« May 25, 2008 - May 31, 2008 | Main | June 08, 2008 - June 14, 2008 »
June 07, 2008
The Slackoisie
Passion for mediocrity. See Scott Greenfield's inspired "The Slackoisie Fight Back", capping off a week of noises from the "no artificial time constraints" and "clients last" crowd. The Gen Y issue hits nerves. This past week Above the Law had some fun with it, too. For the next week Dan Hull exchanges the elegance of FRE Rule 612 (his favorite) for pretending to hawk scripts and ideas in Los Angeles. Even as a lowly if mature law clerk, I can get some things done for him this weekend while he's gone. Including the blogging. I know the City of Lights better than even Dan does--and so our weekend experiment What About Paris? is in good hands. After all, I am a younger-end boomer; I do value work and our clients. Hey, wait a minute, why am I the only one in the Pittsburgh office today?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Americans as half full of it?
Americans all think they are going to make it big, don't they?
"Half empty or half full? Test your optimism" by Diane Levin at her MediationChannel.com got me thinking. Running a business does require a bit of realism, and a pessimistic streak can help. You can discipline yourself to get that in your make-up, even if your Mom growing up was the Midwestern version of Pollyanna. Still, I'll take optimism as a "default" position for the kind of people I want in my orbit. Some western Europeans seem genuinely alarmed but intrigued when they utter the following, which is said to me frequently and out of the blue: "Americans all think they are going to make it big, don't they?!"* The idea, I gather, is that the great expectations generated by the free-for-all and break-neck culture of American life is a design for failure, disappointment and humiliation. They have a point. According to the Boston Globe, and as Diane points out, as many as 80% of us Yanks, have the sunny-side thing going--and it can work against us. But that is who we are.
*Brits who say this will then throw in, for effect, a loud and somewhat dismissive guffaw.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)
June 05, 2008
Buying into Client Service
Everyone at your shop must do it. And that's not easy to achieve. From our CS Rules and 12-step program: "Rule Three: Ensure Everyone Knows That The Client Is The Main Event".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
This week on the "Baby": Selling Science and Technology
This week's theme on "I'm There for You Baby" is science and technology--and selling them. Neil Senturia and Barbara Bry talk with Larry Bock, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, and Allison Rynne, Executive Director of the San Diego Science Festival. The Festival, which launches in March 2009, aims to encourage those in Gen-Y to look into science-related careers.
Neil and Barbara also speak with Rocky Smolin about his new book From Program to Product: Turning Your Code into a Saleable Product, which is meant to guide software entrepreneurs from the idea stage to selling their products commercially. Finally, they discuss tips for engaging and retaining quality employees. (We're all ears.) You can listen to the "Baby" live Wednesdays from 12:30-1:30 p.m. (PT) at SignOn Radio.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
June 04, 2008
International Dispute Negotiation: The ICC
Listen to the IDN's latest podcast, No. 28, "The ICC's New Leadership: Interview with Jason Fry". Fry is the new Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce's (ICC's) 85-year-old International Court of Arbitration. Established in 1919, the ICC is based in Paris, with offices worldwide. It has been a leader and innovator in global business arbitration since 1923 (about 15,000 cases.) GE's Mike McIlwrath talks with Fry about the ICC's role in ADR globally in 2008.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Lawyer hubris?
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Romans 1:22
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2008
MSNBC: WJC really ticked off at Vanity Fair reporter.
"Scumbag" alert. Sorry. More politics. We can't help it. MSNBC "First Read" excerpt:
The same Huffington Post reporter who broke the Obama “bitter” story got a new scoop yesterday of Bill Clinton lashing out at Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum and calling him “sleazy,” “dishonest” and “slimy” for his critical magazine article on Clinton. It’s worth noting that the HuffPo reporter didn’t identify herself as a reporter and said she disliked the article when asking for his reaction.
