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April 30, 2009
Reality as newsworthy: MBA sufferings in America.
Nobody's seen the MBA trouble I've seen. The Economist: Kellogg Serial: Five MBA students face up to the economic realities. All together now. "Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home". Life in the Big City can be tough. Dang.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)
April 29, 2009
To jurors, do your associates and paralegals seem like stone creeps?
Juries are not dumb and miss little. Jurors watch you and yours in the courtroom, the back of the courtroom, hallways, restrooms, parking lots, restaurants. Whether or not you think the people you bring to trial with you are capable of looking or acting like stone "creeps" at any moment during the roller-coaster ride of a trial, explain to these men and women in advance the importance of "maintaining" a demeanor which appears professional yet likable, amiable, fair and genuinely good-hearted.
Jurors, of course, will always surprise you.
No matter what an expert might tell you, or how hard you've worked at selection, you are always wrong about two or three of them. You've heard that.
Creep Control. Now hear this: don't go out of your way to antagonize jurors with sideshows which have nothing to do with the trial itself. Bring no "creeps" with you to trial. Keep them in the office. If they must show up--even for a moment--teach them to "un-creep" themselves, starting at 60 second intervals, and practicing until they can hold out for five minutes at a stretch. Hint: They pretend they are happy confident people who genuinely like other humans. Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat. And remember, you seek progress--not perfection. Be gentle at first.
Non-Creeps--and Recovering Creeps Who Under Pressure of Trial May Relapse in Public. Bring to trial no "non-creeps" capable of any snide, "mean" or creepy gesture, facial expression or body language glitch lasting more than one half-second. Instruct your non-creeps to read this post to be on the safe side. Reformed creeps--you spotted them early and sent them to rehab but they are ultimately powerless over they way they look or act--need pep talks, and brief courtroom appearances. See above.
A Note on Nerds. In doses, however, a few generic dweebs and law weenies running in and out of the courtroom carrying a huge box of documents, a phone message from your wife about Nantucket next summer with the Bloors, a good luck note from your mistress, your lucky bow-tie, your spats, your black cape with red lining, or your reserve pair of Bass Weejuns--the kind of people you routinely made fun of in high school--is okay. Jurors expect that. You're a lawyer. You live in a world where nerds are almost normal. Jurors get and tolerate that.
But jurors don't like self-important "assisting creeps". That's personal.
Let us explain more.
In 1997, after a two-and-a-half week trial, we won a jury defense verdict in a breach of contract and fraud trial involving three established companies and a super-nail biter which no one could call. Everyone had "bad" facts to deal with. All counsel and most witnesses did a fine job. An honest, fair, bright and even-tempered judge presided.
So we interviewed some jurors right after the trial--and were told by all but one of them that they were seriously annoyed by some of the sneers, body language, guffaws and antics of the fire-breathing "let's kick some ass" associates and paralegals in the firms helping the plaintiff and the co-defendant in and out of the courtroom. This seemed to happen a lot with two younger lawyers (I knew them both--nice people, usually...) in the same firm who sat together in the court room smirking and cockily approaching counsel's table bearing a note or message with an attitude that said: "take that" and "your sufferings will be legendary, chumps"--that kind of thing.
Harmless macho stuff--just a bit higher-pitched than the usual young lawyer nerd-dweeb-weenie style.
And in our interviews, some of the jurors used words like "creeps", "jerks" and worse to describe these people. The law firm's culprits were just over-jazzed, over-confident, over-macho and young (and they lost.) But their behavior, even subtle things, may have tipped the balance.
Don't screw up hard work and a client's chances at trial with mean-spirited sideshows confirming what many jurors thought about many lawyers anyway. Jurors are watching you, your attending GC, client representative and/or your witnesses AND your associates and paralegals like hawks: in and out of session, in the halls, in the back of the courtroom, restrooms, parking lots, restaurants. Very little is missed.
