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April 30, 2008
Will railroads make a come-back?
With gas at $4 a gallon, it's something to think about. And, hey, Warren Buffett suddenly loves trains. See Reuters article of April 20.
Photo of non-U.S. train
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
The Complete Lawyer goes totally holistic...
...and tries to get you integrated, dude. Which, seriously, is not a bad idea. A whole issue (Vol. 4, No. 3) of Don Hutcheson's great online magazine for lawyers is devoted to "A Sound Mind In A Sound Body". It's Spring, a time for new beginnings and to kick out the jams.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)
April 29, 2008
Specialization: What moves clients?
See Michelle Golden's article "Defining Who You Are and Who You Aren't = Specializing". And the winner is: "a limited number of really strong things for one group...". Read more.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Elections in America
The election...was not fought over great issues. Few elections are. Questions important to the nation, it is true, were before the public eye--the tariff, land policy, internal improvements--but on these questions there were no clear-cut party stands. It was, rather, chicanery, slippery tactics, and downright falsehoods upon which the politicians relied to win the contest.
--Glyndon Van Deusen, in The Jacksonian Era, 1828-1848, Ch. 2 (Harper & Row, 1963 ed.), discussing the 1828 U.S. presidential election.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)
Ken Wilber, this century's philosopher.
In Salon, see You are the river: An interview with Ken Wilber by Steve Paulson. Ken Wilber is no fad. He thinks and writes about the "ultimate reality that science can't touch", who's evolved and who's not, and what's in store for us. He really did amaze us in his 2000 book A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science, and Spirituality. What's weird today is truth tomorrow.
Posted by JD Hull at 09:27 AM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2008
Oh Canada: Blawg Review #157
Toronto-based Michael Fitzgibbon hosts this week's Blawg Review #157 at Thoughts from a Management Lawyer. Fitzgibbon's is one of the most active and consistently fine lawyer sites you could read.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:58 PM | Comments (2)
The elected judiciary
The popular election of state judges is a national illness. We Americans are in denial about it. We are so heavily invested in it, and so used to it, that we are even incapable of experiencing the "oh-my-god" embarrassment it ought to cause every day it still exists.
We've mentioned Tocqueville before. If he were alive today, I had argued, Alexis de Tocqueville might very well "like" George W. Bush--as his exemplary American, warts and all. But he would be appalled to learn that 31 of our states still have some form of popular election of judges. The young French author who toured America in 1831 noted that some American states already were in the process of reducing the power and independence of the state judiciary through certain "innovations", and it disturbed him. One was the state legislatures' ability to recall judges. Another:
Some other state constitutions make the members of the judiciary elective, and they are even subjected to frequent re-elections. I venture to predict that these innovations will sooner or later be attended with fatal consequences; and that it will be found out at some future period that by thus lessening the independence of the judiciary they have attacked not only the judicial power, but the democratic republic itself.
from Democracy in America, Vol. I, Part 2, Ch. 8 (Tocqueville's emphasis in some translations).
Since that was written, state judiciary selection in America has remained largely election-based; as a result, elected judges, either trial or appellate level, still appear to have "shadow" constituents in the form of campaign donors. Impartiality is an unspoken issue in countless proceedings. And even first-rate state jurists of the highest character, and with the best academic and workplace credentials, must suffer the taint of that machinery. Some groups like the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, founded 20 years ago, still soldier on in the wilderness for reform.* Earlier this month, lawyers with NYU Law School's Brennan Center for Justice got high marks for publishing a report of proposed state recusal and disqualification standards**--a 50-page ten-point plan and analysis, both practical and scholarly--for elected judges. Last week, writing about the report, BLT's Tony Mauro in his post "The Recusal Remedy" quoted from the report's foreword. It is by Tom Phillips, a former Texas Supreme Court chief justice (appointed, elected and re-elected between 1988 and 2004), and now Baker Botts partner:
As the authors acknowledge, threats to judicial impartiality and the appearance of impartiality will persist no matter how perfectly a state structures its recusal process. As political pressures on the judiciary mount, most states should consider more fundamental changes to their systems of judicial selection. But until that day, improved recusal procedures are among the most promising incremental reforms.
