Blog Entry 23

Happy MLK Jr. Day!

In observance of MLK Day, we were treated to a three-day weekend! Although I didn’t get as much studying and reading done as I would have liked, I can’t deny that it was a productive weekend.

My big task was to convert our spare bedroom into an office. We really do not have visitors that often, and we (okay, mostly I…) decided that the space would be much better used as a place for me to study. This involved moving out a lot of the furniture from the room and then taking a fun-filled trip to IKEA to pick up some office furniture. I ended up buying a desk and a couple bookcases…although the latter are still sitting in their boxes, waiting to be assembled. May I just say, despite all of my accomplishments (like, I don’t know, getting into law school…), I was amazed at how rewarding it felt to build my own desk. Gotta love IKEA.

That process, combined with various other household tasks, took up most of my weekend (and no, I’m still not finished) with a bit of homework thrown in for good measure. Today, I am planning to finish my Contracts reading and then do some research for my ALTA assignment. ALTA is getting pretty exciting, we have a hypothetical situation in which an FBI agent killed someone while on duty, sought out counseling with a social worker and may have made some statements about excessive use of force. Statements made to a psychotherapist (which generally includes social workers) are privileged and may not be compelled as testimony, unless the prosecution can show that an exception to the privilege exists (in our case, most likely the dangerous patient exception). We were divided up, half of us representing the agent and the other half representing the government. Our first assignment with this hypothetical is to prepare a motion and brief in support of our client’s position. Although ALTA is a lot of work, it allows us to start feeling like real lawyers…

And on that note, my homework awaits! Cheerio!