The group

For my first post I just wanted to give a brief description of what it’s like to be working on the project. While several members of the group started working on the case or at least hearing about it in Professor Nesson’s CyberOne class, I joined the case relatively late in February. It was very hard at first. I had to catch up on a large amount of background information, get acclimated to a new working style, and get used to a rather hectic pace for the litigation. Writing a brief under a large time crunch or arguing over a particular course of action can be very stressful and frustrating. At the same time, it has been a wonderful experience. I’ve been at law school for two and a half years but the first time in my life that I’ve ever felt like a “real” lawyer was when I wrote something that was submitted to the court almost unedited.

I know it looks like total chaos from the outside, but it’s actually pretty organized. We have meetings once a week to discuss our case strategy and assign work. There’ll generally be a student in charge of each project who helps manage and coordinate the other students working on that particular document or research assignment. Professor Nesson’s assistant Isaac is great at monitoring every document that comes into or out of the court. Plus we communicate with the group through email to solicit advice, propose ideas, and keep each other up-to-date on developments. I’m consistently impressed by how dedicated the students are to Joel’s case, even though all of us have different opinions on how to handle the case and how the issues involved should be resolved.

Also, I just wanted to clear some things up about Ray. Yes, more often than not he’s playing the role of the devil’s advocate. He’s very good both at being the sole dissenter and at representing the views of other people who are sometimes too timid to speak up. It’s good for the group not to turn into an echo chamber, and it’s good to have someone willing to speak up whenever he sees a potential problem with our arguments or approach. It keeps everyone honest and it helps ensure we see every argument from multiple angles. While he can be abrasive, we like having him as part of the group. At the end of the day we’re all trying to do what’s best for Joel and he’s a vital part of that.

~Anna