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September 30, 2009
An American deadline in Paris?
Law is no longer local--and neither is the apparatus for doing it.
The court. A colleague. A crisp clerk named Zoe at the hotel. Face-to-face beats all other modes of getting points across. And you can't pick a jury over the phone in the SDNY from Cardiff, Brussels or Prague. But in most U.S. courts you can file documents electronically from anywhere. Three issues: (1) staying organized, (2) managing jet-lag, and (3) the quality of the tech infrastructure once you get there--real challenges for clients and lawyers who know that travel is rarely that smooth, pretty or glamorous. "No. 'Eze impossible, Mr. Hool, you must wait for our technician Mr. Pare who comes back in the morning. Yes? Try new business center. And no--no page 3 of fax for you. Have very nice evening. Goodbye for now. Yes? Of course my pleasure." For fun, see Ile St Louis: U.S. litigation conducted from Left Bank.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
Gare d'Orsay
Taken of the former famous train station, now a famous museum, on January 9, 2008 by Eric at ParisDailyPhoto. Called Photo of the Year in 2008 by The Paris Blog.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
September 29, 2009
Great targeted clients aren't that into you. Show you're good at what you do. And get a plan.
Fred, where'd you buy those dandy two-toned golf shoes? May mosey on down to BassPro this weekend and get a pair myself. Having lunch at the Boom Boom Club, playing golf in Scotland, attending services at the Church of the Final Thunder, religiously following Ball State sports, or even spending three idyllic weeks a year in Tuscany with your most prized targeted client or GC and his wife/mistress means zilch unless (1) you are really good at what you do, (2) you can show that meaningfully, (3) and you have a plan to move the ball toward landing business.
Don't get me wrong; that GC you seek likes and even trusts you.
But so what? Landing the business of great companies takes more than being in the same clubs and running in the same circles. Are you and yours really that good at what you do? Can you distinguish your firm from other firms? Why should the in-house hire you?
"Advances". One more thing. Please understand that the client not only needs a reason based on merit; once you "qualify", he/she must have your firm "present to mind". On the subject of moving the ball once you start getting noticed, read Jim Hassett's "How to increase results by planning sales advances" at his Legal Business Development. In his live presentations and tapes, Jim talks convincingly on the need to "plan advances" while prospecting for new business--and how to do it. We don't tout biz development consultants that much. We made an exception a long time ago with Hassett.
Barney Fife knew the Art of the Hassett Advance. (Paramount)
Posted by Rob Bodine at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2009
Talk to the China Hand: "China Trademarks--Do You Feel Lucky?"
Read it again. Listen to Dan Harris, no punk, never law cattle, and hands down the most feisty China hand on the planet, at China Law Blog, "Part II: Do You Feel Lucky? Do You?". Seattle-based Harris is a transplanted Hoosier with Moxie--even though he inexplicably sidestepped one-on-one hoops challenges from the undersigned in August 2008, when he was in Seattle. (Speculation: WAC? is older but taller, quicker, meaner, has better jump shot, and shoots with either hand.) But outside of basketball, Dan's the Greater China business king. Talk to the old China hand in a post from last year we love.
"Well, do you, punk?" (Warner Bros.)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2009
Pittsburgh: Lord, Take Me Downtown.
I'm just looking for a way to get into work. The irony of the third G-20 summit? Despite the worldwide plug Pittsburgh is getting, the summit short-term is bad for business in Pittsburgh. For a couple of days, anyway. This proud and enduring old steel town built modern America and much of the world. It has a bustling downtown area built on a narrow concrete peninsula, with fine corporate lawyers, tech start-up employees, bankers and Fortune 500 execs housed in gorgeous buildings, often older gilded age stock built at the turn of the last century. It also has a local economy that peaked circa 1946.
And Pittsburghers? Well, they all want back in the game. Based on the past two decades of admirable re-thinking and reinvention, they will likely get there. Although both geographically and culturally isolated, Western Pennsylvania remains a storied region of characters and character. These are tough and determined people. But right this minute the City is effectively shut down for business. Due to security concerns, today and tomorrow, you can't get down to, ahem, the US Steel Tower to contribute to the restoration of our faltering global economy. Are at least the bars in Southside open?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2009
Today in Calais: French police lose it a little.
