F'ing Work

Work has been nutty lately. One of the myriad things that sucks about my job is being unable to talk about it. As a brief, non-violative-of-canons-of-ethics description of the recent suckage:

• I am currently staffed on seven active matters, four for paying clients, three pro bono.
• One has been a major national news item of late. This is never good for the lawyers involved, myself included, as it usually means many horribly long nights, which are even less awesome when pregnant, especially when in what appears to be the only second trimester to be unaccompanied by the mythical burst of energy of which others speak.
  
• Another was previously a major national news item. It hasn't been lately, but the mindset of the people at the top working on it is still fraught with that same sense of urgency. This makes everything about said matter urgent, whether it's urgent or not.
  
• Another was a minor national news item a while back. It eventually settled and seemed to have gone away. I always thought settlement was the end. I have since learned that this is not the case. I have also learned that insurance companies can suck to have to deal with.
• The last paying client matter is unlike the rest, in that it will never been anything that anyone cares about other than the companies involved. The client is paying too much to resolve a matter that just isn't worth it. But it isn't my job to point that out. I just hope I don't have to spend time in arbitration in Texas this summer. It's hot there.
• One pro bono client has an asylum interview this week -- unlike my other cases, this is about a lot more than money so the stakes are, well, real; another seems to be correct that she may really be screwed, and no one at the shelter she lives at will take a damn message; and the third failed to give me the zip code for her PO Box and isn't answering her cell phone, which makes her tough to reach.
  

Sadly, I prefer being crazy busy to being slow. So, all in all, this has been a nice change of pace.