Here's one I'm ashamed not to have known about earlier; instead, one of Reed Smith's astute PR team recently clued me in. It's the Legal Pad blog, authored and edited by the staff of The Recorder (a California legal newspaper) and Cal Law, both American Lawyer Media productions.

Our PR person would have been remiss had he not pointed me toward this post mentioning comments by my colleague Sonja Weissman, Know Your Opponents by the Cut of Their Hair: "[M]embers of her legal team were careful to schedule barber shop appointments the week before their first court appearance, because every lawyer knows how difficult it is to get your bangs clipped during a trial. So when the plaintiff's attorneys showed up looking a little rough around the edges, Weissman realized her opponents weren't prepared to try their case." This of course leads to the corollary: when you really want to psych out the other side, you show up to the final pre-trial proceedings looking very bedraggled, but being very prepared. Sounds like something Evan Schaeffer or Jeff Lewis could have considerable fun with... (Also, here's a tip for anyone who might be playing this game but unfamiliar with the intricacies of female coiffures: where on a short-haired man you'd scan the neck to gauge the time elapsed since the last cut, with women you'd be better served by finding a way to nonchalantly survey your opponent's roots.)

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