What About Clients?™

November 24, 2009

Manchester, England

"It's a mean old town to live in by yourself." Still gritty and real, this ancient second city once had an economic school of thought named after it, via England's Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

Mean Town Blues

Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 23, 2009

Wanted: Improved, higher-functioning, digitally-competent Boomers.

CBS

Baby Boomers were the first generation to grow up with TV--so why can't we take the next steps? Gen-Y and Gen-X are very right about one thing: Boomers really are big babies, and often arrogant, about Tech. We are above it, some of us think. But we aren't--and can't be. Time to grow up.

Boomers: They just don't [heart] tech enough. For a lawyer, and especially one born between 1946 and 1966, I'm not too bad at science, or even math. Geometry came easy. Calculus not so easily. At my mega-competitive college prep high school in Cincinnati, I was always one of the handful of underachievers in the mega-smart kids' math class. Those who went on to careers in medicine could always count on me to skew the grades in their direction.

I liked the Humanities much better, and still do. Science, Math, Tech, Numbers. It wasn't that they were hard; it was that they seemed, at the time, to lack mystery. Nowadays, and in doses, I do like playing with business numbers, market shares, and even budgets. Some people even say I'm good at it. But none of it really turns me on.

Numbers and the often-mathematical elegance of the Universe? Okay, I'm older now. It's all there--I admit it. But if something has "one" answer, or fits into a recognized theory, or model, it's still not as interesting to me as things that are, well, more complex, impossible to sort out quickly with Western logic, metaphysical.

I strongly associate "the need for certainty"--either scientific or moral, in either nature or society--with small ideas and small minds. I am sure that I am wrong about that. I am wrong, and wrong-headed, about many things.

Same with the New Digital World. And Word Processing, Document Management, Graphics. Frankly, I don't like any of "it"--and prefer others (always younger) do "it" for me. Documents especially. I do not like to type them, create them, edit them, manage them, store them and retrieve them. Secretly, I do not even like computers, cell phones, video-conferencing, anything electrical--and never will. I like humans, voices, winks, laughs, sneers, grimaces, smiles, flirtations, handshakes, and bodies in the room.

But hating computers is hurting me--and wasting the time of others who I demand do it for me. I am working more and more on my tech. (If you think by the way that operating a blog is "technical", think again; the blogging platforms available make that all very easy.)

Gen-Y and Gen-X are very right about one thing: many Baby Boomers really are babies, and often arrogantly helpless cretins, about Tech. We are above it, we think. Well, we are not above it. We cannot be.

So for a guy who wrote his big thesis at Duke for a Japan history seminar on "How the Shishi Got the Chutzpah to Overthrow the Bakufu", I have come a long way with Tech.

But not far enough. I still drive two nice consultants in two cities crazy with my whines about the equipment, the programs, all the changes, all the... So I need to learn and keep doing more. I still prefer Boomers for co-workers, having given up on younger generations for the time being. Boomers will work long and passionately into their sixties, seventies and even eighties. They are never offended by hard work or complex problems. They don't think that digital toys make your work better--and they are right about that. Boomers like complexity, ambiguity, and genuinely hard problems. Gadgets? They just make you coffee, or give you a copy.

I'd rather work with a 50-year-old than anyone because he or she, generally, will go on until the last dog dies. Never prissy. Always engaged. Nothing is too hard. Boomers are "Foxhole People" to the core.

The tools of the digital world--creation, management, storage, retrieval and shipment of documents--may not make the work product better. But it does make work easier. The over-45 crowd must stop relying on younger people to do that work. And we must quit whining about Tech, and having to learn it. We cannot afford to be above it any longer.

Boomers, to be sure, are still digitally-challenged--and under-performing on "tech". We are too content to be able to turn computers on and off, send and receive e-mail, and use search engines. We were the first generation to grow up with TV--why can't we take the next steps?

So it's not enough. I promise to learn more. Anybody with me?

Two Boomer lawyers in Charleston discuss Cicero, Walt Whitman and EU politics before getting their tech thing on.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Writing to be understood: Rewriting.

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.

--James A. Michener, 1907-1997

Michener, April 1951, Nina Leen (Life Magazine)

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November 22, 2009

Johnny, we hardly knew ye.

Died Nov. 22, 1963. 46 years old.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

And, finally, Louisville created Hunter.

And America, finally, saw that he was Good. Above all, Hunter Stockton Thompson prized--and even demanded--originality in humans. From Americans, he wanted more. No more cookie cutter lives, please!, he seemed to be saying. We have everything. So do something with it. Step up. Act out. Explore the world. Give something back. Let us know you are here.

You tend to forget now and then that about half the people you meet live from one day to the next in a state of such fear and uncertainty that about half the time they doubt their own sanity. Their boats are rocking so badly that all they want to do is get level long enough to think straight and avoid the next nightmare.

--HST, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

HST: Never be a copy. Don't die a peasant. Step up.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes. But New Orleans birthed "it".

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 21, 2009

Chicago has always had "it".

Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (1)

Overheard in Los Angeles

Life is short, opera is long, and Wagner is longer.

--Plácido Domingo, Spanish tenor, L.A. Opera general director.

German tenor Johannes Sembach (1881-1944), taking a stab at the role of Pylade in Gluck's Iphigenie auf Tauris

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 20, 2009

The Street Painter

Notre Dame, Les Bouquinistes by Antoine Blanchard ("Marcel Masson") (1910-1988)

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)

Perfectionism

(Photo: Paramount Pictures)

"The dweebs. The dweebs."

The downside of Type-A. Perfectionism. A great place to "be from". A wonderful instinct, if controlled. It's also a curse--of eldest children, professionals, knowledge workers, most lawyers, all spouses, your Mom, and the geek classes, or Techwazee. The horror, the horror.

Too much, and you need rehab. Worse, your senior partner will start questioning your judgment. Clients 99% of the time are not paying you to be perfect. They don't want it. See "Rule 10: Be Accurate, Thorough and Timely--But Not Perfect" in WAC?'s annoying-but-accurate 12 Rules. Be excellent, not perfect.

(from past HO posts)

Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)

The Internet: Grow up, step up, and use your real name.

You went full retard, man. Never go full retard. Don't go home in pain.

--Robert Downey, Jr., gravely, to Ben Stiller, in Tropic Thunder (2008), about the latter's acting method in the fictional flick "Simple Jack". (DreamWorks/Red Hour Films)

Effective July 1, 2009, and absent compelling reasons, this blog deletes any comments of anonymous bloggers and commenters. Sorry if you said something touching, worthwhile or brilliant. But nameless blogosphere participants, in our view, are rarely worth anyone's time, thought, or respect. Anonymous writers have already "discounted" themselves. You can discount them, too, without worrying you're missing anything. They are second-class citizens, at best. See our past posts on the subject here and here.

