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January 31, 2014

Storytelling for trial lawyers in 16 words.

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

--Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

Chekhov with Maxim Gorky in Yalta, probably 1900

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

Sharp Dressed Man

Cuff links, stick pin.
When I step out
I'm gonna do you in.

--Gibbons, Hill and Beard (ZZ Top)

Posted by JD Hull at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2014

Aristide Maillol: Dina in 1939.

"The Sky", 1939, Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

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

January 29, 2014

Remsburg

Like many of my peers, I've been interested in politics--the "art of controlling your environment", as one Hunter Stockton Thompson used to define politics broadly--since I was 15. I lived on Capitol Hill for years, and worked there twice. At this point, I think can tell sincere versus feigned shows of partisanship or bipartisanship in politicians posturing/reacting to a question, to a speech or to an event. Even when "on duty", pols actually are human beings with their guards down from time to time. They are not all bluster, speciousness and lies 24/7. I keep watching for those rare moments of real. I think that anyone last night who watched the State of the Union address witnessed one of those moments in the prolonged applause and show of appreciation for wounded Sgt. First Class Cory Remburg. I expect more than a few members of Congress, journalists and watchers of the event around the world both cheered and teared up. See, e.g., NBC news: "Army Ranger Cory Remsburg honored as hero during State of the Union address."

Photo: Michael Reynolds/EPA

Posted by JD Hull at 01:27 PM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2014

At Cross-Culture: "How European are the Russians?"

Don't miss this article at Richard Lewis's consistently-excellent Cross-Culture: "Russia and the EU". Excerpt:

What is remarkable about Russians is that they seem to possess all the European characteristics, while many other Europeans seem to exhibit only some of them. The loquacious, emotional Italian is almost the opposite of the modest, humorous Englishman, but Russians seem to adapt well to either. It is a question of breadth of vision – itself a Russian trait. This is a basic Russian quality – one that they have possessed for hundreds of years. This breadth of vision is enhanced by one or two Asian traits – stoicism, self-sacrifice, adaptability, face protection.

If one had to sum up Russian psychology and abilities in one word, “versatility” would come to mind. Being a natural land bridge between East and West, they have a certain facility in dealing with neighbours from both sides. With land borders with 14 different countries, remoteness from other nationalities is never an option. Whether Russians like it or not, leadership beckons at all turns.

Peter I of Russia, 1838, Paul Delaroche (1797-1856)

Posted by JD Hull at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2014

Want Client Service Smarts? Find a Local Store or Restaurant with Lines Out the Door.

Because at those shops and eateries, they are doing something very right. They have either (1) products or food that are excellent or (2) an atmosphere or level of customer/client engagement that is genuine and makes people want to be there over and over again. Sometimes, if rarely, those places have both great products or services and great customer attention. So check for local retail players with lines out the front door. And when you find these places, no matter what business you are in, tell your employees to check out these places and report back to you about what they are seeing. This is not a new idea. It's a common sense and very pedestrian idea. But you can apply local retail successes to any professional services business. But it takes work. A bit of imagination. And all your partners and employees have to be on board. Every single co-worker.

Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh's Strip District

Posted by JD Hull at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2014

France's New First Girlfriend?

See "French President Francois Hollande Announces Breakup with First Lady Valerie Trierweiler" in The Daily Beast.

French Actress Julie Gayet, 41.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2014

Defendant-Tweeter Courtney Love Prevails in First Twitter Libel Trial.

Chalk up a victory and some trail-blazing for rocker Courtney Love. On its unusual facts, and given somewhat implausible testimony on both sides, the first Twitter libel case to go to trial sounds like a poor test case. But "Twibel" of course is making lots of headlines anyway. See, e.g., the Los Angeles Times' coverage of yesterday's jury verdict for Love in a case brought by her ex-attorney Rhonda Holmes. It springs from Love's defamatory, evidently inaccurate and slightly cryptic June 2010 tweet that attorney Holmes had been "bought off". The Los Angeles jury found that Love did not know the defamatory tweet was false, and did not act recklessly. Excerpt from the Los Angeles Times piece:

Dubbed "Twibel," the civil suit seeking $8 million was filed by Rhonda Holmes, who had once acted as Love's fraud litigation attorney. The singer-actress filed her own complaint against Holmes, claiming legal malpractice.

Holmes had been hired in December 2008 to look into missing funds from the estate of Kurt Cobain, Love's late husband.

Holmes and Love parted ways after less than six months. The attorney alleged that the relationship had been contingent on Love refraining from substance abuse, a stipulation that eventually angered the singer. The attorney also said that Love became a difficult client and wouldn't return calls.

