Tag: lawyer

Dear Antonio,

When I think about our friendship, I obviously start with our shared high school experience.

Ah, those memories from teenage years.  There's no end to the stories of how terribly we used to behave, most especially to teachers.  Yeah we were terribly juvenile, but the stuff we used to do back then were pretty witty,

Below is a reproduction of my departure memo.

After seven and a half years at the firm, this is my last week at Shearman & Sterling.  It’s been an amazing run.

When I look back on my time at the firm, I realize how tremendously blessed I’ve been.

This Friday will be my last day at Shearman & Sterling.  After seven and a half years, the time is right for me to move on.

When I reflect on my time at Shearman & Sterling, I realize how tremendously fortunate I have been.

I once heard that the average length of a career at a major

As I look back on the past year, which flew by even faster than usual, the biggest news for me was the retirement of The Honorable Peter E. Doyne, the Assignment Judge of the Bergen Vicinage of the Superior Court of New Jersey.

Judge Doyne was my first boss and mentor.  I became his law clerk

It is often said that life in a Big Wall Street Law Firm is brutal, but the only time in my professional career that I wanted to cry came when I was a law clerk under The Honorable Peter E. Doyne, then the presiding judge of the chancery division in the Bergen vicinage of the

Have you ever Googled yourself?

I have, but that probably doesn’t come as a surprise to many of you who know how much of a narcissistic egomaniac I am.

Even if it’s in your nature to be more humble and reserved than I, I still recommend that you occasionally run a search of yourself at www.google.com, if only

For the longest time, I had no interest in reading.  

I swear it started in high school, when novels like "The Grapes of Wrath," "Walden Pond" and "The Old Man and the Sea" sent me into temporary comas.  I think my experience proves that just because a book is a "classic" doesn't mean kids in

I'll never forget the professor in my Legal Writing class in my first year of law school who said that English majors struggle mightily in the class.  It was a moment I realized that lawyers are one of the worst writers out of professionals whose job primarily revolves around writing.  Lawyers use "effect" as a

In Japan, lawyers rank right below doctors in the list of most respected professions.  In the United States, they rank with politicians as one of the most reviled.  The difference is striking.

Part of the problem in this country is oversaturation.  Compared to Japan, where the passage rate under the old bar exam was around 3%,

I think one of the most troubling flaws of American society is its inability to distinguish "should" from "could." To put another way, we seem to have fatal flaw in saying just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should, and just because you shouldn't do something doesn't mean you couldn't.

I love myself.

This blog is all about me, which is why I love it and I need people to read it, comment on it and love it.

If I'm partaking in a conversation, I need to be the center of attention.  I need people to laugh at my stories and show interest in what I say

I'm often asked, generally in Japan, which language I'm more comfortable with, English or Japanese.  Since my subconscience* (i.e. my dreams) has been in English for years, the answer to the question is obvious.

That answer, though, is actually a matter of relativity.  Just because English is my better language doesn't mean I'm a good English

Last week, I bought a TI-89 calculator.  It's like the calculator you used to get by calculus in high school, only this one is better.

I've wanted one for a long time.  My freshman year at Boston College, I got a TI-89 because I was well on my way to majoring in math.  This union lasted

The happiest moment of my life was when I got a 600 on SAT verbal.  You may say it doesn't take much to make me happy, but you'd be missing my point.  The statement is a reflection on my life-long struggle to achieve competence in verbalism, be it in English or Japanese.

I somehow managed to

Every state requires a candidate to pass two hurdles to be admitted to the bar:  the bar exam and then the moral fitness and character test.

Let me pose two hypotheticals, with variations on the second, and you tell me whether the candidate passes the moral fitness and character test.

At the end, I will state my

My sister, that bored nincompoop, created Note in Facebook with a list of 25 random facts about herself and then created a "rule" under which an unfortunate soul who was tagged will have to do the same thing.  Presumably this is the most modern rendition of the cursed chain letter so the failure to respond

I received this week's issue of Sports Illustrated yesterday.  I read SI on my commute, always in the same order:  the back page column, the front page photos, and then the "Players" section, which is increasingly becoming my favorite after the departure of columnist Rick Reilly.

For the first time that I can recall, the topic

When you're an attorney, you're almost expected to be published.  In two law-related jobs that I've held, one of the first questions I was asked was "Were you on a law journal?"  I managed to survive at the law firm and with the judge despite my answer in the negative, but I could always see

I don't think you can say you've become an official member of the firm until you have your profile posted on the firm's website.  Alas, I am now, officially, an Associate with the firm of Shearman & Sterling.

I suffer from an extreme case of inferiority complex.

The condition manifests itself in many ways, the most obvious in my refusal to stand close to a person who is taller than I am.  My height--at 6'1''--is my most redeemable quality.  Putting aside the fact that I was never able to redeem the quality--lack of athleticism