Whoa. Dude.

October? That was my last post? What has happened to me!?!

Okay, so 2L happened. What a weird year this has been so far. Last semester I did the least amount of work ever and got higher grades than before. I read for class exactly one time (for one class) and it just happened to be the day the prof canceled class halfway through. Still, I pulled very very good grades (for me). Maybe I am hitting my stride with exams or time-management? Who knows, but I am having a good year. Things are very busy though. I wasn't supposed to keep my job through the school year; it was only intended to be a summer thing. When my bosses' paralegal left suddenly I couldn't just leave them in the lurch, so I stayed on. It was super stressful because I was doing the Innocence Clinic and it required 10+ hours per week. So 10 at work, 10 at clinic, 15+ in class, plus study time, plus 5 at my on-campus job. There just weren't enough hours to get it all done. So studying took a backseat, because I would much rather spend time with my daughter than study.

Speaking of Abby, she turns 3 this month. Holy crap. I cannot believe that is happening. She talks in mile-long paragraphs now and has started inventing stories. Sometimes unfortunate ones such as the other day when I was doing dishes. She wandered into the kitchen and said to herself "No mommy, don't hit me!"

Uh, what the hell?

So I said, "What, Abby?"

She replied, "You threw that at me in my bedroom and you broke it and it hurt."

Uh, what the hell?

I finally realized she was playing pretend, but I was kind of freaked out. Was this something she overheard? Was this a pretend that she was TELLING PEOPLE?!?! OMG.

I am terrified (from work, which has addled my brain) that she will say something like that to the wrong person and I will find DCFS at my door. YIKES.

In other news, I decided to quit my job. The idea of staying was to help them out and make a bit of cash, but I want to use my summer continuing to learn about defense and even represent some clients (we have a 3rd year practice rule in my state) so I asked my bosses if they thought they would have something for me to do.

They said they didn't think so and I began hunting for something else. Trial Ad is ramping up soon and I won't have time to train my replacement if they don't hire someone quickly, so I told them to get on that. I got an interview with a public defender's office which will happen on Tuesday. I am super excited!! I have always pictured myself in a public interest role, albeit originally I thought it would be prosecution, and getting a clerkship with this office would be so awesome. I hope the interview goes well.

That's pretty much it. I am plugging along and really enjoying my classes this semester. I am taking a health law class which is outside my track but seemed interesting. At first I was horrified by how philosophical it is, but now I am REALLY enjoying it. See? I used all-caps. That means a lot.

Trial Ad is super fun but a little scary. We meet at night once a week in small groups and do things like cross-examine each other. It's a little nerve-racking but we always laugh a lot at our mistakes and learn something. The best part is that the small-section professors are adjuncts who are actually practitioners. Mine is a defense attorney I have long admired and it's awesome to get to learn from her. Especially because her firm is prestigious and I wouldn't have a prayer of getting a job there.

Hopefully I can be more dedicated to blogging, but I am not super optimistic!

The Internship

Yesterday I started my internship, working for a criminal defense attorney. In addition to teaching me legal stuff, he is letting me help him grow his business. Since I have a background in technology and internet marketing I have a lot to contribute. The awesome part is that we get along so well and he is SO enthusiastic to have me around. We bounce ideas off each other and I get to nerd out by reading case files as big as phone books. It's swell.

Yesterday I got to read said case file, do a client intake, learn their legal software, and check the status of the co-defendant's cases related to the phone book-sized case. (The witnesses hadn't shown up so they'd been dismissed, potentially affecting our case.)

Today I got to drive out of state (2 hours each direction) for a ten minute pre-trial conference which will be resolved by affidavit, come back, go to court for a motion hearing, AND get a massage IN THE OFFICE. It was awesome. It may not sound like a lot, but in between hearings and other tasks we talked a lot. I learned about pending cases and we exchanged stories. It was really great.

Tomorrow? Pre-trial conference for a case and arraignment for the phone book case.

I love this work. It's exciting and different and I genuinely like meeting the clients and doing my best to help them out. Sometimes it's a completely unfair messed up charge, sometimes they did it and you do your best to mitigate the consequences. Either way, it's a huge learning experience.

My goal is to increase business so much they can't live without me. :)

This weekend I have homework. I have to do research on personal breathalyzer tests. You get two guesses how I am going to do that.