I've heard that Twin Falls is in one of the most conservative counties in the United States. That's one reason I would like to try a case here. To see. To understand. To connect.
The courthouse is right off the main road in town. I start to walk in the door but Joe my co-counsel tells me we are going that away (off to the left). To the annex. The courthouse is now used as offices (like for the prosecutor).
Read MoreI'm a big whiner about each precious summer day that I am yanked out of Seattle. It's a Sunday, spectacular, the middle of the afternoon and I'm at the airport headed to Twin Falls. Except there's no direct flight so I'm headed to Salt Lake City. The layover is too long. I'm still hungry from my late lunch that is an early dinner. Find some bad mushy frozen yogurt and look for a seat in the holding pit they herd us into for our "regional" (i.e. tiny plane) flights. I find an empty spot next to an innocuous (hopefully quiet) couple and pick up the old Danielle Steel novel I'm reading because that's the way I roll sometimes.
Read MoreMy kids will tell you that they love that I am so passionate about what I do for a living, and they hope one day they can find a career that they care about as much as I do. But they also say they don't want to be lawyers because I work too much. It doesn't help when I remind them that I didn't start working full time until Noelle the youngest started Kindergarten. Their memories of me when they were little children don't appear to count. Today they are dispersed - at camp, at a summer camp out, and at the pizzeria.
Read MoreActually, my best friend in the whole wide world is an insurance defense lawyer and I love her to pieces. So it isn't because I am simply biased and only like other plaintiff lawyers. I have had the nice experience of developing friendships with a good number of defense lawyers. You don't have to hate the other lawyer to do a good job for your client. On the other hand, you don't have to like the other lawyer either.
Read MoreI have to run in the morning which I don't like to do. But there's no other time I can do it so out the door I go, to the right. I'm in Pearland, TX. And it is 80 degrees at 8:30 am. I get about one block before the sweat starts. There is no wind. Just hot thick air that is moving only because I'm running through it. I'm in a planned unit development which means that I can run back and forth up and down and never really get lost because eventually I'll hit a fence that will take me back where I need to go. The street names are like: rosesprings, willowsprings, happysprings. Wishful thinking.
Read MoreThe convention comes to a climax this morning. It is election time. Contested election time. You can feel the sense of expectation. There is a bit of pomp and circumstance. As casual as I can be, I also like to go through rituals. They remind you that there have been those before and there will be those after. The ballots are cast and counted. And for the first time in the history of the organization, a woman has won a contested election. The underhorse has pulled an upset.
Read MoreI'm late. I toss on some white jeans, go down the elevator and run across the street to the other hotel. The first reception is for Mary Alice's campaign. It looks like a party planner did it. There are big vases filled with blue, white and green M&Ms in honor of her official colors. You'll be proud to know that I resist the urge to grab a handful. Ah, the temptations. It is bright, airy, filled with food and laughing people. A friend and I decide to go check out the competition's campaign party. It is across the street.
Read MoreA couple days ago if you asked me how I felt about AAJ, it wouldn't have been pretty. I was boiling hot angry ticked off mad. Nothing that a two hour run (have you ever noticed that being upset makes for good exercise) wouldn't cure though. The SLGCC (don't ask me what it stands for) is a group that you need to pass by in order to start a litigation group. I felt there should be a spinal cord injury litigation group. They weren't so sure. In fact they were pretty sure not. They tabled the application. I am a poor loser (another personality flaw I do admit). Hence my fury.
Read MorePat LePley my former partner and forever friend is horse crazy. He grew up loving horses and would tell me stories of riding and mucking up after them when he was young. Back when we practiced together, not only did he own and race them, he was appointed by the Governor as the Racing Commissioner along with all the aggravations that brought.
Read MoreThere is a point of critical mass I reach around 2:00 today. I don't want to go to another meeting. I've promised I'll attend one more at 4:00. It is not the best of meetings (i.e. boring and nonsubstantive), and I scoot out early intent on tuning out as quickly as possible. I like getting to know people and doing the cerebral dancing that is required at AAJ convention. But I need to change things up. So off I go, taking a right out of the hotel entrance like I've done everyday, headphones in, tennis shoes on.
