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

It’s springtime, and anyone with a dog knows that sunshine can uncover

things we’d rather not see (or step on).  Nonetheless, the legal reform

group HALT is contuinng to fight for better disclosure of  judicial

financial holdings, while shining its own spotlight on the problem of

judges and junkets.  (see Topeka Capital-Journal, “Corporate lobbyists

influence federal judges too,” March 4, 2005).  Also, check out HALT’s

Judicial Integrity Project.

 

last

snowbank —

the soccer ball emerges

                                   [dagosan, March 21, 2005]

 

potluck

Speaking of HALT, the Consumer Federation of America adopted a number   

of key legal reforms advocated by HALT, at its annual meeting earlier this

month.   The following legal reform provisions are now part of CFA’s 2005

Policy Resolutions Manual (from the HALT eJournal, March 16, 2005)

CFA Endorses HALT Recommendation of Gift Receipt Restrictions for Judges.

CFA supports strict limitations on the gifts that federal and state judges may

accept. Judicial standards should parallel the standards imposed upon the

executive and legislative branches, not to exceed de minimus amounts.

 

CFA Endorses HALT Proposal to Require Written Professional Fee Agreements.

Any professional licensed by the state must provide clients with plain language

written fee agreements and send itemized monthly statements when fees are incurred.

 

CFA Endorses HALT Recommendation for the Creation of Free Legal Hotlines for

Low-Income Seniors. CFA supports the establishment and generous public and private

funding of free legal hotlines for low-income seniors, staffed by licensed attorneys and

covered by legal malpractice insurance. Senior hotlines should exist nationwide.

 

CFA Endorses HALT Recommendation for the Implementation of Small Claims

Court Advisors. CFA supports expanding the availability of legal self-help through

small claims court systems. Such expanded access should include small claims advisors.

Small claims advisors are individuals other than clerks with an understanding of small

claims procedures whose primary duties are to explain those procedures to small claims

litigants and guide them through their cases.

 

  The impact on the public is potentially so great, that the American Antitrust Institute 

has taken the unusual step of declaring that it Prefers Qwest to Horizon in their Battle to purchase 

MCI. (Letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, March 14, 2005).  The MCI board is expected to

make its choice between suitors on March 28th.   The AAI statement concludes: 

“On balance, and after a necessarily abbreviated analysis, the AAI holds the opinion

that an acquisition of MCI by Qwest rather than Verizon would better serve the public’s

interest in a competitive telecommunications market. Our conclusion is based primarily

on the expected competitive landscape post-acquisition in the business wireline and the

internet “IP backbone” markets.”

The NYT article on Saturday about unbundling broadband from local phone

service also suggest that Qwest might have a better attitude about providing

consumers what they want. (“Dangling Broadband From the Phone Stick, “March 19, 2005)

 

last day of winter —
ice aborts
the early buds

                  [dagosan, March 21, 2005]

 

Lexington, KY, attorney Ben Cowgill launched his Legal Ethics Blog last week,

and I regret — as does he — that he dawdled.  Ben correctly refers to the website

as both a weblog and a portal for legal ethics resources — there is much content

compiled from his legal career ,representing lawyers in disciplinary hearings and

otherwise focusing on the law of lawyering.

 

The weblog itself shows a love of writing and reflection, along with legal

ethics, that will bring me back frequently.   For example, see his interview with Lincoln

and Brandeis for new attorneys, and his reminder why the Three Don’ts don’t say

nearly enough.

• 
  
  I hope Ben won’t pull his punches on issues that relate to the rights
  
  
  of clients (especially relating to fiduciary duties of lawyers to fully
  
  
  inform clients of their options and to charge reasonable fees), due
  
  
  to his role as defense counsel.

Welcome, Ben!  I know your first entries won’t be your last words.

