MASN dispute update

[atomic]

21 minutes ago, Frobby said:

He obviously was very successful. I’m sure he signed the MASN deal knowing there were risks.    I’m sure he also knew that not signing it had even bigger risks.    Like losing his threatened court case and getting no compensation at all for the Nats moving here, which IMO was the most likely outcome if he’d pursued the case.   

Success at chasing ambulances. Saying he was a great attorney is like saying Mike Illitch was a great pizza maker. 

[TonySoprano]

52 minutes ago, atomic said:

Success at chasing ambulances. Saying he was a great attorney is like saying Mike Illitch was a great pizza maker. 

Ilitch was worth $6B when he died.  You can say he was a great pizza businessman who didn't make a great pizza.    I'd like to see the list of lawyers similarly dismissed as "ambulance chasers" who are worth up to a billion dollars.  Maybe you can provide other examples.

[Frobby]

57 minutes ago, atomic said:

Success at chasing ambulances. Saying he was a great attorney is like saying Mike Illitch was a great pizza maker. 

I’m not going to spend time debating how good a lawyer Peter Angelos was.   Let’s just say I don’t think he needed to be Oliver Wendell Holmes to understand that the MASN contract contained language that was ambiguous and that having the RSDC be the arbitrator to resolve disputes could be disadvantageous.   

[atomic]

9 hours ago, TonySoprano said:

Ilitch was worth $6B when he died.  You can say he was a great pizza businessman who didn't make a great pizza.    I'd like to see the list of lawyers similarly dismissed as "ambulance chasers" who are worth up to a billion dollars.  Maybe you can provide other examples.

He went to U of B a third tier Law School even now even with his money put into it.  Basically if you can read and write you can get in.  

You can look at his law firms site. They have a ton of attorneys and they are personal injury firm.  If you want to identify money making with being great than Chris Davis is a great baseball player,

[TonySoprano]

21 minutes ago, atomic said:

He went to U of B a third tier Law School even now even with his money put into it.  Basically if you can read and write you can get in.  

You can look at his law firms site. They have a ton of attorneys and they are personal injury firm.  If you want to identify money making with being great than Chris Davis is a great baseball player,

What law school did you attend?  U of B might have been all a local man could afford.   Say what you will about how he made his fortune, but he didn't inherit it.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, atomic said:

He went to U of B a third tier Law School even now even with his money put into it.  Basically if you can read and write you can get in.  

You can look at his law firms site. They have a ton of attorneys and they are personal injury firm.  If you want to identify money making with being great than Chris Davis is a great baseball player,

Speaking as a lawyer at a top law firm and a graduate of a top law school, I think you’re being a bit naive here.    First, there’s a big different between litigating car accident or individual personal injury cases, and litigating mass tort cases relating to issues like asbestosis.   The latter are very complicated and raise sophisticated legal issues.    Moreover, if those cases are being sent to you, it’s because you’re pretty good at them.

Second, I know a lot of successful lawyers at “white shoe” law firms who didn’t attend great law schools.    There are lots of reasons people go where they go, and what determines their success afterwards is their drive to succeed.    

And finally, as I already said, the issues we are discussing about the wording of the contract and the choice of arbitrators aren’t that complicated.   It doesn’t take a genius to foresee the risks.    And, Angelos wasn’t doing this by himself.    He had counsel outside his firm involved, including a guy I know who was a partner of mine a long time ago (before the MASN deal) and who is a pretty sophisticated business lawyer.

Simply put, this isn’t a case of some third rate ambulance chaser getting the wool pulled over his eyes by a bunch of Harvard lawyers who were smarter than he was.     

[Redskins Rick]

11 hours ago, atomic said:

Success at chasing ambulances. Saying he was a great attorney is like saying Mike Illitch was a great pizza maker. 

Your irgnorance is overflowing today.

I dislike Angelos as much as anybody.

To put down somebody because of their ability to pay for a Ivy league education, is an elistist attitude. 

You do realise that not every lawyer that wants to practice, can, there is somebody very difficult to do, and that is the bar exam.
 

You can dislike how he made his money, but you can't dispute that it took intelligence and articulationing his cases before the court system.

Let me know, when you become a billionaire and I will gladly eat my straw hat.

 

 

[DrungoHazewood]

32 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Second, I know a lot of successful lawyers at “white shoe” law firms who didn’t attend great law schools.    There are lots of reasons people go where they go, and what determines their success afterwards is their drive to succeed.    

Maybe it's different with lawyers, but as an engineer I can tell you that about three weeks after you're hired the only time anyone cares where you went to school is when it provides an opportunity to make fun of your school's football team.  Never once in 26 years as an engineer have I heard someone say something like "we're not relying on Joe's engineering acumen, he only went to UMBC."  Not even once.

[atomic]

29 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Maybe it's different with lawyers, but as an engineer I can tell you that about three weeks after you're hired the only time anyone cares where you went to school is when it provides an opportunity to make fun of your school's football team.  Never once in 26 years as an engineer have I heard someone say something like "we're not relying on Joe's engineering acumen, he only went to UMBC."  Not even once.

UMBC is a way above UB.  

[DrungoHazewood]

2 minutes ago, atomic said:

UMBC is a way above UB.  

Okay, I'll take your word for it.  The point stands that no one cares where you got your degree as long as an accredited college printed it out, and not Staples.

[atomic]

1 hour ago, TonySoprano said:

What law school did you attend?  U of B might have been all a local man could afford.   Say what you will about how he made his fortune, but he didn't inherit it.

LOL.  I only know about law schools as I was getting ready to apply when my wife became pregnant and she didn't want me to spend that much time away. I was going to apply to George Washington and Georgetown as they have night programs and are higher tier law schools.   

Nice thing about law schools is they only seem to care about your undergraduate GPA and your LSAT test scores.  

Perhaps I will go when I am in my 60's. 

BTW Edward Bennett Williams was considered a great lawyer.  Went top law school and was in high profile cases and started a prestigious law firm that even had a future Supreme Court Justice working for them 

[weams]

1 minute ago, atomic said:

Edward Bennett Williams was considered a great lawyer.  Went top law school and was in high profile cases and started a prestigious law firm that even had a future Supreme Court Justice working for them 

He wanted to move the Orioles to DC. Oh well, the MLB finally got their wish. 

[TonySoprano]

6 minutes ago, weams said:

He wanted to move the Orioles to DC. Oh well, the MLB finally got their wish. 

EBW was the one that worked with Willie Don Schaefer to get Camden Yards approved.

 

Quote

Gov. William Donald Schaefer recalls asking him repeatedly for the security of a long-term lease. "He said, 'Well, the answer to that is no. . . . I will never sign a long-term lease unless there is a new stadium built.' He meant that," Schaefer said.

The Colts left in 1984. The pressure for a new stadium increased. In 1987, with the project before the legislature, Williams testified in Annapolis. A new ballpark, he told them, would secure the Orioles and bring international attention to Maryland. "I'm concerned about anything that affects the state we live in and love," he told lawmakers.

"He made the difference," Schaefer said. The stadium plan passed. In May 1988, Williams signed a 15-year lease for the new stadium. He died three months later.

Baltimore Sun, Mar 29, 1992 - https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1992-03-29-1992089228-story.html

[atomic]

14 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Okay, I'll take your word for it.  The point stands that no one cares where you got your degree as long as an accredited college printed it out, and not Staples.

Of course they care.  You mentioned UMBC it is a top Computer Science and Engineering university in the State.  After UMCP.

My first job out of college my first project was cleaning up the database of the Georgetown University MBA alumni database.  Almost everyone was a Vice President or a CEO.  There were a few directors. 

The vast majority of Supreme Court Justices went to Yale, Harvard, or Columbia Law schools.  Remember when GW nominated that women from a lower rated school and how the immediate push back came.  

 

 

[DrungoHazewood]

Just now, atomic said:

Of course they care.  You mentioned UMBC it is a top Computer Science and Engineering university in the State.  After UMCP.

My first job out of college my first project was cleaning up the database of the Georgetown University MBA alumni database.  Almost everyone was a Vice President or a CEO.  There were a few directors. 

The vast majority of Supreme Court Justices went to Yale, Harvard, or Columbia Law schools.  Remember when GW nominated that women from a lower rated school and how the immediate push back came. 

You can just declare victory and go have a beer with your fellow Yale alumni, I've lost all the drive to continue the conversation.  Probably because I settled for Virginia Tech.