Hold Harmless

My son is going to a birthday party today at a place that has those bounce houses. They sent a waiver, release, hold harmless and indemnification agreement.  It includes such wonderful phrases as "I understand that the risks associated [with participation] . . . include contusions, fractures, scrapes, cuts, bumps, paralysis and death."  There is some great language about paying their attorney's fees should I decide to sue them too.  

"I hereby execute this agreement without coercion."  Right, because my almost-six-year old is going to be sooo understanding when mommy puts on her anxiety boots and refuses to take him to the party.  Coercion? I think I can make the case....


Before law school, I would blindly sign such a waiver and let him participate in the activities. 

Two years out of law school?  I'm closing my eyes and doing the exact same thing.

MILP #160: Bon Jovi Edition

The Weekly MILP (Moms In the Legal Profession) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis between PT-LawMom, Butterflyfish, and Attorney Work Product blogs. We originally rounded up just the moms in law school, but then discovered that those women eventually graduate. Who knew? So now all the moms in the legal field (heh) are represented. We aim for Sunday posts.

This week's theme:  Bon Jovi.  Funnily enough, this was a tougher theme to work with than I had anticipated.  Few mommies write posts that make Wanted Dead or Alive seem remotely appropriate.  Maybe if someone had blogged a standoff with an a--hole opposing counsel...?  Anyway...  

• Born to be My Baby. We got something to believe in / Even if we don't know where we stand    Nonsense and Frippery.
• I'll Be There For You. These five words I swear to you...  Gillian. (aww siblings)
• Someday I'll Be Saturday Night. Hey man, I'm alive, I'm taking each day and night at a time. Cee.
• Have a Nice Day.  When the world gets in my face, I say... Magic Cookie (on negotiation)
• Bad Medicine. I don't need no anesthesia... Happily a Lawmama (on medical & legal careers)
• Lay Your Hands on Me. But the ride never comes free. Legally Certifiable (toll kids can take on mom)
• It's My Life. It's now or never...  Shantelle. (law school approaches)
• You Give Love a Bad Name.  "Shot [in the gut] and you're to blame..." PtLawmom (prayers!)

Other posts of note:

• Lag Liv.  Claire's announcement. Awww 
• Only Three Years.  Baby movement
• Erbgarden.  Adjustments.

And that should do it.


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If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILP blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at our sites. Expecting Moms in law school are welcome! Hat tip as always to the “original” Roundup — Beyond the Underground and the co-rounder-upper, Nobody! 

Bar Exam Study Break!

New: Bar Bri Tribute



Classic: Law School Musical



Con Luv




Good luck to all the bar exam takers! Home stretch!

I suppose she could have said "Well at least we know you've gotten laid once in the last year."

So I told a supervisor-type person at work that I am pregnant.*  I said it happily, the way you'd expect a 30something married mommy-to-be co-worker to report the news.  She said, Huh, thought you had gained weight. (Mental response: Hey, bitch, I've lost 15 pounds!)  I didn't get mad... she's the kind who says mean and/or socially inappropriate things under the guise of 'kidding' all the time and I'm inured to it.

One of my coworkers was absolutely enraged on my behalf, though.  She spent the afternoon trying to think of a more inappropriate response.   So I present, the top five more inappropriate things to say to a female co-worker who has just announced her pregnancy.

#5 "Is it yours?" 

#4 "So you're disabled now..."

#3 "Ewww.Parasitic growth." 

#2 "Can I touch your breasts?" 

#1 "Are you keeping it?"


I invite you all to please top these.




________________________
This was not the big boss.  I told her a while ago and she was nothing but awesome about it.  This is not the same as telling the Lucy job. That conversation is yet to come.  I thought of this as a practice run....

Since you asked...

Here are some questions that have brought people to my blog lately.  Bonus:  I answer them!

do raptors know fear?

Velociraptors? No.  Source:  xkcd.


do you put that you amjured a class on resume?

Hell yeah!  I have a classmate who did a summary, like received the highest grade award in 12/14 classes because her bullet list got too long.  She listed a few examples if she thought it was good for particular firm (including Securities, Bankruptcy, and UCC).  She was wicked smaht.  The rest of us mortals have to make do with listing the 'amjurs' 'calis' 'academic achievement' (or whatever your school calls it) that we earn.  If multiple and you're short on space, you could say you earned 5 CALIs. Let them ask in the interview, I guess.


Does a lawyer look more professional with curly or straight hair?

