A (Hairy) Hand for My Editor

Just 15 months ago a letter appeared on my desk applying for the position of legal assistant. The applicant claimed to have a sense of humor, but confessed to only average kazoo-playing abilities and a singing voice that was “significantly worse than bad.”

Carolyn Black also possesses a BA with Distinction from the University of Virginia, red hair, and a quiet and kind disposition (so much for red-headed stereotypes). We hired her despite my prediction that she wouldn’t last long, that she would quit to go to law school.

Friday is Carolyn’s last day. Next month she will be a first year law student at the University of Colorado at Boulder Law School. I couldn’t be happier.

Carolyn has been an excellent legal assistant, and when I started this blog a few months ago she proved to be a terrific editor, too. But she will be a better lawyer.

My first day of law school (well before I learned there are no funny lawyers) featured massive anxiety and a Hairy Hand. The Hairy Hand was my first case in Contracts class. Today I make my living writing and negotiating contracts, but my introduction to my future life came in the form of a skin graft gone wrong. I would not see an actual contract, let alone have the opportunity to draft one, in Contracts class or in any other class in law school.

Carolyn is starting her career as an attorney at a time when not only the profession, but the legal education system as well, are under increasing pressure and criticism. See Are Law Schools Relevant to the Future of Law and Welcome to the Future: Law School

Carolyn would like to practice business law and, unlike me, she enters school with a good idea of what business lawyers do. I am curious to hear about her law school experiences and how they correlate to the job she knows she will do after graduation, so I have invited her to become the first guest contributor to No Funny Lawyers. If the goal is to build better lawyers for better business, we need to start at the beginning. The occasional post from “Red” will tell us how we are doing.

Thank you, Carolyn, for being a teammate and a friend. Best of luck to you.