January 16, 2009
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Writing Well: Satire
The satirist is to be regarded as our physician, not our enemy.
Henry Fielding, 1707-1754
Like lawyers, physicians may no longer be the great opinion leaders and social architects they once were, or people had hoped they would be--but you still get what Fielding was trying to say. No, Fielding was not disparaging satirists when he wrote this. Satire is the perhaps the only form of writing no one does (or should try to do) in court papers, opinion letters or inter-lawyer correspondence. The law needs certainty, clarity and seriousness of tone--all kept at a consistent wave-length so we do not lose our place.
But I am always excited and think I am about to see some great and epic satire and commentary every time I read a pleading which begins "COMES NOW...", a letter which begins "Enclosed herewith please find..." or contract which uses "said" frequently. I am always disappointed when I realize it's intended to be a serious document.
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24/7
Lord Chief Justice Sir John ("Pompous") Popham, circa 1603
Lawyers aren't special. We're in a service business. Get used to it. Rule 9: Be There for Clients 24/7. Snippet:
Returning telephone calls promptly and keeping your client "informed" is not client service. Color all that barely adequate. Get a new standard.
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Beavis, can you spare a dime?
Breaking: Twenty-somethings, reality collide. MSNBC: "Generation Y job-seekers hit hard". Excerpt:
Younger workers are finding out the hard way that they have to hustle to land their dream job, says Debra Condren, business psychologist and author of “Ambition Is Not A Dirty Word.”
“These young adults don’t know how to jump in and be aggressive,” she says.
Query: If they're not proactive and aggressive, would you want these workers at your shop even in "good times"?
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January 15, 2009
One big global downer: car sales worldwide.
In The Economist today, read about "The Big Chill". Excerpts:
Sales figures published the week before the show confirmed what everyone already knew: the second half of 2008 saw the most savage contraction of demand since the modern industry was formed after the second world war....
Prestigious brands have been clobbered as much as volume manufacturers. BMW’s American sales fell by 40% in the year to December and those of Mercedes by 32%. Rolls-Royce, whose customers might be thought impervious to hard times, sold 29 cars in December 2007, but precisely none last month.
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Next time: turn off the lights, be very quiet, and lie on the floor.
In other words, pretend it's Halloween at WAC?'s house. See Rule 4 and then "Dropping A Summons And Complaint Outside A Door Makes Good Service" by trial lawyer-author J. Craig Williams at his May It Please the Court. This Ninth Circuit case may be limited to its colorful yet hardly shocking facts. WAC? is experiencing profound paramnesia here. Williams writes:
The process server attempted to serve Brenneke four times, leaving notes and asking Brenneke to contact the process server. On the process server's fifth and last trip to Brenneke's house, Brenneke hid in his house, refusing to answer the door when the process server knocked....
Brenneke responded to the door intercom and acknowledged he was at home, and even looked out a front window at the process server.
Still he failed to answer the door.
Frustrated, the process server held up the summons and complaint to show Brenneke, and said, "You are served."
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January 14, 2009
No ordinary times.
"...a time for us all to read fewer newspapers and more history." Read this one: "Lessons From the Depression" at Bruce MacEwen's Adam Smith, Esq. Excerpt:
Never in my career--or the careers of those I speak with continually--has there been a time of greater uncertainty. The future is as hard to visualize as it is to see the East Side of Manhattan from Central Park West on a deeply foggy morning, or New Jersey from Riverside Park. You know it's there, with definite shape, but you can't see it or draw it or write about it with clarity and conviction.
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Client costs are your problem, too.
Rule 8: Think Like the Client--Help Control Costs.
Ask any associate lawyer or paralegal what a "profit" is. You will get two kinds of answers. Both answers are "correct" but neither of them helps anyone in your firm think like the client.
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January 13, 2009
Hillary's new trial
Only a senator as forthright and as respected as Dick Lugar (R-Indiana) could raise the question the right way. Hillary is one of the great managers of our time, and her husband gives good phone and great parties. She works hard. She's well-traveled. She's even been to Arkansas and Utah, both foreign countries. We know that Bill can hold his own in a conversation with the wife of the Sultan of Kelantan. Confirm her. Washington Post: "Clinton Challenged on Foreign Library Contributions".
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the nominee of President-elect Barack Obama to become the new secretary of state, appeared before a confirmation hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today and ran into a challenge over foreign donations to her husband's presidential library. [more]
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The client's stock price this week?
Rule 7: Know the Client. It's from our world-famous 12 Rules of Client Service that we received on two legal pads when we were up on the Mountain:
The client, it seems, actually wants you to know him, her or it. Take time out to learn the stock price, industry, day-to-day culture, players and overall goals of your client. Visit their offices and plants. Do it free of charge.
Associates in particular need to develop the habit of finding out about and keeping up with clients and their trials and tribulations in and out of the areas you are working in. Learn about your client--and keep learning about it. Devise a system to keep abreast.
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Exotic jurors: the ample, the deaf, the nasty.
Incontinent jurors are different than you and me, Ernestine. Lots of weird jury lore out there this week. The facts range from socially uncomfortable to spectacularly unsavory. Where will it end?
First, Milwaukee's Anne Reed wrote about jurors who are Powerless over Twinkies.
Next, at Simple Justice, our anti-PC comrade Scott Greenfield of New York City writes about "The Politically Correct Jury", inspired by a tragic Ohio drowning case in which a homicide conviction was recently set aside. Reason: a hearing-impaired juror couldn't pick up vocal subtleties in a 911 tape of the defendant, a key bit of evidence. Nor could the Ohio trial court have expected that of her. Greenfield:
What bone in their head compelled a judge to allow a hearing-disabled person to sit on a jury? It's the same bone that allows blind people, non-English speaking, non-fluent-English speaking, incontinent, people with attention deficit with or without hyperactivity, and a variety of others to sit on a jury. It's the bone that makes them believe that pigs may indeed be capable of flight and people should not be defined by their challenges in every situation.
I abhor discrimination against people who are disabled. But I similarly recognize that there is a reason why they are called disabilities. There are some things that they cannot do well. It's not their fault, and they should not suffer for being disabled. But they similarly should not be placed in situations where their disabilities preclude their ability to perform a function adequately.
