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June 30, 2008
Arbitrators and bias: International Dispute Resolution.
It's a challenge for even Brooke Powell, our Pennsylvania-based WAC? writer, Hull McGuire stalwart, and litigation Superwoman, to keep up with Mike McIlwarth as he interviews the world's best arbitration thinkers and doers. An American litigator, McIlwrath works at General Electric in Florence, Italy. It's the base he uses to manage oil and gas litigation globally for GE, travel on business to any number of non-U.S. jurisdictions, and still find time to do his do his IDN show for CPR--short for The International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution. Well, Brooke got busy helping out in California, and we've missed two IDN podcasts since the "Lucky Generals" interview of HBS's Mike Wheeler a few weeks back. We will catch up. For now, hear "No. 32--Arbitrator Bias", an interview with London's Sophie Nappert. Our note: The quality (including integrity) of the arbitrator or mediator is the main event in ADR. All else flows from it. Spend a little money to select them. Bias, of course, can be minimized in larger commercial cases by using 3 panelists.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
LexMonitor: White collar crime and SOX compliance.
Sarbanes-Oxley, useful but criticized for being a bit overdone and in need of tweaking, inches toward its 6th birthday on July 30. For SOX and other white collar issues, Kevin O'Keefe's recently-launched LexMonitor, among other features and practice areas, has White Collar Defense & Compliance written by Philly-based Fox Rothchild's Princeton, NJ office.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
June 27, 2008
Writing well, and living large.
Commenting on the body of work left by John Dryden (1631-1700), the English poet, critic and playwright, Samuel Johnson (who was born a few years after Dryden's death) called Dryden's compositions "the effects of a vigorous genius working upon large materials".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
UK and American boards
From the FT piece:
UK: The most analysed and debated governance environment anywhere. The unitary board model survives, but since the recommendations of the Higgs report in 2003 there are more non-executives (and fewer executives) around board tables than in the past. The chairman and chief executive roles are usually kept separate.
US: Also a unitary board model, but with chairman, chief executive (and president) roles more often than not being held by the same person. A longer tradition of non-executive dominance of the boardroom. There is, however, a growing sense that Sarbanes-Oxley went too far and needs to be refined.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2008
Condi Rice and South Korea
South Korea is a "global partner" but Japan and Australia are "allies". See at Korea Law a June 10 piece by Seoul-based Brendon Carr: "Korea Left Out of Condi’s List of American Allies in Pacific". It's based on Korean news coverage of an article U.S. Secretary of State Rice wrote in the July-August 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Next up at Global Blawg Review: GeekLawyer.
The big question for Blawg Review readers next week is Geeklawyer to run rampage through the next Blawg Review? A relatively tame and expletive-laundered sampling is below:
Dan Hull’s blog is the quintessential American lawyer blog. Dan is a depraved evil sociopathic neocon ambulance chasing beast pretending he loves his clients merely to get into their wallets. Of course he has his bad side too but let us not explore that little dark alleyway now.
--GeekLawyer, October 6, 2007
Posted by JD Hull at 11:18 PM | Comments (1)
See me, feel me, call me.
Making sense in Chicago. Read Patrick Lamb's "Email Free Fridays" to strengthen client relationships at In Search of Perfect Client Service. And see "E-mail is a great tool and it's making you nuts. Call me."
Posted by JD Hull at 12:51 AM | Comments (0)
June 25, 2008
Customer service in a down economy.
See Axel Meierhoefer's post "What’s the best customer service during a recession?" at his Leadership and Talent Development for Smart People.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
A Blawg Review with Gaul.
More Europeans. Dang. This week's host of Blawg Review hails from the European nation Yanks (and Brits, for that matter) like to complain about the most. But we at WAC? think that France does reflect the best if buried part of the American soul. It serves, if you will, as Caretaker-in-Chief of the West's best political and artistic folkways and traditions: the haughty over-educated big sister who annoys us, excruciatingly so because she is often right. And, hey, the French do food well. Take this musical, literary and political jaunt through #165 with Edinburgh-based Nicolas Jondet at French-law.net, "French Law in English". We asked for it, we like it.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (1)
June 24, 2008
Race in jury selection.
