« October 12, 2008 - October 18, 2008 | Main | October 26, 2008 - November 01, 2008 »
October 25, 2008
What about inspiration in The Desert?
WAC?'s been working hard in Steel City this week, but now needs either The Desert or The City of Lights for a new idea or two. Paris, a 2000-year-old center of Western civilization many Americans know to be in western Europe, is our favorite city. For many more centuries, however, mankind has also picked its opposite, The Desert, as a place of definitions, and new beginnings. So we chose that for the next few days--for the quiet and the solitude, and due to the fact it's all we can afford. We'll ready ourselves for the new order of things monetary and commercial: The New Scheme. We'll prepare.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2008
Once again, GCs weigh in on law firms.
Via the vigilant and all-powerful Ed. of Blawg Review, see by John Wallbillich at Wired GC "Managing Outside Counsel Survey", with links to an interesting ACC survey. "40% of outside counsel report terminating a law firm relationship", a number which does not shock us, and actually is lower than we would have thought. Incidentally, Blawg Review this week is hosted by tech-savvy and future U.S. IP Czar David Gulbransen at Preaching to the Perverted. All life is a test.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2008
You're kidding. Our client is a "Waishang Duzi Qiye"?
"One of the other partners suspected it was a "Youxian Zeren Gongsi" form of business. Guess she was wrong. Asian, right? China, maybe? And, Justin, what is that strange German symbol-thing I keep seeing in the due diligence--GmbH, that's it--and what does that mean? Your Professor Bloor at dear old Siwash didn't cover these in Corporations, I guess. How about S.A.? Oy? Hevra Pratit? Cyfyngedig? What about those, smart guy?"
Increasingly, and obviously, U.S. lawyers are helping clients do business with foreign companies and in foreign jurisdictions, guiding them as they set up shops and entities abroad, and representing non-U.S. companies in the U.S. If you are starting to do that, and need to take a first step, visit the International Directory of Corporate Symbols and Terms. It was first published in 2002 by member firms of the Salzburg, Austria-based International Business Law Consortium. A prescient American law prof, writer and businessman, Dennis Campbell, is the IBLC's founder and director. Campbell also founded, in 1976, the well-known Center for International Legal Studies, also headquartered in Salzburg.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
The Bush Years: Never too early for revisionist history.
"It is often said that journalists take the first cut at history." See "W. as History" by USC's Mary D. Dudziak at the always-excellent Legal History Blog. If you're in a very good mood today, you might also read Dan Hull's February 3 op-ed piece, "One of us", in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about the meaning of George W. Bush. Dan argues that W. is, after all, simply the "American" president the world's been expecting for the last 200 years.
A.C.H.C. de Tocqueville, who may have predicted W.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
How to "give face" in Hong Kong.
The Economist: Do No Wrong in Hong Kong. "When receiving a business card, make a show of examining it, then put it into your card case or place it on the table. It is rude to stuff it straight in a pocket." And more. Is a clock a good client gift? As they do in Mainland China, do Hong Kong women retain their maiden names?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)