A House Divided

The timeworn saying is that "Truth is stranger than fiction." That's certainly true in the case of this house, which I drive past every day on my (wonderfully short) commute from my house to Mississippi College School of Law, where I teach. There it is, a house divided: one side painted blue, the other side painted red. What a wonderful image! It represents our national state of affairs quite nicely. I wonder what Abe Lincoln would think of it.

It gets better, too. The house is not painted just any shade of blue and red. It sports a very untraditional (shall we say liberal?) shade of electric blue, and a rather staid and conservative shade of brick red.

And, of course, the red side of the house is on the right.

I absolutely love this house. I keep waiting for someone to figure all of this out and paint the whole duplex some bland shade of brown. I sure hope that never happens.

And it gets even better: the cars in the carports match the house. Not in color, but rather in make and model. In the blue/left/liberal carport (which you can see in the picture), a Mercedes sedan is parked. In the red/right/conservative carport (which is obscured by the tree trunk), a Ford Escort is parked. I am not kidding or making this up. The cars are there every day.

So this little duplex is our nation in a nutshell. Which makes me wonder: if we did paint the house the same color, or at least colors that coordinate better than electric blue and brick red, would we get along better as a nation? It would be nice to think so--and as much as I love this house, I'd paint it in a heartbeat for a little more political conciliation and cooperation between Democrats and Republicans, and between red states and blue states.

Second (Life) Opinions

I'm in the midst of a series of posts on the movie Michael Clayton (here and here), but two news items from the ABA Journal warrant a detour.

Item #1: Professor Kibosh and the Evil Laptop. First, on the ever-popular (or not) subject of laptop bans in classrooms, there is an article in the ABA Journal concerning the increasing popularity of laptop bans in law school classrooms. I've blogged about the subject numerous times; look for my posts labeled by the "computer" category. And of course every time I suggest that a ban might be justified in some circumstances, I get angry reader comments.

I am undecided on the subject, and my current position on the matter is that if I can't decide whether a ban is desirable or not, then I should just leave matters be. Perhaps I should let students vote on the matter? I don't know. But this article points out yet more perils of laptop use: IM harassment in class and obscene videos.

Virtual Law Practice. This article really, really interests me. Apparently at least one law firm is setting up shop in the online 3D gaming world of "Second Life." As Craig Jones of the UK's Simpson Millar explains, "Many of our clients have injuries which can make it difficult for them to meet us at our offices. Others are too busy. Second Life is a way of 'seeing' your legal representative and receiving advice without coming to our office."

So in other words, this is real legal advice, provided in avatar-to-avatar format. How very fascinating, and it raises interesting questions. In a very large sense, this is no different, substantively, from communicating with clients by e-mail or phone. But what if avatars can one day be programmed to provide advice independently (provided, of course, that a fee is paid)? Is that different somehow than having general legal memos available for download for a fee? Is it different from the practice of having canned legal advice that is modified, around the edges, for a client, and then charging the client for it? Could a law firm establish a subsidiary company to provide general "legal" (and perhaps strategic) player advice pertaining solely within the Second Life world? Law firms set up subsidiaries quite often to provide business and personal services-related advice, so why not in this context?

Also, what if a law school set up shop in Second Life? Is this a viable means for long distance (or e-commuting) education? Would this run into trouble with the ABA? Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig and Judge Richard Posner have in fact made appearances on Second Life, so the intersection of legal academia and the online world is not farfetched by any means. I don't play Second Life right now (but boy, it intrigues me), so for all I know there is already a law school in the game.

And perhaps most interestingly, what if an avatar-professor decided to prohibit her avatar-students from using simulated laptops in her Second Life classroom?

Makes my (non-simulated) brain hurt.


**Photo credit: Steve Garfield**

Fun Summer Reading Online

Summer is (or at least it should be) a time to play outdoors, travel, and catch up on reading. So with that latter point in mind, today's post is about one of my new favorite law-related blogs, as well as another one I previously recommended that continues to provide insight and entertainment.

Law and Letters. This blog by aspiring law prof "Belle Lettre" is simply great fun to read, and insightful too. Not to mention the graphic design, which is another strong element. This aspiring law prof seems destined for a tenure-track position (I am in your corner, Belle); if so, I will be interested to see what happens with your blog.

For a fun post, check out her June 7, 2007 post entitled "Things I Won't Ever Blog About." She compares law school to the TV show Gilligan's Island, which is both a hoot and a shrewd observation.

