Thread by @RMFifthCircuit

Thread re: why appeals are fun, with a corporate law detour.

When I was a corporate lawyer, the only part of the work I really enjoyed was hanging out with the buyer's or seller's in-house counsel while trying to close the deal. One month I had to learn how UPC codes work 1/

so that I could write a side-agreement to help transfer the codes for a line of retail items to the buyer. I ended up asking the lawyer for all their manuals just so I could bury myself in them.

I also had to help move a machine cross-country once. I got to know the guy who /2

Basically had made the machine. He knew everything about how it worked, how to disassemble, it, etc. Total blast.

Anyway, back to my point - and this is an #appellatetwitter oldie - there's a lot of that work for a generalist appeals lawyer like me. /3

I get cases in different subjects all the time. My job is to try to learn them as well as I possibly can. The story of Lisa Blatt wandering around with customs agents to figure it out is always in my head - lawprofessors.typepad.com/appellate_advo…. /4

Honestly, I probably lose a butt-ton (technical term) of money doing this work, because I can't always bill for it. But it's central to what I do. And it's really fun and great. The goal isn't to be an *expert.* You can't be. But you should try to know the most in the room. /5

Anyway, I've done a bunch of this work recently. It makes me happy. Thought I'd share for those thinking of heading in this direction.