My reign of terror at PD stuff begins

I began my reign of terror by posting selections from mellancollyeyes' post entitled "Grrr...school blows so much ass it's unbelievable. I realize PD stuff is supposed to be about Public Defenders but I felt like reminding them why their internship programs are so important to some law students.

I thought that managing PD stuff would kill a significant amount of time in class, but I was wrong. I was finished by the time I was halfway done with my first class. That left lunch and two classes with only freecell and spider solitaire to pass the time (along with various other internet games).

Tomorrow I will try and find material that is slightly more relevant to the general readership of PD stuff. If anyone has anything of interest they would like me to post on the main page just send me an email or leave a comment.

Letters from prisoners

An organization I am involved with gets letters from prisoners across the country asking for help with their legal issues. When we have the time we research the prisoners' letters and send back short memos explaining the area of law to them. Many of our letters are from a prisoner who is preparing a habeas or a 1983 claim. Those letters I understand. I don't understand the letters from prisoners upset with their Public Defender and asking if we know of any lawyers who offer pro bono representation for indigent clients. We do know of lawyers who will work for no charge from you if you are indigent, they are called: PUBLIC DEFENDERS.

I really like Audacity's post about Michael Vick pleading guilty. I think I may print it out and mail it back to the prisoners who write in.

The best thing about Mike Vick pleading guilty is that if a client ever starts off with, “If I had a real lawyer…” I can say, “Mike Vick had a real lawyer.”

In unrelated news I will be guest blogging at PD Stuff starting on the 25th. I did a practice run today and posted two items. I'm like a PD blog intern.

Bleh

I still want to be a PD but I just can't stand the thought of two more years of law school. I have come up with a new plan. California, Vermont, Virginia, or Washington still allow one to sit for the bar without attending law school. I humbly ask any PD's out there from California, Vermont, Virginia, or Washington if you would be willing to let me apprentice with you? I'll even pay you what I would have paid in tuition costs (which trust me is a good deal on your end.)

Anyone? Yeah didn't think so.

How about tips explaining how you dealt with Type-A gunners who think you are pond scum for not being in the top 10% and on law review? And don't say drink because I already do way to much of that.

I miss my internship.

OCI

Everyone else is going insane with on campus interviews. One of my roommates has 9 interviews in one day. I have 0 interviews. There were no firms coming to my campus from the city where I want to practice. There were also no firms that do any criminal law other than white collar.

I've been spending my free time getting my resume in order and preparing cover letters letting all the PD offices know why I am awesome. I'm going PD office or bust.

Also a friend needs to stop bragging about being in the top 10%, law review, winning some award, TAing for someone and other general asshattery. I'm very happy that she did well, but she needs to shut it. She found out that a mutual friend did better than her in a certain class. She responded with an incredulous "really?"

I think it bothers her that I'm not jealous of her. I don't care that she will have a very easy time making a lot of money and working insane hours for some corporate law firm. As long as I can survive and practice criminal defense law in my city of choice I will be happy.

Who builds an outdoor mall in Wisconsin?

I've driven through Wisconsin twice now. Both times I stopped at an outlet mall for a nice break. Last time there was snow on the ground and it was cold. I thought to myself that the mall was probably designed for the summer tourists and it was probably pretty nice there in the summer. I was wrong. Give me snow any day over the heat and humidity. I went into stores I would never purchase anything from just for some air conditioning. What kind of idiot decides that an outdoor mall is a good venue in a climate with brutal winters and hot/humid summers?

I would also like to address some driving concerns. If you are driving on a freeway with little to no traffic and someone comes up behind you to pass DO NOT SPEED UP. I know you are speeding up because I'm using cruise control and my speed hasn't changed.

Passing should occur in the left lane. The sign saying slower traffic keep right means that if I am behind you in the left most lane MOVE TO THE RIGHT.

I used to think that Montana was my favorite State to drive in. That was before I had driven in North Dakota. While boring as sin, North Dakota has the same speed limit as Montana (75mph) and better quality roads. The roads in Montana are horrible. The entire time I was in North Dakota I never once felt that the speed limit was unreasonable. I felt no desire to speed. The two times I saw a cop I almost hit the break as a reflex. Driving without a fear of being pulled over for speeding is a weird experience for me. This was the first time I had ever been in North Dakota. I previously drove through South Dakota. South Dakota is the lamer of the Dakotas. Wall Drug is the lamest thing on earth.

People can not drive in Minnesota. I swear the second I hit the border the quality of driving went down. Things stayed largely the same in Wisconsin, except a little slower and with a lot more cops. I saw more cops in Wisconsin than I did in the other six states I drove in combined.

Now that I am done with my internship I will turn this blog into more of a law school blog until next summer.

Former/future PD intern

I only cried a little bit today. I might have made it out without crying in front of anyone had the other intern not started crying when I said good bye. In a strange way I was happy when she started crying because it told me that she enjoyed working with me as much as I enjoyed working with her.

It has been less than 12 hours since I left work and I already miss it. Even if I wasn't returning to the hell that is law school I would be sad right now. My internship had everything, great people, doing great work, in a wonderful city. Everyone offered wonderful advice on what I should do for next year and who I should talk to at what agency.

It didn't take my lackluster GPA first semester for me to realize that firm life was not for me. The little part of me that still thought I might one day end up at a firm died this summer. If I worked at a firm, even the most important client would not have as pressing of issues as the cases I handled as a PD intern. Sure Mr. Bigwig might lose $5 million dollars, but Mr. Crackdealer is going to lose 30 months of his life (assuming he is lucky and gets an exceptionally low sentence.)

Which reminds me, Mr. Crackdealer (well Ms. Crackdealer's accomplice really) sent us a letter today. He agreed that his case had issues but thoughtfully pointed out all the issues I failed to raise. I failed to raise a couple of issues that were completely absent from the record. I also failed to raise the issue that he had no illegal substance on him when he was arrested (nevermind the fact he was charged with being an accomplice to delivery).

The other intern tried to one up my sucking up skills today by bringing in a box of cookies. To out do her I negotiated the sale of a new car for one of the attorney's at the office. The car he wanted was selling in our area for roughly $700 below MSRP. I got it for $1300 under MSRP. I get a sick sense of enjoyment out of haggling. My coworker was ready to sign when I got it to $1100 under MSRP but I was persistent that we could do better. I should have made him split the $200 I saved him with me.

last week

This will be my last week as an intern. I am not excited by this fact. I am not excited to return to the world of gunners. I have enjoyed every single day of my internship. The difference between the actual practice of law and law school astounds me. The only classes that taught me anything useful on a daily basis were Legal Writing and Research. I bitched and moaned a lot about my legal writing professor during law school. I stand by most of that bitching and moaning but I have give the prof credit for actually teaching me some decent legal writing skills.

Super Intern got to argue a case before the Court of Appeals on Friday. She embarrassed herself and the office with her pathetic attempt at oral advocacy. Actually she did an excellent job and we might actually win the case. I credit my excellent cheer leading for the win. Dammit I had a matching tie and REAL pocket square combo just for her oral arguments.

In thinking about what I want to do next summer it occurred to me that the Super Intern won't be there. This saddens me. We shared an "office" together this summer so we spent a lot of time working together. If we had not gotten a long it would have been a much more difficult summer. We bounced ideas off of each other so often that I'm having trouble imagining doing the work without her. We kept each other sane when deadlines approached. We complained about the crappiness of our issues. We shared stories about the hell that is law school. We sucked up to the attorneys with bags of chocolate. We watched as the seagull eggs hatched. We named their father after a prosecutor.