Federal Circuit Summaries, Practice Alerts

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at February 21, 2007 05:27 PM

Want to follow Federal Circuit caselaw but don’t have time to read lengthy case summaries? FedCirc.us has an RSS/e-mail feed for you.

1. Case Review Summaries (provides summaries of the ten most recent case reviews)

RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fedcircus_summaries

E-mail:Click for subscription form

2. Practice alerts (provides all FedCirc.us Practice Alerts)

RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fedcircus_alerts

E-mail: Click for subscription form

New FedCirc.us Search Tool Released

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at February 15, 2007 06:29 PM

The master plan for the FedCirc.us site includes several web features designed to deliver patent caselaw information in a more effective manner.  The first - the GimmeTen! feature - has quickly become the most popular page on the site...and for good reason.  Not familiar with it?  Simply bookmark http://10.fedcirc.us and visit regularly.  That page always provides concise summaries of the ten most recently posted case reviews.  We're confident you'll quickly be hooked.

Today we announce the second feature in our bag of tricks - the travelling FedCirc.us search engine.  By following the steps below, you'll be able to search the FedCirc.us site from anywhere on the web.

The best part is the simplicity -- 5 easy steps (4 for most people).  Five minutes tops.

1.  Make sure you're using either Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 2.0 as your browser.  If you're not, download the latest IE here or Firefox here (both are free).  For the record, FedCirc.us is optimized for Firefox.

2.  Start your browser.

3.  Visit FedCirc.us.

4.  Pull down the drop-down search box in the upper right hand corner and select "Add FedCirc.us" (in Firefox) or select "FedCirc.us" with the gold star next to it (in IE, see image at right).

5.  Surf the web.  Whenever you want to search the site, simply enter a search string in the box in the right hand corner, pull down the list, select FedCirc.us, and hit return.  You can do this from any page on the web...and you'll immediately be transported to a listing of search results from the site.

I've quickly gotten used to searching by party name or full case name as I'm reading on the web.  This little trick has changed my surfing habits for the better...it's a wonderfully efficient way to find information quickly.  We hope you find it useful as well.

As always, if you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know.  You can e-mail Matt directly at jmb @ rtipllc.com.

Enjoy!

Virtual Firm

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at July 13, 2006 03:05 PM

Why didn’t Marty ask the question:

Why/how would a virtual firm benefit a client?

 

... and tell us how you really feel.

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at May 6, 2006 02:11 PM

Gary Odom over at the Patent Prospector must have missed his fibre this morning:

Large high-tech corporate patent infringers turn into crybabies, often pouting before Congress, painting themselves as victims of the patent system, because individual inventors and small patent-owning companies try to make them take licenses for infringing their patents. The crybabies don't bother to mention their regular cross-license patent deals, or knock-down-drag-out fights between corporate competitors, as something to be concerned about. And because of the noise the corporations make, the mainstream press, which are corporate toads, and always hungry for drama, pile in, making the same noises, wailing for patent reform. Congress, itself a humongous corporate toad, listens sympathetically, and makes its own noises, but thankfully does nothing.

You just have to love a good “patent troll” rant on a rainy Saturday afternoon.  Gary has a way with words and probably does the best job I have yet seen at framing the issues in an appropriate manner.

If you are interested in learning more about patent trolls and the congressional response, head on over to Promote the Progress.  Matt would be too humble to mention it himself, so I will whore it out for him.

Blawg Review #48

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at March 13, 2006 09:16 AM

Blawg Review readers may be surprised to learn that hosts of the Review are actually required to play by a few rules.  There's the silly rule about the title of the actual post (no creativity allowed!), and then there's this:

"The host shall be at liberty to present the submission, or not, or make another presentation of the post as seems appropriate to the host for that Blawg Review, with unfettered discretion."

We're taking that rule to heart as we host this 48th Edition of Blawg Review.  "Unfettered discretion" - definitely words we like.

In a nutshell - we're sick of carnivals. 

Not all carnivals, mind you - just the long drawn out boring ones that really don't offer anything of value.  We think that several popular carnivals, including Blawg Review, have become bloated, link-whore-optimized versions of the original vision for what a carnival should be - an edited review of relevant blog posts presented in a manner that contributes to thought-provoking conversation. 

