Feeling a little competition lately

I've been getting competitive vibes from one of the attorneys that I work with. She is only a year out of law school and was the intern darling of the office before she graduated and was hired. I think she feels like I am too close to what she was. The thing is, I don't understand why she cares. She gets her own case load now, and actually gets to do the fun stuff. I'm still just an intern. Every time I turn around she is dredging up some menial task and seems irritated when another att'y gives me actual responsibility (doing the same kinds of things she was as an intern.) I thought it might have just been me being a dork, but today another att'y commented on how irritated she was when we started gathering files so that I could start putting together a trial notebook. This has previously been her territory. But come on--she actually gets to do the trials, why on earth would you get your panties in a wad over putting together a notebook? I like her and we have gotten along well so far, but this is getting irritating.

MPRE *snooze*

I'm having trouble getting motivated to study for the MPRE. I'm off work this week and I have fallen into a great pit of laziness. So far my study has consisted of attending the video prep course and taking two practice exams. I haven't cracked the book. But I did ok on the practice exams. But that leaves me with even less incentive to study. Still I don't want to blow this off. I know two people who failed, and at least one of those really surprised me.

So now I think I'll go take a nap. Then maybe I'll take a look at that book.

Don't Mess With the Judge

So I managed to gracefully exit my family law job and am back to working only two days a week in the DA's office. This week had crazy dockets because the judge was out last week and all of the attorney's will be gone next week. I did three pleas on Wednesday, and fortunately was not the one to do the five count plea on a co-actor in a murder case. The judge decided that he was going to stack all five counts on this guy, rather than let them run concurrently as per the plea agreement. You could instantly see the defense attorney start to sweat. He started to argue with the judge, and the judge pretty quickly put him in his place. In the end it came down to a minute procedural issue having to do with the order in which the individual counts were entered, and in this case, it was not done in such a way that the judge could stack.

In other news, I filed my first court document today that I prepared 100% by myself. It is a response to a motion for summary judgment, and I am really looking forward to arguing it in a couple of weeks.

They're all F'ing crazy

I swear each day there is a defendant crazier than the last. Our crazy defendant of the day set a house on fire with seven kids inside. With gasoline. On purpose. Knowing that the kids were there and that three of them were his own grandkids. The house burned to the ground within ten minutes and its a miracle that none of the kids were hurt.

The Tink and Super Soda

That is what my soon-to-be-five-year olds have claimed as their superhero names. Super Soda squirts bad tasting root beer at the bad guys. Not sure what The Tink does. Big sis has dubbed herself Princess Stephanie who has the power to make new powers. I love it when their imaginations run wild--they're far more creative than I have ever been.

Evil Eye

Sat in on a murder trial today. The entire time the defendant was staring at me. At first I just thought I was being narcissistic--or crazy--but a few more glances and I was sure that he was giving me the evil eye. I mentioned this during the break, and the other attorneys confirmed that he is performing what one called "the blinkey-blinkey defense". Every few minutes he rapidly blinks his eyes for a minute or so, and then he goes into a catatonic stare. It's his way of trying to convince the jury he's crazy. I just happened to be in the direct line of the stare today. Creepy.

I need to grow some cojones

I quit my job at the family law firm. There were some ethical situations that I was just not comfortable with. Of course, I could not use that as my excuse for quitting--this is a small town and I will likely have to deal with them again--so I told them that I wanted to put more time in the DA's office since I got my student bar card and I was getting to do hearings and other fun stuff. They were fine with that--but this morning I got a dort of dis-engagement letter, stating that since I was leaving "to work for the DA's office full-time" could I please put up my position on my school's job boards.

First, I never exactly said I was working for the DA's office full-time--and I'm not. Now I feel like I really told a lie. But, in this case, I guess a small lie is better than the truth. More importantly, I don't know what to do about posting on my school's job boards. I don't really want to foist the ethical dilemmas that I had to deal with on to one of my classmates.

Now the real reason I need to grow a pair is because of the other attorney who offices in that firm--we'll call him Slimey. He came in about a week ago and asked for my cell # in case he had some research projects. After I gave it to him he said, "yeah, its nice that you guys get free Lexis access, it really helps me out to have a student do my research". I was sort of shocked at the time, and didn't respond, but figured I'd deal with it if he ever asked me to do anything.

Soooo, the day I quit the firm, Slimey comes in and tells me about this new case he has picked up (he doesn't know yet that I have quit), and then manages to squeze in what he needs me to find out and where to find it--on Lexis. Again, I am dumbstruck, and truly don't know how to respond--especially since I have quit the firm and he doesn't know yet. So I just say ok, and he leaves.

So, of course I haven't done any of his research. I don't feel comfortable using my school account for this sleazeball--oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure there's an agreement in place that says I can't do that. I have got to deal with this guy head on and get rid of him, or he is going to haunt me. (He has already called 8 times in a 6 hour period because he forgot the alarm code at the office and I had my phone off.) I am usually pretty forward with dealing people--but I have always dreaded the sleazy salesman type--which is what this guy is. But if I am going to be a litigator, I am going to have to start dealing with sleazy lawyers, a little more forcefully than I have with Slimey. Uggghhh. I just want to be done with this whole bad situation.