LAWYERSCHILE EL MUNDO INTERNACIONAL DEL ABOGADO

Rodrigo González Fernández y un grupo de egresados de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad la Republica en Chile ha decidido poner al alcance de todo el mundo de la profesion legal importantes materias en Ingles para ir practicando el trabajo en materia de Tratados internacionales y que nuestra profesión estará en primera linea. Invitamos a todos a opinar, debatir, participar activamente.Es el primer blog legal en inglés de latinoamerica.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Legal Blog Watch

Legal Blog Watch

It's Not Just Law Firms That Alter Wikipedia Entries -- Dutch Royalty Does It Too

As we posted here, it's not just law firms that are altering their Wikipedia entries. According to this amusing article from The Associated Press (8/30/07), Dutch royals do it too. As the article describes, a Dutch prince and his wife revised their entry to give their version of the somewhat scandalous circumstances surrounding their marriage. As with the law firm edits, the Dutch couple's changes were discovered through Wiki Scanner.

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on August 30, 2007 at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Transcript of Sen. Craig Police Interview Released

Scary, is all I can think after reading (and hearing the audio) of the just-released transcript of Idaho Sen. Larry Craig's police interview. For those who haven't followed the story, Craig was arrested for lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport bathroom back in June 2007 and, apparently without consulting a lawyer, plead guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct earlier this month. During the police interview, Craig's tone was (in my view) entirely respectful; he didn't try to pull rank, but the officer took umbrage just the same:

I know you're not going to fight me. But that's not the point. I would respect you and I still respect you. I don't disrespect you but I'm disrespected right now and I'm not tying to act like I have all kinds of power or anything, but you're sitting here lying to a police officer.

If a police officer can treat a United States senator in this manner, imagine how many run-of-the-mill, less-educated or -savvy criminals are intimidated into pleading guilty for what they might not have done. That's one aspect of this that's scary.

Of course, what's also troubling is that Craig couldn't discern even from the interview how weak the police officer's case was and apparently didn't understand the value of calling a lawyer. Even if Craig did engage in lewd conduct, a skilled lawyer could have helped Craig understand the legal and political implications of a guilty plea. How can we expect our representatives to defend our rights when, apparently, some of them don't understand these rights themselves?

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on August 30, 2007 at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
www..Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
telefono: 5839786
santiago-chile

Escribanos, consúltenos, opine

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Legal Blog Watch

Legal Blog Watch

eBay Scheme Earns Reprimand for Lawyer

The Delaware Supreme Court yesterday issued a public reprimand against lawyer Joseph N. Gielata for "an ill conceived plan" to orchestrate eBay purchases in order to recover treble damages from PayPal. Seeking to cash in on a money-back guarantee PayPal offered, Gielata reportedly sold a friend three paintings via eBay for $3,000 then represented the friend in a lawsuit against PayPal seeking to recover the purchase price plus treble damages and attorney fees. Gielata pled guilty to misdemeanor theft before facing the ethics complaint. The Supreme Court affirmed the recommendation of the state Board on Professional Responsibility, which concluded:

"The Panel believes that the evidence presented showed by clear and convincing evidence that there was a scheme, an ill conceived plan to get together with a friend, sell paintings to each other, make claims against Pay Pal and then pursue legal action to recover not only the Money Back Guarantee, but treble damages and attorney's fees."

[Hat tip to Legal Profession Blog.]

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 29, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Questioning Craig's 'Criminal Intent'

Once an editor always an editor. At the blog LawBeat, Mark Obbie, former executive editor of The American Lawyer, issues an assignment to reporters who cover the law: "Tell us what it takes to prove criminal intent in a case like Sen. Larry Craig's." As Obbie notes, the police report describes Sen. Craig as having "placed his roller bag against the front of the stall door," then tapping his foot and swiping his hand under the stall divider. Apart from the obvious question of where else is there to put a roll-aboard suitcase in a cramped bathroom stall, Obbie sees larger issues for journalists to explore:

"How many such cases are there? How many are contested (I imagine very few, for the same reasons that led Craig to hope this would all disappear without a trace)? Is Minnesota law typical of other states' laws on such things? What's the history of police excesses in hunting down desperate, closeted gay men? These questions obviously matter because an alleged personal indiscretion became a police matter based on someone's interpretation of toe-tapping and hand-waving. Let's learn more about the law, and figure out if it's fair."

In Craig's case, those questions appear to be legally moot, given that he signed a plea of guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct. But Craig's plea raises questions in its own right. Although the plea states, "I now make no claim that I am innocent," any lawyer who has ever handled a criminal matter knows that a guilty plea is often more a concession than an admission. Criminal defendants (and criminal prosecutors) regularly enter into plea deals for reasons that have little to do with guilt or innocence and much more to do with the costs of contesting the case -- in money, time or, as here, reputation. Is the criminal-justice system truly interested in achieving justice? There's a question for an enterprising reporter to pursue.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 29, 2007 at 01:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Short List Emerges to Replace Gonzales

Following up on our post Monday, With Gonzales Gone, Who's Next? the Associated Press is reporting -- with credit to a "senior Bush administration official" -- that five names have come to the top of the list as possible replacements for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, while the full list of "possible, if highly speculative candidates" could number as many as 24.

