What gets lawyers really hyper? People who lawyer in public but they aren't real lawyers.
Today, out in the midwest....the story came out about Tahir Malik who hails out of Stokie, Ill. Basically, he got various charges put up against him for forgery and impersonation of a lawyer. It is a curious episode.
For a number of months around the Stokie area....Tahir showed up at court proceedings and offered his expertise (at least 60 cases they think). Tahir tended to make anywhere between $500 and $4500 for lawyer actions. No one ever saw anything to suggest he wasn't a lawyer.....he knew precisely what papers to file and what to say to make judges happy. In essence....he'd watched Perry Mason, Judge Judy, and real lawyers enough.....and read enough "how-to" books.....that he could pretend to be a lawyer.
The problem here is Tahir didn't ever get a lawyer's degree or pass the bar exam. So they are likely to toss the book at him.
The curious thing is that a guy could break down most legal actions into a simple forty-page "how-to" book and accomplish things that you'd pay $80k for a bachelor's degree at some swanky university. The bar exam? There are idiots who attend six to eight years of university.....and never pass it. There are likely idiots who can study forty pages of material and pass it without much effort. Probably some smart kid with a week or two of studying....could pass most bar exams (I know lawyers will say otherwise....but it just isn't rocket science).
So they will stick Tahir off into some jail for at least a year. If you asked me....he ought to take some classes and get a degree....and pass some bar exam. Then he could actually be a lawyer.
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Simply Business
There are two interesting business episodes unfolding, which I kinda have an interest in.
First, Borders Books are bankrupt, period. They thought someone would come out of the shadows and buy them....but the amount of debt and unsustainable profit is an issue. To be honest, between Amazon and these digital books available....it's hard to be a local neighborhood book store (even in a massive mall). It is a sign of the times.
A trend here? Digital books are growing and I would suspect by 2020 that seventy-five percent of all books will be digital, as sales go. I won't say it's a positive trend, but at least people are still reading.
Borders was this place you go and hang out....picking up an odd book for five minutes and sitting at some easy chair. If you felt right with the book, you bought it. Coffee? Yes. It was a good atmosphere, I will admit.
The other big story? Readers Digest wants to sell itself. Amusingly enough....they want a billion dollars. Last year, they had around 1.4 billion in revenue, but that equaled around thirty million dollars in losses. To me.....that's a huge signal that you've got big problems.....over a billion in sales, and you still can't show revenue.
Who buys Readers Digest? Mostly older folks and medical establishments. If you go to a routine dentist or doctor's appointment....you typically find it still laid out and offered as reading material while you wait.
As a kid, I remember reading it. The last time I picked up and read one? About six years ago. I actually bought one. What I found laid out in the one I bought.....one extremely political story in favor of John Kerry, and two stories over the environment and global warming, which tried to sound factual but were loaded with unproven points. I sat there shaking my head because it'd turned into the National Geographic....just another trend magazine run mostly by a bunch of agenda writers and editors.
Will anyone come up to pay a billion for Readers Digest? I suspect few if any takers. They might eventually unload for around $750 million and end up in the hands of some Brazilian or Saudi billionaire. They would likely hire out a number of cheap writers to contribute and try to remake the magazine into something totally different. Eventually, it'll fail completely and disappear from the shelves.
So in the end....two more dinosaurs dying out.
First, Borders Books are bankrupt, period. They thought someone would come out of the shadows and buy them....but the amount of debt and unsustainable profit is an issue. To be honest, between Amazon and these digital books available....it's hard to be a local neighborhood book store (even in a massive mall). It is a sign of the times.
A trend here? Digital books are growing and I would suspect by 2020 that seventy-five percent of all books will be digital, as sales go. I won't say it's a positive trend, but at least people are still reading.
Borders was this place you go and hang out....picking up an odd book for five minutes and sitting at some easy chair. If you felt right with the book, you bought it. Coffee? Yes. It was a good atmosphere, I will admit.
The other big story? Readers Digest wants to sell itself. Amusingly enough....they want a billion dollars. Last year, they had around 1.4 billion in revenue, but that equaled around thirty million dollars in losses. To me.....that's a huge signal that you've got big problems.....over a billion in sales, and you still can't show revenue.
Who buys Readers Digest? Mostly older folks and medical establishments. If you go to a routine dentist or doctor's appointment....you typically find it still laid out and offered as reading material while you wait.
As a kid, I remember reading it. The last time I picked up and read one? About six years ago. I actually bought one. What I found laid out in the one I bought.....one extremely political story in favor of John Kerry, and two stories over the environment and global warming, which tried to sound factual but were loaded with unproven points. I sat there shaking my head because it'd turned into the National Geographic....just another trend magazine run mostly by a bunch of agenda writers and editors.
Will anyone come up to pay a billion for Readers Digest? I suspect few if any takers. They might eventually unload for around $750 million and end up in the hands of some Brazilian or Saudi billionaire. They would likely hire out a number of cheap writers to contribute and try to remake the magazine into something totally different. Eventually, it'll fail completely and disappear from the shelves.
So in the end....two more dinosaurs dying out.
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