July 30, 2010
Lawyering: Why not invoice some hourly work promptly and every two weeks?
Sound ideas: Julie McGuire
Billing twice a month keeps the client attuned in real-time to the actual economic demands of the project--and helps the client plan.
Real time billing: invoice the client promptly twice a month. Like everyone else, we expect the "future of law" to include different billing alternatives. However, by that we mean the following: billing the same client different ways depending on the difficulty and intensity of the work.
Generally, we see flat fees for "commodity" work. And we believe hourly rates will continue to dominate for complex and novel projects--particularly where the relationships are longstanding and solid between in-house departments and outside law firms.
Case-by-case judgments about "value"--not hours, flat fees, or hybrids--will drive most engagements.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
July 29, 2010
Living in America: It Takes Grit and Guts.
"Everyone's working overtime." Still true? It's good that work-life balance and other loser regimes finally died a quick if painful death. But let's get off our fat lazy rich asses, shall we? What are we these days? Candy-ass Canadians? Take back the meritocracy we once had.
Godfather of Soul: The hardest-working poor kid ever.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Real Heroes: Jonathan Swift
Are Americans "stand up" people anymore?
We live in a consensus society and, if you are a lawyer, or some other kind of Western "professional", it's perhaps even worse. You get patted on the head for making your thoughts and actions risk-averse and business as usual.
Who really leads? Any lawyers? Which lawyers? When?
Anglo-Irish, Angry and Wild. And now add Clergyman and Satirist. A unique mix. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), the author of Gulliver's Travels, was truly wild, but maybe not quite as sick and strange as his contemporary critics thought; they saw him through the lens of the many illnesses that plagued his last decade and put him in a permanently bad mood. Certainly, he had no fair shake from any of us in the last century, when we all went nuts on Freud.
Sure, Swift could be abrasive. And hyper-aggressive. He made enemies, both literary and political. But he was influential. We still talk about and, when at our best, emulate the purity underneath his anger and sarcasm. He is of course the man who, in his pursuit of Irish causes, and fighting the alternating apathy and arrogance of the English, suggested that Ireland's poorest address their poverty by selling their children as food to the rich.
Those who knew Dean Swift were impressed that he put his ideas and notions of wrongs to be righted ahead of all of his many simultaneous careers. He put ideas and the plights of others ahead of his own comfort and popularity.
Big Moxie--it fueled Swift's desire for justice and his need to end the suffering of others--had a life-long hold on Swift.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
July 28, 2010
Depositions: Use them to get Badness out in in the open.
Making a friend of Badness: Our chief writer working with Montagnard troops, Cambodia, 1968 (Photo: Paramount Pictures).
Man up. Learn not to cringe. Savor the evils, the brutalities, the pain. At depositions, remember to "get The Badness in your case out in the open". Hostile witnesses. Non-hostile witnesses. See a 2008 article by Chicago trial lawyer Stewart Weltman that we love and apparently cannot live without: "The Two Most Important Questions to Ask During A Discovery Deposition-Part I". Excerpt:
There is a reason why it is called discovery. Invite the other side's witnesses to tell you everything they possibly can about why your side should lose.
Revel in these "bad" answers---don't cringe. Make sure that you carefully dissect every part or premise of a "bad" answer.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Witnesses: The problem of demeanor in international disputes.
In international arbitration and mediation, first-language barriers can be the least of your client's difficulties.
How does a mediator or arbitrator arrive at a true--and fair--consensus on the meaning of ordinary verbal and non-verbal conduct by a witness? What is the significance of the "delayed answer" to a question? In one culture, delay means hesitancy and evasiveness (e.g., to most Westerners). In another, delay may denote careful consideration of the question--and a sign of respect to the questioner.
In 2009, GE's in-house counsel Mike McIlwrath interviewed Australian mediator Joanna Kalowski, who works out of both Australia and Paris. Kalowski discusses how she became a mediator and lessons that come directly from her work. She has also trained mediators in Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Italy, Thailand and Hong Kong.
Their 25-minute discussion, "Public Consensus Across Cultures" (IDN No. 61), taped on February 13, 2009, is part of McIlwrath's highly regarded interview series on International Dispute Negotiation sponsored by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution, or CPR Institute.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Men's Room: Why WAC/P's last girlfriend exited in May 2009.
And there have been no quality prospects since then. Listen to this Sunday, May 10, 2009 Charon QC podcast with Dan Hull's ex-friend Scott Greenfield. Skip up to 25:00 through 28:00. Children must leave the room.
.jpg)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (3)
Writing Well: Editors
"No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft." --H.G. Wells (1866-1946)
"I have performed the necessary butchery. Here is the bleeding corpse." --Henry James (1843-1916)after a request by the Times Literary Supplement to cut 3 lines from a 5,000 word article.
Herbert George Wells, 1908
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Writing Well: John Dryden
A London Renaissance man. During his life John Dryden (1631-1700) had few peers as a well-rounded English man. The major literary influence and figure of his time, Dryden was poet, critic, playwright and leader. Indeed, the period of England's Restoration is also called the Age of Dryden. Samuel Johnson, born a few years after Dryden's death, once called Glorious John's compositions "the effects of a vigorous genius working upon large materials".
.jpg)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Bad Craziness: E-mailing "just because".
(Art: R. Steadman)
E-mailing "just because" is Bad Craziness--and you might start seeing those bats. Or worse.
I remember when I first got e-mail, back in the mid-1990s. I would rush home with great anticipation and dial in my 4800-baud modem and I would have four messages from four very good friends. Now I get up in the morning and go to my computer and have sixty-four messages, and the anticipation I once felt has been replaced by dread. --Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, in Afterword to 2002 edition, 274 (Little, Brown & Co.)
Most U.S. lawyers can't write. When they write, they seem to talk to themselves like mental patients rocking back and forth muttering I'm special I'm special I'm special. --What About Clients?
Quit hiding and pick up the phone. Meet with people. E-mail is an overhyped, misused tool. And so are you and I if either of us use it without thinking.
I receive about 120-150 non-spam e-mails a day. I write about one third that many, most as replies. Usually short ones. They are often soulless, and easy to misunderstand, even when I try to be precise. Unless I am scheduling when and where to meet someone, I am not sure that I see the point of it anymore.
The e-mails I get back are often worse than the ones I write.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
More summer fun: American family vacation moment.
Play loud: You remember the Griswolds, Clark and Ellen, don't you?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
July 27, 2010
This Profession: Desperate for A New Mind.
Our thinking tends to circle around established conventions whose basis is forgotten or obscure.
--Daniel Pinchbeck (1966- ) in The Return of Quetzalcoatl (2006)Unless there is a new mind, there cannot be a new line; the old will go on repeating itself with recurring deadliness. --William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) in Paterson (1948), Book 2, Sunday in the Park
Lawyers today are world-class followers. We are members of just another insular dopey club. --WAC/P?
