Like most big firms, mine is (or at least pretends to be) very supportive of pro bono work. There are two mandatory summer events designed to help the community: buildable hours (habitat for humanity) and public counsel day. Today was buildable hours. I usually get excited for these things... we get to bill normal hours to go play outside with paint and hammers, get some sun, etc... today really felt like a complete waste though.
The bus pulled up to a fairly nice neighborhood, to a fully functional house instead of an empty lot. The woman who lived there had been there for 42 years. As it turns out, we were just repainting her house. I don't even think it needed a new coat of paint. Surely there are more people in Los Angeles who need help than this woman. Anyway, it was approximately 90 degrees and no shade to be found. Our day of "helping the community" involved scraping paint and then coating termite-rotted wood with primer. There were not nearly enough tools and/or jobs to keep all 30 or so of us occupied, so people just kind of sat around. Most of the people who were working had no idea what they were doing, so the priming job was pretty sloppy. It's kind of depressing that this was all a big law firm with plenty of resources could come up with to "give back."
Now I'm home, tired, thirsty and sunburned. We had to be at the office at 6:45 this morning and I have dinner tonight. I'm starting to resent having no free time this summer, but I guess I should just be excited that I get to go to all these fancy restaurants. The light at the end of the tunnel is that tomorrow the Finance Dept. is taking all of us to Universal Studios, and Friday is a ditch day because we're moving offices. Friday is going to be a ME DAY.
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