DRM gets another lease of lifeIMPACT®

Reports in the Financial Times today suggest that Apple, massively influential in the music industry through its iTunes store, is about to shake things up again with a scheme allowing unlimited downloads from the store in return for a monthly fee.

Given how zealously Apple likes to retain control over its technology, and how this is mirrored by the record industry's love of control over its content, it's highly unlikely that the resulting service will be DRM free because Apple will want/need some means of dictating how long users can keep hold of downloaded music. Charles Arthur in the Guardian shares this opinion.

If this service goes ahead, it is likely to give DRM (digital rights management) a new lease of life. DRM is also used for other new and popular services such as BBC iPlayer and the movie rental facility that US users of iTunes can access. Whilst this technology is not exactly liked by many, it continues to be popular amongst content owners as way of stopping (ok, trying to stop) people from sharing their content. For short-term access and rental services, the technology is ideal. So, DRM, we won't be saying goodbye to you any time soon...

The Progress of Women Lawyers at Big Firms: Steadied or Simply Studied?

From Ms. JD I learned of the following Fordham Law School Law Review article:  The Progress of Women Lawyers at Big Firms: Steadied or Simply Studied?  The conclusions were predictable and, for the most part, depressing. 

Women lawyers earn less than men. 

Women lawyers still represent substantially less than half of those at the top of the legal hierarchy, although the numbers have improved ever so slightly since 1988, the year that I graduated from high school and naively believed that the world was my oyster despite the fact that,  through no fault of my own, I possessed a uterus.

Oh, the silly fallacies of youth.

From the article:

I turn first to private practice, the setting where many lawyers choose to begin their careers.  Back in 1988, law schools were near the end of a twenty-year trajectory that saw women's enrollment increase by an astounding 850%.6  This escalation promised rapid progress toward gender parity within the profession as a whole, presumably with large firms at the helm, as this newly populous generation of women lawyers rose through the ranks.

This was not to be the case.  Whatever the precise percentages, statistics for the past ten to fifteen years show that the nation's law schools produce a relatively equal number of qualified male and female attorneys and that, though firms generally hire women associates in numbers correlative to the talent pool,7 women do not reach partnership at the same rate as men...

What has changed?  For one, "women's issues" as defined in the 1980s are now increasingly gender neutral.  For another, firms are responding to increased pressure to show results in their diversity efforts, at the risk of diminished status within rankings and other external measures of firm standing and prestige—and at the risk of losing fresh talent and even clients.

What has not changed?  Three issues that were the focus of much criticism twenty years ago regrettably still linger:  the persistence of gender stereotypes, the resistance to flexible work arrangements, and the use of the billable hours economic model.  Given the breathtaking scientific, technological, and cultural advances of the past twenty years, does it not seem that greater progress should have been made?...

The 1988 ABA Commission on Women in the Profession report identified "subtle barriers" to advancement of women in the profession.70  Women perceived that they had to "work harder, do better and make fewer mistakes" to achieve the same degree of respect as men, and were "treated with a presumption of incompetence" that they had to overcome whereas men were treated with a presumption of competence "overcome only after numerous significant mistakes."71  Men, the report found, "perceive fewer problems of discrimination, and . . . are more likely to regard the issues that greatly disturb women in the profession as silly or trivial"...

(W)hile my focus remains on women—and hopefully the substantial number of senior women lawyers in firms today can be especially helpful in preparing newer lawyers for the bumps in the road—in truth these issues increasingly have become genderless life issues, offering a special incentive for men as well as women to seek out solutions. 

Productive legal careers these days may go on for four or more decades.  Surely ways can be found to navigate a particularly challenging period that typically falls at the mid- associate level, enabling women to later enjoy their families as well as leadership in their firms, in the profession, on the bench, and in public life.

(emphasis added).

True dat.

 

MLB Takes on Cape Cod League in Trademark SpatThe Legal Satyricon

The Cape Cod Baseball league is a 10 team amateur summer league that has produced approximately 200 players who went on to play in the major leagues.

Six of the ten Cape Cod League teams share names with MLB franchises. The Chatham A's, Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, Harwich Mariners, Bourne Braves, Orleans Cardinals, and the Hyannis Mets are now the center of a trademark dispute.

According to Cape League sources, the six teams in the 10-team Cape League that share nicknames with major league franchises are facing a choice: Purchase all future uniforms and souvenir merchandise from more expensive MLB-licensed vendors or lose the annual grant.

MLB is also requesting an 11 percent royalty on sales next summer of existing inventory from the six affected Cape League teams. Non-clothing items such as coffee mugs and teddy bears that are not available through MLB vendors could no longer be sold. (source)

As lame as that is, from the Cape Cod Times report, it doesn't seem to be quite as bad as some commentators are making it out to be. See, e.g., Techdirt. As far as I can see, MLB is not threatening a lawsuit, but merely threatening to revoke its $100,000 grant that it provides to the Cape Cod League's $1.5 million annual budget.

I do sympathize with the Cape Cod League. However, it seems to break down to this: MLB gives the Cape Cod League $100,000 a year. In exchange, MLB wants the Cape Cod League to buy stuff from MLB's friends. The Cape Cod League doesn't need to accept the grant. In fact, I interviewed a high ranking Cape Cod League official who gave this comment:

Bro, you don't even fahckin know guy, MLB was like fahckin cool about us usin' the team names fah yeahs. Now, all outta nowheah, these fahckin pricks ah sayin' we gotta buy ah shirts and hats from them?

So I says to Sully I says "Dood, should I fahck him up?" and Sully's like "I dunno guy, you're pretty hammahd. Then I called my Ma and tole her to leave the door unlocked cuz I'll be home wicked late tonight.

Fahkin faghet it. I ain't buyin' shit from those bastids. Take ya hundred lahge and throw it in the habah.

Ok, maybe that is 100% fabricated, but that's what I would say.

Of course, if MLB actually threatens a lawsuit against the Cape Cod League, my analysis might be different.

SpicyIPDuncan Bucknell's site updates

Those familiar with it will surely agree that India-focussed SpicyIP blog is a force to be reckoned with in the IP blogosphere. 

I'm sad to let you know that I have officially stopped blogging with SpicyIP as of today.  I haven't been able to post there for quite a few months due to time commitments, and I would be a fraud to keep my name there without making a substantive contribution.

All the best to the team - you're doing a great job.

Frugal Finding: Spring Staples

I was bored and haven't done a cheaper look in a while, so I got this idea. I love the Fab Finding we all do here on Sugar, but I really just can't afford it. So I'm going to try to do frugal versions of the winning looks from FabSugar. My first attempt was really difficult actually, but it's from EllaB's spring staple look you can see at: http://teamsugar.com/user/EllaB/list/1123864

Here's the frugal version:

Do you keep up with the NCAA Basketball Tournament?

It is March Madness! I love basketball, do you?

Yes, I even have a bracket. Yes, my boyfriend talks about it with me. No. Other...comment below.

Law Firms' New Partners Still Mostly Male

The Project for Attorney Retention just released the results of a 4 year study which charted the percentage of women making partnership in BigLaw.  There's a nifty chart in the study results, should you care to take a peek.

Not surprisingly, women didn't fare all that well.  How depressing.

From the study:

For some time now, we have known that the lack of women in leadership positions at law firms is not a pipeline issue.  Women have been graduating from law schools at a rate of 40% or higher since 1985 and entering private practice at the same rate as their male counterparts – 70% – during that time...We collected promotion statistics for a total of 77 law firms representing a variety of sizes and locations.  We chose these firms based on inclusion in prior years' surveys, firm size, reputation and availability of information.  We also combined the new information with the data that we had collected in previous years so that, for the first time, we could see whether a particular firm has made strides or slipped over the past four years...

At a dozen firms, 50% or more of the new partners were women...

At many firms, between a third and a half of the partners promoted this year were women...

However, other firms are seriously lagging behind...

Some of the most interesting information can be found by examining the trends for individual law firms.  For instance, in all but one of the past four partnership classes at Crowell & Moring women have been 50% or more of the firm's new partners.  Likewise, women have been 40% or more of the new partners in the past three partnership classes at Cadwalader.  DLA Piper has had three years of steady but moderate progress followed this year by a substantial increase to 54%.  In two of the three previous partnership classes at Ropes & Gray, women have been more than a third of the new partners and the firm this year was one of the path-breakers with 70% of its new partners being women.  In contrast, at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, the percentage of women promoted to partner has steadily decreased in each of the last three years  (30% in 2006, 20% in 2007, and 11% in 2008).  And at some firms such as Akin Gump, Fried Frank, and Vinson & Elkins, women have been virtually absent from all of the past four partnership classes.

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Patent suit against Apple over Time MachineIPBiz

InformationWeek writes:

Apple last week was sued in the Eastern District of Texas for infringing on the patents of Mirror Worlds, a company that used to make desktop search and organization software.

The lawsuit claims that Apple's computers, iPods, iPhones, and Mac OS X operating system infringe on Mirror Worlds' alternative to the desktop metaphor: organizing files in a time-based stack or stream.

Users of Apple's Time Machine software in Mac OS X 10.5 or its Cover Flow view in iTunes should immediately recognize this method of interacting with computer files.

While the Eastern District of Texas is notorious in legal circles as the favored venue of patent trolls, Mirror Worlds' patents appear to have more merit than most because the ideas expressed aren't obvious, at least compared to controversial patents like Amazon's 1-Click patent. They reflect the work of Yale computer scientists Eric Freeman and David Gelernter, who in the mid-1990s recognized that the desktop metaphor has its limits and proposed to organize computer documents in a time-ordered stream. At the time, there was nothing like it.

Or was there? Though Apple did not respond to a request for comment, it may be able to argue that the HyperCard software it developed in the 1980s represents prior art, thereby invalidating some or all of Mirror World's claims. A more likely outcome, however, is a quiet settlement.

Breached Settlement Does Not Create Patent JurisdictionChicago IP Litigation Blog

Strom v. Strom Closures, Inc., No. 06 C 7051, 2008 WL 489363 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 20, 2008) (Der-Yeghiayan, J.).

