Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m having a really good time. I’m blogging tonight, not at an unusual time for me, but from an unusual place. I’m sitting on a beach in the Carribean on Grand Cayman’s Seven Mile Beach, listening to waves roll in as dependable and as regular as a steady, strong heart beat.
I’m in Grand Cayman this week for a conference. It is the 23rd Annual Tropical Seminar of the State Bar of Georgia. A group of attorneys gather every year at this same time but on a different Carribean island to teach and to learn some rather high end subjects. This year was the first year that this seminar grabbed my attention, in part because we’ve been doing so much work in the Carribean and also because the topics were so timely and pertinent to the work that we do.
Today’s sessions, for example, covered issues such as the use of public relations in litigation; specific acting techniques for the courtroom; the intricacies, complexities and nuances of appellate litigation; a very high tech immersion into the discovery of electronically stored information; and the most detailed and up to date information about the litigation over the Federal Health Care legislation, taught by one of the authors of a Supreme Court brief on the subject.
Today was fairly intense.
But soon the last hour drew nigh and we were dismissed for the day, to reconvene tomorrow morning to tackle more complex issues, and turned loose on the island of Grand Cayman.
One could well ask, “Why do you do such things as attend intense, high end seminars?” Of course, I could well answer, “Because they are held in the Carribean.” But that would not be the entire story. I do such things because I know of no business, except professional sports, where someone is payed extremely well to make sure that you lose. Every day, every case presents new challenges, new threats to our clients from new tactics employed by creative, intelligent, well funded opposing counsels. We owe it to our clients to stay well ahead of that curve, to have already thought and worked through those cutting edge issues and opportunities before the opposition ever had an incling that they exist. We outwit, outfox and outthink the opposition because we care enough to.
So, I’m stuck in Grand Cayman for the rest of the week. But don’t cry for me. It’s a dirty job. But frankly, somebody’s got to do it.
Michael Manely