The Lighter Side of Working At a Law Firm

This might sound kind of weird, but one of the things I kind of like about this is reading the case files. It's like reading a novel. Now, usually these stories don't have happy endings, and it's not that I enjoy the fact that these folks are going through tough times. It's just that it's kind of interesting to see how things play out.

Reading divorce cases is probably the most interesting. You really see the underside of humanity here, because so often people act like such bastards. Some of the vindictive and mean things people do are pretty crazy. And reading the case files, which usually include emails from each party, let's you experience the crazy as it builds up, and as each side reacts to the other.

The worst part about reading these cases is that you can just imagine the poor children involved. Like kids who are forced to jet from the UK (that's in England, right?) to Hong Kong for 4 weeks in the summer, and then again in the fall. Those poor kids spending all that time in a jet/airports. How miserable must these kids be? Always bopping around meeting mom or dad. And the emails make it pretty clear that the parents bad-mouth each other in front of the kids. So now the kids getting these horror stories of the other parent. I imagine kids are pretty resilient, and they probably see through this stuff to a point, but it obviously has an impact. It's quite sad.

Then there are the personal injury cases (PI cases, as we say in the biz. Hey, that $100k I'm spending is coming in handy, huh?). Frankly, these don't bother me as much, unless there's cutting involved. I don't like to read about knife injuries. You see, I cook a lot and that could be me. Dear God, please don't let that be me. But aside from the knife-related cases, they're not too bad. Though I sympathize with the victims in these cases, I don't really feel as much of a visceral reaction as I do when reading about some poor kids being jerked around by their parents. For the PI cases, I guess I concentrate more on the sequence of events, and what I'd stress or downplay (depending on what side I'm on) if I was arguing the case. So it's more of an intellectual exercise there.

Hm, what else? Oh yeah. Never read an opinion from the British House of Lords (should I capitalize that? Didn't we fight a war to shuck the yoke of their tyranny?) Oh my God are they long-winded. They go on and on and on. And they're so pretentious. But what would I expect? They're noble and better than the rest of us. Why didn't I choose to be born to nobility? (yeah, I know they're appointed now, but remember: yoke of tyranny.) Anyway, those opinions are so looong.

But, I did read the coolest case today. It was KK Downing, founding member of Judas Priest fighting his now ex (I'm assuming) girlfriend, who claimed half of his estate. The particulars aren't important. What is important is that I read a court case about a guy in Judas Priest. I think he won. It doesn't really matter.

So, it's kind of up and down. Some of the work is more taxing, some less. Some is more fun, some less. Do I really want to be a lawyer? I don't know. I do know that I'd like to get paid for what I'm doing. I'm sure that would sway my opinion, at least a bit.