Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘about the site’

Welcome newspaper readers

Catching up on some overdue thanks to newspaper reporters and contributors who’ve mentioned this site, quoted me, or done both in the past few months (several of them, alas, without currently active links):

* David Boaz, “New York’s Big Think”, New York Post, Dec. 5 (an excellent piece on the Manhattan Institute);

* Jon Robins, “A pair of lawyers who could change the world”, The Times (London), Nov. 2 (on John Edwards’s debate performance);

* Itai Maytal, “Too Early To Give Up on Edwards’s Star”, New York Sun, Nov. 4 (on Edwards’s prospects on departing the U.S. Senate);

* Heidi J. Shrager, “State’s law guardian system in need of overhaul”, Staten Island Advance, Sept. 28 (on the need for reform of New York’s law guardian system, under which lawyers are appointed to represent the interests of minors and others not able to look out for themselves);

* Kate Coscarelli, “Police protect, serve — and sue”, Newark Star-Ledger, Sept. 12, reprinted at Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer site (on legal doctrines allowing police officers injured in the course of their duties to sue allegedly negligent private parties (see Aug. 31);

* David Isaac, “USG Corp.: Election And Elation For Wallboard Maker”, Investor’s Business Daily, Nov. 5 (on post-election prospects for asbestos legislation);

* Ed Wallace, “Wheels: You Can Fool Some of the People…”, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Oct. 3 (on network crash-test journalism).

For other press mentions, check our “About the site” page.

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Thanks for the haiku

David Giacalone (Dec. 20) dedicates to us this one by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue:

a new year begins–
nonsense
piled on nonsense

Thanks also to readers of this site for countless kind words and acts over the past year, and — if it’s not at this point too politicized a thing to say — happy holidays to you all.

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Flattering to be considered…

The magazine Legal Affairs is promoting an online poll to pick “the country’s most influential and important legal thinkers — the ones whose ideas are pushing the law forward (or backward, as the case may be).” The list of 125 names is divided among judges, academics, and writers/commentators (what, no practitioners?). Their selection of nominees (explained here) has already been criticized, and online polls are not likely to mean much given the technical ease of stuffing the ballot box in most cases.

In the “writers/commentators” category, as you’ll see, their search for candidate names led them very far down into the barrel, if not to scrape its bottom. Awfully flattering to be included in such company, though.

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Latest newsletter

The latest installment of our free periodic newsletter went out this afternoon to its c. 2300 subscribers, covering the last three or four weeks’ worth of postings in cryptic, occasionally droll style. It’s a great way to keep up with items you may have missed; when you’re finished, pass on the email to let a friend know about the site. Sign up today, right here.

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Thanks

I have much to be thankful for this year. I’ve had some remarkably good luck, some remarkably bad luck that is likely to seem fortuitous in hindsight, and walk away healthier and better adjusted because of it. I went four-for-four in summary judgment motions worth millions to my clients, tripled what I can bench press, and am that much closer to being able to credibly comment about obesity litigation without creating an obvious punchline. I have a roof over my head, food on my table, and I’m living in the future I dreamed about as a little boy.* I have friends and family, new and old, from coast to coast, whom I care about and who care about me, and who magnaminously forgive me my slights small and large. I have a wonderful co-blogger who’s generously given me this opportunity to speak to thousands of thoughtful readers on issues I care about. I’m thankful for the sacrifice of the men and women who have volunteered to take up arms to defend this nation. And I’m thankful that I live in the United States of America, which is not only the greatest country in the world, but a country that gives me the freedom to talk about ways to make it better.

I hope my readers also have what to be thankful for. Have a good, and lawsuit-free, holiday.

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