Courtney Love performing at the Dream Downtown in Manhattan, New York, September 9th, 2013. (Source: Studio Havens/Marie Havens)

Posted by JD Hull at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2014

UPDATED: The Week in Wild West Shows: Free Speech, Dueling & Other Manly Arts.

The Wild West Show that is still the blogosphere can get ugly. There are some rough spots. Apart from law that governs our discourse on the Internet, we are still in the process of creating--and learning--the folkways of cyberspace. Most are unwritten common sense do's and dont's of how to behave as we sort things out in the ether. And there are lessons. Some of the lessons come with a short-term price. This week's lessons emerged from a week-long multi-participant brawl, triggered by a young lawyer's testosterone-drenched reaction to a post Scott Greenfield penned way back on December 2. Specifics and vigorous coverage are in the links below.

But let it be known here that Greenfield deftly moderated comments in a four-post (yes, he wrote four) round-the-clock discussion this past week. When Greenfield himself came under attack, he got an informed, elegant and King-Hell funny defense from Ken White at Popehat. Free speech was the overall topic. Subtopics: plagiarism, intellectual property, commercial speech, defamation, how to write, how to persuade, emotional intelligence, your online footprint, Internet culture clash and avoiding the appearance of a certain ethnocentrism. If you want lessons, there are scads in this story. So, for some teaching posts, see here, here, here and here by Greenfield at Simple Justice and this one by Ken White at Popehat. Thanks, you two. We learned something. And you got us all thinking about our new ditigal world.

UPDATE. There were other sage posts covering this week's Speechfest. In no particular order:

This Lawyer Just Failed Blogging and Social Media Basics by lawyer-journalist Bill Peacock at FindLaw's Strategist.

Bring a First Aid Kit: Online Damage Control for Lawyers by Mark Bennett at Defending People.

What Is The First Rule Of Holes? Bueller…Bueller? by Mike G at That Mr. G Guy's Blog.

12 Steps To Ruining Your Reputation by Keith Lee at his weekly Above The Law column.

Not every wrong act violates a black-letter ethics rule by fellow Maryland lawyer Bruce Godfrey.

Burr v. Hamilton, July 11, 1804, Weehawken, NJ (Wikipedia Commons)

Posted by JD Hull at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)

Heroes: Ben 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 JD Hull at 06:19 AM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2014

Got sand?

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2014

Montgomery, Alabama, September 4, 1958. King was 28.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2014

Hermann Hesse: Deliverance.

It was at a concert of lovely old music. After two or three notes of the piano the door was opened...to the other world. I sped through heaven and saw God at work. I suffered holy pains. I dropped all my defences and was afraid of nothing in the world. I accepted all things and to all things gave up my heart.

Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:41 AM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2014

Regarding Nino: Dick-gate?

To bring us up to date on cumulative reaction to the now infamous page 4, lines 10-12 of the SCOTUS transcript in Marvin M. Brandt Revocable Trust v. United States (No. 12-1173), heard by the Supreme Court on the morning of January 14, five gentlemen and mainstay observers of the 225-year-old court--Josh Blackman, Lyle Denniston, Tony Mauro, ATL's Joe Patrice and Scott Greenfield--can be seen variously weighing in on "Dick-gate" if you visit yesterday's Simple Justice and read "No Podium For Weenies", including the links Greenfield provides. Our humble take? It's in the comments, you miserable rubes.

Above: Josh Blackman. Nino's "dick" move or enforcing SCOTUS rules?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2014

SLM: Witness Demeanor in International Disputes.

In international arbitration and mediation, first-language barriers can be the least of your client's difficulties. How does a mediator or arbitrator arrive at a true--and fair--consensus on the meaning of ordinary verbal and non-verbal conduct by a witness? What is the significance of the "delayed answer" to a question? In one culture, delay means hesitancy and evasiveness (e.g., to most Westerners). In another, delay may denote careful consideration of the question--and a sign of respect to the questioner.

Four years ago, GE's in-house counsel Mike McIlwrath interviewed Australian mediator Joanna Kalowski, who works out of both Australia and Paris. Kalowski discusses how she became a mediator and lessons that come directly from her work. She has also trained mediators in Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Italy, Thailand and Hong Kong. Their 25-minute discussion, "Public Consensus Across Cultures" (IDN No. 61), taped on February 13, 2009, is part of McIlwrath's highly regarded interview series on International Dispute Negotiation sponsored by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution, or CPR Institute.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2014

“We are on the hunt for others:” Nigeria's new law criminalizing homosexuality.

