Making coffee this morning, I had to use our tiny little 4-cup coffee-maker b/c our fancypants Cuisinart Grind & Brew seems to have kicked the bucket after about 3.5 years of very faithful service. Although we’ve been using this little coffee-maker regularly for a couple of weeks now, for some reason filling the tiny little water reservoir today reminded me of the six weeks last summer I spent in Missoula “studying” for the bar exam. It was one of those nostalgic moments, a flashback to the simplicity of a daily existence that consisted of little more than waking, coffee, class, and “studying.” Nevermind that it was its own sort of torture b/c of the anxiety of it all, and forget the fact that other big things were also going down at the same time — job interview, getting job, new house, new floors, new life, etc. In that instant of making coffee, the little mind-trick was that my time in Missoula was simple and invigorating, a little like a good cup of coffee. Or something like that.

The point is: The mind is a crazy trickster. Who would have ever thunk I would look back with longing on studying for the bar? Even for a second? [tags]nostalgia[/tags]

Yesterday was the first day I didn’t go into the office or do any work work for weeks. I may never have appreciated past presidents quite so much. I love my job. I do. But sometimes, a bit of a break is really priceless. I’ll post here again in about a month¹ when I’m finished with the four trials I currently have scheduled between now and then.

1. sooner, I hope, but who knows?↩

“Some schools like Stanford and Harvard are making a shift towards a more globalized, theoretical law, and other schools like California Western School of Law and Detroit Mercy School of Law are beginning to emphasize practical, clinical aspects of the profession,” ⇒

Welcome to the campaign’s new blog. No photos of Hillary in sight? ⇒

The University of Illinois will retire its 81-year-old American Indian mascot, Chief Illiniwek, following the last men’s home basketball game of the season on Wednesday. ⇒

“We want to preserve the beauty and model figure of Miss Smith,” said Judge Seidlin. “Beauty was important to her.” ⇒

I can’t believe it’s happening already. At 60-some felony cases I feel like I’m becoming the typical overworked, frazzled public defender. I’m a fireman, actually; I spend a day or two putting out one fire (preparing for a hearing or filing a motion or writing a brief that’s due today), only to get to work the next day to face another three fires I have to start hosing down. I never aspired to be a fireman. Never. Not even when I was six.

I’m thinking the best criminal defense attorney the typical client can have is:

1. Independently wealthy so getting paid is not an issue.
2. A dedicated, passionate, true-believer fighter, for sure.
3. In private practice so she can only take as many court-appointed cases (and she would do no other kind of cases, probably—money is no object, right?) as she can legitimately defend to the absolute limit.
4. Experienced. She needs to have been through the wringer and know the local system inside and out or else she’ll have trouble going to the mattresses for every single client, which is the whole point.

I am not that person. I will never be. I’m just trying to keep my head above water and fighting like mad to make sure my clients don’t get screwed too badly in the process.

A 62-year-old man is suspected of stringing wires at neck level across a popular bike path, as well as scattering nails, broken glass and rocks across the trail in a series of traps set because he wanted to protect the environment, police said. ⇒

“We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war,” Ivins wrote. “We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, ‘Stop it, now!’” ⇒

To allow a president to break the law and commit a felony for more than five years without even a formal independent investigation would be the ultimate subversion of the Constitution and the rule of law. As Judge Taylor warned in her decision, “There are no hereditary kings in America.” ⇒