congratulations - the kudos are well-deserved.
awesome.
I have more stories where massive amounts of work don't turn out to make much difference....mainly it's unpredictable: there are stories I've spent months and months and months off effort to publicize with little or no success; but there was one time I had a casual 10 minute conversation with someone that led to a story on p. A1 of the Washington Post.
Seriously, I did a day or two of very routine work. I just happened to get asked a question with a clear answer that was going to be very useful going forward. It's a funny feeling; the useful effect seems to have been completely disproportionate to either my skill or my effort.
That is AWESOME. I saw an article on this topic in the NYT about ten days ago and hesitated to ask about it here, in case it was private.
Anyway, congratulations to you but more importantly, thanks for laying the groundwork. I'm not sure lawyers always know that the *fact* of a law's existence can be powerful even when a case never gets filed in court. Just being able to tell people on the phone that X is a crime or that Y can be prosecuted can lift a tremendous psychological burden from them.
I got to be an amicus in the Hamdan case - which was a pretty simple job (just review some briefs and hope for the best). The case wound up in the USSCT and will hopefully be a strong precedent in favor of recognition of rights of detainees. Picked as a military law practitioner of note, based on having worked (in early 80's) for a couple of folks who ended up as top US army officers (chiefs of staff of the US army). Serendipity.
And on the whole effect-being-disproportionate-to-effort -- well, as Katherine points out, sometimes you work a whole lot and don't seem to accomplish anything, and other times your work is just the perfectly placed snowball that starts the avalanche. Enjoy it!
but there was one time I had a casual 10 minute conversation with someone that led to a story on p. A1 of the Washington Post.
That's the feeling. The only thing to do is keep on working ineffectively, because some little thing somewhere is going to stick.
Yay! I feel like that's always the way with these things*, and congratulations are in order for doing good work and putting yourself in the path of good luck for matching up your good work with a spot where it was needed.
*Not that I generally do anything at all that provides any public good, and maybe it's because I'm lazy and so therefore of course whatever I do manage to do that's impressive will be something other than "oh wow, you totally slogged through an incredible amount of work and persevered, you amazing person!" But hey.
That's so cool! It's sort of a firing squad approach to altruism. Shoot enough little bullets and eventually something will stick.
This is fantastic, LB. Congrats. As for the effort, there's a great quote the provenance of which I can't remember, about an artist who was asked incredulously how he could charge so much for an afternoon of work and he replied, "Not for an afternoon of work, but for a lifetime of experience!" (Something like that, anyway.)
I'm not going to let Heebie organize any of my firing squads.
Congratulations! (And describing yourself as "vaguely embarassed" by this outcome incredibly endearing.)
But now when people search Google for "Liz, who wrote that commerce clause memo", your anonymity will be punctured!
Also, congratulations. This is indeed reward for years of work that put you into position for the "tso days" in which the memo was actually written.
Awesome, congrats. Can you do something about Gitmo now?
I'm not going to let Heebie organize any of my firing squads.
I'm competent. First, arrange your shooters into a circle, and then put the criminal in the center.
"That's so cool! It's sort of a firing squad approach to altruism. Shoot enough little bullets and eventually something will stick."
Can I get a ruling on the analogy ban?
Clearly, Heebie was using reproduction as an analogy.
18: Second, give everyone blindfolds...
Congratulations and good work, LB.
It's funny how often the things that mean the most to others seem routine to ourselves. I kinda suspect that that's precisely the point: that you're best at the things you do without really thinking too hard about them.
Somewhere out there, a john is smacking his head and thinking, "Damn! I thought that I could depend on you, Commerce Clause!"
Way to go, LB! That's impressive and inspiring, all in one.
Congratulations!
Just curious -- does anyone hook up at a banning-sex-trafficking party, or is the theme a bit of a downer?
Does anyone else have stories like this?
Success stories or sex-trafficking stories?
Congrats, LB.
Congratulations on being a part of this. It's excellent.
Cool, LB.
describing yourself as "vaguely embarassed" by this outcome incredibly endearing
I gotta say I found the endless caveats and disclaimers pretty annoying. Can't you just be pleased you did something quickly well in a situation where their group lacked the expertise to handle this fundamental issue? I think I find it annoying because I do it myself all the time in a constant drive to be totally fair. Seeing it in print, I found it an annoying tic.
To be fair (grin), it's a little different in a blog where, even with anonymity, it might get back to all those hard working activitists that you were around gloating. Still, I hope in the privacy of your own home you indulge in a little more unvarnished self-satisfaction & pride.