Judge Der-Yeghiayan granted plaintiff Victoria Strom's ("Strom") motion to dismiss defendants' (collectively "SCI") counterclaims. SCI filed an earlier suit charging Strom with patent infringement. The parties settled that suit pursuant to a Settlement Agreement ("Agreement"). SCI alleged that Strom breached the Agreement and was once again, therefore, infringing SCI's patents. But the Court held that once a district court dismisses a case with prejudice, it cannot reopen the case for enforcement of a related agreement without independent jurisdiction. SCI's appropriate claim was for breach of the Agreement, not patent infringement. Because breach of the Agreement was a state law claim and because there was no diversity (SCI pled that all parties were Illinois residents), the Court lacked jurisdiction. Finally, the Court held that there was not supplemental jurisdiction based upon Strom's federal employment claims. Strom's claims and the breach of the Agreement were not sufficiently related.

Will Google offer better search of lawyer directories than lawyer directory websites themselves?

If you watch Google closely, one of the recent changes you've see is that when Google displays organizations and directories on the search results pages, it's allowing a search of the subject website without having to click to the website.

Look at the below example for the Super Lawyers lawyer directory.

Internet users would not need to go to the Super Lawyers website to search for a lawyer. If I'm looking for an environmental lawyer in New York who went to Harvard, I just enter 'environmental lawyer New York Harvard' in the 'search superlawyers.com' box at Google.

Here's the first three results displayed - right in the Google interface without going to Super Lawyers - and in a fraction of a second. When I click on the result I go directly to the lawyer's page in the directory, skipping the website home page and any interim search pages.

Expect the Martindale-Hubbell, Avvo, and FindLaw lawyer directories to be next in line for the Google treatment.

What's the implication? For Internet users, there may be advantages. No limited text fields or 'drop-downs' for search such as by practice area and location, the type of things Martindale-Hubbell requires.

Google's search will allow us to do a search for exactly what we want - like I just did for the Harvard environmental lawyer in New York. I could have added an association or two that I wanted the lawyer to belong to limiting my results further. I'm not sure searches at lawyer directory sites themselves would allow me to do that level of search.

For lawyers, it may be great. People can search for someone matching my background and find me immediately. That's impossible if I'm displayed in a Martindale-like directory as one of 165 lawyers in an area of practice in a locale.

For lawyer directories? I think they'll be uneasy allowing Internet users to search their data without going to the directory's website. No adds displayed. No fancy user interfaces with pictures and the like. No branding of the directory. Lots of confusion with lawyers asking directory salespeople questions.

Where do you see this headed? See advantages for people looking for lawyers? See advantages for lawyers?

For you readers employed at legal directories - Martindale-Hubbell, FindLaw, Avvo, & Super Lawyers - what do you think of the development?

New chapter in UK saga of patenting computer programsIPEG

There has been another development in the continuing saga of the UK's interpretation of what is and is not patentable subject matter in relation to computer programs.

In Symbian's Patent Application (Patents Court, 18 March 2008), Patten J overturned a decision of the UK-IPO to refuse a patent application because it related to nothing more than a computer program. In his judgment Patten J observed that the UK-IPO's decision illustrates the divide which exists between the UK-IPO and the EPO about how the patentability of inventions involving computer programs is assessed. The equivalent patent has been granted by the EPO. The UK-IPO announced that it will appeal the decision.
Background
The UK-IPO's interpretation of what was patentable was relaxed slightly following Kitchin J's judgment in Astron Clinica. A new Practice Note was published on 7 February 2008 to supplement the Practice Note of 2 November 2006 (which had been published subsequent to the Court of Appeal's decision in Aerotel/Macrossan).
The Symbian decision
The UK-IPO considers that Patten J did not apply the Aerotel/Macrossan test in the way intended by the Court of Appeal and that this has created uncertainty about how the Aerotel/Macrossan test should be applied when deciding whether a computer implemented invention is patentable.
Pending the result of its appeal, the UK-IPO will be continuing to follow the the Aerotel vs. Macrossan test set out in its Practice Notices of November 2006 and February 2008. However, it will take account of the Symbian judgment "in appropriate cases".
Hopefully the appeal will provide the opportunity for an authoritative Court of Appeal decision one way or another. The present uncertainty and the difference in approach betwwen the EPO and the UK-IPO is clearly unsatisfactory. However, while apparently contradictory decisions of the EPO Boards of Appeal exist, confusion is bound to remain.

There have been some reports that Alison Brimelow, the (relatively) new President of the EPO has indicated that the EPO might refer the issue of Article 52(2) exclusions to the Enlarged Board of Appeal. Jacob LJ floated this as a desirable development in his Aerotel/Macrossan judgment but Alain Pompidou, the previous president, rejected it "at this stage". Nothing may come of this (and Ms Brimelow may even have been misquoted) but an authoritative Enlarged Board of Appeal decision would be welcome too.
Peter Hill, Simmons & Simmons (London)

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Plenty by Tracy Reese 'Janice' Tote

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Free yourself from the grip of BigLaw

Thanks to Susan Cartier Liebel of the Build a Solo Practice LLC blog for pointing out a great resource for women lawyers: the most recent edition of the Complete Lawyer.  Her blog, by the way, is a great resource and one that is well worth following.

This month's focus is "What Do Women Lawyers really Want?" 

Over the next few weeks I'll be highlighting articles from this edition.  Today's article is written by Susan and is entitled "Free Yourself From the Grip of BigLaw."

Solos work very hard 24/7, but most will tell you that the reason they work so hard is for the freedom it affords them. And for not having to apologize for, or feel guilty about decisions that put their family first. Not having to risk their promotion or job because life means more to them than eighty hour work weeks. Not having to ask anyone's permission to live their life the way they choose...

(W)e ... live in a culture of fear: fear we won't meet our student loans, fear we won't be able to pay our living expenses, fear we won't have clients, fear we won't know what we are doing, fear of not having a steady paycheck and health insurance, and so on. And then there is fear of what others will think if we try to make a go of it as a solo practitioner...

Unfortunately, this fear can take a disproportionate toll on women in the legal field. A very disturbing article in the Boston Globe, (May 2007) reported: "Of the 1,000 Massachusetts lawyers who provided data for the report, 31 percent of female associates had left private practice entirely, compared with 18 percent of male associates. The gap widens among associates with children, to 35 percent and 15 percent, respectively—reflecting the cultural reality that women remain the primary care givers of children and are therefore more likely to leave their firms for family reasons. The dropout rate among women lawyers is overwhelmingly the result of the combination of demanding hours, inflexible schedules, lack of viable part-time options, emphasis on billable hours, and a failure by law firms to recognize that female lawyers' career trajectories may alternate between work and family." ...

It's impossible to put a price tag on the freedoms solo practitioners enjoy, including the freedom to balance and improve the quality of their lives, and the other psychological bank accounts that get hefty deposits every day. Apparently, 74 percent of all private practice attorneys have done Ben Franklin lists when making the decision to work for themselves. If the statistics tell the tale, then independence, autonomy and a day at the ballpark is winning by a long shot.

The journal Nature refers to WARF win on stem cells as landmark rulingIPBiz

In an article Stem-cell patents confirmed; Victory for Wisconsin foundation in landmark ruling. in the 17 March 08 issue, Nature observed:

An effort to overturn two contested stem-cell patents was quashed last week by the US Patent and Trademark Office, in a move that strengthens the position of the patents' holder, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).

See also

ScienceToday on WARF victories over PubPat, FTCR

Is BigLaw truly making an effort?

From Law.com comes an article about a law firm trying to "include" women attorneys: Mayer Brown Associates Take a Grassroots Approach to Networking.

Will it work?  Only time will tell.

From the article:

When the firm's New York office formed its Women's Forum, the group found an almost universal desire for access to the keys to success that often are not equally shared with women attorneys in major law firms: opportunities for networking, strong relationships with mentors, opportunities for business development and consideration when leadership roles are delegated. Thus, the mission of the Women's Forum -- composed of women associates, counsel and partners -- emerged: Promote the success of our women lawyers by creating networking and marketing opportunities both internally and externally...

The lessons learned here are important for developing successful women attorneys:

• Women need to ask for such opportunities. If we don't, you can be sure that nothing will happen.
• Women should ignore the myth that networking is an innate talent or requires pre-existing connections.
• The key to successful networking is careful planning and strategic thinking.
• Rainmakers and networking coaches alike emphasize the need to follow up.
• Providing early networking and client development training to women associates will give them the tools they need to take advantage of every opportunity.

Mayer Brown believes that in order to begin to change the cultural fabric of a law firm world in which there are inherent obstacles in the path of female attorneys, law firms must be willing to empower their women associates and counsel and to view those efforts as a benefit to the firm -- not simply a favor to women lawyers. Events like this one have the potential to hasten the slow process of changing those cultural obstacles. At Mayer Brown, that process is well under way.

Mediation SkillsSOLO Independent IP Practitioners

I hope you all subscribe to fellow SOLO, Justin Patten's e-zine as his articles are always stimulating and interesting. His latest offering starts:

"Set Aside Your Legal Skills to Become an Effective Mediator

A recent article by Sir Henry Brooke, dealing with his new career as a mediator set me thinking about the different skill sets that mediators and lawyers need to do their jobs effectively.

Sir Henry Brooke is a retired Judge and became a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1996 and Vice-President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 2003. In the article he wrote about his personal perceptions and experiences:
"The advocate's skills are to conquer the details of a dispute, to give clients high quality dispassionate advice about the pros and cons of pre-trial settlement offers, and if settlement fails, to place their case clearly and persuasively before the court or tribunal, whether in written or oral submissions.
The skills of a judge, on the other hand, are to conquer the details of a dispute, to read or listen attentively to the arguments on both sides, and then to deliver a judgment, whether orally or in writing, which shows that one understands what the dispute is about and is giving clear reasons for preferring one side's case rather than the other.

