A doctor and a lawyer were talking at a party. Their conversation was
constantly interrupted by people describing their ailments and asking the doctor for free medical advice.
After an hour of this, the exasperated doctor asked the lawyer,
“What do you do to stop people from asking you for legal advice when you’re out of the office?”
“I give it to them,” replied the lawyer, “and then I send them a bill.”
The doctor was shocked, but agreed to give it a try. The next day, still
feeling slightly guilty, the doctor prepared the bills. When he went to place
them in his mailbox, he found a bill from the lawyer.

“Hey!  I thought you were going to treatment today?”

 ”They rejected me!  They said I wasn’t a drug addict.”

Yesterday we had a high of 3 degrees.  Tiffany and I stayed in the house as much as possible…actually, she never left, but I spent an hour outside trying to get a storage shed that had gone airborned from the previous night’s wind out of my tree.  Today I could not avoid the outside as it was my first day of class.  My nosehairs literally froze and I developed ice in my facial hair from my breath.  awesome. 

Still loving it though.

22 is not that cold

Originally uploaded by bmw00a

“Welcome to Missoula!”

That’s the greeting we receive everytime we tell someone we just moved here. So far (two weeks) things have been great up here. We spent about a week getting adjusted to the weather (caughing up our lungs, and wondering just how much our noses could run). Now we’re getting into the swing of things. Tiffany and I have been keeping busy working and exploring the town, and we’ve found a church full of sincerely nice people who apparently all LOVE to eat. Surprisingly we have discovered a lot of transplanted Texans there. When the nights aren’t too cold we spend some time walking the dogs around the neighborhood and marveling at the snow. Hopefully we will still have time to do that after classes start next week.

Here is a list of things we have discovered/learned since leaving Texas:

1. Eastern Wyoming in winter is the worst place on earth. The high winds drop the temp to -20 degrees, the roads are not well-maintained (plowed/salted/sanded), and the towns are all few and far between. I created a motto while driving through, “Wyoming: Warm & Friendly as Dick Cheney!”

2. Penske trucks do not travel very fast when crossing the Continental Divide.

3. In Montana, and ice scraper is a must have.

4. In Missoula, people are very casual about waking up and finding a bear in their garage.

5. Bears like apple trees.

6. Just because the snow is melting in the morning doesn’t mean it won’t come back by nightfall.

7. 22 degrees is not really that cold.

8. Apparently “snow-shoeing” is a thing.

9. A law school of 180 studentsin Missoula, MT is far more technologically advanced than a law school about three times that size in Houston, TX.

10. Elton John, The Blue Man Group, and The Decemberists all perform at the University of Montana.

11. Tiffany talks quite often about staying here long-term.

12. I like that.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Last night I was sitting in the dark, dank school auditorium getting ready for my Mediation final, when a friend of mine who I havn’t seen much of all semester can and sat beside me.

“I have a funny story to tell you.  I googled myself a few days ago, and a few pages in I came across a quote you might be familiar with.  Something along the line of ‘I don’t know if it was Mark Bankston or the Judge, but someone kicked my ass in oral arguments today, and kicked it hard!’  I can’t wait until you’re a famous attorney, I’m gonna show everybody that I once beat the champ!”

These are the kinds of moments and the kind of people I am going to miss when (and here I break the blawg news) we move to Montana.  That’s right folks, after months, and months, and months of thinking, deciding, changing our minds, changing them back, and thinking some more, everything has suddenly fallen into place in one fell swoop.  I will be spending my last year of Law School ”visiting” at The University of Montana.  In one week we’ve found a house up there, a renter for our house down here, and employment.  We will be moving at the end of this month, all the way across the country, by ourselves…Not gonna lie, its terrifying.

I keep on thinking of all the people I have bonded with during this whole experience called Law School.  Many of us have been humiliated together, fretted together, freaked the hell out together, laughed together, studied together, and supported and comforted each other through the most grueling educational process around…(this just in-in the Republican Debate John McCain just said the Tax Code needs to be revised because nobody understands it.  John McCain never had Yamamoto for Federal Income Tax).  It’s going to be hard to leave these guys.

But then I have to think about the good stuff.  I’m going to Montana.  I’m going flyfishing!  I’m going hiking!  I’m going to wrestle with Bears!  I’m going to be a few hours from Glacier and Yellowstone, and most of all, while the winter may be cold, it won’t be 100 degrees plus humidity in the summer.  Undoubtedly I will miss Moot Court, but I’ll enjoy mountain biking much, MUCH more than staying at the school until late and night every night.  Why would I pass on an opportunity to take an easy semester or two in the mountains, with all of my credits transfering back pass/fail?

Any and All are welcome to come visit us in the Great State of Montana.  I can promise you that if my born and raised Texas wife was converted, it’s not too late for you. 

And so I leave the folks of Texas with the words of Dr. Elmo, who summed it up much better than I can:

We will breath our share/ of that mountain air/ and we’ll all laugh just like Santa/

Every morn we’ll rise/to the azure skies/of the great state of Montana

Oh the ppl there/ they have no grey hair/ cuz they never have a worry/ In the Big Sky State you don’t have to wait/ so you’re never in a hurry

Now don’t you fear/ cuz the water’s clear/ and the rich folks there ain’t snooty/ and the men out there/ they seldom swear/ and the girls are never moody

To the great state of Montana/I will bow and tip my hat/ We are on our way Susana/ Who can ask for more than that?

