The Reasonably Prudent Law Student

This happened a while ago, and I meant to blawg about it but then forgot. Then I was reading an account of an oral argument on No634, and it reminded me.

I know, fascinating story. I bet your eyes were riveted to the screen with actual rivets, yet.

Hah. My cartoon is so lame. Sheep = cute, though. Yay, bow-tie wearing sheep.

I should preface this by saying that our Law Skills professor is pretty awesome. He’s an assistant US States attorney, and for our oral arguments he got Judge Leinenweber to hear our case in the federal courthouse right across the street.

I thought for sure I’d hate it: the whole being in front of a judge, defending the client, being grilled, fending off the opposing counsel, all of that. I’m the kind of person that really enjoys research and writing and all of that, and even if I know a case inside and out, I would just prefer not to have to get up and talk about it. I have no idea why; it’s not like I have some fear of public speaking. I love public speaking.

Ah, well, something else to discuss with my shrink.

(I’m kidding, I don’t see a shrink. But I often think I should. :-P )

But it was actually pretty fun – like, really, really fun.

Part of what made it so fun was definitely the location. I loved showing up at the federal courthouse all dressed up (well, semi-dressed up, business-casual) and hanging out in the conference room (excellent views, of course, come on, it’s downtown Chicago) until it was time.

The case was pretty simple: Plaintiff Shaunessey brought suit against Defendants corporate officers Spada, Eavenson, and Trudow for failure to pay her before their company, Shoes R Us, filed for bankruptcy and dissolved. Our argument was three-pronged: (1) the court had no personal jurisdiction over the officers, all of whom had retired to Florida in 2003 and not set foot in IL or even called into the state since 2005; (2) the defendants were protected under the fiduciary shield doctrine; and (3) the IL Wage and Payment Collection Act’s provision that if corporate officers knowingly and willingly allow a violation of the act, they can be deemed ‘employers’ as a legal term and are not protected by the fiduciary shield/corporate veil, was not applicable because the plaintiff relied on conclusory allegations to establish the claim.

It went pretty smoothly, I thought. And I passed, obviously. I never had any doubt about it; it was meant to be a relatively simple task.

I had a chance to introduce myself (and let the opposing counsel, our professor, introduce himself) and lay out the three arguments before the judge interrupted to grill me on personal jurisdiction. I admit, that part was the part I was worried about: having my flow interrupted. I had no idea what to expect when it came to what questions the judge would ask, and I was worried that I’d be asked to cite specific cases and give case summaries of cases that I might not have read, or distinguish two cases, or whatever else.

I needn’t have worried. It’s entirely possible that the judge was going easy on us because we were baby 1Ls and she didn’t want to make any of us cry or pass out (hah), but the questions were all pretty simple. She wanted to know why I was discussing personal jurisdiction instead of general (general involved systemic and continuous contacts; personal required minimum contacts and involved a discussion of due process, blah blah), and stuff like that. Everything she asked, I had discussed in the Argument section of my motion to dismiss.

It was an absolute breeze.

What really helped me out, I think, was that I told myself while I was going up that I was going to refer to my notes and my brief as little as possible. I had typed out a quick, bulleted synopsis of my argument and had the Argument section of my brief with all the long cites and crud cut out. Plus, I’d marked it up with random scribbles and circles and underlines, because unless I scrawl all over a typed set of notes, they don’t feel like mine and they don’t help me.

But still, I wanted to use them only if I had to. I wanted to look straight ahead at the judge and keep my chin up. It totally worked. I’d noticed one or two other classmates shuffling through notes or reading from their notes, and I didn’t want to do that. They knew their stuff as well as I did, but reading right from it did not project an image of confidence, I didn’t think.

So I talked to the judge and answered her questions as directly as I could and barely looked at my notes once or twice, if that. It was pretty awesome.

What made the argument fun was that my professor was opposing counsel and it was his job to basically stand there and be an asshole. Pardon the language. But yes. :) It was fabulous. He’d be all, “Your Honor, the defendants saw that their company was failing and conveeeeeeeeeeeeniently skipped town and escaped to Florida, and they should be held accountable for blah blah blah.”

And, having done the assignment, I knew exactly how to counter his point before he was even done. The only bad part? I think I rolled my eyes once. :-P Whoops! Totally didn’t mean to! But when he was standing next to me, being all smirky and saying ‘conveeeeeeeeniently,’ how could I not smirk?! I just wanted to be like, “Your Honor, don’t listen to this clown. He doesn’t know anything. And he lies. He lies so bad. This is why he fails.”

(In all seriousness, though, our professor is AWESOME. He’s absolutely wonderful. He was totally lobbing it over the plate for us during the oral argument, probably to put us at ease since he knew we were kind of freaking out. Great guy. He’s an adjunct, and I really hope the school brings him back again next year because more kids need a legal writing professor like him.)

So, anyway, being able to counter all of the opposing counsel’s arguments was pretty awesome. Obviously, he set up a couple of his points so as to encourage us to respond with specific points – the equivalent of playing chess with a kid and setting up a check.

And then as soon as it began, it was over. And I was left thinking, Man, I want to do this again! Right now!

:-P

I can’t figure out what the heck I was so worried about.