I have wavy hair. I have a hard time making it look professional. Meh, sometimes I don't try. Sometimes I do. I therefore always see sleek shiny straight bobs as more professional.  I imagine if I were cursed with thin or limp or straight hair, I would see curly hair as more professional.  Take my opinion, straight, with that in mind.


How do butterfly fish get pregnant?

I think it was because I gave away some of Clownfish's baby clothes just weeks before I tested positive.  Bullshark has his own theory.


How do i survive studying for the bar?

Like you survived studying for every exam:  eat, sleep, study, and take breaks by googling random stuff that brings you to this blog.  Oh, and for f**k's sake, HYDRATE!


Should i write on to law review?

Short answer:  I say everyone who is given the chance should try. No sense in closing doors to clerkships unless you're really sure you don't want to do one.  Just did a whole post on this, actually. See here.  Note:  this advice differs by the tier of law school you're in -- my response might be different had I gone to, say, a top 20 school.  Then again, if I had, I wouldn't have to put things like gpa and class rank on my resume just to get it read.  (See post & comments here.)  So for the vast majority of law students, if given the chance, I say go for it.  All you have to lose is sanity and time.   

Phrases that brought people to my blog:

• progesterone boobs
• scalia smart ass
• fish butterball 

Yeah... I got nothing. 

MILP #159

Proto had it here. Back here next week.

The Weekly MILP (Moms In the Legal Profession) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis at the PT-LawMom, Attorney Work Product and Butterflyfish blogs and is usually posted no later than Monday morning.

Work satisfaction makes me a much easier person to live with

I am so happy at work lately. I am so grateful for the folks that I work with and the interesting stuff I've gotten to do.  I am constantly amused by the pleadings and arguments that I read. I am even more amused when I can rebut seemingly solid looking arguments after just a cursory review of the relevant case law. I am excited that I have gotten back to this place again. I really really hope it continues into the fall, when I start the "F**k you Lucy" job.

I am jealous of the way Cee and Namby can write about work with so much humor without revealing any confidences.  For a while I thought it was just me -- that I couldn't write those stories because I wasn't witty enough or because I wasn't observant enough.  But I have discovered that its not true.* It is the nature of the work that I do, and not me, that keeps my tales of hilarity from making it here on the blog.  Because I do have tales of hilarity, but they are only attractive to the geekiest of law nerds.  Because I rarely go to court -- I spend my time in a law library researching and writing.  So to be able to share my tales of geeky hilarity would require more details of the substantive work that I do than I can divulge without running afoul of my ethical obligations.  Too bad.  There are law geeks who would love the one about the lawyer, the blogger, and the malpractice suit....

____________________
*Ok, it may actually be true that I am not as witty or observant as Cee and Namby. But the point is, its not the only reason my posts about work club kinda suck.

Camp tales

Clownfish:  I went swimming in the pool. I wore my swimming shirt and my swimming shorts. And I got out of the pool and I couldn't find my orange dune buggy shirt. 

Me:  What did you do?

Clownfish:  I asked my counselor and I looked around and I looked in my bag. Then I took off my swimming shirt and I found it. It was right under my swimming shirt. *laughing*

Me:  Oh no! You went swimming wearing two shirts?  How silly! 

*then noticing he was wearing the dune buggy shirt* Why didn't you change into the extra dry shirt I put in your bag?

Clownfish:  I like my dune buggy shirt.  Don't tell anyone about this though. I was too silly.  Don't even tell Papa.

Me:  Nope, I won't tell anyone.

MILP #158

Ptlawmom had it here.

 The Weekly MILP (Moms In the Legal Profession) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis between PT-LawMom, Butterflyfish, and Attorney Work Product blogs. We originally rounded up just the moms in law school, but then discovered that those women eventually graduate. Who knew? So now all the moms in the legal field (heh) are represented. We aim for Sunday posts.
 

Camptown ladies sing this song, Doo dah doo dah.

Tomorrow Clownfish, aged almost 6, will go to day camp for the first time.  I never went to camp as a kid. My husband never went to camp.  But when both parents work, and one has to go away for two weeks in the summer time, day camp seems like a really good idea.  It was my salvation in the spring time, when I was fretting about these two weeks.  I discovered that so many of Clownfish's friends were going too.  I signed him up happily. 

Hiking! Sports! Arts and crafts! Swimming every day! Snacks and lunch and playing outdoors! Sounds like his idea of nirvana.  He's pretty psyched. 

Now its here and I can't say I'm not a little anxious about it. I guess my anxiety is confined to two specific issues.

