Texas Supreme Court Orders 10/31/08
The Texas Supreme Court issued no new opinions with this week's regular orders. Happy Halloween!
Microblog Roundup 10/28/08
Here's a sample of my microblog updates from the past week or so. Follow me on Twitter at at @dtoddsmith,
Per recent media contacts, I'm quoted & my blog is mentioned in this Texas Lawyer article re judicial race, http://tinyurl.com/5p65e6.
New at the Texas Appellate Law Blog: "A Whole New World": Recent Developments in Texas Mandamus Practice, http://tinyurl.com/55mmjk.
Reading "Google Earth on the iPhone," http://tinyurl.com/552yqm. I've been wondering when this app would be released.
New at the Texas Appellate Law Blog: "On Reluctance to Engage Appellate Counsel, Part 2," http://tinyurl.com/5redrn.
Reading "Standardized Work, Cost Cutting Alter GC Relationship With Outside Counsel," http://tinyurl.com/6llrt5. A glimpse into the future?
RT @carolynelefant: looking for rituals of oral argument - http://tinyurl.com/5edtuz. Blogged about mine at http://tinyurl.com/5f8jm8.
Good football weekend. TCU, Tech, UT, 'Boys all win. Frogs climb to #12 in both polls. Will they crack Top 10 by beating Utah? UNLV first.
In-house attys/corps should consider solos/small firms in these times. Potentially better service/flexibility, often easier on bottom line.
Reading "Grim Report Advises Law Firms to Prepare for a Long, Painful Slide," http://tinyurl.com/5a9ldj.
CLE talk went well, I think. Then went to court and got a new trial for my client. Bummer to come back to find Internet down. Can't blog.
Reading "Election's outcome could have seismic effect on federal courts," http://tinyurl.com/6372sv.
Giving a CLE talk at lunchtime tomorrow on Texas mandamus practice, then off to a hearing on a motion for new trial.
Definitely getting more media calls lately. That never happened when I was at BigLaw.
Email recd from local journalist: "I've been meaning to tell you that I enjoy this blog you have going. Very informative. Very helpful . . ."
Sitting in lunch CLE on Technology & Practice Management for solos & small firms and finding that I know more than I thought I did.
Reading "Former Blogger Makes High Court Debut," http://tinyurl.com/6l9y44. From web designer to blogger to SCOTUS advocate. Impressive.
Reading "3rd Court Dispute Over Dissent Now at Texas Supreme Court" (http://tinyurl.com/56qrol) and watching with interest.
Reading "Study: Corporations Slash Spending on Outside Counsel," http://tinyurl.com/5w39az.. Opportunity for specialists, solos/small firms?
"A Whole New World": Recent Developments in Texas Mandamus Practice
That was the title of a CLE presentation I gave last Friday to members of the Austin Bar Association as part of its Fourth Friday CLE series. In addition to some basic mandamus principles, I covered recent rule changes affecting mandamus practice and how recent Texas Supreme Court decisions have treated the requirement that relator have no adequate remedy at law.
I'm including links to the paper I handed out (authored entirely by fellow Austin appellate lawyer Kurt Kuhn) and the PowerPoint presentation I used (which contains both my work product and Kurt's). I hope those who attended found the presentation interesing and informative.
On Reluctance to Engage Appellate Counsel, Part 2
Following up on this post, Greg May at the California Blog of Appeal has completed the third and fourth installments of his series discussing the reasons trial lawyers or their clients choose not to engage appellate counsel. The entire series is available through this link.
Greg's third installment addresses the trial lawyer's age-old point, "No one knows the case better than I do,” and offers some compelling reasons why that isn't necessarily an advantage on appeal. Greg's commentary made me think of the "forest for the trees" problem that all lawyers face after living with a case too long. Your mind plays tricks on you, and after a while, you just stop seeing things for what they are. Better to have a fresh set of eyes on the problem as you take it to another level of review.
