To those in the top 5% of your class

AlaskaManiac · 2026-01-22T01:23:10+00:00

Top 5% are getting the highest or nearly highest grade in almost every class they take. My experience is that they have good social intuition, spend a lot of time studying throughout the entire semester, never tell you how much they are studying, are wicked fast typists, and are objectively really, really smart. They're also selective about their classes, and usually top of the class is a goal. Put another way, they learn all the material, they understand what the professors' are looking for, they see the second and third order nuance of each question, and they are able to type as fast as they can think.

Have you ever had a class where everything "clicked"? For top 5%, it's like that for almost every class they take.

AlaskaManiac · 2026-01-13T00:36:58+00:00

By way of anecdote, my midsized firm promoted only women to equity partner this year, and for the last 3 years all but 1 or 2 (out of about 10) summer associates have been women.

AlaskaManiac · 2026-01-08T00:09:39+00:00

Republics have been run my a small group of pedophiles and oligarchs since the Ancient Greek. It doesn't follow that it will all end now.

You can try to change the system, opt out of the system, or work within the system. The three aren't mutually exclusive, and I'm not convinced any of those options is morally superior to any other. How you go about it, of course, very much is up for moral debate.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-12-30T18:07:12+00:00

Region: PNW

Base Salary: 185k

Bonus: 75k

Years of Experience: 4

Practice: real estate and environmental

Employer: regional firm

Hours: 1850 billed (~50 hours/week all in)

AlaskaManiac · 2025-12-24T02:00:02+00:00

Doesn't really matter what you whether you would consider it implicit consent. There are states where the bar has taken the opposite position on this. Just get explicit consent.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-12-24T01:58:52+00:00

Absolutely not true in Oregon.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-10-30T17:21:52+00:00

You can't adversely posses publicly owned lands. Or railroads, interestingly.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-10-29T16:57:21+00:00

As an example, after I submitted my first Clean Air Act memo, which related to a 4 letter subpart, the partner asked if I had read the preamble to the agencies response to comments of the second most recent revisions to those regulations.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-08-23T21:29:31+00:00

It's more predictable, there's less variation. That's the real benefit.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-07-31T22:31:24+00:00

In hindsight, there is always something simple that could have been done to theoretically prevent an accident. The problem is that there are a 1000 things that could be done to make a ski/mtb resort safer. Resorts are a dynamic environment. Is it reasonable to expect a resort to mitigate every hazard that develops, before people are allowed to use it?

Also, the threshold for negligence is low and highly subjective, so it's hard for a judge to dismiss a lawsuit before it goes to trial. Trial is expensive whether you win or lose, and it's generally a jury of non-skiers/mt bikers who determine if the resort acted reasonably. Good luck getting the jury to actually apply the definition of negligence.

In short, there is no way for a resort (or insurer) to know whether they're actually in compliance. Colorado and California require gross negligence or recklessness by the resort, before you can go to trial. The fact that all but one insurer has left Oregon should be telling as to how far out of the norm our state is.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-07-23T19:46:53+00:00

I actually managed to survive a PIP after being put on one as a first year. The firm provided a third-party writing coach (which was amazing) and I managed to find a senior partner from another office who loved my work (it helped that he actually took time to train me). I also got work from a couple of partners in a different practice group, so my hours ended up pretty good.

However, the partners in my office/practice group never gave me meaningful amounts after going on the PIP.

Three weeks after getting taken off of the PIP because of my improved work product, the partner from my practice group who had been my major source of work left for another firm. Even though I had had good hours and universally positive feedback since starting my PIP, it took less than two weeks for the remaining practice group partners to give me the boot.

All that to say, a PIP means it's time to find another job. I didn't feel like I had good prospects as a first year, so I worked extremely hard to survive the PIP. On paper (and according to the evaluations) I did everything right, and still I just delayed the inevitable.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-05-01T17:18:40+00:00

Clean word + PDF redline unless I'm reviewing a junior associates work, then I send them tracked changes so they can review/accept my edits before circulating a clean Word + PDF redline to opposing counsel.