(emphasis ours)
This blog has made no secret of the fact that we believe that, in the longer term:
(a) judges should never be elected (ever), (b) elected state judges pose dangers to clients which do business in more than one state or nation, (c) the notion that any dispute would be heard and decided by an "elected official" who has received election campaign contributions from some of the lawyers and clients before him is a national embarrassment (especially since these conflicts are rarely disclosed), (d) popularly elected state judges is an institution inconsistent with the fact that business is now done nationally and internationally, with "non-local" parties appearing frequently before American state courts, and (e) justice would be better served if all of the "affected" states reformed their judicial systems to select judges for life on the basis of merit, coupled with an impeachment safeguard.
In the short-term, and as a practical matter, sane and sophisticated business lawyers should bend over backwards to keep their global, multi-jurisdictional clients out of state courts, and before federal courts. We do think that recusal standards make good sense--the Brennan Center report is brilliant, persuasive--but the remedy for us is what Phillips termed the "fundamental changes" in the selection process. That's judicial appointment on a merit basis for life, similar to the federal selection process. No elections. No reelections. Ever.
The popular election of state judges is a national illness. We Americans are "in denial" about it. We are so heavily invested in it, and so used to it, that we are even incapable of experiencing the "oh-my-god" embarrassment it ought to cause us every day it still exists. And here's the rub, and a reason for pessimism: constitutionally, only the States can do anything about it.
*I travel in my work, much of it trial work, and am licensed in four states (DC, CA, MD, PA). Many Pennsylvania trial lawyers I know fall into one of two groups: (1) too caught up in the current judicial election system to validate or acknowledge Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts' existence; (2) too paranoid to even talk about PMC.
**James Sample, David, Pozen, Michael Young, "Fair Courts: Setting Recusal Standards", Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law (April 2008).
Posted by JD Hull at 06:24 PM | Comments (0)
April 27, 2008
$200 million in punitives cut from award against Genentech.
The California Supreme Court: No punitive damages can be awarded for a breach of contract claim absent a fiduciary relationship between the parties. But the court still awards to City of Hope National Medical Center $300 million in gene-splicing technology royalties in 1976 contract dispute. See San Francisco Chronicle and Law.com.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
Paris Parfait in London again.
Take a walk in the Spring on Oxford Street in London. Even if you don't travel, read about life outside the U.S., or worship European fashion, these photos are interesting, edgy. See Shipwrecked at Selfridges at Tara Bradford's Paris Parfait. The Paris-based American writer Bradford gets around.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2008
Name's Holden...buy you a Heineken? Just got back from Île Saint-Louis, and...
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Why aren't pols talking about climate change?
See Evan Thomas's article in Newsweek, "The Green Phantom". The answer? It may be the money--taxes and government funding. Just what would that revolution cost, voters might want to know. But climate change and global warming also have overtures of mild class warfare: limousine liberals (WAC?'s term) and "chattering classes" (Thomas's term) v. everyone else. Thomas:
There is an enormous class divide on the subject. The chattering classes obsess about greenhouse emissions. The rest of the country, certainly the older and less well-off voters, can't be bothered.... It may be, though, that the politicians know something they are not saying-and that the green-conscious upper classes do not wish to confront. Making a serious dent in global warming would be hugely costly.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2008
Clueless closings, goofy charts and other screw-ups.
See "Lawyers: So Certain, So Wrong" at Anne Reed's Deliberations, a site about jury work. This piece also underscores the value of the mock trial--and of identifying lame language, arguments and themes in advance of actual trial.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Chelsea does Duke; disses Dad.
In yesterday's The Chronicle, Duke's daily: "My mother would be a better president than my father," she said. "She is more progressive and more prepared."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2008
Still got clients?
See Jim Hassett's new post "What are the top marketing priorities in a down economy? Part 1" at his Legal Business Development. Jim collects and organizes advice from some of the best legal marketing thinkers.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
SCOTUS MeadWestvaco decision is victory for business taxpayers. But do the States still have alternative theories to tax?
Last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision in MeadWestvaco Corp. v. Illinois Dep't of Revenue, 553 U.S. ___, No. 06–1413 (April 15, 2008) was a victory for business taxpayers--especially for corporations operating in several U.S. states. As WAC? pointed out in a January 16 post on the day of oral arguments, the Illinois Appellate Court went well beyond the clearly established constitutional limits in allowing Illinois to tax part of a capital gain resulting from a $1.5 billion sale by Mead in 1994 of Lexis/Nexis. See background and facts here. The Court took a similar view.
