Chuck Newton

Reliving The 70s Today And Listening To The Bee Gees

For some reason Stayin' Alive has some meaning today as I do some work on this Saturday.  But, I am afraid that I cannot wear tight pants anymore, and my hair is a lot shorter.  And, I shaved my beard when my babies kept pulling on it to get my attention.

A Perfect Reflection Of Third Wave Lawyers As Compared To Lawyers Who Have Vision Of Building An Empire

Cash Pedal

You know what I am talking about, right?  The accelerator pedal in our cars during times of high gasoline prices.  The prodigious use of the accelerator pedal now basically leads to less money on which to live.

And, the biggest problem is not so much that what I do only affects me.  When everyone takes that attitude in this day and age it gives the traders excuses to cause oil and gas prices to soar, which in turns causes everything from groceries to tube socks to increase greatly in price.  Sally pushes hard on the gas pedal of her SUV, and I am the one that gets to help her pay the price for it.  That is my point.

The other day a bunch of people in souped up cars and trucks passed me on the Interstate going at least 90 miles and hour.  One after the other they whizzed by me as they swooshed in and out of traffic at ridiculous speeds.  In the past I would say something like, "Oh my God, I hope they do not have a wreck".  I was concerned for the activity, but I was focused on the personal safety of the speed daemons and racers themselves.  To show how jaded I have become, my first thought when this group passed me was more like, "Slow down you bastards, you are ruining my life"!  Flooring that cash pedal maybe personally harmful, but it is increasingly an act of taking money out of everybody's else's pocket.

Then there is Houston.  The energy capital of the World is the energy wasteful capital of the World.  Again, this is that resentment starting to come out of me.  It is home to the lone person driving a giant SUV in their commute back and forth from work, family and entertainment in the city.  I do not get so upset with those that have SUVs in general.  I understand they bought them in another time, and they probably still owe too much on the vehicle's to get rid of them.  What gets my goat are all of the people driving around my area in these brand spanking new gas guzzlers.  The other day, coming home from the grocery store, I had to sit at a red light behind a big, fat, brand new yellow Hummer, staring at that damned temporary dealer's tag that was at eye level in the little car I was driving.

We have simply got to do more.  This is Enron trading mania in gas and oil futures.  We all know that $130 oil does not represent increased consumption as much as it involves hedge funds playing the market in an effort to take money out of our pockets.  In time there will be investigations and probably indictments.  The wonderful people who brought us the stock market bubble of the first part of this decade, and who enabled the mortgage crises or bubble or more recent memory, are now crowding into oil and gas, and we are all paying the price.

The problem is that there is little that we can do about the bigger crises.  Until the government gains the political will to do something about it,  or until the speculators have had their run of fun and profit, we are stuck with it.  But, the crises, whether real or imagined, is nothing but a precursor to what is really going to happen to us in the near future, and we had better take note.  We have all got to begin to understand that pushing on that cash pedal effects not just the one driving, but it has a direct effect on all of us, and especially on that single Mom who is starving to just get by.  We have got to understand that we are hurting other people.

I know that Bill Maher is a fun whipping boy, and he says a lot of things that just strike me wrong as well.  On some level, however, you have to appreciate his book When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden.

The point, I think, is that lawyers, like others, are going to have to start comporting themselves differently.  We are going to have to stop buying gas guzzlers we do not need just because they make some kind of statement.  We are going to have to buy high mileage cars and hybrids.  We are going to have to stop driving as much.  This means we are going to have to end this stupid commuting business.  Commercial buildings are the biggest source of energy use in this country.  We need to start abandoning these buildings whenever possible.  We are going to have to insist that courts stop forcing us to drive to and from them for no better reason than to conduct cattle calls such as docket calls and management conferences when this can be effectively and cheaply handled by technology.  Look, I know it must be fun to put on a black dress and lord over people with a wooden hammer, but judges have got to start to find ways to manage their dockets and dispute without wasting so much gas and energy.  We waste almost as much energy at home whether we work there or in some commercial building away from home.  That is because our homes are always prepared for our comfortable return.  We need to start moving our offices home.  And, then we need to spend some of the money we save in greening up our homes and the areas where we live.

Just think if the million lawyers in this country all started heading in this direction what a positive impact this would have on our pocket books, our environment, and our quality of life.  And, more importantly I would stop getting pissed off every time I have to go grocery shopping, open a utility bill or pay off my gas cards.

Will you not do it for me?  Please?

Do You Flaunt Your Fatigue?

"Man am I tired".  "I've got so much work, I'll be up all night".  "I can't seem to catch up".  Deep breaths taken.  A slight moan or wheeze for others to hear.  How about just letting your head fall a little too quickly to the desk in front of you.  Better yet, leaving to go get a caffeine-hyped power drink.  "Does anybody else need a Red Bull"?

There are just some lawyers (and a few judges) that like to tell everybody the degree of their exhaustion.  I guess I am guilty of it from time to time as well.  Lawyers in particular like to flaunt their fatigue as if it means something positive to clients and colleagues.  I guess it is like a badge which is suppose to alert other to how hard I am working for you - or against you.

Most of the time, however, I read it as nothing but an excuse as to why you do not have your work completed, or my settlement check order and to my office.  I do not care if you are tired.  Just show me the money!

I jest a little, but I remember a time when I would ask one of my colleagues how he or she was doing and he or she would just say fine, whether it was or was not true.  Now, lawyers like to express their upward boundness, and the fact they have a neat family, a big house, a cool gas guzzler, a large office, a country club membership, kids in private schools by telling you how tired he or she is.

