Washington bar. It was only about an hour later that I signed my first legal pleading as an attorney. If there was any moment of accomplishment that was most meaningful, it was that moment. More than graduating law school or passing the bar. More than even taking the oath of attorney in open court. It was that moment when my signature had the power to send someone to jail that I felt the overwhelming sense of responsibility that comes with being an attorney. With that signature I put my reputation, my honor, my ethics on the line and I was very proud of all of the work I had done to get to this point. I am also grateful for all of the help from my family, my now wife, my friends, my mentors, employers, coworkers, and other law students. Becoming a lawyer really is a process through which you change and it is hard to realize it when it is happening, but you really do think about the world in a different way. I know lawyers have gotten a bad reputation in recent years and frankly with the number of lawyers that are being admitted every year, you only increase the number of idiots and jerks who become lawyers, but there are really many many great honorable attorney's who I have met along the way. I hardly knew any lawyers before I started, but now I am really proud to be part of this profession.

As far as this blog goes, I think this is as good of a place to wrap it up as any. I had anticipated writing some reflective posts on the process of getting to where I am now, but I think I have all of the prior posts that do that just fine, and frankly, I have no appetite for looking back. I have not felt much of an urge to write anything in months and the who point of this blog was to track my law school experience, and so that this blog does not become a run-on like this sentence is, I am going to make this my last post. I must also thank all of the readers of this blog. You know who you are. You don't know how meaningful it was to see every week when my page view count was e-mailed to me that that 14 or so people had visited this sight. 11 of those could have been my mother, but I am grateful for everyone who was there to share in my sometimes random, sometimes grammatically incorrect, but sometimes, I hope, insightful commentary.

I may blog again in the future, but if I do, it won't be here. I will put a link to any future blog if there is any. In the meantime, I am going to just enjoy the fact that everything in my life feels like it has finally come together. Thank you and good bye!

A Look Back. Part 1: Lets go to law school

2008-08-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that more than four years have passed since I decided to go to law school. I do not feel that different on the inside, but I know I must have changed because I am still young enough that 4 years constitutes a significant segment of my life.

My decision to go to law school was not a deliberative one. In fact, I do not really remember thinking about whether I should or not. My girlfriend at the time was applying to law school, so I decided I would just see if I could get in somewhere. I would not have articulated it in this way at the time, but I was looking for some direction in my life. I was looking for a career after contentment, excitement, and happiness had eluded me on the other career avenues that I had tried. But really it was more of a gamble than it was a deliberation. I did not think about the hours I would have to work, or what a lawyer does, or the thousands of dollars in debt I would have to incur in order to finance this venture. I remember the exact moment at
a Mexican restaurant when I simply said: Maybe I should go to law school; it seems like it could be interesting. And since that moment, I never looked back.

Compared with everything else, applying to law school creates the most unrewarding stress. As pointless as the bar exam seems at some points, what you learn is a lot more relevant to the practice of law than what you have to learn for the LSAT. That exam really is worthless. I probably could have received a higher grade and into a better law school, but as with the bar exam, once you pass and get into law school or get your license, there is no reason to dwell on the exam any further.

After getting accepted into several schools and knowing I was going to actually be going to law school, I started to wonder exactly what I would be doing. I read A Civil Action and watched The Paper Chase and checked out from the library some guides to law school, the titles of which I have long forgotten. These guides provide no real help to someone curious about the law or law school. If fact, I would recommend to anyone considering going to law school to never read a single book with a title anything close to "Surviving your First Year" or "How to Succeed at Law School without Losing Yourself." They mostly provide advise that means nothing to you until you are actually sitting in a class room and will only cause you to worry unnecessarily about the Socratic method outlining a case. Probably the best thing you could do for yourself if you want to preparing for law school is start reading cases. They won't make sense to you. I really didn't know how to read a case until at least the first half of the first semester. Part of the difficulty of the first year is just learning how cases are structured and what you are supposed to be getting out of them, and learning that is mostly just reading enough cases that you become familiar. Now I am not saying that you should use your last summer before law school to read cases. In fact, the even better advice I could give someone is to spend the summer doing something that you love and enjoy. The most important lesson I learned in law school was that an attorney looks like me, thinks like me, writes like me, and works like me. It is true for everyone. When you are done, you are an attorney, so before you go filling your head with all sorts of ideas that other people have about what it means to go to law school and how one should do it, you should just do what it takes to be you.

Before I get too preachy and pretend I have any wisdom about how one should treat the time before law school, I should conclude, but first, one thing with which everyone who has gone to law school would agree: from the moment you send your acceptance in until you walk out of the bar exam, you will think about the world differently, and there is nothing you can do about this. Not that this would be any different if you spend 4 years intensely doing something else. By sending in the acceptance letter, a whole chain of events begins that led me to where I am now.

Bar Wrap Up

2008-07-31T15:31:00.000-07:00

It has taken me a week before I am ready to reflect on the bar exam. I can't say I have done nothing for the last week but close to it. The nine weeks of studying and exam left me pretty exhausted and having moved in the middle of it, I felt like I woke up last Friday in a life I did not recognize. It was only nine weeks, but the bar is all consuming, so I have been a bit disoriented.

So with one weeks retrospect, I guess I can say that it was pretty stressful although I had most of my anxiety dreams about it since it has been over. It happens at least once a day that I start thinking about some topic that was on the bar exam and wondering if I answered it right. I feel like I pretty much still remember almost everything that I knew a week ago, but I am sure that will slowly change.

It was not all bad. I do feel like I learned a lot and there was a certain sense of comradeship with other students that I had not felt in a long time. It didn't have the same feeling as first year classes where we were all graded against each other on a curve, although I know everyone looked around the room and thought to themselves that 1 out of every 4 people will fail and hoped it was someone else.

Speaking of the room, it is hard to imagine exactly what the conditions were like. I don't know how many people took the exam on computers, but there were probably 500 people sitting at their computers in groups of 2 in a single conference room with a proctor at the front on an elevated dias reading us the same instructions for each section of the exam and interrupting out thoughts at 30,10, and 1 minutes to go. I took a picture, but you can see too many people's faces for me to be able to post it.

The bar exam is probably like a lot of other experiences that really cannot be understood until you go through it. It strikes unique anxiety in almost all lawyers no matter how many years stretch between now and when you took it. For a professional organization, the bar association does not really make a good first impression since the first real experience you have with them is the bar exam.

I am glad it is over and I hope I will not have to go through that again, but all that is left for me now is to wait until the results come out in October. In the meantime, I have some more time off, and then I will be interning again at the prosecutor's office until the results come out. As far as this blog goes, I think its purpose as a law school blog has about concluded. I haven't decided whether I will continue blogging, but look for a couple more reflective posts about law school and then I will be wrapping this up.

Done.

2008-07-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

After literally two and 1/2 days of cloudy weather, the clouds just broke and the sun has come out after the end of the exam. School's out for summer; school's out forever (hopefully.)

Almost done!

2008-07-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

18 questions covering potentially 22 subjects are over. There was no evidence question and no Sales question but three torts and two contracts. Weird. This won't make must sense unless you have taken or are taking the bar. Six more professional responsibility questions and its over. Phew. Almost done.

Day 1

2008-07-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

All I can really say about the exam at this point is that it is pretty exhausting. I was having a lot harder time remembering the rules on the 9th essay than I did on the first. I had both criminal law and criminal procedure today, which means I had a easy start and I still have some of my more difficult subjects ahead of me: business entities and constitutional law. Adrenaline and endurance. That is what I need to get through tomorrow.

Its here.

2008-07-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

After 8 weeks of studying, it is finally here. If you were going to describe the skill needed most for the bar exam it would be endurance. I have probably written over 200 practice essays, and now I only have 24 to go. I can only hope what I have done enough, because there is not much more I can do. My success will not hang on what I do tonight but on what I have done for the last 8 weeks. I know what I know and don't know what I don't know. No matter if I fail or pass, I have done about as much as I could do. One can always do more, but it feels like I have been studying for the for years. A good night sleep is what I need now. I will check in here when it is over and let you know how it went.

Tour de Bar Exam

2008-07-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

I have not had much time to blog lately. Not only am I mired in bar exam studying, but we had to move over the 4th of July weekend and did not have internet for a week, but we are up and running again. Studying has its good days and its bad days. I am glad the bar exam starts in a week because I am ready for this to be over. I think I am ready on at lease half of the subjects if the exam was tomorrow. I have a week to make sure I have the other half in my head. It was hard to study last weekend because I just wanted to have a day off to do things I wanted to do, but then I remember it was either two more weeks of studying or six months. At least I still have my sense of humor. Last night S found this picture that describes the exact hypothetical our Sales professor used to explain when risk of loss transfers. Imagine you are buying an ice cream cone at the beach and just as the vendor hands it out to you, a seagull swoops down and grabs it out of his hand-vendor's loss because goods not tendered. If you take the goods into your hand, they have been tendered and if the seagull comes in the situation depicted below, you still have to pay for it. I thought he was just making up a crazy hypothetical. I guess I was wrong.

Back at It.

2008-06-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

I was pretty much worthless all day Saturday, and it has been difficult getting back in the swing of things. When it comes to studying, if you give yourself an inch, you might take a mile. I certainly needed a break, but it became easy to rationalize more breaks as the weekend went on. I really had to struggle through writing essays yesterday. Plus it is getting very warm here, so it is getting harding to study.

I have a no class today, but I have essays to catch up on. I just finished 3 evidence essays which was so refreshing after commercial paper. It is nice to have a few subjects that I feel good at. If the exam was today, I am pretty sure I could pass whatever evidence question came along. That is one of the advantages of criminal law: you really learn evidence. Civil attorneys simply do not use the rules of evidence as often as in criminal law. This afternoon I have to write torts essays, and even though I kind of like torts (not committing them) I struggle with those questions. They are such a jumble of activity that I seem to miss torts that are going on. Anyway enough details. My brain appears to be back in business a little bit.

Brain Freeze

2008-06-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

My brain finally gave out yesterday afternoon. It totally froze up and would not let me learn anything else. After 18 subjects in 5 weeks with 3 more subjects to go, I sat down to write my practice essays in commercial paper yesterday afternoon and try as I might, I simply could not get the rules to come into my brain. I was spent: too much information in too little time. I somehow slogged through 2 essays, but it was essentially a waist of time and I would have been better off trying to recover than persist in the futility. I am hoping I can muster enough energy to get through a few essays today and then take the rest of the day off to enjoy the nice weather we have and give my brain a rest. The cool morning breeze coming through the window to the study is just too delicious to sit here all day and there is no way I am going to get through another week without some time to recover.

(view out my study window of a beautiful morning)

Philosphy of Lawyering

2008-06-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

For my professional responsibility class last semester, we had to turn in a personal philosophy of lawyer. We were allowed to make part of it a creative project (can you believe that in law school.) So instead of writing a 20 page paper, I applied one of my new hobbies to the problem and quilted a philosophy of lawyering quilt (pictured right.) It is only the second quilt I made, but I am pretty proud of it. I also turned in a short essay on my philosophy, which I have also attached. I wrote it in one night, so it does not really contain my deepest and clearest thoughts on the topic-even though I have been thinking about these ideas for a while-but if you are interested in reading: here it is.

Corporations

2008-06-21T17:02:00.000-07:00

I hated learning corporations as much the second time as the first time. It was painful to spend the whole day writing corporation essays. Each time I start a new subject, I forget that the first couple of essays always suck, but with corporations, it was not until the 5th one where I started to feel like I knew what I was talking about, and considering I took a whole semester on business entities and did not remember anything, I don't have a lot of hope I will remember much of what I did today when I have to sit down again in week or so to write more. I actually find it easier to write on a subject that I never took the class in and just learned the basics in our 3 hour bar prep class. They say the bar exam is like a river that is an inch deep but a mile wide, so it is easier to have less depth in a subject than more. Once you learn the 15-30 basic rules for a subject, that is all you really need to know and be able to memorize them, spot them and write them out again on the essay. A whole semester of business entities left me more mostly confused (I somehow did half-way decent on the exam) than if I had just learned the rules in a single class as I did for secured transactions.

Anyway, time to get outside with the dogs.

A wall and the other side

2008-06-20T18:31:00.000-07:00

I kind of hit a wall this week. I don't know if it is the constant onslaught of new subjects or the relentless pace of essay writing, but yesterday evening I wrote one professional responsibility essay and I simply could not do any more. My brain was just full and I couldn't take it. Luckily S, having taken and passed the bar, understands these things and took me out for Mexican food and a margarita.

I also visited my old (not so old, but it seems like I have been studying for the bar for ages) office this week, which left me with mixed emotions. On the one hand I feel totally left out of life and I missed work a lot when I heard about the interesting cases that the lawyers were working on. It took me until today to let that feeling inspire me to get over this wall that i have run into and remember why I am doing this: because I want to be a lawyer.

That said, I got all my essays done for today, so it is time for a break.

bar

2008-06-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

Whereas the first week of bar prep was all about getting organized and the second week was all about getting a rythem, last week was all about getting exhausted with bar prep. A lot of people were like me and found time for themselves last weekend, because even though it has only been three weeks it seems like ages since I have had extra time for myself. Now though it is time to grind through the rest of the review class. We are getting exhausted into some subjects now in which I have not taken the class: wills,trusts, secured transactions. Why cant there be more criminal procedure?

Time for studying and selfishness

2008-06-03T21:56:00.001-07:00

S, who took the bar two years ago, said to me last night that during the bar you have a little more freedom to be selfish than one normally has. I notice the other students at school are all walking a with a little bit more focus and occasionally someone you knew well from classes will pass you without even noticing that you are there: usually on their way to or from Starbucks during our Bar class breaks. As much as studying for the bar is tedious, boring, and draining, there is something kind of nice about having such a singular focus. I feel like I have a purpose when I get up in the morning. Almost every hour of my day is planned out either as study or scheduled relaxation, eating, or exercising time. I don't really spend too much time thinking about anything else except the bar (and a little bit of wedding preparation here and there.) I have to admit, I have not been this focused in all of lawschool, maybe even my whole life, and it carries over into other areas. I have been amazingly good about getting the dishes done and my desk is cleaner than it has been in years. It must be that fitting such vast amounts of information into one's head requires a very systematic process and it just seems easier to plug away and keep everything organized than to let it fall apart. Then again, it is hard to tell what is going on outside my own head.

