Homeland Insecurity - here is the outstanding Atlantic article featuring security expert Bruce Schneier, who explains the problems with security systems in general. See my earlier post. The problem with implementing security, according to Schneier, is that the obvious things get overlooked. For example, he discusses the current airport security methods, which he refers to as "brittle" to convey their over-reliance on secrecy.
Few of the new airport-security proposals address [the brittleness] problem. Instead, Schneier [explains], they address problems that don't exist. "The idea that to stop bombings cars have to park three hundred feet away from the terminal, but meanwhile they can drop off passengers right up front like they always have ..." He laughed. "The only ideas I've heard that make any sense are reinforcing the cockpit door and getting the passengers to fight back."
Maybe after we impeach Norman Mineta we can work on convincing Schneier to accept a cabinet level post.
8:35:41 PM
A Mad Tea Party Blog - welcome to Alice W., an anonymous poster at a Boston area law school whose site is called "Who Stole the Tarts?" Why is it called that, you ask?
"If you've ever read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you will remember the trial (chapter 11 - Who Stole the Tarts?). It is a funny satire on the justice system and trials. The jurors are marvellously stupid, the judge tyrannical, the evidence nonsensical. In the real world, perhaps things aren't quite that obvious, but maybe that makes it even more dangerous."
That also explains her desire to remain anonymous. She certainly doesn't seem shy about voicing her views. Stay tuned...
6:43:05 PM
Law Firms embrace blogs? - well sort of, I guess. This firm with offices in New York and D.C., with its blue-ribbon clientele has a quasi-blog page called "new on the web" and it links to my blogroll, as well as to the LitiGator's blog. Looks like a pretty interesting place to practice law. Maybe you law students should check it out.
5:46:44 PM
Legal requirement to write clearly - reading my recently delivered Franchise Law Journal I found an article about UFOC's. Franchise disclosure documents are called "UFOCs", which is short for "Uniform Franchise Offering Circular." Several states have UFOC requirements, and a couple have requirements that the document be drafted in "plain English," which serves the noble purpose of allowing the person receiving the disclosures to actually understand them. The author of the article emphasized that many lawyers have trouble with the plain-English writing requirement; she stressed that common legal phrases like "included but not limited to" are strictly forbidden in the UFOCs. But she points out that it is acceptable to write "for example" in place of the forbidden phrase. The article has other helpful tips on how to write plainly.
I love it! Out of the highly regulated world of Franchise law comes a requirement that lawyers use plain English. What are the odds that "regulation" would require lawyers to write clearly?
5:45:07 PM
Juror attitudes towards corporations - The standard jury instructions for the 34th Judicial District Court in Louisiana contain the well-worn directive that juries should not allow sympathy or personal preference to guide their deliberations. Specifically, the charges command that "all parties are entitled to equal justice in our courts, rich or poor, individual or corporations." A recent subscription-only Wall St. Journal article, however, details that which most every trial lawyer knows, corporations are distrusted by jurors. And the article explains it's getting worse:
"Distrust of corporations has always been a worry for defense lawyers. The big difference now, says [a corporate defense attorney], is how widespread and deep-seated the distrust has become. In recent mock trials conducted for clients preparing to face real juries, Chicago jury consultant Theresa Zagnoli found the percentage of prospective jurors who believe that executives lie to increase profits more than doubled to 67% from 30% a year ago."
Obviously, the whole Enron/Worldcom debacle feeds this. But, it is important to remember --if you want to be fair-minded-- that many corporations, if not most, are populated by people with decent intentions. And most corporate decisions do not get made by high-flying executives. The well-publicized bad decisions made by greedy top-level executives should not overshadow the many well-intentioned decisions of middle managers that are the guiding hands in most everyday corporate affairs. They shouldn't, but probably will. Too bad.
1:02:33 PM
"I don't know enough to offer an opinion on that point"- those are hard words to say. So whenever I find someone, especially a well-read and intelligent person, utter those words --or words to that effect-- I'm impressed. And, inevitably, I value that person's opinion all the more.
12:39:11 PM
The Price of Premium Real Estate - Marty proclaims "I don't agree that on the whole, law has to be practiced utilizing several hundred thousand square feet of downtown trophy space." He explains further:
I am someone who traded a partner's office with a fantastic view of the Chrysler building for an office at home. I work with other attorneys, here and abroad, and I don't miss the expensive real estate. I believe that face-to-face interaction with colleagues and clients is necessary (in moderation) and I also acknowledge that some practices (trial work being the most obvious) require a specific location.... Clients resent paying for it and lawyers are in denial as to how many weeks (or even months) they work merely to pay that premium. The Trademark Blog
Thinking outside the box, eh? Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me.
12:30:14 PM
Architecture matters, and so does blogging - very interesting thoughts from Ray Ozzie about our new discussion medium:
"blogs represent a radical new approach to public discussion - one that, in essence, completely and naturally "solves" the signal:noise problem, and does so through creative exploitation of a unique architecture based upon decentralized representation of discussion threads."
The spammers, ranters & other people who introduce "noise" into a discussion are elegantly marginalized in blogspace, and that makes all the difference. I agree wholeheartedly with Ozzie's parting observation about blogs: "we've yet to discover the limits of where this fascinating medium will take us."
12:11:02 PM
Lawyer Marketing - now this is an interesting idea. Axiom Legal is a company that acts as an agent for lawyers, referring them cases. If the client engages the lawyer Axiom runs the billing and provides some basic support services, and retains a percentage of the billing. Apparently, according to my source, Axiom has generated some well-known clients; I won't mention the names of the clients, but they are industry leaders that anyone would recognize. Obviously, Axiom is most attractive to small firms, and solo-practitioners, but lurking in its method may be the seeds of wider acceptance. You never know. Some people thought Charles Schwab was going off the deep end when he established a discount brokerage business. Hmmmm.
11:47:15 AM
Larry Lessig's talk at OSCON - click here (it's a large file - 8 mgs, but is the actual speech with visuals). Good stuff.
11:46:54 AM
Steve Albini does some math too - he's an independent record producer, known for having produced Nirvana's In Utero album. He's got an interesting essay on the economics of the music industry (thanks Zem!)
11:46:34 AM
Evidence of a vast left-wing conspiracy? From Howard: Attorney-blogger Sam Heldman reports that he has found evidence of "a left-wing conspiracy, among major corporate media interests, to suppress right-of-center voices." How Appealing
It always comes down to filtering...
11:45:55 AM
Larry Lessig has a blog - it was spotted by Doc Searls, and seems to be mostly a listing of his upcoming speaking events along with pointers to useful sites. You can subscribe to it as an RSS/XML feed if you go here.
8:08:34 AM
Law School Exam - check out this exam, which Cory Doctorow spotted. It uses cartoon characters as protagonists, but it still gives me "the willies."
