The Big Game? What are they getting at? The World Cup?
This weekend, that big football event we’ve come to call the Super Bowl occurs. But this time of year we get to enjoy the timidity of advertisers, who tremble at the thought of using the “SB” term itself.
As a result, we are inundated with inane ads that trumpet “The Big Game” or some permutation of that milquetoast label.
The Super Bowl organizers and their attorneys guard that name carefully, as they should. But when the use is entirely peripheral to the game, and when advertisers mention the game not to confuse consumers but to offer products and services that would improve the game experience, they believe they cannot utter “Super Bowl”? Gimme a break!
That kind of circumscribed thinking made me chuckle as I gazed at the accumulation of ads that came in this week’s Arizona Republic. In this case, it was supermarkets who studiously avoided the term. Bizarro world.
Extending that “thinking,” I guess we should say that “This year’s Big Game is between a team from Denver and another from Seattle.” Wary of uttering “Seahawks” or “Broncos,” that’s all we should say.
The disappearing Super Bowl, via the timidity of advertisers.
Here, the author quotes another on the harm we do to fair-use concepts when we surrender those rights without true understanding:
“In their recent book Reclaiming Fair Use, Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi warn that when we refrain from exercising our fair use rights, and act as if those rights do not exist, we help create a culture in which fair use loses ground to overly aggressive copyright enforcement. The same is true in the trademark realm. We can only hope that when the next Superbowl rolls around, the Times and its brethren, and even the HDTV sellers, will have shed their timidity.”
A hat tip to the eagle-eyed Kathy Nakagawa who spotted this wonderful issue that intersects sports and intellectual property.
The Irish Cultural Center, Phoenix, from above (photo: Weecks Productions)
Earlier this month, Arizona’s own Sandra Day O’Connor was recognized at the Irish Cultural Center in Phoenix for her achievements and contributions—and for being Irish.
As the Irish Central news hub announced, the retired Supreme Court Associate Justice received “the prestigious Anam Cara Award (Irish Soul Friend).” It was bestowed in honor of “her illustrious career, long-term service to the community and her family’s Irish heritage.”
Justice sandra Day O’Connor (ret.) and attorney Debbie Weecks
You can read the whole story here. (But you may have to suppress a chuckle at the photo caption, which somehow misidentifies Justice O’Connor’s late husband John as being then-Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Here is the photo and accurate cutline.)
Thank you for the heads-up to Arizona attorney Debbie Weecks, who attended the event. Her son Dan also runs a production company and provided some photos of the evening, as well as a video made for the occasion. Here is the great video on what Anam Cara means, and why Sandra Day O’Connor is a worthy recipient. It includes interviews with noteworthy folks like former Arizona Chief Justice Ruth McGregor.
And thank you to Dan Weecks of Weecks Productions for sharing the photos and the video.
I can’t let January slip away without pointing you toward a great column in Arizona Attorney Magazine. In the last-page column titled “Extra Value for Community Service,” attorney Gary Restaino reminds us all about a revised Arizona rule that is aimed to encourage pro bono work—and that could get you some CLE credit.
Here’s how Gary opens his essay:
“I suspect that if we made a list of lawyers who seek to give back to their communities, and a second list of lawyers who get some degree of agita from the State Bar’s continuing legal education requirements, lots of us would be on both lists. If you are among those counted twice, have I got a deal for you. Starting in January 2014, when providing legal assistance to the indigent through ‘approved legal services organizations,’ you can earn CLE for your pro bono service.”
“Supreme Court Rule 45, as amended, permits a lawyer to claim one hour of CLE for every five hours of pro bono service, up to a maximum of five self-study CLE hours per year. (This would get you halfway to the aspirational 50 hours of annual pro bono assistance.) Wholly apart from the personal satisfaction you can receive from representing those in need, you can save money on CLE videos and courses.”
To make it easier for you to get started, I reprint here the column’s sidebar that points you to a few great agencies where you might offer your talents.
Offering Your Help
To enroll as a volunteer to provide general legal assistance, contact:
Community Legal Services (Maricopa, Mohave, LaPaz, Yavapai and Yuma Counties)
Today, I’m pleased to share a guest post that could just as easily have run in Arizona Attorney Magazine. The topic and its coverage may be of great assistance to lawyers examining their office space options.
