Publisher's Notebook

Trend Alert: Judges increasingly are resorting to humor, pop culture references and rhymes in their opinions.

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that judges across the country are more frequently using these devices to spice up otherwise drab legal discussions in their opinions.

The Journal cites a federal judge from Texas, Fred Biery, who recently wrote in a decision about cars that sit idling. These vehicles leave “automobile droppings” on the road, wrote Biery, “which the court calls Petro Poop.”

They probably know more about petro poop in Texas than we do here in Virginia. But we have had judges who heard a similar muse. At least one decision has been handed down in rhyme: Back in the early 1990s, Judge J. Robert Stump issued a letter opinion as a long poem. And retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Hal J. Bonney Jr. of Norfolk was famous r his humorous, and occasionally off-the-wall, opinions.

More recently, U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser used a footnote for a pop-cult reference: He discussed “The Shaggy Defense.” What’s that, you ask? In a 2000 song, R&B singer Shaggy counseled a friend to deny everything and to claim “it wasn’t me” when caught red-handed.

One observer, Prof. Andrew McClurg, says judges do this to break the monotony of their work and perhaps to get a little extra attention. McClurg keeps track of such developments at his website, www.lawhaha.com

Some lawyers and judges like the trend, others not so much. We’ll see how long a run this development has.

I’ll close with an example, proof that everyone wants in on the act.

Call this one Law Noir. A jurist recently wrote, “North Philly, May 4, 2001. Officer Sean Devlin, Narcotics Strike Force, was working the morning shift. Undercover surveillance. The neighborhood? Tough as a three-dollar steak.”

The author: U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, in his dissent in Pennsylvania v. Dunlap (2008).

The war metaphors for testy litigation are many: Battle, fight, skirmish, all-out assault.

And trial lawyer-warriors sometimes get too pumped up. In Richmond, about 20 years ago, a prosecutor and a defense lawyer took all the battle talk one step further: They came to actual fisticuffs in a courthouse hallway.

On the bench, we expect cooler heads. And in the rarified, high-rent air of a state supreme court, we expect reasoned discourse and disagreement to be agreeable.

Up in the Badger State, however, one justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court has accused another of choking her during an argument. The alleged altercation came right before that court handed down a 4-3 decision upholding the state’s controversial measure curtailing the collective bargaining rights of public employees.

One of the court’s liberals says one of the court’s conservatives put his hands around her neck during an argument in her office. He has denied the incident occurred.

Our colleagues at the Wisconsin Law Journal have the story.

The emergency dispatcher must have done a double-take at this one: The frantic caller said that a vehicle carrying two dogs — and no humans — had just gone through an intersection and struck a tree.

Were the pooches behind the wheel? Were they escapees from some pound making a getaway? Robbers on the lam after knocking over a butcher shop?

None of the above, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The dogs were passengers in the car. Their owner parked her car at South Richmond convenience store and apparently didn’t put the brake on.

The car rolled across a parking lot, through an intersection and hit a tree. When cops arrived, the dogs were OK, which was good news for the owner. More good news: The cops won’t be filing any charges against her.

Richmond lawyer Craig T. Merritt (right) received the George Mason Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, Virginia Pro chapter last night.

The annual award recognizes an individual for his or her contributions to Virginia journalism.

Merritt, a partner at Christian & Barton, has been involved in a number of First Amendment and government access cases over the years.

He has often provided his counsel pro bono to groups that don’t have the resources to mount a fight.

Accepting the award at the SPJ reception at the 2300 Club in Richmond’s Church Hill, Merritt cited Mason’s willingness to fight the fights worth fighting for. For example, Mason originally opposed Virginia’s ratification of the Constitution, because it lacked a Bill of Rights.

Those rights, trumpeted by Mason himself in earlier writings, made their way into the Constitution in the first 10 amendments.

Tourists visiting Colonial Williamsburg got an unexpected treat on Tuesday.

After a historical reenactment from revolutionary days, an apparent tourist at the back of the audience broke out in song. Then another tourist joined him. Then another.

Before you knew it, there was an entire choir singing a patriotic ditty.

