Experts & Views
CRICKET AND IPL : LESSONS FOR LAWYERS AND LAW FIRMS
Here a few lessons law firms and lawyers need to learn from the way cricket/ IPL is played.
1.) Do one thing. Do it well.
Irfan Pathan was a huge success till he did one thing. And you bet he did it awesomely well. Left arm fast medium, 135ks, the ball swinging into the right hander. What a beautiful sight it was! The girls liked him too!
Then he tried to be super quick. That didn’t happen. He now is actually medium fast. He then tried to develop the ball the goes away from the right hander. Didn’t happen. He worried. Grew bald. Even the girls left him! The blue eyed boy of Indian cricket is now groping in the dark. Sad.
Many lawyers who concentrate on a single practice area are doing great for themselves. Take Mr. Pavan Duggal for example. He does Cyber law. Obhan and Associates do patents. That is it. Mr. Veeraghavan Inbavijayan: He does International Arbitration. Nothing else. But they all do it really well.
On the other hand, lawyers/ law firms who try to expand too much, too fast have more often then not fallen flat on their faces.
The cat who knew to climb trees escaped the hounds; the fox who knew a hundred myriad tricks fell prey to them.
2.) Great things remain great.
Australian cricket team was great, is great. Imagine this: no Waugh brothers, no McGrath, no Warne, no Gilchrist, no Hayden, no Langer. And you begin to think if it is really the Australian team. But in comes Mitchell Johnson, Nannes, Bollinger, Hussey, Clarke, Haddin et al. The Australian team still remains a world beater.
Fox Mandal, a great firm got into a very bad shape off late. Partners broke away. Spin-offs were quicker than Shoaib Akhtar’s 150 km/ hr thunderbolts. But Fox Mandal persevered. Today it is hale and hearty and the piggy bank too seems to be growing.
3.) Great captains are cool captains. Great captains are brave captains. Great captains are innovative captains. Great captains are fun.
Kian Ganz is cool. He is the editor/captain of this site folks.
He lets every comment pour in and be put on an open forum. He is brave.
He has this blog competition running. He has a thriving discussion forum on. He has a job portal too. Kian is innovative.
Kian has a party every Saturday and Sunday. Kian is fun.
Dhoni never loses his cool. He tackles media with his philosophical one liners.
He parades the team before media to show unity. Dhoni is brave.
Dhoni uses Raina as a death bowler, Amit Mishra as a night watchman. He is innovative.
Dhoni loves bowling. He has even opened the bowling in a Test match. Dhoni is fun.
4.) Things that don’t come on TV/ Newspapers are dead.
Many lawyers come on TV. CNBC, NDTV Profit etc. are some of the favourite hunting grounds of the eagles and beagles. Their news comes in various business newspapers. Big, visible news. They surely are living well. Domestic cricket matches aren’t even telecast live on TV. The news space of a Ranji match is, at best, microscopic. Domestic cricket is dead.
ps- more to come!
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@Other bloggers - please rest assured that personal flattery will have no impact on the judging in any way! :)
However, LegalPoet, I promise to buy you a pint /cup of chai when you next visit Mumbai. Same offer open to any other bloggers too, just send me a short email.
I have my own reservations about Pavan Duggal. His "Ok-Tata-Tata-Bye-Bye" verdict as WIPO's sole panelist is perhaps the worst decision ever over domain name disputes.
Duggal has reasoned that the site OK-TaTa-Bye-Bye dot com links back to the company’s Make My Trip dot com site, where people can book trips online. This, according to Duggal, shows that OK-TaTa-Bye-Bye dot com is actually trying to use TaTa’s trademark to “fish” for new customers to its Make My Trip dot com site and hence is a violation of the Tata groups trademark!! This decision reflects Duggal's lack of understanding of even the bare basics of trademark law.
For those interested in reading the verdict - it can be found at www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2009/d2009-0646.html .
Apologies for diverting from the topic. As a cricket aficionado, the post made great reading (though not as humorous as Duggal's verdict).
Legal Dodo
This decision
I have my own reservations about Pavan Duggal. His "Ok-Tata-Tata-Bye-Bye" verdict as WIPO's sole panelist is perhaps the worst decision ever over domain name disputes.
Duggal has reasoned that the site OK-TaTa-Bye-Bye dot com links back to the company’s Make My Trip dot com site, where people can book trips online. This, according to Duggal, shows that OK-TaTa-Bye-Bye dot com is actually trying to use TaTa’s trademark to “fish” for new customers to its Make My Trip dot com site and hence is a violation of the Tata groups trademark!! This decision reflects Duggal's lack of understanding of even the bare basics of trademark law.
For those interested in reading the verdict - it can be found at www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2009/d2009-0646.html .
Apologies for diverting from the topic. As a cricket aficionado, the post made great reading (though not as humorous as Duggal's verdict).
Legal Dodo
This decision
BTW...bloggers don't email Kian...tweet him. His feathers are ruffled more by tweets.
@Legal Dodo
Thank you for your praise. Uhmm...that WIPO decision seems interesting.
