I was recently invited back to Georgetown Law to participate in a panel for incoming LL.M. students. Like every responsible event right now, this panel was held virtually.
The theme was how LL.M. students can best navigate this (not so new) virtual environment for job-hunting purposes.
I visited Houston for the first time recently for the Texas Minority Counsel Program. The city reminded me a lot of Dallas, except downtown Houston felt more vibrant.
After a week full of networking, working, and spending way too much on Uber, I feel like I got a sense of the city.
It’s shortly after 3 a.m. and I’m walking across D.C. in a black suit carrying two narrow duffle bags.
I am prepared to 1) get mugged, or 2) explain to a police officer that I’m not a hitman, but rather a tax lawyer headed to the Supreme Court.
The duffle bags contain branded folded chairs from my law firm. I am on my way to a hotel to meet an associate lawyer who flew in from one of our other offices.
I make it to the hotel without getting mugged or stopped by a cop.
The associate is outside of the hotel with a woman from a competing law firm in New York. Introductions are made and we then have the most ridiculous time getting a cab – the three taxis in front of the hotel are not interested in driving us only 2 miles to court. They would rather wait for a more lucrative fare to a far flung airport.
It’s about 4 a.m. and there are already dozens of people camped out in line.
Professional line-standers in front of the Supreme Court.
The lines in front of the Supreme Court before the Wayfair v. South Dakota oral arguments.
The case that attracted this odd mix of tax lawyers, tourists, and professional line-standers is South Dakota v. Wayfair. This is the first major state and local tax (SALT) case to reach the Supreme Court in about 25 years and my SALT professors have been buzzing about the case ever since my first week at Georgetown’s tax LL.M. program.
In August, I never imagined that I would actually be present at such an important Supreme Court oral argument. (The timing at the end of the semester is terrible.) And yet here I am, in the middle of the night among new coworkers.
One of the most interesting things about living in D.C. is that there are so many young people with advanced degrees and white collar professionals from all over the world. (The diversity of the city is also a refreshing change.)
However something curious happens almost every time that I find myself at a D.C. party or social event – I get “the D.C. disclaimer” – which is some variation of:
“I hate how people in D.C. always ask, ‘what do you do?’ People here are so concerned about networking and they just want to know what you can do for them and their careers. It’s obnoxious and I don’t want to be one of those people…”
And then the person proceeds to ask me what I do.
The second semester of my Georgetown tax LL.M. program is marked by a lot of procedural and practical courses. That’s one of the best things about learning from adjunct professors — they tell you how things work in practice and what traps they see other lawyers falling for.
Networking is a skill that I’m constantly trying to become less awkward at, so I made a point of looking-up the chart after class. (Also, if one of the leading SALT practitioners in the country tells you to read something, you do it.)
Explaining social media tools to someone who doesn’t use them is always awkward, but I’ll try anyway.
I use social media tools to make my life easier. This is how that works:
The blog:
Twitter lets me instantly connect with friends, professionals, and others. Twitter is less harassing and time consuming than an IM conversation, and a great way to meet new people, especially other law students and lawyers.
There is a lot of noise on twitter that I don’t subscribe to. I don’t follow people who only retweet news stories, stock prices, quotes, or “deals” that no one cares about. It’s like subscribing to junk mail. And to that I say, “Bitch, boo, bye.”
Twitter, is not (for me at least) a popularity contest to find the most followers. The important part about twitter is connecting with real people. And if I also happen to get a coupon from a local pizza place then that’s just an amazing bonus…
The ultimate way to connect with locals. Foursquare uses my phone’s GPS to locate me and attaches that location to my tweets.
Foursquare also tells me who else is at my location and has allowed me to connect with coworkers and neighbors who I would otherwise not have met. There has been a recent stink over privacy concerns, but it’s simple to give the address of a nearby park or public place when you’re at a friend’s house or at home.
