JOEL BIEBER'S BLOG

What Is Really Real

     I regularly get asked whether the economy effects my business. I used to say that it didn't, but lately, I am receiving calls from clients who can't afford to go to their doctor visits because of gas prices. Their wrecked and totaled cars have loans greater then their values. So, when the insurance company pays off the fair market value of their car, they are still in the hole for the difference on the loan. They just want their car back.

     It starts to make you wonder why nothing is being done about our economy. Why aren't we bringing back oil from Iraq. Wasn't that war supposed to pay for itself. Why are all the ideas being currently floated, so beneficial to oil companies. Everyone talks about such things as offshore drilling immediately, but by all conservative estimates, even if you're in favor of drilling in Alaska, it still wouldn't go into effect for about 3-4 years. Can we really wait that long to do something? Plus, those that are advocating that, have they ever been on a cruise to Alaska? I wonder if they would still be that excited about drilling there. Proponents say that the wildlife will adapt. How's that adaptation coming where the Valdez Exxon spill occurred.

     It starts to make you wonder about whether there really is a great conspiracy. Maybe there really were more than one rifleman on the grassy knoll and Oswald didn't act alone. Maybe the cops do know who shot Tupac and there is an alien in a vault, out in the desert. Well,,,,,,,, maybe not. Anyway, here's a video that will get your attention from youtube.com, that shows a ball girl making a miraculous catch.(ballgirl video) Then, I found out this was a commercial that was rigged. Ok, maybe Oswald didn't act alone.   

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The Lessons of Tim Russert

     I was saddened, on Friday, when I saw a news alert scroll across my phone. It told me that Tim Russert had suddenly died. I expect that conversation around the watercoolers of America centered on how much respect everyone had for him. He had quietly worked his way up the ranks into the higher echelon of respected political commentators. You felt like you saw him on your TV, morning and night.

     In my little world, I had some interaction with him at Wizard's basketball games. He wouldn't have known my name but would have known me as a Wizard's fan. I sat directly behind him for something like eight seasons which meant that I probably saw him for a little over 60 games during that period. In some respects, I felt like I got to know he and his family a little bit, as I saw his son, Luke, grow from a teenager into going to Boston College. I remember when he told me that he was going and remarked that he probably wouldn't be seeing many Wizards games.

     During that period, Mr. Russert never seemed taken by the fact that he was universally recognized. He would bring family or friends in the four seats in front of me, and they'd laugh and enjoy the game like every other fan. I regularly told the story of how James Carville and his wife, Mary Maitlan, came to the game on occasion and sat with him. One night, they were both standing and screaming at the official Dick Bavetta, over some incredulous call that he had made on the Wizards. Bavetta was backpedaling and looked over at them and gave a half smile. He probably couldn't believe his eyes in seeing Carville and Russert hollering at him.  It made me feel good that they both were there with real fan passion.

     Mr. Russert typically kept to himself at the games and didn't interact a tremendous amount with the other fans around because, I think that it truly was his time to relax. However, one evening, he brought his dad to the game. It was right after he had written the bestseller, "Big Russ and Me". I had an opportunity to talk to his dad throughout the night and we even walked up the stairs as we left the game. Fans came over and introduced themselves to "Big Russ" and he truly seemed to enjoy it. Throughout the entire time, Tim had a big smile on his face. He seemed to really like the attention that his dad was getting.

     Today I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that told the story of how Russert had spoken to a young intern, who now writes for the Journal. They had interacted at a Washington Nationals game and Russert had offered encouragement to this young man to go for his dream and "Just Do It". Apparently, Tim had been profoundly effected by his earlier boss, Senator Pat Moynihan, and he passed on certain stories of encouragement to that writer to not be intimidated in chasing his dream but to follow the Nike slogan. Just like that writer, those that interacted with Tim Russert on a personal, professional or casual basis have little memories of things that he said, that we'll pass on to others. He was a busy man but had time to stop and enjoy games, family and conversation. There is a pretty good lesson in that.      

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Generally Speaking

     This morning, I stopped by my doctor's office for blood work. Afterward, I went by McDonald's for an Egg McMuffin. Based upon the nutritional information, the calories are barely over 300. Plus, I always have the ham removed. So, that should take me under 300 calories. Why do I include this in my blog? Well, I think McDonald's should start advertising the McMuffin 300. Maybe they could even have Jared be part spokesman.

     Newly released disclosure regarding the Supreme Court Justices have shown that Justice Alito and Roberts have shed ownership of stocks. (Washington Post article)  Certain ownership had conflicted them out on some reason rulings of the Court. Specifically of interest to me was Justice Roberts being conflicted out of an opinion regarding Bristol Meyers Squibb that deadlocked the Court on whether drug companies could be held liable for their products. As a result, the opinion came down deadlocked at 4-4 with Roberts abstaining and the status quo remained. For my blog, I'd like to encourage Justice Alito and Roberts to load up their stock accounts with all kinds of stock ownership.

