Too often, practicing bankruptcy law feels pretty unrewarding.
The money is poor, the clients often uncooperative, and the idiocy of the 2005 bankruptcy amendments overwhelming. Then there are lawyers on the other side who are mean spirited, less than honest, and indifferent about the ideals of the profession.
But I just returned from the Sacramento Valley Bankruptcy Forum imbued with a positive feeling about both my specialty and my colleagues.
For two days, a number of judges and nationally known bankruptcy lawyers joined members of the local bar in sharing what they knew about the law and pushing all in the audience to a higher level of competence.
I know what it took each of the presenters to put together their 1.5 hour in the spotlight: I was one of the presenters, along with my always inspiring friends Doug Jacobs and Fredrick Clement, now a bankruptcy judge in Fresno.
We worked over a period of months to think through what we could contribute on the subject of means testing to other bankruptcy lawyers.
Multiply our efforts by the 6 other panels, and you seen an enormous contribution of volunteer time by colleagues to make their competitors better lawyers. Pretty impressive.
Sometimes, it’s not so bad to be a lawyer.