Baby Barista. Very, very funny, and very, very British. It's the ongoing diary of a fictional pupil barrister. It features recurring characters and plotlines, so it's hard for me to recommend a single post. Just check it out and start scrolling down.

Weekly Roundup--Feb. 13, 2007

This roundup is a first in a series of posts. The idea, as the name implies, is to give a quick rundown of interesting materials I have come across in the past week or so. Here goes.

Citing to Wikipedia. On Concurring Opinions, blogger Daniel Solove has a noteworthy piece called "When is it Appropriate to Cite to Wikipedia?" (Note to students: PLEASE READ!!) My favorite part is Brian Leiter's comment on the matter.

• Side note: For a link to Wikipedia's Brian Leiter page, click here.

News from the Trenches. The ABA Journal just published the results of an online survey of law firm associates (or at least of people who claimed to be law firm associates). Of nearly 2400 respondents, almost 85% said they would be willing to trade some of their high salaries for lower billable hours. Not surprising. Neither is the general response by partners: get back to work.

They Really Mean it--Get Back to Work. The ABA Journal also reports that salary wars in NYC continue, with first-year associate pay reaching $160,000 in January 2007. So clearly, all associates need to keep their billable hours up to pay for the raise. (Dipping into partner profits to pay for raises is strangely unpopular at big firms.) And as reported in LegalTimes.com, the pay raises are rippling out to other cities as well.

Biting the Hand. . . . New York Law School's Professor Cameron Stracher wrote a recent Op-Ed for WSJ.com, in which he discussed the need for greater clinical education in American law schools. Part of his solution? Clinical rotations like in medical school. Nice idea to consider--although I wonder how useful watching a bunch of corporate attorneys drafting documents would be. Come to think of it, when I have had medical procedures done at teaching hospitals, I have wondered how useful the whole process was to med students in the room. Although since I didn't get charged any extra and since no one got hurt, it was at worst useless, and at best a learning experience.

Watch for more roundups soon.

And in Other News . . .

If you are a law student taking a break from studying for your exams, here are a few things worth checking out on the web. And if you are not a law student, please check them out anyway.

Exam Advice

At Shelley's Case, blogger Shell has useful advice on studying for exams from a student perspective. Shell's advice is always reflective and thoughtful.

Not Exactly Hell on Wheels

At the the Legal Underground, blogger Evan Schaeffer has posted a video in which he lectures on Civil Procedure while skiing. He claims in the video that he is the "first ever lawyer [to ski] while discussing the Federal Civil Rules of Civil Procedure"--at least to discuss it on tape. I am pretty sure he is right about that.

Note that Schaeffer, truly thinking like a lawyer, limits his claim to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Perhaps lawyers in Colorado or Utah have covered their respective state rules while on the slopes? Or maybe someone has discussed criminal procedure rules on skis? But then again, Schaeffer's claim is not limited to someone on Alpine (downhill) skis, so he has beaten the telemarking, cross-country crowd to the punch. Which goes to show that a good lawyer knows when to qualify his claims, and also when not to.

Common Scents Advice

Over at Frugal Law Student, there is a post about ounce of prevention and sins of omission. For those who have not read the FLS, its tag line is "helping law students mitigate their crippling student loans since 2006."

My favorite advice in this particular post (which is by Mrs. FLS)? "Take care of your clothes," which translates to "don't wash your clothes more than you have to." Here's the best part:

"[W]henever I take off a shirt I smell the pits for odor. No odor, no washy. . . . And I don't wash my pants for a couple of weeks. They seriously don't smell." (emphasis added)

That's bold advice. Good advice, perhaps, but a bold statement nonetheless. The point is, many Americans do presume that if you wear it, it needs washed. In Mississippi during August, I dare say that presumption works very, very well. At least with my clothes it does. But what about in March?

To perhaps take this "thinking like a lawyer" thing too far, what happens if you have a cold and can't smell? Do you not wash if you can't smell it? Is the smell test primarily for the benefit of yourself, or others? Or would a "3 times and you're out" rule be better/safer?

Enough. Back to grading exams.

September 11 and Cargo Security

Today marks the fifth anniverary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. As with the Kennedy assassination or any other momentous event, many people can tell you in detail where they were when the attacks took place. I was at my desk in Washington, D.C., busily practicing law--right across from the White House. It's quite unnerving to think about what might have happened to my office (and me in it) if the plane that hit the Pentagon had instead struck the White House, or what might have happened if Flight 93 had not crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

So September 11, 2006, is a day of vivid and painful remembrance, and for many the fifth anniversary is a sort of watershed, since no longer is the event in the immediate past. All of my law students right now can remember the attacks vividly--the youngest of them were in high school in 2001--but in five years, that will no longer be the case. Time marches on, and any fifth anniversary is a sobering reminder of that.

