I try to practice what I preach.

“Don’t use notes when you’re testifying on a bill or making your oral argument,” I tell my law school students. “Know the issue well enough so that you don’t need notes as a crutch.”

I spoke without notes when I testified on my voting rights and Lilly Ledbetter legislation last week. What those bills would do and why we need them I can speak to with passion.

Not so with two bills dealing with wills that I introduced at the request of the Maryland State Bar Association. Estates and trust law was one of the many business-oriented classes that I didn’t take at law school.

So I made sure that a lawyer from the Bar Association would be sitting next to me to help me answer any questions that arose.

On Tuesday, I’ll be testifying on my bill to require that when an inmate makes a post-conviction claim of innocence, a judge must hold a hearing on the merits.

I met with attorneys from the Office of the Public Defender last week. They told me that such a claim would not be heard today if filed after a certain time period, and I practiced the arguments I would make.

My pre-testimony testimony left me with a better understanding of the issue. But I still want an attorney sitting next to me at the witness table.