Law on Rice

• Geeking out by writing some code for the first time in months for Rule One Four http://bit.ly/dag1mF #
• While looking for a place to rent, someone on Craiglist tried to lure me into a credit report scam. I'm pretending to play along… #

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• Oh, yeah. I forgot about Twitter. #

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I couldn’t resist something with the title “The Lays Happiness Exhibit.”  I fear that Gerry Spence would not be pleased with me, but I did it anyway. I shared my own picture:

I was watching Ira Glass last night on Current.tv. He was giving would-be storytellers some tips on making good video. He had some of the best advice I think I’ve never heard before.

He said something like, “look, you want to make stories because you love good stories. And because you love good stories, you see and read a lot of them. And so, you’ve got good taste.” “But then you make your own story, and it’s not that good. And you think about giving up.” “There’s this gap–a gap between what you’re actually able to produce and what you know is good–that you can only get over if you just keep at it and don’t give up.”

I think I have that problem. Sometimes I don’t post very much because I read a bunch of great stuff, and I get frustrated with my own stuff. I read a lot. And I’m really picky.

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of Gerry Spence, and he just makes me feel so inferior–even though he’s trying to cause exactly the opposite effect.

I think Ira’s right though, the only way to really get over it is to keep on plugging away.

• Espinosa just got published today with the result I hoped for. Unanimous. #

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The Supreme Court released an opinion I’ve been waiting for for quite a while, United Student Aid Funds v. Espinosa. In its unanimous decision, it held that a chapter 13 plan is final judgement and that a disappointed creditor cannot upset the judgment by complaining that a court denied it due process protections when the creditor received a copy of the plan.

It was the result I hoped for, they affirmed the Ninth Circuit, and they overturned quite a few other circuits in the process.

My only complaint is that they never addressed an argument that I made for the creditor in my paper on the topic. That is that Mullane (which Justice Thomas relied on) is really a totality of the circumstances test. And one of those cirumstances in this case was that the creditor expected (quite reasonably) the debtor to serve it a complaint. Justice Thomas simply noted (like Judge Kozinski), that the creditor had actual notice through the plan, and that was the end of the matter.

Before going to law school,  I was in enterprise consulting for around ten years.  Having been in a technical world for so long, I was initially kind of surprised to find out that many people consider law a technical field too.

Then, I started interviewing with firms and meeting a lot of lawyers, and I found out that they were not a whole lot different than the technical corporate guys I used to hang out with.  The people were right.

So, for among many other reasons, I quickly ditched any notions of working in intellectual property.   For a minute there, I thought I would like tax law because, but that seemed just as geeky.  I wanted to be a “real” lawyer, not a geek.

Then I discovered bankruptcy and debtor-creditor work, which I absolutely love.  It’s a little technical, but it still feels like I get to be a lawyer.  That is, I get to do more than advise clients, I might actually get to go to court!

But lately I’ve been thinking it really would be a good idea to continue on an get something like an LLM in tax, or maybe take the CPA exam.  It seems like it would help me a great deal when I do advise clients. I feel like I can easily handle the technical aspects.

But how do I reconcile that sense of being a courtroom trial lawyer with the very technical and arcane tax code?  How does a tax lawyer become a charismatic and a powerful advocate?  How does one take the complex and arcane and make it compelling?

• Hanging out with Mia on Mill Ave. Beautiful morning for a beautiful girl. #
• This healthcare vote is kind of exciting. I wonder if it will be a full employment at for lawyers. #

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• Regrettably, I'm laying out database tables on a Saturday night. I thought I was out of tech. #

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