For all of this blog's well-known tangents, flaws, pet issues, quirks and prejudices, since 2005 we have been as constant, serious and relentless about one thing:
Step right up folks. Available right here, right now, and free of charge, are sound models and ways to deliver legal and other traditional professional services to higher-end clients who, we are quite sure, have been getting shortchanged on value for decades--if not for centuries.
They are ideas any of you could have had--but we put them together, for whatever reasons, for you. For our part, we regret that we never had them and/or reported them until many years into practice. We delayed. We could have instituted and enforced at our own shop the techniques, rules and "habits" set out here in 20 years ago.
But we did not.
Reason: the vast majority of us lawyers have our heads way, way, way up our Wazoos. We think we're special--whether we do billion dollar deals or car accidents. And we are notoriously undisciplined and half-assed about the ways we do everything. Yes, everything.
.jpg)
E and Elsa, circa 1915
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Anonymity on the Net: Peter Friedman Weighs In.
.jpg)
Friedman: A Man in Full
Located in a Midwestern American city that has hatched some of the best, oldest and most enduring law firms ever built, Case Western Reserve's School of Law in Cleveland continues to be a first-rate place. Associate Professor Peter Friedman interests us for that and three additional reasons. In fact, he's commanded our attentions for some months now. By the way, you can read one of his blogs (and our favorite) at Ruling Imagination: Law and Creativity.
First, Peter's an ex-New York City litigation partner at a major firm based in Dallas that was founded, just incidently, by my favorite politician ever. Peter quit Bob Strauss's Akin Gump to teach law after 12 years of practice at that and one other fine firm. During those years, he was in the trenches of planning, strategy and battle for publicly-traded clients. This man can help you. He deferred teaching full-time until after more than, say, an 18-month law prof-law firm stint before joining the ranks of a group that, in recent years, has screwed the pooch badly on the education of students.
Which has been a living hell and nightmare for our law firm.
But Peter gets it. He gets it all. So, in a way, we are glad he's teaching what terribly cynical, old and embittered types often refer to as "The Slackoisie". As much as we'd like him back in the saddle for clients, we feel safer. Particularly since we view many of his colleagues as being the chief enablers of law tubbies, the younger folks who decide to be in law school during their prime Cheetos®-inhaling years. I'd like American law schools to help my firm defray some of the costs of recruiting, developing and paying the delusional and alarmingly helpless young white collar trash, almost always Coif and Law Review stock, who we have fired or--with mixed feelings of relief and self-loathing--have watched quit our firm since 2005.
Don't misunderstand. It is of course our firm's (and yes my) failure, too. But it still "angers" my firm. American law deans and profs--who obviously have bowed to trendy "PC" pressures to coddle mediocrity--have not had the sand, foresight or skill to convey to students that private law practice is very very hard. What goes on during those 6 semesters anyway? You guys took money (students' or their parents') money for that? Whoa.
Second, Peter knows his way around (a) federal courts and (b) an impressive range and array of IP issues. Once again, such a man is useful to higher-end clients. As Julie McGuire and I have gotten to know him a bit more over the last few months, we realize that he's quite a find. Peter is clearly not--due to his past lawyering-life pedigree and current academic gig at a great school--merely the most beautiful maiden in the developing new leper colony of American law academia.
Finally, we like, of course, the fact that overall Peter Freidman supports our view that "Anonymity on the Internet is generally a bad and certainly not a very courageous or exemplary thing". Do see his latest posts in which, frankly, he covers the issues better than we ever did. Do read his fine two back-to-back posts, along with the manic but interesting back-and-forth comments, from last week and yesterday:
"Own your words. Anonymity is cowardice, and cowards aren’t known for their wisdom" (July 22); and
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Felix Desruelles
A Left Bank square at I Prefer Paris, by Richard Nahem.
Square Felix Desruelles: Blvd. St. Germain, near St. Germain Church, 6th arr. (R. Nahem)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Redux: Who cares what makes Generation Y tick?
From a marketing e-mail I received today:
"Are you frustrated by young workers who feel entitled to success, need constant praise, want everything to be 'their way'? Are you struggling to attract and retain a generation of workers whose commitment seems more temporary than permanent? This is Generation Y, a workforce of as many as 70 million, and the first wave is just now taking their place in an increasingly multigenerational workplace. In this 1-day seminar, we'll show you how to motivate and manage Generation Y. You'll learn what makes them tick, how to retain them, and make them productive and energized."
It's your problem, Gen-X and Gen-Y. Not ours. Work, figure it out, ask questions, and we'll help you--but it's your job to adjust to "us" and the often hard adventure of learning to solve problems for your employer and its clients. Not a two-way street.
**************
Note: The piece you just enjoyed is the May 20, 2008 post that sparked formal organization of the Anti-Slackoisie Party, further fueled the ongoing WAC? Value Movement and, most importantly, led this blog's writers to another stalwart lawyer-writer-visionary (then recovering from injuries sustained in a tragic deer season mishap). Not unlike Lenin meeting Stalin.
NYC's Scott Greenfield just days before late 2007 hunting accident.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
July 26, 2010
Rule One
Life's short. The profession is demanding enough.
Represent Only Clients You 'Like'. From our irritating but dead-on accurate and wise 12 Rules of Client Service. We know you and yours can't or won't follow any of them--i.e., you're a lawyer, think you are "special", and believe you're entitled to a standard that would embarrass a drunken bellhop--but you can at least try.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Mali Laughter
Here's the Net at an infrequent good moment. And perhaps at its best. About people--and not about "alternate realities", SEO, insular robot students, delusional young office workers, pretend lawyers, faux wisdom, and other human and digital garbage bringing the West down.
Here's quality and courage. See Maryam's My Marrakesh.
All photos at link by Maryam.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
Running Firms: Tighten Up.
Query re: the three guys dancing in the video. Gay or just Italian?
Archie Bell and the Drells, 1968, Atlantic Records
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
"All Hat, No Cattle".
Like it or not, everyone in your shop has to buy into Client Service like a cult, deity, Archetype, and a true religion. Like a fine angry sermon that lifted them out of their pews at The Church of the Final Thunder.
Real client service--i.e., know-how consistently delivered as an experience and skills the customer likes and wants more of--is now a global cliché. And maybe that's the problem.
Apart from those of us who regard CS as a joke, or as obligatory rhetoric, do most of us really know what client service is, or should be, in our own shops for our best longstanding clients? And if we do "know", do we even have a clue on how difficult client service regimes are to establish, maintain and enforce?
See our December 18, 2009 post or almost any post on your right under "Clients--Keeping Them".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
It's Monday AM: You know for sure where your girlfriend/wife is? We might.
It could happen to you. Probably already has. "I AM the backdoor man. Men don't know. But little girls, they understand." --Willie Dixon
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
July 25, 2010
Get off your knees: Say something and do something about state elected judiciary.
"Is that a county judge in your pocket? Or are you just hugely happy to see me?"
