The practice of law in the People’s Republic of China can be a challenge for any attorney working on behalf of companies doing business with the Chinese.
China, now the world’s third-largest economy and the recipient of more foreign investment each year than any other country, can be a bit intimidating. Its business laws and the practice of deal-making have long been a source of confusion or mystery.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
I recently talked with Owen D. Nee Jr., of counsel with Jones Day, for a Westcast podcast (Listen to the audio).
Nee told me the failure of many joint ventures is linked to basic misunderstandings of the deal-making process, which too often occur because the investor or its counsel fail to study the applicable legal ground rules.
Timed for release this week from the LMA Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, the latest Westcast podcast features a discussion on legal marketing with someone who certainly knows the impact marketing can have on a law firm’s success.
Hubbard One named Deborah Roth Grabein, director of marketing at Andrews Kurth LLP, as its Marketing Professional of the Year in the 2009 Hubbard One Excellence in Legal Marketing Awards.
Roth Grabein has more than 25 years of experience in the legal industry. By leveraging leading marketing and business development technologies, she has built an impressive track record of working with her firm’s attorneys to develop and retain clients.
One of Grabein’s recent accomplishments was the implementation of an enterprise relationship management (ERM) system that reviews existing data sources to uncover valuable information about the firm’s network of relationships with clients and prospective clients. The initiative was delivered on time, on budget and has surpassed expectations, due in large part to Deborah Roth Grabein’s leadership, her team, and her partnership with other firm leaders.
Editor’s note: This CLE is no longer available. The podcast excerpt, however, remains on YouTube for viewing.
Part of a continuing legal education event (CLE) featuring United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Bryan Garner, is now available on West LegalEdcenter.
They teamed up for the CLE on July 25, 2008 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The Kennedy Center has granted West permission to post one hour of the five hour event online.
The CLE excerpt provides a glimpse into how Scalia and Garner presented the points in their book about legal reasoning and argument, brief-writing and oral argument to the live audience.
It’s informative and often entertaining, with several memorable quotes from both men. All profits from the event went to Legal Aid of Washington, D.C.
In addition to the excerpt on West LegalEdcenter, highlights from the CLE – featuring clips from Scalia and Garner’s entire event – also are included in this three minute Westcast video podcast, along with an interview with Garner:
The character of Jack Bauer on Fox’s “24″ has nothing on a team of 10 FindLaw employees.
At least in terms of the know-how and expertise for Web site design and deployment.
The group representing FindLaw was one of 12 teams that was selected to participate in Sierra Bravo’s Overnight Website Challenge, Feb. 28-March 1, in St. Paul.
The teams were assigned to overhaul the Web sites of 12 non-profit organizations, who had been chosen by Sierra Bravo. FindLaw was paired with Global Citizens Network (GCN).
We chronicled the FindLaw effort over the course of the 24-hour competition in this Westcast video podcast (on YouTube or Vimeo):
By the way, here’s GCN’s old site:
And, here’s a mockup of their new home page designed by FindLaw:
Collin Gravalin was team leader for the FindLaw group.
“FindLaw is so big on promoting giving back to the community,” Gravalin told us at the end of the challenge. “They even let you take a paid volunteer day and this is one of those things that we all wanted to do. We all wanted to be here and I think the end result, the end product, is something to be proud of.”
“GCN is very lucky to be working with this amazing team. They’re brilliant! Everything we asked for, they’re making it happen,” said Linda Stuart, executive director of GCN. “It’s like a dream come true.”
“Our team tackled many challenges that we’ve never seen before or rarely see in our daily work at FindLaw,” said Gravalin. “When everything is done, Global Citizens Network will have a main Web site with more than 80 custom written and optimized pages. They’ll also have a separate blog and a separate client forum. GCN is essentially getting three Web sites.”
In addition to Gravalin, the members of the FindLaw team included Matt Biersdorf, Clay Chelmo, Derrick Gall, Nathan Hein, Patrick Noonan, Jessica Skrebes, Ryan Tvenge, Susan Staupe and Nate Weber.
Besides our video podcast about the FindLaw team, Sierra Bravo also posted some great videos from throughout the day and night on their Inside the Nerdery blog, including this one.
Noted immigration attorney and author Austin T. Fragomen Jr. says the increase in states enacting their own laws about the employment of unauthorized foreign workers requires businesses to learn more about those regulations and their relationship to federal laws.
“Companies frequently don’t understand the consequences of these state immigration laws,” said Fragomen. “This is a very fast-changing area of the law.”
