Big Firm, Big Deal

I went to a negotiation competition a few weeks ago at Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, one of the big downtown law firms. The evening had quite an impact on me, but it wasn't the competition itself that had the big effect. It was the atmosphere of the firm itself.

Upon arrival, I took the elevator to the 30th floor, where the firm's offices are located. I stepped off the elevator into a lobby adorned with beautiful hardwood and expensive art. The message was clear: the firm has money (and by extension, you should too if you're a client of theirs). In addition to being a nice place to do business, the atmosphere is designed to impress.

As we were guided to the room where our negotiations were to take place, I got a glimpse into big-firm life. I saw an older lawyer gazing at pictures of his family as he recorded something into his dictaphone. I saw bleary-eyed articling students smile and tell me half-heartedly that articling was "good, but really busy".

And suddenly it struck me, that the very thing that was supposed to impress me about this firm - the money - was actually having the opposite effect on me. I projected to the future and imagined myself gazing at my family in the evenings in person, not just at their framed pictures on my desk. I haven't yet decided what type of law I want to practice, or what kind of firm I would like to work in. But today I moved one step closer to figuring it out.

Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot

Thanks to Al Franken for the pithy title. I was about to post in response to Rush Limbaugh's attacks on Michael J. Fox's ad, and then I found this site. Chase Hamil's article seems to sum up my views on this little incident, so I'll save myself the effort of typing it all out again. Besides the fact that Limbaugh's smarmy invective was a low blow to Fox and others suffering from an incurable neurodegenerative disease, he also managed to obfuscate the whole issue of stem cell research. And that's why I believe that Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot.

Adolf Eichmann

Today in International Law class we were discussing the legal implications of international abductions and the maxim "mala captus bene detentus", which literally translates into "bad capture, good detention", referring to the idea that once a State has a person in custody (regardless of how it got the person), it can take jurisdiction over that person.

My prof talked about the remarkable case of Adolf Eichmann, which is a fascinating story with a remarkable twist. Eichmann was a high ranking Nazi who was put in charge of the transportation aspect of the Final Solution during the Holocaust. Following World War II, Eichmann fled to Argentina, as did many other Nazis.

He lived with his family in Argentina, working several odd jobs, all the while trying to keep a low profile so his true identity would not be discovered. Eventually, Eichmann's whereabouts were discovered, and in the greatest twist of irony (some would call it poetic justice), Eichmann was positively identified by a girl of Jewish descent, Sylvia Hermann, who was dating Eichmann's son, Klaus. Sylvia's father, Lothar, had known Eichmann from the Dachau concentration camp, where Eichmann had been an administrator. Eventually, word got back to the Mossad regarding Eichmann's identity and whereabouts.

In 1960 Eichmann was kidnapped during a covert operation by Mossad agents and eventually flown to Jerusalem, where he faced 15 charges, including crimes against humanity. After a lengthy trial, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected Eichmann's arguments regarding lack of jurisdiction and state immunity, and he was convicted on all counts and sentenced to death. He was hanged on June 1, 1962, and remains the only civil execution ever carried out in Israel.