A mediator's skills are different. Of course he or she also must conquer the details of a dispute in order to secure the trust of both parties. But there the similarities end."

Sir Henry Brooke raises an important point. It's not a natural switch for someone trained in the law, as a judge or a lawyer, to adopt the completely new stance of a mediator."

It was just the insight I needed to understand a threatening letter I was dealing with for a client. I knew the writer was a trained mediator and the letter positively dripped with mediation cliches, but the legal basis for the claim was dubious and poorly articulated. I realised that mediation organisations were amongst the first to offer training to patent and trademark attorneys and these opportunities were taken up to fill the gap in the patent attorneys' formation for legal and litigation skills.

I question whether mediation training is an effective substitute for litigation training. A fully trained litigator may benefit from mediation training. Certainly most major law firm litigators advertise the mediation qualifications of their members but I wonder how many of them use these skills in the initial assertive stages of litigation. Fortunately the legal training organisations are now making formal training in litigation skills more widely available.

CAFC Goes Nonprecedential to Prescribe Patent Litigation Practice Pointers for Counsel and Judges.ISinIP

One past 'practice in the vicinage' of the SDNY was for a Judge to announce a rule in open court. Only those attorneys who happened to be there that day heard this new, unwritten rule. It worked for those firms that were in court everyday, but for those there occasionally, it could work a hardship. Who knew that this Judge required you to call his chambers 24 hours before appearing, or your client would be defaulted.

Today, in LSI Indus., Inc. v. Imagepoint, Inc., the CAFC put forth some practice rules for patent cases, but did so in a nonprecedential opinion. Why? The panel chastises litigation counsel for making "little effort to simply" the patent issues for the judge, and instead bulk-filing a "firestorm of issues and arguments" plus a "voluminous" reexam file wrapper. Then, as mentors to their members, the CAFC instructs that it "warrants our reemphasizing that an attorney has a duty …to aid in the fair and efficient adminstration of justice," and then, cited its earlier ruling that attorneys "are expected to assist the court …particularly in difficult cases involving complex issues of law and technology." That's what we, the flock admitted to practice as trial counsel, were told to do.

Next, the panel opinion was politely uncomplimentary of the work of District Judge Wm. Bertelsman (W.D. Ky.). In the main, the panel reversed some of his claim term interpretations. That follows their review, a year ago, of his "erroneous approach in construing the claims," in Byrne v. Black & Decker Corp. (CAFC 5/21/2007) which affirmed his conclusion, in another non-precedential ruling. The LSI panel notes his expressed "lack of familiarity with patent law." It goes on to state its dislike for a district judge having "adopted [one party's] proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law verbatim." [Yeah, like that never happens.] The panel observes, nonprecedentially, that although "this practice is not prohibited, it is frowned upon." That wholesale adoption can give "the impression that there was insufficient independent evaluation" of all the arguments of record. The best precedent cited in support of the panelists' 'frown' and "impression" was a 9th Circuit case about TBS withholding royalties payable under Director Wm. Wyler's 1958 contract to direct "Ben-Hur." That's IP, right?

So, if you weren't in court today, you may've missed this practice pointer, but don't worry, it's nonprecedential and can't be cited in another CAFC case.

On the Bessen/Meurer bookIPBiz

One commenter on a Bessen/Meurer post (related to their book) on Patently-O wrote:

I actually worked at a large (huge multinational) corporation. One of my jobs was to evaluate technology to decide whether to buy (license) or build. Part of the analysis was do they have IP protection.

I have also worked at and with start-ups for 25 years. The first job I had was with a software start-up in Boston. Now I am an attorney that protects IP.

Would anyone who has real experience with large corporations, IP, and start-ups take this book seriously? No. They have built a little model of the world that is not accurate and applied a silly methodolgy to get some title that will get some attention.

And, only a bunch of professors would have the time and ethics to produce a book like this.

See also

Do patents tend to harm inventors?--part 3

Poking at Fitzgerald on Bessen on patents as money losers

A crazy day in the life of a lawyer-mom with a flexible schedule

AKA, wearing 10 hats in one day.  Or, I'll never understand how those stuck in the rigid law firm environment with no flexibility stay sane.

My day yesterday:

6:30--Wake up, shower.

7:00--Eat breakfast and help get older child get ready for school, although hubby has the day off so it's mainly his job.

7:45--Check email, catch up with news, etc. online.  Post to this blog.

8:30--Leave for office.

9:00--Arrive at office and pick up and drop off files.

9:30--Go to grocery store to pick up food supplies for dinner that we're making for people very close to us who are going through a very difficult time.

9:40--Go to TJMaxx to buy a birthday present for my eldest daughter's friend's birthday party on Saturday.  Pick up small gift for friends going through a tough time.

10:15--Arrive home.  Wrap gift for friends.  Get cup of coffee, set iPhone alarm for 11:30, and do legal research on Westlaw.  Hubby and youngest daughter are gone to the doctor.

• She's been sick for nearly 7 week now. First we all had the flu in late January, which turned into an ear infection for her in mid-February, so she went on a course of antibiotics.  She never really got better, and in the last week, has had a fever of 103 and is constantly coughing and then throwing up when she coughs really hard--mostly in her bed at night.  She had to go to the ER in the middle of the night a few nights ago when her cough turned into croup and she had a very hard time breathing.

11:25--Go outside and get eldest off school bus.  Make her lunch and eat lunch myself.  Hubby comes home.  Youngest has a very bad ear infection (again) and and upper respiratory infection and has been prescribed stronger antibiotics.

12:30-3:00--Draft letter to New York State Court of Appeals, the highest court in New York, seeking leave to appeal a criminal case.  Hubby makes baked ziti for our friends.

3:00--Drive to office and oversee preparation of enclosures for letter to NY State Court of Appeals. It takes longer than expected.

4:30--Leave office and drive home in the middle of a snow storm.  Stop at pharmacy to pick up antibiotics for youngest.

5:00--Arrive home.  Everyone piles into the car and we head to friend's house. 

5:30--Arrive and visit for 1/2 hour or so.

6:15--Arrive at the best grocery store ever--Wegmans.  We eat and then kids and hubby watch kid's movies upstairs while I do the weekly grocery shopping.

8:00--Arrive home.  Give youngest the antibiotics.  She doesn't like it and begins to cry.  Youngest is getting a fever again and gets very cranky.  Continues to cry and then promptly pukes up her dinner and the antibiotics right next to the piles of laundry waiting to be put away, splattering her clean sheets and blankets, that she'd puked on two nights ago, in the process.

8:05--Strip her down, give her ibuprofin, and take kids upstairs to get them ready for bed.  Hubby cleans up puke, throws the puke spattered bed linens into the washer and puts away groceries.

8:30--Kids are in bed. Kids don't settle down until about 9:00.   Hubby and I watch tv for a while and begin to fall asleep on the couch around 10:30, so off to bed we go.

3:00--Youngest wakes up coughing and can't go back to sleep.  I'm "on duty" since hubby has to work the next day.  Finally get her back to sleep at 4 or so.

*****

Today, hubby is at work, youngest now has pink eye and the birthday party the eldest was supposed to go to was canceled at the last minute since the birthday girl is sick.

Another day, another juggle.

I had nothing to do with this. I swear.The Legal Satyricon

It's tournament time

  March
  madness! 
It's time for the NCAA men's basketball tournament, and I'll be pulling for three teams: the Louisville Cardinals, the Georgia Bulldogs, and the Belmont Bruins.

Louisville is my present; Georgia represents my past. But Belmont? It's an easy call. Fifteenth-seeded Belmont meets Duke in the first round, and Duke's opponents are always my third-favorite college basketball team after Louisville and Georgia.

I'm sure there are freaks who cheer for Duke, but they are all sick, evil, twisted perverts. None of them are friends of mine. Backing Duke basketball is like cheering for a law school with a $1.7 billion endowment.

There are other reasons to support Belmont. It's the alma mater of Lee Ann Womack and Trisha Yearwood. Doesn't that make you feel the love? If that's not enough, here's one more reason to cheer for Belmont. Unlike the other team from Nashville that will be playing in the tournament, Belmont doesn't have a law school.

Finally, here's a bit of MoneyLaw wisdom from Belmont alumna Sarah Cannon, probably better known by her stage name, Minnie Pearl:

Cannon . . . once aspired to a part in the new musical "Oklahoma!" when she was performing and teaching drama in the late 1940s. During a snowstorm somewhere in Kansas, only 15 people showed up for her little act, and she gave a low-energy performance.

Little did she know . . . that a talent scout was in the sparse audience, measuring her for a part in "Oklahoma!" She never got to Broadway, but she always remembered that snowy night whenever she went on stage. As Joe DiMaggio once said, there will always be somebody in the stands who is seeing you for the first and only time.

Jason Lewis: Makeout, Date, Marry or Dump?

Make Out Date Marry Dump

Where Women Lawyers Get Ahead?

Via GoFaxer blog I learned of an interesting article from BusinessWeek regarding a law firm that is described as "flexible". 

The article described the practices of a law firm that "only" required 1800 billable hours per year.  The good news was that that firm allowed lawyers to work from home and it appeared that face time wasn't of paramount importance. 

While I applaud the firm for its relatively high female partnership rate and its attempt to change with the times, I'm not entirely convinced that billing requirements at this firm allow for time to do anything else but work.  It's a step in the right direction--but a baby step.

Once legal employers recognize that their employees will have long careers--spanning 30-40 years--and will have the varying abilities to to devote themselves to work  that at different times throughout their  careers.  Illness, an ailing parent or child, an ailing spouse, or family demands may prevent them from giving their all at certain stages of their career.  But, these same employees will more than make up for the "lapse" down the road.

Another annoying aspect of this article is the assumption that the only place for those "with ambition" is BigLaw.  How ridiculous.

Finally, the "incentive" offered by this firm--a percentage of business brought in--sounds better on paper than it is in practice.  It's not all it's cut out to be.

