December 12, 2007
Citigroup: Pandit new CEO, Bischoff new chairman
Citigroup Names Pandit CEO to Clean Up Subprime Mess
Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) - Citigroup Inc. named former Morgan Stanley President Vikram Pandit as chief executive officer, ending a monthlong search after Charles O. Prince stepped down amid at least $9 billion of mortgage losses. [more]
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin engineered the regime change.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2007
Wild Bill menaced by non-GOP robot.
'Robot' heckles Bill Clinton (MSNBC).
And from Iowa the National Journal has more details.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 07:01 PM | Comments (0)
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is Argentina's new president.
Argentina's Fernandez Succeeds Husband As President
Buenos Aires, Dec. 10 (Reuters) - Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner took office as Argentina's first elected female president on Monday in a rare husband-to-wife handover Argentines hope will sustain an historic economic boom.
Fernandez, a former first lady and senator, began a 4-year term promising to continue the policies of her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, who presided over a dramatic recovery in South America's second-biggest economy. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2007
GeekLawyer: American attorneys are "revolting".
But it's an ex-New York Governor Mario Cuomo solidarity-with-Pakistan-lawyers-so-why-not-against-George Bush thing, and we can't get a copy of the speech or a report from a non-blog news source. A couple of weeks back, Cuomo allegedly said: "If US lawyers are marching in the streets in support of the rule of law in Pakistan [referring to a NYC protest], why aren't we marching in support of the rule of law here?" Upcoming (June 30, 2008) Blawg Review host GeekLawyer, a feisty London barrister with that rare lawyer mix of guts and credentials, actually loves Yanks, mainly, sort of. Anyway, see "American Lawyers Are Revolting".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
EU-Africa trade summit in Lisbon ends badly, bitterly.
Lots of coverage on this today but see Edinburgh-based The Scotsman, one of the oldest papers in the UK:
Mugabe Rallies Africa Against Europe As talks End In Disarray
LISBON - Africa and Europe's first summit in seven years ended in disarray yesterday, with no agreement on the key issue of trade and a defiant Robert Mugabe telling Africa to "fight the arrogance" of European countries opposed to his regime in Zimbabwe.
The two-day summit in Lisbon did agree an action plan and a promise to meet again in 2010, but the world's largest trading bloc and its poorest continent remained bitterly divided over how to replace current economic agreements. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2007
Helmut Schmidt: Russia less dangerous than the US.
Helmut Schmidt, the former German chancellor (1974-82) and U.S. arms ally against the former Soviet Union in Cold War days, raised eyebrows with this one. Many Germans and Europeans still listen to and respect the 78-year-old statesman turned newspaper executive. See "How Dangerous Is America?" by Gabor Steingart, a DC-based reporter for Der Spiegel, the influential German weekly magazine.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2007
Mother Of All Blogs resumes posts; conducts study, God willing.
Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has apologized for not posting enough on his blog. The reason for the inactivity? Some of the "long" messages (i.e., comments and e-mails) he receives concerning his blog need to be studied and shortened for him. Eventually, all messages will be analyzed and synthesized in a report (one with stats, he says). "God willing, a portion of the overall analysis of the messages and its
interesting results will be posted on the blog in the future." Three of the shorter comments up on his blog which may or may not merit analysis are:
I hate you. you are retarted. that simple mentally. retarted --'John Jacobs', US
You are a terrible, despicable human being. You WILL be attacked by the US or Israel and will be destroyed! --'Your Gone' a/k/a 'bob', UK
nice blog, but you should be posting more often -- 'John Walker', Germany
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)
November 21, 2007
Does America lack capacity for entanglements abroad?
That question keeps coming up. The young Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville thought 170 years ago that the answer is yes. He wrote that America by nature was an isolationist creature. For a more recent take, see today's post by Joerg Wolf, a German Fulbright alumni, in the Atlantic Review. Wolf comments on a recent WSJ op-ed piece by DC lawyer David Rivkin, "Diplomacy in the Post-9/11 Era". Both are excellent. If your firm works abroad--or will be--read them.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
November 19, 2007
Pakistan's lawyers, Musharraf and emergency rule.
How can you walk into a courtroom and address a judge as 'My lord' if he has taken an oath to a dictator? --Asad Abbasi, Islamabad lawyer
The Washington Post's Pam Constable writes about how lawyers in Pakistan wage a campaign against President Pervez Musharraf by boycotting courts.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2007
Our Wunderkind in Berlin
Being a Very-Minor-Almost-Imperceptible-Celebrity, I sometimes get to hang out with Very-Major-Totally-Obvious-Celebrities...
Chris Abraham, in a post at Because the Medium is the Message
Learn a lot, grow a lot, get famous and make money. You have our permission. As long as you "serve somebody", like the man from Hibbing said, it's your world. To keep level, read T.S. Eliot, some Flaubert and maybe The Upanishads. But watch a little, too.
Watch this guy: WAC?'s talented DC friend and IT mentor Chris Abraham of internet experts Abraham & Harrison kept his old life in America and just started a new one in Berlin, Germany. Chris is a rising star in public relations blogging, new marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO). He amazes me. Chris, well under 40, is no geek,
and someone should run him for office the minute he turns too rich. The last time I saw Chris, a couple of months ago in Monterey, California, he introduced me to another way-talented fellow from NYC we should all watch named Jonathan Swerdloff. And then Chris just happened to invite me to dinner along with a former Fortune 100 company GC-turned-CEO an entire generation older (okay, my age) who I had been wanting to get together with for four (4) years.* Chris is creative, smart, marketing oriented--and charming. You can follow Chris in Berlin at this blog or his other blog. Watch him.
*This annoyed me. WAC? has uber-thick skin. But Chris is better at my job than I am--and he doesn't even have my job.
Posted by JD Hull at 05:09 PM | Comments (1)
November 15, 2007
Checking in with Charon QC
The urbane and refreshing Londoner Charon QC is in top form. See "Europhile Top Shelf…and Downing Street Matters" and his Saturday review of last week's news and UK blog posts. On January 7, CQC hosts Blawg Review, which will never be the same. Some lawyers are international lawyers. Charon is that, and much more: he's a lawyer and an international kind of guy. He would rather choke to death than just talk or write about The Law. We Yank working stiffs stand in awe.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2007
Paris, Marrakesh, and Not-Law
No matter how hard we try, we can't stay away from Paris Parfait, where an American writer in Paris muses about art, antiques, poetry and politics. Or from My Marrakesh, where a "Moroccan blog girl-next-door" and her bemused American family build a guest house.
Posted by JD Hull at 05:19 PM | Comments (1)
November 13, 2007
Lowland Libertarian lawyer.
"As a lowland Scot, I am as alien to Gaelic culture as I am to the ways of the inuit." Thus speaks the anonymous writer of Musings of a Reactionary Snob. He's a lawyer and Libertarian who lives in Edinburgh. He doesn't want his taxes funding Gaelic broadcasting--through the Gaelic Media Service--yet he personally supports the culture and language of Gaelic. He's got a point. See his post "Gaelic". Colorful and good writing.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2007
A little CPR on the Spanish Steps: new program on cross-border disputes.
