You Can Take the Lawyer Out of the Regulators . . .

So, I am suffering through a plight that is not uncommon for me in my chosen line of work. I have provided counsel to numerous types of businesses that are not viewed as being the most honorable, or whom provide services or products to folks that are sometimes deemed to be vulnerable in various capacities. So, I have dealt with lots of difficult issues -- some of you know that I have talked about being in the horrible position of having to legally analyze whether to foreclose upon someone's house, and worse yet, whether to proceed with formal eviction after foreclosing upon the house. In these situations, the results of the legal analysis can be cold-hearted and severe, but, the law is clear. I may not feel wonderful about the decision, but, at least I know that I have made the right decision for my client and served as the advocate I am supposed to be.

The more difficult situations for me, believe it or not, are when I have provided the appropriate legal analysis and my client chooses not to take my recommendation. In these cases, I am not talking about black and white legal obligations where the client's failure to comply would definitely cause a legal problem -- I am talking about legal analysis that is designed to minimize risk as much as possible. These types of situations are where I have to start off saying, "You could have no problems at all OR you could have lots and lots of problems, it all depends upon how much folks are paying attention to what you are doing and whether the press or the regulators or the plaintiffs lawyers think this is an issue in which they are interested."

My first job out of law school was to work for a federal regulator, so, I have built-in to my law analysis a bit of a regulator bias. And, there are times that that bias just causes me to be sick with worry when a client chooses not to take my recommendation. These are the times that Brooke is put in the role of reminding me that at the end of the day, it is now my job to provide advice, and to document it, and if the client goes another direction, at least I have c-y-a. That helps put things in perspective and puts my inner-regulator in its place, but, I still hate the feeling that despite my best arguments and my best intentions to keep my client from harm, they can go ahead and do what they want and possibly really regret it down the road. I will be there to help them clean it up, but, I really would rather save them the trouble.

It's kind of like being a parent, in that respect You know that a certain course of action is likely to cause problems, but, despite your best advice and intentions, your child is going to do what they are going to do. Who knows? Maybe your two-year-old can jump off the fireplace and land just fine, but, then again, maybe not. You'll be there to patch that knee and give kisses if needed, but, you wish in your heart that your child did not take such risks.

So, I think it is fair to say that there are times that I wish in my heart my clients would take the safe road. As I understand it, not all lawyers suffer through like I do and often are more likely to have their egos offended when clients do not listen (though, to be fair, that happens to me sometimes too!). But, I care and I want them to do what is right and keep themselves out of harm's way. Oh well. Tomorrow will be another day with another set of issues! :-)

New Vehicle

Okay -- moving on to much less troubling topics. So, we will be having the new baby in August and have been thinking that we should get a new car. We would keep Brooke's Ford Explorer and sell/trade-in my beloved two-door Acura 3.2 CL that is close to 100K, seven years old, and still drives and performs beautifully. My car has truly become just the vehicle I use to commute to work -- so, whatever car replaces it will have to be zippy, because that's how I commute. The two doors make it inconvenient for putting Drew in a car seat, and the car really cannot handle a rear-facing infant seat -- the passenger seat needs to be put so far forward that no one would be comfortable sitting there. But, then again, we hardly ever find ourselves using my car to cart around Drew -- we always use the Explorer, and it is hard for me to tell if things will be different with the new baby or not?

So, we have been going through the whole gamut of choices -- my employer provides an incentive for me to purchase a hybrid car, so, I have been thinking of going with the Honda Accord Hybrid or something similar. But, then again, I love my old Acura, so, maybe I should just get a new Acura?

And, then there is the horrifying part of me that really, really wants . . . . something like the Chevy Avalanche! King cab truck for Mercedes! I am truly amazed that this is something that I am even thinking about -- but, I would love to have a bed to cart around garden stuff and other messy/stinky stuff. And, with four seats for everyone and it being a truck, there will be plenty of zip and room.

I haven't actually gotten out there and test-driven anything, because I don't know if we will actually need the new car for months -- part of me thinks we should just push through until next spring and replace my car then (I love my Acura -- have I mentioned that?). :-)

Political Post -- Do Not Read If You Are Pro-Life (You Won't Like What I Have to Say)

Apparently I have been busy since our "Babymoon!" So, those of you who know me well will not be surprised that I am absolutely sick over the Supreme Court's decision to support the partial birth abortion ban passed by Georgie Porgie Puddlin Pie. And, my perspective has changed a lot since having a baby, but, I still think that banning partial birth abortion is ignorant and takes away a woman's options.

When I say my perspective has changed, I mean that when I was younger and focused on preventing pregnancy myself, I was a staunch supporter for abortion rights to protect the lives of young women everywhere and to let them decide when was best for them to have babies, and to know themselves well enough that it was not the time or place for a baby. And, I confess that when it turned out to be difficult to conceive our first child, I began to feel that children are such a blessing, period, that it is a shame to have an abortion unless there are extenuating circumstances about your health, the health of the baby, or the means by which you were impregnated (no women should be required to carry a child conceived out of rape). But, that did not change my fundamental belief that abortion should still be available, regardless -- it just meant that I became a >>little<< more judgmental about abortions purely for choice.

