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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)
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 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 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 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 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 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)