[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
[quote]pushmepullme wrote:
[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
[quote]pushmepullme wrote:
[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
[quote]pushmepullme wrote:
[quote]chimera182 wrote:
21, so sobriety might be an issue.
[/quote]
Welcome to my life.
Prepping for a hearing tomorrow by reading some cases with a frosty Dale’s Pale Ale. 
My hearing is at 1:30. My drinking inlaws get into town at 11. Curses![/quote]
I learned a new trick this past Saturday. You can go a lot further if you drink equal parts water. I saw two girls kill half a handle of Beam by themselves (I killed the other half…I think). Now, they were definitely tipsy, but that water saved 'em.[/quote]
I was advised of the same thing by a guy we met at the bar on our honeymoon. I’m not drinking enough to get tipsy…I’m trying to remember this shit.
And Deb, if you’re curious, I’m treating this as personal CLE and not billable time. ;-)[/quote]
What’s personal CLE?[/quote]
CLE = continuing legal education. Attorneys in most states are obligated to take a certain number of hours of education each year (or period of years). In Colorado, I have to take 45 hours of education and 7 hours of ethics education over every three years. Generally you take a class and sign an affidavit that you attended X hours. I’m taking a real estate course right now that is something like 15 hours of general and 4 hours of ethics, spread over 10 weeks.
Since I’m reading something applicable to a client’s specific case and my practice in general, but I’m drinking beer (and T-Nationing) while doing it, it’s not really ethical of me to bill the client for my time spent. So I’m just treating it as time I spend making myself a better attorney.
If I could get CLE for beer drinking…[/quote]
So, it is not ethical to drink while studying cases?[/quote]
Ethical, sure, if you’re not billing a client, or making a binding decision for that client while you’re drinking. Alcoholism is rampant in the profession and I have no doubt that attorneys with drinking problems have been grieved, and found not liable, in spite of poor decision making when alcohol is involved. I’m not interested in being grieved, so I stick to the straight and narrow with clients.
What I’m getting here tonight is reinforcement for what I already know and have researched. Basically, my night has been spent going “sweet, what I thought was right, was right, and I wasn’t totally full of shit with my written pleading…hope my witnesses say what I want them to say, and that I can convince the judge, and that opposing counsel isn’t the asshole I anticipate he’ll be.”
I am of the opinion that one can never prepare enough for anything. So I won’t sleep well tonight, and I’ll think of new counterarguments I haven’t discussed with the client yet, and I’ll probably email him at 3 am. I need to learn how to let go of work when I am off work.
