I haven't updated this blog in nearly a month and a half. So much has changed since then. Here's what I've been up to in just the last two weeks alone:

• In gratitude for our help on some patent law issues, Judge Wu (who works next door to my judge) took Sameer and me to the Magic Castle in Hollywood. The magic was wonderful and we stayed very late. It really made me feel like a kid again.
• I finished my clerkship just before Labor Day. It was a race to the finish, trying to get much down on paper as possible before I had to leave. I had been working on large cases with a very steep learning curve, so it was imperative that I leave as much as possible for the two incoming clerks.
• Over Labor Day weekend, I went to the California Chinese Catholic Living Camp, a retreat for young adults which took place at the beautiful Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside. It was fun, exhausting, and has give me a chance to re-evaluate and renew my faith for which I am very grateful.
• I went to the Rose Bowl to see Rick Neuheisel's first game as UCLA head coach. The ensuing (and totally unexpected!) upset of nationally ranked Tennessee, along with the fireworks show afterwards, already ranks up there on my list of all-time Bruin memories. More on this in a separate post.
• I had lunch with my judge, Sameer, Pat, and the two clerks that are replacing us on Friday. It's the first time all year that I had lunch with my judge, and it was really great.
• My friend Delwin got married to his high school sweetheart, Allison, on Saturday. It was fun but tiring, mostly because I helped out at the reception.
• I have a girlfriend now, for the first time in a few years. (I haven't decided yet how much I want to post about her on a publicly accessible forum.)

There has been so much going on in the last 3-4 weeks that, until today, I was fatigued and exhausted. I literally drove from my last day at work to the retreat down in San Diego, and then up again and straight to the Rose Bowl for the Tennessee game. I am still tired out from all that. In addition, singing in the choir at the retreat (roughly about four hours over 2 days) and then yelling my lungs out at the Rose Bowl left me without a voice for most of last week. I certainly don't feel like I'm on vacation.. yet. But I am going to enjoy these next five weeks if it's the last thing I do!

I moved back home last weekend to keep my mom company. Since gas is so expensive, the Red Line is so convenient to Hollywood, and my dad (with whom I can usually carpool) is out of town, I decided to make this week an exercise in mass transit. Specifically, I decided not to use a car to get to work. On Tuesday, I stuffed my suit into a small backpack and rode my bicycle to the Red Line stop at Hollywood and Vine (I left my bike in the parking structure of my conveniently located gym).

Our house is roughly 2 1/2 miles from the subway, which doesn't sound bad at all except it is on a hilly street that presents a 400-500 foot climb from street level (judging from Google Maps' terrain feature, and by how tired I was upon biking up said hill). It's probably a 35 minute walk to the station.

The verdict: even so close to a convenient, dedicated transit route, it is still too much trouble for me to rely solely on the Red Line. Biking turned out to be a logistical challenge, especially since I have to dress up in a suit and tie when I go to work and I don't want to get them all sweaty. It's also tiring. It takes about 45-50 minutes each way (this includes biking, waiting for the subway, riding the train, exiting the station, and walking to the courthouse), compared to a 15-25 minute commute by car. There are other drawbacks: it becomes difficult to carry anything (I started leaving my suits and excess articles at work); it depends on good weather (do you want to walk or bike for half an hour in the rain?). As a variation, I have tried parking in Griffith Park and walking roughly half a mile to the subway. This is more convenient, but it's still a pain, and they tow your car if you don't move it before dark. What if I want to go to happy hour after work?

Basically you give up flexibility, you give up independence, and put yourself at the whim of the inconsistent Red Line train schedule. In theory, it should be easier than it is. For example, one wonders why Metro didn't plan park & ride facilities at Red Line stations, the way that say, BART does in the Bay Area? (My guess is that they were too busy constructing the white elephant that is their lavish headquarters behind Union Station.) Is it worth all this trouble to save on gas?

Cost-wise, yes. Five round trips per week only costs $12.50, which my employer reimburses in full. If you drive, the gas alone will probably run betwen 2-3 times that. Environment-wise and traffic-wise, yes. But in terms of hassle, lost opportunities, and expenditure of energy..

..gas is going to have to get a lot more expensive before that happens.

Anyway, since I live in Baldwin Hills now, and there's no direct public transit from there to downtown, it doesn't matter. I have to drive.

I got back about an hour ago from a night out with some old friends - Nathan, Christine, and Janis. I worked with them two summers ago as an extern in Judge Otero's chambers. Nathan & Christine were his clerks; and Janis was a fellow extern. We've kept in touch, more or less, but only infrequently.

I have very fond memories of my 1L summer, which was the first law-related job I ever had. Up until that point, law school for me had been a dry, abstract proposition. I didn't understand what litigation was like in practice. It didn't make sense, in a human, practical sort of way. So it really opened my eyes, to see how cases move along, how judges approach cases, and to be exposed to the ways in which lawyers manipulate the legal system. I sat in on four trials and got my real introduction to intensive legal writing (that contrived class they teach to all first year law students doesn't really count). It gave me a perspective on the law that I drew on for the rest of law school - a foundation that I could build on.

