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December 31, 2007
"But, dudes, no mothers, okay?"
The dozens in Iowa. Rumble. God-fearing candidates get down. LA Times: "Huckabee Casts Romney Campaign as 'Dishonest'". And now, according to the NYT, there's a new warrior--a formidable one--waiting in the wings: Mike Bloomberg.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)
December 30, 2007
Perfect New England
AP: 34.5 Million Watch Patriots' Historic Win. 16-0 in the regular season. Everyone watched.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
WAC?'s Blawg Review nominations
For Blawg Review of the Year, they are #'s 94, 102, 116, 127, 134, 137. In a short time, Blawg Review has emerged as a progressive, straight-up phenom. Bravo to all hosts--getting better and better--and to that hard-working Ed. guy, especially for going outside the often-insular U.S. for hosts. Bring on more Brits, Scots, any extant Picts, Irish guys, Aussies, Canadians, the French, Germans, New Zealand, South Africa, maybe Utah. More Asia!
Posted by JD Hull at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)
December 29, 2007
Renaissance Institute hosts 27th New Year's weekend
Each year it turns Charleston, South Carolina into a productive combination of Hollywood, Harvard and The Hague. For four days, King and Meeting streets are full of famous faces. You see big name tags highlighting first names. There are four weekends a year--but this is the big traditional one which attracts both big name achievers and confident lesser-knowns with big ideas. Motto: "light not heat". See this by a North Carolina tech publisher-editor who didn't get invited--but perhaps should have been.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
New sane customer service blog
New to us, anyway, and it's thoughtful and interesting: Service Untitled. One category is "angry customers". Lots of practical advice and tips applicable to pure services and product-service mixes. Who are these guys?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)
December 28, 2007
The Good, The Bad and The Congressman-Needs-The-Press-Release.
China bills in 110th Congress. Trade, IP protection and safe food and toys in about 100 items. As with most legislation, some are duplicative of each other, and some are headed nowhere fast. Via BeSpacific, see the US-China Business Council's bare bones but useful summary: 110th Congress, First Session, "Legislation Related to China" (i.e., 2007 activity).
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)
Pakistan opposition leader Bhutto is assassinated.
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP)- Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday by an attacker who shot her after a campaign rally and then blew himself up. Her death stoked new chaos across the nuclear-armed nation, an important U.S. ally in the war on terrorism. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
Television, clients, real lawyering and real life.
Are clients, jurors, and even lawyers and judges watching a little too much Lawyer TV? Here's a gem we almost missed by practicing lawyer-journalist Craig Williams at his highly regarded May It Please the Court. Also a commercial trial lawyer, Craig spends lots of time in court. See "Boston Legal Syndrome Creeps Into The Courtroom".
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
December 27, 2007
Blawg Review #140
This week's Blawg Review (#140) is hosted by E-Commerce Law.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 06:40 AM | Comments (0)
Redux: "Ease-of-Use Awards" For Law Firms?
What if the services sector competed for clients on the basis of "ease-of-use"?
Develop and apply ease-of-use concepts to pure services? Our clients' services? Our services?
Sure, and why not?
Consider for a moment just products. Last year, Cincinnati-based The Folgers Coffee Company, a P&G company with extensive operations in New Orleans, was awarded an Ease-of-Use Commendation by the Arthritis Foundation for its AromaSeal™ Canister. If you're a Folgers® drinker, you notice that Folgers® added an easy-to-peel tin freshness seal (no need for a can-opener), a new "snap-tight" lid and even a grip on its plastic red can. The great companies many of us represent do
spend money and expertise on making their goods, equipment and products usable. Think about your car, your luggage, your TV remote (well, strike that one), your watch and even grips on household tools. Think about Apple, Dell and Microsoft. Each year they think through your experience with their products and try to make it better. Continuous improvement models for "things." Folgers® did it for coffee cans. IBM and CISCO have ease-of-use programs for the products they sell.
Develop and apply ease-of-use concepts to pure services? Our clients' services? Our services? Sure, why not? It's probably coming anyway, even while it will be infinitely harder to do for services than for products. WAC? has noted before that even corporate clients that sell goods see themselves as selling solutions and not products. In 2004, services sold alone or as support features to the sale of goods and products accounted for over 65% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the US, 50% of the United Kingdom's GDP and 90% of Hong Kong's. Even products sold by IBM and CISCO, now chiefly service companies, are part of a services-products mix in which the services component is the main event.