Much of my recent research has been on the subject of cargo security, which is a critical element of U.S. national (and in fact global) security. I was interviewed this past week by the Jacksonville Times-Union for a newspaper article on this very subject. That news article ("Cargo Security: A Weak Link?") can be linked to here. My latest law review article on the subject, which will be published in 2007 by the Houston Law Review, can be found online through the "Social Sciences Research Network," or SSRN. The gist of my interview comments and of my law review article is that prior to 9/11, the U.S. tacitly sacrificed cargo security as a means to improve the volume and speed of its international trade flows. After all, our economic well-being depends heavily on imports. In addition, any cargo security functions performed by the U.S. prior to 9/11 were largely carried out at or near the actual, physical border. Following the attacks, however, the U.S. has scrambled to increase its inbound cargo security measures, and one result of this is that we have pushed certain functions associated with our national borders far outward from the actual border. This sort of extraterritorial border functionality raises extremely interesting legal and practical issues, which I discuss in my law review article.

Please note that SSRN is a free service that anyone can use. You have to register in order to use it (by creating a login name and a password), but there is no charge, and it's a great way to find cutting-edge research before it gets published. My author home page on SSRN can be linked to at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=400520, or you can search for my articles by going to SSRN's "Search eLibrary" page and typing my name into the author first name/last name fields.

If anyone has any questions or comments about the news article or law review article, I'd like to hear what you have to say--please post a comment or send me an e-mail at bowman@mc.edu.

Hurricane Katrina Symposium, Part 2

I'm happy to report that Mississippi College School of Law's symposium on the legal impact of Hurricane Katrina went extremely well. The panels and speakers (on federalism, insurance law, and land use controls--see the above link for their bios) were excellent, and the insurance panel was particularly lively, with participants including Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and prominent Mississippi lawyer Dickie Scruggs (more recent photo here), who made national news (and good cash) as the primary negotiator of the state settlements with the tobacco industry. General Hood has a reputation for being passionate about his chosen causes, and he did not disappoint, with sharp criticism of the insurance industry for denying claims on the Mississippi Coast. Over 500 people attended, including two representatives from the Louisiana Attorney General's office. The Mississippi College Law Review will publish an issue with articles from the presenters later this academic year.

Hurricane Katrina Symposium

Students at many law schools around the country have made it through week one of law school and are staring week two in the face. That's a subject rich for blog posts, but today I want to exercise a point of personal privilege and talk about another topic.

Specifically, I encourage you to check out an excellent symposium being held by Mississippi College School of Law on Tuesday, August 29, 2006, concerning the legal impact of Hurricane Katrina. The program for this law review symposium can be linked to here. Please check it out, since the symposium features an excellent line-up of speakers. This one-day event includes panels on federalism and disaster response; insurance law; and property law/land use.

Lawyers and interested scholars in the vicinity of Jackson, Mississippi should strongly consider attending the symposium, both because it has a superb line-up of national-caliber lawyers and scholars and because 6 hours of CLE credit are available. Why not fill your CLE hours by attending a program of great social and legal relevance? People not in the Jackson vicinity can check this blog again in a few days for news on how the symposium went, as well as visit the Mississippi College School of Law's main website.

In addition, you can find some stunning images of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath on one of my previous posts on this blog. Those pictures were taken five months after the storm--but I was on the Gulf coast just last month, and while progress is being made, much of it still looks like a war zone.

Baumol's Cost Disease and Lawyers, Part 2

In my last post I discussed Baumol's cost disease and stated that it is having an enormous impact on the practice of law. In this post I want to discuss this impact in greater detail.


Recap

By way of review, a basic observation of Baumol's cost disease is that the cost of some commercial services will rise faster than the rate of inflation. Stated differently, while some types of services may enjoy productivity gains, others will not--either because they cannot or because as a matter of policy we do not want them to. Over time, those services that do not experience productivity gains will grow relatively more expensive vis a vis other services and the average rate of inflation. Again, there is more discussion of this in my earlier post.

Think of all services, then, as being located along a spectrum: at one end are services that can benefit from improvements in productivity (such as assembly line work), and at the other end are those that cannot (or as a matter of social policy should not) see such productivity increases. And in the middle there is a big gray area in which the boundary between the two types is not so clear.

