The Lawyer Thread Where We Stop Ruining Other Threads

[Don Quixote 4,776]

40 minutes ago, bigbottom said:

PALO ALTO >>> NEW HAVEN

I have a pretty low opinion of New Haven, and would have agreed wholeheartedly with that six months ago, but a lot of folks I know that live in the SF area are looking to permanently move out of there as getting tired of the fires.

[johnnycakes 1,189]

2 hours ago, bigbottom said:

PALO ALTO >>> NEW HAVEN

NEW HAVEN PIZZA >>> PALO ALTO PIZZA

[Instinctive 509]

19 hours ago, johnnycakes said:

NEW HAVEN PIZZA >>> PALO ALTO PIZZA

I mean, having now spent time in all these places...UChicago or Northwestern are clearly the best choices if pizza is the only consideration

[-fish- 13,791]

Second mediation in a case today.   It's being conducted over a combination of zoom, phone and text.   Nobody is in the same place.   It takes about 15 minutes every time there is an offer just to gather all of the necessary people to discuss a response.   It's very inefficient, but I think the defense counsel with the checkbook is getting so frustrated that she's throwing out offers that are larger than she otherwise would just to get this thing over with.

 

Ugh.  She doesn't understand brackets, but we got an extra move.   

Edited September 28, 2020 by -fish-

[-fish- 13,791]

Still going.   So dumb.  

 

[bigbottom 11,123]

3 hours ago, -fish- said:

Second mediation in a case today.   It's being conducted over a combination of zoom, phone and text.   Nobody is in the same place.   It takes about 15 minutes every time there is an offer just to gather all of the necessary people to discuss a response.   It's very inefficient, but I think the defense counsel with the checkbook is getting so frustrated that she's throwing out offers that are larger than she otherwise would just to get this thing over with.

 

Ugh.  She doesn't understand brackets, but we got an extra move.   

I’d be interested in seeing some data on remote mediations. I can’t imagine them being as successful as in person mediations, simply because you’re missing the exhaustion factor for the parties when you have to sit in a conference room all day and into the evening.

[the rover 5,484]

When my partner and I left our previous firm in 2015 to start our own practice, I had no startup capital to contribute so he took the financial risks and in exchange we agreed on a 60/40 split of the ownership of the firm in his favor, plus eat what you kill on hourly work.  In my view it's been very fair, and our firm has done quite well.  Today he gave me another 5% of the firm.  No discussion.  Just did it prior to the distribution of the settlement funds from the case I discussed above with the remote mediation, so I'll start seeing the benefits when we distribute funds next week.      

[Zow 8,598]

On 9/28/2020 at 7:08 PM, bigbottom said:

I’d be interested in seeing some data on remote mediations. I can’t imagine them being as successful as in person mediations, simply because you’re missing the exhaustion factor for the parties when you have to sit in a conference room all day and into the evening.

I’ve done probably a dozen now. Probably not a big enough sample size, but I haven’t noticed a significant reduction in rates of reaching settlement. Still don’t find them as impactful as in-person though and I think the zoom aspect really takes away from some of the impact an aggressive mediator may provide. 

[bigbottom 11,123]

Well, have been doing a ton of work supporting the sports team. Probably about 65% of my work these days. We’re now in fourth place which puts us in line for UCL which is really exciting. Never thought in a million years that I’d be doing legal work for a professional sports team. It’s been a blast, but completely exhausting working what amounts to two jobs. Thankfully, my role should diminish in 2021 as we are bringing on a GC for the team. 

[Zow 8,598]

9 hours ago, bigbottom said:

Well, have been doing a ton of work supporting the sports team. Probably about 65% of my work these days. We’re now in fourth place which puts us in line for UCL which is really exciting. Never thought in a million years that I’d be doing legal work for a professional sports team. It’s been a blast, but completely exhausting working what amounts to two jobs. Thankfully, my role should diminish in 2021 as we are bringing on a GC for the team. 

So awesome. You’re doing what I wanted to do when I decided to go to law school. Then as I explored it as a 1L I quickly learned my odds of doing that were about the same as making it as a player. 🤣

[Angry Beavers 1,959]

Zoom calls for court - so freaking efficient and no one wants to fight over small cases even less than usual. 

