In The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote, “Love is not gazing at each other but looking outward at the world together.” This strikes me as a way to describe my job as a lawyer—to stand with my client, shoulder to shoulder, and see the world as he sees it.…
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Oh, the difficulties of being a lawyer! A parent! A human being! An airline passenger! If it’s not your spouse driving you crazy, it’s your kids, your job, the Democrats (or Republicans), or your awful opposing counsel. Someone does something they shouldn’t, and you feel your skin flush, your heart…
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I like to write about my toddler, who is not actually a toddler anymore but a strapping young lad of four. When he started school, he came home crying, utterly devastated, because he did not know how to sit “criss-cross apple sauce.” All of the other kids knew, but he…
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Legendary Texas writer John Graves died recently. I’m reading his book Goodbye to a River: a Narrative (Vintage Departures). In it, he describes his last trip down the Upper Middle Brazos River, a place that had “meaning for during a good part of life in the way that pieces of…
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I fancy living a self-directed life. I’m not sure what I mean when I say that, but I have a much better understanding of what I think I mean after meeting Howard Roark. Do you know who I am talking about? I did not know this guy until very recently,…
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I am interested in ethics. Not just the ethics of practicing law, but the ethics of living life. When I was in college, a family member told me, “Do the right thing, and you’ll be happy.” That is good advice. But I don’t believe that doing the right thing always…
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My toddler’s favorite book right now is Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak. In Where the Wild Things Are, we meet Max. Dressed up in his wolf suit, Max creates mischief of one kind (he ties a sheet into knots and nails it to the wall to make…
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As a business and employment litigator, I am interested in conflict and its resolution. I was stunned when I heard about the Sandy Hook shooting. I asked myself: why did this happen? How could someone commit such atrocious acts? How can we prevent such atrocities in the future? I once…
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I once took a personality test that said I should become a monk. I didn’t take its advice. Instead, I became a lawyer. Turns out, I am a good lawyer. And I love practicing law. But the monk in me has noticed a belief in our society, and in our…
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There is a guy who works at the drive-through at my bank. According to the large rectangular sign in front of his station, his name is Mario. I have a hard time seeing him through the shaded glass. I think he has dark hair and a goatee. He wears a…
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