Thanks to Diane Levin for pointing out to us "International Dispute Negotiation"--a new podcast program presented by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR). Not boring. Lively, with a short jazz violin opening and then intro by a woman with an interesting voice, the IDN program presents examples of the ways companies and professionals from different countries and cultures approach dispute resolution. It is hosted by General Electric's Michael McIlwrath, Senior Counsel, Litigation for GE Infrastructure--Oil & Gas, in Florence, Italy. The introductory interview, from the Spanish Steps at the Piazza di Spagna in Rome, is with CPR Senior Vice President F. Peter Phillips. And hear the more recent McIlwrath IDN interview with Brazilian lawyer Antonio Tavares on dispute resolution in Brazil.
Posted by Tom Welshonce at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)
November 08, 2007
Getting it right: UK firms with double digit revenue growth
Do "UK law firms have a more sophisticated approach to strategy than North American firms"? See this post at The Adventure of Strategy, a consistently fine site by business strategist Rob Millard, a partner at Edge International.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 12:21 PM | Comments (1)
November 07, 2007
Legal Talk Network: The SoCal fires
There's an interesting interview of three San Diego lawyers on the recent southern California fires right here at the October 31 edition of the LegalTalkNetwork's "Lawyer2Lawyer" radio show. It's hosted by Law.com bloggers J. Craig Williams in Los Angeles and Bob Ambrogi in Boston. WAC?'s Dan Hull is one of the lawyers interviewed.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2007
Merrill Lynch's bad week.
Make that a tough month for Merrill Lynch, the U.S. brokerage founded in 1914. First, record losses and stock plunge, and CEO replacement. Now the SEC investigation on off-balance-sheet deals to obscure risky mortage debt (AP), the forced exit of the chief of ML's consulting services arm (Jacksonville Business Journal), and the exit of a municipal pension fund from the ML portfolio (Global Pensions).
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
CNN's Nancy Grace gives birth.
A Truly Blessed Event. Twins--a boy and a girl, according to AP. Forty-nine year old mother and babies are doing fine, CNN rep says. Which is of course good. But this is very, very suspicious to WAC? How could this happen? Who saw it? Why weren't we briefed about this earlier? Who drove to the hospital? Who was at the scene first? Did someone secure the area? Sounds like the old run-around to us.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 12:46 AM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2007
Melbourne muscle boutique launches new IP blog.
The talented but "unstuffy" Melbourne-based commercial law firm of Nicholas Weston just launched Australian Trade Marks Law Blog. This is a promising new site. See "Madrid Update", which is both a status report and primer on the longstanding Madrid system of international trade mark registration, administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
November 03, 2007
Saturday's Charon: Lawyers dull? Say what?
Well, WAC? thinks lawyers are exciting. If you've never "partied" with American corporate tax lawyers drunk on Jesuit educations and a few Blue Nun spritzers, you don't know the meaning of bohemian and decadent. But for really edgy excitement, see re: "reality TV lawyering" Charon QC's post "Lawyers simply too dull to be on TV shock!…". Apparently, an executive producer of Legal TV in England canceled the show Lawyers Save the World because "the lawyers were not able
to rise to the occasion and save London [from floods]…some of them were listless and not bothered that London was drowning." Click here to find the clip from the ill-fated show and watch and hear a pretty young half-asleep English female solicitor born circa 1980 say the words: "Remember the Dunkirk spirit..."
Posted by JD Hull at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)
October 31, 2007
New York or London: Who's the man?
See at Bloomberg.com Matthew Lynn's piece London Hands Back Finance-Hub Status to New York. Lynn gives "four reasons why London has blown it".
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Blawg Review goes global.
Blawg Review is the popular and clever showcase of each week's best law blog posts. It's edited by a person known as "Ed.", who only a few lawyers have even seen in the flesh. It is just 30 months old. And in recent months, BR has become increasingly international, with blawger hosts from England, Ireland, Canada, Asia and Down Under, and featured posts from everywhere. The trend continues and accelerates in the next months. Due in part to Ed.'s superior technology skills, Blawg Review will procure what WAC? in its two years could never procure, a French blawg in English. We are not worthy.
January 7 - Charon QC (UK)
May 19 - Ruthie's Law (UK)
May 26 - Moral Dilemma (Australia)
Jun 2 - China Law Blog (China)
Jun 16 - cearta.ie (Ireland)
Jun 23 - French-Law.Net (France)
Jun 30 - GeekLawyer (UK)(X-rated)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
If you forgot the candy, turn off the lights and lie on the floor.
Today is Halloween--also called "Pooky Night" in some parts of Ireland. It's really just a faint shadow of an ancient seasonal celebration of the awesome mysteries of the cosmos: death, renewal, Clarence Thomas. In fact, this entire week offers very old harvest and life-death cycle observances with Pagan, Celtic, Roman and even Christian variations. While some cultures commune a bit more seriously with the spirit world this week, U.S. kids of course love it for its costumes and candy. But for WAC?, it's just Fall.
So let's give it up for my man John Keats (1795-1821) and his poem
1
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom‑friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch‑eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er‑brimmed their clammy cells.
2
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on the granary floor,
Thy hair soft‑lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or, on a half‑reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twinéd flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider‑press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.3
Where are the songs of Spring? Aye, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too—
While barréd clouds bloom the soft‑dying day,
And touch the stubble‑plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full‑grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge‑crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden‑croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.September 19, 1819
Posted by JD Hull at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2007
Merrill Lynch CEO O'Neal steps down.
The AP reports that Stan O'Neal will retire. Merrill Lynch has announced $2.2 billion in losses, due largely to the expansion of its portfolio in mortgaged-backed securities tied to the failing sub-prime market. ML's mortgage investments lost $7.9 billion in value during the third quarter. Earlier this year, investment banks that finance the mortgage industry pulled much of their money out.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Rancho Bernardo: The fire this time.
After fifteen days away, I returned to San Diego on Saturday. The whole town, starting inside of the airport terminal, smelled like a campfire, and parts of town still do. My car at the airport parking lot was sprinkled with a brownish ash. I then get home. Mainly, it's what I imagined: random ash deposits every few feet on sidewalks and patios, ashes even in places inside my house, bad visibility, bad brownish air (after a few hours you get a headache, and I still have one), the western and northern edges of Rancho Bernardo thoroughly and "expertly" scorched off some main roads right to the curb, destroyed or partly-destroyed homes, a few police barriers still up, an odd patch work of burned-out areas, and bald reddish mountain sides.
Some people are wearing masks. But most people were and are acting as if nothing happened. I did not expect to see evidence of the demon winds which fanned the fires here; there are unburned branches, pinecones and pine needles everywhere, and they need to be cleaned up. The rich and not so rich in this community of 45,000 lost over 350 homes--some of the "homeless" were picking up mail Saturday at the post office when I got my held mail. Rancho Bernardo will recover, and re-build, of course. But people here will never be the same. RB is populated by a strong, proud and orderly lot, many from conservative regions of Midwestern states, who don't like surprises, ever--from either humans or nature. It is, in an odd way, the End of the Perfection in a model community which over the past 25 years has enjoyed peace, quiet and nothing weird at all. The biggest problem at the moment is air quality. See from the AP "Poor Air From Wildfires A Health Threat".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2007
"Helluva job, Holden."