[Zow 8,598]

2 hours ago, Angry Beavers said:

Zoom calls for court - so freaking efficient and no one wants to fight over small cases even less than usual. 

This is true. Have really enjoyed the switch to telephonic/zoom appearances for non-substantive hearings.

[CletiusMaximus 9,078]

4 hours ago, Angry Beavers said:

Zoom calls for court - so freaking efficient and no one wants to fight over small cases even less than usual. 

My office is a 10 minute drive to the courthouse.  That burns an hour of my day or more just to show up for a status or scheduling conference.  By zoom it takes 5-10 minutes and I don't need pants or shoes.

 

[The_Man 4,558]

Quick Law School update: my son got his first acceptance today, from Duke. Duke invites high stats applicants to apply Priority Track and get a decision within 10 days. It's not high on his list but still a relief to get in. He pressed to get all his apps in by the end of October, which was good, but now he's getting antsy from waiting and yet probably isn't going to hear much more for a month or 2. Sometimes NYU or UVA notifies earlier but everyone else pretty much isn't until January.

Overall, law school applications are up by about one-third, year over year, from 2019-20 (Apps historically go up when the job market is bad). Interestingly, there's been a really big jump in the top end of LSAT scores - for whatever reason, it looks like the online LSAT Flex is resulting in higher scores. Scores of 175+ are up 115% from this time last year; there have already been more 180s this year than during the entire cycle last year (70 and 52, respectively).

Watching the stuff with JonesDay and other firms on the Trump election stuff has further cemented his aversion to BigLaw. He just can't see putting himself in a situation where he might be professionally obligated to do work that he's morally opposed to. So, looking more and more like public interest and/or policy, which further points in the direction of avoiding significant debt if at all possible. He really really wants the Rubenstein Scholarship from UChicago (full ride + stipend) but that's a crap shoot. He ended up applying to:

Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Penn, UVA, Duke
Will still apply to Northwestern if the first wave of results doesn't turn out the way he hopes

[bigbottom 11,123]

35 minutes ago, The_Man said:

Quick Law School update: my son got his first acceptance today, from Duke. Duke invites high stats applicants to apply Priority Track and get a decision within 10 days. It's not high on his list but still a relief to get in. He pressed to get all his apps in by the end of October, which was good, but now he's getting antsy from waiting and yet probably isn't going to hear much more for a month or 2. Sometimes NYU or UVA notifies earlier but everyone else pretty much isn't until January.

Overall, law school applications are up by about one-third, year over year, from 2019-20 (Apps historically go up when the job market is bad). Interestingly, there's been a really big jump in the top end of LSAT scores - for whatever reason, it looks like the online LSAT Flex is resulting in higher scores. Scores of 175+ are up 115% from this time last year; there have already been more 180s this year than during the entire cycle last year (70 and 52, respectively).

Watching the stuff with JonesDay and other firms on the Trump election stuff has further cemented his aversion to BigLaw. He just can't see putting himself in a situation where he might be professionally obligated to do work that he's morally opposed to. So, looking more and more like public interest and/or policy, which further points in the direction of avoiding significant debt if at all possible. He really really wants the Rubenstein Scholarship from UChicago (full ride + stipend) but that's a crap shoot. He ended up applying to:

Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Penn, UVA, Duke
Will still apply to Northwestern if the first wave of results doesn't turn out the way he hopes

Very interesting. Please keep us updated as things develop. Wishing your son all the best!

Edited November 13, 2020 by bigbottom

[Instinctive 509]

1 hour ago, The_Man said:

Quick Law School update: my son got his first acceptance today, from Duke. Duke invites high stats applicants to apply Priority Track and get a decision within 10 days. It's not high on his list but still a relief to get in. He pressed to get all his apps in by the end of October, which was good, but now he's getting antsy from waiting and yet probably isn't going to hear much more for a month or 2. Sometimes NYU or UVA notifies earlier but everyone else pretty much isn't until January.