Short-list candidates identified by AP are Ted Olson, former solictor general and now a partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; George J. Terwilliger III, deputy AG under former President George H.W. Bush and now a partner with White & Case; Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Larry D. Thompson, former deputy attorney general and now GC of PepsiCo; and the acting AG, Solicitor General Paul D. Clement.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 29, 2007 at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Escribanos, consúltenos, opine

26 Free Tools for Buzz Monitoring;

26 Free Tools for Buzz Monitoring

Monday, August 27th, 2007;
-- Andy Beal |

There are a lot of companies that will happily relieve you of your dollars, in exchange for buzz monitoring services. While many large companies will enjoy the peace of mind that comes from having a company track their reputation for them, the rest of us need something a little less expensive–or better yet, free!

We've compiled a list of twenty six buzz monitoring tools that are free of charge. Use these tools to keep track of your company reputation or even spy on your competition!

1. Your Industry

If you simply don't have time to track everything that specifically relates to your company–or your competition–you can still track news that relates to your industry. Moreover and Yahoo are just a couple of resources that offer RSS feeds for aggregated industry news.

2. Mainstream Media News

One of the best ways to track mainstream media mentions of your company is to use Google News. Enter your company name, sort the results by date published and then subscribe to the RSS feed. You'll get instant RSS updates of any news items that mention your business. Example for "apple".

3. News Buzz

buzz-monitoring2
It's one thing to track any news that relates to your business, but what if you just want to know about the news that becomes popular? Sites such as Digg and Reddit will let you search for submitted stories that match your company name. Subscribe to the resulting RSS feed and you'll know about any story on Digg that mentions your company–or your biggest rival.

4. Social Media News

By the time a hot news story gets picked-up by the mainstream media, it could have made the rounds for days in the blogosphere. You can capitalize on positive buzz and put out any reputation fires by tracking social media. Technorati is one of the best options for tracking social media sites. Custom RSS feeds let you get quick updates on any blog that utters your company name.

5. Blog Posts

If a blog happens to "ping" the blogosphere, the chances are that it will get on Google Blog Search. Even if the blog isn't in Google news, or doesn't make the main Google index, Google Blog Search might still find that story that mentions your CEO or your recent product launch. Get alerts to matching stories via email or RSS.

6. Blog Comments

Sometimes tracking a blog post doesn't reveal the full conversation about your business. The blog post might be positive, but those leaving comments could attack your reputation. Services such as co.mments.com track the comments left on blogs. You can search for your brand and subscribe to the RSS feed for instant updates.

7. Blog Conversations

A negative blog post appears on a low-trafficked blog and there are no comments to track. End of story? Not quite, what if a very popular blogger picks up on the story? It could spread very quickly and catch you by surprise. Blogpulse's conversation tracker will help you track who's linking to that blog post about your company.

8. Blog Trends

How well is your competitor's new product launch going? Blogpulse trends lets you track whether a keyword is getting growing blog mentions or not. Apple's iPhone saw a 1000% jump in blog mentions leading up to its launch.

9. Bookmarks

Remember the days when your customers would bookmark your site in IE and you never knew about it? Thanks to online bookmarking services such as del.icio.us more people are sharing their bookmarks online. RSS feeds make it easy to track whenever someone bookmarks a web page that includes mention of your company.

10. Photos

Did an employee release a top-secret photo of your new products? Did someone snap a photo of your CEO leaving a strip-club? The chances are high that they might upload it to image hosting sites such as Flickr. Luckily, you can subscribe to an RSS feed that will update you on any new image that matches your company name?or the name of your slimy CEO.

11. Videos
buzz-monitoring3

So what if your CEO was caught on video having a lap-dance? Ouch! Ok, less damaging, someone releases a video showing a negative product review. Google Video recently switched focus to index videos from many online hosting sites (such as YouTube and MetaCafe). Now you can keep track of videos that include your company.

12. Tags
buzz-monitoring4

Wouldn't it be great if you could enter a keyword and see who used that word as a "tag" How much better would it be if you could see matching tags across more than a dozen sites? Keotag.com does just that, making it easy for you to track if someone tags a page using your company or product name.

13. Forum Posts

buzz-monitoring5
Sometimes the most important conversations don't happen on blogs. Forums and message boards can host conversations about your company and you'd never know about it. Don't panic! Sites such as Boardtracker.com will keep an eye on popular forums for you and alert you by RSS if your company is mentioned in a thread.

14. Changing Information

Wikipedia is one of the most trusted resources for information on the web. You might be interested in any updates to your company profile or maybe you want to know if your competitor is trying to remove links to your web site. Fortunately you can track change history for any Wikipedia page and have the changes sent to your RSS reader of choice.

15. Job Listings

If your competitor wants to start a new service or launch a new product, the chances are they'll need to hire new staff to achieve this. Classifieds search engine Oodle scours many online job listings and aggregates the information in a central location. Set up RSS feeds for searches on your biggest competitors and you'll know whenever they list a vacant position.

16. Financial Filings

You can get a good feel for the financial health of your publicly-traded competitors by keeping a close eye on their SEC filings. Use Edgar Online and you'll know if they're subject to an SEC investigation or if their CEO is dumping stock faster than Martha Stewart.

17. Conference Calls

Sticking with public companies, sometimes you can learn some competitive information by listening to the company's conference calls. But who has time for that? SeekingAlpha lets you subscribe to the RSS feed of conference call transcripts. Open up the transcript and you can quickly get a snapshot of their financial health. You might even learn about a new product launch–one which you might want to think about for your business.