Effect of Baumol's Cost Disease on the Practice of Law

Now here's the key point I want to make: due to the rising cost of services that have not benefitted from productivity increases, there is pressure to figure out how to change the nature of these services so that they shift from one side of the spectrum to the other. Sometimes this is not possible, but sometimes it is. Moreover, such shifts make things extremely interesting in a highly lucrative service industry like the practice of law.

Think of it this way: some things lawyers do are resistant to productivity improvements, while others are not. For example, lawyers still need to go to court, just like they have for decades. You cannot send a "virtual attorney." Lawyers still take depositions. Lawyers still need to review documents and records pertaining to a transaction or a case. Computing advances may make it easier to transport or print such materials, but the materials still have to be reviewed and read by real people. So gains in productivity related to these activities are often limited to the development of expertise by the lawyers involved. Let's call these productivity-resistant services.

Other legal tasks are not productivity-resistant. Do you see the same type of cases over and over again? If you do, then you typically prepare standard-form contracts or pleadings. One might call these types of services productivity-receptive.

Productivity-resistant and productivity-receptive services thus share a common feature: productivity gains can be achieved through the application of expertise. The difference between the two, however, is in the fungibility of this expertise. Can the expertise be distilled down into written form--such as a standard-form contract or pleading, or into a software program--that can be applied to another, similar case or project? Can the steps needed to file a case or manage a corporate transaction be reduced to a "how-to" list that someone with less expertise (like a junior associate) can follow?

Stated differently, can the legal task in question be turned into something that we might consider a separate-standing article of commerce? Or is the task in question something more intangible or non-standard, and thus less fungible?

The difference is enormously important. Baumol's cost disease tells us that productivity-resistant legal services will become increasingly more expensive over time, as compared to productivity-receptive services. This means that as a general matter, there often will be pressure to reduce the cost of the former services by whatever means necessary.

Which gets us back to the gray area of our spectrum. The enterprising and entrepreneurial lawyer will figure out a way to reduce costs by making her services more productivity-receptive. Standard-form contracts, checklists for more junior people to follow in performing complex tasks like audits or due diligence, software programs--these are all ways to reduce costs. Some providers even sell their fungible products as stand-alone articles of commerce, as any trip to Books-A-Million or Barnes & Noble illustrates.

Lessons for Lawyers

So what lessons can practicing lawyers take away from this? There are many--but here are five that come to mind.

1. Do not stand still or be complacent. The lawyer who rests on his laurels will see his profit margins and stable of clients shrink. The dividing line between productivity-resistant services and productivity-receptive services is constantly shifting toward the productivity-receptive end of the spectrum.

2. Think of ways to make your legal services more productivity-receptive. If you are the first in your area (geographically or practice-wise) to do so successfully, you will have a leg up on the competition. It is no accident, for example, that fixed fees and other alternative billing arrangements are becoming ever more popular, since they are efforts to control rising legal fees. If you figure out a way to profitably provide legal services at these prices and your competitors cannot, you will be in an enviable position.

3. Embrace specialization as a way to lower your costs and improve productivity. Baumol's cost disease helps explain why the practice of law has become increasingly hyper-specialized. I personally have mixed feelings about hyper-specialization--I believe well-roundedness is a virtue in a lawyer--but it is an inescapable fact that one way you can improve productivity for productivity-resistant services is to become an expert in that field, since then you will need less start-up time on each project.

4. Understand that your competitors are not all lawyers. There is a good deal of debate about the merits of law practice being a monopoly, and in fact some of my previous posts relate to this subject (see here, here, and here) . But as formerly productivity-resistant services become productivity-receptive, and thus move toward fungibility, you will have competition not only from lawyers, but also from non-lawyers. Tax lawyers face competition from H&R Block and other non-legal providers. Corporate attorneys face competition from books and online publications containing standard-form contracts. And in some areas of administrative law practice (including my area of specialty, international trade law), you do not have to be a lawyer to represent companies or persons before governmental agencies. Your non-legal competitors may be serving the lower end of the client base and leaving the tougher, more challenging (and more profitable) matters for lawyers to handle, but that only proves my point even further.

5. Lawyers need to lower their costs in ways other than reducing the direct cost of their legal services. You have to pay the attorneys in your firm market-rate salaries, and your legal fees generally have to be within market parameters, but what about your building lease? Your retirement packages? The size of your staff? The billable hour requirements for your firm's lawyers--should they be increased? Decisions like these are often difficult to make, and I am not advocating a slash-and-burn or dictatorial approach to managing costs. I am, however, restating the obvious in a different way: profit = revenue minus costs. All other things being equal, the lower your costs, the larger your profit, and this becomes ever more important as the cost of providing legal services goes up.

