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April 28, 2009
You think?
WSJ Law Blog: Recession Advice to Associates: Keep Your Head Down and Work.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2009
The IMF and World Bank were super-noisy this week.
Is this play money like in Monopoly? First, earlier this week, The International Monetary Fund, as it prepared to have its annual meeting with the World Bank this weekend in DC, said that American financial institutions might lose $2.7 trillion, as part of the expected worldwide loss of over $4 trillion. Then, IMF top advisers said they wanted to aid all ailing countries (WSJ). Next, the World Bank said it wants to give extra infrastructure money to poorer nations in the amount of $45 billion (AP). Finally, the IMF Managing Director said he wants "speedy bank reform" (BBC News).
It's wonderful that the IMF-WB have the resources, clout and support from Congress and G-20 nations to do all this great "stuff"--because WAC? was certain before this week that they did not. It's true that at the G-20 summit earlier this month, delegates agreed to quadruple IMF funds to $1 trillion. But does anyone expect those nations to affirm that "decision" and deliver in short order?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2009
Real lawyers practice law. Blogging comes second
We got a profession for you right here. See Scott Greenfield's piece "Waiting For The Checks To Roll In", commenting on a WSJ Mark Penn column declaring that "blogging is the newest profession". Greenfield excerpt:
They [pro bloggers] work long hours? Again, I'm not quite impressed. Working 50 to 60 hours might seem like a great burden to some, but most lawyers consider that half time. We work as long as we need to work, and then we work a little more to make sure our work is done right.
Note: Greenfield is a trial lawyer who simply hasn't yet heard that hard and careful work has gone out of style. Odd guy.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
GC-heavy: InsideCounsel's SuperConference, Chicago, May 5-6.
Perkins Coie partner and DNC Chairman Robert Bauer
By General Counsel for General Counsel. Major conferences for corporate lawyers are usually attended by hundreds of fine practitioners from outside firms--but a just handful of in-house lawyers. In ten days, Chicago hosts a glaring exception, and, so far (the organizers tell WAC?), one with the opposite breakdown: InsideCounsel magazine's 9th annual SuperConference at the Chicago Fairmont May 5-6.
It's different: GC-heavy.
We won't, of course, look down our nose at InsideCounsel for having a few registrants from law firms like David Boies, Fred Bartlit, former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, and DNC Chairman Robert Bauer. But top in-house lawyers at SuperConference so far include GCs for Cisco Systems, Chevron Philips, LG Electronics, Ingram Industries, WESCO International, Xerox, Microsoft, Whirlpool, Office Depot, Union Pacific, TV One, C-SPAN, FMC Technologies, the DNC, the Milwaukee Brewers, and many more "majors" you'd recognize. Chief in-house litigation counsel for DuPont, IBM and Cardinal Health are also participating.
The two-day meeting is "re-designed for 2009". So topics at the SuperConference won't be much of a surprise. If you can think of it, it will be covered. More details are here.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2009
Is Obama making some Americans go nuts?
Brit wits want to know. Whatever the ailment, it must be dicier than jetlag, and more contagious. We've noticed it, too. On television, at least one conservative talking head per day has blown a tube on the air; it started two weeks ago, right around the time Obama started getting on planes. What gives? WAC? voted for John McCain--but he (WAC?, or McCain for that matter) is not crazy from the loss. The Economist, too, wonders about "The Obama Derangement Syndrome":
Mr Obama may be widely admired both at home and abroad. But there are millions of Americans who do not like the cut of his jib—and a few whose dislike boils over into white-hot hatred.... The internet crackles with comparisons between Mr Obama and various dictators (Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini) or assorted psychotics (Charles Manson and David Koresh).
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
Blawg Review by two lawyer-journalists.
Query: What if H.L Mencken had been a lawyer, too?
Since October 2008, I've been working and traveling more than I would have expected. Family, clients and our law firm come first--in that order. Always in fourth place: all non-billable writing. That means blog posts, articles and op-ed pieces with pithy titles like "The Future of Awesome New Rule 502, F.R.E." and "The Mood of the Midwest: Victimized Women Lawyers of South Bend Speak Out" and "George W. Bush: One Of Us" are last. Repeat: blogging is fourth. Always. But we still read Blawg Review every week--whether we write about it or not. Always.
Blawg Review has become increasingly global and inclusive--without losing its edge and relevancy. In the last two weeks, it was hosted first (a) by one of the best of the established legal blog writers (a Yank), and then last week (b) by one of the newer crop of thinker-writers (not-a-Yank, but we'll claim this guy anyway):
The "down" economy may change forever the way clients choose and work with outside lawyers. But what of sound lawyering and sane writing? We just don't expect either to go out of style; we do worry that cookie-cutter, mail-it-in lawyering, and lame legal writing, are part of a trend foisted on us all by a growing and insidious herd of "law cattle" which, like livestock over the centuries, don't know it when they're fouling up the pasture. Well, fellow Scots-Welshman J. Craig Williams is one of the few true lawyer-journalists out there. We like that he even exists. Trial lawyer and writer--excellent and enduring in each discipline--Craig turned in a fine Celtic Blawg Review #206: "All Things Scottish" at his May It Please The Court.