Does anyone actually click through all 100 links found in a typical carnival post?  Of course you don't.  If you are anything like us, you click through the first couple of links and then wander off to get more coffee, wax the car or perhaps even get some work done.  Nahh... waxing the car is way more important.  Who wants to read a bloated set of postings that really don't rise to being the cream of the crop... not us, and we think none of you want to either.

Remember the carnival experience of your youth?  Your parents only took you to the travelling extravaganza when you were good.  If you went to the carnival every week as a kid... you were a carnie.  And if you were a carnie, I assure you that the carnival would lose some of it "specialness" - it wouldn't be about the lions, tigers and bears - nope, it would be about the whining children, the drunken sailors and the bearded lady who won't quit grabbing your behind.

So - we have decided a little Blawg Review coup is in order -- we are rebelling -- we are rethinking the format of the Blawg Review.  Instead of regurgitating a long string of links and quotes, we each picked one post that resonated - and it is this one post each that you will find here under the banner of Blawg Review.  Yes, we know this rethinking (and retinkering) raises the possibility that we'll never again be able to post to Blawg Review or even host it, but in the interest of all who follow the Review, it is a chance we're willing to take.

If you really want to read all the other items submitted - head on over to Blawgr, you'll find the links over there (along with a lot of other interesting discussions).

With that introduction, we'll get on with the show...so here it is...Blawg Review, Rethink(IP) style...

Doug's Favorite Post:

Bruce MacEwen's blog, "Adam Smith, Esq.", should be the first thing every lawyer reads each morning!  Now, how is that for an opening statement - Bruce is going to have a hard time living up to that introduction, but I have no doubt that he will be able.

While Bruce does have a propensity to dwell on the inner workings of the monster firms out there, I am consistently able to pull pieces of useful information out of his posts that benefit my medium sized boutique firm.  Whether it is dealing with associates, hiring pressures or client service - Bruce never fails to provide relevant useful information that is brimming with insight.

I am not certain whether Bruce intends for his posts to be so relevant to our segment of the legal services industry, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he keeps us small fish in mind when hobnobbing with the legal illuminatti of the AmLaw 100.

This past week Bruce tackles the question of firm marketing efforts and comes to the conclusion that many of the efforts result in absolutely no return on investment.

"What Differentiates Our Firm Is..." [Nothing]  To badly paraphrase Bruce, does your marketing drive new sales or is it merely a “shiny mess of nothingness” — i.e. do your firm’s marketing activities sound like the following:

All the activities the reader cites contribute to "name recognition" for a law firm, but the actual "sale" (read: engagements to handle a piece of litigation, a corporate transaction, a tax problem, etc.) only occurs when the client has the precise need, i.e., is at the point of pain.   No one in the history of the world ever woke up and said, "What I need today is to buy myself a really good contract...."

Keep on keeping on Bruce!  I learn something new in every post!

 

Steve's Favorite Post:

Josh Cohen at the Multiple Mentality blog on "Obeying the law".

I've actually never see the "Multiple Mentality" blog before this weekend.  I'm not even sure it is a law blog...but of the posts I read (and I read every single one of them), other than the two snagged by Matt/Doug, this one made me go Hmm....  Not that there aren't some great posts in the other pile (found over at Blawgr), but this one struck me as very interesting.

I won't ruin the post for you, but it involves this video:

We don't often see the youth of America questioning the law in a constructive way.  Rather than just refusing to follow it, they  sought to prove its lunacy.  Bravo!  Bravo!

 

Matt's Favorite Post:

My criteria in reviewing posts this week was simple:  Did it make me think?  Truth be told...not many of the submissions did.  I should have known, though, that the submission from Blog Diva Denise Howell would fit the bill.

Denise revisited the familiar topic of the dangers, from an employers point-of-view, associated with employee blogging.  Sure there's the possibility of leaking confidential information and a host of other potential ills, but Denise takes a fresh angle on the problem, and goes out on a limb in the process.  Of all the various communication tools available to employees, Denise asserts that "blogging may actually be the least risky and most innocuous from a corporate risk management standpoint."

And she's got a convincing argument too.  Read it in all it's glory in this post at the Between Lawyers blog.

Thanks, Denise, for stepping out on the limb and making me think. 

