– Derek Allen, Attorney –

There’s a line in my favorite writer Kurt Vonnegut’s Jailbird that goes “‘Hello and goodbye.’ What else is there to say? Our language is much larger than it needs to be.” I didn’t actually say “hello” in my initial post, so under the Vonnegut test, it looks like this post is the first one where I’ll be saying anything. Unfortunately, it’s goodbye.

When I first approached Steve over two years ago about writing for Duetsblog, I had a single post in mind (the post I linked to above). “A single post” might not be in Steve’s vocabularly, however, so I quickly became a regular poster at his urging. In hindsight, it’s one of the better decisions that was ever made for me.

My first post somehow landed on the radar of my alma mater, Beloit College, which led to the school inviting me to participate in an event for prospective students. I got two Beloit College beer glasses out of the deal, so, you know, score! I’ve also received a call from a tenant in Florida in response to my post about demand letters (he had received a nasty one from his landlord), been criticized by a New York Times best-selling author for leaving Perry Mason out of the top 10 TV and film lawyers of all-time (I’m still going to unfairly blame Tim for that one), and was featured for the first time in a YouTube clip that doesn’t involve something I did after several boots of beer at the Essen Haus in Madison, Wisconsin. I can safely say that none of these things would have happened without Duetsblog.

So, a number of big thank yous are in order. Thanks to my fellow Duetsblog writers for consistently producing the excellent content that has led to thousands of readers coming across my drivel a couple of times a month. Thanks to the Duetsblog readers for your continued readership, your comments, and the fact that you are apparently not that busy at work. And thanks to Steve for capably captaining the Duetsblog ship over the last five years.

If you’re curious about what I’m up to (and I suspect you’re not), I’m moving back to southern Wisconsin–where I grew up–most likely to join a small firm in my hometown of Evansville. I’m also starting a blog with a law school classmate of mine, which should be up and running at some point in September. So if you want to read more about pop culture and things that annoy me, check out the Completely Unhelpful blog in about a month.