*****

This is a subject that fascinates me. Baumol's cost disease offers a useful framework for thinking about recent and looming changes in the practice of law. And, for that matter, I think of it every time I unsuccessfully try to get service assistance at Home Depot or Walmart. While I usually cannot get someone who can help me with my questions, I can console myself with the fact that the absence of helpful personnel helps lower the cost of the goods I am trying to buy.

Baumol's Cost Disease and the Practice of Law

My last three posts have discussed the important topic of LLM degrees. Thanks to those who have read them and commented on them. If you have not seen them, check them out here, here, and here.

The subject of this post (and one or more posts to follow) is somewhat more theoretical than the pros and cons of LLMs, but it is no less important. The current topic is something called "Baumol's cost disease" or the "Baumol effect," and it is something that every lawyer needs to know about, since it affects all of us in the legal profession in important ways. It is no exaggeration to say that Baumol's cost disease is reshaping our profession entirely, in ways large and small. Every lawyer needs to appreciate and understand its implications for our future. This is not hyperbole on my part.

So what is Baumol's cost disease? It is named after William J. Baumol of NYU and Princeton. Baumol's basic observation is that the cost of some services will rise faster than the rate of inflation. That may not sound so earthshattering, but it is. Let me try to explain.

First, the production of many modern goods is heavily automated. That means that worker productivity in these industries is up--way up. So worker wages may be higher, but productivity has increased in many industries at a rate faster than the increased cost of labor. So there is a productivity gain that lowers the cost of making those goods.

A good example of this is the PC industry. My very first computer, which I got in 1988, was an IBM Model 50. It was state of the art, with a 12-inch color screen (the exception in those days), a built-in 20K (not 20 meg) hard drive, and a 3.5 inch disk drive (5.25 floppy disks were still the industry standard then). And it cost a whopping $3,000 dollars! Today, for around $400 I can buy a low-end computer that trounces my dinosaur IBM. And it would come with a large flatscreen monitor, lots of software (my old computer came only with DOS), and a printer too. Even ignoring inflation and the fact that I am comparing a very old apple to a nice shiny new orange, that is an incredible reduction in cost. My inflation-indexed dollar today buys a lot more computing power than in 1988. In other words, the real cost of PCs has gone way, way down.

Other examples abound, and some are even in service industries. Does anyone know of a secretary or office assistant who still knows shorthand, or an attorney who cannot type? There aren't many. Intermediate steps like shorthand or needing someone to type everything for you have been eliminated, and this has freed up workers like office assistants to deal with other tasks that add more value. In other words, they have become more productive.

This is where Baumol's cost disease comes in. Baumol observed in the 1960s that improvements in productivity are not always desired, and for some activities such improvements might be impossible. The original example given was a string quartet: playing it today takes 4 musicians, just as it did hundreds of years ago. In other words, gains in efficiency are not really possible for this task. In other cases, improvements in efficiency might be possible, but are ill-advised. Education is the perfect example here: you perhaps can increase educational efficiency by increasing the number of students in the classroom, but do you want to? And in fact, would increasing the number of students reduce the output--that is, the quality of education?

So we are left with the insight that some activities can experience increases in labor productivity over time, while others cannot or should not. The result is that the cost of some services will not increase as fast as the cost of other services for which there can (or should) be little or no productivity gains.

This means that the cost of services that do not experience productivity improvements will rise at a rate higher than inflation. Remember that the rate of inflation is an average. Some items, such as computers and other electronic components, actually get cheaper to produce over time. Other services, like live music or medical surgery, experience high cost growth. Baumol's cost disease tells us that services that cannot or should not experience productivity gains will grow more expensive more quickly.

This has enormous ramifications for service industries, including the legal profession. I'll discuss some of the ramifications in my next post, but here are some teasers:

• Improvements in attorney efficiency regarding administrative tasks are part (although not all) of what have enabled associate salaries to increase so rapidly in recent years.
• The generally high cost of legal services has led to standardization of legal service packages, which has helped lower the cost of some legal services. For example, form contracts might be used by a law firm to quickly prepare a contract--or the client might even obtain (or develop) its own form and forego using outside counsel altogether.
• The need to improve efficiency wherever possible has contributed to hyper-specialization in legal practices, with fewer general practitioners in many markets.
• Increased standardization of legal services may be creating a greater dichotomy between lawyers that charge large fees to address the most difficult and intractable legal problems, and those that handle more prosaic or ordinary legal matters at far lower rates.