Finally, at ALM's Legal Blog Watch, Boston's Bob Ambrogi, who could probably write a successful and critically-acclaimed novel, gives us "The Case of the Stinky Juror". It begins with his usual spare prose: "Something smelled fishy in the courtroom of Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Nancy Staffier-Holtz." And: "The smell pierced through even into the judge's lobby." Dang. Air Wicks, maybe? At least for federal courts?
Query: Just how do you cover this stuff at the Trial Practice course you're giving over at old Siwash?
Blue-ribbon juror in many U.S. jurisdictions.
(Photo: NYC's Scott Greenfield in formal "high-prole" federal court garb, readying for voir dire in Missouri.)
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January 12, 2009
Hey there, Nadine, pull up a couch and talk a spell.
Don't let anybody tell you that you never want overweight jurors, or that you always want them -- or that you never or always want any other group. It just isn't true.
Wait a minute. Fat people aren't jolly after all? WAC? was beginning to think that heavy-set people, Gen Ys and work-life balance devotees may all be quasi-suspect classes requiring intermediate scrutiny under Fourteenth Amendment. Well, we checked this morning and it hasn't happened yet. But what about overweight people as jurors? We kind of like them on juries for defendants: to cut you some slack on petroleum spills, PCB contamination and the occasional insider-trading felony murder. But maybe we were wrong. See "Overweight Jurors Are..." at Anne Reed's always-challenging ("You-sure-about-that-one, Justin?") Deliberations, one of the few sites trial lawyers really need.
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"From Mistrust to Cynicism to Corruption"
We are not sure that "Madoff's a bad man" but do see this one at Trusted Advisor by Charles Green. Thanks to the Blawg Review editor, the vigilant and uncanny Ed.
In Twain's and Eastwood's stories, an organization starts out proud of its reputation for rectitude. Then someone descends into venality. It starts with “borrowing” to tide things over the weekend. But--as with any crackhead--it doesn't stop there.
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Does culture drive global trends more than economics?
The US, Russia, the EU, China and India may react differently to the same event. See at Richard Lewis's Cross-Culture, one of our favorite sites, "Culture and the Credit Crunch". I don't think the post supports the thesis that well--but it's an interesting and worthy idea. Excerpts:
The USA, with its risk-taking, speculation and short-termism, is always likely to tend towards boom and bust. But we should never underestimate the USA's supreme ability to bounce back. As staff started filing out of Lehman Brothers for the last time, representatives from other investment firms were filmed outside trying to recruit those leaving. A true demonstration of the American spirit.
How about China? Its march may be held up by temporary obstacles along the way, but it is an inexorable march with an unstoppable momentum.
[W]hat future for the EU? In a crisis, will the key countries hold together? Or will German caution berate Anglo-Saxon profligacy and French pride be hurt by German frankness?
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Thinking well: Jonathan Swift
Irish clergyman and writer Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), the author of Gulliver's Travels, was wild, but maybe not quite as "sick" 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. True, Swift could be abrasive. He made enemies, both literary and political. Yet who with a caring heart writes satire these days? Who feels, thinks on their own, writes about it, acts, and is not afraid of the consequences?
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January 11, 2009
New Zealand: A Kiwi summer vacation.
The Griswolds do Easter Island? Well, Wellington's Geoff Sharp is not Clark Griswold, but do see "How to Salvage a Summer Holiday" at his mediator blah...blah.... It begins:
Given my last post you are forgiven for expecting this entry to come from a remote Andean valley or beamed out from atop Machu Picchu which, btw, is rumoured to have gone wireless. [more]
Stop. Machu Picchu gone wireless? Say it ain't so, Geoff.
Sir Geoffrey of Wellington
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January 09, 2009
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Clients, and the psychology of the Madoff affair.
Trust is only earned in a deeply personal way--it cannot be garnered and granted by someone else.
See "The Gullible and Bernie Madoff" at Neil Senturia's The Baby Blog. Senturia, a well-known Southern California entrepreneur and consultant, argues that "every gullible act occurs when an individual is presented with a social challenge". Put another way, it's a Groucho Marx thing: Madoff's most raving fans were investors he at first ignored; if he and his organization had pitched them, and asked them to join "the club", the investors might have ignored him.
Senturia: "Beware of doors that only open with a secret knock."
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January 08, 2009
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)
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Writing Well: The Editor
"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
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January 07, 2009
Fresh eyeglasses
WAC? is interested in serious overachievers, past and present: identifying them, learning from them, having them as friends, hiring them and, above all, never holding them back. Few of us can have Albert Einstein's talent for Western logic, or IQ. But Einstein's advantage over other physicists may have been that he was a "new soul"; he looked at everything as if he were seeing it for the first time.
Work. He approached it from a wellspring of joy. There are others like him in that respect. Those are the kind of people I want as friends to inspire me, and as co-workers to solve clients' problems. I'll take an IQ a lot lower than Einstein's (for associates, though, Coif or Law Review would be nice). Reverence and a child's awe. That's the outlook I prize. Energy, intensity and creativity always seem to come with it.
Anyway, in 2007, we first saw the book Einstein: His Life and Universe, by the Aspen Institute's Walter Isaacson, a former Time managing editor. From Isaacson's final chapter:
He was a loner with an intimate bond to humanity, a rebel who was suffused with reverence. And thus it was that an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the universe, the locksmith of mysteries of the atom and the universe.
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Update: Sweet Caroline
According to a blog yesterday at The Economist, new polling shows that Caroline Kennedy's quest for Hillary Clinton's New York U.S. Senate seat is in trouble. This is strange and somewhat sad news. Here's a smart and decent if private woman who, ironically, didn't correctly ramp up for and manipulate the political press coverage her own family first turned into an art fifty years ago. Excerpt:
It's about the lousy image that Mrs Kennedy has presented, and her inability to deal with a suddenly skeptical press corps that had only ever treated citizen Caroline as a princess.
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January 06, 2009
Franken: Good enough, smart enough--but not there yet.
Stuart saves Minnesota by 225 votes. Writer-actor-funnyman Harvard grad Al Franken (color him a big bold D) is certified as winner and declares victory. But now ex-Dem incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R) has a week to challenge the Minnesota election board's decision. We think Coleman will meet that deadline before this post is done. See NYT, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Boston Herald. Watch for the Senate to delay seating Franken.
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For professionals, working = marketing.