Stranger and more violent things have happened on the shore facing Kent over the past 2200 years. But illegal immigration is increasingly a big issue in Europe. Relations between official France and the UK have suffered. See the AP story:
CALAIS, France--French police cleared out then bulldozed a squalid, sprawling forest camp near the northern city of Calais on Tuesday, detaining hundreds of illegal migrants who had hoped to slip across the English Channel into Britain.
French Immigration Minister Eric Besson, who visited the site known as "the jungle," called it a "base camp for human traffickers" and said he would return the rule of law to the northern French coast.
"The law of the jungle cannot last eternally," Besson said. "A state of law must be re-established in Calais." [more]
Posted by Rob Bodine at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Real heros: Milan Fashion Week
This month, it may trump American towns as a venue for a meeting.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2009
Redux: Martindale-Hubbell: Should we all just say no?
Note: The following is from an August 5, 2008 post. Any new takes on this?
Is a Martindale-Hubbell listing worth it anymore?
We're not unhappy with the M-H ratings process; generally speaking, if done responsibly and without in effect requiring the "purchase" of the rating, a credible if imperfect ratings process for the global legal community makes lots of sense. And M-H accomplished that decades ago.* But, in view of other and newer ways for law firms to have visibility and credibility, the price of listings at M-H is now officially a rip-off. Lots of fine lawyers seem to be complaining about it, at least in private, both in the U.S. and non-U.S. It's not that Martindale hasn't tried. See, for example, at Law.com the piece "Martindale-Hubbell Gets a Makeover" (mentioning Avvo, LawLink and Legal OnRamp, as new alternatives for marketing, networking and lawyer ratings).
*Martindale-Hubbell is no joke. It has a fine, time-honored and even classy reputation, and a history of good work and real utility in the profession. Our firm, Hull McGuire, has actively and earnestly participated in the M-H ratings processes for years; we are happy with the ratings our lawyers received. But, in good times or bad times, the current cost to list firm attorneys for any size firm, with or without multiple offices, is prohibitive and should be resisted on principle given other alternatives. It just isn't worth it. We predict that lawyers will bolt in droves in the next 2 years.
Our humble take: as other ways to locate lawyers emerged, M-H never saw the light fast enough, and didn't successfully change or expand its other services to preempt a backlash. It continued to charge big listing fees that everyone complained about for years. More recently (say, the last 3 years), M-H expenses managed to stay in law firm budgets--but exceeded just about everyone's irritation levels. M-H listings now makes no business sense to anyone sane. Only the embarrassingly lame, gimmicky "Super Lawyer" concept could make Martindale look good these days.
Start the revolution?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
September 15, 2009
The Economist: Is Atlanticism striking out in Eastern Europe?
For nearly twenty years, ex-communist regions of Europe were high on America. The U.S. had been viewed as an unfailing cheerleader, and consistent source of support, throughout the Cold War. These days, however, Eastern Europe is clearly not as hopeful or as enthusiastic about that political and emotional tie. To learn why, see a piece we almost missed in last week's The Economist, "The Atlantic Alliance is Waning in Europe’s East". Excerpt:
The ascent of Barack Obama has boosted America’s image in most countries, but only modestly in places like Poland and Romania. Among policymakers in the east, the dismay is tangible. In July, 22 senior figures from the region, including Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa, wrote a public letter bemoaning the decline in transatlantic ties.
One reason is that the Obama administration is rethinking a planned missile-defence system, which would have placed ten interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic, in order to guard against Iranian missile attacks on America and much of Europe. That infuriated Russia, which saw the bases as a blatant push into its front yard. Changing the scheme—probably using seaborne interceptors—risks looking like a climb-down to suit Russian interests.
Bucharest, Romania
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2009
One American's Kashmir
This summer WAC?'s peripatetic friend Maryam, a Morocco-based photojournalist at My Marrakesh, visited the legendarily beautiful but long-troubled Kashmir region of India, in India's northwest. She came away with some arresting photos like the one below. See them here.