From the article

Law is a notoriously demanding profession for those with ambition. To become a partner, associates typically have to charge clients for at least 2,000 hours of work a year, though that minimum can rise to 2,400 hours at top-tier outfits—or 46 billable hours each and every week of the year. The burden falls especially hard on mothers who have got kids to tend to and households to manage. Little wonder that while half of all law school grads are women, only 17.2% of partners are, according to the Project for Attorney Retention at the University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.

Beermann Swerdlove lies on the outer slope of this bell curve. Fully half of the Chicago firm's 30 attorneys are women, including eight of its 19 partners...To put its philosophy into practice the firm requires associates to bill a relatively modest minimum of 1,800 hours a year. Attorneys may work on a flexible schedule or from home as long as the work gets done and the client is happy. There is a tradeoff: Starting salaries for associates are about half of the big firms' $150,000 or so, and partners rarely make the $1 million or more that a partner might earn at a much larger firm...To make up for some of that pay gap, the firm, now based in the Loop, gives associates a percentage of new business they bring in, an arrangement unheard of at many partnerships.

Evidence of New Jersey Election DiscrepanciesFreedom to Tinker

Press reports on the recent New Jersey voting discrepancies have been a bit vague about the exact nature of the evidence that showed up on election day. What has the county clerks, and many citizens, so concerned? Today I want to show you some of the evidence.

The evidence is a "summary tape" printed by a Sequoia AVC Advantage voting machine in Hillside, New Jersey when the polls closed at the end of the presidential primary election. The tape is timestamped 8:02 PM, February 5, 2008.

The summary tape is printed by poll workers as part of the ordinary procedure for closing the polls. It is signed by several poll workers and sent to the county clerk along with other records of the election.

Let me show you closeups of two sections of the tape. (Here's the full tape, in TIF format.)

Above you can see the vote totals on this machine for each candidate. On the Democratic side, the tally is Obama 182, Clinton 179. On the Republican side it's Giuliani 1, Romney 13, McCain 40, Paul 3, Huckabee 4.

Above is the "Option Switch Totals" section, which shows the number of times each party's ballot was activated: 362 Democratic and 60 Republican.

This doesn't add up. The machine says the Republican ballot was activated 60 times; but it shows a total of 61 votes cast for Republican candidates. It says the Democratic ballot was activated 362 times; but it shows a total of 361 votes for Democratic candidates. (New Jersey has a closed primary, so voters can cast ballots only in their own registered party.)

What's alarming here is not the size of the discrepancy but its nature. This is a single voting machine, disagreeing with itself about how many Republicans voted on it. Imagine your pocket calculator couldn't make up its mind whether 1+13+40+3+4 was 60 or 61. You'd be pretty alarmed, and you wouldn't trust your calculator until you were very sure it was fixed. Or you'd get a new calculator.

This wasn't an isolated instance, either. In Union County alone, at least eight other AVC Advantage machines exhibited similar problems, as did dozens more machines in other counties.

Sequoia, the vendor, is trying to prevent any independent investigation of what happened.

Tomorrow: Sequoia's story about how this happened, and why it's inadequate.

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Is Clinton's Corporate Law Background Hurting Her Candidacy?

Last week there was a really interesting article from American Lawyer about Hillary Clinton.  The article discussed how her background as a corporate lawyer may have a lot to do with her affect and speaking style, both of which are regularly criticized by the media. 

As we all know, the law changes you.  And for women, many of the changes that you make so as to be taken seriously by your male peers and that allow you to be a better lawyer are contrary to the social expectations that our culture has for women.

It's quite the dilemma, ain't it?

From the article:

Stiff, bloodless, sexless, excessively concerned with the appearance of impropriety, lawyers are not much fun at parties. This is particularly true of corporate lawyers...

An inarguable fact -- and lawyers love inarguable facts! -- is that Hillary Clinton spent the longest stretch of her professional life working in a corporate law firm...(

F)or Clinton, the first woman ever to practice at Rose, the pressure and intensity of corporate existence had to have been of an entirely different order. She was, from the start, under constant scrutiny. Several of the firm's partners opposed the idea of hiring a woman lawyer in the first place and raised questions about possible conflicts. "How will we introduce her to clients?" an associate asked Webster Hubbell and Vince Foster Jr., the partners who had recruited Hillary and became close Clinton associates. And "What if she gets pregnant?...

I'm not sure when the Little Rock Courthouse was built or what its acoustics are like. But I know that courthouses often have high, sometimes vaulted ceilings, which create acoustical problems for women, whose voices tend not to project in the booming way that those of male lawyers can. To be heard, women lawyers have to raise their voices in ways that make them sound strident and shrill, an accusation that is frequently leveled at powerful women in careers in the law and beyond it. In any case, despite a successful track record with juries, Hillary Clinton stayed out of the courtroom, and even today seems deliberately to keep her voice low and well-modulated...

Neither Hillary Clinton nor the average corporate law partner is likely to make anyone's blood jump or heart sing. When you are in trouble, however -- real trouble -- it may be that the person you want to see isn't the guy who wows you with his wit and charisma, but someone who has really done her homework, pored over all the boring details, and then gone back over them again, just for fun. It's pretty clear that the country is in real trouble. Bridges are falling down; the stock market is all over the place; and let's not even bring up Iraq or Sudan. This might or might not be the right time to look past Hillary Clinton's cool, corporate, bill-by-the-hour sensibility, her lawyerly inclination to avoid risk and run everything past the pollsters, to smile and keep a stiff upper lip because appearance and propriety matter more than most things -- and certainly more than impropriety."

Patent auction at Strathclyde UniversityIPBiz

The Evening Times noted:

Dr Matthew Carpenter, intellectual property rights manager at Strathclyde, said: "Bringing pioneering technology out of the labs and into the marketplace is a vital part of our research strategy.

(...)
Auctioning the patent could prove to be a big money spinner for Strathclyde University. The Ocean Tomo IP Auctions bring together some of the world's biggest investors.

Recall the IPBiz post:

Ocean Tomo patent auction falls flat: 50 of 54 reserve bid lots didn't get minimum bid

The show must go on

From public defender blogger Of a Public Defender’s Life:

It has always worked this way: I’ll go months without having any trials, or even any trials set, and then suddenly, I have tons! By this time tomorrow, I will have had three trials in two weeks. The way our judges calendar things, usually about one in three trials set actually “go,” so you do the math. In addition to being in court constantly, I have three of the neediest clients in the office. They’re really sweet, and very incompetent, but they tend to leave about ten messages a day on my voicemail, each. And when they happen to catch me in the office, I’m on the phone with them for a half hour. This is when “Evercom,” the jail phone system, cuts them off. Usually, when a client is on the phone with me for that long, I can do something else, while still following what they are saying. But with them, it takes all my focus to figure out what they are talking about.

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Goldman Sachs Sails Past Lowered Estimates (GS)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has just posted earnings, and while many metrics are lower than last year the results overall were well above estimates that had been lowered in a weakening environment. The company earned $1.51 Billion on $8.34 Billion in revenues. On an EPS basis it posted $3.23. First Call had earnings estimates at $2.58 EPS and $7,47 Billion in revenues. Its annualized return on average tangible common shareholders' equity (1) was 17.0% and annualized return on average common shareholders' equity was 14.8% for the first quarter of 2008. Individual unit numbers were as follows: Fixed Income, Currency and...

Yahoo! (YHOO) Comes Out With Lame Business Plan To Support Higher Value

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) has come out with a business plan which says the company is worth more than Micorosft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is offering. That is based, to some large extent, on how the company will do in 2010. As if the management knows. The one piece of good news is that Yahoo! says it will hit its Q1 numbers. Wall St. was concerned that, if it did not, Microsoft might drop its offer and try to buy the company at a lower price point later. Some keys: The plan supports the unanimous determination by the Company's board of directors that...

Recruiting Arabs Still Tough for Army

By JEFF KAROUB Associated Press Writer DETROIT (AP) - The billboard displays a phone number and only two English words: "Call Mona." The rest is in Arabic. But if you can read it, the Army wants you.

Non-Sequiturs: 03.19.08

* Thoughts on the case of an English prof who posed on an S&M site with one of her students, from law prof Paul Secunda. [Workplace Prof Blog]

* Thoughts on private property, a favorite topic of his, from law prof Richard Epstein (who has a new book out on the subject). [PrawfsBlawg]

* Is the generally well-regarded Judge Barbara Jones (S.D.N.Y.) a judicial slacker? The numbers may mislead. Also, interesting data on average reversal rates in the Southern District. [Judicial Reports]

* Enter the VC's March Madness pool. You could win a Supreme Court bobblehead doll! [Volokh Conspiracy]

* C'mon, folks -- read your ATL. The move to 18 weeks of parental leave has been going on for months now. [National Law Journal via ABA Journal]

In news of the weird

From public defender blogger Scoplaw:

a prosecutor asked me if he could read my hallway interview notes with the officers from our impending (as in one hour away) trial case, because, you know, it was really busy this morning and he didn’t have a chance to talk with his own witnesses on this case he’d, like, declared ready on, and which were were about to, you know, pick a jury for.

No.  I am not shitting you dear readers.  And to keep in the world of profane colloquialisms, my proper response should have been, “Are you f[***]ing kidding me?”

Instead I settled for, “No.”

I mean really, these are the state attorneys I work with.  And usually I try (as you might notice from the dryness of the blog) not to talk too much about the job for various reasons of professional courtesy and client confidentiality.  But come on.  While I could probably curl the hair of the average reader with bathotic tales of incarcerated men, women, and the state attorneys who seek to keep them locked in little metal cages, I’d rather the blog not become blindly reflexive.  However, there are some high water marks that should be noted.

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Inventis Launches Tax-Free Solar Energy Opportunity in Italy

LEWES, Del. — Multi-disciplined management consultancy, Inventis Inc, today launched an executive career marketing service for American executives and a solar energy investment initiative in Italy. The executive resume-building, resume marketing service and Italian solar energy opportunities use principles not common to its competitors in either industry.