The fourth post looks at substantive-law specialization and client-side expertise as possible impediments to hiring appellate counsel and reaches much the same conclusion. Sometimes, even an expert in a technical area such as intellectual property or in the client's particular industry isn't the right person to take a case up on appeal, at least not alone. In the end, the best approach may be to work as a team, with lawyers of different skill sets each adding value to the process.
Whatever the backdrop, lawyers are controlling by nature, and it's counter-intuitive to hand a case off when you've got years of blood, sweat, and tears invested in it. That's why relationship-building between trial and appellate lawyers—and, let's not forget, clients—is so important. The trial lawyer and client need to trust that the appellate lawyer will handle the case appropriately, and the appellate lawyer needs to deliver on that trust. Repeat that process enough times, and the reluctance to retain appellate counsel diminishes.
Oral Argument Rituals
Over at MyShingle.com, Carolyn Elefant has posted on some of the things she does to prepare for oral argument and has solicited others' stories. Here is what I told her:
I don't have what I would consider to be rituals or superstitions. It's more of a process.
I generally go back and read all the briefs and important cases, then check to see if any new on-point decisions have come out since the briefs were filed. I'll then outline my argument, paying particular attention to the weak points in my case and questions I think I'm likely to get from the bench. Finally, I boil my outline down to a one-page flowchart listing the most important or hard-to-remember points and case names.
I put whatever I think is important in a 1" black binder that I take to the podium with me, but I don't usually look at it much. I try to be as conversational as I can.
Do you have an oral argument ritual? If so, please feel free to share it by commenting here or to Carolyn's original post.
Texas Supreme Court Orders 10/24/08
The Texas Supreme Court issued no opinions with this week's orders. Of interest, the Court issued stays in three mandamus cases, a subject on which I happen to be speaking today (mandamuses, not stays).
Microblog Roundup 10/21/08
Microblogging consists of brief text updates published broadly or to a restricted group chosen by the author. My microblog can be found on Twitter at @dtoddsmith, where I invite you to become a follower.
Recent microblog posts include:
New at TALB: Announcing creation of Texas Appellate Law LinkedIn Group: http://tinyurl.com/6gn8ze. Thanks @kevinokeefe for the idea!
Reading"Is Now The Perfect Time To Start Your Solo Practice?" (http://tinyurl.com/56g8oq). BigLaw clients consider downturn an opportunity?
Photographic evidence @kevinokeefe was in Austin at http://twitpic.com/h9te. @ernieattorney took the photo. With us is Dylan Drummond.
Finally! Horned Frogs No. 15 in both AP and USA Today polls released today. Nov. 6 opponent Utah is No. 12. Still room to move up.
Reading "Bent on Intent: Finger-Pointing, Politics Permeate [Entergy v. Summers] Rehearing," http://tinyurl.com/5c3nxa.
New at TALB: Texas Supreme Court releases opinion addressing specific performance proof requirements, http://tinyurl.com/5uamwz.
Had a great time visiting with @kevinokeefe & @ernieattorney at Driskill & Louie's 106 last night. Ernie took at least 1 picture. Share?
RT @TCU: Athletics: Frogs Leave No Doubt in 32-7 Defeat of No. 9 BYU http://tinyurl.com/6y59ze. DTS: 7-1, streak killers. Pollsters?
Reading "Forbes ranks Austin best city for the value," http://tinyurl.com/4nwrhe.
Reading ""In-House Counsel See Litigation Spike in Next Year," http://tinyurl.com/533u75. My old firm predicts better times for litigators.
New at TALB (http://tinyurl.com/3sh4): Looking for statistics. When court of appeals denies oral argument, are appellants hosed?
More on 3rd Court scuffle between CJ Law and J Patterson re DeLay case, including link to CJ's SCOTX response, at http://tinyurl.com/3hf7sf.
Just got email from BigLaw firm saying they're updating their media list and asking for my mailing address. Guess I'm media now.
More evidence of the power of blogging: Reporter just contacted me about a local, increasingly heated appellate court race.
Jumping into some short-fuse briefing in a ginormous arbitration I've been hired to help out on. Good stuff.
