Introduction TO Criminal Justice Lawyer :
hey guys it's Malaya for those of you who are new here on this channel I talk
a lot about law school career grad school the application process as well as
everything from wellness and mindfulness to lifestyle and productivity just to help
women in their twenties get through this adulting thing and accomplish as much as
they want to along the way so today I'm gonna be talking about becoming a
criminal justice attorney whether that be on the defense side or the prosecution side
and I wanted to come on and talk about this because I touched a little bit on my
experiences in my just mercy movie review and I thought it would be fun to sort of share
a little bit more practical help so let's say you already made your decision
to go to law school you've already made your decision to start planning that
application process I would say during this time
Do Your Reading :
you want to spend some time reading a
lot about criminal justice the criminal justice system and also reading personal
accounts by lawyers who have actually worked in that system for prolonged periods of
time and again you want to read not just the defense side of things but also the
prosecution side of things just to give yourself a sense of what the job looks like what
some of the unique challenges are and also how those practitioners have met and
overcome those challenges I also recommend reading some books by law enforcement
officers people in the FBI and people who are beat cops anything you can get your
hands on I don't like someone who's worked in law enforcement will sort of help
you get a better idea of what practicing law and the criminal justice system is
like because I think a lot of people go into it with blinders on and they only
see one side and if they see both those sides they only see the lawyer of it
was that sort of understanding what the experience of law enforcement officers
is like and having that understanding will give you an edge because not a lot
of lawyers will have it and it will make it a lot easier for you to do your job
you will take criminal law as a first year this is what you call one of the
doctrinal courses and so you will have that background by at least the end of your
first year in law school and some law schools even require Criminal Procedure as
well so you should have enough background to be at least literate and criminal
law by the time you finish your first year now you're thinking like a lawyer if
you are interested in the criminal justice system I would say make time to
Meet With Your Professors :
meet with your criminal law professor as a one out you should be meeting with your
professor anyway as it is it is sure that your professor probably most of his or her
time on the academic side and the theory side of things but they probably have
had some practical experience in one way or another so it'll be interesting to
talk to them about what their path and journey look like and also here's some
alternative routes to get involved in the criminal justice system because you don't have
to just be a defense attorney or a prosecutor you could also potentially do
research on criminal justice reform
Keep An Open Mind :
you could also potentially do conviction
integrity work where you work with different police departments across the country and
also practitioners to better improve the criminal justice system there are a wide
range of options that you wouldn't even know about if you didn't talk to people
who had that expertise I'm gonna go ahead and make some tea now I've been loving
the cinnamon spice tea my guardian sons fun fact this cinnamon spice tea I'm
about to make is the very same tea that I drank day in and day out while I was
studying for the LSAT I don't know why I think it was just like I'm not a coffee
person it's delicious and it helps to sort of keep my bus going without all the
effects that I hate about coffee so this is kind of a throwback and every time I
have this tea it's like memory lane okay so the next thing you want to make sure
that you do is even after you've taken your doctrinal criminal law classes you
want to make sure that you
Focus Your Coursework :
focus on taking criminal law courses in law school not
because it's extremely essential to the practice of law a lot of times it's not
going to map on directly to what you'll actually be doing as a criminal justice
attorney but more because of the professors that you're going to meet and encounter
and therefore the opportunities that you'll be exposed to once you graduate and
even during your time in law school so take as many courses as you can't take
conviction integrity courses take con crimp row which is constitutional Criminal
Procedure take Colonel procedure if it's not required take evidence all those courses
and make sure that you take them seriously definitely take time to go to office
hours and get to know your professors again because their professional background
will often be relevant to what they're teaching and so it's great to sort of
network with them learn from them figure out how they got the opportunities that
they got and also leverage some of their connections a lot of them are really
happy to help students so if you're looking to get practical experience talking to
professor's is a great way to start
Current Events :
and as you're taking those classes you
want to pay attention to current events and the news as it relates to the
criminal justice system so pay attention to high-profile cases pay attention to
Supreme Court cases like I think a year or so ago there was the Mississippi vs.