Above: The highly-respected French Resistance in action. Twenty-first century counterparts may qualify for a WAC? No-Anonymity Rule special needs exemption.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (3)

Rule Six

Small, powerful ads. See our Rule Six: When You Work, You Are Marketing. Every moment your law firm "works for a client"--it sends the client something, it talks with the client, it does virtually anything for or about that client that the client knows about or should know about--the firm transmits barrages of small but powerful ads. The client notices then and there.

Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 19, 2009

Special Irish Trial Lawyer-Politician Moment: O'Connell the Barrister.

Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), the "Liberator of Ireland", led a movement that forced the British to pass the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, allowing Catholics to become members of the British House of Commons. O'Connell was a consummate trial lawyer, and by nature a bit of an actor. The English, of course, found him infuriating. In the end, he was a very great trial lawyer--one of the best ever--and a real leader who may have done more for Ireland than anyone after him. In a set of lectures John L. Stoddard published in 1901, he said of him:

He was a typical Irishman of the best stock--wily, witty, eloquent, emotional and magnetic. His arrival in town was often an occasion for public rejoicing. His clever repartees were passed from lip to lip, until the island shook with laughter. In court, he sometimes kept the spectators, jury, judge and even the prisoner, alternating between tears and roars of merriment. Celtic to the core, his subtle mind knew every trick peculiar to the Irish character, and he divined instinctively the shrewdest subterfuges of a shifty witness.

(from previous HO posts)

Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 18, 2009

Rue du Vaux

Are you positive Mademoiselle Clotilde du Vaux sparked a religion? Ever wonder about place names in Paris? There are about 6200 of them. Read about Clotilde-Marie de Ficquelmont in Invisible Paris.

Auguste Comte's "muse"

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 17, 2009

Writing Well: Labors of Brevity.

I have made this letter longer--because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

--Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), mathematician, physicist, philosopher, in "Lettres Provinciales", No. 16, 1657

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 16, 2009

The Stock Price This Week?

The client, it seems, actually wants you to know him, her or it. Take time out to learn the stock fluctuations, the industry, competitors, day-to-day culture, players and overall goals of your client. Visit offices and plants.

Associates in particular need to develop the habit of finding out about and keeping up with clients and their trials and tribulations in and out of the areas they are working in. Devise a real system to keep abreast.

Above is from past discussions about "Rule 7: Know the Client", in our annoying-but-correct 12 Rules of Client Service. Honor and keep good clients by knowing them, and knowing them well. Start there.

It's not about the lawyers, not about the law firms. Never was. Attorneys in the U.S. are a dime a dozen. Just not that big a deal. You signed up to serve, Jack. Get used to it.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

"Hello, my name is Amy Walker."

Dialect. Here's a bit of talent, some fine digital self-promotion and--best of all--a quick trip through the English-speaking West.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)

'Professionalism': A Lawyer-Centric Ruse?

Reprinted from a 2005 "Law Week edition" of The San Diego Daily Transcript, here's "Professionalism Revisited: What About The Client?", written by one of our spunkier U.S. trial lawyers. Note that the piece ends with "rules of professionalism"--but from the client's perspective. Excerpts from Rules 1, 5 and 6:

1. We come first. Be nice--but if in doubt, use the rules. If you feel you know the lawyers you are dealing with, we will follow your advice and instincts. If you are in doubt about the lawyers, or if it might compromise us to deviate from the formal procedural rules, please stay close to those rules.

5. If you have, or would like to have, a personal relationship with opposing counsel, that's fine, but don't let the relationship hurt us--the client. We don't care as much as you do about your maintaining or developing collegiality with other lawyers in your jurisdiction; in fact, we could not care less.

6. If opposing counsel shows animosity toward you for following the procedural rules and keeping things moving, that is tough. This is not about the lawyers. We hired you to represent us. We would like you to get this done. Again, as your client, we seldom think that aggression and persistence are "unprofessional".

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 15, 2009

Thinking Warriors.

There has been no illustrious captain who did not possess taste and a feeling for the heritage of the human mind. At the root of Alexander's victories one will always find Aristotle.

--Charles de Gaulle, Army of the Future (1934)

(Bettmann Archives)

Alexander the Great was "out there". He was well-educated, persistent, confident, smart--and a brilliant commander and politician. A warrior's warrior. Alexander was also wild and self-destructive. His men, who loved him, sometimes mutinied.

Alexander worried his fellow Macedonians back home, as he bullied and charmed his way through the then-known world. Many texts say that his off-the-charts political and personal excesses greatly also worried his teacher, Aristotle, the measured and cautious academic. Alexander was, in fact, a student of Aristotle at his school in Mieza.

Aristotle's mentor, of course, was Plato, who was himself mystical, poetic, and aristocratic. Plato was more like Alexander in background and personality--perhaps a better teacher-student match for the young Alexander.

But Plato died when Alexander was 8, and when Aristotle was only 37.

Hey, don't stop reading. Lawyers, students, politicians and business leaders--and especially trial lawyers--should know about these guys.

And their ideas.

Continue reading...

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Clients: How to ditch bad ones.

Just drop off the key, Lee. Even hard-working, über-competent and genuinely service-oriented companies--all 5 or 6 of them on the planet--have at one time or another found themselves with a client, or customer, they no longer "like". To deal with that problem, see "Top 10 Ways to Fire the Client from Hell" at InsideCRM.

It's full of useful tips for dealing with just-not-getting-it or lawyer-paranoid clients like (1) the bargain shopper, (2) the control freak, (3) the "one who's never satisfied" or (4) the client who sees evil and imperfections everywhere.

Posted by Tom Welshonce. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 14, 2009

Caesar's Town in Toscana

The Army Camp. Beginning around 60 BC, Julius Caesar founded the town on both sides of the Arno River as settlement for retired Roman soldiers. The mix of things that happened here after that--politics, trade, money, power, greed, literature, art and architecture--is remarkable given that Florence at heart was, and is, a small town nestled in the country. Only 350,000 people live in this world famous center. A haughty, slightly snobby and wonderfully disassembled lot.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Disraeli on books.

Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense.

--Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 12, 2009

Divas Italia at Le Bon Marche

From the Marais district of Paris ex-New Yorker Richard Nahem writes his I Prefer Paris.

(Photo: Richard Nahem)

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Canadian Bar Association: Ever serious about clients.

Keeping good clients, getting new ones, making new ones "stick". These are on everyone's mind these days. For the 4 years WAC? has been up and running, the Canadian Bar Association's PracticeLink on "Client Services" has been--hands down--the best bar organization site out there on client service. CBA apparently sees CS as a way of lawyer life. "A full-time activity" is the expression used. It's well thought-out, packed with the best resources, and goes beyond the usual lawyer lip service on CS.

Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)

Rule Five

Over-Communicate: Bombard, Copy and Confirm. It's from the annoying but dead-on accurate 12 Rules.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 10, 2009

Crossroads are every day, Jack.

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November 09, 2009

If you mean it, handwrite it--thank you very much.

