Speaker 1: Class Action is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Sound Argument. Just as a quick hello, I'd like to
Speaker 1: welcome everyone back to class Action and uh my partner
Speaker 1: Lisa Gray and our special guests tonight are A Maya
Speaker 1: and La Jane, formerly of the Diller team and now
Speaker 1: first year law students. So let's start with you. Where
Speaker 1: are you and how is school? I am currently a
Speaker 1: one l at you see Hastings. That name might change
Speaker 1: very soon, but that's where I currently am right now
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, California. What why will the name change?
Speaker 1: They did a background check on the person were named after,
Speaker 1: and he was very instrumental in genocides of the UK people,
Speaker 1: which is an indigenous tribe in California, so they want
Speaker 1: to get rid of the name Hastings. But now his
Speaker 1: family is suing the institution and asking for the money
Speaker 1: he put down with over like a hundred year interests,
Speaker 1: So they're asking for about a good like three million
Speaker 1: dollars from us, which we don't have an auspicious beginning
Speaker 1: for your first year, but good for the researchers out
Speaker 1: there to dig this up. That's great. And amya, where
Speaker 1: are you and what year are you in? Just kind
Speaker 1: of let's fill in our audience. Yes, So I'm in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: I am currently a one ll at Harvard Law. How
Speaker 1: would you describe Boston, you know, now that you spent
Speaker 1: a little time there, or Cambridge. What what's it been
Speaker 1: like for you as the first year. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I've even experienced it to the fullest. Um. I'm
Speaker 1: usually on campus most of the time. UM, I will say,
Speaker 1: I try to set aside like two days of the
Speaker 1: month where I like go out and treat myself to something,
Speaker 1: and so I'm trying to find places to eat. Um.
Speaker 1: But it's definitely not necessarily a culture shock because I
Speaker 1: knew what I was getting myself into. But it is
Speaker 1: a lot different from where I grew up in Florida
Speaker 1: and also where I went to school, which was New Orleans.
Speaker 1: So and you're you're back in the hometown. How's that going.
Speaker 1: It's going pretty well. I'm used to everything around here already,
Speaker 1: so I'm back by family. I'm happy to be back.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, like you know, I do
Speaker 1: miss New Orleans just a little bit, not too much,
Speaker 1: just a little bit. Leg What was your first class, um,
Speaker 1: and what was it like you know, UM, when you
Speaker 1: when you walked in to describe that for us. So
Speaker 1: my first class was crim pro So Criminal Procedure and
Speaker 1: Hastings has a thing where you choose your seats prior,
Speaker 1: so I didn't have to get there an hour early
Speaker 1: to try to get a good seat. I just had
Speaker 1: to like do a little selection thing on canvas. It
Speaker 1: was fine, like they just jumped right into it. There's
Speaker 1: no just things as a syllabus class here. They're like, okay,
Speaker 1: so here are the elements of a crime. Now let's
Speaker 1: go through it. I said, oh, okay, let me get
Speaker 1: my notebook out. The same to you, am Iya. I
Speaker 1: know I talked to you when you had visited UM,
Speaker 1: but if you could walk us through like that first day,
Speaker 1: you know on campus when you're going to your first class,
Speaker 1: what was that like to sort of paint that picture
Speaker 1: for us, and you know what was the class? And yeah,
Speaker 1: So my first class was Legislation and Regulation. You know,
Speaker 1: it was eight am, so I wasn't fully there yet.
Speaker 1: So I don't I don't know that I have too
Speaker 1: much to offer, but I will say I don't know.
Speaker 1: I was I guess I was expecting like my professor
Speaker 1: to introduce himself for something. Hi, my name is but
Speaker 1: he just as soon as the class started he started
Speaker 1: talking about the case. So that caught me off guard
Speaker 1: a little bit. But other than that, like he's a
Speaker 1: fabulous professor. I do remember I got my first cold
Speaker 1: call that day during my last class and property, and
Speaker 1: he asked me a question that wasn't necessarily in the reading,
Speaker 1: and so I'm flipping through my notes like did I
Speaker 1: miss something? Like I'm freaking out, but it was just
Speaker 1: like one of those jokey type of questions and I
Speaker 1: wasn't expecting that. So I'm over here like thinking I'm
Speaker 1: about to burst out in tears, but it was fine.
