For the first time in my life, I am waiting while the jury deliberates on a case I have been working on for weeks. We have been in trial since Monday and today the jury was sent to determine their verdict. I cannot tell you how nervous I am.

I thought it would be easier to "read" the jury somehow - that I could look at their faces and chart their reaction to the trial, the evidence, the witnesses, our clients. But it's been impossible. I have no idea if they have been persuaded by our arguments or by the government's. No idea - even though I watched them go through the process of jury selection - how they feel about the crime our client is charged with, or how they feel about the trial process. It seems incredible that twelve people ever agree on such complex legal issues and complicated facts. And yet across the country, every day, hundreds of people are involved in this trial process. "A jury of your peers" is a real and living thing....and jury duty, despite all the jokes about it and people dying to get out of it, is a significant task.

And now all I can do is wait.

Posted by Sarah at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not much to report...but in a good way! I'm busy preparing for two trials that start next week (when it rains, it pours) and still loving learning about criminal law. In the last 24 hours I have written my first proposed jury instructions, and my first Rule 29 Motion for Judgment of Acquittal. Wow. These last weeks have had me grappling with sentencing (I don't think the courts have figured it out either yet, honestly), refreshing myself on Crawford and hearsay (luckily I had Evidence with a great professor, Judge Borenstein...not to mention Criminal Law with one of NUSL's favorites and finest, Prof. Givelber! If you come to NUSL, you should definitely try to take classes with both.), and parsing apart the word "knowingly." Oh, and of course I'm still making weekly trips to the beach. So, no complaints from me. In fact, I am so thrilled here, I have decided to apply for some clerkships with judges in Puerto Rico. As always with clerkships, it’s a long shot, but I thought I would give it a try. Wish me luck!

Posted by Sarah at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few weeks ago I mentioned the Daynard Fellows program and since one of the Fellows is visiting right now, I thought it was a good time to fill you in on some details! Named after one of my favorite professors, Dick Daynard, the program was established in 2004 by Prof. Daynard and his wife. The Fellows Program brings two public interest law practitioners to the Northeastern campus each academic year for a three-day visit. The Fellows serve as role models for students, demonstrating how legal skills can be used in the “real world” and how a public interest career path might be formed. In addition to a talk open to the school and the public, the Fellows also meet with individual students and student groups, to answer specific questions.

This week NUSL welcomes our second 2008 Daynard Public Interest Visiting Fellow, NUSL alum Christina DeConcini ('88). Christina has spent 20 years representing, working with, and advocating on behalf of immigrants and refugees. Christina currently works on issues related to climate changes as the Director of Legislative Affairs for the World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank. Christina will be a valuable resource to students interested in immigration and refugee law issues; climate change legislation, the various political forces in this debate and prospects for enacting legislation; the notion of "environmental refugees" eventually being recognized for protective status; and generally "forging a career" after law school. I love that the Daynard Fellows are practitioners, not just academics, and give us a chance to get a sense of the law beyond the walls of the school.

Also an important part of the program is that the selection process for the Fellows includes students! Involvement in programs like this is a great way for students to take part in the curriculum and focus of the school, as well as to get a chance to see how the legal skills we are working to hard to learn may, eventually, help others.

Posted by Sarah at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know a lot of you out there are getting ready to make your final decision about where to attend law school - and some of you have probably never been to the NUSL campus, or to Boston generally. Although I had visited before I made the decision to attend, it was still daunting to think about moving to a new city and find housing in a place I knew so little about. So let me tell you a little about how I choose an apartment and a neighborhood.

I didn't want to make a decision without having seen a place, so I came to Boston for one weekend, sure that within that time frame I could set up an apartment. Well, I did get an apartment, but it didn't go as planned. I had lined up places to look at via ol' reliable Craigslist, but none of them turned out to be what I expected. Either the apartment didn’t look as advertised, or the roommates didn’t seem like a good fit. With only hours to go before I left Boston, I ducked into a real estate office and had the broker show me some apartments. I ended up signing a lease that day on a one bedroom apartment (which cost about $1300 a month), and with it a large check that included a broker fee. For me, the convenience was worth the fee, but if you have the time to look around, you should be able to find a place on your own, without a broker (and without that annoying fee).

If I didn’t know Boston, how did I decide where to live? Luckily, I had a few friends in the area and sent them the apartment listings that interested me, asking if the locations were any good. If you don't have friends in the area, another way to find out about neighborhoods is to take part in the online chats the admissions office holds, where you can ask current students about Boston and about housing.

If you are new to Boston, like me, I would recommend choosing one or two neighborhoods that seem like a good fit to you and then going from there. The most popular places for NUSL students to live are the area around Northeastern (sometimes just labeled Northeastern on listings, sometimes called Fenway area, and sometimes labeled Back Bay), and an area a bit further away from the school called Jamaica Plains (J.P.). I chose to live close to Northeastern for the convenience of being able to walk to school, and the closeness to shops and restaurants. The downside of the area is that it’s expensive and filled with students, like me, instead of having a more neighborhood-y feel. J.P., on the other hand, is a bit further from school (although accessible via the 39 bus or the Green and/or Orange line of the T), however there are more housing choices (houses as opposed to just apartments, for instance) and it’s a much quainter and quieter place to live, with families and schools as opposed to all students. I have stayed in my over-priced but perfectly located apartment for the first two years of law school, and love being able to walk home between classes. However, for my final year, now that I know the area, I am looking to switch places, maybe moving into the slower pace of J.P. We will see how that switch goes.

One final note, a lot of people ask me about housing when you are on co-op. I was worried about this as well, and convinced it would prohibit me from leaving Boston on co-op. However, it is so much easier than I expected. Since students are moving around all the time, I haven't had any problem getting great sublettors for when I am away. This coming year, a friend who is on the opposite co-op rotation from me is going to split the lease, so that neither of us has to worry about finding a sublettor! Perfect.

Next post I’ll write about some of my favorite things in Boston, to try to give you a sense of what it’s like living here. Good luck with the housing search!

Posted by Sarah at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My dad said today that he thinks reading of novels is an indicator of well-being. I would be inclined to agree.

Now that I'm not in school, I have returned to the world of novels and non-casebook reading generally. So far I've reread David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas," one of my all time favorite novels. It was just as great the third time around! After that I dove into "The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao," which I came to after hearing numerous interveiws with the author. In interveiws, Junot Diaz is charming, entertaining, thrillingly dorky, and incredibly astute. The book almost lived up to the author, and TBWLOW (wow) left me wanting to learn more about the Dominican Republic, and the Carribean in general. Now I have moved onto a colder climate, farther away from Puerto Rico but even closer to my heart - Alaska. Michael Chabon's book "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" has gotten a lot of good press, and so far it's living up to it. In addition to all this fiction, I have been slowly sifting through Mary Oliver's new book of poetry. She has been a favorite of mine for years and this newest collection is incredibly powerful.

Other than that, my freedom from law school time has been spent (when not at my co-op obviously) playing Guitar Hero 3, lying on the beach, and devouring all the good food Puerto Rico has to offer. It has been raining here for a few days though so, don't worry, it's not 100 percent perfect...

ps - I also wanted to give a shout out to the Givelber Adjucts program and the Daynard Fellows programs (named after two of my favorite professors!). They are two ways that the school (with student input) brings in awesome practitioners to talk to NUSL students about public interest work and I look forward to telling you more about this year's selections!

Posted by Sarah at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)