Law Life

When I started this blog, I thought I'd write a little bit about my work life, but as time has passed, it has just never come up. Truth be told, there is nothing exciting or particularly interesting about the practice of law, at least in my opinion. I would really love to be one of those people who is engaged and enriched by her profession, but I practice law so that I have the money to decorate my house. I don't live to work, I work to live.

The other thing is that, well, I can't talk about my clients because the Bar frowns on that sort of thing. And I can't talk about the Defendants that I go up against because it might make them mad and the Bar frowns on that sort of thing. And I don't want to talk about the people in my office because I really like them. And I don't want to talk about the judges and the court personnel because I think it's tacky.

You can see my dilemma here.

To mitigate this issue (there's a legal word for ya) I figure that something funny or interesting will happen around the courthouse from time to time or there will be some legal event in the news that I will feel concerned, annoyed or amused enough about to comment on. But nothing has come up yet.

What's that? You don't believe me when I say practicing law is less than thrilling?

Here's a typical court day:

First, the venue:

I went to court last Monday in Concord, North Carolina.

Downtown Concord is sort of like Brigadoon to me. I am never quite sure where it is or if it will be where I last looked for it. I always count just locating the Courthouse as a personal triumph. You can imagine how happy I was when I found the Courthouse and found a relatively close parking space. Parking is another big issue in going to Court. It's actually a pretty easy proposition in Concord, which is a lovely little town.

The Fashion Report:

I wore black pants and my nifty red shawl-collared jacket buttoned up the front and no blouse on underneath it. Yep, I was in Superior Court in nothing on but a red jacket and a red bra. I'm a little rebel! I also wore my Monday-go-to-Court shoes. They're black patent leather. They have a buckle on the toe and a spike in the four inch heel. They set off the metal detectors in most counties. I kinda like that about them. Just as an aside, I always feel like an Easter Egg in Court. It's mostly full of middle aged men wearing black, brown, blue or gray and women in blouses and sensible shoes. I don't have any interest in sensible shoes, I think blouses are optional and I look terrible in gray. So I wear red, pink and green to Court. Deal with it.

What I did and how I felt about it:

I had a motion on of no consequence with an unrepresented defendant on the other side. She quoted a lot of scriptures in her Answer and then stood there and lied her butt off. I will say that I am annoyed by all the lying that I see in Court. The ease in which these people lie and don't seem to care about doing it is part of the problem in America. It doesn't seem to bother the judges at all, which is the other side of the problem and I just don't understand how the judges could not care. But they don't. Anyhoo, I did my thing, the judge took it under advisement and I came back to Charlotte. Do you sense my bitterness and pessimism regarding the "system"?

What I did for the rest of the day:

Basically, I sat at my desk and signed things for the rest of the day. I also refused to talk to people on the phone because once you reach a certain experience level in the practice of law, you can refuse to speak to people on the phone. It's a small perk, but I take advantage of it sometimes.

How's that for excitement?