The author is Howard Ecker. Here is some brief background on Howard (a more complete bio is at the end of this post):
“Howard Ecker founded Howard Ecker + Company in 1975 as the first real estate company in Chicago devoted exclusively to representing tenants. From working on one of the original leases in the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco in the early 1970’s to currently representing national accounting firm BDO USA, Howard’s 40+ year career has included many significant projects.”
THE LEGAL PROFESSION is not what it used to be. Our father’s law office is becoming unrecognizable; with the legal profession rapidly changing. It has become much easier to be strategic and efficient with office spaces. With changes that have come about due to new financial models, emerging technology, and changing commuting habits, office worth is no longer easily predictable.
Howard Ecker
How does a firm know when to grow, how to grow, and what tenets to keep in mind in these rapidly changing times?
It is a topic that I know very well due to my 40+ years in the commercial real estate business. Large and small law firms alike regularly contact us asking for advice on how to create office space that represents their unique culture.
Perhaps it’s wiser to think about what NOT to do, or the biggest mistakes law firms tend to make when expanding their office space. If you make it a point to avoid these, you will come out with a stronger, more strategic and successful business than you would have without it.
Mistake No. 1: Overspending
Firms often want to move into the newest “Class A” building and look to build out spectacular space with high end finishes and built-ins. You need to keep in mind that often your clients are not willing to pay increased hourly billing rates / fees to cover the overhead for your accoutrements of wealth. The result…a less profitable firm. Also remember, the higher the rent and more expensive the build-out, the larger security deposit / guarantee the landlord will be looking for. While it’s important that your space reflects the culture and brand of the firm, you need to balance that with the underlying financial impact to ensure the firm can support any increased operating or capital expense. Additionally, you never want a client to say your rates are too high based on how you are living.
Mistake No. 2: Not Considering Who Your Target Clients Are
For instance, if you are trying to expand your tech company practice, traditional office space in large office towers may not reflect the values of your future clients. Build spaces that attract your target clients, and particularly in locations where you want to attract top leads. If your goal is to attract technology corporations, you must build where they are in space where they feel comfortable. Make it easy for you to market your services by building amenities that they can utilize, such as conference rooms with great connectivity and internal spaces that can host tech industry mixers or startup competitions.
Mistake No. 3: Treating Office Space as a Job Reward
Do not use the corner office or larger private offices as a symbolic reward for “making partner” if it causes the firm to use office space less effectively and efficiently. Most of our clients are embracing the “one size fits all” mentality. Building this way allows you to be much more flexible with the office space.
Mistake No. 4: Not Being Flexible for Future Growth
Firms often do not grow like other businesses. Growth can often be more rapid when bringing in a new group of partners or practice group. The same can happen in reverse, leaving you with significant excess space. Pushing to have as much lease flexibility as you can with layers of options to expand, renew, contract and terminate is so important and, as we often advise our clients, worth paying a premium for. That said, if flexibility is key, it is important to let landlords know at the start of negotiations. That way you can quickly resolve if it will be an issue to get such rights and move on if the building cannot accommodate.
Mistake No. 5: Failing To Consider Work-Life Amenities
Your staff, attorneys and partners work long hours. It can help with both recruiting and retaining employees to locate your office near other businesses and services that enhance the work-life balance of your employees. For instance, fitness centers, abundant restaurant options, proximity to transportation, and even things like “doggie day care” can be big pluses for your employees when working long hours.
About The Expert
Howard Ecker founded Howard Ecker + Company in 1975 as the first real estate company in Chicago devoted exclusively to representing tenants. From working on one of the original leases in the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco in the early 1970’s to currently representing national accounting firm BDO USA, Howard’s 40+ year career has included many significant projects. Howard works with business leaders to align office location thinking with the long term fiscal and cultural needs of their business, connecting the worth of the company to its brand, culture and environment. Howard is a member of the Board of Directors for Chicago’s Adler Planetarium. He graduated from Tulane University in 1966 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian History and attended DePaul Law School.
About Howard Ecker + Company
Howard Ecker + Company is a national commercial tenant representation company and brokerage firm that represents the commercial real estate interests of tenants throughout the United States. With offices in Chicago, New York, Denver, and Miami, Howard Ecker + Company helps tenants locate, negotiate and evaluate all possibilities in their search for office space. Learn more about the firm here.