While other resume writing services end with the creation of the resume, Inventis’ executive resume-building and career marketing service goes several steps further. Specifically, an executive benefits from time saved, targeted email marketing and regional media exposure without having to do any of the work.

Inventis will write press releases on behalf of the executive, providing them a unique opportunity to showcase potential employers through dedicated newspaper and, potentially, radio or television, by leveraging established press release distribution channels.

Inventis provides five resume levels to suit all budgets and is offering the first 50 clients the chance to target their new Inventis written resumes directly into the personal email inbox of the world’s Top 26 headhunters for free.

Inventis is also inviting overseas investors to benefit from the booming solar energy sector in Italy. “If solar park investment vehicles are structured correctly,” says Costanzo Ferraro, Founder and President of Inventis, “corporate revenues could potentially be taken tax-free. We have English speaking attorneys in Milan adept in structuring legally acceptable offshore entities.”

The 2007 Legislative Decree sanctioned by the Italian Ministry for Economic Development protects private operators to comfortably resell their solar-produced energy to utility companies, energy distributors or on the financial markets.

Inventis project manages the land search and solar park construction from start to finish. Inventis sidestepped bureaucratic hurdles by selling land already approved by local and regional authorities for solar park installations, freeing clients to rapidly build their solar park investment and reap financial advantage of generous feed-in tariffs over a 20 year period. A 1 Megawatt solar park (enough to power 1,000 homes) produces projected annual revenues of EUR620,000 in approximately 18 months.

Costanzo Ferraro comments, “We’ve developed a win-win opportunity for Italian energy consumers, potential overseas investors and operators and our planet. That’s much needed positive news for New Italy.”

Visit the Inventis Inc website at http://www.inventis.biz.

Technorati Tags: Inventis resume writing services, solar energy investment initiative in Italy, Costanzo Ferraro

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March 20 - Today in Legal History

March 20, 1816 - Supreme Court Affirms Its Right to Review State Court Decisions

In Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, the U.S. Supreme Court declares that its appellate power over federal legal issues extends to cases in state courts, a notion that the Court states is supported by the "letter and spirit of the Constitution." The decision was handed down after the Virginia Court of Appeals defied a U.S. Supreme Court order in a case dealing with the impact of a federal treaty on a property dispute, giving the high court the opportunity to rule on the constitutionality of its review powers.

Related resources:

• Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (FindLaw)
• Landmark Cases: Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (PBS)
• U.S. Supreme Court Center (FindLaw)

March 19 - Today in Legal History

March 19, 1891 - Birth of Chief Justice Earl Warren

Earl Warren is born in Los Angeles, California. Warren will attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he will receive both his bachelor's and law degrees. He will serve as district attorney for Alameda County and will be elected Governor of California, before being appointed as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Dwight. D. Eisenhower in 1953. During his first term he will write for a unanimous Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, rejecting the "separate but equal doctrine" and declaring unconstitutional the segregation of public-school children. Warren will serve on the Court until 1969.

Related resources:

• Earl Warren (FindLaw)
• Oral Histories: Earl Warren (Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum)
• Brown v. Board of Education (FindLaw)

Soldier Electrocutions Probed in Iraq

By RAMESH SANTANAM Associated Press Writer PITTSBURGH (AP) - A U.S. House committee chairman has begun an investigation into the electrocutions of at least 12 service members in Iraq, including that of a Pittsburgh soldier killed in January by a jolt of electricity while showering.

March 12 - Today in Legal History

March 12, 1964 - Jimmy Hoffa Sentenced for Jury Tampering and Bribery

Jimmy Hoffa, President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and one of the most powerful labor leaders in the U.S., is sentenced to eight years in federal prison. The sentence comes eight days after Hoffa's conviction for jury tampering and bribery in connection with his efforts to tamper with a federal jury in a conspiracy case against him in 1962. In 1971, Hoffa will be released from prison after President Richard M. Nixon commutes his sentence to time served.

Related resources:

• Audio: State of the Unions (Justice Talking)
• The Day Jimmy Hoffa Didn't Come Home (The Detroit News)
• Crimes A to Z: Bribery (FindLaw)

Adobe Barely Off 52-Week Lows Ahead of Earnings (ADBE)

Tuesday after the close, we'll get to see earnings out of Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE). The estimates from First Call are $0.45 EPS on $875.8 million in revenues. Adobe frequently offers longer-term guidance compared to many software companies. Next quarter estimates are $0.44 EPS on $874.7 million in revenues. Estimates for fiscal Nov-2008 are $1.82 EPS on $3.57 billion in revenues. Analysts have an average price target north of $45.00, which is approximately an implied 50% move to current prices. 2008 hasn't been great to Adobe stock as shares were north of $40.00 at the end of 2007. They...

Disinterest

From public defender blogger The Underblawg:

"You've got to go to work. Every day. Work your way up. Make them love you."

"I don't even know how to open a bank account. They'd give me the check and I'd go to one of those places and they'd keep like half and give me the rest in cash and I'd spend it that day. I don't even know how to open a bank account."

"You've been inside a bank before?"

"Yeah."

"There's people that work there."

"Yeah."

"There's no shame in this. No one ever taught you. You go up to one of those people and tell them that you'd like to open an account. Ok? That's why they're there. Most banks only require 50 bucks or so to get started. Take your first 50 bucks and do that. Then, keep going back. Keep putting money in. Understand?"

"Yeah."

"You know what interest is?"

"No."

"It's like … you know, banks sort of pay you to give them money. I mean, you know what percentages are?"

"Yeah."

"So let's say the interest is 3 percent. If you put $100 in, at the end of the year you'll have $103, understand? You'll have made $3 just by putting money in the bank. Do you see?"

"Yes."

"Ok. Stay out of trouble." I turn to leave.

"Thanks for talking to me about this," she says.

"No problem," I say. "Good luck."

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Gaza Blast Kills 2 Hamas Militants

By IBRAHIM BARZAK Associated Press Writer GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Palestinian militants accidentally set off a large blast at a Hamas training base in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing two members of the violent Islamic group and wounding another, a Palestinian medical official said.

9 Missouri Girls Sickened by Methadone

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) - Nine middle school girls were sickened after apparently eating methadone pills supplied by a 16-year-old boy, police said.

March 13 - Today in Legal History

March 13, 1868 - Senate Begins Impeachment Trial of President Andrew Johnson

The U.S. Senate commences impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson, based on his alleged violations of the federal Tenure of Office Act. It is the first presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history. In May 1868, the Senate will fall just one vote short of impeachment, allowing Johnson to finish the remainder of his term in office.

Related resources:

• Impeachment Timeline (Justice Learning)
• The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (Harper's Weekly)
• The Senate's Impeachment Role (U.S. Senate)

Kidsville News! Children’s Newspaper Tops Million Reader Mark

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Literacy rocks! Just ask the million-plus young readers of Kidsville News! Ask their parents, who’ve been thrilled to discover that this children’s newspaper makes kids eager to read and learn. Ask the educators nationwide, who have enthusiastically incorporated Kidsville News! as part of their schools’ daily curriculum, using it to promote their own character education curriculum.

Ask the publishers that have made Kidsville News! the nation’s fastest growing children’s newspaper, because it turns a profit virtually from the first issue.

And ask Bill Bowman, President of Kidsville News! Inc. During the recent 2008 Kidsville News! Publishers’ Conference, Bowman revealed that circulation of Kidsville News! well exceeded the one million mark. He also announced that the publication is currently undergoing an audit by the Circulation Verification Council (CVC), which will validate circulation and distribution data and place Kidsville News! in the Standard Rates & Data Service (SRDS) directory for the first time.

“Our growth has been phenomenal,” said Bowman, who launched the educational and literacy initiative in Fayetteville, NC in 1998. However, it wasn’t until June 2005 that the publication became available for licensure nationwide. Since that time, it has grown from three editions, with a circulation of 80,000, to 100 editions, with a circulation of nearly 1.3 million, as of January 2008.

“In the last six months of 2007 alone, circulation grew by more than 66%,” says Bowman, noting that the number of editions increased from 70 to 100 during that period, and circulation increased from 792,017 to 1,194,417.

What’s more, the ongoing CVC audit of Kidsville News! indicates that actual readership is even higher than the circulation numbers. Readership survey results in one major market show that the average number of readers per edition is 1.7. Other significant audit results show that 60% of readers keep the monthly publication in their homes for one month or more, and less than 1% of Kidsville News! controlled bulk distribution is returned unclaimed. Income and education levels for reader-households are significantly higher than general market demographics.

Ranging from paid daily newspapers to free community/shopper publications and independents, the publishers of Kidsville News! are in 25 states, coast to coast. They include publishing groups such as CNHI, Freedom Communications, Morris Media, Landmark Communications, Triple Crown Media, and member publishers of Association of Free Community Papers, Independent Free Papers and more.

What has made Kidsville News! the nation’s fastest growing children’s newspaper? Publishers have discovered how quickly and easily it generates profits. Because this free publication is so popular with a large target audience, it’s also an easy sell to sponsors and advertisers. There are no franchise fees or long-term contracts to publish Kidsville News!, and the monthly publication is provided turnkey. Content can be used in its entirety or mixed with local stories. Appealing, high quality graphics are provided fully formatted or as individual elements for customized design.

Contributing to the popularity and fun of Kidsville News! is the publication’s easy-to-use website and its friendly green dragon mascot, “Truman.” This snaggle-toothed hero echoes the love-of-learning message and engenders the loyalty that makes kids Tru-blue readers.

To find out if Kidsville News! is still available for licensure in your area, contact the corporate headquarters Kidsville News!, Inc. at 1-877-4KVNEWS (458-6397) or visit online at www.kidsvillenews.com.

Technorati Tags: Kidsville News, childrens newspaper, Bill Bowman, green dragon mascot Truman

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Visionsoft Releases Software to Increase Workplace Productivity

MOUNTAIN LAKES, N.J. — Frustrated by employees who surf the net on company time? Many social network sites are designed to create an addictive routine and people find it difficult to stay away. Chronos, a new software package developed by Visionsoft, allows employers to control what sites employees can use and when.

