#biglawbear

On one hand, I love that I'm allowed to tell my client when they're being dumb. On the other hand... Gosh, my client(s) can be silly sometimes. It's such a fascinating job to be part lawyer, part therapist, and part evil vizier whispering into someone's ear.

Most of what I do now is Federal regulation writing which is like. Nerd heaven to me. Drafting a well-written regulation is like art to me.

Thanks for opening up your asks!

Oh gosh, hi! I love your blog!

It's such a fascinating job to be part lawyer, part therapist, and part evil vizier whispering into someone's ear. Oh man this is right on. I always tell people that “counsel” is part of “general counsel” for a reason. Often I pull out this line when someone is crying in my office. (I keep the tissues stocked.) Also, “yes, it’s legal but it’s dumb,” is such a mood. And all too common.

Yeah, so I went straight in house at a municipal government agency right after my clerkship and then when I tried to get a new job 7ish years later, found out that I was basically unemployable by law firms because I was senior associate level but I’ve never done like first year associate work. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But I had a ton of connections from my government work so I hung out a shingle for a couple years, which was great except I made very very little money.

And then one of my clients (a small environmental restoration company) had their GC quit and they asked me to take over. Been there 4 years now.

I am pretty jealous of your regulation drafting job. I’ve done a bit of that (but municipal level, so I also had to go to meetings where members of the public yelled at me about it) and I really enjoyed the drafting part. It’s kind of like putting a puzzle together right? Like you have to get all the pieces right and make sure they fit together the right way? I do a ton of contract drafting these days, and there’s a bit of puzzle assembly there too.

Some of the personalities and office politics have me a bit sour on my job at present but fundamentally, the GC gig is a good one.

Thanks for the note and for running one of my favorite blogs!

off the top of my head: @jambos6 @aproclivityforgayshit-again @captainacecub are some cute, horny, fuckable bois 😘💞 💕

special shoutout to @biglawbear even though ive never seen you or spoken with you i can tell youre a sexy mfer 🐻

Treat it as a reconnaissance mission - be just a little early, take note of who is getting things done (you'll need them someday,) drink very little, flirt not at all, and watch very carefully. And send a thank you later to whoever invited you.

biglawbear 

Is it a firm wide holiday party or a small get together? How big is the firm? The bigger the firm or the party the less necessary it is to bring something I think. Even if it's small, I think a small dessert or something would be fine. For dress, the nice side of business casual is fine. No need for a suit. It's the holidays and you already have the job. It's okay to relax and enjoy.

Combining these two to reply (thank you for responding!).

The firm is medium (15ish lawyers plus all the staff) and the party itself starts at their office, then goes to a restaurant for lunch, then apparently some of them go out after that. I unfortunately can’t really show up early because I have an exam that morning.

I like the idea of a thank you note! It would be really easy to write one and send it to the office right afterwards. I’m thinking with the format of the party a gift would be weird?

Business casual sounds about right - I’m thinking maybe a nice buisness dress. I’m also thinking that I might email the current articling student (since my future articling principle specifically sent me her information) and ask if she has any suggestions for wardrobe? I feel like that might be excessive but I also think it might be a good idea to build some rapport with her.

I legitimately held off on answering this until some of the Kennedy drama had died down, because if I saw one more “pray for RBG” comment I was going to rip my tumblr guts out 

So, now that the general panic has sort of not really calmed down, let’s talking about Joining the Eh Team 

Foreign trained lawyers are assessed nationally by the NCA

NCA candidates still have to qualify for bar admittance in the province they want to practice in

There is a shortage of articling jobs in major cities which will affect your qualification track 

Because the number of law school admission spots are limited, it has become more common for Canadian-born students to train elsewhere and come home again to practice; the upside is that this means there are a wide number of first-person perspectives on the process itself 

CEA goes to:

Joseph Stiglitz

Dean Baker

Amartya Sen

Mariana Mazzucato

Gar Alperovitz

Mike Konczal

Gabriel Zucman

Janet Yelen

James K Galbraith

Thea Lee

George Akerloff

David Romer

Brooksley Born

Noah Smith for meme potential

In my experience, if you call admissions offices and ask nicely, they usually give you a fee waiver.