Sage Advice on Career Planning

Legal Blog Watch

Sage Advice on Career Planning What does it take to plan a fulfilling and exciting career? In a new podcast, No Regrets, business consultant David Maister says that professional success comes from doing what you enjoy. "Your strengths are irrelevant; what you love is critical." Maister's 15-minute podcast offers advice for developing your "Personal Strategic Plan for a passionate career that drives true success." It starts with asking yourself five questions: What do you want to do next? Where would you like to be three years from now? What kinds of people would you like to be serving three years from now? What kinds of work would you like to be doing three years from now? What next career challenge would you find most exciting? Answering those questions can be difficult for most people, Maister says, because they truly do not know what they want. He offers tips on how to find the answer. The key, he says, is finding something that you will feel passionate about. "More important than even persistence and determination is the passion that inspires persistence and determination." Stephen Seckler, himself a career adviser to lawyers, writes at his blog, Counsel to Counsel, that Maister's podcast is "terrific." In a separate e-mail to me, he wrote, "This is the best 15 minutes on career planning that I have ever heard." With a recommendation like that, you have to listen. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on December 6, 2006 at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Report Issued on U.K. IP Reform At Human Law, Justin Patten notes today's release of the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property, a much-anticipated examination of Britain's IP framework led by Andrew Gowers, head of communications for Lehman Brothers and former editor of the Financial Times. The full report is 146 pages long and contains 54 recommendations. IPKat provides a quick overview of some key aspects of the report. Significantly, contrary to fears reported here previously, IPKat says there is no proposal to extend copyright protection for sound recordings beyond the current 50-year term. Other recommendations include: Permit private copying. Introduce a defense of parody. Provide for orphaned works whose copyright owners cannot be traced. For patents, clarify the research exception in order to facilitate experimentation. More on the report can be found at: IMPACT. Pangloss. Open Rights Group. IWRBlog. The Lawyer. Managing Intellectual Property (also here). Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on December 6, 2006 at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Prof. Bainbridge Rethinks His Blog Stephen Bainbridge's blog, ProfessorBainbridge.com, is as eclectic as it is popular. A law professor at UCLA, Bainbridge is as likely to write about wine, football and politics as he is to write about his areas of legal concentration -- business associations and corporate law. Last week, in an attempt to impose a degree of order on his own eclecticism, Bainbridge rolled out a new blog design that he likens to a magazine. Rather than have one, multitopic blog, he broke down his site into three, more focused blogs: StephenBainbridge.com, where he will write about politics and culture. BusinessAssociationsBlog.com, his professional blog, focused on law and economics. ProfessorBainbridgeOn Wine.com, where he will write about food and wine. The former ProfessorBainbridge.com front page becomes the site's landing page, showing the most recent posts added to each of the three subsidiary blogs. In this way, he says, the front page becomes "a detailed table of contents for a web magazine in three sections." In a post explaining the redesign (or, as he calls it, the "fragmentation bomb"), he notes that the novel approach elicited interesting comments, not all favorable. Bainbridge believes the fragmentation will help him promote his scholarly writing while allowing him to continue to post about other topics that interest him. "My educated guess is that a professional blog that offers purely technical legal analysis, without requiring the reader to wade through political opinions, wine reviews, and so on, will be more effective in reaching this target audience. Hence, I created the Business Associations Blog. These readers can bookmark that site and/or subscribe exclusively to that site's feed. As such, I'll be able to use this corner of my section of the blogosphere more effectively as an adjunct to my vocation. "Having said that, however, I've also found blogging about politics, religion, food, photography, dogs, cars, and wine to be fun. It's a hobby. ... I'm also now freer to cut loose in my journal, without having to worry about appearing unprofessional." Media blogger Mark Tapscott says at Tapscott's Copy Desk that Bainbridge's format "could quite possibly be followed by a bunch of smart bloggers intent on directing the highest form of flattery in his direction." Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on December 6, 2006 at 01:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Finalists for Best Law Blog Finalists were named yesterday in the 2006 Weblog Awards competition, and they include 10 finalists in the Best Law Blog category. Of just over 50 nominees, those that made the cut were: How Appealing Becker-Posner Blawg IT Balkinization Concurring Opinions Consumer Law & Policy Blog Grotian Moment: The Saddam Hussein Trial Blog IMPACT The Volokh Conspiracy JURIST - Paper Chase Two lawyer-written blogs also made it onto the list of finalists for best overall blog: Power Line, written by lawyers John Hinderaker, Scott Johnson and Paul Mirengoff; and Instapundit, written by University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds. Voting begins tomorrow to select a winner from among the finalists and runs through Dec. 15. Final winners will be announced Dec. 18. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on December 6, 2006 at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rodrigo R. González Fernández
Director

 

CONSULTA JURÍDICACHILE.BLOGSPOT.COM
Renato Sánchez 3586, Dpto. 10
Las Condes * Santiago * Chile
T: (56-2) 245 1168
rogofe47@hotmail.com
rogofe47@manquehue.net
www.consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com

CHAVEZ VENEZUELA????

'Tranquility and Justice in Caracas'
by David Sasaki

Of course the big story around the continent has been Hugo Chávez's reelection in Venezuela with about 60% of the popular vote.