flowers case that was really interesting keep your ear to the ground as far as
current events go with relation to criminal law for a couple reasons one it will
give you great conversation material to discuss with your professors it will make
you more aware of the landscape of criminal law wherever you're looking and
it'll also just help to give you a picture of how some of the law and theory that
you've been working plays out and crack Cala T so I think that's just a great way
to just add dimension to your legal education
Practical Experience
and this brings me to my next
point which is you want to make sure that you're getting practical experience in
the criminal justice system and this could be as an intern over the summer 1l
summer is a great time to do this because firm jobs are super competitive and a lot
of places will be looking for unpaid interns to hire for the summer and a lot
of schools offer funding so look into those opportunities as well but getting
that practical experience will one help you see how the law is applied to get you
some exposure to practitioners in that field for networking and also advice and
mentoring and three just help you hone your own skills and learn more about what it's
like to be a criminal justice attorney so that you're not going in blind so that
you've not spent all of this time working towards a goal that you know nothing
about and that's what leads people to be unhappy and disappointed and frustrated
in their career so definitely definitely take that time to intern if you can
and if you can't if you need to make money over the summer that's a very real
concern I would say X turning is a great way to get practical experience during the
school year
Do an Externship :
you can X turn you can do a clinic I think essentially they're the same
thing it just means that you're doing an internship during the year and the great
thing about externships and clinics is that sometimes you can even do them outside
of your state or your city where you go to law school and some schools do
provide funding for transportation so that's something to look into especially if
you're thinking about working in criminal justice but not in the same city as your
law school is in getting exposure to a different market is really great to sort
of network get your name out there and make connections that you could use to
leverage for a job in the future and also just get a landscape of different criminal
justice systems all over the country or at least on your coast you need to stay
close to school relatively and one of the best things about interning and X
turning is that you will have the opportunity if your state allows to become what is
called a CLI
Certified Legal Intern :
a CLI as a certified legal intern and being a CLI allows you to
participate and formal legal proceedings under the license of a practicing attorney and
so you will get to argue in court if that is part of your internship or
externship you will get to meet with clients you will get to represent your client make
filings for clients stuff like that it's a really really great opportunity
it's super exciting to sort of jump in and get your feet and hands wet as it
pertains to actually practicing the kind of law that you want to practice and there
is surprisingly a lot of independence in doing this they really want to make
sure that as a CLI you get that practical experience so you have the supervising
attorney there to guide you and lead you and make sure that you don't commit any
ethics violations under his or her license but you're also handling the case
yourself oftentimes as the CLI your supervisor will tell you it's your case you make
the decision what do you think here are the facts that you need to consider what
do you think we should do and that's just invaluable experience you can't
really put a price on that gonna go ahead and have some of this tea before it gets
cold okay last but not least you want to make sure that you get a balanced view
Balanced View :
not enough people take this seriously and it's probably the single most
important thing to keep in mind as you're trying to get experience in the criminal
justice system and trying to get practical experience and trying to really just
build up your knowledge and understanding of how the criminal justice system works
and how your place as a practitioner is going to look once you graduate you want
to make sure that you are exposed to both sides because the criminal justice
system is very adversarial that means that you have the prosecutors and you have
the defenders and they're both kind of siloed into their own respective fields
and there isn't a lot of mixing between sides and sometimes it does get a little
bit tense especially in the courtroom because both sides strongly believe in
what they're doing with all the conviction Integrity headlines and sort of
everything going around about law enforcement and prosecution and mass incarceration it
is important to keep in mind that while there are things we need to fix within
that system not every on the other side is a bad person or has bad intentions
there are a lot of prosecutors who go into their field of work wanting to do the
right thing trying to do the right thing believing that they are also championing
and working towards a cause that is equally as important as defending those who
find themselves wrapped up in the criminal justice system so getting exposed to
both sides will not only make you just a more open-minded person but it will
reduce your blind spots and when you have blind spots people don't realize that
that makes you a lot less effective because your inability to understand the
person that you're arguing against makes it harder to respond to their arguments in
ways that are effective and impactful so make the effort I know it's hard I know
it's really easy to just stick to people who agree with you but make an active
effort especially if you feel yourself developing any kind of bias towards
prosecutors or even towards defense attorneys you should really make an effort to try
and get to know what their day-to-day is like what is it like to be a defense
attorney what is it like to be a prosecutor and you might be surprised to find that
your talents actually lend themselves to one more than the other that you were
probably expecting so this is really important I hope you guys will make that effort
it's really great to be a well-rounded open-minded person who can sympathize and
empathize with people across the way from you because that just makes you a much
better lawyer when you think about what lawyer entails it entails being an advocate
for someone else representing their interests and oftentimes you will find
yourself representing a client who you don't agree with particularly in the criminal
justice system a lot of criminal law is wrapped up in issues and ideas around
morality so the more that you can sort of put your own moral sensibilities on hold in
order to better understand and represent someone else's you will just find
yourself being a much better lawyer
Expand Your Perspective :
each and every time you do that so I hope you
guys enjoyed this video thank you so much for watching if you guys have any
requests for other videos feel free to leave them down below of course I can't wait
to hear from you guys I'm gonna follow up this post with a video on how to
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much and I can't wait to see you in my next Article bye
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