« December 23, 2007 - December 29, 2007 | Main | January 06, 2008 - January 12, 2008 »
January 05, 2008
Legal London: O Rare GeekLawyer.
American wank-fest, eh? GeekLawyer's podcasts are always worth hearing. Around Christmas, lamenting a lull in Brit lawyer blogging, and likely in his cups, the genius barrister noted, among other things:
"The UK blogosphere is dynamic--and it's interesting. The Yanks' [blogs] are full of boring old farts, wanking on all about their professional careers....academic debates about this that and the other....frankly, the UK blogosphere is comprised of characters."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Value price this. Part III.
WAC? has retreated to the desert to recover from the holidays. But scroll down, read the comments. Savor the passion, the wisdom, the brutality. Anyone else?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
Screen Actors Guild will stick it to NBC.
Take that, running-dog lackey studio suits.
AP: "SAG Says Nominated Actors Will Skip Globes."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 05:59 PM | Comments (0)
January 04, 2008
Value price this. Part II.
WAC? listens and is frequently trainable. Scroll down a little on your right, and see the comments in response to our post below: from Ron Baker (we have always liked his unrelenting pluck on value pricing) of the Verasage Institute, and from Tennessee trial lawyer-blogger John Day (he's a very smart and thoughtful man). Some great questions and details...like change orders. More on this later--we worry changing from the billable hour for litigation projects for longstanding GCs--but, for now, from Baker:
"Utilize price-led costing;
Utilize Change Orders;
Utilize project management;
Utilize Key Predictive Indicators;
Utilize After Action (and Before Action) Reviews;
Engage in value conversations with each and every customer."
Update: And also a later comment from Christopher Marston at Exemplar Law Partners, LLC, another leader on value pricing. Next?...Pat Lamb, maybe? Will I get any work done today?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)
Value price this.
Fact 1: WAC? and Hull McGuire like the billable hour; clients like it, and it works best, in their cases, to align their interests with ours. Fact 2: They don't ask for anything else besides the billable hour. Fact 3: We listen and are willing to learn about new things, and even take a lead--but we need more information on how value pricing or flat pricing alone could ever be in anyone's interests in high-stake projects with daily or weekly surprises. How does this stuff work? We need details about the solution--not battle cries and rhetoric about the problem. We seek a Value Pricing Users' Manual by a person with (a) an eye for nuance and (b) a intimate knowledge of (i.e., experience with) actual law practice in a pressure cooker context. We understand the arguments. Show us solutions and how it would work. Fact 4: The subject won't go away. See Carolyn Elefant's "Time Again for More Criticism of the Billable Hour". More later, but I need to fill out this timesheet.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:11 PM | Comments (8)
Iowa: Obama, Huckabee win.
Edwards (30%) and HRC (29%) behind Obama (38%). Romney (25%) and Thompson (13%) behind Huck (34%). And Biden and Dodd bow out. Can Obama overcome the too-young-for-president charge, and do it without mentioning JFK? Can Mike Huckabee raise some magnificent money in the long haul, and figure out where Europe is? Tune in next week folks, after New Hampshire primary. AP: "Obama turns back Clinton to win Iowa caucuses". See The Plank, The New Republic's blog, for some of the saner non-emotional blog coverage.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)
U.S. job growth slowing?
WAC? has optimism in its DNA, but Automatic Data Processing, Inc., based on payroll data on nearly 24 million U.S. workers, reports that December was a bad month. See the WSJ Real Time Economics blog, "ADP Report Indicates Weak Job Growth".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:53 AM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2008
Redux: Dude, if you can't steal our clients, you're fired.
Is the promise of "client service" at your shop just drinks-and-dinner b.s. and website lip service? Or is it real? Here's a new standard for associate and paralegal performance reviews we suggested a year ago. And it's a test, of sorts, for you rainmakers and partner-level lawyers. If the idea appalls or amuses you folks, fair enough--but do ask yourself why.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Brits and nukes.
UK seen giving green light to new nuclear plants
LONDON (Reuters)--Britain is expected to give the go-ahead to a new generation of nuclear power stations next week, sparking a frenzy of deal-making by nuclear firms as well as a fresh challenge from environmental campaigners.
"I don't think the government has any other option," said analyst David Cunningham at Arbuthnot Securities. "It's a necessary evil."
Nuclear operators say they could have new plants running by 2017, helping Britain to meet its 2020 goals for combating climate change.
