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September 29, 2015
Hull in 2016: Motherhood. Good crops. A thin Marie Osmond. Sweetness. Light. Nicer flight attendants.
Hull for President 2016. WTF not? I'm fed up. How about you? Walker out. Carson around the bend. Carly has about 4 weeks left in sun. The Donald? Fun but no bueno. 16 others going nowhere.
Time for Hull Exploratory Committee? Why not? You know, years ago I helped work up and file one of these things for Dick Thornburg, then in his mid-60s. Was a young DC partner then working for the late Republican kingmaker Evans Rose Jr., my senior partner. Wasn't that hard to do. Can one of the looters--uh, associates, rather--get me that form?
Good crops. Motherhood. Sweetness. Light. Thin women. Nicer stews.
Posted by JD Hull at 05:42 PM | Comments (2)
September 24, 2015
UPDATE: My Kind of Pope: The Holy Father's Homelessness Chops.
I like the cut of this pontiff's zucchetto. Forget for a moment his speech before Congress earlier this morning. At 11:15 am EST Pope Francis will leave Capitol Hill and do something people will actually remember: dine with DC's homeless at St. Patrick's on 10th Street, N.W., a 10 minute walk from my office. I'm going over there now. I dislike religions--but I like Francis' focus on Homelessness, a global problem which people of all cultural and political stripes in all nations and economies are going to have to face.
UPDATE: Francis. This guy got to me. And then he blessed our food. At noon today on 10th Street, Northwest, in my city: "The son of God came into this world a homeless person." Blew me away.
St. Patrick's Church, 10th & G Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C.
Francis yesterday in the new tricked-out radical Popemobile.
Posted by JD Hull at 09:53 AM | Comments (1)
September 23, 2015
Kim Dotcom's New Zealand extradition hearing to start in earnest Thursday.
After two days of delays, the New Zealand court hearing to decide whether German file-sharing 'outlaw' Kim Dotcom should face copyright infringement charges in the United States will begin in earnest tomorrow, September 24. Los Angeles-based Billboard Magazine late yesterday:
The FBI is seeking the extradition of Dotcom, now a New Zealand resident, to the U.S. on charges of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering, stemming from his Megaupload business, which was shut down by U.S authorities after Dotcom’s dramatic arrest in 2012.
The business had reportedly netted Dotcom and his associates $175 million.
The extradition proceedings start after three years of legal wrangling, two supreme court cases and 10 delays in the proceedings, the most recent of which was earlier this month when Dotcom made a last-ditch bid to the court of appeal to have the extradition hearing postponed again.
According to local reports, Monday's District Court hearing [September 21] was attended by a sea of lawyers and reporters, as well as Dotcom supporters.
“This case is not just about me. This case is about how much control we allow US corporations and the US government to have over the Internet," Dotcom said on Twitter ahead of the hearing. “The judges on this case can become the champions for billions of Internet users or a handful of US content billionaires. #Hope."
Dotcom’s colleagues Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk also are facing extradition.
The case, which is expected to last around four weeks, will not determine if the four are guilty, but only whether they should face the charges brought by the FBI in what it has called the "Mega conspiracy" in the U.S.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2015
Parker County, Texas.
Parker County Courthouse, Weatherford, Texas, USA. Art, authenticity and ambiance may be best features of American county courts.
Posted by JD Hull at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2015
The Mother of All Funny Economist Covers: It's the September 4-11 issue bemoaning The Trump Uprising and it's unexpected staying power.
This one (see below) could be collector's item on cover alone so head down to the news stands now if you don't subscribe. The short article accompanying it is similarly remarkable for its tone of genuine terror and disbelief that America could let Donald Trump set the tone of our new pseudo-populism this election cycle. The Economist staff apparently finds Trump more objectionable as a pol and a person than any GOP candidate ever. If you dislike Brits--or like me you just like to goof on or wind up your British friends a few times a year--this is one of your best moments. Donald Trump has gotten to them and good.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:23 PM | Comments (1)
September 10, 2015
Valorem's Patrick Lamb: Ways law firms put themselves before clients.
No one cares more about clients than Chicago trial lawyer, fellow Irish-American storyteller, legal profession critic and Renaissance man Patrick Lamb; Pat was--long before any other practitioner-blogger out there--fixed on clients as the North Star. Client service orientation is not a gimmick with him--or with any of his partners at Valorem.
I personally owe Pat. I and four others would not have started What About Clients? in August 2005 and write about lawyering daily were it not for Pat's example and advice beforehand and during. Pat and I are both products of the associate-partner big law firm training track. While we do not certainly see eye-to-eye on everything in law and life, we do have lots in common. We famously differ on billing--no need to get into that here--but over the years have been on the same page consistently on the client.