Writes "La Maga," a journalist from Caracas:

el día después

hay poca gente en el metro. muchos se tomaron el día libre hoy tras una noche de celebración o de luto. la ciudad está tranquila, no puedo decir si triste y alegre, tranquila, con esa tranquilidad del día después, con esa calma de primero de enero. los niños no tienen clases. caracas está sucia, eso sí, (aunque siempre está sucia), hay restos de cohetones y de propaganda electoral rota, pero está tranquila, sin alboroto. menos mal.
anoche no vi los resultados. tenía demasiado sueño y me quedé dormida sin querer.
ayer trabajé en vano. hoy vi que en la segunda edición por un error técnico no salió lo que escribí -ni lo que escribieron otras compañeras- en el periódico. pido disculpas al elector al que molesté todo el día.
ojalá haya luz en la ruta que viene en 2007. ojalá haya entendimiento y camino. y ojalá por fin haya gobierno que no necesite estar haciéndose propaganda todo el tiempo y haya una oposición que se oponga con estilo y credibilidad. ojalá organicemos un país.

The Day After

There are few people in the metro. Many took the day off after a night of celebration, or of mourning. The city is calm. I can't say if it's sad or happy, just calm, with that tranquility of the day after, with the calmness of the first of January. Kids don't have classes. Caracas is dirty, that is true (although it is always dirty), there are firework scraps and damaged electoral propaganda, but it's calm, without uproar. A good thing.

Last night I didn't see the results. I was very tired and accidentally fell asleep.

Yesterday I worked in vain. Today I saw that in the second edition, because of a technical error, what I wrote didn't get printed - nor did what my colleagues write get in the newspaper. I apologize to the electoral official who I bothered all day. Hopefully there is light in the route to come in 2007. Hopefully there is understanding and a path. And hopefully, finally, the government won't need to be making so much propaganda all the time and an opposition will oppose it with style and credibility. Hopefully we will organize a country.



Another Venezuelan story of interest to bloggers emerged over the weekend, but was quickly overshadowed by the avalanche of citizen media covering Sunday's election. We have already mentioned the plagiarism by journalist Nestor Valecillos of a blog post written by Guillermo Amador. Last Friday, Amador finally received a response from the paper.

Hace unos minutos recibí un mensaje de Carlos Romero, Director de El Diario de Caracas. Ya el dia de ayer había recibido una comunicación suya, en donde me planteaba que estaban estudiando la sanción a ser aplicada a Nestor Valecillos por su plagio a mi propiedad intelectual. Yo insistí en que de Valecillos solo esperaba una disculpa y del Diario de Caracas una réplica en iguales condiciones que las del artículo original, en cantidad de caracteres y en ubicación dentro del diario.

En este nuevo email, me hace saber que El Diario de Caracas decidió separarlo de su plantilla a partir del dia de hoy, 1ro de diciembre de 2006. De igual manera, me concedieron mi derecho a réplica y debo consignar un artículo de 3800 caracteres que será publicado en un sitio preferencial del diario. Con una simple disculpa a tiempo de Valecillos era suficiente y se que nunca fue la intención de la comunidad bloguera venezolana propiciar su despido, personalmente solicité se me concediera el derecho a réplica y una disculpa tan pública como el artículo plagiado.

A few minutes ago, I received a message from Carlos Romero, Director of El Diario de Caracas. I had already received a note from him yesterday in which I was made aware that they were studying the sanction to be applied to Nestor Valecillos for his plagiarism of my intellectual property. I insisted that I only awaited an apology from Valecillos and a published response from El Diario de Caracas with an equal amount of characters and placing as the original article.

This new email let me know that El Diario de Caracas decided to let Valecillos go starting today, the first of December. Also, they conceded my right to a response and I should allocate an article of 3,800 characters that will be published in a preferential site of the paper. A simple and timely apology from Valecillos would have been sufficient and I know that it was never the intention of the Venezuelan blogging community to favor his firing. Personally, I asked that they concede me the right to respond and an apology as public as the plagiarized article.

De cualquier manera, se que tomar esta decisión, reconociendo una vez mas la falta cometida, asi como conceder la réplica no es algo fácil de hacer. Denota sentido de la responsabilidad o al menos verguenza cuando se comete una falta. Demuestra que les duele lo que se hace o deshace con la publicación donde se trabaja y eso es importante. En estos tiempos que corren, muy importante. De hecho, no recuerdo algún otro momento en donde una publicación se haga responsable de una acción como este y ademas tome medidas. A ellos, gracias.

A mis compañeros de la criollosfera venezolana, muchas gracias. A pesar de que nunca pedí que llenaran los e-mails de El Diario de Caracas de reclamos, ahora les pido que si les escriben, sea para agradecer la actitud tomada. Su compromiso de publicar la réplica en cuestión es suficiente y en un rato comienzo a redactarla.
Insisto, es impresionante la solidaridad que demuestra esta comunidad, que sin dudarlo ni un minuto se torna compacta para ayudar a uno de sus miembros. Asi hemos ayudado a varios de nuestros compañeros a sobrellevar los embates de enfermedades tan serias como el cáncer, asi ayudamos a una niña a curarse de leucemia (http://www.caracascafe.net/modulor/?p=35).

No se puede simplemente copiar y pegar la propiedad intelectual y no dar crédito por ello. Es un delito en cualquier parte del mundo, aqui también.

