Ahhhhhh! Kinda feel like screaming... the major rite of passage for 1L's, the appellate brief, is done! My partner and I spent ALL weekend in the library, ultimately churning out 28 pages of brief arguing in favor of our imaginary injured client. So many hours spent crafting each argument, questioning each word, checking and double-checking each citation... it's a little hard to believe it's all over now. We were assigned this problem weeks and weeks ago, and have been working on and off since then... soooo relieved that this writing process is over!
In addition, my partner and I presented our oral arguments on Sunday afternoon. We went in, smartly dressed, and laid our arguments out for the judges. Fortunately we had a very kind Chief Justice who, though he gave us some tough questions, was very supportive and constructive in our post-argument debriefing. As much as I was dreading the oral component of the project, I actually ended up enjoying the arguing (go figure... I love to argue). We have our second round of arguments this coming Sunday, where we switch to the opposite side (now arguing for the manufacturers of the vaccine that injured previously mentioned client). I'm actually looking forward to those arguments...
Despite my enjoyment of the oral advocacy, I still prefer the writing aspect of law school. My favorite thing (by far) is the legal writing. I'm still a 1L, but I think that my legal writing style has developed pretty well - I can tell that my phrasing is more concise and directed and my arguments are starting to flow from one to the next in ways that they never did when I wrote papers in college... hopefully this bodes well for 1) the grade in legal writing and 2) my developing legal career.
This entire appellate process is also a competition to make the Moot Court team. Each team consists of two oralists and one writer, and anyone who makes top-16 oralists or top-16 writers gets to interview for Moot Court (as does anyone who earns an A for their brief). I am still thinking about it, but I think I would seriously considering joining Moot Court (at least as a writer) if I get to the interview process. My friends are trying to convince me to try as an oralist, but we'll see. My partner and I have volunteered for the non-mandatory third round of arguments, and if we do well we'll potentially advance to the semi-finals and final rounds, which narrow down the pool of Moot Court candidates. It's tough to prepare for this on top of all the reading that has piled up from the week spent working on the written brief... but my partner and I are going for it. We figure it'll be a great experience and hopefully we'll get some good advice about our advocacy style. Can't hurt, right?
More on this later...
K (so busy...)
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