Days 362-364: May 28-30, 2013

Tuesday was the first day of work for the summer, which consisted mostly of a day-long orientation, followed by meeting some of the interns and the staff. It was good to see some familiar faces, and I am sure this summer will be a great one. After work, I took advantage of my Northern Virginia location to have some Paisano's Pizza again, as it is one of my all-time favorite pizza places, and I rarely have the opportunity to enjoy it anymore. It was delicious, as always, and a great way to close off a good start to the new internship!

On Wednesday, the National Mall was filled with kickball and softball teams playing some evening league games. While I am not sure softball on the mall is the safest idea (but a tort lawyer's dream), especially if you have any hitters that can even remotely hit a ball in the air, seeing so much kickball was very exciting. I signed up for a free agent team that begins in July, so I am looking forward to freshening up my Maurer Kickball League skills, as well as preparing to defend our I-Jiggles Inter-Journal Kickball Tournament Championship next fall!

After another busy day in this first week of work, it was back to Union Station to take the short metro ride back to Pentagon City. At the end of work today we had an intern welcome event on the ninth floor patio, followed by a Happy Hour at The 201 Bar just down the road. It was a fun evening, and the view of Union Station on the walk back was fantastic!

Days 301-303: March 28-30, 2013

This is one of the reasons I love Bloomington. Even the local hardware stores do what they can to support IU's tournament run. Literally everything in Bloomington revolves around basketball, and during the tournament, that is all that matters. I am so proud to be part of such a loyal and stable fan base that is motivated by the desire to win every year, with the goal set at the highest prize. Unfortunately, this year's dream season ended short of its ultimate goal. But nothing comes easy, and Hoosier Nation will recover and keep going on that quest for banner number six.

It was Fingerprinting Friday for me, as I had to take my fingerprinting cards to the police station to get my prints done for my summer internship as there is no GSA office anywhere close to Bloomington that does not only do Treasury and IRS printing. Otherwise, it was a gloomy day as Bloomington depressingly trudged through its post-tournament hangover and even the sun refused to show through on this afternoon.

SQUARE IS FINALLY HERE! This is one of the most amazing inventions ever—I can now take credit card as payment via my iPhone and my new Square device. The Square itself is entirely free, and for only a 2.75% surcharge on every purchase, I can accept credit cards whenever anyone needs to pay me, in addition to being able to keep track of all my payments. While I will probably rarely use this, it is still amazing and I imagine it will be a super fun way to collect payments whenever I need to run point on a fundraising venture.

Day 188: December 5, 2012

I am happy to announce that today I officially accepted an offer to spend next summer working with the SEC in Washington, D.C. I decided to return to the Division of Trading and Markets, where I spent most of the year before law school working as a reader, as part of the SEC Summer Honors Program. It should be a fun summer experience, and an opportunity to work with several former colleagues again, and to return home to D.C. Interestingly enough, almost a year ago during fall break while walking by the J. Edgar Hoover building, I remember thinking to myself whether or not I would come back to D.C. or not after law school. I specifically mentioned in thought that, if D.C. wanted me back, it could come and get me—and decided that even though most of the career opportunities available for a Midwest law school graduate would be outside of D.C., I would make sure to always give D.C. a chance to lure me back. Well, after sending at least 35 job applications outside of D.C. compared to just 3 in D.C., it looks like D.C. made its play and I am coming home again. Now we will just have to wait and see if this summer will put me in a position to stay in D.C. for the long haul.

I also really appreciate the Alabama Crimson Tide for honoring my decision by holding a celebration this weekend in Atlanta. I was surprised they decided to celebrate so early, before my decision was publicly announced, but I appreciate the thought, and have included as today's photo a shot from the live celebration party at the Georgia Dome. It is amazing to think that almost a year ago I was in the Georgia Dome celebrating Indiana's win over then #2 Ohio State, and now Alabama is there celebrating my summer job offer. It is also amazing to think that the Alabama Crimson Tide would hose such a spectacular celebration for a known Florida Gators fan. Roll Tide! (But Go Gators!)*

*And too many colleges were just referenced for me not to throw in a Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!