In juries, mock juries, focus groups and polls, Americans and other humans are complicated, and hard to know. See Anne Reed's new article "It's About Race. It's Not About Race." at Deliberations.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Think like a client--help control costs.
Rule Eight from WAC?'s 12 Rules.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
China pollution liability; China due diligence.
For the glorification of the risk-bearer. China Law Blog in "Is China Going Green? Part XV" comments on "Government Targets Land Pollution to Ensure Food Security" in the June 20 China Daily.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)
George Denis Patrick Carlin (1937-2008)
One seriously funny, angry American-Irish guy from the City who always made us think. An original. See Washington Post obit.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2008
Language legislation?
Lauren Elkin at The Paris Blog and Maitresse has this one from June 20:
Controversy is brewing in France this week over a proposed amendment to the Constitution declaring regional languages to be part of France’s patrimony. The amendment, which was proposed on May 22nd, was suppressed by the Senate on June 18th, two-thirds of whom agreed that it threatened the unity of French national identity, invoking legislature from 1539 and 1794 (God, I love France) as precedent.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2008
Just Rome
Rome. I don't like working here--charitably put, work-life balance is totally out of balance in some regions of Italy--but I love being in Rome. You can play all day long in and around the The Forum and Palatine Hill, where antiquities are still being found. You can stroll the City. There's this guy with a shop at the Piazza Navona--2000 years ago the Piazza was a Roman circus (i.e., track) you can still see if you try--who sells me these unique old prints, beautifully framed, that I bought for my father in Cincinnati and my alleged girlfriend in LA. I go to that shop on every trip. The Tiber River is gorgeous and, like the Seine in Paris, steeped in history, and a bit melancholy and mysterious.
Lots--much of it sad and unbearable--happened in western Europe, folks. The rivers remember it all.
Happily, many of the West's great ideas and institutions, including what became English law, were conceived or at least preserved by Rome. And the obvious comparison of Rome to America these days is both daunting and exciting: the Romans were competent if grandiose empire builders who were great "copiers". Rome got most of its better (if unrealized) instincts about government, and its best artistic and traditions, from a different nation. Americans got theirs from Europe--but old Rome's debt was to Greece.
Back to travel. You can't see, experience and "do" Rome on one trip--same thing with New York, London or Paris--and you shouldn't try. Here's what happens when you do. See at The Exploration of Undiscovered Worlds--Or Just Europe and Myself this recent post "Rome" by an anonymous traveler who otherwise seems to know what he/she is doing and just visited Rome and then Paris back-to-back. Our advice: Learn a little more about Rome first, and then "live in it", taking small bites.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:57 AM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2008
China gasoline up 18%.
In a nation where energy prices are controlled, that's a big deal. At Tim Johnson's China Rises blog (McClatchy Newpapers), see "Paying More at China's Gas Pumps".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2008
It's Bloomsday, June 16, 1904--so take a walk.
Joyce Walks. Courtesy of the cosmopolitan, well-traveled (just ask Ruthie) and well-read Ed. of Blawg Review, take a walk on Bloomsday. Try maybe the Paris walk: A Walk in Paris along the route of the Circe Episode of Ulysses.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:13 AM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2008
Bad King John, good King Edward.
London-based Charon QC notes that today, June 15, is an important day for Brits and Yanks alike: the date of Magna Carta Libertatum. King John's negotiation with his rebellious Norman barons occurred in 1215; the Magna Carta established that the king may not levy or collect any taxes, without the consent of his council, a kind of rough first English parliament. It also bolstered the previously-existing idea of the writ of habeas corpus--the "let-me-out" claim against unlawful imprisonment--and afforded rights and procedures to both free and unfree men. An elected parliament replacing the king's council was first instituted in 1265, and it was "upgraded" by Edward I in 1295. This text of the 1297 statute, as amended, is official UK law. Edward I (for us Yanks, that's the same guy who had Mel Gibson killed) made sure that the 1215 agreement stuck with us.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2008
Bad week for a great judge.
Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. See in the Los Angeles Times "Alex Kozinski Suspends L.A. Obscenity Trial After Conceding His Website Had Sexual Images" (783 comments so far) and Scott Greenfield's Simple Justice. Talented and even gifted people who occasionally collect porn and/or jokes? I never think less of them. I just don't always get them. Such folks usually excel at having magical encounters with real humans, and their uncommon wit permits them to fire off their own jokes. However, I do think that a guy as smart and as celebrated as Judge Kozinski doesn't get any points for letting this happen to him. That does matter. Sir, I may have to appear before you some day. I'm in your corner. I admire ability and achievement. People talk of you in language that glows. But could you have managed this differently?