Breaking thank-you rules can harm you. People will say mean things about your dog, your wife, your girlfriend, or about all three. Or they will trash you.

If, say, you went to Brown, snide people will remind you and your friends that Brown used to be the safety school for the Ivies. If you went to Duke, they'll say Princeton had too much honor and class to accept Buck Duke's filthy tobacco money and re-name Princeton "Duke".

If Princeton, and you're a guy, they'll say you were always kind of light in the Cole Haans, and a real flake, anyway--so what can you expect?

Inspiration, 1769, Jean-Honoré Fragonard

In case your Mother or governess never told you, you're from the Boonies, or you were stoned all six years at Andover, let us remind you to never thank anyone for something truly important--a meeting, referral or a dinner--with anything but a prompt handwritten thank-you note.

No valid excuses exist for not doing it. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. But too few of us practice gratitude--in either business or our "other" lives--enough.

Some say the practice of thanksgiving is good for the soul. Others swear it's good for revenues, too.

Many, many business people and some lawyers with taste (i.e., wears socks to meetings or court) think that no written thank-you note means no class--as harsh and low-tech as that may sound. Typed is okay--but handwritten is better. Even if you are not convinced that thank-you notes are noticed and appreciated (they are), pretend that WAC? knows more than you (we do), and do it anyway (thank us later).

Good stationery. We suggest Crane's on the lower end, or something better, like stationery from Tiffany's, or a Tiffany-style knock-off, on the higher end. A "studio card", maybe. Just make it plain. Simple. Initials on it at most. If you get personalized stuff, have a return envelope address to a home or business--but without the business mentioned. Dude, it's personal. Leave Acme Law Firm off it.

If you get mentioned or "linked-to" on the Internet? However, "electronic thank-yous" by e-mails to express thanks for links, comments or mentions in posts or articles on the Internet--i.e., three different people link to your blog every day, you are working full time for clients, busy firing looter-style staff and associates, and writing op-ed pieces entitled "Summer 2009: The Mood of the Midwest"--are totally okay.

Short, sweet, and press "send".

Blogging about you or your ideas is, of course, very nice--but it's not like they bought you dinner, or invited you up to Newport for the weekend. Besides, you'll always miss a few kudos thrown at you in the digital ether.

But what if you are trashed in the ether? A "reverse" thank-you? Sure, you may be insulted, purposely mis-paraphrased, misinterpreted, or just inadvertently misquoted. It happens. Remember, some bloggers and pseudo-journalists are (1) angry, (2) disorganized, or (3) essentially unemployed. And there are often good reasons for all three. Three approaches:

First, ignore them. Who cares? You are busy.

Second, if you are dissed or insulted in cyberspace, and you are in the right mood, respond smartly with: "Wendell, Dude, if I were you--or someone remotely like you--I would not like me either."

Continue reading...

Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 06, 2009

111 Cannon Street: The London Stone

Last year after finishing up at Stanford, Holden Oliver, an aging law student and one of our writers, had a few drinks and ran amok in Legal London. Then he got dressed up like an early 20th century bobby for no reason at all. Here he poses before the mysterious London Stone on Cannon Street.

Finding the Stone is not hard: you head east, down Fleet Street, past Dr. Johnson's house, past St. Paul's a block north, staying on Fleet Street (not Lane) which becomes Ludgate Hill (past intersection with Old Bailey), which becomes Cannon Street, to 111 Cannon, across from the tube station. You'll miss It if you're not careful. You may give an oath to It if you like.

I have a thing about The London Stone--probably because I live much of the time in California in an "old" 22-year-old home. Back East (and even in the Midwest where I did most of my growing up), there's much older stuff, of course. Sometimes a house or street dates back to the 1600s--but it's nothing like you stumble upon at every turn at every moment in London.

In America, out West, and very close to my home in California, you can see rock and cave paintings. In the Midwest and South, there are mound-builder mounds and other antiquities. But these don't cut it for me.

I like old books, old homes, old anythings; however, they need to be the relics of my cruel, greedy, goofy-looking European ancestors. I am sorry. Feel free to alert the Oberlin College faculty, the BIA and, of course, NPR. Maybe Nina Totenberg is having a slow month.

The Stone is important to me because it's mysterious and fires the imagination--not because it's way old. There's a myth that the Stone was part of an altar built by Brutus of Troy, the legendary founder of London. Not true in any respect.

But the Stone is Olde, older than Boudica, Tacitus, Disraeli or Keith Richards, and at the very minimum, an enduring symbol of the Authority of The City since London Roman times. So we're talking about at least 2000 years of Stoneness. Some scholars think 3000 years.

My guess is that it's been a human mile marker, altar and/or symbol for about 2200 years--even before the brilliant Roman cad Julius Caesar blew into Britain in 54 BC and again the following year as a military pretext to further his political ambitions.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Don't compete on price--especially now.

If a new client demands a "discount", color it unsophisticated and a pain in the ass. Refer it to that firm down the street you just never liked.

If a client comes to your firm for price, it will leave your firm for price. Value--not price alone--is the point. You're in a services profession, so value will be conferred upon, and experienced differently by, different clients in different engagements.

It's all in the work, i.e., first rate legal products mixed with real client service for every client you serve--and, of course, the billing. About billing: it's case by case, it's very hard, and it takes thought. But no matter how your firm bills--hourly, "value", flat or a combination--don't lower the price for your firm's services, especially for new clients or to attract work.

Don't lower rates to get business. Don't change anything. If a new client--especially via an in-house lawyer (but we doubt you'll see this happen)--demands a "discount" these days, it is likely both unsophisticated and a pain in the ass. Refer it to that firm down the street you just never liked.

This man doesn't "do" discounts to get work for his law firm. Either should you. (Photo: ABC)

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Rule Four

Rule Four: Deliver Legal Work That Change the Way Clients Think About Lawyers. It's the hardest one. From our in-your-face but enduring and correct 12 Rules.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 05, 2009

Oran, Algeria

Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it "doing business".

--Narrator describing Oran in opening pages of The Plague (1947), by Albert Camus

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 04, 2009

Professionalism Actually.

Let’s say you’re a blues guitarist with a broken ring finger on your fretboard hand. What do you do? If you’re Albert King, you put a splint on it, and you get out there and play.

--The RainMan

It's about "the customers"--and not just about being polite and courtly to other attorneys. Visit Ray Ward's Minor Wisdom.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)

Firenze: La Basilica di San Lorenzo

The Flourishing: One of Florence's oldest churches, San Lorenzo was consecrated in the 4th century by St. Ambrose of Milan.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)

Rule Three

Rule Three: Make Sure Everyone in Your Shop Knows That The Client Is The Main Event. The truth is that they probably don't.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 03, 2009

On voting for judges.

That a popularly-elected state judge in your pocket?

Judges should not have "constituents." But in most American states, they still do. And there is no way to dress that up.

