9.1

Let us celebrate and remember today, a cornerstone in what promises to be an illustrious and enduring career.

My debut in court (as distinct from The Court) lasted approximately 2 minutes, the breakdown running something like:

• Introduction, including spelling out surname that apparently sounded tricky to spell: 20s
• Background, to get the magistrate up to speed: 20s
• Main event – requesting what in the trade is known as a "consent adjournment", which in the instant case was code for "hey judge-doing-the-cattle-calls-that-are-general-lists we'll need more time/attention than you're able/willing to spare, so please set us up a special appointment", but which is also frequently utilised in situations such as "neither side ready, but soon (hopefully)!" or "one side not ready, other side happy to wait and keep billing client in the meantime semi-colon close-bracket": 30s
• Main (perhaps only! yay!) blunder – referring to opposing counsel, who had done nothing to deserve it and who was not even present, as "my learned friend" which, although not technically incorrect, suggested far more decorum than I intended to show: 5s
• Orders entered (no nasty surprises thank fetch): 30s
• Magistrate making offhand remark about the other side having a fairly arguable case, and thereby rendering the impending hearing a foregone conclusion: 10s
• Miscellaneous – bowing, paper-shuffling, trying not to stack it, etc.: 5s

I was feeling pretty lucky to have gotten the magistrate that I got (if for nothing else than that he didn't fall asleep or rip my head off or both in either sequence or, worse - insist that the substantive issues be dealt with forthwith and hence force clueless-me to impromptu-BS something shocking) until back at the office Principal volunteered an unflattering caricature of the guy to whom I had sent microwaves of gratitude across the bench. This is in no way an averment about either man. It's just that the experience of hearing prominent (and the not so prominent) jurists and practitioners talked about as Average Joe's / Plain Jane's, is still a little bit surreal to me.