Screaming Bean - Everyone loves a Bean!

About Me

name: Beanie
age: 35
email: bbbeans@yahoo.com

AT THE MOMENT

Book: New York by Edward Rutherfurd

Music: 1999 by Prince

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The current mood of bbbeans@yahoo.com at www.imood.com

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No. 634
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Screaming Bean

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

There are certain things while studying for the Bar Exam that give a sense of calm once you learn them. I can't remember many of them now, but one that always made sense to me was Adverse Possession. It had to be hostile, lasting and continuous (time frame of 10 years), open and notorious. So what does New York State do 3 weeks before the Bar Exam this year? Change the rules to Adverse Possession. I about jumped out of my skin last night when I read that. You can't screw with the universe like that and not expect consequences. It can't be just a fence any more, or having mowed the lawn for 10 years, it's got to be a serious and important improvement. And of course, not being lawyers the journalists who covered this story gave the time period short shrift, so I was digging all over today trying to find if the time period changed. It didn't.

Now I don't mean to freak out the people studying for the Bar Exam, because by this point the exam questions have been written and printed, so it's not that big of a deal, but wow...going and messing with Adverse Possession just leaves me discomfited...and I'm not even a Real Estate attorney.

Labels: Bar, law

handed down by Beanie at 5:10 PM || |

Monday, February 25, 2008

I know I whine about my job incessantly. For that I do apologize. I wish things were great, and that I enjoyed what I did everyday, but that is so far from the truth that it pains me to even think that I do this work.

The issue that confounds me currently is this: I'm constantly being held to a standard that is impossible to meet. Since all my work has to be vetted by the managing partner, all emails have to be sent for review first. In response to my emails I'm told that either that it's too friendly a tone, or in the alternative, that I'm being far too harsh. There is no happy medium. The other issue is, regardless of how I write, the edits come back no longer recognizable as my own writing. Nice short concise sentences become these run-on monsters using as many commas as humanly possible. And of course, since I have to send it out under my signature...it looks like I write like this. I would never write a full paragraph-long sentence. One, it's too hard to read, and two, it just looks like a long-winded moron wrote it. I keep getting told that this is going to help me grow as an attorney, but all it's doing is keeping me under the partner's thumb and I'm not learning a damn thing. Oh, and I work too quickly. Not a problem with accuracy mind you...its just that I need to take my time and ponder things. I say it's more that I'm making others in the office look bad. Procrastination may have been a virtue in law school, but I don't abide by procrastination as a creative writing technique. Sitting on a document and reading it 10 more times isn't going to make me change my language choices spontaneously. That's not who I am. I think precisely the first time, which is why it looks like it does. I'm not a creative writer, I'm a lawyer. There's a difference.

Labels: job, law, writing

handed down by Beanie at 10:45 AM || |

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

This is a question that a couple of us were pondering at work. There was an incident recently where two news helicopters crashed in Phoenix, Arizona while covering a police chase. All four occupants of the two helicopters died. Should the alleged perpetrator of the chase be charged with felony murder for the deaths? Was it foreseeable that something like this could happen? Would it be different if they were news automobiles and he had hit them? And finally, would it have been different if it had happened in Los Angeles where it's assumed that a high speed chase would garner news chopper coverage? Inquiring minds want to know.

Labels: law

handed down by Beanie at 3:14 PM || |