Rule Six: When You Work, You Are Marketing. From our 12 Rules of Client Service. In 2006, Mr. Rogers himself gave the Rules to WAC?--written on two legal pads--when we were up on the mountain. We carried the pads back to the people, and told them the news, but no one would listen. When you work, you are marketing; you are constantly sending to clients barrages of small but powerful ads.
Moses with the Tablets, 1659, Rembrandt
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January 05, 2009
111th Congress: The Hill watching the watchers.
See, e.g., the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg. The House Financial Services Committee takes a stab today at the SEC's past monitoring of the Madoff funds' business and investment methods, which some SEC employees had allegedly regarded as "questionable" and off the wall. SEC’s inspector general David Kotz, among others, get questioned.
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Vigorous, and first rate: Charon QC.
The effects of a vigorous genius working upon large materials.
--Samuel Johnson, on Dryden's life's work
The above quote, in Charon QC's case, really is fitting. At the moment--i.e., all last week, today and for the next week--I don't have time to read anything. You know what I mean. But I read every word of Charon's Blawg Review #193, and I hope some time this week you can do the same. At #193, London's Charon has "themed"--but he didn't really need to. Here again is writing a blog as an art form at Blawg Review. Charon even makes lawyers look as well-rounded and "on the ball" in other walks of life as we should be: fun, erudite, instructive, brave, and very alive. While I am proud of the quality of blogs by U.S. lawyers and commentators, Albion's best pundit and London guide gives you an idea of how non-U.S. blogs, and especially European ones, can get you quickly to a whole new way of looking at, and reacting to, your world. Well done, sir, and next time I'll buy the Rioja. Finally, bravo to the hard-working, elusive and peripatetic Ed., for going after and showcasing the very best, from no matter what part of the globe it may come.
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Force-starting the economy: one way out?
See at Reuters "Japan's Yosano Says Quantitative Easing May Not Work". In "quantitative easing", governments flood the banking system with new money to promote lending; it generally happens when lowering "official" interest rates doesn't do anything because rates are close to zero. But doing that now, when you're already in debt up to your wazoo, doesn't make that much sense to WAC?, and hey we majored in English. But people like Japan's finance minister and Tel Aviv's Shalom Hamou--who commented here recently via a press release which is now all over the Net--are worried.
Allman Brothers perform "One Way Out", former U.S. national anthem circa 1971/traditional philanderer folk ballad.
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January 03, 2009
Ile St Louis
Redux: "Ernest, the French aren't like you and me." Art and the Humanities isn't just for the rich, the elite or the intellectual. It's the best part of all of us; it can inform, stir and improve every moment.
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Just Huxley
In the course of history many more people have died for their drink and their dope than have died for their religion or their country. The craving for ethyl alcohol and the opiates has been stronger, in these millions, than the love of God, of home, of children; even of life.... Why should such multitudes of men and women be so ready to sacrifice themselves for a cause so utterly hopeless and in ways so painful and so profoundly humiliating?
--Aldous Huxley, "Drugs That Shape Men's Minds", The Saturday Evening Post, October 18, 1958
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January 02, 2009
Greenspan: "I made a mistake."
In Salon, see Andrew Leonard's excellent "The Economy Crumbled"--but then let's get busy cleaning up our mess. WAC? prefers Pollyannas who like to solve problems. Excerpt:
There were warnings along the way. Cassandras who feared that exotic financial innovation, specifically unregulated at the behest of both Democratic and Republican politicians, was setting the stage for a major systemic shock. But their voices were drowned out by a chorus of status quo defenders who told us, again and again, that financial innovation was making the world a safer, less risky place.
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January 01, 2009
Samantha Janus, "Guys and Dolls", 2006, London
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The Roman god Janus, Vatican Museum
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Charleston: the dance, the accent.
The dance was popularized by a song and its accompanying footwork, "The Charleston," by James P. Johnson in the Broadway musical "Runnin' Wild" in 1923. Just like the unique Charleston dialect that linguists love and you still hear in the streets--especially in the district "South of Broad"--the dance has been traced back to descendants of slaves who lived on islands off the coast of Charleston and in the city itself. The Charleston had been performed in their communities since 1903. That gorgeous, royal-sounding accent? Most likely, it's a blend: of Gullah spoken by African Americans, and of English spoken by Europeans.
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December 31, 2008
Make Mine Moxie
Sometimes you have to look reality in the eye and deny it.
--Garrison Keillor
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One last thing from WAC?
And from former U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, when he cracked up about this time last year:
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Getting America back to work.
See yesterday's piece at London's The Economist, "The People Puzzle". Excerpt:
An energetic debate on displaced workers—on the role of the private sector, for example, or which training programmes give the best return to workers and taxpayers—has yet to emerge. In the meantime some 608,000 Americans, 74% more than last year, are not seeking work because they think no jobs are available. Their label is simply “discouraged”.
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December 30, 2008
The man, the firm and the blog to watch in 2009.
It's Pat Lamb, his Chicago-based firm Valorem and In Search of Perfect Client Service, his well-regarded and enduring blog. Together they give us all we may ever need on (a) leadership, (b) law firm models that work and (c) the art of the client at the Terrible Crossroads of 2008/2009. We all face recovering economies, changing markets, new markets, new governments, and new ideas on economic growth, monetary policy and regulation. Watch Lamb closely. We don't agree on everything. But if anyone can make value billing work, and the Billable Hour go away, it's Pat. And then on to the next Dragon.
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2008: The Year to the Crossroads.
I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees.
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Keith Richards is 65.
NPR: "Let me repeat that: Keith Richards is 65."
It happened on the 18th. But what's the real news story here? That it finally happened (i.e., boomers are now officially old)? Or that Richards, who "cannot be killed by conventional weapons", is still alive?
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December 29, 2008
Darwinian
Associated Press (Ellen Simon) piece of December 26:
NEW YORK (AP) - Economic cycles are Darwinian, picking off weak companies and leaving survivors stronger.
More than a year into the recession, solid retailers have their pick of mall space. Respected banks are getting an influx of deposits. Tech companies with money to spend are having an easier time hiring.
It's been a year of brutal losses. [more]
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December 28, 2008
The Judgment of Paris
Paris was a bold man who presum’d
To judge the beauty of a Goddess.
-John Dryden
The Judgment of Paris, Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553)
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December 26, 2008
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Don't know much about tech.
