Publisher's Notebook

Back when I was in law practice, I handled some bankruptcy work, wasn’t always easy down in Southwest Virginia if you represented creditors.

The federal bankruptcy judge in the area was Judge H. Clyde Pearson, who was known for being a debtors’ judge. Debtors’ lawyers actually would use him as a threat in negotiations: “Well, we can always take this before Judge Pearson and see what he thinks.”

I doubt I would have looked at it this way at the time, but now, years later, I’d say Judge Pearson was just expressing hope. His willingness to look out for someone down his luck and to give a little more time for making payments was a vote in the possible.

Clyde Pearson died last Friday at the age of 85.

The Roanoke Times has an obituary, which notes, “He never forgot his roots and the people of Southwest Virginia were always close to his heart.” I’d say that was right.

WILLIAMSBURG—New Jersey P.I. lawyer Tom Vesper was one of the VTLA’s featured speakers at the group’s annual convention this past weekend in the Colonial Capital.

His topic: New ideas for taking depositions, including how to protect your plaintiff when he or she is deposed by the other guy.

One suggestion: Client Cliff’s Notes. In other words, as part of your preparation, have your client put together notes, time lines, photographs and diagrams to help her answer the defense lawyer’s questions. Also, your client can write out a list of physical complaints that result from the accident.

The other side will complain that the dep is “not an open book test,” he said.

“Oh yes it is,” he thundered. There is “no rule, no case law, no statute and no precept” that prevent you from bringing in those materials to help the person being deposed.

“This one technique has saved many, many dollars for my clients” over the years, he said.

My friend and former colleague John Tuerck left legal journalism to work in legal PR. He spent some time with Hunton & Williams here in Richmond, then headed home to Boston. It’s probably easier to get Red Sox games on TV there.

John has started a blog called “Law Firm Public Relations and Communications.” And in a post published today, he puts an intriguing spin on the just-passed health care bill.

Regardless of your personal politics and viewpoint on the bill, its passage is a “PR bonanza” for lawyers, he said. It’s a chance for lawyers to explain, to educate and to provide insight into a complicated topic.

Lawyers who practice health care will no doubt be approached to explain the bill and its impact. But lawyers who practice in related fields – employee benefits, labor and employment, insurance, among others – likewise can tout their expertise.

Given the complexity of the material, and the sheer volume of the legislation (153 pages in the House reconciliation bill alone), there are numerous opportunities afoot for “lawyers and law firms looking for a bit of visibility,” he said.

Robert Louis Stevenson (right) penned one of the greatest adventure tales published in the 19th century, “Treasure Island.” He produced a dark story of duality, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” as well as poetry for children – “A Child’s Garden of Verses.” He delved into Scottish history in another adventure, “Kidnapped.”

But his family wanted him to be a lawyer. Well, first they wanted him to be an engineer. His father and other family members were engineers and they expected Robert to follow suit when he entered the University of Edinburgh in 1867. He had no interest in same, and he announced he wanted to pursue a life of letters. Okay, fine, his father said, you can be a lawyer.

Stevenson studied law at the university, and he even qualified for the Scottish bar in 1875. His ever-hopeful father put a plate outside the family residence, “R.L. Stevenson, Advocate.” But he never practiced.

Instead, Stevenson traveled widely and made good on his determination to be a writer. During the 1880s, he published the four books named above and a variety of other works. He sailed all over the world. But his health, never good, was failing.

Looking for a warmer climate, he ended up in the Pacific, settling on one of the Samoan islands. He died there at the age of 44 in 1894.

After an endless winter of snow measured in feet and cold, here’s a reflection after a glorious weekend.

Novelist William Styron, a Newport News native, tucked away a love letter to the glories of springtime in the Old Dominion in his Pultizer-prize winning book, “The Confessions of Nat Turner.”

Here’s the passage. In the book, a traveling salesman stops by the farm of Nat’s master, and expounds on the beauty of spring in Virginia:

“No, sir, Mr. Turner,” he was saying, “they is no spring like it in this great land of ours. They is nothing what approaches the full springtide when it hits Virginia. And, sir, they is good reason for this. I have traveled all up and down the seaboard, from the furtherest upper ranges of New England to the hottest part of Georgia, and I know whereof I speak. What makes the Virginia spring surpassing fine? Sir, it is simply this. It is simply that, whereas in more southern climes, the temperature is always so humid that spring comes as no surprise, and whereas in more northerly climes the winter becomes so prolonged that they is no spring at all hardly, but runs smack into summer—why, in Virginia, sir, it is unique! It is ideal! Nature has conspired so that spring comes in a sudden warm rush! Alone in the Virginia latitude, sir, is spring like the embrace of a mother’s arms!”

How many decisions have we featured over the years in which a lawyer or a law firm is forced to bring suit to collect an unpaid fee, and a judge whacks it down? Sometimes a lot. Sometimes the lawyer gets only pennies on the dollar.

