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Doug Cornelius
Boston
Chief Compliance at real estate private equity by day, GeekDad by night.
Recent Activity
Great to see Jeff out on the slopes.
Down the slopes with Stage IV pancreatic cancer
There's an image we hold of people with terminal diagnoses, probably several images, frail, incapacitated, immobile. Stage IV cancer manifests many ways, and differently on different days. Here, one view of such a patient, Jeff Stamps, taken Saturday, Dec 11. I know this is not the norm; I offer...
I thought you were going to talk about the problems of running around half-naked.
I started watching Survivor because of Mark Burnett and his past production of the Eco-Challenge. I remember watching a race where a team of Navy Seals didn't make it past the first few checkpoints and the finishing teams were near death.
Now you've got me started thinking about how Survivor relates to compliance. (And about how Jimmy Johnson will survive without hair product.)
Why employment law is like "Survivor"
Tonight is the premiere of the 21st season of "[Survivor][]," the CBS reality show that has been hugely successful. The show's been on for ten years (they do two seasons a year, unlike most shows), and even now draws 12 million viewers and ranks among the top 25 shows in ratings. To be sure, I'm ...
Great pictures. Any idea where they were taken? (It would be great to compare.)
The amazing thing about the rain levels and flooding that August is that New England was hit with two hurricanes that month (Connie and Diane).
New England Flooding March 2010 and Photos of August 1955
19550800 - Flood after Hurricane, originally uploaded by sadalit. Totally non-technology-related - I heard on the radio this morning that the flooding and rain we're experiencing in New England hasn't been this extensive since August of 1955. I remembered that my parents had some photos of the...
My biggest concern of my "less kind" review is that MoFo went with an iPhone app instead of merely making their website more friendly for viewing on the iPhone. MoFo.com has a stripped down blackberry view, but not one for the iPhone.
I think law firms would be better off making their sites mobile web friendly first, before investing in an app.
[Jeff responds: And Doug, on this point, we agree, at least in that I think that a law firm will please more iPhone-using clients and potential clients by a creating a nice iPhone-formatted web page than an app that a client has to download. Having said that, if a law firm is going to do an app, I like what MoFo has done here.]
Review: MoFo2Go -- law firm marketing iPhone app done right
iPhone owners love to download apps, so it is understandable that many companies have produced iPhone apps for the purpose of marketing the company. Even law firms have gotten into the act, and I discussed some early efforts this past January. Morrison & Foerster, a megafirm that has been a...
I think that would have been worse for the bad guys. My wife is better with a gun than me.
How to Say 'Please Rob Me' on Twitter
Most homeowners are familiar with the practice of putting certain lights in their home on a timer. The idea is that when they are on vacation or out of town, the lights will go on and off per the timer, hopefully giving any would-be robbers the impression that the house is still occupied rather ...
Interesting approach, but deeply flawed. Just because I'm not home, it doesn't mean my house is empty.
Case in point, my wife was home when I was at the top of Mount Rainier
How to Say 'Please Rob Me' on Twitter
Most homeowners are familiar with the practice of putting certain lights in their home on a timer. The idea is that when they are on vacation or out of town, the lights will go on and off per the timer, hopefully giving any would-be robbers the impression that the house is still occupied rather ...
I think the Post got the Boston law wrong. "http://www.cityofboston.gov/snow/parking: "Any 'spacesavers' left in on-street parking spaces that have been shoveled out must be removed 48 hours after a snow emergency has ended." That just means the DPW will start picking them.
There is no legal right to the dug out spot. Just a moral right.
And there is common sense. You would be pretty stupid to push that lawnchair out of the way and park in a shoveled out spot. You may come back and find that the lawnchair is back in place, but your car is not.
Snow Law: Who Has the Right to the Parking Spot You Dug Out?
In the D.C.-area where I'm located, everything -- politics; the suckitude of the Redskins, Wizards and Nationals; you name it -- has taken a back seat to the record three feet of snow that the Snowpocalypse of 2010 has inflicted upon our city this week. As such, an article on Tuesday in The Wa...
I think the biggest fallacy is the "young and hip" criteria. Back when I was in the business of rolling out a platform at my old firm, it was the senior people who contributed the most.
My theory is that junior people (1) did not know enough about the organization, (2) did not have enough substantive information and (3) were too afraid to publish anything that might show the truth about the first two.
Yes, they have much more exposure to the ubiquity of information on the internet, but (like all of use) they have not figured out how this translates to operations inside an enterprise.
How to Find Enterprise 2.0 Champions
Enterprise 2.0 champions aren't where you think they are. Many managers these days are trying to identify members of their organization who will embrace social media tools and practices within their organization. That's a healthy d evelopment for Enterprise 2.0. It reflects a shift in thinking f...
Mike -
The report was useful to remind FINRA regulated parties that their existing rules apply to social media. Unfortunately, the rules make use of social media very difficult. More so for some platforms than others.
This new notice did not change the rules. It provided a few clarifications, but any avid user of social media would find the clarifications rather obvious.
Much of the difficulty comes from the inability for the Web 2.0 sites to allow proper archiving of information by user outside of the platform. I'm sure some vendors will step in and hopefully some of the platforms will open themselves for this kind of compliance activity.