But we know people who do know. Except for IP problems my firm solves for clients--i.e., devise, secure and enforce marks, copyrights, and trade secrets, and licensing issues--we don't do "tech" tech. We are working lawyers. Personally, I'm still mystified by the workings of a ball point pen, don't know how to set up a blog, and would rather be asked a question about almost anything than about blogging platforms. But we increasingly get questions about "how to set up a blog". They are flattering. And we haven't a clue.
Here is our new model answer, based on our late-coming conclusions that (a) blogs by lawyers and other service providers are here to stay and (b) the weblog phenomenon can really help to turn clients and customers into the main event:
Trial lawyer-turned-blogging proponent (and respected blogger to boot) Kevin O'Keefe at LexBlog, Inc. is, well, The Man. He builds blogs for lawyers. I've followed his work for three years now, viewed a lot of it (and so likely have you), and made a point to meet with Kevin and his talented associate Rob La Gatta when I was briefly in Seattle last summer. If we ever re-devise WAC?--for now we like its simplicity and, besides, we just figured out last week how it works--we will do it through Kevin and LexBlog. We promise.
Note also that WAC? does not "do" ads, either. We write in spurts while working when inspired by law or life (which is apparently a lot). And if Kevin had asked us to do this post, we would have told our fellow Midwesterner to take a flying spastic leap into Elliot Bay. These guys do great work for leading practicing lawyers. Hire them.
LexBlog's Kevin O'Keefe: Don't worry--more industrious than he looks.
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December 25, 2008
Nicholas, again.
"Be excellent to one another."
--From fragment written circa 340 A.D., recently discovered in Demre, formerly Myra, in Antalya Province of Turkey.
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December 24, 2008
Quién es Nicolás?
The Bishop of Myra--Santa Claus to most of the world--lived perhaps 270-343 AD in what is now the Lycian region of Turkey. One legend has it that Nicholas was a Byzantine trust-fund baby, an orphan with lots of spare cash. And one with a huge yen for secret, anonymous gift-giving. Which, of course, is the best kind. WAC? has secretly believed that the life of St. Nicholas was a major inspiration for Magnificent Obsession, the acclaimed 1929 novel by Lloyd C. Douglas, which twice was made into a movie. One theme of the book is the importance of giving, and acts of kindness, without wanting or expecting any type of private or public recognition.
Old Saint Nick. If he gave you gave something, he just didn't want you to make a fuss--at least not about him. He wouldn't let you. Believe it or not, there's a special website for him: The Saint Nicholas Center.
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December 23, 2008
Festival of the Lanham Act
It's also known as The Trademark Act of 1946, as amended (15 U.S.C. §§ 1051-1127). But most of us call it the Lanham Act, popularly named after Texas U.S. Representative Fritz Lanham, who served from 1919 to 1947. The son of a Texas governor, Lanham was an amateur magician, a writer of two musical comedies, and even toured with a stage company before serving in Congress. Blawg Review, this week, #191, is hosted by Likelihood of Confusion, named after the operative language giving much of the Act its real play, and it's a first-rate job (trust us) by New York-based Ron Coleman, a leading IP lawyer-blogger. WAC? loves the Lanham Act, especially section 43(a) because of its remarkable versatility in the hands of the right lawyer:
§ 1125. False designations of origin, false descriptions, and dilution forbidden
(a) Civil action
(1) Any person who, on or in connection with any goods or services, or any container for goods, uses in commerce any word, term, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof, or any false designation of origin, false or misleading description of fact, or false or misleading representation of fact, which—
(A) is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive as to the affiliation, connection, or association of such person with another person, or as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of his or her goods, services, or commercial activities by another person, or
(B) in commercial advertising or promotion, misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities, or geographic origin of his or her or another person’s goods, services, or commercial activities,
shall be liable in a civil action by any person who believes that he or she is or is likely to be damaged by such act.
Fritz Lanham's parents, the Governor and Mrs. Lanham (and because we couldn't find a photo of Fritz).
Ron Coleman, more or less (we have no photo of his parents).
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December 22, 2008
Kitzbühel, Austria.
At some point after the government in your Western nation lends or grants you your money, and whether or not you ski, consider attending the week-long program Lawyering in the International Market (March 22-28) at the Lebenberg Palace, a baronial estate just outside of Kitzbühel. It's presented by the well-regarded Center for International Legal Studies, based Salzburg and founded in 1976. CILS was "global", when global wasn't cool.
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A possible Christmas
It was at a concert of lovely old music. After two or three notes of the piano the door was opened...to the other world. I sped through heaven and saw God at work. I suffered holy pains. I dropped all my defences and was afraid of nothing in the world. I accepted all things and to all things gave up my heart.
Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf.
1926 by Gret Widmann
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December 21, 2008
Special Druid Alert: Winter Solstice
It's today. Big doings at the Newgrange tomb in Ireland. BBC: "On 21 December--the shortest day of the year--the sun shines deep into the tomb in County Meath, flooding the neolithic chamber with light."
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"I blame the jetlag..."
Ah, devil jetlag.
A disturbance of one's circadian rhythms, it makes you hear, think, say and do odd things. It first attracted the attention of science in, well, the "behavior" of plants. In 1729, French astronomer Jean Jacques Ortous de Mairan studied heliotrope plants to determine if the opening and closing of the leaves was simply a response to the sun.
Jetlag may be harmless. Like other forms of mild mood swings, it may be a source of inspiration. But trust me--I've done it--it makes you buy weird things. See Tara Bradford's piece earlier this year in Paris Parfait. I've purchased things in Europe and South America that make the below item look like a best-selling household appliance.
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December 20, 2008
Saturday's Charon QC
London's Charon QC is doing wonderful things these days. He's versatile, in a Renaissance Man way, and with the promise of fine quirk: a lawyer-pundit-radio host who can think, opine, write and talk, deftly moving in and out of all manner of issues with considerable elan, even when half in the bag. If he were a Yank, he's be a university president, the Congressman from Nantucket, or the host of a Brit version of "The Dick Cavett Show". Read his meanderings through the streets of 2000-year-old London. Listen to his many well-done podcasts, in which WAC? has twice been a guest, once in London, and once by phone in America.
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Travel and creation.
Journeys are the midwives thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train.
--Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel (2002)
Edward Hopper, Compartment C, Car 293 (1938)
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December 19, 2008
Al Franken: Good enough, smart enough, and lawyered-up.
Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Franken Posts Lead Over Coleman". Last night, two votes ahead. Today, 250.