If I have to compare it, it kind of reminds me of when I first moved to Germany and was in a 6 week intensive German class. We had class in the morning and then we studied in the afternoon. I did a lot less studying then and a lot more drinking, but I was fresh in the country and I was fully absorbed in learning the language during most of the day, especially when drinking. It also kind of reminds me of being on swim team in high school. The first couple of days of the season were always kind of painful, but then every day you get a bit stronger and you can swim harder and stronger. We would always peak a week or two before the biggest swim meet (usually State) and then taper off so that we were relaxed and not exhausted when the big day came. I wonder if that is a good strategy for the bar as well.

We had this really annoying public defender speak in our professional responsibility class, but one story he told I found, well, it was something that stuck with me. He was describing some clients of his, big drug dealers, and they had told him how they prepared for big drug deals (meetings with lots of guys with guns and cash.) He explained what his client had said that he would get wherever he was going a day early then he would work out and relax the whole day before the deal and go to bed early.

I have a long way to go before I need to plan for the few days before the exam, but I might keep that in mind. For now it is the long schlog of class, commute, outline, practice essay, practice, essay, practice essay, then start all over again with a new subject.

Bar

2008-05-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

I am three days into studying for the bar and I am already having trouble keeping a positive outlook, so I am going to try and remind myself of a couple of things.

1. When I am done, I will know the most about black letter law that I will ever know for the rest of my life.

2. If I pass, I will never have to take the Washington Bar Exam again

3. Even though there is a lot I still need to learn, it is kind of cool to realize how much I already know from the past three years.

4. When you are trying to memorize the law in 21 areas, sometimes the right answer really does match with common sense (the exceptions prove the rule, because there are all sorts of wacky things that you just simply have to memorize)

5. It still doesn't fee like summer here, so I don't mind as much sitting inside studying on a cloudy day.

Do not expect too much blogging for the next eight weeks. At some point I want to write a few retrospective comments on law school and such, but that will probably wait and then this blog will come to an end. Until then, wish me luck as I return to my study hole.

Its over.

2008-05-19T16:02:00.001-07:00

Well, the first of three steps is over. Now I just need to pass the bar and get a job.

You know you're getting old when . . .

2008-04-28T20:22:00.001-07:00

You know you are getting old when you are pulled over by a sheriff and told you are driving too slow. Yup. We were out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I came to a four way stop at an intersection. I had made a wrong turn so I didn't really know which way I wanted to go. I made a left and the sheriff pulled in behind me. The road turned into the on-ramp for Highway 2, a two-lane state highway. All of a sudden, the sheriff had his lights on. When he came to the window, he asked me if I knew why he had pulled me over. I had to admit, I had no idea. He then told me that I was creating a hazard because I had not accelerated fast enough onto the highway, and to make things worse, I had changed lanes (to the slow lane.) It was only after he asked me the next question that I understood that his stop had been a pretext. He asked: Have you been smoking marijuana today? I was thinking, do you know I work at a prosecutor's office and my fiancee is an attorney and we were out birdwatching and having a picnic! He said he smelled a "faint wiff" of marijuana. Really? In your imagination? Because I have a beard and S was wearing a bandanna, we were profiled as stoners.

While I understand what wend through his mind: they are driving slow and look like a couple who might smoke pot, as a prosecutor, it pisses me off when cops do things they are not supposed to do. What if I did have a trunk full of weed? A good attorney could have shown that his stop was pre-textual. Since when is it illegal to drive carefully?

We were just waiting for him to pull us out of the car and ask to search the vehicle. He stopped just short of crossing the line and let us go on our way. I guess he was hoping we would just confess, which a lot of people do. The people who could best take advantage of the fifth amendment really don't understand it. Just watch an episode of COPS and you can see that.

So, because I was able to keep my mouth shut and not make any smart-mouthed comment to the officer (which is a way you can get an officer looking for something, anything to cit you with) we were let off, but S has not stopped giving me a hard time for driving like an old man.

Driving Record

2008-04-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

I just sent in my bar application--that required self-reporting confession of past acts that must be revealed to the bar before they will let you sit for a two and one-half day exam. The hardest part was trying to remember all of the addresses where I have lived for the past 5 years. I have moved four times during law school! I also had to least all past crimes including traffic infractions and parking tickets.

I noticed some interesting things in listing out all of my confrontations with the law (you can assume that haven't been all that many since I passed a background check to work at a prosecutors office.) I must have been afflicted with the all-too-common testosterone fueled need for speed for a couple of years in my late teens and early twenties. I had a string of speeding tickets throughout my college years and also enough unpaid parking tickets from the university parking enforcement that I once had my vehicle towed, but for the most part I mostly had a lead foot.

IN the years after graduating college, I pretty much stopped getting speeding tickets, but I had several tickets for expired tabs. I see a lot of people in court who are in court on a suspended license from not paying speeding or other tickets. Most of them are poor and choose to pay for food or new clothes for their kids than pay for speeding tickets and often they are pulled over because they didn't have valid tabs on their car. The reason people do not have valid tabs can be nefarious (stolen car, stolen plates, etc) but they can also be economical (can't afford the emissions test, the licensing fees, etc) or because you are lazy and forgetful. The latter was the case with me. The latter was true for me. I can remember putting off going down to the licensing place until I got the no tab ticket.

But in the last three I haven't had a thing, not so much as a parking ticket. Part of that is the result of not owning a car for a year and one-half. There was no speeding then. The other part has been working in a personal injury firm and a prosecutors officer transforming me into a defensive driver and strict follower of the traffic code. When you read about thousands of car accidents, DUIs, reckless driving cases you realize what a dangerous place the roads are and how important it is to be a careful driver. The other added benefit of not speeding and keeping your tabs up to date is even though you may get places a bit later and you have to make sure you check your mail, you sure do save a ton of money. $112 speeding ticket? No thanks.

Opening Day

2008-03-31T15:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-13T22:45:00.000-07:00

back burner blogging

2008-03-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Lies about Law School

2008-02-25T19:24:00.001-08:00

This is the first in a series of posts I want to write in the coming weeks. Now that I am in the last half of my last semester in law school, I think I am entitled to indulge in a bit of reflection on the whole process.

If you are thinking about going to law school and happened to stumble upon this page, there are some important things to consider about law school before you make your decision that you will not find in your law school's brochure. In fact, they are going to make sure you don't understand them until after the deadline for receiving a refund on your first semester has pasted. If after you have read this and still want to go to law school, then you should go; otherwise, find a different career.

Lie #1: After you get accepted, everything will be OK.
Almost everyone I know in law school has told me that when applying to law school they thought that as soon as they got accepted, everything else in their career would fall into place; they, and I, believed that once you were in the door, your first internship would be lined up, then your first job, then your meteoric rise in whatever field you accepted, and then partnership. The real competition is against those who are trying to get into law school! False. In fact, once you are in, getting accepted is meaningless, because now you are competing with the accepted students for the limited internships and later you will compete with all those young lawyers from all the law schools and in their first five years of practice for your first job. At least when you are applying for law school, you are not facing the impending doom of your student loan repayment grace period ending six months after you graduate.

On a positive note, during your first semester you will probably be thinking: wow, there are a lot of really smart people here, but by your third year, you will wonder how most students ever got into law school.

Three-L

2008-02-21T08:08:00.000-08:00

I think I am enjoying school right now more than I have since my One-L year. As much as the One-L year was stressful, it was also new, so my interest remained piqued a lot of the time. My motivation over the next three semesters progressively dwindled. Because of a combination of actually working in the legal field and getting better at learning exactly what I needed to learn to do well on the exams, much of the reading seemed superfluous and the classes painfully uninteresting compared to court. This semester, my attitude is a bit different. I don't know if is the fact that I only have four classes and only on two days a week, or if I am enjoying the specific classes that I have, or if the thought of the bar exam and finding a job is so daunting that being in school does not seem so bad. I think it is the latter. I realized that it might be a long time before I get to be in a seminar political theory with 4 other students and an expert in the field and have a conversation for two hours a week. There will never be a job where ethical issues are presented like interesting problems to puzzle over as they are in my professional responsibility. And there will never be a trial like the one I am preparing for in trial clinic class where no one has to pay any money or go to jail at the end. After twenty years of schooling, the real world has to come at some point, and, honestly, I do look forward to the responsibility of having a real job as a real lawyer with real consequences, but I sure am going to enjoy the time I have left in school while it lasts.

Freedom of Press

2008-02-11T16:00:00.001-08:00

Bill of Rights: Amendment 1

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Suppression of Free Speech?

I promise I will get away from political issues and back to the law soon. As a note about my previous two posts, I understand now why some of the normal election regulations did not apply to the caucuses. The caucuses are private events run and funded by the political parties. As far as this post goes, I am concerned about this trend of our public representatives asking private individuals/companies to limit speech they find offensive. This reminds me of when Harry Ried wrote a letter to Clear Channel asking them to fire Rush Limbaugh for comments he made on the air. The speech that the founders were particular concerned with protecting is political speech. That means the freedom to comment on any figure in the political, public sphere. I hope NBC puts Schuster back on air soon and Clinton should take some lessons from Obama on how to brush off inappropriate comments made by pundits who have to somehow fill 24 hours of news each day.

Personal Info

2008-02-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

Well, the democratic party is not requiring that you have any kind of identification when you show up at the caucuses this saturday (see previous post,) but they would like you to provide them with all sorts of personal information such as your name (duh,) address (duh,) phone number and e-mail. In addition, they want to know your race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender in order to use affirmative action to create a diverse delegate pool. I guess diversity is more important than whether you are a registered voter or not.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080207/NEWS01/24161373/-1/RSS02

Election Law

2008-02-05T18:42:00.000-08:00

We received a piece of junk mail today-well, not exactly junk mail. We received a political flyer. It was an endorsement ad for Hillary Clinton from the American Federation for State, County, and Municipal Employees. In addition to promoting their endorsement, the last page explained how to caucus, which takes place here this Saturday. I was struck by one of the explanation which stated:

"You don't need to bring ID, but you should bring your family and coworkers."

It caused me to wonder, what is stopping me from renting a bus, driving to eastern Washington, paying a bunch of illegal farm immigrants to drive over for the day, give them lunch, and get them to caucus for the person I wished. Wondering if this could possibly be true and wondering what the flyer was trying to encourage from Hillary supporters, I called the caucus hotline and asked the person on the other end of the line that exact question, and he answered: "Well, technically you could do that." To my question of how the precinct determines if the caucus goers are even registered voters, he said that all someone needs to do is sign a statement at the door. I may not know that many illegal Mexicans, but I could probably round up a group of felons. From reading all the police reports I read, I know where they like to hang out.

I simply do not believe that requiring people to have an ID disenfranchises anyone. Anyone who is legally allowed to vote can get a license, or an ID card and the fact that some people are too lazy to get an ID does not mean they are disenfranchised.

But I didn't get into this with the volunteer on the other end. I just asked where my precinct was and will go to add my one vote, and whatever posse of registered voters want to come with me.

Who do you want as president?

2008-01-28T10:09:00.001-08:00

Watch these two videos and ask yourself who you would want for president? Who would inspire you to sacrifice for your country? Who presents a vision for the future of the country? One person presents a vision; the other sounds like we owe a favor to the campaign. One creates a vision; the other sounds like you will be scolded if you make the wrong decision. I do not spend too much time on politics in this blog, but listening to one of these speeches left me with chills. One of these speeches sounds presidential. Listed for yourself.

Funny Law

2008-01-27T19:13:00.000-08:00

I am doing some research on what kind of implied consent warnings police officers are required to give to a person arrested for a DUI before the drunk driver submits to a breathalyser test. Basically, the law does not require that you be smart in making your decision, just that you have an opportunity to choose between taking the test and refusing. In fact, consciousness is the minimum requirement for determining your capability to reason. This is what the law says:

While the implied consent law requires that a motor vehicle operator suspected of being intoxicated be given an opportunity to make an intelligent choice as to taking or refusing a chemical test of his breath, there is no requirement as to such a person's capability of reasoning, so long as he is conscious. State Dept. of Motor Vehicles v. Riba (1974) 10 Wash.App. 857, 520 P.2d 942.

I thought that was pretty funny, and it is good for my argument.

"BA"

2008-01-20T18:27:00.000-08:00

One of the most fun and amusing moments that I have had in court came last week. While in jail court, we had a stipulated bench trial that centered around one issue: does mooning a police officer after you have been arrested for DUI constitute lewd conduct. I had to keep a straight face as I argued that it is possible to have one's genitals exposed while mooning, because showing one's behind is not enough to constitute lewd conduct. After court, the judge and I continued the conversation and he thinks it is possible to moon somebody without exposing one's genitals, but the reason the city lost was because he didn't think that the intent of the lewd conduct ordinance was to punish people for that kind of behavior. He also did not think the officer was offended either. It was one of those fun arguments that I really did not care if I won because the defendant was already pleading guilty to the DUI, and it is exactly the kind of thing that makes me want to continue practicing criminal law.

The rest of my courtroom time this week was not nearly as fun. I did a jury trial on Tuesday on a charge of telephone harassment domestic violence. We had a weak case and he was acquitted, which has had me thinking all week about what I could have done better. I was again reminded how the most important part of a trial is getting your good evidence from your witnesses out in a simple understandable logical manner. Taking direct testimony is very difficult and it is so easy to get all tied up and have it come out in a jumble. It did not help that we had a recanting victim and I was handed the case 30 minutes prior to when I had to get up in front of the jury.