Overall, law school applications are up by about one-third, year over year, from 2019-20 (Apps historically go up when the job market is bad). Interestingly, there's been a really big jump in the top end of LSAT scores - for whatever reason, it looks like the online LSAT Flex is resulting in higher scores. Scores of 175+ are up 115% from this time last year; there have already been more 180s this year than during the entire cycle last year (70 and 52, respectively).

Watching the stuff with JonesDay and other firms on the Trump election stuff has further cemented his aversion to BigLaw. He just can't see putting himself in a situation where he might be professionally obligated to do work that he's morally opposed to. So, looking more and more like public interest and/or policy, which further points in the direction of avoiding significant debt if at all possible. He really really wants the Rubenstein Scholarship from UChicago (full ride + stipend) but that's a crap shoot. He ended up applying to:

Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Penn, UVA, Duke
Will still apply to Northwestern if the first wave of results doesn't turn out the way he hopes

Congrats! (Does Duke still do the Mordecai scholarship? He should ask if he hasn't - it was a full ride 7 years ago). 

Nothing is guaranteed, and I wouldn't say it to him, but I think he should kind of expect the Rubenstein almost based on profile. His profile is at least as strong (stronger I think) than mine and I got it.

I would recommend some patience with Yale. I don't think I heard until the beginning of April and I had all my applications in within a week of them opening. Harvard released their first big wave like one week before Christmas (I remember because I was skiing, at the top of the lift, when a Cambridge area code called).

 

Good luck!!

[whoknew 8,870]

2 hours ago, The_Man said:

Quick Law School update: my son got his first acceptance today, from Duke. Duke invites high stats applicants to apply Priority Track and get a decision within 10 days. It's not high on his list but still a relief to get in. He pressed to get all his apps in by the end of October, which was good, but now he's getting antsy from waiting and yet probably isn't going to hear much more for a month or 2. Sometimes NYU or UVA notifies earlier but everyone else pretty much isn't until January.

Overall, law school applications are up by about one-third, year over year, from 2019-20 (Apps historically go up when the job market is bad). Interestingly, there's been a really big jump in the top end of LSAT scores - for whatever reason, it looks like the online LSAT Flex is resulting in higher scores. Scores of 175+ are up 115% from this time last year; there have already been more 180s this year than during the entire cycle last year (70 and 52, respectively).

Watching the stuff with JonesDay and other firms on the Trump election stuff has further cemented his aversion to BigLaw. He just can't see putting himself in a situation where he might be professionally obligated to do work that he's morally opposed to. So, looking more and more like public interest and/or policy, which further points in the direction of avoiding significant debt if at all possible. He really really wants the Rubenstein Scholarship from UChicago (full ride + stipend) but that's a crap shoot. He ended up applying to:

Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Penn, UVA, Duke
Will still apply to Northwestern if the first wave of results doesn't turn out the way he hopes

That’s awesome. Congratulations. Sounds like your son has an extremely bright future. Look forward to updates. 
 

No Michigan? He should apply to Michigan. Michigan rules. 

[CletiusMaximus 9,078]

Five days ago, a judge in E. DIst Texas halted a jury trial due to several positive COVID tests among jurors and others. The count is now up to 13 positives among jurors, plaintiff and defendant teams and court staff. Now it’s a mistrial. 

Twitter thread

If you represent defendants in civil lawsuits, doesn’t this severely depress your settlement offers?  If you represent plaintiffs, is this a significant factor in setting your demand? I guess the answers are obvious, but I’m still interested to hear what others are experiencing. 
 

[bigbottom 11,123]

Posting in both the guitar guys and lawyer threads. If you don’t have anything better to do . . .

Please mark your calendars for Thursday, December 10. I will be joining several friends of mine in the legal profession to perform in “LAWROCKS-APALOOZA” an online virtual concert event featuring “LawRocks” bands from all over the world. Our band of lawyers is PRO HAC VICE and we will be playing to raise money for Chance for Hope Foundation!

Tickets are on sale now at the link below. 50% of ticket sales and charitable donations designating our band will benefit Chance for Hope. We hope you will buy a ticket and join us for this fun evening! When buying your ticket, please be sure to select “Pro Hac Vice for Chance for Hope Foundation” from the drop down menu to ensure that proceeds are directed to Chance for Hope. Thanks in advance and ROCK ON!