This weekend I traveled to Carbondale, Illinois as part of a Moot Court team for the National Health Law Competition.  The problem involved two statutes drafted by the state of Lincoln (Illinois—which has very similar statutes).  The Must Dispense Rule required all pharmacists to dispense contraceptives upon receipt of a valid Rx.  If the items were not in stock, the pharmacist was required to order the contraceptive.  A pharmacist was allowed to return a Rx to a customer ONLY upon the customer’s request.  The Counseling Provision stated that pharmacists were not allowed to voice any religious, moral, or ethical objections to contraceptives while dispensing.

Frank Goody (Petitioner) had his license revoked by the Lincoln Dept. of Prof. Regulation (Respondent) after he refused to fill a Rx for the emergency contraceptive Plan B.  A 17 y/o girl came into his store with a valid Rx, but not only did he refuse to dispense or order the med, and returned the Rx to her without her asking for it, he made comments about not wanting her baby’s blood on his hands come judgment day.  Mr. Goody operates the only pharmacy in the town of Smallsville.  The girl was able to drive 45 miles to the nearest town of Biggsville, where she was able to receive the med.

Day 1

Round 1:          FIGHT!

We represent the Pharmacist.  We (I) am extremely nervous.  I am the first speaker, which means I start off the whole show.  It is my first National competition, so I am freaking out.  I try to lighten the mood and calm my nerves by cracking jokes.  Finally, the panel enters, and I am called to the podium, and I give my 14 min argument as to why the Must Dispense Rule violates the Free Exercise Clause of the 1^st Amend.  I finish my argument, sit down, and don’t remember anything that I said, but I guess it was good enough, because we won.

Round 2:          FIGHT!

We represent the Department.  This is a 7:00 PM round.  I have been in a suit all day.  I am tired, and I stink.  I am first speaker for the Department, but since the Petitioner gives their argument first, I get to listen to the other side argue for 28 minutes before I have to go.  I listen, and find the holes in their argument, which I point out to the panel when it finally becomes my turn.  This is my weaker argument (nothing to do with the merits, I just don’t have it as memorized as the other one), but I am able to sway the court with ease.  Every question I respond too seems to fall upon nodding heads.  We win again.

After the second round, the awards for Best Brief, Runner-up Best Brief, and Best Oralist for the preliminary rounds are announced.  Our team wins runner-up best brief.  This is important because in each round, oral scores are only 60% of your total score.  The other 40% is the brief.  Thus we can be evenly matched with another team orally, but we will still win because of the brief.  We are 3.333 point behind the Best Brief team.  We know it will probably be us v. them in the final round.

Day 2

Round 3 (16 Teams Remaining):           FIGHT!

By loss of a coin toss, we represent the Pharmacist.  I am getting less and less nervous.  We are sitting around joking with the members from the other team before the round begins.  They are nice people, too bad we will have to crush them.  The round actually seemed very close orally.  We seemed to be on equal footing.  But our brief score beat theirs by 10 points.  Whatever the oral scores were, we advanced.  They had great sportsmanship, and when they wished us luck, I knew they were sincere.

Round 4 (8 Teams Remaining): FIGHT!

By loss of another coin toss, we represent the Pharmacist.  Before the round begins, I am asked by a girl from the other team what school we are with.  We’re not supposed to tell any of the judges, but none of them are in the room yet.  I had always heard that South Texas College of Law is well-known in these competitions (we have 96 National Championships), but I never believed it until I mentioned the name of our school and saw the look of fear come across her face.  Apparently that was enough.  They were very nervous, and could barely get out their arguments.

Round 5 (4 Teams Remaining): FIGHT!

By bad luck of the draw we are going against the other team from South Texas.  We win the coin toss and choose to represent the Pharmacist.  We are warmed up on that side.  The good news is that STCL WILL have a team in the final round.  The bad news is that we will have to beat a team we have been practicing with and bonding with for 3 weeks.  We know the holes in each other’s arguments, but our brief score is 10 points higher.  We had an EXTREMELY biased panel.  My partner and I were asked 20 questions each, the other team was asked about 6 total.  Even though I would say they won the oral round by a slight margin, our brief bailed us out, which was good, because in the final round, as predicted, it was Best Brief v. Second Best Brief.

Final Round:     FIGHT!

We are going against a team with a better brief score, but only by 3.333 points.  We MUST beat them orally to win.  Our coach tells us that after having such a biased panel in the prior round, if we win the toss, we have to represent the Dept.  We disagree.  We are warmed up on the Petitioner’s side, and we would much rather have a panel that hates us, but likes our ability to respond to questions, than a panel that prefers our side, but asks questions that we don’t have down cold, and marks us off for looking at our notes.  Our coach’s response?  “Your competition.”

We win the toss and choose to represent the Pharmacist again.  We have, quite possibly the closest round I have ever encountered.  The Judges give a critique that does not hint one way or the other.  They just say it was “very close.”  An HOUR later, after much wine and beer, the decision was announced.  We beat ‘em!

I have two offers from two law firms.  Each has its positives (family oriented, congenial work environment, convenient) and each has its negatives (lower on the pay scale, MAY lead to permanent employment).  One pays more than the other, but factoring in having to wear a suit everyday, and commuting into downtown everyday, the lower paying firm gets an added bonus.  One is convenient to the school (good for the semesters), one is convenient to the house (good for the summer).  Oddly enough the one that pays more would have me working on things other than legal matters, the one that pays less would allow me to gain a lot of legal experience.  The one that pays more is a guaranteed 20 hour a week paycheck during the school year (good for money, bad for moot court practices) and the one that pays less involves working “as needed” during the semesters and full-time during the summer (good for moot court practices and studying, bad for consistent income). 

On top of this, Tiffany is in the running for a job that she would be great for, and would pay her a lot more than she’s making now, without being as demanding.

 On top of that, I am supposed to hear back from the University of Montana on my visiting student application within about a week.

I would like to take applications for an official decision maker.