I know Lat usually does the Lawyerly Lairs. Lat likes to see how fabulous people live. I’m less interested in that. My thing is more about mocking those less fortunate than me.
When the tip came in — “please help this poor public defender unload this real estate” — you can guess which one of us was more interested. PD real estate? Is it a Lincoln Continental? Is it a houseboat floating just off of Riker’s?
Sadly, for comedic purposes, the tipster has a legitimate house. Plumbing and doors and furniture that isn’t made of cardboard. Turns out the tipster is a federal public defender instead of a local, cannon-fodder PD. But, if you look really closely, you can see the signs of a person who works for clients who can’t afford anybody else…
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Here’s how our PD describes her place:
Abingdon is a charming little town in far, far Southwest Virginia with a surplus of middling lawyers. My house is walking distance to the federal AND state courthouses. It is a great place — has the Barter Theater, also walkable from the house, and great schools (and not just by Appalachian measures). The Barter Theater is where people like Gregory Peck and Ernest Borgnine got their start.
Mmm… middling lawyers.
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The place is on the market because the former New York attorney is ready to get back into the rat race. The dream of chucking it all and moving to the sticks turned into a nightmare. Or maybe I’m just projecting. “Far Southwest New Jersey” sounds like hickish, Klan-country to me, to say nothing of far Southwest Virginia.
In any event, if you are a PD on a budget and don’t need to be close to civilization, take a look at her place. It is charming, in a “my client didn’t run the meth lab, he only supplied them with the chemicals” kind of way…