Mary-Olga Lovett

Wife, Mom, Trial Lawyer

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

For a glorious life, my advice is simple! Marry. Your. Best. Friend!

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

This candidate for governor of NY wants to enshrine higher costs into law, supports more government regulation, is against technological progress, and wants less efficient public services than Europe. And he's the Republican in the race!!!!!!!

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

@BenSasse @mercedesschlapp Awe inspiring. God bless you!

[Los Angeles Lakers @Lakers]

The PERFECT Holiday Setup 🎄

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

Wishing everyone a joyous Christmas Eve! Today, I had the opportunity to make my first associate salary offer. I vividly remember the excitement of receiving my first offer. It's clear that associate salaries have increased over the years, but great young talent is worth every penny as we work to compete with our peers in the market.

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

Going to kick some major ass in a deposition in #Dallas today. Loser opponent ... You are going down in a way that will make Hiroshima look like a kid's birthday party!

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

Loved learning more about International Commercial Arbitration in London this week!

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

https://t.co/WBDsOx5hon

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

Because sometimes..."Vanity Plates" are ok!

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

https://t.co/tCoWnnweqw

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

My amazing maternal grandfather, Nicholas Apostolidis, literally ran the Egyptian cotton markets and was the largest producer of Egyptian cotton in Alexandria, Egypt, from the 1920s to 1959. My mother grew up with boundless riches and opportunities as a child, but great privilege never lasts forever. After the British and French largely ignored a gathering threat from General Gammel Abdel Nasser, the Suez Canal War ensued, and my brilliant grandfather had his properties nationalized - having a heart attack on the spot when he was handed seizure papers signed with an "X." My mother and her beloved brothers were expelled from Egypt, with troops even squeezing the toothpaste out of their tubes to ensure that they were not taking money. She landed in Athens, Greece, working three jobs, one of which was for my precious dad, a young Texan then based in Athens who needed a secretary who could speak the exact five languages that she did. After he died in 1986, on the exact same day as my granddad, February 25th, my Mom has continued to run the day care center in Whitehouse, Texas, that she first opened 54 years ago as a hedge against my dad's work as an oilfield geologist. The lessons are long, and life is long. She is still working every day at 87, and cherishing both their memories! I just want to be my Mom when I grow up, and I'm grateful to channel my Papou when warranted!

[Kamenetzky Brothers @KamBrothers]

Scene: In the living room, watching the LA/OKC.

(Phone rings.)

Me: Hi mom.

Mom: Are you watching the Lakers?

Me: Yeah.

Mom: They suck.

BK

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

RIP, Mr. Vice President. 🥲

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

@johnarnold I certainly hope so, because we're going to Vegas to see the #Eagles at #TheSphere Friday, and those lines would suck! I always trust your predictions! 🧿

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

TSA wait times 3++ hours in Houston today as employees who aren't getting paid aren't showing up for work. Expect this to spread to other airports tomorrow. Complete mess. I'm guessing the government reopens by Wednesday.

[Mary-Olga Lovett @molovett]

Thrilled to announce that I have received my advanced international arbitration certificate and am qualified as a neutral for high-stakes international intellectual property and commercial disputes from the #AAWhiteDisputeResolutionCenter at the @UH_Live! The courtroom will always be my first love as an advocate, but as a neutral, I can't wait to test my skills on the international stage!