I'm sure many of you already received this email, alerting us to a DCBA Young Lawyers Section clothing drive:

DCBA Young Lawyers Section Professionalism Committee and the Horizons Committee in conjunction with 'Canes Closet & Hope Public Interest Resource Center at the University of Miami School of Law SEEK YOUR ASSISTANCE WITH A

PROFESSIONAL CLOTHING DRIVE The Professional Clothing Drive is a philanthropic event that coordinates the donation of work-appropriate clothing for men and women to local domestic violence shelters and other needy individuals April 20, 2009 through May 01, 2009 at the listed locations Hogan & Hartson LLP Mellon Financial Center 1111 Brickell Avenue Suite 1900 Miami, FL 33131 (firm lobby) Hughes, Hubbard & Reed LLP Miami Center 201 S. Biscayne Blvd., Suite 2500 Miami, FL 33131 (firm lobby) Museum Tower 150 West Flagler Street Miami, FL 33130 (bldg. lobby) Dade County Bar Assocaition 123 NW First Avenue, Suite 214 Miami, FL 33128 University of Miami School of Law 1311 Miller Drive Coral Gables, FL 33146 Please Help! Bring Your Clothing Donation to These Locations

Get this man a decent set of professional clothes! And get him out of the cafeteria and/or copy room while you're at it.

It's nice to see the South Florida legal community coming together for such a good cause.

Remember when we discussed the impending changes to the Federal Rules and the adoption of the new "days are days" time calculation standard?

Well, even though we live here in South Florida, it appears that things are actually under control, in that Chief Judge Moreno just signed this Administrative Order reconciling our local rules with the new changes.

Sure it took a few tries, but the main thing is they got it right:

Due to several discrepancies in the attachments to Administrative Order 2009-34 and Supplemental Administrative Order 2009-34, the Court vacates those orders.

This Administrative Order is intended to supercede those orders in their entirety.

For the reasons set forth below, the petition of the Ad Hoc Committee on Rules and Procedures for an Administrative Order concerning the calculation of time periods under the Local Rules is GRANTED.

This Court amends its various local rules on an annual cycle corresponding to the issuance of new rules books for Florida federal practitioners by West Publishing Company, after a period of public comment, notice, and an opportunity to be heard in accordance with Fed. R. Civ. P. 83 and Fed. R. Crim. P. 57.

Substantial changes to the manner in which dates are calculated in the various Federal Rules of Procedure have been approved this year and will go into effect on December 1, 2009. The Committee has prepared corresponding amendments to the Local Rules, the Discovery Handbook, the Rules Governing Attorney Discipline, the Magistrate Judge Rules, and the Admiralty Rules.

These, however, will not go into effect until April 15, 2010, subject to the notice and comment procedures described above.

To avoid any discrepancy between the manner in which time is calculated under the various Federal Rules of Procedure and the Local Rules of this District during the interim period of December 1, 2009 when the amendments to the Federal Rules go into effect and April 15, 2010 when the corresponding amendments to the Local Rules will go into effect, the Committee has requested that time-calculation changes to the above rules be set forth as an attachment to an Administrative Order,
to be in effect during the interim period. The Court has determined that this is appropriate, and it is

ORDERED that the modifications to the Local Rules, the Discovery Handbook, the Rules Governing Attorney Discipline, the Magistrate Judge Rules, and the Admiralty Rules shown on the attached table shall be effective as of December 1,2009. This Order shall expire on April 15,201 0.

It is further

ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court is directed to post this Order, with the attached table, on the Court's website, and to take such other measures as he deems necessary to advise members of the Bar of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida of the forthcoming changes in time calculations in the Local Rules.

Thanks to the Chief Judge and all the folks working on this for your hard work and diligence.

(I wonder if the Ad Hoc Committee can do something about that new pleading standard I've heard something about.......)

Well it's a pretty damning statement about our toxic American politic when the Dean of frickin' Yale Law School can't get himself confirmed for a job in the Obama Administration. Right right I know he wants to apply Sharia law in American courts and all, and he looks all foreign and everything. Guess that's reason enough to attack the guy.

