Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Two reasons to think before acting.

Loved Luke Johnson's piece in today's Financial Times about "How to Spot an Impending Calamity" (here).  Although high finance may be akin to rocket science,* the tips in this column are common-sense warning signs for a company that's going down the tubes.

And speaking of common-sense warning signs, take a look at this disciplinary case (here), describing what happens when a lawyer decides to fudge the record in the case by not indicating where he omitted part of the trial court's statement of facts.  (For a good analysis of the issue, see the Legal Profession Blog's post about the case--here.)  If a lawyer has to lie about the record to have a colorable case, then it's not a colorable case.

Lessons from both?  People under pressure will do some really dumb things.  Some of those dumb things will be intentional.  Some won't.  Remember:  trust, but verify.

* Oh, and that reference to rocket science?  We actually know a rocket scientist, so it's easy to call him and see if something is or isn't rocket science.

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