Speaker 1: It ended up being fine, and that's actually one of
Speaker 1: my favorite classes now. But yeah, I was the first
Speaker 1: person called in that class, and I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1: You mentioned criminal procedure. What are some of the other
Speaker 1: courses that you're taking from My first semester, I take
Speaker 1: Criminal Procedure towards and Civil Procedure, and then I have
Speaker 1: a legal research and writing class where I learned how
Speaker 1: to write memos. So that's my first semester, and then
Speaker 1: my second semester I have to take contracts, property, legal
Speaker 1: writing and research and um a statutory class or constitutional
Speaker 1: You know, in what ways did Dillard in the mock
Speaker 1: trial team prepare you for those? Guys? I can see
Speaker 1: you as criminal procedure because obviously this is some of
Speaker 1: the stuff that you know you you got to know
Speaker 1: cold through mock trial. But for some of these contract
Speaker 1: classes and other things like that, what was the prep
Speaker 1: like that you know? Our is this all kind of
Speaker 1: new to you? Um? I wouldn't say it's new. I
Speaker 1: would just say it puts things into a different perspective.
Speaker 1: When you guys followed us last year, we were doing
Speaker 1: a criminal case, but me and Maya have had two
Speaker 1: civil cases under our belt with AMPTA, so we've done
Speaker 1: towards before. We have had experience in doing towards and
Speaker 1: um trying to find whether defending is liable or not
Speaker 1: liable through the use of negligence. So I was fine
Speaker 1: with that per se. But there really isn't anything else
Speaker 1: besides knowing how to talk in front of people and
Speaker 1: just knowing how to answer questions your honor opposing counsel.
Speaker 1: Members of the journey, May it please the court follow
Speaker 1: the Hoodies. On August one, j Len Williams, a Midlands
Speaker 1: Center firefighter, heard the alarms of the fire station ringing,
Speaker 1: meaning that it was time for him to once again
Speaker 1: risk his life. With no second thought and no hesitation,
Speaker 1: he grabbed his gear and rushed onto the fire truck.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately you will learn that that search and rescue
Speaker 1: mission did end in one cavity, and on that very day,
Speaker 1: Midland's lost a hero and a citizen the most important,
Speaker 1: a family lost. Suns Beyond loss, j willis back to you, amya.
Speaker 1: Just give us a sense of some of the other
Speaker 1: courses that you're taking. Yeah, I'm basically taking the inverse
Speaker 1: of what Legen is taking. I think the only class
Speaker 1: we share is SIV PRO and um LRW Legal Research
Speaker 1: and Writing. Um, so I'm taking those two, and I'm
Speaker 1: also taking Contracts, property and leg RIG. I think for me,
Speaker 1: material wise, property might be my favorite class, followed by
Speaker 1: SIV PRO because I think I do have some experience
Speaker 1: there and for me because I was our Urban Studies
Speaker 1: in Public Policy major. Right now, um, we're learning about
Speaker 1: mortgages and just like a week or so ago, we
Speaker 1: were talking about urban renewal or negro removal, and in
Speaker 1: my head I'm like, oh my gosh, me and Dr Trevor,
Speaker 1: we're talking about this. So I do get a little
Speaker 1: bit excited there because I understand it, and this class
Speaker 1: kind of gives a different layer of context and I
Speaker 1: kind of can think about the implications in my community,
Speaker 1: and so I appreciate when, you know, my professors do that.
