Report on Toronto

I returned from Toronto yesterday, where I had spent five days at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America annual convention. It was amazing. I saw a ton of great speakers, learned a lot about trial law and how trial lawyers see their position and responsibility in society, and drank a lot of Canadian beer, which was awesome.

I also had the opportunity to meet some impressive people, including Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean (the link takes you to Dean's new organization, Democracy for America. I also had the oportunity to meet Delawares Senator (and future Presidential hopeful?)Joe Biden. Senator Biden is an incredible, engaging, common-sense-apealing-to (?) speaker, and an incredibly accomplished man. His most important accomplishment, of course, was growing up in Green Ridge, my awesome neighborhood in Scranton, PA. (For Green Ridge people, Senator Biden lived towards the end of North Washington Ave near Crawly Park.) The word with Washington insiders is that if Senator Biden is ever elected President the Capitol of the US will move, once and for all, to its rightful home, Scranton.

I also had the pleasure of organizing a huge party thrown by O'Malley and Langan at the Fionn MacCool's in downtown Toronto. We had an open bar, an awesome Irish band and some drunken law students. All in all the party was a huge success, and not deplete of relatively heavy hitters in itself. Another Green Ridge native and future Senator, Bob Casey came to our party with his wife Terese. It is easy to see why Casey is leading by 15 points in the extremely early (and, ultimately, extremely useless) election polls. He is the nicest guy in the world. Not to mention he will be replacing the repulsive Rick Santorum - in the words of ATLA speaker Paul Begala "a truly vile creature." The only real downside I can see about Bob Casey is the fact that he graduated from BC rival Holy Cross.

Enough with the shameless name dropping. I'm done. (Vote for Bob Casey.)

Penn State Arts Fest

I'm going to "Arts Fest" at Penn State this weekend. From what I can find about it online it doesn't exactly seem like a blast, but my friend Eric Chase assures me that it's a huge party, and well worth the three hour drive. I guess I'll be finding out.

Back From Stowe

Stowe, VT is probably the nicest place in the world, and flying hot air balloons over the nicest place in the world is sweet. (Even despite having to get up at 5:30 to do it.) Since it rained almost the entire weekend we were only able to launch twice out of four opportunities - or "windows" in ballonist-speak. This was far from devastating though because it meant being able to relax and take advantage of the awesome facilities of Stoweflake Mountain Resort which just keeps getting better and better every year. The owner of the resort actually started the balloon festival there, and is a balloonist himself. He has the life. He lives in a beautiful place, runs an awesome resort and pulls his hot air balloon with a rotating assortment of expensive vehicles (last year it was an H2, this year it was a Porsche Carrera). Good for him. Anyway, I'm back in Scranton now. Sort of looking forward to this week at work.

Vermont vs. New Jersey

It's Saturday morning and I'm in Stowe, Vermont. We came up here for a balloon festival, but were rained out this morning, and now I'm at a library book sale.

Here's a message I received from my BC roommate, Nick Boniakowski, who I just visited at his beach house in Montoloking, NJ over the 4th of July weekend.

Nicholas Boniakowski said...
This blog needs some spice. Don't you have any personal opinions you can rant about? Why don't you talk about what you did July 4th Weekend and explain why New Jersey is the best state in America.

Nick makes a valid point: this blog does need some substantive content, and if I'm going to blog about anything it may as well have something to do with New Jersey. As a matter of fact, about five minutes ago as I was browsing through the array of used books on sale in this Vermont library I came across two books that I think help to illustrate New Jersey's place in the Union.

The first book I noticed was called "Coming of Age in New Jersey" by Michael Moffatt. I immediately showed the book to my brother and suggested we buy it for Nick. The dust jacket revealed the story of an author who did "extensive research" by living amongst the students at "a typical state university" (Rutgers) and detailing their sexual habits.

The other book is called "Out! The Vermont Secession Book" by Frank Bryan and Bill Mares. The back of the book provocatively asks "what's going to happen when Vermont leaves the Union in 1991?" and thoroughly details fact that Vermont never actually joined the Union, and why it makes sense that they succeed immediately. (In 1987.)

I think the stark contrast between the two states is nicely illustrated by the books. The New Jersey book is a trite exposition about a college experience that could happen in anywhere in America, and indeed strives to typify the American college experience. The fact that the book takes place in New Jersey, in fact, seems barely relevant, which is certainly forwarded by the fact that there is very little relevant about New Jersey in the first place. This might have something to do with the phenomenon of New Jersey high school graduates escaping to higher education in other states.

The Vermont book, on the other hand, is a celebration of the unique nature of a place so individualistic that there is actually a notable movement to leave the Union. Jersey people flood out of there state into more interesting places. Vermonters strive to insulate. (Perhaps trying stem the influx of Jersey-ites?)

I won't say that New Jersey is the worst state in America. That would give the state some sort of distinction. Being "the worst" state would mean that NJ was in some way unique, and it is certainly not my intention to say any such thing here. Rather, the defining characteristic of New Jersey is a dismal mediocrity.

Anyway, Stowe is great. Be back in Scranton on Monday.

Rich Heads Off To Canada

A firm congratulations to my brother Richard is in order. Rich just graduated from the little known Harvard University, and left yesterday to begin work as one of the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies' Third Millenium Fellows. He is currently hanging out in Ottawa, Ontario, getting to know some of the people at the organization he will be working with, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. Their website says that Rich will be participate in the research for and drafting of a petition to the Organization of American States calling for a declaration that the effects of anthropogenic climate change have violated the Inuit's cultural and environmental human rights, but I like to think that he's just going to live with the Eskimos. As if that wasn't enough to warrant a "congrats" his senior thesis has also recently won both a Hoopes Prize as well as the Laurance S. Rockefeller Thesis Prize. Above all, of course, Richard is also a former O'Malley & Langan intern. Congrats Rich on a solid couple of months. Good luck in Canada (and I'll see you in Stowe, VT this weekend.)

Trained

Today I was finally trained to use the office software Needles, by our resident office manager, Patti Mazzie. I am now an office file navigating machine.

Personal Background

In the interesest of filling in some content on this site, and in order to make it look like a fuller, more finished product, I will here detail a little back ground information on myself (for lack of a better subject.) I am currently an Undergraduate student at Boston College, starting my senior year in the fall. I recently returned, however, from a nine month trip to England during which completed a year's study abroad at Oxford University, which was amazing to say the least. I arrived in Oxford already interested in the law as I had spent one half of last summer working in the office of Northeastern Pennsylvania Congressman Paul Kanjorski, and the other half working in the Employment Law Office, also in Scranton. That interest was solidified in England by a course in Contract Law, taught by the brilliant but terrifying Professor Adrian Briggs. Since I've been back in the US working at O'Malley and Langan has proved a fascinating continuation in my experience with the law.

First Post

My name is John Powell. I am currently an intern at the Law Offices of O'Malley and Langan in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I am learning about "blogging" in order to decide whether or not it's a good idea for the firm to start a blog on their website (www.OMalleyLangan.com). This Blog is a test run to help me to get used to posting blogs so that I will later be able to teach others how to go about posting. Today, and throughout this week, I will be sporatically updating this website with limited personal information about the amazing life and times of John J Powell.