Judy Clarke, defense attorney

The shooting in Tucson of the Congresswoman and her constituents, including a nine year old girl, a man just reaching his 30s and elders in their 70s, has brought my family and I to think deeper about our own lives with each other and with the larger communities we belong to. We have gathered in our living room and watched the news reports on my sister's lap top and listened to the events on the radio.

The other event that my family and many of my friends and I are entrenched in is sending in my applications for law school. I have sent out the applications for the particular schools I want to attend, but, since the deadlines are Feb. 1, Feb. 15 and some even in March 1, and since I have an LSAC fee waiver, I am applying to more schools. In this environment of applying to law school and the Tucson shooting, my sister Fui said, "I wonder who is going to defend Loughner...that's going to be an incredible case. You should follow it Loa." That's exactly what I was thinking.

Yesterday, I was surfing the car radio at Hollis and 40th in Emeryville and a law professor at Virginia and Lee School of Law, David Bruck, was being interviewed about his friend, Judy Clarke, the defense attorney asked to represent Jared Lee Loughner, the gunman. What Bruck said about his friend Judy really resonated with why I want to be an attorney and how I want to be an attorney.

Bruck said that Judy is a thorough attorney who has represented Susan Smith, the "crazy welfare mother" in South Carolina who drowned her two children and said they died in a car jacking, the "anti-social weirdo" Unabomber and "terrorist" Moussaoui, the 9-11 Co-conspirator. Most of us automatically decide that these folks rightly so will be executed for their heinous crimes and we go on with life as usual, imagining that the world is now safe. However, it's the job of the defense attorney to stand up and say, "Wait, this is not right, everybody has the right to a fair trail and a lawyer who will fight all the way for them." That's the calling of a lawyer. In hearing Bruck's interview about Judy, that's the kind of lawyer Judy is.

So I googled Virginia and Lee School of Law and found an article on Judy and read up on David Bruck, who works tirelessly to overturn the death penalty in the U.S. I read that Judy Clarke taught a Criminal Practice Simulation Class where students were given different scenarios like a who-done-it murder and an immigration smuggling case that ended with a death. The students then followed through the entire procedure of that case playing particular roles, such as prosecutor or defense. I know that law school will not be that exciting every moment, but such a class sounds amazing and I can't wait to attend such a class!

Judy Clarke was able to get Susan Smith life in prison with a parole coming up in 2024. Clarke's defense of her clients is her direct protest against the practice of the Death Penalty in the U.S. All the litigation fees that Clarke earned from defending Susan Smith, $80,000, was donated to a fund to provide free defense services for poor people like Susan Smith. Clarke saves people from the Death Penalty and also helps people to live better lives while they're alive.

In the interview, Bruck's description of Judy hit home for me. He said, "Judy really believes in the power of the personal story, she strongly believes that everyone has a story and that story is what makes a monster into a human being." As Bruck said that, I also understood that he too believed strongly in the power of the personal story. Wow, all this time I thought that only creative writers and artists care about stories and I thought the legal profession abhors and dismisses personal stories. But here is Judy Clarke and David Bruck, attorneys and law professors who hold a deep underestanding, like creative writers and artists, of knowing that at the end, it is only our personal story that we have, it is our personal story that can save us.

In writing my Personal Statement, Diversity Statement and Addendum, I know first-hand that my personal story is what I have to falala on, to depend on to get to law school. I have a low undergraduate GPA and LSAT score. However, when I wrote my Addendum and saw all the challenges I overcame that brought me to knocking at the doorstep of law schools, I fully accept and have a deep love for my struggle that has brought me this far.

Please check out the link below about Judy Clarke, an attorney I want to emulate.

The Legendary Lawyer Who Will Defend Loughner: Judy Clarke