Someone just asked my due date. I am not pregnant. A reminder, once again, that unless a woman tells you she is pregnant, please don’t assume. It’s really hurtful.
My husband Scott & I welcomed Rowan Grey to the world last week. It’s a wild & scary time to have a baby, but we are over the moon in love with him, as are our parents & pups. A few days in, and this is already the best job I’ll ever have!
I love to see celebratory notices on Twitter, and I have a couple of pieces of good news: (1) I have been promoted to senior lecturer; and (2) I helped a lawyer-client secure a reversal in CA1 in a tough case under an abuse of discretion standard! Happy Monday!
Y’all—my amazing students made me a book with Boydisms! I teach loosely from notes, but most commentary is extemporaneous, and apparently I say and do some wacky stuff.
I have 2 types of days: extremely productive ones and ones on which I’m basically worthless because I’m overly tired from the productive day before. No in between. Sigh.
Insurance in the bottom 15 is bananas.
• Like if you drive a car.
• Retweet if you rent or own a residence.
• Bookmark if you've ever been injured by someone’s negligence.
I like the last sentence, but this excerpt is verbose for my taste. I encourage students to practice editing others’ writing, which helps them learn to better edit their own. A few edits cut the length by about 15%.
Today is my birthday. I don’t usually make personal announcements, but I have much to celebrate. A couple of weeks ago, I married the love of my life, & in a few months, we will be welcoming our baby boy (the first child for both of us). So there’s lots to be thankful for.
Last week, I lost my 15-year-old pup, Elsie, and I have been so sad. My incredible students sent me flowers and donated to the humane society in her memory, and I just have no words...😭
My addition to the
#clerkship
discourse is that if you don’t get a federal clerkship or can’t make a short-term move to another location for a clerkship b/c of family or other obligations, state court clerkships are AMAZING opportunities where you learn A TON.
I won a GSU award, & I’m incredibly humbled & grateful that a student thought to nominate me for this award, which honors people who “go the extra mile with perseverance and good humor.” I work very hard, but it’s a privilege to get to do what I do.
?
I’ve been thinking lately about how much I’d rather have a kind child than a brilliant one. 100 times out of 100. Many brilliant people have left the world a worse place. No kind people have. To raise a kind person is to have succeeded as a parent.
I spoke to a colleague yesterday who asked how I’m adjusting to being a new mom & balancing everything going on right now. I told her the truth: not very well. And she said, get used to feeling mediocre at everything you do for the next 18 or so years. And, ugh, I felt that.
We are stuck in an airport—possibly forever—and my child’s sustenance today has consisted of frosted animal crackers, French fries, and the tops (only) of two pink sprinkle donuts. Oh, and Sprite. A+ parenting.
This year has been the most difficult of my life. But yesterday I ran a 10k with my husband. Five years ago, running a 10k was nothing. But today it feels like a huge accomplishment.
Many of us mock the “govern yourself accordingly” closing in demand letters. What’s a better alternative to this overused phrase that has similar force?
I found out this morning that I was selected as a hooder by
@GeorgiaStateLaw
’s graduating class. It’s just another reminder of what an honor and privilege it is to do this job.
Happy Thanksgiving. Misspelling “district” twice right out the gate,
Trump’s ex-lawyer Sidney Powell filed a lawsuit alleging that as many as 96,000 votes were illegally counted in Georgia without showing substantiated evidence of her claims.
#gapol
I am studying abroad in Paris as part of my PhD program. It starts tonight, so I spent yesterday and today toodling around and enjoying delicious crepes and croissants. 4th pic is the Palace of Justice for all you
#appellatetwitter
and
#lawtwitter
types!
For anyone interested in the article
@brianlfrye
and I wrote about the need to teach plagiarism in law schools (‘cause that’s what lawyers do!), here’s the link!
BigLaw firm Winston & Strawn was sued today for allegedly plagiarizing another firm's Rule 12 motion.
Hsuanyeh Law Group registered one of its Rule 12 motions with the Copyright Office and says Winston copied it "nearly verbatim" in a consolidated case.
