« May 2007 | Main | July 2007 »
June 30, 2007
Brits Blitz Blawg Review
Shameless Anglophile WAC? spends time in England each year working. And studying London, old churches in Suffolk and Kent, Druids, Vikings, Sutton Hoo and a girl named Devon in nearby Aldeburgh. WAC? now even has a thing for British lawyer-bloggers--who are funnier and less inhibited than most U.S. blawgers. So we are happy and honored that two good Brit law blogs, nearlylegal and Corporate Blawg UK, will be hosting the U.S.-based Blawg Review on, respectively, July 2 and 9.
Is this a trend? Is Blawg Review starting to include non-U.S. legal weblogs? Are German blawgs next? Some French sites?
Posted by JD Hull at 08:51 PM | Comments (0)
Update: The Generation X Light Bulb Riddle Contest....New Deadline is July 9
There is still time to enter the historic GenX feeling-good-about-me/it-is-never-my-fault multi-tasking "light bulb" riddle competition:
"How many Generation X associate lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
Due to the growing interest in our contest (about 15 entries to date--okay so it's just 5 or 6), WAC? is extending the deadline. New deadline for submissions is July 9. Winner will be announced on July 13.
A few people claimed or implied in e-mails that the contest is un-PC, rife with generalities and critical of younger people. That it makes fun of work-life balance. Well, it is. It does. But that doesn't mean it's not fun. And have you tried to get any of these narcissistic spoiled twits between the ages of 25 and 40 to do some work lately?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2007
The Entrepreneur's Guide to the Galaxy: Tech firms and simple solutions
“Everyone today must think like an entrepreneur whether it’s in your own business, a large company or a non-profit organization.”
--The Baby (Neil Senturia)
Tune in to San Diego's CA$H 1700 AM, Saturdays 1-2 p.m., Pacific Time, or listen live via simulcast on the CASH web site. Or visit www.ImThereForYouBaby.com.
With WAC?'s friends Neil Senturia and Barbara Bry.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)
Hassett: 34 questions for clients and prospects
Every Wednesday, Jim Hassett at Legal Business Development gives us a thoughtful and practical article on the art of the client. We especially liked this week's post, 34 Questions for Clients and Prospects. Jim's simple but revolutionary idea: get clients to talk about their companies; get lawyers to listen.
Posted by JD Hull at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)
June 28, 2007
Patten: Tony Blair, Mediator?
Lawyer and ADR consultant Justin Patten of Human Law goes through his checklist in "Can Tony Blair succeed in the ultimate mediation role?"
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Global wariness of US, China and Russia increases
Not exactly surprising news from the Associated Press about a new poll:
WASHINGTON - Unease with American foreign policy and President Bush has intensified in countries that are some of the closest U.S. allies and around the globe, while Russia and China also face growing international wariness, a survey released Wednesday said.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)
Should we put employees first, and clients and customers second?
WAC? may soon stop degrading and humiliating the summer help.
See "Put Your Employees First and Your Customers Second" at Jay Shepherd's fine blog, Gruntled Employees. Jay is right. Employees, through "emotional contagion," do color customer feelings. Job satisfaction is communicated to customers. I talk about this a bit in Rule 11 of WAC?'s 12 Rules of Client Service: Treat Each Co-Worker Like He or She Is Your Best Client .
When I wrote Rule 11, I mentioned that in practice treating employees as well as clients is difficult for me personally. To be honest, I've found that most employees don't understand client service, don't understand lawyering, and don't even get the concept of work and its simple joys. Although I am positive and optimistic by nature, I am very cynical about the white collar work force--in America and abroad. This, of course, is my failure alone. But am 100% certain that employees don't perform better or worse if you are "nice" to them. Good and happy employees map out their own job satisfaction. The issue for my firm is simple: how do you find these people?
But let's get back to Jay's post and into the sunshine. His more "pro-employee" post--and an article by two profs at England's Manchester
Business School he cites--even goes one step further. It says that companies grow and do well if employee satisfaction exceeds customer satisfaction.
Bottom line for managers and HR: employee satisfaction can actually be used as a metric to provide a leading indicator for company growth. Maybe that will get the boardroom's attention.
