First Week

Sorry I haven't posted anything all week. They have been keeping us really busy. We've had about a hundred different lectures on ethics, panels on leadership, lunch discussions about professionalism and field trips about community service. So far, we've taken the Professionalism Pledge, the Honor Code Pledge, the Pro Bono Pledge (happy to do that one) and the Legal Writing Pledge (seriously). They are a little pledge happy here.

Yesterday morning I attended the Pro Bono Panel. There are so many incredible opportunities. The master list of pro bono work opportunities available is 79 pages long! Luckily the Dean of the Public Interest and Pro Bono Programs will sit down with you one-on-one, interview you about your experience, goals and interests, and make suggestions about what work might be the most rewarding and instructive. I am itching to get involved with the Innocence Project, and I hope I can give some time to more than one thing.

After that panel, we had a presentation by Darryl Hunt and his attorney Mark Rabil. His story is amazing not only for the horror of the 20+ years he spent in prison but mostly for his incredible determination to move with his experience into the future to help other people and his refusal to dwell on the tragedy of what was done to him. If it sounds familiar, you may have seen the documentary The Trials of Darryl Hunt which should be released on DVD soon and back on HBO later this fall. I've only seen exerpts, so I'll be watching for it.

Today we had our first class, a legal writing class. We have another legal writing class tomorrow and then all of our classes start next week. I worked for a few hours tonight on my assignment for tomorrow's class. When I finally had it done really well, I couldn't get it to print. Brandon spent about half an hour looking at it for me and finally figured out that it was some sort of issue with the Duke network having reset my IP address. All is fixed now.

On a final note, tonight is the 2 year anniversary of Drinking Liberally of Memphis. I know they are celebrating in style. Happy Birthday, guys!