All three also participated in this Westcast podcast discussion about state immigration laws and the challenges for businesses and attorneys who need to understand them.
They also discuss the resources contained in their book which includes the full text of relevant state laws and state regulations for employing noncitizens and in-depth analysis of those laws.
“The specter of a state revoking a corporation’s license to do business in that state is a pretty profound and significant penalty,” says Fragomen. “So, this in an important area for a new publication.”
Austin Fragomen is chairman, Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, P.C; Careen Shannon, of the same firm, also is an adjunct professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; and Daniel Montalvo is an immigration lawyer and author.
In addition to the State Immigration Employment Compliance Handbook, Fragomen, Shannon and Montalvo wrote the Immigration Employment Compliance Handbook, which covers federal immigration laws.
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
Today as we mark this blog’s “birthday”, 189 posts later, we’ve assembled what we hope is an informative collection of insights on the trends in legal technology, the practice of law, and the work within the legal businesses of Thomson Reuters.
One of the main highlights of WestBlog’s first year, for us, is when we took our show on the road.
We debuted WestBlog at LegalTech New York 2008, and we’ll be at the 2009 show throughout the next few days. Trade shows and conferences give us a great chance to meet attendees and presenters at those events and, in turn, put some highlights from those conversations on WestBlog through text, video, audio and photos.
WestBlog also provides a great way for us to showcase the content we focus on in our Westcast podcasts, and the video clips we produce for our YouTube channel.
So, as we mark one year of getting our “blog legs” underneath us. We want to thank you for reading WestBlog and commenting on our posts. And, thanks for subscribing to our updates, either by RSS or e-mail.
We welcome your suggestions for what you want us to focus on as we continue to use this blog to provide a compelling platform for news and information about the legal industry and the businesses within Thomson Reuters.
And, watch this space in the coming months for news about where we’re taking WestBlog next.
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
Leadership, in any career field, can be difficult to demonstrate and define.
But in the practice of law, how does an attorney at any phase in his or her career develop the skill sets, traits and characteristics that are common among the most successful leaders?
Or, is a leader born, not made?
“The overwhelming research in this area really does show that leadership is a set of skills that can be learned, developed and improved upon,” says Robert Cullen, who developed one of the nation’s first ever Leadership for Lawyers courses, which he teaches at Santa Clara University Law School.
“Leadership skills are identifiable and learnable,” Cullen says. “You can improve your effectiveness as a lawyer for the benefit of your client, your firm, your community and, just as importantly, for yourself.”
In his book, Cullen couples expert research and keen insight from 10 influential attorneys including Rudy Giuliani and Leon Panetta to show practical examples of how leadership combines “legal expertise with exceptional leadership skills.”
It’s a break from traditional thinking in many ways. “It takes creativity, persuasion and inspiration to be effective, successful and admired,” says Cullen.
“We are fine advocates, great analysts, and the profession is full of outstanding problem-solvers,” writes Cullen. “Leadership is our direction, our future, our calling… After this project, I am far more optimistic about the direction of the legal profession and even more proud to be a part of it.”
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
As insurance law changes to address the issues of privacy, intellectual property and technology, lawyers face new challenges and the rise of new liabilities and policies.
“The law really hasn’t developed to cover a lot of these things and providing advice with regards to those types of activities is a challenge,” says Christopher Keegan, senior vice president and national resource for Errors and Omissions insurance coverage for Willis of New York, Inc.
“I think keeping up with the intellectual property risks themselves is probably the biggest challenge,” says Keegan. ”We in the insurance industry are following those developments and trying to pinpoint what the risks might be.” He cites social networking as one of the areas where assessing IP risks is difficult.
Chesler, chair of the Lowenstein Sandler Insurance Practice Group, explains some of the history in this area.
“Over the past decade, creative forces within the insurance industry designed new types of policies to protect from claims of intellectual property infringment, invasion of privacy, loss of data and system disruptions,” Chesler says. “We’re really now in a period of the creation of an entirely new insurance paradigm. One that’s designed to address the risks that corporate America now faces.”
Since the early 2000s, there’s been a specific exclusion for intellectual property risks that eliminates coverage for most, but not all of these, according to Tod Zuckerman, a solo practitioner in San Francisco. “It’s a moving target for the practicing attorney who represents policyholders.”
Law School Exchange , a new online networking and content sharing site from West and Foundation Press, takes the term “knowledge sharing” to a new level for law school faculty in the United States.
With its debut this week, professors now can use Law School Exchange to publish and distribute articles, books and other materials for research, teaching and scholarly purposes – and also search and download the work of their colleagues – across campuses.
