Academic

Gordon and I are Skaddenites, as are many of our friends in the academy.  This morning, Joe Flom, the last living name partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, has passed away at 87.  For the field of corporate law, this is a tangible loss.  Mr. Flom was an entrepreneur and a fierce advocate for his clients, particularly in the world of corporate takeovers.  I can only imagine that many financial firms involved in M&A litigation in the Delaware courts wish that they had Mr. Flom in their corner.

During my time at Skadden, I only had one "brush with greatness," and it wasn't so pretty for me.  Below is a print-out of an email I sent as a young associate.  In my memory, I sent it very late at night, at the request of a senior associate, though the timestamp tells me otherwise (of course, at Skadden, one lost sense of time fairly often).  Mr. Flom thought the email was such an atrocity of language that he printed it (or had someone print it), wrote on it, then "jet packed" it to me overnight, bypassing the fax machine, which I suppose would not have reflected the intensity of the message.  Mr. Flom was correct; it is unintelligible.  I have no idea what I needed or why I needed it.  I only wish I had thought to send him my law review articles for review.  I am sure that they would have benefitted!