The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • How I Ended Up In Law School

    ·

    Ruth Carter

    My friend, Eric Mayer, wrote a powerful blog about why he became a military criminal defense attorney.  It made me reflect on why I was inspired to go to law school.

    Before law school, I worked in the mental health industry for nine years.  I started out as an intern at a residential psychiatric facility for children.  On a good day, I got paid to drink chocolate milk and play soccer.  On a bad day, I spent my shift holding patients down so that they could not harm themselves or anyone else.  All the staff was trained on these protective techniques and could perform them without risk to the patient.  These were not inherently bad kids.  Most of them had been dealt a bad hand.  When I read the patients’ files,  I saw that these kids had been through some horrific experiences – severe neglect, sexual abuse, and abuse from their biological and foster parents.  Many of them had not been nurtured or properly socialized, so they coped with life the best they could with substance abuse, unhealthy relationships, depression, and physical violence against themselves and others.  I remember one patient who was constantly verbally belittled by her family.  She had no other abuse in her history.  It was words alone that caused her to have severe enough depression that she needed residential care.  It was our job to show her that it was ok to have her own thoughts and opinions.  It was amazing to see these kids get better and be able to leave the unit with some of the tools they would need to effectively function in the world.

    This experience, along with others, inspired me to become a therapist.  It was very humbling to have people come into my office, unload their problems, and hope that I could help them.  Sometimes I had clients whose problems seemed minute to me, and I had to remember that it didn’t matter how I viewed their problems, but how they viewed their problems.  Sometimes it was scary when I had clients who I feared might be suicidal.  On a handful of occasions I had to call the police and ask them to perform welfare checks on my clients to make sure they were still alive.  One time I even called the morgue to see if one of my clients was there.  Thankfully he wasn’t.

    One of the challenges of being a therapist is that you have to let the clients do the work.  I could help them process their feelings and explore their options, but ultimately they had to take the actions that will improve their lives.  This process can literally take years.  It’s frustrating when you have the answer and you can’t make the person do what you want.  Trying to force things actually leads to setbacks.  I felt like I was on the sidelines of the problem-solving process.  I decided to go to law school because I wanted to keep working with interesting people and complicated problems, but I wanted to have a more active role in the process.

    One thing I’ve learned in law school is that people hire an attorney in two situations: 1) when something bad has happened or 2) when they are trying to prevent something bad from happening.  Regardless of what area of law I practice, I hope that I can always remain humble and remember that my clients are putting their livelihoods, families, and sometimes their very lives in my hands and asking me for help.  Even when their problems are easy for me to handle, I hope I remember how stressed and frightened they might be feeling.  I hope I always respect the power my clients give me and their expectations that I can help them.

  • Targeted Networking

    ·

    Ruth Carter

    When I first moved to Phoenix in 2004, I didn’t have a job. Catherine Marsh, a woman who was a leader in the financial industry back when women leaders were a rare occurrence, told me that 85% of getting a job is who you know, not what you. This has been true in every profession I’ve encountered, especially when you’re the new guy.

    Despite my adventurous attitude, I’m a fairly introverted person. I don’t like big crowds of people, especially when I hardly know anyone. The idea of going to networking events makes me groan. I much prefer to meet one-on-one with people or in small groups where our gathering has a purpose. I have, however, found a few ways to network that seem to work for me.

    I prefer to avoid big dog-and-pony-show networking events. I prefer panel discussions and guest speaker events instead. I usually bring my laptop with me, and if there is someone I want to meet afterwards, I look them up on the internet. Most older lawyers don’t have a Facebook or a Twitter account, but many of them have LinkedIn profiles. I’ll request to connect with them, while the event is going on and say how much I’m enjoying their talk. If they have a Twitter account, I’ll follow them. I tend to stay away from people I don’t know on Facebook until I have established a dialogue them unless they say, “Find me on Facebook.”