Speaker 1: And as far as sif PRO, I think basically me
Speaker 1: and Logen a kind of had a really good briefing
Speaker 1: to sif PRO because we worked for Hamilton Lewis, which
Speaker 1: is a black owned law firm in New Orleans, and
Speaker 1: Rashawn Hamilton are boss. Shout out to her. She must
Speaker 1: have thought she was our sif PRO professor because she
Speaker 1: had us writing petitions, motions, discovery and so when like
Speaker 1: that stuff pops up in my class, I get so excited,
Speaker 1: Like I'm looking at my old folder at my stuff
Speaker 1: to try to better understand it, because before I was
Speaker 1: just kind of going through the motions because that's what
Speaker 1: she told me to do, and that what she said
Speaker 1: lawyers did, and I had the rules and stuff, but
Speaker 1: I didn't understand the justification in the years of history
Speaker 1: and cases that got us to that point. I was
Speaker 1: going through the motion. So now having that background makes
Speaker 1: it a little bit more exciting. I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: that it's the easiest class, because it's not, but just
Speaker 1: like having some familiarity to hold onto, I think has
Speaker 1: been helpful so far. Have there been any doubts about
Speaker 1: going to law school or has it fulfilled the expectations
Speaker 1: that you were anticipating going into these programs. I think
Speaker 1: there was more fear before I got here. And I'll say,
Speaker 1: first of all, I'm glad, like I'm grateful for the
Speaker 1: experiences that I've had because I think I'm in a
Speaker 1: much better place now because of that. I hope I'm
Speaker 1: making sense of this, But basically, I've dealt with imposture
Speaker 1: syndrome for years, anxiety for years. But through summer programs
Speaker 1: that you know, during undergrad or through mock trial, or
Speaker 1: just through my professor's really supporting me, my parents, I think,
Speaker 1: not necessarily that that got rid of all of my
Speaker 1: issues or anything, but it equipped me for you know,
Speaker 1: this space. I could be having a million breakdowns a day,
Speaker 1: and of course there are tough moments. I've had a
Speaker 1: couple of tears here and there, but I think just
Speaker 1: I've been trained to lean on God and family, and
Speaker 1: I'm not in the place that I thought I would be.
Speaker 1: In fact, like, I'll go to class and there are
Speaker 1: some days where I'm bored. I'm not gonna lie, but
Speaker 1: there are other times where I'm just so excited to
Speaker 1: be there and learn. And that's something that I used
Speaker 1: to feel like as a kid, like learning about history
Speaker 1: or something like that, just like I genuinely liked school,
Speaker 1: and that's obviously what I'm here today. But I felt
Speaker 1: like not all of my classes at Dillard, of course,
Speaker 1: but you know, as I have finished my major courses
Speaker 1: and I just was like taking electives here or there,
Speaker 1: I lost kind of that excitement. And then, of course,
Speaker 1: with my priority for a lot of the time being
Speaker 1: mock trial, I didn't allow myself room to grow in
Speaker 1: a lot of areas. And I think here I get
Speaker 1: that childlike feeling back, and I'm just you know, excite,
Speaker 1: like my brain is a sponge. And I thought I
Speaker 1: was gonna go in here that coming straight from college,
Speaker 1: I thought it was gonna be dried up and that
Speaker 1: I couldn't abdure any more information. But that's definitely not
Speaker 1: the case for me. I think we went into this
Speaker 1: knowing it was gonna be very difficult. I can't even
Speaker 1: count how many times, like when I've told somebody whether
Speaker 1: it was like a pre law director Dillard, or like
Speaker 1: I asked another like person who I knew who went
Speaker 1: to law school is currently in law school. They were like,
Speaker 1: law school is extremely hard? Law school is this law school?
Speaker 1: Is that? I didn't really hear any nice things about
Speaker 1: law school, so I came into it. You know, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be really difficult. It's not going to be the
Speaker 1: easiest thing. So you just kind of have to, you know,
Speaker 1: manage your expectations and just be like, look, it's it's
Speaker 1: gonna be getting ready, getting right to work. It's just
Speaker 1: all about managing your expectations. But I feel like, like
Speaker 1: I knew I came here, I had a job to do,
Speaker 1: and I got people that are counting on me to
Speaker 1: complete that job. So I'm a dude, what needs to
Speaker 1: be done? What is the hardest part for me? At least,
Speaker 1: I think the hardest part is just like running off
Speaker 1: a very little sleep, because on mine, I can tell you,
Speaker 1: like I love to take a nice nap. I used
Speaker 1: to take naps every day. I scheduled in a nap
Speaker 1: every single day. I wake up at like six thirty
Speaker 1: every day and I don't go to sleep until like two.
