The Opening Statement

Dear jury of my peers,

Welcome to Chicago Bar-tender.

It's been ages since I gave up my earliest career dreams of becoming a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. I don't know what inspired my 12-year-old self at the time to want to don a stodgy black robe for the rest of my life, but I definitely did not take fashion into enough consideration.

Now, while on a considerably less glamorous career path with a considerably less stable tenure, I remain fascinated by the way law touches the lives of ordinary people, boxing in our humanness with sanitized (or dare I say, "unempathetic") terms like, "resident alien," or "citizen," "marriage," "divorce," "right to privacy"--all these legal terms and concepts that set forth the structure of our lives and our society.

It's fascinating. And what's also fascinating to me is the way life plays out in court--greed and grudges, jealousy and corruption, accusation and vindication, broken hearts and broken families, freak accidents and malicious intent. It's all there, between the lines of "Plaintiff A v. Defendant B." It's all there--in black and white, and full of far more backstory than any one complaint could ever put into words.

Which brings me to what this blog is all about, and why this humble journalist (that's me) is nosing around Chicago's courthouses. I like to think that while this is a blog and supposed to be high-tech and all, it's also a nod to that dormant tradition of good old-fashioned court reporting, when reporters had the time (paid time, mind you, not furlough) to skulk around courthouses catching juicy last-minute filings that savvy lawyers tried slipping past the media on Friday afternoons.

These days you don't even have to be savvy for that, because hardly anyone's watching. We the people perk up when the Drew Petersons and Rod Blagojeviches of the world get hauled into court, but a lot gets past the public radar.

This blog won't be the answer to that, but it may help. So I hope you'll check in to get the scoop on Chicago's legal scene, and please say hi if you see me running across Daley Plaza. And oh, President Obama, if you're reading this, I hear you've got an open seat to fill. Call me.