Whether or not you think your trial people (men or women) are capable of looking or acting like "creeps" and robots of war at any moment during the roller-coaster ride of a trial, explain to them in advance the importance of "maintaining" a demeanor which appears professional yet fair, friendly, amiable and genuinely good-hearted. Better yet, hire only those people to help you present your case to a jury.
From a Dan Hull piece WAC? published in 2007.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:40 AM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2009
Redux: Outside Counsel Blues
Managing Outside Counsel Survey--Part II at Wired GC. And we can't wait for the movie.
A modern General Counsel carefully seeks a few good law firms. (Art: R. Steadman)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Deliverance.
It was at a concert of lovely old music. After two or three notes of the piano the door was opened...to the other world. I sped through heaven and saw God at work. I suffered holy pains. I dropped all my defences and was afraid of nothing in the world. I accepted all things and to all things gave up my heart.
Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf.
1926 by Gret Widmann
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)
You think?
WSJ Law Blog: Recession Advice to Associates: Keep Your Head Down and Work.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2009
The real Earth Day guys--plus big green IP Blawg Review.
They were U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes--not Bob Redford, Leonardo DiCaprio, Laurie David or Al Gore, as each would be the first to admit. Nelson was a country lawyer, true Wisconsin character, and well-liked national politician. Hayes was, and is, a visionary academic and organizer. See this remembrance, "The Earth Day Senator", appearing in Water & Wastewater News in late 2005.
But don't coke ovens need love, too? Do see this past week's novel and worthwhile Blawg Review, which observes Earth Week. BR #208 is hosted by Green Patent Blog. GPB is a labor of skill and love by WAC?'s neighbor and new age IP lawyer Eric Lane, of Luce Forward's main office in San Diego. We would have noticed Eric's elegant #208 earlier--but we were busy wrangling with EPA's Region III in Philly over Benzene NESHAP and NPDES permits covering discharges from humongous still-operating 70-year-old coke oven batteries near Pittsburgh. You don't want the ground to catch on fire again, now do you?
Nelson
Hayes
Posted by JD Hull at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2009
The IMF and World Bank were super-noisy this week.
Is this play money like in Monopoly? First, earlier this week, The International Monetary Fund, as it prepared to have its annual meeting with the World Bank this weekend in DC, said that American financial institutions might lose $2.7 trillion, as part of the expected worldwide loss of over $4 trillion. Then, IMF top advisers said they wanted to aid all ailing countries (WSJ). Next, the World Bank said it wants to give extra infrastructure money to poorer nations in the amount of $45 billion (AP). Finally, the IMF Managing Director said he wants "speedy bank reform" (BBC News).
It's wonderful that the IMF-WB have the resources, clout and support from Congress and G-20 nations to do all this great "stuff"--because WAC? was certain before this week that they did not. It's true that at the G-20 summit earlier this month, delegates agreed to quadruple IMF funds to $1 trillion. But does anyone expect those nations to affirm that "decision" and deliver in short order?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2009
Happy birthday, sir.
When we in the West do write well, we thank two people who took chances and liberties with a gritty, often maligned language called English: Geoffrey Chaucer and, 150 years later, William Shakespeare, born on April 23, 1564.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Distinguish yourself. Surprise clients.
It's not about the lawyers anymore. No one cares you're a lawyer. Not impressive. A big so-what. In America, they made it easy to become a lawyer. Some day, everyone, including your waitress in Richmond, Kentucky, will be a lawyer. So get a head start on those you can. Distinguish yourself by serving clients. And get higher standards.
Rule 4: Deliver Legal Work That Change the Way Clients Think About Lawyers. From our annoying-but-true 12 Rules. Our waitress, Blaise, attended Oberlin, was Coif in law school, made Law Review, and has a Marshall Scholarship. And a kid. She's a CPA, too. She knows the difference between Whitman, Wordsworth and Whittier. She never feels sorry for herself. She thinks it's a privilege to just work. What about your waitress? When Blaise finds a job at a great firm--and she will--she's going to surprise clients with her work, her energy, her judgment and her Moxie.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2009
We, The Undisciplined, The Miserable.
