The Exception Makes the Rule

Any
first year law student worth their salt will tell you that the law consists
of rules and exceptions.  For the past few years the only exception
to my strict rule against inviting students into the sanctity of my home
has
been the annual summer Lobster Fest for my foreign LLM students.  This
year there are five lawyers from Japan (3 men and 2 women), two
from Taiwan, and one each from the PRC, Argentina, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.

These are foreign lawyers whose firms or governments need someone able
to represent their interests in US courts.  They are doing a one-year
LLM degree in American Law or Banking Law, at the end of which they will
be eligible to take the bar exam, and if they pass, to represent clients
in US courts.  And they don’t know lobsters from legumes.

Of course, I’m too cheap to actually go out and buy lobsters for 18
people (several brought spouses and one a drop-dead gorgeous 14-month-old
China doll), so I had each of them bring their own personal crustacean.  Two
of them actually went to Cape Cod this morning to try to catch theirs
(they ended up at a lobster pound). Figured it would be a good entree
to a distinctly New England experience – lobster shopping. We supplied
everything else: potato and garden salad, corn on the cob, iced tea and
beer.

But our apartment is tiny and the academic lifestyle is always a lesson
in living small. We didn’t have enough plates or silver, and people were
sitting on stones and footlockers. Why then did I not only permit but
invent and organize this
egregious invasion of my own precious privacy? Well, you never know when,
or where, you’re going to need a good lawyer..

I’ll try to post a picture of the LobsterFest later tonight….Meanwhile,
if you’ve got a few seconds to waste, play the Dancing Lobster
Game..