Do I really want to start all over?

I went to my interview. It was a little odd. More hypotheticals and they also wanted to know what each of my siblings and parents did for a living. (?) Once again, who knows how I did. Lots of ethical and evidentiary issues. I don't know if they appreciated my answers, but I was happy with them. I had to do a closing argument on the spur of the moment on a retail theft case. That could've been a little more dramatic but then again, when would that type of closing argument be spectacular? Anyway, I'll know in a couple of weeks.
I made an unplanned stop at work on my way home from the airport. It just popped in my head to do it even though I'd only been out of the office for 3 days - not long enough for anything urgent to come in. Anyway, it struck me that even though I get annoyed at the people and sometimes I get a boring case, I have a kickin' office in a major city and I'm doing interesting felony cases. If I took this job, I'd be in the courtroom more which would have its own charm, but I'd be doing misdemeanors. In a lot of ways, it'd be like starting over in my career. I don't know if I'm interested in that at this point. So, the upshot is that I don't expect an offer, but I'm not really sure I'd want it anyway..... It's a shame because I've been trying to go home for 10 years now, but I'm just now sure this would be the best way to do it.

My new mentor - whether or not he wants to be

I've elected myself a mentor. He is an attorney in my office who is ALWAYS excited about his cases and always seems to go the extra mile on behalf of his clients. Plus, he actually seems like a decent person. This kind of attorney is hard to come by in general, much less in a person who is not really your friend but is just someone you admire and can learn from. Of course, I'm probably dragging him down by associating him with me - while my mind painfully grinds its gears in figuring out the basics of d.u.i. law (hey, there IS a lot to cross-reference for a misdemeanor), he is debating whether to go up on a mandamus in a case involving judicial misconduct on top of police torture. I've decided to seek him out whenever I think Justice needs a good kick in the pants.

it's been a while...

I had my first job "interview" in over 3 years. To be fair - it wasn't really an interview - they called it an "examination" and that's a pretty good description of it. It lasted less than a half an hour - and they stuck to the time frame. During that time, they asked you several questions, with several subsections to each one. There was no give and take - no discussion, no ability to ask questions. I felt like I took a test without being able to study for it. Zoinks!
The position would be as a prosecutor, which would be a switch, but not an unreasonable one for me. I believe in my work as a defense attorney, but more because I am interested in policing the system - something I should be able to do as a prosecutor. I am not sure this position is going anywhere, though - I am afraid I come off as too even handed and not like I'm interested in a conviction at all costs. True, I don't want to work somewhere that doesn't pay more attention to ensuring a fair trial than they do to getting convictions.

Criminal defense work

This week I had oral argument in my biggest case. It went pretty well. Of course, so did my last one (one of my most interesting and strongest cases) and I just found out that I lost that case. There's always the inevitable Supreme Court petition, but it's never been that likely that they'll take one from us lowly defense attorneys. I'm mad that I lost this particular case, because the facts of this case really illustrate how biased in favor of the prosecution the judicial system is. I can see how so many defense attorneys end up phoning it in after a while.
So, the fact that these oral arguments went well means nothing, and that fact kind of bursts the bubble created from the argument going so well - if you know what I mean.