Connie Harper

One of the many, *many* defense attorneys in the case of *State v. Johnson* and a rookie with a lot more bark than bite. As a twenty-two year old attorney who recently graduated from Themis Legal Academy, she's enjoyed absolutely no luck in landing a job at *any* law offices, forcing her into the far less glamorous position of state appointed attorney. Arrogant and cocky to the extreme, Connie generally sees being an attorney as her ticket to fame and an opportunity to be as clever as possible, though the fact that this attitude generally backfires on her very badly may be a contributor to her spotty employment.

## Appearance

Connie's usual court attire consists of a tan pantsuit with black
flats and a white blouse with thick, off-white vertical stripes (the
blouse has the stripes, not the pantsuit). Her black hair is in a
crop cut and kept completely out of her face with a large yellow
headband, hinting that while she knows a few things about how to take
law seriously, she's still something of a kid. Her eyes are green and
when at the courthouse she can often be seen carrying both a sleek,
steel-gray briefcase...along with a tin Pokémon lunchbox. Containing
her lunch, of course.

Connie is extremely expressive, grinning
widely or openly snarling as emotions hit her. She is capable of
collecting herself to think, although while brooding she tends to
glare.

## Personality

Connie is bright, but arrogant. She is extremely confident but
sometimes doesn't really know when to quit. Being a defense attorney,
to her, is mostly about being clever and winning, which is what
motivates her unusual primary strategy of coming up with absurd
theories that depend on odd loopholes in the prosecution's case. They
are theories that technically cannot be disproven but they don't seem
very sane. Usually such theories are meant to buy time for her to
prepare more properly, though she has on one occasion won a trial by
convincing the judge that yes, the defendant is clearly innocent
because obviously the real killer faked his alibi by
mass-hypnosis.

Along with arrogance, however, comes with an
unwillingness to be wrong. She will sometimes be tempted to cling to
a theory for as long as possible rather than admit any error on her
part (either that or blame the error on someone else). If soundly
trounced, however she will give
in – but usually not without getting extraordinarily frustrated. Sometimes, if she believes her mistake to be truly egregious, her frustration will give way to something akin to a minor meltdown, though thus far she's always pulled herself back together.

## Background

Like many fresh, young attorneys in this day and age, Connie was
among Themis Legal Academy's graduating class a few years ago and was
Aristotle Means's star student of that year. Constance Courte's
comments on report cards generally looked like "Bright and
clever, but arrogant to the extreme. Does whatever it takes to
succeed but doesn't seem to care what's right." Aristotle Means
often wrote something along the lines of "Really knows what it
takes to get ahead. Gold star!"

Despite doing relatively
well in school, Connie didn't exactly fare as well as she'd hoped she
would in the very real and very cutthroat world of law. Her
employment is very spotty, though she applies to every office
imaginable. At the moment, though, she's working as a public
defender, assigned to whatever case the state needs handled at its
whim.

The difficulty she's faced in trying to get a job hasn't
gotten her down, though; it hasn't made her bitter quite yet, though
she has gotten frustrated. For good or for ill, though, she's
continued pressing forward, determined to make a name for
herself.

Making a name for herself is, after all, basically
all she's interested in doing. At the moment, to her being an
attorney is about being the best and getting the world to agree that
she is.

Being part of the *State v. Johnson* case is a fair bit more personal, however. A few weeks prior to the Johnson trial, she stood in court opposite one August Crowe. As usual, Connie brought up her usual unfalsifiable but almost certainly absurd theories to show off, buy time, and confuse the prosecution.

Except this time, it didn't work.

August Crowe had come prepared to shut down every theory she had, and Connie ended up feeling as though she'd been humiliated. A wise person would've realized that using ridiculous theories was just asking for trouble, and would endeavor to try and take the job more seriously.

Connie was not wise. She was *vengeful*.

And so when another couple of attorneys found themselves forced to leave the courtroom by circumstance, Connie leaped forward, determined to try and get her own (petty) revenge.