Actually it was an entire choir…the Mormon Tabernacle Choir staged the performance, flash-mob style.

They are on an East Coast swing and including a stop in the Colonial Capitol.

The crowd was asked to join in and sing “Yankee Doodle,” unaware they were singing with the world-famour choir.

Colonial Williamsburg filmed it all and posted the performance on YouTube. The choir gets going at about 3:30 during the clip.

The Daily Press also has a report.

Sue Yoo is a lawyer. Really – she works in L.A.

This morning, the Wall Street Journal has a story on how names may determine what a person does for a living. Or not.

Dr. Hart may have been predestined to be a cardiologist, according to a controversial study published a few years back. But a lot of people aren’t buying it, including Hart.

You be the judge. For guidance, you can ask Jacqueline Rose Hott, a sex therapist in New York, and Patricia Boguslawski, who is an attorney practicing in New Jersey, what they think.

Want to live a longer life?

You need to move to Fairfax County.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington has just published a comprehensive nationwide study of longevity rates across the United States.

After studying lifespans from 1987 to 2007, they concluded that men in Fairfax live longer than any others in the county, with an expected lifespan of 81.1 years.

For women, Fairfax County was the top spot within Virginia at 83.8 years and 10th nationally.

All this in spite of the traffic.

The state-by-state analysis has conveniently been converted to an interactive chart available at the Washington Post’s website.

Life is longer in Fairfax, but where in Virginia will you live the shortest life?

Petersburg men have a likely lifespan of 66.9 years, according to the study.

For women, two Southside counties – Sussex and Greensville – are tied, with a projected lifespan of 75.4 years.

Take a look at the ad at the bottom of this post, a relic unearthed from our archives.

Who’s that dashing young chap in the picture?

Well, that would be me, circa 1990.

Back then, the home office in Boston strongly “encouraged” all the publishers at Lawyers Weekly Publications Inc. (there were only a handful of us) to create personality promo ads about ourselves and to provide an editorial statement of purpose for our newspapers.

I remember thinking the “Silent Partner” riff worked pretty well (i.e., like your law partner, only working in the background). At the time, though, I was only five years out of law school. Frankly, not too many law firms would have made me a partner.

My “perspective” from 1990, laid out in the ad, is still accurate: “Having a subscription to Lawyers Weekly is like having a research attorney on staff who scours the advance sheets and cases for 50 or 60 extra hours a week.”

A quick historical note is in order. Attorneys who were in practice back in the 1980s will remember the “advance sheets.” They were compilations of court decisions bound into a paperback in advance of the next Virginia Reports volume. Until Virginia Lawyers Weekly came along, it was the best way to stay on top of the latest cases.

More from 1990 Me: A subscription to our paper is “the most efficient, most cost effective tool an attorney in the commonwealth can have. I’ve had many, many lawyers tell me, ‘I don’t know what we did until Lawyers Weekly came along.”

That last part wasn’t just puffing – we heard that statement at bar shows and other meetings for years, until lawyers realized we were here to stay and part of the legal landscape.

I’d like to think we’d do a much better job now on a comparable promo ad – this one is awfully gray and text-heavy. But that was 1990.

I found this ad as I was going through our archives and photo files in preparation for this week’s 25th Anniversary feature – a retrospective of the Virginia State Bar Annual Meeting. Check out the photo spread on the home page for a trip in the Wayback Machine.

And, as it turns out, this week’s issue – the paper of June 13, 2011 – is our 25th birthday edition. The born-on date for Virginia Lawyers Weekly was June 9, 1986 – the second Monday in June, 25 years ago.

I’ve been here for most of that 25 years. I joined the paper in May 1988 directly from law practice. I’ve been here since Day Two; my colleague, Executive Editor Deborah Elkins, has been here since Day One.

We have had many changes to our business. Virginia Lawyers Weekly has remained our flagship product, but we’ve published books, directories and other special publications as well.

Our company was on the Internet very early, with the launch of our website, www.valawyersweekly.com, in 1996. With that development, a subscription to Virginia Lawyers Weekly became twice as valuable. You got a two-fer – the weekly print product, plus 24-7 access to the website, the searchable Archives and the site’s many other benefits.

