great weekend

I spent all day Friday and Saturday in Washington, D.C. at the J. Reuben Clark Society Lawyers Conference and LDS Law Student Conference. It was a beautiful, uplifting weekend full of insights, panels, speeches, networking, and good food.

Notable was the opening address by Elder Cree-L Kofford, emeritus member of the Seventy. He spoke about following the Spirit in connection with the legal practice. The thing I took away from it was this: Don't think you're smarter than your non-member counterparts. You're not. And you don't work harder than they do. So if they work 7 days/week and 16 hours/day, how can we ever compete? "Not only can you compete, you can excel!" That was very encouraging. If you keep your covenants, and follow the Spirit, you will be blessed. That's reassuring, when I'm competing with so many around me who have more free time than me, no family, no church obligations, etc. Nice.

The whole conference was great: corporate law panel, public policy panel, General Counsel of the Church, General Counsel of Tyco, BYU law professor, Catholic priest - Georgetown professor, Richard Bushman on "Joseph Smith and the Law,"... Fantastic.

The most enriching portion of the weekend was the final address, which was given by Judge Thomas Griffith, of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. He spoke on "Practicing your Religion in Your Practice." Utterly thrilling.

Once my amigos and I made it back to Charlottesville, Rosa and I went out to the Barrister's Ball (law school prom). It was very reminiscent of high school dances, with the exception that I went with my beautiful wife! Yay!

All in all, I had an unbelievable weekend.