Aside from being Blue and White Weekend, today was also my oral argument. I thought it actually went really well. These were my comments:
“You said uhm a few times.”
“Don’t be afraid to pause to collect your thoughts.”
“Great arguments.”
“Don’t say, ‘I believe…’”
“You seemed comfortable.”
“You made up a word.” (unfortunately they couldn’t recall what the word was, and I definitely don’t remember.)
“Have you done this before?”
“I can see you doing this for a living.”
“It seems like you were having fun.”
The Dean got the last comment right — I did have fun. I was surprised to see how different it is to answer a question when standing in front of a panel of judges. The questions that you hear and think, “Wow, that’s an obvious question,” somehow aren’t as straight-forward as they would be if everyone wasn’t waiting on your response. I think the main problem is that you’ve prepared this whole framework and you want to hit all your points, so your brain is racing to see how you can turn his question into one of your points.
It’s definitely a neat experience of wit-matching. I’m looking forward to working with the Appellate Clinic next year.
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