In an ever-changing legal landscape, our practice groups continue to provide events to educate and connect participants. Our lawyer referral service always strategize different ways to reach the public and improve the experience for our panel of attorneys.

We had game nights which featured video games and board games and once the weather improved, the Women Lawyers Committee tackled a power walk. In true form, our members managed to “talk shop” as they got out of the office.

In addition, a group of members are organizing an ADR committee which will be going on-line this spring.

The health of our organization relies not on a single grand gesture but on solid, consistent efforts. Any one of our on-going events or committees can credit its success to a shared workload with effective, energetic partners. It is amazing to witness and you, dear reader, are invited to participate!

The various assessments represent facets of PAABA, to a greater or lesser degree, and at different points in time. Each assessor also reveals something internal, something about his or her past, in making these assumptions as well. Even if it’s a complaint, I am relieved to learn of our relevance, that we mean something. We can act as home base, the parent, the foil. Of course, nothing too extreme would be preferable, since we neither work miracles nor plot schemes, but it is just as we interpret home, and all the people in it.

Everything — people, memories and places — that hold significance will be multi-layered with meaning. PAABA wants to be that important to our members. However, unlike true familial units, we must all take equal responsibility in creating meaning for ourselves and for each other because the one thing PAABA’s existence is not, is automatic. Our events, our networks and meetings are a direct outgrowth of our members’ interests, and change over time as we all change.

This winter, celebrate family and rest; eat too much and sleep in late. Then return to the fray with your energy and vision, and watch the tapestry alter yet again.

Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season!

Turns out, it was not library policy to provide stranded motorists with aid. I suppose I knew that but it was surprising to hear. I asked the clerk if he, as an individual, would help. After some thought, he decided out loud that he would rather not move his car.

So I walked over to the police station for help. They were also not in the business of helping stranded motorists. In fact, ironically, they prospectively, intentionally and purposefully had a policy against helping anyone jump start her vehicle. As a consolation prize, the officer provided an explanation of liability.

I called AAA but ultimately, my friend rescued me.

Don’t worry, this is not about taxes. The services provided by the police and libraries are important and we should support them. More interesting is how people help each other. Even though I already owe my friend so much, she helped me start my car. Friendship fills the void between personal volition and public service.

The vast majority of the public simply finds Community Legal Services East Palo Alto for help, then leaves. That is how it should be.

PAABA knows that agencies like CLSEPA are more akin to the role of a friend than to that of the police. CLSEPA’s existence is evidence of grace in the universe—where people help each other—and that is a lot like magic. It is a privilege to help and that is why we are so pleased to hold our annual golf tournament.

100 percent of the funds go toward CLSEPA. Although the event transpires on one day, there are many people who volunteer to organize the event. We are indebted to them for another successful year but this also underscores an opportunity to help even if you don’t play golf.

We are thankful for good friends, who are necessary for our society to function and by those standards, CLSEPA is one of the best.

PAABA thanks all our volunteers, sponsors and participants. The PAABA Annual Charity Golf Tournament would not be possible without the kind support of our sponsors: Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLC, Latham & Watkins LLP, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates, Fish & Richardson, VITA, California Bank & Trust, Rector Motor Car Company, Audi, Jungle Digital, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, Fenwick & West LLP, Finnegan, Howrey LLP, DLA Piper, Law Offices of Murray & Murray, McDermott Will & Emery, Thoits Love Hershberger & McLean, Townsend & Townsend & Crew LLP, Morrison Foerster, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP, Blackstone Discovery, and Winston & Strawn LLP.

PAABA would also like to thank the following organizations or individuals who made donations of items that were used for our PAABA Annual Charity Golf Tournament’s raffle, goodie bags, and contests: Arguello Catering, Crowne Plaza Hotel Palo Alto, Armadillo Willy’s Ranch Grill, Bay Landing Hotel, Document Technologies, Inc., Beltramo’s Wines & Spirits, Domain Hotel, Bon Appetit Management Company, Fish Market, Books, Inc., Garden Court Hotel, Boulder Creek Golf & Country Club, Golf Tech, Hilton Santa Clara, Chache Creek Casino Resort, CLSEPA Board, Hobee’s California Restaurants, JAMS Inc., Safeway Palo Alto, Kepler’s Books, Scott’s Seafood Palo Alto, Mango Caribbean Restaurant & Bar, Sports Basement, Sports Gallery, Mark Shepherd, Stanford Terrace Inn, Ming’s Chinese Cuisine & Bar, Taylor Made, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, THomson West, PAABA Board, Townplace Suites by Marriott, Palo Alto Eyeworks, Patrick and James, Vinter’s, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Vivace Ristorante, Photography Rick Saal, Westin Palo Alto Hotel, Ristorante Don Giovanni, Wild Palms Hotel, Rosewood Sand Hill, Wine and Country, Yoga Source, and Safeway Menlo Park.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

The new season is invigorating.  Sure the days are shorter and the weather cools (or does it?) but this is a sign of progress, a move forward, if only literal.  If you are fortunate to witness the changes in foliage, the wheel of time turns majestically.

