oiy

I took my first deposition today in Trial Ad, and it didn't go well.

It didn't go poorly, I don't think. But my performance was decidedly lackluster. The Force was not with me; I couldn't get my witness to distinguish between two types of contracts whose differences had been the subject of some dispute between him and the party I represented. I came away shaken, thanking goodness that I could always just go and practice transactional law if this whole litigation thing didn't work out.

It probably didn't help that I was up late last night drafting interrogatories and suchlike for one of the defendants in my case, and wound up deposing a witness for the other defendant today. Nor was it particularly helpful to wake up at dawn with planes flying overhead ('twas my last night at the Ramada, so I chose the airport one out of cheapitude), truck downtown through the famous traffic on the interstate, and spend most of the morning procuring my new place. For that matter, it also wasn't so great to have a makeup Trademarks class today, reading for which devoured a great deal of my remaining spare time.

I bet that if I'd had a good solid week of no travel and no logistical issues, a week just to hunker down and get under the skin of this case the way I did last year in moot court, it would have gone better. I would have spoken fluidly, gotten all the admissions I was looking for, and had no problems with stumbling over my own script. But I have not had such a week since August, and will not until November.

I've got to reassess my priorities. The entire point of all this effort -- the househunting, the packing, the husband-uprooting -- is for me to attend law school here. I have no excuse for doing so halfassedly. I know that grades are not the motivating factor this year that they were last year, since I've already gotten to the place where I needed them to take me. Still, I can't just give up and let myself slip back down the curve. It's no excuse that the curve is gentler here than at my previous law school. I love to multitask, and have been doing plenty of it lately, but it's time for me to focus. This ball has been in the air for far too long. Moving will end soon, interviewing is almost over, and I know exactly how I need to spend the rest of my time henceforth.

Incidentally, I did learn one important thing about taking a deposition: if you ask a simple question, and your witness does not immediately respond, do not attempt to rephrase or clarify the question unless someone asks you to. Control your desire to speak conversationally. Just shut up and let the silence hang.

` hang '

thus spake /jca @ October 20, 2003 07:22 PM | TrackBack