18. Patents

Keeping track of patent filings was notoriously difficult before Google Patent Search came along. Now you can keep any eye on patents filed that relate to your industry. Better yet, keep track of patents that might violate your company held patents.

19. Events

Yahoo's Upcoming lets you get RSS alerts on any new event that matches your selected keyword. You can keep track of conferences that you might want to attend, or sponsor. In addition, you could keep track of seminars or meeting being held by your competitors.

20. New Products

Let's say you want to get some ideas of products that might be hot right now. Amazon.com lets you view product "tags" and then review similar tags. You can use this to get an idea of companion products that you might want to launch.

21. Search Query Trends

What search queries are popular at Google right now? Thanks to Google Trends you can get an idea of which keywords are most searched for. You can narrow your research to specific countries or cities–letting you know if a product has global or local appeal.

22. Keyword Referrals

Sure you could probably take an educated guess as to which sites might get the most traffic for a particular keyword, but it's more fun to actually spy on your competitors. Compete's Search Analytics allows you to enter a keyword and see which web sites are getting traffic for that keyword.

23. Site Referrals

Ok, so maybe you're not sure which keywords you should target for your next SEM campaign. Compete's Search Analytics will also let you enter any domain name and see which keywords are driving traffic to that site. Now you know which keywords your competitors are targeting.

24. Email Updates

If you're not quite ready for all of that RSS reader nonsense, you can still keep track of the latest buzz via email. Google Alerts let you track web, blogs, news and groups for any phrase you want. Select daily, weekly or "as it happens" updates and you'll get an email whenever your company name is mentioned.

25. The Untrackable

Some stuff just can't be tracked that easily. If you want to track changes at a site–even if they don't offer RSS or email updates–there are many tools that will do it for you. Our favorite is Copernic's Tracker which, for $50, will let you keep an eye on any web site. Use it to monitor RipOffReport.com, forum threads, or even your competitor's web site.

26. Anything You Want

You don't have to be a developer in order to create your own custom buzz monitoring tool. Thanks to Yahoo Pipes, you can quickly set up your own RSS tracking, complete with filters. Want to track Twitter for mentions of your company? Not a problem with Yahoo Pipes.

Over to You

So, that should be enough buzz monitoring tools to get you going. Some are more useful than others, but all are FREE! What are your favorite buzz monitoring tools? Leave a comment or post to your own blog and ping us.

Like this post? Check out our FREE Beginners Guide to Online Reputation Management.

**Enter to win up to $600 by simply subscribing to our RSS feed!**

Escribanos, consúltenos, opine

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Legal Blog Watch

Legal Blog Watch

Yahoo Moves to Dismiss Lawsuit for Aiding and Abetting Torture

Can a U.S. court punish a U.S. company for alleged human rights violations committed abroad? That's one of the major questions at issue in a lawsuit filed against Internet giant Yahoo on behalf of several pro-democracy writers in China, who claim that Yahoo's release of their personal user information to the Chinese government lead to their imprisonment and torture. Not surprisingly, the suit was filed in the United States, not China -- and yesterday, Yahoo moved to dismiss the suit, according to this article in the Washington Post (8/28/07). Yahoo admitted that it released information about the writers, but defended its decision as necessary to comply with China's request, which was lawful. Yahoo's opponents question whether China could lawfully request this information, but argue that even if it could, Yahoo is obligated to follow U.S. and international legal standards when it does business abroad, which would have prohibited release of this information.

To read more on the Yahoo lawsuit and view some of the filed documents, visit this link at Rebecca McKinnon's RC Conversations Blog.

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on August 28, 2007 at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

GC Mike Dillon, Out of Context

About a week ago, we posted here about how more and more lawyers' billing rates are breaking the $1,000/hour barrier. We also referenced a quote from Sun GC

Mike Dillon in the Wall Street Journal article on billing rates as saying that he didn't believe that charing $1,000 an hour for legal services was inherently unreasonable. At least one law blogger took Dillon to task for his comment. As for me, I didn't view Dillon's remarks as outrageous (as I noted, if a lawyer can dispose of a case with a 60-minute, thousand-dollar-an-hour phone call, then he deserves that rate). But the quote struck me as odd for someone who'd authored a classic blog post like The Way of the Mastodon, which makes the point that in the Internet Age, corporate clients can locate more competitive options for legal services and need not remain captive to Biglaw's increasing rates.

Dillon doesn't deny the comment, but he does explain it further in this blog post. He writes:

I did state and I do believe that there may be times when a $1,000/hour fee is warranted. If you are embroiled in a complex, "bet the company" type of litigation, most GCs will happily pay this hourly rate - provided the value received is commensurate with the fee. This means the services of an attorney with very specific and unique skills, plenty of experience, and the ability to quickly drive a high exposure problem to a favorable resolution. The reality is that most companies will rarely, if ever, require these types of legal services. Most of my discussion with the reporter focused on the larger issue, which is the economic misalignment between traditional firms and their corporate clients. I also shared with the reporter some of the things we are doing at Sun to reduce the impact of this misalignment.

Dillon goes on to write that he doesn't mind that the reporter didn't write about Sun's measures to contain legal costs because the reporter had a different focus for the story. However, Dillon concludes that "context is everything and having a blog is a great way to provide it."