The first, the bus.  He's riding a school bus for the first time.  There will be two Counselors in Training on board and the ride is less than 45 minutes, but I still worry.  I worry that he'll freak out. I worry that the big kids will be mean.  I worry that the driver will be high on coke. 

The second, the pool.  Clownfish can't swim.  He's been practicing with us some. He's gotten much more comfortable in the water -- he can hold his breath and is willing to be dunked and jump in while wearing a vest.  But there are no vests allowed at camp.  They're going to do lessons.  They'll probably confine him to the end that's under three feet deep.  But its A POOL. Pools terrify mommies.  It is a pool and lots of kids and some will be bigger. And maybe a bigger kid will push him under, probably just playing. But he doesn't have the skills to deal.

But really, these are just the concrete things that I focus my anxiety on. He's going to be fine. Me? Umm...

All his clothes are neatly labeled with his name, right down to his superhero underwear.  I packed his lunch and sunblock and bugspray and swimming trunks and a towel.  Also labeled.*  We'll be at the bus stop early. I've done my job.

I will smile as I put him on the bus.  I will tell him to have fun.  And I'll try not to cry when he waves as they drive off, as he takes one more step into exploring the wide world alone, one more step away.    

 _________________________________
* No, I'm not a freak. I am doing what the camp told me to do.

Clownfish singing a tune of his own design while in the shower: I'm a big brother... I'm a big brother.

Had an OB appointment today.
Heard a strong heartbeat.
We told him.

MILP 157: Independence Day

 The Weekly MILP (Moms In the Legal Profession) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis between PT-LawMom, Butterflyfish, and Attorney Work Product blogs. We originally rounded up just the moms in law school, but then discovered that those women eventually graduate. Who knew? So now all the moms in the legal field (heh) are represented. We aim for Sunday posts.

This week's theme:  America turned 234 years old yesterday. Let's celebrate it, MILP style.

• Our Country. John Mellencamp. "And bigotry would be/ Seen only as obscene" Atty Work Product. 
• America the Beautiful. Ray Charles. "O beautiful for spacious skies..." Lag Liv. 
• Philadelphia Freedom. Elton John. "Some people choose the city / Some others choose the good old family home" Reluctant Grownup
• Independence Day. Martina McBride. "But mama was proud and she stood her ground." Jenny.
• Only in America. Brooks & Dunn "Starin' at the faces in her rearview mirror / Looking at the promise of the Promised Land" Cee.
• This Land is Your Land. Woody Gutherie. "From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters..." Only 3 Years.
• Blowin in the Wind. Bob Dylan. "How many loans must a homeowner get . . ."  Magic Cookie.
• BORN in the USA! The Boss. Congratulations Law with Grace!

I'll admit that some of these work better than others. Happy belated 4th!

Nonsense & Frippery. Can't make it fit but had to send the baby love!

Edited to add:  A few links didn't work. Fixed.

___________________________________
If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILP blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at our sites. Expecting Moms in law school are welcome! Hat tip as always to the “original” Roundup — Beyond the Underground and the co-rounder-upper, Nobody!

Law reviews and resumes

I really hate that a whiny post is at the top of the blog, so I'm quickly slapping up some thoughts from my twitter feed.

One conversation was whether one of the women I follow should participate in the write on competition for law review at her lower-ranked law school. She has no big law aspirations.  I completely sympathize with her, as I was in the same position at the end of 1L. Except I wasn't conflicted.
I knew I was going to do it.
And it worked out.

My advice: I know you say you don't ever want big firm life, but there are a lot of legal employers who look favorably on it. If you ever want to clerk, for example, which is a great gig if you can get it, journal is essential. Nothing lost but time & sanity during the write on itself.

She decided against it. To each her own, I guess.

Yesterday, I was updating my resume. I re-formatted it and reorganized it so my legal experience is above my education section. While I did reasonably well in law school, the name of the school itself is not likely to open any doors, and I didn't do *so well* in law school that it wouldn't matter. Few people have ever heard of my undergrad institution. My masters in education is useless to legal employers and from a school so long ago and far away as to be irrelevant.

Or, as I put it on twitter: My resume sure looks purty. But its like all dressed up w/ no place to go and wearing obviously cheap shoes (i.e. the education section)

Also, we were discussing the topic of 'class rank on the resume' on twitter. My take: Top 30% for sure on the resume. T-50% probably, unless GPA looks more impressive w/o it. Lower rank, probably not unless requested. Other thoughts?