Dismissal GRANTED

My first litigation success!

When I left my summer internship in August, I had just finished drafting a motion for a case and Associate Attorney told me he would keep me updated. It was an exciting case! We were representing a government agency/insurance company in Canada that was being sued by an American company over an incident which had occured in America.

Associate asked me if I knew anything about International Law. On the spot, I was able to sputter something semi-coherent about immunity for foreign governments and their agencies. I had JUST taken an International Law course and was excited to put my casebook and knowledge to good use. So he let me draft an argument for dismissal of the suit based upon the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act in addition to regular Rule 12(b) defenses.

Associate Attorney read my argument and asked if I had plagerized- he thought my writing was too good and that I had copied a journal article word for word or something. (Take that LW professor who gave me a less than optimal grade!). One thing that I really learned from this attorney was how to organize an incredibly long motion with well placed headers and other formatting techniques. He suggested that I read some of the legal writing guides written by Bryan Garner. (NERD ALERT) I just bought a couple off of Amazon because I was so impressed by what I learned and (SUPER NERD ALERT) I can't wait to get read them!

Back to the present: I just received an email from Associate Attorny informing me that the case was dismissed! The court held that our client was a governmental agency for purposes of the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act and so they were granted immunity from suit. Ahhh...I'm on cloud nine. Even though I wasn't involved on this case from start to finish, I feel like I should be drinking a celebratory glass or two of wine (I'll pretend it's on the Canadian Government's dollar, or should I say Loonie?).