May 13, 2008
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)
"Portrait of Chess Player"
For our friend Nearly Legal.
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Writing well, and 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".
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May 12, 2008
Toyota suspends southwestern China plant after quake.
TOKYO/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. on Monday suspended production at a 13,000-units-a-year joint venture plant in Chengdu, southwestern China, after a powerful earthquake struck, killing at least 107 people. [more]
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Listening to judges.
Read "Motion Hearings: Listening to the Judge" at Evan Schaeffer's enduring Illinois Trial Practice.
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Blawg Review #159
This week's Blawg Review #159 is hosted by Brian LaBovick at the Whistleblower Law Blog.
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May 11, 2008
Mothers, and movements for others.
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.
--Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895.
My mother was the mom that all the other kids in the neighborhood wanted to be their mom. A photogenic only child growing up in Chicago, she started working as a model when she was quite young, and the agency loved her all-American girl next door face and smile. Now, in her seventies, she is still tall, almost 5'10", angular, with dark hair, and fresh, friendly, athletic, striking. In boarding school and college, she was always the homecoming queen--but that rare one without enemies. All my life, I've heard both men and women remark how beautiful she is--and how nice she is to them. She is never interested in herself. She loves children and sloppy dogs.
Energetic and very physical, she still does things too quickly. But she moves for others. She's fond of the troubled, those with raw deals, the strays. And she wants to get things done for them. She has a very private but active spiritual life, and a natural class and ease with others. She is comfortable with, and genuinely interested in, everyone she meets, anywhere in the world. She wants to know them.
She lights up all rooms--not just ours. She puts up with me, and my
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La vie Parisienne
Via Ed. of Blawg Review.
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BBC News: French industrial output way down.
You are holy conservators of the best things Western: ideas, art and living. But you must get back to work. Sixty-three years is too long a holiday.
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French Moroccan
Writer-photographer Maryam at My Marrakesh heads north to Casablanca.
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May 10, 2008
Hermann the German: Germany as "Americanization Nation".
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Writing well: we're not.
It's what we've been trying to tell you. It's a problem and a shame. The lawyer as man or woman of letters: where did you go? We've had to ask half the bright young associates and law clerks we work with if English is really their first language. And all the electronics aren't helping matters. See National Law Journal.
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Wanted: "A fool in the forest".
Which is the name of a site of a talented California lawyer named George Wallace who has been working too hard, even by WAC?'s brutal standards. We miss his playful yet erudite Renaissance man's perspective. We need more lawyers writing about Salvador Dali.
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Cleveland
"...put some bleachers out in the sun/And have it out on Highway 61".
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May 09, 2008
International Dispute Negotiation: Iraq
Hear this week's IDN podcast, No. 25, "Resolving Disputes and Drafting a Constitution in Iraq" with Zaid Al-Ali, adviser to the United Nations on legal developments in Iraq.
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EU trade commissioner: "Lose the protectionist jive"
One of the best points made in the 2008 U.S. presidential election has come from a British politician. A reporter with the Financial Times in London writes that EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, a former member of Parliament and Labour Party mainstay, has had it with candidates, presumably Obama and Clinton, hunting American Democratic votes with protectionist rhetoric that they themselves don't likely believe. And he thinks the campaign noise may be setting the world trading system back by "decades". According to the FT, in a BBC interview on Hardtalk soon to be aired, Mandelson said:
It is irresponsible to be pretending to people you can erect new protection, new tariff barriers around your economy in this 21st century global age and still succeed in sustaining living standards and jobs. It is a mirage and they know it...
It is going to lead us into a vicious spiral of beggar-thy-neighbour policies which will take us decades back in terms of trade growth.
Mandelson refused to name the culprits.
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Get used to it: lawyers aren't royalty.
If you think "returning phone calls promptly" and "keeping the client informed" is a big deal, you are flirting with mediocrity. Get standards that work, make money and keep great clients coming back. See Rule 9 in our "twelve step" program for The Service-Challenged: "Be There For Clients 24/7".
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May 08, 2008
Who said this? "We have no great illusions, my brethren and I, ..."
about how much good it will do you to be told these things in advance. We have learned by bitter experience that you will not take the things we tell you very seriously. You conceive this, I take it, to be somewhat in the nature of the pep meeting to which you were first exposed when you entered college. You expect me to tell you that you should be earnest about your work, and get your back into it for dear old Siwash, and that he who lets work slide will stumble by the way.
And to whom was this said? Think carefully. The first person with the
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Back to Ohio
"Way to go, Ohio".
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May 07, 2008
When you work, you are marketing.