In MeadWestvaco, a unanimous decision written by Justice Alito, the Court upheld its long line of cases holding that the "unitary business principle" sets limitations on a state’s ability to tax:
If the value the State wished to tax derived from a "unitary business" operated within and without the State, the State could tax an apportioned share of the value of that business instead of isolating the value attributable to the operation of the business within the State. Conversely, if the value the State wished to tax derived from a "discrete business enterprise," then the State could not tax even an apportioned share of that value.
Slip op. at 8-9 (citations omitted).
The Court rejected the Illinois Appellate Court’s analysis of the unitary business principle outright: "In our view, the state courts erred in considering whether Lexis served an 'operational purpose' in Mead’s business after determining that Lexis and Mead were not unitary." Id. at 6. The Court explained that in particular the Illinois Appellate Court misapplied the Court’s earlier cases. Illinois’ result would expand the Court’s longstanding unitary business principle:
As the foregoing history confirms, our references to "operational function" in Container Corp. and Allied-Signal were not intended to modify the unitary business principle by adding a new ground for apportionment. The concept of operational function simply recognizes that an asset can be part of a taxpayer’s unitary business even if what we may term a "unitary relationship" does not exist between the "payor and payee".
Id. at 11-12 (citations omitted).
For example, the Court explained, a taxpayer is not generally unitary with its banker, but the taxpayer’s deposits (which represent working capital and thus operational assets) can be clearly unitary with the taxpayer’s business.
The Court vacated and remanded the Illinois Appellate Court’s decision that had allowed imposition of the Illinois tax.
The Court also declined to decide an issue raised too late by Illinois and its amici that invited the Court to "recognize a new ground for the constitutional apportionment of intangibles based on the taxing State’s contacts with the capital asset rather than the taxpayer". Id. at 13.
In a somewhat cryptic concurring opinion, Justice Thomas wrote separately "to express my serious doubt that the Constitution permits us to adjudicate cases in this area."
After MeadWestvaco, the unitary business principle remains a solid limitation on the states' power and ability to tax. But the "new" grounds for taxation--based on "contacts with the capital asset" sold--will likely be raised again. This late-raised amici position, coupled with the puzzling concurring opinion of Justice Thomas, will keep alternative constitutional state tax issues alive for the foreseeable future.
Future challenges by the States can be expected.
Posted by Julie McGuire and Dan Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
April 22, 2008
Doing business in China: Cutting paths on uncertain terrain.
Dan Harris at China Law Blog discusses "China Law As Guessing Game", inspired by the Stan Abrams post at China Hearsay called "The Law and New Tech in China". Harris and Abrams are full-time China lawyers with busy practices. Note how they hit on not only handling the barrage of first-impression legal and regulatory issues confronting their clients in Greater China, but also on the importance of guiding clients in an active, non-CYA fashion on issues abroad where the "applicable law" is very often silent, muddy or missing. Incidently, over the years, WAC? has met with Beijing-based Abrams, an IP and business lawyer and old China hand, in Europe at meetings of the IBLC.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Recusal standards for state jurists
Thirty-one states in America still hold popular elections of judges. WAC? would be happy if elected state judges--with their shadow constituencies of campaign money-contributing companies and lawyers--could just adhere to the disqualification rules already in place. But many don't. Popular election of state judges is medieval and embarrassing--and so we like Tony Mauro's Law.com piece "A New Call for Tougher Recusal Standards". It begins:
With state judicial elections getting more costly and raucous, many organizations are voicing concern about how to preserve--or restore-- the independence and integrity of state court systems. When judicial candidates accept campaign donations or make campaign pronouncements that might affect their impartiality in future cases, what can be done?
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Predicting Pennsylvania--and the rest of the primaries.
Pollster and consultant Mike O'Neil of O'Neil Associates is a friend of ours. We liked the following article by Mike--he prepared it especially for the Pennsylvania primary today--enough to print it entirely and word-for-word:
The Rest of the Story: Predicting the Outcome of All of the Remaining Democratic Primaries.
