Are you thinking about going to law school or business school?  Or perhaps—like crazy yours truly—both at the same time?  This blog entry covers the following:

- Is law school right for me?
- Is business school right for me?
- How do I narrow down which school to apply to or attend?
- Okay, I picked a school and got in!  Now how do I prepare?!

* * *

So the cops in Louisiana that beat that defenseless guy bloody are pleading not guilty, despite all the video evidence.

This just makes me sick. I can totally understand issues regarding extenuating circumstances (insane overwork, high stress, etc.)... all of which might reasonably serve to mitigate punishments.

But to actually claim, in the face of overwhelming evidence, that you're not guilty? For crying out loud, I want to live in a society in which people freely offer the following:

"Yep, I'm guilty. I did what I'm charged with doing." plus one or more of the following:
- "And I'd like to sincerely offer apologies to the following people..."
- "And here's why I respectfully ask for leniency."
- "And here's what I plan on doing to insure this never happens again."
- "And here is how I propose to compensate my victim(s) / society..."

Disclaimer: I have a law degree, but -- for a variety of reasons -- decided not to practice law even before I attended law school. Long story :D

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So yesterday I received an e-mail with the following boilerplate as the sig:

This E-mail message is private and confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. All emails sent by me remain my property. You must obtain written permission to forward in part or whole any message, data contained within, MX and other header information. Doing so without my written permission constitutes an agreement between me, you and the party you forwarded the information to pay me a sum of no less than $5000. This is a legally enforceable contract between me, you, and the party to whom you forwarded the information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, reproduction, modification, or publication of this communication is illegal and prohibited by law. Please delete the message from your computer and destroy any copies. This message is not intended to be relied upon by any person without subsequent written confirmation of its contents. The sender therefore disclaims all responsibility and accepts no liability of any kind that may arise from any person acting, or refraining from acting, upon the contents of the message without having had subsequent written confirmation. If you have received this message in error, please contact me at the following number:

[REALLY large font]Moron, Idiot & Associates Inc.[/font]

Url: http://www.moron-idiot.com

Office: 555-555-5555

E-fax: 555-555-5555

E-Mail:

Moron Idiot & Associates Inc.

Bad enough as it is, but -- here's the clincher: it was sent to a discussion group that I moderate! I politely told the person that:

So, apparently this rather dumb fella went to bail out his brother-in-law using money that reeked of marijuana.

Long story short... the dispatcher suspected the guy was a-foul (smelling) of the law, the guy's car was searched (with his consent), "a pipe and a small amount of marijuana was found" and now "he could face six months to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine."

Governor Rick Perry and the Legislature can't agree on a school finance plan, but Michael Boone has an idea he thinks can't fail. Here's how he would sell it in a TV ad campaign.

The ad would show pictures of schoolchildren in desks and seniors in their gardens. A soothing but concerned voice talks of underfunded schools and overtaxed homeowners.

Then comes the punch line: "If you want to lower your property taxes 50 cents and put a tax on lawyers, vote YES on Saturday." [Emphasis mine]

That idea, Boone said, would be so popular that "they won't have enough voting booths."

Boone has standing to propose such an idea. He's a lawyer.

- from "A lawyer's case for lawyer tax" in the Houston Chronicle, May 16, 2004

The article gets even wackier from there.

You'd think that companies would "get it" by now. Most don't.

Privacy policies aren't rocket-science, but they're absolutely critical to the long-term success of a company. Without earned trust and strong communications, firms have little hope of surviving, and thank goodness!

So without further ado, here is my free advice to companies wanting to create or update a privacy policy:

A privacy policy must do all of the following:
- INFORM: Let visitors know, in accessible language, how the site collects and manages data acquired
- REASSURE: Offer confident and truthful promises about the safeguarding and respect of this data
- PERSUADE: Successfully invite visitors to fully utilize the site's functions, and to provide honest data and feedback without fear
- PROTECT: Guard the company itself against basic legal or public relations challenges that may arise from improper or incomplete disclosures

Ideally, every company should offer both a comprehensive privacy policy (though preferably not in 'legalese' -- whip those lawyers into speaking English, please) and also a concise one paragraph summary of what they will and won't do with their customers' data.

And then -- though I shouldn't have to say this -- they need stick by their promises... and they'll then be rewarded with greater loyalty and fewer lawsuits

HARK! A powerful new technology! Let's [try it / ignore it / ban it]!

History repeats itself. When new technology is developed, there are the early adopters who coo excitedly, those living under a rock who grunt "huh?" and varying degrees of those who issue warnings, which -- at least as of late -- seem to fit into one of several convenient categories:
1) Fighting against terrorism
2) Safeguarding values (e.g., "Protecting the children!")
3) Protecting privacy

To simultaneously save me from getting writer's cramp and enable you to finish reading this essay in under two hours, I'm just going to tackle the issue of privacy for now.

Many folks asked me how my Valentine's Day was. As a single-but-not-angsty guy, I noted that the following made my Valentine's Day a happy one:
- My roommate is dating a really nice guy.
- I'm blessed with great friends and family.
- Hundreds of people in my city of San Francisco -- who happen to love someone of the same sex -- have gotten married.

I'm not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV. But I did graduate from law school and I know a pretty open-and-shut case when I see one.

Booble, the "adult search engine" that is claiming to be a "parody" of Google, has been sent a takedown notice by the latter and has subsequently sent a defiant reply, perhaps just milking this for all the free publicity.

It's pretty clear to me that Booble's lawyers should have used training bras before filing their argument, because while they may be abreast of (mostly) relevant case law, they're nonetheless gonna be sadly deflated from a court loss.

Here's why:

Water-swilling swing dancers... threat to a moral and orderly society. They Must Be Stopped!

Or so goes the thinking of some pretty aggressive Salt Lake City law enforcement officials, as noticed by this (verified) forward: