A new beginning

This week marks the beginning of a new era for me . . .

As of July 3, 2012, I am officially a full time, at home Mommy.

It feels strange but wonderful at the same time.

I interviewed with Bingham McCutchen LLP in September 2002 for a summer associate position.
Ultimately, I decided that was the best fit for me and accepted the offer.

 I spent the summer of 2003 being wined and dined while doing exciting legal work.

At the end of the summer, I received an offer to be a litigation associate upon graduation.

I immediately accepted.

 After spending a year clerking for {now} Chief Justice Ireland

on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court,

I returned to Bingham in September 2005 as a second year associate.

This picture was taken during my first week at Bingham in September 2005 and was my official headshot on the website for the past 7 years.

The money was great but I was MISERABLE.

I worked with a very difficult partner and the thought of going to work made me want to cry.

I was actually counting down the days until I could quit

{I had to stay a year or pay back the bar prep and exam fees as well as my clerkship bonus}.

Then in March of 2006 that all changed. I met Jason, then a senior associate,

who staffed me on the Tempur Pedic securities case.

 For the first time since I started, I was excited by my work.

Jason began staffing me on more securities cases with he and Jordy, an amazing partner.

Soon, Jason was made partner and by 2007,

nearly all of my cases were with Jordy and Jason.

I loved my work and the firm was wonderful to me.

 Along the way, many of my summer associate class left the firm and before I knew it,

I was the last one left in litigation and one of the final four of our class of 28!

 Crazy since I never planned on working at a big firm and really thought I would last only one year.

When G and I decided to move back to WA in 2008, the firm allowed me to commute.

 I had no idea how that would work and figured it would only last a year if I was lucky.

Well, it lasted nearly four years!

It is no secret that after Eli was born, I was ready to be done with the commuting

and really wanted to stay home with Alli and Eli full time.

Financially, it just wasn't an option so I returned to commuting and

decided to branch out and work with additional partners in the securities department.

 I still enjoyed the work but the commute was becoming too much.

Then, we had the surprise pregnancy and miscarriage with

every complication possible in the last two months of 2010.

When I finally returned to commuting in January 2011,

I was exhausted and finding it harder and harder to keep doing it.

I stopped flying in August 2011 due to pregnancy complications

and went out on leave in October 2011.

 After Luke, I knew commuting would be too much but Bingham

had been so good to me for so long, I felt I had to try to return.

 I was trying to work out a return to work date with the head of litigation in Boston

but we were having a difficult time connecting due to his schedule.

Finally, on March 2, 2012, I was able to speak to him and his co-chair on the West Coast.

They gave me my annual review, which was good, but then I was told that I

had no prospect of making partner due to my commuting.

They offered me a generous severance package along with my vacation payout

 of nearly 5 weeks, which I happily accepted.

I flew back to Boston June 3-5 to clean out my office.

It's crazy how much you can accumulate in nearly 7 years!  I must say that I will miss my view.

While there, I had the opportunity to say goodbye to friends and co-workers.

 I am so blessed to have made such wonderful friends.  Mohan, Kate & Angie left Bingham before me but we remained close & they threw me a "retirment party"

It was a wonderful visit filled with three fabulous goodbye parties.

Nicole, Bill, Jason, Jordy and Brandon were kind enough to take me out for some yummy Chinese one last time.  Such amazing people to work with!!!

I have absolutely no regrets and am grateful that it ended the way it did, on a positive note.

 I loved my time with Bingham and learned so much

from the brilliant attorneys and staff with whom I worked.

 That said, I am so excited for my next adventure . . .

It's Official, Nikki Can Practice Law in WA

This afternoon, the whole family headed over to the Pierce County Courthouse,

where I and 13 others were sworn in to the Washington Bar.

It was very different from my first swearing-in but the same type of speeches were made . . .

Congratulations!  You're a lawyer now!  What a noble profession, how proud you must be, etc.

Certainly kind words and mostly true but it felt different

as I have been a practicing attorney for nearly 7 years already ;-)

I was most entertained by Eli saying "Mama" when he saw me ~ too cute!

Both kiddos gave me big "congratulations" hugs after the ceremony

and I have to say both were incredibly well behaved!!!

 They were both a little confused though to see Mommy wearing a suit ;-)

Hopefully neither one gets any ideas of becoming an attorney!

Afterwards, the family went to the Ram for dinner, where both kids lost a balloon but handled it well.