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on August 28, 2007 at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are Law Firm Layoffs Coming Soon?

As the economy declines, will we see a repeat of the associate layoffs that we saw in the late 1980s following Black Monday, the early 1990s following the savings-and-loan scandals and again in the 2002 with the burst of the dot-com bubble? That's the question that Gina Passarella explores in this article, With Dip in Economy, Are Associate Layoffs on the Horizon? (The Legal Intelligencer, 8/28/07). According to the article, some law firm leaders are predicting layoffs in areas like structured finance, real estate and corporate mergers and acquisitions. Others speculate that any downturn will be offset by the growth of practice areas like bankruptcy and litigation.

And how will the changing market impact associates? Duane Morris Chairman Sheldon Bonovitz is quoted in the article as saying that layoffs are a possibility in some fields. But others are more optimistic, pointing out that corporate attorneys are in high demand, and it is unlikely that any will be laid off should the economy take a turn for the worse.

At the WSJ Law Blog, commenters share their predictions here. Some predict that small and midsize firms, which are less diverse than large firms, will take a bigger hit. And others remarked how talk of doom and gloom has quelled talk of $190,000 salaries for first-years at New York firms.

Greg Bowman at the Law Career Blog discusses the impact on associate salaries here. Bowman notes that law firms won't lower salaries as a result of expected downturn, but instead, will simply stop upping them annually. And he notes that since firms have already been cautious about hiring associates, when the economy does turn around (as it always has historically), those associates who remain employed will be very busy.

Finally, over here, the Estrin Report theorizes that paralegals will be hit hard as well:

While the Pollyannists who in the last downturn predicted an opportunity for bankruptcy and litigation practices predicted the same opportunity for this upcoming downturn, no one seems to realize that those corporate paralegals trained in M&A are most likely NOT trained in bankruptcy or litigation.

Consequently, Estrin recommends that paralegals should acquire cross training in a recessionproof practice specialty outside of the corporate area -- and should start doing so now, before "the other shoe drops."

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on August 28, 2007 at 04:28 PM | Permalink |

Escribanos, consúltenos, opine

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Legal Blog Watch

Legal Blog Watch

Everyone May Be a Winner at Nixon Peabody, but Do They Have a Sense of Humor?

When David Lat of Above the Law received a copy of Nixon Peabody's theme song, "Everyone's a Winner," he did what any snarky, clever "legal tabloid" blogger would have done: He posted it. And predictably, rather than keep a sense of humor about the incident, like some bloggers or lawyers, Nixon Peabody reacted the way any humorless, stuffed-shirt stereotype of a Biglaw firm would: It demanded to know who sent the song to Lat, asserted copyright protection and asked Lat to remove the song from his site and from YouTube. As Denise Howell points out here, it's hard to understand why the firm chose this approach instead of simply "celebrating the high camp and silliness."

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on August 24, 2007 at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are Reality Shows Subject to Child Labor Laws?

Producers of a new reality show, Kid Nation, due to air on CBS in mid-September, are facing complaints that the show -- in which children ages 8 to 15 try to create a functioning town with minimal adult supervision -- violated child labor laws. See news stories from Variety (8/24/07) and NYT (8/17/07). The Attorney General's Office in New Mexico, the state where the show was filmed, is reviewing the complaints to determine whether further action is warranted. Among other things, children worked for 14 hours a day without pay; they were also unsupervised, so four accidentally drank bleach while another suffered a burn from hot grease while working in the kitchen. Paul Secunda comments here at Workplace Prof Blog that given the level of abuse reported in the news, criminal child neglect charges might be more appropriate. However, CBS denies the allegations, claiming that it consulted with New Mexico officials while filming the show and that a state labor inspector visited the set.

But is CBS alone to blame? What about the children's parents? Yesterday's Smoking Gun reported here that participants' parents were required to sign agreements with CBS, in which they waived their rights to sue the network even if their child died, was injured or contracted a sexually transmitted discease during the show's taping. (There's a link to the agreement in the post). Perhaps CBS wasn't as careful with the children as it should have been, but parents also took huge risks for their children in signing the agreement, which was fairly explicit in stating that children would be sent to remote locations, that producers could not guarantee the safety of children and that there were risks involved (see page 2 of agreement). Should CBS receive full blame for injuries to children when their own parents were willing to endanger them?

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on August 24, 2007 at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Cell Phone Saves the Day

In today's high-tech society, most of us can't imagine surviving without a cell phone. And for one criminal defendant, a cell phone -- or at least cell phone records -- spared him a conviction and jail time, as reported in this article, Cellphone Records Help to Clear a Murder Suspect (8/24/07). In July 2006, Eric Wright was arrested and charged with fatally shooting Tyrell Pope in east New York in Brooklyn. Wright told his lawyers that he'd been in New Jersey at the time of the shooting (and, indeed, claimed that he heard the shots being fired while on his cell phone with a friend who was in east New York). Wright's attorney obtained a copy of the cell phone records, which, sure enough, showed that he'd been in Newark, N.J., at the time of the shooting. Initially, the prosecution minimized the significance of the cell phone records, arguing that there was no proof that Wright was using the phone. But when other evidence emerged that called Wright's involvement into question, the prosecution dismissed the case.

