It's nice that some things in a criminal defense lawyer's life remain constant. Among them — at the American Bar Association's annual White Collar Committee boondoggle (last year in Miami, this year in San Francisco) lawyers will backbench, skip continuing legal education sessions, network, and bludgeon their livers mercilessly. It's primarily a business development opportunity — white collar lawyers get a disproportionately high percentage of their work from attorney referrals, particularly among the ex-AUSA mafia. So today the ballrooms are sparsely scattered with people listening to the actual presentations, and the hallways are jammed with hung over attorneys wondering whether mortgage workout fraud will be the Next Big Thing and hoping that DoJ will start indicting big, retainer-paying companies again.

It's a different experience for me this year. I'm still not feeling 100% after a recent cold, so though I went to three cocktail parties last night to schmooze, I drank sparingly. As I am occasionally reminded, you learn more that way. Lawyers become incautious about firm politics in their cups.

Today: presentations on recent mega-cases, an internal investigation seminar, a mortgage fraud discussion, perhaps a SEC brush-up. Then the party my own firm is sponsoring, at which I will once again restrain myself, for the novelty if nothing else.

Last 5 posts by Ken

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