Election Day Reminder: If you can vote at the polls for a state judiciary candidate today, please don't. Raise your aspirations. Go to the track, play pinball, drink Ripple, watch Gong Show reruns, or visit that "Leather World" alternative lifestyle clothing-and-book store on Route 73 you've always wondered about. From past WAC? posts:

Quick and dirty re: elected state judges and campaign money. We've followed and written a lot on the U.S. Supreme Court case about a popularly elected state supreme court judge, and campaign money recipient, who failed to disqualify himself in arguably suspect circumstances. The Court ruled in June of this year that a West Virginia judge should indeed have disqualified himself from hearing an appeal of a $50 million jury verdict against an a coal company because its CEO had been a major campaign donor. See slip opinion in Caperton v. Massey Coal Company (June 8, 2009).

The popular election of state judges--permitted in some aspect in a clear majority of the states--gives the appearance of justice being "for sale." Elected judges can be especially "bad" for good clients who do business all over the U.S. and the world. Even when elected judges are "good"--and, to be fair, there are some great ones--state systems of popularly-elected judiciary will never inspire much confidence. Elected jurists who hear and decide business disputes are steeped in a taint.

Continue reading...

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Karl Llewellyn: Eternally baiting fresh Siwash grads.

Karl Nickerson Llewellyn (1893–1962)

We have no great illusions, my brethren and I, about how much good it will do you to be told these things in advance...You conceive this, I take it, to be somewhat in the nature of the pep meeting to which you were first exposed when you entered college.

You expect me to tell you that you should be earnest about your work, and get your back into it for dear old Siwash, and that he who lets work slide will stumble by the way.

My guess is that he was not a fan of "going through the motions". We can safely assume he would have never Twittered (or at least not have disclosed that activity to sane and serious clients). And he would have been deeply saddened by the current professional trend of doing all things in a way to "please the professional"--rather than to advance the interests of the entity served: Client, Patient, Payer, Buyer, Customer, and Those Owed High Duties and Care.

The above of course is from the opening chapter of the The Bramble Bush: On Our Law and Its Study (1931), which sprung from a series of introductory lectures Karl Llewellyn gave to first-year law students during the 1929-30 academic year, when he was appointed the first Betts Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia. The book's title is from a poem "The Bramble Bush" by Robert Penn Warren, excerpted here:

There was a man in our town
and he was wondrous wise:
he jumped into a bramble bush
and scratched out both his eyes--

and when he found that he was blind,
with all his might and maine,
He jumped into another one,
and scratched them in again.

(from past WAC? posts)

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Rule Two

The Client Is The Main Event. That's obvious? Really?

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 02, 2009

All Saints Argentina: Raise the Dead, Make Blind Men See.

Heal the Sick. Have Mercy. Don't Leave Your Wife just yet. Outsiders of either sex walking in Buenos Aires for the first time are often unexpectedly stunned. These are Pretty People. The best part? You may look openly and fixedly at who or that which you admire--and do that all afternoon. Anita Hill and National Public Radio will not be camped out in front of your hotel room by 6:00 AM the next day. No investigations. No EEOC claims. Just Life. You and your biggest human instincts. You may observe how people actually walk. In the City of Borges live the most heavenly people on the planet: Las Porteñas.

Forgive all sins which originate here.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Rule One

Rule One: Represent Only Clients You "Like". Life's short. The profession is demanding enough.

From our annoying but dead-on accurate, world-famous, wise and must-follow 12 Rules of Client Service. We know you and yours can't or won't follow any of them--i.e., you're a lawyer, think you are "special", and believe you're entitled to a standard that would embarrass a drunken bellhop--but you can at least try.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

November 01, 2009

Human Gargoyles, 1908

Posted by Rob Bodine. Permalink | Comments (0)

October 31, 2009

"Slick Lawyer Answers" to "Lazy Lawyer Interrogatories".

"The Lawyers", circa 1855, Honoré Daumier (1808-1879)

Our new associate. Nice guy, smart guy, and I really liked him--I still do. I always make it a point to take his cab whenever I'm in Flint.

Written discovery practice shouldn't be a joke. Not that many years ago, in Manhattan's fabled Southern District, a fed-up federal judge, throwing up his hands during arguments by lawyers on a motion to compel discovery responses, referred to certain answers to interrogatories in the dispute as "slick lawyer answers to lazy lawyer interrogatories".

We do feel his pain. Feel free to color this all quite silly, and annoying, if you want--but we love and respect written discovery during the pretrial process in American federal courts.

About ten years ago, and for a brief period of time, a fundamentally talented second year associate with the makings of a very good trial lawyer worked in our Pittsburgh office, after having spent one year at another firm. One day, he complained to me that we were putting too much thought and effort into a set of interrogatories under Rule 33, Fed. R. Civ. P.

I listened very carefully.

(from previous JDH posts)

Continue reading...

Posted by Rob Bodine. Permalink | Comments (0)

October 30, 2009

Dites-le en anglais, s'il vous plait?

French blogs (see lower left of this blog), not that suprisingly, often have stunning designs, photos and graphics, but we'd still like to see more of them in English. To the French: we're sorry we let our French fall into disrepair; you, the curators of all things fine, still teach all how to live and remind us what we should know about the West.

But any Blogs of France in English out there? Doesn't have to be "American" English. For now we'll continue to make do with an American writer Tara Bradford's wonderful Paris Parfait. While she routinely ignores us--probably because many of us here at WAC? are from the Midwest--her site does make us want (1) to get back to the Hull McGuire island and (2) meet and speak with Maryam, who we discovered in Paris three years ago. We owe Tara a great debt.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

London's Charon QC: On Libel.

The Outlaw Charon. Quite a few inspired posts lately on defamation law and news by the velvet-voiced Brit pundit, academic, lawyer, broadcast journalist and ladies' man Charon QC--known to his close and admiring friends as "Mike Semple Piggot", an unlikely Anglo-Norman handle, of course. WAC? will accept the latter as his real name for purposes of passing muster under the Ned Beatty blogging and commenting No-Wank/No-Weenies/No-Cowards Zone test: "No real name, no real publish; get a life, please". CQC is a stand-up guy, and a rare lawyer-blogger: one with stones. Not another digital weenie. See "How our senior libel judge stamps on free speech--all over the world".

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Writing well: Concise and non-Annoying.

He who can properly summarize many ideas in a brief statement is a wise man.

Euripides, non-lawyer (480-406 B.C.)

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"All hat, no cattle"

Everyone in your shop has to buy into CS like a cult, like a religion--like an angry sermon that lifted them out of their pews at The Church of the Final Thunder. If employees will not, or cannot, get rid of those stiffs first. And do feel good about firing them.

Real client service--i.e., know-how consistently delivered as an experience the customer likes and wants more of--is by now a global cliché. Hey, you must say you are "into" it--but do you even know what it is? It sounds easy, and intuitive to the speaker and listener.

"Client and customer service...how hard could that be?"