See WAC? Rule 6, and Leo Bottary's "Client Acquisition Versus Retention" at his Client Service Insights.
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The Economist: Can Viagra cure jet lag?
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Mr. Obama: Got platform?
After the Indiana and North Carolina primaries yesterday, NBC's Tim Russert may be right, and you may be the Man. Most Americans love hope, motherhood and good crops. We are optimists if nothing else. But specifics, if you please. The U.S. economy? Foreign policy? Trade?
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Chief Seattle
Forget Amazon, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Safeco and Washington Mutual. As goofy as you feel when you watch and hear it, each trip to Seattle must include Pike Place Fish Market, and watching a little fish-throwing. They always make it seem normal.
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May 06, 2008
2008 U.S. primaries: just about done
Today: Indiana and North Carolina
May 13: West Virginia Democratic, West Virginia GOP (1/3 selected)
May 20: Kentucky, Oregon
May 27: Idaho GOP
June 1: Puerto Rico Democratic
June 3: Montana Democratic, New Mexico GOP, South Dakota
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John Day: Great trial lawyering.
John Day in Tennessee is a working trial lawyer and writer who respects clients, juries, the profession and lawyering. Since December, he's somehow found time to keep giving us his remarkable series on "What It Takes To Be A Great Trial Lawyer" at his respected site, Day on Torts.
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The U.S. candidates and global trade.
Thanks to China Law Blog, we picked up on this still timely February 28 piece by Craig Maginness at Going Global entitled "Presidential Primary Edition--The Candidates, the Parties and Their Positions on Global Trade". Excerpt:
[John McCain] seems to be very much a free trader, and is willing to go even further in staking out what I think is a sensible but apparently unpopular stance on immigration as well. Among the Democrats, their records would suggest that Ms. Clinton has a more favorable view of international trade than Mr. Obama, though their pitched battle for the nomination is forcing both of them to skew their rhetoric to play to the protectionists in the labor movement bloc of the party.
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May 05, 2008
Smile when you violate our patents.
At Canada's Law Day: On Friday, Procter & Gamble sued Johnson & Johnson over two teeth whitening patents in Wisconsin's U.S. Western District. See also Reuters.
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Your Mother hosts Blawg Review.
Our Blawg Review host for BR #158 is a Dallas mom-attorney at The Mommy Blawg. The focus in part is on today, apparently International Midwives' Day. But she writes very well, this mother, better than WAC?'s moms.
Some Mothers we knew 1964-75
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Client service in a down economy.
See Leo Bottary's "Client Service And The Economy" at his Client Service Insights... CSI/Season 2.
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In 2008, how are law firms getting and keeping clients?
Brian Ritchey at More Partner Income breaks down ALM's recent survey on how larger firms globally (about 75 on up) are developing business these days. One interesting point is that only about 50% of these larger firms have a system in place that include each of the following: client interviews, client care "teams" and sales training.
Note: The grumpy but inspiring Holden Oliver and I are happy to help. We need two days with your main team and, most importantly, an iron-clad commitment and plan from your Executive Committee on how you will build and keep a client service culture at your firm after we leave your conference room. Seminars without dogged follow-up that firm management "gets" and buys into won't cut it.
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International Dispute Negotiation: Mark Kantor interview
In ADR, nothing is more important than the quality and backgrounds of the arbitrators or mediator you select. Internationally, the appointment process is even more challenging. So hear (along with the program's trademark perky jazz violin intro) the newest IDN podcast, No. 24, "Mark Kantor on Appointing Arbitrators". Kantor, a D.C. lawyer, discusses how to assemble a first-rate international arbitration tribunal, from obtaining good information on candidates to logistics to ethics rules.
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May 03, 2008
France's American-esque president: his tough first year.
Nicolas Sarkozy was elected on May 7, 2007. According to The Economist, in "Sarkozy's France: The Presidency as Theatre", his difficult first year in office can be divided into three acts. In Act II, as we reported in December, the business-oriented President Sarkozy on national television told millions of his countrymen:
The French needed to work harder, he told the country that invented the 35-hour working week. They needed to invest more in brainpower; and the state needed to tax and spend less. [more]
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Ten years of Swerdloff Dot Com
A NYC-residing lawyer and Renaissance man with smarts and wisdom beyond his years reaches a milestone, celebrates.
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London has a new--and different--mayor.
Yesterday in UK local elections, Conservative Party candidate Boris Johnson defeated the Labour Party's incumbent two-term mayor, Ken Livingstone. Labour lost hundreds of council seats in London, northern England and Wales in the party's biggest defeat in 40 years. See Daily Telegraph. Even by Brit standards, which prize oddity, the new London Mayor Johnson, a 43-year-old writer and TV commentator, is a unique fellow. AP: "Eccentric and offensive, London's new mayor boasts a devastating wit but reckless streak".
