Business Law Prof Blog

"Keeping Your Own Counsel" - Walter Effross

Friend-of-the-BLPB Walter Effross recently informed me of his blog, Keeping Your Own Counsel (subtitled “Simple Strategies and Secrets for Success in Law School”). The blog is a companion piece to Walter's new book designed for pre-law and law students, also entitled Keeping Your Own Counsel. Walter let me know that one can check out the book’s table of contents, preface, and first two chapters through Amazon’s “Look inside” feature and that a summary of six of the book's themes is in his most recent blog post.

He also noted that his February 25th blog post provides links to his conversations with leading in-house and outside counsel about the definition and goals of, career opportunities in, and ways to remain current on, the increasingly relevant practice of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) law.  He specifically recommends one of those conversations--the one with Fox Rothschild LLP partner David Colvin--even to law students who are not specifically interested in ESG because it addresses practical ethical issues.  He indicated (and I agree) that the overall post may be of particular interest to our readers.  So many of us are focused on ESG and related regulation in our work at the moment . . . .

I send congratulations to Walter on the blog and the book, along with gratitude that he alerted us to both.

A BLPB Valentine Haiku

❤️  It’s Valentine’s Day!

Time for candy and flowers,

Not for posting blogs.

 

Until next week, then,

When I will be back with more.

Be my Valentine?  ❤️

#BusinessLawProfPride

I cannot resist sharing with you today a proud moment that I had last week.  One of the 3L students that I mentor wrote a blog post that our Leading as Lawyers blog published. I could not be more proud.

I had been encouraging this student--a young woman I deeply admire--to write a post for us for a number of months.  She wasn't sure.  But I kept telling her that she had such compelling stories to tell.  Nevertheless, she remained unsure until recently that anything she would write could speak in a powerful enough way about leadership.

More recently, the pieces of her professional development puzzle have started to fall into place.  As a result she could see it--she found her voice; she knew what she had to say.  The result of her labors can be found here.  The title alone is enough to make a business law prof proud: The Unlikely Avenue from Hopeful Environmental Litigator to Inspired Transactional Lawyer.  You can click on the link and read the post in its entirety.  But here is the bottom line:

When I came to law school, I was so scared of “selling out.” I thought that transactional law was the route straight there. It turns out that choosing a path that utilizes my strengths and foregoes my weaknesses was never going to be “selling out.” Choosing transactional law is going to equip me to help animals and people in ways that I had never imagined prior to law school.

Amen.  Thanks, Ashley, for giving me this proud moment that I can share.  I will miss you after you graduate in a few months . . . .

Leadership for Lawyers at The University of Tennessee College of Law

As many of you may know, I enjoy reading and writing about leadership.  I am proud of the work that our law school has been doing for a number of years in highlighting the value of lawyers as leaders--through teaching, scholarship, and service--under the auspices of our Institute for Professional Leadership.  I am privileged to have the opportunity to serve as Interim Director of that program effective as of August 1.  I am grateful for the support of our incoming Interim Dean, Doug Blaze, and so many of my colleagues as I assume this new responsibility.

Among the service elements of the Institute is its weblog, Leading as Lawyers. Last year, I began writing occasional posts for the blog--first on Leading Without a Title and next on The Role of Process in Leadership.  (I mentioned and linked to the latter in this BLPB post last summer.)  I have continued my leadership blog post writing this spring, and the first of my spring posts, There is No Place for Schadenfreude in Leadership, was published late last week.  Although my Leading as Lawyers posts may well have value for business lawyers and business law instructors, they are not specifically written with our BLPB audience in mind.  Nevertheless, I will endeavor to bring them to your attention from time to time.

Given that my interest in leadership will happily soon become a more formal part of my job, I hope that many of you will bring to my attention things that you read or see or hear that relate to, e.g., teaching leadership to law students, lawyers and law professors leading through their work and in their communities, and law students assuming leadership roles.  The Institute focuses on all of these things.  I look forward to continuing this work in my new role.  

I will end by offering two lines from my recent schadenfreude post as food for thought:

Leadership is, of course, about looking out for and lifting up those on your team—not just yourself, and especially not yourself at the expense of others. While individualism, diversity, independence, and self-pride are important aspects of a functional team, each team member must use these attributes for the collective good of the whole—not selfishly or with ego or malice.

Especially in the challenging environment in which we business lawyers now practice and teach, maintaining a positive, inclusive, collaborative, empowering workplace would seem to be critically important.  It not only can help mitigate schadenfreude, but also can help lay a foundation of trust that enables projects, programs, organizations, and institutions to survive and progress in a dynamic social, economic, and political setting.

