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July 04, 2008
1776-2008
Still a young country, America. And July 4th means reflection as well as celebration. When does America square realities with its fine but unmet principles? See at Scott Greenfield's Simple Justice "Our 232nd Year and It Doesn't Look Promising".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Thinking well.
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
Aristotle (384–322 BC), fragment
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2008
Utah
WAC? considers Utah a republic unto itself. We even considered adding Utah sites to our Directory of Non-U.S. Blogs, on your lower left. Let us be vague here. You'd need to spend time in Utah to begin to understand. Hull McGuire has worked much in the Salt Lake area, both courts and transactions, for out-of-state clients. And we always have hired local counsel in Utah, if only as a cultural resource. Our reasons
for viewing Utah as insular and different are chiefly professional; our clients need to know that Utah is different. But lots of talented lawyers live here, including the best pretrial mediator we ever worked with. We also think ex-trial lawyer (a fact he doesn't advertise) Sen. Orrin Hatch is a trip, charitably put, and we follow his doings. But here is something Utah does right other than Sundance and skiing, at least this weekend: a few good people in Park City.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)
July 02, 2008
Help, I'm a rock.
Left brain, right brain, stale brain, jury work. In the first semester, and not gradually, you lose some of your command of the English language. The verbal agility and fired imagination that got you through your Reynolds Price course in college is gone. Next, you notice that your creativity is, somehow, inhibited. But you do start thinking in a linear and more Western-logic way. And you learn, as a law student, to think about something that is inextricably attached to something else without thinking about the thing to which it is attached. That's the idea, the prize. But something is lost. In a few years you start writing documents that begin "COMES NOW, oye oye, by and through XYZ law firm, Upstart, Inc., which avers, somewhat obsequiously, to his Honorable Court, the following, which..." when just "Upstart, Inc. states" would suffice. You think it's normal. You notice that, for years now, you have argued, rather than listened, in conversations. You are now a prisoner of your goals. Read Anne Reed's post "Stop Thinking Like A Lawyer!" at her challenging Deliberations.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Bad dog: GeekLawyer coverage
Oxford grads are baaad. Blawg Review #166, hosted this week by the Keith Moon of legal blogs, got noticed. Nothing sacred; no one spared.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:07 PM | Comments (4)
"Are lawyers just kidding themselves about delivering true service to clients?"
Reviews on lawyers always have ranged from architects of great nations and the world's commercial markets to necessary evils who add little or no value to any project. We are said to be manipulators with at best convenient notions of truth.
And horror stories about our botched or inattentive services are legion. True service to clients: are we delivering this and, if we aren't, can we talk about why?
Opening lines of our first post of August 1, 2005.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (1)
Learning well.
Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
July 01, 2008
One hot market: China nuclear energy.
Last week, Westinghouse told a Pittsburgh Post Gazette reporter that China needed 100 reactors out of it in the next decade. 100. And via the vigilant wunderkind Dan Harris at China Law Blog, we see that China Comment, a new blog covering energy, environment and politics in Greater China, has this truly information-rich piece, "China's Nuclear Power". We've said for months think that global climate change issues alone put nuke power in U.S. back in big play. It has. Just a fact.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
O Rare GeekLawyer
If you want a friend, find Jesus; but punters [clients] are for bleeding.
--GeekLawyer on Client Service
Blawg Review #666. Barrister-pundit GeekLawyer never disappoints. We at WAC? like him the way he is. But the world-famous Glastonbury festival in Somerset this past weekend likely did him in--so I plan to take him to an AA meeting near Fleet and Chancery when I'm in London in September. This is Blawg Review #166. He is your host. Women, children, liberals, conservatives, Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, your Mom, Mormons, the religious right, Midwesterners, most lawyers and their spouses will not like it. Witty, very British--and vile. So it's bound to be one of the most popular and famous Blawg Reviews ever. Bravo. You sick unit.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
June 30, 2008
Arbitrators and bias: International Dispute Resolution.
It's a challenge for even Brooke Powell, our Pennsylvania-based WAC? writer, Hull McGuire stalwart, and litigation Superwoman, to keep up with Mike McIlwarth as he interviews the world's best arbitration thinkers and doers. An American litigator, McIlwrath works at General Electric in Florence, Italy. It's the base he uses to manage oil and gas litigation globally for GE, travel on business to any number of non-U.S. jurisdictions, and still find time to do his do his IDN show for CPR--short for The International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution. Well, Brooke got busy helping out in California, and we've missed two IDN podcasts since the "Lucky Generals" interview of HBS's Mike Wheeler a few weeks back. We will catch up. For now, hear "No. 32--Arbitrator Bias", an interview with London's Sophie Nappert. Our note: The quality (including integrity) of the arbitrator or mediator is the main event in ADR. All else flows from it. Spend a little money to select them. Bias, of course, can be minimized in larger commercial cases by using 3 panelists.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
LexMonitor: White collar crime and SOX compliance.
Sarbanes-Oxley, useful but criticized for being a bit overdone and in need of tweaking, inches toward its 6th birthday on July 30. For SOX and other white collar issues, Kevin O'Keefe's recently-launched LexMonitor, among other features and practice areas, has White Collar Defense & Compliance written by Philly-based Fox Rothchild's Princeton, NJ office.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)