Not Kristine Motorcycling Around The Globe, And Still Finding Time For The Nevada State Supreme Court!

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Hey everybody, welcome back to shars Rebel recess. I hope you guys are having a good evening and you are ready to hear what we have in store for you. You guys. Remember the last time I was on air, I was letting you guys know that we had this really awesome giant in the industry coming today, Christine, I'm gonna let her say her last name, because you know what? I am terrible with words when I'm excited. Thank you for coming on. You're welcome, Char. I'm so sorry. My my phone rang and I apologize.

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That's okay.

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Okay. What a great way to get started. My last name is kazemka. Kazemka. Oh, perfect. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:21
that's a good deal, because I kind of know what it feels like to have a name that looks complicated on paper, because my full name is La Serena. So I pull char out of there, and I'm like, just, just call me char, because it does, it looks complicated, but I Yeah, it wasn't as complicated as my mind made it.

Unknown Speaker 1:42
Simka, we're so great. We're so happy to have you here. And I know that our listeners, we want to know like the big question of the day is, what do you do during your break, during your recess? How do you decompress? And please start off by telling us, because I told everyone I look I I don't want to seem all stalkerish, but you know, I looked

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at your profile,

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I went to some of your social media sites, and I'm like, Googling. Oh, I tell me some things. Let us know. Let us know. Well, good, okay, I'll give you a brief overview of what I do professionally and what I've done. Yes, I'm a lawyer, a mediator, and I'm a Nevada supreme court settlement judge. I used to practice law. I was a Clark County Public Defender. Prior to that, I clerked for the Honorable David T wall, who's retired, and I did private practice with a firm here locally, and then eventually I went to the Attorney General's office and worked in complex civil litigation in the Bureau of Consumer Protection, helping Nevada consumers

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correct the wrongs that had been imposed on them, yeah, and then

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I was recruited to become a mediator and arbitrator with advanced resolution management, and I've been there eight years. I've also been a Nevada supreme court settlement judge for eight years. Oh, my God. So basically, you are an expert in resolving issues, yes, getting us all to the table, to, you know, kind of kumbaya together. And I love that. It is like that. And as a neutral, that's what they call us. It's my job to, as you say, bring people together. Well, they're often in separate rooms because they weren't playing well in the sandbox. So what I do is I spend time with both sides, get to know their grievance, their issue, with the other side, and connect with them, right? And then I go between the two rooms and talk about what's good about their case, what's not so good to find out what they want. And what I find very important is people just want to be heard.

Unknown Speaker 4:12
And in a mediation, they're in the driver's seat. It's before they're going to trial, yeah, so they can decide whether or not they want to resolve the case, and then it's not going to be in front of a jury of people they don't know, making the decision for them, right? And I love it.

Unknown Speaker 4:30
It's it's a really great way to cut down the case load in the eighth Judicial District Court, in the Supreme Court, when we settle cases that are going up on appeal, right? They see us settlement judges before they go into full briefing. And so we cut down about 50% of the cases in the Nevada Supreme Court and then the appellate court as well. No, see, that's marvelous, right? I think that's the thing that people don't.

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Know about the court system, we always hear, Oh, it's so impacted. You have to wait forever to get in front of a judge, but they don't understand that there are steps, there are processes in between that can mitigate those issues before they ever have to get inside of a courtroom. Yes, that's That's amazing, and to have someone here that kind of so I mentioned before that, like, I'm a mom and and I have a whole lot of six kids,

Unknown Speaker 5:33
but with that hat, right, it comes like you have to learn how to deal with a lot of different personalities, and you have to be a helper and a support person. And so it's like knowing that there are counterpoint points like that in the in the judicial arena, because everyone always sees is it's adversarial. When you get in there, you're fighting and you're fighting and you're going back and forth, but, but there are helpers there, like earlier that well, last week, when I was talking about you, I called you a lawyer's lawyer. Oh, thank you. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 6:14
I'll take that yeah, because I feel like, you know, with those with that hat,