In Korea, my family celebrates Thanksgiving in September, as we honor our past and appreciate the harvest which will sustain us into the winter.  The tradition may seem anachronistic to modern day residents of the world who are so removed from farming but we should all stop and take a breath as the calendar advances because, while we might not monitor crops, busy people spend the year fretting about our diminishing resource: time.

PAABA overflows with time farmers.  They track each hour as it passes into oblivion and manage future supplies of minutes in order to bear fuller, better spent days.  To-do lists, productivity tools, working weekends and late nights are all tactics to keep growing meaningful experiences while pruning time spent on dead end tasks.

 It’s with this perspective that we organize our events.  Whether for a committee meeting (networking, education, lunch), our upcoming Golf Tournament (benefit for East Palo Alto Community Legal Services, fun, networking) or involvement with our administration (the jackpot, really), we help participants maximize their experience.

In this age of continuous access to information and unending dialogue with others, everyone, at any given time, always has something better to do.  Let us help manage your to-do list so you can return to carefully tended neat rows of days.

Happy October!

PAABA, of course, wants to help!  Events have already been calendared for the remainder of the year.  More develop but confirmed meetings can be found on our website and on our Facebook page.

Given the fact that the California State Bar is going to increase audits of our Continuing Legal Education credits, everyone should take this opportunity to get organized and assemble their associated materials.  PAABA members are well organized however if any supporting materials are required, we advise that requests be made in advance.  Plan ahead.

In other news, we were very pleased to have a table at the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce Tall Tree Dinner.  During this event, the entire Palo Alto community thanked citizens who contributed a substantial amount of time and effort in improving this wonderful city.  It was a real pleasure communing with PAABA members as guests and not hosts for once!  Thanks to Board Member Mark Shepherd for organizing our table.

In addition, I was pleased to meet Palo Alto Mayor Yeh who will speak at our Staff Appreciation Lunch on May 3rd at Ming’s.  The city benefits from his leadership and we are happy to welcome him.  Also, Phil Hwang, the new Executive Director of Community Legal Services, East Palo Alto, and I met to discuss the collaboration between our organizations.  The concerns of our community are vast and dynamic.  We are lucky to have such able leaders in our community.

As always, we strive to help our members in their practices and increase their enjoyment of the profession.  Yes, I said enjoy: Everyone has a duty to live a fulfilling life, as demanding and chaotic as it is.

There is one fantasy, though, that we hold dear — and we may as well admit we believe in unicorns for they are more probable than — our pursuit of Perfection.

Our language makes it plain: we don’t just use the word “should”; it is watermarked onto our lens of the world.

It makes us crazy.  Any outsider would be baffled at why we do not bound gleefully from sunrise to sunset. After all, we survived law school and the bar exam.  Our employment opportunities may be limited at any given time but the range of options is a veritable cornucopia.

They do not understand, we answer, because they never saw how it could have been.   There exists two realities, just as in science fiction, and we compare them obsessively.  Either we made a fictional plan that real life derailed, and we bitterly rue real life for not being fictional; or, an ordeal taught us an important lesson and we separate the lesson from the ordeal (immediately recharacterized as a “mistake”) and wish for the lesson as if it could ever have existed separately from the ordeal.  It makes us crazy because it is crazy.

“I’m stupid for not knowing that . . . I should have done it differently . . .  If I’d only known that this would be the result . . .” we sigh.  There was no way to know though, because we only live forwards in time.  Only forwards and in one reality.

Professionally, in small doses, driving forward may improve your practice, however, everyone needs to regularly recognize this fiction to step away and appreciate who we have become in real life, in our draft versions.  We are always only in draft form.

As for PAABA, we’re not therapists or philosophers (professionally, anyway) but the bar provides perspective and information so that our members can help themselves. Who needs another CLE provider?  It is a tremendous benefit, but not the goal.  PAABA was formed amidst an assortment of orchards between San Francisco and San Jose because our members wanted to enjoy work but only while enjoying life.  Unexpectedly, technology and industry formed around us so that now we practice in one of the most dynamic neighborhoods in the world.  Progress is change; perfection is not.

So shake off the backward looking “shoulds” and reap the benefits of an old bar association that developed its wisdom from simpler times.  Renew your membership, attend events and reach out to one another.  Our calendar is perfectly poised to provide an assortment of upcoming events but, what gives it all life and meaning, is you.

Soyeun D. Choi, President, Palo Alto Area Bar Association

Stay calm in the face of stress (Source: Mad Maydel via Creative Commons license)

Your poor heart.  As you sit there, reading while eating or texting or otherwise multitasking, your heart is hard at work.  It has the singular purpose of moving nutrients, oxygen and cleansing your body.  It is a muscle that contracts harder than a sprinter’s leg muscle and consistently beats about 2.5 billion times by the age of 70.

And most likely, yours is bathed in stress.  (That’s just a guess but in this industry, in this economy, it’s most likely true.)