George, Arnold--and WAC?--tour Rancho Bernardo. Here (San Diego Union-Tribune), here (NPR), and here (AP).
Yesterday, they let people back into my neighborhood of Bernardo Heights in "upscale" Rancho Bernardo. Our own mask-clad and normally patrician Holden Oliver was kind to get his hands dirty last night by helping to return my rescued animals (including my demented cat J.D.) to the house and by cleaning up some of the soot in the rooms where windows had been cracked. Holden's no man of the people. And, while athletic, he generally shuns menial labor and the outdoors. He once told Julie McGuire that his idea of camping is "when room service at the Hay-Adams is late". But he loves hanging around Republicans--and this
week RB has even more serious "R"s than usual, a lot of them wandering around outside in RB. Holden had been working up north when the fires became unruly. Even that work stopped for a while. So he goes to San Diego, which many people are still avoiding or trying to escape. Maybe he wants to change the Constitution, and then run Arnold for something different, and national, in 2012.
Holden can adopt an observer's role in all this and even blog about it--but I can't. I live there. Someone called earlier today and said that they were finding charred bodies and skeletons at some of the burned RB house sites, and that the electricity in RB just went out. I don't even know whether this stuff is true; I have been busy on the other end of America, and I haven't watched or read much news. I'll do my own tour and assessment tomorrow when I return to RB. Not really sure what to expect. I'm a Midwest-East Coast boy. I am relatively new to SoCal, to the fires, earthquakes, bobcats, coyotes and strange reptiles, to the inland mountain wilderness that surrounds my house, to secretaries and receptionists who forget to come in on their first day on the job, to UCLA Law grads who think that 8 to 6 is a "really heinously brutal day, partner-dude". When people here talk about "energy consultants", they may not be referring to experts in fossil fuels, coal, oil or natural gas.
On every front, California has always been the World Headquarters of Surprise--good, bad, useful and lame.
Updated at 12:15 EST.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
October 24, 2007
California burning: "If your fax machine rings, your house is still there".
The good news: the young San Diego councilman I've known since his pup stage just released a sad and bone-chilling list of homes that have burned down in my evacuated neighborhood--and my house is not on it, they tell me. Bad news: I am not even in San Diego, and despite my normal thick-skinned "it's-just-real-life-happening" take on these kinds of events, not being there makes it even worse. Somehow, I feel guilty, and for no reason. The last thing I--or anyone else who lives in Southern California--needed was this.
This time the SoCal fires are worse than the ones in late 2003, when on a trip to London, I literally had to drive between rural mountain ridges on fire along Del Dios highway the night before my plane left just so I could stay in a hotel to get to the airport on time--usually a 20 minute drive. It was a bit like being in the escaping-burning-Atlanta scene of Gone With The Wind, except much longer burning and with lower but hotter flames.
When I am not traveling, I "live", as it were, in staid Rancho Bernardo, a quiet conservative suburb of San Diego. For years I was on the Planning Board there, and now I am somehow glad I'm not. I've been away from California--very far away--for the last 10 days, since the 13th. Was supposed to go back to SD this Saturday, the 27th, just in time for a presidential candidate fund-raising barbecue in La Jolla, of all things. I am sure it's been canceled. This past Monday morning, I learned, oddly, from a BBC report that my Bernardo Heights neighborhood was evacuated, which is a strange feeling. Later Monday, I learned no one could go downtown into work.
Anyway, all living things got out of my house via help from neighbors. No one except me and a bunch of animals, including my cat J.D., live at the house (my lawyer ex-wife "evacuated" years ago from my house on East Capitol Street in DC). With no one around in RB who really knows what has been going on, and before the officials released the list, how do I know what's going on? Answer: The same thing I did in 2003 when I was in London and Kent--every two hours I call my home fax machine (001-858-613-XXXX); if it makes the high-pitched fax noise, my house is still there. I love that sound now.
More later, if needed and I can--but I am going to an airport. Trying to work here. But my friend and blogfather, Chicago trial lawyer Patrick Lamb, urged me this morning to find the time to blog about it no matter how "busy" I am, even though I am far away from California. You're right, as usual, Pat.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
October 23, 2007
Brussels: Microsoft won't appeal EU antitrust ruling.
But just the facts, please, ma'am. Apparently, not everyone "loves a winner"--and Microsoft is a case in point. In this EU antitrust development and important but possibly short-term setback for MS, it's amazing how many different slants and headlines there are in 50 or so news reports: everything from the gloating/kiss-off-and-die Financial Times via MSNBC: "Microsoft Concedes Defeat in EU Battle") to the mildly complimentary/obsequious (AP via Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: "Microsoft to Comply with Europe").
Most leads and headlines are anti-Microsoft. "Blinks", "bows", "suffered decisive defeat" and "bytes the dust" are popular in these. The British press (MS "finally admitted defeat in its nine-year battle with the European Commission...") is especially brutal. We expect soon to see from the Financial Times: "Despondent Microsoft Has Nervous Breakdown; Jumps Into Elliott Bay To Live With Alien Sea Creatures." So far the Wall Street Journal's version is the most factual and fair:
Microsoft Yields in EU Antitrust Battle
BRUSSELS -- Microsoft Corp.'s decision to drop its nine-year fight with European regulators could signal tougher regulation ahead for big, global technology companies operating in Europe.
The defeat also means Microsoft will need to tread carefully in Europe when it bundles products or features into its core operating system and will need to welcome competitors with fairly open arms if they come calling for ways to make their software work better with Microsoft's Windows operating system. [more]
Can't a world-changer and U.S. success story like MS get a break?
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)
IBA in Singapore: $7.50 Pepsis, "groupies", way too many dudes.
But otherwise, as always, a great event, and with the tone of a British-style Hell's Angels Labor Day picnic. Pulling no punches, Brendon Carr of Korea Law Blog, now back in "humdrum Seoul", gives his report of the week-long proceedings. WAC? is beginning to like this guy. A lot.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 09:17 AM | Comments (1)
Just Rome
When in Rome, do as many Romans as you possibly can.
--Hugh Grant
Rome. I don't like working here--charitably put, work-life balance is totally out of balance in some regions of Italy--but I love being in Rome. You can play all day long in and around the The Forum and Palatine Hill, where antiquities are still being found. You can stroll the City. There's this guy with a shop at the Piazza Navona--2000 years ago the Piazza was a Roman circus (i.e., track) you can still see if you try--who sells me these unique old prints, beautifully framed, that I bought for my father in Cincinnati and my alleged girlfriend in LA. I go to that shop on every trip. The Tiber River is gorgeous and, like the Seine in Paris, steeped in history, and a bit melancholy and mysterious.
Lots happened here, folks, and it's as if the rivers can remember it all.
Many of the West's great ideas and institutions, including what became English law, were conceived or preserved by Rome. And the obvious comparison with the U.S. is exciting: the Romans were competent if grandiose empire builders who got most of their better instincts and best artistic traditions from a very different land (the U.S. got theirs from Europe; old Rome's debt was to Greece).
