Ira, 3L

Apologies up front, but this blog is going to be on the shorter side. Extreme side of shorter side.

If this in any way upsets you, loyal reader, you have my full permission to curse my name and immediately quit reading until next week. By next week, unless the powers that be are merely finding things for me to do, I may have a spare moment or two to write a longer, more thoughtful blog.

As of now I have some reading and writing to do. No arithmetic. Not today (in fact, I was a fake expert witness in fake trial today. A medical examiner, I refused to do math on the stand. Flat out refused).

Anyway, if you've read this far into my rambling blog, take comfort in the following quotation from the movie, "They Might Be Giants."

"Of course, [Don Quixote] carried it a bit too far. He thought that every windmill was a giant. That's insane. But, thinking that they might be...Well, all the best minds used to think the world was flat. But, what if it isn't? It might be round. And bread mold might be medicine. If we never looked at things and thought of what they might be, why, we'd all still be out there in the tall grass with the apes."

This quotation brings me comfort, folks. And, honestly, it helps me study the law.

Go ahead, wikipedia the movie. You'll be surprised to know that it is, after all, related to the band of the same name.

More to come...

Posted by Ira at 8:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was just listening to the sweet tremble and wailings of Bono and The Edge while completing loan deferment forms and reading for my National Security Law class, and I had an arresting line of thoughts.

First, I find the haunting lyrics and steady, unpredictable music of U2 terrifyingly soul stirring. We all have our preferences and reactions; this is one of mine. While the main purpose of listening to music through insulated earbuds is to drown out the chatter and errant noise of law school and law school people so I can read about the pros and cons of the amended FISA Act on national security and civil liberties, I also listen to get into a rhythm. A calmed, lulled, melodic mode of studying. The Zone.

So, when I'm reading and Bono starts in on the four minutes and thirty seven seconds of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," or Axel Rose slowly pounds the piano keys in "November Rain" I get distracted. Those sort of songs roll around my brain memories of times and peoples ago and stop me from actually paying attention to the words on the page. Dispatch's "The General" too.

Generally I can ignore the bulk of the lyrics for what I'm working on. A friend and classmate listens to soundtracks, like "Last of the Mohicans" and "Braveheart." Great instrumental, lyric-less pieces that subtly backdrop his thought process like we all assume a soundtrack in our own lives really would.

But, for some reason, a few certain songs distract me. Maybe that's a patterned story of law school. Maybe we're all so intensely busy with meetings, readings, meetings, learning and meetings that we're ripe and ready for distraction.

Posted by Ira at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Friday I went through a mock-interview with a Public Defender. That is, a fake interview where a Public Defender interviewed me as if I was really applying for a job with her agency.

It went well. The main difference I noticed was the number and weight of ethical questions asked, as opposed to questions I was asked during the mock-interview with a firm. The Public Defender asked questions like, "how do you feel about representing someone who is accused of sexually assaulting another person?" Or, "could you cross-examine a victim of domestic violence on the stand, who has visible bruises on his/her face, when your client is the one charged with brutally beating him/her?"

Good questions, which I think are crucial to ask someone applying to be or professing their desire to be a criminal defense advocate--especially a Public Defender. When I worked for a Public Defender's Office in North Carolina, I definitely worked with a lot of great attorneys who confronted these sort of questions every day.

In this same vein, it turns out all the practice interviewing will be helpful. I have an interview in the next couple weeks. Wish me luck!

More to come...

Posted by Ira at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Classes are going well and extracurricular student activities are increasingly becoming more...well, active. As I go about my days at the law school, to and from class, to and from meetings, to and from the gym, I am starting to get back in the swing of being in law school.

Now, I realize that I am now entering my third week of resuming classes, but it is all still a twilight zone feeling like I don't belong. Or maybe I'm going to wake up one morning and it will all have been some anxious dream and I will still be on co-op. None of this is to say that I don't want to be in class or would rather be on co-op. Far from it. I enjoy classes and being uber-busy with student activities, interviewing for summer-time employment that could lead to post-grad jobs. As a classmate and dear friend said, I'm "just sick in the head that way."

Simply, I think I am adjusting to what upper level NUSL students (perhaps all law students everywhere) experience: a sort of Resumption Vertigo. We bounce around for three years between full-time classes and full-time work, with a week or two of vacation in between if we're lucky. So, when we're on co-op we're getting over the exhaustion and marathon that was exams. When we're back in classes we're getting over the feeling of being out of (and done with) school. It's all a little surreal.

I wonder if it gets easier, if you get used to the bounding back and forth, later. Do my 3L friends suffer the pain of Resumption Vertigo less? For that matter, this condition--if real--is multiplied for people at Northeastern. Unlike most law schools we don't just get the opportunity to work during two summers. No, we shift back and forth twice more. And, like many of my friends NOW on co-op, they stayed in class after Spring exams--going to school for almost twelve months straight before leaving to work. I can only imagine the disbelief they're feeling, now that exams are over and they were finally let loose.

Perhaps it's all part of the regimen in the end. Perhaps NUSL has patterned it this way so we're always kept on our toes, always thinking on our feet, as a lawyer standing in court and immediately handed a file on a client about which she knows nothing about. Or a junior associate at a firm handed a case and told to churn out a memo by the end of the day. Or, ultimately, just a better worker and a better person in a world where so much is unpredictable and shifting.

Or maybe I'm just sick in the head.

More to come...

Posted by Ira at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh, Johnny Cochran, Esq. How your clever wordplay is sorely missed in the trial courts of California.

For me, the second week of law school has been very much about litigation. About trying and winning cases in front of a jury. In Criminal Trial Practice we gave opening arguments on Tuesday. It was a great experience, both in the preparation of the opening and the actual delivery. My classmates gave great feedback, and I look forward to our other exercises to come. In Evidence, everything we discuss is related to what one could bring in to a case to persuade a jury (or judge) to decide in your favor.

It all reminds me of how much I am interested in working in litigation after I graduate (specifically criminal defense), and glad that I have three co-op opportunities left in which I could work towards this goal. Perhaps, as a 3L, I will be lucky enough to work for a public defender or specialized litigation firm, or another agency and get an actual caseload through which I will gain even more experience. My friends who are more interested in the prosecutorial side of criminal law and the plaintiff side of civil litigation share similar thoughts with me. I know some who are eager to work in a busy district attorney's office and learn the tools of the trade there.

As a divergent side note, I'm also witness to all the changes that typically accompany the traditional start of a school year. Meeting new students, electing new student leaders and officers in groups, and, as relevant here, taking on new bloggers. Yesterday I met those who will be blogging this year, and the 1Ls seemed especially eager to describe their experiences in law school during the first two weeks for those out there thinking of applying or applying now. The powers that be tell me they'll be online and setup in a couple weeks-ish, and by that time they'll have great stories to tell about how their first month as first year law students.

Until then, I know Leon and Laurinda and I will be here doing our best to relate the upper level experience.

Posted by Ira at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)