If someone was really going to rob you or stalk you, they would (and could) do it without the assistance of Foursquare. This is why the new Taser X3 is super affordable and comes in cute “fashion colors.”
Where it all comes together. Chances are that you are reading this post on facebook, or have become my facebook friend after running into me on Foursquare or Twitter.
My facebook account is constantly updated with posts from my blog, Foursquare, and Twitter. This is incredibly convenient because people just have to look at my facebook page to see where I am, and what I’m up to.
Giving my friends this information makes my life easier because my friends know when I am available. The running-updated schedule makes people more likely to respect my time and less likely to pester me when I’m busy. The updates are also conversation starters and invitations for my neighbors to join me at local cafes and bars if they are in the area.
My social media connectivity never feels like a “big brother” or exhibitionist situation because all of these applications require an affirmative action to update. This makes a true, unintended, overshare uncommon. Which is why you won’t know if I’m constipated at a rat-infested 7-Eleven restroom unless I post it (which I won’t, don’t worry.)
My life is made easier by sharing more information rather than less. I got used to living in the proverbial fishbowl as a resident assistant in undergrad, and living in the fishbowl is rather comfortable.
I share what I want to, and I find that perpetual connection with others is far better to being out of the loop.
Note: Best Week Ever (BWE) is a summary of the prior week.
I had two oral arguments on Monday. My moot court section has an odd number of students, so I volunteered to argue off-brief.
It was slightly awkward waltzing in and arguing for the other side: “May it please the Court, forget everything I said one hour ago! These guys are so totally not guilty, and US Americans…”
It wasn’t so terrible, and I survived.
I spent the bulk of Tuesday’s school day in the Sprint Store. The Rottweiler ate my phone, and a quick lunch-time phone replacement turned into an epic customer service fail.
I made a point of not being snide or pissy with the Sprint customer service reps. It is embarrassing and stressful enough for a worker to look incompetent in front of a customer. Exasperating someone’s discomfort is not going to make them provide better service.
My politeness also allowed me to adopt a sense of moral superiority while watching the parade of rude customers that came into the store.
The worst guy was a very short man with a baseball cap who walked in with his arms folded:
Chipper customer service rep: “Welcome to Sprint! How may we help you today?”
Napoleon: (dramatic pause) “I have been a customer for over 15 years! I demand service! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?”
We eventually got my blackberry working, and I spent the rest of the week playing foursquare and connecting with more Minnesotans.
Foursquare is this stalkerish, twitter-like application that uses your GPS to pinpoint your location and broadcasts the location to your facebook and twitter streams.
You can leave to-do tips for other users, and even see who else is at your location. This is awesome because when I “check in” at work I am instantly connected to new coworkers.1
My workweek started on Wednesday. I’m not sure if this was a good idea.
I had the same problem last week: I went to work on Wednesday after an exhausting school day and I got behind on cases.
I did not want my quota to suffer, so I spent the rest of the week playing catch up and worked for free on Sunday.
Several of my coworkers had the same problem. You get behind, feel guilty for being behind… stress builds, productivity decreases, you wake up the next day with more to do than the day before…
I refused to get on the hamster wheel this week. I have always met my employer’s productivity quota and I’m not going to walk around like Raggedy Ann because I failed to live up to my artificially heightened expectations for one day. Cue Portia Nelson.
Friday was epic, Saturday was calm, and today is my day of work and homework. It is like prepping before cooking the feast. The more work I get done today, the easier my mini-school week will be. We’ll see how this goes….
1 My connectedness level has increased with the blackberry. I have never been so up to date on my email. I think the best part of the PDA experience has been meeting more Minnesotans. I hate to use the term “networking” but that’s essentially what’s going on.
My most recent post over at The Shark is about the importance of “networking” within law school. The idea is to create a base of meaningful acquaintances. The semi-rambling post is here.
We all know that guy or girl. Over at The Shark I have a post addressing annoying social networkers. I included 5 easy ways to avoid joining the irritating crowd. The post is here.