 

first butterfly–
without formal greeting
entering the alcove

spring at my gate–
the first New Year’s greeting
from sparrows

a full round
of New Year’s greetings
at the inn

 

 

ISSA, translated by David G. Lanoue

 

Saturday night

a priest crosses the road

with an armful of palms

 

            John Stevenson from

                               Some of the Silence

 

 

 

 

first spring day

the chatter

of the Starbucks staff

      Pamela Miller Ness from

                          The Can Collector’s Red Socks

 

 

 

 

 

“snowflakeSN”

 

 

spring arrives —
new snow brightens

old snowbanks

       

                       dagosan

                      

 

 

 

                  

 

in the warm March sun     an old hatred melting

 

                                           George Swede

                                                                 from Almost Unseen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the widower

coaxed to the dance floor

spring equinox

Tom Painting  from A New Resonance 2

                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

spring equinox
moonshadow deepens
the creek

               Carolyn Hall, The Heron’s Nest (Spring 2000)

 

 

 

                                                                                     “snowflakeSN”

                                                        

an encore from our newest Honored Guest:

one last look

through the old apartment

a dry sponge

the mirror

wiped clean

for a guest

Palm Sunday

following the plow

to church

 

………………………… by  John Stevenson from Quiet Enough (Red Moon Press, 2004)

 

 

by dagosan:

frozen river–

snow hides

the elm’s reflection

– from Manichi Daily News March 5, 2005 (No. 669)

potluck

Is anyone surprised that many teens who promise to abstain from

sex before marriage are using definitional loopholes (think Clintonian) and

contracting just as many sexually transmitted diseases as non-promisers?

(Study: Abstinence pledges may trigger risky sexual behavior, AP/

USA Today, , March 19, 2005) What’s the world coming to? (via

TalkLeft)

• How about abstinence after marriage? Isn’t today the Feast of St. Joseph?

  I think of him as the Patron Saint of Involuntary Celibates. I can relate, dude.

Norm Pattis at Crime & Federalism is right: Judge Dorsey was far

too lenient in sentencing Connecticut Governor Rowland to merely one year for

his acceptance of illegal gifts . (courant.com, “Rowland Sentenced: One Year,”

March 19, 2005). To my mind, so-called “public service” and the related “public

trust” should usually be a reason to increase a sentence, not to decrease it.

Please don’t miss our tribute to Sol Linowitz immediately below.

Sol M. Linowitz died on Friday, March 18, 2005. Others will remember him as a superb diplomat, public servant, and businessman. I want to to make sure he is remembered as a lawyer who was greatly troubled over the state of his profession, despite having reached its pinnacle as general counsel of Xerox Corp. and then senior partner of Coudert Brothers. (See msn.com, “Diplomat, businessman Sol Linowitz dies at 91,” March 18, 2005)

Sol Linowitz spent much of his last two decades calling for a reformation that would give the legal profession back its soul, integrity and respect. At the age of 80, Linowitz wrote The Betrayed Profession (with Martin Mayer,1994). A Publisher’s Weekly description of the book states:

“Profoundly perturbed by what he considers the degeneration of the legal profession that has accompanied its growth and specialization in the last 50 years, Linowitz, a Washington,D.C., attorney who has served three administrations, forcefully pleads for reform. He denounces huge law firms where “rainmakers”–partners whose clients are responsible for the highest revenues–are given special status; he decries lawyers whose principal goals are to protect and increase corporate gains. . . Linowitz charges that the legal profession is abandoning its duty to defend the Constitution and Bill of
Rights in order to practice law as a business, which threatens the liberties of all.

In a positive summation, Linowitz advocates specific means by which judges, lawyers and society can help to restore integrity and public trust to the profession.