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May 02, 2008
"No love" in China for foreign corps.
Sorry, Yanks. China does love foreign investment--but it puts managing its populace of 1.4 billion people first. It will not tailor, bend or even explain laws and regs for foreign companies upon demand. WAC? doesn't like it either--but then we have an ugly American streak where U.S. clients doing business abroad are concerned. But listen to these two old China hands. Dan Harris at China Law Blog notes that "Foreign Companies In China Can't Get No Love" and Shanghai-based Rich Brubaker at All Roads Lead to China has this one: "Regulations in China: Are You Prepared? Are Ready? Are You OK?". And see CLB's earlier and related piece, "China Law As A Guessing Game".
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"Yes, they have more money."
Associates are different. So do they really need to market? Back to marketing, selling, clients, serving clients, keeping clients, and keeping clients you like. In a gem we missed last October, our friend Jim Hassett notes that associates, with limited time for marketing, are different from you and I, Ernest.* Also see Jim's post this week: Self-test: How efficient are your business development tactics?, an exercise for partners and senior attorneys.
*From alleged and oft-quoted exchange between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his glib friend Ernest Hemingway.
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The decline of the American newspaper?
More on good things to read. London-based The Economist doesn't always love Yanks. But these men and women are clever and often hilarious. They write well enough to make Newsweek and Time seem like that 3rd grade paper about your new dog Sparky. See "On the Brink--Some of America's most venerable newspapers face extinction, unless they evolve".
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May 01, 2008
The Blog Thing--finding good ones.
See at Anne Reed's Deliberations her post "Finding Good Blogs". And for non-U.S. legal blogs, just scroll down the left-hand side of WAC? You'll find them sorted by nations and jurisdictions. We currently have a total of 222.
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The new Wall Street Journal
We know what you mean, sir. Yesterday Broc Romanek got cranky about the "new" Rupert Murdoch-driven Wall Street Journal in "The New Media: Time to Merge with Old Media?". It's at Romanek's TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog. Don't be killing the brand, please.
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The 7 Habits of Highly Useless Corporate Lawyers.
Here.
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Labour Day, May Day, Beltane.
If today and in the next few days you have trouble rousting people in Norway, Italy or China on the phone or with e-mail, here's the reason. In many nations of Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, May 1 is Labour Day, or international workers day.
And a bonus day for all you pagans and druids out there: in parts of Europe, as in the U.S., May Day is also a rite of Spring, including Beltane, still observed by some in Scotland and Ireland.
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2007: "Prelude to Famine?"
Is Carolyn Elefant a saucy wordsmith or what? See at Legal Blog Watch her "Am Law 100: 2007 Was a Year to Feast, But Is It a Prelude to Famine?". The new Am Law 100 list is out, where clients can find (a) some of the very best (as in olden days) and (b) some of the most spectacularly mediocre lawyers on earth. Guys, you aren't what you used to be--on either skills or service.
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April 30, 2008
Will railroads make a come-back?
With gas at $4 a gallon, it's something to think about. And, hey, Warren Buffett suddenly loves trains. See Reuters article of April 20.
Photo of non-U.S. train
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The Complete Lawyer goes totally holistic...
...and tries to get you integrated, dude. Which, seriously, is not a bad idea. A whole issue (Vol. 4, No. 3) of Don Hutcheson's great online magazine for lawyers is devoted to "A Sound Mind In A Sound Body". It's Spring, a time for new beginnings and to kick out the jams.
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April 29, 2008
Specialization: What moves clients?
See Michelle Golden's article "Defining Who You Are and Who You Aren't = Specializing". And the winner is: "a limited number of really strong things for one group...". Read more.
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Elections in America
The election...was not fought over great issues. Few elections are. Questions important to the nation, it is true, were before the public eye--the tariff, land policy, internal improvements--but on these questions there were no clear-cut party stands. It was, rather, chicanery, slippery tactics, and downright falsehoods upon which the politicians relied to win the contest.
--Glyndon Van Deusen, in The Jacksonian Era, 1828-1848, Ch. 2 (Harper & Row, 1963 ed.), discussing the 1828 U.S. presidential election.
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Ken Wilber, this century's philosopher.
In Salon, see You are the river: An interview with Ken Wilber by Steve Paulson. Ken Wilber is no fad. He thinks and writes about the "ultimate reality that science can't touch", who's evolved and who's not, and what's in store for us. He really did amaze us in his 2000 book A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science, and Spirituality. What's weird today is truth tomorrow.
