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October 20, 2007
Cole Silver: For Lawyers Who Hate to Sell
Which is most lawyers at any law firm, and most professionals at any professional services firm. For them, as well for as "the few" of us who actually like trying our hand at branding, marketing and selling, there's a very fine collection of resources--both links and books--at New Jersey-based The Silver Group, Ltd, owned by Cole Silver.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
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 (0)
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 (0)
Life-life balance: Pres. Sarkozy v. French utility unions
This past week, France was hobbled by transport, electricity and gas worker strikes to protest French President Nicolas Sarkozy's proposals to end generous pensions for certain public-sector workers. Currently, some workers can retire on full pensions at 50. Sarkozy, president since May, had promised to end such "special regimes" during his election campaign. See at The Economist "Sarkozy's Bad Week".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2007
Does your firm charge enough for its work?
See at Tom Collins' More Partner Income his article Surveys Show Most Law Firms Are Underpriced. Excerpt: "On the whole 'low prices' for the majority of law firms are more self-inflicted than due to pressure from clients."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Renaissance Man
Despite his Harvard pedigree, David Giacalone, lawyer-writer-poet and gentle pundit, is always a class act. If you haven't visited his f/k/a... lately, please do so. We suggest starting with his recent "Gov. Spite-zer needs more EQ" for the house special: political commentary and law followed by wistful, seasoned haiku.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
10 best--and worst--job markets for female execs in U.S.
It's "girl-power" week at WAC? (okay, we're a little behind, not too PC). Do see the coverage from August by G. Scott Thomas on female job markets at Bizjournals, including this slide show of the best, i.e., opportunities and upward mobility. And note the worst markets. Certain towns in California, Utah and Ohio get the bad marks.
Posted by JD Hull at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2007
Great news: clients are smarter, better served, or something--but lawsuits are down.
Well, at the moment, who cares about why? See Carolyn Elefant's piece at Legal Blog Watch, re: the new Fulbright & Jaworski survey on the downturn on most fronts in business litigation, and this related report in the Pittsburgh Business Times. Wonderful. Could it be that smart and well-served companies and clients are preventing or minimizing litigation? If the "non-litigation" part of your company or law firm is doing its job, cases should be down.
Litigators are like nuclear warheads; everyone has to have them, and keep them ready for deployment--but once you start using them, everything gets expensive and screwed up. Litigators know this better than anyone. Hull McGuire does commercial litigation, lots of it, and we love doing it. But even in the best of cases, no one ever "wins". Like war itself, commercial litigation is a last resort, and an inefficient way to resolve virtually any dispute.
Updated: 10/16/07 2:30 AM EST
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Got corporate tax lawyers?
Hull McGuire has four such creatures. If your firm does, tell them to visit Paul Caron's TaxProfBlog. Established, well-travelled and easy to read, TPB daily covers tax and related business news in a format even non-tax professionals like. WSJ calls it a "must-read blog". See yesterday's "Law Firm Files First $1 Billion Tax Whistleblower Submission with IRS".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)
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 16, 2007
Hillary Clinton's Big Week for Women
All week long. And a very fine week indeed for D.C. cads with a weakness for wonky women. See Real Clear Politics, The Atlantic and The Washington Times. Clinton strategist Mark Penn's rally-the-troops memo is here. More importantly, is the Capital Hilton on 16th and K a great place to meet girls this week, or what? Name's WAC?, sweetie, Vassar '85, and a friend of Hill's, could you dig a wine spritzer?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2007
From Middle Earth: Blawg Review #130 (X 2)
This week's Blawg Review is split in two in recognition of Blog Action Day (today) and Conflict Resolution Day (Thursday). The Northern Hemisphere is covered by Diane Levin's Online Guide to Mediation from Boston, Massachusetts, and the Southern Hemisphere by Geoff Sharp's mediator blah...blah... from Wellington, New Zealand. This is as fine a Blawg Review as you'll see.
Posted by Tom Welshonce at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
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 (Kitzbühel Desk) 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 (0)