The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • Going Pantsless was the Best Thing I Did in Law School

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    Ruth Carter

    The best thing I did in law school was the 2009 No Pants Light Rail Ride in Phoenix, Arizona. The people I met there opened the doors to the opportunities that made me the lawyer and the person I am today.

    Photo by Jamey Peachy

    Improv Everywhere has been doing the No Pants Subway Ride since 2002. In preparation for the 2009 ride, they invited everyone to organize No Pants Rides on the same day in cities all over the world. Jeff Moriarty conspired with a small group of his friends to do a ride on the newly opened light rail in Phoenix. I was a first-year law student and really a nobody in my school and the greater legal community. I didn’t know Jeff back then, but I saw the event on Facebook and signed up to do it with some of my friends.

    On the day of the ride, all of my friends who were supposed to do the No Pants Ride with me chickened out. I wasn’t surprised. I said, “You guys all suck. I’m going without you” and I headed out to Tempe to meet my fellow pantsless riders. I figured Jeff had to be a cool guy for organizing the ride, so I purposely stood next to him on the ride and chatted all the way to our final destination.

    The rest is history. I can show you, in 7 connections or less, how participating in the 2009 No Pants Ride led to some of my best professional opportunities and experiences.

    No Pants Ride >>> Establishing Myself as a Legal Expert

    • Many of the people at the 2009 No Pants Ride are involved in blogging. This inspired me to have a blog.
    • Jeff Moriarty helped me create UndeniableRuth.com in January 2010.
    • I wrote, and still write, weekly posts about legal issues.
    • My posts demonstrated that I have a unique voice and competence in certain areas of law.
    • I parlayed my expertise into opportunities to write dozens of guest blog posts; provide quotes for news articles and blogs; participate in TV, radio, and podcast interviews; and give presentations at conferences.

    No Pants Ride >>> Sponsor A Law Kid  

    • I met Jeff at the 2009 No Pants Ride.
    • Jeff is the creator of Ignite Phoenix. He encouraged me to apply to be an Ignite presenter.
    • I was selected for Ignite Phoenix #5 to present Frosting the Law.
    • Kade Dworkin was one of my fellow presenters at Ignite Phoenix #5.
    • Kade had a podcast in 2010 called Meet My Followers where he interviewed his Twitter followers.
    • One of Kade’s guests was Jason Sadler, founder of I Wear Your Shirt.
    • I Wear Your Shirt inspired me to create Sponsor A Law Kid, that funded part of my final semester of law school in 2011.

    No Pants Ride >>> Paid Blogger for Attorney at Work

    • A group of us from the 2009 No Pants Ride founded Improv AZ to continue to do flash mobs and pranks in Phoenix.
    • Planning events with Improv AZ sparked my interest in flash mob law.
    • I asked Ari Kaplan whether this might be a viable niche.
    • Ari used my interest in an article for Law Practice Magazine in the fall of 2009.
    • The editor of the magazine, Mark Feldman, loved it. He continued to follow me and blog.
    • When Mark created Attorney at Work with Joan Feldman and Merrilyn Astin Tarlton, they invited me to be one of their professional bloggers in 2011.

    And that’s the tip of the iceberg. I can show how the No Pants Ride led to making some of my best professional connections, writing my first book, developing an interest in podcasting, and meeting some of the most wonderful people in my life.

    The 2012 Global No Pants Ride is this Sunday, January 8th in at least 56 cities. If there’s a ride near you, you should go. You never know what will come out of it.

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  • Sponsor A Law Kid – The Recap

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    Ruth Carter

    Well, that’s all she wrote – Sponsor A Law Kid (SALK) is in the books!  I was petrified when I initially announced this program.  I didn’t know if it would be a success or if I would fall flat on my face.  I never could have imagined how incredible this experience was.  I wanted to share some final thoughts about SALK.

    Photo by AJ Grucky

    What Have I Learned From This Experience?
    This experience taught me that sometimes your opposition becomes an asset.  I don’t think I would have had so much support for this program if I didn’t get such negative backlash initially from the legal community.  My supporters would have probably thought, “Cool idea,” and moved on, but because I was confronted with venomous negativity, they stood beside me and supported my idea and efforts.  SALK taught me that innovation will always be met with opposition and the best thing to do is to let the haters hate and focus on the task at hand.

    If I Could Go Back and Do It Again, What Would I Do Differently?
    SALK went from a passing idea in my head to the initial announcement in about 72 hours.  I didn’t fully commit to the idea until about 12 hours before the blog went up and I wrote that post was written in about 20 minutes.  I wish I had had more time to completely flush out my ideas and proofread that initial post.  It was written very much in my stream of consciousness.  People who knew me completely understood what I was saying, but others who didn’t, took offense because they didn’t get it.  If I could go back, I’d take a little more time before making the initial announcement to make sure that I conveying the message in a way that would be better received by my readers.

    If I could do it again, I would have announced SALK about 2 months earlier too.  It was hard work getting SALK going and soliciting sponsors in such a short period of time!

