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October 30, 2013
No candy in the house? No problem, Jack. Just turn off the lights, lie on the floor.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2013
Hermann the German: Merkelphonegate.
My friend Hermann, still braving Berlin after all these years, notes that "Germans Push To Introduce Espionage Etiquette Manual". Excerpt:
Folks in Germany are always very anxious about social etiquette and behaving correctly in public. The "Knigge," for instance, is a famous book about social rules and how one should behave in practically all situations. When it comes to seating arrangements at table, for instance:
1. Couples that aren’t married always sit together.
2. Married couples normally don’t sit abreast.
3. Not until the homemaker wants to sit on the table the guests are allowed to sit, too.
4. The dish rests on the table until the last guest has eaten his meal.Now, in the wake of all this undue excitement going on about the Obama administration’s benevolent “Merkelphone” eavesdropping program, Germany has decided to take the initiative when it comes to etiquette in certain private (or private eye) matters, too. During a two-day summit in Brussels, the Germans have suggested the introduction of an internationally recognized Espionage Etiquette Manual to be followed geflissentlich (studiously) by all superpowers on earth.
The "other" Herman, or Arminius, was a leader of Roman Auxiliary Cavalry in the 9th Century AD. In the three-day battle known as the Varus Schlact, which took place in a dense forest, he switched sides, led the destruction of three Roman Legions (about 10,000 in number) and stopped Roman expansion into what is now Germany.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2013
"Former titans of the world economy:" Britain, USA, Germany, France and Italy.
At October's Cross-Culture, do see "Russia’s role in the BRICS union." Richard D. Lewis notes that Britain, USA, Germany, France and Italy are no longer the main engine of global expansion. Excerpts:
The BRICS union--comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China (with South Africa tagging along)--is a powerful union, commanding half the world’s population and nearly 50% of world GDP. These figures, as seen by the West, are daunting enough, but, with further analysis, their significance increases sharply in connection with their relation to the expansion of global growth.
The year 2013 may well represent a tipping point for the global economy. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution galvanized Britain to dominate world trade in the 19th century, emerging economies will produce the majority of the world’s goods and services. The inhabitants of the rich, advanced countries are about to become less important, in terms of both production and consumerism, than the masses of people living in the planet's poor and middle class income countries.
The former titans of the world economy – Britain, USA, Germany, France, Italy – are all rapidly dropping out of the top 10 producers and consumers as far as expansion is concerned. By 2020, only the US stands a chance of qualifying. By that year, the whole of the EU may well contribute only 5-6% of global economic expansion. China and India will represent half of it.
China is, of course, a clear leader of growth, already starring for nearly 20 years with figures of 10% and more, but the other BRICS countries were not far behind and even non-BRICS states like Mexico and Indonesia made the top 10 around 1995. The fastest-growing countries in 2013 included South Sudan (31%), Libya (20.2%), Mongolia (14%), Paraguay (11%), Panama (9%) and Mozambique (8.4%).
Posted by JD Hull at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
Keith Lee's The Marble and the Sculptor: We'll be buying a bunch of copies.
The Marble and the Sculptor: From Law School to Law Practice.
Posted by JD Hull at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)
Cross-Selling: You Folks Really Partners? Or Just Sharing Space?
Few law firms cross-sell partners effectively. Lots don't even try.
And then there's this problem: most law firms of any size, depth or sophistication have been reduced to an aggregation of several (or many) smaller fiefdoms or, if you will, "collection of boutiques". Each individual boutique-fiefdom is disturbingly insular, with little overlap on anything--including issue-spotting for either client work or marketing operations.
In these firms, partners are "friends" (with fiduciary duties to one another) and space-sharers--but not true partners in an entrepreneurial sense. Such firms have a built-in prejudice against growth by cross-selling. They are territorial--and often even wary of each other. But they generally do have a few highly frustrated principals or leaders who recognize the problem. That's a start.
Listen up, folks:
1. We can't imagine anything in law firm management more difficult than getting partners to discipline themselves on a long term basis--i.e., institute it as a "habit" that drives everyone all the time--to cross-sell each other.
2. We can't imagine anything more personally or financially rewarding when it works.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2013
Pretrial: Caravaggio's Cardsharps.
Caravaggio's The Cardsharps (c. 1594)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2013
Sensitive Litigation Moment No. 114: In planning depositions, resist The Uninspired, The Lazy & The Half-Baked.