Look, being tired or being in a state of fatigue is not a status symbol.  So, cut it out.  It is also not a defense mechanism, so do not try that with me.  Just because you stay at the office to 3 in the morning does not impress me in that I tend to think you are not really working, but are instead having an affair with your secretary or paralegal, or you are just trying to avoid your nasty home life while sitting in your office and watching reruns of Bay Watch of Sex In The City on your computer.

I read somewhere that a psychologist said that people in general, but I think lawyers in particular, use "tiredness as a proxy for effort".

If you really do not have enough time then narrow your practice field, move home, stop the commute, get rid of the big office and staff, and try to simplify your life.

Go to bed for crying out loud.

Unless you have newborn or very young kids at home you should not get to play the fatigue card.

And, that is just my opinion.

Attention Spam

It is a condition that I believe I am suffering from more and more both in my case analysis and in my practice wants.  I have attempted to build a highly niche practice to avoid it, but I have been trying to adventure out a little of late.

Attention spam is a condition resulting in a failure to process facts or comprehend common knowledge, due largely to having a mind full of useless information.

I have run into attention spam of late in two regards.  First, I have run into a few cases of that I am prosecuting in which the defenses raised are many, fast and furious (most without real substantiation) that trying to focus on drafting detail pleadings gets rather difficult.  Much like a law school exam where you first have to wade through all of the extraneous and immaterial facts to answer the call of the question, this process becomes rather difficult as well.  When multiple cases of this type hit at the same time it can really get confusing and I have trouble then processing the basic facts.  I deal with this a little better now than I would have when I am younger because I think and draft more in a linear fashion than I sue to do.  I guess it is from all of that outlining I did in law school years ago.  I am not sure.

Second, is that I have had an interest in doing a number of different things the last year or two.  The Internet and blogs are wonderful research tools.  The problem is that as you read through all of this stuff your mind gets increasingly cluttered due to all of the useless information you pick up along the way.  It interrupts the calculus in a way in that you have to consider all of the useful and non-useful facts together and in different combinations before you can discard it.  This sensation is greater with new endeavors or ventures.  I guess the problem is that with something new you have a hard time deciding what is useful and what is not.  For example, in my current practice area I might get snookered by some of this stuff for a while but I have been with it long enough to know and understand the most common elements and law from which to gage the arguments.  Not so with new categories.

Then, of course, it might just be old age, but I doubt it.  My sense is that I can sit down and concentrate longer on issues than I could when I was younger.  I might be slower at it, but it is more than made up for with my dedication to sticking with it.

Finally, A Little Recognition For The City

I call the Houston area home.  I actually live in The Woodlands.  It just paid agreed to pay Houston a ton of money to be allowed to incorporate as its own town.  Since the money is coming from my tax dollars and HOA dues, I feel that The Woodlands might be getting a little too generous with my money.  I personally have no problem with Houston having control over my little bit of dirt.

I have always thought Houston is a wonderful place.  Now Kiplinger has named it the #1 Best City.  With a population of 5,542,048, a growth rate of 14.9%, with 31.3% of its workers working in the "creative class", a cost of living of only 88.1% of the national average, and income growth of 13.1% it is a little hard to overlook.  As Kiplinger states, "Not only does the Houston metro area lead the nation in job growth, but also its cost of living stands well below the national average. Housing prices run half those of other metro areas its size".

There is really a lot going for the city, especially if you enjoy humidity during the summer.

The energy capital of the World.  The leader in aerospace.  The largest medical center in the World.  Hey, three law schools (two of them public).  I wish the football team was a little better.

Welcome to Houston.

Should You Be Using Credit Cards In Your Practice?

I do not think so.  That is why I refuse to have a credit card.  First, they encourage you to spend in ways that is not health, and to buy extravagances.  Second, we all know the tricks credit card providers play to make money off you that you do not suspect and which only make your situation worse.

For example, CNNMoney reports that card issuers use all sorts of tactics to wrestle money from their customers.  One credit card holder was careful to not go over the limit of his card while he was buying items.  He did not, but later the credit card company added an interest charge and that pushed him over the top and costs him an additional $29.00 in an over-th-limit fee.  He got it removed, but only with a good deal of effort.

Americans hold $850 billion in credit card debt, and the average balance per card-holding household is $8,568, according to the Consumer Federation of America.  Most of these credit card uses are getting slammed by penalties, fees and other billing practices.  And, according to Curtis Arnold, founder of Card Ratings, a consumer advocacy group, "The issuers have gotten a lot more trigger happy over the last few years."

Consumers are not the only ones complaining these days.  Government regulators are starting to take notice of the slight of hand of credit card companies.

The point is that I run into too many attorneys that use credit cards to try and even out the rough spots in cash flow for their practices.  But, inevitably what happens is that they use it too much, and do not pay off the balance, and they eventually get into a bind - or bankruptcy.  The truth of the matter is that it is too convenient to go out to dinner, for example, when you have not brought in enough business for a month and you do not have the money in the bank to pay for it, when you should be home eating beans and cornbread instead.  That new laptop just looks too attractive when you do not have the money to buy it otherwise and you have a computer that will do.  The goal should be cutting back when you have to and taking some leisure when you succeed.   Besides, there is nothing that will get you out of bed in the morning  and get you motivated to work, when you know that there is no fall back position, and you have got to hustle to find clients, settle cases and make money.

I Just Love Texas

Too Often Today's Kids Do Not Understand The Hardships That We Lived Under

Don't Eat Your Desk

I like The Onion and its parodies.