     I was just discussing a specific case with one of my negotiators. It involves over 20k in medicals and we have had a settlement package to the insurance adjustor since the beginning of April. Yet, she still delays in making an offer. Friday, I had a mediation where we settled a claim that had been pending for over three years. Trial was coming up and the insurance company had never even made a first offer. As such, the defense lawyer had done alot of work. The point of these two cases is that I am seeing more delay in the handling of claims, which is requiring us to file more lawsuits. However, there are alot of statistics that point to the fact that delays cost business more money.

     An article in Law.com (article) discusses how much that businesses would save by settling early, rather than dragging out a defense, in claims that they owe. Unfortunately, this is not in the best interest of lawyers who get paid by the hour. However, this article discussed the study that showed that early settlement obviously reduces legal fees and non-economic damages. I can only hope that such a message gets out to those who control the checkbooks in claims.

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Mike Vick,George Bush and off to Hilton Head

     I am wrapping some work up in the South Carolina office, while getting ready to head to Hilton Head for the South Carolina Trial Lawyer Convention. They have it there every year and it is always a treat to go. This year, four lawyers are going from the firm.

     The title of this blog sorta sums up a collection of what I have been reading. Every morning, in the hotel, they have at least four different papers to read. I usually read or scan them quickly before breakfast and it gives me a cross section of various editorial leanings. Clearly President Bush and Mike Vick are under attack from all corners. The nicest thing that I think I saw written about the President was when one blogger asked a writer what they thought that he would do after leaving office. The nicest response that I saw was "serve 8 years of community service". The rest went downhill from there. Right now, it appears that only John McCain is defending him and that's not getting him very far in his presidential bid.

     Mike Vick is in the news daily, for his current criminal charges. He was recently interviewed by an Atlanta sports station and told the interviewer that he was in a crisis situation. I'll say. As Ghandi once said, "the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way that its animals are treated". I suppose that Vick does not subscribe to that thinking.   

Just Do Right

     The above quote was attributed to Dr.Bob Jones Sr. Whether he really created it matters less than what it means. Today, I read the Daily Bread's devotional about an elderly man who happened to be going through his things, including old sports coats, and he came across a 54 yr. old parking ticket. The penalty was 15 dollars, so he mailed it in. In his words,"I pay my debts".

     Back when I was in college, word circulated that one of the ushers of chapel, was going to get expelled from school, for stealing from the offering plate. He tried to explain what had motivated him to take from those offerings. His explanation was that he wasn't really taking it, he was just borrowing it for now and planned to pay God back in twice the amount, at a later time.

     I read with interest, the news article today, about the girl in Richmond who was involved in the drunk driving fatality. At her trial, her defense is that she wasn't  really driving.(article here)  The problem with the defense is that she told friends after the crash, that she was the one driving. It will be interesting to see how the jury perceives that defense.

     The stories illustrate how life would be different in doing right. Instead of the old saying,"come to a fork in the road and take it". Life's decisions are much clearer if we can just apply the principle of doing right. Then, people would accept responsibility for their actions.   

Good Old Advice!

     I am currently in St Louis for a lawyer seminar. Each of the speaker topics lasts approximately half an hour and they keep moving pretty quickly. The common theme of many of the speakers is better service and doing things more efficiently. I suspect that a legal seminar fifty years ago, may have had the same message. The technology may have been different. For instance, maybe they were debating whether to look at typewriters or whether the cable was going to lose its effectiveness. Now, the topics include outsourcing,web-optimizing, and specialization.

     While here in St Louis, it is always interesting to read the local news.   Recently in Virginia, we learned that Wachovia had purchased a financial services company and the debate centered on how that would effect Wachovia jobs in Virginia. Here in St Louis, it is a forgone conclusion that all those jobs are moving to St Louis,as Wachovia consolidates its financial investment division, and the local branches are worried about how that will effect local St Louis jobs, in the downsizing.

     There was also an article about a local charity founder who is being charged with converting charity assets to personal use. One person was quoted as saying that the reason the founder took a donated grill for himself was because he had worked hard for the foundation and deserved it. False entitlement knows no state boundaries.

The Power of Words

     We all have heard the terms of copyright and patent. As a high schooler trying to buzz through term papers, I was regularly skimming the World Book in an attempt to get a late night version of some earth shattering book report. At that time, teachers would remind you that it was to be your own ideas. Times have now changed. The karate kid is no kid anymore.

