Barrister's Ball

This past weekend was the Barrister's Ball. The Barrister's Ball is an annual dinner retreat for students at my law school. We didn't go last year but when we found out it was on a dinner cruise boat, we had to go. Our friends Mike and Marisa joined us and we had a really fun time.

Barrister's Ball cont...

Trip Home

As most of you know, Pat's dad Virgil passed away on the 21st of February. He was a great man, he always treated me like one of his own granddaughters. Every time I saw him he always gave me a hug and asked how my life was going. He will be greatly missed.


Some pictures from the service.

World's Crappiest Grapefruit

Schooling Update

Halfway through this semester and time is flying by. Here is a list of a few things that have been going on as of late:
1. YWCA: I got a pro bono job with the YWCA legal advocacy center. We offer legal services to victims of domestic abuse. This includes client intake, interviews, discovery, drafting form pleadings and other essential divorce paperwork, restraining orders, custody, and sometimes alimony. The YWCA was my first choice for my pro bono work because they offer full legal services unlike the majority of pro bono positions that merely do referral services or other limited scope material. So far my supervising attorneys have thrown me in head-first to the law material and I hope to gain as much as I can from this experience. Eventually I will have enough pro bono hours to earn a spot on the pro bono honors society. I'll probably get a piece of paper and a chance to put it on my resume, but beyond that, it's just a nice thing to do. This job will be excellent preparation for entry level basics of family law and will prepare me for my summer internship.
2. Internship: One of the fabulous opportunities my law school offers is a chance to intern for school credit. These internships are with local law firms that are interesting in mentoring an up-and-coming attorney. This is not your usual internship or clerkship. It can only be done in the last semester of school. The attorneys have a checklist of items related to the actual practice of law that they are supposed to follow. Interns follow the attorney everywhere, and job offers at the conclusion of the internship are common. I have sent applications to 4 different family law law firms. So far i have interviewed with 3 and have to decide what type of law firm I wish to learn from. All 3 are interested in showing the interns what they do, why they do it, and how to do it successfully. They are also open to teach me how they organize their firm, dealing with clients, billing, and all of the other business related matters involved. This internship will be the best way for me to become a working family law attorney and to "hit the ground running" when I graduate in August.
3. Classes: Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, this semester is going to be the last semester with exams. Next semester will be filled with my internship along with a scholarly writing class and a trial practice class. I am looking forward to the trial practice class, hopefully finding an opportunity to improve my public speaking in a courtroom atmosphere. I did write a scholarly writing paper previously, however, there was some confusion and long story short, I'm taking another one. It's ok, I did really well before so hopefully I do well on this next one. I'm super excited to be done with regular exams, especially for the fact that I have taken all the Utah Bar Exam courses and will hopefully be very prepared for my Bar Exam prep.

MS Walk 2009

Hi! I wanted to let everyone know that Dave and I are participating in the MS Walk on April 4, 2009. We are walking in honor of my Aunt Pat. Please visit our fundraising website where you can donate or join our team.

www.mswalk.com/shandie

A dresser... finally!

For the last 5 years I have owned a Tupperware dresser. It's ridiculous. We finally bought a new dresser and I promised to get pictures up on the blog so here you go.


Spring semester started last Monday and I am taking 2 classes; English and Math. My math teacher is a white-haired man who wears Hawaiian shirts. So far he has managed to completely confuse me every time he "explains" how to do a math problem. I'm sure that once I get back into the swing of things he will make more sense to me.
My English teacher is really nice and she doesn't confuse me when she teaches. I'm excited to write essays. I always did well in English.
Life is good. We are keeping pretty busy.