Hey guys it's Fumnaya. 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
20s 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. 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 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. 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 written by 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; without sort of understanding what
the experience of law enforcement officers
is like. 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. 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. If you are interested in the criminal
justice system I would say make time to meet
with your criminal law professor. As a 1l
you should be meeting with your professor
anyway as it is. It is sure that your professor
probably most of his/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. 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 by
Harney and 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. 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 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. Take conviction
integrity courses, take con crimp row which
is constitutional Criminal Procedure, take
criminal 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 professors
is a great way to start. 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. 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: 1) 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 in practicality. I think that's
just a great way to just add dimension to
your legal education.
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. A lot of schools offer
funding so look into those opportunities as
well. But getting that practical experience
will 1) help you see how the law is applied.
2) get you some exposure to practitioners
in that field for networking and also advice
and mentoring and 3) 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. 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. If you can't, if you need to make money
over the summer that's a very real concern
I would say externing is a great way to get
practical experience during the school year.
You can extern, 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. 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.
One of the best things about interning and
externing is that you will have the opportunity
if your state allows to become what is called
a CLI. A CLI is a certified legal intern and
being a CLI allows you to participate and
formal legal proceedings under the license
of a practicing attorney. 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. 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? 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. Last but not least you want
to make sure that you get a 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. 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.
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.
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. 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 lawyering entails, it
entails being an advocate for someone else
representing their interests. 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 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 become a
corporate attorney. So if you're interested
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