Brian Pakpour

Greetings Davis Wiki. My wife and I moved to Davis in May 2008 and this Wiki saved our lives. OK, it probably didn’t literally save our lives, but it sure felt that way. For the first year especially, when we had no clue where we needed to go for what, this Wiki came to the rescue. So, thank you for that.

My wife completed her undergraduate schooling here and a post-doc at UCD. She's now a professor at CSU-East Bay. I finished law school at Santa Clara University School of Law in May 2012, and passed the July 2012 bar exam. We hope to spend the rest of our lives in Davis. I run a small law practice here in Davis called Pakpour Family Law.

We have a daughter who was born in 2010 at the Sutter Davis Hospital Birthing Center. I cannot say enough good things about midwifery in general, and the midwives who work specifically at the Birthing Center here in Davis. We felt so fortunate to have a resource like that only a few miles from our home. We also now have a son, born in 2013 at the same birthing center.

I’m originally from Philadelphia, Pa. I attended Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania for undergraduate school (BA, Journalism), and then West Chester University of Pennsylvania for graduate school (MA, Philosophy). I worked as a journalist covering various high-tech issues for eleven years before changing careers to the law.

I spent a lot of time editing and contributing to Wiki pages when we first moved to Davis, but have since been quite busy. Thank you to all the contributors and editors who make the Davis Wiki a reality.

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2010-07-23 18:51:48   Welcome to the wiki. I am sorry if you and I had a rocky start. I appreciate your not wanting to get into an editing war; neither do I. But perhaps you might wish to chime in on the discussion my revert of your edit sparked at ["Law Students/Talk"]. Some people, such as myself, do feel strongly about the content and wording of the wiki's pages. I agree with you that charm and readability are not mutually exclusive. I guess I thought it was already both charming and readable. :-) But more important to me than the wording of this particular edit is that you not be turned away from editing the wiki; another editor has expressed this concern. As an academic, I think it's important to be able to work together through the occasional disagreement, and I hope you stick around the wiki to do just that. —CovertProfessor

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2010-07-23 21:56:09   Seriously though, weight in on the talk page, and welcome to the wiki

Funny how king is ranked higher than McGeorge, but McGeorge has had a higher bar passage rate... —StevenDaubert

Of course, the bar exam is a hazing ritual that has little to do with the actual practice of law —wl

True, but bar passage rate is only one factor, and not even the most important one, when it comes to U.S. News and World Report. It's typically undergrad GPA and LSAT score that rule both the rankings and whether you get into a particular law school. —BP

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2010-07-29 12:01:49   It's worth plenty, the more voices the better. Some people get heated about certain issues that've been boiling for a long time now, but everyone's got an equal voice, subject to the establishment of a little bit of identity. Some of us are leery about the idea of requiring identity (of whatever sort) as a threshold to having a voice here, but regardless, you're easily past that point. —TomGarberson

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2010-07-29 13:48:47   Brian, if you have a few minutes to spare, would you mind dropping in and giving your input over at Wiki Community/Can't We All Just Get Along? As a newer user who caught some backlash from the tension that's been floating around here, your opinion would be very valuable. —TomGarberson

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2010-07-29 14:58:43   I didn't think you'd be the person to break first. Should I reply and point out that it isn't me who is obsessed with identity? Would that be constructive for the page? Would it be constructive if we started arguing — now — about whether your edit improved readability? —CovertProfessor

• I'm sorry if it seemed I was trying to blame you. I don't think anyone in particular is to blame. My only point is that the tone of changes, edits, reverts, etc., is getting out of hand. Just the tone of your response recalls the combative nature of this wiki. Big Bad Editor v. N00b. When so-called n00b objects, enter other big bad editors to back up BBE. Then things digress from there until we have a page, created to discuss a page. For the sake of argument, let's say your reversion of my changes were 100% awesome. Someone like me in your position might say "Hey ... new guy here ... edits not totally worthless ... perhaps I'll let it fly for now and send him a message asking if he took into account the "whimsical" nature of the page before I go and revert it back hoping the door doesn't hit him on the way out ... " ... But that's ME, which is why I was taken aback by it. —BrianPakpour
  • Hey, that's my apology at the top of this page, and an attempt to restart the relationship. I agree that I didn't handle your edit as well as I might have. It's also interesting for me to hear your perspective, because it seems to me that the BBE's are disagreeing amongst each other with far more heat. Not that that's a good thing. But it means that everyone is on edge and thus not as patient as they should be with new people. That doesn't excuse my behavior, but perhaps it helps explain it a bit. And, I might add, it explains the talk page that was created for your edit. That had more to do with DS (who has been furious at me for some time) and me than it did with you. Sorry you got caught in the middle. —CovertProfessor
    • The fact of the matter is that you all have a right to take exception to many of the edits here. There are so many immature individuals just flaming pages, deleting comments, and starting new user accounts just to do it all over again. But I think you, better than others, understand that not every new editor does those things. I'm sorry if it seemed I was blaming you. I appreciate the apology and we'll try to start our relationship anew. I plan to update my page, but I just haven't decided what to add. -BP
      • It's a deal. I'm all for clean slates. :-) —cp
        • That's because you're a professor and have students to clean your chalk board. Bourgeois! Off with his/her head! (Sorry, I just played Guillotine last night). —tg
          • Students to clean off my chalkboard!! Ha! What century are you in?! *amused* —cp
            • I thought that's what TAs are for. -BP
              • That's been known to happen every now and then. I'm always a bit surprised when it does. —cp

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2010-08-01 08:35:22   Why is it so inappropriate? Maybe there is more to it than would appear, especially if it is the sort of bike that is more noticed by people who care about those bike shops particularly. I assumed this was the reason why it was posted on those 2 pages. —NickSchmalenberger

I don't know that it's inappropriate per se, but if everyone did it, the bike shop pages would get awfully long. The Bike Recovery System page is a good place for that stuff. —TomGarberson

Well sure, but I don't expect most people to do it anyway because the Bike Recovery System is a more obvious place. I don't think its a problem for these things to occaisionally be posted in other reasonable places too. It can always be removed later once its really irrelevant. -NickSchmalenberger

I think I was kind of thinking along Tom's general line of thought. If everyone immediately tags pages associated with an object they lost whenever they lost it (think: all the pages having to do with pets), it could get messy, and unnecessarily so, since we already have the Bike Recovery System. Again, I feel for someone who's lost his bike (or pet for that matter), but I'm not sure posting to various pages throughout the Wiki to recover it is the appropriate method to do so. He also already posted about it a few months ago. - BP

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2010-08-02 14:36:23   I'm not the one who originally added it, but yes. —WilliamLewis

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2013-03-06 12:48:58   Congrats on admission and on getting the firm up and running. Best of luck with it! —TomGarberson

Thanks Tom! I appreciate the well wishes! —BrianPakpour

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2013-03-06 21:23:09   Best of luck with the new business. May your practice flourish for many years to come! —JabberWokky

Thanks JW!!! I appreciate it, both the comment, and the sentiment it engenders! —BrianPakpour

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2013-03-06 21:24:30   Sure! Glad to be able to offer a hand. Good luck! —CovertProfessor

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2013-04-25 00:59:59   I like the Wunderbar and all, but their beer selection is substantially smaller than a number of other watering holes around town. —MikeyCrews

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2013-04-25 01:12:44   What part of Philly where you from? —StevenDaubert

I actually grew up in the burbs outside the city, mainly Bucks County, and more specifically Holland. I moved into Center City as an adult and lived in West Philly with my then girlfriend, until we moved here to Davis and got hitched. —BrianPakpour