State judicial systems with popularly-elected judges send two lousy messages:
(1) Judges, like mayors and congressmen, have "constituents".
(2) Justice, like real estate or widgets, is "for sale".
Think of it like this. One those "nice" but rare, valuable and heart-warming things in life we ALL like to see:
Good Crops, Motherhood, the Flag, Andy Griffith, puppies, selflessness, courage (Mae West, above, had lots of it), Beauty, Truth, instructive Grecian urns, Marie Osmond when she was young, alarmingly obese Americans who have slimmed down (and are no longer each big enough to have their own Zip Codes), Robert Downey, Jr. sober, the Care Bears, Sweetness, Light--and replacing state judicial elections with merit-based selection in 39 American states.
As NYC trial lawyer Scott Greenfield and maybe others worry that writers at this site are getting soft and even, well, flitty, we will reach and try here to be frank, and forthright. The popular election of state judges is beneath:
(a) you,
(b) your law firm,
(c) your family's dog, and
(d) especially your clients, and especially if you act for businesses who trade nationally or globally.
That institution, favored in a vast majority of states in some form, makes states that still conduct them appear insular and potentially unfair to both American litigants and to non-Americans and their businesses abroad.
Moreover, with each election cycle, campaign donations are driving up the costs more and more.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)
Too much: Pete Townshend
Covet the passion: Townshend's got gospel, guts, drive. And you?
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
Genevieve is still vigilant. And what or who is your Attila?
I know it, I see it. The Huns will not come.
And speaking of the old girl. In 451, Sainte Genevieve (422-512) saved Parisians from the Huns, the legend goes. People had started to flee Paris in anticipation of the invasion led by Attila--but stopped when she told them she had a vision that the Huns would not enter Paris. She became the city's patron saint.
In 1928, a still-grateful Paris erected a statue to her on the Pont de la Tournelle, a bridge now about 400 years old. Genevieve is facing east, the direction from which the Huns approached.
She is also said to have converted Clovis, king of the pagan Franks, to Christianity. She hasn't worked that magic on me. I do admire the whole crowd control thing of religion; it's still working to keep life-long modern peasants, fear addicts and other "little brains" out of the way.
But my own personal hypocrisies--oh, they do churn. I visit St. Genevieve in Paris anyway. Walk in a southwesterly direction--from, say, the Place des Vosges on the Right Bank--to get to the Left Bank, and use that bridge: Pont de la Tournelle. If you do, you walk right under Genevieve, with Notre Dame and Ile Saint Louis on your right.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (4)
Biotech expert Scott McPherson joins Hull McGuire.
As reported earlier this month by Doug Sherwin in the San Diego Daily Transcript:
McPherson joins Hull McGuire as special counsel
Scott E. McPherson, a respected San Diego biotech specialist and patent attorney, joined Hull McGuire PC as special counsel, effective June 1.
He will work with shareholder Julie McGuire on IP management and transactions in North America and Europe.
McPherson has a B.A. in biology from the University of California-San Diego, and an M.S.P.H. in toxicology from the San Diego State Graduate School of Public Health. Between 1990 and 1999, he worked as a pharmacologist and toxicologist in the biotechnology industry.
He has worked as in-house counsel for Nanogen Inc. and as an attorney for DLA Piper and Townsend Townsend & Crew.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
July 24, 2010
Daniel Louis Schorr (1916-2010)
Liberal" versus "conservative" are not labels that can be used or should be used to define anyone of quality. An original, an original Murrow boy, and a class human. See yesterday's NYT piece. He was so good and often terrifying that a U.S. president sicked the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover on him.
By the way, Schorr used his real name when he worked. If you comment here, and especially if you are a hater, please use your real name. Have some respect for Schorr, and for yourself.
Our rules here: Happy but "angry" folks may comment. No spineless wonders. No whack jobs. No bitter and lazy males who hate their careers and won't do anything about it. Or the usual blogger or frequent commenter who is too socially-inept, ugly or fat to get laid.
So no losers and looters. Just seekers and builders. Like Schorr.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
If you need Moxie or Hope: Got Argentina for you right here.
Play Louder: Heal the Sick. Make the Blind See. Motivate the Lame. Get off your fat American asses. Get in shape. Get the blood flowing. Read some books. Quit e-mailing. Quit hiding. Take some trips.
Kids in Buenos Aires speak English as well as you do. They know more about your culture than you know about theirs. And they're curious.
Catch up. Be in the world. Talk to people who are different from you.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
This Blog Is A No-Pansies Zone. No Anon Comments!
Our new digital culture permits a certain accepted wimpiness to masquerade as needed "privacy" and personal "style". However, anonymous blogosphere participants are rarely worth anyone's time, thought, or respect.
Man up, spine up, and grow up. This blog does not publish anonymous comments. Absent compelling reasons, nameless blogosphere participants, in our view, are rarely worth anyone's time, thought, or respect--even when they think and say brilliant things. Anonymous writers and commenters have already "discounted" themselves.
They are second-class citizens. They say third-rate things. Certainly, they have no incentive to exceed below-average. Feel free to look down on them--and enjoy it.
Above: The revered French Resistance in action 70 years ago. Today, certainly, these heroes might need to comment and blog anonymously. However, lawyers, shoe store managers, Tulane grad students, accountants, and other country club Charlies haven't earned that privilege.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Genevieve (422-502)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Real heroes: Catherine Deneuve
Gallic elegance. Catherine Deneuve is as strong, resilient and talented as she is beautiful. The only woman in the world who could make director François Truffaut completely and hopelessly lose it. She is smart, entrepreneurial and ageless. Add her to our Roman Pantheon.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Just Berlin
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
July 23, 2010
Overheard in Santa Monica: "Club Ned" Evening Wear?
"Honey, just wear a black turtleneck--even Ned Beatty looks good in a black turtleneck."
Club Ned: Beatty days before his first Georgia fishing float-trip to bond with buddies and nature. Seriously, Louisville-born Beatty, 72, is one of America's great talents. Actor's actor. Played a fine Tennessee lawyer in Robert Altman's rule-breaking, genre-crashing "Nashville".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Essential Rules for Corporate Tools: Thank-you notes.
.jpg)
Saint Matthew Prodded by WAC/P? to Write Thank-You Note (Caravaggio, 1602)
Break the rules at your peril. If you went to Brown, snide people will remind you and your friends that Brown used to be the safety school for the Ivies.
If you attended Duke, they'll re-float the completely untrue story that Duke exists only because Princeton had too much honor and class to accept Buck Duke's filthy tobacco money and re-name Princeton Duke.
If Princeton, well, they'll just say that you were always kind of light in the Cole Haans anyway--that you even type with a lisp, and were once seen dancing downtown with "Little Sammy" in full leather biker garb--so what can you expect?
In case your Mother or Governess never told you, you're from Utah, or you were stoned all seven years at Hotchkiss, let us remind you to never thank anyone for something truly important--a meeting, referral or a dinner--with anything but a prompt handwritten thank-you note. No valid excuses exist for not doing it.
