WSAJ Convention day 3 continued
WSAJ Convention day 3 continued

It is high noon and I squeeze in a run before hanging out with Cristina at the pool.   With AAJ convention having occurred last month, here is what I notice.  When my kids don't come with me, I socialize much more in between all the events.  When they attend, I am conscious about needing to spend as much time as possible with them.   I never achieve a perfect balance with work and family.   I'm constantly saying to my kids - what do you want to do today.  This is code for - how am I going to fit in everything that needs to be fit in today.

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Karen Koehlerlawyer convention, lawyers have fun
WSAJ Convention day 3 good morning

I sleep in, look at my phone and there's an emergency message from Tasha (WSAJ staff).  Today's speaker, Lisa Blue, is leaving at 10:30 instead of 1:00.  Get up, eat oatmeal, have Cristina drop me off at The Homestead.  Clare (WSAJ CLE) fills me in.  Bob Dawson and Greg Price are pulling together a speaker lineup of WA and OR lawyers who will do 10 minute smorgasbord style presentations.  So the emergency is handled.

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Karen Koehlergreat people, women, lawyer convention
WSAJ Convention day 2
WSAJ Convention day 2

I have so many credits stored up I don't ever Need to attend a CLE.  Where did this bad attitude of mine come from.  I've never really liked lectures.  I can remember correcting the grammar of my high school English teacher one too many times and being sent out for alternative "advanced" tutoring for the rest of the school year. 

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Karen Koehlerlawyer convention, legal profession
Twin Falls
Twin Falls

In my mind I've pictured Twin Falls as a quaint small town with cute storefronts and obviously a waterfall or two somewhere. In reality, we drive for a few miles through cattle/farm country from the airport to the city center which consists of government buildings and storefronts which look relatively abandoned.

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Karen Koehlerrunning
About Preconceptions
About Preconceptions

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).

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Karen Koehlerjudge, traveling lawyer
Airport Doldrums
Airport Doldrums

I'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.

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Karen Koehlertraveling lawyer
What happens when you work too much?
What happens when you work too much?

My 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.

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Karen Koehlerlawyer office, lawyer life, family, legal profession
Why I like some defense lawyers and don't like others

Actually, 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.

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Karen Koehlerobnoxious defense, legal profession
Pearland

I 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.

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Karen Koehlerrunning, traveling lawyer
AAJ Convention Morning 5 Neck and neck
AAJ Convention Morning 5 Neck and neck

The 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.

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Karen Koehleraaj, women, lawyer convention
AAJ Convention Night 4 Up the Down Elevator

I'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.

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Karen Koehleraaj, lawyers have fun, lawyer convention
AAJ Convention Day 4 The non-group and my bad temper

A 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.

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Karen Koehlerspinal cord injury, aaj, lawyer convention
AAJ Convention Afternoon 3 Breathing space

There 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.

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Karen Koehlerlawyer seminar, aaj, traveling lawyer, running
AAJ Convention Day 3 Four inch heels

My 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.

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Karen Koehlerlawyer style, aaj, lawyer convention, traveling lawyer
AAJ Convention Day 2 just when I've given up hope, something neat happens

Today 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.

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Karen Koehlertraveling lawyer, lawyer convention, aaj
AAJ Convention Night 1 The Leviathan

We 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.

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Karen Koehleraaj, traveling lawyer, lawyer convention