 

So that is it folks!  Once again, if you want all the other links — head on over to Blawgr (archived link to the post).  Next weeks Blawg Review will be hosted by Jim Calloway over at the Law Practice Tips Blog.  It’s good to see another Okie taking the reins of Blawg Review next week — you never know, Jim might rethink the whole carnival format further – Okies have a way of doing that every now and then.

What is Rethink(IP) Up To???

Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at January 5, 2006 10:24 AM

Posting on our Rethink(IP) blog has been light.  One of us changing firms, one of us preparing to be a first time father, all of us dealing with the Holidays and work...we have lots of excuses.

One of our excuses is that we are spending more and more time working over the various side projects we have (which means less time for blogging).  Through these "projects," we hope to build a legal community that will help us achieve our goal of bringing Web 2.0 content to Web 1.0 attorneys.

That being said, one of our "projects" is about to go live.  We are currently beta testing a forum/bulletin board which we have high hopes for.  The goal of the forum is to create an on-line, collaborative discussion community for our readers, legal bloggers and attorneys in general. 

If you are interested in helping us populate the forums with an initial set of forum topics and threads, please drop me a line (snipper@gmail.com) and I'll get you set up.  Thanks in advance.

The World Really is Flat, Part II: Now that it's flat, all sailing is smooth, right?

Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at December 20, 2005 08:49 AM

Remember my story about the new IBM (Lenovo) X41 Tablet that I bought?  I relayed the story in last week's post to The World Really is Flat series.  Here's the punch-line -- the computer, once shipped, travelled from Shanghai, China to my front door in Perrysburg, OH in one day.  How's that for a flat world?

I related that example as a personal experience that allowed me to realize that the world really is becoming flat.  After I had that experience, I saw the flat world in everything around me.

So all is good, right?  There's plenty of opportunity and no problems in this new flat world, right?

As Lee Corso would say, "not so fast, my friend."

There are plenty of problems in the flat world.  Indeed, there are plenty of new problems.  The rest of my X41 story illustrates this point...

So there I am, drooling over my brand new X41 Tablet.  As I said before, I have zero patience when new tech toys arrive.  I tore into the box immediately, threw the instruction manual aside, and began setting up the computer.  The out-of-box experience was amazing...the computer is beautiful to look at, and powered up perfectly with a simple plugging in.  Ready to roll.  The desktop wasn't overly cluttered with useless freebies (AOL, etc.) and the introduction software from IBM/Lenovo did a fine job of introducing the amazing utilities provided with the computer.

So now I'm ready to make it mine.  I gathered the discs for my must-have software packages, and prepared for an afternoon of installations.  First up, Microsoft Office 2003...just place the CD in the...hey, wait a minute...where's the CD drive?  I must have missed it in the box....

Nope.  No CD drive to be found (my one complaint about the X41 is the lack of an internal CD drive...but the external drive is so svelte, that I really don't even consider it a complaint anymore).

I checked the packing list...no mention of the CD drive.  It's an "accessory" that costs extra.  I knew I had ordered it and checked my invoice to make sure.  Yep...it was ordered.

I logged into the Lenovo customer service site and checked my order.  Sure enough, it was split.  The CD drive was shipped separately.  OK, I can wait another day as it travels from China to Perrysburg.  (Remember...the world is flat and the shipment takes only a day....)

Sadly, that's just the beginning.  I tracked that package for the next two weeks.  It was sidelined in customs by the FDA (yes, the FDA) on "bird flu concerns" according to the UPS customer service representative.  Compare the tracking results for this package (at left) with those of the computer (in the first The World Really is Flat post).

What an amazing contrast.

The CD drive finally arrived.  I was somewhat hesitant to touch it, considering the whole bird flu thing.  I quickly got over that, though, and finished the setup...two weeks later. 

The FDA/bird flu "problem" completely robbed me of the amazing experience I had after seeing the computer shipped from China to Perrysburg in a day.  I was left with a sense of frustration and angst.  I love the computer...but having to wait two weeks to make it mine really ticked me off.

The lesson I took away from the experience is this.  The flat world brings new opportunities and new problems.  Bird Flu?  Customs delays on computer equipment by the FDA?  Crikey.  Who in the world expected that?  Not me.

