First year law students got a taste yesterday of what their careers could be like.
The Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeals heard cases at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center and will continue hearing cases there for the next week.
The court usually meets at the courthouse at 1600 North Third Street in downtown Baton Rouge, but moved hearings for this month to allow law students to see the court in action.
All cases brought before the court have already been heard and decided by lower courts, but appellate judges yesterday heard arguments about those previously-made decisions.
Chief Judge Burrell J. Carter, who heard cases with Judges John T. Pettigrew and J. Michael McDonald, said the court has moved among various colleges in the area — Southeastern Louisiana University, Nicholls State University and Southern University — but that the court is “always glad to come home.”
Carter is a graduate of LSU Law School.
Among the cases the court heard was a 1995 case in which a woman was awarded damages from a gas station after a pump came loose from her car and doused her with gasoline.
Whitney Little, a first year law student, watched the first case yesterday morning.
“It’s a really great experience for law students to have a first-hand account of what goes on in a real court room,” she said. “It’s a very rewarding and encouraging experience.”
Laura Davenport, another first year law student, said watching the judges and attorneys at work gave her “real life insight into the theories that we study.”
Davenport said first year students in a legal writing class will prepare their own arguments to present before the judges in a mock court and that watching real lawyers perform would make their work easier.
Heidi Thompson, assistant professor of professional practice, teaches legal writing and was a research attorney for the First Circuit.
She brought her students to watch the proceedings and said it was a beneficial experience that gave “law students an easier opportunity to see the court in session.”
Thompson said renovations to the Law Center courtroom were completed a few weeks ago, and the hearings were the first functions to be held in the revamped
courtroom. The proceedings are open to the public.