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Rjon Robbins: Failing to win.
Whether you are hunting mega-large publicly-traded or mom-and-pop small ones, to land clients, maybe you should "double your rate of failure". See Thomas Watson's Formula for Success at HowToMakeItRain.com.
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April 28, 2008
Oh Canada: Blawg Review #157
Toronto-based Michael Fitzgibbon hosts this week's Blawg Review #157 at Thoughts from a Management Lawyer. Fitzgibbon's is one of the most active and consistently fine lawyer sites you could read.
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The elected judiciary
The popular election of state judges is a national illness. We Americans are in denial about it. We are so heavily invested in it, and so used to it, that we are even incapable of experiencing the "oh-my-god" embarrassment it ought to cause every day it still exists.
We've mentioned Tocqueville before. If he were alive today, I had argued, Alexis de Tocqueville might very well "like" George W. Bush--as his exemplary American, warts and all. But he would be appalled to learn that 31 of our states still have some form of popular election of judges. The young French author who toured America in 1831 noted that some American states already were in the process of reducing the power and independence of the state judiciary through certain "innovations", and it disturbed him. One was the state legislatures' ability to recall judges. Another:
Some other state constitutions make the members of the judiciary elective, and they are even subjected to frequent re-elections. I venture to predict that these innovations will sooner or later be attended with fatal consequences; and that it will be found out at some future period that by thus lessening the independence of the judiciary they have attacked not only the judicial power, but the democratic republic itself.
from Democracy in America, Vol. I, Part 2, Ch. 8 (Tocqueville's emphasis in some translations).
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April 27, 2008
$200 million in punitives cut from award against Genentech.
The California Supreme Court: No punitive damages can be awarded for a breach of contract claim absent a fiduciary relationship between the parties. But the court still awards to City of Hope National Medical Center $300 million in gene-splicing technology royalties in 1976 contract dispute. See San Francisco Chronicle and Law.com.
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France: The government, simply put.
Taken verbatim from The Economist profile as of April 17--and in case you didn't know all this (we didn't...):
Official name: French Republic
Legal system: Codified Roman law system; constitution of 1958
National legislature: Bicameral - Senate of 331 members indirectly elected by local councils for a period of nine years, with one-third retiring every three years; National Assembly of 577 members directly elected from individual constituencies by a two-ballot system for a period of five years; may be dissolved by the president.
Main political parties
Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP); Parti socialiste (PS); Mouvement democrate (MD); Parti communiste francais (PCF); Parti radical de gauche (PRG); Verts; Front national (FN)
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Paris this Sunday morning
By Tara Bradford, and at her Paris Parfait, see her photographs of Les Puce de Vanves, in the 14th district, and one of the largest flea markets in Paris:
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Paris Parfait in London again.
Take a walk in the Spring on Oxford Street in London. Even if you don't travel, read about life outside the U.S., or worship European fashion, these photos are interesting, edgy. See Shipwrecked at Selfridges at Tara Bradford's Paris Parfait. The Paris-based American writer Bradford gets around.
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April 25, 2008
Name's Holden...buy you a Heineken? Just got back from Île Saint-Louis, and...
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Why aren't pols talking about climate change?
See Evan Thomas's article in Newsweek, "The Green Phantom". The answer? It may be the money--taxes and government funding. Just what would that revolution cost, voters might want to know. But climate change and global warming also have overtures of mild class warfare: limousine liberals (WAC?'s term) and "chattering classes" (Thomas's term) v. everyone else. Thomas:
There is an enormous class divide on the subject. The chattering classes obsess about greenhouse emissions. The rest of the country, certainly the older and less well-off voters, can't be bothered.... It may be, though, that the politicians know something they are not saying-and that the green-conscious upper classes do not wish to confront. Making a serious dent in global warming would be hugely costly.
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April 24, 2008
Here's a book we'll buy and read.
And not just because of the compelling title. It's by Newport Beach trial lawyer and writer J. Craig Williams of May It Please The Court. It covers, in an irreverent way, how "real life" becomes "real litigation". Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski has written the book's foreword. How to Get Sued: An Instructional Guide is already hitting best seller lists--and it's not even out yet.
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Clueless closings, goofy charts and other screw-ups.
See "Lawyers: So Certain, So Wrong" at Anne Reed's Deliberations, a site about jury work. This piece also underscores the value of the mock trial--and of identifying lame language, arguments and themes in advance of actual trial.
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Chelsea does Duke; disses Dad.