Speaking of "mergers" Dr. Barbay -- some interesting affiliations reported yesterday. A quality group of ex-Akerman litigators and some tobacco defense lawyers have formed a new Miami office of a New York firm I never heard of before. And Scott Rothstein's firm establishes a Miami beachhead as well. Congrats all!

And here's pesky blog fave Scott Dimond prattling on in the Herald about devils and "balancing acts" or something:

Scott Dimond, a Miami litigator who chairs the Florida Bar's Rules of Judicial Administration Committee, said videoconferencing has been discussed by the committee, which has yet to make a formal proposal to the state Supreme Court -- which ultimately must decide whether to approve it.

The rules committee is studying whether the use of video technology can save court costs without sacrificing a litigant's or a defendant's right to confront witnesses or accusers, Dimond said. ``You have to ensure that no one is losing rights provided under the law by implementing new technology. It is a balancing act.

''The devil is in the detail when writing a rule that thousands of lawyers will look at and interpret every day,'' Dimond said. ``You have to be careful to get it right the first time because it is very hard to change.''

So true!

For example, when posing for an important picture the devil is in the details and you really have to be careful to get it right the first time. These things are very hard to change.

Oh hey -- this little crappy blog thingy was selected as local "blog of the day" by the Sun-Sentinel. You can see the other local blogs they have featured here.

Have a good day everyone!

I don't know about you, but a significant part of my day consists of haranguing my paralegals and young associates regarding calendaring of motions and response times.

Frankly, it's often a highlight -- watching them use their hands, fingers, and other body parts to count, forgetting holidays no one knew existed, and getting wrong which day to start or stop counting and why.

Good times.

Unfortunately, those days will soon be gone:

On December 1, 2009, unless Congress acts otherwise, the way you compute time in federal litigation will change significantly. The Supreme Court has transmitted new rules to Congress that institute a “days are days” approach to computing the time periods in the appellate, civil, bankruptcy, and criminal rules. The new rules will include intermediate weekend days and holidays in calculating deadlines. Thus, the Court has also adopted amendments to a number of the rules that extend virtually all short deadlines. Of course, the district courts will have to revise their Local Rules accordingly, which may lead to some confusion if the revisions are not made quickly or accurately.

Who is in charge of coordinating the Local Rules -- "quickly and accurately" -- assuming these changes go through?

Oh boy, somebody better get on this fast.

UPDATED -- At Scotty's request and because he's such a good sport, I have included what some might argue are more flattering photos of our resident rule-writing king.

(To be honest, I'm not sure about that last one)

See if you can spot the differences.....

I count at least three!

I don't know, I can't quite put my finger on it.

So I hope you all were at Uncle Miltie's judicial fundraiser last night. I thought it was a good showing for a good guy who will make a more than good judge.

To be honest, I was getting a little sick of continually posting pics of Milton Drysdale or Mr. Mooney every time some bank goes under or turns out be involved in some massive fraud.

That's why I was thrilled to read this DBR story by Alana Roberts on how some Florida firms are weathering the depression and in fact faring better than some national counterparts.

No, not because it contained partially good news for some South Florida lawyers, but mostly because it featured SunTrust's law firm private banker Laura Kaplan:

But the regional, mid-market firms such as Florida’s legal industry leaders are faring better than firms with headquarters in cities like New York, which relied more heavily on structured finance and other declining practice groups, said Laura Kaplan, Coral Gables-based managing director and head of SunTrust Banks’ private wealth management legal specialty group.

“In this type of economic environment, you see the firms that are faring best are the ones that have diversified practice groups,” she said. “Because they’re less dependent on the large multinationals, they have a more diversified middle-market client base, and they have a much more diversified revenue stream not only in the type of work they do but also the type of clients they have in their portfolio. Their ability to diversify downstream with smaller clients is helping them fare better.”

Note to Scott Dimond -- review Laura's photo carefully, this is how you are supposed to get ready for a DBR photoshoot.