Promoting SBOT Appellate Section pro bono programs as part of Blog Action Day's focus on poverty: http://tinyurl.com/4ptz36.
What kinds of orders are subject to appeal in Texas? One of "20 Questions About Texas Appellate Practice" at http://tinyurl.com/4m9nwr.
How is the Texas appellate court system structured? One of "20 Questions About Texas Appellate Practice" at http://tinyurl.com/3mmeh7.
What is required to perfect appeal? One of "20 Questions About Texas Appellate Practice" answered at http://tinyurl.com/5xa6kc.
Attending Inn of Court meeting. Great topic: Perspectives re raid on Yearning for Zion Ranch and aftermath.
Ugh. Third Court dissension along political lines makes WSJ Law Blog: http://tinyurl.com/4y3634. Not a good sign, folks.
Texas Lawyer covers the 5th Circuit's en banc decision in In re Volkswagen at http://tinyurl.com/3zvs23.
Getting some nibbles on new venues/groups for variations of my "Appellate Practice Marketing 2.0" talk. Can you say "repurpose"?
Rough times at 3rd Court of Appeals. J. Patterson asks SCOTX to make court publish dissent in DeLay-related case, http://tinyurl.com/5xlksr.
Reading "5th Circuit Ruling Shoots Down IP Rocket Docket," http://tinyurl.com/53vr4v. En banc court sides w/ panel 10-7 in Volkswagen case.
As always, comments are welcome.
Join the Texas Appellate Law Group on LinkedIn
LinkedIn has become a useful networking tool for professionals, and lawyers are no exception. Six months ago, the number of lawyer profiles on LinkedIn was estimated at just under 120,000. As more lawyers become educated about the value of social media, there's no telling how high that number will climb.
With that in mind, I have started a Texas Appellate Law Group to facilitate conversation and collaboration among trial and appellate lawyers, in-house counsel, and other professionals working on matters before Texas appellate courts and the Fifth Circuit.
LinkedIn explains the Groups concept this way:
Many professionals advance their careers and business goals by counting on industry and professional groups, alumni organizations, industry conferences and corporate alumni groups to help them make vital new business contacts. LinkedIn Groups offers extra features to group-based organizations to help their members stay in touch with one another and discover powerful new business contacts within their groups and beyond.
LinkedIn has added several new features to Groups this year, including a discussion capability, a searchable directory of the various groups, and the ability to search for people within groups.
If you're a lawyer or other legal professional with an interest in Texas appellate law, I invite you to join the Texas Appellate Law Group by clicking here.
Welcome to the Reverse & Render Blog!
Another Texas appellate blog has burst on the scene. The appellate practice group at Cowles & Thompson, P.C. has launched Reverse & Render, which (according to its welcome post) was created "with the goal of providing useful information to civil appellate practitioners and to the public at large."
Having a respected firm like C&T join the conversation validates once again the concept of blogging about Texas appellate issues. I have subscribed and look forward to reading more.
Texas Supreme Court Orders & Opinion 10/17/08
The Texas Supreme Court issued one opinion with this week's regular orders. In DiGiuseppe v. Lawler (No. 04‑0641), the Court (Third Court of Appeals Justice Alan Waldrop—appointed under Tex. Gov't Code § 22.005—joined by Justices Hecht, Wainwright, Brister, and Willett) held that a real-estate purchaser seeking specific performance of the contract had to prove that he was ready, willing, and able to perform and request a jury question on that issue. The supreme court affirmed to the extent the court of appeals reached the same conclusion and determined that the contract did not alter that obligation.
The Court reversed in part, however, based on the court of appeals' holding that the purchaser had waived an alternate ground of recovery by failing to file a cross-notice of appeal. In doing so, the Court reaffirmed that "a litigant who has obtained a favorable judgment and has no reason to complain in the trial court is not required to raise an issue regarding an alternate ground of recovery until an appellate court reverses the judgment."
