
Mar 20, 2015
Good Ideas, Bad Ideas & Depeche Freaking Mode
Mar. 20, 2015 (Mimesis Law) — Oh hey there. Welcome to Friday. Just closing out another week of cramming some premium content through the content – uh – doorflap thing.

First off, everyone needs to take a look at this video from The Atlantic. It’s an excellent example of how long form video should have a place in one’s media diet. Every now and then I run into someone who insists on perpetuating the myth that only the shortest of videos have any merit on the Internet. These people are so wrong; like Mayor of Wrongtown FOR LIFE wrong. Anyway. Check this out. Fascinating conversation on an important topic with serious people. You just can’t do this in prose or short form video.
Should the Jews Leave Europe?
Also, I wanted to touch on the Starbucks kerfuffle. To be clear, the coffee barons goofed. There was, however, the smallest kernel of an idea worth pursuing on their end. Hear me out. There are few people in our day-to-day lives that we see on such a regular basis as those who give us our coffee. It’s totally reasonable for Starbucks to try to bolster customer loyalty by having their baristas and baristos talk more to people in their stores. It was a great idea until someone came up with staff engaging customers on race. In America. In 2015. Gawker got their hands on the internal memo announcing the plan and…on second thought this was a bad idea from the outset…

Ok, look, it’s not the end of the world and they get points for having their hearts in the right place. We’ll continue buying their awful coffee, but not before we get some vicious mockery out of the way. Mock away, Internet. Mock away.
Palate Cleanser
Today I learned that piranha feeding frenzies are real. And terrifying. Go read this article about a really bad idea.


Hot links…stuff we are thinking about this week
- Morgan Lewis pulled off a fascinating merger with Singapore’s Stamford Law Corp. These guys have been adding attorneys to their ranks aggressively for the last 4 months or so. I don’t see them slowing down.
- Layoffs hit Goodwin Proctor. Similar story to Kasowitz last week and it has us wondering what’s going on in Litigation Land.
- Litigation finance shop Burford Capital posted some spectacular growth numbers. 35% increase in revenue year over year.
- The Bank of England just announced the appointment of a former Clifford Chance partner as GC.
- K&L Gates launched a rather interesting content hub. Great looking platform. Here’s to hoping they put good stuff on it.
- Sutherland Asbill is being sued over allegations that a former partner snagged $60M in trust assets.
Work Product…stuff we published this week
From Scott
- The California State Bar put out some new rules for law bloggers and Scott’s not taking any crap from those whining about it. If California’s New Blogging Rules Hurt Your Feelings, It’s Probably Because They Should
- Petraeus, Kim, Kiriakou. Same crimes, very different resolutions. Scott is at his best here. Punishing Leaks: Determining Who Gets A Tummy Rub and Who Gets the Clink
- He also waded into the debate on vaccines. Suffice to say, this video has garnered some, uh, interesting attention in the darker corners of the Internet. A Moment of Simple Justice – Vaccines (Video)
From Tamara
- A really great read on the economic incentives facing law students and faculty. Be sure to read this. Inefficient Markets Are Inefficient: What Behavioral Econ Says About Why Some Law Schools Fail
From me
- I had the chance to sit down with David Perla, now president of Bloomberg Law. Really interesting conversation on the future of BLAW as well as the cyber-security challenges facing BigLaw. Perla: LegalTech Startups Can’t Fix BigLaw’s Cyber-Security Problems (Video)
Full Screen Friday
Depeche Mode’s iconic Violator turned 25 yesterday. I was too young to make it to the tour, but I have hazy memories of people losing their damn minds over the event. A quick trip through YouTube confirmed this. People did indeed lose their minds. I leave it to Jed the Fish to explain. (TEW TIMES!)
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