tales from LSLAP
I'm so impressed with Alan and Rosalyn's comments on my last few posts. Apparently, I'm not the only hyper-theoretical geek out there.
I should also mention here that Alan is the main reason I signed up for LSLAP in the first place. Oh - and he's well on his way to becoming a hotshot criminal defense lawyer, so if you're looking for representation, give him a ring...
Speaking of LSLAP, I had my first clinic last night. Things went well, although I'm still figuring out how to blog about my clinic experiences without breaching confidentiality while still maintaining some semblance of a narrative. In any event, I interviewed a client on my own (with a mishmash of Cantonese and English), opened a file for him and am meeting with the supervising lawyer on Friday to discuss next steps. I'll be back at the clinic on October 11.
I had a bit of an odd moment though when I realized that a client in the room had all the same mannerisms and quirkiness of my mother. It was, to say the least, weird.
Alan posted this advice from a public defender in his comment that I think y'all should read. Hooray for public interest law!
I should also mention here that Alan is the main reason I signed up for LSLAP in the first place. Oh - and he's well on his way to becoming a hotshot criminal defense lawyer, so if you're looking for representation, give him a ring...
Speaking of LSLAP, I had my first clinic last night. Things went well, although I'm still figuring out how to blog about my clinic experiences without breaching confidentiality while still maintaining some semblance of a narrative. In any event, I interviewed a client on my own (with a mishmash of Cantonese and English), opened a file for him and am meeting with the supervising lawyer on Friday to discuss next steps. I'll be back at the clinic on October 11.
I had a bit of an odd moment though when I realized that a client in the room had all the same mannerisms and quirkiness of my mother. It was, to say the least, weird.
Alan posted this advice from a public defender in his comment that I think y'all should read. Hooray for public interest law!
posted by drunken monkey at 5:44 PM
1 Comments:
Excellent! Well, I truly believe LSLAP is important and LSLAP does very important things - both in the law school and in the community, and I think that all law students should go out there and see what clients are really like, what problems they really have. Studying law is so boring ... you can't learn law in a vacuum. Law is about people, and helping people solve problems and resolve conflicts. So what's the point of law school if you don't get to go out into the real world and get your hands dirty?
On confidentiality... there are many schools of thought. Well, the Law Society basically says that you can't divulge anything you learned about or from your client in the course of your representation of the client. Which includes the fact that you're representing a client. On the stricter side of the spectrum, the thought is that if you're representing someone, then you shouldn't talk or gossip about the case at all, period. On the other side of the spectrum, what about information that's already in the public domain? Just remember that solicitor-client privilege is there for the benefit of the client, and your client expects you to look after his or her best interests. Think what would happen if your client happens to come across your blog reading what you wrote about him or her. (Which isn't to say lawyers don't talk and gossip about many many many things ... we just don't post it on the internet, usually.)
I had to interview a client in attempted Cantonese before. Keeping in mind that my Cantonese is barely sufficient to order from a Chinese restaurant. After reading the English translations. So my conclusion at the end of the client interview was that I could either have been telling the client about his charges and the court process and all that stuff, or I could have been telling him my mother's chicken recipe for all I knew.
The mother things ... yeah, it's weird... it's happened to me before. Wait until you get clients who are like your parents' age and act somewhat like your parents (and by that I think I mean middle-aged asian women clients), and they are relying on you to solve their problems. I can't describe it, but it's really weird to have someone who could very well be your parent (or your parent's friend) rely on you to deal with their problems. The other thing I find weird is having clients who are like my friends' age, or around my age ... and I start trying to figure out what was it in my life that made me become a lawyer-wannabe, and what was it in my client's life that made him or her be the one in jail suffering from withdrawal from their drug of choice. Very weird.
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