This is just a sampling of some of the enormous implications of Baumol's cost disease for lawyers. I'll have more discussion in my next post.

Why go to Law School When You can Get a Fake Diploma?

I know diploma mills are not new, but with e-commerce now in the mainstream, they are perhaps more brazen than ever. Just look here. The fake law diploma at the bottom of the page is absolutely priceless. (Actually, it's only $18.95 for two graduate degrees--maybe I'll order some.) Sadly, some lawyer-wannabees probably have these very fakeplomas hanging on their wall, fooling helpless innocents.

And lest I be accused of favoring one diploma mill over another, link to a Google search for "fake diploma" here. I certainly want to be an equal opportunity disparager!

In fact, I'd post copies of some of the fakeploma images I've found here, but chances are I'd get sued for copyright infringement--which would be the irony of all ironies, because you'd have a diploma mill suing a lawyer. Lots of public sympathy for that one. It'd be like having two drunk drivers involved in a car accident and taking each other to court. Sadly, both couldn't lose. So instead, I'll take the safer road, if not the higher one, and exercise my freedom of speech rights by talking about fakeplomas.

My advice? Either go to a real law school and get your own degree, or don't go, and do something else with your life. After all, pretending to be a lawyer is not really the best way in our society to win friends and influence people. You doubt me? Go to a party sometime, and use the following pick-up line: "Hi, I'm [your name here]. I sue people for a living. What's your name?"

I'll bet you $18.95 and a fakeploma you strike out.

Holocaust Survivor Gilbert Metz Visits Mississippi College School of Law

On Monday 4/24/06, Mississippi's only Holocaust survivor, Mr. Gilbert Metz, spoke to students and faculty at Mississippi College School of Law. Mr. Metz, a native of France who settled in Mississippi after World War II, talked about his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps. His visit to the law school was, appropriately, on the eve of Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day.

I first met Mr. Metz in a local cafe about a year ago. He happened to be buying a baguette (appropriately enough), and I was just getting coffee. He said hello, and we started talking. Two hours later, we were still talking--or rather, I was listening as he recounted his experiences. It stupefies me to think of the things he witnessed and the number of times he dodged death between 1943 and 1945; looking out at the law school audience on Monday as he spoke, I could see that many people had the same reaction as I did as he spoke of his family's executions and his own brushes with disease and death.

Mr. Metz is in his late seventies now, and not always in good health. I am glad he was able to visit the law school. His visit made an immediate impact. The very next day in my International Law class we were discussing International Human Rights, and it was the best class discussion we've had all semester. Passionate, thoughtful, provocative. It just goes to show that if you keep your nose in a book during law school you can master the material--but if you attend some of your school's extracurricular events like this one, you may really learn something. Mr. Metz's visit put the law in a more urgent and human context.

Other articles about Mr. Metz are available online here (a Mississippi teenager's interview of him) and here (a local newspaper article). A book about post-World War II Jewish emigres to America includes a story about Mr. Metz's early encounter with segregation. And a 1997 Mississippi House of Representatives' resolution honoring Mr. Metz can be linked to here. Sadly, and perhaps all too appropriately, the resolution died in committee.

Six Month Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Today marks the six month anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated coastal Mississippi and Louisiana. It is fitting that it is also Ash Wednesday, the day after Mardi Gras. The hurricane has had such an enormous impact on my state of residence, Mississippi, that I am compelled to post on the subject again.

My last post on this subject had a link to some recent photos of the MS Gulf Coast months 5 months after the storm. They are phenomenal. Here is the link again. I encourage you to check them out if you haven't already.

And here is the Hurricane Katrina factoid for the day: one of my law school's alumni told me that there are currently hundreds of General Motors cars underwater, out in the Gulf of Mexico, still sending out OnStar radio signals. Think about it. That's hundreds of cars that (1) had the OnStar service to begin with, (2) still have a valid OnStar service contract, and (3) still have working OnStar units on board. That means there are thousands of other cars out there for which OnStar is not working or never had it to begin with.

Thousands of cars, underwater. That's astonishing. Those would be some strange underwater pictures if anyone could ever find those cars.

My Friend's Accident

I was all set to post on something else today, and then I got a letter this afternoon from the wife of a very good friend of mine from my exchange student days. I won't tell you his name, out of respect for his privacy, but I will tell you this: he is one of the most bighearted people I know, a real gem of a man, athletic, smart, tender and not afraid to show it. And he just had a severe spinal injury.