But you can't see, experience and "do" Rome on one trip--same thing with New York, London or Paris--and you shouldn't try. Here's what happens when you do. See at The Exploration of Undiscovered Worlds--Or Just Europe and Myself this recent post "Rome" by an anonymous traveler who otherwise seems to know what he/she is doing and just visited Rome and then Paris back-to-back. My advice: Learn a little more about Rome first, dude/babe, and then "live in it", taking small bites. And, hey, at least you liked "Paris", which you even enjoyed during the strike last week.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2007
Brit bloggers meeting, drinking, conspiring and possibly mating.
Charon QC reports that GeekLawyer and Ruthie each host parties for bloggers in London on Monday, October 22. Venues, respectively, are The Harp off Trafalgar Square and the posh Cafe Royal in Piccadilly. WAC? votes for GeekLawyer's The Harp: cheaper beer. Blogging by lawyers and non-lawyers alike all over the world is now thought to have benefits no one anticipated.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)
9 New Irish Blogs
Many thanks to Daithí Mac Síthigh, recent Blawg Review host, and his Lex Ferenda for supplying WAC? and everyone with 9 new Irish blogs and blawgs to add to the Directory of Non-U.S. Blogs on your lower left.
Blurred Keys, Cian Ginty
Damien Mulley
Digiculture, Conn Ó Muíneacháin
Graham Ó Maonaigh
GUBU, Sarah Carey
Irish Election
Michele Neylon
Maman Poulet, Suzy Byrne
techno-culture, Karlin Lillington
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
Pres. Sarkozy's Really Bad Week, Part II: Cecilia Sarkozy
Courtesy of the vigilant and hovering Editor of Blawg Review, who ever that guy is, see this NYT piece of yesterday: Cecilia Sarkozy Speaks Out on Marriage, the one she apparently has decided to end. On the bright side, many of us do some of our best work after wives and girlfriends evacuate. Lonely workaholic WAC? feels a powerful solidarity with President Sarkozy, wishes him the best, and reminds him that this is nothing that a little bourbon and soda won't fix.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:00 PM | Comments (1)
October 18, 2007
Aye, some serious booty there, matey.
Rueters: "Spain Seizes U.S. Treasure Ship at Gunpoint" over salvaged Spanish galleon treasure estimated at $500 million. By the way, did your law firm miss Talk Like a Pirate Day this year?
Posted by JD Hull at 06:35 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2007
Three Americans win Nobel prize in economics
(AP) STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Americans Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson won the Nobel economics prize Monday for developing a theory that helps explain how sellers and buyers can maximize their gains from a transaction.
And Russian-born Hurwicz, of the University of Minnesota, is 90 years old.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
The District
Pompus, self-absorbed, driven and necessarily inefficient, the District of Columbia is not every American's favorite town. But it's my favorite, hands down. How many cities in the U.S. have this much energy, beauty, diversity, talent and so many people who affirmatively choose (i.e., they wanted it, are not there by default) to live and work here?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2007
International Bar Association annual meeting starts today in Singapore.
The IBA, based in London, celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. The 2007 annual meeting is in Singapore, starts today and ends on October 19. Although I am not going this year, I've attended IBA meetings in the past--and there is nothing quite like them. And I will not miss the 2008 meeting next year in cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Argentina. To give you an idea, the Programme this year, over 100 pages, is here. Topics include cross-border environmental issues, international arbitration, the IT industry and IP globally, telecom, corruption, goods counterfeiting, maritime law, outer space law, international transactions, Islamic finance,
art, heritage and cultural institutions law, mineral rights, and legal systems in developing countries, to name some. In addition to the discussions, which are well-planned and often in panel or flexible talk-show formats, the IBA has nearly 50 sub-committees. The many dinners and parties given each evening are fascinating. In my view, the IBA caters primarily to firms which represent corporate interests, which is why we've stayed on as members. If you are a business lawyer who works internationally, and you like different kinds of humans, it's a must to go to an annual IBA meeting once every two or three years.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:13 PM | Comments (4)
October 13, 2007
Brendon Carr's Korea Law Blog
American Brendon Carr, based in Seoul, publishes Korea Law Blog, clearly a "blog to watch." See "Popular Korean Concept of Corporate Governance Rules", and the discussion of Korean chaebols, or conglomerates. This week Brendon attends the annual IBA meeting, held in Singapore this year. He notes:
As a US lawyer working in Korea, I am a huge fan of the International Bar Association as a networking and social event. I enthusiastically recommend this event to any young lawyer, or in-house counsel, wanting to build a wide-ranging, international network of colleagues and friends. Truly a top-quality bunch of people attend this conference.
Updated: 10/14/07 4 PM EST
Posted by Holden Oliver at 12:56 AM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2007
The Environment: Tennessee boy makes good.
Al Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize (MSNBC) for climate change work. Congrats. But, dude, don't run for president. You're not the type...WAC? thinks that, like George McGovern before him, Gore, who we admire greatly, has somehow become the "Willy Loman of the Left", to borrow a phrase from an old friend. Like Willy, Gore has a sense of entitlement, and he is liked--but not well-liked. Even the deluded Loman, created by playwright Arthur Miller, had fire in his belly. Prince Albert just doesn't.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2007
Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe: and the winner is...Dylan Thomas.
It's held at Hippodrome de Longchamp, Paris. On Monday a horse named Dylan Thomas won. For fun, note how the persnickety British press writes about a 'Welsh' horse's victory on French soil:
Outdated draconian French racing rules almost cost the remarkably durable Dylan Thomas his victory in yesterday's Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe, as stewards spent an age examining all angles of a piece of interference involving the winner in the home straight on video before eventually letting the result stand.
All manner of Europe's gentry and royalty shows up for Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Quite a party and gathering of peacocks--a great place for WAC? to do a little client development, sort of. And at Tara Bradford's Paris Parfait, see hats and more hats. Makes you forget about Rule 37 and want to get on a plane.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
When will China invade Taiwan?
Here at Transnational Law Blog, by Travis Hodgkins, just one of the TLB wunderkinds at UC Hastings law school.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2007
In Lisbon still? Meetings over? Dude, work much?
Welshonce Watch: Our Tom Welshonce has all the luck. I'm in San Luis Obispo again--and he's here in Portugal with the Salzburg-based IBLC. Last night I got a call from Hanjo of Bonn, Paul of Caridiff, Wales, and other solicitors from a prominent UK firm--all deadly serious lawyers,
usually--and Tom on my special "bat phone" I use abroad. I gave it to Tom three weeks ago when I was in Pennsylvania. It was 1:30 AM Sunday in Lisbon, and these gents were either attending late night services or conducting an experiment of some kind in the Alfama district's "cultural sector". The Welsh guys were speaking in tongues--Druid-sounding stuff, I think. Go Lisbon.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2007
London on Saturdays: GeekLawyer gets drunk, breaks bad; Charon QC has spot of lunch, takes in rugby. But both blog...
Apart from trading ideas and news, blogging affords lawyers a forum to vent and be creative. Certainly, there are lots of frustrated novelists, poets, playwrights and would-be statesmen and pundits among us lawyers. Lots of American lawyers have unfinished drafts of novels and epic poems, or "action" memos outlining our pipe-dream 1998 congressional races, in our desk drawers.