No matter what, I know that taking this decision - recognizing the mistake committed by conceding the response is not something easy to do. It denotes a sense of the responsibility or at least shame when committing a mistake. It shows that what is done or not done with the publication where they work pains them and this is important. In fact, I don't remember any other moment in which a publication has made itself responsible for an action like that and has taken measures. To them, thank you.

To my colleagues of the Venezuelan blogosphere, thank you very much. Despite the fact that I never asked you to fill the email inboxes of El Diario de Caracas, I now ask you that if you write them, do so to thank the attitude they've taken. Their commitment to publish the response in question is sufficient and in a bit I'll start to compile it. I insist, the solidarity our community shows is impressive. Without a minute of doubt we come together to help one of its members. That is how we helped various of our friends to overcome the attack of diseases as serious as cancer; that is how we helped a young girl overcome leukemia.

Intellectual property can simply not be copied and pasted without giving credit. It's a crime in any part of the world; here too.

You may view the latest post at
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/12/05/tranquility-and-justice-in-caracas/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rodrigo R. González Fernández
Director

 

CONSULTA JURÍDICACHILE.BLOGSPOT.COM
Renato Sánchez 3586, Dpto. 10
Las Condes * Santiago * Chile
T: (56-2) 245 1168
rogofe47@hotmail.com
rogofe47@manquehue.net
www.consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com

TOM PETERS

·   Happy Holidays from TPC!   ·   Buying In and Embracing Change Through Projects   ·   Where's Tom?   ·   Happy Birthday ISOE!   ·   Did You Miss It?   ·   Cool Friends   ·   Where's Tom? (part II)   ·   Banners        Tom Peters! Times December 2006 Happy Holidays from TPC! It's that time of year again...although judging from the 60 degree weather here in Boston lately, you wouldn't know it! Since this is the last edition of TP Times for the year 2006, we would like to extend our warmest Holiday wishes to all of our loyal readers! From all of us here at TP Times/tompeters!company, may you all have a safe, happy, and healthy Holiday Season! Cheers! Buying In and Embracing Change Through Projects How do you move an organization through change? You've held the big meeting; you've given out new mugs, pencils, pens, and T-Shirts. You've come up with the new slogan/buzzword, and now you wait for change to happen. Change comes only when you change a strand of DNA within the organizational gene. Change comes through projects - extraordinary projects - that matter, make a difference, and leave a legacy. What are you working on right now? Does it matter? Is it creating a change momentum? Do you care? We invite you to join Jim Miller, CEO of Miller Agency, and Valarie Willis, Principal, tompeters!company, to explore how WOW! Projects(TM) can make a genetic difference in your organization. Jim Miller will share his story of how a very simple project approach can fundamentally change how you think about and execute your work, and raise the WOW! factor in your projects. Change comes through innovative thinking, creativity, passion and spirit. Valarie Willis will tell you that everyone has the potential to produce projects that make a difference, and almost any work assignment can become a WOW! After all, spirit, spark, passion, and creativity are marks of our human spirit. We all live in projects day to day. By learning how to balance the tangibles and the intangibles, you can create passion, excitement, and enthusiasm by delivering projects of excellence that can change your organization. Anyone involved in projects - from executives, to professionals, to support staff - that has ever been frustrated by projects not reaching completion or becoming stagnant should attend this webinar. Whole project teams have much to gain by attending together. A WOW! Project starts with you! Are you ready? Join us on December 6, 2006 at 12:00 Noon, EST. As always, this is a free presentation. For registration information, please contact Nick here: nadams@tompeters.com. Please note that once again, seating is limited, so sign up soon! Where's Tom? Where oh where will his travels take him? Where oh where has he been? Here is what is on the agenda for the globe-trotting Mr. Peters: December 2006 12/5 Costa Mesa, CA 12/11 Bahrain 12/19 Amsterdam, Netherlands Remember to check Tom's calendar at www.tompeters.com for updates that may have been added after this newsletter went to print. Also, slides will be added after each event, so be sure to check for those as well. Finally, a list of Tom's recent travels, including links to slides, can be found at the end of the newsletter. Happy