Speaker 1: So it's it's very tiring, it's very exhausting, and you're
Speaker 1: expected to digest all of this information off a very
Speaker 1: little sleep and very little food and a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of coffee. I did. I did not used to drink coffee.
Speaker 1: Now I drink coffee every day. It's just the hardest
Speaker 1: part is just like balancing taking care of yourself and
Speaker 1: taking care of business. I kind of have to second
Speaker 1: that it's not necessarily that much of a thing for
Speaker 1: me this time around, because knows, there's been moments where
Speaker 1: I've been passing out getting sick because as a mock trial,
Speaker 1: and so I just had it beat into me that
Speaker 1: I needed to start taking care of myself. And now
Speaker 1: I'm just now starting to do it. So the least
Speaker 1: amount of sleep I'll allow myself to have is like
Speaker 1: six hours. I'm trying to take care of myself. I
Speaker 1: think for me though, the worst part about it, and
Speaker 1: I think Logen could agree with this. We're kind of perfectionists,
Speaker 1: and I think even if we're not immediately good at something.
Speaker 1: We train ourselves until the thing that scares us the
Speaker 1: most is what we're the best at. So like, even
Speaker 1: with objections, there was times like in high school, I
Speaker 1: never objected. I might respond well to it, but I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have, you know, the guts to just object if
Speaker 1: I didn't think of all of the twelve arguments that
Speaker 1: might come after that objection. And I just beat that
Speaker 1: into me until you know, I got it right and
Speaker 1: it didn't become It's not perfect now, but I didn't
Speaker 1: get to be a Maya by you know, not practicing,
Speaker 1: and it took me all throughout college to get there.
Speaker 1: And with this, like, we have so little time in
Speaker 1: the day that you have to kind of decide, Okay,
Speaker 1: am I gonna give this time to myself and rest
Speaker 1: and for me, I'm I'm religious. Am I gonna read
Speaker 1: the Bible during this one hour free time? Am I
Speaker 1: gonna go to the gym? Am I gonna read whatever
Speaker 1: cases I have that I haven't finished for tomorrow? Am
Speaker 1: I gonna do some additional work and look at old
Speaker 1: tests and try to figure out how I would solve
Speaker 1: the problems on the test. And it's it's difficult trying
Speaker 1: to find and prioritize your time in that way. And
Speaker 1: I'm a very organized person with my planner and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, but even just choosing not to do a
Speaker 1: reading is such a big thing. And then now I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm behind. And I also feel like because
Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily get full credit on this one assignment,
Speaker 1: that means I don't understand it, when in reality, this
Speaker 1: is something that I've been doing for years at a
Speaker 1: law firm and I do understand it. I just can't
Speaker 1: fully flesh out my argument. And as I'm talking now,
Speaker 1: I'm realizing that that's not a new problem. Like I've
Speaker 1: understood concepts in mock trial, but it took me a
Speaker 1: long time to fully flesh out that argument and understand
Speaker 1: or get other people to understand why I was right.
Speaker 1: I think I just have to apply that same type
Speaker 1: of practice to my work here. So yeah, just saying
Speaker 1: that out loud kind of makes me feel better. But
Speaker 1: I think just allowing myself room to grow and understanding
Speaker 1: that it's not gonna come overnight it's still hard though.
