The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • Day 57/90 – Laughter at Work

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    Ruth Carter

    Day 57 of the 90 Days of Awesome is in the bank! What made today awesome? I got to laugh at work.

    When most people think about the practice of law, they probably don’t picture people laughing at their desks (except maybe the evil laugh). I’m lucky that I get a lot of joy from my work and sometimes my work is so much fun it makes me laugh. And part of my job is keeping up with contacts on social media, which tends to make me burst out laughing throughout the day. Here are two of today’s highlights:

    1.  My friend, The Namby Pamby, tweeted:

    I responded that he and I would be Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets if that were allowed.

    2.  I’m working on a contract right now that might be the best contract I’ve ever written. (It could top the one where one party had to attest to the other that he is “a sexy bitch.”) I love it when my clients are thoughtful and creative with their contracts. This one is a licensing agreement for a unique project and my client is a down-to-earth, somewhat blunt entrepreneur and I’m trying to write in his voice rather than legalese. I asked him if he wanted any “Easter eggs” in his contract and he gave me some suggestions. I wish more clients asked me to write crazy awesome clauses in their contracts.

    I love my work.

    In case you missed it: Day 56 of the 90 Days of Awesome – I did my first underwater photo shoot!

  • Day 8/90 – I Almost Met The Namby Pamby

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    Ruth Carter

    Day 8 of the 90 Days of Awesome is in the bank! What made today awesome? I almost met The Namby Pamby!

    Yeah...I wrote this.
    Yeah…I wrote this.

    Ok, so it’s not as awesome as it would have been to actually meet him, but sometimes trying to make something happen is pretty awesome even if it doesn’t work out.

    I’ve known of The Namby Pamby since law school. He’s my favorite Cheez-It loving lawyer. Behind his alter ego, he tells the truth of what it’s like to be an associate at a big law firm (or so he claims). I can usually count on him to make me laugh.

    One of my favorite things about The Namby Pamby is I don’t know who he is. A few years ago, I asked him to write the afterword for The Legal Side of Blogging for Lawyers. I was surprised and overjoyed when he responded within minutes with an astounding “Yes.” He wrote the essay under his pseudonym that allows him to speak candidly about his experiences, except for the details he has to change to protect his identity. My agreement with him includes a provision that says in the event I learn his true identity, I’m obligated to keep it a secret.

    Just my luck The Namby Pamby had a meeting in Phoenix today. Unfortunately, he had to prep for his meeting the evening before and catch his flight home right after so we didn’t get to meet for drinks as we hoped.

    Someday we’ll be in the same city and we’ll finally get to meet face-to-face.

    In case you missed it: Day 7 of the 90 Days of Awesome – Sleeping In!

  • What’s the Better Rush: Skydiving or Litigation?

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    Ruth Carter

    Last Friday, The Namby Pamby tweeted:

    Namby Tweet

    My response: “You know there’s this activity called skydiving – does the trick too with a lot more fun.”

    Namby claims he won’t “jump out of a perfectly good airplane,” but I think he’s denying a parachute its destiny.

    The closest things I’ve done to litigation is trial advocacy classes where the final was a mini fake trial, so I can’t say whether litigation prep or skydiving is a better adrenaline rush. But here’s the breakdown of the experiences from my perspective and based The Namby Pamby’s and The Mrs. Namby Pamby’s tweets.

    SKYDIVING LITIGATION
    It’s Saturday I’m doing whatever I want You’re working
    The View Amazing view from the plane and on the way down I hope your office has a window
    The Company Handpicking my group, including inviting the awesome Peter Shankman if he’s in town Dealing with potentially annoying coworkers, opposing counsel, and clients
    The Significant Other Can come too Has trouble remembering what you look like
    The Money Paying for the experience Getting paid – but how much do you really make per hour?
    The Risk I could die – but it will be fast You could be dying a slow death – due to stress, substance abuse, poor diet, etc.
    The Social Good Probably minimal Righting a wrong

    Created with the HTML Table Generator

    I asked my legal eagle friends whether skydiving or litigation had a better rush and they agree that skydiving is better than litigation.

    Mike: “Skydiving. I’ve done both, and there’s no comparison.”

    Chad: “I am going to say skydiving. After several years I began to dread litigation. I can’t imagine skydiving losing its appeal because the other skydivers are unprofessional poorly trained ass hats.”

    A criminal defense attorney recently told me that hearing the phrase “Not guilty” was better than orgasm and I get that given that that might be a live-or-death situation. However, I remain unconvinced that doing litigation prep all weekend has a better adrenaline rush than skydiving.

    What do you think?