Birthday ISOE! In Search of Excellence at (Almost) 25 ... and Standing Tall Blog posting by Tom Peters, 11/24/2006 In Search of Excellence will be 25 next year-believe it or not. A few days ago a Web posting suggested that Bob Waterman and I had fudged the data in the book. It's simply not true. But if that perception is rumbling around in cyberspace, it's all my fault. I did an interview on the book with my great pal Alan Webber, Fast Company founder, a couple of years ago. I made the wretched mistake, in casual conversation, of saying we'd "fiddled the data" for In Search of Excellence. What I meant had nothing to do with "fudging," or "fiddling," but was a comment only on the differences between our methodology for company selection and that of Jim Collins in Good to Great. Jim apparently had no prior convictions about which companies he'd examine, and created his list by applying certain financial criteria to a huge company database-and sight unseen, a set of superb performers emerged. By that standard, Bob Waterman and I did it "backwards." We were enamored of the "excellence idea," wanted to write about it, and thence sought initial "excellent company" nominations based on McKinsey and academic and corporate experts' subjective evaluations; only after getting a "subjective" list of nominees did we apply the financial screens that caused any number-such as GE (this was pre-Welch)-to drop off the list. Thus, by fiddling I simply meant that we hadn't followed a pure model of starting from a big list and using only financial data to extract unforeseen winners. (Fact is, any like process is about 90% subjective-e.g., if you use-juggle different data screens, different years, you will get wildly different results/lists.) For what it's worth, Bob and I subjected our subjectively determined candidates to six tough financial hurdles (see In Search of Excellence, page 22 et seq.), three representing growth, three representing absolute financial returns. Growth measures: compound asset growth; compound equity growth; average ratio of market value to book value. The "absolute" measures were: average return on total capital; average return on equity; average return on sales. We did our research in 1980, and arbitrarily used data covering 1961-1980. To qualify, a company had to have been in the top half on at least four of the six measures for the full 20-year period. Most handily exceeded this standard, but 19 of our original 62 company nominees dropped out, and we concentrated our research on the remaining 43. Far more interesting, I think, is that given our subjective nomination process, we ended up examining companies that, in 1980, virtually no one had looked at. Absurd as it may seem, these "stealth" "cool" companies, circa 1980, included: Emerson Electric, Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard (then a $1-billion firm), Frito-Lay/PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Caterpillar, Marriott, McDonald's, Intel, Disney, Delta Airlines, and, yes, little Wal*Mart. While I'm on the topic of In Search of Excellence and retrospective perceptions thereof, I'll deal with the second "charge" against the book; namely, that several of "our" companies "failed." (For some wholly unknown reason, some people say "most of" "our" companies failed????) To be sure, the likes of Wang and Atari and K-Mart are today embarrassments. Nonetheless, the overall performance of "our" firms has been little short of stunning. In 2002, on the 20th anniversary of the book, forbes.com held our publicly traded companies up to a high-amp searchlight ... To read the entire blog, click here. Did You Miss It? If you missed "What's Culture Got to do With it?" you can download it here. On November 11th, Juli Ann Reynolds, President & CEO of tompeters!company, and Jeff Tetrick, Vice President and CFO of Pinnacol Assurance, co-presented on the effects of measuring and aligning corporate culture. Finally, there is an objective way to measure alignment throughout an organization. The discussion was dynamic and fun, and we want to thank all of you who joined us. Cool Friends Maxine Clark is the Chief Executive Bear of Build-A-Bear Workshop(R), Where Best Friends Are Made(R). To date, they've sold 42 million bears! She wrote The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart, and she is our new Cool Friend. You can read the interview here, and visit her website here: www.buildabear.com. Where's Tom? (part II) As promised, this is where Tom has been. Slides included (when available)! 11/2 Chicago, IL: Discover Financial (private event) 11/8 Las Vegas, NV: Dealertrack (private event) 11/17 Chicago, IL: HSM (private event) 11/30 Madrid, Spain: ONO Companies (private event) ............................!............................. Subscribe at http://www.tompeters.com/your_world/join_the_fray/ (C) 2006 tompeters!company Send this mail to a friend