Too few of us practice gratitude--in either business or our "other" lives--enough. Some say the practice of saying thanks is good for the soul. Others swear it's good for revenues, too. Even if you are still not convinced that thank-you notes are noticed and appreciated (they are), pretend that WAC/P knows more than you (we do), and do it anyway (thank us later).
Purifying, or covering up, bad gene pools. Many business people and some lawyers with the highest standards and taste, from flashy types who might not wear socks to board meetings, to show-tunes creeps who begin letters pretentiously--i.e.,"Enclosed kindly please find attached hereto previous to mine answering yours sent in due course as previously forthwith indicated under separate cover"--really do think that no written thank-you note means no class, as harsh and low-tech as that may sound.
They are more likely to forgive that you can't dress yourself--or that you're a hopelessly embarrassing poof who writes special I'm-a-lawyer-by-God pansy-ass confirming letters from your law firm that would make Little Richard nervous.
If you get personalized stuff, have a return envelope address to a home or business--but without the business entity mentioned. Dude, it's personal. No props allowed. Leave Acme Law Firm or Big, Clumsy and Non-Responsive off of it.
If you're an American lawyer--there are too many of us, and recently too many Ferraris and Ford Fiestas trying to run together in the same firms have destroyed the old gene pool--chances are good you don't have any real class (natural or acquired) anyway.
It's not like we're getting better or commanding much respect, except among ourselves. And it's very very easy now to become a lawyer in America.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Do you really need Prissy, Myopic, and Slow in 15 cities anymore?
Managing Partner, eastern European branch office, PMS firm (photo: 20th Century Fox)
Is there any reason to keep using your US or UK-based law firms that expanded in the past few years all over the globe like spastic hamburger franchises?
And often mediocre, and unresponsive, we might add. Sure, some branch offices are better than others, but... If you are in-house counsel working for a great company, and doing business everywhere, is there any reason to keep engaging your US or UK-based law firms that expanded in the past few years all over the globe like spastic hamburger franchises?
When those firms expanded internationally, they diluted their talent and "gene" pool, and their value to your company, and you know it. Larger firms, to get larger, acquired lawyers and smaller law firms in the US and abroad they wouldn't have looked at twice 15 years ago.
(from several past WAC? posts beginning in 2006)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Be bad like Jesse James. Do something. Anything.
Get off your knees. Stop hiding. Life's short.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Writing well: Please fight legal-speak.
Behold the image of the self-important "I'm-special" lawyer, rocking back and forth in his chair, and talking to himself like a mental patient.
It's silly and no one's impressed anymore. Oh, Lawyer-Speak and Legalese. Of the lamer lawyer-centric institutions, only "Professionalism" and "Work-Life Balance" are more embarrassing, abused and irrelevant, and more likely to undermine clients, than the way in which many lawyers continue to speak and write.
At least those two prissy battle cries originally had a point.
But Legalese never had a point.
A few years ago, another law firm sent us a draft of a simple housekeeping agreement. It was a 3-page confidentiality agreement used during talks for an acquisition.
.gif)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
The Happysphere: Shiny Happy People Mailing It In.
And Ripping You Off. The new Looters Anthem for Tubbies and Teacups? Look around, folks. Increasingly, the Internet celebrates mediocrity. Good to play every day if you want to lose more money at work. Shiny Happy Six-Figure People with no passion or work ethic or self-respect or skills for anything complex! Friday is Balloon Day. Trophies for Everyone at 4:00 PM.
Editor's Note: No Big Bird cameo in this version of the R.E.M. classic.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (3)
July 22, 2010
Real heroes: Annabeth Gish
Add Ms. Gish to our Pantheon. It's hard to find it all in one human.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
Real heroes: Parker Posey
Got sand? Rent "Party Girl" (1995). Watch her dance at the end.
.jpg)
Intensely Pretty Bohemian Girl Next Door.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Reminder: Work-life balance, and Mediocrity, are no longer Cool.
Bad news for the Happysphere. Free The Driven. And better news for serious lawyers and their clients. The down-markets do have a silver lining for professional services firms: those shops burdened by employees who take their jobs for granted or as some kind of right.
Our advice is simple and even very American. First, Terminate The Unwilling (note: just fire them, don't kill anyone). Second, Unload The Lame. Big Bird? Okay to kill.
Sound cruel and flippant? It's not. A job is not a right. It's either you or them, Clyde.
Kill Big Bird--and the rest is a walk. Get back to work. Get Sesame Street out of your shop.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (1)
July 21, 2010
Anonymity on the Net. Play it again, Charon: Charon QC-Hull "Anonymity" interview.
.png)
One fine Saturday last July, London's velvet-voiced politics pundit and broadcaster Charon QC--in his other life a well-regarded law professor and writer--interviewed Dan Hull. And so they took a bit more time to do their 4th radio podcast together. It's more informal than the first three. Both, however, even the Rioja-loving Charon, were sober.
It's right here.
Charon (pronounced "Karen", and after a figure in both the ancient and Dante's world) and Dan first met in person in March 2007, doing their first interview (Charon's No. 5) in a Marble Arch hotel room when Dan was working in London. The topic on July 27, 2009--at least at first--was anonymity on the net in Charon's 150th milestone interview. All four interviews can be accessed on this site on your lower right.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
The Iranians: For centuries, governments have come and gone.
But they do endure. The truly global Sir Eldon Griffiths--former MP, writer and diplomat who for decades has traveled extensively in the Mideast--has popped up this month on Richard Lewis's fine Cross-Culture. See Sir Eldon's article "The Islamic Republic won’t last forever. The Iranian Phoenix will be reborn". It concludes:
The Mullahs are not forever. One way or another, they too will pass or be absorbed into the cultural fabric of historic Iran. With Ardeshir Zahedi, I cling to the belief expressed by a mutual friend, Houshang Navahandi, when he served as Rector of Shiraz University:
"Four thousand years of history with so many ups and downs have taught this to the Iranians: Iran has always survived, overcome its invaders… absorbed its occupiers. The Phoenix is always re-born from the Ashes."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (1)
More on Depositions: Leading questions under Fed. R. Civ. P. 30.
Trial lawyer-writer Evan Schaeffer is always worth reading. See Rule 30 and then read "When Are Leading Questions Permitted During Federal Court Depositions?" at his Trial Practice Tips.
Schaeffer is right to remind us: the starting point for lawyers who notice depositions is a direct exam--and therefore no leading questions. However, he notes--and it's our point here--that most witnesses in depositions, especially for discovery, are adverse, or "hostile". So lead them. Use shorter, more "loaded" questions. And then savor the brutality, if you must.
Know what you're doing, and why.
Modern firms generally assemble crack teams of generic dweebs before botching a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Accelerated: CPR Institute's Accelerated Commercial Rules.
