My home town is being threatened by some wrong-headed people.

See here.  I'm not saying that Orange was Nirvana when I was growing up.  After all, it's located near Vidor, a hamlet that held its share of Klan rallies.  Vidor was so bad that, if one of us had a car that broke down there, we'd just walk away from the car, out of the city limits.  But I'd have thought that Orange, being "not-Vidor," would have the intelligence to avoid this whole "let's put up a Confederate monument right next to Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive" thing. 

I get that there's a freedom of speech issue here.  So does Orange's City Attorney.  But I hope to hell that there are protesters on site, day and night, to explain to the "Sons of Confederate Veterans" that most people actually think that erecting the monument is not the best depiction of the "history of the South."  The best cure for dumb, bigoted, wrong-headed speech is more speech.  Let's see what Orange's citizenry does.

Rutgers-Newark's law dean is right (updated).

Dean John Farmer came up with a nifty idea that he puts forth in today's New York Times (here):  have new law grads become apprentices for a couple of years, a la medical school residents.  His idea isn't new--others have proposed it as well--but he makes a good case for marrying the need to serve the middle class with the need to provide job training for law grads.

UPDATE:  Northwestern Law's Dean Daniel Rodriguez has also come out with a provocative and timely essay (here).  Ultimately, a lot of us are going to have to justify legal education in general and particularly in the third year.

Yeah, thanks a lot, Dallas Morning News.

The Dallas Morning News's article this morning about SMU Law Dean John Attanasio contains at least one whopper:  "In 2006, University of Houston Law Center Dean Nancy Rapaport was forced to resign when her law school plummeted in the U.S. News rankings."

Um, DMN?  You might want to call someone before writing something that's not correct.  If you'd called me, or checked my blog (see here), you'd have said something different in your story.

My mom was a reporter.  She got her facts right.  You should, too.

Newsflash: A Disney fanatic can detest the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland.

We had some serious problems with the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland, and we wrote to Disney's Customer Service Department on Sunday.  Today's Wednesday.  I'm still waiting for Disney's response.  If you know me, you know that I buy into the whole Disney experience.  I love the company--and I have, ever since my first visit to Disneyland after taking the California Bar.  Jeff & I are DVC (Disney Vacation Club) members, and I go to a Disney site at least twice a year.  (Jeff usually goes on one of these trips.)  So I tend to be pretty forgiving about minor problems.  This visit, though, wasn't about "minor" problems. 

• The room smelled like skunk when we checked in.  To housekeeping's credit, when we asked, the folks there got rid of the skunk smell.  Then the room smelled strongly of cleaner.
• It took more than a normal amount of time to reach anyone by phone:  room service, front desk, operator.  It shouldn't take three minutes to reach the operator or the front desk, especially during normal hours.
• The front desk got some basic information wrong about what was open at which times.
• When we checked out and said that we'd written to Customer Service because of some serious problems, the check-out person responded with "OK."  Not "I'm so sorry to hear that."  Not "Tell me what happened."  Just "OK."

We're lucky.  We used DVC points to stay there.  I can't imagine paying several hundred dollars a night for the room there.

Um, Disney?  So far, we're not impressed with your response.

I'll keep everyone posted.

UPDATE:  2/8/13--a very nice person from Disney Guest Relations called me, listened to my complaints, and was very, very helpful.  She restored my faith in Disney.  Although we still won't go back to the Grand Californian, we'll be happy to go back to the Disneyland Hotel.

Happy Twinkie news....

See here and here.  I'm looking forward to being reunited with my favorite guilty pleasure.

Dinosaur or phoenix?

There have been numerous stories about outsourcing in law practice (for example, here), and lately, I've been reading about outsourcing for other reasons outside law practice (see here for a serious proposal and here for Lucy Kellaway's more tongue-in-cheek one).  All of those stories have me thinking:  are most law schools destined to become dinosaurs, or will legal education become a phoenix?

If law schools continue to deny that applications are down and that law practice has changed (those changes are, in my opinion, permanent ones), and that therefore legal education has to change, they're dinosaurs, and we're just waiting for the rest of the Ice Age to come.  If, however, law schools start to innovate in ways that actually help their students develop the new skills that they're going to need (like Washington & Lee has done with its third-year curriculum), then maybe we can rise from the ashes of an outmoded system.

Personally, I think it's more fun to try to be a phoenix than to try to "wait out" the Ice Age.

Rats. I hate reading about stupid Marines.

I love my Marine Corps.  (And I love my hubby, brother-in-law, father-in-law, and friends who have served.)  So it bothers me when I read op-ed pieces, like this one in today's Wall Street Journal written by a former Marine, that argue that women shouldn't be in combat.  According to the author, the reason that women shouldn't be in combat is ... well ... poo:

Yes, a woman is as capable as a man of pulling a trigger. But the goal of our nation's military is to fight and win wars. Before taking the drastic step of allowing women to serve in combat units, has the government considered whether introducing women into the above-described situation would have made my unit more or less combat effective?