So it's damn hard to take a degree in English Literature, American Studies or Philosophy from, say, Brandeis, Haverford or Stanford--and then some 25 years later find yourself spending all day defending Mutual of Toledo's insureds for $185/hour in a caseload that presents about 10 total (tops) different car accident or dog bite patterns. And
then there's your wife and kids. Over the years Trixie's gotten pretty mean, and beefed up a bit--almost big enough to have her own zip code--and your eldest son has a resume that already reads like a police blotter. Your teenage daughter hates everything, and named her bong after you. The family dog smells real bad. More often than you should be, you're hatin' life.
Blawgging can help. Blawgs let off steam. Blawgs keep some of us from suddenly blowing a tube one grey Wednesday morning at 8:15 and running with a chain-saw from office to office on the 48th floor of the US Steel Building. Saturday in London: see what GeekLawyer and Charon QC, two driven, creative guys, do on weekends to unwind. On both sides of the Atlantic, we all react to the pressures of lawyering in different ways.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:13 PM | Comments (1)
China's environmental law policy: two standards of enforcement?
See at China Law Blog the Dan Harris post "China Warns Foreign Companies".
Posted by Holden Oliver at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2007
Update: Anne Frank's Chestnut Tree
The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam is a moving experience. We've posted before on news of the prognosis for the 150 year old chestnut tree outside the house that she could see every day through an attic window and wrote about in her famous diary. For some, the troubled tree is a symbol of freedom and others even a reminder that children need to go outside and play. Here is an update (AP): "Anne Frank’s Chestnut Tree is Granted a Reprieve". You can see the tree as it
looks today at www.annefrank.org and NYT. Frank died at age 15 died at the Bergen-Belsen camp in 1945. If she had lived, she would have turned 78 on June 12, 2007.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2007
This week's Blawg Review is from Ireland.
Trinity College in Dublin, the School of Law, to be exact, where it's a beautiful day. Blawg Review #128 is hosted by WAC?'s Gaelic cousin Daithí Mac Síthigh at Lex Ferenda. Classy, thoughtful and first Irish-hosted BR. And very well-received. But can someone let London's GeekLawyer host soon--before he hurts someone?
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Is Bill Clinton a brand?
Yes, and an increasingly compelling one, according to treatments in both October's The Atlantic and this week's The Economist. With some help from talented Ira Magaziner, a former Clinton White House aide and wonk's wonk, WJC is changing philanthropy to change the world. This also explains why Bill Clinton has still not responded to our help-wanted ad we ran in 2006 to ensnare him as of counsel so he could market for Hull McGuire in the eastern U.S. and western Europe. The Bubba's been busy. But, Bill, our offer still stands.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2007
Global corruption--and the winner is?
You'll never guess. China Law Blog: "China: Corrupt Me. Corrupt Me Not", with latest corruption rankings from Transparency International.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2007
McGermany: Got Americanization?
See at Berlin-based Observing Hermann "Heuschrecken ohne Ende" (literally Endless Locusts). Note: Hermann's kidding, mainly.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2007
London law merger market: so what's the problem, U.S. firms?
And will you know what to do once you get there? London-based Legal Week, armed with a survey, reports that "US firms target UK mergers as battle for London hots up". WAC? still sees London-U.S. law merger market "movement" as slow and reluctant because it takes cautionary lessons, for example, from some unprofitable and often ill-conceived attempts by U.S. firms to become players in Russia twenty years ago and China a decade later. Now, for once, lawyer risk-aversion is an asset. But The London legal market? Yes, London's off-the-chart expensive these days. But as stable as you'd want. Entering it poses cultural issues and barriers even sophisticated Yanks don't pick up on with any clarity for months
and usually years--Brits are different, folks--and most large American firms don't even know what those problems really are. But they sense them.
That's smart, sort of. We at WAC? have been involved personally and professionally with law firm mergers: all dressed up, and nothing to do, is certainly something to avoid.
Let's assume American firms know strategically how to enter London and all the more inviting UK/Europe legal marketplaces and have the resources to do it. So what's the problem? My answer: U.S. firms know they aren't culturally saavy and secure enough to go into the UK/Europe, and they are right to think that way. Note, via a hand-off from the vigilant Ed. at Blawg Review, a post which not only got us thinking about this but reflects the somewhat different sentiments of HMPC's overworked co-founder and international tax diva Julie McGuire two weeks ago at a meeting I attended in Pennsylvania. However, its author, Bruce MacEwen, said it first and, as usual, likely better than anyone else could have: "London Calling: But Who's Ready to Dance?".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:58 PM | Comments (1)
"Hey running dog Yanks, me Cheung Yin, love you long time--Mr. Oliver want fries with this?"
Hooters in China? Say it ain't so, Joe. MSNBC's Al Olson: "Let the Games Begin: Hooters Opens in Beijing". Can our friend and Greater China lawyer Dan Harris please weigh in?
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2007
New York: Ahmadinejad, "mystical populist", holds forth at Columbia; Columbia blows it.
Updated 7:30 PM EST: Everyone loses. Columbia allows aggressive, long-winded, grandstanding and scripted opening "questions", preventing Ahmadinejad from looking as bad as he might have looked, and giving the Iran president a chance to hit them out of the park, which he in turn also screws up. Except for letting him speak, Columbia totally blew the details of this. Everyone involved, including Columbia President Bollinger, looks bad, pandering and/or lame. Shame on us. AP: here, including MSNBC video. -- JDH and HHO
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2007
And Ronald Reagan doesn't even make the main list.
By Alonso Duralde, MSNBC film critic: Big Fame, Little Talent: These folks are all famous, but do they have the chops to back it up?
Posted by Holden Oliver at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)
Charon QC: The Emperor has great new clothes.
The site of the always erudite, Rioja-drinking and just plain fun lawyer-professor-blogger-pundit, Charon QC, has a new look, feel and format. Still, as always, good writing. Even the Times of London likes him. He still loves quoting Churchill, as do we war-like yet irreverent Yanks:
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 03:44 PM | Comments (1)
September 22, 2007
AP: Columbia U. won't stiff author of Mother of All Blogs.
[NYC] City Council speaker Christine Quinn called Thursday for the university to rescind the invitation, saying “the idea of Ahmadinejad as an honored guest anywhere in our city is offensive to all New Yorkers.”
Next week Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (his excellency's blog is here) will be in New York to address the United Nations’ General Assembly. We don't like the guy either but... See "Columbia To Proceed With Ahmadinejad Speech". Columbia's World Leaders Forum hosts. Will someone please ask him to post more?
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
Yom Kippur
The Day of Atonement, which began yesterday at sunset, is the most important observance for many Jews. And perhaps the most intriguing and instructive to non-Jews.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2007
High-end boutique gets big time limelight.
We think you will be hearing more stories like this one as clients, client reps and GCs continue to get savvier, smarter and more independent in choosing outside counsel. At Law.com's Legal Blog Watch, Robert Ambrogi reports that, at a recent London awards dinner, a Miami-based "Small Firm Wins Big Honor", and an international one at that. Just four lawyers, folks. Excerpt: "While Cantor & Webb may be a small firm, its clients represent big money. The firm focuses exclusively in representing high net worth private international clients in tax planning, estate planning and related matters."