Law firms, of course, have always sold services. And we are a small but powerful engine in the growth of the services sector. We strategize with and guide big clients every day. While that's all going on--day in and day out--what is it like for the client to work with you and yours? Are clients experiencing a team--or hearing and seeing isolated acts by talented but soul-less techies? Do you make reports and communications short, easy and to the point? Who gets copied openly so clients don't have to guess about who knows what? Is it fun (yeah, we just said "fun") to work with your firm? How are your logistics for client meetings, travel and lodging? Do you make life easier? Or harder? Are you accessible 24/7? In short, aside from the technical aspects of your service (i.e., the client "is safe"), do your clients "feel safe"?
What if law firms--or any other service provider for that matter--"thought through," applied and constantly improved the delivery of our services and how clients really experience them?
And then competed on it...?
JDH/HHO April 2007
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)
Blogging in Cuba is different.
So you've got your blog, your pet ideas, and you write about them. But you think you've got sand? As WAC? understands it, blogs are supposed to be out-front journals, i.e., honest and brave, right? What are you willing to risk to get your ideas out there? Here's a must-see from WSJ.com called "Cuban Revolution" about a Havana-bred woman, 32, who blogs from Cuba about Cuba.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:26 AM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2007
China invading
So how are those Mandarin classes going? AP: "China controlling more of U.S. economy". Excerpt:
China has been making increasingly aggressive investments in some of the world's most prestigious financial companies in recent months — most of them American. Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Blackstone Group and Britain's Barclays have all negotiated major stakes by Chinese government-controlled investment funds.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2007
Maria Palma: Best customer service posts of 2007
Customers Are Always--2007 Year in Review.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (1)
December 23, 2007
No sleep 'til Christmas
Been quite a year. The sub-prime mortgage crash rippled through other markets, international approval of America has remained at a steady low for nearly 5 years now, and WAC? met Parker Posey on his way to Europe. Now we're travelling again. Which these days, we think, lawyers should be doing anyway to service clients. So we're shutting down our Palo Alto-based "news division" until the 26th--unless, of course, in the next couple of days, North Korea accidently destroys Japan, Ron Paul picks up 30 points in the polls, Time Magazine declares lawyers, politicians or executive headhunters the most admired humans on earth, or Keith Richards passes from over-eating.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2007
Stocks enter the holidays on a high note.
From the Wall Street Journal:
In the last full trading day before Christmas, stocks brought joy to the investment world, delivering the December boost investors had hoped for.
Sources of holiday cheer included strong earnings, signs of healthy consumer spending and a possible capital infusion for Merrill Lynch, one of several Wall Street firms struggling with losses on mortgage-related investments. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Mediating Internationally
At the International Dispute Negotiation series of The International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR), hear the latest interview, No. 7: "Mediating Using International Arbitration Institutions: The ICDR and the ICC." Hosted by Michael McIlwrath, Senior Litigation Counsel with General Electric based in Florence, Italy.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
On the Senate, court and cocktail parties.
I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero, lawyer-statesman-poet-pundit (106-43 BC)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2007
U.S. House committee issues subpoena in tape investigation.
Congress has shut down for the year but the House Intelligence Committee is still busy. Yesterday it issued a subpoena to Jose Rodriguez, the ex-CIA official who headed the agency's National Clandestine Service and allegedly directed that interrogation videotapes of two suspected terrorists be destroyed. Bloomberg: "House Panel Subpoenas Ex-CIA Official in Tape Probe". The NYT mentions that former Bill Clinton lawyer Bob Bennett will represent Rodriguez.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
A Texas trial lawyer in Paris
See "I'm Back" at Mark Bennett's Defending People: The Art and Science of Criminal Defense Trial Lawyering. Like us, Mark has noticed that the "French do exceedingly well" the following:
* Food and drink.
* Subterranean transport.
* Historic preservation.
* Clothing.
And we could happily add to that list. But we concur that what the French and WAC?'s favorite European cousins "do less well" for business travelers is "Technology".
