What About Paris? ™

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December 11, 2010

Working Abroad: Expect Hiccups.

Working and lawyering abroad isn't about being cool, wearing an ascot or pretending to be George Hamilton or a Parisian filmmaker on your weekends in Montpellier or Bruges. Even if you've worked a few times in Europe in some of the most American business-friendly cities, there are always surprises, hurdles and frustrations. The good news? The glitches and delays are always different.

Language, by the way, is not likely to be a problem if you are a Yank. No need to bone up on your French or German. In the last 20 years, non-English-speaking Europeans increasingly have favored English for doing business--including with each other--and they are not struggling much with it. Do surprise them by learning as much about their country, language and culture as you can. Immerse yourself in it. But forget about learning their language as well as they have learned yours. *

Apart from the substantive challenges of doing the Work Itself (i.e., a deal or a business-to-business arbitration), there are issues of travel logistics, brand new "collisions of culture" that are highlighted on both sides of the table in every new project or proceeding, and the daily realities of erratic sleep and devil jet lag. The experience can try you.

It can get to you, too--and spoil the fun and excitement. You need to be organized and diligent. And flexible. Three years ago our friend Janet Moore was working a lot in Ireland and Holland--both relatively user-friendly jurisdictions and cultures for American lawyers and their clients. Janet's a veteran of working abroad. Her take? As she wrote to us all, she needed to remind herself to "be patient"--and to "expect hiccups".

*Let's be frank. Many Europeans have come to the conclusion that even educated and well-traveled Americans are hopelessly insular--both geographically and linguistically--and they are doing their best to regard it as humorous and charming, sort of. In short, they have given up on us. We're getting a pass.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 02:59 AM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2010

Stickin': To the few you meet who always join your fight.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

December 09, 2010

America's Elected Judiciary: Are We Done Yet?

The popular election of state judges is beneath all Americans. But we are so heavily invested in it, and so used to it, that we are even incapable of experiencing the "oh-my-god" embarrassment it ought to cause every day those state systems continue to exist. Our national denial is still in concrete.

We've mentioned Tocqueville before. If he were alive today, we had argued, Alexis de Tocqueville might very well "like" George W. Bush--as his exemplary American, warts and all. The younger Bush as president for 8 years--or anything he did or didn't do--would not have surprised or disturbed the famously prescient Tocqueville. In fact, it would have all made perfect sense to him.

But Tocqueville would be appalled to learn that a majority of the American states still have some form of popular election of judges.

The young French author who toured America in 1831 noted that some American states already were in the process of reducing the power and independence of the state judiciary through certain "innovations", and it disturbed him. One was the state legislatures' ability to recall judges. And another:

Some other state constitutions make the members of the judiciary elective, and they are even subjected to frequent re-elections. I venture to predict that these innovations will sooner or later be attended with fatal consequences; and that it will be found out at some future period that by thus lessening the independence of the judiciary they have attacked not only the judicial power, but the democratic republic itself.

from Democracy in America, Vol. I, Part 2, Ch. 8 (Tocqueville's emphasis in some translations).

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

24/7

It's not about the lawyers anymore. See Rule 9: Be There For Clients--24/7. And if you have great corporate clients, it all works out. It's the least you can do for them.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

December 08, 2010

Paris: Snow in the Rodin Garden.

"Snow is an uncommon occurrence in Paris and snow that sticks is practically a miracle." On Saturday morning ex-New Yorker Richard Nahem took photographs of white dancing on black bronze. See his work at today's Eye Prefer Paris.

R. Nahem

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Druids worldwide to get wild around the 21st.

For centuries, starting around the 21st of the month, Druids liked to leave the house, get wild and "put on the dog". Both warriors and mystics, Druid fighters in the woods of northern Europe came at you painted, naked, screaming, hurling weapons and curses, chanting and, well, real rowdy. Not unlike our British pal GeekLawyer after them, these folks came to play.

Even the Romans were a bit afraid of Druids--especially in what is now northern Wales. But except for celebrations of solstice and equinox four time a year, Druids are pretty quiet these days. Could a Christmas-season plant with a mythical calming influence be the reason? Well, here's a Steamboat Today (Steamboat Springs, Colorado) piece that links mistletoe to Druids.

The Druids felt the plant could protect against poisons, illness and witchcraft spells. In their time, if enemies met under mistletoe in the forest, they were required to be peaceful until the next day. This may be the origin of the custom of kissing under a ball of mistletoe as a sign of goodwill.

Isle of Anglesey: A fun Druid island in northwest Wales.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

The Flourishing: Caesar's Town in Toscana.

