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April 24, 2009
The IMF and World Bank were super-noisy this week.
Is this play money like in Monopoly? First, earlier this week, The International Monetary Fund, as it prepared to have its annual meeting with the World Bank this weekend in DC, said that American financial institutions might lose $2.7 trillion, as part of the expected worldwide loss of over $4 trillion. Then, IMF top advisers said they wanted to aid all ailing countries (WSJ). Next, the World Bank said it wants to give extra infrastructure money to poorer nations in the amount of $45 billion (AP). Finally, the IMF Managing Director said he wants "speedy bank reform" (BBC News).
It's wonderful that the IMF-WB have the resources, clout and support from Congress and G-20 nations to do all this great "stuff"--because WAC? was certain before this week that they did not. It's true that at the G-20 summit earlier this month, delegates agreed to quadruple IMF funds to $1 trillion. But does anyone expect those nations to affirm that "decision" and deliver in short order?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2009
Real lawyers practice law. Blogging comes second
We got a profession for you right here. See Scott Greenfield's piece "Waiting For The Checks To Roll In", commenting on a WSJ Mark Penn column declaring that "blogging is the newest profession". Greenfield excerpt:
They [pro bloggers] work long hours? Again, I'm not quite impressed. Working 50 to 60 hours might seem like a great burden to some, but most lawyers consider that half time. We work as long as we need to work, and then we work a little more to make sure our work is done right.
Note: Greenfield is a trial lawyer who simply hasn't yet heard that hard and careful work has gone out of style. Odd guy.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
GC-heavy: InsideCounsel's SuperConference, Chicago, May 5-6.
Perkins Coie partner and DNC Chairman Robert Bauer
By General Counsel for General Counsel. Major conferences for corporate lawyers are usually attended by hundreds of fine practitioners from outside firms--but a just handful of in-house lawyers. In ten days, Chicago hosts a glaring exception, and, so far (the organizers tell WAC?), one with the opposite breakdown: InsideCounsel magazine's 9th annual SuperConference at the Chicago Fairmont May 5-6.
It's different: GC-heavy.
We won't, of course, look down our nose at InsideCounsel for having a few registrants from law firms like David Boies, Fred Bartlit, former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, and DNC Chairman Robert Bauer. But top in-house lawyers at SuperConference so far include GCs for Cisco Systems, Chevron Philips, LG Electronics, Ingram Industries, WESCO International, Xerox, Microsoft, Whirlpool, Office Depot, Union Pacific, TV One, C-SPAN, FMC Technologies, the DNC, the Milwaukee Brewers, and many more "majors" you'd recognize. Chief in-house litigation counsel for DuPont, IBM and Cardinal Health are also participating.
The two-day meeting is "re-designed for 2009". So topics at the SuperConference won't be much of a surprise. If you can think of it, it will be covered. More details are here.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2009
Is Obama making some Americans go nuts?
Brit wits want to know. Whatever the ailment, it must be dicier than jetlag, and more contagious. We've noticed it, too. On television, at least one conservative talking head per day has blown a tube on the air; it started two weeks ago, right around the time Obama started getting on planes. What gives? WAC? voted for John McCain--but he (WAC?, or McCain for that matter) is not crazy from the loss. The Economist, too, wonders about "The Obama Derangement Syndrome":
Mr Obama may be widely admired both at home and abroad. But there are millions of Americans who do not like the cut of his jib—and a few whose dislike boils over into white-hot hatred.... The internet crackles with comparisons between Mr Obama and various dictators (Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini) or assorted psychotics (Charles Manson and David Koresh).
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
Blawg Review by two lawyer-journalists.
Query: What if H.L Mencken had been a lawyer, too?
Since October 2008, I've been working and traveling more than I would have expected. Family, clients and our law firm come first--in that order. Always in fourth place: all non-billable writing. That means blog posts, articles and op-ed pieces with pithy titles like "The Future of Awesome New Rule 502, F.R.E." and "The Mood of the Midwest: Victimized Women Lawyers of South Bend Speak Out" and "George W. Bush: One Of Us" are last. Repeat: blogging is fourth. Always. But we still read Blawg Review every week--whether we write about it or not. Always.
Blawg Review has become increasingly global and inclusive--without losing its edge and relevancy. In the last two weeks, it was hosted first (a) by one of the best of the established legal blog writers (a Yank), and then last week (b) by one of the newer crop of thinker-writers (not-a-Yank, but we'll claim this guy anyway):
The "down" economy may change forever the way clients choose and work with outside lawyers. But what of sound lawyering and sane writing? We just don't expect either to go out of style; we do worry that cookie-cutter, mail-it-in lawyering, and lame legal writing, are part of a trend foisted on us all by a growing and insidious herd of "law cattle" which, like livestock over the centuries, don't know it when they're fouling up the pasture. Well, fellow Scots-Welshman J. Craig Williams is one of the few true lawyer-journalists out there. We like that he even exists. Trial lawyer and writer--excellent and enduring in each discipline--Craig turned in a fine Celtic Blawg Review #206: "All Things Scottish" at his May It Please The Court.
Williams, incidentally, is one of the handful of lawyer-bloggers I have met, or really wanted to meet, on his or her own turf. That list is short, but satisfying: Chicago's Pat Lamb, "Ed." of Blawg Review, London's Justin Patten and Charon QC, Seattle's Kevin O'Keefe (China lawyer Dan Harris, also of Seattle, quite rudely left town upon hearing of my trip) and, finally, the UK's GeekLawyer (which frankly is more like meeting 7 or 8 people).
But here's another lawyer-journalist I'd like to meet. Last week, Jordan Furlong, a visionary but sober Canadian writer--similarly, you rarely see both attributes at once in one human--again gave us something to admire with Blawg Review #207: "All the News That Fits" at his Law21. Jordan immediately impressed WAC? with his insights on where this profession is headed--at least in The West--when he started Law 21 in January 2008. He's been right about a few things.
WAC? included these two sites--along with, of course, the genuinely profession-changing phenomenon of Blawg Review itself--in our February 9 post about the handful of must-read blogs. There just aren't that many, folks.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
Don't bogart that TIME Magazine, my friend.
Bong Hits for Henry Luce? You and I cannot write this kind of thing, Ernest. TIME columnist and novelist Joe Klein, who is different than us, can. See his "Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense" in the current TIME issue. I was in San Francisco yesterday with old reporter friends; someone wondered if "blunt" and "joint" might be replaced by "Henry" or "Luce" or, better yet, "Hadden", to name it after Henry's way more fun--and likely more talented--Hotchkiss-Yale pal and co-founder, Briton, who died quite young. Well, maybe not. But all of a sudden I'm really really hungry.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)