But, to go one step further, when I read through the coverage today on the Supreme Court's decision, it came screaming to me that this ban means something terrible for women whose unborn babies are found to have fatal or extremely debilitating genetic diseases. So, when you are pregnant, you do not have any testing done on the genetics of the baby until your second trimester -- even the "first trimester" screening falls so far towards the end of your first trimester, that you are already in your second trimester by the time you can act on the results. The second trimester is when parents find out about the genetics of their babies and they can make the decision whether to continue with the pregnancy or not.

I know I am treading on difficult moral grounds here, but, I just want to say this and have it out there. The decision about whether to continue a pregnancy or not is heart-wrenching and difficult no matter who you are or where you stand on the moral spectrum, generally. This is your child whom you will be responsible for and whom you will have to see suffer greviously if they have a physical ailment. I cannot stand it when my son coughs too much from a passing cold, much less see his whole body wracked with coughs all of the time because his lungs have no way of clearing out fluid.

And, the parents who are in these difficult positions and decide to spare their child from a lifetime of pain and suffering, are often most comforted by being able to hold their tiny baby after terminating the pregnancy. This was a REAL life for them and they honor it as such and they grieve for it as such. What this partial birth abortion ban means now is that if that child is taken from the mother in one piece and still alive so that mom and dad can feel the baby breathing and moving, even for just minutes, preserved as a whole human being, then the doctor will go to jail. I think that is wrong and ignorant and foolish and so focused on being judgmental and self-righteous that it makes me sick.

A lot has changed in terms of the types of genetic testing that can be done since the Act was initially passed in 2003, and I am surprised to see in the opinion from the Court that there is nothing talking about this aspect of live abortions.

And, of course, I am horrified that there is no health exception for the mother. To quote Justice Ginsburg, "None of the six physicians who testified before Congress had ever performed an intact D&E. Several did not provide abortion services at all; and one was not even an obgyn... . [T]he oral testimony before Congress was not only unbalanced, but intentionally polemic . . . According to the expert testimony plaintiffs introduced,the safety advantages of intact D&E are marked for women with certain medical conditions, for example, uterine scarring, bleeding disorders, heart disease, or compromised immune systems."

I realize that there are lots and lots of people out there who disagree vehemently with what I am saying. But, I am allowed to agree with the other four justices on the Court and reject the majority opinion.

Vegas BabyMoon, Baby!

Brooke and I had our "babymoon" in Vegas this past weekend. I know, I know. What's the point of being in Vegas if you can't drink and you're not a big gambler? Well, the truth of the matter is that there is a lot to do there besides drink and gamble, and they have really great restaurants.

We used to live in a great restaurant town (Chicago), but, Charlotte is so not. Brooke said that he feels like we ate at more good restaurants this weekend than we have in Charlotte in a year! So, we stayed at the Venetian (it's all suites -- if I could have the room we had every time I traveled, I would be ecstatic) and started off eating at their Mexican restaurant, situated right on the "Grand Canal" complete with gondolas. Fabulous, yummy mole-type soup followed by smoked chicken quesadillas and a spicy beef torta (sandwich, in this case) -- all of which was just really good. For dinner, we ate at Zeffirino, one of the Italian restaurants at the Venetian. We started off with a blood orange salad that was to die for, and then I had this incredibly delicate sausage-stuffed pasta served in a parmesan cheese fondue. So good.

We continued our patronage of the Venetian exclusively the next morning and at the Grand Lux Cafe (an upscale Cheesecake Factory). I had this wonderful scrambled egg-white bruschetta and sparkling fresh-squeezed orange juice (in lieu of the Mimosa, of course). Then, I went to the Canyon Ranch Spa, which is, conveniently, in the Venetian! I had a really good prenatal massage -- a real massage, but, the table was adjusted to accommodate my baby belly -- and then an ice cream pedicure, where they served ice cream during the treatment.

Wow, talking about just that much food is making me kind of ill looking back on it and explains why I had managed to gain two more pounds than I was expecting, and was a little surprised on the scale at the doc's office this morning! And, I haven't even gotten through everything we ate!

I will leave the rest of the food for a later blog (perhaps), but, I can say that the highlight was going to the Beatles "Love" Cirque du Soleil show. It was wonderful -- we both felt that we could go back and watch it again and again. We had such a good time.

So, if you are going to Vegas soon -- stay at the Venetian (it's worth it) and go to see Cirque du Soleil. I got to see my cousin (her husband is secretary of state of Nevada, by the way -- are you impressed?), whom I really like and wish I got to see more of, and then Brooke's friend, Glenn, flew in and spent Sunday night with us. Glenn is one of the coolest engineers we know and he is lots of fun. That means we had social time with people we like sans le petit bebe -- we're adults! Yay!