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November 30, 2011

Rep. Barney Frank Retires: One Far-Out Mother Who Everyone Will Miss.

Political persuasion, party affiliation and sexual preference rarely define anyone. Heart, soul and moxie do. We will all miss Barney Frank, who is leaving the U.S. House of Representatives after 32 years. See yesterday's Politico at page one and Frank Legacy: ‘One of a Kind’. Frank, now 71, was a partisan Democrat. But in the tradition of Henry Clay, Jacob Javits, Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy, he could cut non-partisan deals. Excerpt:

Frank rose to prominence during the early years of C-SPAN coverage of House floor action, perfecting the art of drawing sharp contrasts in public debate while negotiating compromises behind closed doors.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Regarding Chula of Paris.

See at Richard Nahem's I Prefer Paris Meredith Mullins: A New Perspective, which appeared yesterday. It begins:

I first met Chula on a street in Paris. I admit to being terrible at recognizing celebrities, but there was something about Chula that made me take notice.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2011

OECD: American and EU fiscal leadership may make global recovery a pipedream.

The respected Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts a gloomy near-term future--unless Western leaders step up. See this piece at MSNBC and the OECD summaries.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:02 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2011

Mitt Romney is like his dad Michigan governor George in any respect?

I don't see it--but the Washington Post does. See "George and Mitt Romney: Like father, like son, until a political parting point".

Posted by JD Hull at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2011

Bisbee, Arizona

An ancient copper mining town invaded by old hippies with shiny new ideas, Bisbee is one of the few venues in America where the Chamber of Commerce might greet you in Grateful Dead tees.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:24 PM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2011

So for the next two weeks I'll be on Jenkins Hill.

To most people who actually live in Washington, D.C., Jenkins Hill is the name of a now-defunct but enormously popular yuppie bar near Pennsylvania and 3rd, Southeast, that helped break up a lot of marriages in the 1980s and 1990s. It's also the name of an ancient plot of land which became Capitol Hill--but hardly anyone can tell you much about a Mr. Jenkins who once owned it. People agree on one point only. In the early 1790s, Pierre L'Enfant, the French architect charged with laying out the new Federal City, kept referring to "Jenkins Hill" and "Jenkins Heights" as the prominent hill where he wanted to build his "Congress House".

"West Front of the Capitol," about 1828, sketch by John Rubens Smith.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2011

The Two Sudans: "The risk of a full-blown war."

On July 9 of this year, South Sudan, located in one of the poorest and troubled regions of the world, seceded from Sudan (now North Sudan) and became an independent state. Even though South Sudan's secession followed both a referendum reflecting overwhelming popular support for the split and the consent of North Sudan's embattled president, old and new issues (the article quite understandably barely scratches the surface) combine to make the transition daunting. Two transitional issues are that North Sudan lost 75% of its 500,000 bpd oil production to the split, and that many South Sudanese already vehemently disapprove of and distrust their new government. See "Rumours of War" in the current issue of The Economist. It begins:

Buffeted by financial squalls and fearful of a Libyan-like upheaval, Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, is digging in hard. He is hammering groups opposed to his National Congress Party, while using his army and rebel proxies to bait South Sudan, his diminished country’s newly independent neighbour.

Fighting in the south’s Unity state, close to the border, has left scores dead. A lot more have died in South Kordofan, a state within his rump Sudan, just north of the new border, where ethnic Nuba are pressing for control of a mountain range.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:37 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2011

Everyone's Mitt Romney Problem.

Although I've voted for a Republican for president only once, watching two major GOP presidential candidates self-destruct these past few weeks has been painful. We need at least two strong political parties in America--and we need credible candidates in both parties. Election cycles are a great way, of course, of taking the pulse of a nation. Every four years, we bat a few issues around. We learn what's important to us. We get our bearings.

Now, and for the first time since I could vote, we have Republican issues without viable Republican leaders. As matters stand, I'd have to bet on and vote for President Obama, who will likely be facing Mitt Romney. Barring a further substantial weakening of the economy, Romney will lose--and lose, in my view, big time, both in popular and electoral college votes.

There was a time somewhere between Teddy White's book The Making of the President, 1960 and now--and clearly by 1980--when Republicans finally learned the gritty and often ugly black arts of how to run national campaigns: House, Senate and Presidency. And, once they got the hang of it, GOP operatives often ran those campaigns like well-oiled businesses. Southern states started it off. Young political strategists like the late Lee Atwater--smart, super-intuitive, passionate and mean as a snake--led the way.