Amazing notion, and I am thinking about it. In the meantime, WAC? would add: make sure you've got the right employees. Sorry, but there just aren't that many great workers at any level out there--and most employees certainly will never get or care about client and customer service. Before candidates get to or have even heard of your shop, they either care or don't care about customers and clients. You can't teach, force or even bribe people to do it. Client service is an instinct--one that mixes pride in work with deep needs to communicate and serve. Find, hire and keep the naturals.
Posted by JD Hull at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)
June 27, 2007
Golden Practices
Upbeat, honest and just plain fun, Michelle Golden of Golden Marketing Inc. and Golden Practices may very well be the "anti-Geek". Michelle gets out there and actually talks to people face-to-face. She understands services, and how clients may experience them. And she gets what blogging is--and what it isn't. In the two years she's been blogging, Michelle has gained quite a following, which include cynics and non-gushers like the people who write WAC? See, for an introduction to Michelle, "Diving into the Blogosphere? Where to Begin." and "Why Does Social Media Work?"
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)
Tony Blair's springboard to "King of Europe"
And why not? As we've predicted, watch for outgoing British prime minister Tony Blair to be the first full-time European Union president. He's off to a great start. See by the Associated Press "Blair To Be Mideast Quartet's Special Envoy". The "quartet" is the EU, the United Nations, the United States and Russia. Palestinian economic and political reform will be a big part of the new diplomatic job.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2007
Geoff Sharp: Fear as a Tool
New Zealand's Geoff Sharp at mediator blah...blah... is just not that PC. He isn't compelled to make the same comfortable New Age noises as the rest of us (especially Americans) so often make and take refuge in. He's honest, innovative and authentic. See his "The Legitimate Use of Fear to Encourage Settlement". You got sand, Geoff.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
June 25, 2007
Cameron Does Peru: Whoops!
Interesting and even unusual 5-to-4 noises from the United States Supreme Court today--but a well-meaning and respected American actress also raised eyebrows. From the Associated Press, "Cameron Diaz Apologizes For Carrying Mao Bag".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2007
It's 6:00 PM. Do you know what your summer associate is thinking?
Summer at law firms, Congressional offices, businesses and government agencies are fun for both the new clerks and interns and the more senior people who hire them--but the season is also useful for evaluating talent. And for developing talent and great habits. So once, again, and from a March 2007 post:
WAC? can't think of a better question to ask any associate or junior lawyer in the course of serving a client: "What are you thinking?" Ask it over and over again. Make them tell you about their thought processes. And educate them to tell you without asking.
Each project, or each of its subparts, by nature has a "running conversation". Try at regular intervals to bring everything back to one conversation--and not two, three or more different, internal ones, of two, three or more junior lawyers or paralegals working on the same overall project. Keep that conversation unified, external and live: real people with real voices meeting or talking on the phone.
You want to get really "interactive"? Then get off the Internet for a moment, stop the e-mailing, stop typing, stop blogging--and just talk. Active transactions, negotiations and litigations change every day. As we've written before, partners and senior lawyers in my firm want client service--i.e., solutions delivered in a way that puts the client first and changes the way clients think about what is possible from lawyers--to be good enough to permit the younger lawyers to steal, in a heartbeat, any client or client project we have. To do that, to work at that level, to improve legal products and solutions through the running conversation, lawyers doing the day-to-day work must be able to tell you, co-workers and the client what they are thinking. Keep thinking. But keep talking about it.
Give people that habit.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 03:31 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2007
Ruthie's got a brand new blog.
The British are indeed coming. Ruthie--GeekLawyer's sultry co-blogger, one of the hosts of the first LawBlog 2007 last month in London, and a woman with an enduring crush on WAC?'s well-bred and erudite Yank founder on your right--has launched Ruthie's Law ("Crime. But not as you know it.") First post was June 14. GeekLawyer, always a team player, has this to say about the new site. Ruthie gives us her version.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Outsourcing air emissions, too: China trade and the environment
At Environmental Protection magazine, see "U.S. Trade with Countries like China May Impact Future Global Climate Policy". In a June 13 research paper, Carnegie Mellon researchers suggest that, by importing more carbon-intensive goods from other countries, the U.S. is reducing its own carbon emissions; however, those same imports may be contributing to overall global increases. From the EP article:
As global trade continues to expand, issues of trade and emissions will continue to grow in importance. Many researchers have questioned how emissions associated with traded goods should be accounted for.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2007
China: Next Big Cities for IT Outsourcing
"...why is Dalian on the list...?" Only old China hand Dan Harris of China Law Blog is both knowledgeable and sophisticated enough to spot a recent list of the "next" top 10 cities for IT outsourcing in China, post it for us, and then take serious issue with it. See China's "Next" Top Ten Cities for IT Outsourcing.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Cite-checking, dudes.