![CPRLogo[1].gif](http://www.whataboutclients.com/archives/CPRLogo[1].gif)
They're still new. They're global. Use them. The still-new rules are aggressive--and we are free to use them. Global Rules For Accelerated Commercial Arbitration (Effective August 20, 2009), of the CPR Institute. 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). Permalink | Comments (0)
Why Salzburg Matters.
Yes, we know you dream in American. But you live in the world. Great clients know that. Do you? Apart from Mozart, art, salt, ancient Celtic culture, St Peter's (above) and restaurants carved into cliffs, this staid Austrian city is home to the International Business Law Consortium, an active group of over 85 first-rate law and accounting firms in strategic cities all over the world. It was founded in 1996.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Happy Birthday, Mr. Hemingway (1899–1961)
The Anti-Teacup. Papa wrote the book on cool quality-of-life ideas for Tubbies who just can't take it anymore. Try them at home today.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
July 20, 2010
54, rue Saint Louis en l'île: Savor the rudeness.
Welcome back, Monsieur Hool. As before, three cats or two waitresses in room. Remember. You must choose. This is Hôtel du Jeu de Paume, the non-oath version. Erected in the 17th century, it once housed a tennis court built by Louis XIII, king from 1610 to 1643. Beams from the early 1600s cross the ceilings. An interior garden. The walls: old books, newer original art.
Neither Left or Right bank. Save for your 6th trip to Paris. The longstanding and competent staff takes a "working" dim view of both Americans and the English. They are wonderfully rude, Paris smart, and Yankee-style industrious. A haughty Labrador even lives here full-time. Be late to breakfast at your peril. Hull McGuire's hands-down favorite since 1996.
Brits never stay here twice. Too French. The staff does not just smile when it is says no; it laughs.
Ex-wife in 1997 weeks before her evacuation from E. Capitol St. house.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Again: Sarah Silverman for Congress, or Queen--or Something.
Having No-Stones-In-America is an epidemic.
In more and more circles, not standing up is "smart". It's cool, too. We are frightened peasants with tech toys that make us even dumber and wimpier. We use them to hide and isolate--not to frame and solve elegant problems. We don't even talk on the phone.
We live by a script for slaves and robots. Are we not--with apologies to H.G. Wells and Devo--Men?
What are we? Canadians?
Our future is not well-served by Weenies. And the idea of Bedford, New Hampshire's Sarah Kate Silverman temporarily chucking writing and performing comedy, and holding elected office for a few years, does appeal to us. And greatly. And why not? She's barely 40.
Traditionally, of course, and with infrequent but near-heroic past exceptions in Great Britain (Churchill, often Disraeli), the U.S. Senate (Jim Abourezk of South Dakota) and the House (the late Bob Eckhardt of the 8th district in Texas), politicians don't tell you what they really think unless it's convenient.
For centuries, the West has given pols a pass on candor. We get it. Not a problem. However, in just the past two decades, the various and increasing regimes of Political Correctness in America in all aspects of work and life have meant that no one else does either.
Being outspoken? That is no longer the virtue it once was.
Note also that Sarah Silverman is saucy and attractive. If you don't think that's very important, you're wrong--but you can write us an angry letter, not invite us to parties, or tip off Nina Totenberg and NPR.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Leave Indianapolis or Albany for a few minutes. Visit this guy.
Blue Lupines, wild roses, Moxie, fireweed. See A Public Defender's Life in Alaska.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Slackoisie Alert: More Bad News for Non-Wanker Law Firms and In-House Shops Who Get It.
More unemployables. For polishing, looters head to expensive and wasteful 3-year incubation devices owned and operated by older unemployables. See Jane Genova's "Gen Y & Law School". Thanks to Stephanie West, sort of. Redford, do something. WAC? going back to bed. May begin drinking again. To start, Jamesons and ether, maybe?
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
2 Years After: We Still Miss The Guy.
Holden H. Oliver (1968-2008). D-d-d-d-Dartmouth.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)
July 19, 2010
Cultural Literacy in America: Got Standards Yet?
In Paris's eternal heart: Île Saint-Louis, the "other" natural island in the Seine River, seen from a famous bridge, and looking northwest.
If, in the long run, we could put education before jobs, we would astonish and charm the entire world. Art, literature, the humanities, world history and political theory aren't just for the rich, the elite or the intellectual. They are the best part of all of us; they can inform, stir and improve every moment.
Education is about more than just getting a job. Cultural literacy has never been an American strength. And even American professionals, and executives in leadership positions, continue to be satisfied with becoming, and remaining, in effect--"techs".
Browse the blogs of the Internet for a few hours. Bad neighborhoods--and getting worse and dumber every week. We are insular and at best (being charitable here) semi-literate as a people. We are uninformed about the history, political roots, ideas and art of the West. We are delusional about our educational achievement for the rank-and-file.
In short, very few people seem to know what they are thinking and talking about. But that's not important to most of us. We just "shoot". It's sad. The Internet, ironically to some, has only made the situation worse.
We are 300 million "talkers" and know-it-alls, most of whom have four (4) die-hard hobbies: 1. Sitting, 2. Eating, 3. Watching Bad Television, and 4. A Relentless And Seemingly Eternal National Wankfest: Hanging Out With And Talking To The Same People Over And Over Again. Most of us never travel further than Lake Erie. It shows.
The result: not knowing very much, thinking we know everything, having a limited frame of reference about the World--and 80% of us are now Big Enough To Have Our Own Zip Codes.
The future? Well, it's not looking too good. Consider our human resources.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
July 18, 2010
Dog Days: Sunny, Mid-90s with Increasing Existential Dread by Monday evening.
And the Humans grew mad. The summer. The economy. It's not only tough times right now. It's hot, and bloody hot in much of the U.S. However, every year's been the same this time of year for centuries. So if you live in the Northern Hemisphere and feel a bit strange and out of sorts--and you're not too much of a whack-job or flake to begin with--that's probably okay.
The six week period between July 1 and August 15 was named by the both the ancient Greeks and the early Romans after Sirius the Dog Star, the brightest star in the sky. In the Mediterranean region, the notion of linking that star to oppressive summer weather dates back well over 2700 years.
It's also a slightly weird time of year. Could be just the heat. But "Dog Days" were also associated with Chaos: "the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics and phrensies". Brady's Clavis Calendarium, 1813.
Just two thousand years ago, and after he had given up the study of law that his family had foisted on him, Ovid (43 B.C. - 17 A.D.), the playful poet writing during Octavian's long reign, gave us a more famous--and less grim--take on Chaos in Book I of Metamorphoses.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Get. Out. Of. Your. Cars. And. Dance.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
July 17, 2010
Writing Well: A hack in Brooklyn makes good.
I was simmering, simmering, simmering. Emerson brought me to a boil.
--Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Inspiration. Jack London thought you could not wait for it. You needed, he felt, to go out and hunt inspiration with a club. Walt Whitman, however, was luckier. He was a relatively young man when Ralph Waldo Emerson was thinking and writing. Emerson set off the young printer and hack writer, hurling him into an exuberant and celebratory realm, where no one had ever been.
