Dog Days of Summer Poll
 

#1. I was almost always in school in my adult summers, but a few things I liked to do included, going up to Southwest Michigan on a few weekdays, when all the weekenders had gone home, to enjoy a nice quiet lake. Everybody has friends with a place up there, so it shouldn't be too hard to throw $200 at em for a Monday thru Wednesday so you can read a book.

#2. Laugh if you will, but I once had a college friend whose entire retired military family was in Olney, IL. So I went and visited them with a few of our other college friends. Having never been in the middle of a farm that is filled with ripe? (is that the right word) corn for so much as a single evening, I found the entire experience of sitting on a patio in the middle of the sticks, and talking to nice older people well, nice. I think I'd like to visit a farm (plants, not animals) for 3-5 days in July or August every year. I'd even volunteer to do some work.

#3 did you say "off-the-beaten-path activities"? There is a bakery around 95th and Kedzie named Wolfs that sells the absolute best Potato bread I've ever had. There is a Polish bakery somewhere around 47th and Ashland, but I'd better get you a good address before I send anyone there, where they sell great bread too. The Medici at U of C on east 57th street? Panes bread shop on Sheffield (mmmm, Chicked Pompazo OR the French loaf bread). Whats that place in LaGrange where everyone goes?

#4 Sox Park? I'd be redundaticizing myself to name places out that way, but if you want me to....

Say Hello For Me

Dog Days of Summer Poll
 

1: Varies widely by department, from very to mildly. August is always slow in terms of legal news. Everyone who can goes on vacation, everyone else gets stuck doing all their work.

2: I've been spending a lot of my time rehabbing/remodeling stuff in the house. Amazingly, a six pack and a few cds make hanging drywall, refinishing floors and painting not seem like that much work. Organizing closets and deciding what stuff to throw out, though, is still work. At least things should be all squared away for the winter months. Except maybe the hot tub, which might take until the first of the year.

As for restaurants, I've been going to off-the-beaten path places without returning to old favorite favorites that much. Trying to expand my experiences, I suppose. Haven't been too impressed by much yet, but have found a new neighborhood Italian fusion place that I like (Tarantino's, near Clybourn on Armitage).

Is this going too far??
 

So I see the ABA Board of Governors has approved changes to model ethics rules allowing lawyers to breach attorney-client privilege to prevent corporate fraud in certain situations. Previously, only risk of death or bodily harm would allow such a breach.

While I realize that we as a profession are "officers of the Court", we are also supposed to be loyal to and zealous on behalf of our clients... I certainly sympathize with those who lost everything in the Enron, Worldcom, et al. debacles, but lawyers are not accountants. We aren't certifying ANYTHING to the public and are supposed to be advocating the position our clients tell us to advocate (or that we suggest they take). My personal opinion is that this new rule change goes a bit too far.

I'd be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts.


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Dog Days of Summer
 

I've been working my ass off (other than a brief trip to the sick ward) all summer. I have a number of deals going, ranging in size from a few billion to $320K. But that's the thing about in-house. We still conduct business, even if we don't have the budget to hire a lot of you outsiders to take a piece of it.

For folks in the Western 'Burbs, a ray of sunshine. There's a new branch of Heaven on Seven opening in downtown Naperville this month. It took the spot that used to make the best Cuban sandwich this side of Miami, but one must make sacrifices for gumbo.

Freeborn & Peters
 

Because we had no internet on Monday, I had to waste time by looking through magazines. While flipping through Corporate Counsel, I came across an interesting ad for Freeborn & Peters. The full-page ad features a picture of the 311 South Wacker bldg at night, with all the office windows dark except for those presumably occupied by F&P. The ad reads:

"Yes, we have regular business hours. Sometimes they're all hours. Freeborn & Peters guarantees hard work, quick turnaround and client service. Our business is conducted in real time, and that's not always daytime. So when our clients notice our lights on late, they rest assured."

A few questions.

1. Do they show this ad to their SAs?

2. If GAs leave early, do they have to leave their lights on to allow their clients peace of mind?

3. Do the GPs know that the website address (www.freebornpeters.com) makes me giggle?

Freeborn & Peters
 

Nice. Great recruiting tool, especially here where things aren't quite as bad as "NY hours" for GA's. I'm sure they don't build that inflated energy bill into their fee structure either...

Mr. Hand's Lessons for the New First Years...
 

