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You Are Invited to 2026 Law Day · Asked & Answered - your community podcast for all things legal

• 0:00
  Alane: So this is where our stories diverge because
• 0:04
  Kierstin: so it's so crazy because I kinda have some similar story, and we've never shared this.
• 0:09
  Alane: We've never talked about this at all.
• 0:10
  Kierstin: Yeah. So the thing is here,
• 0:12
  what I've learned today is if you want advice about this, you send them to Elaine. You don't send them to me.
• 0:25
  Alane: Welcome back to Ask and Answered. This is Elaine. Kirsten's here with me today. And we're going to talk about what?
• 0:31
  Kierstin: I think we're going to talk about Law Day.
• 0:33
  Alane: We are going to talk about Law Day. It's coming up on May 1. What is Law Day?
• 0:38
  Kierstin: I thought you were going to answer this question.
• 0:40
  Alane: You're right, I am.
• 0:43
  Kierstin: So I think it's okay.
• 0:46
  Alane: Why don't Listen, this isn't our most organized episode, but it's still gonna be fun. We're gonna bring it back around.
• 0:56
  Kierstin: Yeah, it's on you, girl.
• 0:57
  Alane: It's on me. Okay. So, Law Day, I guess this is a two part answer, because what is Law Day nationally? And then what is Law Day here in the community? Essentially, Law Day is a national day of recognition.
• 1:11
  And its purpose is really to highlight, to celebrate how the American legal system ensures fairness and justice and democracy here in this country. And I think that is important. I mean, all, as attorneys, we all practice in different ways, but essentially, we are trying to, in some way, get to whatever justice is. It's in the mission statement from my office. I mean, I know that we all use the skills of justice when it comes to, imagery for our field.
• 1:38
  But I do think it's important, right? Right. I mean, maybe it sounds a little boring, but
• 1:42
  Kierstin: Yeah. Well, I was gonna say one of the other things is too, is that there's always a theme. And I know as far as talking about the national theme, every year there's a big national theme and typically it sort of coincides with things that are happening at the national level. That's also interesting sometimes as far as what those themes are.
• 2:05
  Alane: Yeah, like sometimes it focuses on diversity, sometimes it focuses on different things, and those are set by the American Bar Association, right? So more national level than certainly less local, but we still are able to personalize for here.
• 2:20
  Kierstin: Right. And as you said, as far as a two part answer, that second part is we have our own theme this year in the community, which is different than the national theme.
• 2:32
  Alane: What is the local theme?
• 2:33
  Kierstin: So the local theme is rooted in tradition, rising together.
• 2:41
  Alane: I think that's really fitting for Salt River.
• 2:43
  Kierstin: Yeah, I agree.
• 2:44
  Alane: Because we wanna make sure that we're, especially as people who aren't like you and I, especially people who aren't From the community. Community We've both worked here a long time, but we're not community members. And so making sure that the way that we practice and the way that we sort of steer the ships that we're in charge of, making sure that it's in alignment with community values and community goals and all that stuff.
• 3:04
  Kierstin: And then in the part of yeah, and I agree with you. And then also rising together to know that these legal departments and helping the members were rising together as legal departments and also interwoven with each other. You know, we have to interact with other legal departments to sort of seek justice and or this could even be any department outside of our legal departments too, right? To provide some justice for members.
• 3:34
  Alane: I think that's actually one of the ways that Salt River specifically shines is that we all do work together so well. I mean, our office, obviously, the criminal side of our office works more frequently with the defense advocate's office, both in civil court and in criminal court. But we also, you know, your Guardian Adlitem team works alongside my prosecutors and alongside DAOs, defense attorneys and defense advocates with dependent wards, with kids who are in care.
• 4:02
  Kierstin: Right. And we work with the FAC, we work with social services.
• 4:06
  Alane: The police department.
• 4:07
  Kierstin: Police department.
• 4:08
  Alane: Well, even work with DOC because I mean, if a parent is incarcerated, we make sure that they get to court, we make sure that they still are able to participate in their child welfare cases. Right, I I do think that that's one thing where we shine.