This is your DOJ document.
This is your DOJ document on drugs.
WAC? likes the Harvard Blue Book and even the Chicago "Maroon" Book. And using them. It thinks that the fastidious baby boomers who perfected them got that one right. See at Above The Law re: bluebooking hell "This Is Why Cite-Checking Matters".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2007
The Duke Chronicle: Nifong's bad Saturday...
From the Duke student daily, here's "State Bar finds Nifong guilty of 27 counts of misconduct - Lacrosse prosecutor to be disbarred", and other coverage from Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina.
UPDATE: Duke settles with indicted players.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)
Charles Fox: Autism, and Blawg Review #113
Today is Autism Awareness Day (1 of every 150 children, according to the U.S. CDC). Chicago attorney Charles P. Fox of Special Education Law hosts a special Blawg Review, #113.
Posted by JD Hull at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2007
Saturday's Charon QC
See his Oscar Wildean "Advice is the Curse of the Drinking Classes..."
Posted by JD Hull at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2007
When you work, you are marketing.
When we are working, we are always marketing--and constantly sending clients barrages of small but powerful ads. Positive ads, negative ads, "true color" ads. From the 12 Rules of Client Service, see Rule Six: When You Work, You Are Marketing.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Atlantic Review: G8 Summit Sum-ups
From the Atlantic Review, the Berlin-based press digest, here are two round-ups of last week's G8 summit (here and here) by Joerg Wolf.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2007
Larry Bodine: "Tales From The Front"
At Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog, see "Tales fom the Front: Getting Business from Corporate Clients". The post turns on what in-house lawyers are saying about their outside counsel at a conference Larry is attending in Dallas, Texas. One GC wishes that lawyers who pitch her on the phone would "get their heads out of legal publications and read trade magazines and the Wall Street Journal, so they can learn about my business before they call me." Well, that makes too much sense.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2007
Announcing The Generation X Riddle Contest....
7/01/07 UPDATE: WAC? is extending the deadline. New deadline for submissions is July 9. Winner will be announced on July 13.
To win, you must supply the best answer to the riddle:
"How many Generation X associate lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
Here's a sample but not necessarily suggested answer: "Ten. One to screw it in. One to feel good about himself/herself for just showing up at his/her $130,000 job that day. Eight to blame their parents, others or unforseen events when the project fails."
Deadline for submissions is July 1. Decision of WAC? is final. Winner to be announced on July 6, and will receive an e-mailed collection of WAC?'s past most empathetic posts on Work-Life Balance and The Work Ethic. Next month's contest: Same riddle with Baby Boomers, workaholics, plantation overseers.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)
June 12, 2007
Brit Bloggers Blitz U.S.
Following the lead of Justin Patten at Human Law last October, more British bloggers will be hosting the U.S.-based Blawg Review. See "The British Are Coming".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Gerry Riskin: Investing in Client Service
Literally. And it's just what What About Clients? wanted to hear.
Wall Street may like companies that get client service. See Client Satisfaction may be EXTREMELY Profitable at Gerry Riskin's Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices. Excerpt: "In my opinion, there is an overabundance of information in law firms and a dearth of client-relations training. If you are a Managing Partner, you may want to balance this disparity."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)
LawFuel
See New Zealand-based LawFuel.com. Whatever this is or is evolving into, this site is about as international as you can get: a combined global legal news service, news digest, press release service, clearinghouse and cyber-bulletin board for lawyers in private or public practice. Huge empahsis on American legal world but hasn't gone overboard there. So far, it's interesting, busy, inclusive and fun.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2007
Are we Rome yet?
"Are we Rome, or not? At a crude level, the parallels are striking..." No matter what your politics, or country of origin, this June 7 article at Salon by Gary Kamiya on a hyper-obvious comparison--and one on everyone's mind anyway--is worth your time. WAC?'s answer? No, clearly not; the U.S. has yet to stretch itself as thin as Rome did, and we still haven't dumped our better principles. We have miles to go, and more nations to manhandle. But the momentum is there.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)
The Sopranos: Is ISO 9000 training for the family in order?
