One man's jerk is another man's pit bull.....

Aaahhh, the arrogance of perspective.

One of the current catch-phrases of the practice of law is that we are to maintain civility - hard to accomplish in advocacy at times, but that's the goal. It isn't a legal obligation - which is probably just as well since it can be difficult to legislate nuance - but for whatever reason, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan thinks enough of the concept of civility to adopt "civility principles" which include directives on how attorneys and judges ought to behave. These apparently are only suggestions.

One of the principles I dealt with today reads, "We will consult other counsel regarding scheduling matters in a good-faith effort to avoid scheduling conflicts." So explain to me how this warrants another attorney - who seems to have a problem with losing to a girl - arbitrarily scheduling depositions without any prior notice or consultation with me about the date?

In trying to sort this out - which took 2 hours, thank you very much!! - I did what any other smart attorney would do when faced with a brick wall: I climbed over his head. Granted, his senior partner didn't help much, but at least I got the date he had scheduled these depositions.

Which just goes to show you: one man's jerk is another man's pit bull. This guy is getting rewarded for being a you-know-what, so he keeps doing it. Civility be damned.

I said that he seems to have a problem with losing to a girl because I've beaten him - twice - in this case. On top of that, the judge denied part of his request for fees. So not only did he get beaten by a girl - I LOVE saying that!! :) - but he lost money, too.

[I should point out that technically, he lost because he tried to force his clients' creditors to accept what his clients felt like paying in a bankruptcy case, and the judge wouldn't approve any of his multiple proposals. Still, it's fun to say "he got beaten by a girl...." If I could, I'd dance around and sing it: "You got beat by a giiiiirrrrl! You got beat by a giiiiirrrrl! (in a sing-song, playground voice)"]

What was the title of my post again?? :)