2012 year-in-review: LL.B. to LL.M.

In the year since graduating from the University of Edinburgh much has happened in my life. I have gone from law student to campaign manager to youngest elected city council member of my home town to working for the leading NGO on maritime piracy to once again being a law student. In this time I have met and visited with the president, vice president, GOP challenger, a retired US Supreme Court justice, the highest judges from New Hampshire, Texas, and New York, along with visiting with Colorado's governor, New Hampshire's governor, Texas' governor, the junior US senator from South Dakota, and a former US senator from Pennsylvania, not to mention having lunch with a former governor of New Hampshire and a former US senator from Colorado. Life has also been challenging, I was present when my aunt Clara passed away and not long after that I received the letter saying I had been denied admittance to sit the New York bar. This resulted in me having to step down as trustee and pursue an LL.M. degree, which is one of the new requirements for sitting the bar. I also experienced the economic downturn, but applying to over 50 businesses and hearing no responses. Perseverance and no matter the odds, never give up, have become daily mantras. The following is a year in review:

27 November 2011 - graduated from University of Edinburgh with an LL.B. in Law

December 2011 - launched exploratory committee for a possible bid for the Colorado House of Representatives, Dist 61

January 2012 - began campaign manager for Bruce Hovde's re-election campaign for Delta County Commissioner, Dist 2

February 2012 - began campaign for Orchard City Board of Trustees

3 April 2012 - elected Orchard City's youngest Trustee

April - October 2012 I served on the Orchard City Board of Trustees. 

April 2012 - became campaign manager for Mark Roeber's Delta County Commissioner Campaign, Dist 3

May - August 2012 - maritime piracy legal researcher (intern) with Oceans Beyond Piracy, which is an NGO that provides research on the economic and human costs of piracy at sea, along with engaging stakeholders to find a governance based solution to countering piracy. Working included revising and enhancing counter piracy matrix, editing law reports, following pending criminal and tort cases, and providing information for diplomats, the military, and industry. 

September 2012 - begin LL.M. in Intellectual Property (IP) Law at the University of New Hampshire's School of Law (Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectually Property)

September 2012 - visited Portland, Maine; Kennybunkport, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; Mount Washington, New Hampshire; the White Mountains of New Hampshire; Newport, Rhode Island

October 2012 - shook hands with President Obama in Portsmouth, NH; visited with Vice President Joe Biden in Concord, NH; talked constitutional law with form US Supreme Court Justice David Souter in Concord, NH; and gave words of encouragement to Mitt Romney in Manchester, NH.

October 2012 - travelled to New York City for the first time since I was 12 years old. Met up with my former Edinburgh flatmate and good friend, Fabio Pucci. We were flatmates for nearly 3 1/4 years. He was in NYC to present a paper at the Rockefeller. We went to the top of both the Rockefeller Center (Top of the Rock) and the Empire State Building. I stayed the first night in Harlem and the second in Times Square. Whilst walking in Central Park, I thought to myself Manhatten Island is crazy, fun, and looking at the buildings might injure my neck ;-) I also went to the cite of the World Trade Center attacks. I was disappointed that there were venders (including the National Commission) selling goods, profiting off of the dead of nearly 3,000. Fabio put things in perspective by saying the towers were about commerce and free enterprise, capitalism, and trade. "If there weren't venders selling goods and making money on the very site where so many died, then the terrorists would have won." 

October 2012 - sat the Multi State Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE), this exam, along with the Bar Exam, is required to be admitted to practice law.

October 2012 - visit Montpelier, Vermont

October 2012 - elected as a "write-in" to the Board of Governors of the New Hampshire Student Bar Association 

November 2012 - hung out with the Supreme Court Chief Justices of New Hampshire, Texas, and New York; in addition to having lunch with former New Hampshire Governor Steve Merrill.