The Sopranos was HBO's masterwork. It started in 1999 and ran its 86th and final episode last night. Yeah, Tony and his family survived. The best television series ever came to an end--but you didn't really think HBO and Chase Films was going to kill off movie sequels along with the family, did you?
Like a genuinely responsive law firm, a winning litigation strategy or a successful American political campaign, Tony and the Soprano crime family either prospered or perished--and lived or died--on the family's "rapid response" apparatus working or not working well. Last night Tony and what's left of his crew put it all together at the last moment.
But they were getting cocky, sloppy and slow to react.
So "now" the clan from New Jersey badly needs a firm retreat. And to consider an ISO 9000-like continuous improvement model, some training, performance auditing and a new plan so they will be ready in the future--if only in the ether of our imaginations--to ward off evil-er forces and make some serious scratch. Enough said.
On a personal note, I never saw this show until it show entered its third season--and then I caught up quickly. In fact, and setting a bad example for fellow TV-weaned baby boomers, I have watched close to zero network or cable "series" television over the past 40 years. It's not a matter of having good taste or loving Leaves of Grass or The Upanishads more. Rather, it's because hardly any of the shows over the years have been interesting, exciting or funny. Some are even painful for a human to watch. I viewed Friends and Seinfeld in their heydays for 10 or 15 minutes each and was disturbed for days, especially by the portrayals of the male characters. But The Sopranos was an exception. It was well-written, intriguing, different, fast-moving and, most of all, the funniest television show ever made. Somehow real. Disturbingly American. And always hilarious.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
June 08, 2007
Redux - China and America: Then and Now
We liked the subject of this recent post much--so once again:
Plus c'est la meme chose, plus ça change. From Seattle-based Dan Harris, at his insightful China Law Blog, see Chinese And American Cultural Differences--La Plus Ca Change.... Learn how the Chinese diplomat Wu Ting-fang--an Asian de Tocqueville eighty years later--viewed America in 1914.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
States question EPA's new New Source Review rule
Led by NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, AGs from 16 states have written to EPA in response to a proposed rule on record keeping and public information requirements for coal-burning and other industrial plants that EPA published in March in the Federal Register, according to Environmental Protection. The AGs want a tougher rule--one that
gives power plant operators less discretion to circumvent New Source Review (NSR) enforcement under the U.S. Clean Air Act. The NSR program requires older coal-burning power plants to install modern air pollution controls if they expand their operations and increase emissions. EPA was required to issue the rule in response to a 2005 decision by the D.C. Circuit in an action brought by New York and other states in June of 2005. The court sent back EPA regulations that it believed in effect did not require plants making modifications to track and report their emissions.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2007
So why waste side 2 of your business card?
From Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog, do see What's On The Back Of Your Business Card?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Pope, popemobile "menaced" by friendly German.
The Associated Press reports that the pope was tooling around Rome today with the top down, waving at crowds, and it happened: "Man Tries To Jump In Benedict's 'Popemobile'". The German guy who tried this just wanted to say hey. He--not the pope--was dressed in a pink T-shirt, dark shorts and a beige baseball cap, and wearing sunglasses. The German never made it into the popemobile, and was quickly wrestled to the pavement. Pope Benedict XVI was never in danger, was unharmed and apparently didn't even notice the incident. WAC? waits for Hermann the German to interpret this event properly.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Is Your Firm Telling Your Client The Truth?
Lots if not most of these cases my firm defends waste money, time and resources; they clog up the court system, they are all about the lawyers, and they make business clients (especially non-Americans) think lawyers, judges and the American court system is uncaring, anti-business, self-indulgent, inefficient and flat-out nuts. Lawyers keeping the client in the dark is much to blame.
A premise of this blog (see our first post in 2005) is that lawyers regularly lie to their clients. They lie to even great clients. WAC? believes that the practice of law generally has become disturbingly and cavalierly "lawyer-oriented", rather than "about clients". We think that, increasingly, sophisticated clients, who are often just as savvy if not more savvy about their cases and deals than the lawyers who serve them, have become the equipment in an expensive and wasteful game played by lawyers.