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2007
AP: Belgium for sale on eBay
Charles de Gaulle famously said that Belgium is a country invented by the British to annoy the French. Belgium and Belgians indeed are highly complex. Belgium historically has been the "battlefield of Europe", and there are overlapping communities here speaking Dutch, French and German. Politics are often conducted along these lines: the Dutch-speaking Flemish v. French-speaking Walloons. Personally, WAC? finds Belgians--you can't generalize, but we will--educated, efficient, smart, artistic, sophisticated, multilingual, haughty, festive, solid and yet a bit high strung (takes one to know one). A highly civilized region with subtle, and very old, tensions lurking. Finally, one Belgian, well, just lost it: "Someone Tries to Sell Belgium on EBay".
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2007
The UCC is not enough these days: meet the CISG.
If you buy and sell in the global market, the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods ("CISG") is your new friend.
Commercially, we live in a world that never sleeps. Every minute, deals are struck and goods change hands. If your day job is like WAC?'s, it's not unusual for a longstanding client to call on a Friday afternoon with a question about a clause in a 10-year old contract under which the client, a U.S. widget manufacturer, is selling widgets to a Norwegian distributor. "No problem," you say. "Let me grab my copy of the Uniform Commercial Code--and I'll have your answer in a flash. I'll call you back."
Sounds good, right? Well, maybe not.
In cases of international sales of goods, the Uniform Commercial Code--or UCC, adopted by 49 states to create a standardized law for commercial transactions in the U.S.--is often preempted by the federally-adopted United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (referred to as the "CISG"). The CISG, a multinational treaty that provides a uniform law for international sales of goods, was signed in 1980 and has been ratified by 70 countries.
While the CISG is similar to the UCC, there are differences, and some are major. For example, unlike the UCC, the CISG generally does not require any contract for the sale of goods to be in writing. More importantly, unless the terms of a sales contract between parties from participating countries expressly exclude the CISG, the CISG is deemed to govern the contract. The U.S. adopted the CISG in 1988. Australia, most of Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and South America have adopted the CISG. One notable holdout: the United Kingdom.
Posted by Tom Welshonce at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
King's Lynn, Norfolk, East Anglia, England
It's located primarily on the east bank of the River Great Ouse, which flows into the nearby Wash, a huge estuary and shallow bay of the North Sea. A port about 120 miles north of London, it's also about 50 miles northwest of Lindsey, Suffolk, a tiny village from which WAC?'s mother's family emigrated to Massachusetts in 1634. King's Lynn, or "Lynn", is at least 1000 years old. There are references to Lynn (where locals harvested salt from salt marshes) in the Domesday Book, commissioned by William I to get a handle on just what he and his fellow Normans had conquered in 1066. Lynn appears in "Little
Domesday", the independent work covering Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. Originally named "Bishop's Lynn", the town was part of the manor of the Bishop of Norwich in the 12th century. St. Margaret's Church was founded in 1101. By the 14th century, the town ranked as the third port of England. Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1538, the town and manor became royal property. And the name changed. Today industries are fishing and seafood, chemicals, glass-making, light manufacturing and food processing.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:57 PM | Comments (1)
September 17, 2007
"Toying with China"
It's at Dan Harris's award-winning China Law Blog. See/hear also "China Not Manned Enough for Safety" and the NPR "Marketplace" interview with Dan's law partner Steve Dickinson.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2007
Real Bloggers will read Kevin O'Keefe's Blawg Review #125
Here's one straight from Olympus: the Art of The Blog. Save it now on your computer desktop. This week's Blawg Review, issue #125, is hosted by Seattle-based Kevin O'Keefe at his highly-regarded Real Lawyers Have Blogs. He has gathered posts of experts, gurus and leading lights in blogging and marketing who tell you "how to build and maintain" a first-rate blog. These folks generally are not, thank God, lawyers--at least not practicing ones--and so they (1) have business instincts, (2) make sense, (3) write clearly, and (4) tell you what they actually think in a non-weenie way. Mark Cuban, Guy Kawasaki, Steve Rubel and Shel Israel are a few of the stars at Kevin's #125. A visionary, thought leader and doer in blogging/blawging himself, Kevin knows what's going on nationally and internationally in the blogosphere, legal and non-legal, how to use blogs as a marketing tool, and who's who. He understands blog quality--form, content and practical aspects. So his selections for #125 are informed. Read and save if you or your firm have a blog, or plan to launch one.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2007
9/11/01
Today you'll see no "where we were/what we've learned/how we've changed" pieces from us. Our contribution: silence, and a partial list of New York City memorial events from NYT.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 08:04 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2007
Dites-le en anglais, s'il vous plait?
French blogs (see lower left of this blog), not that suprisingly, often have stunning designs, photos and graphics, but we'd still like to see one in English. To the French: we're sorry we let our French fall into disrepair; you, the curators of all things fine, still teach all how to live and remind us what we should know about the West. But any Blogs of France in English out there? Doesn't have to be "American" English. In the meantime, we'll make do with an American's--writer Tara Bradford's--wonderful Paris Parfait. Tara makes me want (1) to get back to my island and (2) meet and speak with Maryam.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
September 07, 2007
China President Hu: "China Ready to Work on Product Safety"
What else would we expect the guy to say?
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Chinese President Hu Jintao defended the safety and quality of China's exports Thursday and offered to work with other countries to improve any problems in the country's inspection regimes.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2007
Ruthie does America...and vice-versa.
WAC? understands that the UK lawyer-blogger Ruthie of Ruthie's Law landed safe and sound in a Midwestern city on Saturday--and is now busy charming and seducing everyone she meets in meetings in the Heartland. Lots of press about this in England (e.g., "Ruthie in Evil Empire"). Will she finally meet my travel-worn boss on this trip? Or will she/he have to wait until WAC?'s next trip to London? Stay tuned.
In the meantime, welcome to America, Ruthie. And vice-versa.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
September 04, 2007
London Tube Strike Causes Commuter Chaos
See here, from the Associated Press.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 07:58 AM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2007
British troops leave Basra, Iraq base
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Love's Labours Lost: An American holiday tribute.
NOTE: We offer this special Labor Day item rather than a thoughtful post on work-life balance or a very short but comprehensive item on current usefulness of trade unions in the U.S.