FOM LEGAL BLOG WATCH

Legal Blog Watch

Weil's Big Deal: Women and Flex Time Last week, law firm Weil Gotshal announced the election of 20 new partners. Not in itself a big deal, but the announcement included this: [F]or the first time, the new partnership class was comprised of a majority of women. Further, the firm stated, this election was also marked by the creation of a new partnership category, "flex-time partner," which was created for new partners making a long-term career choice to work on a flexible schedule. Among the newly elected partners were included two flex-time partners. Big news, or not? At Counsel to Counsel, Stephen Seckler suggests that Weil's announcement means "large firms are finally getting worried about retaining talent." But at Law Blog, Peter Lattman asks, "Is Weil touting something it should be proud of, or should its 'achievement' be a matter of course these days?" Lattman's question elicited a number of comments to his post, as well as one from Morra Aarons at blogher, who writes that the news is, indeed, a big deal: "Hallelujah. It's a reality, whether or not it should have happened 20 years ago or not. ... I'll take progress in whatever form it comes." The folks at JD Bliss obviously agree with Aarons. They've named Weil Gotshal a Work Life Winner. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on November 28, 2006 at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Pepper Adds Spice With Podcasts At his LawMarketing Blog, Larry Bodine opines that the recently launched Pod Center from the 450-lawyer firm Pepper Hamilton "sets a new standard in podcasting by law firms." The podcasts, he writes, are structured as interviews with attorneys who are experts in the subjects covered. Topics of recent podcasts included private-equity dividend recapitalizations, taxation of online software purchases, criminal background checks by employers and workplace smoking policies. Apart from the topics, Bodine is impressed by the setup: The Center itself is set up as a blog so that listeners have the option of subscribing to RSS feeds that feature audio only, or audio plus text. Readers can also listen to broadcasts directly from the blog using a convenient "Play" bar. The firm's marketing manager, Brian Dolan, tells Bodine: "We think the new Podcast Center is an innovative program that positions the firm as cutting edge and tech savvy." Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on November 28, 2006 at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) 'Second Life' Spawns First-Impression Issues Real-world legal issues involving private property and IP piracy are beginning to arise from the virtual world known as Second Life, as two recent developments illustrate. At the Fortune magazine blog Legal Pad, Roger Parloff tells of Anshe Chung, Second Life's first virtual millionaire. This is not Monopoly money, Parloff writes, explaining that Chung's Second Life holdings have made her real-world wealthy, "i.e., someone whose holdings in a make-believe world are legally convertible into genuine U.S. currency worth more than $1 million." (Read her announcement of how she parlayed $10 into $1 million.) How does her achievement raise legal issues? Parloff explains: Some online game companies have attempted to prohibit, through click-through agreements, the real-world buying and selling of online property created by players, which the companies maintain remains the company's intellectual property. ... Second Life, on the other hand, openly authorizes and facilitates exchanges between its currency and real-world currencies, so that particular legal issue does not arise. Still, you might ask whether [Second Life developer] Linden Lab is courting legal liability if its servers should suddenly go down one day, destroyed, say, in some real-world earthquake, leaving Second Life denizens devoid of "property" or at least expectations in which they've invested so much real time and money. Meanwhile, in a Business Week article, The Dark Side of Second Life, Catherine Holahan discusses the increasingly vexing problem of piracy within Second Life, in which users copy others' characters, objects and buildings, "potentially eroding the value of people's virtual property." In fact, she writes, piracy is just one aspect of a larger "crime wave" sweeping the virtual world and causing many users to demand "an official system of law and order." The piracy problem, in particular, has Second Life users "plenty worried," she writes: Andrea Miller, a Las Vegas marketing director who co-owns the Panache clothing store in Second Life, says she is concerned about her creations getting ripped off. She closed her store, which handles about 20,000 Linden dollars a day, in protest of what she believes is a lack of sufficient action by Second Life's creators. "You believe your work will be protected," says Miller. "But it's just not. It's disheartening." These virtual disputes may lead to real-world lawsuits, Holahan suggests. But there is also pressure on Second Life's developer, Linden Labs, to come up with its own procedures for dispute resolution. The site's creator, Philip Rosedale, told a recent "town meeting": "Longer term, Second Life is going to have to develop its own law or its own standards of behavior." At ZDNet's IP Telephony blog, Russell Shaw explores this idea further. What if a clothing designer or a musician uses Second Life to demo creations for real-world clients? he asks. What if those creations are hacked or misappropriated "and my ability to use SL as a demo for real-world aspirations and real-world dollars is compromised?" Shouldn't that be actionable in a real court? he wonders. You can take Shaw's poll, or tell us what you think by adding a comment below. For now, at least one real-world jurist is making himself available to residents in Second Life, if only as a lecturer -- 7th U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner.   Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on November 28, 2006 at 02:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Making Legal History, One Schuss at a Time Call it one small step for lawyers, one giant slalom for legal podcasting. Evan Schaeffer has, in one fell schuss, made both legal and podcasting history by recording the world's first legal video-podcast made while downhill skiing. No one is likely to argue with Schaeffer's claim that he is the first-ever lawyer and poor skier to take a blue slope while recording a discussion of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. He makes the trip with the video camera in his right hand and his podcasting notes and ski poles in his left, narrating the whole time. "Don't watch it for the substance," he writes on his blog. "I was having a hard enough time just keeping myself in an upright position." Later in the podcast, Shaeffer moves from the FRCP to diet tips. When he first started blogging, he explains, he gained weight, but he has since dropped several pounds through healthier eating and less beer drinking. It is good that Schaeffer told us that he had cut his beer drinking, because otherwise, as we watched this video, we might have wondered about that very question. Not to one-up Shaeffer, but I can now reveal that J. Craig Williams and I are planning to record an episode of our Coast to Coast podcast while competing in the Iditarod sled dog race through Alaska. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on November 28, 2006 at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FROM LEGAL WATCH BLOG

