discovering the unexpected

As you are well aware, I strongly disliked my moot court class. However, no matter how much I whined about it, I had oral arguments to complete. I had to unleash the nuclear weapons to force myself to prepare.

So Monday evening came, me in my suit and my Mom (Dad couldn't make it, unfortunately) in the courtroom. I was nervous, worried that despite the preparations I would make a fool of myself. My moot court professor told me that the judges were trying to get people off track and I should stick with my original argument, and then we were ushered into the court room.

My T.A., acting as bailiff, announced, "All rise. The Honorable Justice B. presiding." The three justices filed in. One of them looked uncannily like Frodo the Hobbit in black judges' robes.

We sat back down. My turn. I took a deep breath and stood up to the podium.

"May it please the court. My name is T., and I represent the petitioner. I would like to reserve three minutes for my rebuttal."

Justice B. nodded gravely. "Your request is granted, Counsel."

Another breath. "Your Honors, I have two points I would like to make tonight." I stated my two points in a single sentence, and began my second sentence.

Justice Frodo interrupted me. "Counsel, why do you take the position you do regarding your second point?"

"Okay," I thought, "Justice Frodo is taking me off track. I won't fall for it." I tried to answer his question and then get back to my first point, as my moot court professor had advised.

Justice B., the presiding judge, frowned and interrupted me, asking me a question about the second point. Clearly the justices wanted to talk about the second point.

I tried once more to get back to my original plan, but I could tell they didn't like it. So about three minutes into oral arguments, I gave up on my professor's advice. I let go of my planned discussion, and simply followed the flow of the questions.

And, shockingly, I found I liked it. My Secret Lawyer Twin made another appearance. Up there, questions being fired from all three justices, she popped right back up. My blood was pumping, my hands were shaking, but somehow the words came out of my mouth and made sense.

The time went very quickly. Too quickly. I was caught by surprise by the one minute warning and had to hurridly wrap up. I thought I had more time.

My opponent came up to the podium. She did a fantastic job. The justices grilled her, asking very difficult questions, and she held her own very professionally. She had been nervous, like me, and I was glad to see her Secret Lawyer Twin emerge as well.

 Then I was back up at the podium. The rebuttal flew by, three minutes in which I tried to answer two questions fired at me and also conclude my argument.

When I finished there was a momentary silence and then Justice B. nodded at both of us. "Thank you, Counsel." The bailiff called out, "All rise." It was over.

Outside, I chatted hurridly with my opponent. She was as shocked as I was by the entire process. "Did you think it went by really quickly," she asked me, "faster than you expected?"

"Yes, definitely." I shrugged, figuring that I had simply miscalculated the time.

My moot court professor came up to us. "Good work. You both did a terrific job. By the way, I shortened your arguments by three minutes each. We were running out of time. Hope you don't mind." She waved airily. "I wanted to give you more time for feedback and I thought you might want to get it over with anyhow."

My opponent and I looked at each other, flabbergasted. It had indeed gone by too quickly. My professor had cut off our time in front of the judges by twenty percent without warning us ahead of time.

My opponent and I shrugged. The class was over. This was yet another reminder of how annoying the class was and how happy we were to be done.

But I did learn something out of the entire thing: I like being in front of the judges. I like the racing heart, the hard questions, the lightening quick responses, even the sweaty, shaky hands.

I am not going to try out for the moot court team; my bad attitude about the entire process hasn't melted to the point where I want to consider that possibility. But I like being up there. I'm glad I am in law school. This is what I want to do. And that, despite the annoyance of moot court in general, is always a pleasure to find out.