Author Archives: JJD
Bouquet
There’s nothing like fresh-cut flowers to make getting ready in the morning a joy. My favorites are star-gazer lilies — it’s basically impossible to have too many! With star-gazers in the bathroom, my whole apartmentsmells like a florist’s shop.
There’s no place like home!
I’m back! At long last, I’m home! After last night’s walk-out, we were all in suspense as to what would happen next. We got an email around 3:45am from our lead negotiators saying that they had just left off discussions with the other side and that they would be in touch with further word. Later […]
Because who doesn’t pack thirteen ties for a two-day trip?
Dad sent a text this afternoon asking if I was trying to break a world record for the longest time living on two days’ worth of clothing. The answer is yes — if not a world record, then at least a personal record. But let’s be clear about one thing: I may have spent the […]
Pack up your toys and go home
Oh man, I love the theatrics of negotiations. After two weeks of pitched battle, we’re down to the wire on this deal — the documents are getting hammered out, there’s only a handful of outstanding, big-ticket items left to be resolved, the negotiations are ferocious. I had just finished turning another draft of the main […]
Early release
In any right state of the world I should not get home from work at 2:00am and think, “Wow, it’s so early! What am I going to do with the rest of the day?” But each of us must live the life we have, and that’s where I am — so I’ll take it. After a week and […]
Snorting milk at 4:00am
Okay, so the great thing about working from 8:30am-4:00am is that, by the time you get back to your hotel, you are STARVING (like, Donner Party starving) and completely slap-happy — so you feel zero qualms about settling down with a $25 box (well, boxes) of cold cereal from room service to read a few funny blog posts before […]
Livin’ the dream
It has been nine days since I flew to New York on a last-minute trip for an urgent client matter with a suitcase packed for two nights. In the seven days that followed, I billed 115 hours, including two consecutive days of over 20 billable hours each and only four hours in between. That means that in […]
Oh the irony
How many times have I sat in Washington, DC, looking at the New York theatre offerings and wishing I were there so that I could see a play? Lots. And now here I am sitting in New York, wishing I was in DC so I could see Theatre de l’Atelier’s production of Les Liaisons Dangeureuses. Of all […]
If it isn’t one thing, it’ll be another . . .
So I come home (and by “home” I mean my hotel room) after work today and walk into a cloud of cigarette smoke. Sickening cigarette smoke permeating the room, pouring out of the ceiling vent. Instantly I had a headache and hated whoever was smoking on the other side of the vent. For about five […]
Glory be
We got the message late last night that the client’s business team would be meeting with senior management in the morning to discuss key terms of the deal. This meant two things for the lawyers: First, it meant that we suddenly had a pile of new work to do in preparation for those early meetings […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 