Of course, as with other potentially exculpatory evidence, like DNA, there's also a downside to cell phone records: Just as they may exonerate defendants, cell phone records can just as easily implicate them as well.

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on August 24, 2007 at 03:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If Your Boss Is a Jerk, Should You Be Able to Sue?

If your boss is a jerk, you may soon have other options besides quitting or extracting revenge like this. As this article, Is the boss a real piece of work? (LA Times 8/21/07), reports, at least four state legislatures are considering legislation that would allow workers to sue their superiors for bullying or an abusive work environment. From the article:

The ranks of bullying bosses are growing, some experts contend, as short-staffed companies tap managers with lousy people skills. Others point out that though mean and dimwitted supervisors have been around since work was invented, baby boomers on the cusp of retirement and restless younger employees are more likely to complain or quit than suffer in silence. It's easy to decide against taking the latter tack, thanks to the proliferation of venting websites, among them www.ebosswatch.com.

According to the article, the proposed legislation currently lacks important details such as what would constitute an abusive work environment. A sampling of complaints submitted in a recent Bad Boss contest sponsored by the AFL-CIO included bosses who kept the office so cold that ink in pens froze up; a boss who took employees to lunch at a discount warehouse and told them to eat the freebies; and a boss who mocked a cancer patient when her hair fell out after chemotherapy.

At the same time, there's some concern (e.g., as expressed here) that the proposed legislation may lead to a rash of new lawsuits and create a new burden for management, which are already subject to myriad anti-discrimination laws.

Martha Neil of the Statutory Construction Blog argues that that bad behavior doesn't justify new laws. She writes:

Of course, it doesn't take a law for a company to enact a policy requiring bosses not to abuse employees. And workers have other ways, besides litigation, to make known their feelings about unpleasant supervisors. Today, for instance, the AFL-CIO, one of the country's biggest and best-known unions, will name the worst boss in the country, based on the results of an Internet contest. One entry, the Times reports, "is about a lawyer who called the office every morning to give instructions as he brushed his teeth and conducted other business in his bathroom."

Initially, I agreed fully that there ought to be better ways to force bosses to improve their conduct than the threat of litigation. After all, we read so much about how positive employee morale boosts company profits -- and you'd think that these economic incentives would suffice to keep bad bosses in line without the threat of litigation. But perhaps that's not an accurate assumption. As Lisa Fairfax of The Conglomerate posts here, a recent study shows that bad bosses get promoted rather than punished. According to the study, approximately 64 percent of the 240 people surveyed said domineering bosses were actually promoted for their conduct despite its negative impact on the workplace environment. If this survey has any scientific accuracy (unlikely, given the small sampling size) and it's true that nastiness gets you ahead in the workplace, then perhaps there is a need for legislation to give bosses incentive to behave -- because apparently, the workplace provides incentive not to.

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on August 24, 2007 at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
www..Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
telefono: 5839786
santiago-chile

Escribanos, consultenos, opine

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Legal Blog Watch

Legal Blog Watch

Crashing the Wexis Gate

Long, long ago, in a land far, far away, access to the SEC's EDGAR database of corporate filings was available only by subscription through proprietary services such as Mead Data Central, the former owner of LexisNexis. Then came the seemingly quixotic Carl Malamud and his nonprofit Internet Multicasting Service, which in 1994 began offering the EDGAR database of corporate filings free via the Internet. A year later, as IMS's funding was about to expire, Malamud urged the SEC to continue where IMS would leave off. At first, the SEC hedged, but in August 1995, then Chairman Arthur Levitt agreed to take on the task of providing free Internet access to EDGAR. It was a turning point that paved the way for the future of government information on the Web (as I first noted a decade ago).

We've come a long way since then in achieving free and easy public access to government information online. But in the publication of federal and state court decisions, two private companies still control access and set the price of admission. And Malamud, once again, is leading the charge against the gate. Through the organization public.resource.org, Malamud has set out to create in the short term "an unencumbered full-text repository of the Federal Reporter, the Federal Supplement and the Federal Appendix" and, eventually, a full-text repository of all state and federal cases and codes. His intent, he wrote in a letter to West, is not to compete with commercial vendors.

"Rather, we wish to make this information available to a population that today does not have access to the decisions of our federal and state courts because they are not commercial subscribers to one of the handful of services such as your award-winning Westlaw tools. Codes and cases are the very operating system of our nation of laws, and this system only works if we can all openly read the primary sources."

Earlier this week, Malamud began to publish the first cases of his repository. It was sufficiently newsworthy to merit coverage from The New York Times and commentary by Tim O'Reilly.

Malamud's letter to West asks it to clarify the extent to which it claims copyright in published decisions. This has been an issue of dispute time and again. In a 1990 New York Times piece, Progress Spawns Question: Who Owns the Law?, Linda Greenhouse reported on the star-pagination lawsuit between West and Lexis that ended with a closely guarded settlement agreement rather than a definitive court decision. A 1990 suit between startup Web publisher Jurisline.com and LexisNexis similarly ended in a copyright by contract settlement agreement.