The intense scrutiny of "voter intent" resumed today by the five-member board charged with directing Minnesota's recount in the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic rival Al Franken, and the day's rulings turned the challenger's slight deficit into a triple-digit lead.
Stuart Saves Minnesota?
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Writing Well: The Overstatement
See at The Trial Practice Tips Weblog "The Only Writing Tip That Really Matters", which quotes William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White's The Elements of Style:
When you overstate, readers will be instantly on guard, and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follows it will be suspect in their minds because they have lost confidence in your judgment or your poise.
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The Complete Lawyer: Going Global.
If you haven't already, see the latest edition (Vol. 4, No. 6) of Atlanta-based The Complete Lawyer. Non-U.S. and U.S. authors in the November-December issue write about lawyering for business clients in Mexico, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Greater China.
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December 18, 2008
Yours in the struggle, dudes.
Usually, and as important as they are, observances like Human Rights Day, Bill of Rights Day, and Human Rights Week, 2008 make me feel like: (a) I died and went to Hallmark, (b) I should give up everything and join Che and his guys in the hills, waiting for the right time to eradicate bourgeois fascist death forms (at least Indianapolis), or (c) I should at least learn to play the lute. But Blawg Review's hosts this week, The Legal Satyricon, did it all such justice at Blawg Review 190: Bill of Rights Day that I am feeling guilty about voting for John McCain last month. I am also thinking about giving up acting for corporate Europe and America, and representing the oppressed, and real street crime defendants under the CJA program, and helping poor people, maybe. This is a very fine Blawg Review performance, and WAC? will check in with this blog a lot in the future. Moxie everywhere, humor, and these folks can write. They get the Constitution and its first ten amendments--the most important Thing Western In Ink. And, like me, they think it's important. Bravo.
Read revolutionary Blawg Review 190.
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Don't compete on price, especially now.
If a client comes to your firm for price, it will leave your firm for price.
Value, not price alone, is the point. You're in a services profession, so value will be conferred on and experienced differently by different clients in different engagements. It's all in the work--i.e., first rate legal products mixed with real client service for every client you serve--and the billing.
It's case by case. It's very hard, and it takes thought.
But no matter how your firm bills--hourly, "value", flat or a combination--don't lower the price for your firm's services, especially for new clients or to attract work.
Don't lower rates. Don't change anything. If a new client (especially via an in-house lawyer, but we doubt you'll see that happen) demands a "discount" these days, it is likely both unsophisticated and a pain in the ass; refer it to that firm down the street you just never liked.
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Say it ain't so, Europe.
It's ironic, perhaps, but Europe may also "lag behind" America in bribery prosecutions. In yesterday's The Economist, read "The Siemens Scandal: Bavarian Baksheesh":
When Siemens, Europe’s biggest engineering firm, adopted the slogan “be inspired” in the mid-1990s, bribery was not what it had in mind. But no one can accuse its managers of lacking inspiration when it came to devising novel ways to funnel huge sums in backhanders to corrupt officials and politicians across the globe.
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Madoff scandal: Madoff-Jack Warden link?
Former American fund manager and NASDAQ chairman Bernard Madoff, and the late actor Jack Warden. Hey, are these two New Yorkers brothers? Should someone call Oliver Stone?
Madoff (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
Warden, with attorney-writer Scott Greenfield (seated) of Simple Justice. (Warner Bros.)
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December 17, 2008
What's my share of the interest per day on just $350 billion?
"Dude, where's my $700 billion?" by Mike Madden in Salon.
Let's see. There's $15 billion to Bank of America, $45 billion to Citigroup, $3.5 billion to Capital One, $6.5 billion to U.S. Bancorp, and then $1.4 billion to Zions Bancorporation in Salt Lake City. Huh?
(20th Century Fox)
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The Fed goes way out of the box.
Hello, Treasury? This is Ben. I need you to print me up a few more 100s. Well, a lot more. See "US Interest Rates Slashed as Low as Zero" at UK's Daily Telegraph (via our friend Justin Patten at Human Law Mediation):
America’s central bank has taken drastic steps to resuscitate the US economy out of its year-long recession, placing interest rates as low as zero - their lowest level in history - as it announced widespread plans to inject liquidity into the ailing financial markets.
By doing so, the Federal Reserve appears to have replaced the base rate as its primary weapon in its battle to support the American economy, putting lending in its place in a move known as quantitative easing.
Above: Mid-October photograph of glorious comrades Paulson, Fed Chairman Bernanke & Geithner (NYT/Matthew Cavanaugh/European Pressphoto Agency).
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December 16, 2008
Canada's Law21: Leverage--and redesigning value.
Firms: Your call, your move. From "The New Leverage" at Jordan Furlong's Law21:
The thrust of the results [a survey by pioneering Legal OnRamp] by is that in-house lawyers aren’t especially happy with outside counsel in terms of service, partnering and communication — nothing new there — but are surprisingly tentative about predicting major change in how they go about acquiring services from these law firms.
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The Recession: Shanghai, Silver Linings.
Read China Law Blog's Dan Harris in "Finance People: Shanghai Says Jobs, Jobs, Jobs". It begins:
There is a fairly prevalent theory that the best time to start a new business is during a recession/depression. I buy that. During tough times, established companies often disappear, get overly cautious, and lay off scads of good people, who can be hired relatively cheaply. During tough times, big shifts can occur.
A few months ago, I pretty much scoffed at the idea of Shanghai becoming a financial capital... Though I certainly am not convinced, I certainly am not scoffing either. To use a bad pun (particularly during this bear market), China is grabbing the bull by the horns and seems to be boldly making moves to increase its worldwide standing as a financial center. [more]
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December 15, 2008
Romain Rolland: Living large, really.
There is no joy except in creation.
There are no living beings but those who create. All the rest are shadows, hovering over the earth, strangers to life. All the joys of life are the joys of creation: love, genius, action...
--Romain Rolland (1866-1944), 1915 Nobel Prize winner, in "Lightning Strikes Christophe"
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Good enough, smart enough, late enough.
And doggone it, it's a bit annoying. Fun wonky Al (who WAC? prefers) v. competent ex-Democrat Norm continues in Minnesota U.S. Senate race recount. We like everyone's pluck, and appreciate the oddity of the stats here (just hundreds of votes separating the candidates with 2.9 million cast on November 4), but it's getting to be time for Repose. Swearing-in time soon, guys. Yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune "Franken, Coleman campaigns reduce challenges".