While the hotel at which we stayed in the 7th Arrondissement provided, in theory, a high-speed internet connection, that mostly-theoretical connection didn't work well enough to stay online for long enough to do more than just check email...[more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
Business litigation as a lose-lose proposition.
Litigators and trial lawyers are like nuclear warheads; everyone has to have them. But once you start using them, things get expensive, disrupted and screwed up, even when you're winning every battle.
Litigators know this better than anyone. Hull McGuire does commercial litigation, lots of it, and we love doing it. But even in the best of cases, no one ever "wins". Like war itself, commercial litigation is a last resort, and an inefficient way to resolve virtually any dispute.
Holden Oliver, November 7, 2007
Posted by JD Hull at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
Redux: Revolutionary marketing idea for holiday season.
One of our Brit friends found this re-occurring post and link below simplistic, shallow, anti-intellectual and apparently just "too American". And so we are obliged to pound it in until the British White cows come home. The advice here, of course, is all those things but--like other ideas and moving parts of American life--it actually works.
So once again, from the notebooks of the ridiculously simple but wise WAC? purple monkey pundit:
Do first-rate work for existing clients.
That's it. Nothing more.
See "When you work, you are marketing".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
December 20, 2007
Lawyer-blogger in hot water over criticism of elected judge
BROWARD COUNTY (Dec. 13) - A defense attorney's law license is at risk because he posted an angry description on the Internet of embattled Broward Circuit Judge Cheryl Alemán, calling her an "evil, unfair witch." Last week, as Alemán was on trial for alleged misconduct before the Judicial Qualifications Commission, The Florida Bar signed off on its finding that Sean Conway may have violated five bar rules, including impugning the judge's qualifications or integrity.
In the Halloween 2006 posting on a blog, Conway denounced Alemán for what he said was an "ugly, condescending attitude" and questioned her mental stability after, he says, she unlawfully forced attorneys to choose between unreasonable trial dates or waiving their clients' rights to a speedy trial. [more, South Florida Sun Sentinel]
And see Kevin O'Keefe's post "Lawyer Faces Discipline For Criticizing Judge In Blog" and Carolyn Elefant's Legal Blog Watch piece "Are Florida Judges Too Hotheaded?".
Posted by JD Hull at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)
What About Clients? named to ABA's "Blawg 100".
Many first-rate blogs didn't make this list--so we're really honored. We hope that our inclusion will bring attention to some of the consistent themes of What About Clients? since we started this project in August 2005, with the solid advice, example and help of a fine Chicago trial lawyer-blogger, and at the urging of two old D.C. friends of Hull McGuire: (1) client/customer service all over the world is remarkably poor, if not a cynical global joke; lawyers and other professionals can discipline themselves to deliver a better "experience"--weaving technical skills and real service--to valued clients, (2) corporate law firms under 150 lawyers can land and keep Fortune 500 companies if they have the right people and game plan (it's time for those with true grit to stop groveling and bottom-feeding), and (3) the legal services marketplace has become international for nearly all business lawyers.
There are the other WAC? categories--international business, litigation, IP, natural resources, HR, politics, writing well, Keith Richards, other mysteries of universe--listed over on your right that we cover every week. Other blogs we are "competing" with for votes in this ABA thing are very, very good. However, we think that WAC?--a part-time gig written by practicing lawyers (often under pressure and in very bad moods)--is more honest, broader in scope, funnier, better written, more useful, more thought-provoking, edgier, less constrained and just flat-out braver than most of the other great blogs out there. Life's short, and we started WAC? to say a few things you won't always hear at the cocktail parties and other dweeb-fests we all attend this time of year.
In short, we think lawyers should lead. So, if you are hearing us, and you appreciate it:
Posted by JD Hull at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2007
A new and different Germany?