Right now, however, the best Atwater clones on earth can't put anything together for the GOP. To belabor the obvious:

1. Herman Cain. Loved this guy. Our hero until the "let Herman be Herman" tact failed two PR rules: a. Be first with bad news, especially when you can see it coming. b. Don't lie about that which the electorate will forgive you for anyway. Forget about the polls. Forget about the Libya flub. We all question his judgment on how he handled the questions on sexual harassment more than any actions which may have led to them.

2. Rick Perry. Personally, I loved this guy even more than Herman. On my dad's side, we're probably somehow tribally-related--but Perry can't be my President. Ever. But I'd jump at the chance to have dinner with him, listen to some blues, drink Ripple and split a tab of Vicodin.

3. And the winner is Mitt Romney--who Obama will soundly trounce, whether I like it or not (and I probably would). Why oh why can't the mega-talented Mitt be more like his dad, George, the late crowd-pleasing ex-governor of Michigan? When I see Romney on TV, I still get that creepy feeling that "something or someone else is driving". So, apparently, do many other folks. He can't connect--or even appear to connect--with other humans no matter how hard he tries. A tragedy. This is one smart guy. Romney will be the candidate--and he will lose.

Anything Barack Obama can really do to ensure a second term? I doubt anyone connected with the Obama 2012 campaign is as optimistic as I have been above. Or as glib. I've been wrong a lot, on U.S. presidential campaigns. Very wrong. Let me give you two examples.

During most of 2003, I was raising money for Wes Clark--I was a Clark convention delegate until he withdrew from the race--because I was sure that, as much as I like him as a legislator, John Kerry could never even be nominated (I confidently told his campaign chief this on a fine spring morning in 2003 at Kerry's Stanton Park campaign office).

In 2007 and 2008, I worked for and supported Hillary Clinton--and was as surprised as she was when she did not win the Democratic nomination.

Things change quickly and unpredictably. In late 2003 and 2004, John Kerry finally found the traction I predicted he didn't deserve and would never earn. In 2008, Barack Obama overcame Clinton on a slowly-building but steady and unstoppable wave that left pols and most Americans breathless.

Hillary as Obama's running mate? To give the President the best possible shot at relection, some journalists and political strategists would whisper two words in his ear: Hillary Clinton. Clinton denies interest in the Vice-Presidency. However, some experts, like my friend Mike O'Neil of O'Neil Consulting, a long-time pollster, political consultant and thinking-man's talking head, believes that Hillary Clinton as Obama's running mate in 2012 is highly likely and something to watch for.

I spoke with Mike O'Neil Sunday night. An Obama-Clinton ticket, he said, "would instantly energize the party and infuse life into the Obama campaign." For Clinton's part, O'Neil noted, she would be hard pressed to turn it down "because it would guarantee her the 2016 nomination (win or lose)." O'Neil pointed out that in 2016, Clinton will be 69 years old. Many believe she seems unlikely to retire from public life four years from now. And, O'Neil continued, "barring a health incident, Hillary Clinton would still come across as younger than, say, McCain, presented himself, in 2008."

"Obama would be a fool not to offer it to her," O'Neil concluded. "And Clinton would be foolish to turn him down."

Posted by JD Hull at 03:47 PM | Comments (1)

November 14, 2011

The Paris Blog: Under Notre Dame.

The Paris Blog is by Americans, Canadians, Brits and Frenchmen who write about "the daily intricacies of life in Paris". It's edited by Laurie Pike, like me a Midwesterner who lived in California for a while. There's a bit of everything/anything about La Ville lumière: arts, politics, neighborhoods, French culture, and work. And "secret" Paris. See Friday's post Under Notre Dame, by Heather Stimmler-Hall, about the often overlooked kingdom of ancient Paris underneath Notre Dame. Like nearby Hôtel de Cluny on the Left Bank, tourists seem to miss it.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2011

France's Sarkozy: How about a 2-Tiered Europe?

We think not--but let's hear out a European leader who has wanted all along for Europe to start working again. The Economist's enduring columunist Charlemagne asks "Two-speed Europe, or two Europes?" It begins:

Nicolas Sarkozy is causing a big stir after calling on November 8th for a two-speed Europe: a “federal” core of the 17 members of the euro zone, with a looser “confederal” outer band of the ten non-euro members. He made the comments during a debate with students at the University of Strasbourg.

