Michael Finkelstein, 2011

 
300 feet above the Mississippi River, I turned my head to glance downstream; the City of New Orleans, the Riverwalk, St. Louis Cathedral. A big breath as I pulled my head back and glanced north - the end of the bridge, I can almost the glimmer of the lake - Lakeview, my house. Just keep running.

This past weekend, I accomplished a few things that have left me feeling very humbled, and with a deeper sense of community. On Saturday, I was in the few thousand lucky people who ran across the Crescent City Connection as part of the BridgeMan 4 Mile Race. For those familiar with the Crescent City, the iconic twin bridges are a symbol of the city and a main artery for connecting various parts of the greater New Orleans metro area. The race itself was a 4 mile trek from Gretna, up to the foot of the bridge, across the river, down and around to Convention Center Blvd, past the entrace to Mardi Gras World, and wrapping up underneath the bridge we just conquered  bordering the river.

On Sunday, I was very happy to support the HALO Foundation of New Orleans at an event they hosted at the famous Rock 'n Bowl. HALO was established to help a local home health care nurse who was brutally attacked and raped while going out to someone's home for her work. The woman, going by the name "Angel," has been unable to work and support her family since she was attacked. One thing I'm always looking to do more of is be involved in the greater community and help contribute to worthwhile causes. I've always had a desire to help women who have been abused or harmed. As a part of my bar mitzvah when I was 13, I collected donations and other goods to send to the local battered women's shelter. Being a part of this great cause this past weekend reconnected this spirit of community, I was happy to be a part of it, and bring along other people to help contribute to this great cause.

On a lighter note, I took the ferry across the river to Algiers Point on Wednesday afternoon after work and spent the evening enjoying the music and festivities at Wednesdays on the Point. Experiencing the little festivals and celebrations like these serves as a constant reminder to me that the people of Louisiana know how to have a good time and enjoy life like no place else in the country.  

Ongoing, work has been giving me some great experience and I'm very encouraged that my experiences there have been going well. I recently authored my first victorious Motion for Summary Judgment! It has quelled some of my nerves about going into practice that I'm now writing motions and other documents for filing with court, under the name and supervision of the attorney I'm working for, of course. But still, to be getting this much experience doing real legal work at this point in school is a very unique and special advantage that is not being wasted on me.

I'm also hoping to keep on staying more involved in the greater community. I'll be continuing to post my ventures so please keep visiting to see what's going on around my end. Till next time...
 
So, I'm going to start blogging about my experiences in the difficult legal job market. Look forward to more posts in the near future, and subscribe to my RSS Feed to get updates sent to you directly.

Update: I got a chance interview today, more details to come.