Although Malamud asks West to clarify its copyright, he also invites the company to take the high road and simply release the full text of federal cases. "You have already received rich rewards for the initial publication of these documents," he wrote, "and releasing this data back into the public domain would significantly grow your market and thus be an investment in your future." I doubt Wexis would throw open its gates that easily, but why not? The value of Westlaw and Lexis is less and less in the cases -- especially as courts post their own decisions directly and services such as FindLaw (which is owned by West) and Justia offer easy access -- and more and more in the secondary reference materials unavailable elsewhere online. For either West or Lexis, giving up old cases to the public domain would have the PR benefit of appearing to be a heroic gesture while having little negative impact on the long-term bottom line.

Besides, it is the right thing to do, just as it was when Malamud convinced the SEC to do it a dozen years ago.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 23, 2007 at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Blogs the Judges Read

At his blog May it Please the Court, J. Craig Williams points to an article that answers the question, Which blogs do judges read? The article, from the spring/summer issue of the National Judicial College magazine Case in Point, looks at the blogs judges write and the ones they read -- and also examines the ethical and practical issues raised by judicial blogging. The article by writer Heather Singer includes a list of blogs mentioned by the people she interviewed for the article. The list offers a taste of the blogs judges favor -- and includes a few judges write:

As for the ethics of judges blogging, NJC President William F. Dressel said it all depends on what they write:

"As long as judges are using blogs to enhance public education and understanding of our justice system and not compromising the integrity of cases, then judicial blogs could serve and promote a greater understanding of the challenges and difficulties judges face in advancing justice."

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 23, 2007 at 01:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Biglaw Tight-Lipped on Offshoring

Bill Heinze at I/P Updates points to an article on legal outsourcing by Bloomberg reporters Cynthia Cotts and Liane Kufchock in which they describe how clients are pressuring large law firms to cut costs by sending work to India. It is a trend, they say, that will move some 50,000 U.S. legal jobs overseas by 2015. Robert Profusek, co-head of the M&A practice at Jones Day in New York, tells Bloomberg:

"The objective is to have only the most valuable people in London or New York, and the others in India, China or Columbus, Ohio. Lawyers are service providers. We are not gods."

While Jones Day and Kirkland & Ellis both say they send work overseas, many large firms are less forthcoming about offshoring. Cotts and Kufchock write that seven of the 10 highest-grossing U.S. firms declined to comment on outsourcing. Another, Chicago's Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, said it does not send work offshore.

For the firms, a key issue is disclosure, the writers say:

"U.S. law firms are required under ethics rules to disclose markups on what they pay foreign attorneys who aren't licensed to practice law in the U.S. Such rules don't apply to legal work performed by lawyers admitted to practice in U.S. jurisdictions."

Nondisclosure allows firms more leeway to mark up bills, but New York University legal ethics professor Stephen Gillers tells Bloomberg that clients are savvy to that. "They want to negotiate the markup on these charges." As for those tight lips at large firms, the CEO of one offshoring company says it is not because the firms are ashamed of outsourcing but "because they view it as a competitive advantage."

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 23, 2007 at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Decoding Legal Gobbledygook

Adam Freedman (aka The Party of the First Part) is a former litigator who now makes his living decoding policies and procedures into plain English for a major New York City investment bank. He also writes the "Legal Lingo" column for the New York Law Journal Magazine. Now, publisher Henry Holt and Co. is about to release his book, The Party of the First Part: The Curious World of Legalese, in which, according to Publishers Weekly, he "offers a cornucopia of hilarious, offbeat and downright bizarre examples of simple concepts contorted into words that defy understanding."

In an excerpt published on his Web site, Freedman offers a peek at the lunacy of legal language:

"Consider the fact that Congress once passed legislation declaring that 'September 16, 1940 means June 27, 1950.' In New Zealand, the law says that a 'day' means a period of 72 hours while an Australian statute defines 'citrus fruit' to include eggs. To American lawyers, a 20-year old document is 'ancient' while a 17-year old person is an 'infant.' At one time or another, the law has defined 'dead person' to include nuns, 'daughter' to include son, and 'cow' to include horse; it has even declared white to be black."

Perhaps if you buy a copy of the book, you might get Freedman to "execute" it for you. Even without buying the book, you can browse The Legalese Hall of Shame and read Freedman's tips on writing in plain English.

[Hat tip to Overlawyered.]

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 23, 2007 at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Law Firm Asks Homeless Man for $1,000 Retainer

The headline above is that which appeared yesterday on a post at the blog Downtown Eastside Enquirer. The post says that the Vancouver, Canada, firm Lawson Lundell responded to the homeless man's request for legal representation in a libel action with an e-mail asking for the retainer and advising that he would be charged $400 an hour for the services of a senior lawyer. Alternatively, the e-mail said, the matter could be assigned to a junior lawyer at an hourly rate of $250 to $325, or the firm could provide a referral to a lower-cost lawyer.

It all sounds like a salacious story of lawyer greed until you realize that the author of the post is describing himself and that the only indication he had given the firm of his homelessness was a link to his Web site, which includes a reference to himself as a "moneyless home-free man" who "escapes impoverishment and opens pathways to emancipation and prosperity, for himself and others." In the end, the author of the post admits: "It is possible that [the firm] had not reviewed the websites and was not aware that he was homeless."