Societal norms are a reality, and their maintenance is important to most members of a society. It is humiliating enough to relieve yourself in front of your male comrades; one can only imagine the humiliation of being forced to relieve yourself in front of the opposite sex.

OK, Mr. Smith:  POO is your concern?   The fact that those who serve our country are willing to do so, knowing that many of them (1) won't come back alive or (2) will come back with severe injuries, is what makes me so proud of our troops.  My guess is that the more serious risks are what our people think about before they go into battle.  Not about poo.  My hubby has not even once listed "poo" among the serious risks that he and his colleagues faced.

Women really are as capable as men when it comes to being willing to defend our country, and it irks me no end when folks ignore one of the benefits of letting women serve alongside men.  Those combat experiences that make people eligible for promotion and more responsibility need to be open to everyone willing to serve.

So, Mr. Smith:  maybe it's time to rethink your priorities.

One of my former Contracts students found this great link.

If you've missed it, enjoy the contract interpretation of Bilbo's contract here.

Let's take this two-year/three-year law school proposal a step further.

Today's New York Times has an op-ed by Dan Rodriguez and Samuel Estreicher suggesting that the third year of law school could be optional and used for specialization (here).

I'm not opposed to the idea, and others have suggested it (or things like it) before.  For a good post discussing the pros and cons, see here by Deborah Merritt on the new blog, Law School Cafe.

What intrigues me about the proposal is that recognizes that law school shouldn't be a one-size-fits-all option.  I'm enough of a risk-taker to think that, if state bars would grant a limited license to the folks who graduate after two years and a full license to those who take all three, then those graduates who want to minimize their law school costs and have the (very fulfilling) life as a lawyer doing some sorts of things (but not all "lawyer things") could still serve their clients very well.  (Law is, after all, an undergraduate degree in most countries.)  Two-year graduates who want to expand their practices could maybe return to law school for that third year, or take an additional certification exam, or demonstrate additional competence and judgment in some yet-undiscovered way.

The nice thing is that a move to the two-year/three-year model will, by necessity, force law schools to be more deliberate about their curricular choices. 

Congrats to Sherri Wattenbarger!

Sherri, who is a trial attorney for the USTP in Kansas City, MO, received the U.S. Attorney General’s Community Service Award at a ceremony in the Great Hall at the Robert F. Kennedy Main Justice Building in Washington, D.C.  Each year, the Attorney General selects two to four individuals to honor with the Community Service Award from nominations among more than 100,000 Department of Justice employees nationwide. Sherri was honored for her  exemplary community service for her sustained volunteerism and leadership in the legal community and the Kansas City metropolitan area.  (IMHO, she's a bundle of energy, too.)

Congrats, Sherri!

You can only call it a "genius bar" if the people doing repairs are actually thinking: UPDATE.

Normally, I love Apple Computers.  Love the products.  Love the service.  But not this time.

1/2/13:  Brought in my MacBook Pro to the Apple Store at Town Square because I was having a problem with the computer's sleep function.  The person at the Genius Bar (James) told me that he'd look it over but that we might have to replace the hard drive.

James:  "Have you backed it up?"
Me:  "I think so, but I'm not positive.  What should we do?"
James:  "Why don't we do this--if we have to replace your hard drive, I'll call you first, so that you can take the computer home, make sure it's backed up, and then we can replace the hard drive."
Me:  "What a great idea.  Thanks!"

You know where this is going, right?

I dropped it off on 1/2/13 (it's repair ticket R81777487, if anyone at Apple is reading this post), and I got an email yesterday that the computer was ready for pickup.

I pick it up and see a "REPLACED HARD DRIVE" tag on it.  I explain my extreme unhappiness to the guy at the Genius Bar (Nick), and he apologizes.  I explain that I appreciate the apology, but that I need them to fix the problem that they caused.  With both "Repair Nick" and "Manager Nick," the best they said that they could do was give me the old hard drive ("which we normally don't do").  "Repair Nick" said that, if I brought in my Time Machine, he would personally try to restore all of my data.  I went home, hoping that Time Machine would work.  "Manager Nick" was singularly unimpressive in terms of coming up with creative and appropriate solutions.

And it would have--had Apple replaced my old hard drive with a new 1 TB drive, rather than a 750 GB drive.

At this point, I'm bordering on the shaken-faith doctrine.  But I'm about to drive BACK to the Town Square Apple Store with (1) my still-needs-to-be-fixed computer, (2) my Time Machine, and (3) my old hard drive.  I hope with all my heart that "Repair Nick" can fix the problem that his store caused in the first place.  More soon.

UPDATE:  "Repair Nick" has replaced my drive and is using my Time Machine to restore my computer.  He's actually a nice guy.  Will update y'alll when I can.

FURTHER UPDATE:  "Repair Nick" has saved the day.  He was able to restore my computer completely -- or at least I think so.  I'll know more when I pick it up.  He has been unfailingly polite and patient. 

Dear Godiva Chocolates: No, you're actually not passionate about customer service.