For a long time I've thought that American business schools and the training programs of global and often publicly-traded companies do a much, much better job than do law firms of training recruits to value and adhere to the structure of a plan on an item for action.
Do we lawyers know how to get things done, done right and done on time? Do we even value that? I wonder.
I am not talking here about the simple "keeping face" and survival requirements of meeting client deal or court deadlines, or even about the cliches of working hard, creative thinking, "out of the box", working smart or being persistent. I mean structure, a real standard, and "practicing structure" every day--the discipline of (1) having a plan or strategy for any one project, client or non-client, (2) meeting internal project deadlines no matter what, and (3) applying the will to work that plan and timetable.
And making it a habit until it's natural--and fun.
"Structure" is not just the hard process of getting things done. It's a frame of mind and a value which must be sold to others in your shop--like the importance of making that 5 minute call to a client about a loose end at the end of the worst day you can remember, even while you could do it the next morning at 8:00. It's realizing that letting anything but emergency tasks "slide" makes you inefficient, unlikely to meet your real goals, and tired.
"What ever is he talking about?"
Do you get up early every day with a idea of what needs to be done on each project, and knowing the difference between "important" and "urgent"? Example: Monday is your deadline to have the final changes and notes to your web designer on your new firm website, an important but not urgent project you've talked about at internal meetings for months. So far, for once, you have been on track. But on Monday a longstanding client calls with two new projects; the new projects are exciting but not THAT urgent in the sense they need to cut into internal deadlines and other goals for Monday. You need to take some first steps, though, to get on top of the new matters for your client. After all, these folks are the main event.
Key ongoing internal project v. new client project. Which gets the most attention that day? Which slides? Answer: they both get attention, and neither slides. The website (long-term important) and the new client project (short-term important) are both critical projects. Years ago the Stephen Coveys and Edwards Demings out there pointed out that business people burn themselves out by waiting around only for "the urgent" in a kind of manic crisis management that keeps other important things from ever getting done or ONLY getting them done when they morph into a crisis. For lawyers, other examples would be only respecting deadlines like transaction closing dates and court-filing deadlines--to hell with everything else.
For a long time I've thought that American business schools and the training programs of global and often publicly-traded companies do a much, much better job than do law firms of training recruits to value and adhere to the structure of a plan on an item for action. It's almost as if law school and firms deem us all such "professionals" and "artists" that we are beyond learning skills of project planning and execution. What a crock. Not learning the value of pushing non-urgent but important things along at a steady pace has cost us dearly. As motivated as lawyers often are, our discipline for sticking to anything and seeing it through is often poor; again, unless it's urgent, we just don't see its value. Do our best clients run their businesses that way?
This attitude is the norm, and we lawyers--who rarely innovate or take a leadership position on anything in commerce--are just fine, thank you, with it. After all, "all the other law firms" are mediocre on the discipline of getting things done, and have "crisis-only" mentalities--why shouldn't we be that way? So we waste time blowing off important but longer term projects. Worst of all, we send to others in our firms, and especially to younger lawyers, the message: "No worries--just work on a barely adequate level; don't do things until you have to; and if it's not urgent, let it slide." As with client care and service, our standard is not only embarrassingly low, we are exporting that low standard internally whenever and wherever we can.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (4)
Real lawyers practice law. Blogging comes second
We got a profession for you right here. See Scott Greenfield's piece "Waiting For The Checks To Roll In", commenting on a WSJ Mark Penn column declaring that "blogging is the newest profession". Greenfield excerpt:
They [pro bloggers] work long hours? Again, I'm not quite impressed. Working 50 to 60 hours might seem like a great burden to some, but most lawyers consider that half time. We work as long as we need to work, and then we work a little more to make sure our work is done right.
