« May 24, 2009 - May 30, 2009 | Main | June 07, 2009 - June 13, 2009 »
June 05, 2009
John Arthur Carradine (1936-2009)
One of us, if you grew up in the 1960s-1970s. Forget about Shane and Kung Fu, which likely embarrassed him. A brilliant guy from a celebrated acting family of three generations: the New Age Barrymores. Way meaner, edgier, smarter and tougher than Cole Younger, who he played in the James-Younger Northfield raid saga. Eldest son, Alpha male, part-Beat, part-Hip. Seeker. He didn't care what you thought.
David Carradine was on a short list of people who got right to the point--and told you the brutal truth. Authentic. A non-wimp's evil answer to Phil Donahue. Could not be bothered with trendy people, weenies, hedgers or metro-sexuals--or anyone else who forgot who they really are. AP: "Actor David Carradine found dead in Bangkok."
Posted by JD Hull at 04:32 PM | Comments (4)
Standards. Tools That Work. Get Some.
Is the usual "sales" model designed for failure? Renaissance human, NYT-best selling author and sales consultant Sharon Drew Morgen asks: "Why Is A 90% Failure Rate Ok?" Excerpts:
[We] lose clients we shouldn’t lose. What a waste - not only for sellers, but for buyers. 90% of the prospects don’t come back. Not because our product isn’t good, or because our solution doesn’t match their need.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:44 AM | Comments (0)
June 04, 2009
Santa Barbara
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
China Law for Business: Marriage, Mistresses--and Love's Odd Equitable Remedies.
Make beaucoup dollar. Now give back. Here's something that didn't happen in Elkhart, Muncie or Connersville last week. Or Indianaoplis, either. At Dan Harris's thoroughly cosmopolitan yet endearingly Indiana-loving China Law Blog, see "China Sex, Mistresses, And Improper Payments, And What They Mean For Your China Business Litigation."
Does ex-Hoosier and Seattle-based Harris have China business covered, or what?
"Hui Ying pay all money back."
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Make Yours Moxie.
Demand first-rate work of yourself, and others. (1) What are you doing today? (2) What are your employees doing for you today?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)
The Economist: Please Don't Kill Yankee Drive.
Even Brits like us "the way we were". In an opinion piece that will trouble the Slackoeisie, and more senior looters in the new sloth movement, the 166-year-old The Economist graces us with "Piling On: In His Zeal To Fix Capitalism, Barack Obama Must Not Stifle America’s Dynamism". Excerpts:
The American economy is dynamic because Americans like it that way, even now. A Pew poll released on May 21st found that 76% of Americans agree that the country’s strength is “mostly based on the success of American business” and 90% admire people who “get rich by working hard”.
America’s free-market capitalism has always been a model for the rest of the world. By all means fix its flaws, Mr Obama; but do not take its dynamism for granted.
Thank you, sirs.
To unfashionable working lawyers in the West: Whether or not a post-war European statism sloth trend "takes" in the U.S., let's never send messages to doers, innovators, inventors, passionate employees, and other "huntin' dogs"--in our clients' or our own workplaces--that they and their energies are no longer PC, no longer valued, or otherwise not welcome. Keep the class. Dump the trash.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:40 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2009
Part II--"Wartime Consigliere": Bunnies with JDs are nice but...
A Warrior knows how to make peace. A Scared Bunny will never know how to win a war.
--Scott Greenfield. Trial Lawyer. Philosopher. Planner. Aggressive Human. [upper case in mid-sentence by WAC? for emphasis]
"Worse still, a scared bunny will do everything in his power to avoid a war." Bunny GCs and Bunny outside lawyers, if you think about it, may be in the majority.
That's okay. Not every lawyer needs to be a take-charge, overbearing, fire-breathing litigator. Or a "mean person" who is demanding and aggressive, God forbid. But you do need a couple of nasty folks like that in your camp.
Lawyers. Most of us like puppy dog tails, canned jokes that only CPAs and bank employees would laugh at, "Lassie" movies, Sweetness, Light and Get-a-Life conferences during a Recession.
(Note: I can't get over the ugly and embarrassing reality of such a gathering. If anyone said I had attended--even in jest--I would hire a certain lawyer at a Cleveland-based DC shop and sue for defamation, and under the Lanham Act, in a heartbeat. How about a "Get-a-Pair" conference?)
And we are a reasonably intelligent, gentle folk. We don't raise our voices. Are risk-averse. Don't like to run things. Don't market. Don't yell, swear or bully. Tom Hagen was a "nice" guy. (And worthless except for that fun LA horse head thing; you can have him.)
And we are "nice guys" not because we are "moral" or "professional" or "deliberate" or "smart"--that's all a crock. It's because we just don't like violence. It's so, well, icky. Not in our nature. Most of us don't fight. Even for clients--and I see this every day. We are lawyer-centric. Club Dweeb. The Bunny Bund. Face it.
But you DO want a few non-Bunnies around you and yours, occupying certain positions of trust and importance in your company, or law firms. Yes. You do. Trust us.
So be extra nice to a few mean people today. See this one at Simple Justice: "A Wartime Consigliere".
A Hagen Bunny at work: "Hey, can't we just keep talking?"
Posted by JD Hull at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
Yes--and your GC should be a "Wartime Consigliere".
The Wrong Stuff: Thomas "Tom" Feargal Hagen (Paramount Pictures)
It's not a Godfather thing, not a macho thing, not a litigation thing. It's just a business fact, especially in changing industries. And especially now. General Counsel at corporations do make a difference:
1. She should be broad-gauged, intellectual, take-charge, organized, preventive, resourceful--and War-like at heart.
2. Hates war as expensive--but likes and even revels in a fight.
3. Tells management what to do--and not a tentative, qualified "what you can do".
At his well-regarded Law Department Management, Rees Morrison, by far one of the smarter, sager and more experienced lawyer-consultants out there, just asked "Does a General Counsel Make All That Much Difference?" Our two cents is in the WAC? post title above. The right GC? Get thee a philosopher-warrior. Be safe and feel safe, friends.
Morrison goes a bit farther, inspired in part by this month's Atlantic piece "Do CEOs Matter?, by Harris Collingwood. See also our short recent post, "Proctor & Gamble's Lafley: Look to the meaningful outside", on CEO A.G. Lafley's recent thoughts about CEO uniqueness in May's Harvard Business Review.
Morrison excerpt:
Other researchers have found that CEO leadership matters relatively less in constrained industries, such as electrical utility industries, than in hotly competitive, fast-changing industries.
A similar conclusion probably applies to general counsel: legal/business calls are tougher and more frequent in roiling industries so the top lawyer has more opportunity to make a difference.
Expert on The Right Stuff: Rees Morrison
Posted by JD Hull at 12:20 AM | Comments (1)
May 31, 2009
Overheard in Santa Monica: Club Ned.
"Honey, just wear a black turtleneck--even Ned Beatty looks good in a black turtleneck."
Club Ned: Beatty considering Georgia fishing float-trip with buddies. Seriously, Louisville-born Beatty, who turns 72 this year, is one of America's great talents. Actor's actor.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)