The complete text of the circa-1595 comedy by William Shakespeare is here on one page. First performed before Queen Elizabeth at her Court in 1597 (as "Loues Labors Loſt"), it was likely written for performance before law students and barristers-in-training--who would appreciate its sophistication and wit--at the Inns of Court in what is now often called Legal London. Interestingly, it begins with a vow by several men to forswear pleasures of the flesh and the company of women during a three-year period of study and reflection. And to "train our intellects to vain delight". Click above to find out what happens.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:49 AM | Comments (1)
September 01, 2007
London's GeekLawyer these days
Velvet-voiced barrister GeekLawyer, sans Ruthie, does Podcast 12 and defames WAC?, sort of. Our main blogger, my boss, is an energetic and inspirational guy, with strange tastes in humans.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Canada's Slaw on a roll
No bad pun intended. But I noticed at my laptop from my perch here above Cannery Row and the stunning blue Monterey Bay that the excellent Slaw.ca--it mixes an eye for the important with competent writing--serves especially good fare lately. See, e.g., Canadian Kyoto Report Released, Small Arms Survey 2007 - Americans Own Most of the Guns and Making the Most of Blogs and Wikis. "Slaw is a co-operative weblog about Canadian legal research and IT, etc."--and a lot more these days.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
August 30, 2007
Ruthie's Excellent U.S. Adventure
Ruthie of Ruthie's Law, GeekLawyer's former co-blogger, and allegedly both alluring and sexually acquistive, posts about it in part here. Her trip will be in September and to a Midwestern city, where she hopes to meet my boss--who doesn't like the Midwest much and doesn't sound much like The Woodman. But WAC?, currently headed to Monterey, indeed is an accomplished philanderer in any jurisdiction, and does in my view sound a bit disturbed from time to time.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 04:16 PM | Comments (1)
August 29, 2007
Up in Monterey
Alaska, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and San Diego (think of the latter as Cincy with decent weather, an ocean, much higher prices) within 10 days time in that sequence--and their not so subtle differences in light, space, time zones, flora and fauna--will put the zap on anyone's head. For the next 5 days, and over Labor Day, I'll go to Big Sur and then Cannery Row to re-group, sharpen tools, re-read the rules, meet with some serious idea mongers and try out new ideas of my own.
In addition to marketing, customer service, foreign affairs, IT, global warming, the future of the stage, the history of Europe and fly-fishing as a "now" spiritual exercise, there will be low-keyed talk of politics in hushed tones: Hillary, Obama, Rudy, the old AG/new AG thing, and of course concern and sporadic gloating about the new Bauman-Hinson-esque Foley-Craig congressional closet gay syndrome, which Holden Oliver (allegedly a "D") has already posted about in spectacularly poor taste.
Well, Holden's a fine lawyer, and a funny dude. And like the passable poet he is, Holden is mainly suggestive but correct: when it became painfully clear that the Democratic Party couldn't do anything right for 8 years, the GOP stepped up like champs to help.
Great country or what?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
"Wretched human, make that next martini bone dry..."
The Dogs of Score. AP reports that Helmsley leaves her dog $12 million in trust.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2007
John Warner finally gets his mojo working.
He was elected to the Senate from Virginia as an "R" when I worked on Capitol Hill, just before I entered private practice. To me, he was that earnest ex-Secretary of the Navy (under Richard Nixon) who was hardworking, ambitious, nice, smooth and at turns almost too "senatorial". But John Warner was interesting, with something genuine and good under all that polish, and you wondered about him. He had had a few breaks. He had his own bucks, came to the Senate after
the Republican primary winner died in a plane accident, and was married (bonus!) to Elizabeth Taylor, who was a natural as a campaigner and charmed Virginia voters. However, on military and foreign affairs, the areas he loved and worked at, Warner over the years (to me) was not as accomplished as John McCain, Dick Lugar or Joe Biden. But over the past few days, we're thinking he's got serious substance and stones after all. AP excerpt:
WASHINGTON (AP)- Sen. John Warner's suggestion that some troops leave Iraq by the end of the year has roiled the White House, with administration officials saying they've asked the influential Republican to clarify that he has not broken politically with President Bush.
But Warner said Friday he stands by his remarks and that he took no issue with how his views have been characterized.
"I'm not going to issue any clarification," Warner, R-Va., said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Posted by JD Hull at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)
August 25, 2007
Redux: GCs: Do you really need Big, Clumsy & Unresponsive in 50 cities worldwide?
If you are a hiring in-house counsel working for a great company doing business everywhere, is there any reason to keep engaging your US or UK-based law firm that expanded in the past few years all over the globe like a spastic hamburger franchise? When those firms expanded internationally, they diluted their talent and "gene" pool, and their value to your company, and you know it. They acquired lawyers and law firms in the US and abroad they wouldn't have looked at twice 15 years ago. Our firm's international group, the IBLC, is a clearinghouse of high-end corporate law talent in smaller firms all over the world.
Hull McGuire PC has been busy helping mold this group for 9 years. We know each other well, see each other often, and work together regularly. (Our last full meeting was in March 2007 in Austria. We meet again in Portugal in early October. Smaller teams constantly form and meet and work for clients more frequently.) There are IBLC members in over 70 cities worldwide. Forty firms are particularly active. Member firms range between 5 and 130 lawyers, all of whom who could work at any mega-firm now or of yester year--and so they charge accordingly. Not cheap. The firms compete on service, not price. There are other tightly-knit international groups, perhaps as many as 400; the IBLC is one of several that works.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2007
"Farnsworth, Jesus has asked me to talk with you about your performance over the past few months..."
Yesterday we found these two articles at London-based The Economist: "Praying for Gain", on the increasing use (often-outsourced) of corporate chaplains in U.S. companies, and "The Bond Between God and Power", a review of new book by a Rice University prof on the rise of evangelicals in business, government and the entertainment industry. Whether you approve of them or not, these trends just may have legs.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2007
U.S. national anthem when WAC? was in school.
It reigned between 1971 and 1978, I think, but those years are hazy. It's a lot easier to sing than the one a fancy DC lawyer wrote in 1814. Fewer and easier lyrics, notes you can hit. And yeah buddy you can duck walk. It's still Summer. So get out of your cars, offices and bad marriages, and dance around before it's too late. Play it.
Posted by JD Hull at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2007
That Lawyer Dude's Week.
See That Lawyer Dude's (American Anthony Colleluori) post yesterday "Week in Review". TLD is consistently thoughtful, interesting and fun to read. Anthony's personality shines through his posts. Makes you want to have him over for dinner.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
The Economist: Perth and Cleveland trump Paris and New York in global livability.
"Cities are durable. Most last longer than the countries that surround them, or indeed any other human institutions. But some thrive, whereas others merely mark time (Cleveland, Minsk, Pyongyang), go into apparently long-term decline (Detroit, New Orleans, Venice) or disappear (Tenochtitlán, Tikal, Troy). What are the characteristics of a successful city?" --The Economist, May 3, 2007
They must reinvent themselves. And WAC? thinks it is sad that ex-great republic Venice is indeed becoming a museum piece. Anyway, see this one from The Economist based on 2005 stats. Paris gets a global livability ranking of 16th, increasingly expensive Vancouver is 1st, Frankfurt (Germany) 11th, Pittsburgh and Cleveland are tied for 26th, DC and Detroit tied for 41st, and London is 47th. Huh? Well, as the article notes, you get no points for thrills (although Pittsburgh and Detroit--I've lived in both--are said to be unbearably exciting for ibogaine fanciers). Our all-round favorite based on "livability"? Vienna and Geneva, a tie. Most enduring international cities based on "reality"? That's easy: NYC, London and Paris.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
All eyes on Countrywide Financial
(NYSE: CFC) Here, from the International Herald Tribune.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 05:53 AM | Comments (0)
More Brits on trips: Ormond Castle
And for a peek at English lawyer down time spent more productively, if less spectacularly, see Tessa's write-up on Ormond Castle in southern Ireland at her Landlord Law Blog.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2007
Barrister runs amok at North Yorkshire hotel.