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 23, 2007 at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Escribanos, consultenos, opine

Leadership and Change

Leadership and Change
Talking with the Receptionist, Pausing When You Speak and Other Secrets of Leadership Success
Several years ago, while visiting a regional branch of Lee Hecht Harrison, a global career management services company, then-president Stephen Harrison was stopped short by "Ray," his COO. "You didn't greet the receptionist," said Ray, who went on to explain that "a receptionist is a corporate concierge. They will talk to more important people in a day -- suppliers, customers, even CEOs -- than you will talk to all year." Harrison, speaking at the recent 11th annual Wharton Leadership Conference, contends that small acts like this are part of what makes for an ethical corporate culture. He was joined at the conference by public speaking coach Richard Greene, author of Words that Shook the World: 100 Years of Unforgettable Speeches and Events.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1792.cfm

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
Renato Sánchez 3586 of. 10
Telefono: 2084334- 5839786
santiago-Chile
www.consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.biocombustibles.blogspot.com

Law and Public Policy

Law and Public Policy
Trouble in Toyland: New Challenges for Mattel -- and 'Made in China'
Mattel's recall of more than 10 million toys in the U.S. over the past three weeks has done more than focus attention on the company's wide array of products, which include such household names as Elmo, Ernie, Big Bird, Barbie and Batman. It has also further raised public awareness of quality control problems in China and the relentless push to cut costs along every step of the supply chain. Knowledge@Wharton looks at Mattel's response to the crisis, its potential liability and the consequences for China.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1796.cfm

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Legal Blog Watch

Legal Blog Watch

After the First Law Firm IPO

Bruce MacEwen at the Adam Smith, Esq. blog recently interviewed Andrew Grech, managing director of Melbourne-based Slater & Gordon, which in May became the first law firm to be publicly traded.

During the conversation, Grech described the immediate aftermath of his firm going public, what obligations the firm holds to investors versus clients, the reasons for the IPO, whether the IPO process was more difficult than expected, the post-IPO firm culture and the benefits of nonlawyer regulators.

Posted by Jennifer Moline on August 17, 2007 at 02:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Orrick Raises the IT Bar

Many law firms have strategic-thinking CIOs, acknowledges Ron Friedmann at the Prism Legal Consulting blog, and some also have directors of knowledge management or directors of practice services. But now Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has all three: Patrick Tisdale is Orrick's CIO, Peter Krakaur is the chief knowledge officer, and Clark Cordner recently joined as director of practice and client services -- he will focus on delivering differentiated legal services enabled by IT.

"I suspect that few AmLaw 100 or 200 firms have such experienced people in all three roles," Friedmann posts. "Clients should see value in both efficiency and effectiveness. Orrick lawyers (and recruits) should find attractive a deep support organization that makes their lives easier."

Posted by Jennifer Moline on August 17, 2007 at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, August 17, 2007

Legal Blog Watch

Legal Blog Watch

After the First Law Firm IPO

Bruce MacEwen at the Adam Smith, Esq. blog recently interviewed Andrew Grech, managing director of Melbourne-based Slater & Gordon, which in May became the first law firm to be publicly traded.

Posted by Jennifer Moline on August 17, 2007 at 02:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Orrick Raises the IT Bar

Posted by Jennifer Moline on August 17, 2007 at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cybersettle Helps NYC Settle Claims

Geoffrey Gussis posts at InHouseBlog that if you're looking for a new technology-based dispute resolution tool, then you should check out Cybersettle, which has assisted in over $1 billion in settlements. And according to a Law.com article, "Cybersettle, which allows for the negotiation of settlements over the Internet, has signed a new three-year contract with New York City."

Posted by Jennifer Moline on August 17, 2007 at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

'Medellín, Colombia: The Recipe'

'Medellín, Colombia: The Recipe'
by David Sasaki

&t

'La Receta' (;The Recipe") - a video production by the participants of the Rising Voices' project, HiperBarrio, in Medellín, Colombia. To watch the video with English subtitles click on the arrows on the lower-right-hand side of the video player.

In the last podcast introducing the HiperBarrio project in Medellín, Colombia, Jorge Montoya [ES] described the workshop he gave to young people in the working class neighborhood of La Loma San Javier as part of Medellín's 16th annual Seminario de Comunicación Juvenil [ES], or "Youth Communication Seminar." The goal of the week-long seminar, according to its website, is to "continue reflection of diversity and its manifestation as a form of inclusion of the persons that make up the city." Jorge led the workshop on new media and at the end of the week each young participant had his or her own weblog. They also collaborated on a group weblog [ES]. And, most impressive, they produced the incredibly creative video clip above about their experience in the workshop.

The clip of the young participants - produced using Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker - shows them explaining the 'recipe' of how to improve city-wide communication using participatory tools like blogs. At the end of the clip we are shown screenshots of the participants' weblogs (linked to at the right-hand side of the workshop website).

I asked Jorge to describe the process of making the video clip.

Cuando estuvo planeado el asunto, ellos se dieron a la tarea de hacer una ambientación mínimamente de acuerdo con un programa de cocina, grabamos en cuestión de una hora y luego nos dimos a la tarea de editar entre todos con Movie maker, agregándole algunas de las fotos y cerrando con la invitación a que leyeran cada uno de los blogs nuevos.

Todos disfrutamos mucho la experiencia, nos reímos bastante y creo que lo fundamental fue la reflexión sobre la importancia de informar e informarnos, lo que era nuestro objetivo antes que pretender mostrar detalles técnicos sobre la apertura de blogs pues sobre eso ya hay bastante info. Se quiso realizar algo más fresco, más del lenguaje de todos, con cierto sentido de invitación y para generar inquietudes.

