glorious summer!

I'm really back!

Florida was glorious, but as is wont to happen once you start riding the legal roller coaster, I had work to complete while lounging on a balcony scattered with little lizards. Margarita in hand, sunscreen and string bikini on, and a clear view of the St. Lucie River lapping at it's banks; I set out to provide an overview of how the Courts of Appeals in the eleven federal districts have treated a landmark case for federal civil procedure.

I have really gotten into the right profession.

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Now is a good time to tell you a bit about my second job; the job that had me incarcerated on a balcony for a full day in paradise.

I am a research assistant for a professor renowned in the areas of constitutional law and civil procedure. My boss has also held key leadership roles at my law school. Though I am averse to mentioning names in this blog, rest assured that it is an amazing honor to be working for this particular lawyer and scholar. When discussing the results of any of my assignments, I am often astonished how quickly his mind wraps around a tiny fact I mention and immediately pinpoints several ways it may have far reaching implications. I know he has years and years of experience, and that in many ways accounts for his quickness in isolating details that are seemingly insignificant but have a huge impact in litigation, but his genius is obvious in his speed. I can only hope that someday, after years of practice, I may too be that impressive to a young associate!

We meet infrequently; about once a month or so for about twenty minutes. Other feedback and more narrow instructions are submitted via email. He's easy to get in touch with and gives clear instructions. His deadlines are normally soft, but in this case we are coming up on his publishing deadline--hence the tropical work session.

My tasks thus far have been of steadily increasing complexity. At first, it was basically Shepardizing cases (Shepardizing=looking for cases that are overturned, affirmed, etc) to find mention of a particular new precedent. Then he asked me to make observations of those cases, isolating any trends or key differences in interpretation. In this way he will have the condensed facts and basic trends gathered when he updates his treatise.

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It's fun being a part of legal scholarship and treatise work. Not only am I assisting in the creation of something significant and lasting, but it is also thrilling to see into the mind of the people who compose the casebooks and nutshells we spend months of our lives pouring through.

Well, thrilling for a law student at least. After our 1L year, I'm not sure if our interests remain consistent with those of the general population.