We talked about it in this Westcast podcast with Steve Nickles, C.C. Hope Chair in Law and Management, Wake Forest School of Law. “For law faculty around the country, you might think of Law School Exchange as a combination of Facebook, the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) and Amazon.com. There’s really nothing like it generally or specifically out there in any market,” says Nickles, who helped develop the ideas within Law School Exchange. “It creates an entirely new relationship between faculty, authors and publishers.”
Material on Law School Exchange includes text, PDFs, photos, PowerPoint presentations, links to videos and more. Professors also can pull content from selected West Academic Publishing and Foundation Press books, teacher’s manuals and supplements.
Registration and use of Law School Exchange is free.
Beyond the unique ease of publishing and online collaboration that it provides for professors, Nickles says Law School Exchange will enhance the education of law students in the long run.
“The purpose of this in the end is to make better legal education and faculty will be able to find materials on Law School Exchange that they can then adopt and make available to their students in several ways, including through TWEN (The West Education Network),” says Nickles (who also helped West develop TWEN).
“Law School Exchange will allow professors to really mix and match not only materials coming from West and from Foundation Press but those and all kinds of other materials for the subject that you’re teaching that have been added by law faculty across the country. It’s going to allow us to have the richest set of teaching materials that have ever been available for legal education.”
Law firms continue to struggle with weak demand and productivity as a result of the economic slowdown.
The Peer Monitor Economic Index (PMI) from West fell two points in the third quarter of 2008 despite a rebound in demand late in the quarter. PMI is a composite index of law firm market performance using real-time data drawn from major law firms in the U.S. and key international markets.
As the economy slows, PMI has been trending lower, dropping in five of the last seven quarters.
The complete PMI analysis for the third quarter can be downloaded here.
Last October, West launched the Headnote of the Day as a way to highlight West headnotes that are especially “humorous, profound or interesting.”
Using the text of the headnote – plus, an illustration especially suited to it – the Headnote of the Day is designed to offer a diversion during a legal professional’s day.
Headnotes, of course, summarize points of law in judicial rulings. They are written by West attorney editors and classified within the exclusive West Key Number System®.
The Headnote of the Day is the brain child of Al Maleson, a senior copywriter at West, who in addition to writing advertising during his workday also gets to choose which headnotes to publish.
But it’s not easy.
“I am continually trolling for headnotes,” Maleson says. “I go into ALLCASES on Westlaw and enter various search terms in the Headnote (HE) field. I enter search terms likely to dredge up headnotes that are amusing, serious or profound. I also enter random combinations of words. My goal is to bring up a wide variety of issues thus increasing the odds that I will find a variety of interesting headnotes.”
Maleson says a good Headnote of the Day has one or more of the following qualities – though, obviously, no single headnote will have them all:
It is clear and easy to understand
It is amusing
It states a fundamental principle or value of American law
It has strong appeal to a specific segment of the population (Californians, baseball fans, bankruptcy lawyers, etc.), which might encourage people to forward the headnote
It lends itself to a good illustration
It doesn’t deal with matters that are especially morbid, depressing, violent or otherwise likely to be offensive or upsetting to readers
Maleson estimates he’s received between 75 and 100 suggested headnotes from West customers and fellow West employees. Most months, he uses up to five of these suggested headnotes.
Illustrations for the Headnote of the Day are done by Curt McAloney.
“It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing and talk by the hour” – Thomson Jefferson.
What lawyer, or anyone for that matter, hasn’t needed to find a memorable, stirring or funny quote for a speech?
A great quote can certainly come in handy when you’re looking to inspire people, make them laugh or – in the case of a lawyer - persuade people to believe in a particular point of view.
Vesper has collected more than 25,000 proverbs, quotations and other famous sayings and has organized them by topic and author. He’s been writing them down, with a little help here and there, for 30 years. They include quotes from the Bible, and many famous names including William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill and Will Rogers.
Of course they also come from a not-so-famous name, Vesper’s Uncle Anthony. Here’s a sampling of his wisdom, regarding justice:
“I always heard that Justice was blind, but I didn’t think she was lame too! I seen her blindfolded, but where’s her crutches? She needs crutches!”
And this quote, an appropriate one for the purpose of Vesper’s book:
“Quotations found in books of that stuff are like bullpens for lawyers, when you find yourself in a jam you can go to your best quote like a good closer or middle relief pitcher.”
Vesper says he sees his book helping lawyers find quotes that can make their arguments and points “a lot more credible.”
