Once I took this job, I had a lot to learn. New rules, new procedures, new people, new ways of looking at the world. I thought I was sufficiently prepared with 30 years as a trial lawyer and some experience in government. But this was not just any old legal job in state government. This was the top job at the intersection of law, government and politics. …
Litigation and law are processes that have evolved over centuries to resolve disputes and conflict in a civilized manner. There are rules, lots of rules, stylized procedures that lawyers have to observe while fighting in court. …
Although government also has rules, politics has very few. The difference between fighting in court as a lawyer and political fighting is like the difference between a boxing match with a referee and a street brawl outside a bar. …
A few months into the job, during my first legislative session, I was summoned to a meeting with two state senators a few days before a deadline for third reading and final approval of bills in the Senate.