• 4:19
  Kierstin: Where we do well, yeah. And then in the civil side of legal services, we also, which you have a civil side too, but we also would work with finance, with child support stuff, and some other pieces. I can't think of anything on top of my head. Was like, Oh, social services as well, with some of our other civil cases or civil matters. I was thinking education too, that we would work with.
• 4:47
  It just depends on the legal issue on how we're working with those departments. I'm also thinking of departments that people may not think about, like HHS, that we sometimes would connect with or need to connect with.
• 5:01
  Alane: Well, like you were talking about the FAC, I think that we try not to just tell people, Oh, here's what you need to do. We instead try to say, Okay, well, next you're just going to go to legal services because maybe you're having this issue or maybe it's a parent who's going be serving some incarceration time and they need to make sure that their child has the paperwork for their grandma to be able to take care of them while they're there. We don't just have to say, Well, good luck with that. We can say, No, you should just go to legal services, and they'll help you get the power of attorney done. They'll help you get the temporary care and custody done.
• 5:34
  Or, like you said, with finance, we can make sure that
• 5:39
  Kierstin: All all people those can pieces are set up and in order or whatever.
• 5:43
  Alane: Right. And so, I think that certainly all this is legal work, but it's more than that. And I think that that's a really good illustration, if you will, of this theme of, you know, we're rooted in tradition, in Salt River means being helpful, having a servant's heart, making sure that you are really serving the people and not just coming in and clocking in and clocking out. But then rising together, like making people better than where you found them. I think that that's a good illustration of that purpose.
• 6:10
  Kierstin: Yep, I agree. So now that we have definitely talked about the theme in the community, I think as far as what's actually happening on May 1. May 1, we have tons of events that are planned. One of the events that we talked about last year that we're doing again is we're doing a mock trial for the sixth graders.
• 6:33
  Alane: These are always so much fun.
• 6:35
  Kierstin: Right. And this is if your child goes to Salt River Elementary and they're in sixth grade, they're definitely going to be coming over to the courthouse during the daytime. It's a field trip for the school. They get to walk through the court. Security so they have all their backpacks cleared through security.
• 6:56
  And then they will watch the attorneys and advocates in the legal offices. Your office participates. My office participates. Office of General Counsel. We have some individuals participating from their office, and then defense advocate's office as well.
• 7:15
  Anyhow, we put on this mock trial for the kiddos. We try to make it.
• 7:20
  Alane: Like it's not just like a boring I mean, it's always kid themed, right?
• 7:23
  Kierstin: Yes. That's what I was gonna say. So this year we're doing Zootopia. Cute. So that should be fun.
• 7:28
  And the plaintiff is accusing the wolf, Nick Wolf, I think, of stealing her sandwich from lunch. So we'll see what happens during that mock trial. That should be fun for the kids. I'm super excited.
• 7:43
  Alane: It's always really cute. Like all the, I mean, we'd all know each other very well. A lot of us have worked here for a long time, but it is still different. Like one year, one of the assistant chief prosecutors was Prince Charming. Yeah.
• 7:53
  And one of our other prosecutors was like a princess. I mean, it's last year or what was it last year that it was the three bears? Yes. So you walk through the court and there's like these three bears? Yes.
• 8:02
  So anyway, is a different type of, I mean, it's just, it's much more fun obviously than going to court on a regular day. Real court, right. But you also get to see another side of your coworkers too, which is
• 8:11
  Kierstin: KATIE: Yeah, I agree with that. I do agree with that. And then the other thing that we're doing again that we did last year was the art contest. And so this year we're having all, again, if your kids go to Salt River Elementary, K-six are participating in the art contest. And that reminds me, I'm going to have to get some prizes for those winners.
• 8:34
  Alane: Oh my goodness, don't forget the prizes.
• 8:35
  Kierstin: Yeah, I know. But we have prizes for the winners and all of that art is going to be up on display during- And
• 8:43
  Alane: it's like on the theme, right? Like you tell them what the theme is?
• 8:46
  Kierstin: Yep. So rooted in tradition, rising together. We'll have to see what all the kids come up with.