While the nervous system deploys quickly, like an electric current, the endocrine system sends its messages through the blood, moving slower and is not retracted as much as purged.

So when your nervous system detects danger in that email message or meeting, your endocrine system immediately secretes the appropriate chemicals into the blood to prepare for the threat.  You may discover that there is no threat after all but your endocrine system has already unleashed its chemical message into the blood.  Dreading phone calls or getting angry with opposing counsel are modern day permutations of our most basic fight or flight instincts.  Amazingly, the body doesn’t understand that these are lesser threats so that, all day long, your heart is awash in chemical instructions to prepare for danger.

The best way to help your heart is to let the chemicals purge completely.  The best way to help your heart is to rest.

It might seem impossible to take a day off but you know that’s just language.  Your choices are, in fact, the only aspect of your life you control..  Biologically mandated responses evolved within the species cannot be changed.

PAABA’s running group can help trim the fat from around the heart.  Positive interactions at our CLE courses, our section meetings, events and mixers produce uplifting endorphins.  Check out our calendar for the myriad of beneficial programs, and if you have other ideas, let us know.

But only you can take care of the rest.  Now that the holidays are over, make plans to stay healthy this year.  We are nothing without our members so plan on staying with us a long, long time.

Soyeun D. Choi, President

SOPA/PIPA protest (Source: Photo by JustGrimes under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence)

On January 18, 2012, the tech community in Silicon Valley gathered in front of San Francisco’s City Hall to protest the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) bills being considered by Congress and the House of Representatives. PIPA was approved by a senate committee and is now pending before the whole senate, and SOPA is in the House. The purpose of the bills is to prevent foreign-based websites from selling copyrighted materials, and if passed the federal government would have the authority to close U.S. based websites that contain pirated content. While preventing piracy is an important concern for the government to tackle, it is vital for any legislation under consideration to be specific to avoid resulting in implementation of censorship.

The rally in San Francisco was just one of many held throughout the country. Additionally, several large mainstream websites, such as Google and Wikipedia, visibly lent their support to the cause on their homepages as well. In total, two million websites pledged to participate in the strike. It was thrilling to see so many people willing take the time out of their work day to perform their civic duty and urge their representatives to take action on this issue.

The results of the strike can be considered effective: at least nineteen senators went on to announce they no longer supported it the next day. Over two million emails were sent to public officials to oppose the proposed. In total, 205 members of Congress are now leaning against SOPA and PIPA. It has been stated that the strike was the largest internet protest in history. Although the votes on the bills have been delayed, it is clear that the issues facing copyright law and illegal piracy remain pertinent.

Liz Bugarin

Liz Bugarin is a PAABA intern and a tech savvy, community minded Peninsula native who will apply to law school in the upcoming year.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120119/sopa-blackout-protest-yields-results

http://projects.propublica.org/sopa/

PAABA maintains that the best buffer for time and adversity is each other and so keeps its steady course, by continuing to provide informative, low cost CLE events, mixers and other activities through which to meet legal professionals.  In addition, we now have four practice area sections: Family, Patent, Tax and Trust and Estates Planning.

These sections were implemented directly by members and are examples of how we all contribute to our bar association and its evolution.  Even the most jaded cynics acknowledge that involvement with PAABA broadens networks, enhances opportunity and strengthens community.  The discovery of new assets and friends amongst neighbors takes time but is worth the investment.  Our group consistently reveals itself to be fascinating in breadth and depth of experiences, both professionally and personally.

Make the best of 2012 and let us know how we can serve you!

Soyeun D. Choi, President

Unbeknownst to them, you reduced technology use by fifty percent the moment you disembarked.  Proof: As they rushed around searching for a pen, you refrained from texting the information.  You also waited through ten minutes of conjecture about a song title instead of looking it up.  Oh, the holidays.

After a few days, you’ll appreciate being unplugged.

Before you embark on travels home, be sure to familiarize yourself with the remainder of the 2011 PAABA calendar: On the evening of December 5^th, attorneys from Chinese and U.S. firms discuss the perils of foreign investments in that immense and complex nation.  Join practitioners for lunch on December 6^th for the inaugural Family Law Section meeting.  Later that evening, we are pleased to co-sponsor an event at the Little Fox in Redwood City celebrating 50 years of African American jurisprudence. On December 9th, we are pleased to co-sponsor an event on managing your first arbitration.

December 13^th presents an opportunity to catch a drink with members at the Rosewood.  The next day, our Estates Planning and Trusts Committee convenes on December 14^th for lively discussions over lunch.

In January, we have an opportunity to clear out a substance abuse CLE on the 5^th.  The 10^th provides an opportunity for the Tax Salon to discuss updates.  January 19^th the very active Patent Group convenes to continue the search for meaning after this year’s reform.  The Estates Planning and Trusts Group and Family Law Section will also have their meetings scheduled for that month and other 2012 events can be found at our website.

From all of us at PAABA, enjoy a safe and happy holiday season!