Reflections...

It occurs to me that there are very few instances in life where you can think to yourself, “I’m about to experience something that I probably will never forget.” Some of the situations that would likely fall into this category is the feeling you have just before your wedding or as you are driving to the hospital to welcome a child into your family.

Now, that being said, I’m not getting married tomorrow or having a child, but I do think that it will be hard to forget the experience tomorrow will bring. As some of you know, I’ve been practicing hard for the National Appellate Advocacy Competition. I was fortunate enough to win the intraschool competition, and as a result I’m traveling to Las Vegas next week to compete against other law schools. But tomorrow I’m going to Salem to have a practice round in front of several Justices of the Oregon Supreme Court. Our volunteer coach is a staff attorney with the Oregon Court of Appeals and he asked if we could use the Oregon Supreme Court’s courtroom for our final “formal” practice rounds. We will be arguing in front of Justices Rives Kistler, Martha Walters, and Virginia Lindner. I’m arguing a Sentencing Reform Act issue for the petitioner, a college student who was sentenced with a condition requiring him to pass out flyers bearing his picture and a description of his offense. We argue that such a “scarlet letter” condition does not comport with the judicial discretion afforded sentencing judges under the Sentencing Reform Act.

Who knows if I’ll ever get to argue a “real” case in front of the Oregon Supreme Court, but tomorrow will give me a good taste of what it might be like. And it certainly won’t be something I’ll forget anytime soon.