Posted by Michael C. Smith on November 05, 2009 at 06:18 PM in SRBPS Firm News | Permalink | Comments (1)
Texas Lawyer runs a periodic column "I Like Being A Lawyer" where contributors list their top five reasons why they like being a lawyer. This week's contributor was Susan Fisher from SRBPS - Sherman, who in addition to her day job at our firm's Sherman office also moonlights as a State Bar director representing 25-odd Northeast Texas counties (can't imagine who might have talked her into that). She writes:
I don't know about that writing business... Sound suspicious to me.
Posted by Michael C. Smith on June 12, 2009 at 06:00 PM in SRBPS Firm News | Permalink | Comments (0)
For the summer months, our Art at Work program is featuring a variety of artists with a summer-y motif (Carol Pace tells me) including a lot of, well, sea-ish stuff, like fish hooks, and, uh, animals and stuff.
Out front we have a stunning new watercolor of the old (for eight more days) Harrison County Courthouse by Carol Pace to celebrate its rededication as "the" Harrison County Courthouse on June 20, flanked by a pair of new "fish hook" paintings by Jo Ann Imhoff and a sunset landscape by Mary Norvell. The frames on the fish hooks are painted the same as the canvas, and the painting wraps around the side - they're real attention-getters. (To the left is a close-up that will hopefully show this a little better - two are a sort of aqua-blue and a third is deep purple). Also out front is
a flamingo and a Neptune by Sally Martin, a floral by Mary Norvell and a floral by Mieko, and a large equestrian collage-type painting by Lou Violette.
Down the hall, we've hung on to Bob Metzger's beautiful watercolor of downtown (an office favorite)
, and in one of the visiting lawyer offices we have a purple fish hook by Joanne (my favorite of the three) and the original of Carol Pace's old courthouse that we used on our firm's Christmas cards last year.
The original plan was for that to stay out front, but we've had such great art to show off lately it has been spending time in a side office.
Posted by Michael C. Smith on June 12, 2009 at 01:00 PM in SRBPS Firm News | Permalink | Comments (0)
Ever had that blinding moment of clarity where you realize that any idiot could see that a particular patent should be held to be invalid? That no lawyer or judge or jury with half a brain and thirty seconds of exposure to basic patent law could possibly fail to see that a particular patent is just amazingly, incredibly, obviously invalid?
Don't waste those endorphins - celebrate that special feeling in a socially beneficial way by donating blood at your local blood center. It doesn't matter if you end up being right - what matters is that right now you just know you're right. And you're willing to put your blood where your mouth is (okay maybe that metaphor needs some tweaking) by donating blood to celebrate your discovery.
For a list of the blood centers closest to you, click here.
Now here's how the subliminal thought process works. For the several thousand daily readers of this weblog, I have observed that many (if not most) of you have the above special feeling on a daily (if not weekly) basis (whether with good reason or not we won't get into - that's what judges and juries are for). But the next time you have it, guess what (socially beneficial) thought's going to run through your head?
Yep, that's me - making the world a better place one quirky idea at a time. But seriously - go donate blood. It'll make you feel great.
Posted by Michael C. Smith on June 12, 2009 at 12:29 PM in SRBPS Firm News | Permalink | Comments (1)
The Northeast Texas Association of Paralegals circulates a monthly newsletter, the Key Note Download Key Note - June 2009 Page 6 of the June issue features SRBPS-Marshall's own Pam Matthews as the "Member in the Spotlight". While Pam does begin her answer to the question "Favorite read?" with "I probably should say anything my boss writes" she then falls down by saying "seriously, anything by John Grisham, David Baldacci, Larry McMurty or Dean Koontz." Hmmm!
(As I write this, Pam and her husband Glenn are on vacation floating down some river or other near New Braunfels, and I'm trying to stay on top of my docket without my crackerjack paralegal! Help!)