Posted by JD Hull at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2011

China IP: Beating China-Based Domain Name Theft.

See at Dan Harris's consistently fine and useful China Law Blog this one by Rachel Buker: "How To Stop China-Based Domain Name Theft". Excerpt:

We frequently see the following sorts of domain name thefts, oftentimes by Chinese companies seeking to hone in on a well-known brand name:

Domain names that intentionally contain a common typo of a known trademark.

Domain names that take a known trademark and attach a generic word like “outlet” or a word descriptive of the product, such as “shoes."

Domain names that are exactly the same as a known trademark’s domain name, but with a different extension. For example, abc.net, instead of abc.com.

Above: China Barbie. We needed a graphic.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

At Cross-Culture: "U.S. Optimism Remains—You Just Might Not Recognize It."

See this guest post by American prof Tim Flood at Richard Lewis's Cross-Culture. Not sure I buy that "US optimism is inherently contentious" but do think he's right that we are noisy if happy well-meaning wariors when we talk to each other--and we always have been. Excerpt:

For people who don’t know the US and Americans well, I should clarify what makes American optimism:

US optimism is inherently contentious. Americans routinely embrace the role of “devil’s advocate” in a discussion, representing the opposing viewpoint as a way to stimulate thoughtfulness, test the hypothesis, or show interest in the issue. We argue almost routinely, so much so that the actual act of arguing rarely carries the negative impact that observers might perceive.

And we carry this contentious optimism through most political discussions, election cycles and presidential selections. Energetic argument is the grease that lubricates the machine: often messy, sometimes overly slick or seemingly inconsequential. Regardless of political affiliation, we value our candidates for their abilities to stand up to the scrutiny, to defend themselves and their ideas as they pitch their versions of positive change and a better future.

R.D. Lewis

Posted by JD Hull at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2011

Use Your Real Name on the Internet. "Chattooga River Cutie" doesn't cut it.

Man up there, Hoss. Blog and comment under Your Real Name. You're not Alexander Hamilton, James Madison or an Iranian dissident. Well--okay, okay--some rape victims are okay. Certainly, if he were real, Ned Beatty's character Bobby in the movie adaptation of the James Dickey novel Deliverance would be permitted to write in the blogosphere using a pseudonym. "Chattooga River Cutie", maybe. Those not in Club Ned? Real name, please. Or don't never come round here no more. 'Hear?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

Happy to be heading back to DC again. San Diego gorgeous but like Ohio with Water.

What was I thinking?

Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2011

The Economist: "First Greece? Next Italy?"

As Greece forms a much-needed new government (MSNBC), some eyes turn to Italy. At the G20 summit that concluded in Cannes on November 4, Italy was placed under IMF monitoring. See in The Economist "Berlusconi Burlesque". Excerpt:

Though yields on its bonds have soared alarmingly, Italy has not had to seek a bail-out (not yet anyway). And in an attempt to ensure it does not succumb, bringing down the euro with it, it has been placed under a special preventive regime—placed on probation to ensure it implements the many promises it made to carry out reforms designed to promote growth and balance the budget by 2013.

The polite fiction is that Italy has "invited" this monitoring, but nobody makes any secret of the fact that the government of Silvio Berlusconi has a problem with “credibility”. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, says Italy’s case is “completely different” to that of Greece, which has galvanised the attention of the G20 summit, given the prospect that it may soon default on its debt.

By the same token, Italy’s position is now markedly worse than that of Spain, which until this summer had been seen as the country most likely to succumb after Greece, Ireland and Portugal. But Spain's outlook is now less dire as a result of a succession of reforms, and the decision by the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to step down at the next election later this month.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in better years.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Wades Point, St. Michaels, Eastern Shore, Maryland.

House built in 1819. Solitude, Lucy the Beagle, ghosts, Lily, me.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2011

Need Drive, Energy, Moxie, Gospel and Passion? Then Channel Baby Boomers.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Lawyering: Why not invoice some hourly work promptly every 2 weeks?

Sound ideas: Julie McGuire

Billing twice a month keeps the client attuned in real-time to the actual economic demands of the project--and helps the client plan.

Real time billing: invoice the client promptly twice a month. Like everyone else, we expect the "future of law" to include different billing alternatives. However, by that we mean the following: billing the same client different ways depending on the difficulty and intensity of the work.

