My father is an archaeologist; he’s spent years working in the Pacific, and I spent a summer as a child trolling around places like Saipan, Chuuk, and Pohnpei. When I was in college, my dad took on a project to try and solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. He’s been at it since then, and I’ve long heard of the Nikumaroro hypothesis and my father’s work toward testing it. This year, I finally had the chance to accompany him on a trip to Niku, and we set out on June 21 (you can read more about the expedition here).
Nikumaroro is a very hard place to get it – it’s one of the most remote places on the planet. Getting there involves flying to Fiji and then taking a 5-day boat ride. So I’ve been off the grid for the last few weeks, between getting to and from the island and spending a week digging in the coral and fighting through the jungle brush.
And speaking of pointless, invasive jungle brush (scaviola, if you must know), one of the last things that crossed the transom before I went incommunicado was a New Jersey ethics opinion taking issue with Avvo Legal Services.
While I must commend the authors of the opinion for getting one thing right (finding that Avvo Legal Services doesn’t interfere with the independent professional judgment of participating attorneys), I’ve got a dim view of the rest of it. Like similar opinions before it, it forms a scaviola-like thicket, blocking innovation and consumer access to legal services.
I’ll have more to say about the opinion in an upcoming post – now that I’ve returned to civilization and things other than lost aviators and coconut crabs.