 My mom was there too (of course!) but she was the wonderful photographer ;-)

So now that I'm officially able to practice in WA, I keep getting asked if I plan to switch to a WA law firm.

Let me be vey clear ~ NO!!!  I love my firm and have no plans to make the switch,

however, my firm has a number of cases pending in Seattle so this is helpful.

I just figured it was time to be licensed in the state in which I live ;-)

YES . . . a lawyer CAN pass an ethics exam!!!

I got the news today that I passed the ethics portions of the WA Bar Exam

(only portion I was required to take).

Not officially admitted in WA until I pay my fee and take the official oath,

but I'm getting closer ;-)

WHEW!

Promoted

Well, the crazy commute hasn't hurt me.  I had my annual review yesterday and got the official word that I have been promoted from Associate to Counsel.  What does this mean???  That I need to start competing for partnership and work on marketing myself.  Hmmmm, I think being a mid-level associate forever sounds good ;-)  Seriously, Counsel is just a fancy title for Senior Associate.  Once upon a time, partnership occurred around your 8th year so it made sense to go from Associate to Partner.  Now, you're looking at not making partner until your 11th year or later for some so I think they figured they would give those of us who have been around 7+ years a fancy title.  They were so kind to update my bio with my snazzy new title before my review so I knew going into it that it couldn't be a horrible review ;-)

So there you have it, I didn't think I would stay at the firm for more than a year and I am now one of four from my summer class of 28 to make Counsel.  Go figure.

Can a lawyer pass an ethics exam???

I sure hope so because tomorrow, I am sitting for the WA Ethics Exam!

(technically, the final day of the Bar Exam). 

I've been practicing law nearly 7 years and passed both the MA Bar Exam and the MPRE

 (multi-state professional responsibility exam),

but WA currently doesn't use the MPRE. 

I did, however, learn this morning that as of July 2013,

WA will do away with the essay exam and will use the MPRE ~ grrrr! 

Oh well, I feel like I know the material,

let's just hope I can write small enough to get everything into the 29 lines I get to answer each essay.

Wish me luck!

Here I am in the MA Supreme Judicial Court the day I sworn in back in 2004.

A few years later (2008), G & I at the US Supreme Court immediately following my swearing in.

No pictures from my swearing in at the MA federal courts (G was in Iraq then so no pics)

but hoping to soon add a picture from my swearing in ceremony at the WA courts ;-)

If not, let the lawyer jokes begin . . .

Our trip to D.C.

Well, I am officially back at work today and healing nicely from the appendectomy. Alli enjoyed having my mom out here while I recovered and certainly wore her out :)  Alli is still not great with the eating but we go back next Thursday to meet with her GI doc so hopefully we'll get some assistance or answers then.  Last Friday, my mom returned to WA and Garrett's mom arrived here.  We went to the Nordstrom opening in Burlington but because Miss Alli decided to sleep in, we missed the speeches and walking on the red carpet. Oh well, it was fun and Alli was thrilled because she got more pink bunnies (her lovey that shows up in many pictures!) Apparently, you can never have too many bunnies :)

On Saturday, Garrett and I flew down to D.C. for a weekend of fun. My law school hosted a weekend-long event culminating in a swearing in ceremony at the US Supreme Court. We had a great time visiting with my former classmates and touring the city. It is such a great place to visit but we overdid it a little with our walking on Sunday and were both feeling it!!!

Here we are at the cocktail reception hosted by my law school at the swanky Hay Adams hotel.

Touring DC ~ as close as we got to the White House :)

The actual swearing in ceremony was quite brief but exciting as we saw the justices up close and got to meet Justice Ginsberg ~ not exactly my favorite justice (yes, I'm a Scalia and Thomas fan!) but it was still fun and made for some good pictures.

With Dean John O'Brien and President Marty Murphy ~ both of whom have been wonderful to me!

Before the swearing in ceremony

After the ceremony with Justice Ginsburg

As much fun as we had, we were most excited to return home to see Alli, who gave us big smiles and snuggles when we got there!!! Nothing better than that! She and her Gramma had a very funfilled weekend. Garrett and Alli will fly back to WA with Adele tomorrow and I plan to joint them this weekend. Other than that, there's not much going on with us. As I mentioned, I'm healing nicely and no longer need pain meds but our trip to D.C. was a friendly reminder that I still need to take it easy ~ I'm terrible at that . . .