Generally, we see in the future more flat fees for "commodity" work. And we believe hourly rates will continue to dominate for complex and novel projects--particularly where the relationships are longstanding and solid between in-house departments and outside law firms.

Case-by-case judgments about "value"--not hours, flat fees, or hybrids--will drive most engagements.

One idea comes from our Pittsburgh partner and co-founder Julie McGuire, who does transactional and corporate tax work globally, and it seems to work especially well for intense or "fast-moving" projects--and when you are billing by the hour. Julie's done this successfully for transactional work, and some arbitrations, for years.

It's simple. If a new or existing client has litigation or a transaction which is particularly intense and time-consuming--especially in the initial stages--depart from your fee agreement or usual practice with that client and at least temporarily invoice the client every two weeks.

(That means you can't wait long to get the bills out, though. Give yourself three business days tops.)

Obviously, you should check with the client and get permission. But you are not likely to get shot down.

Even a gung-ho sophisticated corporate client or GC you've serviced for years--which if accustomed to seeing over and over again monthly bills for day-to-day work in the, say, $15,000 to $30,000 range--experiences a kind of sticker shock when the bill goes suddenly to $30,000, $60,000 or much higher, even if it's only for a short time. The "jump"--no matter what numbers are involved--triggers a reaction.

Billing twice a month does two things: (1) keeps the client more attuned in real-time to the actual economic demands of the project (and lets the client plan) and, (2) assuming that the GC or other client rep is seeing work descriptions on bills that show value, effort and the range of things necessary to perform the litigation or deal, the details and intensity of the work are more "present-to-mind", better understood and more fully appreciated.

In other words, the invoice becomes more of a tool to impart a running report on what you and the client are doing together--and a better picture of your real value to the client on that project.

(from past posts)

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

ClientTown or LawyerTown? Which do you practice in?

Do you practice law in a (1) "clients' town" or (2) a "lawyers' town"?

The latter, very common, is a local culture where lawyer clubbiness, lawyer schedules and lawyer convenience always trump client needs behind the smokescreen of "professionalism". Here we meet the lawyer as king, diva and sacred cow.

In a lawyers' town, lawyers and their delays, lack of discipline, procrastinations, disorganization, lack of business sense and failure to execute and move matters along--failings which would get them axed in a heartbeat at a well-run American company--must always be indulged. And even the sleaziest and most marginal lawyers must treat each other and speak to each other in a certain way. Client interests are secondary. Well, if you practice in a lawyers' town, are you going to do anything about it? Can we show some leadership? Can we retire lawyer "professionalism" and "civility" issues once and for all and replace them with something better: a new client-focused set of folkways?

Sorry, but in its current form, lawyer professionalism is a morally pretentious, archaic, hypocritical and silly movement which lawyers' towns tend to invest in heavily to protect and coddle apathetic, mediocre and lazy lawyering. It keeps standards low, and the tone lawyer-centric. Current lawyer professionalism is: "pro-lawyer", prissy, routinely and dishonestly misused by incompetent and uncaring lawyers in defense of their delays and screw ups, a waste of time and money, and anti-client.

Just talking about it makes clients think we have our heads up our wazoos.

Face it, folks, most lawyers are not especially virtuous, or even that bright. Or classy. We are not royalty. Or even brave. Many of us are hesitant, non-confrontational and risk-averse to the point of being cowards who hide way too often in the rubric of "let's be prudent". To the surprise and dismay of our own clients--who had thought that lawyers were supposed to be innovators, activists and true heros--too few of us fit those descriptions. We follow. We hem and haw. We wet our finger and put it in the air. We aren't "special". And we are a dime a dozen.

Now, in the U.S., anyone with enough money, barely average intelligence, well below-the-norm ethics and character, and the ability to converse without stuttering or drooling excessively, can become a lawyer. So let's not put on goofy airs.

Real professionalism, with the client as the touchstone, might have been a good thing. But ironically lawyer "civility" issues have helped breed in modern U.S. lawyering an even lower regard for the client--even for great corporate clients. Clients risk being relegated to mere equipment. Listen: Unless your General Counsel or client rep is Mr. Rogers, The Church Lady or Liberace with a law degree, most clients don't care in the least if you are "professional" (i.e., courtly, accomodating and nice), or if you spend your spare time socializing with and kissing up to the local law cattle. They do care about planning, execution and results from motivated, honest and aggressive lawyers. See "Professionalism Revisited: What About the Client?", appearing last year in the San Diego Daily Transcript.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)

"American Express: We can't help it. We hate customers. And we're complete assholes."