We began publishing the popular Daily Alert in 2000, giving you a morning dollop of the latest caselaw and legal headlines from our paper and other news outlets across Virginia.

We were acquired by Dolan Media Company (now The Dolan Company) in 2004, and became part of a bigger, stronger operation. We added business-to-business events to our repertoire in 2006, with our first company awards program, Leaders in the Law; we added a second program, Influential Women of Virginia, in 2009. We began our Business and Law Breakfast event series this past April.

Law practice has had many changes as well. Recall the “laptop” computer that came in a small suitcase or the cell phone that looked like a shoe in a bag. Think of the room in the office that was once full of books…you’ll likely now find that same information on the firm’s server or off in a cloud. And dealing with the guy or gal on the other side of a case – it’s likely most of your dealings today are handled over email. Short, choppy and direct. For better or worse, that’s the current interaction of choice.

Two snapshots I found in the VLW photo archives give you an idea of how much has changed.

From 1992, there is a picture of our booth at the VSB confab, announcing the debut of a grand innovation at the time, our auto-fax system (“Opinions by Fax INSTANTLY”).

Juxtapose that image with a picture from 2010: Web Editor Sarah Rodriguez, live-tweeting the proceedings at the annual meeting.

Our mission for 25 years, regardless of the means of delivery, has remained the same: To bring you the vital information that helps you practice law better, more efficiently and more profitably. Providing you that service has been a privilege. So I say “Thank you” for letting us continue to work as your silent partners.

Thank you for subscribing (and renewing).

Thank you for advertising.

Thank you for the many cases, Verdicts & Settlements and story tips you’ve sent in.

Thank you for your support and encouragement.

1990 Me had a big goal: “I want Lawyers Weekly to be the newspaper for every lawyer in the state from the attorney in the big firms in Richmond, Northern Virginia, Tidewater and Roanoke to the solo practitioner in Grundy, Emporia or Front Royal. I won’t be satisfied until we reach every practicing lawyer in the state.”

That’s still true, after all these years.

Today is June 8, so you can take it to the bank that the new law graduates of the Class of 2011 are no longer feeling the euphoria of graduation.

Last month’s celebrations are a distant memory because now lawyer wannabes are mired in bar exam preparation.

The Virginia Bar Examination will be given July 26 and 27 in Roanoke, as always.

Here’s wishing them the best over the next month and a half.

Some things never change: The Board of Bar Examiners continues to hew to a mandatory dress code. Men must wear a coat and tie. Women should dress in “traditional business attire,” whatever that might be. The instructions to applicants note that “soft-soled or rubber-soled shoes” are preferred “so as not to disturb your fellow applicants, but you may NOT wear athletic shoes or flip-flops.”

The Board has the last word on the dress code: “Recognizing the high calibre of professionalism that has traditionally characterized the bar, the Board is confident that no further discussion of this topic will be necessary.”

Case closed. Say you’re a new grad fortunate enough to land a job as an associate with a law firm. Would you really want to have to tell your new bosses you got kicked out of the bar exam for wearing shorts?

Music legend Paul Simon played DAR Constitution Hall in DC last week. Near the end of the show, after a rousing version of “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” (a highlight from the stellar 1986 album “Graceland”), Simon launched into another tune from that record, “Gumboots.”

Only Simon, 69, missed the cue.

A guy in the front row called out the first lines to jog Simon. The master said, “Well, why don’t you come up and sing it?”

So another Paul – a lawyer named Paul Fournier – got his moment in the spotlight, in all his buttoned-down-blue-shirt splendor. Fournier delivered a dead-on “near perfect” rendition of “Gumboots,” according to the Washington Post.

Simon apparently has a practice of inviting fans on stage to sing or play with him, reports the Post’s Reliable Source. In Toronto, he met a woman who said she learned to play the guitar by practicing Simon’s “Duncan,” so he asked her to join him on stage.

Back to Fournier – he practices patent law with Drinker, Biddle & Reath in the District. He told the Post the chance to harmonize with Simon was “an amazing experience.”

The performance is, of course, available on YouTube.