I love living in a place with so much history. One hundred sixty-one years today, President Lincoln’s funeral train arrived in Harrisburg for a day. This is the train at the old train station, which was a few blocks east of the current train station.
In other words, be the person who leaps into the crisis and wrestles it to the ground rather than the one supervising from the safety of a circling helicopter. (Yes, I know, they went through a couple of Jims and even a Stan, which might not be a great advertisement for that role.) 2/
My boy and I have been watching old reruns of "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" on Sunday mornings. If you're of a certain age, you know the show and the "cast." I watched it 50 years ago with my dad. As an old guy, I share this lesson with a hat tip to my wife: in a world of Marlins, be a Jim. 1/
I don’t know how you spent your Sunday, but my boy and I started the day visiting the final resting place of Nancy Kulp, Miss Jane Hathaway from “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Her grave is in the Westminster Presbyterian Cemetery in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania. If you’re of a certain age, you’ll get it.
Really depends on the size of the office and the subjects of the books. A lawyer with a tiny office filled with books on mahjong might need help.
Solid advice and always good to give props to octogenarians.
I’m sorry.
I’m so sorry, Carrie.
Today's Pa. Supreme Court decision holding that the Commonwealth's Constitution bars the imposition of mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole is remarkable and historic. The case didn't decide retroactivity, and that will be the next huge issue.
www.pacourts.us/assets/opini...
Best wishes, my friend.
What things have changed since you were a newly minted lawyer? 7/
The arrival of snail mail happened once a day; e-mail can show up any time during business hours (and, if you practice across time zones, "business hours" can be expansive indeed). 6/
Are there ways in which it's not ideal? Sure. You never know during the day when you might get an e-mail that will require you to drop everything, refocus and react. 5/
Knowing sooner is usually better--for keeping our clients informed quickly, for planning next steps and for keeping my octogenarian Jewish mother in Toledo from impatience ("Dear, it's been months since you argued that appeal. Still no decision? Oy."). 4/
They still mailed individual copies, but we got early warnings from the web. Now, of course, most courts send opinions (or links to them) by e-mail.
On balance, I think things are better now. 3/
When I started, we got opinions by U.S. Mail--no e-mail, no web posting. I kept tabs on when the mail came in each day and quickly checked to see if any of the return addresses were courts. A few years later, a lot of courts started posting opinions on line. 2/
One of the things that sometimes happens when you've been practicing law since the ink on the Magna Carta was still wet is that you think about how the practice has changed since you started.
I was thinking yesterday about how we get opinions. 1/
One guy's approach to preparing for oral argument. (Sorry for the huge photo.) #AppellateSky
www.law.com/litigationda...
Is this the first time a SCOTUS opinion has alluded to Sir Laurence Olivier?
Is this the first time a SCOTUS opinion has alluded to Sir Laurence Olivier?
Oral argument this morning in the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
Oral argument this morning in the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
As you know, here in Pennsylvania we still refer to “praecipes” and “prothonotaries.” It’s a wonder we don’t wear wigs.
I agree it makes great sense. I tried it once, years ago, but it was such an outlier that I worried it would be a distraction.
I took a tumble on a city sidewalk a few months ago. The moment between inevitability and impact is pretty awful. The impact wasn't so great either.
Are you all right?
I had occasion recently to listen to the recording of an oral argument in which counsel persistently failed to stop talking when a judge interrupted with a question. I get the temptation to try to finish what might be a crucial point. 1/
But, unless the judicial interruption comes after counsel says, "And the antidote for the venom of the poisonous snake that just bit me is ...," counsel really should just stop and listen. 2/
I had occasion recently to listen to the recording of an oral argument in which counsel persistently failed to stop talking when a judge interrupted with a question. I get the temptation to try to finish what might be a crucial point. 1/
You know that moment. You've been struggling to figure out how to write an argument on a particularly dense subject. You've started, stopped, revised and considered sticking a sharpened No. 2 pencil in your left eye in frustration. 1/