Williams, incidentally, is one of the handful of lawyer-bloggers I have met, or really wanted to meet, on his or her own turf. That list is short, but satisfying: Chicago's Pat Lamb, "Ed." of Blawg Review, London's Justin Patten and Charon QC, Seattle's Kevin O'Keefe (China lawyer Dan Harris, also of Seattle, quite rudely left town upon hearing of my trip) and, finally, the UK's GeekLawyer (which frankly is more like meeting 7 or 8 people).
But here's another lawyer-journalist I'd like to meet. Last week, Jordan Furlong, a visionary but sober Canadian writer--similarly, you rarely see both attributes at once in one human--again gave us something to admire with Blawg Review #207: "All the News That Fits" at his Law21. Jordan immediately impressed WAC? with his insights on where this profession is headed--at least in The West--when he started Law 21 in January 2008. He's been right about a few things.
WAC? included these two sites--along with, of course, the genuinely profession-changing phenomenon of Blawg Review itself--in our February 9 post about the handful of must-read blogs. There just aren't that many, folks.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
Don't bogart that TIME Magazine, my friend.
Bong Hits for Henry Luce? You and I cannot write this kind of thing, Ernest. TIME columnist and novelist Joe Klein, who is different than us, can. See his "Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense" in the current TIME issue. I was in San Francisco yesterday with old reporter friends; someone wondered if "blunt" and "joint" might be replaced by "Henry" or "Luce" or, better yet, "Hadden", to name it after Henry's way more fun--and likely more talented--Hotchkiss-Yale pal and co-founder, Briton, who died quite young. Well, maybe not. But all of a sudden I'm really really hungry.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2009
Posted by JD Hull at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2009
Building a Better Brand Morgue
Remember back in the day that store called Circuit City? It's hardly a notion that at first blush makes you bounce out of bed eagerly to greet the new day. But Salon.com has collected some very instructive swan songs at its Brand Graveyard. To be fair, and on the brighter side, some of the brands discussed--like Saab, for example--are merely sick or dying. They have been mismanaged, and often it seems like their owners have been trying hard to kill them. Which reminds me to ask: would some nice northern European company please buy Saab back from GM? See today's Bloomberg.
"The Brand Graveyard is where brands go to die."
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
April 15, 2009
Good enough, smart enough, tough enough.
Stuart saves Minnesota? And patient enough. "Senator Franken" still sounds, well, funny--but we'll take him even though there have been far less able legislators in the U.S. Senate than D-turned-R Norm Coleman. Too bad that Minnesota--historically a liberal state that has more than once played a major role in defining U.S. populism--can't have them both this term. AP two days ago: "Minnesota court declares Franken leading vote-getter". Problem: we can expect more legal "wrangling". So see Bonnie Erbe's modest proposal yesterday at USNWR.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
April 12, 2009
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:56 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2009
Breaking news: $90 is too much for pay for torn jeans.
News of the Revolution. And $300 and hour is too much to pay for a first year associate to read documents--if not fraud. MSNBC: "How Abercrombie & Fitch is losing its cool".
"Liberty Leading The People" by Eugene Delcroix, 1830, The Louvre
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2009
Beavis, just tell them: "No pro bono--no Beavis".
Reformation of the evils of BigLaw is a wonderful thing.... [The] evil [is] to the clients who pay for useless hours by young associates whose work product could be more swiftly and competently produced by monkeys sitting at typewriters in the bowels of the Library of Britain.
We're glad someone has the guts and Simple Honesty to just say it. See "Slackoisie to Biglaw: Be Funner" at Church of Greenfield. Most of you? You are not worthy. Ya' big weenies.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:28 AM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2009
Comrade Kim gets re-elected.
New York Times: "Unopposed, Kim Jong-Il Takes Third Term".
Taking measure of running-dog lackeys of imperialist West.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2009
Query: How many law students does it take to read a newspaper?
Clueless in America. When WAC? was just 25-years-old, he was already a brilliant securities lawyer, independently wealthy, and a leading expert on: (1) law firm economics and management, and (2) working with clients in global markets. And so were all his friends. Well, weren't you? Hey, it could happen. And monkeys could fly out of your wazoo.
Anyway, the National Law Journal on April 7 reported that: "Despite Decimated Job Market, Top Law Students Gather to Further Goal of Changing Big Law Firms". Excerpt:
The goal of Building a Better Legal Profession (BBLP) [the student group] is to create collective action among students and associates from top schools to prod large law firms to implement what it says are significant changes needed in billable hour requirements, diversity and the commitment to pro bono work. Their hope is that students and associates from the best schools will not accept jobs at firms that do not change their ways.
Available only in ladies lightweight at Famous Forever.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2009
Obama in Europe: More than Kennedy-lite.
