Last week Rosa sent me email for "a quick question," although I've told her repeatedly that she should use her advocate and that I can't answer legal questions for her. It's difficult to get her to respect the boundary between friendship and work. She has an excellent advocate, she knows I'm busy, but it's cheaper to call me even though she rarely respond to phone calls or email. Ugh. So, since it wasn't a quick question, I ignored the email. If she really wants advice, she'll call back and I'll refer her to her advocate. But it will be a long conversation; she's stuck in a loop of questioning all answers. I wouldn't want to take her on as a client.
I've been working on my take-home midterm for Employment Discrimination Law. This time, it was GailC. on the phone. I haven't heard from her in a long while; our daughters were both in early intervention in Berkeley. She has a special ed question, too. But I kept it short, got her to step back from the emotion, and advised her to tell everyone straight-up that she doesn't care about blame but wants to work instead on solutions. GailC. ended by asking if she could take me to lunch when she's in the area next. That left me feeling good about the conversation, and only took 15 minutes.