While the flattened world presents plenty of new opportunities, it also presents new challenges and new problems.  As businesses establish new business relationships without regard (or with less regard) to geographical boundaries, plenty of issues must be addressed.  Lenovo is obviously taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the flattened world.  Should they have been aware of this problem..and addressed it?  Or do old, non-flat-world attitudes still reign - "Hey, we shipped it....you'll just have to wait..." 

I didn't contact Lenovo about the problem (I guess I censored myself with that attitude...), so I'm not sure how they would have responded.

New problems will begin to reveal themselves as people explore the new opportunities presented by the flat world.  Being an optimist, I view new problems as an opportunity for new solutions...which, of course, bring even more opportunity...

So, on second thought, maybe all is good in this new flat world...

 

The World Really is Flat, Part I: From Shanghai to Perrysburg in One Day

Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at December 12, 2005 07:07 AM

Recognition of a major change has to be, of course, the first step in taking advantage of it.  Often times, you read or hear about a major change in your world but, without personal experience that allows you to recognize the change as real, you wonder if it’s actually happening or if certain people just think that it’s happening.  You may even grow a bit cynical and start to believe that certain people just hope that the change is happening.

 

That’s where I started with the concept of the flat world.  I had heard about it and read about it, but had no personal experience that allowed me to truly recognize that the change was in process.  As a result, I had little interest in the concept and, perhaps, a little disbelief.

 

Then, out of nowhere, a brick hit me in the head and suddenly I realized that major change was indeed underway.  After that, I saw the flat world in everything around me, much like you seem to hear a particular word more often after actually learning its meaning.

 

Here’s the story. 

 

I had ordered a new ThinkPad X41 TabletPC (which, by the way, is the best computer I have ever owned…despite a few hard drive issues).  I’m like a kid on Christmas morning when I have a new tech toy on order…I just can’t wait.  I checked the status of the order each morning and was disappointed to learn that there was about a two week backorder.  Rats.

 

Finally, I was rewarded one morning when I received an e-mail telling me that my order had been shipped and that I could track it on the UPS web site.  Great, I thought…we’re entering stage two.

 

I immediately clicked the tracking link and was excited to see that the package was ready for shipment, straight from China.  Rats.  Probably another two weeks.

 

Here’s the brick.  The next morning, UPS.com told me that the package was here and ready for delivery.  Holy Toledo!  One day?  Sure enough, at 9:20 AM, the man in the brown shorts delivered my new toy, er, business tool, straight from Shanghai.

 

That’s right.  The computer travelled from Shanghai, China to Perrysburg, OH in a day.

 

Now, I know there's an international date line in there somewhere, and at least one of my fellow rethinkers believes there is funny business in the whole package tracking thing, but, no matter, the effect was the same -- the computer arrived one day after I was told it was shipped.  Very cool.

 

(imagine the effect had Lenovo/IBM been able to get rid of the two week backorder!)

 

I tore into the package even before the man in the brown shorts left.  As I tossed the instruction manual aside, the realization hit me -- the world really is flat.  The day before, a Chinese worker had held the computer in his hands as he packed it for shipment.  Now I've got it and it's ready for business.

 

Suddenly I believed that the flattening of the world…the change…was indeed in process.  I couldn’t ignore it anymore because this one simple example had given me the personal experience that allowed me to realize that.

 

I wondered about the reason for my initial disinterest and disbelief -- this is the only rational explanation I can offer.  I was born and raised in the American Midwest, where manufacturing is King.  I suspect that my initial disinterest in the change to a flat world was at least partially due to a knee-jerk reaction that a lot of people have in these parts of the country.  The reaction is based purely on fear.  Fear of outsourcing, off-shoring and the loss of manufacturing jobs, good manufacturing jobs.

 

But the computer experience had changed something because the knee-jerk reaction seemed to be gone.  Now I had the experience I needed to believe in the change, which, of course, gave me the desire to figure out how to plan for and take advantage of it.

measure twice, cut once

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at December 11, 2005 10:09 PM

I like to do carpentry and woodworking – mainly old house rehab stuff but occasionally I am inspired to make a piece of furniture. 

A common adage is “measure twice, cut once” and it is one that while I try to remember it, I often forget and have to recut a piece of lumber.  Acting without planning can definitely be expensive.

