NUSL Blog: Leon

Time flies...

Maybe it is because the month of June had exactly two sunny days in it. Perhaps it is because my weeks are measured by the number of curve balls from GM and Chrysler bankruptcy reorganizations. Could be that "road improvement" project that has created a gigantic pile of concrete refuse outside my window, which is, incidentally, violently shaken, stirred, and otherwise disturbed by a whole brigade of unionized men with no necks creating an ever-increasing, and completely ungodly, early start to each day. One thing is for sure -- a month of summer has gone by, and I am not exactly sure where it went.

There are some things I learned along the way, however. For example, there is a post office at South Station that does not close -- at least it does not close until after 8:47pm, and I have no desire to find out if it ever does. Also, crown molding was designed by an evil man whose grasp of geometry, physics and simple arithmetic is beyond that of mere mortals. Arriving at work before 8:01am gets me the primo parking space I want most weeks, but not always. The lunch line is worst right around 12:15pm, with noon being a close second -- probably because of all the people who are trying to not be in line at noon. Free cookies will be consumed in ten minutes, even if they are not very good. When a man introduces himself as "Binky," one should not look for a meaningful conversation to ensue. The number of telemarketers who call one's office phone is not in any way related to the amount of time spent at the company. And no, I do not want a time share in Mexico, or a tropical cruise of the Caribbean, but thanks for asking.

I also learned that southern New England has a "wine region" and that they produce some surprisingly decent wines, for the most part. Why anyone would try to go grow a Pinot Noir in this climate is beyond me (it smelled of pickles and tasted worse), but the Sauvignons and the Vidals were rather palatable. I do suggest also staying away from the "Port," however, unless the taste of filtered sewage appeals.

Now, let's all go out there and do the reverse of the rain dance, please.

Happy Fourth, Everybody!

Posted by Leon at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Second summer starts...

To paraphrase Alanis Morrissette, it is all a bit ironic. When I was a software engineer, I never had any desire to talk about what I did for a living. Now, three weeks into the third coop of my legal career, while I would love to go into what it is that I "do for a living" -- I can't.

While at the US Attorney's office, and even while working for the Judge, there always seemed to be a way to discuss the cases, pending or otherwise, by changing enough details to make them unrecognizable, but leaving enough of "the meat" of the legal issue to make the discussion interesting. Oftentimes, my commute home would be spent coming up with ways to obfuscate the parties and alter the issues just enough to be able to discuss the problem. The same cannot be said about my current gig. Without making myself to be more important than I am -- a competitor armed only with the knowledge of who I work for and what the legal question I am trying to answer is would have a pretty good idea of what the company is trying to accomplish.

One thing I can talk about, however, is the experience. From the first day, the interns (yes, there are two of us, and yes, we are both from NUSL -- a first, for me, on both counts) have been intertwined into the legal department. We went through training, and have been getting a steady stream of work from all corners of the legal department.

The training has been invaluable. There are many things that law school attempts to teach you, but one thing it certainly does not get to is the confluence of business with law. Legal decisions inside corporations are never driven by precedent alone. Valid business reasons exist that make the most solid legal position untenable -- such as a company suing some of its biggest clients (regardless of who is right -- the customers won't be customers for long). The job of the in-house lawyer, is then to anticipate the legal challenges, and to evaluate them in light of the business reasons, producing a risk/benefit assessment. In other words -- in-house lawyers live in the real world, which is a place I long to get back to, armed with legal knowledge acquired in school.

Posted by Leon at 9:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Leon, 3L

Time flies...

Second summer starts...