Chronos is a network application that very quickly lets employers set a range of time restrictions to the Internet or specific sites and apply them to either a PC or user account via templates. It’s an easy-to-use software package and access to specified Internet sites is not authorized before or after those times. Standard templates come already populated or they can be customized.

Web sites like FaceBook.com and MySpace.com have become wildly popular, but there is a time and place to access them. Many companies have chosen to simply ban all social networks because of the time spent and potential security breaches; this has led to dismay for union organizations and staff alike.

“Chronos keeps everyone happy,” Richard Ward, Managing Director and CEO for Visionsoft explained. “Staff can surf on their lunch hour or break and employers will realize more valuable production time. It’s a win-win situation.”

While this may sound like Big Brother is watching, it has been proven that staff actually prefer Chronos to a blanket Internet ban; it also helps them from unwittingly falling into an extended Internet session. And, the bottom line is “Do you want to pay your staff to socialize?”

And, time truly is money. For example, if you have 25 averagely-paid employees wasting one hour per day, the average revenue lost over five years is approximately $1,000,000.

Unlimited site licenses are available for every PC at the company’s site for only $999.

So, when considering the amount of time and money that can be saved, Chronos may just be the “must have” business tool. It’s time to take control.

Established in 1989, Visionsoft is a privately-owned company with a wealth of experience in providing essential audit and PC management software.

To learn more about Chronos, visit: www.visionsoft.com/control.

Technorati Tags: Visionsoft Chronos software, CEO Richard Ward

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Public defenders quit; case backlog balloons

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

The Allegheny County Public Defender’s Office is scrambling to reassign hundreds of cases after five attorneys quit in the past six weeks.

Chief Public Defender Michael Machen said the five departing trial lawyers are leaving more than 600 cases to be reassigned. Replacements have been hired but it will take time to train them, Machen said.

“We’ve been able to reassign a lot of cases internally,” Machen said. “I’m not going to send an unprepared attorney to court. I won’t do it.”

Most of the cases that are not reassigned internally will be given to private attorneys, leaving taxpayers to cover thousands of dollars in attorneys fees.

Total costs won’t be known until the private attorneys submit bills, but one factor that can influence the cost is whether a defendant enters a plea or opts for a trial. A lawyer can bill up to $750 for a guilty plea and more for trials, said Helen Lynch, administrator of the county Common Pleas criminal division.

The county is responsible for providing legal representation to indigent defendants.

“We don’t want what’s happening at the Public Defender’s Office to affect the administration of justice,” Lynch said. “If we didn’t (appoint private attorneys), the public defender would postpone the cases. That’s not fair to the people in jail, and the county would have to pay to house them there.”

Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel, who leads the criminal division, agreed to allow some cases — 98 so far — to be reassigned through the county’s Office of Conflict Counsel, which includes four county attorneys who handle indigent cases when the public defender has a conflict.

That office will absorb roughly 30 of the cases and assign the rest to private attorneys, said Richard Narvin, head of conflict counsel.

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March 16 - Today in Legal History

March 16, 1988 - Poindexter and North Indicted on Charges Related to Iran Contra

Former National Security Advisor John M. Poindexter and his aide, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. The indictments come after the federal government's sale of arms to Iran, and the diversion of proceeds to the support of insurgent Contras in Nicaragua. Although Poindexter and North will be found guilty on a number of felony charges, both men will see their criminal convictions overturned on appeal, in part due to violations of their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination through indirect use of immunized congressional testimony.

Related resources:

• Audio: Domestic Spying: What are the Checks on Presidential Power? (Justice Talking)
• The Iran-Contra Affair (PBS)
• The Iran Contra Affair 20 Years On (National Security Archive)
• Fifth Amendment Right Against Self-Incrimination (FindLaw)

March 15 - Today in Legal History

March 15, 1933 - Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Born

Born Joan Ruth Bader in 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, Ginsburg will attend both Harvard and Columbia Law Schools, graduating Columbia at the top of her class. While serving as counsel for the American Civil Liberties Organization (ACLU) from 1972 to 1980, Ginsburg will argue a number of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Ginsburg will serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit before being appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, with a Senate confirmation vote of 97-3.

Related resources:

• Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (FindLaw)
• Highlights of the Supreme Court Term: How Has the New Conservative Majority Affected the Court? (Justice Talking)
• Supreme Court Center (FindLaw)

NYC Begins Construction Crane Reviews

NEW YORK (AP) - City officials have started inspecting every construction crane in use around New York City after a crane collapse killed seven people last weekend.

Frank Quattrone Launches Qatalyst (CS, GS, GOOG, JMP)

If you have been around the markets for a decade you'll know the name Frank Quattrone quite well. Quattrone was one of the most influential investment bankers in the 1990's who also became the head of Credits Suisse's technology banking group. He was nearly destroyed in one of the great Wall Street scandals in obstructing the investigation over brokerage firms giving shares in hot IPO's to great clients for higher commissions, in which he was ultimately vindicated. Frank Quattrone has just announced that he is launching Qatalyst Group, a new technology boutique being launched with former colleagues. Qatalyst will be...

US Vehicles Sales Could Hit Thirteen Year Low (GM)(F)

GM (NYSE: GM) and Ford (NYSE: F) already trade near 52-week lows because of high gas costs and the rising prices of commodities for components used in cars. Now, JP Power is dropping its estimate for US light vehicle sales to 14.95 million. The research firm had earlier put up an estimate of 15.7 million. According to Power "In the first quarter of 2008, sales are expected to average 15.2 million units, with sales in the second quarter falling to approximately 14.8 million units before beginning a slow rebound during the second half of the year and into 2009." With...

March 17 - Today in Legal History

March 17, 1999 - I.O.C. Expels Six Members Over Bribery Scandal

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) ratifies the expulsion of six of its members for accepting inappropriate benefits in connection with Salt Lake City's bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics. IOC investigation revealed that the six expelled members accepted more than $800,000 worth of benefits from Salt Lake City officials before the IOC awarded the games to Utah's capital city.

Related resources:

• International Olympic Committee
• Head of Olympics Expels 6 Members in Payoff Scandal (N.Y. Times)
• Crimes A to Z: Bribery (FindLaw)

GameStop Sets Earnings Growth to 2010 (GME)

GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) has just posted its earnings with $1.14 diluted EPS on revenues of $2.8656 Billion. The estimates for the largest pure-play video game retailer from First Call were $1.12 EPS on $2.89 billion in revenues. It sees current quarter comparable store sales of +24% to +25% and sees EPS in a range of $0.32 to $0.33. Next quarter estimates are $0.29 EPS on $1.55 billion in revenues. The video game retail giant also forecast fiscal Jan-2009 total revenues to grow 19% to 21% on comparable store sales growth of 10% to 12%. It is targeting a 25%...

Court Dismisses All Charges of Contempt for Unpaid Child Support Against Richard Lorden

LONG BEACH, Calif. — In a stunning victory for the defense, the Los Angeles Superior Court dismissed all child support contempt charges against Richard Lorden, announced the Law Offices of Jeffrey H. Sherter. Ms. Judy Lorden through her attorney, Jose Mariano Castillo, filed a contempt proceeding (case D191152) alleging that Mr. Lorden “has never paid any of the court-ordered child support.”

Ms. Lorden omitted any reference to the fact that her ex-husband went well beyond the call of duty to provide for their son, Bryan Lorden, leaving the false impression that he did nothing for him. Bryan, now in college in Arizona, credits his success in life to his father’s love and support. According to Bryan Lorden “My father Richard Lorden is NOT a deadbeat father. What Jose Mariano Castillo has put on the internet is a fabrication. I only lived with my mother for roughly four (4) years before I moved to Mexico City with my father. During my stay with my mother, my father supported us. My father is and has been supporting me financially my whole life. I do hope the people who have read what Jose Mariano Castillo has posted will discredit his accusations of my father being a deadbeat.”

To this very day, Mr. Lorden continues to support his son both financially and emotionally, and will fight to protect his reputation against malicious accusations to the contrary.

The case was presented to Maren E. Nelson, Judge Presiding. Mr. Richard Lorden was represented by his counsel, Jeffrey H. Sherter, Esq., Legal Action Workshop, appearing by limited scope representation. Mr. Sherter filed a Memorandum of Points and Authorities in support of his client’s defense. He argued, among other things, that the allegations of unpaid child support for purpose of contempt were barred by statue.

The court dismissed the child support claims, and issued a written memorandum, as follows: (1) Respondent’s motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction is denied. Respondent waived any challenge to the manner of service and voluntarily submitted to the jurisdiction of the court by filing a motion addressing the merits of the proceeding. (2) Respondent’s motion to dismiss those counts of contempt for failure to pay child support is granted. All counts of contempt for failure to pay child support are dismissed in their entirety pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure 1218.5(b) (3-year statute of limitations. (3) Respondent’s motion to dismiss those counts of contempt for failure to pay spousal support prior to June 29,2004 is granted pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure 1218.5(b)(3-year statute of limitations. (4) Respondent’s motion to dismiss those counts of contempt for failure to pay spousal support after July 1,2004 (35 counts) is denied.”

Technorati Tags: child support charges against Richard Lorden, Law Offices of Jeffrey H Sherter

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FOMC Goes Three-Quarters Of The Way

The FOMC has made its rate cut, although not quite as much as Wall Street was talking up. Wall Street wanted a 100-basis point cut or 1 full point. We got a 3/4-3/4 cut by 0.75% on fed funds to 2.25% and 0.75% on the discount rate cut to 2.50%. At 2:10 PM EST ahead of the results, here were the market levels for reference: DJIA 12,241.64 (+269.39;+2.25%) S&P500 1,311.81 (+35.21; +2.76%) NASDAQ 2,232.42 (+55.41; +2.55%) 10YR-TBOND 3.393% (+0.079) Today's PPI gains would have normally given some a pause in their demands that the FOMC cuts rates by a full...