Note: Greenfield is a trial lawyer who simply hasn't yet heard that hard and careful work has gone out of style. Odd guy.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
"...the only life I've ever known..."
U.S. Steel Building, 33rd ugliest building in U.S.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
GC-heavy: InsideCounsel's SuperConference, Chicago, May 5-6.
Perkins Coie partner and DNC Chairman Robert Bauer
By General Counsel for General Counsel. Major conferences for corporate lawyers are usually attended by hundreds of fine practitioners from outside firms--but a just handful of in-house lawyers. In ten days, Chicago hosts a glaring exception, and, so far (the organizers tell WAC?), one with the opposite breakdown: InsideCounsel magazine's 9th annual SuperConference at the Chicago Fairmont May 5-6.
It's different: GC-heavy.
We won't, of course, look down our nose at InsideCounsel for having a few registrants from law firms like David Boies, Fred Bartlit, former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, and DNC Chairman Robert Bauer. But top in-house lawyers at SuperConference so far include GCs for Cisco Systems, Chevron Philips, LG Electronics, Ingram Industries, WESCO International, Xerox, Microsoft, Whirlpool, Office Depot, Union Pacific, TV One, C-SPAN, FMC Technologies, the DNC, the Milwaukee Brewers, and many more "majors" you'd recognize. Chief in-house litigation counsel for DuPont, IBM and Cardinal Health are also participating.
The two-day meeting is "re-designed for 2009". So topics at the SuperConference won't be much of a surprise. If you can think of it, it will be covered. More details are here.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2009
Discovery: Who to depose, and how to get ready.
It’s supposed to be hard. That’s what makes baseball great.
--Tom Hanks, in a movie.
Even for "minimalists", intelligent discovery in a complex business case is hard, especially in its early stages, where you may be working a bit in the dark in the first few depositions. You need planning--which trial lawyers do not always love (planning is distasteful to us, like reading the directions, or inspecting a rental car)--and not just great instincts. For that reason, we liked this two-part article by Chicago's Stewart Weltman when it came out last year: "Deciding Who To Depose", Part I and Part II. For early case discovery, see this short WAC? piece: "Informal discovery: save time, save money, get better results". How do you make each of the first few depositions a fact-finding and case-building triumph? And accomplish that without "feeding the monster"? Even when things go well, litigation is expensive and disruptive in unexpected ways.
Hey. Wait a second. Do we even need to take this deposition?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Is Obama making some Americans go nuts?
Brit wits want to know. Whatever the ailment, it must be dicier than jetlag, and more contagious. We've noticed it, too. On television, at least one conservative talking head per day has blown a tube on the air; it started two weeks ago, right around the time Obama started getting on planes. What gives? WAC? voted for John McCain--but he (WAC?, or McCain for that matter) is not crazy from the loss. The Economist, too, wonders about "The Obama Derangement Syndrome":
Mr Obama may be widely admired both at home and abroad. But there are millions of Americans who do not like the cut of his jib—and a few whose dislike boils over into white-hot hatred.... The internet crackles with comparisons between Mr Obama and various dictators (Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini) or assorted psychotics (Charles Manson and David Koresh).
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
Blawg Review by two lawyer-journalists.
Query: What if H.L Mencken had been a lawyer, too?
Since October 2008, I've been working and traveling more than I would have expected. Family, clients and our law firm come first--in that order. Always in fourth place: all non-billable writing. That means blog posts, articles and op-ed pieces with pithy titles like "The Future of Awesome New Rule 502, F.R.E." and "The Mood of the Midwest: Victimized Women Lawyers of South Bend Speak Out" and "George W. Bush: One Of Us" are last. Repeat: blogging is fourth. Always. But we still read Blawg Review every week--whether we write about it or not. Always.