From a pedagogical perspective, it is really better to loose a trial. When I have won, I usually just enjoy the victory and forget about it. Loosing causes you to think about what you could do better. I would feel worse if there was a victim who really was on board; on the other-hand, I loath the fact that somebody gets away with hitting or harassing another person because the victim goes along with the perp's version of events. It kind of left me with a bad taste and I think I have been a bit harsher in plea negotiations this week. I wonder how a prosecutor balances that sense of punishing people for their wrongs and making sure that punishment is imposed fairly and not based on the whims of one's mood. Something to ponder. . .

Last Semester

2008-01-13T21:36:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the lack of posting lately. Honestly, I really have not even been on my computer much at all except for what has been necessary at work. And besides work, I have not really thought about the law since my last final. I started a trial last week, but it ended in a mistrial half way through the defendant's opening statements (not my fault,) which was kind of sweet because the defense counsel had been a bit of a jerk to me in the past and it was fun to see him squirm in front of the judge. Plus I did not like the jury and hope that the pool is better next time we get a crack at the case. But beside that, I have not thought much of the law. We took a weekend trip up to Pacific county because S had a hearing at the court house there. It felt very "My Cousin Vinny," except that I was in the Marisa Tomei without the knowledge of cars. The county only has one judge and probably only a handful of lawyers. It was not surprising that he thought he may have to conflict out on the case because he knew the parties. How do you avoid that in a small town like that. We stayed at a small hotel a block from the courthouse, which also happens to be in FEMA zone (last months floods.) There were FEMA agents staying in the room next to us. After the hearing was over, we went to the beach and practically got blown off our feet. We also visited a lighthouse and had oysters at Chester's bar and grill. I fit in in my flannel and beard. S was the only woman there, besides the bartenter, and the only woman with teeth. When the phone rang, the guy sitting at the bar said "if its my wife, tell her we're divorced." I started my reading for the semester toning. It included J.S. Mill's On Liberty--he did not know what a paragraph was and rambles on for long sentences before he actually says what he wants to say. I liked the subject matter just not how it was written. And then I had to read two articles about how the practice of law makes you a depressed alcoholic who trades free time, sanity, and health for money and the false dream of a meaningful profession. I think the profession, for professional responsibility, is going to try and impart some wisdom about how we might do things differently, but it sure does suck to have to read about how negative things have become for lawyers. Isn't there some inspiring stories about being a lawyer out there instead of this dribble about how much it sucks to work at a big firm billing 2200 hours for a six figure salary. I can tell you that much of the negativity is true based on what I see in those who graduated before me, but it is a little late for that. Greedy law schools have already let in too many helpless idealistic confused twenty three year olds right out of college with a dream of fast cars and downtown apartments to prevent the suffering that lies ahead. It is a good thing I went to law school because I saw how much working 60 hours a week in a kitchen could suck. It makes the long hours of the law seem pretty reasonable.

Well, there you have it. Some thoughts on the eve of my last semester of law school. I was hoping to take only easy classes that would let me slide by on a minimal amount of work, but because the registrar has done such a horrible job of creating a schedule I am stuck with what I have. One of my professions already wants us to turn in a thought piece for the first day of class. I hope that does not keep up. When I saw that, I looked for another available class, but I have to stick with it because administrative law lab is really not an option. Enough ramblings. I will probably be posting more often now that I have to sit through classes again. Yes, it is very clear I have senioritus, but can't I get a little break? This will be my 44th semester of school.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T21:31:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas. Well, Christmas is mostly over. I am heading back to work after a wonderful couple of days of relaxation. I had to move, again, but after that was over I had plenty of time to hang out with the dogs, read books I wanted to read, and cook. I even made bread today, which is one of those hobbies that has unfortunately gone to the wayside since starting law school.

At least I am only just heading back to work and have another three weeks before my last semester begins. If I passed Business Entities, I will only have four classes this next semester. I have 3 credits in the bank from that dreadful summer Administrative Law class. That should leave me some time to actually learn the law. As I have said many times before, I learn a lot more by doing the law than by reading about others doing, messing up, appealing, having their case decided, published and deemed important enough to be put in a text book.

For example, between my finals I did a trial. All the senior prosecutors said it was a dog of a case. We tried it anyway. The outcome, however, isn't important. The jury was hung like a . . . jury that could not agree, but at least we got a majority of the jurors to agree with us and maybe he will take our plea or we will take another crack at it. Again, the outcome is not as important as what I learned in that case: Doing direct and cross is difficult!

I had a moment during closing arguments where I really hit my stride. I had at least a majority of the jurors right with me; I was off the script speaking directly with the jury, convincing them that I was right; it was smooth and clear and fun. The same cannot be said of the testimony part of the trial. Closing is theater; testimony, on the other-hand is difficult and technical. It is so hard to get from your witness all the information you want without the stuff you do not want and cross can easily get out of your control and meander into an area you do not want to visit. It is so hard to tell a story using other people's words without being able to tell them what to say or how to say it and have it all make sense to a jury. It must take a lifetime to really get good at taking testimony. I think opening and closing are really very simple compared to testimony. Learning that is going to take many, many trials and a lot of mistakes.

And that is why I need free time from law school to learn the law.

final wait

2007-12-20T11:23:00.001-08:00

I have to blog from my phone because my computer is in test lockdown mode. I am finished with my community property exam, but I have to wait for the whole time to elapse before I can leave (for lunch-I have another exam tonight) I donot know if it is in a good sign I finished early. either I totally knew what I was doing or I did not know enough to keep writing. Or I couldjust blame it on the force conciseness of page limits.

Funny Moment

2007-12-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

People slip up and mis-speak all of the time. It happens in court pretty regularly. An attorney-that we all find very slimy and stupid-was arguing a Crawford motion last week when ask the court to indulge him for a few minutes while he explained what Scalia really meant. We all already know he is an idiot and instead of actually lawyering he usually just puts on a show for his client, but he appeared especially idiotic when he pronounced Scalia like scale-i-a. And his argument went down hill from there. While his mis-speak can be chalked up to just being a despicable, lazy, idiot of an attorney, sometimes it is simply an accident, or maybe a Freudian slip. Check out the MSNBC reporter Contessa Brewer:

Either she just had a slip up, or that is how her and the fellow reporters talk about the polls in the break room and habit just took over. Either way, it is pretty funny.

Finals

2007-12-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

Its finals week again. I have a whole day ahead of me studying corporate formation and insider trading. It is not exactly my favorite subject but because I have not been as diligent through the semester as I probably should have been, it is going to be a full day. The thing that is keeping me going at this point is the fact that I only have one more semester left. The bar exam is no longer this abstract event somewhere off in the future but something I need to think about and plan for, and graduate law school for--hence my motivation for actually learning business entities.

In the past, I have blogged a lot during finals, but when you have 15 weeks of derivative suit litigation to memorize, it leaves fewer time to blog away, but I will sneak in a few posts. Apropos blogging--guess who else blogs? Let me give you a hint: he's short, always wears a tan jacket, doesn't own a tie, and denies the holocaust. Yes, you're right! Its the Ahmadinejad blog. There are blogs of political dissent and advertising blogs and far too many law school blogs, but this one falls into propoganda blogs. Its kind of interesting that he appears so excited to have a free forum to express his ideas when there is lots of documented suppression of political bloggers in Iran and censorship of the internet. (read more here and here). One of the rationalizations you hear for why censorship of the internet is good is that it keeps out western values that could corrupt the Iranian culture. I wonder if one of those western values is free speech.

Laws the Movie

2007-12-04T18:20:00.000-08:00

Disgusting

2007-11-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

Warning: If you are easily disgusted by gross descriptions, do not continue reading. What follows may disturb you!

I have been a vocal critic, among my close friends, of the bathrooms at the law school. For as much as this place attempts to present a facade of professionalism and prestige, that image goes down the toilet when you go to the restroom. I cannot speak for the ladies' room, but the men's restroom is in an almost constant state of disarray. By 10:00 in the morning, there is usually a small puddle of urine in front of each of the urinals. I can't really blame my other male colleagues. The urinals suck. Until I learned a trick, I would get an amazing amount of splashback on myself while using them (and I am not alone in having this problem.) Not only do I have to use the urinal in a certain way, but I have to stand with a wide stance not to get urine on my shoes, and we all know what kind of trouble one can get into in a public restroom with a wide stance.

The next problem is the sinks. There is usually pools of water on the countertop, so if you lean in a little too close while washing your hands, you could easily get water on your pants at counter level. You will still look like you wet yourself even if you were succesfull in keeping yourself dry at the urinal.

For these reason, I have found myself on occasion walking to an undergraduate building to use the comparatively cleaner restrooms, but normally I don't have time, so I have learned to be careful, but now I have seen something so disgusting, I am considering just holding it.

Over the past two weeks, in two separate bathrooms in the law school, I have seen dried boogers wiped on the wall next to the urinals, and not just one, but several. Some person, who has been sufficiently successful in his life to graduate college, get accepted in law school, and achieve at least the age of 21, can't find a better solution for a stuffed nose than to wipe it on the wall while he takes a piss. And it is not like he isn't in a place with ample supply of tissue!!! I might understand if he was somewhere else, but there is toilet paper and a garbage can right there. Hey, we all have to clean our noses sometimes, but should if you think wiping your mucus on the wall is the solution, you should not be able to get a law license.

A word to One-Ls

2007-11-09T05:33:00.000-08:00

I know this seems like a frighteningly stressful time and you are probably thinking: "Why the hell is everyone talking about outlining for finals? How exactly am I supposed to outline? How am I going to learn all this stuff? What the heck is the rule against perpetuities?" There is a lot you don't know right now that you will somehow learn in the next six weeks, but there is also something else you will not learn until your third year: how good you have it! Yes, I know it looks like us third-year students don't really have to work that hard at school, and the truth is, we don't. We have all pretty much learned how to wing it in class when we have been called on and have not read and how to begin studying for the final a few days before the exam date. Even though it looks like we spend a large amount of our time between classes just hanging out and socializing, the fact is that you don't really get to enjoy law school your third year. Must of us are working about as many hours as we are allowed, and it is not just filing papers at the library like my one-l work study job. We have real cases that cause us to loose sleep and require us to learn what the heck were actually supposed to be doing because law school leaves you woefully unprepared for the real practice of law.

Gone are the days when I could really focus on the subject matter of all my classes, and part of me misses the hermetically sealed life of a One-l. I remember this time two years ago when I struggled through the rule against perpetuities or 12(b)6 motions. I remember the hours spent to working out hypos and practice exams and delving deep into the concepts that were so foreign. I forget now how little I knew and how much energy it took to get all of that new knowledge into my brain. I had time for all of that back then. School was not just something getting in the way of a bar license, but it was, at least for a short time, an intellectually engaging activity.

So if you are heading into your first semester of law school finals, you should keep in mind that when you think back to law school and the law school experience, it is this next six weeks that you will remember. This is the time that movies and books about law school portray and is probably the only time that the stereotype of law school held by your friends and family that aren't there with you will match up pretty close with the reality. It is stressful and intense, but after this semester, it will never be quite the same. And when you are a three-l trying to squeeze in some reading between running to court, you may even miss it.

We have it easy

2007-11-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

Compared to lawyers in Pakistan right now, we have it easy. Appointing conservative justices on the Supreme Court is a far cry from firing those who are likely to rule you can no longer be the president. This raises an interesting question that we have been talking about in my Law and the Holocaust class. What is a lawyer to do when you are confronted with an illegal action that you are either charged to carry out or you see taking place in violation of the constitution you have taken an oath to uphold? Musharraf has all the guns (Army) so it may mean risking your own life.

That is one of the things I like about the law. Yes, this appears to be a dangerous but fulfilling profession. If you know me or have read this blog, you know that I once thought I wanted to be a professor and spent two years on grad school researching Nietzschean philosophy. But in the end, it held very little meaning. The law presents real moral, ethical, and philosophical issues almost every day. It is applied philosophy, because underneath all of the obtuse decisions by the supreme court is a client, whether that client is man on death row or the most powerful government in the world. Even my work as an intern at a municipal prosecutor's office comes with considerable power. The possibility of getting an article published on environmental visions of Nietzsche's philosophy pales to getting $50,000 bail set on a guy who was carrying a Glock 9 and violating a protection order.

Basically, I spent a long time looking for a job that I really enjoyed, and I finally found it. Although it is kind of hard to feel right now as I move into the 100th minute of Business Entities Class. I better not speak too negatively about this area of law or I am apt to end up practicing at a transactional law firm. (Many of you know that the law school gods have this power). That aside, there was a line in the movie Braveheart that I have always found inspiring: "you are not really living until you found something worth dying for." I am sure glad I don't have to risk my life to practice law in this country, but that is probably what a bunch of Pakistani lawyers are feeling right now.

Good Reading

2007-10-23T17:22:00.000-07:00

I have been following baseball this year. At about the same time that the Mariners went downhill, the Colorado Rockies took off. Not only am I rooting for them because I am from Colorado, but they are really a joy to watch. Without a doubt, the Red Sox are going to be a tough team to beat, but there is a sense of destiny attached to the Rockies season, and who doesn't like an underdog. This is an interesting article on the Rockies and how the coaches have sought out players who were not only good but had exhibited strong moral character. Maybe that is why when I watch the Red Sox, it feels like I am watching a collection of really good players, but when I watch the Rockies, it feels like I am watching a really good team.

This article is just funny, although tragically so: 6 Drunk Elephants electrocute Themselves.

Crime Strikes Again

2007-10-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

When I am asked what my record is at trial, I have to admit that I have one 3 trials but lost 3. 50% does not really look that good, but what that figure does not reflect is the thousands of cases where the defendant plead guilty. Now, some of those people might have had a good defense and just plead guilty because they would rather not spend the weekend in jail or they want to spend the weekend in jail so they can get a warm meal. On the other-hand, the majority of people who are charged of crime are guilty of committing those crimes, such that most of what a prosecutor does is process paperwork for for people to plead guilty. That does not mean that there is not a whole lot of give in take in that game. Lots of people have gotten more time than they had hoped, because I just was not going to buy their excuse for why they were shoplifting with their kids (for example.) On the other-hand, a prosecutor's primary duty is to do justice, so I have gone easy on people who were stealing a ham sandwich because they were hungry.