Why Lawyers Should Resolve to Blog in 2017

At the end of every semester I resolve to give less work to my students so that I don't have so much to grade. This upcoming semester I may actually keep that resolution, but I do plan to keep my blogging assignment. In each class, I provide an extra credit or required post or series of posts of between 200-500 words so that students can learn a fundamental legal skill—communicating clearly, correctly, and concisely.

If you are reading this post, then you are already a fan of legal blogs. Academics blog to get their ideas out quickly rather than waiting for the lengthy law review cycle to publicize their thoughts. Academics can also refine ideas they are incubating by blogging and receiving real time feedback from readers. Practicing lawyers blog (or should) for a slightly different reason. Blogging can enhance a lawyer’s reputation and visibility and ultimately lead to more business.

Yesterday, I met with an attorney who will speak to the students in my new course on Legal Issues for Startups, Entrepreneurs, and Small Businesses. I mentioned to him that I found his blog posts enlightening and that they filled a gap in my knowledge base. Although I practiced for almost twenty years before entering academia and had a wide range of responsibility as a deputy general counsel, I delegated a number of areas to my colleagues or outside counsel. That attorney is now part of a growing trend. In 2011, when I left practice, lawyers rarely blogged and few utilized social media. Now, many recognize that lawyers must read legal blogs to keep up on breaking developments relevant to their practice. However, most lawyers understandably complain that they do not have the time to get new clients, retain their existing clients, do the actual legal work, and also blog.

Leaving blogging to the wayside is a mistake, particularly for small or newer firms. A 2016 Pew Research Center Study revealed that only 20% of people get their news from newspapers yet almost 40% rely on social media, which often provides summaries of the news curated to the consumer’s interests. The potential client base’s changing appetite for instant information in a shorter format makes blogging almost a necessity for some lawyers. Indeed, consumers believe that hiring a new lawyer is so overwhelming that some clients are now crowdsourcing. But when they receive multiple “offers” to represent them, how do/should consumers choose? Perhaps they will pick the firm with a social media presence, including a blog that highlights the firm’s expertise.

I read several blogs a day. Admittedly, I have a much longer attention span than many of our students and the lay public. I also get paid to read. Nonetheless, I consider reading blogs an essential part of my work as an academic. In prepping for my new course, I have found posts on startups and entrepreneurship particularly helpful in providing legal information as well as insight into the mindset of entrepreneurs. If I were a busy founder running a new startup, I would likely try to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible online about certain topics prior to retaining a lawyer. Some lawyers, however, don’t really know how to speak to clients without talking down to them, much less write anything “short” and free of jargon. A lawyer/blogger who wrote in a way that I could understand, without all of the legalese, would be more likely to get my business.

Thus, even though I want to grade fewer papers, I also want my students to leave my class with the critical skill of communicating complex topics to the public in digestible chunks (and in line with state bar rules on social media). Over the years, I have advised students to volunteer to update or start a blog for their internship employers.  Many have told me that they enjoyed these projects and that their employers have found value in this work. This blogging practice also puts students in the position to start to blog after graduation.

I’ll end this post with a plug for my blogging colleagues who will attend AALS next week in San Francisco. I encourage you to attend some of the socioeconomic panels highlighted here. Please introduce yourself if you attend the panel next Wednesday morning at 9:50 on whistleblowers with me, Professor Bill Black of UMKC; Professor June Carbone of Minnesota; and Professor Ben Edwards of Barry. If you have an interest in the intersection between ethics and business, please swing by next Friday at 1:30 and see me and co-panelists Christopher Dillon from Gibson Dunn; Mina Kim, GC of Sunrun; Professor Eric Orts of Wharton; Professor Joseph Yockey of Iowa; Professor Brian Quinn of Boston College; Dean Gordon Smith of BYU; Professor Lori Johnson of UNLV; and Professor Anne Choike of Michigan.

If you have legal blogs you want to recommend and/or will be speaking at AALS and want to call attention to your session, feel free to comment below. Happy New Year and happy blogging.

Introducing Guest Blogger Doug Moll to the BLPB

This post welcomes Doug (Douglas K.) Moll to the Business Law Prof Blog.  He'll be posting with us a few times over the next month or so.  

Doug is the Beirne, Maynard & Parsons, L.L.P. Law Center Professor of Law at The University of Houston Law Center.  He teaches a variety of transactional business law courses: Business Organizations, Doing Deals, Business Torts, Secured Financing, and Sales and Leasing.  I have had the pleasure of working with him in other capacities (he is a fellow Tennessee BARBRI instructor and presented with me at the 2015 ABA LLC Institute, for example) and value his observations about transactional business law.  I also know him to be a highly decorated teacher--having won (according to his website bio) six teaching awards since 1998.  I look forward to his posts--and I am sure you will enjoy them!

