My hometown Toulon, Illinois, is a small farm community of 1,200 souls about three hours southwest of the Chicago sprawl. During my youth, it featured five gas stations; four churches; three grocery stores and two doctors, which said something about gas, God and medicine in my 1960s rural America.
I remember being on cloud nine as I drove home from work not too long ago—two hours late but excited to sneak up on my 1-year-old as she played in the bath. I was working as a federal prosecutor, and some agents and I had finally cracked (through equal part persistence and luck) a cross-border money laundering case that had seemed to be hopeless until that morning.
Ten years ago, I was a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed young attorney, fresh from a federal clerkship and eager to start my litigation career. One year later, I was a sleepless, burned-out basket case on my way out the door asking myself, “Did I make an awful mistake when I went to law school?” Fast forward almost a decade, and I can answer that question with a resounding no.
“Is it possible to both hold a peaceful protest and allow a controversial speaker to speak?” Cassandra Hill, the dean of the Northern Illinois University College of Law, posed this question to me last month, as she moderated a LexCon '23 panel, which explored how schools can support students and protect First Amendment rights during times of conflict.
Winding down my Polish airport real estate development projects, I sold my Polish car parking company in 2011 to a Belgian company, closing the deal in a Warsaw conference room packed with 11 lawyers and towers of documents in Polish and English, even though the buyers primarily spoke French.
My daughter was diagnosed with cancer on Nov. 2, 2020. She had just turned 3 months old. I was visiting my family in Idaho while on maternity leave from my BigLaw job in Washington, D.C., when we got the news. Devastated and confused, we took her to St. Luke’s Children’s Cancer Institute in Boise and barely emerged for months.
Every practicing attorney is familiar with the prelaw literary canon—that list of books every law student should read. A Civil Action, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Buffalo Creek Disaster. These books are meant to inspire a love of justice, hard work and a desire to fight for society’s underdogs.
Do you have an interest in sharing your experience and expertise as a practicing lawyer by teaching for a few weeks at a law school in Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa? The Senior Lawyer Visiting Professors Program might be for you.
John Erlick, Diane Fener, Richard A. Rosen, Julia Sullivan and David Zarski
Mark Twain once said "action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often." While that general sentiment applies in almost limitless contexts, one centrally relevant to the legal profession is the push to improve mental health and well-being among lawyers and law students.
Probably to his regret, the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart is best remembered for his famous nondefinition of obscenity: “I know it when I see it,” in Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964).
The ABA Journal wants to host and facilitate conversations among lawyers about their profession. We are now accepting thoughtful, non-promotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors.
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