Jaggers

Every parent I know admits that they are constantly messing things up and letting things slip between the cracks, either intentionally or accidentally. Obviously there are things that come up that necessitate long hours at times and work on evenings/weekends. But if that's a habit, it means a lot of your work is going to be consistently sub-par, either in terms of quality or productivity.

The quality/productivity of work you put out in hours 50-70 is probably pretty bad relative to the quality/productivity of work you put out in hours 0-30. If I saw a lawyer working on my files at midnight, I would look for another lawyer for the next file. Who is doing good work at an efficient pace at midnight?

When I was an associate on Bay, I typically worked about 9-6:30 daily. I was almost invariably home by 7, unless I was involved in something big, which happened once or twice a year.

This article neatly summarizes why being a corporate lawyer is one of the worst jobs in the world.

I know just enough about this topic to know that every piece of advice above is deficient in some way.

A 30 year amortization at 2.6% gets you in the range, but not quite there.

No, it isn't only people with addictions living on the streets. There is a high correlation between mental health issues and addiction, and mental health issues and living on the streets. Which ties into Rumpy's point about it also being an issue in rural communities. The common thread is that it's a health issue.

Drug addicts and alcoholics on the street are not the dangerous elements of society. They are mostly people who struggle with mental health issues who society for the most part doesn't care about. Which is something I wish I had learned when I was younger, instead of being taught that people with addictions are dangerous freaks who live in places where no one like us should live.

I have all of those things (ok, we do have drunks, but they're harmless) and I can walk to the restaurants. Three of the 10 units on my floor are occupied by families with kids. Edit to add: There can't be that many restaurants good enough to be worth an hour round trip drive.

I don't really think I'm elitist, but I'll admit to being an urbanist snob. I grew up in the countryside near a small town and would never go back. But I'm actually not really a snob about big cities... I get that rural/small town life has its appeals and some people prefer those, although I don't. What I am a snob about is suburbs. For the life of me, I can't figure out why someone would want to live in a faceless suburb, and look down on anyone I know who moves there.

Because I hate maintaining things, don't need that much space, hate driving to places and want to be able to get (1) groceries; (2) coffee (a good one, not the swill that places like Second Cup and Starbucks serve, never mind Tim Hortons); and (3) beer without walking for more than two to five minutes. Also, I hate winter, so Thunder Bay is obviously terrible for me, but the same would apply for small towns that don't have a nasty winter.

I'd take a shoebox in Toronto over a mansion in Thunder Bay any time.

If you read the business section of the paper semi-regularly (yes, I know I'm a dinosaur), you know everything you will learn in business associations.

I went to law school 3 years after graduating from undergrad. I got letters from profs who were like 1 and 2. What would #3 say that your transcript doesn't?

Yeah, you have to keep Browne and Dunn in mind. That's another reason why you need your checklist about what every fact you need to prove your case is. If anyone says something that contradicts one of those, you need to challenge them, and have the documents ready if they're lying/shading...