What can I say?

My head is spinning. I know nothing, but I'm learning a lot already. On Day One of my summer internship I learned that I'll be working with the attorney who has the felony docket, which includes robbery, rape, and murder, but recently has included a lot of "paper" cases, including embezzling, forgery, and uttering (attempting to actually use forged documents). I'd never heard of the crime of uttering before, so that was perhaps my first lesson.

Many of the other lessons so far have been in the realm of criminal procedure, which I sorely wish I'd already taken. I learned what "advisements" are (initial hearings where the accused is advised of charges and rights to defense in open court), and watched some preliminary hearings. It's one thing to have a vague understanding of the major steps in the criminal defense process, and another thing to understand the subtleties and strategies required to represent a client to the best of your abilities at each stage. But while the learning curve in the next few weeks is going to be steep, I imagine CrimPro will much easier when I finally do take it. (Maybe I should rearrange my schedule to take it in the fall rather than the spring....)

Other than that, it's hard to get used to the idea of having people's lives in your hands. Reading a case file means reading about a real and unresolved issue that you may help resolve. It's intimidating, but watching the attorneys at work in court (which I did for about two hours yesterday) reminded me that these are just normal people who sometimes forget what they meant to ask witnesses and stumble through cross examinations, just like I did in mock trial and certainly will again if I'm ever in their shoes. Ok, not just like, but still. They're human. They do the best they can for their clients. I can do that, too. I hope.

Posted May 18, 2004 05:41 AM | 1L summer