f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

Lawyers’ Weekly (Australia) says Lawyers a miserable bunch: survey (12-Nov-2004).  Lawyers are  

 among “the unhappiest workers in Australia” –“55 per cent of the legal sector consider themselves

either unhappy or very unhappy with their current job.”  Here in America, check out a whiny, fickle

young lawyer and the ABA e-mentor who suggests lying to back with a former law firm.

Coincidentally, the (photomorphically) photogenic Martin Grace is wondering

today — in terms only a RiskProf could love — why anyone would become a lawyer.

 

Afterthought (11 PM, Nov. 19):  Although I don’t fully agree with philosophy professor David

O’Connor’s analysis (and believe he got Dick the Butcher’s motivation wrong), his lecture-article

Professionalism and Happiness: Some Lessons from Aristotle (1998) is thought-provoking.

Meanwhile, from Britain: Government fights accusations of UK’s growing compensation culture — “a stance

welcomed by the insurance industry.” (TheLawyer.com, Nov. 10, 2004)

“The Government is determined to scotch any suggestion of a developing ‘compensation culture’ where

people believe that they can seek compensation for any misfortune that befalls them, even if no-one else

is to blame.”

 

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   Speaking of the purported compensation culture, Walter Olson revisits the Vioxx-Millions website story.  Which reminds me to ask (similar to ethicalEsq‘s concerns over which content-targeted ads appear on a lawyer’s website) are there ethical concerns with where a lawyer’s ads appear when a firm  participates in programs like Google’s AdSense?

Also, Australia’s Shadow Attorney General Nicola Roxon says excessive lawyer pay hurts legal  access and social justice.  Hands up for a pay decrease   (Lawyers Weekly, Nov. 19, 2004)  She notes:

• 
  
  “When lawyers try to talk in the media or to governments about family law reform or tort reform they are  almost instantly dismissed because of perceived self-interest, irrespective of the merit of their argument”.
  
  
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  “The ability to question, query, test, doubt and probe is something we are all trained to do and should

  
  

  mark us out as the lead sceptics, challengers and reformers in the country.”

• 
  
  Ed. Note:  When lawyers make excuses for higher fees — especially when they use euphemisms such as “value billing” and pricing/branding strategies from “professions” that are not fiduciaries nor recipients of licensing protections — they fail to understand the basic fiduciary relationship between lawyers and their clients.   And, they undermine further the profession’s image. (see ethicalEsq Value Billing or Venal Bilking? and Fees and the Lawyer-Fiduciary)

On the hand hand, a new working paper from AAI says international cartels overcharge their customers 32% on average, while domestic cartels average a mere 18%. Price-Fixing Overcharges: Legal and Economic Evidence (American Antitrust Institute Working Paper #04-05, by John M. Connor).  Buy American (cartels)!  And support aai!

 

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

sharing her flu –

even the coffee

is bitter

      [Nov. 19, 2004]

 

 

  If you’ve wondered what it feels like to have fibromyalgia, click here, and

let the Three Graces show you where the FMS “tender points” can be found. (click it to enlarge)

 

  After all that misery sharing, you deserve some fresh haiku from this month’s

The Heron’s Nest, written by a few of f/k/a‘s Honored Guest friends:

 

 

sunshine

through the river’s haze

white butterflies

                                 Barry George 

 

winter doldrums

up to her elbows

in potting soil

                          Pamela Miller Ness

 

 

graveside

my father and I

find common ground

                                  Tom Painting

 

long winter —

prayer bundles sway

in the cedars

                                 Billie Wilson                            

                                                                                                                                     

 

 

p.s.  Despite Prof. B’s bloviation, Carl Zimmer of The Loom weblog has just won the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s 2004 Science Journalism Award for a three-part online series. (via Corante Blog)  Zimmer can indeed spark an interest in evlolution and all science with his fine essays and books.

 

p.p.s. Let’s end with a positive note from the weblawg trenches:  A new weblog by Robert Ambrogi —

Media Law (a weblog “about freedom of the press”).  Bob won’t need any good luck.