Speaker 1: Definitely they want you to forget that their family is
Speaker 1: counting on us to do what's just They want you
Speaker 1: to forget that their family wakes up every single day
Speaker 1: hoping that they'll see their son again, that they want
Speaker 1: to believe that this is all a dream, that they
Speaker 1: cry at the thought of someone else taking over his
Speaker 1: locker or his seat at the dinner table. Members of
Speaker 1: the jury, the real victim is not here today. The
Speaker 1: villain in today's case is the defendant. Defendant is the
Speaker 1: person with the plan. The defendant is the person with
Speaker 1: the motive. The defendant is the person who, the day
Speaker 1: after the fire, was not even enough time to mourn
Speaker 1: their business. Requested at one point five million dollars in full,
Speaker 1: members of the jury, do what's justin today's case. We've
Speaker 1: done our job. We've proven these elements to you beyond
Speaker 1: a reasonable doubt. So now it's your time, your moment,
Speaker 1: to do what's right in today's case, and to show
Speaker 1: the defendant that when they burn their building they can't
Speaker 1: get away with it. We must hold them accountable, find
Speaker 1: them guilty. Thank you, thank you. Yes, yes. Maybe For
Speaker 1: those listeners who are currently at an HBCU like you were,
Speaker 1: uh and thinking about going to law school, is there
Speaker 1: any transition or is there something that you feel like
Speaker 1: it's important to point out for those students who might
Speaker 1: be going into a school that's not an HBCU for
Speaker 1: law school. I've been saying this since before I even
Speaker 1: got into law school. First of all, when I was
Speaker 1: even talking about applying to an HBCU, I had friends
Speaker 1: very confused as to why, and I constantly had them
Speaker 1: had to make the argument, like why HBCUs were so valuable.
Speaker 1: My mom went to one, so that's why I knew.
Speaker 1: And I even got into n y U. They didn't
Speaker 1: give me any money, but I was encouraged by like
Speaker 1: a counselor to go there instead because the degree would
Speaker 1: be worth more. And to a lot of people that
Speaker 1: might seem true. But I've done summer programs where people
Speaker 1: from Ivy League institutions will say, we don't have anything
Speaker 1: close to what the pre law program at Dealer is
Speaker 1: offering you. So we have the lead program there for
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars and you can get some of that back.
Speaker 1: They're offering us what six five months of els at prep.
Speaker 1: Other schools are are not offering that number one, or
Speaker 1: the students are having to pay thousands of dollars for
Speaker 1: private tutoring. And I just think that the support is unmatched,
Speaker 1: and with black faculty understanding the obstacles that we're going
Speaker 1: to have to go through to reach like a minimal
Speaker 1: amount of success as our white counterparts. I think that
Speaker 1: to me is extremely valuable and and a lot of
Speaker 1: fields were responsible for the most black professionals, So I
Speaker 1: I'm very adamant about this that we are. You know,
Speaker 1: we can hold our own and even here do I
Speaker 1: know everything coming in? No? Are there things that I
Speaker 1: don't know, of course, but it doesn't scare me like
Speaker 1: I thought it would. In fact, I'm just like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know that, I'll know it after a couple
Speaker 1: of classes. It doesn't intimidate me at all. There are
Speaker 1: some things too that I think any black person would
Speaker 1: experience that might come from a similar background. Is me like,
Speaker 1: there are just some things that in my community we
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily talk about, or in my family we didn't
Speaker 1: talk about that. That comes up there even times where
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in class and we're talking about a case
Speaker 1: and in my head, I'm like, we could have sued
Speaker 1: for that, or we needed a lawyer for that, And
Speaker 1: it makes me excited that now my family is going
Speaker 1: to have somebody to kind of lean on even though,
Speaker 1: like I'm just one little girl, but somebody who you
Speaker 1: know can be that bridge and you know, provide that
Speaker 1: type of access to just to their family, regardless of
Speaker 1: like the the entire community. But that to me is exciting,
Speaker 1: and so it provides us a different type of awareness
Speaker 1: about the implications of these laws and you know the
Speaker 1: impact that it's going to have on our community that
Speaker 1: only HBCU students are only black students are going to
Speaker 1: be able to offer and you know, talking that through
Speaker 1: with some of the black students in my class who
Speaker 1: didn't go to an hbc U, but us being able
Speaker 1: to here our experiences, that to me, like has made
Speaker 1: it a little bit better. So yeah, I think we
Speaker 1: we hold our own And if you go to an HBCU,
Speaker 1: do not think that you because you didn't go to
Speaker 1: Columbia or whatever school, that you couldn't get into these
Speaker 1: places or thrive in these places, because that's absolutely not true.
