Accomplishment and Frustration

ハッパタイの「やった！」
中村ヒロの「やった！」

やった (read: Yatta), roughly translated is "I/we did it!"

We've definitely got the "やった！" vibe going on here.

We finished a brief for an upcoming hearing. The brief was a major undertaking, and was composed through the major contributions of basically everyone at JustChildren. We hope for a favorable outcome of course, but it's good to just have it done. I can't speak for anyone else on the team, but I know that I am really excited about getting together a genuine document that will be filed with a court after hours and hours of work. We're kind of beaming with a sense of accomplishment. :)

However, at the same time I was introduced to some of the court documents that end up getting filed against our clients. While we regularly file 25+ page, thoroughly researched briefs, our clients sometimes appear to be up against one or two page, double-spaced gigantic-margin memos, complete with spelling and grammatical errors. ... and sometimes our clients lose. It is frustrating to know that our clients can be defeated with such minimal effort. I hope for a different outcome this time, but I am worried.

This process has also presented an opportunity to reflect on our profession: in the academic setting, 25+ pages of well-argued, thoroughly researched work would hopefully get a better grade than 150 sort-of words jumbled together, sans-citation, sans-spell check. But it's not about grades anymore, but about outcome. And, in a moment of uncomfortable candor: I don't know how to adjust my expectations to a system that doesn't necessarily reward an excellent product.

Thoughts in the comments.

Just because I can't leave a post on a downer, here's some blurbs from Australian morning television.

First, apparently they didn't have the foresight to realize that if you need a translator for your joke, its doomed to fail. (#awkwardalert)



Second, they have a lot of fun on that show, talking about home invaders. (#itjustgetsbetterasitkeepsongoing)