What About Paris? ™

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January 15, 2011

Via Twitter we just landed $5.5 million engagement.

Coming soon. We'll post about it any day now--by end of next week, hopefully. Very soon. Yeah, that's the ticket. For sure.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)

January 14, 2011

South Wales: Swansea Jacks? In Bergen County, NJ, right?

Well, no. But we know that you've never been anywhere--and that you're not the least bit curious about Anything East of Bermuda. Another "Second City", but a key one, Swansea, Wales is roughly to Cardiff, Wales what Manchester, England is to London. Vikings settled in this area on the South Wales coast in 1013, when they took it from local Anglo-Saxons. Later, in the 1100s, Normans founded the town of Swansea. It became a major industrial center and port by the 18th century, and now mixes manufacturing with an increasingly thriving services industry. About 230,000 people live here. Dylan Thomas started out here in 1914, and ended his life prematurely in Manhattan in 1953 by doing something not even most world-class degenerates (i.e., Raoul Duke, W.C. Fields, Holden Oliver) would try at home. In 1969, the highly correct, wonderful and close-to-WAC/P-perfect actress Catherine Zeta Jones was born in Swansea. Jones still speaks fluent Welsh and has an oceanside home here. Her son, with American actor Michael Douglas, was born in 2000. His name is Dylan.

High Street, 1907

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

January 13, 2011

Bruce Antkowiak: "Why Law Schools Must Reform".

Law firms cannot be expected to do 95% of the work of lawyer-building. In that regime, clients suffer the most.

The U.S. Law Degree: As immediately useful as "a Ph.d in Poetry"? Bruce Antkowiak, a storied Pennsylvania defense trial lawyer, ex-DOJ section chief and 1977 Harvard Law grad, is now a full-time law professor at Duquesne University. This op-ed piece, "Law Schools Must Reform", appeared last week in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette. Antkowiak's article is subtitled: "They need to leave the ivory tower--and teach practical lawyering."

Antkowiak's piece is at once both an important call to arms and, frankly, a modest proposal. In addition to making law firms truly efficient, could we ask law schools to perform even minimally and produce something of value? I.e., What are you folks really accomplishing in those 3 years, anyway? We practitioners don't get it. You are making things not only frustrating--but very very expensive. Clients suffer the most.

Can you help even a little? Step up? Firms will train. But we cannot be expected to do 95% of the work of lawyer-building.

Question: What can schools do to prepare students for the day-to-day world of work and commerce?

Excerpts from Antkowiak:

You would think that law schools would make fundamental changes to their programs in the wake of the job crisis, fearing that law degrees might someday be assessed like a Ph.D. in poetry -- soul-satisfying but potentially impractical. A few have responded dramatically, but most have held fast to the traditional law school model or made superficial changes. Why the resistance?

For many law schools, their institutional identity dictates that they be largely disconnected from the practice of law. This is done (I suppose) in the belief that we "in the academy" will thereby establish ourselves as an intellectual elite worthy of praise for the intricacy of our philosophical analysis.

The crisis in the law job market has not occurred because the world has miraculously become such an inherently just place that lawyers are no longer needed. The cries for justice remain as loud as ever. You can hear them no matter how high your ivory tower may rise.

New Siwash Law Grad: Do Law Schools Keep Getting It Wrong?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (5)

January 12, 2011

Bennet Kelley on Tucson: A New Year of Living Dangerously?

See Bennet Kelley's column yesterday in the Huffington Post, "Responding to Tucson's Day of Terror". Excerpts:

Gabby and her husband Mark thanked me for the prior column [in March 2010, denouncing violence against Democrats like Giffords following the passage of health care reform] and I responded by telling them that I just wanted them to know that people out there "got their back". That is something all of us can do now in response to Tucson's day of Terror.

Just as midnight gives way to dawn, so must we fight darkness with light. We can shine a light on hate speech and incitements to violence by promptly exposing and denouncing it wherever we see it and calling it for what it really is. This is because the offense of hate speech is not just its content but the assumption that the listener must share these views.

This is especially true when hate is wrapped in the flag, since there is nothing patriotic about hate, bigotry or violence against public servants chosen by the people.

Kelley

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

January 10, 2011

Paris in White. Richard Nahem in Tuileries.

Visit Richard Nahem at I Prefer Paris today. First, if you're an American, find out where Europe is located. Figure out where France is. Study some Paris history. Then play in a white garden built by a Medici girl in 1564. Acquire something rare.

R. Nahem photo (Jan. 10, 2011)

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)

Some Good Tucson News: Representative Giffords is Alive.

Not much good news. And at one point Saturday afternoon Fox News was the first media source to report that Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona's 8th Congressional District had died in Saturday's shootings. Other outlets followed. Many of us--who had turned off the news eventually---went through Saturday (and possibly Sunday) thinking that Giffords, 40, had not survived. She's alive. E.g., BBC and LA Times. There are optimistic reports on her recovery. Tough girl. We already knew you were talented, interesting and brave. Hang in there, Gabby (and husband Mark Kelly). Fight.

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

Wake Up Loud, American Workers.

Still Hatin' Life. You even have It anymore?

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)