In yesterday's The Chronicle, Duke's daily: "My mother would be a better president than my father," she said. "She is more progressive and more prepared."
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Still got money?
If you're not fed up, and feeling recession-proof, you can still give $2300 to Clinton, Obama or McCain per election (general and primary). See our regularly updated Election 2008: Summary of Campaign Contribution Limits Under Federal, California State, San Diego County, & San Diego City Laws.
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April 23, 2008
Still got clients?
See Jim Hassett's new post "What are the top marketing priorities in a down economy? Part 1" at his Legal Business Development. Jim collects and organizes advice from some of the best legal marketing thinkers.
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Voir dire: you ready for this?
See at Deliberations Anne Reed's new article, "Ready For Anything". It features: the late Irving Younger (a Williams & Connolly standout who loved trial arts and sane writing), Nadine who used to be Ned, and ideas on what kind of humans excel at voir dire.
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Writing Well: Happy Birthday, Bill.
When we in the West do write well, we thank two people who took chances and liberties with a gritty, often maligned language called English: Geoffrey Chaucer and, 150 years later, William Shakespeare, born on April 23, 1564.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
SCOTUS MeadWestvaco decision is victory for business taxpayers. But do the States still have alternative theories to tax?
Last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision in MeadWestvaco Corp. v. Illinois Dep't of Revenue, 553 U.S. ___, No. 06–1413 (April 15, 2008) was a victory for business taxpayers--especially for corporations operating in several U.S. states. As WAC? pointed out in a January 16 post on the day of oral arguments, the Illinois Appellate Court went well beyond the clearly established constitutional limits in allowing Illinois to tax part of a capital gain resulting from a $1.5 billion sale by Mead in 1994 of Lexis/Nexis. See background and facts here. The Court took a similar view.
In MeadWestvaco, a unanimous decision written by Justice Alito, the Court upheld its long line of cases holding that the "unitary business principle" sets limitations on a state’s ability to tax:
If the value the State wished to tax derived from a "unitary business" operated within and without the State, the State could tax an apportioned share of the value of that business instead of isolating the value attributable to the operation of the business within the State. Conversely, if the value the State wished to tax derived from a "discrete business enterprise," then the State could not tax even an apportioned share of that value.
Slip op. at 8-9 (citations omitted).
Posted by Julie McGuire and Dan Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
April 22, 2008
Doing business in China: Cutting paths on uncertain terrain.
Dan Harris at China Law Blog discusses "China Law As Guessing Game", inspired by the Stan Abrams post at China Hearsay called "The Law and New Tech in China". Harris and Abrams are full-time China lawyers with busy practices. Note how they hit on not only handling the barrage of first-impression legal and regulatory issues confronting their clients in Greater China, but also on the importance of guiding clients in an active, non-CYA fashion on issues abroad where the "applicable law" is very often silent, muddy or missing. Incidently, over the years, WAC? has met with Beijing-based Abrams, an IP and business lawyer and old China hand, in Europe at meetings of the IBLC.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Recusal standards for state jurists
Thirty-one states in America still hold popular elections of judges. WAC? would be happy if elected state judges--with their shadow constituencies of campaign money-contributing companies and lawyers--could just adhere to the disqualification rules already in place. But many don't. Popular election of state judges is medieval and embarrassing--and so we like Tony Mauro's Law.com piece "A New Call for Tougher Recusal Standards". It begins:
With state judicial elections getting more costly and raucous, many organizations are voicing concern about how to preserve--or restore-- the independence and integrity of state court systems. When judicial candidates accept campaign donations or make campaign pronouncements that might affect their impartiality in future cases, what can be done?
Posted by Brooke Powell. Permalink | Comments (0)
Predicting Pennsylvania--and the rest of the primaries.
Pollster and consultant Mike O'Neil of O'Neil Associates is a friend of ours. We liked the following article by Mike--he prepared it especially for the Pennsylvania primary today--enough to print it entirely and word-for-word:
The Rest of the Story: Predicting the Outcome of All of the Remaining Democratic Primaries.
Michael J. O'Neil, Ph.D
"It is difficult to predict, especially the future."
--Yogi Berra
Last month, I sent out a missive "The Myth of Momentum in the Democratic Primaries" in which I argued that the pattern of Obama and Clinton victories could be explained primarily by the demographics of the various states, rather than by any of the "momentum" that has been widely discussed in the press.
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April 21, 2008
Golden on mentoring.
Mentoring can be ugly or rewarding--and even euphoric. It depends on whether you plan it and tweak it right. See Michelle Golden's "Internal Mentoring Programs: The Wrong Approach" at her Golden Practices.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)
Is GAAP on its way out?