Posted by Michael C. Smith on June 10, 2009 at 01:23 PM in SRBPS Firm News | Permalink | Comments (0)
I am pleased to report that at the Texas Access to Justice Commission's 25th Anniversary Gala
benefiting the Texas Access to Justice Foundation on Wednesday, May 27
in Austin, my cocounsel Jeff Rasansky of Dallas, Jeremi K. Young of Amarillo (pictured left with Tom Gobold, TAJF board member from Houston) and I received the Cy Pres: Impact on Justice award in recognition of a recent award of cy pres funds from one of our cases totaling $230,160 to help bolster legal aid in Texas. Jeff and Jeremi (with minimal help from me - although I'm still keeping the award, assuming they'll send it to me) settled a federal case and played an instrumental role in awarding the resulting cy pres funds to the Texas Access to Justice Foundation
Cy pres awards are, by the way, residual funds from a class action or other proceeding that cannot be distributed to class members or the intended beneficiaries for a variety of reasons. The Texas Access to Justice Foundation and Commission have launched a statewide campaign to seek cy pres awards to help impact funding for legal aid for the most vulnerable Texans. The recent award from our case will, I am proud to say, serve to jumpstart the campaign in Texas. (If you have a case that might be a candidate for this, drop me a line and I'll put you in touch with the right people with the TAJC. Your hard work might as well benefit people that need the help, as well as the clients you've worked so hard for).
Unfortunately, as you can tell I could not be there for the festivities - as savvy readers will remember, my twins were graduating from kindergarten, so Jeff and Jeremi - who deserve 100% of the credit anyway - got to receive it.
Posted by Michael C. Smith on May 31, 2009 at 07:30 PM in SRBPS Firm News | Permalink | Comments (1)
Point of personal privilege - my six year old twins Collin and Parker graduate from kindergarten tomorrow morning. (That's Parker on the right and Trouble on the left).
This is an event so momentous that it was commemorated by all of the litigants in one Eastern District patent case I am counsel in to actually agree on every single claim term this afternoon so that we could cancel the Markman hearing set for tomorrow morning, so I could attend.
Posted by Michael C. Smith on May 27, 2009 at 06:02 PM in SRBPS Firm News | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friday afternoon was a busy one for SRBPS - Marshall, as both our paralegal Pam Matthews and I had presentations at the State Bar of Texas 2009 Federal Court Practice seminar in Dallas.
First, Pam was on a panel on Electronic Case Filings Best Practices with McKool Smith attorney Jill Bindler and Northern District of Texas Division Manager Jason McDonald. I followed them with Dispositive Motions. Both presentations (as well as several others that day) emphasized the importance of reading both the local rules and judge-specific orders.
Posted by Michael C. Smith on May 18, 2009 at 10:09 AM in SRBPS Firm News | Permalink | Comments (0)
I am sorry to report the untimely death of one of our partners Homer Reynolds III, who passed away at his ranch in Oklahoma recently. In addition to being a partner in Siebman, Reynolds, Burg,
Phillips & Smith, LLP, Homer also served on the boards of several local
corporations and charities, including the board of Presbyterian
Healthcare System, Inc.
Homer Reynolds was a 1980 graduate of Plano Senior High School. He graduated from SMU, Magna Cum Laude with a dual major in
history and political science in 1984, and earned his J.D. from the SMU
School of Law in 1987.
The Collin County Observer has a page with tributes to Homer that provides some observations on what an exceptional man Homer was, and how much of a loss this is not just for his family, but also his friends and his community.
Posted by Michael C. Smith on April 20, 2009 at 06:42 PM in SRBPS Firm News | Permalink | Comments (0)
Brought two of my boys to the office yesterday after school, and while Grayson (9) was content to just borrow an office to play on his laptop for a couple of hours, Parker (6) decided that the play room was no longer adequate - he needed an office of his own. So he put his name on the door of one of our visiting lawyer offices,
moved in his desk from the play room, and on being advised that we promote art in the workplace presented the attached portrait of the Marshall's office's founding partner. (For the record, my eyes are actually blue).
Posted by Michael C. Smith on April 01, 2009 at 06:47 PM in SRBPS Firm News | Permalink | Comments (0)