BLPB Seeks Guest Bloggers

While we adjust to the departure of our long-time contributor (and friend) Steve Bradford and plan for the future, the Business Law Professor Blog editors seek interested guest bloggers willing to write one or more substantive posts on a business law topic (scholarship, doctrinal development, current event, etc.).  We are open to a variety of business law backgrounds with a particular interest in adding coverage of commercial law and related topics.  For questions or if you would like to nominate yourself or a colleague to guest blog between now and the end of summer 2016, please send an email to [email protected] with the subject line: "BLPB Guest Blogger".  Our selection process will depend upon the volume and variety of responses.

-Anne Tucker

So Long, Steve - A Short Tribute in Verse

There once was a blogger named Steve.
A positive mark he did leave.
His witty, smart style
Kept us reading a while.
The loss of his posts we shall grieve.

So long from the blogosphere, friend.  We know, as you have promised, that you'll never be far away.  But we shall, indeed, miss your byline here at the BLPB.

More on Cunningham's Berkshire Beyond Buffett

Larry Cunningham has a further post on his forthcoming book, Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values, over at Concurring Opinions.  The post includes an excerpt from Chapter 8 of the book, Autonomy, and links to the full text of the chapter, available on SSRN for free (!) download.  Larry's and my earlier posts on the book here on the BLPB can be found here, here, here, and here.

Here's a slice of the excerpt included in the Concurring Opinions post:

. . . Berkshire corporate policy strikes a balance between autonomy and authority. Buffett issues written instructions every two years that reflect the balance. The missive states the mandates Berkshire places on subsidiary CEOs: (1) guard Berkshire’s reputation; (2) report bad news early; (3) confer about post-retirement benefit changes and large capital expenditures (including acquisitions, which are encouraged); (4) adopt a fifty-year time horizon; (5) refer any opportunities for a Berkshire acquisition to Omaha; and (6) submit written successor recommendations. Otherwise, Berkshire stresses that managers were chosen because of their excellence and are urged to act on that excellence. 

Cool stuff . . . .

If It's Good Enough For Justice Kennedy....

Some law professors may remember when Justices Roberts and Kennedy opined on the value legal scholarship. Justice Roberts indicated in an interview that law professors spend too much time writing long law review articles about “obscure” topics.  Justice Kennedy discussed the value he derives from reading blog posts by professors who write about certs granted and opinions issued. I have no doubt that most law students don’t look at law review articles unless they absolutely have to and I know that when I was a practicing lawyer both as outside counsel and as in house counsel, I almost never relied upon them. If I was dealing with a cutting-edge issue, I looked to bar journals, blog posts and case law unless I had to review legislative history.

As a new academic, I enjoy reading law review articles regularly and I read blog posts all the time. I know that outside counsel  read blogs too, in part because now they’re also blogging and because sometimes counsel will email me to ask about a blog post. I encourage my students to follow bloggers and to learn the skill because one day they may need to blog for their own firms or for their employers.

Blogging provides a number of benefits for me. First, I can get ideas out in minutes rather than months via the student-edited law review process. This allows me to get feedback on works/ideas in progress. Second, it forces me to read other people’s scholarship or musings on topics that are outside of my research areas. Third, reading blogs often provides me with current and sophisticated material for my business associations and civil procedure courses. At times I assign posts from bloggers that are debating a hot topic (Hobby Lobby for example). When we discuss the Basic v. Levinson case I can look to the many blog posts discussing the Halliburton case to provide current perspective. 

But as I quickly learned, not everyone in the academy is a fan of blogging. Most schools do not count it as scholarship, although some consider it service. Anyone who considers blogging should understand her school’s culture. For me the benefits outweigh the detriment. Like Justice Kennedy, I’m a fan of professors who blog.  In no particular order, here are the mostly non-law firm blogs I check somewhat regularly (apologies in advance if I left some out): 

http://www.theconglomerate.org/  (thanks again for giving me first opportunity to blog a few months into my academic career!)

http://socentlaw.com/

http://www.fcpaprofessor.com/

http://law.wvu.edu/the_business_of_human_rights (currently on a short hiatus)

http://www.professorbainbridge.com/

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/civpro/

http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/

http://taxprof.typepad.com/

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/securities/

http://www.thecorporatecounsel.net/blog/index.html

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/

http://www.delawarelitigation.com/

http://www.dandodiary.com/

 http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/mergers/

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/laborprof_blog/

http://www.thefacultylounge.org/

http://opiniojuris.org/

I would welcome any suggestions of must-reads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interested in Guest-Blogging?

If you are a business law professor (or reasonable facsimile thereof) and would like to guest-blog with us here at the Business Law Prof Blog, please drop me a line at [email protected].