Unknown Speaker 6:21
it takes a lot. It takes a lot to be able to see things objectively, and, like you said, to be neutral about it and and see what's the where's the inroad, like, how can we meet in the middle? And have you know, everyone feel satisfied about what's going on, but in the same token,

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that's a lot of hurt and anger and pain to have to listen to and take on and go back and forth. And that gets us to

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how do you find a way to leave work at work, come home and engage with your family, engage with your friends and take your break. Yeah, that's that is a really good segue. And I just want to revisit one thing about being a neutral in mediating, there's business cases that's not quite as emotional, unless it's two people who had a company together, and they've been best friends for 20 years, and now they've had a disagreement and they're splitting the company up. It's like it's worse than a divorce, right? And so specific to US attorneys and then judges in the courtroom and other professionals who are helping to get people to where they feel they have some closure or that justice has been served in the best way, not always the the way they want, but Right?

Unknown Speaker 8:02
It's a lot, yeah, and when you said, you know, what do you do when you go home to your family?

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Sometimes it's difficult to put your day aside. So how do you do that? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 8:18
I do that through meditation,

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nice, prayer, yeah?

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Mindfulness, being in the moment, literally, you know, being here with you. I just put my feet on the ground. Oh, this is where I'm at. I'm at UNLV in the studio talking to char, right where I can be someplace, and some random thought comes in from some other case that I didn't resolve, and it's given me anxiety.

Unknown Speaker 8:50
It's practicing how to stay present. And if something's unfinished, put it on the back burner and tell my mind I'll get back to it so that it's not taking up that space. Yeah, so that's one thing.

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The fun thing I do

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is I ride motorcycles.

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I've been riding 50 years. Oh, my God, my first motorcycle when I was 12, and that is like a meditation, because you have to be present. If you're not, you can be roadkill, right, right. No pun intended.

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But I've, I've ridden my motorcycle a lot of different places on the planet, Central Europe. Oh, my God, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic,

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Spain and Morocco,

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Western Canada, eastern Canada, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland. Ah, and next year I'm doing South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. What? Yeah. Ah, look.

Unknown Speaker 10:00
Look, hey, that is awesomeness, right there. I couldn't imagine, like, when I was younger, I got on a motorcycle once, that was it, you know, I saw a couple of friends. And, you know, they do the they had accidents. But it wasn't like, accident, accident. It was like they take off and then fall over, and it's like, that won't be me. So when I see especially women, okay, I not that I have a bias, but when I see women on motorcycles, I'm like, yeah, that is what I'm talking about. That is bad. That is awesome work.

Unknown Speaker 10:43
So inside of the courtroom and outside of the courtroom, you're doing big things. In fact, I like to mediate motorcycle cases because

Unknown Speaker 10:54
there's a different connection with a motorcyclist who's been injured, yeah, and then I know a lot about it, I can say to an insurance company or the company that maybe there's a product liability issue, yeah, that looks like writer error. No, that dog ain't gonna hunt, right? Or

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error as a mediator, that's my job, right? And so

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here's the thing, too, I'm at a point in my life where I like to have fun, yeah, at work, outside of work, at my home

Unknown Speaker 11:27
life is very short, yeah? So in addition to riding motorcycles, I ski and I hike. I'm part of the 52 peak club. There's 52 peaks in southern Yeah,

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37 in Red Rock. I think there's like 12 in

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the Lee Canyon, Mount Charleston area, and then there's a few out Lake Mead area. You know, if these listeners can see my face right now, I am wholly amazed. I am wholly amazed, because it's like, okay, you are

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y'all she is so put together. Here she has on this awesome blazer jacket, these great trousers, like yacht wear is what she has on.

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And I am hearing she's out in these global streets on motorcycles, she's skiing, and that is, that's another hard thing I am not great at skiing. Sleddy. Yes, all day, every day, sled me. Sled and fun. But no, it takes a lot of coordination to get on those slopes and then hiking.