From the piece: “Tightly gripping this reporter's hand and refusing to let go, Clinton heatedly denounced the writer, who is currently married to his former White House Press Secretary, Dee Dee Myers. ‘[He's] sleazy,’ he said referring to Purdum. ‘He's a really dishonest reporter. And one of our guys talked to him… And I haven't read [the article]. There's just five or six blatant lies in there. But he's a real slimy guy,’ the former President said. When I reminded him that Purdum was married to his former press spokesperson Myers, Clinton was undeterred. ’That's all right-- he's still a scumbag,’ Clinton said. ‘Let me tell ya--he's one of the guys -- he's one of the guys that brought out all those lies about Whitewater to Kenneth Starr. He's just a dishonest guy--can't help it.’” [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
No way to go out: Mel Weiss gets 30 months.
Both Scott Greenfield at Simple Justice and the WSJ's Law Blog alerted us to Weiss's sentencing. It's sad, and not an occasion to gloat, even if our clients and we are no lovers of the Rule 23 bar. The talented and accomplished Weiss is 72. Back in September, we reacted to the Mel Weiss indictment, and to the gulity plea of his former partner Bill Lerach a few days earlier that week.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)
June 02, 2008
CS musings
Globe-trotting James Hipkin finally landed in San Francisco. He succinctly sets forth "5 Principles for Successful Client Service" at his Musings on Marketing. All 5 of these make way too much sense--we wish we had thought of them.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Ruthie muses on War and Peace; has tea with GeekLawyer.
London's warrior-solicitor Ruthie writes "Litigation: it’s all about the fight". And she drops in for a spot of tea and a podcast with evil un-kempt barrister GeekLawyer who, disturbingly enough, hosts Blawg Review on June 30 in time to opine about Independence Day on July 4 in America. The podcast: learn about the Ruthie-GL split. Required listening for the bored and the deranged. However, associates and summer clerks may defer listening until weekend.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Your summer clerkship: Your real value to the firm?
Zero--and hopefully not less than zero. But don't take that so hard. We are paying you--and our most inarticulate lawyer could make a persuasive, cogent, and eloquent argument for the reverse arrangement. You're an investment. An experiment. It's nice having you around. You're nice kids, from great schools, with great grades. But you don't know anything. So our advice:
1. Proofread, and be careful. Paying attention to detail is one of the few things you can do for us now. But valuable. (What else valuable can you really give us this summer?) Get that habit, and get it forever.
2. Give us your ideas (not your tech savvy).
3. Give us your best answer, get to the point--and then show us your thinking. Back it up with the best authorities you can find so far, even if it's a work in progress. And don't guess.
4. You say you're brilliant? That's nice. But that and a dollar will get you a Diet Coke, or maybe a beer at the Tune Inn. We seek Huntin' Dogs--workers who use everything they have and are to do great work for great clients. We know such creatures when we see them. Takes about a week to spot "it" or "no it".
5. Ask dumb questions. Frequently.
6. Proofread, and be careful.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:20 PM | Comments (0)
China Law Blog: The World Peace Edition of Blawg Review
Blawg Review #162 is hosted by Dan Harris at China Law Blog. Harris, as always, is ambitious. He takes us all over the globe. He instructs. He opines. But his real goal is World Peace, and sweetness and light generally. He accomplishes this in his exemplary, humorous, memorable and truly great Blawg Review edition--with one war-like exception.
In response to our post on Saturday, "Big Dog finally hosts Blawg Review", Harris addresses a one-on-one basketball match with my boss. Harris, a Hoosier, claims that since Dan Hull is from Ohio it wouldn't be a fair contest. To that, we have two words: LeBron James, a Buckeye.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 08:22 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2008
Crossroads
Today June 1 is the Festival of Carna. She is the Roman goddess of the heart--and also of hinges and locks. Ovid said that she “opens what is closed, and closes what is open.” Another Roman goddess named Carna--from which "carnal" is derived"--is linked romantically with Janus, the better known god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings. Of Crossroads. Maybe your girlfriend or wife just left you, you finished a good FY quarter and are looking ahead, or it's time to quit wasting time.
I went down to the crossroads, tried to flag a ride.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Not a luxury.
He who neglects the arts when young has lost the past and is dead to the future.
--Sophocles (496-406 BC)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 04:15 PM | Comments (0)