FINRA And Social Media
Worth reading the complete PDF for guidance on blogs and social networking web sites. FINRA Issues Guidance to Firms, Brokers on Communications with Public Through Social Networking Web Sites Washington, DC — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today issued guidance to securiti...
Bruce -
This reminds me of the bank teller who was fired for chasing a would-be bank robber down the street.
http://www.compliancebuilding.com/2009/08/05/fired-for-foiling-a-bank-robbery/
Its clearly the right approach to discourage your employees from getting into a potentially violent situations. In the bank robbery, the lost cash from the bank in insured. At BestBuy, they account for merchandise theft. So the theft is largely meaningless to the company.
But in the Starbucks case, that tip money would not have been replaced. That was essentially money out of the barista's pocket. That does make it a different situation with different motivation.
Starbucks Barista Gets Her Tips Stolen, and a Reprimand
What's a poor barista to do when some jerk grabs all of the bills out of the tip jar and takes off? Via this post on The Consumerist blog we learn that at Starbucks, at least, chasing down the thief and flagging down police to arrest the man is the wrong answer. The Austin American-Statesman r...
One of the problem with Herrman's argument is that there are more than two blogs among the 100:
3 Geeks and a Law
Above and Beyond KM
theCorporateCounsel (MoFo's Dave Lynn is an editor)
Drug and Device Law
SCOTUS Blog
That is still under-representative, but not as far off as Herrman would lead us to believe.
Elsewhere in the Blawgosphere
As the world goes to hell in a handbasket, the blawgosphere is abuzz with a debate over whether big firm blogs are boring. Blame it on the ABA Journal's Blawg 100, which listed but two blogs from Am Law 100 firms. Not surprising, opines big-firm blogger Mark Herrmann, because big-firm blogs lack...
Paul -
As I die-hard Patriots fan, I agreed with the Belichick decision. (I didn't like the call, but that's a different topic.)
What seems to be missing from the discussion of non-hourly billing is that it can be more profitable for the law firm. If you have a million dollar idea, why are you selling it at $500 per hour? Hourly billing is cap on profits. There are only so many hours in the day (at least if the hour is honest) so there is only so much revenue you can generate.
Welcome to the Future: What Bill Belichick's Taste for Risk Can Teach Law Firms.
In which our intrepid columnist looks at the willingness of the New England Patriots coach to defy conventional wisdom and go for a first down when others say punt and finds important lessons in risk management. By Paul Lippe Just before Thanksgiving, we visited the brouhaha over the ACC's ...
Bruce -
I think you need to draw a distinction between the Google Apps version of gmail and the free gmail.com.
With Google Apps, you still have your own domain. You just run through the Google email servers instead of your own server. You rent the hardware and software and run in the cloud. You could still be bruce@legalblogwatch and nobody would know that you are using Google Apps. Just like nobody knows if you are using an Exchange server or other email server.
Is Gmail Making the Leap From the 'Unacceptable?'
Back in August, Esquire Magazine posted a series of "rules" that included this one: Esquire's Rule #1033. If your lawyer's email address ends in hotmail.com, gmail.com or yahoo.com (or aol.com), find a new lawyer. This prompted a flurry of discussion in this post on the Simple Justice blog (wri...
First, I wouldn't ask a lawyer how to create image. (We're sued to wordy definitions.)
I think the mistake is going for a stock image of people working on a computer. [Hey use sharepoint 2007 and you get on friend to hang out with; Use the 2010 version and get two new friends.]
For collaboration, I'm a fan of this image: http://kmspace.blogspot.com/2008/04/wikis-and-happiness.html
Meet the new SharePoint collaborators
In MOSS 2007 we got to know these folks: They're the faces you see when you create a new site collection based on the Collaboration Portal template (photo filename: Newsarticleimage.jpg). There they are, actively collaborating in their high-tech cubicle-free office. I'd like to introduce yo...
I never liked the old image and the new one is worse. There are three people now instead of two.
If SharePoint is so great at collaborating, why are they all standing next to each other?
Are they trying to figure out how it works?
Or have they given up and are just staring over his shoulder while he edits a document?
Meet the new SharePoint collaborators
In MOSS 2007 we got to know these folks: They're the faces you see when you create a new site collection based on the Collaboration Portal template (photo filename: Newsarticleimage.jpg). There they are, actively collaborating in their high-tech cubicle-free office. I'd like to introduce yo...
David -
It was great to run into you again. Glad you liked my session.
Personal Knowledge Management
I attended and presented at a KM Forum seminar at Bentley University on Personal Knowledge Management last week. There were two excellent speakers--Doug Cornelius of Beacon Capital Partners and Patti Anklam of Net Works. In the post, I'll summarize my key learnings from Doug's talk. Doug is a ...
I was happy just to have the kid sit still for 30 minutes. That makes me look like a genius. (or a least a genius who was able to squeeze in a shower.)
Wait, Baby Einstein Won't Make My Kid a Genius?
Over the weekend, the The Faculty Lounge blog highlighted a story in the New York Times about the "Baby Einstein" videos that are known to just about every parent these days. In short, it turns out that the videos will not make your child into an Einstein or a genius, and the Walt Disney Compa...