• 8:51
  Alane: They always really shock us with how they interpret the themes. And what I also love is that the court, for a long time after Law Day, leaves everything up on those big windows, those south facing windows in the court lobby. And so we get to look at them for a long time after it's over. But, I mean, we're always blown away. Mean, they're so creative, like just really deep thoughts that we're like, we wouldn't have even thought of that.
• 9:14
  That's brilliant.
• 9:15
  Kierstin: I totally agree. And then you can see during law days, some people were like, oh, that's my art. And I did that. And I remember talking to one of the judges and one of the judges had made a comment about one of the pieces being maybe an illustration of her child on the bench. But she put it in quotes because she didn't quite think that the picture looked exactly like her.
• 9:40
  I thought it was pretty good. I thought it was pretty funny. And of course we were having giggle over it.
• 9:48
  Alane: Yeah, there's always some like there are ones that are like super deep, there are ones also that are just hilarious. Yeah. It's worth coming just to see those. They're always very cute.
• 9:56
  Kierstin: And then we don't tell the winners who is the winner until Law Day. They have to come into the courthouse to see the sticker that they've gotten first prize and second prize and so forth. So it's always a good time for you to come with your kiddos to see their art on display and then also see who won. And then that evening event, which the art will be displayed at.
• 10:21
  Alane: It's always huge. And that's going to
• 10:23
  Kierstin: be from four to 6PM.
• 10:25
  Alane: At the court.
• 10:26
  Kierstin: Right, at the courthouse.
• 10:27
  Alane: It'll be inside. We used to go outside, but May keeps getting hotter and hotter. So now we're all inside.
• 10:33
  Kierstin: Just a little too hot, right? Yes. So we'll be inside. Legal Services office will be there. Your office will be Who else
• 10:41
  Alane: is The SAC, the PD, defense advocates. Fire, I believe is coming. Fire is coming. I think the police department's bringing their command van. Yes.
• 10:50
  Which I will say is very cool. You should all come and see it. Yes. It's worth a tour.
• 10:53
  Kierstin: I think I've also heard from the presiding judge saying that he has been very entertained by the command center van. And he talked about how there's the drone that kind of can oversee. Is that part of the command van?
• 11:09
  Alane: It's not part of the command van, but they definitely do have a drone that they can use to look at crime scenes or whatever. But the command van itself, like when you're in it, there's no windows, obviously, but it has all these cameras on all around it. And so when it has this big bank of screens. So when you're in there, you feel like you're in a spaceship because you can look around at all the different corners and figure out like who's around you. And mostly, you you just see like red dogs, which is super cute, but you can see like, oh, this is what's over there.
• 11:38
  And this is what's behind us. If you can acclimate yourself, it is sort of difficult to figure out which window you're, which camera you're looking out of when you're looking at a screen. But anyway, yes, it does sort of feel like you're in a spaceship.
• 11:48
  Kierstin: Okay. I actually have not done that. So maybe I will do it myself this year because I haven't gone into the command van. But I do know that Presiding Judge thinks it's pretty cool. So he definitely requested that to be there.
• 12:01
  It is cool.
• 12:02
  Alane: I will say, it's worth seeing. It is cool.
• 12:04
  Kierstin: Did we miss anything? Oh, Department of Corrections, will they be there
• 12:07
  Alane: as They usually are. Yeah, they usually are. They always bring some really interesting game that they've made.
• 12:13
  Kierstin: Yeah. Yeah. And in past years, we've always had like a little bit of a game at our tables.
• 12:19
  Alane: Yeah. So that'll stay the same, right? We'll all every booth, every department table will have either a game or an activity or something, and usually they do have some swag that's And pretty
• 12:31
  Kierstin: I think we do the game so that we're hopeful that you can entertain your kiddos while you get some legal information when you're going around the table so that they're not completely not wanting to come to the event.
• 12:45
  Alane: Right. Don't want anybody to be bored. We want people to associate good feelings with Law Day and with the courthouse. And I think at the end of the day, what we're hoping is that we encourage people to go to law school or become paralegals or do something in the legal field. There's a lot of ways to go into the legal field if you don't even want to go to law school, but just to sort of show the variety of ways that you can have a law adjacent career if you want that.