Will the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) soon replace Generally Accepted Accounting Principles? See this post by Brian Ritchey at More Partner Income, inspired in part by "Goodbye GAAP" in CFO Magazine.
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"Have you ever been punched by a client?"
We mean literally. See this one by David Giacalone, both lyrical and spiritual leader of the entire blogosphere, at f/k/a....
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The best books on "all you can be".
...Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . .
--F.Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
See the second appearance of Stephanie West Allen's "Reading Minds" column in the ABA's Law Practice Magazine for April/May. Marian Lee, Bruce MacEwen, Michael Melcher and Catherine Hance make their selections. Which one of these reading minds chose The Great Gatsby?
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Blawg Review #156: Are you an Avatar?
"Are virtual worlds the beginning of the end of society?" And what's virtual law, anyway? Author-blogger Benjamin Duranske hosts this week's Blawg Review #156 at Virtually Blind. Strange, wonderful, even inspiring. And a very nice review of last week's posts. BR #156 also gets a write-up by Robert Ambrogi, who like us is intrigued by virtuality, at ALM's Legal Blog Watch.
An Avatar, pre-Durankse.
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April 20, 2008
Real Yank lawyers read Charon QC's Weekend Review.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
Writing well
Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.
--Gene Fowler (Eugene Devlan) (1890–1960)
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
April 19, 2008
Greece: Litigation and ADR
Mike McIlwrath, a GE in-house litigation counsel based in Florence, Italy, discusses litigation, mediation, and arbitration in Greece with Greek litigator Pericles Stroubos. Listen to IDN podcast No. 23, "Negotiating a Binding Dispute Clause with a Greek Company".
Posted by Brooke Powell. Permalink | Comments (0)
Newsweek poll: Hillary drops back more.
At WAC?, politics is always important. Who governs and how informs culture, business, law, religion and even art. So our writers watch, chose sides, get involved when inspired, vote and argue amongst ourselves. We have serious Rs, Ds and "Others". A Newsweek poll says Hillary Clinton is losing ground: "Despite her campaign's relentless attacks on Barack Obama's qualifications and electability, Hillary Clinton has lost a lot of ground with Democratic voters nationwide going into Tuesday's critical primary in Pennsylvania..." [more]
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
April 18, 2008
More coverage of SCOTUS MeadWestvaco tax opinion.
In no particular order:
Canada's Law Day
Paul Caron's TaxProf Blog
The venerable Lyle Denniston at SCOTUS blog
University of Pittsburgh's Jurist
Cato Institute's Cato @ Liberty
Alan Sherman at Texas State and Local Tax Law Blog
Howard Bashman at How Appealing
National Association of Manufacturers's ShopFloor blog
Kimberly Atkins at DC Dicta
D.C. Toedt at 100 Feet Up.
Background and pre-argument comments by WAC? are here.
Posted by Julie McGuire and Dan Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
April 17, 2008
S&P/BusinessWeek's Global Innovation Index
The notion is that over the last year companies in the "GII"--an upstart index launched in February 2008--have outperformed companies in the S&P 500 Index and the S&P Global 100 Index. See the index and "Innovation Scores Again" at Not An MBA. Via Ed. of Blawg Review, a global and innovative being.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
April 16, 2008
Cross-examination: criminal v. civil.
They are two different worlds. Chicago's Stewart Weltman explains at his Lean and Mean Litigation blog.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
Why ever mediate?
For some answers, see Justin Patten's Human Law Mediation. It took our firm--and me--a long time to figure it out: paying a hard-working mediator to deliver a reality check to all sides is the best settlement device out there. It stifles the testosterone for a few hours, and forces reflection. Helps your client rep/GC and you with your inevitable "Kool-Aid" problems*, too. If something can settle at all, a good mediator will get that done. It is well worth the money spent. If it still tries, you try a more efficient case.
*Believing and thinking for whatever reasons that your court case is better than it actually is.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (2)
U.S. Supreme Court decides corporate tax dispute in MeadWestvaco.
