So today was a ridiculously hectic with respect to law firms wanting to give me interviews. Rather, the fifteen minutes between 4:45 and 5pm this evening were ridiculously hectic. Let me back up:

I came home and called an attorney (Attorney #1) I’d been meaning to call to talk with him about his work and working in Portland generally. I already have a screening interview scheduled with his firm (Portland Firm #1) at 10 on Thursday. That went well, he was very friendly and provided some very helpful information. I decided I was on a phone call roll (rare for me) so I called another attorney (#2) whose number I had been given, but sadly got his voice mail. I was on fire, so I figured why not? I called up the recruiting coordinator at Portland Law Firm #2 (who had yet to respond to my cover letter/resume) to inform her I’d be in Portland at the end of the week and would they like to talk with me then? Turns out, they’d called the land line about 15 minutes before I got home to tell me that the did in fact want to talk to me. Awesome. If slightly embarrassing that I was wasting their time. Screening Interview scheduled for 2:30 on Thursday.

And now the fun begins. I hang up and decide I should listen to the message that they had left me earlier. I press play on the machine and not five seconds into the message the land line rings. It’s a partner from San Fransisco Firm #1 (with whom I’d done a screening interview last week on campus) saying they’d love to have me back to talk to some more attorneys. Excellent–except for the fact that I can still hear Portland Firm #2 talking away at me on the answering machine. Partners don’t sully themselves with planning details so I had to call SF Firm #1’s recruiting administrator to set things up. While on the phone with her I get my call waiting beep on my cell: it’s Attorney #2 returning my call (or so I believe, I didn’t answer it). Fun. But interview #2 scheduled for two weeks from this past Monday.

While I’m wrapping up with SF Firm #1 the land line rings again; Becca answers. It’s Portland Firm #3 with whom I’d had a phone screening interview last week. I quickly finish up and grab the phone from her. They want to talk to me as well. Excellent, how about Friday? I’m wide open then. Ooo, sorry we’re full up Friday… how about Thursday? Um ok… how about 11:30? Great. The unfortunate thing about this is that callback interviews usually last 3.5-4 hours. So I get back on the phone with Portland Firm #2 (the one that I’d scheduled for 2:30) and ask, very nicely, if they’d mind horribly rescheduling for 3:30. No. Excellent.

And that was my fun and exciting 15 minutes of craziness for today. I can’t really complain, I did get two callbacks and one screening interview setup (if you’re keeping score at home), but wow, very frantic. And this Thursday? It’s going to be ridiculous.

Don’t know why I haven’t really been posting, but here’s the nutshell update of what’s been going on for the past two months:

I spent this past summer working at UCLA as a research assistant for a law professor. It was interesting work, and it paid, but not a whole lot to tell there. I started my second year a month or so ago and am taking an array of boring-titled (but quite interesting) courses like “Intro to Federal Income Tax.” I am also in the middle of job interviews for next summer and, most likely, where I’ll work following graduation. The whole law firm thing jumps on us quite suddenly; we still have two years of law school left and already we’re having to make decisions about what we want to do and where.

I’m thinking right now I’ll be doing intellectual property work of some sort (copyright, trademark, and/or patent) in Portland. I’ve had a screening interview with one San Francisco firm, but a) I don’t think I’m getting a call-back interview with them and b) I think I want to end up back in Portland.

I’ll be heading up to Portland at the end of next week to do at least one screening interview, and hopefully more that I’ll set up this week.

More later. And later will probably be sooner than 2 months. I hope.

I took some more pictures now that we’ve actually moved most things in. We still haven’t hung anything on the walls, but other than that things are pretty much set. I’m particularly liking the bamboo plant and cedar screen that we put in the eating area.

I turned in the keys to my old apartment yesterday; it was a bit sad. Yeah, I have a shiny new place (which I like very much) but the other place was my home too. It was much moreso than moving out of a dorm room; a dorm room feels temporary, whereas an apartment really doesn’t (even when I know it is quite temporary). If that makes any sense.

I don’t really have enough work to fill up the next two days this week until my professor gets back from his vacation in Italy, but I shall just way over-edit the project I’m currently working on and not feel bad about spending time on the internet at work.

We may have internet at home today, or it may be the end of next week. I’m hoping for today.

I am kind of surprised that a law professor would write such a thing, and that a legitimate law review would publish it, but apparently the Michigan Law Review has done so. Here is the abstract what seems to be a fully serious analysis of Harry Potter and its comment on structures of government.

This Essay examines what the Harry Potter series (and particularly the most recent book, The Half-Blood Prince) tells us about government and bureaucracy. There are two short answers. The first is that Rowling presents a government (The Ministry of Magic) that is 100% bureaucracy. There is no discernable executive or legislative branch, and no elections. There is a modified judicial function, but it appears to be completely dominated by the bureaucracy, and certainly does not serve as an independent check on governmental excess.
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Apparently, this author is not alone in his interest in legal analysis of Harry Potter.

We’re mostly moved in to the new apartment. All the furniture is in the proper places, and most of the kitchen is stocked and organized. There are, however, boxes all over the place still and, most annoyingly, no internet for the foreseeable future. Verizon is having some issues switching my DSL over to the new place and, although I can see a few wireless networks, I can’t actually connect to any of them. I was counting on being able to mooch internet during the transition, so that’s a bit of a setback. Anyway, I still have internet at work, where I am right now, so I should be able to last for awhile.

The new place is starting to feel like home now, which is good. We’re still trying to figure out exactly how to arrange things the way we want them, but that’ll all get sorted out within the next week or so. I’ll post some pictures of the whole thing looking lived in once we get to a stage where it looks presentable (a few days probably).

We did have breakfast yesterday out on the patio and that was wonderful. The patio is definitely the best part of the apartment (I think).

But back to work for me.