Since it's vacation season and very slow on the Chicago legal news front, I thought I'd take this opportunity to offer some sage advice to the new First Year associates who will be joining firms throughout Chicago (and the country for that matter) after Labor Day... Feel free to chime in with some of your own:


1. Dress code: Even if your new firm is summer casual, always err a little on the side of dressing more conservatively than the associates a few years senior to you... This doesn't mean wear a suit everyday, but don't stand out by being sloppier than most.

2. Be careful when replying to or sending "All-Firm" e-mails or voice mails... For replies, make sure you are only replying to the sender and not to everyone else. When sending e-mails to the entire firm, do so only at the request of a superior, be sure you know exactly what they want it to say, and check, double check and triple check the content before you send it.

3. If you are not busy, don't feel obligated to sit at your desk all evening waiting for the phone to ring. Business is cyclical, and sometimes you will be less busy than your peers. By all means seek out work, preferably by calling directly people you want to work with who have a reputation for treating associates well. But don't feel bad going home "early" on those days when you have nothing on your plate... What comes around goes around, believe me, so take advantage of a lull when you can...

4. Talk to your peers and associates in higher classes about partners' reputations so you know who to work for and who to avoid...

5. Get involved in pro bono work... It gets you more responsibility, more recognition and offers a wide variety of work and experience...

6. Be friendly. Say hello to people on your floor, in the elevator, etc. Don't be obnoxious, but make the effort even if you get a cold shoulder. Face it, some people are happy being miserable.

7. Be nice to support staff and to your secretary. Know your secretary's birthday and get him/her something. The support staff are often in a position to help you out in jam... Your secretary probably knows a lot more about the firm, it's procedures and it's office politics. Let them help you stay out of trouble...

Best of luck to all...

Mr. Hand's Lessons for the New First Years...
 

Yes, but what sage advice to you have for a 2nd year in a boutique firm who wants a different job or non-law job?

There's clearly no birthday party for me here.

Mr. Hand's Lessons for the New First Years...
 

Since I've never been in that situation, I'm not going to patronize you with pithy advice about what I'd do. Ok, maybe just a little bit...

Try this:

1. Find a good headhunter. I'd recommend (from colleagues' recommendations) McCormack Schreiber or Major Hagen & Africa.

or 2., failing that:

Move east and nail Paigow...

Freeborn & Peters
 

Maybe they are just trying to make people think that they're one of the big boys, but it just seems silly. Anyone hiring a law firm from an ad in Corporate Counsel knows that, when they're paying hundreds of dollars an hour for their lawyers to do stuff, the lawyers will work all night when it's necessary. No one, when reading Corporate Counsel and making a decision about which firm to retain, thinks "Hmmm, are these the kind of guys who are going to be going home at five when I need them to get something done?"

And that sounds like a place where face time would be a big issue. Fuck that. When I interview in the future, that will be the first question I ask: "Is this the kind of place that expects me to spend a lot of time in the office when it's not necessary?"

Unless I really need a job, I guess.

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco...
 

Coltrane, the first thing you need to do is go get a buzz on. Make sure that you're not just suddenly waking up and realizing the honeymoon is over. That tends to hit a lot of 2d and 3d years, and it's temporary.

Assuming that's not the case, you need to figure out whether you don't wanna be a lawyer no more, or you don't wanna work in a boutique, etc.

There are other alternatives. Bigger firms. In-house. You could go government for a few years and really learn something about the type of law you allegedly practice. (Nothing personal, but I finally figured out ten years into the game that I was only beginning to be worth something at about year five.)

If you do decide you don't want to practice law any more, think about transferable skills, etc. But whatever you do, don't burn your bridges. Nothing's worse than leaving a firm, announcing loudly to all that you hate the law, etc. only to find out after a year or two of doing something else that what you REALLY hate is having to work for a living.

Yes, I know all this "advice" is superficial and very general. But let's face it. You don't know me and I don't know jack about you. How deep can we get? Besides, it's worth exactly what you paid for it.

Oh yeah. Getting laid also helps your perspective tons. If it's been a while, I'd start there.

Mr. Hand's Lessons for the New First Years...
 

2. Don't just check content. You don't want to be the first year who misspelled the managing partner or firm's name in an all-firm email. People will remember it and laugh at you.

3. Going home early when you are a slow first year means leave at 5:30, it does not mean cut out at 3. You don't want to have a dark office when the partner comes around at 5 to have you do something.

5. Don't do too much pro bono work. By all means, do some, but don't become known as ProBonoGuy because all you do is pro bono work. Do not ever turn down billable work because of a pro bono project.