I don't know what his exact prognosis is, since I just got the letter from his wife. With all that is going on, she took time out of her schedule to let people know what was going on. She is as bighearted as he is. And I just can't believe it.

You see, I am 38, nearly 39 now. That's old enough feel mortal but young enough to still believe the Big Day is a long way off. And here is this powerfully athletic dude, a former military officer who pretty much excelled any sport, and he gets struck down in an instant. Just like that. In a freak accident while on vacation. I sure hope he recovers.

A number of my posts on this blog have to do with following your heart and finding meaning in your career and life. An event like this drives home the message more powerfully than any other example I can think of. Here is a guy I admire and respect, someone I learned a lot from through friendship. Someone I love. And here he is, reminding me again of how important it is to be true to yourself, since you never know what life may bring.

Mississippi 5 Months After Hurricane Katrina

Today, January 29, 2006 marks exactly 5 months since Hurricane Katrina devastated the coastal areas of Mississippi and Louisiana. There will probably be a surge of media coverage at the 6-month point, so I guess I am ahead of the curve.

Landon Howell, who is a cousin of one of my students, Karen Howell, recently took some truly compelling pictures of the Mississippi coast five months after the storm. They show, better than any words can describe, how complete the devastation remains, nearly one half year later. You can link to his photos here. Please check them out.

As compelling as these photos are, however, they still do not convey the full scene. I was in Gulfport, Mississippi last week for a gathering of Mississippi College School of Law alumni. A lot of clean-up has taken place since August, but frankly the coast is still an absolute mess. The devastation between beachfront highway 90 and the coastal railroad track (which is about a block inland) is nearly indescribable, even 5 months after the fact. Nearly everything south of the track is just gone, and all that is left is debris.

Just north of the track, however, there is significantly less damage. And I do mean just north--as in feet. The track lies on a raised grade, and that feature helped protect buildings just to the north from the storm surge. So a house immediately north of the track would have been flooded, but being somewhat sheltered from the direct storm surge it might still be standing (but probably is condemned). But just a few houses north of that, some residents will have moved back in. And all of this is within shouting distance of the coast and its barren, gothic landscape.

There is a lot being done to help the coast, including by lawyers, law students and law schools (including mine) volunteering their time to help those on the coast in need, but a lot more needs to be done. And yet perhaps the most important contribution is being made by people like the alumni I met last week, who are doing their part by staying in their communities instead of leaving for easier lives elsewhere.

What the West Virginia Sago Miners Can Teach Us

I have been thinking a lot this week about the disaster at the Sago Mine in Tallmansville, West Virginia. I grew in West Virginia. My grandfather was a coal company doctor for a time, and my wife's grandfather worked in the mines. So this tragedy has weighed heavily on my mind.

Let's think about what happened. There is a lot of talk and fingerpointing about the mining company and its numerous safety violations. And maybe the company's actions did contribute to the accident, although that is not yet determined. If the company did contribute to the accident, I hope it pays through the nose for it.

But what about the miners?

There they were, trapped underground, knowing they might well die, and what did they do? Some of them left notes to comfort their families. That is truly remarkable. They thought first and foremost about those they were leaving behind. Even as they faced the end of their lives, they put others before themselves.

I have spent my professional career in the white collar world of law firms and law schools--about as far from a life in the mines as you can get. And yet there is a commonality here. As a professor, I strive to instill my students with a sense of mission and meaning about their careers. Lawyers are in a service profession, so serve. Put other people before yourself.

The Sago miners bring that message home in spades. The notes they left were magnificent acts of courage and compassion that move me profoundly. And they teach us all a good lesson--not about how to die, but rather about how to live.

Professor William Bradford's Resignation Offers a Cautionary Tale

I have been thinking a lot in recent days about the resignation of Associate Professor William Bradford from the faculty of Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis. (This has been big news in law school circles.) On the one hand, it sounds a lot like the sort of academic infighting that is of limited relevance to the larger world. On the other hand, it’s a perfect cautionary tale for anyone planning or already embarked on a career in law teaching or practice. For more details on the matter, check out the December 6, 2005 posting on the Volokh Conspiracy (a great blog).

For starters, let me clearly state what this posting is NOT about. I am not bashing Professor Bradford. Nor am I defending him. Others are doing a fine job of that. I am just looking for the lessons to be learned.