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I can tell you that I've hiked maybe three times in my life.

Unknown Speaker 12:55
Oh, well, we need to talk after this. There's great places just 10 miles from here in Red Rock conservation area, and outside Calico basin, there's you can go half a mile, you can go 20 miles.

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You'd be amazed when you go out there, it looks all brown and deserty. But if you just hike in a couple miles, there's lush greenery. You find little creeks, what? Yeah,

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yeah,

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but don't tell anybody, because everyone Right? They'll be there.

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We'll come.

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You tell them, they will definitely. I can't believe this. I I want to go hiking, you guys. And I wonder, why motorcycles? You guys, I say hiking.

Unknown Speaker 13:46
Yes, you know, I already know I I want to look great in a motorcycle jacket. That's all I want. Oh, you can, yeah,

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play the part. But that hiking thing, I definitely want to go more, do more hiking. I did. I did go to Mount Charleston. I don't know that I did it, right? There's no wrong way.

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If you're just out there touching dirt. That, for me, is a spiritual connection. That's like, you know, the universe, God, higher power, whatever you want to call it, right? You just see, like, up in Mount Charleston, it can be 115 here, and up there, it's 85 right? And there's all these beautiful pine trees that are 1000s of years old, yeah? And get tapped in, yeah, that part. So I am, like, all down for that. Last week, I was talking about meditation and it's spiritual component. I was talking about mindfulness. So when you when you say that I'm like, we're on the same page, because I'm learning new ways to try to relax, relate, release, you know, and

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and get the busyness to stop. Yes?

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Because there's so much busyness. So it's like knowing that there is someone who has been and we're not going to minimize what you do. It is, it is really,

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it's very important work, right, especially at the Supreme Court level, when you're talking about precedent making cases that could possibly be there things that may overturn something else, but having the conversation before they get there in front of the justices is like, huge it is. And you know,

Unknown Speaker 15:40
before we even have a settlement conference, I talk to the parties and determine with their input whether or not the case is appropriate to even see me, because why waste five or eight hours of your day if it's a question of law? Yeah, that they don't have any interest in settling the case. They want the Supreme Court to either change, yeah, the law in terms of whatever decision they make about this question of law, or to give better clarification. And so

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the pressure is not nearly

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at that level for me, because they're deciding, yeah, and if we do have the settlement conference,

Unknown Speaker 16:28
they're sometimes a little harder, because there's a winner and a loser, right? Um, different than someone hasn't gone to trial yet. Who they think of different things. Well, if I go to trial, I've got more expert costs. I gotta pay for my attorney to be there for a week. I gotta take a week off work, versus someone who's already done that. Yeah, and now, do they want to spend the next two to three years in the Supreme Court loop? Yeah, getting briefed and then having the court make a decision? So you know, there's a lot of moving parts to it, and a lot of different reasons why people settle a case or why people don't want to, because they want some clarity on it. It's always interesting. I bet it is. But I also want to shift gears just a little bit to lawyers helping lawyers. Oh, good, yay, yeah. All right. Well, full disclosure, yes, I am a woman in long term recovery. Yes, I

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got into recovery on August 18, 1984 so I just celebrated 40 years. Oh, my God, see, and I'm the director of the Nevada lawyer Assistance Program,

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which is separate from lawyers, concern for lawyers. Lawyers. Concern for lawyers was started in 1986

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by Mike Cherry,

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Ben Graham, co swobe and a couple other guys in around 2012

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you know, the State Bar realized we needed more than just a voluntary group to help folks more awareness and mental health issues, stress, substance use disorders, yeah, and so n lap was started, and basically it is a program that you can self, volunteer, voluntarily go to right? And you can get an assessment with a medical professional who can decide whether or not you have depression, you have a substance use disorder, right? Do you need treatment? Is therapy a good idea? And that's all confidential, yes, completely, and no cost to the attorney, and then they decide. The other way can happen is the office of Bar Council can make a referral, and that means someone made a complaint. You may be into some trouble

Unknown Speaker 18:52
or character and fitness. You went to law school, you got a DUI in law school, and the the bar's mission is to regulate the profession, help attorneys and protect the public. So before you get your license, they may say you need to go to lawyers concerned for lawyers for five years and be monitored, and then we'll give you your license. That's the State Bar good. So self referral office of Bar Council or character and fitness after you've taken the bar exam, right?

