Today I went to Boalt's "Third Day of Orientation."
It was a continuation of the two days of orientation we had back in August, and all 1L's were required to attend. When I first heard that we had to come to school on a Friday (I usually get Fridays off), I was not a happy camper.
The topics included instructions on how to enroll for Spring semester classes, a reminder about the school's honor code, and distribution of our preliminary Spring schedules (I found out that my days will be starting at 8:45 AM... whoop-dee-freeking-doo) .
A significant portion of the day was also devoted to discussions about legal professionalism and ethics. We listened to a professor talk about how to be more profesional and ethical lawyers, and then we broke into little discussion sessions where we talked about hypothetical moral dilemmas.
The talk made me really think about the practice of law as an institution. The Legal Profession is more than a job; it's something bigger. When we become lawyers, our behavior doesn't just reflect on our own character, but on the character of every other lawyer in the profession as well. It's sort of like a big exclusive club that you can only become a member of after 2 life-destroying exams (LSAT & Bar) and 3 years of school. Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of all that when you're just a lowly, struggling 1L...
So anyways, the idea is that we should be more mindful of our behavior and how it is perceived by others (namely, our clients). It's kinda sobering, but I guess it's important to think about the next time I consider shredding a document to avoid discovery.
So yeah... despite all the initial grumbling, I guess that today wasn't a complete waste. Nevertheless, as awesome as my mind-blowing lawyer-ephiphany was, it was still only second to the tasty free lunch. :-)
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