It is also a good piece of advice when thinking about legal services and fees… measure your fees twice and cut them once.  What this means to me is that you should always look at or measure a bill, invoice or statement twice — (once as the attorney and once as the client) — and then make a cut of the bill once (i.e. do what is fair to both the attorney and as the client).

Measure twice, cut once.  Good advice – whether it is legal services or carpentry.

Happy holidays everyone! 

The world really is flat

Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at December 6, 2005 10:09 PM

There has been a lot of buzz over the last few months about the so-called "flat" world. If you think I'm referring to naysayers of Christopher Columbus, you've got some homework to do. But, if you know what I mean, you'll likely be interested in a series of forthcoming posts on Rethink(IP).

Over the summer, each of us quickly devoured Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat. Since then, we've had numerous back-channel discussions on the concept of a flat world and its effect on the practice. Our conclusion -- the world really is flat. In fact, we think it has been permanently flattened and the practice of intellectual property law will forever change as this new world is put to work.

The series, so far, includes three posts and will appear over the next week or so. The first post describes a recent experience of mine that showed me just how flat the world is...and highlighted some new problems and challenges of doing business in the flat world. The second post details a theory of mine -- the flatter the world gets, the more important the fundamentals become (you'll have to read it to understand...). The final post details the impact that we believe the flat world will have on the practice of intellectual property law.

We hope you enjoy the series and welcome any comments you have on the posts. If you're still thinking of Christopher Columbus, I suggest a visit to Amazon.

Whats Your Definition of a Rainmaker? Bullshitter?

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at November 24, 2005 12:02 PM

I really hope that the young associate who writes the BigLaw Associate is real and not some pseudo-writing experiment like Anonymous Lawyer.  The posts over at BigLaw crack me up and hopefully offer some unintentional glimpses into some biglaw practices.

For example, BigLaw’s newest post is entitled “A New Plan” and is the most recent in a series of angst ridden posts dealing with whether he/she/it/they should leave the biglaw firm where they are currently employed.

The whole post is interesting for the fact that he/she/it/they have finally succombed to the fact that they will never leave biglaw and he/she/it/they are justifying the reason for not leaving (although, look back a few posts for what I believe are the real reasons – money, awe from peers, and “biglaw prestige”)

What I found most striking in the post is this statement regarding the senior attorney she is assigned to:

… I have come to the conclusion that perhaps my problem is not the Firm, but Senior (and myself to a large extent). We have a totally dysfunctional working relationship. Senior is a rainmaker and knows how to keep his clients happy; not so much with quality work (although he is undeniably VERY smart), as with backslapping, belly laughing locker room humour.

What? Say again? Hello?

Yikes!

I don’t think my definition of rainmaker would/should/could be modified with the statement “not so much [because] of quality work”… I wonder if their clients feel the same way.

Where I come from (all at once … “Oooooooook – la – homa, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain….” [MP3]), modifying the term rainmaker in such a manner results in that person simply being a bullshitter – someone with a good handshake but nothing of any worth to the client.

Is this the definition of rainmaker that biglaw is teaching its associates and, if so, is it any wonder why clients are demanding change in how legal services are to be delivered?  What happened to client service, attention to detail, quality work and delivery of innovative, helpful and useful counsel?  

If this is the trend – maybe instead of Chief Marketing Officers at biglaw, they should just hire Chief Bullshitters.  It would certainly be easier for recruiters to find them — you don’t really need any particular qualifications and if it is big enough of a trend, some enterprising CLE provider will start teaching “Chief Bullshitter Bootcamps” for the forward thinking law office.

I really hope BigLaw Associate is for real… it bodes well for us “little guys”, I think.

Glass cages follow-up: The fungible billing unit

Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at October 31, 2005 12:08 PM

Doug had a great post this weekend about associate life at big law firms.  He commented on the BigLaw Associate blog and some of the ponderings over there about associates leaving big law firms.

BLA notes “…it looks to me like BigLaw is in a deepening crisis. … I keep hearing the same story: associate morale at a critical low with associates leaving at an alarming rate.”

I don’t think the so-called crisis is any worse than before.  Associate morale is always low…and they’re always leaving at an “alarming” rate.

After reading BLA’s observation, I was reminded of some of the best career advice I have ever been given.  The conversation went like this:

“Dude, never, ever forget, you’re just an FBU…”

an FBU? (my innocent reply and inquiry)

“Yeah, a Fungible Billing Unit.”