Do some common sense work before you take a deposition. And please don't squander the client's budget out of sheer laziness. You are paid to work on planning discovery, too. See this one.
"Do these guys ever think before they work?"
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2013
Revisited: The Law of Thank-You Notes.
Break the rules at your peril. People will say mean things about your dog, your wife, your girlfriend, or all three.
In case your Mother or Governess never told you, you're from Utah, or you were stoned all seven years at Choate, let us remind you to never thank anyone for something truly important--a meeting, referral or a dinner--with anything but a prompt handwritten thank-you note. No valid excuses exist for not doing it. Too few of us practice gratitude--in either business or our "other" lives--enough. Some say the practice of saying thanks is good for the soul. Others swear it's good for revenues, too.
Many, many business people and some lawyers with the highest standards taste (i.e., wear socks to meetings or court) think that no written thank-you note means no class--as harsh and low-tech as that may sound.
Typed is okay--but handwritten is better. Even if you are not convinced that thank-you notes are noticed and appreciated (they are), pretend that we know more than you (we do), and do it anyway (thank us later).
Good stationery. We suggest Crane's on the lower end, or something better, like stationery from Tiffany's, or a Tiffany-style knock-off, on the higher end. A "studio card", maybe. Just make it plain. Simple. Initials on it at most.
If you get personalized stuff, have a return envelope address to a home or business--but without the business mentioned. It's personal. Leave Acme Law Firm off it.
If you get mentioned or "linked-to" on the Internet? However, "electronic thank-yous" by e-mails to express thanks for links, comments or mentions in posts or articles on the Internet--i.e., three different people link to your blog every day, you are working full time for clients, busy firing looter-style staff and associates, and writing op-ed pieces entitled "Summer 2012: The Mood of the Midwest"--are totally okay.
Short, sweet, and press "send".
Blogging about you or your ideas is, of course, very nice--but it's not like they bought you dinner, or invited you up to Newport for the weekend. Besides, you'll always miss a few kudos thrown at you in the digital ether.
But what if you are trashed in the ether? A "reverse" thank-you? Sure, you may be insulted, purposely mis-paraphrased, misinterpreted, or just inadvertently misquoted. It happens. Remember, some bloggers and pseudo-journalists are (1) angry, (2) disorganized, or (3) essentially unemployed. And there are often good reasons for all three. Three approaches:
First, ignore them. Who cares? You are busy.Second, if you are dissed or insulted in cyberspace, and you are in the right mood, respond smartly with: "Wendell, Dude, if I were you--or someone remotely like you--I would not like me either."
Finally, and third, study the techniques of our friend Redford, a full-time trial lawyer and widely-read blogger who manages to juggle, keep at bay and often humiliate legions of aggressive and often anonymous fire-breathing "experts" without breaking a sweat.
Anyway, let's get back to manners. If you don't regularly thank people for links or mentions of you or your firm's blog or website, you are fouling your own nest.
Not thanking people in the blogosphere is (1) arrogant and (2) dumb. It adds to the notion that (3) bloggers are insular, passive-aggressive lightweights lacking in people skills.
So develop some habits about all thank-yous for everything--and make handwritten the default position. If you don't, bad things will happen:
1. No one will give you any more business, or invite you to The Hamptons.
2. People will say mean things about your dog, your wife, your girlfriend, or about all three. Worse, they trash you.
3. If you went to Brown, snide people will remind you and your friends that Brown used to be the safety school for the Ivies.
4. If you were at Duke, they'll re-float the completely untrue story that Duke exists only because Princeton had too much honor and class to accept Buck Duke's filthy tobacco money and re-name Princeton Duke.
5. If Princeton, they'll just say you were always kind of light in the Cole Haans, too, and were once even seen dancing at an "alternative lifestyle" bar in the city--dressed in full leather biker garb--so what can you expect?
You get the idea. So thank people in writing. Handwritten as a general rule. E-mail only for a cyber-mention.
Finally, if your site is so successful that your links, e-mails and comments are through the roof, hire someone else to do the thank-yous--written or electronic--for you.
(from previous H. Oliver-D. Hull posts at WAC?)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2013
Gaius Julius Caesar: General, Statesman, Conqueror, Writer.
D. March 15, 44 BC. Above: Vincenzo Camuccini, Mort de Caesar, 1798.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2013
Samuel Johnson: Dry Drunks, Wet Drunks, Bullies and Boors.
He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.
--Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784
North of Fleet Street: 17 Gough Square. Built 1700.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 21, 2013
Firenze: La Basilica di San Lorenzo
The Flourishing: One of Florence's oldest churches, San Lorenzo was consecrated in the 4th century by St. Ambrose of Milan.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2013
Heroes: Robert Edward Turner III.
Work like hell--and advertise.
--Ted Turner (1938- )
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2013
3 Quick & Dirty Rules for Taking Depositions in a Commercial Case.
1. How to Prepare: Others in your shop can outline it for you--but prepare for it yourself. For every hour of deposition, expect at least three (3) hours of preparation.
2. Who to Bring: (a) A court reporter. (b) Your client representative. If you bring (c) a paralegal or associate to assist with exhibits and suggest additional questions, let the client know and whether or not you will charge for it. Maybe charge half. If you bring (d) an intern or clerk to learn, do not charge and tell the client you will not charge.
3. What to Ask: Ask Everything Rule 26(b)(1) or its state counterpart allows. But look for "bad" facts about your case. It's discovery--not a feel-good exercise--so don't hold back. Cringe if you must at answers you get. Explore them. Better to cringe now than at trial.
Savor the brutality. It's discovery. Get badness out on the table. (Photo: United Artists)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2013
Dizzy on Bad 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)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2013
Lawyer Overstatements are Bad.
Being part-Irish like me is a gift. Mainly. But overstatements for lawyers at work are Mainly Bad. True, they can be hilarious. With them, at parties, and in arguments with lame store clerks, we can drive home a point using hyperbole. Overstatements can even impress your date, wife or mistress--or all three. They can feel good to make.
But they are Bad for lawyers (and for our witnesses). We should keep them out of pleadings and remarks to arbitrators, mediators and judges. And juries. We have all made them. Yes, overstatements are Bad:
When you overstate, readers [and listeners, too--WAC/P] will be instantly on guard, and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follows it will be suspect in their minds because they have lost confidence in your judgment or your poise.
Do see "The Only Writing Tip That Really Matters", quoting The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White, at Evan Schaeffer's The Trial Practice Tips Weblog.
Blarney Castle, near Cork, Ireland
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2013
Lawyers Writing Sanely and Well: When?
"Pompous Bastard" by Tannermorrow
Ironically, few lawyers write well.
Many of us aren't even aware of that. Good clients and the general public are justified in beginning to conclude that either we won't or can't write sanely and well. At WAC/P?, over the years, we've discussed that problem a lot--but maybe not enough--at our section called Writing Well.
We've never demanded perfection. We have suggested the importance of, well, a modicum of Self-Respect. Of Simplicity. And of Non-Silliness.
You do need to work at it. Good writing, like good lawyering, is not easy.
When most of us write, we meander, repeat, confuse, use too many words, are awash in jargon, are lazy, and use the wrong words; in the end, we sound like self-important mental patients rocking back and forth and talking to ourselves. Useful and even brilliant legal thinking and insights get lost.
Read lawyer letters to counsel or clients if you don't believe me. At best, most of them are entertaining (and full-of-it). Or, for fun, just read our pleadings:
COMES NOW, the Plaintiff, GiantMart Inc., by and through its attorneys, Adams, Bones & Carson, LLC, brings this cause of action against Upstart Ltd, Scumbag Defendant, for violations of the Lanham Act, and for other causes of action, which are set forth in their entirety below, and files with this Honorable Court the herein Complaint, the following of which is a statement of its averments and allegations, oye oye [above with names changed to protect the lame, and one embellishment]:
rather than
Plaintiff GiantMart Inc. states:
Posted by JD Hull at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2013
Pont Saint-Patrick, Cork
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2013
Disraeli: On Writing Well.
When I want to read a good book, I write one.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
Posted by JD Hull at 04:13 AM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2013
Worship This: The Holy Surprise of a Child's First Look.
He was a loner with an intimate bond to humanity, a rebel who was suffused with reverence. An imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the universe, the locksmith of mysteries of the atom and the universe.
--from Einstein: His Life and Universe (Simon & Schuster, 2007) by the Aspen Institute's Walter Isaacson, former Time managing editor.
Most of us are missing it all. --WAC/P?
"E" at the beach: Another fresh take.
Try this at home and work: The Holy Surprise of a Child's First Look. Forget for a moment, if you can, about Clients and Paris.
