La Toque...or Going to Get Legal Mail

Hey ! Ami !

The above is a reference to the hip and famous French video-blogger, Norman – who I adore, by the way. Some of his stuff has English subtitles, but if you’re interested in some hilarious commentary on life, Apple addicts, arrogant bilingual people, or a song about how your life has improved since Google’s arrival, then check out www.normanfaitdesvideos.com.

Anyway, on to the actual post.

In France, attorneys have personal or firm mailboxes both at their office locations and at the massive courthouse, the Palais de justice. The mailbox is called the “toque” and it’s tucked away in the center of the Palais in an area that is FORBIDDEN TO THE PUBLIC (it says that on the door) and for attorneys only. I, of course, am not actually an attorney but a mere intern, but I guess we count.

Unfortunately, because I am a foreigner, I do not have a handy student card that lets me use the so-called “professional entrance” to the Palais. Instead, I have to use the public entrance, which means waiting in line with the masses to go through security.

In case you’re not aware, the national monument and church known for its breathtaking stained glass, Sainte Chapelle, is in the center of the Palais de justice complex, kind of in the courtyard. The public entrance to the courthouse and the tourist entrance to Sainte Chapelle are right next to each other, their respective lines fanning out along the sides of the justice complex. Sadly for me and my time, both lines funnel through essentially the same x-ray machines and metal detectors. I waited for a good half hour this morning. The trick I think is arriving there at 9. No one is there at 9 because that’s still relatively early for French time. I made the mistake of arriving at more 9:40ish, and the line for the Palais entrance was easily three times longer than I’ve ever seen it.

Apparently, I may be able to avoid this in the future if I get a written statement from our office administrator attesting that I am an intern (gosh darn it!) and no ordinary member of the public. Then with that I might be able to use the line-less professional entrance.

Okay, so. At the toque there is a lawyer-only free coffee machine (European style, little cappuccinos like, none of this drip coffee business), but what tickles me the most, and what I didn’t know before I came here, was that to appear before the court, lawyers in France still wear ceremonial robes. They’re black, like American judges wear, but sometimes (perhaps always?) they have kind of frilly white ascot type things that spill forth from the collar of the robe. They are *attractive.* But, it’s fun nonetheless to see easily identifiable attorneys walking the long halls of the courthouse.

Attorney Library

Another fun aspect of this is that there is a library for attorneys. It has print journals that exceed the materials we have available at the firm, especially if you’re looking for something older than say, 1980. Today, I had to photocopy some arbitration articles from 1974, so I stood in front of the copier with the firm-issued copy card for a good 20 minutes. But, I can’t complain.

The library is pretty cool – it has the old fashioned green bankers lamps on wooden tables set throughout the space, and the walls are filled with two stories of books. The second story sort of rings the space, and is accessible through a little spiral staircase in the corner, and there is a ladder that runs along a rail. It’s kind of outdated, but to find where in the library your particular journal is located, you go to the welcome desk and look through a binder that has the journals ordered by title. My journal today was on shelf 24. Not being that familiar with the arrangement of the library yet, I had to wander about to find it. I’m sure I looked a bit lost.

Well, I’m off to church! 

You've been waiting for it -- first week of work!

Bonsoir mes amis,


Sorry for the delay in posting -- it's been quite a busy week! I started at the firm on Monday and my dad and step-ma were in town Sunday through Tuesday evening, so I had dinner with them each night after work. Today I had dinner with a law school friend, her partner, and their son! It's been a much more socially active week than I had imagined it would be. I pictured myself all alone this first week and how hard it was going to be to transition to living by myself again and not having Husband around. But, although I miss Mr. H. like crazy, I've been pretty blessed to feel like I have a "normal" life here with friends and family. It's kind of just like home but people smoke more (even more than in Pittsburgh, which seems impossible to me) and I speak a different language at work. You know, little differences.

So, work. Which I know you are all dying to hear about. It's very cool and there are several things about which I am DORKILY excited. For instance, I have my own email address with the firm, and my own phone line, and my own key and badge, and there is pretty much all you can drink tea, coffee, Evian, and Badoit (like Perrier).

The environment is so collegial -- some staff and attorneys all go out to find food at like 1:30 and bring it back and we all eat what we've bought in the conference room. Everyone has made a real effort to include me in things, inviting me to go "chercher un manger" (look for food) with them, explaining legal concepts to me, etc.

That's probably been the biggest and most obvious difference -- I'm doing some work in French law but I have a very introductory background in it, so essentially I am starting from a very basic level. But again, people take the time to explain things to me and usually, there's at least some corollary in the US system that I can kind of compare a given concept to, and then things start to click. Mostly I have been working on non-billable business development things, but I have gotten to help on one big lawsuit, so baby steps, I say.

Speaking of business development, the firm is hosting a breakfast mini-conference in June sometime, and for the invitations we wanted to include a picture at the heading to give the e-cite a classier touch. We had some photos done, but the coffee cup with coffee (it's breakfast, get it? We had a croissant too) wasn't on a saucer and the photographer didn't have enough time to re-do because she's was going away for Memorial Day (US based photographer, obviously). The lead attorney on the project was...dismayed to say the least by the lack of saucer. Efforts were made to convince him that it kinda sorta looked like a mug so a saucer is optional, but to no avail.

So, we have a photo shoot the next morning. I am dispatched to find a pretty looking croissant. I complete my mission and we start cleaning the table we've decided to stage the shoot on. None of us have a good actual camera so we bust out our iPhones. After two little shoots, some cropping and some resizing, I can proudly say that I, avocat and budding photographer, took the photo that will be featured in the invitation. Not what I expected to be doing for part of my first week, but we'll just call it resourceful. We worked some fresh peonies into the shot, too. It came out quite well for 2 lawyers and one lawyer-to-be putzing around with their phones. All in the name of business development, I suppose.

But honestly, the biggest "little" problem has been my computer keyboard at work. In case you didn't know, the French do not use the "standard" QWERTY style keyboard that we have in the US.

Instead, it's AZERTY.

Just pause, and think about it.

All of a sudden apple becomes "qpple" and Aztec becomes "Qwtec." Also, the enter key is in a weird spot so I keep hitting the *. That's not a frequently used thing, so why is it there!!!!! Like why wouldn't you have to shift to get an asterisk? Having it be a basic keystroke is ridiculous. Anyhoo.

I am determined not to ask for a QWERTY. This is my hero quest, my Everest, my wilderness journey: become an AZERTY-proficient typist. I am getting better already, and it is quite handy for French because the commonly used accented letters are there already. So that's nice.

Well, I'll update more with some of the sight-seeing stuff later. Just thought it would be better to share some of this first week of work stuff while it is in fact still my first week of work.

Ciao ciao,

Cate

PS Everyone says ciao ciao and all I picture is the dog, chow chow. I have to stop from laughing every time. I have a feeling that breed has a different name in French...