Rescued!

So, at the time of my last entry, I had said:

I've still got Evidence on Monday, need to observe a trial and write a
short critique for Trial Practice, write a short memo on my attempts
to observe a suppression hearing for Criminal Procedure, study for
my Patent Law take home final, prepare for a graduation ceremony,
and then . . . some rest.


It has all happened, and I felt as I saw the graduation ceremony (for the Christian Legal Society) come together, I felt immensely relieved. In fact, rescued. Rescued from the pit of despair I had been in only a few weeks before.

Wednesday I picked up the 24 hour take home exam for Patent Law, then started working, and probably slept less than 4 hours in the next 24 hours. Turned it in Thursday evening, then slept some. Got ready for the CLS graduation. I invited two speakers to share their thoughts, one a tax attorney and the other a judge, and I was pretty worried that only 4 people would show. We ended up having about 12, which was fantastic for us (and I hope not too awkward for them). 2 of our graduating members attended, along with their families, which accounted for much of the increase.

One of the speakers noted that as an attorney, there's an occupational risk of treating those around you in your personal life with an attitude of "I'm an attorney doing really important things and I'm so busy that you should make allowances for me." This attitude should not be. How true that we have it, and how true it is that we shouldn't have it.

(By the way, I recently visited UCI and found that the painting titled “The Way Amidst Despair” still hangs in the student center there.)

Saturday morning was the official graduation for the law school, and I spent a good part of the afternoon at the reception saying hi and congratulations and goodbye to various former 3L’s. I also had the chance to speak with a few of my professors in the graduation reception.

Saturday afternoon was spent with one of my friends who had just graduated, and her family and friends. It was quite interesting—but I’ll have to leave it at that for now. Saturday evening was dinner with another friend from law school, at his aunt’s house. Inside, I felt a bit strange, since I was not a close friend of his, but was rather invited by his aunt, who I know from church. But her daughter, who just learned to walk a little while ago, kept us all entertained.

(Why do I feel the need to give an account of my time?)

The following week was good, caught up on my sleep, ran errands, watched the trial, wrote the critique, did various things I had previously put off until after finals. Then a week in Irvine, which was good. My next post will be about it. And now I’ve been back in Davis for a week now.

A good friend of mine who graduated from law school last year gave me some advice about this summer. He advised me not to spend it running around doing errands here and there, because I’ll then look back on the time and say that I wasted it.

I’ve tried to set some goals for myself: to study for and take the patent bar examination and the MPRE (the professional responsibility exam for would-be lawyers, a multiple choice test about legal ethics that I’ve heard isn’t too hard).

Possible side project: to build a projector (for watching DVD’s and computer stuff). Other possible side project: to revise the Law and Mental Health paper (that I spent 6 months writing—aaaargh!) to see if I can get it published in a legal journal.

And I ought to be doing job stuff, sending out resumes and cover letters and stuff. And it looks like I may be teaching for Kaplan to pay the bills over the summer.

And I’ve already commi

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