Grading papers

I've just now walked away from my dining room table, covered with papers, where I've been working.  Where I've been encouraging my cats not to congregate.  Where I've strongly encouraged them not to chew on the papers.

I somehow allowed myself to volunteer to grade two briefs submitted by law students for a moot court competition.  Each brief is just under fifty pages in length, and they are accompanied by forty pages of trial court records and a 29-page Bench Memorandum -- a document prepared by the competition organizers that supposedly helps me to understand what the case is all about, and the legal theories arising out of it.

Each of the two student briefs, from two different students, is a "Brief of Petitioner," -- both thus arguing the same side of the case -- which makes my job easier.  The mooted case is before the U.S. Supreme Court.  I can't say much more about it, but it deals with various liabilities arising out of the manufacture of a drug designed to combat a worldwide pandemic.  Very timely.

My task certainly isn't as difficult as was that of the students who wrote the briefs, but it isn't particularly simple.  I've spent about five hours yesterday and today just mastering the facts and legal arguments, and have read the first half of one of the briefs.   I have a week to finish, and it's clearly going to take quite a few more hours to do justice to both students in arriving at my grades.  The grades on the briefs will be combined with the scoring of their oral presentations in deciding winners and losers in the competition.

I'm informed by email this evening that I will receive two CLE (Continuing Legal Education) credits for each brief.  Attorneys are required to obtain 45 CLE credits every three years to maintain their license.  Even when they are retired.

So, four credits total for my labors.  Generous.

Tomorrow, unrelatedly, I watch a streamed three hour lecture on a mildly interesting legal topic.  My mind may wander at times, but I do try to stay focused.  I will receive three CLE credits for my time sitting in an easy chair.

No one said that life was fair.