nerd

A few weeks ago, I realized that if I wanted to continue to be a lawyer, I had to actually comply with my state's continuing education requirements and keep my law license.  The compliance deadline is October 22, two years after I was first admitted to practice law.  Which gave me about a month to get 13 hours worth of continuing legal education credits.  Preferably, for free.

In New York, if you're "newly admitted" -- meaning within your first 2 years -- you can't click through the online seminars, or listen in over the phone.  You have to be a body in a chair in front of a live presenter.  I discovered I could take the classes offered by the Practicing Law Institute for free (to me) through my affiliation with my old firm. That's how I found myself at "Bridging the Gap" all day on Tuesday -- a nine hour continuing education seminar full of other newly-admitted attorneys like myself. 

(Look at the size of the book.  They are not messing around.)

I think it's a testimony to the level of boredom I've achieved that I actually found the classes pretty interesting.  Kathy says it's "nerdy."  I assume she also thought it was nerdy that I recapped all the best parts of the presentations on the train ride home.

In reality, what I liked was the whole experience of doing something work-related, even if it wasn't actually work.  I had to get dressed, I had to be able to be someplace on time.  I had lunch with Kathy during my lunch break, then went back.  I had stories to tell on the train ride home.  It really reminded me why I'm excited to go back to work.  I love having experiences that confirm things I already think.

Is it nerdy to enjoy a class on presentation skills and cognative barriers to effective negotiation?  Maybe.  It's probably going to be a whole lot nerdier when I go to the session on derivatives and swaps next week, though!