Posted by JD Hull at 12:48 AM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2008
The Economist: America getting there.
The London-based weekly magazine The Economist does not always love the United States. But it has undertaken a useful and entertaining role in the West: wonky Motherland commissioner to monitor and scold the world's busiest overachievers and self-appointed police force since imperial Rome. So I was happy to see this week's cover and cover story, "America at its best". I could not agree more, and had to pinch myself a lot in the last 18 months when thinking about the quality of presidential candidates produced in the 2008 contest. And we may have made longer-term gains, beyond candidate choice. Without question, America--the insular "ruffian" nation that could never quite square its domestic life with its democratic ideals--crossed thresholds, surprised people, and probably made race and gender history. For us, it was progress. The article's concluding paragraph:
Both candidates have their flaws and their admirable points; the doughty but sometimes cranky old warrior makes a fine contrast with the inspirational but sometimes vaporous young visionary. Voters now have those five months to study them before making up their minds (and The Economist will be doing the same). But, on the face of it, this is the most impressive choice America has had for a very long time.
Photo: The Economist
Posted by JD Hull at 12:03 PM | Comments (1)
June 10, 2008
What if "bad customer service" were actionable?
This AP article made the rounds last week: "Los Angeles Time Sues Time Warner Cable, Claims Shoddy Service". The suit, of course, really interested WAC? What if falling short of promises made in routine selling and puffing became, in effect, a business tort, or a breach of an implied contract? An action sounding in "shoddy customer service?" Much of the California Time Warner action is grounded on violations of California law governing unfair business and deceptive advertising practices. There are obvious "floodgate" problems with dressing up bad service as violations of California's business and profession codes--but we like the City Attorney's pluck, and lots of ideas with legal legs start in flaky California:
LOS ANGELES (AP, June 5): Time Warner Cable Inc. was accused Thursday of lying to Los Angeles subscribers and providing shoddy customer service in a lawsuit that seeks potentially tens of millions of dollars in fines against the city's main provider of cable television.
"The company has broken multiple laws, and harmed countless Los Angeles consumers," City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said in a statement. The suit was filed as a civil law enforcement action and names the people of California as plaintiffs. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 09:11 PM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2008
Jurywork: The eyes have it.
Anne Reed at Deliberations quickly has become a triple-threat, as she regularly has done the impossible: make bloggers, lawyers and jury consultants all look good, even productive and excellent. At WAC? and Hull McGuire we'd just about given up on all three. We were turning our eye to more reputable and productive professions--like insurance adjusters, call girls, and circus barkers. Anne gave us not only pause, but even undeserved redemption. Deliberations is truly insightful, immediately useful and challenging in all the best ways. If you try cases, and you think about the art-science of The Jury, see "When They Look Away", and be prepared for a surprise. It begins:
Your expert is on the stand presenting her analysis of lost profits damages, or whether an unintelligible patent claim was infringed. As she's explaining the most difficult part, you look at the jury, and your heart sinks; no one is looking at her. They're contemplating the ceiling, studying the floor, looking away.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Blawg Review #163: Client-savvy More Partner Income hosts.
For the past three years, and regularly, we've singled out More Partner Income, founded by Tom Collins, as the best overall site on the subject of building and running a client-centric law firm. If you manage a law firm from 3 to 3000 lawyers in size, and read only two or three blogs or periodicals, this should be one of them. Today, MPI hosts Blawg Review #163 in one of the most worthwhile and hardest-working BR performances this year.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Essential China Law
See "What Lawyers MUST Know About China" by Dan Harris at his China Law Blog. It's from a talk he gave to the International Law Section of the Alaska Bar Association.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
June 08, 2008
Germany makes politically-correct bombs.
Yes, environmentally-friendly bombs. America's liberal but respected The New Republic magazine noticed this one, too. But Hermann the German, our well-read man in Berlin, doesn't think it's that big a deal: "Well all the people that get bombed are biodegradable, aren’t they?"