Nigeria, where sodomy has been illegal for decades, just raised the stakes. This week Africa's largest nation begins enforcement of a popular law which in effect outlaws most LGBT behavior and culture. Outbreaks of violence are especially feared in northern Nigeria, a majority-Muslim region administered in part under Islamic law. See in TIME Nate Rawlings' piece, "Anti-Gay Law Takes Effect in Africa’s Most Populous Country". Excerpts:

One day after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed legislation criminalizing homosexuality, police reportedly began rounding up gay men in Africa‘s most populous country.

Under the new law, same-sex “amorous relationships” are banned, as is membership in gay rights groups, prohibitions that have sparked both fear and defiance among Nigeria’s gay activists.

Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa outlaw homosexual acts. Efforts by Western nations to cut aid to countries like Uganda and Malawi have helped to bridle anti-gay legislation in those countries.

But Nigeria, Africa’s largest producer of oil with an output of 2.5 million barrels per day, is mostly impervious to that kind of economic pressure. As Africa’s most populous country, developments in Nigeria echo across the continent, and there appears little other countries can do except condemn the new legislation.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed the law on Monday (AP photo).

Posted by JD Hull at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2014

Employee Reviews on CS Standards: How Do Your Firm's Dweebs Measure Up?

Are you serious about all that client service stuff on your website? Then talk about real customer service every single day, as if it were a substantive area of law practice. Make it a running conversation. If you are serious about building and keeping a "client service culture", you need to underscore it at every performance review. It's an idea that is here to stay in this, or any other economy.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2014

Sensitive Litigation Moment: Walken v. Hopper.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2014

Los Angeles and the Music Business: "A cruel and shallow money trench."

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.

There's also a negative side.

--HST

Posted by JD Hull at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2014

Zürich

Mann, Joyce, Jung, Wagner and Einstein each lived here in District 1. Zürich, first established as a Roman customs post, and now a truly global city, also claims a living and breathing Tina Turner, unless she left since my last visit four years ago. Not Paris-beautiful or London-exciting, but solid, reliably Western-style commercial, and nearly too North American by the year 2000.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2014

Baudelaire: Great Cities.

What strange phenomena we find in great cities. All we have to do is to stroll about with our eyes open.

--Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)

A friend in Buenos Aires.

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

January 07, 2014

Pantheon: Checkpoint Charlize Theron.

Benoni, South Africa's Charlize Theron is now in our Pantheon.

Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin, circa 2004.

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

January 06, 2014

Redux: In Praise of Structure

For a long time I've thought that American business schools and the training programs of global and often publicly-traded companies do a much, much better job than do law firms of training recruits to value and adhere to the structure of a plan on an item for action.

Do we lawyers know how to get things done, done right and done on time? Do we even value that? I wonder.

I am not talking here about the simple "keeping face" and survival requirements of meeting client deal or court deadlines, or even about the cliches of working hard, creative thinking, "out of the box", working smart or being persistent. I mean structure, a real standard, and "practicing structure" every day--the discipline of (1) having a plan or strategy for any one project, client or non-client, (2) meeting internal project deadlines no matter what, and (3) applying the will to work that plan and timetable.

"Structure" is not just the hard process of getting things done. It's a frame of mind and a value which must be sold to others in your shop--like the importance of making that 5 minute call to a client about a loose end at the end of the worst day you can remember, even while you could do it the next morning at 8:00. It's realizing that letting anything but emergency tasks "slide" makes you inefficient, unlikely to meet your real goals, and tired.

Do you get up early every day with a idea of what needs to be done on each project, and knowing the difference between "important" and "urgent"? Example: Monday is your deadline to have the final changes and notes to your web designer on your new firm website, an important but not urgent project you've talked about at internal meetings for months. So far, for once, you have been on track. But on Monday a longstanding client calls with two new projects; the new projects are exciting but not THAT urgent in the sense they need to cut into internal deadlines and other goals for Monday. You need to take some first steps, though, to get on top of the new matters for your client. After all, these folks are the main event.

Key ongoing internal project v. new client project. Which gets the most attention that day? Which slides? Answer: they both get attention, and neither slides. The website (long-term important) and the new client project (short-term important) are both critical projects. Years ago the Stephen Coveys and Edwards Demings out there pointed out that business people burn themselves out by waiting around only for "the urgent" in a kind of manic crisis management that keeps other important things from ever getting done or ONLY getting them done when they morph into a crisis. For lawyers, other examples would be only respecting deadlines like transaction closing dates and court-filing deadlines--to hell with everything else.