Lawyer guest to bridesmaid at the Harewood Hall: "I'll show you a white rose..." Well, last week there was bad craziness in England's north country showing that the wild man trial lawyer-uberboozer thing is not limited to America. Courtesy of London's Charon QC and Hertfordshire's Justin Patten, see this story, covered by the Telegraph.co.uk.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2007
Greatness in Wales
Normally, WAC? dislikes most television in any country because it steals our time to create, think original thoughts, become who we really are, and pick up girls. But thanks to Brit TV we learn that Paul Potts, a regular guy from Cardiff, was born and can sing.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
U.S. Exceptionalism and the ICC
Do see "The End of Exceptionalism in War Crimes" by David Scheffer, Richard Cooper and Juliette Voinov Kohler at The Harvard International Review. It's subtitled "The International Criminal Court and America’s Credibility in the World". Excerpt:
Reality is knocking and its name is the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC). Any claim that the US may have to moral high ground in foreign policy necessarily requires that the United States join the ICC and do so relatively soon. The United States needs the ICC to help restore its global credibility, discipline its own decision-making, and strengthen judicial intervention against atrocity crimes.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2007
Powell secretly writing memoir on Iraq war?
Ex-Clinton wonk Sidney Blumenthal asks in Salon: Will The Real Colin Powell Stand Up?
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)
Dillingham, Alaska
I am here twice a year. Once the salmon capital of the world (fish farms hurt it), Dillingham, in southwest Alaska, is still a stop-over for sports fishermen, wildlife lovers, bear studiers, bush pilots, extreme camper-hikers, "square pegs" and fed-up husbands (or wives) in the lower forty-eight who went out one day for a pack of Marlboros and never came back. A point of endings and beginnings, it is also the entrance to a remote, roadless and eerily beautiful part of the world. The town itself (pop. 2,500) is on Nushagak Bay, an inlet of Bristol Bay, in the Bering Sea. Dillingham was named in 1904 after U.S. Senator Paul Dillingham, who had toured Alaska extensively as part of his committee work in Congress.
Posted by JD Hull at 04:08 PM | Comments (1)
August 07, 2007
Murdoch and the "Timeses"
Hey, this is international news, and it affects YOU. In Newsweek, Johnnie Roberts writes wonderfully-entitled "Forward Into Battle". Excerpt:
With plans to expand the [Wall Street] Journal's political and international coverage, Murdoch is itching for a fight with the nation's presumed newspaper of record, The New York Times, as well as the Financial Times of London. "I want it to be more competitive with The New York Times," Murdoch told Times columnist Joseph Nocera on Saturday. Last week, after the deal was clinched, the Journal's editorial page, accusing Murdoch's critics of "commercial" and "ideological" motives, blasted the two Timeses for giving credence to concerns that Murdoch will turn the paper into a mouthpiece for his own right-wing political and business interests.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
August 06, 2007
Losing it in America
AP: French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on holiday in America, loses temper with press. Reuters: Talented actor/world class player Charlie Sheen, allegedly eyeing marriage again (his 4th), loses mind. Washington Post: GAO says U.S. Defense Department loses a whole mess of guns intended for Iraqi security forces.
Posted by Holden Oliver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Prof. Kingsfield derides again: Blawg Review #120
So you call me a son-of-a-bitch, Mr. Hart?
Yes, sir.
Well, that's the most intelligent thing we've heard today.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
August 05, 2007
Update: New Non-U.S. Blogs
Over the last 18 months, WAC? has worked hard to discover and share with you non-U.S. blogs, sites and resources. See here, here and especially here, our "World Cup" Blawg Review of last summer. We list the good ones--active, high quality and preferably in English--on the lower left hand side of this site. Today we add more non-U.S. blogs, 136 to be exact, to our Directory of Non-U.S. Blogs, bringing the total number of non-U.S. blogs and sites to 302.
An important "thank you" is in order to the five sources of nearly all of the 136 new sites: Blawg.com (US), China Law Blog (US), Nearly Legal (UK), Charon QC (UK) and Diane Levin (US).
The new blogs come from 19 countries, including Bangladesh, Denmark and Moldova:
Argentina: 1 new site
Derecho y Tecnología, Francisco de Zavalía
Australia: 9
The Australian Professional Liability Blog, Stephen Warne
Australian Technology and IP Business, David Jacobson
IPwar’s, Warwick A. Rothnie
Lightbulb, Noric Dilanchian
Moral Dilemma, Mirko Bagaric
Bangladesh: 2
Bangladesh Open Source Intelligence Monitors Blog
Law Chronicles Online, Adnan Karim
Brazil: 4
Blawg do Escritório Cassiano & Maciel Advogados Associados, Lucas Cassiano
El Derecho Al Derecho, Claudia Duran
Canada: 25
Atlanteknology, R. Charles Perez
C'est é-patent!, Adam Mizera
Chaire en droit de la sécurité et des affaires electroniques, Vincent Gautrais
The Co-co Banana, Jarvis Googoo
CultureLibre, Olivier Charbonneau
Duty to Consult, Ooneesheh Oonaheh
Excess Copyright, Howard Knopf
Hoyes Michalos Ontario Bankruptcy Blog
La pub et le droit, Natalie Gauthier
Now, Why Didn't I Think of That?, Sander Gelsing
Rule of Law, Stan Rule
Venture Law Lines, Suzanne Dingwall Williams
Wines and Information Management (WIM), Dominic Jaar
Wise Law Blog, Gary J. Wise
Chile: 1
Conflictologos, Juan Enrique Egaña G.
China: 42
All Roads Lead to China, Richard Brubaker
Beijing Newspeak, Chris O’Brien
A China Blog on Suzhou Expat Life, Ryan McLaughlin
China Briefing Blog, Dezan Shira & Associates
China Business Blog, Jeremy Gordon
China & Hong Kong Competition Law, Peter Macmillan
China Machete, Xiao Zhu
China Redux, Ben Landy
China Rises, Tim Johnson
Chinese Law Prof Blog, Donald C. Clark
DiligenceChina, Andrew Hupert
Jottings from the Granite Studio
The Opposite End of China, Michael D. Manning
This is China!, Bill Dodson
The Useless Tree, Sam Crane
Denmark: 1
England and Wales: 29
Conflict of Laws, Martin George
IMPACT, Freeth Cartwright LLP
legal spy – UK law from the inside
Prisonlawinsideout, John Hirst
Pupillage and How to Get It, Simon Myerson
European Union: 2
EU Case Law, Lucia Martin
Sociaalrecht, K. Salomez & K. Nevens
France: 2
La protection des marques sur internet, Simon Gobert
Germany: 8
Weblawg.de, Stefan Deyerler
Verschmelzungsbericht, Olaf Mueller-Michaels
Ireland: 1
cearta.ie, Dr. Eoin O’Dell
Italy: 1
Korea: 2
Korea Law Blog, Brandon Carr
Moldova: 1
Law in Moldova, Alexei Ghertescu
Peru: 1