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August 30, 2008
Bravo, Charon QC
The July 8 podcast interview that many WAC? visitors liked: London's Charon QC interviews Dan Hull of What About Clients?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2008
Denver, sensitive guys, London, clients.
The sun sets on the Democratic Convention in Denver. The Slackoeisie celebrates a 3-day weekend. And WAC? heads for London. But we'll cherish the image of Michelle Obama grimacing as if hit with a Red Hill Deluxe HS36 "Hot Shot" cattle prod every time a Clinton drew wild applause. Learn to hide it better. (Query: Is Barack another whipped New Age Sensitive Guy? WAC? must know.) Finally, re: your firm's Boomer Age clients and GCs: hold onto what you got.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2008
Should associates pay their law firms in the first 2 to 3 years?
A New "Value Movement"? On Sunday night at dinner, an out-of-town friend since college, and member of a large U.S. law firm, raised the above question. "Jack's" verbatim query was a bit, but not much, different. After being startled for a moment, I wrote it down:
"If associates get all the benefits of training at my law firm in the first three years, and can't really add much value anyway, why don't they pay us?"
I admit to planting this seed of heresy in Jack's head years ago, when we had talked often, and passionately, about the understandable difficulty (perhaps impossibility) of making even the most talented law school graduates productive, client-oriented and economic inside of two years. Yes, we were both grumpy about the competitive and increasingly high salaries being paid to new law grads, by his firm and mine. And so I had first brought it all up back in 2003.
But back then we had also talked about the unlikelihood that the typical new associate at a large or higher-end firm--even those with part time jobs or summer clerkships under his or her belt--had enough work and life experience to decide to chose a law firm career without actually doing it, and thinking about it, for a while. Private practice at any law firm is not law school; it's far more demanding, and arguably demeaning. It's not for everyone.
Only doing it along side experienced, hopefully sane, lawyers in the trenches of real practice tell the new lawyer and the firm much about the truth.
So starting five years ago, Jack and talked I on the phone a lot, with verve and imagination, about a new "value movement". In the movement we half-joked about, law school graduates would be paid chiefly in the experience gained at a firm. Not money. Or, alternatively, gulp, the associate lawyer would pay the law firm.
But over time, we stopped joking. So here are the bare bones of the value movement:
A. No or nominal money. Initially, say, in the first 2 or 3 years, under "VM", an associate would be paid in the form of experience of being immersed in learning how to be a lawyer as he or she worked with more senior lawyers. A "trainee" would: (1) be paid either very minimal or at most paralegal-level salaries--don't laugh, a good paralegal is often markedly more valuable and cost-efficient than a "brilliant" first-year associate--and perhaps some other benefits; or (2) actually pay the law firm a nominal stipend--a "tuition", in effect, to cover some costs (and risks) of "training"--in a flexible apprenticeship arrangement which could be revisited.
B.Associates bear some risk.At a minimum, making the associate bear the risk of the investment in his or her training might have the effect of deterring some new grads who were just biding time, or perhaps clearly not going to stick around after debts were paid off, from going to the law firm in the first place. It might force some new lawyers to chose. (Further, the specter of such a system might even deter undergraduate college students from applying to law in the first place; students who know what lies ahead of them following law school may be less likely to chose law school as a "default" post-graduate alternative.)
C. Flexibility. Of course, the apprenticeship details would vary with the needs of the firm and the perceived abilities, energies and commitment of the trainee. The training term could be as short as 1 year and as long as 3 years. Obviously, if a law firm were somehow more certain a new associate was at least earnest enough about practicing law to stick with the experience for a long enough time to become a productive lawyer, the firm could pay the new hire anything it liked.
D.Firms get a more reliable look-see; new associates get experience.The idea is merely to ensure that both the law firm and the new graduate "get something" of value--in the firm's case, at least a stronger expectation of receiving value--in the first few years. Young lawyers may need time to test the waters; however, in the meantime, law firms should at least not have to "guess" as much about who is serious about law practice and who is not. Further, summers and part-time clerkships don't tell candidates or the law firms enough. Insufficient "data" for both.
