Long Time No Post

It was Diana who called me out on not making a post in a long time on here. Between finishing up the biggest assignments of the semester and spring break, I guess it has just slipped my mind. To do a quick catch up, before spring break we finished up our memo, brief and ended with a bang on oral arguments. Oral arguments aren't that bad because you have been working intimately with the issue for a few months, so being able to answer questions to a panel of pretend judges isn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of nerves involved with the process, but when all is said and done, we all admit there was more anticipation to the build up than was actually needed. The introduction was the hardest part for me because it is a very rehearsed statement of, "May it please the court, my name is Walter Porizkova and I represent the Appellant or Appellee (insert clients name here), and I will be discussing (state your issues here)". Then you go into your presentation of the law and the facts and applicability of the law. However, you never get through your presentation because the panel of judges will always have questions to ask to throw you off your game. The reason I struggled so much with the introduction is because I have gien many talks in my church, but I can always start with a joke or an ice breaker to ease the tension. You can't do that infront of an appellate court. And to be completely up front on my opinion, I don't see any real world purpose to having oral arguments. I think it is so deeply rooted in legal tradition that it will never be changed, but I see no reason not to. Based on my limited knowledge, the judges of the court do their own research anyway and rarely change their decisions based on how well an attorney does in front of the court. Seems like a "going through the motions" type of procedure.

Anyway, now that the pressure of Legal Research and Writing is off and we have had spring break, we are now gearing up for finals. In my undergrad, I never studied for finals until the day or two before the exam. We are a month away and we all feel like we are behind on our studying for the exams. There is a general atmosphere of anxiety again at the school and I am no exception. I am breaking down my studies into one class a day. This is just to get me going. Once it is closer to finals I will be getting more intense. I am easing off my sleep a little at a time until I am going to have to really be deprived closer to time. Most people are planning a celebration after finishing their 1L finals and officially being done with the Hell Year of law school, but I will be having surgery the very next day. So limited celebration for me. We are in the home stretch and will be celebrating soon enough though (TIME IS FLYING BY!)

I promise to post more soon now that I have been chastized by my wife. Thank you all for reading the blog.