So, just how important are words to a lawyer’s work? Well, Vesper answers that question with a quote, of course, from Mark Twain:
“The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”
Sonya Hamlin knows what the jury is thinking. No matter what their age, gender, or job. So it’s no wonder lawyers turn to her for advice to help make their case in courtrooms across the United States and around the world.
“Dramatic changes have taken place in how jurors learn and listen, in what they care about and believe in and what new approaches they need from advocates now,” says Hamlin. “Lawyers who are still stuck in yesterday’s format of simply standing up and talking need to understand what else they now need to consider as they plan and present every aspect of a trial.”
Hamlin cites three major issues that she says “have changed everything radically” in the jury box:
Technology – “We don’t talk to each other now, we type! We get our information about anything online, on our own, fast and easy,” Hamlin says. “So, learning from someone talking at us has lost its power and credibility. And our attention span is now one and a-half minutes.”
Generational differences – “We now have four generations sitting on the jury: seniors, baby boomers, generation X and generation Y. They’re almost from different planets. Reaching each one requires new information in order to reach and persuade them.”
Multicultural diversity – “We have people on juries who have become American citizens but are conditioned by other societies, other governments and other kinds of laws.”
Hamlin is considered a pioneer in courtroom communication, having created and taught the first such course at the Harvard Law School. Today, she lectures worldwide and consults on cases with law firms, analyzing jury issues about cases and what advocacy skills are needed, preparing witnesses, developing strategies and creating visual presentations of evidence.
Hamlin’s landmark books “What Makes Juries Listen” and ”What Makes Juries Listen Today” are now joined by her latest title, from West Legalworks, titled “Now What Makes Juries Listen.” It reflects the changing attitudes and behaviors of today’s jury members and gives new techniques and approaches for every aspect of the trial.
You can hear more from Hamlin in this Westcast podcast. Hamlin also will be featured in a continuing legal education (CLE) program on West LegalEdcenter, which we’ll update you about when it gets scheduled.
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
Law firm leaders are no doubt getting a lot of advice for setting a strategy to manage, survive and thrive within the current economic times.
Many turn to Hildebrandt International for counsel in good times and bad. The firm’s expertise is spotlighted in a Special Client Advisory: Fall 2008.
James Jones, the Chairman of the Hildebrandt Institute and managing director of Hildebrandt International, co-wrote the advisory with the company’s founder, Brad Hildebrandt.
It is organized into an assessment of the current legal market, the immediate steps that firm leaders should be taking to help their organizations and the significant longer-term impacts including a re-thinking of basic law firm economic models.
As Hildebrandt and Jones state in their advisory, “…it is important to remember that the present downturn in the legal market is caused primarily by reduced demand and that demand will return in time. Although there may be some restructuring in the way that legal services are delivered, the long-term prospects for the legal industry remain very good.”
In an interview for a Westcast podcast, Jones said billing rate increases were the one key factor that drove the unprecedented growth in profitability in law firms in the last six or seven years. Other factors such as the number of lawyers, their productivity and expenses have not generally contributed to profitability growth in the same time.
“But it is our guess, and I think there’s mounting evidence about this, that in 2009 firms are not going to be able to impose the same kind of across-the-board rate increases that they have routinely done,” Jones says. “What that means is firms are going to begin looking at structural ways to do their work more efficiently and in a more cost-effective way.”
Jones expects many firms to re-think their economic model, including the billable hour.
“I think you’re going to see some really tough thinking about alternatives to the traditional way of pricing legal work,” Jones says. “Perhaps a move toward more value-based approaches and maybe finally, after years and years, a little bit away from the traditional billable hour approach.”
When the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller in June, striking down a ban on gun possession in D.C., a team at West went to work to get this landmark case loaded to Westlaw, complete with the insight and analysis that is critical to legal researchers.
The West editorial process involves specific steps, including fact-checking, headnoting and classification. This Westcast video podcast highlights that process. The result is a rare glimpse behind the scenes at the skills and trusted editorial experience involved in the daily work here at West.
Please take a few minutes to watch this Westcast and let us know what you think:
Incidentally, West’s Tom Trenkner, who you saw at the end of the podcast, had a unique interest in the Heller case. He was among several colleagues from West and Thomson Reuters who were invited to attend the oral arguments in the Heller case when it was before the Supreme Court.
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
This blog, discontinued and moved to LegalCurrent.com in May 2009, presented commentary and information about the practice and business of law, and the products and services of the legal businesses of Thomson Reuters.
We talked about it in 