7. Be nice to everyone's secretary. They will talk about you. When they talk about you, they will talk to other secretaries and will also tell the lawyers they work for about the snippy first year who was an asshole to them. Because smart people like to make their secretaries happy, when lawyers hear complaints from their secretary about a snippy first year, they go yell at the snippy first year.

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco...
 

Your advice is much appreciated. And not superficial at all. Especially the part about bridge-burning. I have a great desire to go down in flames, but I'm not sure why. Part of me thinks it would just be fun. Maybe I'm self destructive or dramatic or rebellious for the wrong reasons. I've been known to do stuff just b/c I'm not supposed to do it. I definitely need to put that out of my mind. The law I practice is fairly specialized, and somewhat interesting. Unfortunately, I still don't have the responsibility I desire, which puts me in a catch-22 position regarding leverage with the firm.

By "get a buzz on" do you mean "get drunk often"? I think I've got that one covered.

Thanks again.

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco...
 

Get drunk, get stoned, drop a xanax, get you ice cream cone with sprinkles for a change. Whatever puts a smile, on, Dude. I make it a point every single week to do something as a treat for me.

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco...
 

The SEC is currently hiring staff attys at all regional offices (including Chicago). How difficult is it to get in? It's not DOJ tough, is it? I do have a finance background.

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco...
 

Probably isn't quite as tough as DOJ... Plus, it's a growth industry right now. Putting corporate execs. in Federal "Pound Me in the Ass" Prison is in...

Chicago Remembers 9/11/01
 

Hard to believe it was two years ago.

It was a beautiful day here, just like New York. I was on the train to work almost to downtown when the first reports came out of a plane crashing into the WTC. About 10 minutes later, I'm walking to work by one of the brokerage firms and a large group of people are clustered around a flat-screen TV in a storefront window. That was the first time I saw it. I just stood there in shock for a few minutes, but then I thought it was just a horrible accident. I get to work, fire up the computer, and learned by then from the news and people in the office that it was not as the second plane and the Pentagon plane went in.

Shortly thereafter, my office was evacuated. I caught a ride home with a co-worker, but due to the traffic and confusion it took almost 3 hours to make a 45 minute trip. It took almost that long to alert Mrs. Hand, as the cell phones were jammed up. By the time I got home, I wanted to do nothing else but hug my family. I think I watched the news for the better part of the next 48 hours after that...

Though the closest person lost to my family was the son-in-law of a family friend (who left a wife and two darling children), it still hurts to think about it. I have family in NYC, and vividly remember visiting the WTC as a kid. I was in NYC about a month before it happened. I've been back a few times since, and on one recent trip my flight into LaGuardia was diverted fairly low over Ground Zero. I'll never forget looking down into that pit at night, with all of the floodlights on it. I'll go in person someday, but I think I'll wait until they rebuild there and I'll take the kids. They still don't know about it, and I think I'd like to keep it that way for a while... How do you explain something like that?

Any thoughts or memories you have are appreciated...

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco...
 

This is a fuck!

Chicago Remembers 9/11/01
 

Not to get political here, but it reminds me of a conversation I had 9 days ago with a Chicago friend about history and legacy.

In Virginia, people can raise their kids and bring them to Manassas to teach them a lesson about Stonewall Jackson. Its a beautiful, albeit imperfect, opportunity to teach children the importance of leadership and teamwork, and to explain how standing firm, as a group, in the midst of battle, can steady the resolve of others who already doubt the outcome.

Additionally, Gettysburg is about 1 1/2-2 hours outside of Virginia, and among the many lessons you can draw there from people of many states on either side, you can walk Pickett's mile, and show how those who believe in something will walk across a mile of open ground to face their enemy under hellish fire. The (mostly?) Virginia division advanced and fought until they are ordered to retreat by their weeping leader who sees his neighbors being slaughtered across the field over which they've advanced.

You can teach kids about the 116th infantry regiment (I think that was the number) of the Virginia National guard storming Omaha beach on D-Day and incurring the heaviest casualties of any regiment that day, in order to do their part to end a conflagration that had enveloped the entire nation and taken the sons of every state.

I could go on and on about the lessons you could proudly teach your children about their heritage in Virginia and, I'm sure, in any other state.


At the World Trade Center, you could teach children that Americans don't always get to choose their battlefields, their battles, or even their enlistment, because our enemies don't always make the same distinctions we do. So whether we like it or not, as Americans, we are all potentially engaged, whether or not we accept it as fair.