That’s time out of that lawyer’s life that he or she will never be able to put to good use for another client. When all you have to sell is your time and expertise, one of those results can be a gut-punch. And you know what? Invariably, those cases are highly popular.

Out of Henrico County this week, here’s something new: A law firm sued a client for unpaid legal fees…and got every penny it asked for.

Click here to check it out.

What’s worse than a pair of high-testosterone lawyers trash-talking at each other over minutiae at a deposition?

That’s bad, for sure. A pair of college professors sniping at each other at a department meeting? (Someone once said the politics in academia were so nasty because the stakes were so low).

That’s bad, too. How about one newspaper’s response when it gets to write smack about another newspaper, especially the other paper’s editors?

Just as bad. It happened this week. Guy who is the local news editor of the Brockton (Mass.) Enterprise was pulled over by cops last Saturday with a blood alcohol content of 0.3 percent, and charged with his third DUI. A bad situation, made worse over the fact that the cops say they found an open bottle of vodka in a bag in the car. Oh, and the guy’s son, age 6, was in the back seat.

All of this was reported on the Web site of a sister paper, The Patriot Ledger, rather matter-of-factly on Monday. They identified the guy’s employer in the third paragraph. The headline: “Police: Man driving with child in car was drunk.”

The Enterprise posted the Patriot Ledger’s story on its own Web site Tuesday.

Enter the rival. The Boston Herald gets hold of the story (I’m guessing they have someone who scans the sites of competitor papers) and in a piece published Tuesday, blares the headline, “Brockton editor bagged with booze, kid in car.”

The Herald probably had their best wordsmiths working on this lead:

“With his 6-year-old son munching a burger in the back seat and a half-empty liter of cheap vodka riding shotgun up front, a Brockton Enterprise editor allegedly wasted behind the wheel didn’t even know what town he was in, police said.”

They should have used purple ink. The image of a bottle of vodka (note it was “cheap”) “riding shotgun” is pretty evocative. And I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen “allegedly wasted” used in a news story before.

One wonders what the Brockton Enterprise will do when/if it gets the chance to return the favor to the Herald.

Here’s a bill that will provide more time to both sides for jury research. It’s another measure that made it through the Assembly without a single “nay” vote in either house.

Senate Bill 382, as introduced, would have changed the time period for disclosure of the jury panel to counsel in a case from “48 hours” to “two full business days.” Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, carried this one for the Boyd-Graves Conference.

It passed the Senate. Over in the House, in the Courts of Justice Committee, “two” got jacked up to “five.” It passed the House as amended. The Senate okayed that change and it’s on its way to Gov. McDonnell.

Lawyers previously had to scramble to dig into the backgrounds of potential jurors. No doubt they’ll still be scrambling, just for three days longer.

It’s not often that everyone on Capitol Hill can agree on something.

But during the just-completed General Assembly session, Del. David Toscano, D-Charlottesville, secured passage for a bill that didn’t get a single vote against it as it worked its way through committee and the floor of both houses.

The bill is House Bill 747. It covers adoptions and allows a circuit judge to waive the appointment of a guardian ad litem in adoptions by stepparents or close relatives.

The measure made it through a Courts of Justice subcommittee 8-0 and the full committee 22-0. It passed the House 98-0.

On the Senate side, HB 747 sailed through Senate Courts 14-0 and the full Senate 40-0.

Undoubtedly there are other bills that made it through similarly unscathed, but this one is worth noting since (a) it makes sense and (b) it should make family practice just a little easier.

Presumably, the only people who wouldn’t like this proposal are those who serve as guardians ad litem, who now may be out of a little work. Apparently they don’t have a lobbyist working the Hill for them.

Midnight Oil is one of Australia’s best-known rock bands, putting out music for more than three decades.

For 25 years, the front man and lead singer was a 6-foot-6 bald guy named Peter Garrett (right). Watch one of their videos on YouTube and you can’t miss him.

Garrett joined the band in 1976, after responding to an advertisement the others had placed for a lead singer. At the time, he was a law student at the University of New South Wales. He left school to join the band on tour, returning and completing his degree a few years later.

The Oils, as the band is known to its diehard fans, always have displayed a keen political sensibility. Their hit, “Beds Are Burning,” addressed Aboriginal rights; “Blue Sky Mine” spoke of lack of payment for asbestos exposure. “River Run Red” blasted pollution.

So it’s no surprise that Garrett’s career path went toward politics instead of law practice. He left Midnight Oil in 2002 to concentrate on his political career, rejoining his old mates for several benefit performances in the 2000s.

He was elected as member of the House of Representatives in 2004; when the Australian Labor Party won the national election three years later, the new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, named Garrett as Minister of the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. A number of problems, including a troubled program to provide free insulation to homes, prompted Rudd to demote Garrett. He remained in Rudd’s cabinet but was stripped of responsibility for energy efficiency.

And if Labor loses the election this fall, Garrett always has the band the fall back on…