My editor recently wrote to ask if I had dropped off the face of the earth. Not quite, but reading and correcting close to 4,000 pages of motions, memos and other legal prose this past semester for 50 students, with seven graded exercises—some pretty complex—no page limits and a very tight time schedule, turned me into a bit of a recluse. It’s all in the rearview mirror now, and before the craziness begins again, I’ve enjoyed a few weeks of sanity.

Returning to the academy after a few years doing bar leadership and other things, such as working as a prep cook in a wonderful soup kitchen, was exhilarating and frightening. I taught one day and one evening session. I really liked the evening folks. (Full disclosure, I attended four years of night law school; I never took a day course.) They were a bunch of accomplished adults with incredibly varied backgrounds and interests. One guy is on the U.S. Parachute Team. Others run businesses, travel extensively, teach, design and build things. Many are married with kids. (Some kids attended class. That must have been fun at show-and-tell.) How they do it all is a mystery, but they’re learning good skills in time and resource management that’ll make them good lawyers.