Headquarters in the Saddle

"My headquarters are in the saddle."

-General John Pope, 1862

"The general's headquarters are where his hindquarters should be."

-Abraham Lincoln (maybe)

A brief one this morning, with a Zoom mediation in a bit, following yesterday's all day Zoom mediation. We're in NYC, but I haven't left the room since Sunday afternoon. I also have two nasty Zoom hearings today, one of which I'll attend from here at Sione, while I'll likely be behind the wheel on I-80 somewhere near Scranton for the final hearing of the day.

Not sure this is an entirely good thing, this new freedom we have to work and participate in hearings, mediations, and depositions from wherever we happen to be. Beyond the qualitative issues associated with constant distractions and not being physically present, there's the question of whether a person should be hurtling down the interstate at 75 miles an hour talking to a judge. Or, as I saw in one of my cases earlier this year, providing general anesthesia in an operating room while monitoring depositions on ear buds.

But here we are, and I don't see any turning back from this new virtual world we've created. We were already checked out before the pandemic, to tell the truth, back when I'd sit in a conference room enduring a long, dull deposition while shopping for fishing boats and waiting my turn to ask my two or three questions. Next to me would be another lawyer checking emails or doomscrolling (if it was after November of 2016, when things accelerated on their slide to merde). Now with AI to do the heavy-lifting, our presence in our various tasks will only get more attenuated.

It sort of makes me miss my old office, with mahogany paneling and built-ins like this.

I resisted the temptation to install a flat-screen TV when those became a thing, as did a few of my partners, figuring I was there to work and not watch ESPN. I drank coffee. I edited draft documents printed on blue paper so no one would accidentally file them with my scribbles in the margins.

Would I rather be here in Manhattan this morning, attending a Zoom mediation in a few minutes that in theory is taking place in Chipley? You bet. But it all comes at a cost.