Despite practicing law for over two decades before joining Tulane, I’ve always tried to avoid what I perceive as lawyer stereotypes. I prefer to leave the expected behaviors to the characters depicted in lawyer jokes and TV shows, while I slip around in disguise and simply do my job. Clients seemed to like that approach, too.
Nonetheless, my legal education and experience have not left me unscathed. I must admit to ongoing obsessions with research, facts, deadlines, rules and procedures, structure, and task execution. Also, thanks to my childhood among engineers and science teachers and my career in environmental law, I have a strong faith in science. In addition, I prefer action over lethargy, although this may stem more from my background in theatre than law. Fortunately, these vestiges of past lives translate pretty smoothly to my work at SoPA.
Adjusting to the "New Normal"
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, I was proud that Tulane and SoPA followed the science and took action. On Friday, March 13, we shut down and prepared to move all classes online. After a week off, classes resumed, and I returned to work “at” SoPA, teaching General Legal and Applied Business Studies classes from my dining room, performing Tulane’s symptom check each day, and taking regular Covid-19 tests. My students’ law office internships went remote. The general legal studies faculty taxed the limits of their residential Wi-Fi systems. Everyone rose to the challenge heroically.
Still, the realities of the virus hit. One of my faculty members fell ill while setting up remote medical care facilities in Chicago. In late March, a musician/songwriter friend in NYC died of Covid-19, alone in a hospital and on a respirator. A friend lost her husband. Family members in New York and West Virginia fell ill and recovered.
Life outside work assumed a new structure. We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at home with my granddaughter, whose school had closed. We baked Irish soda bread and did puzzles. We did not know it then, but we would celebrate her mom’s birthday, Easter, my birthday, commencement, Memorial Day, Independence Day, my son’s birthday on 7/11, Labor Day, my husband’s birthday on 9/11, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and (almost certainly) Christmas in much the same way. Despite random shortages of whole-wheat flour and other staples, we baked as if carrot cake were a proven antidote to the virus. Our presentation skills improved, though frosting and decorating remain mysterious.