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August 12, 2006

The Joy of Work, Burned-Out Lawyers & Hard Questions - Redux.

Vacation re-run No. 2, from April 2006--unfortunately this could apply to almost any week:

The past week was Pretrial Skirmish, Negotiation and General Posturing Week. Which I love. Lively chats with mainly worthy adversaries. You constantly learn new things about the law, the world, yourself. You get your client involved. Funny and even hilarious things happen, too. But one conversation was disturbing. It was with a lawyer with 10+ years of experience who cuts corners whenever he can, won't research anything, won't read anything, won't prepare for anything, and unabashedly disdains the law, lawyering, his client and, at this point, me.

He won't read the federal procedural rules, and is aggravated by anyone who does--as if a basic adherence to them is somehow frivolous and beside the point. Maybe the guy should stick to his usual court, where my guess is that makes it up as he goes along, and the courthouse clerks he knows just smile and indulge him. Having dealt with him before, I doubt he was just having a bad day. It's written all over him: he "wants out" of the profession, but doesn't know how to get out, won't get out. We've all had tough crossroads.

And he won't be reading this blog, either. But all this reminded me of our first post dated August 1, 2005, and in large part why we started this blog. The line was: "Do many of us wind up selling clients short because we are disillusioned or burned out?" How much of bad client service and the shoddy image many people have of lawyers is a function of lawyers disliking what they do?

How many clients are getting hurt by it?

Dan Hull

Posted by Tom Welshonce at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)

Writing For Clients: "Just Say It" Part 2 - Redux

A vacation re-run, from December 2005. Patrick Lamb liked it at the time, so we figure it must have legs:

Back to thinking about legal writing for clients de-mystified (December 9 post), I wonder if you just start with writing to courts. After all, lawyers (including judges) have a certain way of talking to each other which often (a) really isn't needed and just alienates the rest of the thinking world, and (b) even makes it think we are talking to ourselves dementedly and self-absorbedly.

For example, from the first line of an actual federal district court complaint:

COMPLAINT

COMES NOW, the plaintiff, Upstart Corporation, by and through its attorneys, Adams, Bones & Carson, LLC, brings this cause of action against GiantMart, Inc. for violations of the Lanham Act, and for its reasons, files with this Honorable Court the herein Complaint, the following of which is a statement of its averments and allegations:

Why not instead just:

COMPLAINT

Plaintiff, Upstart Corporation, states:

Well, is it just me?

Dan Hull

Posted by Tom Welshonce at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2006

Civil Litigation in U.S. Federal District Courts: Is There a Blog?

Is there a legal blog which focuses solely on the civil side of American federal trial courts? Practice, procedure, evidence and new developments? "Federal Courts"* is a regular feature of this blog; district courts, the general trial courts of the U.S. system, are a main part of our firm's work. In 94 districts these courts take on over 250,000 civil cases a year - nearly four times the number of criminal cases that are filed - and serve as battlegrounds and laboratories for new ideas, both substantive and procedural. They hear and decide commercial disputes involving federal statutes, the Constitution, corporations from different states, non-U.S. entities, foreign states and a mix of novel international issues. Interesting and colorful things go on in them. Despite their broad jurisdiction and importance in national and international commerce, “WAC?" knows of no legal blog dedicated to the civil-side of federal courts. Are we wrong? Is one out there?

*Also called "Sensitive Litigation Moments".

Posted by Tom Welshonce at 07:47 AM | Comments (0)

SLM No. 11: 15% of U.S. Civil Trials Appealed; 21% in Contract Cases.

From the University of Cincinnati College of Law's Law Librarian Blog and Robert Ambrogi at Law.com's Legal Blog Watch, based on 2001-2005 statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:58 AM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2006

"American Bloggers in Berlin."

Sounds like a good werewolf movie but this is more interesting and arguably just as gothic. Expat American bloggers now roaming Germany are highlighted in a recent post in Atlantic Review, the "digest on transatlantic affairs" edited by three German Fulbright alumni. See among others Radio Free Mike and Observing Hermann.... These are just two of the blogs in the AR article which soon will be added to "WAC?"'s links for Germany under "Non-U.S. Blogs" (on your lower left).

Posted by JD Hull at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)

The Entrepreneur's Guide to the Galaxy

Be sure to tune in to San Diego's CA$H 1700 AM Saturday from 1:00-2:00 p.m. Pacific time to hear this week's edition of "I'm There For You Baby" with Neil Senturia (note picture of Neil on his damn yacht) and Barbara Bry. This week's edition will include a discussion with Serge Dedina, a life long surfer who uses entrepreneurial principles in preserving the coast in California and Mexico, along with more rules from the popular "Baby's Book of Becoming a Billionaire" and the "I wish I'd thought of that idea" Idea. You can also hear the live simulcast on the CA$H website and listen to past shows on the I'm There For You Baby website.

Posted by Tom Welshonce at 02:16 PM | Comments (0)