Attorney in Residence

This is my least favorite time of year, less than a week away from my least favorite month of the year.  I hate August in Nashville.

The older I get, the less tolerance I have for the stifling, insufferable late summer Nashville heat.  It's either gotten worse due to global warming or as I've gotten older, my ability to tolerate has drastically diminished.  Or both.  I hate it.  

The past month or so, I've become an inside the YMCA, treadmill runner.  It's convenient.  Easy.  It's also soft.  As Joe reminded me last night on the way home from shooting practice for the Stars in Cool Springs, though, I am 59, after all.  At least I'm still running, even if it is inside, on a treadmill.  

Maybe I'm just jealous that, as a man and a working attorney, I don't get to wear matching tights and bikini top from Lululemon like every other woman who walks into Dose this morning to get their coffee.  Lululemon.  That's a company I wish I would have invested in a few years ago.

I had an epiphany earlier this week, as I walked back out from the office to my truck to get something I had forgotten.  I was sweating profusely in my jacket and tie, which darkened my mood considerably in the five minutes or so I was outside in the 98 degree heat.  

Why am I here, in Nashville in late July, I thought?

Suddenly, it hit me.  

I don't have to be here, in Nashville, in late July.  I can work from anywhere.

And that's when I decided that beginning next summer, from July 24 - August 7, I will be an "attorney in residence."  You know, like an "artist in residence."

For those two weeks, I am going to go depart Nashville for a town or city where the climate is more temperate.  Duluth, Minnesota.  Mackinac Island, Michigan.  Madison, Wisconsin.  Bozeman, Montana.  

It's not a vacation.  I'm going to work every day.  What I'm not going to do, though, is go to court, mediate cases, or take in person depositions.  I will work remotely.  I can do that.  In fact, I should do that.

When I told Jude about my plan, she asked, "what about the boys?" 

"What about them?" I replied.

"They, and you, can join me, or not.  I'll be working.  It's not a vacation."  

Okay, so that part will be a harder sell, I think.  Still, I love the idea.  I think it has promise.  I hope it does.

Phil R. Newman, Attorney in Residence.