Very. Making a client be safe and feel safe at the same time is as hard an order to fill as we can imagine. Whether you're a lawyer, accountant, hooker, fishing guide, house painter, drug dealer, or mom-and-pop corner store owner, superior work alone won't keep a good client or customer coming back.

Clients want something more. You have to figure out what that is.

And then everyone in your shop--yes, everyone--has to buy into CS like a cult, like a religion, like an angry sermon that took them out of their pews at The Church of the Final Thunder.

"Yes, yes, got that covered." One problem is self-deception: (1) most service providers think they know what CS is, but they don't; and (2) if they really do know, they don't know how to discipline their organizations to make CS stick.

(WAC?, by the way, does know what and how; the reason we give away our "secrets" is that we are confident that virtually none of you will ever be able to get and deliver client service. Yes, we are making fun of all you. All you "smart" people--embittered that you are not rich or powerful enough--who don't get other humans. You folks are hopelessly "get-the-net" delusional about CS. No intuition, no guts, no gospel--and no discipline.)

"All hat, no cattle." The second and more immediate problem is deceiving clients themselves. At a minimum, even if you don't have a clue what CS really is, do you say you provide it when you don't? Is CS a little joke at your shop? A ruse, maybe? Something for the website? For that first pitch? Well, there are voices in the wilderness besides ours on that one. And one of our favorites is Tom Kane at The Legal Marketing Blog. See again his post from June 2008, "Don't Let Client Service Be Merely Lip Service" and the related links.

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October 29, 2009

Writing well: Samuel Hazo

Poet-dramatist-novelist, gift of America's Industrial Heartland, always a man in full. Pittsburgh's Sam Hazo writes simple, thoughtful and pregnant prose.

This Part of the World, by Pittsburgh's Samuel Hazo.

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October 28, 2009

Harold: 'There is no other music.'

"Harold, don't you have any other music , you know, from this century?
-There is no other music--not in my house.
There's been a lot of terrific music in the last ten years.
-Like what?"

--The Big Chill (1983)

Rolling Stones, French television, 1964

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Writing Well: Scripts.

Hollywood is the one place in the world where you can die of encouragement.

--Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)

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October 27, 2009

Dante's Charon: On Crossings.

The Ferryman Charon. Gustave Doré's illustration to Dante's Inferno. Plate IX: Canto III:

And lo! towards us coming in a boat
An old man, hoary with the hair of eld,
Crying: 'Woe unto you, ye souls depraved!'

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October 26, 2009

Try this at home: Change How Clients Think About Lawyers.

The work of a bricklayer goes to the blue.
The knack of a mason outlasts a moon.
The hands of a plasterer hold a room together.
The land of a farmer wishes him back again.

--Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), author, editor, poet, Pulitzer winner.

But first: hearse horses, anyone? Do you love what you do? Step back from the canvas and try some simple tool sharpening. Bone up on your fundamentals, maybe. Your techniques. Do you need some new ideas? How does your firm do its work these days? Do you get things right? What do you teach associates?

Now step back further. What of this Lawyering Thing? Clients? What is it you really do for them? You serve, right? You mix your products and services with an overall experience that makes you unique, right? Or are you and yours indistinguishable from the rest of the generic law cattle out there? Is your firm really different?

Step back again. Are you problem-solvers? Or just part of a "club" that needs clients as equipment to pursue a daily game? Does practicing law and serving turn you on? Or is it just a past choice you, or your partners, made--one that hardened around you long ago--and now regret?

Too many people practice law who should not. Practicing law is hard.

Client service is just as hard. But many people with law degrees--there are way too many of us in the U.S.--don't get that. Or they don't love it. If either applies to you, or to your colleagues, it's not too late to "get it", to get it back, to love it (again or for the first time) or just to try something different and new.

The law is not for everyone. And to do it right day-in and -out is a hard order. A privilege, too.

If you wish to stay in the profession, try to make it what it can and should be. Visit our world-famous, annoying, counter-intuitive but dead-on accurate 12 Rules of Client Service. See "Rule Four: Deliver legal services that change the way clients think about lawyers".

Carl August Sandburg: "The lawyers, Bob, know too much..."

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)

Goodland, Florida: 'You got a problem with that?'

The people here? They make even Australians seem a bit uptight and sober.

The Buzzard Lope Queen? Okay, so there's no pretense, not much Internet (a good thing), but no real problems, either. No money (bad thing)--but so what, Mister? Home of the buzzard lope, Goodland is a living caricature of working people with too much personality, powerful appetites, and Flowers on Mama's Grave back in the Ozarks. I know these people. WAC? comes from about fifteen generations of them in Virginia, Tennessee and southern Missouri, from towns like Springfield, Mountain Home and Mountain Grove.

One day nearly 90 years ago, one tribe member (my grandfather) escaped Missouri for the University of Chicago and Yale. DNA, however, is hard to beat down with education. For example, I like it here--and am eternally One with the Hillbilly Cosmos, at least while in town. But two years ago, the late Holden Oliver, ex-WAC? writer, then a snooty New England-bred law student at Stanford, refused to finish his dinner at one of the local bars here. The Mayflower crowd could never grock Goodland.

Buzzard Lope people

Anyway, about 300 souls. Half the adult population in this tiny town is said to be "non-voting" due to drug transport-related convictions. Lots of old--but extremely fast--boats. Trial lawyers like NYC's Scott Greenfield get the picture. If Scott mails me some of his cards, I will pass them out at Stan's or The Little Bar. Goodland is also very, well, white--but more fun and certainly less sterile than Naples or Marco. This is a gritty Key West for the Gulf's gold coast. The people here make even most Australians seem a bit uptight and sober.

It's fun. The most button-down clients insist on going to dinner here--just like they insist on a quick trip to Mexico for lobster in Puerto Nuevo or near Calafia when they are in San Diego. Goodland is a fine place to write sonnets, briefs, novels, letters, settlement contracts, short stories, articles, limericks, Dear Jane letters and marginal haiku--all of which I have been doing down here off and on for over 20 years.

"Hey, you guys from Connecticut or sumpthin'?"

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October 24, 2009

Milton Supman (1926-2009)

No Boomer growing up in Detroit in the 1950s could miss Soupy Sales. You think of him as a Howard Stern for kids--and for his studio crew, who often sounded as if they were rolling on the floor laughing. Always having secret fun. He died Thursday. His character "White Fang" was born on a U.S. battleship in the South Pacific.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)

Charleston

The Dialect. First, what about the accent you hear there? That regal way of speech? You're in South Carolina, of course--but the speech you hear is barely "Southern". Most likely, experts say, it's a blend: of Gullah spoken by African Americans, and of English spoken by Europeans, over 300 years ago. Linguists love it, and you still hear it in the streets, especially "South of Broad".