Once everything was planned, they took to the task of putting together a set similar to a cooking program on TV. We recorded it in about an hour and soon we all started the task of editing with Movie Maker, adding some photos, and concluding the clip with the invitation to read each of the participants' new blogs.

We all enjoyed the experience. We laughed a lot and I believe that the fundamental thing was the reflection of the importance of informing and of being informed, which was our main objective before trying to teach the technical details of how to open a blog. There is already plenty of info about how to do that. We wanted to make something more fresh, in a language more easily understood by everyone, with a certain sense of welcome, and to generate interest.

Although all the posts are written in Spanish, many of the HiperBarrio participants included photographs of their city. Some examples include:

De lo urbano a lo Rural, by Tifany Henao
Historias de Caminantes, by Catalina Restrepo
La Loma ¿rural o urbano?, by Mitchel Restrepo
Seminario de Comunicación: Las mejores fotos, by Johana Camargo
En el cielo de Medellín, by Marcela Arias
Bitácora personal de viaje, by Alexander

Like all of us, I am sure that these new bloggers would appreciate comments of encouragement and even just simple greetings from around the world.

Using dotSUB, you can also help make their video clip available in more languages by translating the brief transcript. Simply register for an account and choose the language you wish to translate the clip to on the far right of the video page. I have made a brief screencast describing how to translate and subtitle video on dotSUB.

You may view the latest post at
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/08/16/medellin-colombia-the-recipe/

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'Japan: Living With the Heat'

'Japan: Living With the Heat'
by Chris Salzberg

As Japan suffers through what likely will become its hottest summer on record, with temperatures in some places topping 40 degrees and humidity at all-time highs, and even as business owners happily celebrate skyrocketing sales of air conditioners, fans, and ice cream [Ja], worries of an energy crisis loom on the horizon. And while the Cool Biz campaign initiated by the Koizumi administration has gone some way to reducing the demand for artificial cooling and dehumidification, active participation in the campaign nationwide remains relatively low [Ja]. Add to this that inventions such as the recently released USB necktie allow salarymen to stay cool and keep their suits on, and the future of energy conservation in Japan looks less than promising.

August 16: Japan's Hottest Day On Record

One Japanese blogger, however, has taken matters into his own hands and done the unthinkable. Blogger Kenchan writes in his post of August 10th, entitled "The ultimate environmental measure, carried out in the middle of a scorching heat wave" (究極の環境対策。猛暑の中で実践中):

うちはエアコンを猛暑にかけません。車もそうです。毎日大汗かいています。とても暑い思いはしますが、新陳代謝が盛んになるので、体の調子は良くなりました。ダイエットにもなりますし。

We don't use the air conditioner during the heat wave. Don't use it in the car either. Every day sweating like crazy. Every day I think about the heat, but because my body metabolism picks up energy, my body condition has improved. It's become a kind of diet.

[...]

うちは事務所の窓を全開にしています。朝晩は植木に水をやります。涼しくなります。ゴーヤも大きくなればもっと日陰効果も出るというものです。たまにスーツ姿のセールスの人が来ますが、「暑いですね」と言われてすぐに退散します。客商売でないのでそれでいいのでは・・。パソコンも喘いでいるのｲで、時々消します。

We open all the windows in our office. In the morning and evening, we water the plants. And it cools down. If the goya [bitter gourd] tree gets bigger, there will be more shade. Sometimes these sales people come by wearing suits, but then they say: "Wow, it's hot, isn't it?" and leave right away. This is not a service business, so it's fine [that they leave]... The computers also gasp for air [because of the heat], so sometimes we turn them off.

暑いと言いつつエアコンをかけているのは人間だけ。蝉もトンボもカエルも犬も猫もエアコンの中にはいません。

Saying it's hot and then putting on the air conditioner -- it's only humans that do this. Cicada, dragonflies, frogs, dogs, cats, none of them live with air conditioning.

涼しい早朝に活動し、お昼はほんのすこし昼寝を昼休みにします。就寝は板の間で寝ます。夏場はお陰で体脂肪が減ります。暑い中ではビールも飲めませんね。よけいに大汗かきますから。

I get going early in the morning, when it's cool. At noon I take a lunch break and have a little nap. I sleep on the hardwood floor. Thanks to the summertime, I lose body fat. And you know, I don't drink beer during the summer, because it makes me sweat even more.

よさこいと高校野球が終われもれば、しのぎやすくはなります。それまでの我慢くらべが続いています。世間様がお盆休みの間も会社は休みなし。少し効率を落として暑さをやり過ごすしかありませんね。

Once the Yosakoi festival and high-school baseball finishes, it will become easier to bear [the heat]. Up until then, the patience contest continues. Even while the world celebrates the Bon holiday, companies go without a vacation. There is no option but to let efficiency drop a little bit in order to withstand this heat.

とにかくビルのなかでエアコンに浸りながら環境問題を語るのは偽者。屋外へ出て猛暑の中で考えてみるべき。指導者はそうあるべきですね。

Anyway, people who stay inside their building soaked in air conditioning while talking about environmental problems are nothing but imposters. They should go outside into the scorching heat and then think about it. The leaders should do this.

You may view the latest post at
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/08/16/japan-living-with-the-heat/

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Friday, August 31, 2007

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