I don’t know about you, but I am exhausted just thinking about all the running done by the State Bar of Arizona Bar Flys in the PF Chang’s Rock ‘n Roll Marathon. Whew. I may have to sit down.
Well, those of us who did not run sure appreciate those who did. The team was comprised of 76 lawyers, law students and other committed law professionals (or those who love them).
Rehydrating at Mile 14
Team captain (and Senior Bar Counsel) David Sandweiss shared the news of the team’s success in the corporate categories of the marathon. That 76-person team led the category of “Corporate Medium Division.” (Yes, David concedes, the Bar was the only entity in the category this year. But he adds, “Be it known, however, that last year’s runner up in our division had only 46 runners so with history as precedent we’d have smoked them this year, too!” That’s the spirit!)
Happy Change of Venue Friday. Looking for something to do this weekend? Why not enjoy an art exhibit?
Why is this on my mind? The Arizona Attorney Magazine arts submissions were due recently, so we’ve been up to our elbows in art of all kinds. So that may be why I was especially susceptible when I heard from a lawyer that her one-woman show was opening on January 21. The opening reception was a blast.
It Rains on the Just and the Unjust, by Dair Deckert
When I dropped by the reception, the room was packed with well-wishers and art lovers. I had seen a thumbnail image of one of Dair’s pieces, but that never does it justice. The large canvases are compelling and vibrant.
A few photos of the event are at the end of this post.
Dair’s art will be displayed until January 30. The gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. More information is at the gallery’s website.
And because you will never in a million years be able to locate the gorgeous gallery on that web page, I’ve posted in a map below. (Click to make it larger.)
If you have a show—artistic or otherwise—that you think warrants some blog ink, contact me anytime at arizona.attorney@azbar.org. I’d love to help share your story.
Note: This post was updated to reflect the fact that on January 24 organizers consolidated two shows into one. The show at the Tempe Improv was consolidated into the Stand Up Live show on Thursday. All Tempe tickets will work in Downtown.
As I’ve said before, lawyers make me laugh. And occasionally, that’s their goal.
Next week, you and I have the opportunity to see that second kind of attorney—the intentionally funny ones. That’s when a slate of talented lawyer–comedians take the stage at Stand-Up Live in Phoenix.
So let me start by saying you should buy tickets (no, no one paid me to say that). Click the link above to get to the ticket page. And when you get to the payment page, adding the word LAWYER to the promo code box gets you half off (did you hear me? Half off!).
I plan to be at the Phoenix event (yes, I paid for my own ticket), and I’m looking forward to it. As you may know, I have a rich and Borscht Belt history of admiring comedians. Here is a post I wrote about a local competition of attorney–comics.
Next week’s events include the comic genius (or at least idiot-savant-ness) of attorneys Bob Howard, Nancy Stanley and Matt Storrs. They will follow the headliner, Matt Ritter.
Nancy Stanley
Matt Storrs
Their joint efforts are part of what’s called Comedians at Law, self-described here:
“Because of their passion for comedy and their desperate desire not to practice law, the Comedians at Law joined together to travel the country, deliver their diverse and intelligent brand of humor, and entertain audiences at law schools, bar associations, law firms, comedy clubs and anyone else willing to cut a check that can be used to pay down their student loans.”
“The reaction has been overwhelming. Comedians at Law are in demand, and members of Comedians at Law have appeared on Fox News “On the Record,” CBS, Sirius/XM’s “Raw Dog” Comedy (as guests and as guest-hosts of their morning program), and in The Wall Street Journal and CNN.com. Comedians at Law: Good at Law. Better at Comedy.”
Want to see more? Here is a video about those legal humorists.
So who’s with me? If you plan to be at the Phoenix event, let me know. It’d be nice to meet others who like to laugh at lawyers (in a good way!).
This is your brain on typical conferences. (The sizzle you hear is not the good kind.)
So, why do I point you toward a conference that you may never attend? The Niche Media Conference begins in just over a month, and attorneys may not be its natural audience. But here are a few reasons I share the news with you:
Who knows? You might attend it.
It features large masses of awesomeness, which we mere mortals often have in short supply.
You may be headed to Charleston, S.C., anyway in late February, so who knows?
