UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

NEW SPECIMENS OLD SPECIMENS THE SCIENTIST MY LOG CONTACT ME
2002-05-01 - 9:29 p.m.

BELLS GOING OFF

I have no idea whether I will win the case but the oral argument felt good. I didn�t interrupt anyone, I made all the points I had to make and most of the points I wanted to make, and I watched my opponent make a strategic error. Nevertheless, for the first time ever, a oral argument traumatized me. Actually, it wasn�t the argument itself. It was the fire alarm.

Unbeknownst to me, they test the fire alarm of the state capitol on the first day of the month. No one warned me. I didn�t know. After I began my rebuttal, the alarm went off�and no one moved. It wasn�t the loudness that got to me. It wasn�t the flashing that got to me. It wasn�t even the interruption that got to me. The fire alarm went off and no one moved.

Most people do not react as strongly to fire alarms as I do. I was once in a dorm fire in the middle of the night. The fire was on my floor. The hallway was smoky�and very dark. With a friend who was the resident advisor, we banged on doors up and down the hall to make sure everyone was out. I wasn�t leaving her behind. We watched the delays in the stairwells and, as we got there ourselves, we discovered that people from floors below us, floors where there was no smoke, were blocking the way down as they stood in the stairwells deciding whether they had to go out in the cold. Eventually, everyone got out safely although my friend and I were wheezy and both of us were hoarse for a few days.

That fire happened almost 25 years ago but I still remember. I�ve never been able to just assume, as many people seem to, that a fire alarm going off is a false alarm just because I don�t see fire or smoke. In law school, I took on a professor who tried to forbid the class to leave during what turned out to be a real but very small and quickly contained electrical fire in another part of the building. I left despite him.

So, there I was hearing the alarm, not knowing it was testing, and deciding whether to flee despite my oral argument. I listened and fought the panic I feel when a fire alarm goes off. Just as I was about to leave, never mind the stubbornness of the court, the assistant attorney general noticed that, according to him, I�d gone white and he clued me in that it was a test of the system.

After what seemed like an eternity, the test ended. The chief justice asked me to pick up where I had left off. At that moment, I was glad I had argued there before and felt somewhat comfortable. I knew what I should do and I did it. I admitted that I had no idea where I�d left off. She clued me in and I finished the argument.

After the argument was over, the marshal came over and apologized. Apparently, he too realized that I had not known it was a test. I explained to him that I had been in a fire. I�m hoping he will clue in the court.

I�ve participated in oral arguments before where bells have gone off. Usually, however, the bells are in my head and concern something opposing counsel has said. I think I can live the rest of my life without having another oral argument where bells go off.

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