Oregon update October 5, 2008

The Oregon bar exam wasn’t much of an obstacle, and I swore into the Oregon bar about ten days ago.  The trouble is finding a job!  This is particularly difficult given that my legal interests encompass only criminal defense and civil rights cases, with a little general plaintiff’s work being tolerable.

So, what’s a young attorney like me to do?  I’m calling everyone I can, getting involved with the state’s criminal defense lawyer association and the local National Lawyers Guild chapter, and I’ve made some business cards.

The idea of going out on my own is tempting, but it’s more daunting.  Where would I get clients?  Please feel free to reply with ideas!

The new house! September 14, 2007

Welcome to our lovely new home! It needs a new coat of paint on the outside there, and our landlord seems willing to foot the bill – please suggest colors!

Here are some of the rooms: The Living Room

The kitchen:

The deck:

That staircase leads to a lower deck!

It’s pretty snazzy!!

Adaptibar is funny… May 1, 2007

Tonight, I subscribed to my first bar exam review program, Adaptibar. It seems pretty cool so far – less expensive than MicroMash (its competitor in the world of computer-based MBE-prep) and more technologically-advanced. Among its many features is a timing analysis system that purportedly determines your temporal “sweet spot,” the amount of time after which you’re most likely to answer a question correctly.

However, it can sometimes yield funny advice.

“You answered this question in 1 minute 44 seconds. Had you answered 64 seconds sooner , then based on your prior performance, your chances of answering correctly would have increased from 33% to 100%. “

DAMMIT! If I’d only answered after 40 seconds, I would have been in the clear…

Books April 29, 2007

When I came to law school, I brought some books. I can’t say I’ve finished all of those, but I’ve bought many more over the past two-and-a-half years. So many, in fact, that when I moved last summer for an internship, I took a big box of books with me, most of which I never read that summer…

I’m reading Nostromo right now.

You know, getting through a few pages each night.  Nostromo isn’t exactly a page-turner, but it’s rather beautifully written.  It’s no Bridge on the Drina, of course.  But, I think I’d rather be re-reading American Psycho or something…

Double Jeopardy April 24, 2007

*Spoiler alert regarding the film “Fracture“*

I just returned from seeing the new Anthony Hopkins legal-thriller film Fracture.  Despite the fact that I find it to be an absolutely asinine piece of law AND a poorly crafted plot device, I think that the film’s invocation of a particular aspect of double jeopardy was legally correct…

See People v. Harrison, 395 Ill. 463 (1947) (cert. denied); see also Blockburger v. U.S., 284 U.S. 299 (1932)

Damn you and your legal trickery, Ryan Gosling… Hopkins should have beaten you until the bitter end.  That was definitely the first movie where I’ve rooted for a truly culpable murderer.