I had my oral argument in one of my classes today. I made a relatively minor faux paus, as I remembered one of the facts incorrectly--or rather, overbroadly: The hearing couldn't be rescheduled for "at least three weeks", and I had thought it couldn't be rescheduled before the event of the preliminary injunction, which was in April (from January?!?). (How did I think this? I don't know.) Wouldn't have been a problem except I was trying to answer a question posed by one of the faux judges. Sigh. (Hey, it's a learning exercise--hopefully if I'm doing this for real I'll have those sorts of facts more firmly in mind!)

Overall it went very well, though, and I talked for a full twenty minutes answering the questions and what not.

One thing that happened troubles me, however. As this was a class exercise, I wore nice slacks and a button up blouse, and black dress shoes. The type of oral argument we were doing would typically be done in front of a panel of judges in a court-room, and we had a panel of people acting as judges in a practice court-room (not the real court-room, which we also have) at the law school. One of the comments made to me at the end by one of the judges (all of whom were female, in case that is important) was that I should have borrowed a suit-coat from someone. That it was inappropriate to appear in court without one, and that I should ask for one for graduation.

Now here's why this troubles me, and please tell me if I am thinking about this wrong. There are basically three possibilities why I as a student might not wear a suit-coat: 1) I didn't feel it was necessary in court, 2) I knew it was necessary in court but didn't feel it necessary for a class exercise, or 3) I honestly didn't have or couldn't afford a suit-coat.

Now I certainly appreciate that the "judge" was telling me about convention, and what was appropriate in the real world. But something about this also strikes me as off. She clearly assumed I could not afford one, so why would she announce it in front of the other "judges" and co-counsel, instead of making a private comment?

The event troubles me, and I'm not entirely sure why. I feel like I'm being catty--but I'm honestly not sure that the comment was in any way appropriate. The exercise was supposed to be about our poise, speaking ability, and to get us used to speaking in front of people under the fire of questioning. While I see that we also need to know how to dress properly for the occasion, it just seems wrong the way she chose to handle it...

As I said, I'm not entirely sure why this troubles me so much. I keep thinking about how I would have felt, though, if I really could not have afforded a suit coat...