« August 12, 2007 - August 18, 2007 | Main | August 26, 2007 - September 01, 2007 »
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. 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 (Kitzbühel Desk) 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)
Blawg Review #122 - The Blawg Review Syllabus
See this week's edition of Blawg Review at David Gulbransen's Preaching to the Perverted.
Posted by Tom Welshonce at 06:20 AM | 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 (0)
All eyes on Countrywide Financial
(NYSE: CFC) Here, from the International Herald Tribune.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) 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 (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2007
Business, Law, Clients and The Blues are now International.
Im gonna write a letter to china
See if my babys over there.
Im gonna write a letter to china
See if my babys over there.
If she aint up in the hawaiian islands,
Must be in ethiopia somewhere.
R. Johnson, "Dust My Broom", 1936
While I was in a part of the U.S. originally settled by Asians, and later conquered by Russians and Scandanavians, Ray Ward in the Big Easy reminded me by e-mail about Dust My Broom, this classic Robert Johnson song that every R&B musician, from dozens of countries, with or without its ever-changing lyrics, wants to cover and re-cast. It's about loss, choices, betrayal, hurt, the world, the stock market, mortgage-backed bonds, the Cosmos and Everything. And, of course, about Keith Richards and Rod Stewart. Well, use your imagination, ok?
Posted by JD Hull at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)