But that was all really just a preamble to tell you that in my life, crime seems to be winning. Less than a week after my car window was smashed in and my law school study guides were stolen, I went to my car and found my car stereo missing. I can only imagine that the next time I will go out to my car and the whole care will be missing. I don't think it was the same people in the stereo theft as the smash and grab. It was a much more sophisticated job. There was no mess. They were able to get in my locked car, easily remove the stereo without any signs of distress or destruction and closed the car back up the way it was. They even re-locked the doors on the way out. No wires were cut and except for the missing stereo, there was no sign that anyone was in my car (one of the keyholes looks a bit pushed in, which may have been the result of shaved keys jammed in the lock.) The irony is that I had parked my car near the rental office because there is more light there, but the officer who came to investigate told me that I had just given them more light to do their work.

From my conversation with him, these kind of crimes are rampant and growing. Trying to see this all in a positive light, higher crime means more cops, which means more prosecutors, which means maybe there will be a job for me when I get out of school. Then I can get a regular paycheck and a new stereo.

Educated Thief

2007-10-18T16:47:00.000-07:00

When I took the dogs for a walk on Tuesday morning, I was stopped by a neighbor who had just had his car window smashed in and his sub woofer stolen. I thought, "that sucks" and told him to call the police. As I walked on, I thought: "maybe I should check my car."

There it was with the back rear passenger window smashed out. I couldn't imagine what they would want with my car, but then I remembered the book back I kept in the back seat with law school study guides and notes/outlines passed on to me from other students . It was a smash and grab operation and they probably thought they might get lucky and find a computer or some bank statements, but I imagine there was some disappointment when they looked inside and just found a bunch of business entities notes. I am not too upset about loosing the books. The book on trial techniques that was in the bag may come in handy for the thief in the future. He will probably not get caught for this, but if he is doing drugs and stealing to pay for it, there is a very good chance he will eventually get caught for something (I am not being sexist here, but in my 5 months at the prosecutor's office, I have yet to see a woman in court for a vehicle prowl.)

So $162 dollars later and after a bunch of hassle, my car window is replaced and I have removed all extraneous stuff from my car. If only they knew how much more valuable those books are at law school than at a pawn shop.

Juries will do strange things

2007-10-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

I lost a jury trial case last week. When I explain the facts to you you will wonder how it is possible to loose. A man, in a drug induced state, walks into a 91 year old womans house in the middle of the afternoon while she is taking a nap. He claimed at trial that he doesn't remember doing any of this, but after going into her house, he finds her bathroom, takes out his dentures (meth causes people to loose their teeth) and takes a crap on her toilet. When the 91 year old woman wakes up, she finds him passed out on her toilet with his pants around his knees.

How could he not be found guilty of Criminal Trespass? All I can say is that juries do strange things. When talking with them afterwards, they mentioned that we hadn't proved the case "beyond a shadow of a doubt." I guess we didn't discuss reasonable doubt well enough, but I am positive there was not a single mention of "shadow of a doubt" at trial or in the jury instructions. I guess I need to do a better job of explaining reasonable doubt.

I think the jury system is an amazing system of justice and criminal law gives defendants the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes it feels like it just does not work. That is why civil lawyers are so hesitant to take their cases to trial, and it is a good lesson to learn early on in my career.

Polite Society

2007-09-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

This post is a continuation of my previous post regarding Ahmakillajoos' visit to Columbia. There is an AP article today discussing Iranian anger at Bollinger's (Columbia University president) introductory comments at the speech. He writes:

While Ahmadinejad probably expected at worst a hostile grilling by the audience, Bollinger's sardonic comments reflected a blatant disregard for the tradition of hospitality revered in the Middle East.

Personally, I though Bollinger's comments were great, accurate, appropriate, and reflective of the American spirit of saying things like they are. Why should we display the showy, fake flattery that is being called hospitality but is really a way of masking brutal atrocities and the suppression of political dissent in Iran. It was obvious to anyone who watched that when Ahmakillajoos was asked if he desired the destruction of Israel that his answer was not honest and contradicted previous comments. He didn't actually answer the question even when confronted. One thing I like about American culture is our brazen willingness to confront people and challenge them on their positions. This is something that lands people in jail in Iran. I prefer the tradition of free confrontation to the tradition of hospitality that is nothing but show.

Adolfmadinejad

2007-09-24T21:23:00.001-07:00

I just watched the speech by achmyrimjoberdo at Columbia University. The segment where he states there are no homosexuals in Iran is hilarious and I am glad he was laughed at vociferously. I originally thought it was a bad idea to have him come speak, and I still think it is kind of stupid to let him make a propoganda film out of a visit to America, but after seeing that he was publicly humiliated and made to look like an ignorant fool, I think there might be a positive effect to his visit.

But before I say what I think was good about his speech, I should say that this speech was not about the First Amendment. Because this is a legal blog, I should make some attempt to make a legal point. The First Amendment does not say that we have to give a platform for all views. It simply protects someone who expresses views that may be contrary. Almost all of what we consider the fundamental rights are less positive rights than negative restrictions on what the government can do to you as an individual. So his speaking at Columbia has nothing to do with a First Amendment right, except that he was not arrested for what he said.

But what he said was both extreme and dangerous. The best thing that might have come from the speech is that more people will realize what a crazy tyrant Adolfmadinejad really is. He denies the holocaust on the basis of needing academic freedom, he denied well documented torture and killing of homosexuals and women by claiming that homosexuals don't exist in Iran and that woman are beautiful creatures, and that the moderator was insulting him because he asked the simple question of whether he believed Israel should be wiped off the map (which he ha said many times in the past but avoided today by talking about the plight of Palestine.)

Basically, after watching that speech, I have the following question. . .would you rather have America trying to establish order in Iraq or this guy?

Tool for Seattle U. Law Students

2007-09-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

I don't know who this person is, but I found a blogger who has created a bunch of tools to import the School's master calendar into your digital life. You can get the calendar as a RSS feed or import it into a Google Calendar. He, or she, welcomes anyone to take advantage of this work, and you can find the post here.

New Word: "Slumper"

2007-09-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

I learned a new word last week: a "slumper." From what I can tell, this word is familiar to police officers and first responders and is used as a noun. It refers to a vehicle that is otherwise functioning but is stopped at an intersection with a green light and not moving because the driver has passed out. It can be used in a sentence like this: "I was called to a report of a slumper at the intersection of Main and First," or "I came upon a slumper blocking traffic at a green light."

When I read that, I laughed out loud. And in that particular case, you could say it was a "double slumper," because the passenger was also taking a nap when the officer peered into the window.

Crim Law is Fun

2007-09-11T16:22:00.000-07:00

Criminal law is a lot of fun. Before this is taken the wrong way, I am not talking about the horrible things that happen to people by criminals. I am talking about the craft of law practiced in criminal courts as opposed to civil. First, criminal law moves quickly. Civil cases drag on for years and then settle right before the case goes to trial. The state has to bring a defendant to trial withing speedy trial, which means cases don't tend to hang around for years waiting for one side to budge. Secondly, there are a lot of cases. This means that, for better or worse, you are not going to be able to always prepare for everything in every case. You have to fly by the seat of your pants in court. Motions are often done orally without ever filing any paperwork. You have to think quickly and have a good enough grasp on the law that you can make an argument on the fly. That's fun. Civil law is the practice of using the more paper than your opponent in hopes he will run out of money. Finally, the things criminals do is often funny, especially when we are talking about the type of street level crime that I see in misdemeanor court.

Think about the Larry Craig case. That would be fun to bring to trial. The prosecutor should not object to his recent motion to revoke his plea agreement. The prosecutor could set up a model of a public toilet in the classroom and asked Mr. Craig to show his "wide stance" to the jury. The other thing I find ridiculous is that Craig claims in his motion that he was not fully aware of the rights he was waiving. Yes, he did waive his trial rights by mail when he signed the plea agreement and a judge never got to question him about the rights he was waiving. On the other-hand, he is a United States Senator and has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution. If there was ever a person in a position to waive constitutional rights, I think it would be him. From what I can tell, this is a win-win for the prosecutor, and for the Senator, it seems to only continue to make him the subject of nation-wide bathroom humor.

And about him being gay. . .watch this video and tell me what you think:

Two-L 25

2007-09-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

You have certainly heard of the "freshman 15," but you have probably not heard of the "two-l 25." With only my third year of law school ahead of me, I have taken a little time out to weigh the past two years. I see all of these one-ls coming in all fit and fresh and, in general, pretty darn healthy looking. They are coming off the summer after college, or a year off working at Starbucks, or volunteering for non-profits so that, well, at least their resume might look a little fatter. Even last year's one-ls look pretty the same as when they came in and seem to have worked off the stress eating from the first year, but those of us who have survived legal writing-two and two full summers of real legal work certainly have a little more to show for our efforts--and much of it around the waist.

Before I get to calling anyone fat, I am basing these observations on my own weight gain and statements made freely to me by others in my class. Second year is probably the busiest and most stressful part of law school. In addition, you have been living off student loans for a year, which means your budget for healthy food has been diminished for two years now. I weigh more now than I ever have before, approximately 25 more pounds than I weighed at the beginning of law school (when, if you remember, I worked all day on my feet in a hot kitchen.) The law is very much a sedentary profession. Even in court, while I might be on my feet, I don't move around too much. And it is a busy profession, which means it feels like you don't have time to sit and eat slowly and healthfully (which may not actually be the case, but that is what it feels like.)

The good news is that your first year in practice looks to be even busier so that there won't even be time to eat, so those 25 pounds come off pretty quickly after getting your bar number. I also seem to have hit a plateau, so if I can get some regular exercise this semester, as I plan, I may actually start moving in the other direction.

Oh my where the time goes. . .

2007-08-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

I just realized that school starts this week and I have not blogged in almost a month. I guess I have been too busy to blog, so I will try and summaries a few of the highlights from the past weeks.

At work, probably the biggest highlight was that I did my first jury trial. I always thought I would spend lots of time preparing for my first trial, but this did not happen like that. I learned about a half-hour before it began that my case would be going and another prosecutor asked if I had voir dire prepared. I had time to jot down a few notes, but mostly I had to wing it. It was a lot of fun, especially once I realized I was just having a conversation with the jury. There was a constant underlying fear that I would do something appealable (like call the defendant a liar,) but since there was a not-guilty verdict, any mistakes I made have long since been forgotten. It all went pretty well, except my testifying officer, when I asked him to name the defendant, used the first name of the defendant and the last name of the victim: it was an assault case: a bar fight to be more exact. It was not an easy case to get a guilty verdict. Essentially it came down to deciding who threw the first punch and I believe the jury just kind of threw up their arms and came back not-guilty (the judge said it was clear that the defendant was lying through his teeth on the stand, but why do you think his lawyer wanted a jury and not a bench trial.)

In my own defense for not blogging, I was gone for a whole week in Alaska. Here is a picture of a grizzly bear we saw:

I really liked Alaska. Granted we only saw a very little of it (only a week cruise up the inland passage) but it still maintains such wilderness as I have never experienced, unlike Colorado, Washington, or anywhere else I have been. If we ever run away from it all, it is to Alaska we will go.

And now school starts this week. I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays this week, so tomorrow is going to be just a plain old work day for me--except that I have to do homework. I have successful forgotten about homework until, well, right about now when I am going to start reading. As you can tell, I have chosen to blog instead. That must mean school has started. I am already looking for distractions. This is supposed to be the year they bore you to death.

There is really a lot more that happened in the last month, but sometimes life is just meant to be lived and not recorded.

Invisible Rope Trick

2007-07-31T21:04:00.001-07:00

Funny

Non-Legal Observation

2007-07-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

Ice-cream trucks are not what they used to be. I remember the ice-cream trucks of my childhood to be true vending vehicles, with a window that opened up in the back and no doors. They were more like small UPS trucks, painted white and covered with pictures of their sweet selections.

The ice-cream truck that passes through our apartment complex is a sad comparison. It is nothing more than an old 80's model Astro Van with the pictures of ice-cream plastered over the outside in a haphazard manner. You can see the empty boxes that used to hold the ice-cream piled up in the back seats and the music, which was always annoying, plays especially slow like the machine that generates those ice-cream truck melodies is not getting enough power.

The kids still flock, but they don't know what they are missing.

Only a Fool

2007-07-27T06:31:00.001-07:00

The saying that he who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer is certainly true. It seems like the people least capable of representing themselves are the ones who try and get rid of their public defenders. I that if you are paranoid schizophrenic you might be upset that your lawyer is speaking with other lawyers, but that is exactly why you need an attorney. I don't envy the public defenders. It is really nice not to have clients. As a prosecutor, our clients are the citizens of the city, but they do not call or miss their appointments.

What I read at work nad what I do to forget it

2007-07-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

This is one of the funniest, albeit saddest, lines I have read in a police report for work. I have redacted any names but have preserved the text almost entirely:

"she said she was a 24-7 drunk but the crack has helped her get off alcohol. She said crack cocaine is better for her than alcohol because she at least knows who she is waking up with now"

It is a good thing I got away to the mountains for a week of camping. Hundred year old trees, campfires, and naps in the afternoon help restore one's sense of humanity.

Summer Time

2007-07-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

I have not had that much to blog about lately. Last time I was just about to head out on my ride along, but it was far less exciting than you might imagine. Mostly I stood around while the officer took witness statements from cases that had happened earlier that day. The only person we arrested was a guy who was waiting at the station when we returned claiming to have outstanding felony warrants. It was true that he had warrants, and he was arrested, but he had his ID out and turned around, putting his arms behind his back before we even walked up. He was a bit entertaining because he had just put down a 12-pack of beer. I did get to see the booking process, and the fact that I was not accidentally shot is a good thing.