WAC/WAP? is at heart about Quality, Old Verities, and Values--the things no business, government, non-profit group, religion, politician or leader (a) wants to give you or (b) can give you. No, not even family and friends can.
You have to find them on your own. Work and Service, whether you are paid for them or not, are inseparable from these things.
At this blog, at our firm, and in our lives, we seek (in the largest sense) serious overachievers, and aficionados of life, past and present: identifying them, learning from them, having them as friends, hiring them and, above all, never holding them back.
It is often hard to find these people--or even to remember that they once existed.
We do, after all, live in a cookie-cutter world. Originality, intuition, authentic spirituality, and even taste are not valued--these traits are often feared and attacked--in most of the West.
This is especially true in America, where we continue to be geographically, culturally and (some think) cosmically isolated. The United States, despite its successes, high standard of living and exciting possibilities, has become world headquarters of both moral pretension and dumbing life down.
Besides, fresh thinking leads to painful recognitions. It's easier to let something else do the thinking for us.
"Fragmentation" is a word some people (including those with better credentials than the undersigned to write this) have used for decades to describe modern humans all over the world: lots of wonderful, intricate and even elegant pieces--but no whole.
So, in our search for coherence, we look for clues.
We look to television, advertising, and malls. To work, and to professional organizations. To secondary schools, universities, and any number of religions (none of the latter seem "special"--they say identical intuitive and common sense good things, but just say them differently), and to an array of other well-meaning institutions.
In fairness, all of these have their moments (hey, we all like our insular clubs).
And, importantly, we seek answers from others we know and love--family and friends--who have been soaked in the same messages and reveries, who make us feel comfortable with the same choices, values and lives that gnaw at us all in rare moments of clarity and solitude, and who are able to "reassure" us so we can get back "on track".
So what's missing?
It's Imagination.
Children come with Imagination. It's standard issue. Some lucky adults hold onto Imagination, even as it is bombarded with a tricky, confusing, and lob-sided mix of messages favoring mediocrity over quality. Until Imagination becomes a value in and of itself, a lot us will "shuffle off" life on earth without even knowing what happened in the past 80-odd years.
Elsa and "E" in 1920: They want you to think on your own.
We denied ourselves (a) thinking our own thoughts and (b) acting on our own. We would not even fight for these qualities. We would not take chances. We built, embraced and often defended a Cliff's Notes life. We were uninspired, desperate to fit in, and frightened. We "missed it".
We missed it All--like drunks who slept through the Super Bowl.
Our children, friends and people who respected and loved us even took notes on what we thought, said and did here as "spiritual beings" having a "human experience. They emulated us. That means you and me, Jack. How do you feel about that? Oh well. Next time, maybe?
Which brings us, finally, to Albert Einstein.
True, few of us can have Einstein's talent for Western logic, or his IQ. But Einstein's advantage over other physicists may have been that he was a "new soul". He looked at everything as if he were seeing it for the first time. Imagination.
Take work. He approached it from a wellspring of joy. There are, and have been, others like Einstein in that respect. Those are the kind of people we want as friends to inspire us, and as co-workers to solve clients' problems. His IQ and genius is not the point. We'll take an IQ a lot lower than Einstein's (for associates, though, Coif or Law Review would be nice).
Reverence and a child's awe. Imagination. That's the outlook we prize here at WAC? Energy, intensity and creativity always seem to come with it. If it comes with serious brains, we'll take that, too.
From past posts, and with grateful nods to Samuel John Hazo and Cleveland's Peter B. Friedman.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
Pantheon: Lisa Kudrow.
A 40-something Vassar grad (B.A. Biology) who can still play youngish lovable ditzes on nighttime TV and in feature films, Kudrow already has won or been nominated for a lifetime worth of Emmys and SAG awards. She comes from a talented and interesting LA-based family (music and medicine) with Russian-Jewish roots. Kudrow's ancestors emigrated from Belarus and lived in the village of Ilya, near Minsk. Her great-grandmother was murdered in the Holocaust. She got into acting late; she worked first as a researcher, and as an anchor/reporter for an ABC affiliate in Texas. For us, her HBO series "The Comeback" was a revelation. Watch for her to soar in the next two decades in dramatic roles. Do add her to our Pantheon. It needs a few more Blondes with Brains, Comedic Timing and Big Moxie--all three out the wazoo.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2013
Feeding the Monster: "Do you really need a Memo on that?"