Ticket Link: https://lawrocks.org/lza

Note that this is not my regular gigging band. This is a band of local lawyers from Houston that got together to perform at the 2019 Houston LawRocks battle of the bands. For this online concert (not a competition), select lawyer bands from various cities around the world were invited by the organization to perform (so they should mostly be decent). The LawRocks band from Phoenix will actually have Alice Cooper playing with them, which is super cool. Each band only plays one song so it should only be a couple hour event. Anyway, check it out if you’re interested. 

Edit:  Easily the coolest thing about our band’s performance is our shoot location.

Edited November 24, 2020 by bigbottom

[Zow 8,598]

2 hours ago, bigbottom said:

Posting in both the guitar guys and lawyer threads. If you don’t have anything better to do . . .

Please mark your calendars for Thursday, December 10. I will be joining several friends of mine in the legal profession to perform in “LAWROCKS-APALOOZA” an online virtual concert event featuring “LawRocks” bands from all over the world. Our band of lawyers is PRO HAC VICE and we will be playing to raise money for Chance for Hope Foundation!

Tickets are on sale now at the link below. 50% of ticket sales and charitable donations designating our band will benefit Chance for Hope. We hope you will buy a ticket and join us for this fun evening! When buying your ticket, please be sure to select “Pro Hac Vice for Chance for Hope Foundation” from the drop down menu to ensure that proceeds are directed to Chance for Hope. Thanks in advance and ROCK ON!

Ticket Link: https://lawrocks.org/lza

Note that this is not my regular gigging band. This is a band of local lawyers from Houston that got together to perform at the 2019 Houston LawRocks battle of the bands. For this online concert (not a competition), select lawyer bands from various cities around the world were invited by the organization to perform (so they should mostly be decent). The LawRocks band from Phoenix will actually have Alice Cooper playing with them, which is super cool. Each band only plays one song so it should only be a couple hour event. Anyway, check it out if you’re interested. 

Edit:  Easily the coolest thing about our band’s performance is our shoot location.

You all right if I pass this around my firm? I can see a number of the lawyers in the office enjoying it and donating. 

“Hey, Woz how do you know this guy from Texas?”

”Um, well, he wrote a song about me for a fantasy football message board...”

”Huh?” 

 

[bigbottom 11,123]

6 hours ago, Zow said:

You all right if I pass this around my firm? I can see a number of the lawyers in the office enjoying it and donating. 

“Hey, Woz how do you know this guy from Texas?”

”Um, well, he wrote a song about me for a fantasy football message board...”

”Huh?” 

 

Absolutely!  Share away, and thanks. Also, with Alice Cooper performing, the Arizona band will be getting the headline slot for sure. Their band features lawyers from General Dynamics Mission Systems, Fennemore Craig, and Potomac Law Group.

[Zow 8,598]

2 hours ago, bigbottom said:

Absolutely!  Share away, and thanks. Also, with Alice Cooper performing, the Arizona band will be getting the headline slot for sure. Their band features lawyers from General Dynamics Mission Systems, Fennemore Craig, and Potomac Law Group.

Shared it with the office. I think we know some of the AZ lawyers performing. 

[bigbottom 11,123]

57 minutes ago, Zow said:

Shared it with the office. I think we know some of the AZ lawyers performing. 

That’s pretty cool! They should be good. 

[ChiefD 19,227]

12 hours ago, bigbottom said:

Posting in both the guitar guys and lawyer threads. If you don’t have anything better to do . . .

Please mark your calendars for Thursday, December 10. I will be joining several friends of mine in the legal profession to perform in “LAWROCKS-APALOOZA” an online virtual concert event featuring “LawRocks” bands from all over the world. Our band of lawyers is PRO HAC VICE and we will be playing to raise money for Chance for Hope Foundation!

Tickets are on sale now at the link below. 50% of ticket sales and charitable donations designating our band will benefit Chance for Hope. We hope you will buy a ticket and join us for this fun evening! When buying your ticket, please be sure to select “Pro Hac Vice for Chance for Hope Foundation” from the drop down menu to ensure that proceeds are directed to Chance for Hope. Thanks in advance and ROCK ON!