The Dance. It was popularized by a song and its accompanying footwork, "The Charleston," by James P. Johnson in the Broadway musical "Runnin' Wild" in 1923. Like the unique Charleston dialect, the Dance goes way back, too. It's been traced to descendants of slaves who lived on islands off the coast of Charleston and in the city itself. Thought to have been first performed locally around 1903.

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Revelation's Unknown Writer: A Loon for the Ages.

Looking into the void. John of Patmos writes the Book of Revelation in this Hieronymus Bosch painting (1505). The lapsed Anglicans and Belfast Protestants who write WAC? are not conventionally religious--but we think the Bible is interesting. We think that whoever wrote Revelation (no one really knows) was a compelling king-hell Loon.

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October 23, 2009

Creation.

There is no joy except in creation. There are no living beings but those who create. All the rest are shadows, hovering over the earth, strangers to life. All the joys of life are the joys of creation: love, genius, action...

--Romain Rolland (1866-1944), Nobel Prize winner, in "Lightning Strikes Christophe".

Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)

October 21, 2009

Hubris

Ah how shameless--the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone, they say, come all their miseries, yes, but they themselves, with their own reckless ways, compound their pains beyond their proper share.

That's Zeus speaking, in rare public apppearance, in Homer's Odyssey. And should you view world religions as a needed crowd control device to keep you and yours in line, Zeus below is depicted practicing his aim with his lightning bolt. Be advised.

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Luxembourg

See I Prefer Paris by ex-New Yorker Richard Nahem yesterday and today: private doors, public gardens.

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Feeding The Monster: "Dude, we really need a memo on all that?"

Maybe go to the mirror and practice saying that to your client, or to your colleagues, about some ongoing projects. Another way to say it:

"Elizabeth/Justin, this project had been lawyer-ed and memo-ed out the proverbial wazoo. Let's of course do the research right away. We can get Josh/ Brittany to start on it today; they know the legal terrain here anyway, and know the facts. But after we research it, can we do this: just have a DRAFT [brief/letter/contract] reflect what we conclude. That's where we're headed with this anyway.

In other words, let's skip the lengthy legal memorandum. All that is just "winding up"--and without ever "pitching", you know?"

There are times you don't need to scorch the earth. To save time, money and relationships, just answer the question. Talk people out of the "full-Monty". Do the research, take a stand, and write it all up in the instrument you are actually going to use anyway: the pleading, the motion, the response.

Even if you don't use it, what the draft or instrument "looks like" helps everyone make the next decision, and take the next step. You can still back up critical points with smaller discrete memos, showing research and/or thought process.

Are you scorching both earth and client coffers? Skip the 10-, 20- and 35-page memo. And aside from necessary opinion letters, and really needed formal white papers, don't offer to write or write a cover-everyone's-ass and/or comprehensive "all-legal-theories-and-strategies" memorandum (c'mon, you big old Ivy League wuss) unless your in-house lawyer really wants it. And then try to talk her or him out of it. The client's call, of course. But you can lead a little. If you are in litigation, test out your brilliant ideas and research in a draft brief or another document the client can actually use later on. Skip the 10-, 20- and 35-page memo. Try to make memos you do do be shorter, and reflect the group's cumulative thinking on that issue or project.

(From an April 2, 2009 by the late WAC? writer Holden Oliver.)

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October 20, 2009

What happens to your clients "after they've seen Paris"?

In the words of the old song, "How ya' gonna keep 'em down on the farm, after they've see Paree?" How do you satisfy them with Paris--once they've see Paris? How do you satisfy a client with "great", once you've already delivered it? You must get better to avoid falling behind.

--Harry Beckwith, The Invisible Touch (Warner Books 2000)

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October 19, 2009

Storytelling: Lawyers, Words and Money.

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

--Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

Posted by Rob Bodine. Permalink | Comments (1)

What one admired Brit says about Yanks.

The world, unfortunately, is much like a playground at a third-rate junior high school in a mixed neighborhood.

"Unbounded confidence and undeniable resilience of the American psyche." Many non-US nations--and their citizens in all walks of life--"resent" the United States. We saw that sentiment rise again in mid-2003, when America invaded Iraq. Talent, verve and energy, wrong-headed or not, is threatening to those with less of it. These qualities make people way nervous. But Americans, too, "resent" one another. We are hardly immune from the small-mindedness that often colors our world.

Human nature, I guess. No one wants to feel uncomfortable around the force, energy, talent, resources and self-confidence of those that have it, and often flaunt it in subtle ways.

It's worse if you sense, imagine or observe that the World's Alpha Entities--nations or individuals--are constantly in your face. Hey, if you're of the paranoid persuasion, it's like they are even laughing at you. At you, and at all your friends and family, Jack. The Romans were feared and hated in every country they commandeered. The problem (gulp) was that they were very good for several centuries at what they were doing. You had to give them credit for that.

Think about American towns and cities where people routinely deride outsiders who have accomplished much in "bigger ponds". Note the traditional irrational "fear" of New York City, America's hands-down best town, and New Yorkers. The fact that many New Yorkers are aggressive and often overbearing can't defeat the truth that the city is brimming over talent and ideas. Same with LA and DC.

There have been petty jealously-fests everywhere since the beginning of history. Talent, truth and quality--especially when served up with energy--makes people nervous. Better to surround yourself with "like-minded" people than be made to feel nervous about the fact that you will not or cannot grow to a higher plane. Yes, be comfortable at all costs.

The world, unfortunately, is much like a playground at a third-rate junior high school in a mixed neighborhood. And Americans--ranging from (a) the quietly great to (b) the mouthy mediocre--are still part of all that. Re: the latter group, which is legion, America--for all its greatness and promise--indeed has its moments as a world headquarters for sour grapes, insecurity and moral pretension.

These days, we are drowning in all manner of jack-asses who need to be right 100% of the time on everything from the primacy of Jesus to whether an airline employee is a stewardess, stew, flight attendant, flying waitress or in-flight server. (Some lawyers even freak out over "Chinese wall"--a useful term more quickly understood than Asian wall.)

Lawyers--supposedly seekers and guardians of truth, the architects of business and officers of the court--lie to clients, courts and each other out of habit.

Manners, professionalism and "appearances" are Everything.

Directness, facts, honesty and efficiency are Besides The Point.

Consider lawyers who proclaim loudly and self-righteously that profanity is "unprofessional". Yours truly loves to swear, and forcefully, at the right times. I am heavily involved in the "let's restore real people-speak to the workplace" movement because not using your real speech, especially among lawyers, is phony, prissy, a hypocrisy. Sue me, folks. I am ready for you.

But spoliation of evidence, compromising clients with half-assed work, lying to clients about the true status and quality of projects and positions taken, and making "Eddie Haskell" overtures with adversaries and courts--a sad if amusing "lawyers club" standard--is just biz as usual.

Clients, not adversaries, to many of us, are the enemy; clients are scammed more than anyone, and routinely. My take: lawyers spend as much time hiding their mistakes from their clients, and fighting with them, as they do serving them. Most of us should have never entered the profession. We are not up to it. It is too hard.