Yesterday, on tax day, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in MeadWestvaco Corp. v. Illinois Department of Revenue, holding that an Illinois appellate court had gone well beyond constitutional limits in allowing the State of Illinois to tax part of a capital gain resulting from Mead's $1.5 billion sale in 1994 of Lexis/Nexis. The full opinion is here. On January 16, the day of oral arguments, Julie McGuire and Tom Welshonce previewed MeadWestvaco in "Boundary Flare-Up: U.S. Supreme Court Revisits Constitutional Limitation on States’ Power to Tax". We'll soon post more on yesterday's decision.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
April 15, 2008
February 3, 1913: Amendment XVI
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
April 15 has been federal Tax Day in America since 1955--but it all started with the 1895 U.S. Supreme Court case (5-4 vote) in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company. In Pollock, the Court declared unconstitutional a federal income tax on income from certain stocks and bonds, and thereby invalidated part of an 1894 act that imposed a direct tax on the incomes of U.S. citizens and corporations. The 16th Amendment was proposed by Congress on July 12, 1909, and finally ratified by the states on February 3, 1913 (1,302 days). It mooted Pollock. The amendment was rejected by New Hampshire, Arkansas, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Utah.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
"How to Blog like a Canadian"
By Steve Matthews at Stem's Law Firm Web Strategy blog. Matthews is also a member of the respected Canadian legal blogging co-op, Slaw.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
Real Piracy
See "Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum" at Transnational Law Blog and "The Jolly Roger Still Flies" at IntLawGrrls.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
The enduring Duke lacrosse experience
"Write something on the Duke Experience, that's all I ask," my editor was always telling me.
--W. Morris in "Making the Nut at Duke", Duke Chanticleer, Vol. II, 1975
The lacrosse case never really ended. See at The Chronicle, Duke's student daily, "City attorneys argue for ethics rule in lax suit" re: the 38 unindicted members of the 2005-2006 men's lacrosse team who have brought a civil suit. And see KC Johnson's stalwart Durham-in-Wonderland.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Life after--or instead of--law.
At the ABA Journal's Law News Now, see "Lawyer Hated Securities Practice, But Loves Fox News", about new Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Recycling Is 2% of U.S. GDP?
We're all ears--but really? See Environmental Protection and the mentioned April 2 report of Progressive Investor.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
April 14, 2008
Jennifer TV
Former news anchor Jennifer Antkowiak's show "Jennifer" is on Sundays at 11 AM EST. See www.jennifertvshow.com
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
May Day: DePaul Ethics Symposium in Chicago.
The DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal of the DePaul University College of Law, together with the Commercial Law League of America, will be hosting its Sixth Annual Symposium on Thursday, May 1 from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Westin Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The theme is "Lawyers, Law Firms, & the Legal Profession: An Ethical View of the Business of Law". There are four panels, including "The Roberts Court, the 2008 Election & the Future of the Judiciary".
Posted by Brooke Powell. Permalink | Comments (2)
Be excellent--not perfect.
Ah, devil perfectionism: the great destroyer of gifted young lawyers.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
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)
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Cincinnati's P&G gets wiggy.
Reuters: "Procter & Gamble plans hip-hop music foray" with its Tag body sprays. Yeah, they bad.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
Blawg Review #155: Bad Poetry Day
Greg May hosts this week's Blawg Review #155 at The California Blog of Appeal.
Posted by Brooke Powell. Permalink | Comments (0)
April 12, 2008
Morocco envy.
A lucky human, I get to travel for a living. I work, I read and I talk to everyone indiscriminately (I'm told) everywhere I go. When I run or walk or attend a meeting, I take a camera and a notebook with me. And where I go doesn't have to be abroad. Yesterday afternoon I was in the downtown section of ever-evolving Nashville, strolling around on a balmy day after a meeting near Vanderbilt; I got a kick out of that (in between cell phone intrusions) even though I've been there a few times. But I've never been to Morocco, with its amazing mix of Berber, Roman, Greek, Visigoth, Arab, French and Spanish influences. For the last few years, I've been thinking and reading about Morocco. Can an American company please hire me or mine to work there? In the meantime, I visit Maryam's My Marrakesh. I first noticed her site when I came upon a picture of Maryam--an American living with her family in Marrakech--taken in a Paris cafe I am virtually certain I had been in a few weeks before. She travels, writes, takes wonderful photos.
From "Marrakech: and Ludovic's beautiful decay".
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)
You'll get no argument from WAC?
The "social" side of the blogosphere. Whether it's linking to other blogs, or actually talking by phone or in person to other blogging humans, What About Clients? thinks that the better overtures, productivity and just plain fun of being alive often get lost in our brave new cyber-world. So we applaud and support that old-fashioned stuff wherever we see it. At Kevin O'Keefe's Real Lawyers Have Blogs, read "American law bloggers could stand to be more social" based on an interview with Canada's Steve Matthews of Stem Legal. And then get busy forming a relationship.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (1)
April 11, 2008
Mediating Internationally: The Netherlands
Listen to the latest IDN podcast, No. 22, "Manon Schonewille on Mediation in the Netherlands".
