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Briefs (the legal kind) and Balance

By Anonymous

It is such a good feeling to finish a brief you've been working on for weeks. It is a freaking awesome feeling to sit down to read it from start to finish and know that your group has done a good job for the client.

In law school I loathed our 1L research and writing class. I finished my brief during third quarter and vowed I would never write another. Turns out, I just hate brief writing when you're doing it on the same topic as 180 other insane, intense University of Chicago 1L's and you have unlimited time and westlaw searches to make it perfect. I really enjoyed writing the brief for this case. It's a Motion to Dismiss in a very high stakes securities class action (a topic I love) and I got to work with two ridiculously smart people who love what they do and welcome input and enjoy argument. I researched most of our defenses, wrote the first draft of out half the document, and then stood my ground and defended it against the senior associate and partner's roles as devil's advocate. There have been so many marvelous moments of law geekery. I loved working with case law- finding great cases and crafting language around the not-so-great ones. I especially loved sitting in a partner's office and discussing defenses and other ideas and knowing I'm actually contributing. He knows far more about securities law, and far more about litigation in general, but I knew my specific research points and I loved arguing back against his role as attorney from the other side. I learn so much during those exchanges. Most of all I loved the writing. There's almost nothing I enjoy more than playing with words on a computer screen. I'm thankful I work somewhere I can substantively assist in a case this big, and when I make an argument for a section of the brief, the partner just tells me to go write it.

It still surprises me how much I enjoy litigation. I would never have guessed that from law school. But I love working the unique facts of a case around existing law, figuring out (or really listening to smarter, more experienced people figure out) how best to defend the case, and watching our arguments and defenses evolve. Of course there's parts that aren't so fun, but even doc review can be interesting - that's where your facts and evidence come from and I like finding that surprise document that helps us or hurts the other side. You're working with a story and the story changes with each key document you find. And the writing -- in corporate you so rarely draft anything from scratch that I missed starting with a blank page and writing my own words rather than changing a few things about someone else's. There's plenty to like about transactional law, but it is abundantly clear it was the wrong choice for me.

One thing that is not so good? Getting home 10 minutes before Landon goes to bed. I have nothing to mitigate that - it just sucks. I hate not having our evening time together and hate that he was so excited to see me and then so sad when he had to almost immediately go to bed. Each time that happens (which is blessedly very rare, I think this is the 3rd time in the 14 months I've been working), I'm reminded that if it were more common, I would immediately change from being an almost blissfully happy attorney to a bitter, miserable one. It's like a balance next to a precipice. Within a certain range of work/family time everything is great. As I've written ad nauseum, this life is right for me and my family and everyone is happy. But when the balance touches the ground on one side, there's not a corresponding decrease in happiness, it's a plunging spiral into bitterness and doubt. Luckily, such moments are rare. And even though I miss Chicago dearly, I know a huge reason why our life works is because I'm in Austin and not a big city. It's still a big firm and big cases, but there's a different level of intensity and a nice focus on family and hobbies (and an 8 minute commute!).

I'm responsible for shepherding our brief and exhibits through the filing process on Friday, but I'm still heading to Landon's daycare Halloween party for a few hours in the middle of the day to watch the costume parade and join in the parent potluck. The balance will be back and the brief is done.

Full post as published by Lag Liv on October 29, 2009 (boomark / email).