Posted by JD Hull at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2009
Two Windsor Castle gargolyes
Posted by JD Hull at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2009
Pointe Aux Barques, Michigan
For me, it beats Big Sur and the Austrian Alps. My favorite place in the world, it is desolate in the winter and still beautiful. Not too many people live here year round: about 10, they say, and even that may be a U.S. Census error. No one around. PAB sits on the northern-most point of the Michigan Thumb, between Port Austin and Grindstone City, on Lake Huron. It was built as a resort community for St. Louis and Detroit business people in the mid-1890s.
When I was growing up and we moved about after leaving the DC area--Chicago, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Chicago again, and finally Cincinnati--we spent June and July here no matter where we lived. Had my first "businesses" here (teaching tennis and later a carwash with my brother). This was the only constant place in my childhood. I still dream about the cliffs and the lake and smallmouth bass and our four dogs and my friends. Edgar Guest, the people's poet, a kind of lyrical Will Rogers, owned a cottage on the main still-nameless road. I used to sit on his porch with my first girlfriend, with whom I am still in touch. I've been here in the winter before, when I was in law school; yet being here during any season is hard to describe.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)
September 10, 2009
Extreme ambitions suddenly seize Russia.
Maybe master shape-shifting first, Comrades? See Newsweek: "Medvedev's Anti-Alcohol Campaign Tries to Make Russia Sober Up". The idea is to cut the country's per capita intake of booze by 25% by 2012. Seriously, sirs, good luck with this one: a hard problem that is likely beyond cultural.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Disraeli on books.
Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
"Dizzy"
Posted by Rob Bodine at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2009
Litigation: Two Ways of the Trial Notebook.
Originally posted September 8, 2008 from Amsterdam:
From the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, where there are Old Ones and Young Ones in their dark Monday suits: Men of all ages with shaved heads who look a lot like Moby, in different sizes. Two guys who resemble the late Hunter Thompson, only calmer. And tall trilingual Nordic women, many beautiful, none serene today, with serious faces, clutching open cell phones and tiny red laptops.
All prepare for battle this week in the mostly-down markets of the West.
Grasshopper, when you get back to the States, it's trial time again. ADR, with its frequent moments of sanity, is over. Change gears to U.S. courts. For business trials, or non-business trials, bench or jury, see for starters the outlines for Trial Notebooks, either One or Two, at Evan Schaeffer's Illinois Trial Practice. We like the latter, but please mix and match. Utilize your barely-used brain. Both sides of it.
And be advised. As Tom Hanks, or someone, once said: "There is no boilerplate in baseball". Each client, each problem to solve, each transaction, and each trial: each is wonderfully unique, and Different From The Other, whether your firm does "cookie-cutter" work or not.
(Photo: Warner Bros.)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2009
Remedies: More China Mistress Sex Contract Law.
Chinese courts tend to look much more at the equities of a situation than at the literal meaning of the contract or of the written laws.
Me pay you long time. See China Law Blog and "China Sex, Mistresses, And Improper Payments, And What They Mean For Your China Business Litigation. Part II, The Contracts Do Matter Edition".
Posted by Rob Bodine at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)
The 3 best damn podcast shows for business lawyers.
WAC?, and the undersigned especially, is wrong about many things. We would never have predicted that "Podcasts"--or Internet-based radio shows--would have lasted, due to competition with so many other new forms of media, both Net and not-Net. "Build it, and they will come--if they are interested enough", however, seems to be the Law of the Net.
Nor would we have necessarily expected that some of the lawyer podcast "shows" would be so consistently first-rate, and always worth our time to listen. We lawyers are notoriously late to anything novel, excellent and fun. Not so with the Art of the Podcast.
Below without question and in alphabetical order are the best three damn podcasts shows for lawyers, and especially for thinking business attorneys. Each covers or touches on more than lawyering, transactions, and courts and forums around the world; these broadcasts also take on global news, international business, the Net, new IP, and politics. Each has been around a few years, and endured through persistence, quality and continuing improvement:
1. Charon QC's Podcasts, Mike Semple Piggot, London, England.
2. CPR's International Dispute Negotiation series, Mike McIlwrath, GE, Florence, Italy.
3. Lawyer-2-Lawyer, Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi, LegalTalkNetwork, Los Angeles and Boston.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2009
And the girl in the 100 year old dress is...?
See Maryam's My Marrakesh.