Ticket Link: https://lawrocks.org/lza

Note that this is not my regular gigging band. This is a band of local lawyers from Houston that got together to perform at the 2019 Houston LawRocks battle of the bands. For this online concert (not a competition), select lawyer bands from various cities around the world were invited by the organization to perform (so they should mostly be decent). The LawRocks band from Phoenix will actually have Alice Cooper playing with them, which is super cool. Each band only plays one song so it should only be a couple hour event. Anyway, check it out if you’re interested. 

Edit:  Easily the coolest thing about our band’s performance is our shoot location.

How in the world did you get Pauly Shore and what is he going to do?

Weasel around the stage? 

[bigbottom 11,123]

1 minute ago, ChiefD said:

How in the world did you get Pauly Shore and what is he going to do?

Weasel around the stage? 

Alas, it’s just a very short video intro. And we did it through Cameo. We only have five minutes and had to feature intros from a celebrity and our firm sponsor. Pauly seemed like a good fit!

[Zow 8,598]

24 minutes ago, bigbottom said:

That’s pretty cool! They should be good. 

Alice Cooper's restaurant, Cooperstown, is located by the Superior Courthouse downtown. It's a frequent lunch spot for a bunch of attorneys who office in the area (including formerly yours truly like 8-9 years ago). He would occasionally be seen there during lunch. I wonder if that's how they connected. 

[The_Man 4,558]

Quick update on my kid's law school applications for those who find it of interest

He got into Chicago in their first wave of acceptances on Friday. That was exciting because it might be his top choice, based on funds. No word on scholarship $ yet - that could come anytime in the next 2 weeks to 2 months. If he gets the Rubenstein Scholarship, full tuition for all 3 years plus a $20K annual stipend, he's taking it.

Also in at Duke and NYU - again no word yet on $

Interviewed with Harvard last week. Getting an interview is a good sign, as they are required for admittance, and about two-thirds of those they invite to interview seem to get in. Harvard is the one school that's announced when they will send acceptances. He missed the first batch on January 11 (hadn't interviewed yet), next batch is Feb. 16 (third round will be March 22). Has an interview with Columbia next week, which seems to be a prerequisite for getting one of their big, named scholarships. Columbia had its first wave of acceptances last week, which he wasn't in.

Hasn't heard a word from Yale, Penn or UVA. Yale's silence is no surprise (though he's dodged the first 2 waves of rejections that have gone out so presumably he's still being considered). Penn and especially UVA could be planning to waitlist him, assuming he might go somewhere else anyway based on his stats.

It continues to be a very competitive cycle, with applications up about 25-30% over last year and higher LSAT scores. As a result, schools are slower in issuing their decisions as they want to get deeper into the cycle and maybe not give away spots to applicants they would have accepted in previous years, in hopes of holding out for those with higher stats this year.

[FBG26 682]

Just got word from the GC that we're going to start tracking time. Ugh. And one of the big perks of moving in-house is now gone. How does one track "surf footballguys"? Going to be lots of time billed to "admin" I guess.  

[Zow 8,598]

16 hours ago, FBG26 said:

Just got word from the GC that we're going to start tracking time. Ugh. And one of the big perks of moving in-house is now gone. How does one track "surf footballguys"? Going to be lots of time billed to "admin" I guess.  

Welcome to the dark side. 

[The Dude 941]

First time in this thread so hoping it’s legit legal talk.

my apolitical question 

could civil charges be brought up against trump for the actions on Jan 6?
does the answer differ if you are family of a rioter that got hurt vs the family of the police officers?

[bigbottom 11,123]

On 1/25/2021 at 2:51 PM, The_Man said:

Quick update on my kid's law school applications for those who find it of interest

He got into Chicago in their first wave of acceptances on Friday. That was exciting because it might be his top choice, based on funds. No word on scholarship $ yet - that could come anytime in the next 2 weeks to 2 months. If he gets the Rubenstein Scholarship, full tuition for all 3 years plus a $20K annual stipend, he's taking it.

