Dan Gilbert: Sleep on that LeBron Letter?
July 9, 2010 | Filed Under In the News
In an era of instant communication, it’s very hard to wait to press “send.”
Often as a lawyer, a client asks you to look at a letter. You may suggest edits, you may suggest waiting a bit and discussing overall strategy.
So it’s almost refreshing when a corporate communication goes out quickly, unvarnished and passionate.
Exhibit A would be an open letter from Cleveland Cavaliers’ majority owner Dan Gilbert last night posted on nba.com, on the departure of LeBron James.
Clearly, an atypical move from an employer right after an employee leaves, when Mr. Gilbert said to the fans:
There is a lot of backstory to this, some of which is now coming out (Dan Gilbert’s side; you can expect LeBron’s camp to retaliate in due course. No sign of wise media counsel there, to be sure.)
In the days of paper letters and real mail, you could wait, throw a draft in your top desk drawer, and read it in the morning.
These days, it’s much harder. People (and the press) want a response now. Using the “recall” feature in Outlook is seen by recipients as Read this Quickly. And when you release something online, there is no “recall.”
Ever.
Cultivating an Opening Day Mindset
April 5, 2010 | Filed Under Change, In the News
Today is officially Opening Day for Major League Baseball. (Last night’s Yankees/Red Sox game was exciting, but all true fans know that Opening Day means day).
Among the great things about Opening Day is the fact that all teams and players start even, all have at least a chance to appear in the World Series. (Well, maybe not the Nationals…)
So here are three ways I think Opening Day can serve as time for reflection (and perhaps even optimism) for lawyers facing unrelenting change and the attendant uncertainty:
1. Strive for precision, not perfection. (The best lawyers have setbacks, too).
“Baseball’s best teams lose about sixty-five times a season. It is not a game you can play with your teeth clenched.” — George F. Will.
2. It is possible to do good work if you’re not overly focused on the meter. (Results, not effort, are what matters).
Baseball is infinite. It has no limits of time or space. There is no clock. The foul lines extend indefinitely beyond the field of play. Even the outfield wall is only there for convenience. — Bruce Hoffman
3. It’s not about brute strength, but also perseverance and agility. (Law is the great equalizer, and a source of fairness in an unfair world).
“There is no sports event like Opening Day of baseball, the sense of beating back the forces of darkness and the National Football League.” — George Vecsey
Most current discussions about the law and the legal industry are understandably serious. Baseball reminds us that sometimes you can see things as more of a game (play outside and have fun) and still be OK. So here’s a bonus thought from one of baseball’s best announcers, who wasn’t talking about the law, but could have been:
“I love the game because it’s so simple, yet it can be so complex. There’s a lot of layers to it, but they aren’t hard to peel back.” — Ernie Harwell
David Boies: ESQ Meets TMZ
March 29, 2010 | Filed Under In the News
David Boies shows that he is equally at home outside Dodgers Stadium as he is inside the courtroom. Mr. Boies is representing Jamie McCourt in her divorce proceedings with Los Angeles Dodgers owner/husband Frank McCourt.
They didn’t teach this in law school; nice jacket on Mr. Boies (as always); click on the picture to go to the video.
Watching Mr. Boies do a mini-deposition of a security guard is priceless.
Friday Law River Round-Up
January 15, 2010 | Filed Under law river, In the News
As announced late last year, my company Lexvista launched a mobile-ready legal news website, Law River.
This week you’ll find out about outsourcing, cyber-attacks, associate training, legal spend management and value ratings. These items move off the site as new ones stream on; the best of each month are available here.
Try it out on your desktop, or on your smartphone at lawriver.com:
GM - The Real Transformer?
July 10, 2009 | Filed Under Law Firm Trends, In the News
The New GM emerged this morning, 40 days after a Chapter 11 filing, feeling clean and fluffy after a “quick rinse” of $128 billion in debt.
The joke around Detroit is that GM went through bankruptcy in less time than it took outsiders pre-filing to get a response to voicemails and schedule a meeting. You have to hand it to GM and government lawyers, as well as lead counsel Weil Gotshal. They also benefited from being second in line after Chrysler, changing a few pages in the playbook along the way.
It’s still uncertain how the economy will do, how GM will do in it, and how long the government will have a majority stake.
The GM saga has spawned a cottage industry in speculating how it informs issues in the legal industry like BigLaw firms or legal education.
I tend to think that GM is a special case. Law firms have been spectacularly profitable for years; GM, not so much. I doubt there are many takers in the Am Law 200 to roll the dice with a Section 363 gambit (not least of which because law firms have few real assets save for the relationship partners that walk out the door every night). The biggest challenge facing the largest law firms is peering through their past success and seeing what awaits about 80% of them in the next 18-24 months.
Surely doing something decisive in the next 40 days isn’t easy, given the vacations planned, and Labor Day running late this year…
So let’s leave that messy business for another day; The New York Times notes today that the new Camaro is proving to be a hit; so I guess it’s OK for hard-core import owners to go out and buy one.
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