You may have a law firm or a niche practice that could benefit from new ideas, free-wheeling creativity, and grits.
I have told you about the Niche Media Conference before. And I do so again not because I harbor any illusions that lawyers may suddenly decide to expand their horizons and get their brain muscles flexing in different directions.
I do it because you should do exactly that.
Here, I suppose, is where an excellent, non-tired correspondent would provide some brain research to back up his persuasive argument. But I’m afraid you’re out of luck there. All I can tell you is, most mental breakthroughs I’m familiar with occurred not when I faced the same-same, but when I was challenged by the jaw-droppingly different. How about you?
Over here in publication-land, we face a shifting world just as off-putting as that facing the legal profession. We’re reminded that “People don’t read anymore,” that “People want to consume everything on their mobile device,” that “People are moving to entirely gluten-free diets.”
OK, I inserted that last one simply to reward folks who read all the way to the fourth graf. A hat tip to you hardy souls.
But all of those challenges are merely spurs to get us all thinking creatively. Whether you’re in law or in an award-winning niche publication like Arizona Attorney (see what I did there), your success won’t arrive with same-same. But it may arrive if you associate yourself with smart, creative folks.
Which takes me back to Niche. Though my own schedule won’t permit me to head to the Palmetto State next month (Balderdash!), I still get pretty jazzed just examining the Niche website.
Once again, it opens with a fast-moving and humorous video. See a terrific sneak peek here.
And then the website mentions sweet tea, bourbon, shrimp and grits. And ONLY then does it provide the detail about its educational tracks. Priorities, people.
Just as compelling are the seminars, which almost entirely are hands-on and practical-focused. The Niche goal is that when you return home, grits- and bourbon-laden, you also possess a number of ideas you can institute immediately to help your business.
I do not get paid by Niche to say this, nor do they give me a free registration or even a glass of sweet tea. My words are, in the best Southern tradition, a lagniappe (look that up, you Millennials who don’t read anymore).
I offer this testimony as someone who has attended many conferences of the legal variety. And if law practice has to change (please tell me we all agree on that), legal conferences must shift, as well.
We’d do worse than learn from some great videos and, even better, a forward-thinking attitude.
Another in a series of annual legal profession predictions wagers that most law firms will maintain their staff levels going forward. More surprising, more than a quarter of law firm leaders surveyed expect to increase lawyer positions.
Those are a few of the results from Robert Half Legal, released in December.
Below, I’ve included more of their findings. Read them and tell me: Do those results jive with your own experiences and expectations?
What’s on the docket for the legal profession in the months ahead? Hiring seems to be on the minds of many, a new survey from Robert Half Legal indicates. Twenty-seven percent of lawyers interviewed said their law firm or company plans to expand or add new positions in the next six months. Fifty-five percent said their organizations expect to maintain current staff levels by filling vacant posts, while 12 percent of survey respondents said they will not fill vacant positions or create new ones and two percent anticipate staff reductions.
Litigation is expected to drive much of the hiring, the research shows. Nearly half (46 percent) of lawyers surveyed expect litigation to generate the greatest number of legal job opportunities from January through June of 2014. Within the litigation practice area, insurance defense was cited by 46 percent of lawyers as the leading driver of job growth, followed by commercial litigation (37 percent) and employment law (28 percent).
The survey was developed by Robert Half Legal, alegal staffing firm specializing in lawyers, paralegals and other highly skilled legal professionals. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on 200 telephone interviews with lawyers in the United States: 100 of the respondents are employed at law firms with 20 or more employees and 100 are employed at companies with 1,000 or more employees. All of the respondents have hiring authority within their organizations.
Lawyers were asked, “Which one of the following practice areas, in your opinion, will offer the greatest number of job opportunities in the first six months of 2014?” Their responses:
Litigation: 46%
General business/commercial law: 10%
Intellectual property: 6%
Real estate: 4%
Family law: 4%
Privacy, data security, information law: 3%
Regulatory/compliance: 2%
Insurance: 2%
Other: 12%
None/don’t know/no answer: 11%
Lawyers who cited “litigation” as a response also were asked, “Which of the following areas of litigation, if any, will offer the greatest job opportunities in the first half of 2014?”Their responses:*
AZ Attorney 