Rather than the word "lie", we could use the more PC or subtle expressions of fudge the truth, fail to disclose or obfuscate. But why use softer terms? Fact: we lawyers have some of the strongest legal, fiduciary and professional duties--in common law, statute and public policy--not only to tell our clients the truth but go out of our way to explain to clients actual events as they happen and what we really think about merits of litigation or transaction on a real-time and ongoing basis. My threshold question is that if I think my client or its general counsel would want to know about an event, or even know merely what I am thinking about (from "good" to "bad" observations and analysis of a project's turns and progress), I tell them. If I don't tell a client what happens and what I think about it, I am lying. It's a hard standard, but it is ours as lawyers.
What do lawyers hide from their clients or lie about? In litigation, it's 4 main things: (1) day-to-day developments which are "bad", not perfect or the client just might not really want to hear (call them
tough phone calls), (2) actual settlement posture (and even actual settlement offers), (3) the general direction, merits and legal terrain of a case which lulls the busy client into thinking everything is just fine or at least not hopeless (in these instances, non-disclosure often occurs because of inadequate research coupled with "drinking the Kool-Aid" about the merits and righteousness of your case) and (4) outright embarrassing screw-ups by outside counsel which should have never happened (in my view, mistakes are the chief offender).
Why do the lies or non-disclosures occur? Three reasons: Greed, where the law firm, perhaps in an engagement involving a one-time-only case, or one-night stand, wants to keep the matter going to make money; Incompetence (of the "clueless"/we-don't-really-know-the-law-or-the-procedures variety); and Screw-ups (again, the chief offender).
How do I know this? It's based on inferences I've drawn and am more than reasonably sure about (say 98% certainty in each instance) in cases and transactions over the past 20 years. And over the past two or three years, I've seen opposing counsel from great, good and mediocre firms apparently go out of their way consistently and painstakingly to do "damage control" to hide their client's real prospects of failing or succeeding in the project, or hide outright screw-ups (some understandable, some not). It has been especially true (maybe 100%) in the instances where my firm has defended in cases brought by firms with a contingency fee arrangement with their plaintiff-client, a medieval practice (often defended on basis of "access to courts", etc.) where the lawyer is king, and clients are treated like chattel and kept in the dark. Lots of these cases my firm defends waste money, time and resources; they clog up the court system, they are all about the lawyers, and they make business clients (especially non-Americans) think lawyers, judges and the whole system is uncaring, anti-business, inefficient and flat-out nuts. And lawyers keeping the client in the dark is much to blame. Clients would discontinue or settle them if they only knew the truth.
The solution? Well, we've got two notions. First, since practicing law is hard, do it the right way, with good research, and thoughtful ongoing case assessment, and keep the client informed of what you are thinking at least once a week.
Second, use this test: Conduct your discussions with opposing counsel as if your client were listening.
Posted by JD Hull at 06:29 PM | Comments (0)
June 05, 2007
Ranking UK Law Schools
Americans love lists of "the best" schools. U.S. News & World Report covers American colleges, including law schools, and Newsweek ranks U.S. high schools. Here's a new one WAC? found over at The TransAtlantic Assembly. The Times (London) and The Guardian (Manchester) have each made 2007 United Kingdom Law School Rankings.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:50 AM | Comments (0)
June 04, 2007
Blawg's Blog from Blawg: Blawg Review #111
Try to keep all this straight--and then maybe say that 10 times real fast. But released today is a first-rate specimen of Blawg Review, The Carnival of Law Bloggers. It's Blawg Review #111, by Bill Gratsch, the creator of the enduring legal weblog clearinghouse launched in 2002 called Blawg, at his Blawg's Blog. If you are new to reading blogs or to blogging, and whether you are a lawyer or not, BR #111 is fine demonstration of the substance, excitement and value of blogging's brave new world.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:51 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2007
German anti-Americanism, U.S. French-bashing, and soo much more.
Are we of western European stock small-minded and silly or what? From the consistently interesting and fresh Atlantic Review, a press digest with commentary written by German Fulbright alumni, see "Transatlantic Obsessions". Twenty-four comments so far to a post yesterday by Joerg Wolf, who thinks that the U.S. media needs to lighten up on how France manages its affairs, and that the German press should focus on a current world evil other than America.
It remains weird and unfortunate that the German media is soo obsessed with the United States and that the US media is soo obsessed with France. Both country's media outlets would do good to reduce the obsessions on some silly topics and cover more important issues like poverty in our own countries and around the world, wars and conflicts in Africa, how to increase energy efficiency.
Posted by JD Hull at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)