Legal Blog Watch

Nancy Grace Sued for Suicide Controversy over CNN's Nancy Grace, which we've posted on previously here, continues. Now, as this AP story (11/21/) reports, relatives of Melinda Duckett have sued Grace, alleging that Grace's badgering of Duckett during a news interview about her son's disappearance, including accusations that Duckett was responsible, lead to Duckett's suicide the next day. The family's attorney argues that Grace misrepresented her intentions when inviting Duckett to appear on the show. Though Grace had suggested that Duckett's appearance would raise awareness about her son, Grace "took on the role of a law enforcement official" during the interview by grilling Duckett about her evasiveness regar ding her son's disappearance. The article notes, however, that law enforcement officials have since named Duckett as the prime suspect. Though the suit against Grace may seem far-fetched, it's not the first time that a TV personality has been sued for allegedly playing a role in a death. Back in 1995, talk show host Jenny Jones faced a similar suit, after a gay man, Scott Amedure, confessed his love for a straight friend, Jonathan Schmitz, on the show. Three days after the show was taped (it never aired), Schmitz, humiliated by the incident, killed Amedure. Schmitz was sentenced to prison, but Amedure's family sued the show for failing to screen the mental stablity of guests. Amedure won at trial, but the verdict was vacated on appeal.   Posted by Carolyn Elefant on November 21, 2006 at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Get a Test Jury Online Bob Ambrogi has good news for everyday litigants with this post: You don't have to be an Enron defendant to afford a mock jury. As Ambrogi writes, a new Web site, TrialJuries, "will allow lawyers to submit their cases and have them 'decided' by online jurors similar to those who would serve on an actual jury at trial." To use the site, a lawyer can submit a written statement of each side's case or an audio or video argument. Mock jurors review the submissions and answer the verdict and feedback questions. When their review is done, the lawyer receives the verdict and can review the comments and feedback. The cost to submit a case to TrialJuries using text only is $1,500. For audio, the cost is $2,000, and for video it is $2,500. Posted by Carolyn Elefant on November 21, 2006 at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Paralegal Dupes a Law Firm This post from the Estrin Report blog highlights this recent article, Anderson Kill Discovers "Associate" Is Not A Lawyer (Law.com, 11/20/06). According to the article, Brian Valery had worked as a paralegal at Anderson since 1996 and told his employers that he was attending Fordham Law's night program to advance his career. In 2004, Valery told the firm that he'd passed the Bar, and apparently, he was hired on as an associate. It wasn't until 2005, when Valery moved for pro hac vice admission in Connecticut, representing that he was a member in good standing of the New York Bar, that grievance officials caught on to his deception and informed the firm. Apparently, Anderson has policies in place to check the status of newly admitted attorneys. But Valery slipped under the radar because of his ongoing employment relationship with the firm. In that regard, it's not hard to feel sorry for Anderson Kill. The firm trusted a longtime employee and took him at his word. Now, the firm faces the embarrassment of informing clients that Valery wasn't really an attorney as well as potential repercussions (such as increased premiums) from its legal malpractice carrier. We read so much about the unreasonableness of large firms -- how they don't care about employee morale or act in their best interest. Here's a firm that apparently did care enough about an employee to support him in his effort to become an attorney -- and look at the outcome.  Posted by Carolyn Elefant on November 21, 2006 at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Thanksgiving Comes Early for Some New Orleans Defendants Five hundred criminal defendants in New Orleans will have something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving:  the dismissal of their respective cases. As New York Times reporter Luanne White reports in this article, In New Orleans, Rust in the Wheels of Justice (11/21/06), in the aftermath of Katrina, "as many as 500 defendants, mostly in drug, theft and assault cases, have been freed because of problems with evidence, including difficulty in finding the witnesses who have moved away." In many cases, evidence has been lost or contaminated through water damage or mold. DNA samples were held without refrigeration for several months, which may ruin their usefulness. One Tulane law professor, Pamela Metzger has urged public defense lawyers to challenge the condition of the evidence in their cases.  But the loss of evidence can cut both ways. As the article notes:  Katherine Mattes, another Tulane law professor, said the lost or damaged evidence could also make it harder for innocent people to shake off charges filed against them. She said, for instance, that a rusted gun might no longer fire, making it impossible to conduct new ballistic tests that might show it could not have been used in a murder. "What people say when you describe all the evidence problems is how terrible it will be if we have people who committed crimes and can't be prosecuted," she said. "But it also can work the other way." Posted by Carolyn Elefant on November 21, 2006 at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 

NO FUME ALARGUE SU VIDA....

MIREN BIEN LA CAJETILLA ANTES DE FUMAR

 

TABAQUISMO = MUERTE

 

RODRIGO GONZALEZ FERNADEZ

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FROM ADAM SMITH, ESQ

New York City

rodrigo gonzalez fernandez
director, consultajuridica

Dear rodrigo:

October and, with luck, November in New York are the most beautiful months of the year here, as many of you know.  Everything seems to come together:  A new sense of purpose, the "new season" across the arts. social events, and even the climax of baseball and the kickoff of football, combined with spectacular weather, make it, year after year, the grandest season.

I'd like to believe it's been a fruitful period for "Adam Smith, Esq.," as well, but it is only in the eyes of you, Dear Reader, that that is or is not true.

So forthwith to some of the "greatest hits" of the past few weeks:

• You've heard all the biz-speak/managerial mantras of the past decade or two ("Management by Objective," "Management by Walking Around."  "Re-engineering."  "Six Sigma," "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," "Who Moved My Cheese?," etc.  If you're exhausted just reading that list (I am), here comes McKinsey to tell you it actually boils down to Just Three Things.
• Pop quiz:  Of the "Global 100" law firms, how many are US, UK, or former-British-Empire (Canada, Australia, etc.) based?  Tick-tock-tick-tock...  98.  No kidding.  I offer a theory of how that remarkable implausibility could be explained.
• Is the geographic distribution of brainpower (or its proxy, college and graduate degrees) changing in the US?  Yes, it is.  Is your firm where the brains are?
• I've written about "Social Network Analysis" several times, but now "SNA 2.0" has moved from simply analyzing the structure of the informal, but powerful, networks within your firm to quantifying their value.  What would it be worth to you to know that 20% of the value of a particular group was about to resign?
• Finally, what can  you as a leader of your firm learn from Andy Grove of Intel?  Start with brutal honesty, and an ability to stand outside yourself and outside the situation to reinforce your objectivity.

I'd also like to direct your attention to the "Adam Smith, Esq. Monthly Book Review," this month of James Buchan's The Authentic Adam Smith (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 2006).  Read about it here.

For our bonus, newsletter-only content, we have a look at the UK Magic Circle firm Slaughter & May, courtesy of last month's American Lawyer.  This won't be an exhaustive examination of Slaughter & May, but, I hope, will leave you with some insights about a distinctive—dare I say unique?—firm.

The 117-year-old firm, with 522 lawyers including 126 partners, has not only a lockstep compensation structure, but a two-tier structure, with those in the top tier earning twice as much as those in the lower tier (it takes 10 years to move to the higher tier).  Compared to this 2:1 ratio, 2005 AmLaw 100 firms that responded to the question reported an average spread of 10:1 from highest to lowest.  But Slaughter & May's 2005 PPP was more than $2-million (more than double its 1998 results).

