I Just Said That...?

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only known site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for an update to this site, as it's been a long while since I've posted one.

I've always considered myself to be a not-so-great public speaker. It's something that does not come naturally to me. The only way that I can do well with public speaking, so it seems, is by writing it down and going over it over and over again. And yet, all of my experiences in law school seem to go against what I've always considered to be true.
In my 1L year, I had to take Lawyering, one of the most God-awful classes ever. Perfectly and utterly boring and useless. Every law school professor I've talked to considers that class to be overly academic and not based upon reality. People I know who are in the Defender Project and Legal Aid talk about how on the first day, they are told to forget everything they've learned in Lawyering.
The same applies with Trial Advocacy as the authors of the textbook are not really lawyers. They have no idea of what it's like to be in an actual trial, but base their book upon social science and not on real trial experience. Sure, they might ask some lawyers, but it's pure academic bullshit. This is another problem with the law school education.
Anyways, in Lawyering II, you have to do oral aguments. I really didn't type anything out, which normally would have doomed me. I just made a quick outline and modified it as the oral arguments proceeded. And when it was my turn to speak, I winged it. Absolutely winged it and went on gut instinct. And I did amazingly well. So well that the professor grading my performance said that it was one of the best he had seen.
And in Trial Advocacy, the Judge who was grading my performance, an actual judge with experience, said that I did a mighty persuasive performance. Again, I just winged it. I did what I thought, instinctually, would work. It was a great performance, though the jury didn't think so for some reason. I guess that it might have been due to them not paying much attention and automatically thinking my client was guilty.
Same thing in Advanced Litigation. I don't really write my closing/opening argument word for word, but come up with a basic outline. They come out in perfect order and they combine precise logic with emotional appeal. And I have not practiced it in any way. I just say what I want to say.

Yesterday, I was arguing a case in Advanced Litigation involving a car accident. Since I was representing the plaintiff, I was arguing that my client was hit by a drunk driver travelling at 60MPH in a 30 MPH zone. In addition, the drunk driver borrowed the car from his next door neighbor and the neighbor knew about this person's bad driving record. A simple case of negligent entrustment.
I forgot that the case what that night, so I really didn't prepare that well. Despite my failure to prepare, I somehow manage to spot every single issue except for two, as well as make coherent arguments. The two I missed, I should have known. One was a prior conviction and the other was improper use of circumstancial character evidence.
I did manage to exclude a very important piece of evidence in a police report. The cop at the accident scene came to the conclusion that my client failed to make a complete stop. If it had gotten in, it was game over for my client. It somehow popped into my head to exclude that little piece of evidence.

Which brings me to an interesting question. Am I setting myself short on my speaking abilities, let alone my thinking skills as a lawyer? I'm beginning to think that I probably am selling myself short. Or I was using a wrong method of preparing myself. Maybe it's a bit of both. Or I'm thinking myself into failure and making a self-fulfilling prophesy.
I never considered myself to be much of a trial lawyer who speaks in front of the court. My experiences in Advanced Litigation are making me reconsider this notion. I just might be a brilliant issue spotter.

Well. it's time to get back to writing a research paper. Man, how I hate that paper with utter vehemence. I should have fulfilled my writing requirement much earlier and not have waited until the final semester of law school.


That's all for now.