Over the summer, 3L Thomas Hart worked as a law clerk with the Supreme Court of the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, Arizona, where he contributed to a draft opinion that has been quoted by the Associated Press (AP) and picked up by several newspapers.

The opinion was written for a landmark case on ballot initiatives that addressed voters’ ability to vote on the structure of their government. The Navajo Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case on July 30, 2009 – the day before Hart completed his internship. And an AP article on the ruling quotes some of the language that Hart wrote for the draft opinion during his eight-week internship.

“It was an amazing experience for me and seeing the language I put in the opinion quoted is just unbelievable. I think this work has really helped me focus on the type of work I want to do after graduation,” said Hart.

Thomas Hart, 3L, rear right, with the Navajo supreme court justices and staff.

The experience was very different from some of the traditional internship opportunities that are offered to law students. While Hart participated in some of the more traditional clerkly duties of conducting research, drafting opinions, and attending hearings and deliberations, he also went to the blessing of a new courthouse, participated in a Navajo ceremony with a medicine man, and learned Navajo concepts for many of the legal terms that are different from American jurisprudence – all of which proved to be the most interesting parts of the experience, according to Hart.

“I learned a lot about peacefulness and respect and harmony that I had never gotten to experience before,” he said. “I was blessed by a medicine man, smudged with cedar smoke, fed more frybread and mutton than I can describe, and got to briefly live a life totally different from the world I knew as a law student.”

Looking back on the experience, Hart said he was humbled to learn about another way of lawyering. “The Navajo view a good lawyer as a healer. They fix problems for people – not just getting them out of a speeding ticket, or writing a will, or battling an insurance company. The lawyer is a practitioner. They are a friend, and a confidante, and a counselor. The Navajo do not allow for greed. They look down on it. Lawyers are never regarded as lofty or wealthy or powerful. Their job is to uphold the law and the traditions. They are peacemakers not fighters. And they may argue in front of a judge, but in the end, they are always there to restore unity to a family or a community that has been injured by a dispute.”

To learn more about Hart’s experience working with the Supreme Court of the Navajo Nation, visit his blog at http://web.me.com/xthomx, where he chronicled his internship with pictures and blog entries.

Related Links

• The Salt Lake Tribune “Navajo high court gives OK to ballot initiatives”
  

  
  

posted 17-August-2009

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