Baltimore Bound

Thursday was a pretty full day and included lunch with our Chancellor and Provost. From there I headed back to the law school to administer my Torts exam to my beloved first year students. Afterwards I headed immediately to the airport for a trip to Baltimore, Maryland for the Law School Admission Council Board meeting. Because the 3 hour exam started at 1:30, my flight left at 6:15, and with a connection in Chicago, arrived in Baltimore at midnight. Ugh.

The flight was uneventful except for an exchange with a fellow passenger. I had taken my seat on the flight to Baltimore when a guy who was boarding made extended eye contact–long and unflinching. It wasn’t hostile, but I couldn’t decide what the deal was so I said, “Hi, are you a rider?” He looked surprised, and for a moment didn’t respond, but then he said, “Yes I have a Street Glide that I rebuilt myself.” By that time the aisle cleared and he moved past. Before takeoff though, he came back to my row and asked,”How did you know that?” I told him that he was very direct in terms of eye contact, he had swagger and also the goatee thing typical of a lot of riders. He said, “I’ve always been that way. I think it’s amazing you knew that because no one can ever tell when I’m dressed like this (suit), but of course they know when I’m in my riding gear.” With that he headed back to his seat shaking his head. Once the flight landed, we exchanged a few pleasantries. I told him about Bikes, Blues & Barbeque and that was that.

The Board meeting lasted all day, Friday. There was much business to be done including budgeting, updates on committee actions and projects, and receiving reports from sister organizations. LSAC has a number of standing committees including Diversity, Finance & Legal Affairs, Audit, Test Development & Research and Services and Programs. Sister organizations regularly attend the Board meetings. These include  the AALS, the ABA Section on Legal Education, and CLASSI, Canadian Law Admissions, Statistics Services and Innovations. One of the more interesting aspects of the CLASSI report was the reminder that in Canada, a prospective solicitor must complete a term of articling before being admitted to the bar.

In addition our President & Chair, pictured below, gave their reports.

LSAC President Dan Bernstein (L-R), Chair Athornia Steele, General Counsel Joan VanTol & CFO Marjorie LaRue-Britt

One of the wacky, interesting, “you can’t make this up” things that happened, was that the hotel we were meeting in, was also the host hotel for an adult novelties convention. Yep, it is what you think. I felt compelled to investigate during our breaks and met some really nice, but kinda different people. One of them had a daughter who was interested in, and wanted to apply to law school. They thanked me for coming in, and gave me a departing gift. Because this is a safe for work blog, that is all I’ll say about that. But here are a couple of the convention banners.