Blawg Review has become increasingly global and inclusive--without losing its edge and relevancy. In the last two weeks, it was hosted first (a) by one of the best of the established legal blog writers (a Yank), and then last week (b) by one of the newer crop of thinker-writers (not-a-Yank, but we'll claim this guy anyway):
The "down" economy may change forever the way clients choose and work with outside lawyers. But what of sound lawyering and sane writing? We just don't expect either to go out of style; we do worry that cookie-cutter, mail-it-in lawyering, and lame legal writing, are part of a trend foisted on us all by a growing and insidious herd of "law cattle" which, like livestock over the centuries, don't know it when they're fouling up the pasture. Well, fellow Scots-Welshman J. Craig Williams is one of the few true lawyer-journalists out there. We like that he even exists. Trial lawyer and writer--excellent and enduring in each discipline--Craig turned in a fine Celtic Blawg Review #206: "All Things Scottish" at his May It Please The Court.
Williams, incidentally, is one of the handful of lawyer-bloggers I have met, or really wanted to meet, on his or her own turf. That list is short, but satisfying: Chicago's Pat Lamb, "Ed." of Blawg Review, London's Justin Patten and Charon QC, Seattle's Kevin O'Keefe (China lawyer Dan Harris, also of Seattle, quite rudely left town upon hearing of my trip) and, finally, the UK's GeekLawyer (which frankly is more like meeting 7 or 8 people).
But here's another lawyer-journalist I'd like to meet. Last week, Jordan Furlong, a visionary but sober Canadian writer--similarly, you rarely see both attributes at once in one human--again gave us something to admire with Blawg Review #207: "All the News That Fits" at his Law21. Jordan immediately impressed WAC? with his insights on where this profession is headed--at least in The West--when he started Law 21 in January 2008. He's been right about a few things.
WAC? included these two sites--along with, of course, the genuinely profession-changing phenomenon of Blawg Review itself--in our February 9 post about the handful of must-read blogs. There just aren't that many, folks.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
Don't bogart that TIME Magazine, my friend.
Bong Hits for Henry Luce? You and I cannot write this kind of thing, Ernest. TIME columnist and novelist Joe Klein, who is different than us, can. See his "Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense" in the current TIME issue. I was in San Francisco yesterday with old reporter friends; someone wondered if "blunt" and "joint" might be replaced by "Henry" or "Luce" or, better yet, "Hadden", to name it after Henry's way more fun--and likely more talented--Hotchkiss-Yale pal and co-founder, Briton, who died quite young. Well, maybe not. But all of a sudden I'm really really hungry.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2009
Writing Well: The Editor
I have performed the necessary butchery. Here is the bleeding corpse.
--Henry James (1843-1916), after a request by the Times Literary Supplement to cut 3 lines from a 5,000 word article.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2009
Posted by JD Hull at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2009
Building a Better Brand Morgue
Remember back in the day that store called Circuit City? It's hardly a notion that at first blush makes you bounce out of bed eagerly to greet the new day. But Salon.com has collected some very instructive swan songs at its Brand Graveyard. To be fair, and on the brighter side, some of the brands discussed--like Saab, for example--are merely sick or dying. They have been mismanaged, and often it seems like their owners have been trying hard to kill them. Which reminds me to ask: would some nice northern European company please buy Saab back from GM? See today's Bloomberg.
"The Brand Graveyard is where brands go to die."
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
April 15, 2009
Good enough, smart enough, tough enough.
Stuart saves Minnesota? And patient enough. "Senator Franken" still sounds, well, funny--but we'll take him even though there have been far less able legislators in the U.S. Senate than D-turned-R Norm Coleman. Too bad that Minnesota--historically a liberal state that has more than once played a major role in defining U.S. populism--can't have them both this term. AP two days ago: "Minnesota court declares Franken leading vote-getter". Problem: we can expect more legal "wrangling". So see Bonnie Erbe's modest proposal yesterday at USNWR.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
April 12, 2009
Renewal, rebirth--and tool sharpening.