Day 84: August 23, 2012

Now is a good time to explain the story of the battle station.  Back when I was a young, inexperienced 1L, first semester exams came around, and they were hard.  One test, one grade, everything else you did during the year doesn't matter.  So I decided to lock it down the final week and secure an isolated spot in the library to cram through each course round by round for the final battle (the exam).  Of course, given my luck, after I found the perfect spot on the third floor where no one else would be, my battle station was quickly infiltrated by a random old woman reading books.  That led to finding my non-Maurer battle station, the Union.  Eventually, the battle station became the place I went when I had a ton of work to focus on and fight through.  It's rare to have to activate the battle station this early in the semester, but shotgunning resumes to firm after firm in an attempt to secure more interviews sounds like the perfect use for any good old battle station.  So here we go!

Days 78-81: August 17-20

Friday was an all-Chicago two-interview day.  I interviewed with a firm in the Sears Tower (yes, I will still be calling the Willis Tower by its original name).  That makes for a pretty cool story, but unfortunately the interview was not actually at the Tower (this is a recycled picture of the day...).  But if they like me, maybe I will have another one that is!

Saturday we all got to enjoy the longest LRW class ever.  Six hours of journal training all morning.  But at least I am on IJGLS (short for iJiggles), the best journal at Maurer and future inter-journal kickball champs.  (That is really why I was selected, due to my undefeated career in kickball).

Sunday was a day filled with OCI prep for the final day of Week 1.  In the evening, FBD held a firm reception at Kilroys, which was a fun opportunity to catch up with friends and meet some of the attorneys.  It was a little awkward for the random undergrads that occasionally tried to wander upstairs to the closed event...

Final two interviews OCI Week 1 today.  Good to have a bit of a break in between, but had to get warmed up again for today.  Now it's just time to wait, and keep trying to get more interviews.  My desk is already more cluttered than it ever was last year and classes don't even start back up until tomorrow.  It looks like it's going to be a busy 2L year...

Day 77: August 16, 2012

Came back with some fun collectibles from Day 1 of OCI.  Interviews went pretty well overall, hopefully Day 2 will go just as smoothly.

Day 63: August 2, 2012

Pretty eventful day today. I showed up early to get to the courthouse to see closing arguments in the trial.  (Bonus points if you can find the courthouse in this picture - hint: It's in the basement). Then, when our public defender needed to have a jury instruction changed, she called me up to have me find a case that would let her do it. Only problem is we only had about six minutes to find it before the judge called the jury in and started to get things underway. So I grabbed a laptop and started using Westlaw Next from the gallery, and right before the judge was about to get started found the right case and she was able to get our jury instruction changed. The judge was a little upset that we now had to delay the jury another 15 minutes, but I'll call that a win. Westlaw Next, you've finally earned some of my respect and I may finally stop using the classic version. The best part of the day was that after our public defender delivered an amazing closing argument, the jury came back with a verdict: Not Guilty.

Day 56: July 26, 2012

Filed my first completely self-written court document today: Proposed Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law.  13-pages of pure goodness, with no templates to fill in the blanks, all original work.  Gathered all the facts from the file, researched the caselaw, and put everything together to make our best case.  After working on it on and off for thirty days (minus a week or so in Europe), it's finally done!

Day 55: July 25, 2012

Ronald and Sonic have made a new friend at the office.  A very tiny friend.

Day 43: July 13, 2012

Turned today's Friday office hours into an office hour because we dominated.  15 clients in 1 hour. Now that's efficient lawyering.

Finishing off the day with some beef brisket BBQ for lunch.  And then Starbucks was giving away free new drinks - some kind of fruit coffee extract thing.  Not bad though.

Day 26: June 26, 2012

7-hour fact finding today in Circuit Court....spent pretty much my entire day in this building. I was in the office for about 4 minutes before court and 20 minutes after court before it was time to leave for the day.

Day 6: June 6, 2012

Just another day on the square in Bedford.  Just got out of Superior Court I, and helped get three people out of jail.  Today we were able to close the cases on a couple of people I had been visiting for a while.  So all in all, not a bad day's work.