E. Evaluation; parting of ways; negotiation. At the end of the training term, either (1) end the relationship, or (2) start talking about real money, real commitments and real professional futures, and commute the relationship to a permanent position. In short, use the training period to make decisions that make sense for both the lawyer and the firm, and avoid wasting the time and resources of either.
Draconian? Preposterous? Anti-"something"?
Maybe.
But associates, Jack and I would both argue, gain far more than their firms--and by a long shot, even if hard to measure--in the first 2 or 3 years. This is especially true at firms with demanding or high pressure "blue-chip" practices. There, brand new associates are paid very well to contribute very little, especially in larger firms or higher-end boutiques, in an expensive, somewhat nervous and very uncertain "talent-retention" exercise and sweepstakes. "The talent" we invest in, however, doesn't know anything; it can't really do anything for 2 to 3 years.
Law firms continue to invest big in associates with no guarantee that the associate will remain for very long. After very few years, he or she may choose to leave the firm after paying off school debts, decide against life in the medieval partner-associate structure and work environment, choose to work in another firm, the government or teaching, and/or leave the profession completely. That's fine. And that's human. But in any case, firms in the first few years "net", in most cases, Zilch. However, at a good firm, the associate generally retains a substantial, often incalculable, benefit of experience and know-how if he or she leaves, and can use that benefit at a new firm, other law job or even other career. No one "forgets" their first few years of practice at a solid law firm. At the very least, one grows up.
Final score: Associate Lawyers 100; Law Firms 0, or Less-Than-Zero.
So why should my boutique firm and Jack's big white shoe firm pay new lawyers to be "in school"--especially if many of them can be expected to drop out? And drop out "enriched"?
Finally, while the ability to think like a lawyer learned in 3 years of law school is a critical prerequisite to lawyering, the real education is forged in the first few years of practice. In the scheme of things, that training comprises by far the biggest part of becoming and remaining an effective problem-solver for clients. No one achieves great lawyerdom in law schools as we operate them in the U.S. or Europe. No one ever has. Our current rags-to-riches/school-to-firm regime assumes that some thing, process or force "completes" a lawyer in law school. But no one really believes that. It is not happening. In my view, the "value fantasy" about new grads with top grades is equally as harmful to those lawyers personally (and perhaps emotionally) as it is to their employers economically. And it is harmful to clients--the innocent bystanders--in ways too numerous and disturbing to list here.
Law firm compensation systems--especially in the U.S.--presuppose a value in new law grads that simply does not exist, even in the barest shadow form, and perhaps never existed. No, I don't have all the answers. But can't we come up with something different, sane--and in the true interest of both private firms and new lawyers? And clients?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (31)
A couple of Irish guys.
WAC? has more R than D writers--but we miss Irish pols, who tend to be Democrats because they can't help it. And we love this picture.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)
August 26, 2008
Blawg Review #174: The "Themeless" Edition
Blawg Review is "themeless" this week, but still highlights some of the best legal blogging in litigation, practice management and technology, as well as some interesting miscellaneous posts. No. 174 is hosted by D. Todd Smith at Texas Appellate Law Blog.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
August 25, 2008
Denver: Gavel Time
The only way for a reporter to look on a politician is down. --HLM
Both major party conventions affect You--and they showcase new U.S. leaders and party "comers" in both camps. Wednesday night is worth watching: our friend Wild Bill, and Delaware's Joe Biden, the VP choice, who started his job as freshman Senator the year before a wide-eyed WAC? worked in his first paid "desk job" on Capitol Hill for Gaylord Nelson. Plus some smart if less interesting politicians. If you are an American, be grateful you live in a country where we have 1000 Tony Blairs--all willing to endure the brutality of U.S. national politics.
Other than that, be skeptical and acerbic, like the Baltimore master.
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
Posted by JD Hull at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2008
Greenfield's Children: "Hi, I'm Justin, and..."