WAC? is wrong about many things--and was wrong to suggest five months ago that Barack Obama was not ready for prime time on terrain outside the U.S. Maybe Obama can't save the world, or your 401(k)--but our phlegmy Brit friends give Obama high marks for making friends in Europe. They do so, of course, without gushing. See The Economist: "The G20 Summit: The Obama Effect". It was published April 2 but still captures the Obama "atmospherics" in the days since then. Obama has even charmed dour Prague, where (despite its arresting beauty) being in a really bad mood has long been a popular sport. And as expected, France and Germany may emerge as the nations least likely to support aggressive stimulus measures:
President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe had done a lot already to provide economic stimulus. What was needed was far tougher regulation, whose targets would include hedge funds, traders’ pay, rating agencies and tax havens. Both of them seemed keener on trying to prevent financial crises in future than on dealing with the one that is raging now.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
April 05, 2009
Desperately Seeking Value For Clients.
Four 'down-economy' questions:
1. After the economy stabilizes, "should associates pay their law firms in the first two to three years?"
2. American law schools need to step up--or get out of the way. Why not bottle up students for only 1.5 years--and then release them so they can learn something about lawyering? Isn't it time to shorten classroom legal education, and let Law-Firms-That-Teach be paid for--or at least not have to pay for themselves--what they give to young lawyers?
3. In the short-term, when Big Clients find out they were being charged in excess of paralegal rates for high-priced associates-in-training to do paralegal work, will those clients sue for the difference? Lots of great class action firms out there. Talk about strange bedfellows--and novel clients for the dreaded Rule 23 Royalty.
4. Restitution is the millions would be in play. But is there money left in the law firms to pay for the judgments?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 05:20 AM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2009
Celestial: Declarations and Exclusions
We worked hard this week--but did one mandatory non-billable thing. We visited, read and listened to George Wallace's Blawg Review #205, and admired his bonus post for you April fools. Speaking of same, the late Holden Oliver, misanthrope and tragic philanderer, once said that California's erudite Wallace was "the only insurance lawyer living who doesn't remind me of a plant, a rock or a household appliance". Our short form review of #205 should do it: fine, authentic, literate, worldly--and celestial. His Appendix to #205? We'll get to it. Busy here.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 02, 2009
Keeping Clients: "Do we really need a memo on that?"
Maybe go to the mirror and practice saying that to your client. Another way to say it:
You know, Elizabeth, this project had been lawyered and memo-ed out the proverbial wazoo. Let's do the research right away. We can get Justin and Brittany to start on it today; they know the legal terrain here. But after we research it, let's just have the [brief/letter/contract] reflect what we conclude. That's where we're headed with this anyway. Let's skip the lengthy legal memorandum.
There are times you don't need to scorch the earth. To save time, money and relationships, just answer the question. Do the research, take a stand, and write it all up in the instrument you are actually going to use anyway.
Stop Feeding the Monster. Skip the 10-, 20- and 35-page memo.
Aside from necessary opinion letters, don't offer to write or write a cover-everyone's-ass and/or comprehensive "all-legal-theories-and-strategies" memorandum unless your in-house lawyer really wants it. And then try to talk her or him out of it.
Part of the job of outside counsel is to guide the in-house--and make him or her be good and look good by saving money and time. If you are in litigation, test out your brilliant ideas and research in a draft brief or another document the client can actually use later on. Skip the 10-, 20- and 35-page memo. Try to make memos you do do be shorter, and reflect the group's cumulative thinking on that issue or project.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
The G-20 summit: Venus considers Mars.
It's no surprise that European caution versus U.S. drive toward stimulus strategies is the main theme of President Obama's eight-day trip. The Associated Press notes that "Europeans look to welfare, not stimulus, in crisis". Excerpts:
Across a continent long accustomed to big government and high taxes, many Europeans are counting on generous welfare benefits to shield them from the worst of the meltdown. Others worry that loosening interest rates would lead to devastating inflation.
In the American view, the economic house is on fire, and only quick and decisive action will put out the flames. Europe is not quite as ready to pull the alarm.
For all their talk of coming together at this week's summit of the G-20 economic powers in London, European leaders have been openly skeptical of corporate bailouts and massive U.S.-style stimulus spending.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 02:13 AM | Comments (2)
April 01, 2009
Holden H. Oliver (1968-2009)
WAC? co-writer, former reporter and third-year law student Holden Oliver died Tuesday in Palo Alto at Stanford University Medical Center. A Boston native, and from a family that has lived in eastern Massachusetts for nearly 380 years, Holden graduated with a degree in English (highest honors) from Williams College in 1990. A former reporter for the Kansas City Star in its Washington, D.C. office, he also worked for ten years in the London and Frankfurt bureaus of the New York Times. Holden entered Stanford Law School in 2006, and joined WAC? "out of boredom" while still a student in early 2007. Last year, he was elected to the Managing Board of the Stanford Law Review, and worked in July in Hull McGuire's Pittsburgh office. His death was the result of a kiln explosion in which his ex-girlfriend, a Stanford undergraduate co-ed half his age, was apparently not injured in any respect. If you wish to help us honor Holden's life, his sarcastic uber-WASP prose style, his support of the profession's growing value movement, and his energetic if, frankly, amoral lifestyle, donations can be made in his name to the Nantucket Preservation Trust, the Cosmos Club or Kelly's Irish Times in Washington, D.C.
Posted by JD Hull at 06:49 AM | Comments (3)