Justice Green (joined by Chief Justice Jefferson and Justices O'Neill and Johnson) dissented on the specific-performance issue. Justice Medina did not participate in the decision.
This case is unusual in that Justice Waldrop was not only appointed to break what would have been a 4-4 tie, but he wrote the majority opinion. Also, the Court took the case after initially denying the petition for review, something it does pretty rarely. According to Court's unofficial statistician, Pam Baron, the acceptance rate in that situation ran about 3 percent last term.
Law Bloggers Meet-up in Austin Tonight
LexBlog's Kevin O'Keefe and I will be getting together around 8:00 tonight while he is here in Austin speaking at a State Bar program on thought leadership and reputation management. Law bloggers and others are welcome to join us. Send me an e-mail if you're interested and I'll get you the details, which I'll also re-post on my Twitter feed.
Update: Kevin provides the details here.
Statistics I'd Like to See
As I ponder yet another case in which the court of appeals has declined to hear oral argument, I'm wondering whether anyone has compiled statistics on how often the trial court's judgment is reversed in that situation. In other words, based on sheer numbers, should we be telling our appellant-clients that they're probably hosed if oral argument has been denied?
Blog Action Day 2008: Appellate Pro Bono Programs
Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that encourages bloggers, podcasters, and videocasters around the world to post about the same issue on the same day. Its aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. This year's theme is poverty.
Over the past year, Texas civil appellate lawyers have confronted poverty through the newly launched Texas Supreme Court and Third Court of Appeals pro bono projects. In these programs, litigants who would otherwise be representing themselves on appeal because they cannot afford to hire counsel have been paired with qualified attorneys to help them navigate the often-complicated appellate process. The program has drawn rave reviews from bar groups, judges, and—most importantly—the clients.
I have had the good fortune of participating in the Texas Supreme Court program and intend to do so again. It's a wonderful way of doing justice and doing good at the same time.
What Is Required to Perfect Appeal?
This is the third installment of my series entitled "20 Questions About Texas Appellate Practice." The question answered here is: "What is required to perfect appeal?" Visit the original post (linked above) for the list of questions updated with links to their respective answers.
In Texas, an appeal is perfected by filing a notice of appeal. Timely filing is jurisdictional, but jurisdiction attaches so long as the appellant files an instrument representing a bona fide attempt to appeal. No bond is required.
The notice of appeal must be in writing and filed with the trial court clerk. A copy should be sent to the appellate clerk along with the docketing fee. An original notice mistakenly filed with appellate clerk is deemed to have been filed that day with the trial court clerk. The appellant must serve the notice on all parties to the trial court’s judgment or appealable order.
The notice must contain: (1) the identity of the trial court and style and cause number of the case; (2) the date of the order being appealed; (3) a statement that the party filing the notice desires to appeal; (4) the identity of the court to which the appeal is taken; and (5) the name of each party filing the notice. In accelerated appeals, the notice must also state that the appeal is accelerated.
Any party who wants to alter the trial court’s judgment must file its own notice of appeal. But an appellee need not file its own notice of appeal to request an equal or lesser judgment based on an independent ground of recovery or defense or to assail the jury’s findings when the trial court granted judgment notwithstanding the verdict.
In appeals from jury trials, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days after the judgment was signed unless a party filed certain kinds of post-judgment motions (usually a motion for new trial, to disregard jury findings, or for JNOV) within that same period. If the proper post-judgment motion has been filed, or in some circumstances, if a request for findings of fact and conclusions of law was made within 20 days, the notice of appeal will be due 90 days after the judgment was signed.
For an interlocutory appeal, the appellant must file its notice within 20 days after the order was signed. Post-judgment motions/requests do not extend this date.
A premature notice of appeal is deemed filed immediately after the trial court signs the judgment or order being appealed. If the order at issue is interlocutory, the notice is deemed filed immediately after the ruling is made final and appealable.
The court of appeals may grant the appellant an extension of time to file its notice of appeal under certain circumstances.