Michael J. O'Neil, Ph.D
"It is difficult to predict, especially the future."
--Yogi Berra
Last month, I sent out a missive "The Myth of Momentum in the Democratic Primaries" in which I argued that the pattern of Obama and Clinton victories could be explained primarily by the demographics of the various states, rather than by any of the "momentum" that has been widely discussed in the press.
The beauty of any such argument is that of ex post facto logic: if you explain after the fact, you will always be "right" in your "prediction" since you can alter the theory to fit the known facts precisely.
If the theory is right, however, it should predict the future. Of course, as the philosopher Yogi noted above, this is harder to do with accuracy.
Those of us who conduct opinion research, however, are often (incorrectly) presumed to be in the prediction business. We are not, but (with appropriate caveats), it can be fun.
So, for fun only, here it is: if the demographics relationships observed throughout the election so far hold (that is the "catch", to cover my posterior if I am "wrong"), it would mean the following:
Clinton wins Pennsylvania tomorrow.
But the following Tuesday, Obama wins North Carolina by an even bigger margin (completely erasing Clinton's delegate gains in PA).
Indiana is closer, but probably Clinton territory (like PA and Ohio, but a chunk is in the Chicago media market, and that gives Obama a boost, but probably not enough to win (this is the closest of the remaining states).
Back to tomorrow: Should Clinton win by less than 5%, the confetti will drop and she will declare a big victory. But every politico (and super-delegate) will know that her campaign is toast. The only question will be how long it will take her to get the message. A 10% win will be real, but still not enough to get her many delegates. (5% to 10% will be ambiguous; well within expectations-and spin-meisters on both sides will make arguments, all of them fallacious). A 20% blowout, on the other hand, would be a real loss for Obama.
Poll numbers: these average a 6% Clinton win, down from 20% a couple of weeks ago. Will this momentum continue? I doubt it, for two reasons. First, historical patterns: Obama has typically gained until the weekend before the election when Clinton gets back a few points. Second, most of the "undecideds" look (demographically) like Clinton people. If they vote, she wins-and maybe big. If they stay home, it gets close.
Expectations will be reversed in North Carolina, though Obama currently is winning there by more than Clinton in PA.
And the Rest of the Primaries?
Following demographic and geographical patterns we would predict Clinton wins in West Virginia (5/13), then Obama wins in Oregon while losing Kentucky (both 5/20), Obama ends primary season by winning both Montana and South Dakota (6/03).
In between, we have votes in two non-states, Guam (4 delegates) and Puerto Rico (55 delegates, more than many states!). All of the prognosticators have said that Puerto Rico should be Clinton territory, since she has won Hispanics to date. I don't buy this argument, since I see no reason to assume that native Puerto Ricans necessarily resemble Mexican Americans or Cuban Americans. They are different. But, I am NOT saying that Obama will PR. I just reject the logic behind the assumption that Clinton will win there. And there have been no reported polls in PR. Bottom line, like Sgt. ("I know NOTHING!") Shultz, we really know nothing about PR. The demography of PR does not resemble that of any state.
There you have it. A scorecard against which to measure the results of the rest of the primaries.
What does it mean?
The Obama lead is almost certainly intact on June 3. If so, he continues to trickle in super-delegates (he has been gaining about one a day for the last six weeks). Then the only question will be whether enough super-delegates declare early enough to forestall a convention fight. (Watch to see if a major Clinton insider, someone like PA Governor Ed Rendell, bolts. Nothing less may be required to get her to realize it is over). The speed of super-delegate decisions may depend on whether they enjoy being courted more than they hate being threatened/cajoled. (Is a 3am call from Bill a good thing or a bad thing?)
What could change this story?
A major Obama disaster-something much bigger than the stuff we have seen thus far. Don't hold your breath: it's not likely.
A Clinton loss in any of the states I have indicated she will win. This would signal a collapse of her campaign. Up until now, her campaign has looked viable, even if it is now a long-shot. A loss in a "must win" state would make the campaign look futile, and would likely signal the end.
Michael J. O'Neil PhD
www.oneilresearch.com
Posted by JD Hull at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2008
Golden on mentoring.