Speaker 1: I didn't apply to any hbc U law school. I
Speaker 1: did not. I have my HBCU experience and I'm thankful
Speaker 1: for that. I love my HBCU, but I want to
Speaker 1: experience other things, like whether we like it or not,
Speaker 1: an h b c U is not going to be
Speaker 1: representative of what the legal profession is going to look like.
Speaker 1: It's not. HBCUs definitely have their place, And I loved
Speaker 1: my undergrad experience. I felt like I needed to branch
Speaker 1: out and go to a different institution. I will say, though,
Speaker 1: if like you're coming from an hbc U undergrad and
Speaker 1: wanted to go to like a p w I law school,
Speaker 1: you are automatically going to make friends with every black
Speaker 1: person on that campus. You Like, it's almost always, that's
Speaker 1: just what it is. During orientation, it's like we all
Speaker 1: locked eyes with each other and we're like, we're friends now.
Speaker 1: No matter what, we're friends now. So you automatically are
Speaker 1: going to get some friends. At least that's what happened
Speaker 1: at my law school. But if the the thing that
Speaker 1: is scaring you the most is that there's not going
Speaker 1: to be anyone that looks like me, I no longer
Speaker 1: like consider that like an argument that's gonna hold like
Speaker 1: too much weight, because whether we like it or not,
Speaker 1: a lot of people aren't gonna look like us. This
Speaker 1: field is not representative of the population of the United
Speaker 1: States at all, Like they are very very little black
Speaker 1: faces in this profession, and depending on where you want
Speaker 1: to practice, there can be even fewer. Sometimes you're just
Speaker 1: you're just gonna have to do it, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: just have to have that support system, regardless if it's
Speaker 1: with peers that you make, the black faculty at your school,
Speaker 1: or even staying in contact with your friends who went
Speaker 1: to an HBC you with you, like talking to Amya,
Speaker 1: talking to my other friends, just staying connected with them
Speaker 1: and make sure making sure you have your support Systeff
Speaker 1: And honestly, your family is going to be the most
Speaker 1: important thing. That's what has been the most important thing
Speaker 1: to me since I moved back, being with my family
Speaker 1: and being close to them. They have really supported me here.
Speaker 1: So just don't let that scare you. You will be
Speaker 1: just fine. Be run into any mock trialers that you
Speaker 1: went up against. No, for me, I feel like the
Speaker 1: memorable people and that sounds kind of like bad, But
Speaker 1: the memorable people for me, um, I know where they're at,
Speaker 1: Like they go to a different law school and they
Speaker 1: were older than me, and then I know a couple
Speaker 1: of younger ones. But yeah, I haven't met any competitors
Speaker 1: though I don't know that I would maybe I would
Speaker 1: say something, but in my head for some reason, unless
Speaker 1: like I've gotten to know them outside of mock trial,
Speaker 1: They're always competition. I have not ran into but I
Speaker 1: have been made aware of a presence of a former competitor.
Speaker 1: One of my close friends who currently go se UC Berkeley,
Speaker 1: who I went to high school with, told me like, hey,
Speaker 1: one of our captains actually go see you see Hastings
Speaker 1: and we scrimmaged against them to prepare for nationals. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, now I'm gonna see her during tryouts.
Speaker 1: Look at that. I bring up mo trial all the
Speaker 1: time because I'm a nerd. I haven't really met anyone
Speaker 1: who's been like, yeah, I did it all four years.
Speaker 1: I competed with this and this, this, So no, not
Speaker 1: that yet. Is it too early to tell what differences
Speaker 1: what uniqueness you bring to law school right now from
Speaker 1: doing four years mock try I mean you did mention
Speaker 1: certainly getting a case, going through the case and preparing
Speaker 1: in that sense, like what is some of the unique
Speaker 1: things that you have recognized that you bring with that experience.