But I'd probably hold off on the WTC talk for any kids under 12 or 13. To me, its about the ideological equivalent of Bergen-Belsen or lynchings, though I don't mean to imply that any of them are atrocities of the same scale.

Hello

Something in the water?
 

Oh yeah, and to add to the list of (innocent until proven guilty in some cases) famous criminals with Chicago-area origins, this weekend's Washington Post notes that whatshisname Hatfill's, the anthrax dude's, father, is a Mattoonite.

Or is that too far away to belong to the Hannsen (most damaging spy in history), Kaczynski (not even in the top 100 most damaging Luddites in history, but still noteworthy as the Unabomber), Capone, etc... etc... etc... etc... (repeat 500 times) crowd?

Whats with you people?

Hello

Seyfarth/D'Ancona merger
 

Yet another longstanding firm name bites the dust in this year of consolidation in the Chicago legal scene, as Seyfarth Shaw acquired D'Ancona and Pflaum this past week, creating another large-scale firm here (with about 270 lawyers)... Sounds like the attorneys lost in the shakeout of this deal will be minimal, but some staff will be cut loose.

For those keeping score, that's four well known Chicago firms that are no longer with us this year, including Peterson & Ross and Altheimer & Gray (dissolutions) and Ross & Hardies (merger with McGuire Woods)...

Who's next?? Will Bell Boyd or other midsize firms be back on the front burner for a merger or acquisition? Stay tuned.

Seyfarth/D'Ancona merger
 

When did Peterson Ross bite it? I guess I missed that one.

Tax(life in the 'burbs...I may as well be in Iowa)wonk

Seyfarth/D'Ancona merger
 

A few months back, before Altheimer, IIRC. Demise was mentioned in the Trib. article on Seyfarth.

Baseball Fever
 

The Sox are fucking killing me. I just TUIMM.

Baseball Fever
 

Between that and the Cubs' fans unwarranted and obnoxious optimism, it is pretty difficult to deal with...

Something in the water?
 

It's the Chicago winter... Don't forget H.H. Holmes, Gacy, Speck, Frank the Enforcer Nitti, Dillinger, whoever did the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, etc... We've had more than our share of ruthless killers and whackjobs over the decades...

Kind of creepy and morbid, but for better or worse it does give the town character. There literally is history on every corner here.

Something in the water?
 

Which is exactly why Chicago needs one or a hundred National Historic Battlefields and National Parks and National Historic Sites and National Historic Carwashes and National Historic Former Speakeasies and National Historic Former Sites of Great and Wondrous Debauchery. If I start a letter writing campaign to a Senator next year (as suggested by yummy burger from DC), which Senator should I ask, Durbin or Hynes?

Come to think of it, Hynes' family bought the old Whittingham place up in Michigan. Maybe I'll walk down the beach some day and stop in and ask Junior. If I'm really lucky, maybe the key Joyce will be visiting that some day; that way, I can go right to the source.

Some day when I'm not confronting hurricanes and a stack of files badder than Old King Kong, and meaner than a junk yard dog that is.

But when you see that campaign getting started, you'll know where it came from.


Hello

PS Me, just in case the reader doesn't know.

and so it begins, maybe
 

The Chicago Tribune reports the indictments of 7 people for shenanigans related to city contracts.

Mobs, government contracts, minorities, democrats, Daley.

Re: Patricia Green Duff, I gotta wonder if she is a Daley. That middle name is common to one (recent) branch of the Daley family.

Whenever I see one of these, I always wonder if the government is really going to do a knockout blow on the town one of these days. You know, city contracts today, McCormick Place indictments next monday, Navy Pier (no) bidding next Thursday,
a coupla aldermen in two weeks, and so on and so on?

That would just be dreamy.

Hello

and so it begins, maybe
 

Political corruption in Chicago? Stop the presses!

Seriously, this is about as close to Daley as this stuff has gotten, but of course he'll now claim he never met these people. Even when the reporters show him the autographed picture he had taken with them when he took their big check.

On the bright side, he'll probably go on one of his babbling, red-faced tirades on the news, which are always entertaining...

Miscellaneous Ramblings
 

Random musings for a Monday:

1. Not much exciting happening in legal news locally. Have noticed an uptick in recruiter calls and the job mobility of people I know in the business has increased, so I suppose that's good.

2. Trying to decide which smells worse, the Cubs fans who rolled in early this morning from celebrating the NLDS win or the overflowing dumpsters from the garbage strike.

