MD&A

Generally, I am not one of those people who in a social situation can only talk about their work. At our firm's happy hours, I usually choose who I talk to and where I stand by whether those people are inclined to talk about their cases. Last night, I was within earshot of the most boring conversation I've heard all year (fine, in at least eight days), where one person conducted a monologue detailing the procedural posture, underlying case law, and a blow-by-blow of her actions and conversations with opposing counsel for at least twenty minutes. I don't know how the other person (not involved in the case, more understandable if she was) managed to feign interest for that long. Occasionally, there will be a legal topic in the news that I'm happy to discuss if other, non-lawyer, friends want to as well. But, I just assume that most people don't want to talk about the nitty-gritty of the law and instead would prefer to think that what we lawyers do is accurately portrayed on Law & Order.

So, I find it weird that my first interpretation of Jay-Z's lyrics in "Empire State of Mind" was rooted in securities law. Now, Jay-Z isn't above using legal terms, as he said, he's "not a lawyer but I know a little bit." Of course, that was referring to when the police can search your car and every good former drug dealer probably does know a little bit about that.

But, in "Empire State of Mind," his latest and biggest hit that has been performed all over the place, including TV, there is a line that I kept hearing as "MD&A got you feeling like a champion." On the one hand, Jay-Z has been a CEO. On the other hand, I sincerely doubt he gets intimately involved in his Management's Discussion & Analysis, assuming his company is publicly traded. Yet, I can see how that section of an annual report would have you feeling like a champion if your company had a good year.

Real line: "MDMA has you feeling like a champion." I had to look that up but MDMA is the actual name for ecstasy.