Posted by Brooke Powell. Permalink | Comments (0)
Writing well.
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.
--Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Why Salzburg matters.
Apart from Mozart, salt, ancient Celtic culture and restaurants carved into cliffs, this Austrian city is home to the International Business Law Consortium, an active group of over 80 first-rate law and accounting firms in strategic cities all over the world. It was founded in 1996.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
First Stonehenge dig since 1964
According to MSNBC and other sources, it shows that the area on the Salisbury Plain where the blue stones are may have been a holy place beginning in 3100 BC--about 500 years before the big stones got there from 150 miles away.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
Do you really need Big, Clumsy & Unresponsive in 50 cities worldwide?
If you are a savvy General Counsel, is there any reason to keep engaging your US or UK-based law firm that expanded in the past few years all over the globe like a spastic hamburger franchise?
One of our most clicked-on posts is here.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
April 10, 2008
London's Magic Circle law firms: Who are those guys?
Lots of people talk about London's Magic Circle--but who are they really? The commonly accepted firms are Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, and Slaughter and May. According to Richard Lloyd's article for The American Lawyer Magazine, "The Global 100: Magic Circle Firms Have the Magic Touch", featured at Law.com, these law firms dominate high-end corporate work in the UK and Europe, are the most profitable and expansive firms, and are surpassing their American rivals. Listen to J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi discuss the Magic Circle with Lloyd on their Lawyer 2 Lawyer podcast at Legal Talk Network.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
Rule 30, tool-sharpening and Tennessee.
While we're on the subject, and as WAC? spends the next few days discovering great legal minds in the state of Tennessee, hear three podcasts on advanced deposition techniques by Evan Schaeffer at his enduring Illinois Trial Practice blog.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
Depositions: Fire, fall back, savour the badness.
A deposition is the time to get the bad news out... 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.
From Stewart Weltman's recent piece "The Two Most Important Questions to Ask During A Discovery Deposition".
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
IMF: Global growth threatened by biggest shock "since the Great Depression".
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is headed for a recession, dragging world economic growth down along with it, the International Monetary Fund concluded in a sobering new forecast Wednesday that underscored the damage inflicted from the housing and credit debacles. [more]
The Fund is always a living tribute to the human spirit.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (1)
April 09, 2008
Two industry victories in one online music sharing case.
Tom Welshonce's article "Record Companies Score Two Victories in One Case Against Online Music Sharing" was published in the March 28 edition of the Allegheny County Bar Association's Lawyers Journal. Virgin Records v. Thomas is the case of Jammie Thomas, a 30 year-old woman sued by seven record companies for unlawfully sharing music
Posted by Brooke Powell. Permalink | Comments (0)
Don't compete on price. Don't compete on price.
If clients come to you for price, they will leave you for price. To land and keep good corporate clients, never compete on price--unless, of course, your Executive Committee has decided to re-brand your firm Generic BizLaw Dweebs (GBD). Compete on value. And that means: pitch and work only for lawyer-savvy clients. Do see at Korea Law blog this gem by Seoul-based Brendon Carr: 'I Don’t Care What You Charge; Whatever It Is, It’s 15% Too Much'. At best, the bargain-hunting corporate client Brendon describes isn't a sophisticated user of legal services, is well aware of that, lacks confidence, and therefore makes rube-like demands for "price reductions". It can't discern differences between one set of corporate lawyers and another set.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
April 08, 2008
The crux of it.
Law is intelligence without appetite.
--Aristotle (384 BC–322 BC), Politics
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (1)
The Environment: Mr. Waxman goes to Israel.
The Jerusalem Post opines on veteran Los Angeles Congressman Henry Waxman's visit to Israel in "A California State of Mind". Waxman has been a player in energy and clean air issues since 1974.
Posted by Holden Oliver. Permalink | Comments (0)
April 07, 2008
A step forward for client interviews (or audits)?
Client interviews (or audits) by a 'third person' is a long-time favorite WAC? subject--and our recommendation to all law firms. At least one law firm, Philly's Ballard Spahr, is attempting to raise the standard by hiring a full-time non-lawyer client interviewer. See Mark Beese's take in "Ballard Hires Client Interviewer" at his Leadership for Lawyers.
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
"Future of Arbitration"
See post by John Phillips on the Supreme Court's March 25 decision in Hall Street Associates v. Mattel, Inc. Phillips excerpt: "The problem was that the scope of judicial review permitted by this agreement was greater than that provided by the Federal Arbitration Act".
Posted by JD Hull. Permalink | Comments (0)
Blawg Review 154: World Health Day
David Harlow hosts this week's Blawg Review