New Evidence Points to Manson Victims

By GARANCE BURKE Associated Press Writer FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - As investigators consider digging for bodies at a remote ranch where Charles Manson and his acolytes once hid out, new information has emerged to bolster reports of possible clandestine grave sites in the barren California desert, authorities say.

Budget cuts squeezing public defenders

From OCALA.com (FL):

The public defender for the 5th Judicial Circuit, Howard “Skipp” Babb, said his office has been working “feverishly” to avoid furloughing employees due to slashed funds from massive state budget cuts.

The Florida Legislature has all but formally approved an appropriations bill that will cut $540 million from its $70 billion state budget. Legislators are expected to pass the bill later this week.

“My management skills are being tested to keep people working,” Babb said.

In the face of a sagging housing market and declining state revenue, the Legislature is draining money from agencies to balance its budget this year. The judicial branch stands to lose $16 million, and has had to dip into its cash reserves to retrieve $10.5 million that will prevent people like judges, judicial assistants, court interpreters, and law clerks from taking mandatory leave from their jobs for the rest of the calendar year.

The State Attorney’s Office has bailed itself out under similar circumstances, yet the fate of the Public Defender’s Office is not in the clear just yet. Babb said the 5th Circuit, of which Marion County is part, must come up with $250,000 to avoid having to furlough employees between now and July 1, the start of the next budget year. He said the Legislature has even discussed moving money around from one circuit to another.

Reduced budgets are having a “ripple effect” throughout the entire court system, according to 5th Circuit Chief Judge Daniel B. Merritt, Sr.

“Caseloads are increasing despite the budgetary shortfall,” he said. “It affects the right of individuals that need to get into court, and get their situations resolved.”

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Caribsoft Infosystems Certified for Prestigious ISO 9001:2000

CALCUTTA, India — Caribsoft Infosystems Pvt Ltd (Caribsoft India), has been assessed and certified as meeting the requirements of the prestigious ISO 9001:2000 certification for design, development, testing and implementation of software projects. ISO 9001:2000, which gives the requirements for quality management systems, is firmly established as the globally implemented standard for providing assurance about the ability to satisfy quality requirements and to enhance customer satisfaction in supplier-customer relationships.

Caribsoft India had engaged the services of an independent quality system certification body, SGS, to obtain an ISO 9001:2000 certificate of conformity. SGS is the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company.

In speaking to the need for ISO 9001:2000 certification, Sujit Sarkar, President and CEO, Caribsoft India, said, “Caribsoft is focused to removing risks of technology and people in developing IT projects. Our ISO certification will help companies to decide on their preferred IT service provider with the peace of mind. Our processes are geared to satisfy their requirements, with clear quality policy and measurable quality objectives.”

Sarkar added, “It will also help our internal human capital to increase their sense of ownership on the project since their individual contribution - be it as architect, developer, tester - with respect to achieving the quality, is defined across the whole IT project assembly line.”

Gene Sweeney, SVP Sales, Global Outsourcing Services, Caribsoft India, said, “With this ISO certification, there is an objective verification of Caribsoft India’s ability to deliver low cost, better, faster solutions to SME customers in USA.”

About Caribsoft India
Caribsoft India has offshore development center in Calcutta, India and operates from two (2) additional locations in the U.S., Marietta, Georgia, and Orlando Florida, that are managed by an American sales and account executive team.

More information: www.caribsoftindia.com or call +1-800-234-7011.

Technorati Tags: Caribsoft Infosystems Pvt Ltd, CEO Sujit Sarkar, ISO 9001 2000 certificate of conformity, testing and implementation of software projects

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Apple (AAPL): Macs On Fire

If research firm NPD Group is to be believed, the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Mac had 14% of PC sales in the US in February and 25% of the revenue share. According to Apple Insider "The results -- first revealed in an investor note from Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves on Monday -- represent 60 percent unit growth and 67 percent revenue growth over the same period one year ago. At the same time, overall US PC retail shipments grew just 9 percent on a 5 percent increase in revenues." The information is probably not particularly good for Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:...

The only thing I want overturned are my eggs

From public defender blogger Accident Prone:

In a few moments there came a knock and the Marshall banged the gavel while crying “All rise!” And I rose handsbehindback no handsclaspedinfront. The three judges came in, sat, and stared down at us from the height of the bench. Appellant up first - she rose and gave her argument. About halfway through I realized the court was completely harping on one specific issue. I wrote down a few responsive comments.

In 15-minutes, it was my turn. I gathered my things and I felt my cheeks grow hot. Donttalktoofastdonttalktoofastdonttalktoofast. I saw the light on the podium flip to green (15:00, 14:59…). “May it please the Court…” I began. I went through the formalities, then simply said, “I had this whole outline to share with you today, but since I see there’s one specific issue of interest here today, I shall go directly to that.” Only because my secret lover has been the facts of this case for the past 6-months was I able to completely shoot from the hip. Totally not where I thought the argument would ultimately end up. And man did they not agree with me -which felt weird coming from Respondent’s side. I just wanted to scream, “But, don’t you get it? I won at the lower court level. We never win!” But I realized I had failed to obtain the appropriate case law to back up that proposition. Damn. Before I knew it, the light went from green to yellow to red. I was done.

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March 14 - Today in Legal History

March 14, 1964 - Jack Ruby Found Guilty of Oswald's Murder

Jack Ruby is found guilty and sentenced to death for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin arrested for the killing of President John F. Kennedy. Ruby shot Oswald in the basement of the Dallas Police Department, and pled guilty by reason of insanity. Ruby's conviction is eventually overturned, but he will die from cancer on January 3, 1967 while awaiting a new trial.

Related resources:

• Jack Ruby (Texas State Historical Society)
• Audio: The Death Penalty: Is Justice Being Served? (Justice Talking)
• Criminal Law Center (FindLaw)

March 11 - Today in Legal History

March 11, 1941- FDR Signs Lend-Lease Law

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs H.R. 1776, the "Lend-Lease" bill, ending America's policy of strict isolation during World War II. The bill gives the President the prerogative to sell, lend, or lease military information or defense technology to any country whose "defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States." The law is originally aimed at assisting the war efforts of Great Britain; aid will eventually spread to 35 countries at a cost of approximately $49 billion by the end of the program in 1945.

Related resources:

• Audio: Foreign Aid, Free Trade and Shaping a Global Community (Justice Talking)
• Excepts from the 1941 Press Conference of FDR (University of California, Santa Barbara)
• H.R. 1776 (National Archives and Records Administration)

Cops: 3 Dead, 3 Hurt in Va. Shootings

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - A gunman killed three people and wounded three others at an apartment complex, police said.

SFSN Delivers Info that Food Service Professionals Crave

ATLANTA, Ga. — Southeast Food Services News (SFSN), the leading food service publication for the southeast, announces a new look and feel that promises to enhance the publication’s already information-packed features. Each issue is packed with pictures and stories featuring new products and services available to food service operators.

The monthly publication covers the backgrounds and trends that shape the food service industry, and keeps readers up-to-date with the latest in chef profiles, operator features, franchise updates, and more.

“We know the people, we know the companies, and we know how they all fit together,” Elliott Fischer, Marketing Director, said. “We concentrate on food service news that really matters and keep our articles local and specific to the southeast.”

As a bonus, chefs from throughout the southeast share recipes and food and beverage managers share tips about what’s hot and what’s not.

“We find that these operator feature case studies are helpful to people who are working in the field,” Fischer said. “People like to read about their peers’ successes as well as pitfalls so they can learn and improve on their own business.”

The publication is staffed with a group of professional writers; they know the business and have contacts that can provide the inside scoop.

And, because the staff at SFSN understands that food service professionals are busy people, information is provided in an easy-to-read newspaper format that allows its audience to get information at-a-glance.

Team members consistently travel to food and nutrition trade shows, providing them with an edge on food service industry trends and news. Each month, SFSN provides a calendar of food service activities to its readers. Readers will always be in the know when it comes to specialty food trade shows, regional conferences and more.

For example, in the month of April, SFSN will be at the Marine Hotel Association Conference and Trade Show in Hollywood, Fla., the Georgia School Nutrition Association Expo in Savannah, Ga., the Florida School Nutrition Association Expo in Orlando, plus several distributor shows in the region.

Each month, the editorial focus is different. Some months may hone in on school nutrition and wellness; regional southeast restaurant chains; vegetarian and organic cuisine; desserts; prepared foods and much, much more.

SFSN is a specialty regional food service publication, with more than 24,000 readers in the Southeastern U.S. It is designed specifically for the fast-changing and competitive restaurant and food service industry.

To learn more about Southeast Food Service News, visit: www.SFSN.com.

Technorati Tags: Southeast Food Services News, foodservices publication for the south, SFSN magazine, specialty regional foodservice publication

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High PPI More Honest Than CPI, FOMC Has To Look Past It

This morning we saw February Producer Prices come out with a gain of +0.3%, and that is after a +1% gain in January. The core rate on an ex-food and energy basis rose +0.5%. We had penciled in estimates from Bloomberg as +0.4% expected on nominal PPI and +0.2% on Core PPI. If you take everything into consideration, what it really looks like is that the Labor Department was just more realistic on PPI than it was on CPI with that seemingly wrong FLAT release on Friday. Some may say that this should give the FOMC some pause over an...

Kentucky Musician to Embark on Tour of Laundry Mats?

Bardstown, KY Musician Matt Fogle to Embark on Month-long 6-state Tour

BARDSTOWN, Ky. — An acoustic rock musician from Bardstown, Kentucky will embark on a month-long tour of laundry mats, spanning a number of cities in six states. Matthew Fogle kicks off the promotional expedition, aptly entitled “Spring Cleaning Tour ‘08″ on Monday, March 24th in his hometown of Bardstown. The tour then visits nearly 20 laundry mats in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, and other stops in Kentucky. The tour wraps up back in Bardstown on Thursday, April 17th.