Can we stop feeding the Monster every time we get the chance? Some legal memos, cases summaries and strategy documents "you can bill for" do seem like winding up without ever really pitching. There are times you don't need to scorch the earth. To save time, money and relationships, just answer the question. Talk everyone out of the Full-Monty.
Do the research, take a stand and, if possible, write it all up in a very short file memo or--even better--in the document you are actually going to use: the pleading, the motion, the response, the letter, the instrument. Even if you don't end up using it, what the draft document "looks like" helps everyone make the next decision, and take the next step. You can still back up critical points with more small discrete memos, showing research and/or thought process.
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. And aside from necessary opinion letters, and really needed formal white papers, 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.
The client's call, of course. But you can lead a little.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 08, 2013
Villon.
Que beaultè ot trop plus qu'humaine.
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?--François Villon (1431-1463)
Poet, Drifter, Dreamer, Thief.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2013
Heroes: Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr.
When I step out I'm gonna do you in.
--Gibbons, Hill and Beard
Man in Full: Tom Wolfe. Prince of journalism, risk-taker, Virginian, original. "Every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man."
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2013
Av. Winston-Churchill, 8th Arrondissement.
Below is a photo we love by Clear Blue Sky of the Winston Churchill statue in Paris. In 1998, it was erected and unveiled just outside the Petit Palais. In bronze and by French sculptor Jean Cardot, it stands ten feet high and weighs about 2.5 tons. Cardot modeled it on a photograph taken on November 11, 1944 of Churchill marching down the nearby Champs Elysees with General Charles de Gaulle.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 03:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2013
R. D. Lewis: Got Grϋndlichkeit?
Two Englishmen, meeting on the street may say "Hello"’ and exchange brief words on the weather.
Two Germans are likely to ask "Alles in Ordnung?" (Is everything in order?). Ordnung is not just a word, but a world view. Follow the rules, be organised, do the expected.
Some important German rules. But don't get nervous. At his Cross-Culture, Richard D. Lewis, a well-known British linguist and international business consultant, writes that German business people are very different than you and me, Ernest, in "The Cultural Commandments: Germany". There are ten. Our two favorites:
1. Be thorough...and then check everything again. Lewis: "Grϋndlichkeit (thoroughness) is a core German virtue. You should show a mastery of facts, figures, and every last detail."
3. Don’t make it sound too simple. "Life isn’t simple, is it? So why pretend otherwise? To German ears, simple messages are not complete..."
Lewis, who has made cross-cultural communication in commerce his life's work, offers a summary. Germans as traders are (a) honest, expecting others to be honest, (b) straightforward, and (c) blunt, "disagreeing openly rather than going for diplomacy".
Any questions?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Heavenly Creatures: Women of The Netherlands. So what's the deal with Dutch males?
Not to trade in generalizations--but it is fun. The Women of The Netherlands not only speak English (British and American dialect) exceptionally well. They are very tall, energetic, educated, confident and robust. Stunningly attractive Nordic goddesses. These days, however, Dutch men, as a Brussels-based lawyer we know once said, do tend to look and act very much like, well, Moby. And often on purpose. What gives? How could this have happened?
Name's Kleef. Buy you a Grolsch?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2013
Lawyers Aren't Royalty: See Rule 9 in our 12-Step Program for the Service-Challenged.
If you think "returning phone calls promptly" and "keeping the client informed" is a big deal, you are flirting with mediocrity. Get standards that work, make money and keep great clients coming back. See Rule 9 in our 12 step program for The Service-Challenged: "Be There For Clients 24/7".
T-shirt by MadLizzy.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2013
The Holy Surprise of Travel.
The world is a book. Those who do not travel read only a page. --Marcel Proust, 1871–1922, French novelist, critic.
Life's short. Get up. Go somewhere different. Meet someone different. --What About Clients/Paris?
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Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Badness in Depositions: "Stop me before I coach again."
An objection must be stated concisely in a nonargumentative and nonsuggestive manner.
--from Rule 30(c)(2), Fed. R. Civ. P.
Defending lawyers who testify are bad. And let he or she without sin cast the first stapler. In defending in a deposition, giving speeches and coaching your witness on the record is "bad" because it may be suggestive of the answer the witness should give. At Evan Shaeffer's fine and enduring Illinois Trial Practice Weblog, see "Depositions: How to Stop Coaching". We could go on and on and on about this--but we'll just be quiet and let you read it.
(Does this guy ever shut up?)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)