The advice came from a law school professor who, in a previous life, was a BigLaw partner.  He was giving me advice as a former BigLaw partner, not so much as a professor.  He knew.  He had been under the tent, so to speak.  (As an aside, the “dude” part of the quote is real)

I didn’t appreciate it at the time.  Now I do.  Here’s the take I have on that advice now:

Associates are billing units

We all know that. 

But, don’t forget the F!

Associates are also fungible.

(Google fungible here; wikipedia entry here)

Yep, that’s right, big firms view BLA’s as interchangeable.  Did you ever wonder why they admit 20, 30, even 50 new associates every year?  It’s because they’re building the base of the triangle behind the thinning-out that is occurring at higher levels…

If the thinning-out doesn’t occur, the model fails.

They expect you to leave.  They want you to leave.  They need you to leave.

 

Blackballed - You Are the Brand

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at October 30, 2005 12:37 PM

I guess I am in a branding mood these days.

I just ran across a similar post by John Windsor over at Corante's BrandShift blog.

John rants about a recent airplane experience where an executive sitting next to him didn't exactly leave a good impression of the executive's company.  It's a funny read for anyone who travels on business fairly often, with the "punchline" being:

The only thing I could think about was my loss of respect for the Fortune 500 Company she worked for. The company had just lost a potential customer because of one executive’s unrelated actions.

John's post reminded me of a recent experience I had that was eerily similar.  It is so similar, it makes you wonder how many times such "employee brands" actively work against the "corporate brand".

So, onto my experience:  I was traveling out east to a business meeting a day early and so I was traveling "lawyer incognito" -- i.e. I was in jeans and a sportshirt.  

It turned out the person next to me was a young associate lawyer with a BigLaw firm -- her briefcase was plastered with the firm logo, her legal pads were festooned with the firm logo, and she was writing with a firm logo'd pen.  It was almost like she was a pro athlete with a sponsorship deal.

She was also sick -- coughing, sneezing and generally moaning about her predicament.  I thought I would be nice (Okie friendliness) and offer her a couple of tissues I had in my Booq bag (remember, I was traveling incognito) as well as a couple of cough drops.   

She wasn't all that impressed. 

In fact, she shrieked at me that she would never accept anything "of the kind I was offering" from someone like me.  Everyone sitting around us heard her, the flight attendants heard her and, more importantly, the general counsel of a Fortune 100 company heard her.

So, she suffered through the flight coughing and sneezing on everyone -- and no, she didn't cover her mouth when she coughed. 

After getting into Baltimore, the general counsel walked up to me and commented about her rude behavior.  I remarked that "life is too short" to worry about it but that I would be mortified to have her as an employee in my firm.    The GC asked me if I was a lawyer and laughed when I mentioned that I was and that I was the hiring partner for my firm.  We ended up trading business cards and it may turn out that we can do business with one another.  If not, at least I met an interesting person to have dinner with when I am out east.

As we were walking through the airport, the GC remarked to me that he would be sure to "blackball" the young lawyer's firm from ever doing any work for him.  I asked him why, afterall the young lawyer was sick, probably stressed and the firm shouldn't be held to blame for her poor attitude. 

The GC's response: "everything she does reflects on the abilities, culture and ethos of her firm.  You don't engage the marketing materials, you engage the people.  If she is the type of person the firm thinks is 'top notch,' the firm doesn't have a clue."

Wow.  His comments will make me reevaluate whether or not to buy logo'd merchandise for our firm in the future - but, more importantly, they will be in the forefront of my brain when making hiring decisions in the future. 

Our people are our "brand" - I know what branding message I want to be sending, and it isn't what we saw on that flight.  Are your employees/associates/team members getting you blackballed?

Glass Cages

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at October 29, 2005 02:54 PM

 

Maybe it is just my city. Or maybe it is just me, finally noticing something that has been happening all along. But it looks to me like BigLaw is in a deepening crisis. When I speak to other BigLaw associates from around town I keep hearing the same story: associate morale at a critical low with associates leaving at an alarming rate. Not alarming for me, of course: I personally don't care. But, it should be alarming to partners because associates are leaving when they are finally getting good at their jobs, and when the firms' investment in them should start to pay off.