Spring ushers in important observances by most religions. But nearly everyone--Pagans, atheists, Scots, Picts, humans who notice their natural world a bit more, and plain ample folk in Pittsburgh and Cleveland--do a little dance, jig or stylish waddle or two to celebrate.
Rebirth, renewal, the beginning of a new life cycle, the order of things repeated, Being Here Now, fresh starts and real resolutions for real life. Well, here's one observance for us more pedestrian types who have to work this weekend: The 12 Rules of Client Service. They are based on real life and real lawyering--in that order.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Hill of Slane
The legend: In 433 A.D., on the eve of Easter, St. Patrick lit a bonfire here as part of his campaign to convert the druids to Christianity. Patrick allegedly did this to defy the High King Laoire who forbid any other fires while a Beltane festival fire was burning on the nearby Hill of Tara (in what is now in Meath County). Druids didn't write much 1600 years ago so we do not know how they felt about this.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 06:58 PM | Comments (0)
Easter Rising 1916
The proclamation was read by Patrick Pearse outside the General Post Office in Dublin on Sackville Street (since 1924 O'Connell Street)--and the Rising began. It was modeled on a similar proclamation by Robert Emmet in 1803.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:39 PM | Comments (1)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:56 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2009
Breaking news: $90 is too much for pay for torn jeans.
News of the Revolution. And $300 and hour is too much to pay for a first year associate to read documents--if not fraud. MSNBC: "How Abercrombie & Fitch is losing its cool".
"Liberty Leading The People" by Eugene Delcroix, 1830, The Louvre
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
I got some Easter for you right here.
Roman version: a bit rowdy--but we'll give them a pass. They didn't know.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2009
Beavis, just tell them: "No pro bono--no Beavis".
Reformation of the evils of BigLaw is a wonderful thing.... [The] evil [is] to the clients who pay for useless hours by young associates whose work product could be more swiftly and competently produced by monkeys sitting at typewriters in the bowels of the Library of Britain.
We're glad someone has the guts and Simple Honesty to just say it. See "Slackoisie to Biglaw: Be Funner" at Church of Greenfield. Most of you? You are not worthy. Ya' big weenies.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:28 AM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2009
Comrade Kim gets re-elected.
New York Times: "Unopposed, Kim Jong-Il Takes Third Term".
Taking measure of running-dog lackeys of imperialist West.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2009
Query: How many law students does it take to read a newspaper?
Clueless in America. When WAC? was just 25-years-old, he was already a brilliant securities lawyer, independently wealthy, and a leading expert on: (1) law firm economics and management, and (2) working with clients in global markets. And so were all his friends. Well, weren't you? Hey, it could happen. And monkeys could fly out of your wazoo.
Anyway, the National Law Journal on April 7 reported that: "Despite Decimated Job Market, Top Law Students Gather to Further Goal of Changing Big Law Firms". Excerpt:
The goal of Building a Better Legal Profession (BBLP) [the student group] is to create collective action among students and associates from top schools to prod large law firms to implement what it says are significant changes needed in billable hour requirements, diversity and the commitment to pro bono work. Their hope is that students and associates from the best schools will not accept jobs at firms that do not change their ways.
Available only in ladies lightweight at Famous Forever.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2009
Obama in Europe: More than Kennedy-lite.
WAC? is wrong about many things--and was wrong to suggest five months ago that Barack Obama was not ready for prime time on terrain outside the U.S. Maybe Obama can't save the world, or your 401(k)--but our phlegmy Brit friends give Obama high marks for making friends in Europe. They do so, of course, without gushing. See The Economist: "The G20 Summit: The Obama Effect". It was published April 2 but still captures the Obama "atmospherics" in the days since then. Obama has even charmed dour Prague, where (despite its arresting beauty) being in a really bad mood has long been a popular sport. And as expected, France and Germany may emerge as the nations least likely to support aggressive stimulus measures:
President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe had done a lot already to provide economic stimulus. What was needed was far tougher regulation, whose targets would include hedge funds, traders’ pay, rating agencies and tax havens. Both of them seemed keener on trying to prevent financial crises in future than on dealing with the one that is raging now.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
Pre-trial.