I also had a lot of fun. In fact, I look back on it as one of the best times in my life - not bad for an unpaid position. My co-externs were a dynamic and varied group. And Judge Otero's two clerks, Nathan and Christine, were a fun-loving, mischevious and raunchy (!) duo who got along very well with each other, and with us. Our two-hour lunches were the stuff of legend (after we left, the Judge apparently instituted a rule that lunches could not be quite so drawn out). The good old days, as it were.

Nathan & Christine were my role models during that time and taught me a great deal. The bar that they set motivated my own decision to clerk after law school. They were efficient and well-oiled clerking machines (and eight months into my own clerkship, I don't quite feel that I am at nearly that level) - yet managed to keep a great work-life balance. They were the gold standard of clerking, so to speak. I'll always be grateful to them for that.

So nearly three years later, some things haven't changed. We still laugh and joke about The G's sketchy behavior (which she always denies). And it's just relaxing and enjoyable to hang out with them again. Both of them are at private law firms now, and one thing that scares me is that they are both working so incredibly hard, and they're a little frustrated as a result. (Janis, who has also started working for a firm, is having a similar experience.) So that's probably what lies in store for me, as well.

I'll admit there was too much bitching about work for my taste. But hey, for the three of them, work is what consumes their existence, so it is not surprising. Once we got that out of the way, though, it was good times.

I recommend Dong Il Jang on 8th Street just east of Western, by the way, in Koreatown. Their kalbi and bulgogi are delicious.

When the laughter fades away (ma vie / tout ma vie)
When theres nothing more to say (ma vie / my oh my)
Its the last laugh of the laughter
Sur la dernier page du chapitre
On the last day of the year . . .

Travis, The Last Laugh of the Laughter, from The Man Who (1999)

So it's not exactly Auld Lang Syne. But there's nothing like a little Travis for those times where you want to sit back, reflect and take stock of your life. 2007 has been a good year; a year of change. I am grateful the experiences I've had, the opportunities I've been given, the people in my life. And I do really mean that.

Sometimes I delude myself into thinking that I can step back at any time and find myself, mentally and physically, in a sort of stasis. A comfortable place and time where I can remain forever. But then I look back to January and realize how much has changed. Back in January, I thought I was going to O'Melveny (I didn't interview for my clerkship until July.) I hadn't graduated from law school, taken the California Bar exam, or gone on my bar trip in Europe, or started working life, or become an actual lawyer. I hadn't signed up for an undergraduate Chinese class, joined a basketball league with my friends, signed up for a church choir, or explored the wonderful worlds of Nikon photography or road biking in the Palo Alto foothills. I hadn't made the unexpected friends that I did (both old friends I got closer to, and new friends.) And I hadn't found a job that I truly love (even if it is only a temporary one.) A year is a long time.

I also lost my best friend this year to a silly dispute about nothing, in the last place I thought it would happen. I never could have seen that coming, either. That's something that is harder for me to categorize, to take stock of. But what can you do, except that? The good, the bad... you just have to take it in stride. Or at least that's what I tell myself.

In the end, I hope your year was as interesting as mine. Happy New Year to all.

So you know, I got sworn in a couple of weeks ago and as of last week, my name appears on the California State Bar website.

Here is the swearing in ceremony that my boss conducted for me and my co-clerk Sameer. My dad, who came to watch, took pictures.



I really feel like I've come a long way. It was only about 3 1/2 years ago that I was interning for Sarah at RFCL and getting paid about $250 a month. One day, as a joke, I printed out a sticker for my desk that proudly stated, "Eric Chan, Attorney at Law." I thought it was pretty funny at the time.

The seasonal Santa Ana winds are blowing right now, making for a nice airy evening up here in the hills. It's another Red Flag Day, too, so we have to park all our cars on the other side of the street in case fire trucks want to come up. A lot of smoke and fire on the horizon..fires in Malibu and the Valley, I hear. But all we got here was a beautiful sunset.

I realize I haven't posted much about my life lately, or anything else besides football really The problem is that I haven't felt the need to. Work is going great, the hours are reasonable, my weekends are entirely free.. And my life is sort of boring. I've gone out twice in the last five weeks, and both times were law student mixers (lame, I know). I also joined a choir at my church, St. Bridget's in Chinatown. That's about it.

This is my desk in chambers. It's pretty comfortable; I especially like the two monitor setup. It's easy on the eyes.

I haven't been in the sharing mood as of late. However this was too good not to post! Last night, after going to Rafallo's Pizza with my family in Hollywood, we walked outside to find a twenty-foot geyser of water coming up from a broken hydrant on the corner of Vermont and Fountain Avenues. There were a whole bevy of firefighters and police, not to mention gawkers and bystanders having a good laugh. For some reason, I found the scene to be one of the most surreal and refreshing things I've seen in a while.

I mean sure, you can think about the practical side -- the dumb car, now missing, that managed to knock the hydrant flat on its side (as you can see in the picture), the amount of water being wasted, and the law enforcement and public resources tied up by this snafu. But it's also a reason to snap people out of their ordinary routines and laugh at the irony -- a real fountain on Fountain Ave.! I saw a firefighter dive under the plume of water to see if he could fix it and come out all soaking wet. It didn't help, but it looked like he was having fun.





By way of catch-up, I came back to LA three weeks ago today; I started work at the Federal courthouse in downtown the next day. So far, it's been really quiet, as my co-clerk hasn't started yet, and my judge has been out of the country for the past week. However, it promises to be a wonderful job and I'll have more to post soon.