Dear Godiva:

Here's what your website says about customer service:

Customer Assistance

We are as passionate about customer satisfaction as we are about making chocolate. We hold ourselves to the highest standards…so you can, too. Your order is guaranteed to arrive in perfect condition, no matter the weather, containing the elegant packaging and quality chocolate customers expect from Godiva. If, for any reason, you are not completely satisfied, simply contact us to return your order for a prompt replacement, refund, or exchange.

Here's what your customer service reps have said in emails (yes, I'm paraphrasing, but I'm happy to show them to you) when I asked them to help me out by rushing some deliveries:

1. No, we can't adjust your order.
2. No, we can't really tell you when your order will arrive, other than it might arrive by 12/21.
3. No, we don't actually give a flying flip about your reaction.

So, Godiva:  your customer assistance folks either need to read your website a little more closely or you need to rewrite it as follows:

Customer Assistance

We like to think of ourselves as a nice company.  After all, we make chocolate, and chocolate makes people happy.  But we're so very, very big that we can't actually give your order the personal attention that you want.  And, frankly, we're ok with that.  After all, what's your alternative?

Feel free to use my language in your next web rewrite.  No charge.

OK, that expensive book might not be a "must-read," but this one's really intriguing...

See here.  The book'll be out on Amazon and Kindle in the not-too-distant-future.  I read it in one sitting and had a blast.

Expensive new book out (but I have an essay in it).

See here.  This book came out of a wonderful set of conferences at the University of Edinburgh, and I owe my participation in the conferences in large part to the marvelous Randy Gordon.

My buddy Tim Canova just wrote a great piece about Treasury.

See here.  Tim's one of my go-to guys about all things financial.

Ever want to be a movie producer?

Here's your chance. 

Dear Law Firms: This re-post is a must-read for you.

From law.com's Corporate Counsel site, Susan Hackett's piece, Ending the Holiday Tradition of Outside Counsel Rate-Increase Letters (here) is a must-read.

The most important take-aways:

1. Law is a service industry run by professionals who should understand what matters to their clients.  
2. Just because you would love a rate increase doesn't mean that you have justified one.
3. If lawyers and their clients can come up with ways of agreeing on fair compensation that doesn't revolve around hourly rates, everyone will (eventually) come out ahead.

Let's face it--hourly billing creates awful incentives, and law firms need to come up with something between the old "bottom line:  services rendered, $X" tradition and the current "piecework" way of billing.

There are a lot of smart people out there--both lawyers and clients--and I know that our profession will figure it out.  Sooner, though, is better than later.  The times aren't a'changin'--they've changed.

Yet more on Larry Mitchell's sunny op-ed on why law school is a good idea.

On another blog (Law School Survival Manual), I've spent a bit of time ruminating over just what in Larry Mitchell's op-ed rubbed me the wrong way.  (See here.)  Other folks are saying the same thing, often in better ways (take a gander at the updates to my post for two such examples, and to the postings on Inside the Law School Scam (starting here). 

I guess what frustrates me most is the sense that decanal groupthink is trying to wish away a lot of the problems that face legal education.  There were many, many kudos to the Mitchell op-ed on one of the deans' listservs.  If those kudos had been from the very top law schools, I'd have understood.  Law degrees from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and other such schools are likely to be exceptionally good investments.  (After all, I benefit greatly from my degree from Stanford.*)

But when good, but not elite, schools are making their case for law school being a good investment, they can't just trot out the "we train you to think!" and "law is a lifetime career!" arguments.  I don't think that the first of those arguments applies just to law schools (pretty much any good education will train someone to think well).  And I don't think that the "law is a lifetime career" theory works when a law graduate can't get a first law job within a reasonable time.  The "you can use a law degree in other careers" argument is true, of course, but just because someone can use a legal education in other fields doesn't mean that spending six figures to get that degree is always a good idea.

I'm as proud of legal education as every other law dean is,** but I want students to enter law school with their eyes open.  (I also want law schools to provide applicants with accurate data so that they can make good choices about whether to attend law school.)

Data + realistic expectations = good choices.
Assertions + wishful thinking = a disaster in the making.



* Although, to be fair, my degree from Rice is nearer and dearer to my heart, but that's probably true of most folks' feelings about their undergraduate degrees.
** Even though I'm just an interim dean.

Happy 237th birthday to the Marine Corps!

Happy birthday to my beloved Corps.  Semper fidelis.

Some advice to our elected officials, now that the election's over.

First, some superb advice from Jack Ayer's niece (here).  Jack's one of the smartest people I know, and he's a heck of a good mentor, so I was delighted to see that his niece is equally smart and sensible.

Second, to all candidates:  I don't care if you're a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent, or anything else.  Now is not the time to say, "my side didn't win X position, so I'm going to make that winner's life a living hell until the next election."  From local politics on up, I want to see politicians reach across the aisle, make sensible compromises, and show that they're mature enough to care first about governing, not about grandstanding.  Our country needs serious, smart, dedicated people running it.  We don't need people who view politics as a game.