When will the general public and members of the legal profession look at individuals in BigLaw the same way they look at those smokers in the glass cages at the airport?

 

You know that look -- sadness, bemusement and pity.

Help Al!

What a difference a day makes. My wife and I were in San Francisco the weekend that Katrina began to approach New Orleans. We were taking a vacation between the end of my federal clerkship and the start of a new job in September. As we were watching the news on Sunday before the hurricane hit, I thought that Monica and I could just stay on the west coast where I could find some temporary work if New Orleans suffered a direct hit. Apart from my job, we had nothing that required us to be in New Orleans and, if the storm hit, I had good reason to think that the firm wouldn't need me back anytime soon.

After sleeping surprisingly well on Sunday night, I called home to check in early Monday morning. The phone was answered by my tearful mother who told me that my cousin and her boys had been in a wreck the night before, and that my cousin had been killed. A drunk driver evacuating from New Orleans ran a stoplight and broadsided her van. The boys were in the hospital. I immediately went numb, because I knew that my cousin wanted Monica and I to take care of the boys (11 and 7) if anything ever happened to her. Monica and I decided to cut our trip short and immediately headed home.

Fast forward 2 months, we now have custody of the two boys--great kids--and we are living with my parents until we can return to New Orleans. To make matters somewhat more difficult, I lost my job and I have had to start my own practice in a market now saturated with attorneys that are also looking for work.

Despite my efforts of of the last month, I have not been able to locate any regular work. I am now looking for contracting work that can be conducted here in Gonzales, Louisiana. My ability to travel is limited, as my new family is adjusting to school schedules and bed times. I am sharing office space and have access to all the necessary tools to work remotely. Accordingly, I would love to work with a lawyer/firm or two that can provide me steady contract work for the next 2 to 6 months, preferably about 20 to 30 hours per week, to supplement my small case load.

I am a capable researcher and writer and have clerked for a year in federal district court. I also have an engineering degree and four years experience as an environmental consultant. If I might be able to help you, please email me at alrobert (at) gmail.com or give me a call at 504-615-5352. My resume, writing samples, and references are all available upon request.

Can you help Al out? 

I can personally vouch for Al's keen intellect and client-driven outlook toward legal services -- more importantly, Al's spirit and compassion would be of benefit to any project you may have.

The rethinker's firm and the second battlefront: A follow-up to Bill Meade's guest post

Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at October 27, 2005 09:44 AM

We told you Bill Meade “gets it.”

Bill is a fascinating individual who is truly passionate about the development and management of intellectual property.  We consider ourselves lucky to have met him and are looking forward to building on our relationship.

Bill provided us with the Proactive Invention Management article last week — I bet I’ve read it ten times.  His description of proactive invention management as “a war with two fronts” is dead on.  Unfortunately, many organizations don’t recognize the need to deal with both fronts, or, if they do recognize the need, they choose to fight the war only along the first front — the one between the inventors and the IP department.  This choice might be made for any of several reasons, not the least of which is budgetary in nature.

The mantra of these single-front organizations:  Increase disclosures!  Increase disclosures!  Increase disclosures!

Battling that front without addressing the second front — the one of IP capacity — is trouble in the wings.  This is particularly true if you begin to actually win the battle on the first front.  All of a sudden, the organization finds itself with “full access to the genius of the organization,” (Bill’s wonderful language) only to learn that it can’t efficiently process the genius….and valuable intellectual property is lost.

The answer?  As Bill states so aptly – you need to rethink IP business processes and IP business model management.

Now you can see why we’ve grown so fond of Bill.  Not only does he “get it,” but he’s courageous enough to “rethink it.”  Yep, he’s a rethinker, and we love rethinkers.

What can we add to Bill’s article (and theory)?  Simply this — outside patent counsel can help an organization fight the war on the second front.

No, I’m not talking about opening the billables floodgate and adding a massive amount of capacity to the IP department.  That would simply be throwing money at the problem.

I’m talking about help with the rethinking part.