Lots of lawyers--maybe a majority--never get it. The law is not a club for white guys who are smart enough to do personal injury cases, walk and chew gum at the same time, and wear decent suits at lunch. It's a service industry, Jack. Most lawyers--in America, we are a dime a dozen--aren't that important. Get used to it.

And it's not of course just Western Law Cattle that's the problem. Consider America's often-intolerant and increasingly shrill Extreme Religious Right. Consider our often-mindless Overly-PC Left (i.e., many blue state residents who are supposedly better educated than the religious right and should know better) that has apparently abandoned the First Amendment in an effort to make people think and talk just like them.

A nation of phonies? A culture that ignores complexity and nuance? A people who fear quality--and even fight it?

You want to see insecurity, irony and hypocrisy out the Wazoo? Look to America. Look to lawyers. Look to other white collar execs and pros. Yes, look to all the world. But take a hard look at you and yours. And get some standards. Keep revisiting your integrity. Demand something better of yourselves and others.

Are you seeing and telling the truth?

Brit Richard Lewis at Cross-Culture tells the truth--whether it is popular on his own tribal playground or not. He does not shy way from tackling and sorting out complexity and ambiguity. He does not preach. He is a man who was "global" before global was cool. He is an exception to the "talent + energy makes me nervous" pattern.

Lewis knows who he is, knows the world in all its wonderful variety, and knows--and admires--us Yanks, warts and all. You see it again and again in his writings.

Read "A Country that Can".

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)

October 17, 2009

Redux: Is that an elected county judge in your pocket?

Or are you just hugely happy to see me?

Judges should not have "constituents." Right now, in most American states, they still do. And there is no way to dress that up.

Quick and dirty re: elected state judges and campaign money. We've followed and written a lot on the U.S. Supreme Court case about a popularly elected state supreme court judge, and campaign money recipient, who failed to disqualify himself in arguably suspect circumstances. The Court ruled in June of this year that a West Virginia judge should indeed have disqualified himself from hearing an appeal of a $50 million jury verdict against an a coal company because its CEO had been a major campaign donor. See slip opinion in Caperton v. Massey Coal Company (June 8, 2009).

The popular election of state judges--permitted in some aspect in a clear majority of the states--gives the appearance of justice being "for sale." Elected judges can be especially "bad" for good clients who do business all over the U.S. and the world. Even when elected judges are "good"--and, to be fair, there are some great ones--state systems of popularly-elected judiciary will never inspire much confidence. Elected jurists who hear and decide business disputes are steeped in a taint.

The point: Judges should not have "constituents," i.e. law firms, and their clients, who make campaign contributions. Right now, in most American states, they do. And there is no way to dress that up.

Generally county-based, American litigation at a state level is already frustratingly local and provincial for "outsider defendants"--businesses from other U.S. states and other nations sued in local state courts--who cannot remove to federal courts, the forums where federal judges can and should protect them from local prejudice.*

American states that still hang on to electoral systems look increasingly provincial, classless, and silly from a global perspective. Merit selection is not perfect--and also poses risks--but it is far better than what most American states currently have in place. It's time for American states to grow up. See our many past posts over the last four years on this subject in our category on the right side of this site: Federal Courts.

*One reason that federal diversity jurisdiction was created in the first place was because of the framers’ concern that prejudices of state judges toward out-of-state persons would unfairly affect outcomes in trial courts. Erwin Griswold, Law and Lawyers in the United States, 65 (Cambridge, Harv. Press 1964). Over 200 years later, our current systems in the states make that local prejudice almost inevitable. See also, the interview of General Electric's Mike McIlwrath in July 2009 of Prof. Geoffrey Hazard of Hastings Law School, who addresses why European business really fear U.S. state courts.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)

Movement.

Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train.

--Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel (2002)

Edward Hopper, Compartment C, Car 293 (1938)

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October 15, 2009

Juries That Work: Simple Rules.

And from the Milwaukee-Texas axis. Here's a gem we missed featuring two of our favorite students of the Science, Art and Holy Surprise of 'Twelve Good Men and True'. See Anne Reed's August 21 piece at her Deliberations and the discussion of Mark Bennett's "Simple Rules for Better Jury Selection", which Bennett continues to update, at Defending People. For excitement, brightness and a little color--and to make this item longer--we offer an illustration from a past WAC? piece about how federal and state jurors in the same metropolitan area can differ from each other in unexpected but exotic ways. Below is one who will take more than his share of notes.

Tom Wolfe, NYC, state court juror, sharp dressed man.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)

October 14, 2009

Got Heart?

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.

--William Wordsworth, 1770-1850

Writing--any kind of writing--is hard work. The most inspired "work moments" I've had are in this category: watching someone struggle with getting to the right word or phrase under pressure and when they are tired. The first time I saw it was watching a college daily editor--my roommate both in college and in DC for a while--struggle at 4:00 AM over a few words in the final sentences of a student reporter's story covering a public figure's on-campus speech.

He was also a stringer for a well-known newspaper, and knew his bosses far away would see his article. The public figure had screwed the pooch; he said some goofy and impolitic things that, given his government job, he should not have said, or said differently. The event was likely to draw attention from mainstream media around the country the next day.

And that happened. My friend, of course, couldn't have known in advance of any storms his piece might cause; I really doubt that would have mattered in his effort.

He still deeply cared, at four in the morning, about the writing--which was "good enough, but not quite there yet"--and it moved me.

Wordworth's Muse: In the Lake District, you hear "ghostly language of the ancient earth".

Continue reading...

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October 13, 2009

Why not Global in place of Patriotic?

A wise man's country is the world.

--Aristippus (435-360 BC), as quoted by Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosphers

"There is hope. I see traces of men."

Aristippus was shipwrecked on the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. He and his fellow survivors did not know where they were or if the island was inhabited. But he sees geometric figures drawn on the sand.

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October 12, 2009

Real heros: Chrissie Hynde

Midwest-bred rocker Hynde is said to have no fear of anything or anyone. Can you say that? How free are you, anyway?

Way to go Ohio: Firestone High School, Akron, Ohio, 1969.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)

Firm Logos: Goofy? Tacky? Or merely a waste of time and money?

(Note: from a January 8, 2006 post)

Above: The ubiquitous Bloor-Pennington chess piece warrior-knight logo for law firms implies that your shop is: intellectual, well-bred, polite, strategic, warlike, unoriginal, wasteful, tacky.

Take, for example, an abbreviated form of Hull McGuire PC, using initials. HMPC--with or without graphics--sounds more like a fuel additive you pick up at the Wal-Mart or the Git-'n-Go than it does a symbol of quality legal care. We're not doing that one.

At some point we'll reveal how we really feel about law firm logos.

For the time being, Tom Kane at The Legal Marketing Blog has some sound commentary about firm logos. We agree that quality service and not logos should be the main event, as Kane says. And we would add that:

(1) If you do have a logo, don't change it.

