Busy Bodies

This post requires some background. The law school at Seattle University was purchased from the University of Puget Sound several years back, maybe seven. Sullivan Hall, where our school is located, was built specifically for the law school at this time. Just this summer, they had to remodel the library because, supposedly, our career services department sucks and they wanted to give them more space (so that they could suck up more study carousels). In addition, I believe the size of the entering classes is becoming larger and larger, such that even many of my second year elective classes are taught to almost 100 students in large lecture halls and are called "discussion classes" by the professors. To top it off, I am going to spend close to $30,000 just for the privilege of sitting in those classes.

Considering the newness of the building, the law school's desire to grow, and the price tag to get in the door, you would think that I could find a place to study at the library at 1:30 on a Tuesday afternoon. There is currently not a single study spot on the first floor, a smattering of free carousels on the second floor amidst row after row of occupied places, and I have vowed to stay away from the third floor because that is where the over-achieving, study-show-offs go to surround themselves with others of their type in the "super-quiet" floor. Luckily I mentioned my dilemma to my undergraduate friend who works as a work study at the circulation desk, and she recommended that I go over to the undergrad library. All of the undergrads are still on summer vacation, and according to her, hardly anyone ever comes here anyway. So, while the one-L's are jammed into their cattle-carousels in the newly remodeled law library, I have an entire room of this library to spread out and work in quit. If I wasn't sure that only about four or five other people, including my family in Colorado, actually read this blog, I would not publicly disclose this new discovery. I can't say it is perfect. The new chairs they purchased at the law library really are comfortable, especially compared to these forest green vinyl and metal chairs from the 70's, but not having to be surrounded by a bunch of crazed law students makes the slight sacrifice of comfort worth it. Now I must just conquer my own internal distractions and read Real Estate.

still summer

The weather around here still feels like summer. Hard enough to get homework done, let alone comment about it.

Electivation

One nice thing about this year is that they changed the coffee at the schools little coffee and food window. Not only is it all organic and free trade, but it is also palatable. It is also nice to know that I had some say in choosing that brand of coffee. When we had a taist testing last spring, I voted for that brand and it looks like I was finally in the majority for something I voted on, and my daily access to caffien is relatively important. I am also happy with my choice of classes. My IP professor is wonderfully tangential. We spent the first class trying to answer a question that he said was the question he was not presenting us to answer but had to be answered before we could answer the question that he really wanted us to answer. Before we could answer the question he really wanted us to answer, we had to answer this second question so we knew exactly why he choose for us to answer the former rather than the latter. It sounds confusing now, but it made a lot of sense in class.

My housing law and policy class consists of almost entirely guest speakers, videos, and field trips. I think he is going to drop us off in the middle of Seattle's ghettos and ask us to write about our image of the housing situation.

Federal Indian law: interesting. Real Estate Law: the class is about half full with property flippers and former mortgage brokers. It seems like good information to know, but it isn't going to be the most interesting class I ever took. And then there is con law. I am heading off there right now. I can tell that it is going to be the most demanding class. Not only does it meet every day, but the professor wrote the book, which means if the way he explains it is not clear, you can't be sure class will clear that up. Well, that's were I am heading.

summer up

I start classes again tomorrow: constitutional law, basic real estate, federal Indian law, intellectual property law, and housing law policy seminar. It should be a busy semester, and as a Two-L, I get to take classes in other parts of the building beside the basement. I do not really have many thoughts about the year ahead, except to say that even after this many years of school, the last night of summer still has the same feeling of excitement mixed with nervousness. As I sharpen my pencils and lay out my clothes for tomorrow (code for reorganizing my "My Documents" folder and doing a bunch of loads of laundry) I find myself reflecting on the summer that has passed.

This summer went by so quick, I feel that just at the moment I was beginning to get a grasp of what it is like to do "legal work," I am returning to the classroom for more theory. I am looking forward to the rich fall weather, gaining some knew knowledge, and the lack of rigid structure that school provides, the the lessons I learned this summer felt different than the knowledge I gain at school. If there is anything that really defined the past summer and will stand out in my memory, it will probably be my last day on Friday when I closed my first deal. Of course it felt great that I was able to make some pretty quick and strong arguments to the adjuster, which were sufficient to convince her to add another $4,500 to the claim, but that won't be what I will remember. The moment I will remember is the deal I couldn't close.