Otherwise I have been just going to work and taking care of the home life. I was in court solo for the first time yesterday. It was just contested infraction court. I guess I can count it as a win. The court did uphold the ticket, although he reduced the penalty. Lawyers usually do not go to those hearings, but the kid who was contesting his ticket had subpoenaed the officer so they sent m down to handle it. For the rest of the time I mostly handle the arraignments. I feel pretty comfortable talking in court. I find it easier than teaching. At least you know the judge is listening as opposed to the undergraduates who I used to teach.

That is about it. We have beautiful weather here, so I am trying to spend my free time outside and not at the computer.

ride-along

2007-06-29T18:00:00.001-07:00

It has been very crazy since getting back. I have not caught up from being on vacation. The good news is that I am now authorized to speak in court (albeit still supervised for a while.) I have been handling the arraignment calender along with the new prosecutor. For those of you who do not know,that is when you tell a criminal the charge against them and give them a chance to plead guilty or not guilty (which happens most of the time.) It is pretty simple. The part that requires some thinking is if they want to plead guilty and you can present them with an offer, or when you are asking the court to set bail. When I am would get flustered on bail I would just defer to the court.

Well, I am off to watch cops arrest some criminals. I guess I will be arraigning them come monday morning.

wildlife and doctors

2007-06-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

I saw this bighorn sheep on my drive out of the mountains. I did not want to leave it was such a beautiful day in the mountains. Now I am in the dermatologists lobby. I used to get annual checkups,but during my wayward twenties I have not been here in seven years. I guess its part of my growing up that I am getting the once over by my dermatologists. I wonder if doctors are more careful with lawyers? my doctor friends definatly have had the fear of malpractice instilled in them. how much could go wrong taking off a mole anyway?

vacation

2007-06-19T20:40:00.001-07:00

my body finally gave out on me after a crazy past six week which included finals, a move to a new city, and a new job. I spent the bulk of the last two days asleep on my parents couch with a cold. It doesnt help that I am experienceing a bit of altitude sickness for the first time in my life. It is a bit frustrating to have grown up in Colorado and feel the altitude so much. It doesnt help that my parents live at over 9000 feet. The mountain views and the sound of the creek make up for it. I hope I am feeling better for the bachelor party tomorrow. Otherwise I am going to exercise a lotof self controll.

our puppy

2007-06-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

It works. I sent this picturefrom my phone.technology is cool. And to think, I used to be a ludite.

what a week. . .

2007-06-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

Where do I begin. So much happened this week. I cannot even begin to describe to you all of the new experiences, starting with Monday morning arraignments in a courtroom packed with defendants, attorneys, families, cops, crazy guys in cuffs. I mostly just watch and try to absorb as much as I can. I have not gotten to do much yet. I am restricted from speaking in court until my Rule-9 card is approved by the Bar association (a limited license to practice law.) I have been in court every day. I watched a whole jury trial, sat through lots of motion calenders, have already seen a criminal plead out on Monday and get arraigned again on new charges on Thursday, have been to jail twice, found out the punk-kid who got the not-guilty verdict in our jury trial lives in my apartment complex, and am researching about drug paraphernalia.

And that was just at work. I also had a chance this week to meet, and briefly chat with the governor at a fund raiser I was invited to. Also present were lots of lawyers from the county, city counsel members, the county prosecutor, and other politically involved citizens. After two years of relatively limited assimilation in Seattle, I feel like I am part of a community after only living here for only about a month.

Oh, did I say, I really like criminal law. Now, I know it is only the first week, but I think I am going to really enjoy this work. One of the things I like is that half the time you are still sitting at a desk, but the rest of the time you are standing up in court. I am still a bit intimidated. Things move fast. The judge gets through about sixty cases in just over an hour during a trial call or arraignment. I am definitely not ready to keep all the paperwork together on my own, but they seem to be phasing me in slowly. In fact, I am going to be on vacation next week. So before I can gather more stories from the world of crime, I will be back in Colorado for a week.

As for blogging, I am trying to set up mobile blogging from my cell phone, so look for that in the interim.

New Direction

2007-06-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

I start my new internship tomorrow. I am a little nervous. Even though I was not completely happy with the work at my old job, I knew what I was doing, and I felt pretty successful in my work, but starting tomorrow, I am going to be in completely new waters. It is not correct to say that I know nothing of criminal law. I took the required criminal law class; my legal writing II appellate brief dealt with a criminal issue; and, I have been in law school now for two years. Even though I am starting at the beginning again in some ways, I more prepared for legal work now than I did at the beginning of last summer. On the other-hand, this is all speculation now. I will probably be writing here later this week about how I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.

Besides being a little nervous, there are a lot of things I am looking forward to:

1. short commute. I only commuted from Everett to Bellevue for three weeks and that was enough for me. I am trying not to think about the fact that next fall I will still have to go to school. Is there some way I can skip my third year?

2. lots of court time. From what I can tell, I am going to be in court almost every day. We probably won't get any Paris Hiltons in municipal court here, but I am sure there will be plenty of drama. The other prosecutors I have met have lots of stories about defendants (mostly the stupid things they do.) I don't know if it is possible to do this work and not get jaded about crime. One long time prosecutor told me a story about how he saw an old man talking to child on the street one day and he was thinking "child-molester," but when he walked by he heard the child say "ok, grandpa."

3. connections. They tell you at the beginning of law school that you get your jobs from the people you know. That was not the case on the first job I got, but I had a little help on this one (I'll keep my sources secret.) Since I will be interning in Snohomish County/Everett, I am going to get to know other lawyers here, and I hope after I graduate I can get a job near here too. Apropos connections, tomorrow night I get join my girlfriends firm to dinner with the Governor. Our first question for her is going to be why it takes two and one-half hours to get a driver's license in this state. (now you know what I did Saturday)

4. a break from convincing insurance adjusters that $500 in property damage, and a two month delay before an injured individual seeks chiropractic care can still mean a person was severely injured. Anything can happen, but I am just ready to advocate for some different clients.

A shave and a hair cut

2007-06-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

For those of you who do not see me on a regular basis were probably surprised to see my clean face and short hair. I have had that look for a while. It is part of my "look like I could fit in in a courtroom look," and it seems to have paid off. I was just offered a new job this afternoon. No, not at the firm that would not call me back. He did not offer me the job. I finally called after three weeks and he told me he offered it to someone else (thanks for letting me know.) Its the other job I applied for: law enforcement (darn, I should have kept the mustache, but then I might get mistaken for a cop.) I will be starting an internship at the City of Everett Prosecutor's Office next week. I should fit in as a prosecutor with the clean shave. It sounds like they will get me into court as soon as possible, which is exactly what I wanted. I will be mostly working on DUIs, domestic violence, and other municipal criminal violations, but it sounds like the perfect place to get my feet wet, and I no longer have to commute to bellevue. I am a little nervous, but I'll get over that.

New Look

2007-05-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

Well, law-new-view has a new look. I will be making a few more changes, but for the most part, I think I am ready to go through the end of law school and into the bar. Other new features include the capacity to leave comments which never seemed to work with my last template, and searching all of my past post all the way back to the beginning of One-L.

I have been thinking a bit about the last year. It was a long and frustrating year. Was I worked to death as the saying goes? It did not really feel like it. I certainly did not spend as much time on law school as I did in the first year. On the other-hand, I can't remember a Sunday evening throughout the whole last semester where I was not working on either my legal writing or another paper. It was more relentless than anything else, and the fact that I had learned how get a lot more done with less work took some of the mystic out of law school. It was more like a problem that I simply had to work through. It was not especially engaging, but not yet entirely boring. I was law school's middle child.

Now a look ahead. I am looking for a new job, but I have not found anything that is both something I want to do and in the right location. I am commuting to Bellevue and working at the same firm I have been working at for the last year. I go back and forth with my feelings about work. Some days I really enjoy the work. I am getting much better at the work and it is still a lot of fun to settle a case. I have been there long enough now that I have worked on some cases from the very beginning when our clients were injured, through writing their demand and finally working out a settlement. I have a bit more independence now, and since I have been working full time, I have gotten to do some different tasks like draft complaints and edit interrogatories. I am looking for a job that will get me into court at least occasionally, but I am having the same problem I had last spring: lawyers do not call back. I interviewed twice at a firm, and then they told me they would have a decision in a few days. That was two weeks ago. I have called once and left a message with his secretary and also a voice mail. I still have not heard anything. At this point, I don't care if he offers me the job or not. I did want to work there, but that is simply rude and inappropriate. I already have a job, which removes some of the stress, but I simply want to know whether to tell my old job if I am leaving. Even if he isn't offering me the job, the lest he could do is return my phone calls and let me know.

Oh well, maybe I just don't understand how hard it is to be a lawyer and how your work is more important than common decency (add sarcasm yourself). I would like to think that even when I have my own firm, I will return phone calls. A week is understandable, two weeks and two follow up calls. . .???

Thanks blog for letting me vent my frustrations.

Quick Update

2007-05-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

I am still in the middle of a blogging hiatus. Since the end of the spring semester, I have moved to Everett, gotten a puppy, and started working full time. I have a lot of ideas I want to blog about, but it will be a few more weeks until I have the time or stability to start writing again. Check back some time in June. Happy summer!

Note to Readers

2007-05-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the next couple of days, I am going to attempt to merge all of my law school blogs into one blog so that all of the drama, the tears, the joys, the boredom can be found in the same place. You would think there would be an easy way to do this, but it looks like my new summer free time will be used copying posts from one blog to the next. We'll see how long that lasts.

Finished!

2007-05-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

About 15 minutes ago, I printed out my Medical Liability take-home final. That means I am finished with the semester. I do not have the same sense of relief as at the end of my 0ne-L year. On the other hand, I am not completely exhausted. I have done a better job of striking a balance between my personal life and my school life (some times I think too good of a balance) and in a lot of ways, not that much will change. I have been working through finals, and now I will just be working full time. It is true that I am not taking classes this summer, and for that I am very happy. I need a break from school before I can face the last year, which by all reports is just an excuse for the law school to rob you of another $25,000.

Blogger's Life

2007-05-06T13:59:00.001-07:00

For you faithful readers, you can tell I have been in a bit of a slump with this blog lately.  I am rethinking exactly what I want to accomplish here when I pick up with my 3-L blog.  I will blog a bit more to wrap up this year, then take a bit of a hiatus from thinking about law school, and will hopefully be back in the blogging business with a new look and new enthusiasm at the beginning of June. 

I would really appreciate from any of you who read my blog regularly any thoughts you might have on what works and what does not work. Are there topics you would like to see more of or topics I cover too much.  As law school life because lest, well, important, I am considering using this as more of a political/legal blog. On the other-hand, some of my best writing has been about the mundanities of law school. I would like to get more regular about my posting, which means I need to be more enthusiastic about the topics.  Any thoughts? 

In the meantime, I have been gathering some interesting reading on blogging that I will share with you:

A story on blogger etiquette

A story about a blogger journalist who is taken seriously.

An, somewhat related, the first supreme court opinion which included a hyperlink to a video. You can find it at this site, and the case is Scott v. Harris.

I have to get back to studying for my evidence final. 

Con law continues

2007-05-02T19:34:00.001-07:00

I may be done with Constitutional Law of Terrorism, but that class just seems to live on.  John McKay is in the news again, and terrorism will be in the news long after this prosecutor scandal is over.  In some ways, I wish that class would just keep going on.  It was not unusual that there would be major news directly related to the topic of conversation for the day, such as a supreme court opinion or a major news development.  I have also never seen so much online discussion on a class website before.  It is rare if one or two people ever post in the TWEN discussion section, but for this class we had people posting several times a week and often in response to each other.  I think this indicates a need to continue having discussions on terrorism and the many constitutional issues it creates.  I'll have to see if there is some way to keep the discussion going. 

An all-nighter puts me three down, two to go

2007-04-30T17:18:00.000-07:00

I pulled my first all-nighter of law school last night. It was probably avoidable, but I had too good of a weekend to regret anything now. In fact, I find that as I worked through the night on my treason and terrorism paper, I was enjoying law school about as much as I have all semester. This has been a very disjointed semester, and I have not been able to get excited about my work until these last minute spurts of engagement. I believe I have been writing about this two-L slump for a while now and today, on two hours of sleep, and two finals still ahead of me, I do feel I am being worked to death.

I had my appellate argument on Friday afternoon, which was probably the best part of legal writing all semester. After 15 weeks of working on the same case, all I had to do was get up in front of a bunch of wanna-be judges (local attorneys) and discuss the most important issues. It was actually quite enjoyable, which is just further proof to myself that I want to be in a courtroom. My forensics class wrapped up last Wednesday, and a few hours ago I turned in my paper for Constitutional law of Terrorism. All I want to do now is sleep. The worst thing is that my computer has been acting a bit weird for the past couple of days and now I am just hoping it will get me through the week. I don't really need any notes off of the computer because for the two classes I have left, I have pretty much stopped taking notes in class. I also don't brief cases anymore or make outlines and with Legal Writing II this semester, there were many a days when it was lucky if I had done the reading for evidence. I guess that means I have five days to learn everything for the exam.

I have had a hard time knowing what to write here lately. I think it reflects my general malaise with law school. I am in the process of looking for a new job right now, so I don't even really have much enthusiasm for my work. I am not unhappy there, but I am going to be moving north and I want to make the commute easier and maybe work for an attorney who gets into the courtroom more often. The key to the personal injury mill that I work at now seems to be to stay out of court. It works for her and I have leaned a lot, but it is time to move on. I am going to miss that job, but I have been bored there for a couple of months cranking out the same negotiation letters to adjusters. I still enjoy that game, but I would like to mix it up with some real court time, especially since I can qualify for a rule 9 (limited license to practice law under the supervision of an attorney) after this semester.

Again, I do not know what to write about. Maybe the lack of sleep is affecting me. I felt great all through the night and was really enjoying the mental puzzle of whether or not treason could be used as an effective tool in the war on terror. I will be posting my paper online here shortly if anyone is interested in reading it. I was actually quite pleased with the final product.

