« September 23, 2007 - September 29, 2007 | Main | October 07, 2007 - October 13, 2007 »
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 (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)
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 (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2007
The State of UK Legal Blogging--and 125 UK blawgs.
Our thanks to Kevin O'Keefe at Real Lawyers Have Blogs for noticing this before anyone else: Nick Holmes at his well-regarded Binary Law has posted "UK Blawgs--Where Are We Now?". As part of his report, Nick mentions that he has identified over 125 UK blogs at his London-
based Infolaw, an on-line legal information service which he started in 1995, and for which he serves as Managing Editor. Note that most of these UK blogs did not exist two years ago. UK blawgs have increased at a rate of about one new site each week. We'll add many of these newer sites to our international directory on your left under the categories England and Wales and Scotland.
Posted by JD Hull at 05:54 AM | Comments (0)
Duke lacrosse players lawsuit #1
We checked PACER and it's true. This morning former Duke students and lacrosse players Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans sued prosecutor Mike Nifong, the city of Durham and police detectives
in a North Carolina federal court. The complaint calls the discredited and dismissed rape charges against them “one of the most chilling episodes of premeditated police, prosecutorial and scientific misconduct in modern American history.” AP report is here. Watch next for the players suit against Duke U. itself.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 03:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2007
Simply the best: WAC?'s picks for the top 10 blawgs
In response to the "meme" started by the mysterious Editor at Blawg Review, and our getting tagged by Craig Williams at May It Please the Court, below are the ten legal weblogs we consider to be "simply the best". Five were easy for us--the other five were harder. Tough task, which we took seriously. Several fist fights* and flying objects. But nothing "political", in any sense, about our list. While we were flattered to be included in the top 10 on Craig Williams's list, we would have selected MIPTC anyway:
Above the Law (David Lat, U.S.)
Blawg Review (U.S.)
Charon QC (U.K.)
China Law Blog (Dan Harris, U.S./China)
GeekLawyer (U.K.)
Law Blog (Peter Lattman/WSJ, U.S.)
May it Please the Court (Craig Williams, U.S.)
More Partner Income (Tom Collins, U.S.)
Overlawyered (Walter Olson, Ted Frank, David Nieporent, U.S.)
SCOTUS (Lyle Denniston et al., U.S.)
*Over some great U.S. blogs.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Idaho U.S. Sen. Craig not permitted to withdraw guilty plea.
In the wild wide world of wide stances, see WSJ Law Blog. Tough break for criminal defense lawyer Billy Martin, a WAC? favorite.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
California air quality arm gets even seriouser.
In Environmental Protection, see "California Air Resources Board (ARB) Approves Strategy to Drastically Cut Air Pollution". The ARB's new plan is statewide and comprehensive, with special focus on meeting federal standards and deadlines for the districts of the South Coast and San Joaquin Valley, a rural-urban mix in the center of the state.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
1st Amendment--Privacy--Extreme naked gardening in Happy Valley, Oregon. ("Dude, that ain't right.")
Essay Question No. 1
Steve Howatt, 56, gardens on his own property in the nude in Happy Valley, Oregon. He's a nice if slightly overweight guy. It's undisputed that he engages in no sexual displays or exhibitionism. The local city council is busy crafting ways to control him and so far has banned nudity (a) in public places and (b) which "can be seen" from public places. But some of the people complaining about Howatt, including Samantha Love, are nearby neighbors who can see Howatt from their own property. Love and others say "it's just not right". They want Howatt to stop. Howatt continues to assert a right to garden nude. In support of his argument, he claims that American statesman and inventor Ben Franklin was also a nudist. Newhouse News Service, KATU-TV (Portland) and esp. MSNBC video.
Discuss.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Tom Kane: Four marketing laws for lawyers
Tom Kane published the first of four short articles yesterday: "Four Laws for Successful Lawyer Marketing - Part I". Based on this, and Tom's usual fare, the series promises to be excellent. His first law is the Law of Perception--the one that for excellent lawyers is hard to grasp. WAC? thinks of it as the unfortunate but true "it-just-doesn't-matter-that-you're-better" principle.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:09 AM | 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 (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
UK judge lets Brit schools show Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth"
For a moment, forget about your politics, views on the environment or how enlightened, hip or correct you think you are. WAC? "likes" Al Gore. But you gotta like this feisty Brit. Stewart Dimmock, a lorry driver, father of two children (ages 11 and 14), and part-time school official in Dover, Kent, England, claimed that Gore's 2006 Oscar-winning film on climate change was scientifically inaccurate, biased and "sentimental
mush"--and shouldn't be shown in English schools. He said he wanted his children educated in an environment "free from bias and political spin". So Dimmock went to court--and just lost his challenge to the showing of the former U.S. vice-president's documentary in English secondary schools. But Dimmock still got his point across. Yesterday High Court Judge Michael Burton agreed that "An Inconvenient Truth" advanced "partisan political views", but didn't elaborate. Burton said the movie could be shown if the written guidance for teachers accompanying the program was changed so as not to endorse the film's (and Gore's) views. The UK government will re-write the guidance.
See AP, BBC, and the always-entertaining Daily Mail.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)
Lisboa, Portugal: Alfama District
Welshonce Watch: Like New York, DC, Paris and Prague, Lisbon is a walking city. The medieval Alfama district is Lisbon's oldest, covering the slope between the Castelo de São Jorge and the Tejo River.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 03:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2007
Hillary's new $22 million
Contrary to what WAC? thought a year ago about her chances--we are wrong a lot ("best qualified but worst Dem candidate who can't and shouldn't get the nomination", we said)--HRC is kicking butt generally and now plays out pre-primary clock. AP: Clinton Tops Obama in 3rd Quarter Fund-Raising. Not over yet. But we are impressed. Dang.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
The Blogs of War, Day 2: The Brad Blog
The punishment of wise men who refuse to take part in the government is to live under the government of worse men. --Plato, The Republic, 360 B.C.
Over on the Left, today we have The Brad Blog, by journalist-broadcaster Brad Friedman. Last week a guest blogger posted "McCain Hurriedly Backtracks After Bigoted Anti-Muslim Comments". Hey, we told you these political bloggers (both Ds and Rs) were partisan and
serious--wait until you get a load of some of the other "Blogs of War" we'll show you. But we like The Brad Blog because there is way more writing-thinking and less yelling-knee-jerking than some of the other political sites. As Holden just mentioned to me on the phone: "Dude, just because you're off-the-charts partisan doesn't mean you're dumb or crazy." TBB has substance to match the moxie.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:38 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2007
Duke's apology: enough to stop a civil suit by players?
The Chronicle reports on the apology (given at the law school) over the weekend by Duke president Richard Brodhead to the 2005-2006 men's lacrosse team and their families.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
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 (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Collins: Are your rates too low on your "long-standings"?
See at Tom Collins's More Partner Income his September 27 post, "Long Time Law Firm Clients Are Priced Too Low", inspired by a 2002 HBR piece.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) 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)