A little bit more about moot court and public speaking, and then dramatics.
Public speaking terrifies me. I don’t know if the nerves ever wear off, but I’ve been through 3 rounds, fumbled the ball during one, presumably performed adequately or well in the other two. During each round I stop salivating, get nauseas, develop a bad case of tunnel vision and my hands are drenched with sweat. After the round is over, I’m exhausted and suffer from a bad adrenaline hangover. I suppose it’s the same response I have when on dates, before riding rollercoasters and whenever I’m stood up in class – which seems to be every other day in Property. I think I’ve talked about this physical response before on this blog. Sorry.
I took a communications class in college and it was one of the best courses I’ve ever taken. Our big test was to present a persuasive speech on any topic. I wrote a speech about the inherent evils of corn: its ubiquity, deleterious health effects, its subsidization and so on. I got an A even though I felt like I was doing a terrible job. But it was in that class that I really learned your audience doesn’t know how nervous you actually are – unless you let them know. If anything, they root for you (unless you have enemies in the crowd, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t speaking to corn farmers). Not only that, I really do think corn is a problematic vegetable. I didn’t have to convince myself of what I was saying and I think that’s the underlying reason why I got an A.
Since then, I’ve done my best to remember the lessons of my corn-speech. Before I get behind the podium I do my best, with varying degrees of success, to convince myself everything I’m saying is true, and in this case, that I really am representing the State of California or the petitioner.
It’s all pretend confidence. It’s the same confidence I had when I was a young kid and I’d become a Ninja Turtle or a Power Ranger. There was no question as to whether I could actually wield nunchucks or that I could transform into a megazord. An eight year old doesn’t question pretend-reality. Somewhere along the line it became more difficult to slip into that (that’s probably a good thing or I’d still be running around in an institution going “PYAAAHH!”). It’s a huge challenge to pretend I’m actually an attorney speaking to an appellate court (well, THE appellate court in this case) and not a middling law student that still snickers when I hear ‘taint.’
Sometime in the near future it won’t be pretend. The parties in all of the cases we read seem like fictional characters, comfortably detached. But clients won’t be fictional felons named Dan Cooper or little eggshell-skulled children from the 1920s.They’ll be the guy/woman down the street whose house just got foreclosed on, fired from their job or accused of a crime.
Melodramatic? Yeah that does sound really dramatic right now, but people don’t hire lawyers to organize birthday parties or just because they feel like dropping 10 grand for fun. They don’t remind you of that fact too often in law school. Maybe medical schools remind future doctors of that fact. I should ask one.
But for now, I’m enjoying just being a law student in pretend mode.
Oh yeah, Cooper’s statements are completely admissible.
Posted by WK 