Week 6 was a little slower than the weeks preceding it, which was a nice chance to take stock of things. I started to wonder at what point attorneys feel like they truly have a handle on the job. I imagine it doesn’t come right away; it probably takes a few years to truly feel comfortable in it. But given that the law is ever changing, and in turn how people practice the law changes, part of me thinks that mastery of the craft is impossible. Rather than seeing it as a depressing outlook, I actually like that notion. It seems that being a good lawyer means never being satisfied with one’s own abilities, never believing you’ve learned all there is to know. and that to excel at the job requires continuously honing one’s skills. In my opinion, there’s virtue in that kind of labor. One of my favorite all-time athletes is Sadaharu Oh, who most would consider the greatest Japanese baseball player ever (and possibly just the greatest outright). He has a quote that goes, “The efforts you make will surely be rewarded. If not, then you are simply not ready to call them efforts.” I like that. Hard work gets rewarded, sure, but the operative word there is hard. It’s not supposed to be easy. If it was, everybody would do it.

While Week 6 was somewhat lighter on substantive assignments, it was quite busy with summer associate activities. We had our Direct and Cross workshop on Monday, our seminar on Opening Statements and Closing Arguments on Tuesday, and the accompanying workshop on Friday. It was a lot to take in, but I’ve had some experience in these areas thanks to mock trial. Of course, real trial is quite different than mock trial, so it’s always good to gain some knowledge about how things work out in the real world. The problem we used for the Opening Statement/Closing Argument workshop is an actual case the firm is taking to trial, which I thought gave it a nice edge of realism. That said, I cannot believe the plaintiff in that case is going to trial. I was assigned the plaintiff’s closing argument, and having to come up with a convincing case theory was not easy. That case is, in my opinion, a textbook example of a frivolous lawsuit. Which means when all is said and done, I have no doubt RK is going to bring home a win for the firm.

As we enter Week 7, I am excited that the problem for the mock trial will be distributed this week. The mock trial was one of the things which jumped out to me about RK’s Summer Associate Program, so I am definitely ready to being working on it. One thing which will be interesting is the condensed timetable. Most mock trial competitions I’ve done, I’ve usually had between four to six weeks to prepare, so getting ready in about three weeks will be a fun challenge. Either way, I am eager to get down to work! Also, Spain crashed out of the World Cup which I am thrilled about. All in for team England!