Welcome to Gaia! ::

Oh, that explains everything!


During Legal Process yesterday, we were talking about professional request letters and how to write them. The professor was talking about how, even if you know the opposing attorney, it's best to treat them as if you don't. This doesn't mean to be rude, but not to write something more informal, because your client gets a copy too and they won't like it. She phrased that something like this: "So, even if you golf together, drink together, or Vegas together, don't mention any of that in a professional letter."

I thought to myself after this, and heard someone else whisper to a neighbor, "When did Vegas become a verb?"

----------
Later that same day, we were looking at an example of a bad letter which said, "I would suggest that you advise your client that..." The professor pointed out that this is a bad way to do it. You don't demand a lawyer tell their client anything (unless you have a position to do so, like a senior partner or a judge, but that's another matter). Quote from the professor: "You see, attorneys act like their six years old in times like these. You write a rude letter telling them to do something and they won't do it.

-----------------
We also got a lesson on not to send rude, stupid e-mails, in case we didn't know that before. To teach this, the professor told/showed us the story of a lawyer named Dianna Abdala, who had an exchange of e-mails between her and a prospective employer forwarded around. Here's the whole exchange.

—–Original Message—–

From: Dianna Abdala
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 9:23 PM
To: William Korman
Subject: Thank you

Dear Attorney Korman,

At this time, I am writing to inform you that I will not be accepting your offer.

After careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that the pay you are offering would neither fulfill me nor support the lifestyle I am living in light of the work I would be doing for you. I have decided instead to work for myself, and reap 100% of the benefits that I sew [sic].

Thank you for the interviews.

Dianna L. Abdala, Esq.

—– Original Message —–

From: William A. Korman
To: ‘Dianna Abdala’
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 12:15 PM
Subject: RE: Thank you

Dianna -

Given that you had two interviews, were offered and accepted the job (indeed, you had a definite start date), I am surprised that you chose an e-mail and a 9:30 PM voicemail message to convey this information to me. It smacks of immaturity and is quite unprofessional. Indeed, I did rely upon your acceptance by ordering stationery and business cards with your name, reformatting a computer and setting up both internal and external e-mails for you here at the office. While I do not quarrel with your reasoning, I am extremely disappointed in the way this played out. I sincerely wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

- Will Korman

—–Original Message—–

From: Dianna Abdala
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 4:01 PM
To: William A. Korman
Subject: Re: Thank you

A real lawyer would have put the contract into writing and not exercised any such reliance until he did so.

Again, thank you.

—– Original Message —–

From: William A. Korman
To: ‘Dianna Abdala’
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 4:18 PM
Subject: RE: Thank you

Thank you for the refresher course on contracts. This is not a bar exam question. You need to realize that this is a very small legal community, especially the criminal defense bar. Do you really want to start pissing off more experienced lawyers at this early stage of your career?

—–Original Message—–

From: Dianna Abdala
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 4:29 PM
To: William A. Korman
Subject: Re: Thank you

bla bla bla

Er... you seem to be standing in my spot.

And in the end isn't that what college is all about?! O=

Perhaps!

The MC Hammer thing really was strange though. It was like, out of nowhere.

We have tons of fun in classes here.
We have one teacher who loves to bring in ANYTHING even remotely culturally relevant so we'll pop in all kinds of movies and watch South Park and sometimes SNL.
One day she brought in Live Free or Die Hard so that she could illustrate a sort of modern-day Robinsinade.... and narrated it the entire time xd

Not that the chem department wasn't enjoyable... Dr. Dudek did a semi-strip dance for the advanced chem class once before doing a demonstration to some 80s song that I can't remember.

Yeah I have this mental picture of your Rawring.


Looks like :

K tiger

this is you in the morning