(2) But if you don't have one, don't get one. Don't bother to develop one. You do not need it.

Logos are really about your "look". Whether you know it or not, your firm already has this "look".

Your "look" is on your stationery, letterhead, envelopes, and your business cards. These all have your firm's name on it. Hopefully, these same patterns, lettering, and colors are reproduced on your marketing materials: website, brochure, blog. When people see Hull McGuire PC, usually underlined in burgundy with black Gothic lettering on pastel-colored stationery or business cards, that's us--our trade dress and our "look".

Who sees and "gets" it? Well, everyone. It has now sunk in. With clients, the would-be clients we target and court, courts, agencies, Congressional aides, our own friends, extended families, current or former spouses, girlfriends, mistresses and/or kept men, the media, trade groups, vendors, tech support, hotels, our contacts and networks, CPAs, consultants, other higher-end boutiques, large firms, and not-large firms in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

All of these people and entities have been seeing it for 15 years. The repetition does it--the graphics, font and color has not changed, and will not change--and it likely has some value. We wouldn't change that look even if we decided we didn't like it.*

Above: One possible fun way to merchandise the standard Bloor-Pennington warrior-knight logo if your Marketing Committee already made mistake of developing it.

Continue reading...

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)

Twelfth Weenie Alert: Help stamp out Net Anonymity.

Too many lawyers are already Weenies-and-a Half. Ah, the Tragically Prissy....you guys--mainly it's the "men"--know who you are. And many anonymous commenters still come to WAC? But we are now a Wuss-Free Zone.

The Nameless-on-the-Net Thing is Over. Use your real name. You can do it!

So step up. Man/Woman up. Be a person. This is America. Be like Samuel Adams. Like Hunter Thompson. Jack London. Or Janis Joplin. Hanjo Vogel. Dan Pinchbeck. Scott Greenfield. Pat Lamb. Elie Mystal. Chrissie Hynde. Even your mailman. Your barber. The young good-looking woman with no kids and lots of money next door who went to Smith.

Real people. Real names.

Do tell people what you think.

But in America, big mouths and being opinionated is still way cool--but big mouths plus no names is never cool. It's cowardly. It's like 10-year-old small town vandals in New Jersey throwing rocks through windows and running away into the night. It's like blind wharf rats in heat. Cretins. Insects. Badness.

Get it?

It's never too late for self-respect. To be a Person Among Persons.

Club Ned, eh? Get some class, a life standard and a spine, y'all. Unless you're a CIA stringer in black ops, an Iranian dissident, an abused housewife, a closet queen working for State, or a Club Ned member, please blog and comment using your real name.

WAC? is a proud No-Wuss Zone. We want to hear what you have to say--but nobodies aren't worth our readers' time or respect.

Club Ned: Just like a hog, eh? Ned Beatty's character Bobby in "Deliverance" may blog and comment anonymously about his ill-fated canoe trip.

Posted by Rob Bodine. Permalink | Comments (2)

October 11, 2009

2002: Buenos Aires

Mystery Person, Spring 2002

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Writing well: Working at it.

Half my life is an act of revision.

--John Irving (1942-)

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October 10, 2009

Hell's Kitchen: The First 'Hood

Jacob Riis photo of Bandits' Roost (1890)

Above: Hell's Kitchen, NYC, before it got cute. The work, images and outcry of Riis were all famous at the time. So was this photograph. Next door to Times Square, Hell's Kitchen always seems worlds away. It keeps changing but stays famous: from Irish and German immigrant sub-city to gangland neighborhood to actors' quarter to, these days, a yuppie heaven. Real estate brokers years ago came up with the new labels of Clinton and Midtown West--but those handles will never replace the real name. Older neighborhoods, like older people, have personalities--and they are feisty as Hell.

Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)

Is this a real city or what?

All Over Manhattan.

Life's just a cocktail party on the street.

Shine A Light: Real Lawyers Duck Walk.

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Stamford, Connecticut girl makes good in "Lost and Found Family"

Sony film released in September has instant following in Bible Belt. Ellen Bry, a nighttime drama television mainstay (St. Elsewhere, Dexter, Boston Legal, Monk, The Closer) for decades--and known in the LA-NYC underground as WAC?'s in-house photographer--has the lead role as Ester Hobbes, a Chicago socialite who suddenly loses everything, in The Lost & Found Family, a new Sony Pictures release.

In the film, we meet a determined and spiritual woman who is surprised to learn that she has inherited just one thing from her dead businessman husband: a run-down old house in Georgia, and the turbulent foster family living in it.

Taken from the story Mrs. Hobbes' House, The Lost & Found Family is a poignant, uplifting, instructive and remarkably powerful family film set in the American South. It was filmed in Jackson, Georgia, a town between Atlanta and Macon, with a population of about 4000, in Butts County.

It is a movie for rural people who go to church, sing, watch lots of TV, listen to Bocephus, have at least two cousins in the Meth trade, eat a lot, and are afraid of virtually everyone, and of everything, all of the time. It is bound for fame as a cult classic: a comfort to millions of rustics stuck in the vast grayness and troubled reverie that is American Fly-Over Country.

Hey, just joshing you. Early in 2008, I saw a rough cut of The Lost and Found Family--then still entitled Mrs. Hobbes' House--before Sony Pictures acquired it. Do see the new Sony clip below, which includes what I saw. Like me, you may recognize the people portrayed.

An American story. Many Americans, including my own family, have roots that reach deeply into, say, southwestern Virginia, east Tennessee, and southern Missouri (where I've visited family my entire life), going back well over two centuries. These tribes often haven German (Palatine) and northern English or Scottish roots. They do endure. Later generations are still there: always hard-working and proud, sometimes devout, seldom well-to-do, and worlds away from the country club life Ester Hobbes led when her husband was alive. They often struggle to make the best life they can.

Continue reading...

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October 09, 2009

Writing, and lawyering, well: Not work-life balance or tech things.

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

--Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864

Writing is not a "get-a-life" thing. Neither is lawyering--especially contentious and advocacy work. You bleed. You give blood. Like writing, it's a privilege and a trust to do it well. In both, you serve. It is not all about you.

Anyone can try to write. And almost anyone--in America, especially (look around you, Jack; we've dumbed lawyering way down)--can and apparently does become a lawyer. Not a big deal anymore.

But great lawyering--like great writing--is difficult. There is too much going on in the work of writers and lawyers to make good work simple to do. If you think that either is easy, you are not doing it right.

Savor the brutality. Revel in the headaches. Stop trying to make great but hard things easy. Stop making tech the main event. Google less. E-mail less. Know that your laptop is not your brain; there are no answers to hard problems there. Talk on the phone. Meet with people. Hear some voices. Fire up ideas. Resist the new mail-it-in culture. Get a standard.

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Writing Well: Inspiration

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

--Jack London (1876-1916)

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