Chuck Newton

Realrecht

Okay, it is my own word, but I think it makes a point about our sometimes poisonous legal environment. I do not mean our laws are poisonous, although some might be. I am talking about many of our lawyers, and especially those associated with big law or those representing big business.

You might have envisioned realrecht recently in the Wal-Mart sex-bias class action suit the Supreme Court eliminated the other day. Now, I do not know if Wal-Mart was in the right or the wrong. That is not the point.

Thousands of individual lawsuit can now be filed against Wal-Mart by the women who work for or have worked for the company. The point is that women are not allowed to join together to enhance their power against the giant organization, underscoring the absurdity of the disparity between people and big business in this day and age.

When you are dealing with moral people that have not been corrupted by the power and money, big business and big law are often not a problem. The problem is when the only objective is to win, and not whether the issue is properly placed or should be properly settled. When lawsuits and legal issues are settled only from a position of power, and not so much the issues, then legal ethics cease to exist.

I take my word for Realpolitik.  Taken from the German "real" to mean practical or actual, and Politik meaning politics, it came to mean politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and material factors, as opposed to moralistic or ethical premises. The term came to be used pejoratively to mean coercive, amoral or Machiavellian means.

Likewise, Realrecht or practical law I use in the pejorative. It is based upon a law that is not based on the actual law, or reasonable considerations or differences of opinion to it, but on a consideration of power over morals or principles to take advantage of those harmed.

It is power law whose entire premise is based upon tactics and attacking the legal process and those that represent clients as opposed to focusing on the actions of the client and, if the client committed a legal wrong how that case might be properly settled.

There is no doubt about it, power law exists mainly because of the combination of mega business in which what normal people might consider large awards do not even represent a fraction of earnings of those sued, and lawyers who are corrupted by the fees paid by those companies that insist amoral and Machiavellian means.

I agree that I am a bit of an legal ideologue that tends to favor the principle of the law over other considerations. But, I think there is too much in the way of tactics and not enough in the way of truth currently in the practice of law. It is what makes the practice of law simply unenjoyable.

Advice Is Easy. Executing Is Hard.

I get calls and emails all of the time from law students and lawyers who want to start their own law firms. I try to give them my best thoughts and earned opinions to their questions.

Is it appreciated?

Who really knows.

But, I can tell you with many there is a great deal of apathy, halfheartedness or lassitude in the responses. It is a passiveness really boardering on "oh, do I have to".

I understand it. It is someone telling you that it is not going to be a piece of cake to do what you want. It is some one stating things you believe are true, but do not want to do or hear.

What I have learned over the years (too many to count really) is that advice is plentiful.  Some people charge for it. Some, like me, offer it freely.  And, everyone has an opinion on something. A diversity of opinion is good. You can take it all in, absorb it, and combine the various bits of advice to make your own.

It is not that most lawyers do not want the advice. It is that mere advice is not what they really want. They are wanting someone to do it for them, or at least walk with them through every step. A hand holder. A doer. A confidant is not often enough. Lawyers have come to realize that opinions and advice do not represent action.

You see, advice is easy. It is easy to give, and it is easy to take. It is easy to formulate.

It is executing that is hard (if not just downright impossible) for many people. It requires a sense of purpose, and a sticktoitness that most people cannot imagine themselves doing. You cannot have poor execution habits and expect to succeed. This leads to trepidation.

Most of us can invision ourselves in the final analysis.  We can see us as the lawyer, in the nice office, with lots of staff do our bidding, with plenty of time for luxury and vacations. The thought of working hard and playing hard is appealing. It is just the road to that destination that is hard to imagine.

The easy thing is to start at the end with the office and staff, and then to work backward. Although this rarely works out right, this is what you see most new lawyers doing.

There is also an element of faith.  If I  blindly start down the path I have to know that everything will work out alright.

I tend to think that poor execution habits and a lack of faith is why lawyers and law students want to team up for the journey when there is not enough to feed and care for one. The thought of not being alone is comforting. There is the thought that it will overcome one's culture of resistence to execution. The thought is that somehow a partner will add accountability for execution.

Within most of us there is just a resistance to change. Add this to a lack of discipline, and it can get tough.

To me, it is kind of like trying to put eye drops in your own eye. It is counterintuitive. But, an eye doctor can do it because he, and not you, is in control of the drops.

This is why people, including me at stages in my life, do not seem to get a firm off the ground until we are place in a position of failure. You can say it causes us to focus on priorities, but I think it forces us off our butts to get something done that might otherwise be uncomfortable for us to do otherwise.

It is like the story of the salesman the visits an old country home. The family is on the front porch. As he is trying to pitch the family the old blood hound is just whining, monaing and groaning. The salesman asks, "what's wrong with your dog". The man spits and says, "he's layin' on a nail". The salesman asks, "why doesn't the dog just move?" The man spits again and says, "ain't hurtin' 'nough for 'em to move."

And, that is how it really is with most of us.

I could tell you about goals and plans and the like. That is the easy advice. But, no amount of advice is going to be enough unless you have the gall to execute on it. Nobody is going to do it for you. And, the truth of the matter is that you are not going to move until it is hurting you enough that you cannot stand to lay in place.

Google +1 Button

 

 

Google's promotional video for the +1 button, above, explains the social feature thusly: "When you click +1, you're telling your friends, your family and the rest of the world, 'this is something you should check out!'"

I guess, then, the Google +1 button is similar to Facebook's "Like" button, which I have always thought a bit strange when you push "Like" as to something that is terrible.  You post that you were just involved in a tradgic accident, and one of your friends clicks the "Like" button.

Instead of your "Likes" being posted to your Facebook profile, your +1's are collected in your Google profile and displayed when people within your Google social circle search for something you have recommended.

Here is how I think it works, if you opt in via Google Labs, you'll see a translucent +1 button appear to the right of your Google search results. When you mouse over the button, it becomes solid and you can click it.  Each +1 is logged in your Google profile. There, you can manage what you've +1'd and choose whether or not you want to make this information public.

I do not know really how this benefits a law firm or lawyer except to ad the +1 button to your posts on your blog.

We will just have to see how it takes off.

How About A Cheap Solar Powered Law Office Or Space

First, as everyone knows, I work from home.  But, I hear from people all of the time who say I just do not have the space or the privacy to do this.

Second, although I do not need to meet with clients other than online, over the phone or at the courthouse, I hear from lawyers that say they need a space to meet with their clients.  This is perfect either as an adjunct to your home or at a location near your home.

Third, I appreciate cargotecture or the idea of adding space using recycled shipping containers.  I have provided a number of examples over time on this blog.

Sometimes these examples take some reimagining as many examples show where the space is built out as a living space.  This works too because (1) an increase in living space can free up work space in your house, and (2) shipping containers are just boxes that can be finished out any way you want, and placed any where you want.

For means of more inspiration on the subject comes the Sunset‘s Idea House, or Cargotecture.  An ultra-modern small space of only 192 square-feet (this one can actually sleep fourt), it is solar powered.  The 24' shipping container was designed and fabricated by Seattle-based HyBrid, it sell for a base price of $59,500.  You can view a lot of pictures of its installation at their website HERE.