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:17 PM | Comments (0)
Another woman with Gaul.
C'est Ma Vie: Tales of My Life Across the Atlantic is a kind of Notes From The Underground by a smarter but slightly disorganized version of the American girl-next-door. She and her young family have been living in Paris. She's been trying qualify to teach in Paris, bravely putting up with "the inspector" to make that happen. "I need a special therapist for how to deal with hierarchy in France."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:44 AM | Comments (0)
June 07, 2008
The Slackoisie
Passion for mediocrity. See Scott Greenfield's inspired "The Slackoisie Fight Back", capping off a week of noises from the "no artificial time constraints" and "clients last" crowd. The Gen Y issue hits nerves. This past week Above the Law had some fun with it, too. For the next week Dan Hull exchanges the elegance of FRE Rule 612 (his favorite) for pretending to hawk scripts and ideas in Los Angeles. Even as a lowly if mature law clerk, I can get some things done for him this weekend while he's gone. Including the blogging. I know the City of Lights better than even Dan does--and so our weekend experiment What About Paris? is in good hands. After all, I am a younger-end boomer; I do value work and our clients. Hey, wait a minute, why am I the only one in the Pittsburgh office today?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Americans as half full of it?
Americans all think they are going to make it big, don't they?
"Half empty or half full? Test your optimism" by Diane Levin at her MediationChannel.com got me thinking. Running a business does require a bit of realism, and a pessimistic streak can help. You can discipline yourself to get that in your make-up, even if your Mom growing up was the Midwestern version of Pollyanna. Still, I'll take optimism as a "default" position for the kind of people I want in my orbit. Some western Europeans seem genuinely alarmed but intrigued when they utter the following, which is said to me frequently and out of the blue: "Americans all think they are going to make it big, don't they?!"* The idea, I gather, is that the great expectations generated by the free-for-all and break-neck culture of American life is a design for failure, disappointment and humiliation. They have a point. According to the Boston Globe, and as Diane points out, as many as 80% of us Yanks, have the sunny-side thing going--and it can work against us. But that is who we are.
*Brits who say this will then throw in, for effect, a loud and somewhat dismissive guffaw.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)
June 05, 2008
Buying into Client Service
Everyone at your shop must do it. And that's not easy to achieve. From our CS Rules and 12-step program: "Rule Three: Ensure Everyone Knows That The Client Is The Main Event".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
This week on the "Baby": Selling Science and Technology
This week's theme on "I'm There for You Baby" is science and technology--and selling them. Neil Senturia and Barbara Bry talk with Larry Bock, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, and Allison Rynne, Executive Director of the San Diego Science Festival. The Festival, which launches in March 2009, aims to encourage those in Gen-Y to look into science-related careers.
Neil and Barbara also speak with Rocky Smolin about his new book From Program to Product: Turning Your Code into a Saleable Product, which is meant to guide software entrepreneurs from the idea stage to selling their products commercially. Finally, they discuss tips for engaging and retaining quality employees. (We're all ears.) You can listen to the "Baby" live Wednesdays from 12:30-1:30 p.m. (PT) at SignOn Radio.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
June 04, 2008
International Dispute Negotiation: The ICC
Listen to the IDN's latest podcast, No. 28, "The ICC's New Leadership: Interview with Jason Fry". Fry is the new Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce's (ICC's) 85-year-old International Court of Arbitration. Established in 1919, the ICC is based in Paris, with offices worldwide. It has been a leader and innovator in global business arbitration since 1923 (about 15,000 cases.) GE's Mike McIlwrath talks with Fry about the ICC's role in ADR globally in 2008.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Lawyer hubris?
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Romans 1:22
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2008
MSNBC: WJC really ticked off at Vanity Fair reporter.
"Scumbag" alert. Sorry. More politics. We can't help it. MSNBC "First Read" excerpt:
The same Huffington Post reporter who broke the Obama “bitter” story got a new scoop yesterday of Bill Clinton lashing out at Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum and calling him “sleazy,” “dishonest” and “slimy” for his critical magazine article on Clinton. It’s worth noting that the HuffPo reporter didn’t identify herself as a reporter and said she disliked the article when asking for his reaction.