Slaughter & May has other remarkably distinctive characteristics:

• It's intensely London-centric, having recently closed outposts in New York, Paris, and Tokyo, and maintaining only one foreign outpost of consequence, in Hong Kong.
• But it has by no means forfeited overseas opportunities, instead concentrating on establishing, cultivating, and maintaining a "network of best friends" across Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and even the US (notable "best friends" here include Cravath, Davis Polk, and Simpson Thacher).
• Culturally, the firm is sui generis.  Not only is its managing partner, Tim Clark, age 55 (son of a Slaughter & May partner), dismissive of modern management practice, he embraces old traditions while being aware of the antiquarian nature of some (if you just begin The American Lawyer story, you'll hear about the napkin rings).
• But unwritten rules are just as important:
  • No lateral partner hires
  • No partner departures to other firms
• And most important, the following (emphasis supplied):

  "Slaughter has no hourly targets, for example, but there is tremendous peer pressure to work hard for the good of the firm, say Slaughter partners and associates interviewed for this story. "The overriding thing about the firm was that you felt you owed the firm more than the firm owed you," says Francis Neate, who spent 34 years at Slaughter and May and is now of counsel at Kirkland & Ellis (following a decade at Schroders plc., an asset management company) and president of the International Bar Association. "It had a living strength. You felt guilty if you didn't pull your weight." The unspoken pressure often leads to early burnout. "You do the same work at 55 as at 33," Clark says, and while "some partners are doing that with vigor and enthusiasm," the overwhelming majority of partners retire by age 60."

As for the network of "best friends," is it a high maintenance creature?  Yes, of course; but its benefits are perceived to outweigh its maintenance costs, both financial and in terms of managerial overhead:

"All [the members of the network] were under pressure to globalize, but didn't want to do so by merging with a large, international firm. "There is an advantage to being rooted in our own country," says Umberto Nicodano, Bonelli's managing partner. "We know the courts, we know the system. Rarely, if ever, are the global firms able to establish these relationships." Practically speaking, Slaughter's Frank says, staying small keeps overhead low, keeps the firm cohesive, and makes it easier to pursue common goals than if lawyers were spread around the world. Furthermore, the fact that other firms don't feel that Slaughter is encroaching on their space makes the British firm attractive to work with, Frank says. In the mid-1990s, several years after their first discussions, the group realized that to compete with the global firms, they needed to do a better job of articulating their vision. So the firms drew up a list of basic criteria to define the relationship: Members are independent law firms based primarily in one country. Relationships are nonexclusive; legally, nothing binds the firms together."

So couldn't it all fly apart?  Well, that's a risk you live with.  My friend Tony Williams puts it in perspective: "Their business is sustainable as long as their best friends don't try and do something different," he says. But then he pauses. "So-called problems at Slaughter and May are problems that managing partners at other firms would die for," he adds.

Slaughter & May is not your firm, nor is it a model for all.  But it has a voice, it has a distinction, it matters to our profession.  You have permission to "think different."

As always, I invite thoughts, comments, and observations.  

That wraps up the "Adam Smith, Esq." monthly newsletter for November 2006.

My parting wish is that you let me know how I can make it sharper, more useful, more helpful.  "Adam Smith, Esq." is, in my mind, not a "blog," but a publication.  More than one of you has compared my site to other prominent legal industry trade journals, and said that the advantage of the online medium is being able to publish as many times per month as seems warranted.  I happen to agree, and I want you to know that the editor (that would be me) is always in, and always delighted to hear from my valued readers.

Best regards,

 

