Professional Advice Needed: Moving from big to little

This is a question for anyone who knows anything about public defender hiring preferences (to the extent that any generalizations can be made from office to office):

Is it likely that a public defender in a large city (e.g., Chicago) would be hesitant to hire someone whose only experience is as a public defender in a small town in a different state (e.g. somewhere in Montana)? Or is there likely to be bias the other way? Or does the size of the city where you get your first defender experience really make no difference?

The situation is this: I don't have a job. For various reasons, I want to get a job in either Montana or Chicago and I have relatively promising leads in both places but know for sure I won't have a job offer either place before late June or early July at the earliest. I have a hunch that if I get my first job in Montana, work there a few years, then decide I want to go to Chicago (or some other big city), I might face some problems. On the other hand, this hunch says that if I start in Chicago and then decide to move to a smaller city or town, I will have an easier time finding a job. Can anyone offer any information or thoughts that would either corroborate or refute this hunch?

Thank you!

Posted 01:44 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack |

One Possible Path

A lot of people go to law school not knowing what they want to do with their lives or legal careers. I was sort of one of those people; I thought I wanted to get into crafting policy with some sort of nonprofit like Public Citizen, but my plans were always pretty hazy. After three years of law school I'm heading in a very different direction—I hope I'm going to get a job as a public defender. Exactly where that happens, or how long I will stay in such a position, are much less clear. But after reading this obituary for Joel A. Scelsi, a “small-town lawyer,” I have a new model for one career path I know I would find very satisfying.

“He did a lot of pro-bono work; he just helped a lot of people,” said his daughter, Sylvana Dodd of Endwell. “Growing up, people would tell me if you ever got in trouble, go to Joel Scelsi and he'll help you. That was a wonderful part of his life.”

Wouldn't it be great to have your friends and loved ones say things like this about you when you're gone?

[via My Shingle]

Posted 01:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | 3L

Notes on applying for bar exams*

Dear bar exam application designers (aka Brilliant Ones):

Thank you for the many wonderful hours of fun you've provided in designing your bar exam application processes. At first I found some of the questions you asked a little insulting. For example, what business is it of yours whether I have ever had a divorce or had a marriage annulled or set aside? That affects my “character and fitness” to practice law precisely how? But then I realized that I had an entirely wrong attitude so I just put on a happy face found it much easier to understand and appreciate the brilliance of this process you have designed. Let me count just a few of the ways you have made my life much better.

First, I'm glad you want to know every address at which I've lived since I was 18. There have been 17 of them and it was fun to track them all down. Thanks also for making it so stupidly difficult to enter all that information into your webforms. That was fun.

You've actually made the joy of filling out poorly-designed webforms nearly infinite, thanks to the fact that you provide so very many such forms for my entertainment. While I appreciate being able to submit a copy of my application online, it easily takes five times as long to fill out these web forms as it would to simply write out all the information by hand. Thanks for that pleasure. I really had nothing better to do with my whole damn day than fill out webforms. And if you doubt my sincerity, just look at the fact that I'm actually paying hundreds of dollars for the privilege of this pleasure and you will doubt no more!

Speaking of web forms, thanks for requiring me to submit my application electronically and requiring that I print out multiple copies and mail them to you. I like doing the very same thing multiple times in multiple ways. Redundancy is such a joy!

Oh, and speaking of redundancy, the fact that you require me to apply for the right to apply for the bar exam is a stroke of genius. I just worry that perhaps you're missing a step there; wouldn't the process be much easier for you and applicants to manage if you required us to apply to apply to apply? It's just a suggestion. I figure if one redundancy is good, two is better!

Of all the pleasures you provide with this application, I think the multiple forms requiring notarization are among the most exquisite. I especially like that you want me to get two barred attorneys to vouch for my character and to do so in front of a notary. It's really not enough to ask them to sign the form and mail it in; it's much better to ask them to find a notary and pay to help me apply for the bar exam. Very thoughtful of you, really.

Thanks for asking if I have any outstanding parking tickets. The answer is no, but I can totally see how that would be crucial data in determining whether I'm fit to practice law in your great state.

Also, I hope you have fun with the fingerprint cards I had to pay a surly “law enforcement officer” to help me create. It's nice to know you don't believe me when I say in answer to your many questions that I have no criminal record. I mean, we all like to be distrusted and second-guessed, and you're doing an excellent job of that!

Finally, thanks for asking for so much information about all of my current creditors (e.g. mortgage, credit cards, auto loans, student loans, etc.), including the balance on each, as well as wether any are delinquent or disputed. I didn't even know all of that information and you know, I was sort of thinking I was happier in my ignorance. But now that I know for sure that I owe more than $170,000 to various large corporations to whom I've granted the right to charge me exorbitant interest for probably the rest of my life, I realize that knowledge is power—and all thanks to you!

In short, jumping through the many hoops required to sit for the bar in your state and then being able to pay so dearly for the privilege—well, I just don't know how to thank you for allowing me to have this experience. I'm definitely looking forward to the exam and to working with people smart enough to develop such brilliant ways to welcome new recruits into their profession.

Sincerely,

The Imbroglio

*Not all of these great ideas were found within the same bar application process. Instead, I've assembled here a collection of some of the most brilliant requirements from a couple of applications. If you've ever applied for a bar exam or looked over an application, what were the most brilliant parts for you?

Posted 08:14 AM | Comments (19) | TrackBack | 3L bar exam

Montana Public Defender Uncertainty

As the July 1 deadline approaches for Montana's move to a statewide public defender system, it's a little hard to tell what's happening. The part I care most about is what they're going to do about staffing. The last news I heard was that the Public Defender Commission had announced that current public defenders (those who have been employed by county governments up until now) will not be guaranteed jobs in the new state system. I know that probably sounds bad for them, but I also assume that, despite that announcement, most of them will actually end up getting hired by the state. So I'm still wondering: Will the state be hiring new public defenders soon? And if so, will they be considering new graduates like myself? The commission met for the second time this year two weeks ago and I sort of assumed they'd be talking about staffing issues at that tim. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a single news report or press release to indicate what happened at that meeting. Uncertainty reigns.

In the only news I have found recently, one county hasnamed an interim public defender to work only between now and July 1. But come on — are we really supposed to believe that people like this are just going to lose their jobs on July 1?

Meanwhile, I've set up one initial interview elsewhere—the first of what I'm told is a 3-step interview/hiring process that can take three months or more. Great.

All this job uncertainty is not fun, but one thing makes it infinitely worse: The bar exam. For this and many other reasons I agree with Professor Solove: We should abolish it!

Posted 09:13 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Montana

Congratulations, Scoplaw!

Congratulations to fellow law school blogger Scoplaw whose first full length book of poetry, “Ice Sculpture of Mermaid with Cigar,” is now available for pre-order!

Scoplaw (aka, RJ McCaffery) will also be reading from his book next Monday, April 3, at Georgetown law. His blog currently says the reading will be next Tuesday, but I'm sure he'll be updating that soon.

Posted 09:41 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | ai books

Cherry Cherry Bloom Bloom

The National Cherry Blossom Festival started yesterday. If you're in D.C., you better go check it out. After I saw the Tidal Basin in bloom last year I can guarantee you won't be sorry. We went down there this morning and only a few trees were really in blossom. I'm thinking that by Wednesday or Thursday, the Tidal Basin will be awash in white, so plan to go then, if you can.

Posted 04:01 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | life generally