Friday, March 23, 2007

Way to ruin a good run, right? I think this is the biggest gap between posts for a while!

Basically my professional life just went into a full-on meltdown mode in the last month. We had asked the court for an adjournment in the upcoming Houston trial that was (shockingly, to us anyway) denied, and so we had to go hurtling into the biggest class action in history with a few weeks' preparation. Totally insane! I basically moved into work - in the last week I billed 113 hours in seven days, including three days of working 19, 17 and 22 hours. When the actual preparation was over, I had to start preparing myself for a move to Houston, which I patched together in about a day with the help of some wardrobe boxes and a very patient husband.

Then Monday morning I board a plane for Houston, land in the early afternoon and head to pick up my luggage. While I'm standing there waiting for my bag, I'm flipping through all my e-mails and receive a new one on my Blackberry from one of the partners on the case. He's attached the text of a decision from the Fifth Circuit and a terse message: "Reversed and remanded." Those three words changed everything. For anyone who is interested in the actual legal import, you can Google "Fifth Circuit" and "Enron" (it's been all over the news), but in a nutshell - we've pretty much won without having to step foot into the courtroom. The Fifth Circuit basically said that our client could not be held liable in the way that the plaintiff was alleging and now, barring more procedural shenanigans and/or intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, it is over. It's over! I didn't quite know what to do standing there at the airport, so I figured, I'm definitely going to stick around for the party! And party I did, for two days...oof, that was one painfully hung over flight home on Wednesday morning. Now I'm basking in two glorious days off before heading back to the office on Monday. Having no idea of what's in store, of course...I could be put on another case right away or get a brief reprieve. But anyway, that's the sordid tale of where I've been.

Sorry, I know it's not a real glimpse into my glamorous life ;). But for better or worse...this is what I do and why they pay me the big bucks! But now that New York is blooming into a reluctant spring and my entire future doesn't look blighted by this trial in Houston, there could be some interesting things around the corner. Including things like...vacations! And weekends off!