Also in at Duke and NYU - again no word yet on $

Interviewed with Harvard last week. Getting an interview is a good sign, as they are required for admittance, and about two-thirds of those they invite to interview seem to get in. Harvard is the one school that's announced when they will send acceptances. He missed the first batch on January 11 (hadn't interviewed yet), next batch is Feb. 16 (third round will be March 22). Has an interview with Columbia next week, which seems to be a prerequisite for getting one of their big, named scholarships. Columbia had its first wave of acceptances last week, which he wasn't in.

Hasn't heard a word from Yale, Penn or UVA. Yale's silence is no surprise (though he's dodged the first 2 waves of rejections that have gone out so presumably he's still being considered). Penn and especially UVA could be planning to waitlist him, assuming he might go somewhere else anyway based on his stats.

It continues to be a very competitive cycle, with applications up about 25-30% over last year and higher LSAT scores. As a result, schools are slower in issuing their decisions as they want to get deeper into the cycle and maybe not give away spots to applicants they would have accepted in previous years, in hopes of holding out for those with higher stats this year.

Wow, such fantastic opportunities. Congrats to your son!

[bigbottom 11,123]

4 hours ago, The Dude said:

First time in this thread so hoping it’s legit legal talk.

my apolitical question 

could civil charges be brought up against trump for the actions on Jan 6?
does the answer differ if you are family of a rioter that got hurt vs the family of the police officers?

I imagine this would be a tort claim such as negligence. I would think the proximate cause issue could be problematic. As for rioter versus police officers, the rioters would have to overcome contributory negligence arguments as well. But this is not my area of specialty at all. 

Edited February 1 by bigbottom

[FBG26 682]

1 hour ago, bigbottom said:

I imagine this would be a tort claim such as negligence. I would think the proximate cause issue could be problematic. As for rioter versus police officers, the rioters would have to overcome contributory negligence arguments as well. But this is not my area of specialty at all. 

Sounds like a good question for a law school exam. 

[Don Quixote 4,776]

Check your Zoom filters before logging into a hearing... https://twitter.com/lawrencehurley/status/1359207169091108864?s=20

[GroveDiesel 9,214]

28 minutes ago, Don Quixote said:

Check your Zoom filters before logging into a hearing... https://twitter.com/lawrencehurley/status/1359207169091108864?s=20

His client was sentenced to 9 lives in prison.

(This may be the greatest moment in humankind)

[Zow 8,598]

29 minutes ago, Don Quixote said:

Check your Zoom filters before logging into a hearing... https://twitter.com/lawrencehurley/status/1359207169091108864?s=20

Ha that’s actually kinda funny. 
 

Had my first zoom mishap happen last Friday. I had believed I had achieved ninja level skills of operating both the video feed and mute options on zoom. I overestimated my talents terribly as I logged into the afternoon session of the zoom hearing a few minutes early. I was in the comfort of my closed and had believed I was muted so I let a fart go. I look up to see I’m not muted. To my horror, it appeared the opposing party was the only one to hear it (thankfully it wasn’t super loud) but he was grinning a bit. Judge definitely wasn’t on the bench yet. 
 

Wound up getting the last laugh as the witness errantly opened the door on cross to permit me to impeach him with an indictment for raping my client more than ten years ago, but that was a somewhat embarrassing start to cross. 

[Zow 8,598]

5 minutes ago, GroveDiesel said:

His client was sentenced to 9 lives in prison.

(This may be the greatest moment in humankind)

I bet the client thought he was hiring a pit bull only to see some #####cat show up. 

[thecatch 2,234]

50 minutes ago, Don Quixote said:

Check your Zoom filters before logging into a hearing... https://twitter.com/lawrencehurley/status/1359207169091108864?s=20

It’s been a long time since I laughed that hard.  Amazing composure from the guy.  

[Don Quixote 4,776]

5 hours ago, thecatch said:

It’s been a long time since I laughed that hard.  Amazing composure from the guy.  

The guy in the top right appears disinterested until the last few seconds. I don’t think I would have been able to keep it together.