"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and I still have a shot at Norm Coleman's Senate seat."
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Hesse's main lament.
Ah, but it is hard to find this track of the divine in the midst of this life we lead...
Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf (1927)
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December 14, 2008
The Mother of All Florsheims
"Hey, he might be a right-wing nut--but that's our right-wing nut you're aiming your wingtips at, Jack."
See Reuters: Bush on Farewell Visit to Iraq Dodges Flying Shoes. And "dog"? "Dog?" Bi-partisan WAC? notes that this stubborn Connecticut-born old money scion, ex-Texas governor and current commander-in-chief has issues--but he's still one of us:
BAGHDAD (Reuters, Dec. 14) - An Iraqi reporter called President George W. Bush a "dog" and threw his shoes at him on Sunday, sullying a farewell visit to Baghdad meant to mark greater security in Iraq after years of bloodshed.
Just weeks before he bequeaths the unpopular Iraq war to President-elect Barack Obama, Bush sought to underline improved security by landing in daylight and venturing out beyond the city's heavily fortified international Green Zone. [more]
Take that, running dog oil-swilling imperialist.
(USA Today/APTN)
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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 Weblog. Schaeffer is right to remind us: the starting point for lawyers who notice depositions is a direct exam (therefore no leading questions). He notes, and we emphasize: most witnesses in depositions, especially for discovery, are adverse, or "hostile". So lead them. Use shorter, more "loaded" questions. Just know what you're doing, and why.
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So when will we see Ruthie's new blog?
The return of the much-stalked Law Bird of London? Is it just a rumour? Six months is a long time.
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December 13, 2008
Small, Sluggish, Insular.
And self-pitying. Coming soon: "A Passion for Mediocrity". It will be at least one post--but possibly a series, a new blog, or a new think tank on the scale of Brookings, Heritage or AEI.
"SSI" will cover in vivid detail how some "team members" of car rental companies (okay, Alamo is one), airlines, grocery stores, gas stations, IT consultant, health care providers and law firms often regard "work" during the current recession in one "flyover" American city. And these people often have children; they instruct them on work and life.
No wonder Americans can't make and sell anything that anyone wants to buy. Can we bail them out with counseling? With appeals to self-respect? And teach them not to ever say to a customer, client or patient the words: "I'm on my break"?
Stay tune. WAC? takes back everything it ever said about the Gen Y Slackoeisie (well, not everything).
We found a new nadir. And it's a disease: "Post-union daze".
(M. Judge/MTV)
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Los Angeles
"Hollywood is the one place in the world where you can die of encouragement." --Dorothy Parker
"I read part of it all of the way through." -Samuel Goldwyn
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Morocco's Maryam: Heads South.
No one should meet a woman on a laptop. No one sane should bring a laptop to Paris. And no human should watch over an angel with a Dell Inspiron. The first two are easy. I don't like computers; it's no way to be fully in the world. But after I discovered via an odd route fellow Yank traveler Maryam during a trip to Paris in 2005, the Dell was all there was, given her life, mine. We've not met, probably a good fact. At her My Marrakesh, see more of her beguiling photographs, playful prose: "Mauritanian men, also known as a tale of tempting turbans.....". How many American women have this gig?
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December 12, 2008
Redux: Emailed "thank-you" notes are low and tacky; if you mean it, handwrite it.
A good thank-you--a real thank-you--means something. It is notable, memorable, important.--Tom Chiarella, A Little Gratitude, Esquire Magazine, April 2007
In case your mother never told you, you're from the boonies, or you were stoned all five years at Andover, 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.
Good stationery. We suggest Crane's or something better. And no excuses for not doing it; many, many business people and some lawyers with taste think that no written (typed is okay--but handwritten is better) thank you note means no class, as harsh and low-tech as that may sound. Even if you are not convinced that thank you notes are noticed and appreciated (they are), pretend that WAC? knows more than you and do it anyway.
However, "electronic thank-yous" by e-mails or in comments for links or mentions in posts or articles on the Internet--let's say 3 different people link to your blog every day and you are working full time--are okay. And you'll always miss a few who mention you in cyberspace.
Inspiration, 1769, Jean-Honoré Fragonard
But if you don't regularly thank people at all for links to or mentions of you, your blog or website, you are fouling your own nest. Not thanking people in the blogosphere is not just low and tacky but (1) arrogant and (2) dumb. And adds to the notion that (3) bloggers are insular, passive-aggressive weenies and geeks lacking in people skills.
So get some habits about thank-yous, and make handwritten the default position. If you don't, bad things will happen. No one will give you any more business, or invite you to New Canaan or Aldeburgh for the weekend. People will say mean things about your dog. And, even worse, about you:
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 were at 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, they'll just say you were always kind of light in the Cole Haans, too, so what can you expect.
You see what can happen?
So thank people in writing. Handwritten as a general rule. Do it by e-mail only for a cyber-mention.
Finally, if your site is so successful that your links, e-mails and comments are through the roof, hire someone else to do the thank yous--written or electronic--for you.
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Pre-trial.
Caravaggio's The Cardsharps (c. 1594)
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December 11, 2008
The Recession: Litigation, litigation, litigation--but different this time.
Let's indulge in a few law markets stereotypes.
Good times = expansion and deals. Bad times = smaller pies and lawsuits. Generally, it's true. But expect something different all over the world in the next few years: arbitration. The world's recent financial calamities likely gave ADR (alternative dispute resolution) a huge boost.
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Advice of the week.
"The only way for a reporter to look on a politician is down."
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
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Salon: "Rod Blagojevich's bad hair day"
Here, by Salon's Edward McClelland. It begins: "For every Barack Obama or Abraham Lincoln, this state produces a dozen Rod Blagojeviches." See DOJ's December 7, 2008 criminal complaint, and 75 page affidavit.
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New Trends in UK Collections Practice?
And introducing the new Albion-style Mass Dine-and-Ditch. See "Geeklawyer Revenge Award 2008: Low-life punter won’t pay bill?" and this related story at The Daily Telegraph. Allegedly a London law firm
reacted to a client's failure to pay its fees by taking a large group of junior lawyers to a bar owned by the client? Having drunk the bar dry, they left without paying the bill.
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December 10, 2008
Writing well--and sanely.