See "Arrogant Germans See Their Country as a World Power" and related links at The Atlantic Review, the fine news digest on German-U.S. relations published and edited by German Fulbright alumni. Excerpt: "The just released international Bertelsmann survey [PDF in German] indicates that Germans' views of themselves as a world power increased from the 2005 study by 8 percent to 49 percent in 2007." Also see "Germany To Play Larger Role In The World" at Berlin-based Observing Hermann.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Bush signs bill boosting fuel standards
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush signed into law Wednesday legislation that will bring more fuel-efficient vehicles into auto showrooms and require wider use of ethanol, calling it "a major step" toward energy independence and easing global warming. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
U.S. trade deficit falls by 5.5%
AP: Trade Deficit Declines To Lowest Point In 2 Years. To $178.5 billion in third quarter. But deficit with China is higher than last year.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)
Iran receives nuclear fuel from Russia
WASHINGTON (NYT) — The United States lost a long battle when Russia, as it announced on Monday, delivered nuclear fuel to an Iranian power plant that is at the center of an international dispute over its nuclear program. Iran, for its part, confirmed on Monday plans to build a second such plant.
In announcing that it had delivered the first shipment of enriched-uranium fuel rods to the power plant, at Bushehr in southern Iran, on Sunday, Russian officials said that while the fuel was in Iran, it would be under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear monitoring agency for the United Nations. Russia also said the Iranian government had guaranteed that the fuel would be used only for the power plant. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2007
House spending bill: $516 billion, 1,482 pages, $7 billion in pork.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House Monday approved a $516 billion measure funding 14 Cabinet agencies and funding for troops in Afghanistan, setting the stage for a year-end budget deal with the White House.
President Bush has signaled he'll ultimately sign the measure--assuming up to $40 billion more is provided by the Senate for the Iraq war--despite opposition from GOP conservatives. [more]
The Senate debates the bill today.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)
More French job news: perks.
WAC? always wondered what people kept in those $2 million apartments near our usual hotel on I'lle Saint-Louis. AP: "French President Linked with Supermodel Bruni".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 07:01 PM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2007
Herz: Strong, authentic and enduring business relationships.
If WAC? has a strength, that strength is telling you how to make great corporate clients happy from the moment you start to do the work--and keep that going. We focus on how to mix and blend your legal skills with client service for existing clients as seamlessly as possible. And, at a minimum, we'd like you to wake up and understand (1) the importance and (2) the difficulty of achieving that combination.
However, on the subject of networking and bonding with people who can bring you work in the first place--and the deeply personal and eternally human aspect of each business relationship--we are merely wide-eyed students. No one thinks or writes about these things better than New York's Arnie Herz at Legal Sanity. He is your guru and ours. See "Re-connecting With Your Business Network".
Posted by JD Hull at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)
Blawg Review #139
This week's Blawg Review (#139) is hosted by Legal Literacy.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 04:49 AM | Comments (0)
Deliver services to change the way clients think about lawyers.
We are talking about money here. Why try "to exceed client expectations" when the overall lawyer standard is perceived as low to mediocre? If your clients are all Fortune 500 stand-outs, and the GCs' seem to love you and your firm, is that because your service delivery is so good--or because other law firms they use are so "bad" or lackluster?
From Rule 4 of our 12 Rules of Client Service.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)
Exactly where should you live in China?
Well, it depends. See this one from Dan Harris's China Law Blog, inspired by a post at Matt Schiavenza's A China Journal. And do not miss the comment (no. 4) at Matt's site from our Beijing-based Irish cousin Brendan O'Kane over at bokane.org.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2007
Fancy Texas litigators in The Hague discuss global ADR.
And you thought those guys never left Houston. Listen to this interview of three fine lawyers by Michael McIlwrath, Senior Counsel, Litigation for GE Infrastructure-Oil & Gas, who is based in Florence, Italy. This is podcast No. 6 in the International Dispute Negotiation (IDN) series of The International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR).
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Kane: “Sign The Damn Holiday Card!"
A Southern gentleman, careful lawyer and much-respected consultant, Tom Kane rarely loses it and swears--so you should read this one.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2007
Don't Bogart that story, Hillary.
Politics of Bong Hits, Part II...
MSNBC: "The Audacity of Dope". Boston Globe: Shaheen resigns. Good. NYT: Ex-Howard Dean wonk and Edwards top aide Joe Trippi catches HRC chief Mark Penn in a complicating televised act of utter classlessness. Bad--but good for Trippi. Now WAC? may want its HRC DC summit money back. And we'll gladly give back all the business cards and ashtrays we horded.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Getting nastier: Guild files NLRB complaint against studios.