[H]umiliation is one of the core ingredients of a good law school education....Hopefully, your professors won't be touchy-feely wimps and will use the Socratic method in order to embarrass as many students as possible...
Listen, you creeps, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore... Here is a man who stood up. Scott Greenfield: lawyer's lawyer, a seer, artist. We hear he's even got a great-looking, brilliant wife. Ancient law student, fringe boomer and ladies' man Holden Oliver just called from Palo Alto to say that he'll name his next legitimate son after Scott: "Greenfield" Oliver, Cornell '31. See at Scott's Simple Justice his post "The Slackoiesie Goes to Law School."
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
France: Sofia Coppola sightings; mandatory nudity; zip codes.
August has gone from dog days to a still-hot holiday lull. The U.S. remains grumpy and dysfunctional. Europe is happy and non-functional. The China games no longer thrill us. The 2008 Obama-McCain race right now is a big yawn. Even litigation seems to take a break.
But Paris, and French beaches, are still exciting. The group site The Paris Blog reports that (a) re-invented, talented director-producer Sofia Coppola is "walking around" (see La Coquette) the City (that's enough for us), and (b) in the famous French Mediterranean clothing-optional town of Cap d'Agde, there's a beach where you can't wear Speedos--which by itself is always a good thing--or anything else, for that matter. See Why Travel to France. Bored WAC? looks forward to our trip to Europe next week. But we've taken a hard American stand against this kind of immorality, despite our multicultural leanings.
Multicultural note: There are no nude "river beaches" in Western Pennsylvania. And that is a good thing. This summer I worked in Pittsburgh, where huge quantities of any kind of food, and non-stop television-watching, are popular. People aggressively avoided gyms, and were often ample enough to have their own zip codes.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
Hey Joe, where you going?
AP: "Official: Obama Picks Biden For Veep". Super-Smart move by Obama but not likely to change the 2008 race. Wild Bill and Hillary will call many shots at convention and play with minds through November.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:16 AM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2008
Legal OnRamp: Worth Watching?
WAC? and Hull McGuire PC are "old school" and get cranky or bored when being sold the next cool tech thing. Generally social networking tools don't excite us. However, here's an exception we've followed off-and-on since January 2007, and we'll write about it more next week. In the meantime, see Robert Ambrogi's piece earlier this month about Legal OnRamp in Legal Blog Watch.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)
"Think Like A GC--Help Control Costs."
Imagine lawyers in a church basement in Foggy Bottom for a noon meeting: I'm Wendell S., Georgetown '85, and I'm clueless about clients... This post's title is Rule 8 in our 12-step program for service-challenged corporate lawyers. Note: We are updating our 12 CS Rules, completed on 4/3/06, and will post "improved" rules soon. In the meantime, should you feel cluelessness coming on, call your sponsor.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2008
"Veep Watch Drags On"; Obama's dreary schmaltz-fest.
See today's Boston Globe. Three days after our Biden prediction, sober TV heads keep saying Biden Biden Biden. WAC? was right about something? Another gratuitous prediction: in November, Hillary Clinton supporters vote for John McCain in nightmarish droves, often voting "R" for first and last time in their lives. Finally, Obama bores WAC? silly with the wimpified Kennedy-lite stuff. Real boomers are appalled: the hope, the dream, change, good crops, motherhood, justice for all, Sunday drives do not equal a platform. Months of nothing. Dude, we love your resume and work ethic, but just what are you saying?
AP file photo: Sen. Obama with Chairman Biden in 2007
Posted by JD Hull at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2008
China post-games economic hangover?
The "perfect storm"? See Ian Williams' Beijing column at NBC's World Blog, "Hangover After China's Party?"
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2008
Our Obama VP pick: Joe Biden
We don't love Obama--but we have some advice for him: Joe Biden.