One of WAC?'s most clicked-on articles, a short one, is "Just Say It: The War Against Legal-Speak". It was inspired by parts of a disturbing if entertaining lawyer document we were forced to read for money at work. Our point was, and is, that plain, simple, clear and non-legal style writing in the legal profession could help get things done and, if humanly possible, help the image of lawyers.
Note: At least one respected UK lawyer and pundit agrees that the profession's continued use of "Legalese or Lawyer-speak" makes little sense to anyone. London's erudite and playful Charon QC brought up and even read aloud an earlier version of the same post in his July 2008 interview with Dan Hull.
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The Tree of Good Writing
By Andō Tokutarō, circa 1846
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December 09, 2008
Disraeli on books, and writing well.
Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
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Russia, the Caucasus, and language.
See "Georgian on their Mind" by Richard D. Lewis at Cross-Culture. Ten years ago, Lewis wrote, and keeps writing, the book on cross-cultural "collisions" that business people can use in practical and immediate ways. We only wish he'd write more at Cross-Culture when he is between larger projects. The above piece begins:
US, French and other western political leaders who have expressed sympathy or support for Georgia in its recent conflict with Russia may not be aware of certain linguistic factors which complicate the dispute. Language is often a root of strife in the Caucasus – an area home to 40-50 indigenous tongues.
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December 08, 2008
The French to corner nuclear?
See The Economist: "Power struggle: Will France continue to lead the global revival of nuclear power?" Excerpt:
France is poised to develop its expertise into a significant export. Its president, Nicolas Sarkozy, considers the sale of nuclear power to be central to his diplomacy: it is a badge of France’s technical prowess and a reaffirmation of its status as a global industrial power.
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The President-elect is likely "eligible" and can still take the oath.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition to hear a claim that Barack Obama might, in effect, be 'part Brit', had dual nationality at birth, and is therefore not exclusively a "natural born" U.S. citizen "eligible to the office of President" under Article II, Section I of the Constitution. See AP, and SCOTUS and WSJ blogs. A stay application was filed in Donofrio v. Wells, Secretary of State of New Jersey (08A407). The Court sought no response to the petition, and gave no reasons for denial.
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Just Praise: For Colin Samuels and Blawg Review #189.
See, read and feel this inspired and amazing creation, and form of art unto itself. Blawg Review this week is hosted by literate wordsmith-lawyer Colin Samuels at his Infamy or Praise. In #189, he spins and weaves last week's best posts together with Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
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December 07, 2008
London's GeekLawyer seeks U.S. lawyer to craft "Limeyism" suit against ABA Journal.
He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct.
--General Corman to Willard, briefing him about Colonel Walt Kurtz, Apocalypse Now (1979)
Over in the UK, GeekLawyer, the normally reserved and self-effacing product of Eton and Oxford, and rightful heir to some strange ancient crown in Ceylon who hosted Blawg Review earlier this year, is angry.
He is more disturbed than usual that he was not included in the ABA Journal's "Blawg 100". We received the below message very early Friday morning, when most Americans were still asleep. He apparently read our post of Thursday night. In response he was very matter of fact. He wants a pro-bono lawyer for his crusade.
Any takers? We know him as a persistent if frugal human who will press this until he gets want he wants. He would be a cooperative client, and he understands the trial process in the U.S. and the UK. He is, after all, under his real name, a key player in Legal London. He has contacts, influence, Inn membership and a motorcycle called "The Terrible and Inexorable Wrath of God". If you are a man, he can introduce you to lots of professional women. Anyway, his request:
Can you recommend a good lawyer who'll act for me against the ABA? This is clear Limeyism - it cannot stand. They'll need to work pro-bono because although I have plenty of money I need to keep it for mead and hookers.
Lincoln's Inn, Holborn, London
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The fourth Senator Kennedy?
And why not, if you like a mix of ideas and personalities in the U.S. Senate? See New York Times: "Kennedy Is Said to Cast Her Eye on Senate Seat" (is NYT's headline deliberate, or an eerie Yeats slip?). Next month, New York Governor David Paterson may appoint lawyer-writer Caroline Kennedy to fill Hillary Clinton's vacant Senate seat once Clinton's nomination to be Secretary of State is confirmed.
If Kennedy becomes New York's next U.S. Senator, watch for her to be more moderate and centrist than either of her uncles, Ted and Robert (who also held that seat in New York, 1965-68). She will be "practical" and more like her dad, John Kennedy, who was no fire-breathing liberal, or even a tad doctrinaire, as a U.S. Senator or President.
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, December 1960.
Photographer: Lynn Pelham
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December 05, 2008
Genevieve is back: Who are your Huns?
I know it, I see it. The Huns will not come.
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 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--but she hasn't quite worked that magic on me. I still visit her anyway. If you walk in a southwesterly direction--from, say, the Place des Vosges on the Right Bank--to get to the Left Bank, you can use that bridge (Pont de la Tournelle). If you do, you can walk right under Genevieve, with Notre Dame and Ile Saint Louis on your right.
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Love Men
Rule One: Represent Only Clients You "Like".
Client service is not about "being nice" to clients.
Start with the "right" clients: sophisticated users of legal services who appreciate you and yours. Note: if your firm has no client-centric ethos and employs soulless and/or untalented or uninspired lawyers who think lawyering is a job, or a dodge, read no further.
Most clients are--how shall we say this?..we do need to get this right--most clients are a miserable tortuous Gothic eternal burning nightmarish Hell, and at best a pain the ass, and they are not worth it.
Stick with large businesses with savvy GCs who love what they do, who get it, and who get what you do. There are lots of them. Get off your knees and find them. You better shop around. Below: loud please.
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Update: Take this to the ABA polls with you.
Re: the ABA Journal Blawg 100 voting, here are just a few of the blogs we know well and know are first-rate. Sorry if we left anyone out, and we may revise our short list soon.
Do vote for China Law Blog, Canada's FP Legal Post, Simple Justice, TaxProf Blog, Deliberations, and Real Lawyers Have Blogs.
And, even though it's in the same category--"Careers"--as What About Clients?, we strongly urge you to vote for Jordan Furlong's Canada-based Law21 for its outstanding contribution in 2008 (its first year) to the discussion of "what's next" for this profession. On the strength of Jordan's commentary alone, perceptive and often visionary, Law21 deserves your attention and vote.
