THE YOUNG LAWYER THAT I WAS IN THE 1980S....WILMER CUTLER & PICKERING AND ITS PRO BONO PROGRAM -- TURNING DOWN TED BUNDY

My first law firm and the people who trained me in the law:

https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Wilmer_Cutler_Pickering_Hale_and…

Unlike many academic's who detest the practice of law, I actually liked it, although I did resent the long hours, the pressure, and the competition...

I googled the colleagues of the past (1980s) with so much nostalgia: everybody I worked with then is now listed as retired partner.

I could still see myself, back then: the girl from Vietnam that I was...product of the historic year 1975, who became a big-firm lawyer, with so many unrealistic dreams about America I didn't know what to do with them...Then came 1990 and the selection for the White House Fellowship, yet I left Washington D.C. ...(the rest would have to be for the memoir I still have to write)...

The description below on the web does not completely describe Wilmer: In 1986 when it hired me, the firm was Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, known as a "spin-off" of NYC's Cravath Swaine & Moore. Wilmer was regarded as the "lawyer's lawyer," famous nationally for its pro bono docket as a way to train young lawyers. When I got there, I was put in the "securities litigation" group to handle the settlement between Ivan Boesky and the SEC, and then in the middle of all that intensive work, I was asked by Polly Nelson to join her in the pro bono representation of Ted Bundy. I said No (...all for my yet-to-be-written memoir, again). Polly Nelson went on to become the ex-lawyer who wrote a book about that experience.

Back then, during my time (the 1980s), Wilmer had a few hundred lawyers. Today, it has about 1,000.

It was/is a unique place. Like no other law firm. 

One example of some of the unpopular pro bono representation undertaken by Wilmer follows: 

Polly Nelson, my former colleague/friend, at Wilmer, graduate of University of Minnesota undergrad and law. She represented the infamous Ted Bundy until his execution, under Wilmer's pro bono litigation program.. In 1986, she asked me to join her in the defense team, and I said No.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Nelson

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr - Wikipedia

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP (known as WilmerHale) is a large American law firm with offices across the United States, Europe and Asia. It was created in 2004, through the merger of the Boston-based firm, Hale and Dorr and the Washington-based firm Wilmer Cutler & Pickering; and employs...

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

A LIVING ROOM'S LIVE PERFORMANCE

HUONG XUA BY CUNG TIEN

REMINISCENCE OF A LONG LOST SCENT is my translation of the title

The English lyrics are mine 

The accompaniment was as written by Cung Tien, by pianist Le Tuyen, who also featured an excerpt from Chopin's Tristesse 

1977

                     

2017-18

1997

KATE SPADE DEAD AT 55 --SUICIDE...announcing my new blog on health, beauty and style (HBS)

AMERICA'S VERY OWN EQUIVALENT OF COCO CHANEL is gone. I have some of her purses and maybe a pencil skirt. But the one dress I owned by her, I ended up taking it back to the store...

I will show pictures of what I own of her design in a new blog on HBS (no, it's not Harvard Business School, it's Health, Beauty, and Style).

Meghan Markle gave up her HBS blog to become a Duchess. Since I will never become a Duchess in this life, I will at least start my own HBS...

Sorry Kate. You chose to leave us, this mundane world where HBS becomes the...allure that has created you.  You Kate Spade was the dream story to tell for any corporate law professor in America: the ultimate success story of U.S. entrepreneurship.  why, why, why beautiful and talented Kate>?  Your name and name brand combines "Kate" Moss  of the runway and and the  "Spade" of the entertainment industry.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/kate-spade-apos-most-trusted-154218697.html

Vietnam's Land

NOTE: I was/am an international lawyer. This is the same expertise I shared with George Clooney's wife, star-lawyer Amal. However, in my case, I specialize in foreign direct investment and  private international law.   In 1994, I covered Southeast Asia first for Baker & McKenzie and then for Mobil Corporation during President Clinton's lifting of the trade embargo against Vietnam.  I studied the Vietnamese Constitution during that period of time and subsequently. See my article, the Vietnamese Woman: Warrior and Poet published by University of Washington Law School (1999). 

This is what I remember from my research and understanding:

VIETNAM'S LAND

Under its Constitution, Vietnam's Communist Party is the voice of the land,  the central exclusive authority of governance, allegedly for its people.  "Communism" comes from the word "commune," which denotes a concept of the supreme state and collective ownership -- there is supposedly no private property in a communist state.  However, with Vietnam's market economy, the  only "communist" flavor left in the Constitution is also reflected in the country's Land Law, which provides that all land and natural resources belong collectively  to the Vietnamese people.  Hence, there is NO private land ownership.  There can only be "leases" that last 99 years or beyond.  So even individual Vietnamese citizens lease land from the "people" for  99 years, although they can own the structure that sits on the land, such as their houses, their trees (but not if the "trees" are considered "natural resources" like oil, coal,  and minerals).  A fortiori, when Vietnamese citizens sell land to a Viet Kieu," the Viet Kieu only holds a leasehood for 99 years!

So, now, if the government decides to lease land to a foreign state for 99 years, it is in effect implementing its Constitution or Land Law. 

But, in other nations such as the U.S., the government or Congress also has the statutory right to review and block all acquisitions of domestic property by foreign interests if certain statutory criteria are met, primarily for national security reasons.  This is the kind of law that controls "inbound" direct foreign investment for the sake of the country.  The government body that conducts and acts on such review is called CFIUS.   So, when China wanted to acquire the California-based oil company UNOCAL, CFIUS acted, the statute on foreign direct investment came into play, and Congress put a stop to China's proposed acquisition of UNOCAL. 

In Vietnam, is there such a law?  Even if there were, who would make decisions or implement such law? Naturally, it's the supreme and exclusive Community Party of Vietnam. The country's Constitution and Land Law allow the leasing of Vietnamese land to any individual or entity for 99 years, although the perpetual ownership of land rests in the Vietnamese people.  That's what Vietnam's Constitution says.   Who speaks for "the people"?  Under the same Constitution, it's the Vietnamese Communist Party.   

One should also distinguish between/among:

-- a bilateral treaty (signed by two sovereign states) that redraws national boundaries permanently as an act of consent "by the people";
--an act of territorial conquest or adverse possession, which has been outlawed under public international law, as of the end of colonialism in the 20th century -- this is the unlawful act of taking "property" from the people by force!;
--versus a governmental decision to allow a "leasehold" of 99 years! 

it all boils down to Abe Lincoln's Gettyburg words (adopted by the Vietnamese communist revolution):  whether a governmental is OF the people,  BY the people and FOR the people!