Interesting mp3 of oral arguments between Obama and the 7th Circuit court of appeals (including Richard Posner) early in Obama's law career.
caution: may take some time to load
http://www.suntimes.com/images/cds/MP3/obama.mp3 Blog:
After Harvard Law, Obama returned to the Windy City and joined the small litigation firm with deep Chicago political connections. As the Law Blog noted, Obama had an offer from Sidley Austin, where he had summered, but instead chose Miner Barnhill.
The story notes that as a junior associate at the small firm Obama played a behind the scenes role on the cases he worked on. It wasn’t too long ago that Obama was a lowly associate, billing out at $165 per hour and drafting legal motions, writing motions and prepping for depositions just like so many of you. “I was an associate, and a lot of my work was in the research and writing,” Obama told the Sun-Times. “I was one of the better writers. I ended up doing the more cerebral writing, less trial work,” Obama added. “That’s actually something I regret — not doing more trial work.”
Said Judson Miner to the Sun-Times: “Barack was a young kid when he came here. He was not ‘THE Barack Obama’ yet.” And Miner also said: “As smart as he is, he is very quick to appreciate all kinds of nuances with legal issues. He finds it very hard to shoot back a real quick, simple answer. His instinct was to better understand what the nuances were.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/01/04/barack-obama-was-once-a-lowly-law-firm-associate/Maybe old news to some of you....