Jordan Furlong of Law21
Brit Wit. Speaking of non-U.S. sites, two very great London blogs didn't make the ABA Journal "100" list for reasons which may be good ones but presently escape me and about 350,000 others. If there's a way to do write-in votes for the lyrical and erudite Charon QC, and for the dangerously insane but way-fun barrister GeekLawyer, please do that. Both gentlemen burst with fine writing and ideas, do the best podcasts you'll hear, and have been blogging since perhaps the late 1950s. They are each Brit-quirky out the wazoo.
Besides, the Journal should not want GeekLawyer as an enemy. No one does. See, e.g., Blawg Review #166. In early September, on my way to Kent and Zurich, I finally met with him in London, near the Marble Arch, for an hour or so. There is something wrong with him.
Major Class. Finally, there's another "write-in" we should all do for a consistently worthwhile and class U.S. site. It's by a lawyer who can think, feel, live, write, write about writing, and listen to all the music: Ray Ward's Minor Wisdom. Category/award: Best Site by a Lawyer-Renaissance Man Aiming to Make His Life a Work of Art. See also Ray's the (new) legal writer. And visit New Orleans.
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ABA Journal, we got an award for you right here.
The winner of first annual What About Clients? Legal Journalism Award.
The ABA Journal deserves a big award this year, too.
The best hard news coverage of 2008 is "Narcissists With Big Egos Lead Many Law Firms, Consultant Says" (Nov. 11, 2008), by the Journal's Debra Cassens Weiss. The short article broke the news of an Altman Weil Report to Legal Management published in April entitled "Understanding and Working with Narcissistic Leaders".
The Altman Weil report, in a nutshell: "Some narcissist law firm leaders are good, others bad". And that narcissists are not like you and me, Ernest. The real story, of course, which the Journal brilliantly and subtly blew the lid off of, is that once-respected Altman Weil (a) is so hopelessly out-to-lunch at the moment that it thinks that this kind of information and advice to its clients is valuable, or (b) is now betting that its clients, which include some very fine and mainly American law firms, are lame enough to think that this subject merits time, ink, discussion and fees.
But just highlighting this "discovery" and "analysis"--even if Debra was just kidding and was appalled and entertained as we were--is enough to give the ABA Journal the nod. Breaking this 2008 story was so huge we don't really have to wait until the end of December to give it to Debra and the Journal. See also Holden Oliver's companion piece "Action Item: In FY 2009, get nicer narcissists on Executive Committee". Our congratulations to the ABA Journal.
The ABA Journal easily snatches the first annual "Oliver" award.
Altman Weil: "The leader in legal consulting", seer, connoisseur of the obvious. Above: John William Waterhouse's "Echo and Narcissus" (1903)
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December 04, 2008
Begging for Billions, America and the Bankruptcy Code.
Look, we won't need any more than $38 billion in loans. We made the trip here twice. Washington Post: "Senate Banking Committee Chair Endorses Support for Auto Industry". To Chris Dodd: A significant number of U.S. jobs are linked to the American auto industry. But if (a) you make cars, (b) you screw up and (c) you start making cars that no one really wants to buy because buyers get better value from European and Asian makers, what about seeking protection under Chapter 11 of the Code? Our vote: Ford files, reorganizes, and merges with Chrysler. We could care less what happens to GM--but could GM please immediately sell the GM subsidiary Saab Automobile AB back to Europeans? WAC? lawyers have a thing about funny-looking Swedish road cars before GM got a hold of them in 1990.
File and merge--but free Saab first.
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Writing Well: Samuel Hazo
This Part of the World, by Samuel Hazo
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We got something bipolar for you right here.
Writing well: grace, joy and attitude. At Salon, see "Princess Leia's wild, bipolar adventures", a review by Rebecca Traister of Carrie Fisher's new book, Wishful Drinking, which started out two years ago as an LA theater "seminar" and popular autobiographical one-woman show. Traister: "Fisher is a language obsessive, a nimble verbal acrobat who puns and somersaults around a page with glee."
Who says crazy people can't write?
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December 03, 2008
A client's costs: your problem, too.
"Rule Eight: Think Like the Client--Help Control Costs". There are three steps here. First, realize you have a conflict ($) in following this rule. Second, think about any client who knows you want long-term work. Third, ask yourself: are you a "trusted advisor" or not? Or is the client conciliere overture you float out there just noise and BS for websites, blogs and press releases?
If a client knows you want a long-term relationship, and you convey that in action, it will trust you to save it money--and you will. See Dan Hull's April 2007 post, which begins:
Ask any associate lawyer or paralegal what a "profit" is.
You will get two kinds of answers. Both answers are "correct"--but neither of them helps anyone in your firm think like the client.
Meeting of local bar association "Client Services" section, 2006
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On old guy's take on litigation budgets.
War is the last of all things to go according to schedule.
--Thucydides (c.460 BC-400 BC), The History of the Pelopenessian War
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
December 02, 2008
We knew that.
The U.S. is and has been in a recession.
WASHINGTON (NBC) - The economy fell into recession late last year, according to a panel of economists that is responsible for determining the dates of business cycles.
Monday's declaration by the panel of the National Bureau of Economic Research confirms what many private economists, lawmakers and members of the general public already have assumed and puts an official date on it: A U.S. recession began in December 2007.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
Writing well, living large.
Commenting on the body of work left by John Dryden (1631-1700), the English poet, critic and playwright, Samuel Johnson, who was born a few years after Dryden's death, called Dryden's compositions "the effects of a vigorous genius working upon large materials".
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
"If you can't steal our clients, you're fired."
If you find this performance review idea preposterous, please ask yourself why.
We first mentioned the title's idea in a 2006 post. It attracted attention--but many people thought we were kidding.
We weren't.
There are lots of suggestions out there on standards, guidelines and take-aways for associate reviews. Two are (a) letting staff evaluate co-workers and partners on specific inter-office skills in writing, and (b) reviews of staff based on specific client service standards which ALL employees must buy into (i.e., pay increase for well done client service; hit the road, for the unwilling, clueless). But we still like this one--which is no more discretionary and arbitrary than (a) and (b) above:
Every day, the client service by associates and paralegals should be good enough to permit those employees to actually steal any client, and take them to another law firm (use "transport" for "steal" if you need the PC professional services term), if they were to leave your shop tomorrow morning. Period.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
