Right to Bear Arms

My husband has this t-shirt and we think it's so great. I thought you all might appreciate it. So clever and... ok, maybe a little dorky too.

When Will You Be Home?

It was a Saturday afternoon and Daddy had been working at the firm for several hours. The kids and I decided to head to the park around 4:30 and one of them called Daddy to see if he might be able to meet us there. He told them that he still had an hour left at work and wouldn't be able to go. Bummer. But we went to the park anyway and the kids had a fun time playing together for about 45 minutes.

It was then that one of my children told me they had to go potty. I started to scan for one and didn't see anything. By then it was too late and the deed had been done. So that signaled the end of playtime, and since it was already dark we piled in the mini van and headed for home. As we pulled into the driveway it was almost 6:00 and no sign of Daddy's car. The kids started in with, "Hey, Daddy said he would be home by now! Mom, why isn't Daddy home? He said he would be done in an hour!...(etc. etc.) " I hate having to be the one to answer these questions and give excuses for him, but I answered with my old standards: "something must have come up that he wasn't expecting... he'll be home soon... things usually take longer than Daddy thinks..."

I got the offending potty child in the shower and cleaned up and by then it was 6:15. I usually try to be supportive and understanding about the demands of the job, but after this experience I called up Daddy at work and said in an extremely annoyed voice, "You told the kids you would be home at 5:30. What happened?" He of course replied in a patient tone that he was doing his best to get home and just had to finish up one more thing. He then offered to pick up dinner on the way home because he is a good husband. I said with all the gruff sincerity I could muster, "That would be great." And then set to getting the rest of the children showered and tubbed before he arrived home with our bedtime dinner.

At 7:15 Daddy walked in the door with bags of tacos as the hero of the day. The kids jumped up and yelled "Daddy!" as they ran to hug him. We ate our dinner together and it turned out to be a pleasant evening after all. However, I did warn him that the next time one of the kids calls and asks what time he'll be home from work, please guess high and then add 30-60 minutes onto that guess.

Lawyer Coloring Book

So your kid wants to be a lawyer when they grow up? This coloring book may be just what you need to encourage their dream... Or maybe discourage their dream. I love this!

Everyone's A Winner

Nixon Peabody was named one of the best places to work by Fortune Magazine, so they had a song written about how wonderful they are. When it was made public, instead of laughing at themselves for this silly anthem, they started making a fuss about copyright law and "lawyered up." I thought the song was so funny. Some people have no sense of humor!

Living With Daddy, Esq.

Our nine year old son decided that he would like to start a "business." He read an article in a magazine about a boy that maintained vending machines and it seemed like the perfect fit. He has always had that entrepreneurial spirit, and this would combine his two great loves: selling and candy. Unfortunately a professional looking vending machine costs more money than a nine year old boy has sitting in his Bat Man money safe, so he asked how he could get the money to buy one. I wanted to instill in him a sense of ownership and responsibility for his new business venture, so I suggested he take out a loan... from me. I wanted to also teach him about paying back credit and money management. So it seemed like a binding contract would let him experience how the financial world works.

Lucky for me my attorney husband can whip out a contract in his sleep, so I outlined the conditions I wanted in it and he set to work (pro bono!). He wrote it up with all of his Daddy and lawyerly flair, suppressing all of those instincts to fill it with law vocabulary and provisions. Then we reviewed it carefully together and answered all of H’s questions about it. H and I approved the agreement, signed it, and the contract was complete.

He bought the candy machine, filled it with M&Ms, and got permission to place it in the snack room at the firm. I'm sure there will be plenty of late nights where somebody will be dying for a handful of M& Ms, so I'm anticipating his business will be a raging success!

Balancing Raises and Layoffs

As you may know there have been many raises this year given out in response to the big law firms that are trying to establish themselves as superior. Of course nobody wanted to be left behind, so it lead to a domino effect of raises throughout the industry. But will those who have been seen as "big" be able to keep up?

Cadwalader has just laid off 35 of its associates. They have five offices in New York, London, Washington, Beijing, and Charlotte. They are by no means small potatoes. So what do you think? Are there more layoffs to follow?

Letter of Resignation

What many Big Law attorneys want to say, but never would-- unless they're leaving law:

How 'Bout Those Billables?

The billing year ended for us on December 31st. There were several months this year that were slow, and R worried that his average billable hours were a bit below his goals. This year we learned that it all catches up to you, so in 2008 the slow months will be enjoyed more. He reached his minimum hours and went way beyond them. December proved to be the busiest month of the year, with R billing 250 hours! That's 62.5 hours per week of billable time, and then there is the unbillable office time... Unbelievable considering this is the month that is traditionally a big vacation time. Not for us this year. R had Christmas Day off and New Years Day off and those were so much fun. We all love having Daddy around whenever we can, but especially on the holidays!

Billable hours have always been so illogical to me. It seems that they aren't in the attorney's favor, the firms, or the clients. There is no incentive for the attorney to work quickly or improve their efficiency because there is a minimum hour requirement by the firm that must be reached in order to keep your job and get any kind of bonus. So an attorney that stays late for four hours and works their tail off to finish a job gets paid the same as another one that lazily works through something and gets home in time for dinner. I know it's not as simple as that because lack of a work ethic is something that can lose you your job pretty quickly. But I have frustrations with the system...

I found this interesting article from the ABA Journal, The Billable Hour Must Die on the subject and agree with Scott Turow's synopsis in the final paragraph: "If I had only one wish for our profession from the proverbial genie, I would want us to move toward something better than dollars times hours. We have created a zero-sum game in which we are selling our lives, not just our time. We are fostering an environment that doesn’t provide the right incentives for young lawyers to live out the ideals of the profession. And we are feeding misperceptions of our intentions as lawyers that disrupt our relationships with our clients. Somehow, peo­ple as smart and dedicated as we are can do better."