Ira, 3L

Quick blog this week, folks. Between co-op, the clinic case that I am still working on in Boston, applying for clerkships, and trying to have some semblance of a life outside of the halls of justice (e.g., occasionally going for a run or watching a baseball game on TV), I have very little time and words to spare.

My fiancée came to DC this past weekend and we had a blissful time. While an obvious statement to many, it deserves proclamation: the separation of long-distance is not fun on a relationship, if even only for three months, and if even with the luxury of modern technology. I'm really glad she got to come to stay and we got to do fun things around Northern Virginia and DC. I'm buying a ticket soon to see her once more before the internship is over.

Despite my interests in international law, especially international criminal law, and my desire to go abroad, I am positive I am going to do my next and final co-op in Boston. I would like to be in Boston, and be with her, for longer than three months at a jaunt. Perhaps I will take an international-law or global human rights-focused internship in the winter. Regardless, as a Senior Lawyer at the UN once told me, if you want to be a lawyer in the international sphere, be a lawyer. Any experience helps as long as you don't lose sight of your goals.

Posted by Ira at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wish I had more to report other than all the work I have been doing on co-op, but I've been attempting to live a fairly monastic lifestyle to save money. Such is the life of a graduate student.

The work I have been doing at PDS, however, has been great and educational. Since my last post, I worked on a case scheduled for trial, two appellate briefs, and a Community Conference. The case for trial, which I cannot discuss specifically, asked me to research issues over aiding and abetting law and other doctrines of liability in DC. My research was over a potentially narrow part of the case, but I was helping formulate different defense theories or arguments to use if the prosecutor approached the case in a certain way.

One appellate brief involved--like many of our cases at PDS--stops and frisks. I aided an attorney in researching the law over Terry stops and how we could make a viable argument for overturning the trial court's denial of the motion to suppress. The other appellate brief is all mine. Knowing that we interns want experience writing briefs and want writing samples, the powers that be at PDS assigned me to write a brief. I'm stoked and have started going through the record and meeting with attorneys about the case.

Lastly, I worked yesterday for PDS at their annual Community Reentry and Expungement Summit. I may have also mentioned in an earlier post that I spent a bit of time out in the community publicizing this event and trying to get people to come. The Summit itself is primarily about educating people with DC criminal records on the process of getting their records sealed. Despite this primary goal, the laws of DC (like the laws of most jurisdictions) do not permit a majority of the people with records to have them sealed. So, the Summit also brings in a host of others and makes them available to people who are having a hard time reentering or sustaining themselves in the community due to their records. Namely, PDS arranged for job counselors, civil attorneys to give free consultations, housing services counselors, social services, etc. There were also speaking events held and, from what I was told, workshops on applying for jobs, etc. I heard from a few people in attendance and they thought it was a great event and very helpful. I worked helping people figure out whether or not they were eligible to have their records sealed. Unfortunately, most were not.

Otherwise, not a lot is going on. I am still working on (and almost done with) the Harry Potter series. I'll be back in Boston next week for the case I was assigned in the Criminal Advocacy Clinic, which is yet again scheduled for trial. Hopefully, hopefully, for the sake of all included the trial goes forward and has a favorable disposition.

Posted by Ira at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As they often do, things go on with relative repetition. Here and there. For the most part.

Co-op at the Public Defender Service is keeping me fairly, and happily, busy. With some common regularity, as I also work in the Trial Division, there is an emergency or a rush to get matters ready for trial. Yesterday, for example, I spent quickly fleeting hours trying to transcribe a video interview for a trial starting that day. Normally, one would not leave such potentially helpful information un-transcribed until the last minute. However, just as normal, the US Attorney's Office did not give us the potentially exculpatory (or at least quite helpful) video until the evening (and I mean evening) before the trial.

In my work for the Appellate Division, I was recently assigned to write an appellate brief. This is a great opportunity, portends to be great experience, and has me excited. I have written a couple briefs before and welcome the additional experience.

The rest of my time is spent finding a break in the rain to go for a run, reading and reading and reading Harry Potter (mid-way through the fourth book), and watching baseball--specifically, the Atlanta Braves. Thankfully, the Braves are doing a little better than a month ago. Let's hope it holds out. I tried watching a Nationals' game the other day when the Braves was a rain-out, but they were just awful. I speak as a fan knowing I still could not do half of what those players do every day, but, still, they were awful.

Oh, yeah. And like everyone else, I am eagerly awaiting exam results.

Posted by Ira at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, it's my second week of internship, but my first full week of actual, hands-on work. The last week of training, as I described in the prior blog, was fairly intense. This week has been a little calmer thus far, but only a little. So far I've gotten three assignments, all great, none of which I can discuss. Not at all whatsoever.

I can say this, though: working for PDS and in the criminal law field reaffirms my love for it that was but a seed planted before I came to law school. Law school has opened up my eyes and introduced me to many other areas of the law that are fascinating and interesting, and, as always, I have a lot left to learn, but criminal law and civil rights drive me. And public interest drives me.

To add shape and description to the co-op and how it ratchets things up a bit more than I've previously experienced with internships, however: in addition to our actual work on cases, all eighty-five or so interns are split up into trial practice groups (TPGs). These TPGs meet several times over the course of the internship and will seemingly function very much like the Criminal Trial Practice classes I've taken. I welcome this practice, the chance to continue learning trial advocacy skills, and learning from other points of view. My TPG meets tomorrow evening, and today around 6pm we were sent our hypothetical for tomorrow.

Outside of work itself, I am beginning the long and (hopefully) quite thorough process of applying for clerkships. Putting in for both federal and state level clerkships, I am lining up those who'll write my letters of recommendation, researching the judges to whom I may be interested in applying and (if successful) working under. As applications for clerkships starting August 2010 are due this fall, I am actually glad to currently be on internship. If I spent all day in class and then much of my evenings reading, I would likely be overwhelmed and exhausted with the sheer administrative effort required by applying for clerkships. Thankfully, I went to a great and informative workshop put on by NUSL's Career Services Office.

Also, I am reading a ton. Gladly and beautifully. I missed novels and poetry. Having just finished Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe, I am now reading the entire Harry Potter series. I'd never read them before and, having become hooked recently on the movies, am determined to read through the sixth book before the latest movie comes out next month. Moreover, I have a stack of books I'm looking forward to reading after Potter (in no particular order): a mystery novel I found in the bargain bin, Slipping into Darkness by Peter Blauner; The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera; The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner; The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria; and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

Hope everyone else is having a great summer as well!

Posted by Ira at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)