I took off Friday and headed to a small town called Shade Gap in Pennsylvania. My family owns property just outside of Shade Gap and, every spring and fall, a group heads up for a camping trip.

If the town is remote (population 97), the property on which we camp is even more so. It is surrounded on three sides by state game land and is primarily wooded. There is a dirt road through the woods that leads to a clearing, on which we pitch our tents, build our fire and spend most of our time.

There are certain traditions that have evolved — pizza grilled cheeses, a circle of chairs around the campfire, games during the day and a creepy, late-night hike through the woods to an abandoned house that sits on the property.

But my favorite part of these trips is disconnecting from the “real world.” Phone reception is limited, there is no running water and there is no electricity. Unless you drive into town, you will not see anyone other than the camping group for the entire weekend. The nearest store is about a 25-minute drive away.

I give myself permission to put the “out-of-office assistant” on my email and to leave my cell in the car for this trip. I give myself permission to leave my real life and all of the obligations, responsibilities and stress in Baltimore. For this weekend, my purpose is to enjoy the scenery and the company.

Aside from cooking and games (Frisbee, wiffle ball, boccie ball, etc.), there is no agenda on this trip. There is nowhere else to be and nothing else to be doing.

Time in Shade Gap seems to stand still; the hours stretch to the point that any concept of time is eventually lost. At noon on Saturday, for example, I was certain that it was nearly dinnertime. Read the rest of this entry »

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When I was a kid, I ate up mysteries. I collected code and cipher books, had an Apple Jacks decoder, read every Sherlock Holmes story I could find and played both Clue and Master Detective Clue (I was always Professor Plum). As a child, it was exciting to solve the whodunit, to role play mysteries with friends and to live vicariously through the great detectives. Other fictional role models included The Three Investigators (the stories had the coolest titles — “The Mystery of the Screaming Clock”) and, I’m a little embarrassed to say, The Bobbsey Twins.

As my friends know, I’m a science-fiction fanatic. With “Star Trek” off the television airwaves, I’ve had to find enjoyment elsewhere. I’ve come to know and love the British series Doctor Who and recently discovered that one of the writers of Doctor Who also created a modern spin on Sherlock Holmes for the BBC.

I’m a little late to the game — I started last week with season two (it airs Sunday nights on PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery!). I watched the first episode of the season and highly recommend it. (Nerdy sci-fi note: the actor who plays Sherlock in the BBC production is also cast in the next “Star Trek” movie. Reports are that he will play Kirk’s (original timeline) nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh).

It got me thinking about the how our profession is like a mystery story. For personal injury lawyers, many cases are about unfolding mysteries. Sure, there are some garden variety automobile accidents, but almost every case brings something interesting to the table. I’ve found defendants through Facebook, surveyed hours of MTV video footage to identify the events surrounding a crowd crush incident and pored through tens of thousands of pages of documents to identify corporate wrongdoing. Particularly in the beginning, when that new phone call comes in and the facts need to be pieced together to determine if something actionable happened. It’s a thrill.

The thing about mysteries is that they are not usually as sexy in real life. Rarely solved through Holmesian deduction, they require methodical plodding and fact-checking. One of the smartest and most effective lawyers I know was an investigative journalism major — his depositions are a wonder to behold. The key in this line of work is to keep pushing, to keep asking questions and to accumulate as much data as possible. That’s how crimes get solved.

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I haven’t seen it yet, but “The Avengers” had the biggest opening weekend ever. Comic book fans have been looking forward to seeing some of their favorite superheroes come to life on the big screen. A couple of lawyer bloggers have found a way to meld their comic book love with their day jobs. The Law and the Multiverse and Superhero Law are blogs written by attorneys that explore the legal issues surrounding characters within the superhero comic book universe.

Take S.H.I.E.L.D. for example, the shadowy government agency that appears to have its nose in a variety of superheroes’ business and in saving the world in general. The organization’s status within international law is explored by the Multiverse, which finds SHIELD is inconsistently depicted as either a U.S. or a United Nations entity. If it’s a U.N. organization then, “every single deployment would require the authorization of the member states, so the potential scope of authority in each engagement is likely to be very limited.”

On the other hand, if SHIELD is an American entity that “clears up a lot of problems, like the question of why it can exist in the first place, and it doesn’t necessarily introduce any new problems that aren’t already in play in the real world.” We’ve got SEAL Team 6 doing what SHIELD does anyway. So, maybe the comic book world isn’t so far-fetched.