It started out as an Army Camp. Beginning around 60 BC, Julius Caesar founded the town on both sides of the Arno River as settlement for retired Roman soldiers. The mix of things that happened here after that--politics, trade, money, power, greed, literature, art and architecture--is remarkable given that Florence at heart always was, and still is, a small town nestled in the country. Only 360,000 people live in this world famous center. They are a haughty, slightly snobby (well-deserved, they've earned it) and wonderfully disassembled lot. But unlike, say, Venice, Firenze in no faded museum piece. People live in and just outside town. It's walkable for people of all ages. Humans, the humanities, art and serious global commerce now flourish here together. A major chord struck.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

December 07, 2010

Accelerated Global Arbitration Rules: A Curb on Madness.

CPR's are barely 15 months old. Global. Commerical. Agile. Mobile. Flexible. Deliberately Hostile to making attorneys the main event. Aggressive. We are all free to use them to conduct arbitrations as they were originally intended to be conducted--and "get it done". Make closure a priority--and even a success. Puts the arm on lawyer wankfests. No, you won't starve. Tell your clients about them. Get them in contract clauses. See "Global Rules For Accelerated Commercial Arbitration (effective August 20, 2009)" by the NYC-based CPR Institute. They are custom-built for higher stakes disputes arising under business-to-business contracts. Best two features: (1) The default position is a sole (one) arbitrator. (2) Arbitrators should make award ASAP and in any event within six months of formation of the tribunal.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

At Above The Law: "Overseeing International Litigation".

See Mark Herrmann's Inside Straight column yesterday at Above The Law. Excerpts:

This has been fascinating (to me, at least, but I realize I’m a little odd) in several ways. I never before focused on what a U.S.-centric litigation life I had been living. There’s a brave new world out there, and I’d never given it a moment’s thought.

My standard litany hardly turns me into an expert in, say, Sudanese civil procedure, but my few questions are enough to elicit the general lay of the land. It’s also surprising to see that, so long as the judiciary is honest, it’s possible to participate in basically any type of judicial proceeding and be generally comfortable with the process.

[S]uppose opposing counsel in Sudan threatens my client (or my local counsel) with criminal proceedings to try to coerce settlement of a civil case. If that’s the way people litigate in Sudan, can I tell my local counsel to retaliate by threatening to initiate criminal proceedings of our own? Or am I constrained by American rules of propriety even when I’m playing in a Sudanese sandbox?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:40 PM | Comments (0)

December 06, 2010

New, Appalling: Google-Based Naked Bongo Lawyering For Teacups.

WAC/P? needs to get out more--and bone up on threats to Customers, Clients and Buyers. This development involves marketers, lawyers and the Happysphere. See these posts by Brian Tannebaum at My Law License, this one by Josh Dickinson at Above the Law and finally this one by Scott Greenfield at Simple Justice. Our advice? If you're a social media marketer, don't do anything to mangle or compromise the clients lawyers are already struggling to serve, and often poorly to boot. Try not to make it worse. If you're a lawyer--and especially a new one--work at the Wal-Mart or with street people or retarded children for a while until you earn an opportunity to learn the right way from the right people.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

December 05, 2010

Generation Weenie: America's still offended by Everything and Everyone.

They've stopped growing--and they are very happy with that, thank you very much. These people have children. It's worrisome.

What if being "just a copy" were outlawed? For the second time this week, I just left Los Angeles, where it's tough to offend anyone about anything. Like NYC, LA is not for everyone. Generally, no one cares what you think in either city. It's wonderful. You can diss, deride and belittle Los Angeles itself in downtown LA, or the middle of Santa Monica or Brentwood; people just laugh. In Manhattan, it's required.

Folks in those two American cities know who they are. My take: both LA and NYC these days make even Chicago seem like an effeminate Alan Alda-land. PC and unoriginal thought are frowned upon in America's two most important cities. In New York, they "manned up"--and started thinking their own thoughts--nearly four centuries ago. In LA, it's been about 120 years. LA and NYC tend to look down on Weenies.

If you live somewhere else--as I must for now when not traveling--you can still try not to be a Weenie. It's good for you. Give it a shot, Justin.

Frankly, I've been running into a lot of Weenies these days--from cultural limousine liberals who keep surrounding themselves with no one but like-minded people, to "Christian" and "educated" white collars too afraid or too lazy to think anymore on their own, to "professionals" who always reserve the right to do third-rate work. They have this in common: they are highly emotional about, and protective of, their low aspirations and narrow views of the world.

If you are not sure if you are a Weenie, do see Generation Weenie, for humans who tend to be insulted, outraged, offended, or traumatized. According to the definition section, you may be one if you: (1) utilize the words offended, outraged, insulted, or traumatized whenever possible, (2) believe nothing is your fault, and you are a victim of circumstance, (3) wear a dorky little ribbon in a half figure eight pattern to signify your solidarity, and (4) sue everybody because you have been wronged.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)