The following Customer Service Tip of American Express (its retail arm) comes to us via a youngish California employee of ours, and valued Amex cardholder (since 2001). She will remain, for good reasons, nameless.

The CS tip? The next time your firm's client--let's say Walmart; however, it could be any valued publicly-traded outfit for which you have worked for at least a decade--is due to an oversight more than three (3) days late paying your firm's invoice, by all means, do the following:

1. Call the Walmart GC, in-house lawyer or other Walmart exec your firm answers to in Bentonville, Arkansas, preferably on a Monday afternoon, around 4:45 EST, preferably the day after Easter Sunday, after Super Bowl Sunday, after a long weekend or as soon as Mardi Gras is over.

2. Don't leave a voice message. Keep calling.

3. The exact moment the in-house or client exec answers the phone, ask your long-time client rep who approves your invoices "Do you mind terribly, _________ [use rep's first name], if my assistant Nadine and I tape-record this conversation? We're collecting a debt." Then talk.

4. Important Note: Be poised to replace Walmart as an institutional client--perhaps with its Visa or Mastercard counterpart--as soon as practicable. Just in case.

American Express. We Can't Help It. We're Assholes.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2011

Work is not about You, Jack: What did your Employees do for you this past week?

Clients, Buyers, Customers, Patients, Consumers and The Served are First.

Companies and Organizations are Second.

The Workers (including Management) are Third.

Got that?

It's rarely about The Workers.

"Hi, we're here. Pay us!" The Generic Dweebs you hired?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Work-Life Balance: Still a Spectacularly Misplaced, Poorly-Framed & Dumb-Ass Idea.

Republished here from our original October 20, 2006 post.

Work-Life Balance is the Employee's responsibility--not Management's. Let people who must work and create do just that. Let's not discourage or punish them with PC nonsense. We need new Franklins, Edisons, Jobses and Gateses.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 04, 2011

My Alexandria, Virginia: Old Town's Christ Church.

Apart from women who take care of themselves, lawyers who read more than CLE catalogues and a sizable part of the populace who have traveled to places other than King's Island or Lake Erie, the Washington, D.C. area offers Something Else. It does "old" quite well--and even keeps what few authentic American antiquities there are in this country open to the public and open at night. And that is happening more and more; fewer places are locked up after dark.

I lived in Alexandria--including Old Town, which was part of the District of Columbia from 1791 to 1846--as a student, as an employee of Congress and as a young lawyer. Last night I missed a plane back to California. But I did get the churchyard of Christ Church (completed in 1773) to myself for an hour before heading back to my new and suddenly-acquired hotel on N. Alfred and King streets. Rather than go back into DC, I decided to visit the old neighborhood, at least for a night. I am actually glad this morning that I missed last night's plane.

It was about 11 PM when I got to Christ Church, about 3 blocks from the hotel. I sat on a stone bench. No one, of course, could have come away with a still picture, a video or a soundtrack which captures the grounds, the garden lighting, the occasional faraway noises of a great city finally quieting down, the smells of a fall night, the ancient trees, the white alley cat who adopted me, a very old graveyard that fairly whispers to you, and exterior walls of the ghostly stone sanctuary in which Washington and Robert E. Lee spent quite a few Sundays, and in which even Roosevelt and Churchill prayed together in 1942. You need to go there and sense these things for yourself.

If you don't travel for work, I feel a bit sorry for you. If you do travel regularly, mix it every day/night with something authentic and inspiring from wherever you are and whether or not you are alone. Stretch the day out more. Go to bed later. You may not get back there for a good while. You know what I mean?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

An Irish Guy Delivers the 2011 Dartmouth College Commencement Address.

Conan O'Brien delivered this address on June 12 at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire--where I would have attended college if it had only been fully co-ed when I was accepted there long ago. But is Hanover a great place to play in the snow and drink or what?

Posted by JD Hull at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)

November 02, 2011

Eric O'Neill on CNN's The Situation Room: Rep. King's call to expel Iranian 'spies' from U.S.