Microblog Roundup 10/13/08
Microblogging consists of brief text updates published broadly or to a restricted group chosen by the author. My microblog can be found on Twitter at @dtoddsmith, where I invite you to become a follower. (As evidence that I'm not a total law dork, the content there is a little more personal.)
Recent microblog posts include:
The Statesman has endorsed Woodie Jones for chief justice of the Austin Court of Appeals, http://tinyurl.com/545mlc.
Just listed myself in the Law Directory of Just Tweet It (http://justtweetit.com/law/). Looks like a good resource. Thanks @jonimueller!
Looking for more Texas and appellate lawyers to connect to on Twitter.
Statesman will release Third Court of Appeals endorsement tomorrow; Chief Justice Ken Law (R) v. former justice Woodie Jones (D).
Reading Statesman endorsement, "Texas Supreme Court: Chief Justice Jefferson, Houston and Yanez get nods," http://tinyurl.com/53m5q8.
RT @GrantGriffiths: Reading: "Should Blogs Have Comments?" (http://tinyurl.com/42tmnl). I'm for them, if moderated. Would like more on TALB.
Looking forward to good college football today. TX-OU, TCU-Colo St. Next week's opponents: Mizzou and BYU.
Uneventful Friday at the Texas Supreme Court re new opinions. Orders were mixed bag for my clients. More at http://tinyurl.com/4l63x3.
@VBalasubramani If I know the lawyer who handled, I will sometimes contact & offer to be sounding board. Have pIcked up some work this way.
@VBalasubramani Not ethics issue, but practical one. How effective is cold-calling in any profession? Networking, other techniques better.
RT @VBalasubramani: @dtoddsmith curious as to what you think of identifying cases at lower appeals courts and contacting lawyers? (ethical issues aside...)
Reading "Ten Legal Podcasts to Keep You Informed," http://tinyurl.com/3wau2o. Useful, but I'd rather listen to music on my iPhone.
Back from a presentation in San Antonio on marketing an appellate practice. I focused on "nontraditional" means, i.e. blogging, Twitter.
New at the Texas Appellate Law Blog: "Appellate Practice Marketing 2.0," http://tinyurl.com/4652pr
Speaking to San Antonio Bar Ass'n Appellate Practice Section tomorrow. Working title of my talk is "Appellate Practice Marketing 2.0."
New posts at TALB: Reluctance to engage appellate counsel (http://tinyurl.com/3hq7zu) and appellate court IOPs (http://tinyurl.com/4fkrx3).
Reading "'Massive Impasse' at the Supreme Court" (http://tinyurl.com/4rkw5d) re who should argue: SC specialist or atty w/10 years in case.
Just finished profile and posted first document to JDSupra. Went with an older doc. Will post a newer one next. Interesting.
Reading "Where Are All the Female Law Bloggers" at http://tinyurl.com/3eqhch.
@BerinSzoka Distilling a big record and the law down to simple, comprehensible arguments is one mark of a skilled appellate practitioner.
Heading to a judicial candidate fundraiser. Gotta love Texas judicial politics. Write a check, get your name in front of the decider.
Expected to be doing two reply briefs on roughly parallel schedule. Opposing counsel in one case called today about an extension. Relief!
As always, comments are welcome.
Texas Supreme Court Orders & Opinion 10/10/08
The Texas Supreme Court re-issued one previously released opinion with this week's regular orders. In Kerlin v. Sauceda (05-0653) (originally decided 8/29/08), the court made the following wording changes at the end of the last complete paragraph on page 12 of the PDF version:
But if a nonresident’s is amenable to service of process under the longarm statute and has contacts with the state are sufficient to afford personal jurisdiction under the general longarm statute, as was the case with Kerlinit is undisputed Kerlin’s were, then we can discern no reason why a nonresident’s “presence” in this state would not be established for purposes of the tolling statute.
The Court's disposition—reversed and rendered—remained the same. (Thanks to Osler McCarthy for pointing out the changes.)