Wild Walt, circa 1860, by Matthew Brady
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Writing Well: Inspiration
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
--Jack London (1876-1916)
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
'O New York City you talk a lot...'
You look like a city. You feel like a religion.
--L. Nyro, 1969
Foley Square, 1963
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Writing Well: First sentences.
Bring all your intelligence to bear on your beginning.
--Elizabeth Bowen, Anglo-Irish fiction writer (1899-1973)
.jpg)
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)
Dr Johnson: Pain, beasts, and 24 years.
He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.
--Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784
You'd act weird, too, if you hadn't had a beer in 24 years.
--JDH IV , one live Boomer*
*Thank you LB, FC, HD and RG. You 4 were it.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
July 16, 2010
More on Wasted Depositions: The "Antiseptic", the Uninformed and the Lazy.
Department of Hear Hear. Re: our post immediately below, NYC's Robert Ottinger at New York Employment Lawyer probably said it a lot better. And shorter. See his "Depositions in Employment Rights Cases".
("What a wankfest...these guys ever come out of their caves--and do any work? Everyone in town knows that Alderman Bloor's wife Nadine had some major work done...")
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Sarah Silverman v. Vatican City
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Anonymity, and the Sad Fashion of Net Spinelessness.
Mr. Chicken: Ignore him.
Note: Below is a June 8, 2009 post we like, to be honest, for its louder volume and stronger tone. "Anonymity abuse" is not just about lawyers. With some important exceptions--e.g., you are writing about civil liberties from Cuba, Iran or mainland China, you're a battered housewife, you're in the witness protection program and hiding from contract killers--anonymity (including pseudonyms) on the World Wide Web is unbecoming, unpersuasive, wimpy, sad and, frankly, classless.
The Internet's Accountability Problem: Big Mouths. No Names.
Behold the New Peasant Culture for our New Digital World. What on earth are they afraid of? Everything? Everyone?
Man up, y'all. The Net is growing up. It's time for people who use it to do the same. "Hiding" behind bogus names, stylized cowardice, and non-accountability are not clever, awesome, slick or cool.
Just sad and lame. So let's all start a new fashion. Our advice, until we arrive at a new etiquette or regime on this issue? Block, ignore and discourage nameless commenters. Actively diss and make fun of them.
They aren't worth it; even they think that.
Anonymity rarely merits your time, thoughts and efforts.
Got sand? A bit of self-respect? Some class, maybe? The marketplace of ideas is not well served by "no-name" writers and thinkers. And if you think about it, anonymous commenters have chosen to be in a lower caste. In a society where by law, or cultural folkways, we are not permitted to discriminate, here's your chance to break the rules for solid reasons. And do some good, too. Anonymity does not "work" for legal blogging/commenting--or any other serious discussion in Western civilization.
Nameless Bloggers and Commenters. Exclude them. Insist on real names--or just block the comment. Exceptions to the requirement of identifying one's self in the blogosphere should be extremely rare.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
New O'Goldman Sachs logo.
Yesterday's $550 million settlement (in 3 months since fraud lawsuit was filed!) is more than a "nice result". It is Magic. And we are impressed. SEC looks ultra-wimpy on this one.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
July 15, 2010
Depositions: Quit wasting time and money.
Formal discovery is too often this: an unimaginative, cookie-cutter, dumb-ass, straight-up lazy, wasteful, and client-unfriendly way to learn much of the background information--and many of the hard and developed facts that will frame and flesh out your case.
Roll up your sleeves, Jack, even--and maybe especially--in corporate cases. Even high-stakes corporate cases in federal trial courts may lead your staff to an American Legion hall.
Trials are always about people.
"Un-weenie" yourselves. Why use deposition time to learn things you and yours can learn quickly and inexpensively and lash together from:
Phone calls, live humans, your client, client employees, ex-girlfriends, ex-husbands, ex-bosses, bartenders, town drunks, libraries, the Moose Lodge, store clerks, hopeless gossips, old dudes in cafes who drool on their shirts, neighborhood urchins, newspaper reporters--and even the most rudimentary Google search?
Before you schedule a deposition, do some informal investigation. Next time a new case begins, resist rushing into written discovery and depositions. Step back from the discovery routine--you'll get into that bubble soon enough--and learn a few things on your own.
Twenty years ago, James McElhaney, a gifted lawyer, writer and teacher of trial tactics, and the ABA Litigation Section, first published McElhaney's Trial Notebook, now in its fourth edition.
Discovery, McElhaney noted, is a good way to learn what a witness will say, or to bind a party or witness to a particular version of the facts.
But it is also "a very inefficient way to get information."
Let us add to that:
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
FCC Retro Walt Whitman Art Moment (with slightly flitty Poem).
My Darling, we'll come in low, out of the rising sun. Just you eight--and me.
And the new Morning. About a mile out, we'll put on our Music.
Me? Oh, I use Wagner. Scares the [badness] out of the [badness].
My Boys! They do love it!
"How you feelin' Jimmy?"
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Bohemian Paris 1840s
The Downwardly Mobile Arts. Visit Girls' Guide to Paris and read Cynthia Rose's "Arthur Rimbaud: The Poet as Pop Star."
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Law School/Slackoisie Comment--and Quote--of the Year [with Badnesses Deleted]
From a WAC/P? mainstay and 100% full-frontal blunt commenter and stand-up Irish guy (note: we are editing, enlarging and/or embellishing only parts that offended us greatly, we didn't agree with, pissed us off, or we did not get):
Law schools can't teach people to be strong, weak, or in between. All "inside jobs". This subject can be discussed with your Mom, your shrink, baby Jesus, and your other abused and damaged [badness deleted] law school buds.
Finally, why the [badness deleted] are we letting Stone Weenies into American law schools in the first place? Why would they even want to go? Is there a new Affirmative Action program for Lames, Looters, Teacups and [several badnesses deleted]?
.jpg)
Professor Quaalude with Skippy, future Law Review president.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
July 14, 2010
Why this Blog is Twittering this Summer.
Because it's Summer, it's Slower, and we're Slumming. It's an experiment. And so far it's a mixed neighborhood.
Best part: good looking people here and there. Worst part: good looking people with nothing to say. Funniest part: people who think they are liberal and are really not. Weirdest part: trying to figure out why some people think we need to know what they are doing or thinking. General Wit and Verve Level: nearly Zilch. Best Tweet: dead cat found decomposing in golf bag. Silly/stupid Tweets by WAC/P?: 14 or 15 of 150. Overall Take: Humans are having way too many babies.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Bastille
Louis XVI:
"Is this a revolt?"Duke of Rochefoucauld-Liancourt:
"No, sir. It is a revolution."
Prise de la Bastille, Jean-Pierre Houël (1735-1813)
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
July 13, 2010
UPDATED: Teletubbie Alert (Orange Level): Law schools must now teach you how to be "a person"?