Speaker 1: I just know certain terms that people don't know. So
Speaker 1: when the professor asked, what does this mean, I'm the
Speaker 1: only person that raises my hand, and then I just
Speaker 1: look kind of smart everyone else because I've already I
Speaker 1: know what I know what it means to impeach a witness,
Speaker 1: and I know what admissible versus inadmissible evidence is. It's
Speaker 1: some of that for me. We don't There are some
Speaker 1: classes where we don't really get to raise our hand
Speaker 1: and ask questions just because there's any of us and
Speaker 1: we don't have time to get through everyone. So I
Speaker 1: don't volunteer a lot. But when I first started out,
Speaker 1: I wasn't writing out like ten page case briefs. My
Speaker 1: case briefs are like a page, maybe two pages, and
Speaker 1: so I can distill the important facts a lot quicker.
Speaker 1: And then I think too. A lot of the times,
Speaker 1: if I'm talking to somebody hearing what they are assuming
Speaker 1: to be it is important is not necessarily what I
Speaker 1: took away from it. And sometimes that's helpful for me,
Speaker 1: but other times I think it just shows like, oh,
Speaker 1: because of my experience, I'm able to figure out what
Speaker 1: the rule is very quickly figure out what the important
Speaker 1: facts associated with that rule are, and I don't spend
Speaker 1: as much time on it, and I think It's also
Speaker 1: helpful in my lar w writing when I'm doing a
Speaker 1: memo because um at the firm, because I didn't go
Speaker 1: to law school already, she kind of let me formulate
Speaker 1: like what my arguments would be or what I thought
Speaker 1: they would be, and then have bullet points. But with
Speaker 1: mock trial, I was able to organize things by elements
Speaker 1: through my speech and through my writing, and I think
Speaker 1: it's more helpful when I do have, um a law
Speaker 1: that has more clear elements. And I think that's where
Speaker 1: like my analytical reasoning shines more is when I have that. Now,
Speaker 1: when the law isn't clear, I don't know what to
Speaker 1: tell you, but UM, yeah, I think it's helpful for that.
Speaker 1: I do want to ask if you've reached out or
Speaker 1: have heard from this skin bro or or from Judge Res.
Speaker 1: I have heard from Judge Reyes, me and Judge Res
Speaker 1: text all the time. Just drawing upon experienced as a
Speaker 1: trial litigator. You always have to be able to maintain
Speaker 1: your composure. There will be times when people will shock you,
Speaker 1: there will be times when people will anger you. There
Speaker 1: will probably be times when cases can get unbelievably sad,
Speaker 1: and you run through the range of human emotion. But
Speaker 1: you always have to be a professional, and that's what
Speaker 1: I stressed with them, And you always have to be
Speaker 1: prepared to go forward just being an alarm and knowing
Speaker 1: that our hard work, the work that me and Maya
Speaker 1: and like so many others put in didn't go unnoticed
Speaker 1: by the amptle world. So he messaged me the other
Speaker 1: day and was like, Dillard just received an invite to
Speaker 1: the University of Virginia's UVAS Great American Mock Trial Invitational
Speaker 1: and it's invite only and it's one of the best
Speaker 1: tournaments that you can get invited to. Our team got
Speaker 1: invited to that because of what we did to get
Speaker 1: to Nationals. I'm just like the work I put in
Speaker 1: did something so like everybody knows who we are. We're
Speaker 1: getting our name out there. It's getting the people you
Speaker 1: know are coming after us these opportunities to go to
Speaker 1: these really important tournaments. So I can just hope that
Speaker 1: the momentum continues, that we keep getting invited to these
Speaker 1: big tournaments, that we keep going to Nationals. That's fantastic,
Speaker 1: that's really great. I first want to just mention something
Speaker 1: that Lagene failed to mention. I don't know like the
Speaker 1: opportunity was right there. Lagen's name is in one of
Speaker 1: the cases for the current mock trial case. It's her
Speaker 1: and another teammate, Renee Simeon. I think they've mentioned Dillard
Speaker 1: last year, but this is the first time that two
Speaker 1: of our members have been named in an empty case.
