Michael Alex Wasylik - you're a blogger. And a lawyer. And you've been apprehended. Mike practices Intellectual Property, Civil Litigtion (including Franchising) and other stuff. His office is in McLean, VA.
11:52:39 PM
Large West Coast firm cuts staff - Wilson Sonsini is letting 100 people (11%) of its administrative staff go. They cite two reasons: the downturn in technology work, and increased efficiency due to technology. Well, I'm sure they're at least half-right.
11:35:04 PM
Due Diligence - when I was a much younger lawyer, during a different era of financial crisis --one that gave rise to an entity known as the Resolution Trust Corporation-- I worked on a bunch of cases stemming from the collapse of local Savings & Loan. I would sit in the attic of this once semi-venerable institution and sift through loan documents and financial records. I was doing the leg work to get cases ready to file against borrowers who hadn't paid their loans (that answers the plot question of why the S&L went under).
One day a bunch of really slick young guys with expensive suits came in and started combing through the papers. Just like me. Except they were doing "Due Diligence." Some entity was thinking of buying the Little S&L That Couldn't, and so the buyer had to investigate the records and see what sort of mischief was buried in there. "Due Diligence." The very phrase seemed so stentorian, so patrician. And I was, frankly, impressed with people who were "doing due diligence." As time has passed I have had many opportunities to learn that due diligence is often not so diligent, and is often more like the old drive-by appraisal (another staple ill-practice of my little S&L). So, when I read this story and got to the part about the due diligence, of course, I smiled.
7:22:04 PM
Crop Circles - apparently the Aliens are getting lazy. I can't prove it, but I'll bet they're overpaid too.
6:16:30 PM
Let's pass a simple law, one that we can all understand - SFGate reports:
"Berkeley, the first city to ban Styrofoam and wood-fired pizza ovens, could become the first to enact Aristotle's ancient law of logic -- that every entity is equal to itself. In a philosophical effort to come up with a city law that no one could ever break, conceptual artist Jonathon Keats wants Berkeley to legally acknowledge Aristotle's law, commonly expressed as A=A. ... Although his law can't be broken, a misdemeanor fine of up to one-tenth of a cent would be imposed on anyone or anything caught being unidentical to itself within city limits. "All laws have rules, so mine needs them, too," he said.
First we had the artist Cristo wrapping stuff up in colored banners and that was "art", and now we have an artist working in the thick pasty medium of law. Hey, artists can't make it much worse than it is. I don't know why, though, somehow it reminds me of when Indiana tried to pass a law to make the value of Pi equal to 3. Like I said, it makes as much sense as some of the other sausages, er...laws that we make.
2:00:54 PM
Does Blogging Assist KM? - Amy Wohl writes "One of the tough tasks in KM is getting expertise located in an organization (that is, figuring out who has it on a subject by subject basis). Tougher still is validating its credibility with other members of the organization. Toughest of all is getting the experts to agree to share their expertise with others, except as part of their regular job. Employees who have spent a career lifetime enhancing their value because they "know" something others don't are logically reluctant to give away their valuable expertise..." via [snowdeal.org | conflux]
Sharing. It's not just for Kindergarten, you know.
11:30:01 AM
Law Blogger spotted in Big Foot Country - that would be Ruth Laura Edlund in Bellevue, WA, a family law attorney with a blog called The Dark Goddess of Replevin Speaks, which is "an irreverent look at lawyers and technology." Welcome to blawgland.
Oh, and for the non-lawyers, 'replevin' is a method "by which the owner of goods or chattels may recover those things from one who wrongfully has taken or distrained them." Speaking of "distraint" I am reminded of the time I, as a novice lawyer, filed and argued in favor of a writ of distringas. My argument was eloquent and filled with case citation. The other lawyer took the podium and said simply "your honor, I've practiced for 20 years and I never heard of a writ of distringas." The judge nodded in agreement and summarily denied my motion. The opposing counsel then filed a motion against me seeking to have me put in jail for filing a frivolous motion. Moral: don't file obscure motions if you can avoid it. Apparently, the Sheriff of Nottingham was last known person to carry out a writ of distringas.
11:27:31 AM