LOS ANGELES (AP)- Union officials representing striking Hollywood writers said Thursday they have filed an unfair labor practices complaint claiming studios violated federal law by breaking off negotiations [on Dec. 7].
The Writers Guild of America demanded in a statement that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers return to the bargaining so the six-week strike can be ended and thousands of workers idled by the walkout can return to their jobs.
The studios quickly responded: the "baseless, desperate NLRB complaint is just the latest indication that the WGA’s negotiating strategy has achieved nothing for working writers.” [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Jim Hassett: Selling legal services is different.
The week's post from his Legal Business Development is here.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)
"Is Bangalore another Silicon Valley in the making?"
Maybe. But there's more than just hype here. See at London-based The Economist "Indian Start-Ups: Entrepreneurial Push". Excerpt: "The demand in India is not so much for new technologies as for new ways to make technology affordable to the masses." Warning: You should factor in the usual dose of British condescension where India is concerned.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2007
Needed, inevitable, vainglorious, troublesome: Nuke Energy.
The return of nuclear power. Expect pitched battles. And give credit to USA Today for continuing (e.g., June 2005 item) to follow and cover the biggest environmental story since climate change--which, at least for now, gives nuclear power development new importance, new legs. See "How Risky Is the New Era Of Nuclear Power?".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)
2008 Campaign: The Politics of Bong Hits.
Booze, pot, the antler dance and breakin' bad. Welcome to the invisible ink in the resumes of not a few talented people born between 1946 and 1963. The Associated Press reports that Bill Shaheen, a key Hillary Clinton aide, hinted to The Washington Post that HRC may try to do in Sen. Barack Obama with his admissions of drug use in his youth. See "Clinton Adviser: Obama's Drug Past A Liability". Shaheen later said he regretted the remarks; the Clinton campaign said they were not authorized. But that's like trying to un-drop recreational acid.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2007
The Oscars for Legal Tech
See the results reported by Robert Ambrogi at Legal Blog Watch or by Monica Bay at The Common Scold. The IT Director of the Year is John Sroka of Philadelphia-based Duane Morris. More honorees.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Citigroup: Pandit new CEO, Bischoff new chairman
Citigroup Names Pandit CEO to Clean Up Subprime Mess
Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) - Citigroup Inc. named former Morgan Stanley President Vikram Pandit as chief executive officer, ending a monthlong search after Charles O. Prince stepped down amid at least $9 billion of mortgage losses. [more]
Former U.S. Treasury chief Robert Rubin engineered the change.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)
Moment at Paris Parfait
Stop by writer Tara Bradford's elegant Paris Parfait and see The Three Graces fountain at twilight in Chinon, France , the Super Bake Girl Emilia and a sign of the season on Oxford Street in London.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:40 AM | Comments (0)
Blawg Review #138
The Human Rights Day Blawg Review is hosted by PG at de novo.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2007
Wild Bill menaced by non-GOP robot.
'Robot' heckles Bill Clinton (MSNBC).
And from Iowa the National Journal has more details.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 07:01 PM | Comments (0)
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is Argentina's new president.
Argentina's Fernandez Succeeds Husband As President
Buenos Aires, Dec. 10 (Reuters) - Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner took office as Argentina's first elected female president on Monday in a rare husband-to-wife handover Argentines hope will sustain an historic economic boom.
Fernandez, a former first lady and senator, began a 4-year term promising to continue the policies of her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, who presided over a dramatic recovery in South America's second-biggest economy. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2007
GeekLawyer: American attorneys are "revolting".
But it's an ex-New York Governor Mario Cuomo solidarity-with-Pakistan-lawyers-so-why-not-against-George Bush thing, and we can't get a copy of the speech or a report from a non-blog news source. A couple of weeks back, Cuomo allegedly said: "If US lawyers are marching in the streets in support of the rule of law in Pakistan [referring to a NYC protest], why aren't we marching in support of the rule of law here?" Upcoming (June 30, 2008) Blawg Review host GeekLawyer, a feisty London barrister with that rare lawyer mix of guts and credentials, actually loves Yanks, mainly, sort of. Anyway, see "American Lawyers Are Revolting".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
More gratuitous holiday advice
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."
--Philo of Alexandria (20 BC-50 AD), with a nod to writer Dan Wakefield
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
EU-Africa trade summit in Lisbon ends badly, bitterly.