For a long time I've thought that American business schools and the training programs of global and often publicly-traded companies do a much, much better job than do law firms of training recruits to value and adhere to the structure of a plan on an item for action. It's almost as if law school and firms deem us all such "professionals" and "artists" that we are beyond learning skills of project planning and execution. What a crock. Not learning the value of pushing non-urgent but important things along at a steady pace has cost us dearly. As motivated as lawyers often are, our discipline for sticking to anything and seeing it through is often poor; again, unless it's urgent, we just don't see its value. Do our best clients run their businesses that way?

This attitude is the norm, and we lawyers--who rarely innovate or take a leadership position on anything in commerce--are just fine, thank you, with it. After all, "all the other law firms" are mediocre on the discipline of getting things done, and have "crisis-only" mentalities--why shouldn't we be that way? So we waste time blowing off important but longer term projects. Worst of all, we send to others in our firms, and especially to younger lawyers, the message: "No worries--just work on a barely adequate level; don't do things until you have to; and if it's not urgent, let it slide." As with client care and service, our standard is not only embarrassingly low, we are exporting that low standard internally whenever and wherever we can.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)

January 05, 2014

Paris Sunday Mornings.

By Tara Bradford, at her Paris Parfait, five years ago. See her photographs of Les Puce de Vanves, one of the largest flea markets in Paris, in the 14th arrondissement.

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

January 03, 2014

How to Pick a Fight in a Global Recession.

There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.

--Henry Kissinger, quoted in The New York Times Magazine, June 1, 1969

Answer: You choose fights more carefully--and you go on the offensive only when you must. As Rome discovered too late, protecting every terrain and border is expensive and draining. As business and trial people learn young, butting heads with everyone who has ever done you a disservice, or fighting every point in an oral argument, or an evidentiary or discovery dispute, will not just be expensive and draining. It will defeat you. And it will make you go bonkers.

In an economic downturn, you have to be even more careful, and often plainly conservative, in reigning in your warrior ways. Put another way, and as a friend of mine likes to day, "allow yourself two or three creeps every day". Don't engage every jerk you meet. Don't right every wrong.

I've been told this my whole life. I hate it. It's a hard lesson--but merely part of the wages of being competitive and bellicose. For me, our old friend Henry, who turned 90 in 2013, said it in a way we can all remember it, and even plan a little.

No Worries, Bubala: Henry steps out in 2011.

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

January 02, 2014

Toward Making Your Life a Work of Art.

About half the people you meet live from one day to the next in a state of such fear and uncertainty that about half the time they doubt their own sanity. Their boats are rocking so badly that all they want to do is get level long enough to think straight and avoid the next nightmare.

--HST, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

For the past two centuries, starting just about the time the world started feeling the effects of morphing from farming to industrial economies, people got more out of whack than ever. Many historians think the industrial revolution started as early as the mid-18th century--when Brits learned how to do machine-based manufacturing--but it took a few decades for the world to lose its way while it enjoyed and celebrated labor-saving devices, increased wealth and higher standards of living for most Westerners.

What ever happened to Well-Roundedness?

"Fragmentation" became one word philosophers and writers often used to describe the real price paid for our "progress". People became cut off from the natural world, their own innate spirituality and the meaning of a true education. We drifted away from physical culture, real health, exercising our bodies and eating correctly. Notions of friendship and bonds with others changed and, in my view, all but disappeared. As a result, we became less useful to others, friends and family, clients and customers, co-workers and ourselves. We are more alone than ever. We lead paltry, under-achieving and often miserable lives. Many of us are, most of the time, "hatin' life".

In short, we have lost our very souls. We feel isolated from life itself and we feel alone. We are ignorant of the history that got us here, watch television mindlessly and by default, wax patriotic or tribal as a substitute for thinking, are unaware of that happens in the rest of the world (Americans are easily the worst offenders), take pills we don't need and are getting fat enough to have our own zip codes. We don't even venture outside and into the natural world that much. We think we'll be and feel better if we "buy more stuff". Perhaps worst of all, even the most talented of us no longer think for ourselves. We follow. We run in mindless packs.

Fragmentation, isolation, unthinking conformity, chronic unhappiness or being "screwed up"--whatever you want to call it--is true of most of us, in varying but substantial ways, regardless of race, class or level of education. The unhappiness covers us all. We are not "putting it all together" to form (to take a musical conceit) one major chord.

Doing that starts with each human--and it takes work. Work we should be anxious to undertake.

Work at a life more complete: one that "adds up".

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

January 01, 2014

Janus: God of Beginnings.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:50 PM | Comments (0)