In the case of The Incredible Hulk, the Multiverse finds that although Bruce Banner probably wouldn’t have an action against the government for his health problems, “depending on the nature of Banner’s employment, either the Federal Employee Compensation Act, the federal equivalent of workers’ compensation, or the Veterans Affairs Administration would provide compensation for his injuries, as he sustained them while executing his duties as a government employee.” I suppose a similar analysis would apply to Captain America.

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Who is it that won in Baltimore County?!

The biggest thing Friday (besides The Hunger Games of course) was the Mega Millions. I don’t know about you, but I had my tickets bought and my exotic vacations plans and my new career running a pro bono legal foundation/fund for animals all planned out.

I saw someone tweeted and offered to pay off all the student loan debt of the UM Law’s Class of 2012 if they won. And I’ll admit that I fell for some of the hoaxes on Twitter and elsewhere with people “claiming” to be the winner.

I’m very excited that one of the winning tickets was purchased in Baltimore County. The New York Post first broke the story about the potential Maryland winner — a McDonald’s employee. The story is that the “winner” entered a Mega Millions pool with her coworkers, but the actual winning ticket was a ticket she purchased individually, outside of the pool. 

The potential winner, Mirlande Wilson, has already spoken out and has stated that she will not be sharing her winnings with her coworkers. Is this a wise move for her to speak out? What will happen in the resulting legal battle if she did win? The Post article notes that a similar situation has happened before in New Jersey and that the winner was ordered to share his winnings with his coworkers.

A common practice for office Mega Millions pools is to make photocopies of group tickets and distribute the copies to all contributors. If Wilson really bought one more ticket for the office on her way home from work it’ll be her word against her coworkers in court.

Many think it is best to remain anonymous after winning. Maryland is one of the few states in which winners can remain anonymous. Jay Hancock wrote last year about how crucial it is to stay anonymous and to lawyer up after winning big.  Also check out the advice of a past Mega Millions winner.

It must be difficult to stay anonymous after winning though. Lottery representatives encourage winners to come forward, and who doesn’t like sharing good news? Here’s a link to a gallery of past winners.

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I’m not sure if anyone really falls for the commercial April Fool’s Day pranks anymore. It was novel a few years ago, but it is so widespread that we come to expect it (or, if you have some time to spend in front of the computer–you seek it out).

But, the point is not so much to fool consumers as it is to impress us with their cleverness.

Here’s my top five list of 2012 April Fool’s Day Pranks:

• No. 5: Google Analytics — Interplanetary Reporting.
• No. 4: The YouTube Collection on DVD — discs delivered to you for those days when the Internet is down.
• No. 3: Apple prepares to enforce its patent:  ”A quadrilateral having all four interior angles of 90°, opposite sides that are parallel, and congruent diagonals that bisect each other.”
• No. 2: Google 8-bit Quest maps. “Your system may not meet the minimum requirements for 8-bit computations.”
• No. 1:  Though the Star Wars’ Admiral Ackbar Singing Bass is a close runner-up (“It’s a trap!”), being the devoted Trekkie, I have to go with the inflatable Star Trek Captain’s chair. The product description is fantastic, and the video, though completely inane, is somehow compelling. I found myself hoping that, in the spirit of the Tauntaun sleeping bag, ThinkGeek would hear the cries of thousands of Trekkies, and get this product made. For fun, I clicked the “Buy Now” button. It’s real.

Did I miss any others? What are your favorites?

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For a job, that is. I was let go from Robert Half recently (no hard feelings, the sales numbers just weren’t there) and have joined the ranks of the many unemployed 20-something law school grads.

My situation should probably give me severe anxiety given the shape of the economy, my nonexistent savings and mountain of student loan debt. Yet, strangely, it’s been kind of all right.

I think this is in part due to the caliber of my company. I’ve seen people at the top of my class go through unemployment, and even have to relocate thousands of miles away just to get a job. If you graduated law school within the past few years, there’s a good chance you’ve experienced unemployment.

I was one of the lucky ones who had a great job lined up long before graduating from law school. In fact, this is my first period of unemployment since I was 15. (Some of my favorite adventures in pre-legal employment included a stint as a bagger at Klein’s Grocery Store and a working the information booth at the Student Union in college.) And right now, I’m enjoying as much as I possibly can the break (which hopefully won’t be too long) and freedom (limited as it may be) about which direction to go in the future.

The most humbling part of all this is to go from helping people find jobs to needing one myself. I took a big risk leaving the practice of law, and I thought it was the right decision at the time and have no regrets. I have no illusions that my decision will make a return to the practice of law that much harder now.

But the other part of why it’s been all right is how supportive everyone has been to me. My friends and roommates have reached out to their networks and my wonderful boyfriend has been incredibly supportive.

If anything, being unemployed now makes me feel like I have a more authentic voice for Generation J.D.

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