The orders were a mixed bag for my clients. We persuaded the Court to deny a mandamus petition complaining about two district court rulings: (1) refusal to allow the relator to designate a responsible third party; and (2) denial of a motion for severance involving a potentially dispositive issue. After requesting full briefing, however, the Court denied the petition for review in a case I took under its new pro bono program.
"Appellate Practice Marketing 2.0"
That was the title of a CLE presentation I gave today to the San Antonio Bar Association's Appellate Practice Section. In addition to "traditional" techniques—such as doing “law” work in trial courts; handling pro bono appeals; writing articles and giving speeches; bar association work; and networking with trial lawyers, industry professionals, and other appellate lawyers—my main focus was blogging. I also briefly discussed a broader internet marketing strategy involving Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, TexasBarCircle, and Avvo, among other possibilities.
I enjoyed giving this talk and would consider "taking it on the road" if the opportunity arises. The concepts aren't limited to appellate practice. That's just where I've applied them.
To the SABA Appellate Practice Section, thanks again for inviting me!
10/28/08 Update: I am posting my PowerPoint presentation here. Thanks to Kevin O'Keefe for allowing me to borrow substantially from his work product on blogging and social media.
Appellate Court Internal Operating Procedures
Appellate courts are often criticized as being stuck in the "ivory tower," largely because their work is done out of the public eye and is therefore shrouded in mystery. Among other recent efforts to make the appellate process more transparent, nearly all of the intermediate Texas appellate courts have posted their internal operating procedures on their respective web sites. For example, the Third Court of Appeals' current IOPs appear here.
The IOP postings started with a survey conducted by the State Bar Appellate Section's Bench-Bar Liaison Committee, the results of which were published in The Appellate Advocate in February 2005 and updated in March 2007. The purpose of the survey was to identify key information needed to practice effectively before each court. The Section ultimately persuaded the courts to "take ownership" of the survey and post the information on their respective sites.
The IOPs are a useful and informative tool. With this information readily available, consulting the IOPs before filing documents in a particular appellate court is just good practice.
The Twelfth Court of Appeals in Tyler is the only intermediate appellate court that hasn't posted its IOPs on its web site. Doing so would not only benefit practitioners and litigants, but would surely cut down on administrative headaches caused by errors that could have been avoided had the IOPs been available. Here's hoping the Twelfth Court comes around and joins the transparency movement soon.
On Reluctance to Engage Appellate Counsel
Why don’t some trial lawyers or their clients engage appellate counsel when it comes time for the appeal?
That's the question my blogging cohort Greg May has posed over at the California Blog of Appeal. Greg has begun a series of posts in which he examines the reasons commonly provided when trial lawyers or their clients are faced with an appeal and choose not to engage appellate counsel. The entire series is available through this link.
Greg has put a lot of thought into these posts and will be putting up more as time permits. Thus far, he has covered some reasons why trial lawyers think they should handle their own appeals—broadly stated as those related to ability and those related to economics—as well as some of the potential pitfalls that come into play in that scenario. Overall, I agree with his view that plenty of trial lawyers have the tools to handle appeals, but for various reasons would rather not or simply shouldn't.
I'd like to add something to the discussion, In my view, an appellate specialist brings three things to the table that trial lawyers and their counsel don't always appreciate fully:
- knowledge of and familiarity with the appellate-court system, rules, and players;
- special training and skill in the art of written and oral appellate advocacy; and
- a dispassionate, neutral viewpoint helpful to an honest evaluation of the case.
Greg has also covered a client consideration that parallels some trial lawyers' belief that appellate work is "just litigation." The following comments were particularly thoughtful:
The client consideration that parallels the lawyer’s belief that “it’s just litigation” is really an absence of consideration. That is, many clients may see no difference at all between their trial court action and the appeal. The client is only likely to note the differences if the lawyer points them out. And if the lawyer doesn’t see them, the lawyer cannot point them out. Under these circumstances, the only time many clients are likely to seek an appellate attorney is if the client is genuinely displeased with the trial lawyer’s services.
