Why a Blawg?...Prefaced with a tangent about good and bad lawyers.

Since the moment I entered law school...strike that, since the moment I started telling anyone I was even thinking of law school, people have moaned and groaned about lawyers. They are too expensive, they lie, they don't listen, they cost too much, they talk too much, they make too much money, they don't return calls, their fees are too high, they are single-handedly killing the environment with the amount of paper that they produce...and did I mention that they're too expensive? Most of these "warnings" involved lying, sneaking lawyers making approximately $23895723895782397 per hour for very little productive work.

As I made my way through law school (Northeastern University for those of you wondering where I am in that picture...also of note, my fabulous friend Jenni overjoyed along with me), I encountered all kinds of lawyers. Lawyers that worked tirelessly for 80 hours a week for $37,500 a year (which is about $575 a week in one's paycheck), those that worked tirelessly 80 hours a week for $250,000 a year (I'm not gonna do the math on weekly paycheck, it's a lot, clearly), those that hardly worked at all and/or worked just enough for an entire range of salaries. I pretty quickly came to realize that how much money a lawyer made was really no indication as to how hard they worked or how passionate they were for their work.

You know what was an indication? How their clients felt about them. Now, I am aware I am speaking in very broad generalizations from my tiny perspective on the world at large. But I am not talking about "wins," because with the good lawyers, even if the case is "lost," and really, sometimes the facts are just against you, the client can still be happy. Not always happy with the cost, because yes, it matters to us lawyers how much we make, mostly because some of us are carrying upwards of $150,000 in student loan debt just to get to the bar exam {cough cough}. But the good lawyers, the passionate lawyers, the lawyer you want to be by your side when you're divorcing, handcuffed, trying to collect rent, trying to get heat in your apartment, defending your identity being stolen or for some other reason going through the alien process we call the American judicial system, that lawyer works tirelessly for you, and even if they can't "win" gets the best result possible for you, they will listen and take on the stress of the process for you and with you. And there are a LOT of us out there. We all make varying amounts of money, but we all have a common characteristic. We care about our clients. We care enough about the judicial system to do great work within its confines. Being a good lawyer matters to us for no reason other than it just should.

So what on earth does this "not all lawyers are evil" diatribe have to do with this blawg? Well, the purpose of the blawg, "mission statement" if we're gonna get all 'marketing-y', is to listen to the questions that are being raised, whether its in my private practice, personal life or the legal world in general, and give my opinion as a real-life, non-slimy lawyer. I am privileged to have the legal education that allows me to sift through the foreign language of 'legal-ese' and legal procedure, and I want to share it with all the normal people out there who are interested in legal "stuff" but can't understand half of it (or any of it) the majority of the time. And why shouldn't we all be able to understand what is going on in the legal world? We are all affected by it, somehow and some point or another, we should all be able to "get it."


Disclaimer (I am a REAL lawyer after all!): I am writing this as my "normal" self, who happens to be advantaged with a law degree, and as such, will tend to ramble, rant and roll on some tangents, generally of the pop culture or sports nature. I will quote movies, particularly Will Ferrell movies, and TV shows, particularly The Office and 30 Rock, a LOT. So if you're looking for a law review article with perfect citations, no typos, and lots of big words, it's probably not here. Also, as I comment on the world around me, my personal political views may become apparent so I'll just put this out there (if you don't like it, you can throw it right back) I am pretty liberal. I'll try to stay neutral but if Rush Limbaugh gives it another go at purchasing a professional sports team, I probably won't keep my mouth shut.

ONE more thing...if you have questions or topics you want me to address, even specific scenarios from your own life, send them to me. I'm not only looking for good blog material, I actually kinda enjoy helping people out too (which I can't often do for free, so God bless the internet!).