David and Goliath

...So I just argued social security privatization with Bush I's domestic policy advisor. It was a long battle, churning through the salad course, holding steady at the amuse bouche and finally limping back to camp after dessert. I held that Dem banner high, but I'm afraid he trounced me by the end. Still, I get an A for effort. And if you're going to lose to a Republican, you might as well lose to a big one, right?

Lillyfirm

...No word from my nemesis. Oh well- the fighting urge has passed. Probably has to do with the three glasses of wine I just imbibed. Arrgh, maties, I be a wee bit alcoholic, I be. Ah well.

So I went out to Sunny Southern Cali a few weeks ago and found my ass a job. Lillyfirm is very much the LA equivalent of Superfirm, so shouldn't take much adjusting. Same mega-clients, same type-A hyper-lawyers, same glistening offices. But where Superfirm is austere, conservative and drab, Lillyfirm is shiny and happy. Lillyfirm loves its lawyers. It cares. Until about year 6 where one's partnership potential is assessed. Then the circle of love becomes much, much smaller. Luckily there's no way I'll last that long.

My husband found us a bungalow in the hills, a little bit of a house nestled (it looks like from his cell phone pictures) in banana trees and bougainvillea. Charming, a little run down. Kind of like me lately.

I am leaving my asylum case in the over-eager hands of a first year litigation associate and his anal mentor. I feel comfortable with this. Still, we had a surprisingly emotional good-bye today. He brought in three handwritten letters from his brother, father and friend that added much meat and pretty much make the case unsinkable.

Will I miss Chi-town? Eh. There's a section of LA, sort of a little Cambodia, where most residents only speak Khmer. I can't fuckin' wait.

I'm throwing it down!

So I just got into this silly fight with a guy who's itchin' for a beatin' on poor Zach of Veiled Conceit's comment page. C'mon, dude, migrate over here and let's have at it. I'm in a fighting mood. Bring it!!!!

The witching hours

It's almost 3am. Here I am, monitoring the frenzied flurry of documents that accompanies the hasty closing of a deal. Actually, I am not here at work, I am here at home, begged off by complaining of stomach ache, stomach ache was real because vast quantities of questionable sushi was consumed when already feeling lousy. Dumb. Still, won me an excuse to go home. Always preferable to monitor documents in boxers and t-shirt with rambunctious cats than in office tower with only distant vacuums to keep one company.

Met clients tonight who were astounded- nay, OFFENDED that I call myself a liberal. How could I be a liberal and take home a six-figure salary, work days (and nights, apparently) as a corporate lawyer for a blood-guzzling superfirm? So funny. Being politically left-wing (and I am remarkably libertarian on certain things, if you scratch me where it itches) and being pro-business are not mutually exclusive. How could they be? With the exception of some isolationists and anti-globalizers, we want business to thrive. Only we want it to thrive everywhere, and if that means that X american's cotton business goes without insane subsidies so that X Ghanian can finally grow cotton and compete globally, so much the better. Business should thrive, in a landscape of domestic laws and international trade agreements. At our best, we corporate lawyers enforce this, and help our clients to adhere to the rule of law. In Washington, at our best, we lobby for the repeal of stupid, market-thwarting subsidies and for the bolstering of the WTO, for taxes that are fair, for legislation that helps the corporation without hurting the individual (who is, after all, a consumer). At our worst, we commiserate with our client and eke out dirty fortunes through technicalities and loopholes.

And where do I fall? Frankly, in my workday world, I really don't know. I correct grammatical mistakes in documents that I am only beginning to understand.

Once, in DC, I wrote a floor report for a Congressman who read it, with few edits, in front of the Ways and Means Committee. I didn't really believe in what I wrote, which made my astonishment both at myself and at the power of the private law firm in DC all the more deeply felt. But man, that's power. I TOLD him what to say, and he said it. Fuck yeah.

Today's News:
Prince Rainier, Saul Bellow dead.
Sen. Cornyn- SO SO SO HORRID. I don't even know where to begin. Not articulate enough at this hour. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/opinion/06wed1.html?hp. Fuck you, Senator Cornyn. And this asshole was a goddamn judge. Heard of Marbury v. Madison, fuckwad? Loser. Hope they censure him. But they won't. The worst are full of passionate intensity these days, I swear.