Just moments after closing the first deal for a very good sum, I met with the attorney and she could tell that I had enjoyed the experience of negotiations. I then explained to her that I liked to make the arguments but I wished I had more knowledge. At this she said that was not really the point; rather, the heart of good negotiations is to get that moment with the adjuster where you share something personal, when you have a connection, when you are working with them even though you both have mutually exclusive goals and roles. Not moments after she said this, I received a phone call from another adjuster to whom I had written a somewhat harsh letter earlier that week. She was not really in the mood to budge on her figures and she was offended that I had described her handling of the negotiations as "crass." As I quickly looked over my letter, I saw some very valid arguments, but I realized I had not written them to a person. The letter had been an intellectual exercise, and without realizing there was a person on the receiving end, I made no effort to couch my arguments in a cordial manner. As we talked I could feel myself connecting with her, and after apologizing sincerely and discussing with her the difference in what it was like to write and to talk with her, (I was basically just honest with her) she began to soften her tone and said she would look over the file next week and fax me over some new figures. It was at that moment that I realized the law was, at it center, about relationships. All the law is is a time-tested, ever-evolving, complex set of rules for how we are all supposed to relate to each other and what should be done when those relationships are in conflict. I understood probably the best lesson I could have learned this summer; sometimes the most important legal skill is the ability to connect with other humans, whether they be your client, your boss, or the opposing council.

This is not to say that I have not talked with some adjusters who were real assholes and who were way out of line with their settlement offers. I can think of at least two right off hand that were real jerks to me, and in both those cases, our clients were significantly more injured than in the case I settled on Friday. Sometimes it is OK to tell an adjuster that their handling of the claim is "crass," but I will be much more careful in choosing my words from now on, and I will always make sure I know who will be reading/ hearing those words.

With the beginning of school, I am sure I will be posting much more often. I will make an effort to post, at a minimum, once a week on Sunday nights.

tied up

I have been a bit tied up lately. Even after a summer of wearing a tie on a semi-regular basis, it still took me four tries yesterday to get it right. first it was too short and that little small tail was hanging down below the tip. Then I over-compensated and the tie was hanging down three inches below my belt line. The fourt attempt was far from perfect, but I figured I was just going to sit behind the desk in my office all day and no one was really going to see me so it didn't matter that much. I had already spent enough time tied up with it. Some of the other difficult moments of my summer of personal injury? Trying to track down how medical records from ambulance services. I was somewhat shocked to learn that almost no one keeps track of which ambulance company drives you to the hospital. The hospitals do not keep a record of it. Their liability begins when you show up at their front door. How you got there is irrelevant. Our clients rarely know more than that they traveled in an ambulance, but you can hardly blame them. Also, since most of our clients don't speak English, I can't just call them up and ask. We do have paralegals to do that sort of stuff and I do take advantage of both their labor and their langauge skills, but the downside is that you can't ask the questions and they rarely get all the information you might need. If you try calling the fire departments in the area where the accident took place you will go in so many circles you will think you just spun down a fire pole into the flames of bureaucratic hell. You might get lucky and have a police report in the file so that you can call their central dispatch. They seem to have the best idea of what ambulance might have been dispatched on the particular day of the accident. By this point you have spent an hour tracking down a $700 bill which the insurance companies will rarely dispute but might result in the ambulance company becoming aware that your client is still alive and has not paid his bill. I sometimes wonder if it is worth all the effort when they think Juan Lopez has already moved back to Mexico. If I am lucky, my day might also include some telephone negotiations with an insurance adjuster or an opportunity to write one a letter telling him/her how ridiculous his/her offer is. And if I have anything to say from my brief experience with insurance adjusters, it is this: just like with any other group of people, some are pleasant, some are jerks, some are ignorant, some, unfortunately for my purposes, are quite bright, and finally, you often get what you pay for. So if you are insured by Geiko, think about switching.