Justice O'Connor, Oral Arguments, and Performance Test

On Friday Justice Sandra Day O'Connor visited for the William French Smith Lectures. Dean Starr and 3 other professors talked with her, and they let the audience submit questions too. I got there early with my other nerdy friends and we got on the very front row! My friend, and one of my roommates for next year, Tracy and I bought her book before the session and we wanted her to sign it. There was a reception after, but she wasn't staying for it because she and Dean Starr had a birthday party to go to. So, Tracy and I kept asking people if we could ask her to just sign our books, and they kept saying no. Eventually they made everyone leave the area, and they closed the doors at the end of the hall. So Tracy and I stood there and asked everyone who came out if we could get our books signed - and they kept saying no. They also said they wouldn't take the books in for us. But eventually a guy who's in law school here came out and we asked him - and they told him no when he asked too. But he took us outside and around to where her secret service were waiting for her to come out. When we were standing out there, Dean Starr let us come in and introduced us! Tracy and I were the only ones who got to meet Justice O'Connor, and she signed our books. She was really nice about it, and she personalized them :)

Then on Saturday, Joan and I had our oral argument competition. The oral arguments are based on the appellate brief that we wrote over spring break. What happens is we go up against another team of 2, and those 2 wrote on the same topic we did, but they were representing the other side. When we did the arguments, it was set up like when attorneys argue before an appellate court - like a circuit court or the Supreme Court. We were arguing before the "9th Circuit," and we had 3 judges.

The way it works is you get up and start talking and then the judges just interrupt you and ask you questions - whatever they want to know about your case. I got through about one sentence before they interrupted me. They ask you really hard questions because they're trying to find holes in each side's argument. I didn't feel that great about it when I finished, but they seemed to really like me - so maybe all my years of Mock Trial paid off! It was actually a lot of fun. When we got the score sheets back, Joan and I won by a lot - the judges really liked us - so we've decided to enter the Dalsimer Competition next year. Dalsimer is a competition where students prepare a brief and give oral arguments like what I just did, and you can win a lot of money for it if you do good!

I signed up to do a closing argument competition on April 16, and I can get placed on the trial team for next year if I do good enough. I would love to be on the trial team - because it's basically the law school version of mock trial - and the top 3 winners get a big money prize. If I don't make the trial team, I may end up trying out for the Moot Court Team, which is the team that does the oral arguments like what Joan and I did.

Today I had my Performance Test for LRW. It was the last part of my final for that class. The test is set up like the one on the Bar. We went in and they gave us a problem to work on - it wasn't anything we could study for. We had a packet with a memo from another attorney at our firm asking us to draft the argument section of a demurrer (similar to the motion for summary judgment I wrote not too long ago), and a copy of the Plaintiff's complaint, and then 4 cases that could potentially be used as precedent (that we could cite to as authority for the court to consider when they make their decision). So we had to read through those materials and write our argument in 3 hours. And now, I'm done with LRW forever! Yay! :)