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Social Converging in the Home of Spanish Flu

Updated: Mar 23, 2023

If you have a television, a computer, a radio, a smartphone, or a Co-op service station, you have no doubt heard the biggest news of the past month or so.


That's right, Haskell County, Kansas, was Ground Zero for the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic.


(Ha! You thought I was going to talk about the other thing, didn't you??)


Yes, my hometown (or very near it) opened the can of worms that saw 50 million dead worldwide. In fact, unless you follow women's basketball or Colorado politics, this is the only thing for which Haskell County is famous.


It can be hard out here on the prairie to connect with one's clients. And now that the whole world has begun to reconsider what it means to connect--how close can we stand? is it dangerous to touch? when was the last time someone disinfected that door knob?--it is increasingly obvious that the same old, same old business model isn't going to cut it for lawyers.


You may have heard by now that courts in our local district are closed to non-emergency cases for at least a couple months. To be completely candid, this has some of us appointed defenders in a bit of a quandary. How long can we hang on in this kind of legal limbo?


But that, my friends, is where all those years of training in problem-solving come in. Lawyers are trained to adapt, to pivot, to compensate. I didn't spend all this time setting up a comfy office full of technology to throw in the towel at the first sign of the Apocalypse! I may now be a sort-of-full-time third grade teacher, but I still have a healthy amount of free time and many years' worth of training in solving other people's problems. And I spent all my continuing legal education hours in 2019 learning how to plan other people's futures. That is true whether the future is 30 years or 30 days.


I am happy to meet clients by Google Meet, Zoom, or other popular video-conferencing platforms. I do humbly request that you wear pants at all times . . . but if you don't, I won't likely know. Just don't get up.


I hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity to reach out and touch someone. But not literally--if you find yourself up on battery charges, I will not likely have time to help you! Hit me up on the web. I promise to always wear pants.


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