5:45 am. Phone beeps. Count backward down to the minute have to get up to get out on time. 5:56 am get up.
Race through morning ritual. Clothes put out the night before. Black crop jeans. Black t-shirt. Deconstructed BCBG black and gray striped jacket. Black doc martens. 2 black bags. Black raincoat. Slick back hair that used to be black and now in places looks like tinsel. Grab 2 luna bars, fat sumo orange and honey crisp apple for later.
Read MorePrologue:
Taught trial advocacy for many years at UW School of Law with dear friend Bill Bailey. Bill is now a full time professor at the school. Since teaching without him would not be the same, decided to turn in adjunct badge. However, today am going to the school to teach voir dire.
Read MoreSaturday morning. Am going through and dumping old files. The box catches my eye: "Business Junk - Old School Records." All neatly organized. Typical.
Find a two page writing sample entitled: "Where will I be in ten years. Karen Kathryn Koehler. English 181 Milbauer, May 9, 1979."
This would have been typed on an IBM Selectric. The three pages of onion skin paper are a bit wrinkled.
Read MoreOn The Good Wife or Drop Dead Diva, the attorneys get the cases in the morning. Try them in the afternoon.
In the real world the case is filed and then has to wait a year and a half for a trial date.
If it survives for that long, there is a fifty-fifty chance the defense will ask the judge for (and get) a continuance. Delay is a friend of the defense: Deny. Defend. Delay.
Read MoreWake up at 6:45. Laze around. Tonight is Hollyball. Wonder what else is on schedule. Open calendar. "9:00 a.m. hold for Court of Appeals Argument." Whaaaaaaaaaaa
Text John 7:27 - is there an argument today.
Texts back 7:29. Yes at 9:30 at first & union.
Read MoreDriving while high is now being used as a sword by the insurance companies of bad drivers who cause crashes.
Let's say you live in a state where pot is legal. You get high on a Sunday evening with a group of friends in your own home. On Thursday, you are driving down a road and someone runs a red light. You had a green light. The bad driver tells the officer that you look high. The officer doesn't see anything unusual but asks you to take a blood test. Carboxy-THC shows up. You are ticketed for driving under the influence. Until a prosecutor looks at the blood work and realizes there's no case. At which point the charges are dropped
Read MoreJan was married to her childhood sweetheart. She made his favorite sandwich. Was getting ready to leave for his jobsite. So they could have a noon picnic in the car. Phone rang. There had been a work accident. Charlie was dead. Jan never got to say goodbye.
Read MoreThe house is beautiful and glowing. Am standing with back to fully enclosed gas fireplace. Getting warm. Talking to Steven who is sitting by the chess board.
Fzzzzzzzzz. Crackle.
He jumps up running toward me. Hits at my head.
Read MoreIn 2007, when I was President of WSTLA, I wrote an article called the Value of Dissent.
The focus at that time was AAJ and my perception of its systemic problems in advancing diversity. I was not liked by AAJ leadership for being aggressively outspoken on the issue.
Read MoreShellie and I walk into the Triple Door on 3rd and Union. Late as usual.
Hi. Hi. Hug. How are you. Hand shake. Hi. Everyone is smiling. Am here to support Ada Ko Wong who is president Elect of VABAW (Vietnamese-American Bar Assn of WA) on its 10th year anniversary.
Read MoreGet up before alarm rings at 6. This means it is really 4. Flop back on bed. Alarm rings at 6:15.
Search around for hotel phone on night table. Don’t find it. Sigh. It is on the other side of the bed. Scramble across. Hit “O”. Ask for front desk. It is front desk. Can I get a late check out. Yes.
Read MoreThe defense is bringing in a memory expert from back east. To say the surviving brother's memory is not real.
This is an asbestos-mesothelioma trial. The exposure happened in the 1970s. The only witnesses who can identify the product are the brother (who was then eight) and the deceased.
Read MoreChildren may be scared to testify in a trial. But being on a witness stand can also be empowering for them. They are having their day in court. They are participating in an integral part of our country's foundational structure. They are helping the process of determining the truth.
Read MoreAm wound up tight. Aggressive tendencies barely restrained. Okay, maybe not restrained at all. In full warrior mode.
The defense lawyers haven't been too bad lately. Wish they were bad. Then could have an outlet for this simmering fury.
Read MoreDrunks in cars kill. But blame is also shared by the bars that choose to over serve intoxicated customers who get in their cars.
This is the story of three young friends who got in the way of two over served drunks in a car.
Read MoreSteve Gursten: I’d like you to consider joining the TAOS group.
K3: What kind of a group is it.
SG: Plaintiff lawyers who have become friends and share advice.
K3: Steve thanks for asking. Honestly, I belong to enough groups.
SG: This is unlike any group you belong to. We are small but geographically diverse. This is a real personal group where we are friends.
She is a stranger who sends me a handwritten letter after having read something about me. I email her back and invite her to lunch. She emails back and accepts. Two months later...
"Hi!" She says with her warm smile, walking into my room. "I love this office. You have great art."
I take her over to chat with Paul Whelan. Tour her through the maze that is our office. Down to the old racket ball court now turned into a courtroom. Out into the cool sunshine. Down and across the street to the Boat Street Café. Where we spend a delightful hour over our tasty baguette sandwiches.
Read MoreBased upon a true story:
Last week, my wife of 35 years was driving to the store and was hit by another car. The police came to my house to take me to the hospital to see her. She's been there ever since. We don't think she will make it.
Each day I drive or am driven to the hospital by our children. I stay there as long as I can. I just had surgery myself. So I need to come home to try to rest in between rushing back to be with her.
Read MoreAm reading the police report on a new case:
T told me he had a dog in the vehicle. I checked and located a brown lab type dog on the rear passenger floorboard. The dog was not breathing and I could not feel a heartbeat. I asked SFD E31 to check the dog too. there did not appear to be any signs of life in the dog.
Read MorePatience is not always a virtue.
I have walked, trounced, and even skipped out of mediations before they've officially ended. In fact, that used to be the norm for me.
About 15 years ago I was in the car, driving back over the bridge when the phone rang.
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