Photos: "Mr. Maryam"
Posted by JD Hull at 08:49 PM | Comments (1)
September 05, 2009
These Days Drink Moxie--And Lots of It.
Sometimes you have to look reality in the eye and deny it.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
Plan B for recruiting "Grunts"?
The "elite" associates you recruited: Would they fight for your clients? Would they fight for anyone? (Columbia Pictures, 1981)
Uh, "associates", rather. But maybe grunts is the "right" word. Who said their life was ever supposed to be easy? Who without a love and yen for complexity, challenge and hard things in life would ever chose private law practice? Well, many young people are; frankly, the law is "too hard" for them--way too hard--and they are failing.
Not much fight in these humans, either. Not much gospel. Remember: we're not taking about divinity, forestry or hotel management grads. People who attend law schools are signing up for war. And we're often getting Teletubbies on Thorazine.
Don't look to blame law firms or their clients. The demands of practice have not changed very much in the last 30 years. Blame the other "us": parents, and law schools. We are raising and educating Mega-Wimps. And they are miserable in any demanding job.
The Point. Are we recruiting from the "right" schools? Plan A: law review from top schools. Plan B: non-elite law school grads. (Plan C: dirt poor kids from evening divisions who think any work is a great privilege and honor--we'll get there yet, and it's probably the answer.)
Plan B. While you think about it--and we are as we are fascinated by the subject--see this month's issue of American Lawyer magazine, and a piece by Ronit Dinovitzer and Bryant Garth, "Not That Into You". Dinovitzer and Garth find that graduates of lower-tier law schools are more appreciative of their jobs at large law firms, so they start those jobs with the intent to work towards partnership. But graduates of elite law schools are less satisfied with the long hours associated with those jobs, in part because they view them as mere stepping stones towards their actual target positions. Nevertheless, large law firms cling to the policy of preference for the elite graduates. Should they?
Our thanks for the heads up to our coach, spiritual leader, and lawyer's lawyer Ray Ward. They broke the mold on you, sir.
Posted by Rob Bodine at 12:51 AM | Comments (0)
September 04, 2009
P&G's new chief Bob McDonald: On leadership.
The graveyards of leadership are littered with people who have ignored culture.
Bob McDonald, the new CEO of Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), which ranks 10th on Fortune’s Most Admired Companies list, recently discussed his leadership philosophy on “Strategy with Passion” on the VoiceAmerica Business Channel. McDonald teaches that, to be successful, one must study and appreciate the client's culture. You can-–and should--hear the interview in this podcast. McDonald joins the discussion at 16:58. If you would like to see his leadership philosophy in print, it’s in the appendix to The Leader’s Compass, 2nd Edition.
Procter & Gamble Co.'s Bob McDonald. He just received a 40% salary raise--up to $1.4 million--when he took over as chief executive last month. Like P&G or not, the company and its home-grown management have a history of profits, stability and genuine class. Just twelve CEOs in a 173 years.
Posted by Rob Bodine at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2009
The Duke Experience
From yesterday's edition of The Chronicle, the enduring and well-regarded Duke student daily:
JUDGE OKS PRESSLER'S SLANDER SUIT
A North Carolina appeals court ruled Tuesday that former men's lacrosse coach Mike Pressler can continue with a lawsuit against the University.
Pressler--who signed a settlement in 2007 with the University after he was fired following the false rape allegations in 2006--charges that John Burness, former Duke senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, made slanderous remarks about him after and in violation of the settlement, which included a clause precluding defamatory comments.
[more]
Posted by JD Hull at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2009
Devil Perfectionism
Tormented GC in South East Asia: "The dweebs. The dweebs."
The downside of Type-A. Perfectionism. A great place to "be from". A wonderful instinct, if controlled. It's also a curse: of eldest children, professionals, knowledge workers, most lawyers, all spouses, your Mom, and the geek classes, or Techwazee.
The horror, the horror. Too much, and you need rehab. Worse, your senior partner will start questioning your judgment. Clients 99% of the time are not paying you to be perfect. They don't want it.
Be excellent--not perfect. See "Rule 10: Be Accurate, Thorough and Timely--But Not Perfect" in WAC?'s annoying-but-accurate 12 Rules.
(Photo: Paramount Pictures)
Posted by Rob Bodine at 12:01 AM | Comments (1)