Some Legal Advise

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."

Classic Lines

It is time for some new classic lines from law school lectures. This time, some advise from one of our professors on dealing with judges:

• Have a healthy skepticism and contempt for judges, because you can never underestimate their stupidity.
  
• An odd judge may be ignorant, stupid, or lazy. You just never know if the judge in your case is going through a divorce or is just sick of doing his job and does not care any more.
  

• With growth of power, members of court interpret the government as having unlimited powers. At some point, people stopped reading the constitution. If we want the constitution to do the things we want it to do, we just amend the constitution. Why do judges keep doing things that aren't in the constitution just because we have been doing them.

And finally, the words of another Professor* of mine as he walked by me reading outside and catching some of the last sun rays of fall:

• Yo man! Wake up!

*The general consensus of our class is that he is totally nuts, but has been teaching and advocating for so many years he just says and does whatever he wants