Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

[Note:  I misspoke last time about how many students were in my class.  I said over 500, but I believe the correct number was about 200 to 225, although not that many graduated.  Sorry about that.]

Part 4 -  Learning the Ropes, Both Law School Wise & Practically as a Law Clerk

I haven't mentioned this yet, but in law school you absolutely must be in study groups, share notes with other students from your classes and go over and over old tests from years before.  I didn't know anyone who tried to do it all on their own.  It was impossible.

I was commuting over 30 miles one way, so didn't take as much advantage of study groups as many did, but certainly did my share.  We were all going to school five days a week and I would spend my time during the days in between classes studying with others and/or in the library.  

By my second semester, I began to feel a bit of a routine about it all, which helped mentally, and tried to concentrate on one day at a time.  That was all the brain could handle.

That was not entirely possible, though, because early into the semester, as soon as grades came out, most os us started looking for summer clerking jobs to bring in some much needed money and also to start learning some of the practicalities of being a lawyer.   I was no exception.

I was lucky in getting a tip from an old friend about a very small "family" law firm in the French Quarter that  might be looking for a summer law clerk.  I called the older man who was head of the firm (his attorney son worked with him), interviewed with him and he hired me on the spot for the summer, at least, if not longer.  I was really excited and all set.  I was way ahead of the game, I thought, and now could concentrate on school.

Our class was all taking Moot Court second semester, which meant that we were all given an involved "fake" case to work with to both argue orally, as we would if it were on appeal, and to write an appellate brief for using real federal law. We had to do extensive legal research to use as the foundation for both.

I did "okay" in my oral argument (we were all given one side or the other to argue), but felt a lot more comfortable with the writing part.  Except that I'd never written anything before in my life using legal arguments.  Further, we had a strict word limit within which to work.  This was hard stuff.

During this time - in late spring - as I was working so hard on my preparation for both oral argument and writing my brief, I got home one afternoon and Tom told me to sit down - he had some really bad news to tell me.  He had learned that the attorney I'd gotten the summer law clerking job with had just killed himself.  We couldn't believe it.  Now I was way behind in trying to find work for summer.  This was a blow.

So, I started looking for another clerking position, while finishing up the semester.  My brief was coming along well, but was way too long.  With Tom's help, I did edit after edit after edit.  No single word was beyond being cut.  I finally got it finished with all of its requirements, had bound copies made and got it turned in by the strict deadline.  We turned them in under fake names to be judged objectively.  Then we waited.

It was about the middle of the summer before we all found out how we'd done on our briefs.  I was astonished to find out that not only had I made an A on mine, it was judged as being the Best Appellate Brief in our entire class!  Tom and I were thrilled!  The school put copies of it in the library for the next year's class to use as an example of how to write a good Moot Court brief.  I also received the Jurisprudence Award from the school.

What a great ending to the first year of law school.

Meanwhile, I was doing piddle work for an insurance agent in New Orleans because I'd not been able to find anything else.  What a rip.  Then, about the end of July, I found an "ad" on the board at school of an attorney looking for a student to do some legal research for him, possibly leading to a clerking position.  I called him and went to see him.  I did the research, he was pleased and hired me to be his law clerk.  I wasn't being paid much - much less than the big firms paid - but I had a job and looked forward to clerking.

We worked it out for me to work for him 15 to 20 hours a week after school started back and so now I had even more to do.  Plus, I found that the second year of law school was by far the hardest year subject wise, study wise and test wise.  The second semester - spring semester - was particularly hard.  I was taking Corporations, Constitutional Law, Administration of Criminal Justice, Income Taxation and Secured Transaction.  I also took three what they called "skills" classes on a pass/fail basis.  (We had to have a total of six or more of them.)  Yet, I ended that semester with a 3.571 GPA. 

Tom and I had some fun, too, though, that semester, I have to say.  So, I'll leave you with this.  Here's my all time favorite picture of me and Tom together.  It's a candid snapshot of the two of us dancing at my second year law school prom in April that year.  (That was my first school dance, ever, and here I was with my new husband!)  What do you think?  Do we look happy, or what?

Y'all leave me your comments and let me know if you're getting bored yet by my legal "memoirs," okay?!  Please!  

Thanks!  Dee 

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