Speaker 1: And first of all, me and Lagen have dreams of
Speaker 1: creating our own um matra case when we when we
Speaker 1: get on the committee after law school. But this is
Speaker 1: just like solidifying our future. So we get case law,
Speaker 1: so we have a case that they can use to
Speaker 1: like help further their argument. It's Simeon v. Shelton. My
Speaker 1: friend from Berkeley literally texted me the other day and
Speaker 1: was like, literally, we heard your case name getting mentioned
Speaker 1: so many times at this tournament we were at. I'm
Speaker 1: important case law, Like important everybody is saying my last
Speaker 1: day at every competition across the country. And Mrs Kimbro,
Speaker 1: if you heard from her, and what's that been on? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, Judge ree Um, he's always offering encouraging
Speaker 1: words telling me to take care of myself. Of course,
Speaker 1: Mrs Kimro, we do text anytime I hear something crazy
Speaker 1: in class or you know, just talking about mock trial.
Speaker 1: Like a couple of days ago, someone on the team
Speaker 1: called me asking for advice, and we we're talking about
Speaker 1: it because I guess that someone else was doing the
Speaker 1: same thing with her. I'm hoping that she's gonna be
Speaker 1: out here very soon so I'll be able to see
Speaker 1: her face to face. I'm very grateful to still have
Speaker 1: both of them in my life. To echo abias point,
Speaker 1: people from this team still call and ask me about
Speaker 1: what certain like what this how can I apply this
Speaker 1: rule of evidence? What does this case law mean? How
Speaker 1: do you argue this again? And I'm just like, okay,
Speaker 1: I can take a break from towards to like tell
Speaker 1: you how it is. But how have you heard anything?
Speaker 1: How is the team doing? I think it's going where
Speaker 1: it should be going. I think there are some frustrations
Speaker 1: because it's the beginning of the season and there are
Speaker 1: some people stepping up to the plate who have never
Speaker 1: been leaders on the team before that are kind of
Speaker 1: just trying to find, you know, their style of leadership,
Speaker 1: which is normal. I think sometimes we also forget where
Speaker 1: we came from when it comes to mock trial. Like,
Speaker 1: once we've gained us certain amount of experience. We forget
Speaker 1: about what our frustrations were when we were like first
Speaker 1: year students on the team. So I think now that
Speaker 1: they're they're finally starting to realize, like all of the
Speaker 1: ins and outs that me and Lajeni were doing behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. Mrs Kimberrow, I think they thought, oh, Ms
Speaker 1: kimber and Judgeries just get together and put their favorites
Speaker 1: as the closer, closers and openers, and they didn't realize, oh,
Speaker 1: somebody has to be actually planning the schedule to get
Speaker 1: us to the competition. Someone has to be thinking about
Speaker 1: if you place this person in this role, what happens
Speaker 1: if this other person They don't. I don't think that
Speaker 1: they really understood until they got to that point. It
Speaker 1: shows some type of appreciation for stuff that me and
Speaker 1: Lajene were doing. It feels rewarding though that your your
Speaker 1: work didn't go overlook, like La Jennie said, um that
Speaker 1: people still feel like they can lean on you, because
Speaker 1: of course they can. Um. So I always try to
Speaker 1: set aside time for people who need my help. Well,
Speaker 1: this has been great and it's always great to see
Speaker 1: you and here from you, and we're just supposed very
Speaker 1: proud of you. I know we have no license to
Speaker 1: be proud of you, but just to be someone who
Speaker 1: spend a little bit of time with you and telling
Speaker 1: your story. You know, every time I see something that
Speaker 1: you post or that you're doing, I'm just you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just really proud of you, and we want to
Speaker 1: stay in touch and keep hearing great things from you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Wait, I just want to say this, Dillard, Uh,
Speaker 1: everybody on the team. When y'all hear this, we love y'all,
Speaker 1: We miss y'all. We're rooting for y'all. Can't wait to
Speaker 1: see all at Nationals. If y'all have big easy online,
Speaker 1: y'all know who to call to judge. Last Action is
Speaker 1: a production of My Heart Radio and Sound Argument, created,
Speaker 1: produced and edited by Kevin Huffman and Lisa Gray. Executive
Speaker 1: producer are Taylor Chacogne and Katrina Norvelle. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. H