At 65, Biden seems younger than his years--and at times more youthful than the candidate. Biden has been in the U.S. Senate more than half of his life (since he was 30), and knows his way around D.C. But he's still a stone natural campaigner and a skillful "people" guy--and good with the blue collar folks all over the U.S. Obama has trouble with now and will, in our view, continue to alienate. He's Roman Catholic, Irish, and, well, way more fun than Obama. Biden's a pol and lawyer--but never a Weenie. He's a survivor of great personal tragedy at a relatively early age and stage in his career, which we admire. In the past few years Biden has picked up big foreign policy credentials, which elude Obama. Cons: he's got some personal baggage, and sometimes he just talks too much.
Biden's only serious competition for the VP job is either unknown or lackluster. Note: We do like Hoosier Senator Evan Bayh, too--but we liked Evan's charismatic and inspirational dad, Birch, a lot better. We would love to see Evan "get more like Birch" as he matures. Evan Bayh is still young. Biden has Birch Bayh's gift for connecting with people now. Like 80-year-old Birch, Joe Biden can still whip up a crowd over 40 that didn't attend Harvard, Williams or Duke, or doesn't know which fork to use at the Cosmos Club.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
Sailing in Qingdao
Only at China Law Blog. Harris & Moure's Steve Dickinson is in Qingdao, an ancient but ultra-modern city in the Shandong province with over 7 million people living in the metro area:
...Qingdao has worked hard to ensure that the entire coastline within the city is open to the public. The Olympic Sailing Center opens up the last closed stretch of waterfront, which will greatly benefit the public....the intense fear of foreigners and the problems they might bring has resulted in a lack of foreign visitors to Qingdao in connection with the event. Spectators for the events seem to be almost exclusively from within China....the heightened security has made it even more difficult to get around town than usual. For the foreigners who actually made it to Qingdao, who would want to return to a place where your dancing companion in the local night club is a 50 year old policeman?
Posted by JD Hull at 01:39 AM | Comments (0)
All this law business: Foonberg, Cartier-Liebel & Greenfield
Two must-read and related posts, triggered by Beverly Hills lawyer Jay Foonberg, who literally wrote the books on building practices and getting/keeping good clients: "My Unexpected Phone Call with Jay Foonberg" by Susan Cartier Liebel and "The Professional Business of Law" by our buddy-for-life Scott Greenfield.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:46 AM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2008
Trout fishing in America.
Here and here, for the last eleven years. Throw in silvers, bears, lost seals, a consistent grandeur, "micro-climates", your real boss Nature and a special mix of humans and good friends from Europe, the Middle East, NYC and Midwestern America, along with the bows. A "bad day" at some spots is just eight Cohos or ten 19" rainbows. Mutant big Arctic Graylings or crazed-aggressive Dolly Varden Char on a fly rod will have to do. Six days which begin at 6:00 AM and often earlier at this established fly-out lodge. "So, how did you all do today?"
Posted by JD Hull at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2008
Action, speed, color, violence: Gen Y discussion has legs.
Maynard G. Krebs (circa 1962), Hero of The Slackoeisie.
Re: Hi, I'm Justin, and am very happy going through life as a turd--which, by the way, is your fault. Speaking of inspiration, it's August 18, and our May 20 post Who cares what makes Gen Y tick? keeps delivering strong comments, some remarkably angry, on both sides of the issue. Some of the language is eerily reminiscent of Bob Dylan's soul-sick closing lines of his song "Masters of War".* Our take is still: Gen Y gets points for turning unhappiness into a philosophy, we like your moxie, maybe it's our fault--but we're burning daylight here. Do something. You have formidable energies--if not a wit of discipline. Write a novel, maybe? (Nah, too hard.)
Hey, don't quit before the miracle happens.
*And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead.
Dang.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)
Blawg Review #173: World Record Swimming
Blawg Review is hosted this week by R. David Donoghue at Chicago IP Litigation Blog. No. 173 applies the principles for setting world swimming records to the blawgosphere.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2008
Wanted: Inspiration.
