Road Trip Ramblings
Spent a few days in Chicago for a firm meeting and then Newark for business. Travel, and especially delayed travel, always leads to plenty random thoughts:
1. Went to Round 1 of the NCAA Tournament at the United Center. Having been to the Round 1 games in the past and walked away with some amazing memories, I can now affirmatively state that if you don't (a) have a rooting interest for one of the teams at your site or (b) catch a great upset, it may just be one of the most boring days in all of sports. As you know for prior entries on this blog, I am an avid sports fan and a huge tournament fan. However, after sitting through the slop of UNLV - GA Tech, a Kansas drumming of poor Niagra and a slow moving Kentucky - Villanova match up, I'm struggling to think of something that would more painful in the world of big time sports.
2. Our firm has established a relationship with Fairmont hotels - a hotel chain that I had no prior experience with and frankly had never even heard of prior to last year. I can tell you that after 3 or 4 stays in the last couple years, they are top notch properties. Very nice in every respect.
3. Some good displays of college pride this weekend since the tournament games coincided with Chicago's St. Patrick's day parade. The residents and alumni of Kansas and Wisconsin must all be either retired or unemployed. Every single one of them was in Chicago.
5. Not a single double-digit seed in the Sweet 16. Great for the tournament committee, who picked the teams and selected the seeds. Lousy for the average fan watching the games.
6. In support of the theory that bigger is not always better, I present the Chicago St. Patrick's Day parade. I found it to be (a) waaaay overcrowded, (b) in a horrible spot to accommodate the crowd, (c) not much of a parade, and (d) really much ado about nothing. This affair has absolutely nothing on the parade in Pittsburgh.
7. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the post-parade bar scene is unlike anything I've ever seen. Folks think nothing of waiting on line for hours (in lines 40-50 yards long) to get in. Made no sense to me. I'd like to think its because I'm getting older and perhaps a bit wiser, but it was a predominantly mature crowd in itself.
8. Chicago has it all over NYC in the big city category. After spending 4 days in Chicago, I think it's fair to say that NYC is a dump.
9. The ultimate irony in air travel occurred during our return flight home. Despite clear blue skies and no wind at O'Hare and similar conditions in Pittsburgh, our flight was still 3 hours late.
10. After 4 of the last 6 hockey games I have attended/watched have ended in shoot outs, I started to wonder why the NHL didn't make the move to the shoot out a lot sooner. What a great way to end a game. The only thing worse than sitting through #1 above might been leaving a hockey game after 3 periods and an OT session still tied at 0.
11. After about an 8 hour stop at home, I'm back on the road. Destination: Newark for 2 days. It still sucks. However, Tony, the Portuguese bartender at the Hilton, was a friendly face. His meatloaf and mashed potatoes suggestion was spot on and the Pens-Rangers game was on the new 50" hi def. Not a bad way to spend a night in Newark, assuming you must.
12. Of course, the flight home tonight is delayed, so I'm parked in the Newark airport. No Bill Murray this time, but a few folks from home so the time is passing somewhat quickly. Ultimately turns into a 2 hour delay.
13. I spent the past few days negotiating opposite a young punk from a big NYC firm. The kid was a 6 year associate and if its true that you learn everything you really need to know in kindergarten, this kid went straight from the womb to junior high. What a pompous, self-absorbed jackass.
Start with the premise that my client is one of the oldest companies in its industry and one of the biggest companies in the world. I was joined by 2 in-house lawyers from my client, who together had approximately 50 years of practice under their belts and two business people from the company with about 60 years of experience in their field. I have been in practice for about 15 years. Simply put, we're entitled to some respect during the process.
In the span of 2 days, Boy Wonder managed to piss off everyone in the room at least twice - including his own client. I realize that all lawyers have their own style, and we must all advocate for our clients. However, after about the 10th degrading remark, the 15th ridiculously irrelevant hypothetical and the 100th absolutely unreasonable and unbending stance on an issue, I did something I've never done before. I stopped F. Lee Obnoxious in mid-sentence, and politely advised his client that if their lawyer continued in this way, my clients were going back to their offices and I was getting on the early flight. I reminded them that this was a business deal and not Hell Week at Skippy's fraternity, and that the well-respected and well-educated representatives of my client (and their company) were entitled to a little more respect from someone who was born sometime around the Bicentennial. I've never pulled age/rank before in a negotiation and I always hated it when opposing counsel used that tactic on me - usually in an attempt to demonstrate to my client that they knew more than I did. But in this case, my goal was simply to shut the Punk up. I don't care if he's the world's foremost authority on this sort of transaction and is widely known as a guru in his field. He was rude, disrespectful, arrogant, single-minded, loud, an obtuse. In a word: a prick.
So, I went with my gut and did what I thought was right. The lead business person on the other side listened to what I had to say and chuckled, before responding "David, I'm impressed with your patience. I wouldn't have let it go on this long if I were you.". He then looked at the now beet red face of this Munchkin and said, "John, give it a rest. You're doing absolutely nothing to further the process, and frankly, you're wasting everybody's time."
The kid didn't know enough to even apologize (not even to his own client) and instead gave an exasperated look in disbelief that said, "How dare you question my negotiating style!" Nonetheless, the message had been sent and the rest of the afternoon went rather well.
Just another reason to hate New York lawyers . . .
14. The guy I ran into at the airport tonight sells "high end" wine glasses. Some of which sell for over $75 a glass!! Huh?!? I couldn't keep a straight face as he tried to convince me that wine can only really be enjoyed in a hand-blown, work-of-art piece of stemware. Perhaps. But I've never turned down a New York Strip served on a paper plate and I probably won't stop drinking wine from the 4 for $5 glasses that I picked up at Costco.
15. At 8:07PM, somewhere between Gate A36 and the end of the runway, Spring arrived. So here's to warmer weather, fast greens and the crack of the Little League bats.