I am boring myself here, so I won't make you read anymore.

Some Legal Advise

2007-04-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

I wanted to pass on some of the advise for law students and young lawyers that I have heard lately. As the semester wraps up, professors are attempting to teach us what we actually need to know for practice--something that might have been missed amidst the mass of information we had to learn during the semester.

At lease a half-dozen times in the past month, different people have given me the same advise, so it must be important: make nice with the clerks. I have repeatedly heard that your best friend in court is the clerk and the nicer you are to the clerks, the better you will get along. Several people have also said that buying them a Starbucks gift card at Christmas will go a long way.

Secondly, I have been told to do the hardest work first. This is not so much legal advise, but good advise for pretty much any difficult task you have in life. The difficult projects are always going to be there, so it is just better to get them done first.

Finally, the oft repeated phrase of my evidence professor: "the other side is smarter and better prepared than you."

Blame Game

2007-04-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

In the wake of Monday's tragic shooting, lots of people have been quick to look for someone to blame. Could the police have done more? Could his professors have done more? Could the university have done more? It is not as if people did not try and help Cho Suen-Hui. Professors tried to speak with him and get him into counseling, his roommates tried repeatedly to get him involved in their life, and he was even committed to a mental hospital for some time (read a good summary of the details here.) I think when it comes down to finding someone to blame, I cannot find anyone but Cho himself. This kid was very very disturbed. People knew it, but he had learned a way to keep them away. His roommates and teachers eventually accepted that it was not possible to even get close enough to help, but no one imagined that he would be so violent.

Of course, in hindsight, you can always see things that could have or might have been done, but what strikes me, is that our culture has such deep respect for individual freedom that we pretty much let people be who they are unless they are causing other's harm. I am sure Cho is not the first English major who turned in disturbing writings. Some turned into famous writers. We live in a country that gives individuals the freedom to write what they want no matter how disturbing. We value this freedom so much that we allow students to keep writing such stories, albeit with concern. Of course, individual freedom does not extend to the freedom to harm others, but the fact that Cho was living in the dorms amongst other students shows how accepting we are of people who are clearly painfully anti-social, disturbed, weird. I wish someone had been able to get inside his head and alter the path of his life. It is clear that people tried, but if anything is to blame it is not that students are mean, bullying, teasing, and cruel as was cited for the Columbine shooting, but rather that students were too accepting. I saw an interview with Cho's roommate last night and he said he just kind of accepted that Cho was who he was and let him go about his business.

America has received a lot of bad press in the last six years, but when it comes down to it, we are the most accepting people in the world. You can be who ever you want to be in this country and that freedom is incredibly important to us. Cho did not understand this and it is his fault he felt so much anger. He is the only person to blame for these tragic killings.

2-L Dilemna

2007-04-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

I feel a bit of a quandary right now. I don't feel the same enthusiasm about the law that carried me through my first year and part of the second. Maybe this is simply the 2-L doldrum before seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. My 3-L friends are all talking about graduation. Yes, the terror of the bar exam looms silently over their graduation party plans, but there is an overwhelming sense of relief when they talk about law school. We, the 2-Ls, law school's middle child have only another year of school ahead of us.

Work has also not helped. I have only been able to work a day or a day and one half each week all year long. This places limits on how involved with work I can become. It feels like I go in, spend a few hours remembering what I was doing, do a little bit of work, and then am gone for another week. One thing I look forward to this summer is being able to work 5 days a week.

Until then, all I can do is just push through the next three weeks. I have to write a 25 page paper on treason and terrorism, give my oral argument for legal writing, take my evidence exam, and write a take home exam. If the end of this semester goes as past have, I will probably be blogging more frequently.

Apropos blogging. We had a panel of journalists in our constitutional law and terrorism class yesterday. One of the journalist made reference a couple of times to those uncredible bloggers. I do not claim to be journalism, but as a blogger for the past couple of years, I feel a bond with those other self-made publishers and it is interesting to see how those in traditional arbiters of information feel threatened by rogue writers. However, one thing bloggers could probably use is some editors. There should exist a consortium of bloggers who also function as editors for each other's works. The same logic applies for movie directors who produce their own movies. (did you see that horrible Kong!) Without editors, we tend to just ramble on, so I will stop now.

University Life

2007-04-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

The Virginia Tech shooting today is horribly tragic. Maybe I feel more disturbed by this tragedy because I am still attending University. I have always enjoyed the quiet sanctuary of a University. There is still a piece of me that longs for the professorial life, and I spent almost all of the last 12 years in some way connected to a University. I cannot imagine how those students, especially those who live on campus, are feeling tonight. Even after the threat is gone, that sanctuary has been punctured. I do not know what is going on lately with these shootings. In the last couple of weeks there has been this shooting, the shooting at the CNN building, the shooting at the University of Washington, and a couple of months ago at the mall in Utah. Is this a trend? Or is it that we simple hear about these events immediately through the channels of modern media? My thoughts are with all of those who lost loved ones and friends and all of the students in Virginia.

Legal Writhing

2007-04-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

My legal writing brief is due tomorrow, so I haven't been doing much more than that in the last couple of days. The problem I am up against now is that the school has placed an unrealistic page limit on our brief. I was looking through some Division II criminal briefs as examples and most of the briefs are over 30 pages and only cover two issues. We are expected to cover three issues and do it all in 25 pages. I know it is because the professors do not want to read more than that, but it is an unrealistic expectation. I realize that there is something to be learned by forcing conciseness and courts do not like excessive wordiness, but I definatly cannot get all my arguments covered in 25 pages. I have already cut two whole pages of text and have a page and one-half to go.

I'll admit it; I suffer from a specific writer's malady that makes cutting down tough. My ego is wrapped up with my writing, so when I cut out whole sentences, I feel like I am cutting something important out simply because I wrote it.

I should take some lessons from our new Chief Justice, John Roberts. In his first dissent for the court in Massachusetts v. EPA, he wrapped up his views in 14 pages. Granted, justices have more leeway in dissenting opinions because they do not have to worry about being binding. It is simply a place for them to say how the rest of the judges got it wrong, and he dismissed the case based on standing. Regardless of the merits of his global warming opinion, his writing style is wonderful. He is very concise and easy to read, especially compared to Steven's majority opinion. The other thing that worries me about Steven's opinion is the creation of a new basis for standing, a "special solicitude" for Massachusetts. Robert's called this "an implicit concession that petitioners cannot establish standing on traditional terms" Id at 44. The majority creates a new standing doctrine without citing any precedence. Maybe this is revenge by the liberal justices for the court choosing Bush as president in 2000, or as one blogger said, this case should be renamed Bush v. Gore's Movie.

Weekend Update II

2007-04-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

Before the weekend gets too far away, I wanted to finish the posts I have been meaning to wright about it. On Saturday I celebrated my 30th Birthday. It was a great night. I invited a bunch of friends to come bowling with me (to get in the mood of the year I was born.) Even people who did not think they were going to bowl got on the rented shoes and rolled. There is just something so fun about knocking things down, especially when you throw in your friends and a bunch of pitchers. I must be getting old though, because I didn't end up in the gutter by the end of the night. I have learned recently that it takes a lot more out of me if I drink too much, so I have been taking it easy.

Also, now that I am getting older, I thought I should get a more clean cut hair cut. I had the barber chop off that mop that was growing on my head recently and I got rid of the mustache that was also taking us back to 1977. I almost look courtroom ready, but alas, I still have more than a year of school. It seems like too much school. I saw a friend from high school this weekend who started medical school the same time I started law school. He was out here during a break after finishing the first portion of the Boards. He is done with the classroom aspect of his education. What? Maybe you didn't read that right. Yes, in medical school, they understand that practical education is as important as classroom education. Law schools have not quite learned that. I think its because they don't want to give up that third year of tuition money, but from what I can tell, the third year is pretty much a waist. And it would be a lot more helpful if that year was used as part of a full year apprenticeship. I do not think anything will change any time soon, because the only people with the power to make that kind of change are people who have already completed law school and the bar exam. They simple do not have any motivation to make things more efficient.

I better get back to legal writing. I am going to a Mariner's game tonight, so that means I will not be getting anything done this evening. However, even at this late point in this semester, it is important to take a night off and to something fun.

We're number 2!

2007-04-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

All of us who have legal writing this semester are under the thumb of our appellate brief. Our school prides itself on having a very good legal writing program. I have no doubt that there is some truth to that. We used to be number one. Even Harvard uses the textbook written by the professors in our department. But this year we fell a spot to number two. You can tell that some of the teachers and the administration had its pride hurt a little bit. When they sent out a school-wide e-mail with the new rankings, they included a rationalization for how we could have slipped a spot: the number one school hosted the major legal writing conference this year, so that must have been the reason they were number one. How else could Mercer University, who no one has ever heard of, have beat us?

It is probably good that they got a bit humbled. When you are number one, you stop working as hard. For example, I asked my legal writing professor to explain why you only put facts after the when clause of an issue statement. Her first response was: that's what the book you are supposed to be reading tells you to do. I was a little shocked. I know what the rule was, but I was still making the same mistake, so I was hoping she could explain it. Normally I like her hands off attitude, but it bugs me that I should be doing something simply because the book tells me to do it that way. However, in the end, that seems to be what legal writing teaches you: how to write the way you are supposed to write because we tell you what the rule is. It does not require thinking per se. It requires creative plagiarism.

Weekend Fun: Part 1

2007-04-02T15:49:00.001-07:00

It was a busy weekend. Friday night was the mock trial competition. We did exactly what we wanted to do: good enough to put the experience on our resume but not good enough to qualify for regionals--i.e. third place. It was actually a lot of fun and got me even more enthused to get in an actual courtroom. It takes so much energy to do a good job at trial. Not only do you have to be very prepared and have thought of so much prior to even walking through the door, but you have to be constantly listening to your witness to make sure they give you the answers you want and to your opposing counsel to make sure they are not asking questions they should not be asking. My favorite part, however, was the opening and closing. I like the performance aspect of being in front of the judges. I like using timing and emphasis to keep their attention, draw them in, and hopefully see that your theory of the case is more reasonable than your opponents. I also had a really good partner, and my girlfriend did a wonderful job as a witness. At one point she had the whole panel of judges laughing at her character.

(if you read this post earlier today, I apologize for the strange " " that appeared in the text. I seem to be having some bugs with my blogging software)

random

2007-03-28T16:51:00.001-07:00

I came across these two separate articles that seem to be related. Both speak about space junk falling from the sky, but neither of them mentions the other. The link? Fark.com

Space junk falls on airliner

Space junk falls in Somalia

The Gods and the internet must be crazy!

Is School Over Yet?

2007-03-26T10:52:00.001-07:00

It is getting harder and harder to stay motivated for school.  I can only imagine how ready I will be for law school to be over next year.  A colleague of mine just came by and said he felt like he was living Groundhog day and my girlfriend woke up this morning and said in half-consciousness but full earnestness: "isn't it Sunday?"

For those of you who read this and who go to school with me, stop by the Men's Law Caucus table and buy some baked goods for our bake sale.  We are also selling those cancer bracelet things to support research for testicular and prostate cancer.  One student already came up and said she has a friend who had testicular cancer and how goes by the nickname "one-nut." 

In other news, the prosecutor  scandal keeps going on.  I  had the opportunity to go have some beers with McKay last week under the auspice of discussing paper topics for his class.   We did not talk about the scandal at all and it  seems like he is ready for this whole thing to blow over; although people at the bar were buying us beers, so I didn't really complain.  We mostly talked about terrorism and whether or not it is a serious problem.  I did not think there was much debate about that and most of the public debate was on how to deal with terrorism, but it seems some people do not think terrorism is that big of an issue.  At a different event this weekend, I was accused of being Dick Cheney, because I said the issues of terrorism and the law will be important and changing for most of my legal career.  It has taken over four years for some of the prisoners at Guantanamo to get charged and sit before a commission.  Considering that fact, I do not know how anyone thinks these issues will go away anytime soon.  This is an important and changing area of law exactly because terrorism exists now as a particular form of violence against civilians which has grown in our fast moving media environment.  Never before could a band of armed rebels bomb a nation's soldiers thousands of miles away from home and have the news reach millions of citizens within hours.  Terrorism, as we know it, is only possible because the means of communication allow terror to spread. 

Spring Break

2007-03-17T22:13:00.001-07:00

This has been the least spring break of spring breaks. I worked for four days last week and spent the fifth working on my appellate brief for legal writing. I did get away to the beach last weekend with my girlfriend. It rained most of the time, but we did get to walk on the beach and had a jacuzzi in our room. It is always nice to get away for a few days and give your life some perspective.

Since my last post, the prosecutor scandal has only grown. Professor McKay has promised to spend some time this week in class answering our questions, so I look forward to having the same opportunity as the senate had without needing subpoena power. Professor McKay seems to have changed his stance a bit since the first time he talked with us at the begining of the semester. At that time, he claimed that he wished to simply step down quietly and was not going to make a big stink. I heard him on the radio a few days ago talking about how he believes the wrongdoing necessitates an investigation from congress or an appointed federal prosecutor. I want to ask him if this change of tone came about because of what he has learned in the last months or because of the media attention he has received. Even though he held a relatively important position as a federal prosecutor, being in every newspaper in the country brings a whole other level of fame. Did the fame change his mind about the scale of wrongdoing?

The political atmosphere right now is highly charged and it seems like we are surrounded by scandals. Politics has always been contentious, but with modern communication, we now know about every power struggle that takes place in Washington. The Valerie Plame/ Scooter Libby/ Dick Cheney drama just keeps going on, and this federal prosecutor "scandal" seems to be gathering steam for no other reason than that there is a general sense that there must be something more to this.

