« July 09, 2006 - July 15, 2006 | Main | July 23, 2006 - July 29, 2006 »
July 21, 2006
Real Americans Read Blogs.
Fifty-seven million of us, at any rate. From Kevin O'Keefe's respected site Real Lawyers Have Blogs, here's "39% of Americans reading blogs" based on a BusinessWeek online article commenting on a Pew Foundation study. As Kevin notes, "[t]hat ain't chopped liver for something 99% of folks never heard of a couple years ago."
Posted by JD Hull at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)
Whoa.
An unusual, interesting and inspiring post by Blawg Review has made me re-think my career, fall in love, get inexplicably hungry. It's a post about the fearless young criminal LA defense attorney Allison Margolin. And in her video do we get a few quick glimpses of the 1936 anti-drug film turned-cult classic Reefer Madness?
Posted by JD Hull at 06:44 PM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2006
Sensitive Litigation Moment No. 3: "Declarations" as Substitutes for Affidavits.
In 1976 Congress passed a barely-noticed housekeeping addition to Title 28, the part of the U.S. Code that deals with federal courts. Among other things, 28 USC section 1746 allows a federal court affiant or witness to prepare and execute a "declaration" rather than an affidavit--and do that without appearing before a notary. Under section 1746, a "declaration" has the same force and effect of a "regular" notarized affidavit.
Many lawyers who practice in federal courts don't know about the existence of section 1746. I wouldn't have known about it either--a DOJ lawyer clued me in about it years ago. But an un-notarized declaration with the simple oath required by section 1746 can be used any time you need an affidavit, e.g., an affidavit supporting (or opposing) a summary judgment motion. A useful and convenient rule, which makes you feel like part of a special cult when you use it. Federal judges understand and accept it. It saves witnesses and lawyers the time, cost and aggravation of getting client statements notarized. Notaries, however, don't talk about the provision much.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
"Name's Brad, I'm a Lawyer--Buy You a Drink?"
Most of this week I'm in Pittsburgh, City of Bridges, and for reasons I could never quite fathom a town of remarkably litigious steel-driving women and men. Here the news has been that a local male lawyer sued the "Don't Date Him Girl" site. I remembered that a couple of weeks ago Craig Williams of May It Please The Court covered and entitled it nicely. His post was "Craziness On The Internet, And Other Things You Probably Didn't Want To Know". It's a fine write-up. And whatever happened here, all this is: (1) crazy, (2) interesting, (3) forward-thinking, (4) inspiring, (5) funny (sort of), and (6) truly frightening for roues, cads and recovering cads of both sexes.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2006
Looking Southward: The Netherland Antilles
Surrounded much of the time by corporate tax people, I'm on the lookout for tax blawgs in US and abroad. And here's an active one that has interested me for a while. Karel's Legal Blog is published by Karel Frielink, a corporate tax and transactional lawyer in the Netherland Antilles, previously known as the West Indies, in the Caribbean. I haven't met Karel in person yet--but I'd like to. Educated in Amsterdam, Karel (a guy, by the way) is also an experienced litigator with the firm of Spigthoff Attorneys & Tax Advisers in Curacao, the main island in the Antilles. Karel's most recent post is old and new corporate tax regimes in the Antilles. His blog is in Dutch, Chinese, Japanese and English.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:40 AM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2006
A Short But Happy Carnival of Client Service.
There is no shortage of posts these days about the truly cross-cultural challenges of better client service. We start with better client service thinking. Allison Shields at Legal Ease Blog had "Why Lawyers Are Bad at Client Service" and "Are You Really Losing Clients?", inspired by the Michelle Golden post "Lost Clients? 'Reasons' are Symptoms, Not Cause" ....and lawyer-consultant-Chief Thinking Officer Matt Homan at the [non] billable hour is not only full of ideas and good writing but as usual reaches for ideas from other sources in "May I Help You With Anything Else?", "Top Things They Never Taught Me" and "When Creativity Takes a Holiday".
Posted by JD Hull at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)
July 16, 2006
More International Weblogs Coming In Blawg Review #66
Blawg Review's global expansion of the digital conversation continues. And in a big way. The first non-US host of Blawg Review ever, David Jacobson, an Australian commercial lawyer and consultant, will be hosting Blawg Review #66, which springs forth on Monday, July 17. David will be posting from his site at External Insights in Brisbane, one of Australia's three biggest cities, in the southeast corner of the state of Queensland. Brisbane itself hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games, a multi-sport gathering held every four years.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)