Sad. Tired and annoyed. Happy.
Jun. 10th, 2010 09:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogMy fourth straight day of court began today, at least later than the previous three (11:00 and only a brief trip to downtown Buffalo), but with sad news coming from the judge, who knew I'd started my practice in Rochester. He asked if I'd heard of the death of a longtime practitioner there, which I hadn't, but I knew him well.
Leonard was about as old-school as you could kick it, and you made your bones in the local bankruptcy bar by when, and how often, you were kicked by him and you kicked back. He shared a last name, and a relatively remote family connection, with my original mentor, who died 18 months after I began practicing in that field. Lenny was older than Lloyd, and more of a scrapper than the intellectual that his younger cousin was, yet he had a gift for getting into your head and inviting you back into his in return. It took some years to do it, but I eventually gained his respect and could riff with him along with the best of them. Another practitioner, older than me but younger than he, called me on an unrelated case today and told me about a divorce case he got into with Leonard early in his career: to diffuse the spousal tension, Lenny sent him, almost literally, a Chinese menu of negotiating items; "your client can have two from column A and three from column B, but that's IT!" Leonard's letters, to opposing counsel and the court, were legendary, and I am going to comb my files to see if I can find a few that he graced me with over the years. I recall his last one, a year or so ago, making me laugh, and I'm sure I responded in kind. No better tribute I can pay to a fellow practitioner.
He's at least the second long-time bankruptcy lawyer in Western New York to have passed this year before enjoying the fruits of retirement. He will be missed, even if his passing came without his responding papers being served on time.
----
After that news, some nasty papers served on me right before leaving for court, and a dealing with a totally Luddite opponent in yet another case, I was utterly exhausted when I got back from court, the bank and the office. My suit was off, and the jacket tossed on the bed, within seconds of arriving back home.
What IS it about dry-clean-only clothes, I wonder, that attracts cats like a feckin magnet? As soon as I turned around after settling into jeans and my Met t-shirt, Michelle had planted her ass firmly on top of my breast coat pocket. Grrrr, I thought; fortunately, moments of emailing later, she'd abandoned my suit for her regular position on my wrists while I tried to type. Which was just the opportunity that Zoey needed to move in on the suit coat, in the exact same spot. Untempted by the sight of my typing, she sat there for hours. Sometime next week, I'll flick black fur off my lapel and think of both of them.
----
A late afternoon 30-minute crash turned into close to two unexpected hours of recharging my REM sleep, and while I wound up with some tense moments with Emily right after that, we worked them out and by the time we sat down to dinner, Eleanor was ready to re-watch the DVD of Juno I picked up from the library earlier in the day, so we could watch it with the director and writer doing the commentary.
I'd never seen it before, but it was a sweet and funny repast. When I asked Eleanor about the connection between director Jason Reitman and Animal House's Ivan of that name, she confirmed that Jason was his son, and also mentioned that Jason had included a homage in Juno to the scene his dad shot in the earlier film where Bluto loaded up his plate in the college cafeteria. While the commentary noted it has been cut back so as not to distract from the point of the scene itself (no resulting food fight, for one thing), the final product still had enough of the spirit of Belushi to make it work on both levels.
Lots of good music, good dialogue, and great performances from an ensemble cast that did an awesome job.
Leonard was about as old-school as you could kick it, and you made your bones in the local bankruptcy bar by when, and how often, you were kicked by him and you kicked back. He shared a last name, and a relatively remote family connection, with my original mentor, who died 18 months after I began practicing in that field. Lenny was older than Lloyd, and more of a scrapper than the intellectual that his younger cousin was, yet he had a gift for getting into your head and inviting you back into his in return. It took some years to do it, but I eventually gained his respect and could riff with him along with the best of them. Another practitioner, older than me but younger than he, called me on an unrelated case today and told me about a divorce case he got into with Leonard early in his career: to diffuse the spousal tension, Lenny sent him, almost literally, a Chinese menu of negotiating items; "your client can have two from column A and three from column B, but that's IT!" Leonard's letters, to opposing counsel and the court, were legendary, and I am going to comb my files to see if I can find a few that he graced me with over the years. I recall his last one, a year or so ago, making me laugh, and I'm sure I responded in kind. No better tribute I can pay to a fellow practitioner.
He's at least the second long-time bankruptcy lawyer in Western New York to have passed this year before enjoying the fruits of retirement. He will be missed, even if his passing came without his responding papers being served on time.
----
After that news, some nasty papers served on me right before leaving for court, and a dealing with a totally Luddite opponent in yet another case, I was utterly exhausted when I got back from court, the bank and the office. My suit was off, and the jacket tossed on the bed, within seconds of arriving back home.
What IS it about dry-clean-only clothes, I wonder, that attracts cats like a feckin magnet? As soon as I turned around after settling into jeans and my Met t-shirt, Michelle had planted her ass firmly on top of my breast coat pocket. Grrrr, I thought; fortunately, moments of emailing later, she'd abandoned my suit for her regular position on my wrists while I tried to type. Which was just the opportunity that Zoey needed to move in on the suit coat, in the exact same spot. Untempted by the sight of my typing, she sat there for hours. Sometime next week, I'll flick black fur off my lapel and think of both of them.
----
A late afternoon 30-minute crash turned into close to two unexpected hours of recharging my REM sleep, and while I wound up with some tense moments with Emily right after that, we worked them out and by the time we sat down to dinner, Eleanor was ready to re-watch the DVD of Juno I picked up from the library earlier in the day, so we could watch it with the director and writer doing the commentary.
I'd never seen it before, but it was a sweet and funny repast. When I asked Eleanor about the connection between director Jason Reitman and Animal House's Ivan of that name, she confirmed that Jason was his son, and also mentioned that Jason had included a homage in Juno to the scene his dad shot in the earlier film where Bluto loaded up his plate in the college cafeteria. While the commentary noted it has been cut back so as not to distract from the point of the scene itself (no resulting food fight, for one thing), the final product still had enough of the spirit of Belushi to make it work on both levels.
Lots of good music, good dialogue, and great performances from an ensemble cast that did an awesome job.