By way of background, I met Bradford at a conference last year, where he spoke on national security law matters (his area of specialty). He was smart, well-spoken, and even more convinced of the rightness of his (somewhat extreme) views on national security law than most law professors are about their beliefs—which frankly is saying a lot. Bradford seemed like the kind of person who did not mind shaking things up a bit.

That is not a bad thing in law teaching, of course. It in fact can be a good thing, since it generates debate and discourse. And after all, the role of law professors is to advance knowledge, not just reach consensus and play nice. Yet the Bradford tale provides three lessons on ways to avoid trouble in your law career.

First, did Bradford ruffle feathers on the Indy faculty? I do not know, but clearly certain tenured faculty members there were opposed to him. Whether he justly deserved their opposition or not is wholly irrelevant for my purposes. Rather, the lesson for any professor seeking the holy grail of tenure or any law firm associate seeking the brass ring of partnership is to tread softly if possible and not antagonize people. The old saying is that “friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.” If someone has a vote over your future, they have a vote, and that is that. Whether that person is opposed to you for valid or invalid reasons is quite beside the point: you either win her over (either through the merit of your work, your interpersonal skills, or preferably both), neutralize his opposition by having other people in your corner, or find another job.

Second, Bradford padded his resume by exaggerating his military service record. The lesson is that you simply cannot lie or fudge about your professional and personal background. At all. Ever. The point is that we are lawyers, and lawyers are—and should be—held to a higher standard than the general public. Intentionally misrepresenting your background and credentials can derail your career. And in this digital age falsehoods are uncovered easier than ever.

Third, while the current ABA Model Rules for Professional Conduct do not use the phrase “Appearance of Professional Impropriety” (it appeared in the header for Canon 9 of the now-superseded Model Code of Professional Responsibility), this phrase should always be foremost in the mind of anyone considering a career in law. Bradford apparently posted “cheap shot” comments to a law school blog under names other than his own. He was caught by an Indy law student running the blog who noticed that different “commentators” on the blog had IP addresses matching Bradford’s. This just smells bad. Even if it did not technically violate any rules (which it may have), it just seems improper. The lesson in practice (and teaching) is that if something smells fishy it probably is, and just to be safe you shouldn’t do it. And any potential payoff does not match the fallout if caught.

China and Torture

I know this isn't exactly a "law career" matter, directly speaking, but I am an international trade lawyer, so I can't resist broadening my scope.

My last posting was on U.S. trade with China and how the U.S. cannot expect to unilaterally influence China's trade policy in a significant way. Facts are facts, and the U.S. needs to not buy in to the overblown rhetoric about its economic clout. Is the U.S. powerful? Yes. Powerful enough to unilaterally get China to do what it wants if the Chinese government disagrees? No.

Articles in today's Washington Post and New York Times reveal the results of a United Nations investigation into the Chinese government's "widespread" use of torture. Is that bad? Oh yes. Should the U.S. encourage China to stop this? Absolutely. But here are two points worth bearing in mind:

One: The U.S. has been leaning on China for years now in humanitarian matters, and human rights organizations like Amnesty International have been doing the same. And China has dragged its heels.

Two: When China did finally give access to inspectors, it was through the United Nations. Not the U.S., but the U.N. The lesson is that results in this area--and others of international importance--will usually come from multilateral efforts, not unilateral ones. The U.S. needs to bear that in mind and keep jingoism in check.

U.S. Trade With China

Please check out an Op Ed I wrote in today's Jackson Clarion-Ledger about U.S. trade with China. Too much of our national discussion on this topic involves the dueling assumptions that China is either (a) a nefarious troublemaker that must be controlled or (b) a potential panacea for the U.S. economy (since trade with China will help create jobs and so on). These editorials were no exception, so I could not resist responding. For one thing, I do not like Crossfire-style "is not/is too" debate--you lose nuance in your analysis and discussion. And you often miss the bigger point, which is what happened here. We can argue over whether China is good or bad in its trade policy, but what we really need to keep in mind is that the U.S. has far less influence over China than it thinks.

Yes, China recently joined the WTO, and it has opened its markets substantially. But why did China do this? Because of U.S. cajoling? No. It did so because it saw that it was in its best interests to attract investment and create closer economic ties with other nations. The U.S. played a part, of course, but it was a multilateral effort. Suggesting that the U.S. can directly affect Chinese trade policy just because of who we are smacks of enormous hubris.

Also, please check out my colleague Michael McCann's Sports Law Blog, which is excellent. Mike posted on how my Op Ed ties into sports law (which does!), so kudos to him for broad and creative thinking.