Whereas I’m certain that my editors are relieved that I haven’t written a few sure notorious California lawyer (aka He Who Shall Not Be Named) for some time, I do have so as to add a P.S. to my column final week about Florida’s governor and his quixotic struggle towards Disney (aka the Mouse Home). I simply discovered — and I’ll stipulate that I’m means behind the instances on this one — that Ron DeSantis was married at Disney World in 2009. Everybody else knew apparently, however I didn’t. Disgrace on me. Too dangerous that the wedding license was issued by the state and never Disney’s particular district. I might see Mickey’s gloved fingers rubbing in glee.
I plead responsible as I’m as cliché pushed as anybody else, however is anybody else fed up with our cliché-driven world? Just a few examples that set off my bruxism (Google it). What number of instances can anybody “unpack” one thing aside from groceries, suitcases filled with clothes, briefcases, cartons of books, and so forth? I hate that utilization. Who began utilizing that verb in that context?
However that’s not the one one. To paraphrase comic Jimmy Durante, “we’ve received one million of them.” And so we do. My new favourite one, which is a deadly mixture each of flattery and condescension: “That’s an awesome query.” Actually? How patronizing.
We all know that February bar outcomes are often decrease than July outcomes. The California outcomes had been disappointing, though in step with meh outcomes from different states exhibiting a decline. Kim Kardashian may need to rethink her choice to take a seat for the February 2025 bar, as an alternative of ready for the July bar that 12 months.
Whereas AI seeks to understand an ever-strengthening toehold in our occupation (assume authorized analysis, drafting discovery, writing briefs, and the like), it has not but cornered the market on jury consultants, however that’s solely a matter of time. AI can probably vet a potential panel sooner than somebody can say “voir dire.”
Will AI exchange witnesses? Counsel? The courtroom? Attorneys are already confronting the hulking AI behemoth in several methods.
And the way do you invoice for AI time? If AI might do in a heartbeat what it takes hours for a mere mortal, this can be yet one more gradual torturous demise drip (discover how I didn’t use the cliché ridden “nail within the coffin”) for the billable hour. It might immediate the transfer from billable hours to activity pricing.
One of many points within the writers’ strike (and for these readers who follow east of the Sierra (singular, not plural, thanks) and west of the Hudson (additionally singular), the strike is probably a giant yawn till your favourite exhibits are in limitless reruns (dinosaurs, bear in mind these?) or off the air altogether, e.g., late evening. Why ought to we care? One concern within the strike is … look forward to it … AI and the way it could nicely reshape the trade.
Extra layoffs appear to be coming. How will the presence of AI have an effect on layoffs? What do you assume? It appears just like the urge for food for Biglaw jobs could also be on the decline. Work-life stability will not be only a cliché to Gen Z legal professionals. Solely 23% of Gen Z legal professionals aspire to partnership in a regulation agency.
Similar to each different lawyer, I like an excellent benchslap, so long as it’s not directed at me. Schadenfreude has its place. Disgrace on these legal professionals who didn’t have the decency to grant an extension of time with out onerous situations to a lawyer whose spouse unexpectedly went into labor and delivered their little one in the course of the pendency of a number of circumstances. He needed to go to the difficulty of submitting a movement to ask the courtroom to increase sure deadlines. The three protection legal professionals apparently don’t know the very first thing about courtesy and civility however do know the best way to pressure opposing counsel to ask the courtroom to increase the courtesy that counsel wouldn’t.
What galls me much more is that two of the three protection counsel are ladies. Once I entered this occupation nearly 50 years in the past (not a typo), I believed that the presence of extra ladies legal professionals would make the occupation slightly extra humane, slightly extra empathetic, however I used to be incorrect. I hate being incorrect about one thing like this.
I don’t care what excuses protection counsel can provide. What’s our occupation coming to? Sure, ladies legal professionals may be and ought to be simply as powerful because the male legal professionals, however the place’s the humanity? Robust-mindedness doesn’t equate with being a (fill within the clean — a number of unflattering Yiddish phrases would match.) How low have we sunk? I already know the reply.
What one courtroom grants, one other denies. The Ohio Supreme Courtroom denied a trial continuance to a pregnant lawyer on mattress relaxation. After all, the male majority would assume that means, however one justice, a girl, dissented. The place is the humanity? Is that this a rhetorical query?
And for these (together with my editors) who assume that this column is a “scorching mess,” there ought to be limits on that phrase’s utilization. I didn’t see it on the listing of clichés, no less than not but. Is that time period code for “hysterical?” “Shrill?” And by the way in which, what’s the male counterpart for “hysterical”? “Shrill”? “Spermatorrhoeic”? You inform me.
Jill Switzer has been an lively member of the State Bar of California for over 40 years. She remembers training regulation in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a various authorized profession, together with stints as a deputy district lawyer, a solo follow, and a number of other senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which provides her the chance to see dinosaurs, millennials, and people in-between work together — it’s not at all times civil. You possibly can attain her by e mail at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.
