Out of Class Learning

On my list of the many reasons why I'm so glad that I came to DC for law school is that I feel like the city itself is just one giant classroom with just a wealth of information waiting for me to discover. Although today was my day off from classes, I feel like I learned just as much about the law as if I were sitting in torts or civil procedure. And while I might be absolutely exhausted and my feet hurt a lot, it was a really great and educational day. Here's what happened...

Department of Justice: The Law & Government Society for people getting their masters degree in government opened up 3 spots for law students to go to the Department of Justice this morning. Being the obsessive email checker that I am, I was lucky enough to snag one of those spots and got to go. We met Peter Keisler, the Assistant Attorney General (don't be surprised if you hear he's being nominated for the Supreme Court one day, his bio is crazy) and 5 other lawyers representing the other major divisions of the DOJ. So cool. Here are some of the interesting things I learned:

• There is an area that combines being a public servant, public policy, and the law. Even though I don't think I would want to work at the DOJ because I don't want to stay in DC forever, there are many similar types of jobs out there at different levels. It gives me hope of combining all my interests!
• All lawyers work long hours but if you find work that is really interesting for you (not just what your partner wants you to work on), the time goes by much more quickly.
• If you work for the government, you can still keep your job even if administrations change. A lot of people at the panel are pretty far up on the chain but they've served through multiple adminstrations. Nice to know it isn't that partisan.
• The DOJ does A LOT. Whether it's catching former war criminals, prosecuting election fraud, to suing polluters, being lawyer to the United States is not an easy job.
  
• Lawyers are really funny people (ok, I already knew this). All the different divisions were super competitive and telling how their sector is cooler than the others.

Women in Law Networking Tea: After grabbing lunch at Cosi (mmm, Cosi) with one of my classmates who also went to the DOJ, I went to the tea with students from all the law schools in the DC area (Georgetown, GW, Howard, UDC, George Mason, Maryland and of course American...yeah, a lot of law schools!) Although I never really went to a lot of Women's Group events during undergrad, I'm really glad I went. It was definitely very motivating and it was great to see so many female lawyers, judges, and professors come out and show their support. Among the highlights of the things I learned:

• Women shouldn't just be equal under the eyes of the law; women should be equal in the practice of law. -Dean of Catholic University Law Schoool. I guess going to a law school where women are actually the majority, it's hard to believe that women only make up a third of practicing lawyers and less than a quarter of the partners.
  
• Stop apologizing! The keynote speaker noticed that women always are apologetic no matter what they do instead of just being assertive and saying what they believe. I realized that this is so true. Only the girls in class say "Sorry, this is probably a stupid question" or "I'm not sure that I'm right but..." As much as women can complain about men looking down at them at the workplace, we are only contributing to the problem by sounding unsure of ourselves. A female judge says that she noticed this tendancy in women arguing before her too and it really makes a conscious and subconcious difference.
• Bring other women up with you. I guess a lot of women in the field of law have seen a lot of competition amongst women to be one of the few top spots instead of trying to help each other both get there.
  
• The legal field is a business where you are marketing your skills. Don't sell yourself short.
  

So yeah, my feet hurt, I'm tired, and I didn't get any work done, but it was a great DC day.