[thecatch 2,234]

1 hour ago, Don Quixote said:

The guy in the top right appears disinterested until the last few seconds. I don’t think I would have been able to keep it together.

It looked like he was playing on his phone or something and only looked up and saw what was happening at the end. But yeah, I would have been losing it. 

Edited February 10 by thecatch

[The_Man 4,558]

Big news for The_Son - just found out he got the Rubenstein Scholarship from Chicago! Full tuition + a $20,000 per year stipend. Last week he was fortunate enough to be offered a full-tuition scholarship from NYU (which is confusingly called the Vanderbilt Scholarship) but with the NYC cost of living, it is still going to be about $90,000 out of pocket to go there. Pretty sure he's going to take the Chicago offer, except that his girlfriend of 5+ years is living in NYC and working for the US Attorney there through Fall of 2022 when she plans to start law school. So he's got to figure out whether he wants to go to NYC to be with her but I'm pretty sure Chicago will be his ultimate choice. The small size and academic approach to legal study are right up his alley.

Still waiting to hear from Yale, Harvard and Columbia. Harvard is the only school that's announced when it's releasing decisions - their second wave is coming on Tuesday and he was selected to be interviewed so that's a good sign. They are giving out LL Bean fleeces with "Harvard Law School" embroidered on them to all admitted students and he really wants one to give to his girlfriend's father (he's an immigrant and the word Harvard is like magic to him) but he's definitely not going there if he gets in. They don't offer merit scholarships and it's just not worth the money to him. Likewise, won't go to Columbia over NYU even if he gets their full-tuition scholarship, because he wants to do public interest rather than Wall Street/Big Law. Pretty sure he'd turn down Yale at this point, too, even if he does get in, because of the $ but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. As always thanks to @Instinctive @Fat Guy In A Little Coat and all you other lawyers for your insight 

[Otis 13,523]

Damn, that’s amazing about your son. Congrats !

[Otis 13,523]

I did a (bench) trial over zoom last week.  My whole team converged on one location with our witnesses, socially distanced. It actually worked mostly flawlessly, except for a couple of those times when we had to stop because someone noticed we’d lost the judge....

I’ve taken and sat in on a couple dozen zoom depositions in recent months too. I’m convinced that in most instances there will be no good reason for me to travel going forward. Saves time and money for everyone. And I’m totally cool with that. Road warrior business class dad who hates his family and loves going out on client benders surely will fight the good fight against this change, but I’m a simple man and happy just to be home with my family. 

[Redwes25 2,012]

17 hours ago, The_Man said:

Big news for The_Son - just found out he got the Rubenstein Scholarship from Chicago! Full tuition + a $20,000 per year stipend. Last week he was fortunate enough to be offered a full-tuition scholarship from NYU (which is confusingly called the Vanderbilt Scholarship) but with the NYC cost of living, it is still going to be about $90,000 out of pocket to go there. Pretty sure he's going to take the Chicago offer, except that his girlfriend of 5+ years is living in NYC and working for the US Attorney there through Fall of 2022 when she plans to start law school. So he's got to figure out whether he wants to go to NYC to be with her but I'm pretty sure Chicago will be his ultimate choice. The small size and academic approach to legal study are right up his alley.

Still waiting to hear from Yale, Harvard and Columbia. Harvard is the only school that's announced when it's releasing decisions - their second wave is coming on Tuesday and he was selected to be interviewed so that's a good sign. They are giving out LL Bean fleeces with "Harvard Law School" embroidered on them to all admitted students and he really wants one to give to his girlfriend's father (he's an immigrant and the word Harvard is like magic to him) but he's definitely not going there if he gets in. They don't offer merit scholarships and it's just not worth the money to him. Likewise, won't go to Columbia over NYU even if he gets their full-tuition scholarship, because he wants to do public interest rather than Wall Street/Big Law. Pretty sure he'd turn down Yale at this point, too, even if he does get in, because of the $ but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. As always thanks to @Instinctive @Fat Guy In A Little Coat and all you other lawyers for your insight 

Congrats!  You should be super proud of him as it is impressive to just get into let alone get a full ride to a plae like Chicago.

