Coffee Talk – Memories of the Bar
Coffee Talk is a regular feature of the Contra Costa Lawyer magazine. We ask a short question related to an upcoming theme and responses are then published in the Contra Costa Lawyer magazine.
For this the 85th Anniversary issue of the Contra Costa County Bar Association we ask:
When you first joined the Bar, what was your first – fondest – or weirdest memory?
I went right from law school into BigLaw. While in school I had subsisted in a spider-infested garage apartment with $20 or so a week for groceries. In an epic reversal of fortune, the firm put me in charge of entertaining summer recruits, complete with a credit card, cab vouchers and the instruction to “make sure they have fun.”
We went everywhere – the opera, the wine country, Yosemite, on bay cruises and to some very expensive restaurants. All free!
Only now do I really realize how incredible that was.
-Carol Langford
In November 1978 I was sworn in to the CALBAR, I went to my first deposition a few days later, where I represented a land surveyor defendant. The court reporter that I met there became my wife on June 21, 1980. It has been 39 years now and we are still happily married.
-Marc Bouret, MBA
My fondest memory – when I came in to get the photo taken for the directory, I had very short hair. I remember my daughter was only about 4 months old, and I had her in a baby carrier on the floor next to me. As the years went by, I refused to change the picture, because seeing the “old” one always reminded me of my baby daughter in that carrier!
-Rachael I. Zeiph
My fondest memory is definitely being sworn in by two of my favorite professors who also happened to be judges, Hon. Roderick Duncan (Deceased) to the state bar and Hon. Maria-Elena James (Ret.) to the federal bar. Judge Duncan taught my family law practicum, in which we got to pretend like we’re actual lawyers representing actual clients in actual family court proceedings (my then-girlfriend, now wife, was my stay-at-home client who was divorcing her philandering dentist husband). Judge James taught evidence, a subject many believe to be completely extraneous in family court. It was a great honor and privilege to be inducted into the club by such accomplished and influential members.
-Gary Vadim Dubrovsky
When I first joined the CCCBA one of my fondest memories was meeting Erwin Chemerinsky at the MCLE Spectacular. Being a Con Law nerd, I was in awe of the man who I followed and admired throughout law school. I was amazed to hear him speak as he recited, with incredible detail, every major Con Law case that had been heard and decided by the Supreme Court that year, without the use of notes! He knew every single Justice’s position and vote. If I had a legal man-crush, then he would have been it!
-Michael Pierson, Esq.