Above: This bunch headed for law school? Hopefully not--but run one over if you see one just in case. Speed up a bit.
To us, the suggested cure--that law schools do for people what people down through history have generally done for themselves (i.e., become full-fledged human beings)--seems way worse than the disease(s).
Get the net? Our head writer told me--at first--to "trash this blog post thoroughly, lovingly and like you mean it". And then said, on second thought, to go easy since the blogger is a "King-Hell Straight-Up Total Betty". So his hypocrisy knows no bounds.
We will bite our tongue, then. We will hold back.
But do see the well-written and sincere but perplexing "Will Law Schools Help Build a Healthier Profession?" at the otherwise sane Law People. So studies find that "within six months of entering law school, students experience significant decreases in well-being and life satisfaction, and substantial increases in depression, negative affect and physical symptoms." So, some voices cry out, the law schools should address this terrible and pressing problem.
Wait. Didn't we sign up for that risk? The often difficult externalities of professional school and learning how to be a lawyer? Comes with the territory, right? We knew law school and the profession would be stressful.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (9)
Special Sensitive Irish Trial Lawyer-Politician Moment: O'Connell the Barrister.
Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), the "Liberator of Ireland", led a movement that forced the British to pass the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, allowing Catholics to become members of the British House of Commons. O'Connell was a consummate trial lawyer, and by nature a bit of an actor. The English, of course, found him infuriating. In the end, he was a very great trial lawyer--one of the best ever--and a real leader who may have done more for Ireland than anyone after him. In a set of lectures John L. Stoddard published in 1901, he said of him:
He was a typical Irishman of the best stock--wily, witty, eloquent, emotional and magnetic. His arrival in town was often an occasion for public rejoicing. His clever repartees were passed from lip to lip, until the island shook with laughter. In court, he sometimes kept the spectators, jury, judge and even the prisoner, alternating between tears and roars of merriment. Celtic to the core, his subtle mind knew every trick peculiar to the Irish character, and he divined instinctively the shrewdest subterfuges of a shifty witness.
(from previous HO posts)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Rule Four: Hardest One.
Rule Four: Deliver Legal Work That Change the Way Clients Think About Lawyers. It's the hardest one. From our annoying, in-your-face but enduring 12 Rules. Excerpt:
Why "try to exceed expectations" when the overall lawyer standard is perceived as low to mediocre?
If your clients are all Fortune 500 stand-outs, and the GCs' seems to love you and your firm, is that because your service delivery is so good--or because other lawyers they use are so "bad" on service? Why have a low standard, or one that merely makes you look incrementally more responsive and on top of things than the boutique on the next floor up?
Why not overhaul your "services"--your firm's mix of (a) problem-solving substance and (b) services deliveries--and re-create the whole game?
Aspire, anyone? Be more than the Best Looking Maiden in McLaw Land.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
July 12, 2010
Return of Newt: Give him credit for timing.
No comment--but if Gingrich, 67, wanted to wait for a way-low American moment to "declare", today's probably that day: Monday, July 12, 2010, and True Winter in America. AP: "Gingrich says he's considering presidential run".
16 years ago
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Elegant Archetypes at Work: Novelty, Complexity and Ambiguity.
From a March 26, 2010 post:
"E" getting ready: No neoplatonist, but grateful to be a kid who could think on his own.
There are no right answers, proven-out formulas, connect-the-dots kits. The current winners--think Jobs, Murdoch, Eastwood, Drudge--are those who are custom-making solutions and brilliantly implementing them.
--Jane Genova
An acceptance of complexity, of subtlety, of unclear-ness. Do you hire people who have and embrace that with open eyes, excitement and vigor? And can think hard things through? Or do you attract the "isn't-there-a-form-for-this?" crowd? You know, the Cookie Cutter People. My problem--and yours: for more and more people in the workplace, novelty--which I view as gorgeous, sometimes elegant, and always beckoning--makes their heads explode.
There are several quality answers and solutions. Find one. It's what comes at you every day in any workplace with work worth doing. Complexity. Ambiguity. A messy problem. A "hard" thing. More and more employees don't like it. They can't deal with it. They want a "form", a template, a program.
But great work doesn't have "forms". Am terribly sorry about that. You will just have to think, and suffer through this, on your own.
We hired you--all of you--to solve problems.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)
Happy 27th Birthday, Paul Fussell's "Class".
Paul Fussell's 1983 non-fiction book Class is still funny, nasty and true. Upper classes, in Fussell's world, drink Scotch on the rocks, and say “Grandfather died”. Middles: “Martoonis” or "Teenies" and “Grandma passed away”. Proles: beer in a can, and “Uncle was taken to Jesus.”
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
July 10, 2010
Marrakesh in Cairo: The Church of St. George
At Maryam's My Marrakesh.
(Photo by Maryam)
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Reminder: What About Clients/Paris? is No-Wuss Zone.
Rise up out of your cubicles. Get off your white-collar knees. If you are active on the Internet, set an example. Start by using your real name.
No name no publish. Absent a Club Ned pass, this blog does not print comments from anonymous or pseudonym-carrying commenters. We like real people--with courage, character, and minimally a willingness to be accountable for what they say and write. Anonymity is for people who need it--not angry 28-year-old male lawyers who are upset that life is not easy and they must often work more than 8 hours a day. Use your real name if you comment to our blog. Have some self-respect. Man up.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
July 09, 2010
The Book for global business disputes: International Arbitration and Mediation: A Practical Guide.
"Today's business world is about risk." So begins a much-awaited book and resource by two lawyers--one in-house and the other from a law firm--who live and breathe international dispute resolution. GE's Michael McIlwrath and Shearman & Sterling's John Savage prepared International Arbitration and Mediation: A Practical Guide for counsel who regularly advise and guide businesses when they negotiate international deals.
Kluwer Law International, May 2010, 528 pages (hardcover)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Lawyer, Journalist, and Magic Show: London's Charon QC
You just haven't been to London this week unless you've checked in with our friend Charon QC. Below Professor Charon wonders about delivery of services to elite clients trading in global markets.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Discovery: A deposition should get the "badness" out there.
There is a reason why it is called discovery.
This is the time to invite the other side's witnesses to tell you everything they possibly can about why your side should lose. Revel in these "bad" answers - don't cringe. Draw them out and blossom them as fully as the witness is willing to go. Make sure that you carefully dissect every part or premise of a "bad" answer...
From a Stewart Weltman gem: "The Two Most Important Questions to Ask During A Discovery Deposition-Part I".
Drawing a bead: Badness needs to get out in the open.
(Photo TriStar Pictures)
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)
July 07, 2010
Senator Franken: And they said nothing really all that weird would happen before late 2012.
Good enough, smart enough, Senatorial enough. Alan Stuart Franken, love him or not, is smart, a player, still funny and still the junior U.S. senator from Minnesota. He was sworn into the Senate one year ago today.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Manchester, England: Name's Oliver. Buy you a drink?
