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August 31, 2013
You work like Pete Townshend plays? Well, do you?
Got Fire? "I want it. I want it. I want it. I want it."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
August 30, 2013
Heroes: E.D. Hirsch, Jr. and Core Knowledge Foundation.
Eric Hirsch founded the Charlottesville-based Core Knowledge Foundation in 1986.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
August 26, 2013
The Horror, The Horror: Perfectionism.
The Dweebs. The Dweebs. Perfectionism is the downside of Type-A. While a great starting point, and wonderful instinct, the drive to get things absolutely 100% right in every gory detail is also a curse: of eldest children, professionals, knowledge workers, most lawyers, all spouses, your Mom, and the geek classes, or Techwazee. Ah, devil perfectionism. The horror, the horror. Too much, and you need rehab. Your colleagues start questioning your judgment. Listen up, Justin: Clients 99% of the time are not paying you to be perfect. They don't want it. Be excellent, not perfect. See, e.g., "Rule 10: Be Accurate, Thorough and Timely--But Not Perfect".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2013
Pantheon: Sigourney Weaver.
I need a woman about twice my height.
Statuesque.
Raven-tressed.
A goddess of the night.--John Barlow and Bob Wier, "I Need a Miracle"
Patrician. Five foot eleven. Stanford and Yale. 63 years old.
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Susan Alexandra Weaver in 2008
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Llewellyn: "You expect me to tell you that you should be earnest about your work."
Karl Nickerson Llewellyn
You expect me to tell you that you should be earnest about your work, and get your back into it for dear old Siwash, and that he who lets work slide will stumble by the way.
The above of course is from the opening chapter of the The Bramble Bush: On Our Law and Its Study (1931), which sprung from a series of introductory lectures Karl Llewellyn (1893–1962) gave to first-year law students during the 1929-30 academic year, when he was appointed the first Betts Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia. The book's title is from a poem "The Bramble Bush" by Robert Penn Warren, excerpted here:
There was a man in our town
and he was wondrous wise:
he jumped into a bramble bush
and scratched out both his eyes--and when he found that he was blind,
with all his might and maine,
He jumped into another one,
and scratched them in again.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2013
Heroes: Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963).
You think you're scrappy, resourceful, resilient and tough? Robert Frost spent his life as a poet, student, teacher, newspaper reporter, farmer, factory worker, father, husband, plugger and accomplished Yankee. Personally, he lived through a never-ending series of tragic and painful episodes. Both his parents died young. When his father died, leaving the family $7, Frost was 11 years old. Fifteen years later, his mother died of cancer. Four of Frost's own six children died prematurely. Only two survived him.
He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize four times: 1924, 1931, 1937 and 1943. The first, in 1924, came at age 50.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2013
Inspiration: You have to go after it with a club.
She's got wonderful eyes. And a whiskey mouth.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:38 PM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2013
Best Books on Lawyering: Mark Herrmann's "The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law".
When you finally do take a deposition, I want you to remember two things...
--Mark Herrmann, page 59, Chapter 6: "Seven Hours Locked in a Room."
A few years ago, while I was preparing for a two-week jury trial we defended, one before a very new but skillful federal judge that turned out to be a lively three-week proceeding with a manic post-trial motion phase, Mark Herrmann was kind enough to send me a copy of his The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law (American Bar Association, Section of Litigation, 2006). I am looking at the title page right now: "For Dan Hull, Mark Herrmann, August 2009". So I sent Mark a thank-you note and put his already well-received book aside. Duty called, witnesses flew in and the trial process went on that special bender of its own.
Finally, three years later, I read it, and I wish I had read it before. More than anything, I wish I had given the book to two talented young lawyers who had assisted us and who, in my judgment, were clearly not having enough fun with the sudden turns, surprises and yeoman demands of the trial process during that September of 2009.
If you're a associate doing relatively complex corporate work--especially a young litigator in years 1 through 4 who is trying to master the Miracle and Holy Surprise of nonmovant's Rule 56(d), or just trying understand the differences between Rules 30, 34 and 45 without pulling a hamstring--do buy and read The Curmudgeon's Guide. Like today. Please do it.
Part-survival guide, part-The Art of War for the eager-smart but painfully clueless, it is as good a book on practicing law in many respects as Jim Freund's classic Lawyering: A Realistic Approach to Legal Practice, published nearly thirty years before but which (like Freund himself) is more deal and transactions-oriented. I could pay Mark and his book no greater compliment. And for a young fire-breathing corporate "trial lawyer"--yes, they still have those in both boutique and larger firms--Mark's 135-page straight-talking volume is a better investment of time than anything I have read. For litigators, it is simply the best. The Curmudgeon's Guide is also a no-nonsense primer on the Art of the Client and Customer.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)