Inspiration

Last Wednesday night, I stayed after class and watched one of the upper years' moot competition rounds. The school invites local lawyers to act as judges, to give students a chance to practice their advocacy skills. All first years will be required to do this at the end of the year, so I thought I'd see how it's done before I actually have to do it myself.

So in the conference room, 3 'judges' and 3 'counsels' wore black robes, and argued a criminal case. It is not unlike debating, so I knew I was going to like it already, but I just didn't expect how much I liked it. I know I like to argue, and formalities and stuff, but this litigating stuff is just so cool.

Thursday and Friday I spent at a conference at U of T, celebrating the 20th anniversity of Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedom. They invited people who were working on the Charter at the time to speak (including Joe Clark, Roy Romanov, etc) and two retired Supreme Court judges, as well as academics and practioners. These people have been 'lawyering' longer than I've been alive. Though the days were long and intense, I was so inspired. I know that a big drawback to working for the government rather than the private sector is of course the money. But public service just has that kind of meaning that I don't think I could find working for big businesses. Inspired to keep reading hundreds of a pages a week. =)

Other News

Considering moving out of residence, like, now. Just getting too old for it, I think.