I have said this before, but part of a legal education is an education about politics. In my own experience with small scale politics at school when we established the Men's Law Caucus, I have learned that it is possible to make something feel scandalous simply because you believe there must be something more to it. What is it that excites us about a scandal such that we almost want the scandal to explode, expand, and become even more controversial. Does it make us feel more important? Where we once might have brushed a conflict with another off, when put inside a political pressure cooker and when we get some attention for what we are doing, the conflict is all of a sudden escalated to a scandal. Then we are involved in something that feels all absorbing and and essential to our identity. I am not sure this is always a good thing. It is easy to loose track of reason when we are too tied up in a scandal. Is it really the case that a scandal reveals some hidden truth? Or is a scandal just the magnification of a human conflict because of focused attention by a lot of people who previously did not care one wit? In the law, the court tries to even the playing field of opponents such that even controversial cases are subject to the same legal principles. A scandal seems to me to be a controversy where the public no longer evaluates with reasoned principles.

Prosecutor to Professor

2007-03-06T20:59:00.000-08:00

In our Constitutional Law and Terrorism professor's own words, he was subject today to the "seemingly unbridled powers of the legislative branch." As pictured above, our professor, otherwise known as former U.S. Federal Prosecutor for the Western District of Washington, John McKay was called to Washington today to appear before a Senate Judiciary sub-committee. The most interesting part of his testimony that I watched this morning on C-SPAN was his comment that he and his fellow prosecutors would have stepped down quietly if it had not been for the Senate making a big stink. He also stated that he did not think there was a Federal Prosecutor, currently serving or in the past who would give in to pressure of the executive or a Senator and sacrifice their prosecutor's independence. While I am not sure I can fully believe that statement, human nature what it is, but I certainly know it is true for him. We have had guest speaker after guest speaker in his class that have all described Mr. McKay as one of the most brilliant, innovative, and ethical U.S. Attorney's to ever serve. These compliments were not simply bestowed by other government employees but by the lead federal defense attorney for Washington who stood repeatedly on the opposite side of the courtroom from Mr. McKay. I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to be one of his students and Seattle University is very lucky to have snatched him up for a professorship. I do not know what kind of deal they have, but the school should seriously consider making his position permanent.

Most Senate hearings are the same. Each Senator is given ten minutes. The first eight minutes they usually use to fill with their own thoughts in the form of a long winded question. Then the answer comes and in most cases, I am sure the answers have been mulled over long before the hearing. Remember that in situations such as the hearing today, you are looking at possibly four of the countries greatest criminal prosecutors. They are unlikely to fumble an answer. It is the same way with nominations to the federal bench or when Condoleeza Rice testifies.

One thing I have had further reinforced from following this story is that you should never get your information for the media. From what I have learned from McKay and from the assistant U.S. attorney that taught our class today is that McKay was fired for a political reason when he had a disagreement with a higher up in the department of justice. This in itself might be unfair and a loss for their office, but it is hardly unusual. He has a political appointment and people get fired all the time because they prove incompatible with a person higher up in the chain of authority. Now, on the other side of this issue is the change to the PATRIOT Act that allows the Executive to appoint temporary Federal Prosecutors indefinably, thus circumventing the Senate confirmation process. For this we really have the Congress to blame because they let this slip into the Act and are all upset now that the Executive is exercises the power that Congress gave it when the PATRIOT Act was amended. Yes, it sucks that the DOJ feels it necessary to get rid of their political enemies, but it is Congress that let them.

(I am going to be a little selfish here and say that this whole thing has worked out really well for me because McKay is now teaching. I also get the feeling that McKay is pretty happy with the teaching gig).

Feeling Better

2007-03-03T12:57:00.001-08:00

I am feeling much better today. I spent Thursday afternoon and most of Friday in bed again and by mid day Friday my fever had broken. I don't have my full energy back, but I no longer feel sick. All this means that I have to face law school again. I was able to get some work done while horizontal, but I am not sure how much actually stuck.

Mostly I read the trial transcript for the appellate brief I have to write in Legal Writing, which was pretty entertaining. It seems like criminal defense attorneys are the only attorneys who are pretty much allowed to blatantly lie in the court. The defendants were charged with methamphetamine manufacturing. Neither took the stand, but during his closing argument, the attorney for one of the defendant's kept going on that there were many other plausible arguments for the chemicals that were found in his small trailer. For example, he was a pack-rat on a mission to clean up the world, which explains why he had a mason jar full of coffee filters testing positive for psudophedrine residue. Also, it is equally as believable that the chemicals found that are normally used in meth production could have been used for cleaning rocks-a legitimate purpose; and my client could be a rock collector! Did the attorney really think the jury was going to buy that argument. I am sure the defendant was sitting in the courtroom and I doubt he looked like your rock collecting type. (come to think of it, isn't rock collecting a thing pot smoking hippies do? That association wouldn't help him though) Those two "other possible stories," which were supposed to raise a reasonable doubt in the jury came along in a string of possible stories, which would only lead me to think as a juror: "this guy is just making this stuff up."

Can you tell I am writing from the State's perspective? The interesting thing about the case, the real case, is that I am pretty sure the guy was cooking meth, but after being convicted by the jury, his conviction was overturned by the appeals court because of bad cops (improper search). This raises a question that we, as a nation and as lawyers, have been struggling with for a long time: why should we allow a criminal to get free just because the cops showed up at his place and entered inappropriately? On the other-hand, I like the idea of cops not being allowed to come into my apartment for no apparent reason. I guess in our constitutional balance we allow some guilty men walk so we don't innocent men are not charged and we can all be more secure in our person and possession.

Well, I better go start doing my research for this rather than just keep blabbing on. Happy weekend y'all.

working sick or sick of work?

2007-03-01T16:33:00.001-08:00

I am working from bed today. After two days of sleep, I tried going to class yesterday, and it took almost everything out of me. I haven't been sick like this in years. My girlfriend keeps telling me I just have to stay in bed if I want to have any chance of getting better soon, but I don't like just lying here watching advertisements for Binder and Binder, Social Security Disability Advocates. I did that kind of work last summer, and I know that the $600 a month one can get from Social Security Disability would not be enough to live on. Still, it is hard to get focused on school again. I just picked up the trial record for the appellate brief I have to write in legal writing and wonder if I am ever going to be able to do this work day in and day out.

I am at a difficult point in my studies. Thus far I have been carried along on the spirit of naive curiosity. I knew so little about the law when I first started. I don't think I knew the difference between a law and an ordinance, let alone what a summary judgment was. The whole thing was such a mystery to me that it was exciting. I felt like I was learning a whole new way to see the world that I had not previously explored. Let's just say, the honeymoon is over.

It is not that I now find the law boring. Rather, I find it overwhelmingly complex and difficult. There is so much detail that I have to learn that I feel I have lost touch with my initial excitement. I must be experiencing what those students who always wanted to be lawyers experienced during the first year of law school: this stuff is technical, often very dry, and requires an immense amount of work to be successful. It is no longer enough to just be curious. If I am going to learn this stuff, I am going to have to want to learn it. Unfortunately, I am not blessed with one of those brains that can simply learn information for the sake of accomplishing the task at hand. I am the type of person who has to feel that what I am doing has meaning.

Lying in bed with aches and a stuffy head really gets you thinking about why it is you are doing what you are doing. Would I rather be doing something else? No. I have tried other "careers," and I can tell you that you run up against the same wall. I am up against the wall that separates armatures from professionals, getting by from solid accomplishments. This is not just a legal challenge but a challenge in myself to commit to something and do it the best I can. Maybe getting sick will help me get over this hump. As Nietzsche said:

“Enduring habits I
hate... Yes, at the very bottom of my soul I feel grateful to all my
misery and bouts of sickness and everything about me that is imperfect,
because this sort of thing leaves me with a hundred backdoors through
which I can escape from enduring habits.”

I feel like I have been going non-stop since this semester started. In fact, I feel like I have been going non-stop since law school started. So much so that I was not so much learning this semester but getting through. I feel like being out of the look sets me at a new starting point and maybe I will escape through the back door and begin to feel less overwhelmed by the mass of information I need to absorb.

Sick Day

2007-02-26T20:30:00.001-08:00

I have not taken a sick day like today in many years. I have asleep most of the day, only to awaken for some food and to walk the dog. Usually I can pull through the couple days a year when I get sick and make it to school, but this time it was too much. I think I have been fighting this for a while because I first starting feeling the symptoms a few minutes after I sent in the final copy of my Brief for legal writing last night at 11:00 P.M. It was a downhill slide from there. I must be in the mid-two-L slump. Life as a lawyer still feels very far away, and I do not feel like school is getting me very prepared. I am going through the motions, but I don't feel like I would know what I am doing if I was out there practicing. Maybe it is a good thing then that being a lawyer still feels far away.

The problem with legal writing is that you spend 8 weeks working on the same brief. If you make mistakes, you don't get to really learn from them because you only really write two briefs in the semester. It seems like it would be better if we spent less time on each brief and wrote more of them. Over the course of last year's legal writing class, I wrote four memos, and the last was considerably better than the first. That was the result of making mistakes on the first two and having an opportunity to start from the beginning on later memos without making the same problems. With this kind of learning, repetition is the key. I will stop complaining about legal writing now. Complaining about that class at law school is endemic. You would think we would all be more appreciative considering we supposedly have the number one legal writing program in the country.

Time to go back to bed. This has been too much thinking for my sick head today.

Group Work

2007-02-21T10:01:00.001-08:00

I am inherently averse to group work at school. I rarely study as part of a study group, and when I do, I do so only on a limited basis. It is not that I don't think groups can be helpful or even productive, but that is often the exception rather than the rule. I have said this here before, but there are people in law school who really shouldn't be there. A girl in my medical liability class responded to the professor's question about whether medicine was an exact science by saying: "Um, like, isn't that what we are learning in this class?" I wonder how she got into undergrad, let alone law school. Of course I want everyone to learn and be successful at law school, but there comes a point where you have to watch out for yourself. If that student asked me to be part of a study group I would decline without hesitation.

Group work can be a pleasure, and I am excited about my group for my forensics class. Everyone in the group is very intelligent, does their work independently, and when we get together, we do so for a limited amount of time to focus on the task at hand. It can work. The law, probably like most professions, requires skills of both independent work and group work. No one can get through law school alone, but for any group to work, each person has to bring a relatively equal amount of knowledge to the table, albeit different knowledge. We all see different things and focus on different aspects of a case or a project and by combining the different views, we all know more. You would think that with all of the cut-throat pressure of the One-L year, some of the idiots would have failed out and you could put a good group together with about any set of students. Not the case, and the same is probably true in practice.

Disclaimer

2007-02-15T20:20:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have blogged about blogging, but I think it bears repeating the purpose of this blog. I blog with my real name, so that I can take responsibility for what I write. After all, the contents this blog are nothing more than the thoughts of a single person, me. They do not reflect the beliefs or positions of my employers, my law school, my associations, or any other person. Nothing that I say should be taken as an accurate representation of anything other than my own personal thoughts. Because I blog with my real name, I am very aware of the consequences of my words, and I have stood by the policy that I do not say anything here I would not feel comfortable sharing publicly through another medium, such as a good old fashion conversation in person.

While this blog has been primarily a one-directional conversation, I am always open to hearing your comments. Unfortunately, the comment function is still broken and I am very limited in my computer skills. Therefore, if you would like to leave a comment, e-mail me at hiltops@gmail.com and I will post your comments to the blog. I will only exert so much editorial control as the blogger comments would let me. (keep or delete) Again, thanks for reading.

Men's Law Caucus and Other News

2007-02-12T19:30:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the long neglect of this blog. I have not gone this long between posting since I began blogging. There are multiple reasons for my absence, the major one being law school. Sometimes it simply takes up all of my intellectual energies. My reservoir of resources was spent on establishing the Men's Law Caucus, which required two appearances before the Student Bar Association Board, a meeting with the Deans, a meeting with the Women's Law Caucus, a meeting with our to-be faculty advisor, and lots of politicking. The work paid off. Not only were we approved along a 12-1 vote with two abstentions, but we earned the respect of the SBA board by our respectful and persistent submission to the Boards, sometimes hostile, questioning. No previous group has been submitted to such scrutiny, which can be seen in one of two ways.

Either we were victims of some sort of reverse discrimination. Or we are simply on the cutting edge, which always creates resistance. I do not feel in any way like a victim. That might in itself be an indicator that things are still pretty good for an upper middle class white male. I would rather think that the lively discourse was the result of our little organization being on the cutting edge. We are pushing the envelop, so it seems quite normal to me that we would be treated differently. I am unsure if the difference in treatment should amount to "discrimination." It might in the most technical sense, but part of the reason we set out to set up this organization was to stir the soup. We like the shock value of out name and we think the shock has been productive in furthering the conversation on gender at law school, in the profession, and in personal relationships in general.

On a somewhat related note, I won the pot at our regular poker night. It is nice to win, and I will never turn down the $35 I took home after a night of fun, but winning is not really the point. The point is to get together with a bunch of friends who are very busy and have an activity that allows us to keep our minds busy while we laugh and relax. It was during a poker night that we decided to start the Men's Law Caucus after all. In the end, the organizations main purpose is based on this premise: the law should be fun. Yes, the law is very serious. Peoples lives are sometimes in your hands and often their money, their home, or their business, but it is a very fun profession. Like poker, sometimes you will loose, and sometimes you will make it big, but what would be the point of all the work if it was not fun?

I will trying and write more often. Until then. . .

Nothing Specific

2007-01-30T10:01:00.000-08:00

I do not have anything specific to write about today, but it seems like a long time since I have written. In the meantime, I have received all of my grades. I stopped short of submitting an article along the same lines as my last post to the Prolific Reporter (our law school weekly publication) on the advise of someone who knows much more about university politics than me. I am happy with this discretion. I can get away with a lot more in this blog than in the more public forum of the PR, and the last thing I need is to piss off a bunch of law school professors. If I am going to do that, I am going to take some precautionary steps first like suggesting my late grade fee plan to the administration. Maybe that can be one of the projects of the new law school group that I am founding with some other students: The Men's Law Caucus.

