Congratulations to everyone who took the bar exam last week. I’m sure you feel like you just ran a marathon. I do hope none of you are stupid like I was and had to start you new jobs yesterday, the first Monday after finishing the exam. What was I thinking? Oh yeah, I wasn’t.

Like Beanie said, I don’t ever want to take another bar exam, but I’ll probably have to. If I recall correctly, MBE scores are transferrable for three years, which gives me two more years to take another state w/out having to do the MBE. That would be smart to do, wouldn’t it? I wonder if I’ll be that smart….

Video featuring Amber Lee Ettinger . . . lip syncing the song “I Got A Crush on Obama” written and performed by Temple University student Leah Kaufman who also wrote and sung (but did not appear in) the famed My Box in A Box video. ⇒

“I know you’re not gay but I’m hoping for bi.” (video) ⇒

I finished the Harry Potter on Wednesday, but have had no time to post since then. And really, what’s to say? It was a really fun read, and a nice end to a terrific series, but beyond that anything I might say could end up making someone mad or spoiling it for others. That won’t stop me from saying more, but later. On L’s recommendation, I’ve started The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which is not exactly light summer reading, and about a 180-degree change in style/tone/subject from Harry Potter. If posting here is dismal and detached and depressing in tone in the next week or two, blame McCarthy.

My book has arrived. Thank you Amazon! See you all in a couple of days. (I’m a glacially slow reader.)

Hey, did you hear there was this book coming out tomorrow? It’s called Harry Potter or something like that. Yeah, I just heard it was kind of popular and people are kind of excited about it. Like a *lot* excited.

Are you?

If you are, then I bet you’ll love Wizard Rock, which you can hear about here and which you can actually listen to here. That’s Harry and the Potters, but don’t miss Draco and the Malfoys (esp. if you have ever been a fan of the Dead Milkmen, to which they bear a passing resemblance). Rock on you freeky fans, rock on.

So who’s going to be in line at midnight tonight to pick up your copy? Come on, don’t be shy. Tell!

Who is *not* looking forward to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Ok, lots of you, I’m sure, and if you’ve read and loved the previous books, you are probably, like me, looking forward to this last book w/some sadness—it will be the end!

But no need to dwell on that. Better to focus on the joy of anticipation and make sure you’ll have your very own copy to consume at your liesure. So if you want to get a copy of the book for nearly 50% off, plus get a $5 gift certificate to use on anything else at Amazon, and if you want to get guaranteed delivery of the book on its release date of July 21, then you need to order by noon Eastern today! And yeah, if you order through that link, you’ll be giving me like 50 cents, too, so what are you waiting for? ;-)

(This crass commercialism has been brought to you by the letter H.)

Last week I mused about whether my daily uniform of suit and tie was a sign that I’ve sold out. The jury remains out on that question, but now the European Union has raised the question of whether such attire might be contributing to global warming.

I kid you not: A “senior commissioner” (what does that mean) at the EU has proposed that men stop wearing ties in the summer so that the EU can turn down the air conditioning in its offices. The article doesn’t say exactly, but I assume they would also stop wearing the jackets, which are frankly ridiculous in weather over about 75 degrees.

I don’t know about you, but I’m all for it! I understand the desire to make sure lawyers look professional in order to show respect and make a good impression on both court and client. However, why can’t a “professional” look be accomplished by some combination of clothes that is more comfortable and less ridiculous? Jackets in the fall and winter? Fine. Ties? Never. As much as some in the U.S. legal world oppose following the Europeans for any reason, I say we jump aboard this train and ride it all the way to shorts, sandals, and Hawaiian shirts in court. Tasteful and muted colors only, please.

Every morning when I button up my lightly starched dress shirt, cinch my belt on my pressed dress pants, and tie the tiny little laces on my shiny dress shoes, I’m reminded again of the 2/3 or more of my life during which I swore I would never, ever be the type of person who dressed up like this every day. I wonder if that nagging thought will ever go away.

For most of my life, I was convinced that suits and ties were the uniforms of capitalism and exploitation (although, of course, before college I just thought they were uncomfortable, uncool, and markers of the type of life I would never want to live). Now I put on a suit and tie nearly every day. Does that make me a tool? Have I sold out?

I like to think it’s possible that the answer is no. I may wear the uniform of oppression and exploitation, but as a public defender I fight against those forces. I like to think I’m sort of using the master’s tools to destroy the master’s house, so to speak.¹ Maybe that’s just rationalization.

Perhaps it’s good for public defenders to be constantly asking themselves, “Are we tools?” Because if we are tools, cogs in the system that grinds down our clients, we should stop what we’re doing, shouldn’t we?

Ah, nevermind. It’s Tuesday and me and my shiny shoes are late for work.

1. If anyone can provide background on that phrase — you have to use the master’s tools to destroy the master’s house — I would appreciate it. I’m pretty sure there’s a debate over whether that’s even possible or whether it’s just cover for those who have sold out…↩

Get this: Things are so bad for prosecutors in Chicago that they have to get partisans to write “commentaries” begging for more pay. Articles and editorials arguing for more pay are something you can find almost daily in newspapers around the country. The thing is, all of that text is focused on the problem of poor pay and resources for defense attorneys, not prosecutors. Clearly, Chicago has been doing something right!

Check this out from the “commentary”:

The typical prosecutor’s annual pay before then was about $63,000, compared with $73,000 for public defenders. Since then, prosecutors received a raise that would bring them closer to “parity” with the public defenders, but they still lag about 8 percent behind. This while the total number of active felony cases per attorney is 50 in the public defender’s office and 109 in the state’s attorney’s office.

Overworked and underpaid prosecutors and public defenders with reasonable salaries and caseloads? Yeah, that sounds like a little bit of paradise to me.

More tidbits from comments on the blog of Dennis Byrne, the partisan who wrote this “commentary” asking for more prosecutor pay:

• Here you can see the salaries in the Cook County Public Defender’s Office. Wow. I was clearly given the wrong information a year ago when I was told that PDs started in Chicago at $35k/year. It appears starting salaries are actually about $43k, which is the same as we get in Montana. According to a Chicago prosecutor, defender “salaries are consistently as much as 20-25% higher than their State’s Attorney counterparts with identical start dates. A study revealed that APDs are paid on average $9,100 more per year than ASAs with comparable experience & tenure. “
• Public defenders are apparently union members; prosecutors are not. Advantage: Union!
• Supposedly (and again, this is from the comments on David Byrne’s blog so who knows if it’s accurate), “the PDs Office receives double the amount for training that the SAO receives, $70,000 vs. $140,000 per year!”