From the piece: “Tightly gripping this reporter's hand and refusing to let go, Clinton heatedly denounced the writer, who is currently married to his former White House Press Secretary, Dee Dee Myers. ‘[He's] sleazy,’ he said referring to Purdum. ‘He's a really dishonest reporter. And one of our guys talked to him… And I haven't read [the article]. There's just five or six blatant lies in there. But he's a real slimy guy,’ the former President said. When I reminded him that Purdum was married to his former press spokesperson Myers, Clinton was undeterred. ’That's all right-- he's still a scumbag,’ Clinton said. ‘Let me tell ya--he's one of the guys -- he's one of the guys that brought out all those lies about Whitewater to Kenneth Starr. He's just a dishonest guy--can't help it.’” [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
No way to go out: Mel Weiss gets 30 months.
Both Scott Greenfield at Simple Justice and the WSJ's Law Blog alerted us to Weiss's sentencing. It's sad, and not an occasion to gloat, even if our clients and we are no lovers of the Rule 23 bar. The talented and accomplished Weiss is 72. Back in September, we reacted to the Mel Weiss indictment, and to the gulity plea of his former partner Bill Lerach a few days earlier that week.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)
June 02, 2008
CS musings
Globe-trotting James Hipkin finally landed in San Francisco. He succinctly sets forth "5 Principles for Successful Client Service" at his Musings on Marketing. All 5 of these make way too much sense--we wish we had thought of them.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Ruthie muses on War and Peace; has tea with GeekLawyer.
London's warrior-solicitor Ruthie writes "Litigation: it’s all about the fight". And she drops in for a spot of tea and a podcast with evil un-kempt barrister GeekLawyer who, disturbingly enough, hosts Blawg Review on June 30 in time to opine about Independence Day on July 4 in America. The podcast: learn about the Ruthie-GL split. Required listening for the bored and the deranged. However, associates and summer clerks may defer listening until weekend.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Your summer clerkship: Your real value to the firm?
Zero--and hopefully not less than zero. But don't take that so hard. We are paying you--and our most inarticulate lawyer could make a persuasive, cogent, and eloquent argument for the reverse arrangement. You're an investment. An experiment. It's nice having you around. You're nice kids, from great schools, with great grades. But you don't know anything. So our advice:
1. Proofread, and be careful. Paying attention to detail is one of the few things you can do for us now. But valuable. (What else valuable can you really give us this summer?) Get that habit, and get it forever.
2. Give us your ideas (not your tech savvy).
3. Give us your best answer, get to the point--and then show us your thinking. Back it up with the best authorities you can find so far, even if it's a work in progress. And don't guess.
4. You say you're brilliant? That's nice. But that and a dollar will get you a Diet Coke, or maybe a beer at the Tune Inn. We seek Huntin' Dogs--workers who use everything they have and are to do great work for great clients. We know such creatures when we see them. Takes about a week to spot "it" or "no it".
5. Ask dumb questions. Frequently.
6. Proofread, and be careful.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:20 PM | Comments (0)
China Law Blog: The World Peace Edition of Blawg Review
Blawg Review #162 is hosted by Dan Harris at China Law Blog. Harris, as always, is ambitious. He takes us all over the globe. He instructs. He opines. But his real goal is World Peace, and sweetness and light generally. He accomplishes this in his exemplary, humorous, memorable and truly great Blawg Review edition--with one war-like exception.
In response to our post on Saturday, "Big Dog finally hosts Blawg Review", Harris addresses a one-on-one basketball match with my boss. Harris, a Hoosier, claims that since Dan Hull is from Ohio it wouldn't be a fair contest. To that, we have two words: LeBron James, a Buckeye.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 08:22 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2008
Crossroads
Today June 1 is the Festival of Carna. She is the Roman goddess of the heart--and also of hinges and locks. Ovid said that she “opens what is closed, and closes what is open.” Another Roman goddess named Carna--from which "carnal" is derived"--is linked romantically with Janus, the better known god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings. Of Crossroads. Maybe your girlfriend or wife just left you, you finished a good FY quarter and are looking ahead, or it's time to quit wasting time.
I went down to the crossroads, tried to flag a ride.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Not a luxury.
He who neglects the arts when young has lost the past and is dead to the future.
--Sophocles (496-406 BC)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 04:15 PM | Comments (0)