The government green light, expected on Tuesday, is likely to be accompanied by publication of an Energy Bill to be fast-tracked through parliament alongside the Climate Change Bill and the Planning Bill. [more]
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
California sues EPA to force waiver on greenhouse-gas emissions.
SAN FRANCISCO (NYT)-—California sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, challenging its recent decision to block California rules curbing greenhouse-gas emissions from new cars and trucks.
Under the federal Clean Air Act, California has the right to set its own standards on air pollutants, but must receive a waiver from the E.P.A. to do so. The environmental agency broke with decades of precedent last month and denied California a waiver to move forward with its proposed limits on vehicular emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
Morocco 2008
"The evening galloped like horses down a polished hallway. Soon it was 2008." Re-live new year's eve at Maryam's My Marrakesh.
Posted by JD Hull at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)
January 02, 2008
Patrick Lamb: What is he up to?
See "A New Value Based Law Firm" at Michelle Golden's Golden Practices. Let's all watch Chicago-based trial lawyer and businessman Pat Lamb. Value pricing. If anyone can make it work, he can.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
The tapes, the tapes--in America it's always missing tapes.
The U.S. Department of Justice will investigate the CIA's 2005 destruction of videotapes of the questioning of two al-Qaeda operatives. See Reuters.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
Crude oil hits $100
NEW YORK (AP)--Oil prices soared to $100 a barrel Wednesday for the first time ever, reaching that milestone amid an unshakeable view that global demand for oil and petroleum products will continue to outstrip supplies. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
Ann Althouse: best quotes of 2007, life actually, varmints.
If you don't like your life, change it.
--Lawrence Olivier, who would have turned 100 in 2007
The best one is above--except that it makes way too much sense. If you hate what you do and are, at least you're on the right track--but family, work, clients and feeding your dog merge into a joy-less chore until you fix it. The rest of her favorite quotes from her posts in 2007 are here. She recalls that we learned this past year that Arizona U.S. senator and 2008 GOP contender John McCain has a hair-trigger wit, too. No matter where you stand on gun control or immigration, the
word "varmint" (i.e., troublesome person or animal) deserves a comprehensive come-back in America. Join us. Use the word "varmint" today, preferably in writing--in an opinion letter, Rule 12 opposition brief, Phase I environmental report, or a reply to the Disciplinary Board. Just be discreet. Our young French friend Tocqueville would agree, or at least understand. This is America.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2008
Bang bang, you are the warrior. Ready?
Break out of captivity
And follow me, stereo jungle child
Love is the kill.....your heart's still wild.--P. Smyth
New day, new year, and it's time for lawyers to lead. Let's resolve to:
Put clients first, tell clients what we really think, give advice and not just options, stop covering our asses, take risks, stop pretending we are "special", minimize our clubbiness, practice discipline and structure, stop making the law about our convenience and schedules, think like business people and not like mere academics, help clients control costs, fight the mediocrity in legal products and client service we continue to accept, change the way people think about lawyers, quit writing to clients, to courts and to each other like mental patients talking to themselves, become trusted consigilieres, surround ourselves with strong talented people, fire bad clients, refuse to bottom-feed, fire employees who don't or won't get it (and stop pretending they'll see the light), act, and otherwise stop being weenies.
Our clients still wait for us to so evolve. To lead. Ready?
JDH, HHO, TWC 1/1/08
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:23 AM | Comments (0)
December 31, 2007
"But, dudes, no mothers, okay?"
The dozens in Iowa. Rumble. God-fearing candidates get down. LA Times: "Huckabee Casts Romney Campaign as 'Dishonest'". And now, according to the NYT, there's a new warrior--a formidable one--waiting in the wings: Mike Bloomberg.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)
December 30, 2007
Perfect New England
AP: 34.5 Million Watch Patriots' Historic Win. 16-0 in the regular season. Everyone watched.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
WAC?'s Blawg Review nominations
For Blawg Review of the Year, they are #'s 94, 102, 116, 127, 134, 137. In a short time, Blawg Review has emerged as a progressive, straight-up phenom. Bravo to all hosts--getting better and better--and to that hard-working Ed. guy, especially for going outside the often-insular U.S. for hosts. Bring on more Brits, Scots, any extant Picts, Irish guys, Aussies, Canadians, the French, Germans, New Zealand, South Africa, maybe Utah. More Asia!
Posted by JD Hull at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)