Lawyering Through Life

Shout out

The majority of last week was spent slaving over this rather complicated motion the Judge was set to hear on Friday. I had procrastinated a bit in the hopes that the attorneys would settle the case but a few days before the hearing, it was made painfully clear to me that the case was not settling, so I spent countless hours wading through over 50 pages of briefs (love Big Firms. Big Firms that come to state trial court and drown us in paper. Love them. Oh, wait. About to be employed by one such Big Firm.) and reading non-controlling authority because of course, there was NO controlling authority. We could go the way of Texas, or Georgia, or even Massachusetts. Somehow the Commonwealth's high court had not spoken to these issues which left me burning the midnight oil. Finally, Thursday morning, I finish my memo. All fifteen pages of wisdom. Complete with a chart at the end with my recommendations. Keep that count, kick that count, all there for Judge to see. I really struggled with the issues but felt utterly and completely satisfied as I clicked "send" and the Monster Memo went off to see Judge.


A few minutes later, I am back in Chambers, with my hand reaching into the community pretzel jar, when I heard Judge call for me. I pop my head in and he looks over his computer at me with complete annoyance.

"I got the memo."

"Oh, good. There is so much to that case, that's why the memo turned out s - "

And I am interrupted. By this:

"Well, I don't see what is so complicated about it, seems to me [insert startling simple statement of completely settled law]."

"Wellllll," I stammer, "I thought there was more to it than just that...." and my voice trails off. What am I really thinking is "I have just spent six plus days on these issues, I live these issues, I breathe these issues and if [startling simple statement of completely settled law] was true, I WOULD KNOW IT."

I manage to keep that last part to myself and tell him to call me with questions. I skulk back to my office, wondering if I really had blown past something so simple. I turn my attention to other tasks and soon, the call I am dreading comes.

"Why don't you come on back so we can discuss this?"

I prepare myself mentally, repeat the phrase "I am not an idiot" about 85 times during the short walk, and take a seat in front of Judge.

"Well, what the heck is X's argument here? I mean, it seems as if they have nowhere to go."

While hard to explain fully here, he basically reverses his earlier statement about how the case is a complete no-brainer and then regurgitates my own *brilliance* back to me. He says "I agree with you completely, I think this has to happen just like you said."

Stunned, I just nod.

He then gets up and says "Man, that took me 45 minutes to work through. What a pain! I need some lunch."

Still stunned, because seriously 45 minutes? A fraction, my friend, of the time I spent but hey, I guess that is why I work for him. To paraphraes Snoop Dogg, all I can do is lay it out so Judge can play it out.

The biggest compliment came on Friday during the hearing. The attorney began his argument by saying, "Your Honor, we know there were a lot of issues here, and we hope you have had a chance to review everything, we realize there was a lot of paper involved and -"

My judge interrupted him:

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to my law clerk. She really carried the heavy weight on this one."

The attorney turned to me, face bright red with embarrassment, and said, "I hope you accept our apology."

He actually waited for me to nod and stammer "It's fine" before continuing with his argument.

So, the moral of the story is that Judge does appreciate my hard work. I know this deep down, but he doesn't say it or show it very often. Last week he showed it with a shout out to me in front of a courtroom full of attorneys. The work is expected and I am happy to oblige. My past bosses have been real hand-holders and always showered me with positive enforcement. One of the things I like about Judge is that he has forced me to be more of an independent thinker, to figure things out on my own, and not run to him with a million questions.

Expect more nostalgia to come in the next few months as I wrap up this job.

posted by jersey @ 6:06 PM