The American Bar Assn convention in SF: Legally fun?
"Whatever you do, always avoid the corner of Third and Howard!" my mother used
to warn me when I was a little girl. "It's the worst skid row in all San
Francisco." Not any more.
Now the intersection of Third and Howard is the site of the fabulous
Yerba Buena Gardens, the chic Museum of Modern Art and the deluxe
Moscone Center -- and is also my current destination, the American Bar
Association convention, a huge annual gathering of attorneys from all
over the U.S.
All I originally knew about the convention itself was that, after signing
up for it, I suddenly started getting bunches of e-mail advertisements
for BMWs, top-of-the-line golf courses, bespoke tailors and luxury
resort hotels. Way above my pay grade.
So how did I end up here? That's easy. Worked for a law firm for
20-odd years. Began to miss seeing all those guys wearing grey flannel suits.
I registered, ate a complimentary breakfast, snagged a handful of free ballpoint pens and waited around for FBI director James Comey to speak. That man
surely has a lot of 'splaining to do. I wish somebody would ask him,
"Why did you give Clinton a free pass and not Chelsea Manning?" Or
Edward Snowden or Julian Assange? And if Comey answers that it
wasn't his job, perhaps someone should mention the Nuremberg trials.
After all, the ABA's slogan is "Defending Liberties, Pursuing Justice".
And many attorneys actually do that. However, not so sure about the
FBI.
But first I wandered around San Francisco, checked out the flea-bag
hotel I was booked in for Saturday night to make sure the elevator still worked and then attended a seminar for
insurance-defense attorneys at the historic St. Francis Hotel (its
elevators work nicely). What could be more fun than that! San Francisco is a wonderful town.
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