I did find it interesting that among the social media platforms on which you can follow the project, the ABA's own LegallyMinded was not one of them.
Perhaps they have given up on that experiment.
Legal Rebels With a Cause
The ABA Journal officially kicked off its Legal Rebels project yesterday, posting the first seven profiles of the 50 legal innovators it plans to feature. As Carolyn Elefant first wrote here last month, the project will profile lawyers, paralegals and other legal professionals who are "remaking ...
First impressions do matter. Using one of those generic email addresses leaves a bad first impression.
Personally, I think the "find a new lawyer" part is a bit extreme but it makes good copy for Esquire magazine.
I wonder why Equire left AOL.com from their rule? I added it to my Tweet after a suggestion from a few other people.
Can an E-Mail Address Make a Negative Impression?
Used to be that lawyers worried about the cache that their physical mail address would convey. For example, here in the D.C. area, a "K" Street or Pennsylvania Avenue address carries white-shoe prestige while an address on 5th Street near the D.C. Superior Court house suggests a practicing crimi...
I think time sheets are more important, but for a different reason. In hourly billing, the time records go to the client to justify the bill.
When you go to non-hourly billing, the time sheets are focused on the internal process and business analysis. You can focus on the efficiencies and inefficiencies of your operations. You can use this data to better target your fee and find ways to get it done better, faster and more efficiently. Putting more money in the lawyer's pocket.
You need to remember that hourly billing is also a cap on profitability. You can only work so many hours in a day.
Does Alternative Billing Mean Lawyers Can Tear Up the Time Sheet?
This past week, both Philadelphia-based Saul Ewing and Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis announced alternative fee arrangements (described here and here) for their respective clients. So does that mean that lawyers at those firms can toss their time sheets out the window, or clear those electronic ...
Records management has been become a huge problem as more and more information ends up electronic with seemingly endless storage to absorb it. Computer memory has gotten much cheaper than the real estate cost of storing paper.
Paper is paper, but electronic storage keeps getting harder as the electronic medium keeps evolving. Email is pretty straight-forward these days. Now we have to figure out the best way to deal with blogs, wikis and 2.0 tools as they start growing in the enterprise. Then add on cloud computing and it gets harder and harder.
Is Your E-Discovery Strategy Modeled After Ostrich Behavior?
In preparing for an upcoming edition of my Weekly Ethics Thought on electronic records and communications essentials, I talked with several executives about their e-discovery strategies, policies, and procedures. While I wasn't surprised to hear that they are getting ever-changing and often-cont...
They may not be very useful, but you cannot ignore them. For most firms, the Wikipedia entry comes up in the top ten for search results. So, at a minimum, you need to make sure the Wikipedia entry is not vandalized and the information remains truthful (if still sparse.)
Does Your Law Firm Have a Wikipedia Page?
If you thought a Wikipedia page was only for the really famous or really accomplished, think again. These days, many law firms are staking out a presence on the collaborative online encyclopedia. And as the U.K.'s Law Society Gazette suggests, a Wikipedia page, done correctly, can help enhance a...
It was not a surprising result. The attorney should have tried to make the friend request themselves first.
I also want to point out the original source of the post (before it got syndicated out to Social media Today) on my blog, Compliance Building:
http://www.compliancebuilding.com/2009/05/04/ethics-and-facebook/
Bar Finds Lawyer Can't Use Third Party to 'Friend' Witness Online
As I discussed here last month, information posted on a Facebook profile -- whether public or private -- is potentially discoverable. But as Doug Cornelius writes at Social Media Today, that doesn't mean lawyers can attempt to access those Facebook pages through deception. Cornelius reports on a...
Although imperfect, I liked the analogy to a videographer:
"The videographer does not have to ask to enter a private area to make the video. If he did, then similar issues would be confronted, as for example, if the videographer took a hidden camera and gained access to the inside of a house to make a video by presenting himself as a utility worker."
Facebook and MySpace are semi-private, so the user control access to the information.
I found the fatal flaw to be that the attorney requesting the opinion did not request access to the facebook of myspace profile. He or she assumed that the witness would deny access. That assumption degrades the attorney's argument and paints the information as being private.
Legal Ethics and Facebook
The Philadelphia Bar Association's Professional Guidance Committee recently issued an opinion concerning a lawyer's proposed investigation of a witness's Facebook page. The lawyer wanted to ask a third person -- someone whom the witness would not recognize -- to send a "friend" request to the w...
I do encourage lawyers to try out Connected for themselves. It does have a unique place being sponsored by huge player in the legal space. (The ABA tried and failed with LegallyMinded.)
LexisNexis has dedicated a lot of resources to Connected. So even if they have not gotten it correct right this time, they are likely to stick around and improve things.
Martindale-Hubbell Wants You to Get Connected
This week, venerable Martindale-Hubbell steps into the online social networking fray with Martindale-Hubbell Connected. M-H Connected joins an already saturated field, including big players like the ABA , with its site Legally Minded. My colleague Bob Ambrogi reviewed the ABA's offering, somewha...
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