Fogle, age 25, has been playing music for over 11 years and recently went solo after playing lead guitar with several rock bands since 1998. The solo venture was kick-started last year with the release of his debut CD “On the Brink,” an 11-track album with all original compositions, some written before Fogle was able to play the guitar.

“I got the idea for a laundry mat tour last spring when I drove past one near my apartment, and there were several people inside who looked like they needed to be entertained,” Fogle remarks. “I’m giving them something to listen to while they wait for their dirty socks to get clean.”

The following stops are included on the tour, but Fogle says he may pick up a few more by the time it’s all over with:

Mon, March 24th: Mr. Tubs - Bardstown, Kentucky; 6 p.m. (Tour ‘08 Kickoff!)
Tue, March 25th: Smitty’s Coin Laundry - Elizabethtown, Kentucky; 4 p.m.
Thu, March 27th: Suds ‘n Duds - Lexington, Kentucky; 3 p.m.
Sat, March 29th: Outer Loop Coin Laundry - Louisville, Kentucky; 2 p.m.
Mon, March 31st: Five-Star Laundromat - Florence, Kentucky; 4 p.m.
Tue, April 1st: Super Laundry (Goodman Ave.) - Cincinnati, Ohio; 4 p.m.
Wed, April 2nd: Mc Laundries - Columbus, Ohio; 4 p.m.
Thu, April 3rd: Dirty Dungarees - Columbus, Ohio; 4 p.m.
Sun, April 6th: Centerville Coin Laundry - Dayton, Ohio; 2 p.m.
Mon, April 7th: Wash-N-Glo - Indianapolis, Indiana; 4 p.m.
Tue, April 8th: Alonso Handy Wash & Video - Terre Haute, Indiana; 6 p.m.
Wed, April 9th: Weekly Wash - Vandalia, Illinois; 1 p.m.
Thu, April 10th: Wash U Inc. - St. Louis, Missouri; 4 p.m.
Fri, April 11th: Boone Cleaners (12th St.) - Murray, Kentucky; 3 p.m.
Tue, April 15th: Clay Street Coin Laundry - Nashville, Tennessee; 4 p.m.
Wed, April 16th: Laundry Basket - Bowling Green, Kentucky; 4 p.m.
Thu, April 17th: Kenny’s Coin Laundry - Bardstown, Kentucky; 7 p.m. (Tour ‘08 Finale!)

For more information on Matthew, and to hear full audio tracks from his CD online, visit www.mfotb.com. You can also type in www.matthewfoglemusic.com.

Details for each tour stop can also be found on the website.

MySpace video can be viewed at:
myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=28704897
.

Technorati Tags: Acoustic rock musician Matthew Fogle, music tour of laundry mats, debut CD On the Brink

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More state money for Kitsap’s public defense efforts

From the Kitsap Sun (WA):

A pot of state cash, mandated to improve Kitsap County’s criminal defense services for people who cannot afford them, will likely swell to almost a half-million dollars next year.

County officials, unsure of how to spend the money, hired a consultant in 2007 to study Kitsap’s public defense system. The results of the study could lead to the creation of a new county position and a “comprehensive” plan for the program.

Kitsap County Clerk Dave Peterson, who manages contracts with the cadre of private law-firms providing indigent defense, applied for a state grant that delivered about $103,000 in 2006 and $208,000 in 2007. It will likely mean another $208,000 this year from the state’s Office of Public Defense. No money has yet been promised past 2009.

He sought outside help figuring out how to use it. “We wanted to take a look at the public defense system we were using,” Peterson said, adding that once they examined it, they would “better know how to spend the money.”

The Legislature put forth the money beginning in 2005. Their rationale: a lawsuit that alleged a public defender in Grant County had been handling a staggering, yet lucrative, felony caseload that he managed by infrequently going to trial. The defender also had an inordinately high percentage of guilty pleas.

In Kitsap, a felony case other than murder is contracted to private firms for $1,069 plus hourly and flat rates for future proceedings. Bar associations typically recommend a limit of 150 cases per attorney.

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New public defender blog

After somewhat of a lull, there’s a new public defender blog on the scene: Preaching to the choir. The url reads “rants of a public defender”. From the first post:

Over the years, my rants have continued, though with (slightly) less frequency and with a changing audience. My mom still hears many of my rants, but she doesn’t get the daily dose. Instead, my friends and co-workers get to hear some of them. But since I’m a bleeding-heart liberal public defender whose closest friends are also bleeding-heart liberal public defenders, I’m still not doing much to change hearts and minds. More often than not, my rants are met with a reminder that I am preaching to the choir. As a committed public defender working on capital cases, I’m still not all talk. I do fight against many of the things that outrage me, but it never feels like enough.

So now I’ve thought that I should take my rants to the internet. My like-minded friends, family, and co-workers might get a break from my rabit rantings. If only they all knew how many I hold inside! And maybe, just maybe, someone who doesn’t already agree with me will stumble upon one of my rants and think about things a little bit differently. At least, I can hope so.

The blog has been added to the blogroll and blog guide.

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TJ’s Custom Jeans Relocates Manufacturing Facility and Customer Service Center

PARRAS, COAHUILA, Mexico — TJ’s Custom Jeans (Tailormade Jeanswear Ltd.), the global leader in made-to-measure jeans and chinos, has relocated their facilities to Parras, Mexico. The choice of move to Parras de la Fuenta (Parras of the fountain) is significant in that the town which is considered an oasis in the desert has 2 premium quality denim mills and boasts a 100 year old history of weaving denim fabric and sewing jeans.

The move to Mexico will also position Tailormade Jeanswear closer to the majority of clients and enable a vast improvement in customer service and expansion of quality products offered.

Tailormade Jeanswear Ltd’s Managing Director Sam Meeks explains, “The TJ’s brand of denim jeans fills a void in everyday retail apparel offerings of jeans. Instead of being mass produced, the big difference is TJ’s are specifically made to the unique requirements of their hard to fit and special needs clients through mass customization technology.”

“Many of TJ’s Custom fit jeans are produced for men and women 6′ to 7′ tall with leg lengths movie stars would envy. Plus size waists and hips 50-inch to 80-inch, 42-inch inseams, and other special requests are very common. Conversely very small individuals with inseams as short as 22″ or waists as small as 23-inch can fulfill their needs with TJ’s just as easily as their larger counterparts.”

“The majority of TJ’s female clients have a very common complaint in their jeans don’t fit properly because they have pear shaped figures. Having very small waists and larger hips often cause their store bought jeans to stick out in the back and fit poorly. This is one of the many requests TJ’s receives for a solution.”

“Special requirements from other clients are for a pair of custom jeans due to medical or physical problems because they simply cannot find jeans that suit their needs in retail shops. Sitting jeans for clients in wheelchairs include requests for no back pockets or yokes to relieve pressure points, reinforced belt loops, elasticated waists or extra long leg lengths. All of these requests are no problem since TJ’s can do whatever the client needs to improve comfort and usability.”

Another example of customer fulfillment is TJ’s Clone a Jean service where the client’s favorite pair of jeans can be replicated into a new pair. Clients send Tailormade-Jeanswear their old and worn “favorite pair” of jeans to be copied because they cannot find another pair that fits like them. TJ’s specialist pattern team measure these well loved jeans carefully before starting on a unique pattern for the client. New “favorites” are then easy to produce and in 2 to 3 weeks clients are wearing a pair of replicated custom jeans they are confident will fit them the way they want.

Other clients send Tailormade Jeanswear their own unique measurements by measuring over their favorite fitting pair of jeans themselves. The new TJ’s Custom Jeans solve one or more of their denim jeans problems such as having to try on 20 pair to find one that “nearly” fits and wasting their valuable time looking for jeans that actually do fit them well.

Most of Tailormade Jeanswear’s clients mention the jeans they find in retail stores don’t satisfy their needs and don’t give them the comfort and fit they would like. These problems are permanently solved with TJ’s custom made to measure denim jeans because the patterns for every order are kept on file and easily adjusted when needed. The TJ’s team delights in the positive mails received in providing solutions for all their satisfied clients.

The majority of TJ’s clients have a hard time finding jeans that are short or long enough in the legs or small or large enough in the waist or hips in the styling and fabrics they like. Their retail bought jeans simply don’t flatter their body because they don’t fit properly. TJ’s aim is to help clients look good, feel good and naturally feel more confident by giving them the fit and comfort they want in great fitting premium quality custom made jeans and chinos. Because these individuals have such a problem with their denim jeans other fabric choices are offered such as corduroy and chino twills in addition to the already wide variety of denim offerings. This fills another void in both the clients fit and choice problems.

Personalization is offered giving the client the option of having their name or nickname embroidered inside the garment. Once the order is taken each pair is handcrafted through as many as 80 different customer service, smart programming, value added manufacturing, and wet processing operations to control the idiosyncrasies of producing a great fitting pair of TJ’s Custom Jeans. TJ’s premium quality custom fitting jeans are sold at far less than many of the designer jeans available on the market today and are currently shipped to over 30 countries around the world.

Tailors have been making custom clothing and in particular suits and shirts for centuries so what’s new here? The new twist is that computer and Internet Technology has allowed a one-to-one relationship between individuals and a sophisticated state of the art factory. This opens up the world of mass-customization for the average consumer.

The term currently used by industry leaders is that the “prosumer” becomes involved in the design and specification process with the manufacturer before production begins rather than simply being a consumer of goods or services offered off the shelf. The shape, form, and desires of clients are the starting point for a truly great fitting pair of TJ’s custom premium quality jeans. TJ’s Custom Jeans are the modern answer to frustrating and discouraging empty handed trips to shopping malls in search of “that perfect fitting pair of jeans.”

Additional Information:
Tailormade Jeanswear was established in 2003 offering factory direct made to measure custom denim jeans. The organization consists of design to wet processing under one roof. Specializing in premium quality custom denim jeans produced to the client’s unique measurements and specifications.

For more information: tailormade-jeanswear.com .

Technorati Tags: Tailormade Jeanswear Ltd, TJs Custom Jeans, weaving denim fabric and sewing jeans

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