FOM LEGAL BLOG WATCH

Legal Blog Watch

In-House Bloggers Slowly Step Out One group of lawyers has remained largely absent from the blogosphere, reports Catherine Aman in Corporate Counsel magazine: the in-house bar. It is no wonder in-house lawyers are reluctant to blog, legal consultant Rees Morrison of Hildebrandt International tells Aman: "There are a lot of ways blogging by in-house counsel could go wrong." Even so, she writes, the number of in-house lawyers who blog is growing steadily -- some with the company's blessing, others anonymously. In-house lawyers who blog share a "desire to participate in serious dialogue, whether it be about public policy or emerging technologies and related laws," Aman say. She quotes Microsoft Corporation lawyer David Rudin, who writes the blog Standards Law: "My participation in the blogosphere, both as a reader and contributor, helps me be more effective in my role as an attorney. It keeps me up to date on the issues the community feels are most pressing. Likewise, I enjoy being part of the broader conversation on legal IT issues." Other in-house lawyers who openly blog include Mike Dillon, GC of Sun Microsystems, and two of the 10 contributors to Cisco High Tech Policy Blog. But for some on the inside, such as The Wired GC, blogging is best done anonymously. Microsoft's Rudin maintains that blogging is good for in-house lawyers and good for their employers.  He tells Aman: "We have an opportunity to provide a human voice and perspective to our company's actions and positions. The information in the blog comes from a single attorney and expresses my own views. Those views are influenced by the company's point of view, and it's my goal to be an effective advocate for Microsoft's positions." Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on November 6, 2006 at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) The Only Two Blawgers in Iowa Could Rush Nigut and Brett Trout do for blawging in Iowa what Prof. Harold Hill did for marching bands? From Dennis M. Kennedy at Between Lawyers comes a pointer to The Gospel of Blawging, a Des Moines Business Record story about Iowa's only two lawyers with blogs and their newfound mission to spread the word among their peers. Nigut, a business and corporate lawyer with Sullivan & Ward in West Des Moines, writes the blog Rush on Business, and Trout, a solo patent attorney in Des Moines, writes Blawg IT. The two lawyers will join forces to "spread the gospel" of blawging at a seminar for Iowa lawyers later this week. Trout tells the Business Record: "From what we can tell, we really are the only attorneys in Iowa doing this. And it's such a great tool that if we could keep it to ourselves and not let anyone else use it, I know I would in a heartbeat. But it's like the Internet. How are you going to keep it a secret? So we thought we would help get the word out ourselves." What do Iowa's only two legal bloggers see as its value? For one, says Nigut, blogging encourages the sharing of ideas. "You get to see some really great minds discuss the issues in your field, and then you yourself can chime in with your opinion. I've learned so much since I started this that I never would have encountered otherwise." As for the lack of other lawyers in their state with blogs, Nigut explains it this way: "Lawyers are very reluctant to be the first ones to do anything." But that is changing as more younger lawyers join the profession's ranks. "It's a generational thing," Nigut says. Sounds like Trouble, with a capital T and that rhymes with B and that stands for Blawg. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on November 6, 2006 at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) For Women Lawyers: Good News, Bad News Blogger Chuck Newton points us to the newly published study from the National Association of Women Lawyers, NAWL's First National Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms. The news is not good. The survey finds law firms have plenty of women at their lowest level but a paucity at the top. From the survey: "[W]omen lawyers are well-represented at the lowest level of the profession, constituting 45% of associates, but not at the top of the profession. While women account for close to half of law firm associates, they account for 28% of of-counsel lawyers and 26% of non-equity partners. At the top level of law firm partnership, women account overall for 16% or 1 out of every 6 equity partners. Representation in the equity partnership during prime earning years (between 10 and 25 years experience in the profession) is a little better; in that group, women account for about 20% or 1 out of every 5 equity partners. Among the most junior equity partners, women account for about 24% or 1 in 4." It gets worse. Even women who achieve the status of equity partner tend to earn less than their male counterparts and play a lesser role in firm governance. On average, women hold only 16 percent of the seats on their firms' governing committees and make up only 5 percent of managing partners. But the good news for women lawyers, as Carolyn Elefant writes at MyShingle.com,  is that they are finding it easier than ever before to build successful careers in solo and small-firm practice. "As the barriers to starting a law firm decrease, more and more women are successfully starting firms ... and don't need to settle for the sham part time programs that some firms initially put in place." In fact, Elefant argues, these solo women are helping to improve working conditions for their peers at larger firms. Pointing to a Boston Globe article on greater part-time opportunities for women at larger firms, she says it is because solo and small-firm practice has become a viable option for women that larger firms are forced to better accommodate their need for flexible and part-time schedules. Call it, if you will, the "trickle-up" effect: broader options for women in smaller firms force larger firms to follow suit. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on November 6, 2006 at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) A Vote for Blawg Review #82 Word has it, there's an election of some kind tomorrow. That would explain why Blawg Review #82 is hosted by Edward Still at the blog Votelaw. Still, a lawyer in Birmingham, Ala., is an expert in the laws relating to elections, voting and campaign finance. Appropriately, he starts this week's review of legal blogs with "some election-related stuff." Thankfully, he also gathers a number of items "for those of you who don't give a damn about elections." Even those readers who place themselves in the second group will enjoy at least one of the items from the first group: Madeleine Begun Kane's limerick for Jack Abramoff, Chatty Jack. Head over to Still's blog and register your vote for Blawg Review #82.   Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on November 6, 2006 at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 

RODRIGO GONZALEZ FERNADEZ

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Jack Welch viene a Chile

Book Description

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Winning By Jack Welch, Suzy Welch Price: $27.95 On Sale: 4/5/2005 Formats:     Hardcover | Audio | E-Book | Large Print Jack Welch knows how to win. During his forty-year career at General Electric, he led the company to year-after-year success around the globe, in multiple markets, against brutal competition. His honest, be-the-best style of management became the gold standard in business, with his relentless focus on people, teamwork, and profits. Since Welch retired in 2001 as chairman and chief executive officer of GE, he has traveled the world, speaking to more than 250,000 people and answering their questions on dozens of wide-ranging topics. Inspired by his audiences and their hunger for straightforward guidance, Welch has written both a philosophical and pragmatic book, which is destined to become the bible of business for generations to come. It clearly lays out the answers to the most difficult questions people face both on and off the job. Welch's objective is to speak to people at every level of an organization, in companies large and small. His audience is everyone from line workers to MBAs, from project managers to senior executives. His goal is to help everyone who has a passion for success. Welch begins Winning with an introductory section called "Underneath It All," which describes his business philosophy. He explores the importance of values, candor, differentiation, and voice and dignity for all. The core of Winning is devoted to the real "stuff" of work. This main part of the book is split into three sections. The first looks inside the company, from leadership to picking winners to making change happen. The second section looks outside, at the competition, with chapters on strategy, mergers, and Six Sigma, to name just three. The next section of the book is about managing your career -- from finding the right job to achieving work-life balance. Welch's optimistic, no excuses, get-it-done mind-set is riveting. Packed with personal anecdotes and written in Jack's distinctive no b.s. voice, Winning offers deep insights, original thinking, and solutions to nuts-and-bolts problems that will change the way people think about work.