[Angry Beavers 1,959]

@The_Man  Congrats - that is great news about your son!  Chicago is awesome city as well ! 

[Angry Beavers 1,959]

On 11/10/2020 at 10:37 AM, Angry Beavers said:

Zoom calls for court - so freaking efficient and no one wants to fight over small cases even less than usual. 

To the point @Otismade about travel... late last week i did 2 pretrials in 2 courts an hour apart.. yes, the courts are an hour apart and I did both Pretrials within 30 minutes of one another both by zoom. In the old day this would have been a royal pain and I would have needed a continuance on one of them, or had to find someone to cover one of them etc. Instead, I just did both zia zoom and never left my house.... I hope that courts keep this up even when things get back to normal - at least in early stages of cases and non contested matters. 

[Redwes25 2,012]

1 hour ago, Otis said:

I did a (bench) trial over zoom last week.  My whole team converged on one location with our witnesses, socially distanced. It actually worked mostly flawlessly, except for a couple of those times when we had to stop because someone noticed we’d lost the judge....

I’ve taken and sat in on a couple dozen zoom depositions in recent months too. I’m convinced that in most instances there will be no good reason for me to travel going forward. Saves time and money for everyone. And I’m totally cool with that. Road warrior business class dad who hates his family and loves going out on client benders surely will fight the good fight against this change, but I’m a simple man and happy just to be home with my family. 

I haven't been in the office since the middle of March.  Honestly, the only reason I see a benefit of being in person is training young lawyers.  Being in big law we need to feed the beast with new fodder and honestly I think our first years have lost something being remote the entire time.  For someone who has been in their practice area for almost 15 years not sure I am losing anything on a work front.  

[Zow 8,598]

1 hour ago, Otis said:

I did a (bench) trial over zoom last week.  My whole team converged on one location with our witnesses, socially distanced. It actually worked mostly flawlessly, except for a couple of those times when we had to stop because someone noticed we’d lost the judge....

I’ve taken and sat in on a couple dozen zoom depositions in recent months too. I’m convinced that in most instances there will be no good reason for me to travel going forward. Saves time and money for everyone. And I’m totally cool with that. Road warrior business class dad who hates his family and loves going out on client benders surely will fight the good fight against this change, but I’m a simple man and happy just to be home with my family. 

Same experience for me. It's gotten to the point that I borderline prefer zoom bench trials to in person because, with my client and associate/paralegal in the room with me we can actually more freely communicate with one another during the hearing than we would be able to in court. I've probably done this now for like 25 bench trials and I would be happy to continue doing it this way indefinitely for non-jury trials. 

Only drawback seems to be impeaching a difficult witness with an exhibit. That can still somewhat be a challenge.  

[Zow 8,598]

46 minutes ago, Angry Beavers said:

To the point @Otismade about travel... late last week i did 2 pretrials in 2 courts an hour apart.. yes, the courts are an hour apart and I did both Pretrials within 30 minutes of one another both by zoom. In the old day this would have been a royal pain and I would have needed a continuance on one of them, or had to find someone to cover one of them etc. Instead, I just did both zia zoom and never left my house.... I hope that courts keep this up even when things get back to normal - at least in early stages of cases and non contested matters. 

Absolutely. I hope gone are the days of physically waiting in court for some non-contested, mostly procedural hearing. Such a time killer even with the advance of technology and being able to do some work on one's ipad or laptop while waiting. 

[Zow 8,598]

What's been everybody's experiences with doing settlement conferences/mediations by Zoom? 

I have probably done about 25 of those as well since Covid-19 hit and I'm still somewhat torn. I had a few multi-million dollar knockdown drag-out divorce cases go to mediation in that time and was somewhat pleasantly surprised that they did settle (although the most ugly one we did all find a way to make it happen in person and were super careful with social distancing/masking/cleaning). Nonetheless, some of the other frankly less complicated/contested cases didn't settle and I don't know if zoom was an impact or not. 

I will say that a significant factor is whether my client and I are able to be in the same room. If they are, I can obviously still have those important discussions with the client when the mediator is with the other party whereas those same discussions on zoom don't seem to be as personal and/or impactful.