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.