Our friend, client and "Breach" hero Eric O'Neill is now a familiar voice and face on CNN's The Situation Room. See him in last week's segment with CNN's Brian Todd. Are Iranian spooks using D.C.'s diplomatic community to spy on the U.S.?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

Is the Customer-Client Revolution finally starting?

Because we--and no doubt many others, both friend and foe--would love it if there were no need for this damn blog. What if clients insisted that lawyers perform? See by Bruce Horovitz in this morning's USA Today this one: "Consumer Gripes A Growing Force".

Posted by JD Hull at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2011

Lawyers & Law Firms: We Still Need That "New Mind", My Friends.

Our thinking tends to circle around established conventions whose basis is forgotten or obscure. --Daniel Pinchbeck in The Return of Quetzalcoatl (2006)

Unless there is a new mind, there cannot be a new line; the old will go on repeating itself with recurring deadliness. --William Carlos Williams in Paterson (1948), Book 2, Sunday in the Park

Lawyers are world-class followers. We are members of just another insular dopey club.--WAC?

Okay, you get the idea. For all of this blog's well-known tangents, flaws, pet issues, quirks and prejudices, since 2005 we have been as constant, serious and relentless about one thing: ideas to change law practice and to put clients and lawyers on common ground. Available right here, right now, and free of charge, are different ways to deliver legal services to higher-end clients who, we are quite sure, have been getting shortchanged on value for decades--if not for centuries. See, from the categories set out on your right, these three topics: Clients: Getting Them, Clients: Keeping Them and Running Firms.

They are ideas any of you could have had--but we put them together, for whatever reasons, for you. For our part, we regret that we never had them and/or reported them until many years into practice. We delayed. We could have instituted and enforced at our own shop the techniques, rules and "habits" set out here in 20 years ago.

But we did not.

Reason: the vast majority of us lawyers have our heads way, way, way up our Wazoos. We think we're special--whether we do billion dollar deals or car accidents. And we are notoriously undisciplined and half-assed about the ways we do everything. We are so special. We still think that even at a time in American history when it is relatively easy for an average college student to become a lawyer.

E and Elsa, circa 1915

Clients as the Main Event fell out of the equation eons ago. It is no longer the touchstone, a value, or an organizing principle. We've become members of just another goofy insular Western club, and we are for good reason laughed at behind our backs.

Add to this the problem that many of us (I think most) secretly dislike being lawyers. But it's not about us--it's "about clients"--and the happiest of us are hard-working and passionate about the Law and Service in one short happy synapse.

For those lucky lawyers, high quality but client-centric legal products have gone from good habits to instinct.

However, these days, especially, precisely many, many of the wrong people keep coming into the profession at all levels. And they stay in when they would be happier doing something else. We've written a lot about that, too. Paying clients--and in droves--are hurt by an "accepted mediocrity" every day.

More importantly, the current Recession--which at this point is about a click away from a Depression--really has made it clear to me, and others, that general counsel and lawyers inside the companies many of us covet are not going let any of us "return to the good old days".

Inside counsel. They are a smarter, bolder and better paid lot than they were when I started practicing in the 1980s. They see more big-picture things in the delivery of services by outside firms--and very few of them at the better client shops are checking with officers and directors about the right time to take lunch. They are stronger and more autonomous. And they include some very fine thinkers.

Lawyers, bless us, are valuable for the same instincts that hold us back. We like slow, and deliberate, change. We are cautious. In our own business models, perhaps we have been too risk-averse. But there has never been a better time in the history of markets, nations, the West, and the American free enterprise experiment for us to change.

Time to step up. Get in the game. One notion here: it's okay to be cautious with work for clients--but not okay anymore to be such staid robots and frightened myopic weenies about the running of our own businesses so that we can truly serve clients, be excellent, and make money.

The now-sputtering economy will drive some of this. Outside lawyers are about to become the servants we were always supposed to be. Still, truly dedicated and skillful lawyers (charitably, about 15 to 20% of us) will be in demand. But we can assume that new role and still make great money--and have lots of fun. Excuse me if that sounds anti-intellectual or pedestrian--but at my firm we are trying to have fun and make money doing what we love.

Anyway, we can fix all this. This blog has six years worth of ideas and techniques on advising and guiding clients without "feeding the monster". Feel free to browse through it critically--and tell us what you think. No "hiding" though--if you have something to say, tell us who you are.

E and friends, New York City, 1921

Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)