Unknown Speaker 19:24
So we did a good job helping lawyers when they crashed and burned. And about eight years ago, I said, you know, let's do something to help people before then. Yes, and I suggested that we start a therapy benefit so every member of the State Bar is entitled to three therapy sessions at no cost to them. It's all confidential, correct? Yes. I hope y'all know that you attorneys out there three free F, R, E, E sessions. Yes, make that happen, and we opened it to Boyd School of Law students three years ago. Wow.

Unknown Speaker 20:00
Right? Yes. So to understand the profession is so stressful, you're either dealing with people's money, their freedom, yes, custody of their children. Those are serious, life altering things. People aren't coming to lawyers saying, I just won $50 million in the lotto. Can you help me spend

Unknown Speaker 20:21
it? Right? So knowing that, that you know it's, it's human to have reactions to the different subject matters that we deal with, yeah, and to get away from the stigma. Oh, if I go to therapy, someone's gonna find out No, right, because they call,

Unknown Speaker 20:44
I'll give them the name of a couple therapists. They see the therapist, the therapist sends an invoice, yeah, no name, no personal identifying information, no diagnosis codes. Yeah, three days, the three dates, the person was seen, and it gets paid right. Questions asked, so you could have had a death in the family. You could have represented a family in an immigration asylum case, and they've got to go back to their country and you know, it's not going to be necessarily good for them, right? Or you are in a difficult case, or you're getting a divorce, it doesn't matter. Yeah, we don't need to know. If you call and say you want therapy, right? You're getting it. See, no questions asked. And,

Unknown Speaker 21:25
you know, it does, it makes the difference. And I think younger people coming into the profession,

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the stigma is not as great as it is for those of us who right,

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a bit older, right, right came up in a different era. You know exactly, your bootstraps and stop complaining, right? Figure it out. Yeah, like you can be an effective, zealous advocate, and you can also take care of yourself, yes, and be more effective, as opposed to,

Unknown Speaker 21:57
you're irritable, you've got insomnia. Yes, it's because you're not, you're not taking care of your well being. Call it your soul. Yeah, whatever that is, right? Your bandwidth is so stretched, and you don't have an ounce left for anybody. Yeah, it's really hard to it's hard to enjoy your your career, it's hard to enjoy your family, yes, and it's not work life balance, it's resilience

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and another thing,

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saying no, I was also in private practice as a sole practitioner for about seven years, and

Unknown Speaker 22:41
that's hard, because you're running a business, you're practicing law, you've got a client that came in. Maybe you have enough clients, but they want you to take their case. Yes, you know, having boundaries, learning about boundaries, right? And saying no,

Unknown Speaker 22:58
or calling a colleague and saying, you know, can you help this person out that can be hard.

Unknown Speaker 23:05
It's so hard, I'm trying to

Unknown Speaker 23:10
teach my children that, that it's okay to push back, you know, because that's not what I learned. I learned that here's here's kind of like an indication of what you see, especially, especially with women, we have a tendency we could be as hungry as I'll get out. We'll go get our food, we'll pay for it, we'll bring it back to the table. The first thing we do is, Would you like some

Unknown Speaker 23:36
I don't do that anymore.

