non-combat litigation also took away the threat of serious bodily injury, which was then a serious deterent to those contemplating charging another with a crime or misdeed.

how many of your cases would be litigated today if serious personal injury was possible…even if the client knew they would “win” in the end?

I actually did enjoy the bar exams I took, both of them (Utah and Texas). The multistate, especially, just made me feel better about life. Nothing like a 99th %tile score to make you feel better about life in some way.

But transactional law … there is a reason I am a litigator, though I envy Nate his appellate work. The closest I get is motions for summary judgment which I am intentionally simplifying, and the occasional bookending I’m able to accomplish. But, three MSJ wins on the year so far and it is only February 8. Obviously most years don’t start off quite so good and I remember a great deal of pleasure when I used to do appeals, even in the ones that didn’t go well or the many I did for other attorneys, under their names.

Though the worst thing to have happen is to win an appeal with an opinion that notes that you missed a change in the law, though opposing counsel waived the issue by not raising it, so you win, even though you were wrong, and btw, let us cite all the relevant cases so Westlaw will now have them all show up with red flags instead of bright blue H’s and nothing in the history to warn anyone … so anyone who revisits the area will get linked to your opinion.

Sigh.

What do you make of the doctrine that all things obey God but man? I take it to mean that, though God did not create it wholly, All That Is has deep beauty and rationality because He orders it all to His ends and its greatest good. Even the Fall, the disorderliness of man and the consequent disordering of nature, have a deep orderliness in it when you see the purposes and reasons for it. Maybe I’m slowly moving myself towards suggesting that, like art, the universe is more beautiful (perhaps even beautiful at all) because God is working within certain constraints: his purposes and that things are they way they are.

Consider it like this, Nate Oman. Is the watch no less a tribute to the watchmaker though he found the metal in the ground? Are your briefs arguing the law imperfect because you have not have made all the laws?

I also don’t believe said professor has published anything since getting tenure. If you look at his bibliography, it appears he published a rash of articles the year or two prior to the tenure grant and then nothing for the last 8 years. It appeared to me at least that he spent most of his time and energy dating students (and apparently reading cold war spy novels)

Greg

No offense intended by the vomit comment. I have been here off and on (although rarely posting) since December 2003. I found T&S during the first months of my life away from rich social and intellectual school fora; the first months of my life spent alone in an office with nothing but westlaw, a few case files, and the ticking of a government-issue clock to keep me company. In other words, I think I understand why you all created T&S, and I am glad you did. Likewise, I don’t know how you keep up the quality of your posts, your extensive reading, and your biglaw work, but I am glad you do.

Speak not slightingly of commercial paper…The bar exam, I grant you, is about as much fun as having your teeth pulled without anesthetic. Well, perhaps not that much fun….