Swearing In

I was sworn in as a lawyer yesterday. It was a pretty elaborate ceremony actually. We all conglomerated at the Albuquerque Convention Center, and the Supreme Court called itself to order.

Our first speaker was a former alcoholic lawyer who talked the entire time about how lawyering drove him to addiction. He then noted there is a large minority of New Mexico lawyers addicted to either drugs or alcohol. Honestly, dude was a total bummer. I hope for future generations' sake, they never ask him to speak again.

We then listened to admittees' bosses extol their virtues while moving the court admit them to the bar. Primarily, these went off without much too much fanfare. There were even truly touching moments of fathers admitting their daughters, etc. Unfortunately, it was not all so touching. When it came to the new ACLU and other public interest lawyers, they felt the need to wax loquacious about how they are the true harbingers of justice in America, and about what a great sacrifice they are making in becoming public interest lawyers. There was some additional self-ingratiating blah, blah, blah, and yada, yada, yada, but you get the gist.

Following the yadas and blahs, the court had us raise our hands and promise to serve our clients well, be honest, and strive to do what is correct. We all said, "I do." (No joke, it was like we were getting married to the bar.)

And that was that. Walked out a lawyer. As you can tell, this wasn't an impressive swearing in ceremony. Anyway, the best part of the day was yet to come, but that's a post for a later time.