Caravaggio's The Cardsharps (c. 1594)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2009
Puebla, Mexico
El Popo: The volcano Popocatapetl, from the old San Francisco Cathedral, Puebla, Mexico.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Bang, bang.
Break out of captivity
And follow me, stereo jungle child
Love is the kill.....your heart's still wild.
No time for Weenies. Time for lawyers to lead. Put clients first. Tell clients what you really think. Give advice--not just options. Stop covering your ass. Take risks. Stop pretending you are "special". Minimize clubbiness. Stop making the law about your convenience and schedule. Fire bad clients. Fight mediocrity. Fight mediocre lawyering.
Stop writing documents which sound like mental patients talking to themselves.
Surround yourself with strong talented people who challenge you. Fire employees who who don't buy into your goals--or who don't or won't get it--and stop pretending they'll see the light. Demand that law schools give you minimally functional, motivated, self-reliant graduates who can think on their own--and who believe that any kind of work is an honor and privilege to perform.
Think like a business person and not a mere academic. Practice discipline and structure. Help clients control costs. Become a trusted consigiliere. Change the way people think about lawyers. Stop being a weenie. Act. Serve.
Warner Bros./Columbia Records
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:02 PM | Comments (3)
Overheard in Los Angeles
Life is short, opera is long, Wagner is longer.
--Plácido Domingo, Spanish tenor, L.A. Opera general director
German tenor Johannes Sembach (1881-1944) as Lohengrin.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)
Desperately Seeking Value For Clients.
Four 'down-economy' questions:
1. After the economy stabilizes, "should associates pay their law firms in the first two to three years?"
2. American law schools need to step up--or get out of the way. Why not bottle up students for only 1.5 years--and then release them so they can learn something about lawyering? Isn't it time to shorten classroom legal education, and let Law-Firms-That-Teach be paid for--or at least not have to pay for themselves--what they give to young lawyers?
3. In the short-term, when Big Clients find out they were being charged in excess of paralegal rates for high-priced associates-in-training to do paralegal work, will those clients sue for the difference? Lots of great class action firms out there. Talk about strange bedfellows--and novel clients for the dreaded Rule 23 Royalty.
4. Restitution is the millions would be in play. But is there money left in the law firms to pay for the judgments?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 05:20 AM | Comments (0)
Wild Men
And Wild Women. They love Value. And Quality. And Stepping Up. Wild Men and Women are people who listen only to the little voice in their head. They get things done. They build things. They don't care what you think. Uncertainty and turbulence--in the economy, stock markets, governments, the weather, you name it--only get their juices flowing.
1. Ben Franklin
2. Ted Turner
3. Dr. Johnson
4. Dr. Thompson
5. Theodore Roosevelt (yes, he was wild)
6. Andrew Jackson
7. Ayn Rand
8. Ana Marie Cox
9. Boudica
10. Dustin Hoffman
11. Winston Churchill
12. Benjamin Disraeli
13. Arianna Huffington
14. Bucky Fuller
15. Jerry Lee Lewis
16. Bill Buckley
17. Bill Clinton
18. Steve Jobs
19. Captain Harry (Charleston SC fishing/hunting guide)
20. Welsh and Irish guys when they're sober
21. Nick Nolte
22. Ernie from Glen Burnie (DC lawyer, alias of WAC? childhood friend)
23. Christopher Columbus
24. Jann Wenner
25. Sean Penn
26. Ken Wilbur
27. Plato
28. Catherine the Great
29. Val Kilmer
30. Harry Dean Stanton
31. Scott Greenfield
32. Julius Caesar
33. Pete Seeger
34. John Lennon
35. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (3)
April 04, 2009
Hesse nails it.