Btw...I don't think you completed your comment....please check.
a) The post made no sense whatsoever but was fun reading.
b) I think kian must have already made a verdict by declaring you winner.
c) Which year are you in?
Selecting winners will also not just be in my hands... We'll come up with a good process in due course.
Thanks,
Kian
Tweeting works but direct message over Legally India social network or Legally India chat functionality works equally well... And emails too occasionally... :)
Kian
1.) Please do tell what part didn't make sense? I have edited some parts. Hope you find it better.
2.) That was just a friendly jesture by Kian aimed at all the bloggers. It can't be even vaguely connected to 'declaring a winner...'
3.) Second year.
@6 Kian
:P...dread you must...make sure that you find a way to 'moderate' blog posts by then :P
I love cricket. Sometimes, a few thing which you have been subconsciously ruminating upon comes as a writing piece. Happened with this post.
Was thinking about cricket-life lessons (after me and my teammates were flabbergasted/ heartbroken when our batch lost a very very close match to the first years).
BTW...Have 3 more cricket- law lessons related posts lined up. Am eager to see how this one fares. Cashing on the IPL season obviously too was on mind.
Also, a suggestion: u r really worthy of innovative write-ups and other kind of stuff....but sometimes u seem to get too carried away in trying to be different. For example this piece was total CRAP. Please keep that in mind.....All the very Best!! :-)
sometimes u have to accept that people have more talent that you. in this blogging competiton legalpopat and legalpoet are way ahead. yhey make you laugh, they make you think, they inform you about many things also. so stop bickering and just accept the fact. therez nothing wrong with that. you keep trying harder, but don't grudge anyone their success. And these two LPs have already attained their reputation and are living up to it well.
I wish YOU who said so much about writing anonymously would have the 'morality' and 'consciousness' to tell us who you are. First, to shut your mouth, I am a dear friend of LegalPoet and NOT a blogger at all, leave LegallyIndia. LegalPoet knows who I am. He unlike you also knows that Comments 11 and 13 are written by me and those are the only 2 comments written by me. He unlike you also knows that my criticisms are constructive criticisms and not the way in which you think them to be. So dudes, get a life and stop making accusations anonymously.
PS: the nickname I used in this comment is what LegalPoet calls me sometimes when he is angry at me. Second one is what he thinks I am! Ignore this!
:-)
Go LegalPoet!!
1) are attempts at expanding in a spectrum of practice areas unreasonable and bound to fail? are there no valid examples of law firms who succeeded in doing so and cricketers who succeded at trying different things and doing them reasonably well? what about dhoni and the story of his improved keeping? are there other stories i don't know of?
2) do some great things also cease to be great or is greatness once is a guarantee of greatness always? or does that not happen? for instance can we say west indian cricket was once great and now for a fairly long time it is some way far from that spot?
3) what is the crtical lesson in your point no. 2 for law firms and lawyers in general? i doubt great lawyers and law firms need reassurance that they shall ad infinitum remain great. i also doubt that u mean that only greats remain great and that the great club is shut for others who are trying to get in.
4) have uncool, a little jittery, very orthodox and definitely non fun captains never been great? what is cool, innovative, brave, fun made of? doesn't everyone want to be that? but doesn't everyone want to know how to be that? just like they want to know how to be a graet captain? i'm sure u must have found some lawyers who are trying hrd to come across as cool, brave, fun, innovative, who keep mouthing these words but are not like that at all? so can u throw more light on the content and the workings of these words more than the words themselves? because words per se don't tell us much.
5) is it true that all the lawyers and law firms that are doing well and going places are in the news? or that only those who are in the news, doing well and not the others? does being in the news make you great therefore lawyers and law firms should actively try to be in the news? are those who are in the news, great, because they are in the news is the reverse true?
6) lastly - i think your post is fun. but are u serious?
Point 1
Yes. But expansion is when you grow big, really big. When you are not one, but many.
If you want to remain solo, small and in control, going small and specialisation is the way. When you grow big...big, elaborate systems and processes come into play. This ‘alienates’ you from many things.
Point 2 and 3
Yes. But if the greatness is not based on ‘one’ individual or ‘one’ thing and great' system' is in place, greatness is bound to remain. Australia’s domestic cricket and cricket infrastructure in general is what I am referring to.
Point 4
Accept exceptions.
Point 5
No. But being in the media is a good catapult.
Point 6
For every truism there is an equally compelling truism. For example see this quote coming straight from the self help literature:
“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work the more I live”. And then there is this Zen philosophy which says that to do more one has to do less.
Now if you dig deep into this you’ll realise how both are true. But on the face of it...they look contradictory.
and yeah...the post was intended to be funny. everyone can learn different lesssons from different things. This was what I learnt. :)
And thanks for the defence...Sanni.
Yes I am a fast bolwer...and faster, nippier, stronger and 'more impactful'...than any other bowler :P
@27
Dunno what to say man. You seem to have a lot on your plate. Keep enjoying!
btw...which team are you supporting this IPL-treeetiya?
@32...uhmmm...but our cricketer seem to be short of breathers...poor souls...fatigued, exhausted and filthy rich! :D
@33...prepare for the best and hope for the best.
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