I am sitting here at my desk, three days before I’m supposed to never be sitting here at this desk again, and I’m astounded at how much there is left to do. Now, mind you, I’ve never had a clean desk. I am not particularly envious of those people who do have clean desks, but I do wonder where they put all that crap. I mean, I try to put stuff away, in files, in trial boxes, etc. But, inevitably, I’ll get stuff and I just don’t know what to do with it. For example, I’ve got three letters in the past two weeks from prisoners who want me to do some 1983 work for them. What do I do with the letters after I tell them no? Do I start a separate file? Do I throw them out? What? Let me give you an inventory of what’s on my desk right now:

AILA (american immigration lawyers assocation) membership directory and some type of professional responsibility book. I joined AILA this past year thinking I’d cross over from cimlaw to immigration. Not gonna happen because I discovered the majority of immigration law is paperwork. I hate paperwork.

Three case files on the front part of my desk. Twenty on the other side. The twenty on the other side are 18-B files I haven’t billed for yet. This is what is going to get me and husband through the next couple of months. The ones on the front of my desk well, I dont’ know why they are there.

An invitation to a client’s birthday party tonight. It’s his first adult birthday sober and they are so greatful to me that they’ve invited me to celebrate his sobriety. I really feel obligated to go so I probably will. Along with the invitation is another card from client’s mother questioning the restitution. I set that straight.



Two rolodexes (rolodi?) One from my days as a prosecutor and AG, the other the current one.



Pictures of my little brother (see Yas’s profound blog link on right) and one of me and Drue after we got engaged.



A mug that says “Lawyer on it” filled (well, sometimes filled) with pens. Now its basically empty.

Twenty pens strewn across my desk, paperclips, messages, post-its, tape, tylenol, Federal Civil Procedure and Rules, a half drunk can of Diet Pepsi, copy of Punch and Jurist, notebooks, greybook, stapler, computer speakers, staple remover, change of address forms (not filled in), phone message pad, drug court graduation program, computer disks (yes, we still use those), case law printouts and bills from home.



A clock/pen thingie with my name on it given to me by a client. This client was not a citizen and was in danger of being deported. I single handedly prevented this from happening, so he rewarded me with this pen thingie. I like it.



A while back I thought I might take on a medmal case so I requested certain documents from the hospital on my client. The bill is still sitting here on my desk, as is a form for an immigration case I really thought I’d love working on, but didn’t.



The three letters I mentioned earlier.

Now, I’m always hopeful that I can get this thing under control. Tame the beast, as they say. I clean off my desk just about every week. And at the end of every week it looks like this again. I think that before I go I will take a picture of it so that you, dear reader, can get a full taste of what it really looks like and I have to say that right now, its actually almost clean. Moving to Baltimore will give me a chance to start anew. Maybe it can be my new year’s resolution.