    Last semester my school had an awesome panel of lawyers who are on the ABA’s Legal Rebels list. Since I am not a traditional law student, I was excited to see my fellow non-conformists. Sam Glover from The Lawyerist was particularly interesting to me. I remembering sitting in the audience thinking, “I need to meet this guy.” I hopped on Google and searched for him. By the time he was done describing what he does in his professional life, I was following him and his blog on Twitter and I had tweeted out how much I was enjoying his talk. I was so grateful to hear from someone who was making their law degree work for them in a way that complimented their personality.

    While the other presenters were sharing their stories, I watched Sam tinker with his cell phone. I giddily hoped that he was checking his Twitter and saw that I was following him. After the event was over, a handful of people gathered around Sam. As I approached the group Sam looked at me and said, “You must be Ruth.” I was elated. Since then we’ve connected through this blog and Twitter. He’s been a great resource for me.

    Targeted networking is a strategy that seems to work best for me. When I hear someone or hear about someone I want to meet, I look for ways to connect with them either online or in person. It’s much less stressful and often more successful than going to general networking events where I may not meet anyone who shares any of my interests in the legal profession. Most lawyers I’ve met are happy to help the neophytes coming down the pike, but usually I have to initiate the conversation.

    Related articles by Zemanta
    Enhanced by Zemanta

  • Summer School 2010: Improv Acting Class

    ·

    Ruth Carter

    I spent a significant amount of time this past semester applying for summer positions.  With the economy still on the rebound, they were hard to come by.  I made a promise to myself that no matter what I did during the summer before my last year of law school, I got to take improv acting classes.  I had a few experiences in the last year that inspired me to take a formal class:

    1. Captain Eric Mayer, U.S. Army JAG:  I had the pleasure of spending last summer with the Army JAG in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.  Captain Mayer was the defense attorney in the office, and he was phenomenal in the courtroom.  Whenever there was a court martial, I sat in the audience and watched him in complete awe.  He never seemed uncomfortable or at a loss for words.  I don’t think he ever wrote a script for anything he did, not even his opening statement.  When he questioned a witness, he didn’t have a list of questions.  He put a list of the information he needed to get out of the witness to build his case and would check off each one once he got the answer he needed.  I was intimidated by his skills just from sitting in the audience.
    2. Professor Dallyn’s Applied Evidence Class:  This course taught us how to apply the rules of evidence to a courtroom situation.  Every day we did role plays where we took turns playing the parts of the questioning attorney, the opposing counsel, and the witness who on the stand.   The final for the class was a fake trial.  I tried to use Captain Mayer’s approach to questioning a witness, but found myself needing a script of questions and feeling flustered while the opposing counsel and I were making objections.
    3. Improv AZ’s Coroner Prank #2:  I’m a founding member of Improv AZ, a local performance troupe in the Phoenix area.  After our success with the Coroner Prank on the light rail in October 2009, we decided to repeat it at a local mall.  Things did not go according to plan, and we were confronted by the mall cops who called the real cops.  My fellow coroners were former professional improv actors.  When things turned sour, they slipped back into improv mode.  I turned seven shades of white and tried not to pass out while reserving my right to remain silent.  Thankfully the cops let us go after questioning us and the mall cops banned us from the mall for three months.  Check out my legal analysis of the event and the video.

    My class started a little over two weeks ago with Jester’Z Improv and it has been amazing.  It’s a 12-week course that ends with a showcase for our friends and family.  I hope that taking this class will help improve my ability to think on my feet.

    Having been a gymnast and a singer for most of my life, you might think that taking improv acting would be easy. However, in both of these activities, the performance is completely scripted.  With improv, you don’t know what’s going to happen until you’re up on the stage.  It’s a bit unsettling when you don’t know what your partner is going to say or what scenario you might be playing out.

    I went to the Jester’Z Improv show featuring the regular cast and nearly peed my pants from laughing.  Part of me simply enjoyed the show and part of me was a student trying to absorb ideas from the actors and thinking, “Oh geez, these are the games I might be in during my showcase!  How am I going to pull this off?”  It’s going to be awesome.

    Photo courtesy of Jester’Z Improv Comedy Troupe.