Soooo, I made partner! It wasn't exactly a surprise. My firm has been talking about it for the last two years, but the timing wasn't right, for reasons wholly unrelated to me personally. I think the thing I am proudest about is being the first female in my 30+ year old firm.
Commercial litigation remains dominated by men, despite women taking over the majority of law school grads. And women are even less common in my niche industry. My area is fairly particularized, and the same names and firms tend to pop up over and over. I can count on one hand the number of women in my state in that group. (There are certainly more, just not that are well known, whereas I could probably name 3 dozen men just off the top of my head.)
So there are big changes coming. Being a slightly control-freaky planner, I am a bit anxious about how this will affect next year's budgeting and tax planning. I think it's time to hire an accountant. Tax is definitely not my area of expertise.
In other news, PS is 4 for 4 with her college applications! She applied for early action at her top choices, knowing that there would be plenty of time to apply elsewhere by the regular decision deadlines if those didn't pan out.
We're still waiting on the number from the last one, but she got very nice merit scholarships from the other three. The best one brings her close to in-state tuition rates. She knocked all of the in-state public schools off her list early, and focused on small, private liberal arts colleges, so I am thrilled that the financial end is working out as well. Getting in is only half the battle. So many people (mostly the ones who don't have any post-high school education) think we're nuts for looking at private schools. They don't understand that you can't just look at the sticker price.
Anyway, the pressure is off now. She can enjoy the rest of her senior year and has the luxury of picking which of her top 4 choices she wants to attend. Woo hoo!
Finally, DH and I are headed out for a quick trip to NOLA this weekend! Out 20th anniversary is on the 30th, but since we're not the kind of party animals who actually want to be in NOLA over New Year's, we bumped our celebration up a bit. So looking forward to some grown-up time and some good music, good food, and good booze!
