California Love
A lot of stereotypes about California are true. General obsession with frozen yogurt? True. Pervasive car culture? True. Widespread acceptance of plastic surgery as a near-necessity? True. Fancy cars everywhere? True.
When I chose to come to Pasadena for my first co-op, I had never set foot in Southern California before and these stereotypes were about all I knew. Sure I'm from the West Coast originally but small-town central Alaska and rural Southern Oregon are a long way from bikini-clad ladies, Bentleys, and celebrity sightings (which I just accidentally spelled "citings" - law dork alert!). But right now I'm wrapping up my second month in California and I'm already sad that the end is in sight.
Since the start of September, I have been working at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as an extern to Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw ("externship" being the term Californians use for our NUSL-deemed "co-ops"). It's my first co-op and I can't think of a better place to start.
I applied for a judicial co-op mainly due to an all-too-painful awareness of my own weakness (thanks, law school!) - legal writing. While I had been a "creative" writer for much of my adolescence and managed to churn out more than a few excessively lengthy and overly serious works as an undergrad, in my first few semesters of law school I had yet to master the particular beast that is Legal Writing. Having heard rumors that working for a judge was a good place to get rigorous writing experience, I set out looking for judges I thought I might be interested in co-oping with.
While you can apply to co-op with judges who are not co-op employers, the fact that a judge already knows the NUSL system and is willing to take part in it really appealed to me. Judge Wardlaw has been a co-op employer for a while and all the student-written reviews of her were positive. Also, she is a Clinton appointee and had recently written a controversial decision advocating for the rights of homeless people to be free from police harassment and arrest during night hours. AND she had been voted one of the "Hotties of the Federal Judiciary" - a title which in and of itself didn't hold much allure for me, but her willingness to play along indicated a judge who was able to have fun while taking care of business.
So I applied for a co-op here, thinking it was a long shot, but crossing my fingers nonetheless. After 3 phone interviews and the diligence of Jeff Smith in the co-op office, I was hired.
My time here has been all I could have asked for in a co-op. The four clerks who supervise us are enthusiastic and have none of the snobbery I thought I would find among some of the smartest law school grads in the country (hey, I'm being honest). The judge is accessible, down to earth, incredibly smart, and lets us take part in the meetings and discussion of the chambers. My co-externs are a Sikh woman who is going on to work in a large international firm, a 32-year-old man with a business background, and a 24-year old blond California girl in the Air Force. We have worked on cases involving immigration and asylum law, the death penalty, criminal law and sentencing, and copyright. We have had the chance to observe oral arguments before a panel of Circuit judges, learn about the ins and outs of the federal courts, and witness the process of a case coming to the court, being decided, and becoming a published opinion.
When I say that co-oping here has unromanticized the process of the law for me, I mean it in the best way possible. It may be less glamorous once you know what goes on behind the scenes, but its no less honorable, impressive, or flat out interesting. I think that's one of the best parts about co-op - during your first year of law school the law seems so distant and foreboding, so far from human. But once you are out in the courts, in the non-profits, in the government agencies, you see that the law is made by human hands (for better or for worse) and that it doesn't belong only to Justices and casebooks.
So, in about a month, I have to pack up and head back to class. Leave the sun behind for the Boston snow, leave the fancy courthouse for Cargill 97, leave the glamor of judicial chambers for lugging my books across campus.... But don't feel too bad for me - come March I'm headed to Puerto Rico. Yep, that's right - next co-op is in San Juan.