Mentoring can be ugly or rewarding--and even euphoric. It depends on whether you plan it and tweak it right. See Michelle Golden's "Internal Mentoring Programs: The Wrong Approach" at her Golden Practices.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
Is GAAP on its way out?
Will the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) soon replace Generally Accepted Accounting Principles? See this post by Brian Ritchey at More Partner Income, inspired in part by "Goodbye GAAP" in CFO Magazine.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
"Have you ever been punched by a client?"
We mean literally. See this one by David Giacalone, both lyrical and spiritual leader of the entire blogosphere, at f/k/a....
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
The best books on "all you can be".
...Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . .
--F.Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
See the second appearance of Stephanie West Allen's "Reading Minds" column in the ABA's Law Practice Magazine for April/May. Marian Lee, Bruce MacEwen, Michael Melcher and Catherine Hance make their selections. Which one of these reading minds chose The Great Gatsby?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:22 AM | Comments (1)
Blawg Review #156: Are you an Avatar?
"Are virtual worlds the beginning of the end of society?" And what's virtual law, anyway? Author-blogger Benjamin Duranske hosts this week's Blawg Review #156 at Virtually Blind. Strange, wonderful, even inspiring. And a very nice review of last week's posts. BR #156 also gets a write-up by Robert Ambrogi, who like us is intrigued by virtuality, at ALM's Legal Blog Watch.
An Avatar, pre-Durankse.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 12:58 AM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2008
Real Yank lawyers read Charon QC's Weekend Review.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:39 AM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2008
Greece: Litigation and ADR
Mike McIlwrath, a GE in-house litigation counsel based in Florence, Italy, discusses litigation, mediation, and arbitration in Greece with Greek litigator Pericles Stroubos. Listen to IDN podcast No. 23, "Negotiating a Binding Dispute Clause with a Greek Company".
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
Newsweek poll: Hillary drops back more.
At WAC?, politics is always important. Who governs and how informs culture, business, law, religion and even art. So our writers watch, chose sides, get involved when inspired, vote and argue amongst ourselves. We have serious Rs, Ds and "Others". A Newsweek poll says Hillary Clinton is losing ground: "Despite her campaign's relentless attacks on Barack Obama's qualifications and electability, Hillary Clinton has lost a lot of ground with Democratic voters nationwide going into Tuesday's critical primary in Pennsylvania..." [more]
Posted by JD Hull at 09:05 AM | Comments (2)
April 18, 2008
More coverage of SCOTUS MeadWestvaco tax opinion.
In no particular order:
Canada's Law Day
Paul Caron's TaxProf Blog
The venerable Lyle Denniston at SCOTUS blog
University of Pittsburgh's Jurist
Cato Institute's Cato @ Liberty
Alan Sherman at Texas State and Local Tax Law Blog
Howard Bashman at How Appealing
National Association of Manufacturers's ShopFloor blog
Kimberly Atkins at DC Dicta
D.C. Toedt at 100 Feet Up.
Background and pre-argument comments by WAC? are here.
Posted by Julie McGuire and Dan Hull at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2008
S&P/BusinessWeek's Global Innovation Index
The notion is that over the last year companies in the "GII"--an upstart index launched in February 2008--have outperformed companies in the S&P 500 Index and the S&P Global 100 Index. See the index and "Innovation Scores Again" at Not An MBA. Via Ed. of Blawg Review, a global and innovative being.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:45 AM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2008
Cross-examination: criminal v. civil.
They are two different worlds. Chicago's Stewart Weltman explains at his Lean and Mean Litigation blog.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
Why ever mediate?
For some answers, see Justin Patten's Human Law Mediation. It took our firm--and me--a long time to figure it out: paying a hard-working mediator to deliver a reality check to all sides is the best settlement device out there. It stifles the testosterone for a few hours, and forces reflection. Helps your client rep/GC and you with your inevitable "Kool-Aid" problems*, too. If something can settle at all, a good mediator will get that done. It is well worth the money spent. If it still tries, you try a more efficient case.
*Believing and thinking for whatever reasons that your court case is better than it actually is.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:09 PM | Comments (2)
U.S. Supreme Court decides corporate tax dispute in MeadWestvaco.
