Back In The Saddle Again
Holy Smokes,
It has been too long since I have tipped the contents of my head on to this here corner of the internet.
I have good reason for that.
The weekend of February 20-22 was the culmination of my January Term studies, the Gale Cup. The Gale is an external moot competition, which means that I, and 4 others (big kudos to James, Dan, Fraser and Cate! And mad props to our Faculty advisor, Professor Sherrin) traipsed off to Toronto to test our mooting schools against other such talented up-and-ups from around the country.
But getting there was a long road. We received our problem in late November and shortly thereafter began to brainstorm. Save for the Christmas break, the problem required nearly all of our time. At two points in January we had to submit a factum (one on behalf of the appellant side, and one for the respondent), and then intensive mooting practice followed close behind.
It's an odd feeling, making the same argument over and over again, ad nauseum. It's like practicing for a play except that instead of delivering some gritty, David Mamet soliloquy, our roles required such artful prose as "reverse onus", "tactical burden" and "the presumption of a reduced moral culpability for youth" (the stuff of love letters, that).
So encumbering was the language that whenever one of us got away with using a term with a touch more life ("germinate" comes to mind) we responded with giddy admiration. Well, at least I did. The English major in me was just dying, stuck in a wasteland void of metaphor and simile. Alliteration? Not likely to loom on the lips of these legal linguists.
After practicing for so long, after hearing these same submissions over and over and over again, I felt ready. Like football-team ready, aiming for the jugular.
But you know what? Game day came and went, and I really felt no different afterward. I had my 30 minutes in front of the panel of judges. I spoke at a comfortable pace, I met judicial gaze with my own steely stare, the strident advocate (who am I kidding, for all I know I spent the balance of my submission looking as if I had just soiled myself). But really I stood, I spoke, I sat down. The result of 7 weeks of work came and went in the same amount of time it takes me to watch The Office (okay, fine, about 8 minutes more than that, you TV nerd).
At first I felt cheated, empty. But then I came to realize that this is what I can expect from my life as a lawyer. The next time I appear before I judge I won't likely have spent a trimester in preparation. Nor will I get my haircut just for the occasion. A new tie? Maybe if it's close to Christmas. Will my parents be waiting anxiously by the phone to hear how it went? Well, hopefully not, or else the life of my parents will have become painfully vicarious and boring.
Rather than playing to the presumed spectacle of the mooting experience the Gale may have taught me my greatest lesson in my advocate training: it's not about me. It's about the case. When the gavel sounds no one will be there to say, "wow, you nailed it, just like we practiced", especially so if my client is on his way to an orange jumpsuit and government porridge.
Nope, the next time I step into a courtroom to plead a case it won't be followed by cocktails or the handshakes of well-meaning strangers. Instead it will be what I happen to be doing between 9-11:30 on an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday morning.
And I'm okay with that.
Posted by Chris Crighton on
March 3, 2009 | Permalink
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Comments
Perfect photo!
Posted by: Ma | Mar 6, 2009 7:19:15 PM
Hello Chris,
I am a student at Conestoga College in Kitchener Ontario, I am currently doing a project for our college's student life centre. My task is to evaluate other college/university student blogs so I can make reccomendations for our own. Although, I am not evaluting the bloggers material just the set up and use of pictures, I have to say your blogs are the best I have read so far, I honestly enjoyed them! You are a very crafty writer.
Talyn
Posted by: Talyn Elisabeth Pride | Mar 17, 2009 11:11:20 AM
