“It’s a real rush to see a student get better at a lawyering skill, or have an “aha” moment about some aspect of the work. I feel very lucky to be able to represent capital clients but in this teaching role, the joy of which blunts some of the emotional trauma of the work. […]

Very early in my career, when I was representing clients in non-capital cases in Washington, D.C., a client was sentenced to a shockingly long sentence that nobody expected, and I was completely devastated. I didn’t know to cope and ended up impulsively (like, on the spot), adopting two kittens from the aunt of the client. It was a somewhat random manifestation of what I now recognize as vicarious trauma.”