Unknown Speaker 23:41
That part, right? That part. And I'm that's what I'm teaching. My kids, don't do that, right? Eat first, and then, you know, put on your mask first, the oxygen mask, yes, because you're no good to anyone, if,

Unknown Speaker 23:58
for a lack of better words, if you're dead, if you're incapacitated, all that help that you were trying to do, who's going to help them now? Yes. And you know,

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the first trip I took abroad on a motorcycle

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with a motorcycle group was in Germany in 2018

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Yeah. And I was in my hotel room, thinking, because I bought this insurance nomads like, if you die over there or something, they'll send your body back, and your family doesn't pay $10,000

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not to be morbid.

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So I thought, you know, well, okay, what if I died?

Unknown Speaker 24:36
My My partner would be sad for a while, right? My colleagues, there'd be a memorial service. My cases would go to somebody else, and in two weeks,

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life would go on for most everybody. Yeah, but now I'm gone, so I can't do anything about my cases. So it taught me, when I'm on vacation, to unplug. I.

Unknown Speaker 25:02
Yeah. And what I found is I came back so regenerated, as opposed to checking my emails every night, getting stressed out about seeing something I can't control, yes. So it's learning how to delegate,

Unknown Speaker 25:20
how to unplug? Really unplug? Yeah, and we're not that damn important, right? I think we are. But you know, my my benchmark now is, or my litmus test? Well, if I'm dead, I really have no control, yeah, right, if I leave for two weeks and something catches fire, yeah? Well, you know, it can be fixed. Yes, the world will not stop turning. See, that's real conversation. It's understanding that, hey, I look life goes on. I understand I de centered myself. I understand that life goes on. You know, you get rid of that martyr complex. This is, you know, it has to be me. I'm the one. So we are going to be mindful. We are going to be thinking about,

Unknown Speaker 26:13
how can we support and help, but starting with ourselves first, how can we support and help so that we can be a better service, we are going to reach out for all of those resources. Yes, the State Bar Nevada website, they're on there. Yes, we also have a calm app. Every member of the State Bar is entitled to a subscription to calm, C, A, L, M, yes, which has helped me sleep many nights that I otherwise wouldn't have slept. There's also meditations for anxiety, stress, well being Yeah, they're two minute meditations on up to 45 minutes, and you don't have to sit in a lotus position and be quiet.

Unknown Speaker 26:55
I didn't know that, right? Because that's all we think. When we think meditation, we're thinking, okay, here we are sitting here, and we're saying, um, forever. There's so much more. It's great. See Good deal. Well, I look, I'm so happy, and I don't want to stop the conversation. I really don't, but we are, we are getting towards the end of our time here, and I'm so excited to have you there. I'm going to put links to your social media on our site. I am going to let them know that, especially attorneys, aspiring attorneys, I'm going to put that state bar link there so you guys know where to go to get your help and your support. I am going to be posting some other things. And I want you guys to like, listen, share, because this was really good information. And if Christine would love to come back, Our door is always going to be open. It is because, man, because the next time I want to know in detail about these motorcycle trips, okay, yeah, yeah, I could talk for hours on that. Yeah, don't get me going. Yes. I'm gonna get you going for like, a whole 30 minutes. We're gonna be talking about what's happening in all around the world and all those places, and whether or not you were leader of the pack. Oh, yeah, I lead. And men are surprised at how hard I ride

Unknown Speaker 28:22
it. And as a woman, I love that. Yeah? And let me just say one more thing, yes, I just rode from Niagara falls down to Tennessee near the Blue Ridge Parkway that was unfortunately just taken out by a hurricane. So it's 427, miles. Yeah, beautiful, beautiful vistas. It's just a two lane road, and it's closed indefinitely because there's like, sinkholes and chunks of it missing, right? So my point is,

Unknown Speaker 28:49
if you have something you want to do, do it now. Yes, do it. No way. Do it now. Do it now. You guys will have just this cherry on. Then the following week, so please come back and join us. Well, char, thank you. Oh, my God, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Christine, you were amazing. You

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