Whether contemplating the constitutionality of placing a cr??che on Lexington Green or clearing the name of a professional auto thief who didn't make the heist this time, Federal Magistrate Judith Dein's job keeps her constantly on her toes.
"It's the best job in the world...I really died and went to heaven," she said. "It's interesting, and what I'm doing makes a difference to people."
Dein, who is a Federal Magistrate judge in the Massachusetts Federal District Court, held an informal discussion last night in Barnum Hall with members of the Tufts Pre-Legal Society to offer perspectives on legal careers.
She tries civil cases, including patent, employment, and trade cases. She also provides trial and pre-trial consultation to felony cases, including the reading of rights and lawyer appointments.
She also participates in mediations for cases that do not go to trial.
Dein found herself in law because she wanted to "keep her options open" - a conviction that influenced her choice of an American Studies bachelor's degree at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and her enrollment at Boston College law school.
As a judge, however, she has come to see that law's flexibility is its greatest asset.
"The beauty of law is that no matter what you're doing on a daily basis, it's a career that can make you feel good," she said. "Your job makes you fee like you're accomplishing something."
When the word "law" is mentioned, Dein said that people tend to think of law firms, which is how she began her legal career, but that there are many different kinds of legal jobs out there.
Dein went on to discuss different branches of trial law, including family law, criminal law, and sports and entertainment law, as well as corporate legal careers.
She asked each student in the audience what their aspirations and interests were, and loosely outlined her path to success.
"You can do really any kind of undergraduate degree you want to," she said.
She stressed that in her opinion hard work and self-application in law school proved to be the key to success. She outlined the usefulness of professional experience, but downplayed the importance of frenzied immersion in internships.
While she would not classify law school as her favorite academic or intellectual experience, Dein loved the actual practice of law as she rose to senior partner at a law firm.
"I love being a trial lawyer, I love putting it all together [in court]. There is nothing as high as a good day in court and nothing as low as when the jury comes back against you," she said.
Integrating work into life in general proved to be a greater challenge, she said. "The hardest part of law is to balance home life and working."
Another advantage to law was the community involvement it facilitated. "It turns out that I had connected with a lot of people over the years," she said.
This networking, she said, helped her land her appointment as judge - which she describes as very different from but more "intellectually challenging" than her job at a firm.
The working hours, she said, are usually six days a week.
Judges, she said, also "take turns being on call for all emergency arrests and for people who are arrested without warrants" outside of 9-5 business hours.
Such events, such as calls from "people who do dumb things at the airport, like swallow large quantities of heroin" keep her day-to-day experience
interesting.
Her main advice to students was that law firms and schools are "looking for people who are hard-working, committed, and have some passion in something."