Ironically, establishing and insisting upon law firm cultures where clients are first--and from which all else must flow--is a natural professional and business instinct for Pat (and me). But it is for almost no other lawyers or law firms I know. Other firms talk about it. Write about it. Proclaim it. But they don't do it--and in truth client service regimes are simple but they are much, much harder to establish and maintain than they look. Client-first cultures require discipline, work and enforcement.
My sense is that Pat and I would still love to try a case together. We both revel in the rules of evidence and the art of storytelling for business clients in American federal courts. We even like the discovery process, providing it's efficient. Generally, Pat may have a better business head, both as a managing law partner and a trial lawyer, than do I. But as a trial lawyer, I'd wager that at least my closings are more logically compelling and emotionally gripping--an unusual combination--than any trial performance Pat has ever seen. Make no mistake. I am evilly persuasive with any woman juror who is, say, 85 or older. I'm also funnier, slightly better-looking and a much, much shallower human being than Pat. Some jurors do appreciate these qualities. I've worked hard for them all, Jack.
But I digress. Last week at his award-winning In Search of Perfect Client Service, Pat in "Valorem Law Group's Why" takes a thoughtful but also brave look at the demise and collapse of once well-respected Dewey LeBoeuf. Do read the whole piece; it's eloquent and at points quite moving. Here are some excerpts I especially liked:
One lesson learned from this state of affairs is that, lip service aside, client well-being is irrelevant in most law firms. Countless examples prove that firms placing their own interests above clients’ interests has become part of the firms’ DNA: they just can’t change it without killing themselves. In no particular order, here are just a few:
1. Hourly billing
2. Bonuses based on hours
3. Compensation guarantees.
4. Compensation based on revenue rather than profit.
5. Compensation that ignores client satisfaction.
6. Large partner offices and high downtown rents.
7. Expensive artwork.
8. Mergers. And then justifying them by saying it helps clients.
Valorem's Patrick J. Lamb
9. Annual fee increases that have become self-righteous expectations.
10. High turnover of associates and income partners.
11. Putting all risk of failure on the client side.
12. A business model as unfriendly to clients as one can imagine.
13. Pressure to collect at year end for the firm’s benefit with no regard to how that practice helps or hurts the client.
14. Massive infrastructure and expansive numbers of offices that provide no value to most clients, but are paid for by all clients.
It is impossible to escape the conclusion that those who run large law firms have become “the Man,” doing things for themselves and the other powerful elite in their firms.In most firms, any semblance of equal treatment of partners has faded along with bygone eras. Even in the “good old days,” clients were merely a means to comfort and success.
My partners and I all practiced at firms run by one version or another of “the Man.” The challenge for each of us was what to do about it. Separately and without knowing it, we all had the same epiphany.
We could not work for the Man any longer. Indeed, we had to challenge The Man and everything he stood for.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2015
Great lawyering will have (a) high-pressure and (b) high-hours. Don't engage lawyers who haven't been steeped in both.
Full-blown HBR-approved Slackoisie empire-building alert. Either the Harvard Business Review is desperate for copy or has gone around the bend a little. There is a Center for WorkLife Law? Yes, it's true, at Hastings Law. As you may recall, student-driven rumblings about law firm culture hatched it last year. So are law clients opting for lazier, less ambitious, more Mommy-centric, nicer and Mr. Rogers-esque lawyers, some who have left BigLaw? No, trust us, notwithstanding what a recent HBR article says, that's not true. But do read "Law Firms’ Grueling Hours Are Turning Defectors into Competitors" by Joan C. Williams, Hastings Law School professor and also a founding director of the Center of WorkLife Law.
Williams' article cites an extensive study/call-to-arms--also co-authored by Williams--which discusses a number of newer law firm models that are arguably more culture-friendly to practicing lawyers. Interesting and certainly worth a read. The study, too, is beautifully written. The problem: not one of these new law firms models discussed in the Hastings study is designed with higher-end, medium or even mom-and-pop clients primarily in mind. Not one. The models are about the care and feeding of law students about to enter the market and established lawyers. The models are not really about clients. I would like to make lawyering for great clients easier, too. But it's just not about the lawyers, Teacups.
So a simple reminder to future and/or newbie law clients that sophisticated users of legal services already know. Ready? Law is (1) high-pressure and (2) high-hours. Don't engage lawyers who haven't been steeped in both.
Welcome HBR to the Club.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)