    How Did I Find Sponsors?
    I started out by posting the initial SALK blog and posted links to it on Twitter and Facebook.  I also made a post about it on the Phoenix Professionals Group on LinkedIn.  Then I made a list of all the products I use and the stores I patronize on a regular basis.  Unfortunately, I use a lot of national brands and chain stores, so they usually ignored my requests for sponsorship.

    I looked for ways to reach out to some of these businesses in person.  For example, I had to get my oil changed in December.  While I was waiting for Toyota to be done with my car, I spoke with a marketing person at the dealership and walked out with a check and 2 more sponsored days.

    I also reached out to every business that advertises in local magazines that I occasionally read and I sent emails to every major news station in the Phoenix area to see if any of them would be interested in running a story about SALK.  I was pleasantly surprised when ABC Channel 15 called back 10 minutes later asking if they could send a reporter to my house that afternoon.

    What Was The Biggest Challenge?
    The biggest challenge was creating quality content every day.  After writing blogs for 23 consecutive days, I was grateful for a day off.  Some days I wouldn’t get done with my school work until 9pm and I’d still have a blog to research and write before I went to bed.  If I did not know the person or company well, it took longer because I wanted to be sure that I wrote a thoughtful and accurate blog.

    How Much Money Did I Earn With SALK?
    I earned over $3,200 by doing SALK.  This includes the days that were sponsored and people who purposely overpaid the days they sponsored.  The total also includes Bashas’ Grocery Stores.  I asked them to sponsor a day, and they responded by offering a $1,000 scholarship.

    Would I Do It Again?
    Yes!

    Should Other Law Students Do This?
    Absolutely!  This was a great way to make a national name for myself in the legal community and to network with other professionals while offsetting the cost of my education.  Besides the fact that I was more tired than I otherwise would have been, there was no downside to this program.

    With SALK, I offered every day for sale between January 1 and July 27.  That’s a lot more days than a typical academic semester, and thus, I had the potential to make a lot more money.  If I only sold the semester, I could only sell about 115 days, including weekends.  That would not have covered the entire cost of a semester of school.  If anyone wants to have their own SALK program, I suggest doing the math to see how much you might make if every day sold.

    Thank you to all my sponsors who made SALK a success:  Darvin and Jane DeShazer, Amanda Ellis, ThinkGeek, Donna McGill, Vincent Cannizzaro, Debbie Walker, Camelback Toyota, Tyler Hurst, Henry’s Hope, Sara Shea, Tyler Allen, Michael Vincent, The Foster Group, Nancy Smith, Jana Knapp, K Royal, Jane Ross, Katrina Holland, Brand X Custom T-shirts, the Ferreira Family, Fred Von Graf, Bev Wolf, Sheila Dee, Bristol6, Two Men and A Truck, Pam Gibson, Michelle Diaz Cannon, Stephanie Green, Micah and Danielle Larripa, Aaron M. Kelly, Linda Day, Kerry Mitchell, Matt Hollowell, and David E. Mills.  I couldn’t have done this without you!

    Please see all my SALK posts here.

  • SALK Day 208: David E. Mills

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    Ruth Carter

    Today is my last day of Sponsor A Law Kid!!  My final sponsor of this adventure is David E. Mills of The Mills Law Office.    His recent claim to fame is being among the few lawyers who have had the privilege of arguing a case before the United States Supreme Court.  He obtained a 9-0 decision in Ortiz v. Jordan earlier this year.  I love that he’s done so much, and yet he’s still a down-to-earth person who works out of his apartment in Cleveland, Ohio.  He asked me to relay the story behind him becoming my final sponsor.

    David E. Mills, courtesy of Mills Law Office

    I announced Sponsor A Law Kid on November 16, 2010.  The idea came to me somewhat on a whim, and I had no idea if it would work.  My friend in the blogging world told me to “put out a blog post and see what happens.”  At that time, I had been blogging for less than a year and I was happy to have a few dozen people visit my site a day.  It took a few days, but Above the Law and the ABA Journal websites each ran a story about my endeavor and my numbers started to climb rapidly.

    And then the comments started.  People who didn’t know me and wouldn’t know me from Adam, visited my site and left comments claiming that they were embarrassed for me and that I was lazy, undedicated, and begging for money.   It was hard to approve those mean-spirited comments.  I did not expect that level of negative backlash from the legal community.

    I had over 3,000 hits in the first 10 days after I announced the program, including David.  He saw the post about Sponsor A Law Kid on Above the Law.  He thought my idea was interesting, and he was curious to see what people’s reactions were.   David had no intention of buying a day.  However, when he visited my site, he was so appalled by the unwarranted insults towards me and was so impressed with the way I calmly responded to them, that he offered to buy my most expensive day.

    I’m so grateful for all the support I’ve received for this program.  Now that Sponsor A Law Kid is over, we need to find new endeavors to support, like the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.  Cleveland has a very special place in my heart, and this is a fantastic organization that provides a wide variety of legal resources for people who can’t otherwise afford legal representation.  It is staffed by wonderful people who work tirelessly for their clients.  They embody what the practice of law is supposed to be.

    Sponsor A Law Kid was my endeavor to pay for my last semester of law school. Today’s sponsor is David E. Mills.  For more information about Sponsor A Law Kid, visit my Sponsor A Law Kid page.