I understand your reaction; the thing is, though, was that I wasn't being modest with all the disclaimers, it was the point of the post. The amount and quality of the work I did on this I do twice a week for one ghastly paying client or another, and there wasn't anything unusual or creative about it -- any respectably competent lawyer asked the same question would have come up with the same answer.
It was just an odd feeling having had such a minor piece of work turn into something that was genuinely importantly useful, just because it happened to fit into a gap where it was needed.
28: I can identify with the point. It seems to me that the things I've done that have the most impact often required very little of the skill I would want to be honored for. Just recently I turned a project upside down by noticing a small technical fact that negated the assumptions the project was based on; a lot of work will need to be done over. But anyone associated with the project could have seen this, it didn't require any special knowledge or skill at all. It was at best common sense, and leaves me kind of embarrassed; it's damn hard to brag about.
Hey - just because you're good at something doesn't make it easy. And it sounds like you did a very good job with this.
look, what you did could potentially make a lot of difference to a scared exploited little girl out there. Or maybe to a whole bunch of them. could keep them from getting into really bad situations, and maybe put away some of the exploiters.
that's pretty goddamn awesome.
and, yeah, you do deserve the props, both for knowing the law, and also for having made the connections so as to put yourself in the right place at the right time. a place and time where what you did not only shows off your talents, but addresses some of the deepest injustices out there.
hats off, lb.
I agree with 27 that this post has a slightly ostentatious tone of aw-shucks, little 'ol me? But mainly what comes across is that you really like this stuff. If you really do like it more than your day job, there's no reason you can't do it full time some day. I'm sure student loans, etc. have to paid off, but there are whole networks of lawyers in state capitals all over the country, not to mention Washington DC, who make a career of this. Keep the contacts you made at this party, tell them to keep you in mind for future pro bono stuff, keep any contacts you make through that, and before long you'll be plugged into a network of people who will think of you when there are openings. True that it will still be rare to push something all the way into law, but it can be a very rewarding type of work.
Keep the contacts you made at this party, tell them to keep you in mind for future pro bono stuff, keep any contacts you make through that,
I'm the world's worst networker, but I did chat up someone there, talk about an area that needs more work, and give her my card so she can get in touch with me if she wants me to do it.
Yay, LB.
Not sure where all of your interests lie, but lawyering for institutions of higher ed is also a pretty good gig, and you have a few in town.
Congratulations, LB!
I once played a small part in getting a leaking landfill closed down. It involved using my professional skills, but in a very rudimentary way. Yet it might well be the most socially valuable thing I have ever done.
My family always calls these "unearned brownie points." And you are allowed to enjoy them. Like, when you volunteer to cook 7 lasagnaes for the church potluck, but at the last minute there's a chicken pox scare so it gets cancelled. You're still the guy who was gonna cook 7 lasagnaes! You're still great!
The notion that hard work + good intentions are rewarded on this earthly plane while bad intentions + sloth are punished is a false Calvinist notion. Disabuse yourself! Believing this will only lead you to existential crisis when you do a good deed and get slapped in the face.
You should always accept your unearned brownie points with the exact same gentle modesty you take your earned brownie points. It keeps you humble and likeable. And Lord knows, you will do enough good deeds that end in punishment. You might as well enjoy the kudos for the good intentions that gave you a reward far disproportionate to your efforts.
I once told a young lifeguard to avoid Iranian guys and she later became a porn star. I was humbled.
I like the 'unearned brownie points', that's the feeling exactly.
Yay LB!
And I don't think they are unearned brownie points. I think you get to count all the work you do without knowing whether it will have any effect at all, and then look at the collective effects of that work, without having to separate it out. By that standard, I'm sure you did a lot of work.
Because, after all, where would we be if people only did good things that they knew were going to work?
"I like the 'unearned brownie points', that's the feeling exactly."
All I did was to have sex with my then-wife, and I ended up with two fabulous kids!!!
List that under undeserved rewards!!!
Well done, Liz. It may not appear like much from your perspective, but simply having had the kind of effect on such an important law (see, small-l libertarians don't object to all laws) is well worthy of praise. I hope that New York's law enforcement agencies now take up this tool and do what they can to stamp out this practice.
I once had a ten minute phone call with a congressional staffer that ended up changing a single word in a bill. After the fact some of the people directly impacted told me it made the difference that kept their companies afloat. Weird.