I apologize. Mea culpa. In just 10 days--while I was in Seattle and in a remote part of Alaska--my co-writers at WAC? turned this blog for the most part into a wank-fest of bad posts and poorly-planned re-postings of old posts (I deleted most of them). I was bored, disappointed, by what I saw. We all deserve better. But at this site, when things go wrong or get mediocre, it's all my fault. Totally.
Save the country. Save the children. Up in heaven, the late Laura Nyro hated WAC? this past week, too. I saw Nyro on my 18th birthday. She thought you could be angry and happy at the same time; I agree, and feel that every day. Laura got really angry at you if you had "no gospel, no guts, no brain". Because you are missing life, work, relationships, ideas, growth, old verities and joy. Be inspired--or hang it up, folks. Or at least don't blog that week.
Save the country. Save the children. Get a chip on your shoulder. Get angry and happy about something. Stretch big. Talk hard. And do something. If you don't feel that way, keep/get away from Laura and me. We deserve better. Hey, we're working hard at something here.
Laura Nyro (1947-1997) wanted you to have fury in your soul.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:01 PM | Comments (3)
Bush warns Russia re: South Ossetia and Abkhazia
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President Bush sent a stern warning to Russia on Saturday that it cannot lay claim to two regions in U.S.-backed Georgia even though their sympathies lie with Moscow. "There is no room for debate on this matter," the president said.
Searching for signs of progress, Bush told reporters at his Texas ranch that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's signing Saturday of a cease-fire plan was an important development — "a hopeful step."
"Now, Russia needs to honor the agreement and withdraw its forces and, of course, end military operations," in Georgia, a small former Soviet state on Russia's southwest border. [more]
Posted by JD Hull at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2008
What About Paris Hilton?
See "3.5 Million Viewers in 22 Hours" at Mark Del Bianco's Trying to Find the Sun.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:48 PM | Comments (1)
August 12, 2008
Blawg Review #172: The Olympics Come to the Blogosphere
This week's Blawg Review, No. 172, is hosted by Jon Hyman at Ohio Employer's Law Blog who puts on his own Olympic events in both labor and non-labor categories.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2008
Represent Only Clients You Like
The first in our series The 12 Rules of Client Service, Rule One is here from November 2005.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:09 PM | Comments (3)
August 09, 2008
Olympics 2008: Beijing
Ricardo Mazalan/AP
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
August 05, 2008
Victoria Pynchon's #171: Like a Vixen.
We'll show you an "aha" moment, you saucy flirt. The multi-talented Vickie Pynchon, an attractive lawyer in my neck of the jungle Holden Oliver has a huge thing for, writes Settle It Now--a site which, like its title, always makes too much sense--and the IP ADR Blog. She did the Blawg Review honors this week with #171. Her "Like-A-Virgin" edition (her first time) has a sexual theme. WAC? has taken a stand against this sort of thing generally--but it's not like #171 was more than she could handle, as it were. In fact, this is one of the best Blawg Reviews you'll see. It illustrates our often-made point that inexperienced BR hostesses often make up for lack of experience with enthusiasm, creativity and making the right moves and noises, if you
get our drift. She must have taken on about 50 of last week's posts, and Vickie finds sexual innuendo in about half of those. The only kinds of activity or persuasion not alluded to in her epic, exhaustive and heaving performance are Ben Wa balls, the Stair-Walker, things you can do with pearls, the Antler Dance, and "animal buddies", if you catch our meaning. I think Holden and a friend are driving down to Vickie's house in LA right now.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:17 PM | Comments (1)
August 04, 2008
Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)
Reuters, the Russian news agency Interfax and other sources are reporting that the novelist died of a stroke. The writer, historian, ex-Red Army soldier and dissident won the Nobel Prize in 1970.
Posted by JD Hull at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)
August 02, 2008
Korean family values
At Sam Crane's The Useless Tree, Ancient Chinese Thought in Modern American Life, see Modernization and Family Breakdown in Korea. "Why have Confucian family values declined in Korea?"
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2008
Fabulous in Minya, Egypt
Our peripatetic writer-photographer friend, Maryam of My Marrakesh, is now in Egypt.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)