Lots of coverage on this today but see Edinburgh-based The Scotsman, one of the oldest papers in the UK:
Mugabe Rallies Africa Against Europe As talks End In Disarray
LISBON - Africa and Europe's first summit in seven years ended in disarray yesterday, with no agreement on the key issue of trade and a defiant Robert Mugabe telling Africa to "fight the arrogance" of European countries opposed to his regime in Zimbabwe.
The two-day summit in Lisbon did agree an action plan and a promise to meet again in 2010, but the world's largest trading bloc and its poorest continent remained bitterly divided over how to replace current economic agreements. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
Yanks in Wonderland: Your IP in China
There is still only one real solution to protecting your trademarks in China: register your trademark as soon as possible. --CLB
And do it first. See at China Law Blog Dan Harris's post "The Technical Side Of China Trademark Law: Forget You Ever Read This". And see one of our favorite CLB pieces: "China Trademarks--Do You Feel Lucky? Do You?". Well, do you, punk?
Posted by JD Hull at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2007
The Environment: "All we are saying is give nukes a chance?"
Will climate change concerns turn out to be a renaissance for nuclear power? We think so--nuclear's "new day" is beginning to accelerate piece by piece. So watch for pitched battles on this issue. Two days ago, with much fanfare and by an 11-8 vote, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved a bill which would require U.S. limits on greenhouse gases. See AP's "Senate Panel OKs Global Warming Bill". Measures offered by a Republican senator to expand the use of nuclear power--on the argument that reactors, unlike coal-burning
plants, produce no carbon dioxide--were defeated in the committee. However, nuclear energy as way to combat global warming is expected to emerge again when the full Senate considers the bill. The pro-nuclear lobby which slowly evolves over the next few months should be an interesting coalition of peace, love and heavy industry. See at Wired.com a feature-interview about a journalist and environmental activist who is re-thinking nuclear power: "Former 'No Nukes' Protester: Stop Worrying and Love Nuclear Power". Finally, visit Mark Hertsgaard's San Francisco Chronicle op-ed piece of two years ago: "Nuclear Energy Can't Solve Global Warming".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)
Depositions: "Stop me before I coach again."
For litigators/trial lawyers, from Evan Schaeffer's fine and enduring Illinois Trial Practice Weblog, see "Depositions: How to Stop Coaching". We could go on and on about this but--well, just be quiet and read it.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)
DOJ won't investigate Nifong in Duke case.
Which makes sense. See today's Duke Chronicle.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)
December 06, 2007
Trends for 2008: The hot, the un-hot, and possibly dying.
Via our friend Tom Kane at The Legal Marketing Blog, see Robert Denney Associates' 19th annual 4-page, single-space and interesting "What's Hot and What's Not Hot in the Legal Profession". HOT: IP, corporate investigations/SOX-related/white collar, global warming/environmental, "animal law", China, UAE markets (it's what we've been telling you). COLD: Medical malpractice, workers compensation, insurance defense (upside = a legal mind is a terrible thing to waste). NOT too cool right now: Martindale-Hubbell (still needed?) and mandatory retirement (annoying to baby boomers; see Dennis Hopper commercials).
Posted by JD Hull at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)
Driving instructor sues Borat and Fox studio.
A cast member files in SDNY for fraud, emotional distress and punitive damages, alleging he was paid $500 in cash to give Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) a driving lesson--during which Cohen drove wild and crazy down residential streets, drank booze and "yelled to a female pedestrian he would pay her $10 for 'sexy time'". [Reuters-UK]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)
Subprime mortgage rate freeze
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of strapped homeowners could get some relief from a plan negotiated by the Bush administration to freeze interest rates on subprime mortgages that are scheduled to rise in the coming months.
"There is no perfect solution," President Bush said Thursday as he announced an agreement hammered out with the mortgage industry. "The homeowners deserve our help. The steps I've outlined today are a sensible response to a serious challenge."
Read the full article here.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2007
Blawg Review this week: Heavenly.
Beauty awakens the soul to act.
--Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
You need inspiration? Well, WAC? does; we need a miracle every day. Blawg Review, consistently first-rate and tasteful, often literary, cannot be much finer or heroic than it is this week. A double-Blawg Review of the Year winner, Colin Samuels at Infamy or Praise is an admirer of The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri's epic poem written between 1308 and 1321. At Blawg Review, Colin now brings to a close his Divine Comedy theme and narrative tracking Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise (or Heaven), guided first by the Roman Epic Poet Virgil, then by Dante's Life-Long Love Beatrice--and
finally of course by The Yank Lawyer Colin.* In the third cantica, Paradiso--that's Blawg Review #137 for us folks in bow-ties with PDAs and Harvard Bluebooks--Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. Dante even sees the face of God, but can find no words to report his experience: All'alta fantasia qui mancò possa ("at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe") XXXIII, 142. In 2005, Colin first hosted BR with Inferno-themed Blawg Review #35 and became the 2005 Blawg Review of the Year winner. Hosting again in 2006, he decided to stay with Dante's great work, and published a Purgatorio-themed Blawg Review #86--and again, won the "best review" award. The engravings appearing on Colin's posts in all three installments are by the renowned French artist and book illustator Paul Gustave Doré, and from the illustrated editions of The Divine Comedy published 1857 and 1867.
*Virgil, a pagan, may not enter Heaven, so Dante's fellow Florentine Beatrice takes over. Lawyers, each with a back-stage pass to the Cosmos, may go anywhere.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2007
Michelle Golden is all over your 2008 marketing budget.
See Michelle Golden's article "What's In a Plan? Marketing Plan & Budget Development". Note especially the emphasis she puts on investing in Existing Clients and Influential People/Referral Sources versus New Business. It's what we've been trying to tell you.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2007
Sarkozy to France: Get off your derriere and back to work.
Speaking of picket lines and protests, nearly 19 million French viewers heard words to this effect in a televised interview on Thursday. WAC? still loves Paris above all places and the French above all Europeans. However, and as we've suggested, it's high time for the French--the West's high-minded guardians of culture, conscience and taste--to start working again. Between 1901 and 2002, the French (population about 60 million) won 44 Nobel prizes, fourth behind the US (pop. 287 million), UK (60 million) and Germany (83 million). Why not excel once again in the world's marketplaces as well? Begin by chucking the 35-hour work week, a madness the French president thinks is killing the country. So in Saturday's Financial Times, see "Sarkozy Urges France to Work Harder", and for a list of President Sarkozy's specific proposals, designed in large part to increase French consumer purchasing power, see Reuters.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)
Blawg Review #137 -- Blawg Review in Paradiso
This week's excellent Blawg Review is brought to you by Colin Samuels at Infamy or Praise. The Divine Comedy's third cantica, Paradiso, provides the theme for Blawg Review #137. Infamy or Praise also hosted an Inferno-themed Blawg Review #35 (2005 Blawg Review of the Year winner) and a Purgatorio-themed Blawg Review #86.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)
Karl Rove speaks at Duke tonight.
Together at last. Get ready. Duke has a history of odd-but-fun theater at public figure speaking events; when Hunter Thompson appeared at Page auditorium in the 1970s, serious bikers got word of it and attended. HST, drunk and feisty, was pulled off the stage by a faculty member, and first amendment noises followed. For Rove's talk, which if we're lucky will be equally as demented, expect an angry-but-funny Halloween with students in orange jump suits. What really makes this interesting: Peter Feaver, an ex-National Security Council staffer and conservative Duke political science professor, will moderate. See "Protesters Prepare for Rove" in Duke's daily, The Chronicle, and The Independent Weekly (Durham-Chapel Hill-Raleigh).
Posted by JD Hull at 12:27 AM | Comments (0)
December 02, 2007
Any funny scab TV writers out there?
So Mitt Romney walks into a doctor's office with a frog on his head. The receptionist asks him what's wrong. The frog speaks up, and says "hey, can you guys get this wart off my ass?". Despite the ongoing writers' strike, Carson Daly has crossed the picket line to tape his show. See the Louisville Courier-Journal and Defamer. WAC? may apply.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)
California FedEx court: drivers are employees, not ICs.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Supreme Court of California on Thursday denied the final appeal of FedEx Corp.'s domestic ground unit, which tried to overturn a lower court's ruling that FedEx drivers are employees and not independent contractors. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)