Yesterday, on tax day, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in MeadWestvaco Corp. v. Illinois Department of Revenue, holding that an Illinois appellate court had gone well beyond constitutional limits in allowing the State of Illinois to tax part of a capital gain resulting from Mead's $1.5 billion sale in 1994 of Lexis/Nexis. The full opinion is here. On January 16, the day of oral arguments, Julie McGuire and Tom Welshonce previewed MeadWestvaco in "Boundary Flare-Up: U.S. Supreme Court Revisits Constitutional Limitation on States’ Power to Tax". We'll soon post more on yesterday's decision.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2008
"How to Blog like a Canadian"
By Steve Matthews at Stem's Law Firm Web Strategy blog. Matthews is also a member of the respected Canadian legal blogging co-op, Slaw.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Real Piracy
See "Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum" at Transnational Law Blog and "The Jolly Roger Still Flies" at IntLawGrrls.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
The enduring Duke lacrosse experience
"Write something on the Duke Experience, that's all I ask," my editor was always telling me.
--W. Morris in "Making the Nut at Duke", Duke Chanticleer, Vol. II, 1975
The lacrosse case never really ended. See at The Chronicle, Duke's student daily, "City attorneys argue for ethics rule in lax suit" re: the 38 unindicted members of the 2005-2006 men's lacrosse team who have brought a civil suit. And see KC Johnson's stalwart Durham-in-Wonderland.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)
Life after--or instead of--law.
At the ABA Journal's Law News Now, see "Lawyer Hated Securities Practice, But Loves Fox News", about new Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)
Recycling Is 2% of U.S. GDP?
We're all ears--but really? See Environmental Protection and the mentioned April 2 report of Progressive Investor.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2008
Jennifer TV
Former news anchor Jennifer Antkowiak's show "Jennifer" is on Sundays at 11 AM EST. See www.jennifertvshow.com
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
May Day: DePaul Ethics Symposium in Chicago.
The DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal of the DePaul University College of Law, together with the Commercial Law League of America, will be hosting its Sixth Annual Symposium on Thursday, May 1 from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Westin Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The theme is "Lawyers, Law Firms, & the Legal Profession: An Ethical View of the Business of Law". There are four panels, including "The Roberts Court, the 2008 Election & the Future of the Judiciary".
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
Be excellent--not perfect.
Ah, devil perfectionism: the great destroyer of gifted young lawyers.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Cincinnati's P&G gets wiggy.
Reuters: "Procter & Gamble plans hip-hop music foray" with its Tag body sprays. Yeah, they bad.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Blawg Review #155: Bad Poetry Day
Greg May hosts this week's Blawg Review #155 at The California Blog of Appeal.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2008
Morocco envy.
A lucky human, I get to travel for a living. I work, I read and I talk to everyone indiscriminately (I'm told) everywhere I go. When I run or walk or attend a meeting, I take a camera and a notebook with me. And where I go doesn't have to be abroad. Yesterday afternoon I was in the downtown section of ever-evolving Nashville, strolling around on a balmy day after a meeting near Vanderbilt; I got a kick out of that (in between cell phone intrusions) even though I've been there a few times. But I've never been to Morocco, with its amazing mix of Berber, Roman, Greek, Visigoth, Arab, French and Spanish influences. For the last few years, I've been thinking and reading about Morocco. Can an American company please hire me or mine to work there? In the meantime, I visit Maryam's My Marrakesh. I first noticed her site when I came upon a picture of Maryam--an American living with her family in Marrakech--taken in a Paris cafe I am virtually certain I had been in a few weeks before. She travels, writes, takes wonderful photos.
From "Marrakech: and Ludovic's beautiful decay".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:05 PM | Comments (1)
You'll get no argument from WAC?
The "social" side of the blogosphere. Whether it's linking to other blogs, or actually talking by phone or in person to other blogging humans, What About Clients? thinks that the better overtures, productivity and just plain fun of being alive often get lost in our brave new cyber-world. So we applaud and support that old-fashioned stuff wherever we see it. At Kevin O'Keefe's Real Lawyers Have Blogs, read "American law bloggers could stand to be more social" based on an interview with Canada's Steve Matthews of Stem Legal. And then get busy forming a relationship.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:33 AM | Comments (1)
April 11, 2008
Mediating Internationally: The Netherlands
Listen to the latest IDN podcast, No. 22, "Manon Schonewille on Mediation in the Netherlands".
