I knew when I started this job that there would very likely be some clients we simply couldn't help. We're a small office, three attorneys and two paralegals (plus two interns for the summer), and even if every single person who came to us had an absolute open-and-shut case, we couldn't possibly take them all. This organization serves nine counties, and we already have more work than we can handle. I knew all that.

What I also knew, but didn't viscerally understand until today, was that there would be some clients we couldn't help because the law isn't designed to help them.

When someone comes in who has clearly been treated unfairly, but not for a provable discriminatory reason - fired after almost twenty years with the company for taking a vacation she was told she could take - we can't do anything because it's legal in New York to fire anyone at any time as long as it's not because of their race/sex/age/national origin/etc. When someone comes in to complain of being sexually harassed by her boss, but her company has only three employees, we can't do anything because the federal antidiscrimination statutes don't cover companies with less than 15 employees.

We can't do anything but say "It's horribly unfair, but it's not against the law. We're so sorry." And that's not enough.

The Pile, Part II
Originally uploaded by kjoliat

The pile, it is growing.

I find it ironic that so far, the two major legal issues I've been working on are directly related to the two classes I've hated most in law school (civil procedure and business organizations). I find it interesting that actually working on these issues is proving (at least so far!) much more enjoyable and understandable than learning about them in class.

I think the universe is trying to tell me something.

Never mind! No court tomorrow after all - the hearing's been adjourned to a date yet to be announced. Apparently the defendants just decided yesterday to retain a lawyer, so obviously the poor guy hasn't had time to prepare for tomorrow's court date yet. I'll keep you posted as to when we actually do go to court (or settle, if that ends up being the case)...

Busy week! I haven't posted since Tuesday because I was out late Thursday night meeting with clients in Newburgh, then up at the ass-crack of dawn on Friday morning to go to federal court in White Plains (just an observer, since I'm not working on that particular case at the moment). I spent the weekend relaxing and exploring Kingston and the surrounding area, including a cruise on the Hudson, so expect pictures soon! I'll link to them here when I've posted them.

The big news, though, is that the clients we met with on Thursday are going to small claims court tomorrow morning, and I'm going along to help represent them. If the defendant actually shows up (which is apparently a big if), then the plaintiffs will testify and I'll present one of the issues to the judge (and possibly do a short direct examination if needed). If the defendant doesn't show, then we'll get a default judgment in our favor and our side probably won't need to testify, but I need to be prepared anyway. Wish me luck in case I do have to present... (I'm pretty confident that I know what I need to know in order to present, but as you all know, public speaking makes me nervous as hell.)

The Pile
Originally uploaded by kjoliat.

In case any non-lawyers out there want to see what legal work consists of, these are the documents I've been working through during my first two days at work - coffee mug added for scale.

I'm home from my first day of being a sort-of-lawyer in Kingston, NY, and so far I'm having fun! The office is very small and very relaxed (jeans are perfectly acceptable attire unless you're going to court), so there wasn't much to learn about policies and procedures. I spent a short time with the legal director learning about the major cases being handled right now, and then spent literally the rest of the day reading through the docket file and depositions for one of them. I can't say much about it, obviously, but it's a big class-action suit against a foie gras farm, and next week sometime we're going to actually go to the farm and do an inspection. I'm ridiculously excited about the chance to work on this case, not least because it involves some really egregious working conditions, and the whole reason I wanted to work here in the first place was to do whatever I could to make those situations right. So, I think I'm going to be very happy here.

The drive down yesterday was mostly uneventful, except that Malcolm took a thermonuclear dump in his carrier about an hour into the ride and then sat in it before I could pull over and clean it up. He consequently got a bath as soon as we got to Kingston, and he was decidedly not happy with me the rest of the night! I think he's forgiven me now, and at least he smells like guava shower gel instead of cat poo. :-)

Yes, it's my annual dive back into the blogosphere!

For whatever reason, I don't tend to blog while school is in session - it's not an issue of time, really, since God knows I spend far too much time dicking around on the Internet anyway. When I look at my previous blogging life, it seems like the things I blog about are the things that happen to me while something out of the ordinary is going on in my life (studying abroad, starting a new job, starting a new school, etc.), and the next six months or so certainly qualify. For those who don't know, I have two jobs this summer for six weeks each, and then in the fall I head to Boston to do a full-semester externship. So, once again, this blog will become the way I tell my far-flung family and friends about the crazy things that happen to me and the adventures that I have, such as they are.

As for my life between the last post and this one, I can basically sum it up like this: 2L. Anyone who's been to law school knows exactly what I mean. For the rest, 2L is basically a year-long balancing act between the All-Important Job Hunt and the classes you still actually have to take. Once I figured out what path I actually wanted to be on, the balancing became much easier, just in time for me to undertake the most rewarding challenge of my life so far. I got to work with and advise actual clients in the labor law clinic, which was the final step in convincing me that this is really truly what I'm supposed to be doing with my life, and I even got a T-shirt out of it (by which I conclude I did pretty well).

For the rest of this week, I'm just tying up loose ends in Ithaca, and then it's off to Kingston, NY, on Sunday to start my first job...