I was actually nervous today...

Today I argued for real at the Court of Appeals. I've had fake oral arguments before, but I've never argued in front of the real thing before. For once in a long time, I was actually NERVOUS beforehand. Most of my friends and family know that there isn't much that makes me nervous. I never really got all crazy when I would compete in skating and ever since my first year as a practicing lawyer, trials don't really bug me so much either. I've always operated with the philosophy that there isn't a need to be nervous because if you have prepared, you can only do your best. Today though my nervousness was because of the unknown. At the Court of Appeals you have 15 minutes to present to the Judges your argument. The Judges have the ability to interrupt you at anytime and ask you any questions about the case. I was so nervous that I was going to be asked a question that I didn't know the answer to. Yesterday I went to the Court of Appeals to observe the arguments. It was actually pretty boring, the issues being discussed weren't anything that I was interested in, i just wanted to observe the interaction, so I brought with me a crochet project. I got told by the Court's marshall that it wasn't appropriate to crochet at the Court of Appeals. Whoops, thankfully the panel that I had was not the same judges that I observed or the same marshall. Today I had to argue first since my client was asking for the relief. I was surprised that it went pretty well. I think there were some questions that I didn't quite know the answer to, but I felt like I faked it well.