January, 2009


22
Jan 09

“grandpa, where were you when Obama was sworn in?”

“Grandpa, where were you when Obama was sworn in?” I was fulfilling my civic duty, listening to a closing summation by a defense attorney. We could hear the screams of joy from the street through the courtroom windows on the 15th floor. If I had to miss the moment, I’m glad this was why; it felt appropriate to be doing service. Still wish I hadn’t had to miss the moment, though.

the courthouse at 100 Centre Street, Manhattan

the courthouse at 100 Centre Street, Manhattan

We had to do the hardest thing a jury can do- vote not guilty on a serious charge, knowing that it was very, very likely that he’d done it, but also knowing that the DAs had failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Was pleased to see in the paper this morning that he’ll likely be sentenced to 20 or more years on the other charges, which we were able to reach a verdict on without any problems.

Now… back to class. Urgh. :/


22
Jan 09

open(ish?) design

I talked recently about the need for the development of sustainable design best practices that work in a “bazaar” context. Looks like buglabs and IDEO are possibly making a stab in that direction. I look forward to following the project and seeing what comes of it.


14
Jan 09

how I spent my last weekend in florida

Why yes, that is a swamp buggy. Besides driving it, I spent some quality time with family, some time getting bitten by mosquitoes, and some time in canoes. Good weekend all around.

Probably not coincidence that this was the first time I’ve flown into New York since I moved here and not been excited about getting here; very blah about the whole law school thing right now (though not blah about law- I just want to get on with it and get into doing Real Work.)


13
Jan 09

crowdsourcing evidence collection

Charlie Nesson asks

is there any evidence that any members of congress knew at the time they passed the 1999 Digital Theft Deterrence Act that the recording industry was intending to use the statute as a basis for suing its music fans

is there any evidence that riaa and company were intending to so use the statute once they got it passed

I guess I’ve seen things like this in patent cases before, but never in a civil/quasi-criminal trial like an RIAA music distribution trial. Interesting. (And of course if you have such information, I highly recommend passing it on to Charlie, because your life will always be more interesting with a dose of Charlie in it. :)


12
Jan 09

jury duty through end of January

For those who haven’t heard, I’ve been seated on a criminal jury, in a fairly complex case that may last through the last week of January. On the down side, this is wreaking havoc on the beginning of my semester, but on the plus side I’m fulfilling a civic duty that I do strongly believe everyone should do1, I’m getting a glimpse into a courtroom in a way many lawyers never get (since in most cases lawyers are removed from juries by peremptory challenge), and the way the trial has gone so far I’m going to have some fairly crazy stories to tell once I’m done and can talk about them. So things could be worse. See everyone on the other side…

  1. insert mandatory comments about it being a deeply flawed system but also the one we’ve got here []

7
Jan 09

Law Firm 2.0

Not sure how I had missed this previously, but VC guy and ex-lawyer Jason Mendelson has a great series of posts on ‘Law Firm 2.0′- issues like compensation, retention, and cost structures, and how all of those are badly broken from the perspective of a client. Worth perusing and thinking about for all of us going in the Brave New Law Firm Market.


This work by Luis Villa is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.