Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
FEBRUARY 12, 2026 – This year is my “reporting year” for continuing legal education credits—a mandatory 45 hours’ worth for the three years ending June 30. Credits can be obtained from a variety of sources—Minnesota CLE, local law libraries local law school libraries, and a plethora of national sponsors. Aside from mandatory credits in the …
FEBRUARY 9, 2026 – If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve heard about the personnel crisis sweeping through the USAO (U.S. Attorney’s Office). This is big stuff: a flood of resignations, coupled with amateur-hour attempts to hire replacements—with amateur-hour results. The version of the crisis here in Minnesota began with the resignation of Joe Thompson and …
JANUARY 18, 2026 – Yesterday evening, we joined our friends Ann and Ravi at nearby Bolé, a gourmet Ethiopian restaurant. Parking was so bad that after letting Beth off at the entrance, I had to drive nearly halfway home to find a spot. The walk from the car back to the restaurant took time, given …
JANUARY 10, 2026 – One central lesson I learned from my periodic forays into litigation over 40-some years of practicing law is that there’s no such thing as the “open-and-shut” case. Even when a defendant you’re suing defaults, you still have to enforce the judgment in favor of your client against what is doubtless a …
DECEMBER 16, 2025 – Last week I received a new assignment from a favorite business client—the kind that sends good work and allows me to interact with really good people. Without exception, they’re smart, respectful, conscientious, reasonable, interesting, and in the motivational department, appreciative. This latest assignment involved the threshold task of reviewing documents, starting …
APRIL 25, 2025 – The latest flashpoint in the regime’s continuing march toward authoritarianism was the FBI’s arrest of the Wisconsin judge for allegedly having assisted an undocumented alien in evading apprehension by ICE. The case has a legal element, of course—What exactly did the judge say or do that violated the law; what law?—but …
MARCH 22, 2025 – In a post two day ago, I sounded the alarm over the Trumpian call for impeachment of judges. Now comes another alarm. The latest blasts to our democratic foundations are Trump’s executive orders aimed at the storied New York-based law firms of Perkins Cole and Paul Weiss. These serious attacks against …
MARCH 20, 2025 – Weeks before the Chief Justice himself issued his two-sentence rebuke of Trump’s recent call for impeachment of U.S. District Court Judge Boasberg, I’d been haranguing inside our house, “What are the Republicans in Congress talking about with impeachment of judges who rule against Presidents Trump and Musk? If you disagree with …
FEBRUARY 6, 2025 – I keep telling myself to “give it a rest”—ignore for a day or two, the scene, as it were, in Washington. To do just that, to give the news a rest, today at noon I braved 30 mile-an-hour winds to ski the front side of St. Moritz. This pursuit of a …
JUNE 2, 2024 – In ancient times I was involved in a case concerning a prominent piece of real estate in downtown St. Paul[1]. For years the matter consumed a plurality, sometimes a majority, of my billable hours at the firm. Other lawyers with the pertinent client relationship that predated my hiring had reeled the …
MAY 25, 2024 – (Cont.) In the morning of May 25, Dan and I found our way to the Dalkon Shield Settlement Claims Administration facility occupying a full city block in downtown Richmond. On hand to greet us was Mike Sheppard. I remember him well even without the aid of my journal. He engaged with …
MAY 2, 2024 – Back in the day when lawyers wrote with a golden nib and spoke with a silver tongue, no member of the bar thought about marketing or advertising. In fact, until I entered law school in the 1976 of the Current Era (with emphasis on Current) advertising was strictly verboten. Part of …
MAY 18, 2023 – In the early days of my legal career, I dreaded “CLE” (Continuing Legal Education) seminars. Al Gore had yet to invent the internet, so “webinars” didn’t yet exist either. Even “casual Fridays” were a thing of the future. You had to attend all sessions in person and wear your usual uniform—a …
APRIL 20, 2023 – Every month or so for many months running, a good college friend calls me and opens the conversation with, “So, when are this Jack Smith character and Merrick Garland gonna come outta their comas and announce the indictment of your favorite ex-president? Last month you told me it was gonna be …
MARCH 31, 2023 – Today, Lindsey Graham called the indictment of Duly Defeated “the most irresponsible act by a prosecutor in the history of the country.” Currently, 9,832 people serve as prosecutors in the United States, which has been formally constituted for 234 years. Against the backdrop of those numbers, “most irresponsible . . . …
MARCH 29, 2023 – Those of us who are repulsed by the Duly Defeated are quick to draw a direct connection between FoxProp’s viewership and Defeated’s political success within the Republican Party. I know (and respect) a number of people who are dedicated members of that viewership. I’m also well acquainted with their blanket rejection …
MARCH 21, 2023 – When the Duly Defeated came to Minneapolis for a rally in October 2018, the best parts of the show were the clever protest signs among the thousands of demonstrators in the street outside the rally. My favorite: “WHERE DO I START?” At around the same time, I encountered a well-educated, well-heeled …
MARCH 2, 2023 – (Cont.) Despite my career as a lawyer, I’m not a legal geek, but as I explained in my previous six posts, I got sucked into following the trial, then the broader Faulknarian story of the Murdaugh murders. Now that the trial is over, I can close the book, return it to …
MARCH 1, 2023 – (Cont.) I know I’ve watched too much of the Alex Murdaugh trial, because my exposure to it has produced a dichotomy: at the same time I wish I’d observed none of it, I wish I’d observed all of it. To judge a case reliably, you must consider all the admitted evidence. …
FEBRUARY 27, 2023 – (Cont.) By a classic Socratic exchange with us students, Pirsig revealed how the defense could most effectively cross-examine the cop. It added up to this: DEFENSE COUNSEL: So it’s your testimony that when you turned your flashlight on the car window, you saw a naked man? COP: Yes. DEFENSE COUNSEL: You’re …
FEBRUARY 26, 2023 – Eventually, everyone with a law degree is asked about the accused in some recent, sensational crime, “Do you think he’s guilty [nine times out of 10 it’s a “he”]?” and “How could you defend someone you know is guilty?” These two questions assume that the person with the law degree knows …
FEBRUARY 25, 2023 – It’s okay: you can admit to your fascination over the made-for-Netflix “Murdaugh Murders” down in the “low country” of South Carolina. I won’t judge you. In fact, in the spirit of full disclosure, I’ll confess my own recent addiction to the case involving a scion of the Old South Old Boys …
JANUARY 28, 2023 – For many years I encountered no clients, lawyers or other parties whose mother tongue wasn’t English. Oops. I must amend that. There were two brothers with whom I tangled; real estate developers of Venetian origin, who spoke Italian first and English second—or maybe it was fourth or fifth, given their cosmopolitan …
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 – Yesterday the Supremes heard oral arguments in two affirmative action cases. The high court will likely stick a pitchfork in the long-standing law of the land—that race diversity goals may justify consideration of race in admissions to higher education. This morning I thought about these cases as I reviewed an essay …
JULY 27, 2022 – Blogger’s note: In Monday’s post, I mentioned a an old banking colleague of mine, Bill McRostie. He was such an unusual character, I thought he deserved a post dedicated solely to him. In retrospect, I wish I’d asked him more questions. I’m confident he would’ve provided more answers. Bill was tall, thin, …