     Not long ago, the nation was on pins and needles as a local federal judge was to make a ruling about Blackberrys. There were allegations that the technology had been taken by the maker of blackberrys, without proper payment to the inventor of certain parts of the technology.  Everyone was afraid they would lose their "device".  Fortunately it was resolved and lunches across America were able to continue to be rudely interrupted by these devices.

   The reason I find these stories so interesting is because it usually involves the taking of an idea. Coincidentally, this week, I received a call from a lawyer that also maintains a website. In my world, he is considered one of the pioneers of legal websites and has built a very successful practice with his. I tried to have small talk but was immediately interrupted when he blurted out that I had copied his site.  For our site, we have several people who do place material and various web pages, to keep the content fresh. I guess there is always a possibility that someone could copy some of this lawyer's content. So, I told him I would take a look and rewrite or remove any wording I could find. I had three different sets of eyes go through our site and in totality, there were three sentences that were similar to his site. They had been attributed to and copied from the New England Journal of Medicine.

     I emailed him back and tried to advise of my findings and requested that he point out anything else, in case we were mistaken. His only response was to tell me to cryptically look at what we had already discussed. His allegations, while taken seriously, had only taken me on an unfounded safari hunt. I was flattered that he or someone from his firm had even come to our site. However, it served as a reminder that today, the power of words are as valuable as the invention from an idea. I guess today, instead of exclaiming, "Who do you think I am, Einstein?", You could exclaim,"What do you think I am, a webmaster?"  Meanwhile, we keep chugging along with our little site as "the little engine that could". Oh, that's right, that's a storyline I borrowed from a book about a train that my grandmother would read to me,over and over, when I'd ask her to "read it again!" 

The Game of FDA Influence

     I just saw an announcement by a local law firm.  They were proud to say that they had added an individual in their governmental affairs department.  For law firms, this has become a fancy department name instead of simply calling it lobbying or government influence.  In this instance, this new hire had recently managed a governors race in Virginia.  Unfortunately for him, his management ended in defeat. Now he apparently brings contacts to a law firm to help them in their government affairs.

     This same kind of influence can be seen in our federal government. Former U.S. Representative Billy Tauzin(R-La) was chairman of the powerful House committee that regulated the drug industry. He also was the sponsor of the prescription drug legislation that became law that benefited the powerful pharmaceutical industry.  I say "former" because he is now working as the Executive Director of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.  His position now pays 2 million a year plus some nice perks. Unfortunately, there currently is no regulation to keep former elected officials from taking these lucrative positions.  It gives the appearance that says, "if you take care of us in office, we will take care of you in the private sector".  Hopefully, legislation will pass in this next session that will at least put some restrictions on such government office to lobbying positions that is currently taking place on a regular basis. In previous blogs, I have suggested such ideas from others like putting a 2 year waiting period from elected official to lobbyist. I guess it will take a true statesman to take action on something like this. For now, it seems like the fox is guarding the hen house after dark.    

The Human Touch

     My father in law relayed a story of how he was put into the circle of answering. He just wanted help from his bank. You know how it works. You call and the fake friendly operator starts telling you to press a bunch of numbers. His banker just winked and said watch. She ignored the prompts and was placed to a human operator. Fortunately, she knew the secret of her banking system and could get his problem solved quickly. The rest of us are usually left to chew our fingernails while we wait for help. Despite this, it appears that there may be a solution for some answering services. The following was posted by the South Carolina E-Blast news:

    The Get Human Web site at www.gethuman.com/us/ offers a listing of popular companies and businesses complete with instructions on how to skip the endless automated prompts and get in touch with a human being. To make your task swift, the list is sorted by company type, such as "insurance" or "government". I say, give it a shot. You can always try it instead of pushing that #3 for the third time and getting disconnected in your continual frustration.

      

 

Lawyer Advertising

     I just came back from an out west trip, that included the taping of our firm commercials. The taping was against a green screen that will allow the insertion of any background to the commercials.  I guess putting a waving Mickey Mantle or Denzel Washington in the background would be eye catching, but I don't think that's what they had in mind when they gave me the creative license of a green background. In developing the ads, I tried to express our firm because I know that I am "selling" to potential clients. The difficulty is trying to put an ad on, with some meaning, despite the fact that you have less than 30 seconds to do so. I also know that the legal advertising field has become crowded with lawyers.  When I started advertising in the late 80's, very few lawyers were on TV.  Now, it's not unusual to see five lawyer ads during Oprah or Ellen. For that reason, you need to say more in the ads than "just call".

        At our firm, we continue to advertise for top of mind awareness. However, it has become more important to remind our friends and past clients, how important referrals are to the firm. We'll continue to advertise but we also know that we carry the responsibility of working hard for our existing clients. An old sage one said, "a happy client tells 10 people and an unhappy client tells 100." If you don't do a good job in the first place, there will be no long lasting practice, based solely on the foundation of advertising.