Holden Oliver does exist and may be seen strolling to and from one of the Peter Street hotels all this week--but he won't say which one. He likes Manchester but "it's a mean old town to live in by yourself." Wonderfully gritty and real, this ancient second city once had an economic school of thought named after it, via England's Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Poet Carole Houlston in "Manchester": "Lowry-loving/Boundry shoving/Cottonmilled.../Bomb-rocked/Unbroken..."
Mean Town Blues
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
Do BigClients need BigLaw more than 10% of the time?
Put simply, (a) your firm is more efficient, (b) your overhead is likely lower, and (c) your work in any event is better. You still need up to 5 lawyers and professionals for some stages of some projects--but you don't need 10 or 15. There is no "piling on".
It's here, from back in 2006 (modified 2007), and a favorite post of ours. Even uber-feisty international trade lawyer and fellow transplanted Midwesterner Dan Harris at China Law Blog liked it.
The piece is actually pro-BigLaw (over 1,000 lawyers), but lawyers and their marketing people connected with all sorts of firms--mega-big, large, medium and tiny--can find something they don't like about it.
The point is this: 90% of the important corporate legal work being done right now by firms between 500 and 3000 lawyers can be done by boutiques and smaller firms. If it has the right people, your firm can land Fortune 500 companies and keep them.
Managing Partner, Astana branch, Big, Clumsy and Talent-Diluted
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
July 06, 2010
U.S. stocks make strong and cautious return.
But "ratchet down" expectations for rest of 2010. WSJ: "US Stocks Rise, Australian Comments Lift Growth Hopes".
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--U.S. stocks roared back from a deep slump Tuesday as an encouraging forecast from Australia's central bank and strong semiconductor sales fueled fresh optimism for stronger global demand.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 131 points, or 1.4%, to 9818, in recent trading. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index climbed 1.5% to 1038.
All of the S&P 500's sectors were in the black, led by its financials and technology.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
Badness in Depositions: Coaching.
An objection must be stated concisely in a nonargumentative and nonsuggestive manner.
--from Rule 30(c)(2), Fed. R. Civ. P.
Defending lawyers who "testify" during discovery are bad. And let he or she without sin cast the first stapler. In defending in a deposition, giving speeches and coaching your witness on the record is "bad" because it may be suggestive of the answer the witness should give. At Evan Shaeffer's The Trial Practice Tips Weblog, see "Depositions: How to Stop Coaching". We could go on and on and on about this--but you can just read it.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
July 05, 2010
Andy Grove on U.S. jobs: "Rebuild our industrial commons"
At Bloomberg see Grove's "How to Make an American Job Before It's Too Late". Excerpts:
The scaling process is no longer happening in the U.S. And as long as that’s the case, plowing capital into young companies that build their factories elsewhere will continue to yield a bad return in terms of American jobs.
****
We should develop a system of financial incentives: Levy an extra tax on the product of offshored labor. (If the result is a trade war, treat it like other wars -- fight to win.) Keep that money separate. Deposit it in the coffers of what we might call the Scaling Bank of the U.S. and make these sums available to companies that will scale their American operations.
Such a system would be a daily reminder that while pursuing our company goals, all of us in business have a responsibility to maintain the industrial base on which we depend and the society whose adaptability -- and stability -- we may have taken for granted.
*****
If what I’m suggesting sounds protectionist, so be it.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (5)
The Blob: So when and how can we make ADR work?
It's clear that globally, and in the U.S., arbitration, mediation and "ADR" have defeated the goals of Faster, Cheaper, Better. See, e.g., ABA Journal (April 2010) "International Arbitration Loses Its Grip". Anyone got any ideas on how to fix it? We need a system that works for clients--we already know it "works" for outside law firms--in business-to-business disputes.
Arbitration and Mediation: Did they get as bad as the disease?
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
July 04, 2010
Better than patriotism.
A wise man's country is the world.
--Aristippus (435-360 BC), as quoted by Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosphers
"There is hope. I see traces of men." Aristippus was shipwrecked on the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. He and his fellow survivors did not know where they were or if the island was inhabited. But he sees geometric figures drawn on the sand.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Americans: Born Outlaws.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
July 03, 2010
Birthday No. 234: But is America still in its Terrible Twos?
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
The Economist: Even Ancient Sumo Needs a Good Cleaning.
Gambling with an old, multi-layered and heavyweight sport. See "Japan's Sumo Scandal: Caught Off-Balance". Exceprt:
The scandal says a lot about modern Japan, a country undergoing a sweeping transition from informal, implicit rules to formal, explicit ones. Institutions long closed to public scrutiny are becoming more accountable.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (2)
July 02, 2010
Wanted: Soulful in America.
You may have dramatic cheekbones, pouty lips, Chiclet-white teeth, the neck of a gazelle, four feet of legs, a French manicure, and a serious rack of mamm. But if your insides aren't pretty, your outsides don't really mean that much...and there's no time like the present to go in for soul surgery.
--Andrew Creighton Stone, Editor-in-Chief, Los Angeles Confidential, Spring Fashion issue 2008
American actress Katharine Ross has beauty, heart, soul.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
July 01, 2010
Discovery: Who to depose--and how to get ready.
It’s supposed to be hard. That’s what makes baseball great.
--Tom Hanks, or someone, in a movie.
Even when things go well, litigation is expensive and disruptive in unexpected ways. Seasoned GCs are not impressed that your client has a "good" or even "strong" case on law and facts. They are not likely to think your claim or defense is cool. Frankly, he, or she, wanted, "no case". Nothing personal--but the client didn't really want to hire you--or anyone.
So sorry. The client is not that happy for you.
So how do you make each of the first few depositions a fact-finding and case-building but highly efficient triumph? Success. But success also meaning not "feeding the monster".
Even for "minimalists", intelligent discovery in a complex business case is hard, especially in its early stages, where you may be working a bit in the dark in the first few depositions. You need planning--which trial lawyers do not always love--and not just great instincts. Planning way early and in advance of actual trial is distasteful and downright nerdy to many of us. Like reading the directions, or inspecting a rental car.
For that reason--or quirk--we have always liked this two-part article by Chicago's Stewart Weltman when it came out two years ago: "Deciding Who To Depose", Part I and Part II. And for early case discovery, see this short WAC? piece: "Informal discovery: save time, save money, get better results".
Hey. Wait a second. Do we even need to take this deposition?
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
June 30, 2010
IDN Interview 90: Better Global Commercial Arbitration.
Ways to make arbitration finally make sense. The podcast interview is here. GE's Mike McIlwrath interviews Pepperdine Law School's Tom Stipanowich on protocols to improve commercial arbitration. And see Stipanowich's article "Arbitration: The New Litigation" (2010 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1).
McIlwrath: Toward sane global ADR.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk). Permalink | Comments (0)
The post-Soviet Russia spy novel: Eric O'Neill on "The Ten"
Good morning, American workers. George Stephanopoulos interviews O'Neill on yesterday's Good Morning America.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)
