2002-04-23 � A Brand New Character

So, last Friday I braved the New Jersey Turnpike for a job interview. A clerkship to be precise.

Clerkships are very valuable legal positions. Clerks are the worker bees of the court system. They accept a relatively modest salary to assist a judge for a year and in exchange they gain an enormous amount of understanding about the practice of law. As a legal career progresses the law school experience becomes less and less important to potential employers, but there are two credentials that follow a law student throughout his or her entire career: whether that student was on a journal and whether that student had a clerkship.

The Judge's chambers were spacious and well appointed. She's one of the most influential and well respected judges on the appeallate bench in New Jersey, so she should have nice things. We chatted about her dogs and her love of chamber music. I told her lies about wanting to be a lawyer.

About midway through the interview, the Judge took out an enormous cigarette and lit it up. She politely exhaled to the side, instead of blowing right at me. You know the way. At that moment, something clicked in my head. The New Jersey accent, the PalMal dangling off her lips and bouncing gracelessly as she spoke, the tiny woman on the other side of the desk. She looked just like Selma Diamond from Night Court.

She puffed listlessly at first and gradually warmed up to the nicotine. She sucked deeply on the filter and seemed to delight in the glowing embers under the lengthening ash. Oh, it was a government building, of course. And there are pesky executive orders forbidding smoking in government buildings, but that is neither here nor there. I mean, come on! We're talking about Judge Selma here. Judge Selma can't be bothered with the smoke hole.

My interview was three cigarettes long. She shook my hand and I spoke with her current clerks about the responsibilities of the position. Her secretary was singing a Sinatra standard at full voice when I left.

Yesterday, the Judge called and offered me the position. I accepted immediately. This means, of course, I'm not leaving the law as quicly as I thought i might. I have at least one year to go. August to August.

I have the distinct impression working for Judge Selma is going to be a hoot. Here's hoping.

Posted at 10:46 a.m.

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