“Price discrimination” is flexible pricing for the same product or service based on particular customers’ circumstances. The same product will have different prices, say, for “business users” or “students,” for “early birds” and the rest of us, for the indigent and the wealthier clientele. Do you have a problem with that? How about nearly identical […]

I coined the term “e-disgustery”  for e-discovery back in March, 2013, defining e-discovery, roughly, as a recipe for a nauseating mille-feuille gateau de merde with gooey alternating layers of jam and cash . On Thanksgiving Eve, I propose we take a tiny nibble of this work-place emetic to better savor (or maybe just endure) the family dysfunction gatherings in the days to come. “At least I […]

At a hearing recently, I heard a trial lawyer praise a judge for her “Solomonic judgment.” King Solomon is portrayed in the Hebrew Bible as a wise leader and the Bible praises him for the way he resolved a dispute between two “harlots” (1 Kings 3:16-28). They were roomies and each bore a son around the same time. […]

Update (November 24, 2015): Contrary to my point of view, below, a 11/23/15 National Law Journal Article by Sheri Qualters, “Bar Exam Pass Rates Drop Across the Country,” (paywall but initial peaks for free) suggests that the drop in law school applications has resulted in lowering standards at law schools and this is said to […]

I have had the pleasure of knowing Karin Ciano for about five years and the privilege of hiring her for help as I prepared for trial last year. Karin was a pleasure to work with and her work-product was outstanding. Whether you are in a pinch or whether, before you are in a pinch, you […]

Update (November 18, 2015): Following up on the issues raised in the Bacon Battle below…. So, can you depose the corporate C.E.O. of a huge corporation in a relatively small commercial dispute? Answer: That depends. Does the C.E.O. have “unique knowledge relevant to the issues in [the] case and [an adversary] has not been able to obtain the same […]

This post is a call to action. Please help. There seems to be interest in the Minneapolis/St. Paul legal community for experienced lawyer mentors. There are junior lawyers who feel at sea in one sense or another. There are, believe it or not, experienced lawyers who look for the opportunities to help junior lawyers. What, […]

  In the case of MidCountry Bank v. Rajchenbach, et al. pending before U.S. District Court Judge Susan R. Nelson (D. Minn.), MidCountry Bank lent money to SK International, Inc. and MidCountry Bank required that humans step up as guarantors of the loan to SK, as is extremely common when lending money to businesses. Banks generally […]

Update (November 11, 2015): Somehow, it snuck past me that the Minnesota Supreme Court granted a petition for review a few weeks ago by the law firm of O’Neil & Murphy in the case, discussed below. Mechanics lien lawyers might be interested in this case if the Supreme Court will be addressing the underlying lien […]

Scribe

In Friday’s post, I took the controversial position of favoring (or at least defending) “turgid legalese” over “beautiful writing” for most lawyers’ writing most of the time. Clients don’t curl up in their free time to read and relish our legal pleadings, our confidentiality agreements, letters of intent, Hart/Scott/Rodino filing forms and on and on and we should not […]