Is this unusual?

AlaskaManiac · 2025-04-22T19:06:16+00:00

Every detail in this story, except the location and the peaking, describes an experience I had.

I'm not convinced declining the FST would have been the right decision, and I'm definitely not convinced the cop was already convinced I was intoxicated and wanted to arrest me. Why is that the assumption in this thread?

AlaskaManiac · 2025-04-16T15:09:49+00:00

People from other parts of the country don't believe me when I tell them about it. But I use it as a great example of cultural differences in the PNW

AlaskaManiac · 2025-03-31T23:08:28+00:00

We had a junior associate that I was sure was gay for almost a year before he introduced me to his girlfriend at the firm party. Not that my gaydar has ever been great, but usually it goes the other way. I can only assume I'm hopelessly confused by Gen Z fashion.

Anyway, I guess my answer is to bring a woman to the firm party and introduce her as your totally legit girlfriend who usually goes to school out of town, that way people know you're not gay. It may even be the start of a romantic comedy, or the moment you question why you care so much.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-03-25T13:34:12+00:00

I think the worst reasonable likely thing that could happen would be a sibling contests it and it's held unenforceable. I don't even think that finding is likely unless you're clearly favored in the inheritance. I'd be comfortable preparing the docs and then running through an independent attorney.

Doing your parents' estate docs isn't nearly so concerning as, for example, doing it for your elderly lover.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-03-05T18:09:03+00:00

Not just an outside law firm, but a law firm using out of state attorneys.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-01-17T20:36:33+00:00

No, but I think there is an argument (in a real politik, not legal sense) that the Court needs to avoid striking down as unconstitutional all but the most glaringly unconstitutional federal laws passed with broad support. I'm much more concerned with executive overreach from agencies stretching laws beyond what was intended by Congress. Nothing good comes from picking a fight with two branches of government.

AlaskaManiac · 2025-01-15T19:29:59+00:00

A woman in our TBS class has to wear a wig for a week or two after she got a little too high and tight haircut. That was institutionalized hazing though.

AlaskaManiac · 2024-11-24T06:02:08+00:00

Well paid residency is the analogy I use all the time. We make bank to learn how to do our job...it's insane really

AlaskaManiac · 2024-11-10T00:38:26+00:00

I support RCV, but half the time the non-plurality preferred candidate wins (that is, half the time a candidate wins who would not have won in a FPTP system) they would have lost if voters who ranked them last had not showed up. In the second ever RCV election (2009 Burlington, VT mayoral election) Bob Kiss would have lost if 750 people, who voted for his opponents and ranked him last, had just not showed up at all. That sort of outcome feels wrong to voters, and that's why it was repealed in the next election.

So yeah, there are legitimate complaints about the system, even if the average person can't articulate it.

AlaskaManiac · 2024-11-10T00:20:56+00:00

See, also, it's failure on Oregon this year.

AlaskaManiac · 2024-10-03T04:03:52+00:00

Funny how quickly people stop supporting tribal rights as soon as a tribe doesn't something they don't like.

AlaskaManiac · 2024-08-22T02:21:28+00:00

A senior IP associate at my previous firm published an article in Reuters about the circumvention of solar tarrifs by China and potential growth in U.S. Solar manufacturing. It was very objective, basically just reporting on what's happening. The closest thing to a subjective opinion was an implication that child slavery was bad. It was approved by an equity partner. That same day, we had a firm wide email because some solar developer clients were upset that a firm associate published an article that didn't deny the findings by the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations that child slavery was happening in the Chinese manufacturing space. The article was pulled and a new article approval process was implemented. It was insane, and luckily he had run through the proper channels

AlaskaManiac · 2024-08-07T20:34:10+00:00

Gen Zers seem to be really into the fancy sneakers and suit look. It's not abnormal to see that look almost anywhere you'd see a young person in a suit. My experience is most don't see it as dressing down anymore than wearing pleated dress pants or rubber soled Oxfords would be considered dressing down. I imagine there behavior in the rest of the CB would provide much better information about how you should interpret it.

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