We’ll elaborate more on this in future posts.  For now, consider the following:

• A rethinker’s firm will help you cast a critical eye on your processes…and is courageous enough to return the favor and continually reevaluate its own processes.
• A rethinker’s firm will help you implement changes to your processes…and will follow-through on proposed changes to its processes.
• A rethinker’s firm will offer ideas on how to increase the efficiency of the relationship.
• A rethinker’s firm will help you build specialization…and will spend some of its own money in the process.
• A rethinker’s firm will offer technology solutions that actually improve your processes, not just the latest, must-have, keeping-up-with-the-Jones & Co.– technology.

In short, a rethinker’s firm will help you with the rethinking.

Look for more on this topic in the future, and more from Bill as well.

 

 

Niche Markets, Trader Joe's and Law Firms - Which of these things is not like the others?

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at September 23, 2005 10:40 PM

How does Trader Joe's define itself? A former vice president of operations for the chain put it this way: "It's a mix of supermarket, grocery store, and international gourmet shop with wholesale club pricing." Industry analysts and various other retail experts generally classify Trader Joe's as a specialty retailer or niche marketer. But which niche? Basically, the chain's simple but brilliant marketing strategy is to take a little from each concept and offer great products at fantastic prices. There really are no complex marketing strategies--just good solid execution based on giving consumers something different.

What do you do differently?  How do you make a difference to your clients? What about your firm's story - what makes it different from every other?

Who are your clients?

Who are your clients?  Who are your best clients?

When I work with new clients, I often encounter the following request: “I want more clients.” My response is a question: “What kind of clients do you want?” The (wrong) answer I most often get: “It doesn’t matter as long as they have money, we get a little bit of everyone in here.”

 

The right answer takes a little more thought.

 

When you really get to know your clients, you will find a small percentage account for most of your profits. In fact, it is common for less than 20% of your clients to account for nearly all of your profits. The big problem? Most businesses have no idea who those “perfect clients” are!

Bigger isn't always better

Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at September 14, 2005 12:51 PM

If you enjoy Rethink(IP)...you'll enjoy this article from the current (August 2005) IP Today:  LITIGATORS CORNER:  Who Says Contingent Fee Lawyers Are the Biggest Moneymakers?  [PDF]

Money quote:

No wonder large companies think litigation is too expensive. Their own need to hire big firms, coupled with runaway legal fees, is the largest part of their problem.  A defendant that shoots itself in the foot shouldn’t blame someone else for its own stupidity. Their corporate mentality, which equates size and expense to quality, is the main cause.

IP Memes and rethink(ip)

Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at September 7, 2005 10:46 AM

If you aren't familiar with The TechnoLawyer Community...you should be.  TechnoLawyer provides a number of great newsletters, and a forum where "technolawyers" can ask one another questions about technology (i.e., "has anyone every used _______ and what did you think about it?").  It is an excellent resource for all tech attorneys, and has an archive which I have searched from time to time with questions (what scanner to purchase, whether I should upgrade to the latest version of __________, etc.).  The best part?  It is free.  Try it, if you don't agree you can easily unsubscribe. 

Over the past year I have been writing a newsletter for TechnoLawyer called “IP Memes.”  IP Memes is “a weekly newsletter that explores emerging technology-related intellectual property issues — or “memes” as we call them. Think of it as your coal-mine canary for intellectual property issues.” 

Previous IP Memes authors have included Dennis Kennedy, Denise Howell, Gail Standish, Kevin Grierson and Kurt Calia...an amazing group of alumni. 

What excites me is the fact that fellow rethinkers Doug and Matt have agreed to join me as co-authors (starting with the September 26th issue).  The IP Memes newsletter is subscription only...so, if you want to read it, you better subscribe today!

PTOEx - If they won't fix theirs, why don't we build our own?

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at August 31, 2005 09:33 PM

An idea:

If FedEx can take on the federal government's role as the mail delivery specialist, why can't a private commercial enterprise take on the role of patent office?

I'll be blogging on this some more over the next couple of weeks - but my first question to y'all out there, why not?

If Congress can't improve the process/quality by allowing the PTO to keep the user fees and use it to improve quality and service, let's innovate around them.

So - how do we create PTOEx?

Patent Preparation and Prosecution Isn't a Commodity

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at August 28, 2005 08:08 PM

Via Brand Autopsy quoting Hugh MacLeod:

...when you start turning your products into commodities, you start treating your customers like commodities.

Patent preparation isn't a commodity, no matter what some folks think.  When preparation and prosecution becomes a loss leader, so do your clients.