Release the hounds. Set loose the beasts of nature. Building a strong resume has begun.
As an unabashed liberal, worker's rights have always been under my radar. I do not necessarily scramble my airborne fleet to attack when an issue of worker's rights invades my airspace, but I generally support and defend the weaker, more minority voice.
As a first-year law student, rare is the chance to get any solid practice in the legal field. Alas, that chance has come, and I am not going to miss the opportunity to summarily change somebody's life by arguing their rights in court - however, this is not your ordinary court; this is probably why 1L's can partake in the fun.
The Unemployment Action Center is the newest guilty pleasure I am enabled to undertake. It is a guilty pleasure because I do not want to go into this field, I have no real tie to unemployment law, and I am going to represent somebody in need even though I haven't ever stated a case in front of a judge before. This is exciting.
The UAC is "a non-profit corporation that provides free representation to people claiming unemployment benefits." People need representation, but cannot always afford it. And, "under federal law" these persons seeking benefits are guaranteed such if they lost their job "through no fault of their own". I will be trained to represent a "claimant" at a hearing, where I will have researched the law, giving me the tools to be able to direct, cross-examine and argue the client's case to a judge.
Other members chapters of the UAC are Columbia, Fordham, NYU and Yeshiva schools of law.
I have to sit through a four-plus hour training on a Sunday so that employment and Insurance laws can be properly shoved into the cavernous venue known as my brain. I walk in with no knowledge, they train me in the pertinent laws and how to interview a client, and then they give me a client. This is a quick progression.
I have a grip of courtroom knowledge, but not enough to actually be of any effect. I have watched informal plea-bargaining. I was given the opportunity, most likely by accident, to write briefs, file motions, interview witnesses and access and conceptualize evidence. I have done legal research, been on a first name basis with bailiffs, court reporters and court clerks. Judges have known me by name and counseled me on schooling. I have sat in court, watched somebody be sentenced to death, and even changed the course of a case. My home-county District Attorney knows me and wrote letters of recommendation for law school. I have had some experience in the field, but to be trusted by the school to do right by my client who has entrusted me with effecting the outcome of their case is almost unreasonable.
I want to build my resume. I want to be a viable candidate for premier clerkship opportunities. I want people to take notice of who I am and what I have the potential to become.
Hopefully undertaking this experience will solidify my passion for courtroom advocacy.
In other news, I attended the Jewish Law Student Association meeting today, and joined Phi Alpha Delta (the Law Fraternity). I intend to join the Criminal Law Society and take part in the Mock Trial Enrichment Program, an activity that involves attending fifth-grade classes and teaching them law and procedure with the culminating activity being a mock-trial. Apparently it is a very successful program that enables the learning of rights by these kids which I believe is very valuable.
No, Mom. I am not over-extending myself. Attending meetings at school does not take much time away from my over-packed life. I am involving myself in the legal community in a way that will take little time but will yield enormous benefits. Go team!
Legal, but not English term of the day: "substitutionary"
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