Are you an atty. who likes "pretty" briefs? Typography for Lawyers is now free online! You still can (& should) support TFL by buying the fonts or a paperback copy, but for poor students & public interest lawyers who lack resources, this is great news!
Today is my anniversary! Sharing some pictures of us from the last year or so (including one taken when I was in labor and we were leaving for the hospital). What a wild ride the last year has been, but there’s no one I’d rather have spent it with. ❤️
Y’all. My amazing students made me an Alice-in-Wonderland themed birthday card. Academia can be really hard, isolating, political, and creates imposter syndrome like you wouldn’t believe. But I’m SO LUCKY to get to do this job every day. ❤️
A professor convinced me that I wasn’t really smart enough to get the job I wanted to pursue after graduation. I now know this is absolutely untrue, but at the time I believed him. Teachers need to remember the effect their words, both negative and positive, can have.
The NFL and Roger Goodell were formally served with the Gruden lawsuit on Nov. 18; they have until Dec. 8 to respond. One option that is seemingly off the table is transferring the lawsuit to federal court. I explain why in a new post for
@ConDetrimental
:
My child, running around yelling “I’ve got a fever” because he knows that’s the only way he can stay home from preschool. He does not, in fact, have a fever.
My self care has been *not great* the last few days (or maybe awesome, depending how you look at it). What have you done to survive the last few days?
I had pizza and Coke Zero for breakfast this morning.
I took some time off from weight training while I was preparing for comps. I started back again with my trainer a month ago, and she told me yesterday that she’s really impressed with my progress. You’re never too old to feel good about a compliment!
Ugh. Dieting is just the worst. I’ve been tracking food and religiously sticking to 1,400 calories per day for nearly a month. And I’ve lost...2.6 pounds.
I'll be submitting my article, Storied Pleadings, during the August
#lawreview
submission cycle, but it's on SSRN now! I hope you'll check it out if you're interested in legal writing, civ pro, and professional responsibility.
I need recommendations for ball point pens. I love my Tul pens and s-gels and Pilot varsities, but I'm going to be writing a lot of book marginalia this summer and these all bleed on the pages too much. Ball points do the trick, but which are the best? cc:
@strowhiro
This is a huge issue I see a lot of legal writing. The writer will cite cases that analyze the statute but never give the language of the statute itself.
Our ped said we should expect illness the first 4-6 mths after we put toddler in daycare, but it would taper off, esp in summer. Toddler & I both have ANOTHER cold. He has been pretty consistently sick for going on 8 months now. Is this normal? Am we ever going to be well again?
Just sent off an article that (hopefully) will be published on AI, lawyers, and the courts. I take a look at what some popular GenAI programs can and can’t do and consider how courts should best deal with them.
@dancanon
One of the best weekends I can remember in my time in law practice was the weekend I had my wisdom teeth removed and could do nothing but lounge, pleasure read, and sleep. That I remember that weekend so vividly but none of the others speaks volumes.
This is a million percent true. I tell students this all the time—not only is a B+ a good grade, a B is too. If your performance in a group of over-performers is average, you are doing great.
Dear Law school,I am not going to allow you to make me feel bad about a b plus grade. A B+ is a good grade, has always been a good grade and will continue to be one.I always gave you a hundred and ten percent every semester and I am proud of these grades of last semester. Periodt
When my grandmother died in 2010, we discovered she and my grandfather had been renting a rotary telephone from the various iterations of Southern Bell since the 1960s. RENTING A PHONE FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS.
The World’s Cutest Baby™ turned one today and became the World’s Cutest Toddler™. The last year has been both the hardest and best of my life—I am incredibly lucky to be Rowan’s mama.
Just saw a post I won’t re-tweet saying book club culture is eroding reading, and you know you can just not be in a book club if you don’t want to, right?
Grades do not define you! But if you’re a 1L disappointed with your first-semester grades, fear not. I’ve got advice to help you put those grades in perspective and figure out how to improve in future semesters.
@c_estclairee
Haha! When I practiced I was in my chair at 7:30. Most people don’t come in until 9 or 9:30, so that made for about two hours of uninterrupted work time every morning—one of my secrets to meeting my billables.