Read MoreMy sister has given me a deliciously beautiful pair of shoes that are too big for her. They are gray and sparkly - totally not "business attire" - and therefore entirely appropriate for me to wear today. Problem is, the left shoe is too big for me too! So I'm walking around the vast convention center, heel flapping, trying to look totally cool. The biggest initial problem this causes is that I can't hustle from room to room fast enough to watch the overlapping programs that I'm interested in. I make up for it by saying hi to everyone I pass which hopefully keeps them looking at my smile and not my flapping footwear.
Read MoreWell, I'm supposed to speak tomorrow morning on an insurance bad faith issue. My buddy Pat actually wrote my paper for me because I was in trial at the time it was due. On the sidewalk last night we talk about what I'm going to say. Heck I have not a clue. Pat's the program moderator which means he's not officially speaking.
Read MoreToday I go to the traumatic brain injury seminar. We're putting on a mock trial. I get there at the begining (a rare occurrence) but even more amazing, I don't leave until 5:30 pm. Unprecedented attendance for me. Initially I stay because my role is to do the closing argument so I need to know what the facts and arguments are. I have little expectation but Gary Pillersdorf does the plaintiff opening and you already know how much I love him. He is very transparent, perhaps a tad too flippant and New Yawkawrish for these west coast jurors. I do catch them smiling at him, because he is so darling.
Read MoreWe go to the opening reception of AAJ at the aquarium and there's only one thing I need to see - the Leviathan. I remember the first time I saw this tropical fish, I was just fascinated (and a little scared). Since then every time I go to Vancouver, I want to go for a visit. It is a giant tropical fish that looks prehistoric. There's a mad crush of people squeezed into the space and I have to search for my fish.
Read MoreI'm rushing past a sign, when I double back. Michael Freeman is going to be speaking. I pull out my phone and dial him. Woo hoo we are able to get together for lunch right away.
I take him to the smorgasborg in Leader's Forum. Hey - if my firm is going to pay the extra funds needed to support AAJ - well, I'm going to eat for free whenever possible. Plus the food here is really fresh and good.
Read MoreGary Pillersdorf is speaking and his body is jerking around crazily up on the podium. At least I think it is, because I can see one arm up in the air gesticulating and his head is bopping around.
Gary is an attorney from New York. He has gray hair carefully parted from the left side and has probably had the same hair cut for his entire adult life - which is pretty darned long. His glasses cover crinkly, kind, lively eyes.
Read MoreI'm late for the Women's Leadership event ... because I didn't feel like getting up any earlier. I go because I want to show support, the topics aren't really of too much interest for me since I am now such an old attorney (oh I am just such an impatient person - a true vice). I really arrive at the perfect time - because it is lunch! I find the room, sit in the nearest seat, look to my right and how perfect. I've seated myself next to Janice Kim.
Read MoreThe sandy beach frames the ocean as I run along the boardwalk. Past volleyball matches, people walking their pets and each other, rollerbladers, skateboarders, slow going bicyclists. There are no motor noises. No cars with the exception of an occasional police vehicle. Just the sound of voices, the waves, and my headphones. The houses are built as big as they can be - most are like big boxes within arms reach of one another.
Read MoreDriving from San Diego back to L.A., we decide to stop over in Riverside because it is sunny. Youngest daughter pulls out the blackberry and looks up hotels, finds one called The Mission Inn. We get off the freeway having passed through nondescript dried looking terrain and drive up to a hotel that looks like it has been in existence before there was asphalt (and turns out it was). Parts of it date back into the 1800s. It is gorgeous, quaint and grand.
Read MoreI read this book by Toni Morrison on the plane ride back and forth to Lewiston ID. Set in the late 1600s it is told about and through the voices, thoughts and dreams of a farmer/trader, his wife, a young slave girl Florens, two other women slaves, and a free blacksmith. Sometimes you lose track of who is narrating. It is poetical, emotional and elemental. Interestingly the two main male characters are perhaps in someways the most decent. The story builds to a conclusion that encapsulates the core essence of the main characters and and the circle that they have found themselves within. It deserves an A-.