. Asked in a DC Bar Interview, “Betrayed by whom?” Linowitz responded:

“Betrayed by us, by the lawyers. We inherited a noble profession, and to the extent that we have transformed it into a huckstering business operation we have betrayed our calling. We are supposed to be members of a learned society of professionals bound by ethical standards, morals, and manners.’ (D.C.Bar Report, “Legends in the Law,” Aug-Sept 1995)

Alhough I never met Sol Linowitz, I have long felt a special bond with him. In 1988, in the same month that I left my antitrust practice to work as a children’s lawyer and divorce mediator, Linowitz had an article in the Washington Post that touched me deeply — it said many things that I had felt about the profession but had not yet found words to describe. I cut out that op-ed piece from the Post, saved it in a file cabinet, and have read it often over the past 17 years. Because it isn’t otherwise available on the internet, I have posted “Why America Hates Lawyers: We Attorneys Need to Show We Value People, Not Profits” (May 15, 1988) here, complete with my initial marks circling two key paragraphs.

In Why America Hates Lawyers, Sol Linowitz decries “a dehumanization of the law accompanied by a widespread distrust of lawyers.” He noted that an ABA Commission had called upon the bar to pursue principle over profit and professionalism over commercialism, but it “did not make clear how this is to be kindled.” Always striving to offer solutions for problems, Linowitz’s proposal for a good place to start is for the profession to provide “the vision of a society where we all stand equal before the law.” Linowitz was “not talking about legislating equality.” Instead, he urged that lawyers help to improve access to the law:

“The task is to create a better, equally inexpensive analogue to small-claims procedures that would resolve quickly and fairly the disputes ordinary people need resolved — winnowing out for further process those issues of the broadest scope or significance.

“In short, we as lawyers must be able to say that our concern is with the human and humane — that we accept our obligation to serve all people in our society —
that we are truly committed to the principle of equality of access to the law. In achieving this, we will as lawyers find we have earned and won the respect and
gratitude of those we seek to serve.”

It’s sad, but a Library Review comment on The Betrayed Profession concludes: “It is not clear whether those addressed by Linowitz feel motivated to make the changes he suggests; in a sense, his voice is a cry in the wilderness. For legal ethics collections only.” Let’s prove that cynic wrong — not just for Sol Linowitz, but for our profession and our nation.

Thank you, Sol Linowitz, for loving the legal profession enough to speak frankly of its deep flaws and of the major changes needed to correct them..

• March 21, 2005: Cornellians mourn their alumnus and friend.

potluck

 

So-called credentials:  We can’t all have as many degrees as Elder Sibling   

(RiskProf) Martin F. Grace. Or, can we?  I just got a piece of spam that offers BAs,

MBAs, PhDs and more “Within two weeks!  No study required! 100% Verifiable!” 

It also warns that this legal loop-hole may be closed soon, due to all the public attention

it has lately received.  Just call “Issac Copeland” at 1-206-984-0021.

• 
  
  
  

  Alas, since I had read the Federal Trade Commission’s

  
  

  Consumer Alert, Diploma Mills: Degrees of Deception,

  
  

  in early February, I was not fooled.  But, I do want to

  
  

  remind you that you can find the FTC consumer complaint

  
  

  form here, and that you should put the Government’s spam

  
  

  email collection address in your Address Book, so that

  
  

  you can simply forward spam directly to the folks who

  
  

  are trying to police against it:  SPAM@UCE.GOV

  So-called justice:  Euguene Volokh ignited a firestorm two days ago,

when he wrote that vengeance using cold-blooded brutality was

appropriate punishment for some crimes.  I’m with Walter Olson (see

his post and links) on this one: Being human surely includes having the

emotional urge for vengeance against vile crimes, but it also means

having the wisdom and aspiration to overcome that urge in the name

of a better humanity and a better world.

 

  So-Called Haiku:  If you want to see excellent proof that merely writing words

in three lines of 5 – 7 – 5 sylllables is not haiku, click on Em & Lo‘s winning “haikus”

in their Sex Ed for Grownups space at ProChoice American.org.   The contest

judges might want to check some of our resources to learn more about haiku, before

further sullying the name of the poetic genre.  For example, jim kacian’s haiku primer 

offers an in-depth analysis on how to write haiku.  dagosan’s haiku primer is a lot

shorter, and offers some quick tips in outline form from George Swede and Michael

D. Welch, at the bottom of the page. 

• 
  
  
  

  Almost by definition, haiku does not lend itself to declaring a political

  
  

  philosophy.  Perhaps a form of senryu might embrace the writer’s

  
  

  prochoice sentiments, but 17-syllable bumper stickers and sound bites

  
  

  are not haiku or senryu.  I’m sure Prof. Bainbridge would be glad to

  
  

  note that the last thing pro-choicers actually want to do is speak in

  
  

  graphic “sense images” about their subject.  (restrained thanks to

  
  

  George M. Wallace for the e-mail pointer.)

