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I want to start with an anecdote from my orientation. After completing registration and shelling out hundreds of dollars for books I, along with a few dozen other first year students, took a tour of a Federal District Courthouse. I had assumed that we were simply getting a tour of the building - which admittedly was a bit more impressive than the county courthouse near my home town).
But when we arrived at the court house, we learned that we would be observing a live trial! Despite being immersed in the law almost 24/7, many law students don't see the inside of a court room until their second or third year.
Watching a trial live is nothing like reading it or watching it on TV. You can feel the tension in the air between the two sides. The plaintiff, an older man who worked for a major delivery corporation, was suing the company for economic losses. He alleges that after being injured, the company dismissed him and did not give him the rights that are guaranteed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The plaintiff's lawyer had called an economist to the stand to demonstrate how much the man lost.
To an observer, the economist's testimony was long and often dull. But observing the two parties was very revealing. The man stared straight ahead - he never glanced over at his former employer. The defense team looked distinguished in their fine suits.
Cross examination time. The defense lawyer appears cool and collected - he asks the economist whether he considered various scenarios, a tactic he hopes will show the jury that the economic losses are far less than what is suggested.
The testimony drags on. The judge calls a side bar conference and the lawyers dutifully march over. Interestingly, a buzzing noise seems to fill the room, which drowns out what the group is saying.
When it's all over, the plaintiff rests, and the court adjourns. The judge, an alumnus of my school, walked over to us and took questions from the audience. He had a lot of good things to say, and even a word of wisdom: "Some of you look pretty exhausted. You don't know what exhausted feels like...yet."
The whole courtroom episode taught a valuable lesson in itself. To borrow a phrase about the Internet: the law is serious business. The plaintiff has been injured and claims he needs help. The defense on the other hand says it can't compensate injured workers who have not followed the proper reporting procedures.
The law touches just about every aspect of our lives. To study it and understand it is a great honor, but perhaps also a burden. As lawyers, we have the power to make a person's life far better, or potentially miserable. But our journey, as the judge told us, is just about to begin.
Here goes nothing.