I know Daley, Blagojevich (in order of power), et al., want to make nice with the Teamsters and everything, but they have to keep a short leash on this one. It's been almost a week and pretty soon we'll be talking a major health hazard. Not good for the tourists, either.

3. How did the Bears manage to win a game? Find a team more decrepit than they are? Nice win, but they'll still be lucky to win 3 or 4 this year...

Miscellaneous Ramblings
 

I've been getting a few calls and letters, but nothing local. Of course, I've been in-house long enough that that's what head hunters bring me, and with the number of Chicago firms closing or merging elsewhere, there isn't as big a pool locally.

I give it until Friday, then I'm going to rent a truck and dump my garbage in Waste Management's driveway.

ON any given day, a hundred drunken monkeys.......

Miscellaneous Ramblings
 

Not my area of law, but how hard would it be to just form a new company, hire some locals, and completely replace the strikers in, say, a suburb? Is there some restriction from doing that? Do the suburbs collectively bargain?

OTOH, I agree with ya about the short leash thing. And just when Daley is on a few of the ropes too. CTA fare increase, teacher's threatening a strike, lots of questions about expensive lakefront boondoggles, the Feds indicting his buddies.

Hello

Miscellaneous Ramblings
 

It wouldn't be that hard legally, but there are many practical problems:

why would some suburb hire you for that work with no experience in that business?;

the strike is pretty close to being over;

the Teamsters would break your knees;

it's not that easy to start a business from scratch on a short-time frame. Garbage trucks are expensive.

Uh oh (SABW)
 

Tribune reports the IRS is going after Sidley and Austin for J&G-type problems.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...i-business-hed

Hello

Uh oh (SABW)
 

yes, but it's the whores from Brown and Wood's tax department that got them in trouble.

Uh oh (SABW)
 

Sounds like there could be more to come as well...

FYI, as a matter of housekeeping, can we keep everything in the Chicago Happenings thread? Makes it easier for the people who are actually reading things here to find stuff. Thanks.

The Loneliest Man in the World
 

I am not a Cubs fan and am only a casual Sox fan (I support the team from my birthplace). As such I do not understand what decades and decades of utter despair and futility can do to the fans in this town, and I hope I never will.

That being said, I can't help feeling really bad for "The Fan", the 26-year-old guy who tried to catch the foul ball and led, at least karmically, if not in reality, to the Cubs not winning the pennant for the first time in 58 years.

It's ridiculous what he is having to put up with. At least 5 death threats, media camped out at his home and workplace, not to mention having thousands of people who for some insane reason want to assault him on sight. Cubs fans are always quick to tell anyone in earshot that they are the Best Fans in Baseball. I've always doubted that, having witnessed firsthand the drunken frat boy atmosphere in the bleachers at Wrigley, where most people hardly know a game is going on, they are so blitzed.

While they do have some truly loyal, passionate longtime fans who deserve better, many of them deserve just what they got. Especially those who are willing to cannibalize one of their own.

The poor guy now joins a billy goat and Leon Durham in the pantheon of the mystic excuses the Cubs have for not winning. He'll probably have to move. That would be a shame.

Particularly shameful was the media, especially the Chicago Sun-Times which started it, publicizing his name and where he lives and works. I only wish he had a cause of action against them, but he most likely doesn't.

Bottom line, blame the overpaid millionaires on the field who actually play the game. Leave the guy alone.

Uh oh (SABW)
 

Will do. Figured at the time that it was of interest beyond Chicago, but Chicago (generically) was the appropriate forum for posting. But Chicago in the Chicago Happenings thread it is.

Hello

The Loneliest Man in the World
 

The other Cubs fans are the best reason I can give for not being one myself. The bleachers were occasionally fun for 1-3 years of my life, but the drunken atmosphere is not an inducement for the adult Hello. Still, when they boys and I get together for a night of drunken fighting, there is nowhere better than Wrigleyville.

From the blame game being played this week, it looks like the drunken frat boys are the bulk of their fan base. Worse still is that the Cubs organization (esp. the most prominent members) don't stand up and say "screw that, he didn't put 8 across the place... uhm, that was us". Or something like that. Accountability in Chicago? Not in my lifetime.

And Fox that night repeatedly showing the play and drawing circles around him. And governor jagoff. And the media for even approaching his father and neighbors. Chicago was shown in a very ugly light (again) this week.

Hello

Uh oh (SABW)
 

Unless I'm mistaken, it's all the same series of transactions. J&G was setting them up and doing all the corporate and tax work; B&W was giving tax opinions.