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Writing well.
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.
--Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Why Salzburg matters.
Apart from Mozart, salt, ancient Celtic culture and restaurants carved into cliffs, this Austrian city is home to the International Business Law Consortium, an active group of over 80 first-rate law and accounting firms in strategic cities all over the world. It was founded in 1996.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
First Stonehenge dig since 1964
According to MSNBC and other sources, it shows that the area on the Salisbury Plain where the blue stones are may have been a holy place beginning in 3100 BC--about 500 years before the big stones got there from 150 miles away.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2008
London's Magic Circle law firms: Who are those guys?
Lots of people talk about London's Magic Circle--but who are they really? The commonly accepted firms are Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, and Slaughter and May. According to Richard Lloyd's article for The American Lawyer Magazine, "The Global 100: Magic Circle Firms Have the Magic Touch", featured at Law.com, these law firms dominate high-end corporate work in the UK and Europe, are the most profitable and expansive firms, and are surpassing their American rivals. Listen to J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi discuss the Magic Circle with Lloyd on their Lawyer 2 Lawyer podcast at Legal Talk Network.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Rule 30, tool-sharpening and Tennessee.
While we're on the subject, and as WAC? spends the next few days discovering great legal minds in the state of Tennessee, hear three podcasts on advanced deposition techniques by Evan Schaeffer at his enduring Illinois Trial Practice blog.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
IMF: Global growth threatened by biggest shock "since the Great Depression".
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is headed for a recession, dragging world economic growth down along with it, the International Monetary Fund concluded in a sobering new forecast Wednesday that underscored the damage inflicted from the housing and credit debacles. [more]
The Fund is always a living tribute to the human spirit.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:44 AM | Comments (1)
April 09, 2008
Two industry victories in one online music sharing case.
Tom Welshonce's article "Record Companies Score Two Victories in One Case Against Online Music Sharing" was published in the March 28 edition of the Allegheny County Bar Association's Lawyers Journal. Virgin Records v. Thomas is the case of Jammie Thomas, a 30 year-old woman sued by seven record companies for unlawfully sharing music
files online. In October, a jury awarded the record companies $222,000 in damages for violation of copyrights in 24 songs. In December, the Bush administration threw its support behind the record companies by asking that the judge uphold the constitutionality of the award. A motion for new trial is still pending before the Minnesota district court. Read the article here or here.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2008
The Environment: Mr. Waxman goes to Israel.
The Jerusalem Post opines on veteran Los Angeles Congressman Henry Waxman's visit to Israel in "A California State of Mind". Waxman has been a player in energy and clean air issues since 1974.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 05:38 PM | Comments (0)
April 07, 2008
A step forward for client interviews (or audits)?
Client interviews (or audits) by a 'third person' is a long-time favorite WAC? subject--and our recommendation to all law firms. At least one law firm, Philly's Ballard Spahr, is attempting to raise the standard by hiring a full-time non-lawyer client interviewer. See Mark Beese's take in "Ballard Hires Client Interviewer" at his Leadership for Lawyers.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)
"Future of Arbitration"
See post by John Phillips on the Supreme Court's March 25 decision in Hall Street Associates v. Mattel, Inc. Phillips excerpt: "The problem was that the scope of judicial review permitted by this agreement was greater than that provided by the Federal Arbitration Act".
Posted by JD Hull at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)
Blawg Review 154: World Health Day
David Harlow hosts this week's Blawg Review #154 at HealthBlawg.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 07:02 AM | Comments (0)
Dweeb fatigue?
NYT: "In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)
AP: HRC's Mark Penn screws up, moves on.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2008
Was Europe ever in love with America?
No, but we Yanks could spruce up our image a bit. See the Berlin-based press digest Atlantic Review, its piece "European Love for the US and American Isolationism", and anything else these young German Fulbright alumni are writing.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Jim Hassett: More on what's new in getting/keeping clients.
See Part 4 of Jim's "The most important trends in legal business development".
Posted by JD Hull at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2008
US: Stocks up, jobs down.
AP: "Stocks rise despite gloomy jobs report". In March, 80,000 jobs were lost.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
International ADR: Is arbitration on the rise?