Our school already has a Woman's Law Caucus, and while they admit men , they are decidedly focused on issues of women in the law, which is a good thing. There are also lots of other groups, 32 in all, that fulfill the needs law students who either have a specific political leaning, interest in a particular area of law, or who share a certain ethnic identity. There is, however, no group for students who are not politically active "ethnic" students interested in the study of business law (for example). I heard that some students at the University of Washington started a Men's Law Caucus, but it became somewhat controversial because they never went through the official process for starting an organization and printed up a bunch of t-shirts that could be interpreted as mocking the Woman's Law Caucus. While I do find it kind of amusing when I tell people we are starting a Men's Law Caucus, my intention in helping found this group was not to mock. I talked with a lot of students who said they wanted to be involved in a law school group for the camaraderie, the networking opportunities, and for their resumes, but did not know where they fit in with the other groups. So we are just a law school group for a law school group's sake!

What I did not forsee is that this group is basically shaping up to be a fraternity. Never did I think I would be part of a fraternity; although, never did I imagine I would be a lawyer. On the other-hand, I am very excited, and I think it is going to be a lot of fun. We are planning a charity poker night event, a charity run, and possibly a law school "Man of the Year" talent show. We also hope to sell Men's Law Caucus briefs with the words "Case Briefs" printed on them (law school joke.) Look for them coming soon!

We go before the Student Bar Association board next Monday and ask for approval. The only thing we have left to do is find a professor who will be our faculty advisor. In that, I am very grateful I did not piss off the law professors by proposing a fee for turning in late grades.

Late Grades

2007-01-16T17:45:00.000-08:00

Some days I feel I am getting ripped off by my law school. When all is said and done, my legal education is going to cost me the price of a small house in some states (probably not Seattle because of the out-of-control housing market.) I realize that I am getting a pretty good product for my money, and after I have passed the bar, start working, build a successful practice and work honestly and hard, a law license can be a license to print monety. However, that does not mean that I should not expect the highest quality from my professors and my school.

If you think back a month ago, I was just finishing up my finals. As a matter of fact, I took my first final six weeks ago. With the exception of extreme weather, which is a real possibility this winter, or sickness, if I showed up late for any final, I would be failed in that class without exception. Whereas the standard for students is quite high, our esteemed professors live under a somewhat more relaxed standard. The deadline to turn in grades was last Friday, and it is not unusual for the registrar to take some time trying to sort out grading curves and such, but I would expect to have most of my grades by this point. Not so. I am lucky to have two of my five grades. I talked with a student today who hasn't received any grades yet. There are some classes where this situation is shameful; I hada class with 9 students in it and we all turned in papers 5 weeks ago and we have not received grades yet. Also, this class is not even curved, so the grades cannot be held up in some administrative process. The only answer is that the professor has simply has not finished. (I found him totally incompetent to teach, so I don't know why I thought he would be competent to grade our papers)

I propose a new system. I even understand that several law schools already have this system in place. For every day that a professor is late in turning in grades, he/she will be charged 100 dollars to be placed in a fund for student organizations. Every students who completed a course has already fulfilled his/her contractual obligations of paying the university, attending classes, and taking the final, but in this bargain, the deans, the administrators, and the professors have all the power-- at least for the meantime!

Winterland

2007-01-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

We are having wild weather here in Seattle this winter. The city is covered in snow again. It seems like schools are closed at least one day a week for the last two months and I have been wearing my warmest winter clothes that I never even unpacked last year. I feel like I am back in Colorado again, which I prefer to last January when we were in the middle of 30 days of constant rain. The only real inconvenience I have had to deal with is the ice sheet I have to pass on my walk to school. It was almost impossible when I walked to campus yesterday in my dress shoes to give my first oral argument for legal writing. I thought it went pretty well. I do not really have a problem getting up in front of others and talking. It is not much different than teaching, and same rule applies: the better prepared you are, the better it goes. That is the same principal that applied to working in restaurants; there, prep takes much more time than actully cooking. The difference with the law is the proportions. An oral argument before the appeals court is 10 minutes long, and most lawyers would be commiting malpractice if they did not spend at least 10 times that amount of time in preperation, and most probably spend more like 100 or 1000 times that. Well, I better go start preparing. . .

Court Rules!

2007-01-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

If you could not tell from previous posts, I began law school with a certain innocent ignorance. Not having had much experience with the law, luckily, I had very little understanding about how the law actually worked. Also, until recently, I had not exhibited any interest in the legal profession, and I still find myself asking: "how did I end up here?" No matter how I arrived half way through law school, I am glad to be here, but to be honest, I do not feel I know that much more now than when I started. At least I am smart enough to know that is both true and false.

It is true that I am still quite ignorant of how one would prosecute a law suit through the legal system. Sure I am more familiar with some substantive theories of liability and the basic procedural framework, but the day to day experience of court feels very foreign. It is false because if I really look back and compare what I know now with what I knew the summer before entering school, it is quite staggering. Although less ignorant, I still feel quite innocent. I am still amazed at the legal method for resolving conflicts. When you consider the intensity of conflict that can arise between two parties, it is shocking that the law actually works. This trick seems to stem from several aspects of the law that allow for resolution. First, the evidentiary rules limit the facts that parties can actually argue. Having to introduce only relevant evidence, the conflict is condensed to be more manageable. Secondly, while the law does change, in many ways, the law is the law. Parties must argue to either conform or differentiate the facts from the law, but before a case gets to the level of appeals, the judge must apply the law. Finally, everybody has to follow the rules; otherwise, it would not work. Your client may hate the opposing party, but as a lawyer, you can only make any reasonable argument why you should win. Your power comes from knowledge, persuasion, ethics, and creativity and not by pure force (knowing the judge probably helps).

All of this might see painfully obvious. I guess I am trying to come to terms with the legal profession that I am becoming more and more enamored of. On the other-hand, I still feel very intimidated by this profession. It may sound simple, but that does not mean that it is. Right now, the time when I will feel comfortable in a court room feels very far off. Tonight, these are just the ramblings of a tired law student at the end of what felt like a very long week.

Semester Preview

2007-01-08T10:16:00.000-08:00

I am just about to head to class for the beginning of a new semester. As much as last semester was focused on the more philosophical and theoretical questions of the constitution and policy, this semester is going to be a focus on the nitty-gritty details of contemporary litigation. I have legal writing again this semester, where I will be preparing pre-trial and appellate briefs and making oral arguments. I am also taking evidence and forensics, which I will hopefully be able to put to use this summer after I get my Rule 9 certification (a limited license to practice law prior to passing the bar and under direct supervision of an attorney.) Unfortunately, because I am doing plaintiff's work, we do whatever we can to resolve claims before they ever see a court room. Still, the statutes are about to run on a bunch of our cases, so I might get some court time after all.

I do have a couple of substantive courses to balance out the procedural emphasis of this semester. My medical liability course looks fairly interesting. My doctor/med school friends have already put in a request that I fall on the defense side of that issue. Then there is the class I am most looking forward to, constitutional law and terrorism. Our professor is the U.S. Attorney for the Western States and we are going to have a lot of really interesting speakers in that class. I am sure I will be tying in some of the topics from that course to posts on this blog. It is nice to have a class that is so contemporary as to be in the news daily. We are Reading Hamdan v. Rumsfeld for the first class and meeting with the former defense council for detainees in Guantanamo.

Looks to be an interesting semester. I will keep you all updated as it shapes up.

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads this blog. It means a lot to me that someone besides myself finds my thoughts interesting enough to keep checking in--I have no choice but to stay tuned. I am currently enjoying my break away from school and from spending time on the computer. I will begin posting again regularly this weekend and I hope to post 2-3 days a week during the coming semester. Again, happy New Year and come back soon for new and evolving thoughts on my law school experience.

Heavy Environmental Impact

2006-12-18T16:12:00.000-08:00

A study at the University of Illinois by Sheldon H. Jacobson found that 938,000,000 extra gallons of gasoline are burned each year because Americans are overweight. How about getting some of those overweight Americans off their rumps and onto bikes? It would help their health and help environment, right? Well, it might help their health; however the healthier they become and the longer they live, the more carbon emissions an individual puts out. In a study that came out last July, bike commuters actually produce more carbon over their lifetime because they live longer. Sometimes, you just can't win for loosing.

Half Way

2006-12-14T16:40:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, I am almost half way through law school. The almost consists of finishing my constitutional law take home final, but I do not have much more to go. I just handed in my 25-page paper surveying governmental programs dealing with homelessness, which you can download here if you are interested. It is definitely not my best work. The class was a lot of fluff. We went on three field trips, and when we were in class we either had guest speakers or watched PBS documentaries from the late 80s on dislocated populations. I have never done so much research on the Internet for a paper before. I went to college at a time when teachers still frowned upon using the Internet for research, but I think things have gotten a lot better since then. People were afraid they would not be able to verify information, but now that so many legitimate sources publish their information on the web, it seems archaic to go to the library and root through volumes of journals. Anyway, I will post again this weekend with a semester wrap up.

Getting to know your Justices, and yourself.

2006-12-10T23:53:00.000-08:00

This semester has felt very different from all of last year. There was something so intense about the One-L year, as if all of life was wrapped up in law school. I am still studying a lot, but last year at this time I do not remember ever forgetting that I was at law school. I worked last Friday; I went out to dinner tonight; I watched a movie last night, and during all of those activities, I kind of felt like I was just living like a normal human being. Sure, I have not had a weekend where I did not study for at least 4-5 hours per day, but I am not behaving all that different than I would if I was simply working. I guess this means I am “thinking like a lawyer” – working on weekends – and that I have learned to find some balance in my life.

As to the law and my life, I learned recently that a former Supreme Court Justice came from my hometown and went to college at my alma mater, the University of Colorado: Justice Byron White. That is about where our similarities end. He was a professional football player with the nickname of “the whizzer,” and he tended to vote with the more conservative wing of the court–he joined Rehnquist in dissenting in Roe v. Wade. As a Kennedy appointee, he is further proof that you never quite know what you are going to get with a justice. O’Conner, who wrote the Casey opinion essentially upholding Roe was appointed by Reagan, so for people who are freaking out about the two new appointees to the court, history tells us to just wait and see; often justices do not act on the bench as we think they might. Still, in my inquiry into the personalities of the Supreme Court, I was excited to see that Fort Fun had produced a SCOTUS justice (Supreme Court of the United States). After learning that the rumor of Kip Winger growing up in Fort Collins was untrue, he grew up in Denver, I did not think there were any famous people from our little outpost on the boundary between the mid-west and the west. Around Seattle, everyone talks of their golden judicial child, Justice William O. Douglas– a decidedly more liberal justice.

Heeding my own words, supra, I do not want to simply reduce any justice to a single categorical description of liberal or conservative. One thing I have learned this year is that most Constitutional law questions are more complicated than a simple either/or category. By the time a conflict has moved its way through the lower courts, it has been stripped of much of the detritus of the individual facts, but unhinged from those facts, what remains is often a very difficult to answer question, such as trying to figure out what is meant my “liberty” in the 14^th Amendment’s “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” With such a daunting task, it is good that the court has justices with different perspectives and a good sense of humor.

Getting to Know your Justices

2006-12-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

Check out this video of a discussion with Justice Breyer and Justice Scalia. These two justices represent the two major opposing perspectives on constitutional interpretation. Who seems to make more sense? The discussion is particularly void of any specific factual scenarios, so you get constitutional interpretation without the baggage of an individual case. What is interesting is not only the places where they disagree but also the beliefs and perspectives they share. Also, thanks to my faithful reader J. for pointing out some legal humor in a recent Supreme Court Opinion, Lopes v. Gonzolaz, where Justice Souter quotes Alice in Wonderland:

Reading §924(c) the Government’s way, then, would often turn simple possession into trafficking, just what the English language tells us not to expect, and that result makes us very wary of the Government’s position. Cf. Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U. S. 1, 11 (2004) (“[W]e cannot forget that we ultimately are determining the meaning of the term ‘crime of violence’”). Which is not to deny that the Government might still be right; Humpty Dumpty used a word to mean “‘just what [he chose] it to mean— neither more nor less,’”5 and legislatures, too, are free to be unorthodox. Congress can define an aggravated felony of illicit trafficking in an unexpected way. But Congress would need to tell us so, and there are good reasons to think it was doing no such thing here.6

You can see here how Souter is employing his own method of interpretation to determine what the statute is talking about. I wonder if I can quote Alice in Wonderland in my finals? Probably not. Supreme Court Justices get a bit more leeway.

Weird Al Yankovic-Bob

2006-12-06T17:08:00.001-08:00

One thing about finals is that you actually have quite a bit of free time. Sure you have to study, but without class, that still leaves time to find funny videos on youtube, such as this Weird Al Bob Dylan parody made entirely from palindromes.

The Leaked Memo

2006-12-06T08:56:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed how much of our information lately comes from leaked memos? This morning, a leaked memo from a senior vice president at Yahoo is getting a fair amount of air time. The so-called "Peanut Butter Memo" comes on the tails of the leaked Rumsfeld Memo, the leaked Hadley Memo, the Downy Street Memo, and the list goes on. Doesn't this all seem a bit suspicious? Is a regular press release not sufficient anymore? Or do we have a different reaction to a leaked memo? Is it possible that we think that a leaked memo is somehow more truthful, because it was meant to be kept secret? Have we all become so cynical that we believe the information the government and corporations holds from us is more true than the information they tell us straight out? There may be some truth to that, but I am not buying this leaked memo trend. What better way to get the media to jump all over your press release than to call it a leaked memo. For the last six years, many people have been talking about how secretive the Bush administration has been, so I do not believe that all of a sudden they are having a problem keeping all of their internal memorandum from reaching the public. In the modern information era, whoever controls information, controls the power, and the disseminators of information are very sophisticated in framing their information so that we not only receive the information but also the method to interpret it; that is the goal of any good propagandist. According to this new trend, the next time I hear "leaked memo," I am going to think, "now here is some information they really want me to know."