• 
  
  
  

  Most English-language haiku poets believe that the old

  
  

  17-syllable rule resulted from a misunderstanding of the

  
  

  Japanese language, and creates haiku that are very often

  
  

  padded, unnatural and stilted.   The only possible reason to

  
  

  insist on the 5 – 7 – 5-syllable rule in haiku contests like

  
  

  that held by Em & Lo is that, without such a structural

  
  

  artifice, there would be absolutely no way to distinguish

  
  

  the so-call haiku from aphorisms, doggerel, bumper-stickers

  
  

  and t-shirt philosophy.

 

  So-called Publicity Stunt:  Speaking of Prof. B, I’m not quite as sure

as he about just which congressional action this week is purely a

publicity stunt. 

 

  So-called Consumer Protection:  (1)  George and Steve have  

rightly mocked the coming ban on wild mushrooms at California farmers’

markets and grocers.   (2)  Lawyer Thomas Daly, former partner in

the “Law Centers for Consumer Protection,” testified yesterday

in the federal fraud trial against his old boss, Andrew Capoccia,

(Bennington Banner article, March 18, 2005).  Daly testified that

“The law firm could not win a single lawsuit anywhere at any time.”

They moved to Vermont, when the law and ethics complaints made

New York too hot. .On Tuesday, another former employee testified

that she constantly used client escrow accounts to run the law firm. 

 

by dagosan:  

I hesitate —

the plumber’s

offered hand

 

                          

 

 

 

new leaves

soon!

savoring the winter view

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Patrick’s Day —

drawing the

designated-driver straw

 

 

[March 18, 2005]

 

 

Trust me (and verify below*), nobody has better haiku credentials than John Stevenson. But, his real vita is the body of haiku I will begin sharing with you today. Cor van den Heuvel sees sadness, cynicism, darkness in John’s work; like myself, Peggy Lyles sees fragile hope “in the sharing and the linking, in the listening and in words that are just enough” (Forward to Quiet Enough, Red Moon Press, 2004) His haiku will surely resonate in a personal way with you, touching the universal and the personal.

 

John’s haiku are filled with reality and insight that belie their brevity. My hope is that you’ll enjoy and appreciate them as much as I do — and that dagosan learns quickly by osmosis how to see the material of haiku moments everywhere, and how to describe them in just a few telling words. You can find a representative collection of John’s work at Terebess Asia Online.

 

Here are three haiku from John Stevenson‘s first full-length collection, Some of the Silence (Red Moon Press,1999):

 

morning sun enters
the sleepers
ear

stairway
descending into
her perfume

proud host
his orchard bursting
with fireflies

And, here are the “title haiku” from his three published volumes, Something Unerasable (1996); Some of the Silence (1999) and Quiet Enough (2004), respectively:

under the
blackest doodle
something unerasable

a deep gorge . . .
some of the silence
is me

snowy night
sometimes you can’t be
quiet enough

We’ll be sharing many more of John’s haiku in the weeks and years to come.

 

__________________________________

* John Stevenson is a former president of the Haiku Society of America and currently serves as editor of HSA’s journal Frogpond, one of the oldest and most widely circulated journals of English-language haiku. His poems have won awards in innumerable haiku competitions. He is co-founder of the Rt. 9 Haiku Group, which has created the Upstate Dim Sum journal and website. Born and raised in Ithaca, NY, he now lives in Nassau, NY.

 

John has been a frequent subject of research projects at the Millikin University haiku program, for example, here and here.