However, I think this situation is changing over time. I suspect that clients, like all consumers, are becoming more and more knowledgeable all the time about the services they receive. The inquiries I receive from lay readers of my blog tell me that clients are learning that there is a difference between trial work and appellate work.
Clients almost always want a specialist when one is available. An employment discrimination plaintiff doesn’t seek a personal injury lawyer when a plaintiff’s employment lawyer is available. Over time, I expect more and more clients will seek new representation on appeal, and won’t need their trial lawyers to put them on notice of the differences between trial and appellate work. They will challenge their trial lawyers’ unspoken assumption that the trial lawyer is always the right person to handle the appeal.
As Greg adds items to the series, I'll make a point to post about them here.
Texas Supreme Court Orders 10/3/08
The Texas Supreme Court issued no new opinions with this week's short set of orders. The Court will be in conference on Monday and Tuesday of next week, so next Friday's orders may be livelier.
Microblog Roundup 10/1/08
Taking a page from tech guru Dennis Kennedy's book, and as an extension of what I did here, I'm going to experiment with posting occasional roundups from my Twitter feed on this blog. (Dennis, Walter Olson, and at least a few others have taken to calling their Twitter accounts "microblogs," which seems both accurate and catchy to me, so I will do the same.) I'll lead off each microblog roundup with with an introduction that goes something like this:
Microblogging consists of brief text updates published broadly or to a restricted group chosen by the author. My microblog can be found on Twitter at @dtoddsmith, where I invite you to become a follower. As evidence that I'm not a total law dork, the content there is a little more personal, but I try not to go overboard.
Recent microblog posts include:
Have a case before the Third Court of Appeals in Austin? Check out http://tinyurl.com/3oo9ys.
Filed major appellate brief yesterday after a week of total immersion. Did I miss anything?
Reading Paul Lippe's "Welcome to the Future: Law After the Boom," http://tinyurl.com/3ehqvu. Change or die?
To someone like me, who has been watching Cowboys-Redskins since the Staubach days, the loss is painful. Especially by 2. At home.
No shame in TCU losing to new #1 OU in Norman. But why drop TCU out of Top 25 altogether? With a win, Frogs would've been Top 10.
Can #24 TCU upset #2 OU? OU has 1 non-con loss at home under Stoops--to TCU in '05. With USC loss, OU's #1 if it wins. Somebody say spoiler!
Wondering what I have to do to be named a Texas Super Lawyer. There are some, but solos are pretty rare on this list.
@denniskennedy If I incorporate microblog concept, I'll probably resist "what I ate for breakfast" tweets and go for more substance.
Took older son to schoolmate's 7YO b-day party at BlazerTag this evening. Dads have as much fun as the kids. Guess who had high score?
Working on an appeal in a PI case. Record from 4-day jury trial exceeds 3,700 pages. Woo hoo!
Interested in @denniskennedy and @walterolson "microblog" experiment. Used wisely, seems like a decent way of generating new blog content.
Finally getting kids down and turning to Cowboys-Packers. Looks like quite a contest. Gotta love Lambeau, but not the same w/out Favre.
Continuing the "5 Blogs & 5 Blawgers" meme at http://is.gd/2VNj. Tagged @inhouserants and hope the anonymous blogger weighs in.
Making the boys breakfast and reading about Bush's $500 billion bailout plan.
iPhone users: Do you have a favorite case/holster? Haven't found one that compares to my BlackBerry leather swivel yet. Details please.
Insightful post from Ryan Roberts on treating solo law practice as a startup venture: http://is.gd/2QzI. Anyone going solo should read.
Filed a reply brief and had a post-judgment hearing yesterday. Sitting down to work on an appellees' brief now. Looking for motivation ...
Getting back from court in neighboring county. Was treated very nicely for a "big city" lawyer, though opp counsel is from Austin as well.
New blog posts particularly relevant to Texas Supreme Court watchers and appellate-lawyer wannabes: http://is.gd/2IZl & http://is.gd/2IZr.
As always, comments are welcome.