Hear the latest IDN interview, No. 21, "AAA's Richard Naimark: Is International Arbitration Growing?".
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Changes: Is your medium dying?
Via one Andrew Johnston, a real journalist in Chicago. WAC? values people who can put sentences together and walk at the same time.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2008
More bird-watchers: Henry Paulson's excellent adventure.
See "Will It Fly?" in The Economist.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)
Law Birds of London
Bird pron. "beud" (London); "burd" (Scotland) n. woman. See The English-to-American Dictionary. They include Law Minx, Legally Blonde in London, Law Girl and the pioneering uplander and biker-solicitor Ruthie of Ruthie's Law, who is now London-bound. Keep your hands away from the cages.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (7)
Lawyer "professionalism" is still a crock.
Like work-life balance, lawyer "professionalism" as touted and practiced in the U.S. is an anti-client, lawyer-centric ruse which needs to die before it can be re-born. It is disingenuous and a crock. It's a license for mediocrity, cooked up and maintained by lawyers who think law is a special club for special people. It has one or two redeeming features (i.e., when civility actually helps to get things done), which are generally outweighed by its abuses and sheer silliness. Hint: what does your client/GC want and need? Start there. See the more PC version of our view which passed muster with the overly-polite San Diego media in our world-famous 2005 article, "Professionalism Revisited: What About the Client?"
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (1)
April 02, 2008
18 states file suit to compel EPA to act on climate change.
A year ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court in Massachusetts et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency et al. ruled that carbon dioxide from fossil fuels is a pollutant subject to the Clean Air Act, and directed the EPA to determine whether such emissions, associated with climate change, endangered public health. Today, according to mainstream news sources, 18 states have sued the EPA to act within 60 days. It's a mandamus-like pattern states, cities and public interest groups have used for two decades under the CAA to prompt the EPA to move on other issues within its expertise, such as interstate acid rain transport. See NBC news. WAC? is trying to obtain a copy of the petition-complaint, which was set for filing today.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Trains and boats: New Clean Air Act regulations.
Published on March 14, a new final U.S. EPA rule on air emissions from locomotive and marine diesel engines is designed to reduce from these sources particulate matter (PM) by 90 percent and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by 80 percent. See Environmental Protection and EPA rule and guidance.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
More on punitives: Europe v. America
See NYC trial lawyer-thinker (you don't always see both in one human) Eric Turkewitz's piece Punitive Damages: Why America is Different than Europe. Here's an excerpt, but read the whole piece:
European governments...are significantly more interventionist in the private lives of the people than here. You see that in nations that restrict free speech or grant universal health care, as two examples. Our notions of freedom are not always the same as elsewhere... Intervention [in the non-U.S.] means not only larger government with larger powers. It also means higher taxes to pay for it. So wrongdoing is handled by the government, which the people pay for.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:30 PM | Comments (1)
The Environment: Got mercury?
From both regulatory and remedial standpoints, it's hard to make mercury go away. See at Environmental Protection magazine "Mercury Spill Control 101" by Mark Ceasar at OMNI/ajax in Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania, USA.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
Rule 4: Deliver Legal Work That Changes the Way Clients Think About Lawyers.
Why "try to exceed expectations" when the overall lawyer standard is rightly perceived as laughably low to mediocre?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2008
Holden H. Oliver (1968-2008)
WAC? co-writer and third year law student Holden Oliver died in Palo Alto Monday while visiting his girlfriend, an undergraduate student at Stanford University. A Boston native and former reporter for the Kansas City Star, Holden worked many years for the London and Aldeburgh bureaus of the New York Times, and later entered Stanford Law School. Last year, he was elected to an editorial position on the Stanford Law Review. He joined WAC? as a law student in the summer of 2006, when he also worked for Hull McGuire's D.C. office. Death was the result of a kiln explosion in which his companion, a Stanford freshman less than half his age, was not injured. If you wish to help us honor Holden, his irreverent uber-WASP prose style, and his philandering, amoral lifestyle, donations can be made in his name to the Nantucket Preservation Trust, the The Cosmos Club or Kelly's Irish Times in Washington, D.C.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 02:22 PM | Comments (4)