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Charleston, South CarolinaI've only been here for a day, and already I'm completely in love with Charleston. It all started when Stanley Feldman came to New Orleans way back before Katrina. He was from Charleston and had gone to Tulane, as had others in his family. His son Aaron went to Tulane and played baseball for the Green Wave. Stanley got in touch with me because he read my blog and wanted to meet when he came to town. He bought me lunch at Martin Wine Cellar introduced me to his friend Roger Young, a judge from Charleston. We had a great lunch and I really enjoyed meeting Judge Young and his son Hank. Little did I know that I would find my way to Charleston. 04:31 AM in Travel | Permalink | Comments (2) It's hard to leave New OrleansThe plan was to leave yesterday early. Bridget and her friend Maddie were exhausted and happily sleeping. So was I until the Krewe of Buzzards gathered outside my house at 7 am and woke me up, and then lured me outside where I was immediately captivated by the spirit of Mardi Gras. The weather was just about perfect: mild and overcast, but not too cool. So Becky and I decided to ride our bikes down to St. Charles to check things out. 03:21 PM in New Orleans | Permalink | Comments (1) Mardi GrasYesterday morning was the Thoth parade (pronounced 'Towth'), which is the only one I got to this year. Thoth takes a non-traditional route through Uptown New Orleans, and was really easy for me to catch it. Mostly, because it passes right in front of my house. When I bought the house back in 2004 my real estate agent, Lesley, told me that I'd be required to have a parade party. So I invited a bunch of friends and we all had a great time. Last year it didn't pass by because of Katrina so I had forgotten how much fun Thoth was until yesterday, when once again my friends all came and had a blast. 11:08 PM in New Orleans | Permalink | Comments (6) Networking in the BlawgosphereToday I got a nice email from Tim Kevan, a barrister in the UK. He said he had been enjoying my blog and invited me to check out his blog, which I did. I really enjoy making connections with people this way. Last week I had a great conversation with David Edelstein, a criminal defense lawyer in Miami. He doesn't have a blog, but his website amply demonstrates how internet-savvy he is. Even though we only talked for about 20 minutes I learned that David is a very thoughtful fellow, definitely someone that I would feel comfortable recommending folks to if they had a criminal law problem in Miami. In fact, we decided to 'connect' up via Linkedin (the only way you could see that we are connected in Linkedin is if you were 'connected' to one of us). Last week I also had the pleasure of meeting Ray Dowd, a lawyer from New York who practices copyright law (and has published a book called The Copyright Litigation Handbook). Ray was in town for a gathering of copyright folks, and hooked up with my friend Greg Grimsal. They are both active in the Federal Bar Association. Ray and Greg were apparently having dinner when Ray asked him if he knew 'Ernie the Attorney'. Greg called me immediately and passed the phone to Ray and, after a short conversation, we all agreed to meet up at a nearby music club called Dos Jefes. I had a great time talking to Ray, who has a great blog called Small Firm Life. He doesn't update it that much, but it's still a great blog. It's encounters like these, which are now pretty routine, that remind me how fortunate I am to have stumbled into this whole blogging thing 02:23 PM in Law Blogs | Permalink | Comments (3) State of the UnionWe live in a world of information cascades, of dominos toppling at Mach 2 speeds. Internet maven Cory Doctorow recently quipped that he no longer tries to predict the future because it's not as stunning as 'predicting the present.' This is a corollary to William Gibson's remark that "the future is here. It's just not evenly distributed." Where does this leave politicians? Probably somewhere the future has not yet reached. Most politicians understand that the Internet (or 'the Internets') distributes information at hypersonic speeds, but many of them seem not to grasp the many ways the Internet distributes information. John McCain is the latest victim of this shortsightedness, but I'm willing to bet (by predicting the present) that other politicians in the presidential race will learn not to fall asleep at the switch. The crowd is wise, and eager to make its presence known. 04:18 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (1) Congrats to the New Orleans film group at SundanceCongratulations to my friends Johnny Denenea and Martin Landrieu. They're both principals in 05:53 PM in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) The importance of Electronic Medical recordsToday's Times Picayune article entitled Doctors Puzzled over Katrina patients is about the need to move toward a system of electronic medical records: "Studies have shown that electronic records can reduce medical errors -- sometimes the result of chicken-scratch handwriting -- and eliminate waste by preventing doctors from duplicating tests that were already given in another setting. For that to happen, the record must follow the patient." The article goes on to highlight the need for interoperability and cooperation. Technology is the easy part. 06:21 PM in Current Affairs, katrina | Permalink | Comments (2) Lee Brown to rescue New Orleans from its crime problem (or work on his book)Lee Brown, a former Houston mayor who also was police chief of Houston, Atlanta and New York, is on the way to help rescue New Orleans from its vicious crime problem. Unlike that other Mr. Brown who worked for the U.S. Government, this Mr. Brown is experienced. He's written the book on community policing. Well, actually, he was supposed to write it when he was the scholar-in-residence at Rice University but he just couldn't manage to get it done. "It's long overdue," Brown said. "I would not give you a deadline. I've passed all the past deadlines." Okay, so come on down to New Orleans and help us with our crime problem. I'm sure these are the perfect conditions for you to overcome that pesky writer's block. Fellow blawger and longtime Houston resident, Tom Kirkendall, is speechless and asks "does New Orleans really need this?" Probably not, but our local leaders don't know seem to know what we need. What do we need? First, we need to reassess from top-to-bottom how we deal with crime, from prevention to prosecution. Community policing makes sense, and maybe we need some guidance on how to implement this. But I'm suspicious about whether Lee Brown is the right guy (how much is he going to charge us for his services?) What about the problems we have with prosecuting serious crimes? I recently had lunch with a friend of mine who is a prosecutor, someone I know to be a conscientious lawyer. He echoed something I've heard from many other lawyers who do criminal law: the way that our D.A.'s office prepares cases is seriously deficient. In most other cities, so I'm told, when there's a serious crime an assistant D.A. is sent to the crime scene to help coordinate the gathering of evidence. That same D.A. is then primarily responsible for the case as it moves through the system. Obviously this is the optimal way to prepare cases. So why doesn't New Orleans do this? According to my friend, it is because a long time ago D.A. Harry Connick decided that having D.A.s at crime scenes might impair their immunity. Is this really the best way and is that story about Harry Connick true? I don't know. And I've certainly never been asked to write any books about crime-fighting, and I'm not a scholar-in-residence anywhere. Still, I get this sense that our leading crime-fighters, scholarly and unscholarly, are not coming up with any effective solutions.
02:30 PM in New Orleans,
katrina | Permalink
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