Winning

Well folks, in my super-secret government job, I had my first legal win today. A brief that I wrote, nay, crafted in its entirety, prevailed over the Defendant in court. Granted, it was pretty much a slam dunk argument, but that's besides the point.

The attorney I was working with was going to let me go on the record and give the oral argument in support of the State's motion, if the judge wanted it. However, since my legal arguments were so brilliant, that turned out to be unnecessary. But, just to be prepared, yesterday I went out and purchased a powerful red tie, in order to intimidate and subdue my adversary. Obviously, it worked.

Plus, the judge's law clerk came up to me and told me how well written she thought the State's brief was. So, score one for the evil government on that one, and I'm set up quite nicely to get taken down a few notches next time around.

You know, I like to think that I'm not a competitive person. I like to think that my super-chill demeanor usually extends to being above the pettiness of silly disputes...

But, that would be a lie. I can't tell you how pissed off I got playing Risk on family game night in college. I was playing with friends, but I genuinely think I was ready to turn to physical violence. Especially after some backstabbing "roommate" broke our alliance and invaded North America. Don't think I don't remember that.

In any event, my office-mate/coworker and I were having this discussion today, what we thought made a good trial attorney. We both agreed that being a super-competitive, nasty, killer bitch/asshole was not a good strategy. So, in effect, we both agreed you didn't have to be a TV lawyer to be effective.

But, at work and in my upcoming fake litigation practice trial, it's apparent that having a competitive streak is a good thing. In the fake case I have for my fake trial, I'm representing the plaintiff in a Title VII sex discrimination suit. And in all reality, the likelihood of us winning is very, very slim. It's a flawed case, and not enough good facts to prove the things we need to prove. But I'm definitely convincing myself that I can overcome that and win this case, as slim as that may be.

We had a fake motion hearing on Monday, and I made motions to admit certain evidence against the Defendant at trial. And, there is really no way this evidence would ever come in. But I convinced myself I could get it in, and I argued as well as I could to do so. When it inevitably was denied, I left the law school feeling quite distressed. Well, that's a misnomer. I was pretty pissed off.

I don't think I have any anger management issues, but if nothing else, the past few years have taught me that as much as I don't like to admit it, losing sucks. I'd rather not lose. Don't like losing when it comes to law school, don't like losing when it comes to relationships, don't like losing when it comes to Risk.

And especially, above nearly everything else, I don't like losing to the Yankees.