“Welcome back, Monsieur Hool.” This is Hôtel du Jeu de Paume, the non-oath version. Erected in the 17th century, it once housed […]

Lawyers who won’t take a stand is a time-honored tradition. Ernie from Glen Burnie, a lawyer and a life-long friend of mine, […]

If you work for a peer firm, you will encounter me or someone very much like me. [Y]ou cannot avoid the essence […]

John Daniel Hull, II, 1900 – 1987. My grandfather – always a class act. I spent his last 15 or so Thanksgivings […]

“I would have won them all if my clients hadn’t kept reloading and firing.” –Richard “Racehorse” Haynes (1927-2017). Trial Lawyer.

“I was simmering, simmering, simmering. Emerson brought me to a boil.” –Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Writer Jack London thought you could not wait […]

An objection must be stated concisely in a nonargumentative and nonsuggestive manner. –from Rule 30(c)(2), Fed. R. Civ. P. Defending lawyers who […]

“There’s no point in being Irish if you don’t know that the world is going to break your heart eventually.” –Daniel Patrick […]

Kurtz. He got off the boat. He split from the whole goddamn program. –Captain Willard, Apocalypse Now (1979) Thompson had a way […]

There is no joy except in creation. There are no living beings but those who create. All the rest are shadows, hovering […]

Picking up women and girls is something every straight young guy should learn early. Or call it something else. Courtship. Flirtation. Seduction. […]

More than a tower or a statue, or an artist’s or soldier’s name on a plaque or street post, the green bookstalls […]

Those now green Paris book stands lining the Seine go back. 500 years at least. You don’t read? Go there alone. Any […]

Hermann the German, or Arminius, was a leader of Roman Auxiliary Cavalry in the 9th Century AD. In the three-day battle known […]

“Once they let you get away with running around for ten years like a king hoodlum, you tend to forget now and […]

Lawyers take to politics like bears to honey. Other things being equal, try to pick lawyers who are active in politics. The […]

A youngish, attractive female human “”between 18 and 25 from “her” photo “” recently friended me on Facebook. I apparently accepted thinking […]

Is anything human-made more beautiful? Below is Folio 292r (circa 800) of The Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four […]

Image: Ragdoll Productions for BBC TV What kind of human makes a great lawyer? I don’t mean a go-through-the-motions lawyer, a tell-you-what-the […]

Taken in 2023, this is the most unflattering Marco Island birthday photo I could find. There isn’t even a beach in it. […]

Eternity is a mere moment–just long enough for a joke. –Hermann Hesse’s version of Goethe, dead, possessed of a superior perspective, and […]

An essayist at heart, American novelist, poet and playwright James Baldwin (1924-1987) wrote his experimental fourth novel about the life of Leo […]

1. Represent only clients you like. 2. The client is the main event. 3. Make sure everyone in your firm knows the […]

Do lawyers know how to get things done, done right and done on time? Do we even value that? I wonder. No, […]