• 13:09
  Kierstin: Right. Yeah. I mean, you raise a point like what is the point of us or what is the point of individuals coming to this evening event? So for me, they're able to explore all the different departments within the community. And then if they have like a question, maybe they're not going to get that question answered that evening because sometimes that takes some maybe research and so forth, but they can sort of align themselves with what department handles what, get some brochures, and make some connections.
• 13:42
  Alane: It's also just a really easy environment to do that because if they come to us and ask us a question, we'll be like, Oh, we're not quite the right shop, but go down two tables and talk to legal services instead of saying, okay, leave here and turn to the right and go down to this office and make an appointment. They can just go directly to you and say, hey, is this something you could help me with? Right. And so it does end up, I mean, it's a fun day. There's always food.
• 14:02
  There's always lots of fun stuff to do. There's always giveaways. But at the end of the day, it's also just truly the best way to find out who can help you with your legal issue.
• 14:13
  Kierstin: Right. What are all the resources within the community legally wise Yeah, or I totally agree. So before I forget the thought, you just mentioned the swag and all the fun things that will be happening. So there is going to be food.
• 14:25
  Alane: There is going be food. There is going to be food. There's always food at Law Day. I will say the court really does out, really outdoes themselves on that. There's always tons of food.
• 14:35
  Kierstin: Think I there's always like a popcorn truck or something with popcorn.
• 14:38
  Alane: There's always like a popcorn truck or something. Yeah, they're
• 14:42
  Kierstin: Ice cream.
• 14:42
  Alane: They do a really good job with all that. So come and eat and eat. You will not leave hungry. If you leave hungry, it is your own fault.
• 14:49
  Kierstin: Yes. And then the judge, the presiding judge, Judge Dear, he talked about the swag where he's super excited about what is being offered as far as swag wise. Individual departments and then plus the court will have swag. And then I hear these T shirts, Law Day T shirts are supposed to be pretty amazing.
• 15:09
  Alane: We've heard they're really nice. We don't know what color they are because the judge says that'll be too much excitement
• 15:13
  Kierstin: for
• 15:14
  Alane: us to handle, which, you know, fair enough. So we don't know it'll be a surprise, but we've heard that they're very nice. And you've been to the court and seen Duane Manuel's beautiful mural of, like, a Salt River Lady Justice that's in the foyer of the court building, it's gorgeous.
• 15:32
  Kierstin: Yeah. Before you go too far into deep to that, what is the Lady Justice?
• 15:35
  Alane: The legal field in general uses this idea of scales of justice when they talk about the legal field, and it's just the idea that it's balanced and fair. Yeah. And so Lady Justice is just a version of that. It's generally a woman blind. She's blindfolded to represent the blindness of justice and holding scales.
• 15:56
  And in Duane's mural, the scales are baskets. They're woven baskets. It's a beautiful mural. And so the artwork for the T shirts is based on it. So I'm very excited to see them.
• 16:08
  Kierstin: And it's one of the first murals you see when you enter the courthouse or whatever. Yeah.
• 16:14
  Alane: It's very prominent right there, like by the elevators. You can't miss it if you're going up the stairs or going up the elevators or even if you're just in the lobby. It's just gorgeous.
• 16:22
  Kierstin: Right. And so, just like you said, the t shirts may have some sort of
• 16:29
  Alane: Some of that imagery, yes.
• 16:30
  Kierstin: So it's super excited.
• 16:32
  Alane: Super excited.
• 16:33
  Kierstin: Yeah, it'll be awesome. Think that we did we cover all the things?
• 16:38
  Alane: I think we covered it. Think, you know, just end of the day, it's a real celebration of the law as a field of work in all of its many forms, not just as attorneys, but also judges, paralegals, DOC, SRPD, all the people who work adjacently with the legal system. And if you have any interest at all in that, please come out. And even if don't, come out anyway. From four to six.
• 17:02
  Kierstin: Four to six.
• 17:03
  Alane: On May 1.
• 17:03
  Kierstin: May 1. We're officially inviting you to Please come.
• 17:08
  Alane: Our law day. And with that, I think this closes out our episode, and we will
• 17:14
  Kierstin: see Yeah. You next Yeah.