Ah, but it is hard to find this track of the divine in the midst of this life we lead...
Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf (1927)
Photo: Gret Widmann, 1926
Posted by JD Hull at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2009
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Celestial: Declarations and Exclusions
We worked hard this week--but did one mandatory non-billable thing. We visited, read and listened to George Wallace's Blawg Review #205, and admired his bonus post for you April fools. Speaking of same, the late Holden Oliver, misanthrope and tragic philanderer, once said that California's erudite Wallace was "the only insurance lawyer living who doesn't remind me of a plant, a rock or a household appliance". Our short form review of #205 should do it: fine, authentic, literate, worldly--and celestial. His Appendix to #205? We'll get to it. Busy here.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 02, 2009
Keeping Clients: "Do we really need a memo on that?"
Maybe go to the mirror and practice saying that to your client. Another way to say it:
You know, Elizabeth, this project had been lawyered and memo-ed out the proverbial wazoo. Let's do the research right away. We can get Justin and Brittany to start on it today; they know the legal terrain here. But after we research it, let's just have the [brief/letter/contract] reflect what we conclude. That's where we're headed with this anyway. Let's skip the lengthy legal memorandum.
There are times you don't need to scorch the earth. To save time, money and relationships, just answer the question. Do the research, take a stand, and write it all up in the instrument you are actually going to use anyway.
Stop Feeding the Monster. Skip the 10-, 20- and 35-page memo.
Aside from necessary opinion letters, don't offer to write or write a cover-everyone's-ass and/or comprehensive "all-legal-theories-and-strategies" memorandum unless your in-house lawyer really wants it. And then try to talk her or him out of it.
Part of the job of outside counsel is to guide the in-house--and make him or her be good and look good by saving money and time. If you are in litigation, test out your brilliant ideas and research in a draft brief or another document the client can actually use later on. Skip the 10-, 20- and 35-page memo. Try to make memos you do do be shorter, and reflect the group's cumulative thinking on that issue or project.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
The G-20 summit: Venus considers Mars.
It's no surprise that European caution versus U.S. drive toward stimulus strategies is the main theme of President Obama's eight-day trip. The Associated Press notes that "Europeans look to welfare, not stimulus, in crisis". Excerpts:
Across a continent long accustomed to big government and high taxes, many Europeans are counting on generous welfare benefits to shield them from the worst of the meltdown. Others worry that loosening interest rates would lead to devastating inflation.
In the American view, the economic house is on fire, and only quick and decisive action will put out the flames. Europe is not quite as ready to pull the alarm.
For all their talk of coming together at this week's summit of the G-20 economic powers in London, European leaders have been openly skeptical of corporate bailouts and massive U.S.-style stimulus spending.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 02:13 AM | Comments (2)
April 01, 2009
Holden H. Oliver (1968-2009)
WAC? co-writer, former reporter and third-year law student Holden Oliver died Tuesday in Palo Alto at Stanford University Medical Center. A Boston native, and from a family that has lived in eastern Massachusetts for nearly 380 years, Holden graduated with a degree in English (highest honors) from Williams College in 1990. A former reporter for the Kansas City Star in its Washington, D.C. office, he also worked for ten years in the London and Frankfurt bureaus of the New York Times. Holden entered Stanford Law School in 2006, and joined WAC? "out of boredom" while still a student in early 2007. Last year, he was elected to the Managing Board of the Stanford Law Review, and worked in July in Hull McGuire's Pittsburgh office. His death was the result of a kiln explosion in which his ex-girlfriend, a Stanford undergraduate co-ed half his age, was apparently not injured in any respect. If you wish to help us honor Holden's life, his sarcastic uber-WASP prose style, his support of the profession's growing value movement, and his energetic if, frankly, amoral lifestyle, donations can be made in his name to the Nantucket Preservation Trust, the Cosmos Club or Kelly's Irish Times in Washington, D.C.
Posted by JD Hull at 06:49 AM | Comments (3)