My First Trial
By Roy Mozingo, Class of 2006
I tried my first case shortly before I officially graduated from Washburn University School of Law. The lawyer who represented the adverse party had over thirty years of experience, while I still had to study for the bar.
When I first entered law school, I didn't know what to expect, but I thought that when I graduated I would be ready to step into a courtroom and represent clients just like any other lawyer. After only a few months, I realized that my expectations were not entirely accurate.
I discovered I would learn the law while attending law school. I would learn the theory of law, because a perspectives on the law course is required. Also, I would learn the black letter law – the bedrock of any legal education. However, there did not seem to be a class that would teach me "how to be a lawyer." Or so I thought. Washburn did offer such a class — Law Clinic. Law Clinic not only taught me how to be a lawyer, it allowed me to be a lawyer in the process.
My clinic experience was invaluable for several reasons. Law schools do not typically teach their students where the courthouse is located, what the clerk of the court's office is for, why a judge's administrative assistant is important, or how to interview a client. These are things you eventually learn once you start working. If you take clinic, you will already know these things when you interview for that first job. Who do you think will be the more attractive candidate — a candidate who has prepared and tried a case or someone who has never stepped into the courthouse?
While you are learning all these important aspects of being a successful lawyer, you are also being a lawyer. You will have your own clients and when you meet with them — YOU meet with them. No other person is there conducting the meeting because you are the client's attorney. All communications are done by you. Thanks to Supreme Court rule 709, you have a temporary license to practice law in the state of Kansas under the supervision of one of the clinic professors. They will guide you, but you do the work and you are practicing the law for the benefit of your client. You are an attorney like every lawyer listed in the yellow pages.
During my internship at the Clinic I helped one client finalize paternity and child support and helped another to establish his paternity and custody rights. I assisted a third client to obtain a divorce from an abusive spouse. And how did the trial for the fourth client go? When I was assigned this transfer case the file was 10 inches thick. I had to review it and see exactly what the three previous interns had been doing on the case. I met with the client, represented her in court on a motion, prepared trial strategy, communicated with the other party's lawyer and then finally tried the case. The issues were of great important to the parties and their child — whether custody should be shared or primarily with my client and the amount of child support to be paid to my client for the child's care. The judge decided that my client should have primary custody, adopted her parenting schedule, and awarded her a more favorable financial package than we requested. I shook the client's hand, wished her well and received her thanks. The other attorney and I finalized the judge's ruling through the Journal Entry. And by the way, I graduated from law school four days later.
