LAWYERS: BILLABLE HOUR VS. FLAT FEE VS. SUCCESS FEE

horas trabalhadas/horas faturáveis vs. honorários fixos vs. honorários de êxito/sucesso
loss of suit cost / losing party’s cost = honorários da sucumbência

"I'm a Trial Lawyer, I Bill by the Hour... This Needs to be Fixed". "Evan Chesler, a Cravath lifer and the firm’s presiding partner (Cravath, Swaine & Moore), writing in Forbes, has become the most recent high profile lawyer to call for nthe end of the billable hour. In the upcoming issue of Forbes, in an article called “Kill the Billable Hour,” he writes: “The billable hour makes no sense, not even for lawyers. If you are successful and win a case early on, you put yourself out of work. If you get bogged down in a land war in Asia, you make more money. That is frankly nuts.” (http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0112/026.html)

"Lawyers are having trouble defending the most basic yardstick of the legal business — the billable hour. ... Mr. Chesler, who is an advocate of the new billing practices, said that instead of paying for hours worked, more clients are paying Cravath flat fees for handling transactions and success fees for positive outcomes, as well as payments for meeting other benchmarks. He said that such arrangements were still a relatively small part of his firm’s total business, but declined to discuss billable rates and prices in detail." [International Herald Tribune - http:// www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/30/business/hours.3-419545.php]

TO USE OR NOT TO USE “SHALL" IN AGREEMENTS

Há muita discussão, até mesmo nos países de língua inglesa, sobre o uso de “shall” em contratos. Os “pros and cons” praticamente empatam e, s.m.j. (salvo melhor juízo) (ou melhor opção), o uso de “shall” segue “undisturbed”. Para maiores detalhes sobre essa pendenga, veja a opinião de nativos nos links correspondentes:
“In my recent article advocating disciplined use of shall I mention that I haven’t seen any evidence of a flight from shall.” (http://adamsdrafting.com/system/2007/11/30/law-firm-forbids-shall-question-mark)

“I take a position between these two extremes. I recommend that for purposes of business contracts you use "shall" only to impose an obligation on the subject of a sentence -- in other words, to convey the meaning "has a duty to." Eliminating "shall" entirely has little to recommend it: replacing it with "must" would eliminate a useful distinction along with only negligible risks; lawyers find "must" unduly bossy; and "will" is even less promising as an alternative. (http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1193043817930)

"Use of "shall", "will", "may", and "should". For mandatory requirements in the specifications use "The Contractor shall". For requirements to be fulfilled by the government use "The Government will". Use "may" to allow an option. Never use "should" in the specifications. (http: //www.swt.usace.army.mil/specs/instructions_2.htm)

"the use of "shall" to mean a requirement and "should" a recommendation." (http://www.ideals.uiuc.edu/bitstream/2142/7572/1/librarytrendsv36i4_ocr.txt)

"...whether we should use will' or shall' in the relevant parts of our speech or writing. ...the future tense required will' for everyone except the first person singular and plural, when the correct use is shall'.
She quotes: "You will have my reply tomorrow" (future tense), but "You shall go to the ball" (determination). http://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/1821906.a_day_once_set_aside_for_hirings_firings_and_all_the_fun_of_the_fair/

SHALL: indica “dever”, “obrigação”. Nesse sentido, somente pode ser usado por pessoas, não por objetos. Uma regrinha básica [rule of thumb]: Use “shall” somente quando “shall” puder ser substituído por “has the duty to”. Por exemplo: X shall (has the duty to) pay Y an amount equal to... The meeting will take place at...
MAY: dever/obrigação de agir; direito/privilégio/poder
MUST: dever/obrigação de agir
MAY NOT: direito/privilégio/poder restrito

PICK OURSELVES UP, DUST OURSELVES OFF, AND BEGIN AGAIN

"levantar, sacudir a poeira e dar a volta por cima"

Acabo de receber de uma amiga (MCV) essa ótima tradução para este excerto do discurso do Obama: "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America."

WHISTLE / WHISTLER / WHISTLEBLOWER / WHISTLE STOP TOUR

Whistle: Verb: (assobiar/assoviar) To produce a clear musical sound by forcing air through the teeth or through an aperture formed by pursing the lips. Noun: (assobio/assovio/apito): A small wind instrument for making whistling sounds by means of the breath. A device for making whistling sounds by means of forced air or steam: a factory whistle.

Whistler: (assobiador/apitador) One that whistles: a whistler of popular tune
Whistleblower: (fiscal/vigilante/denunciante/delator/informante) One who reveals wrongdoing within an organization to the public or to those in positions of authority: “The Pentagon's most famous whistleblower is . . . hoping to get another chance to search for government waste” (Washington Post).
Blow the whistle: (delatar/informar) (a) Expose corruption or other wrongdoing, as in The President's speech blew the whistle on the opposition's leaking information. b) Put a stop to, as in: The registry decided to blow the whistle on new vanity plates. The term originally alluded to ending an activity (such as factory work) with the blast of a whistle.
Whistleblowing: (denúncia): Whistleblowing at work : tough choices in exposing fraud, waste, and abuse on ...

Whistle Stop Tour: (Tour de Trem) a) A town or station at which a train stops only if signaled. b) A brief appearance of a political candidate in a small town, traditionally on the observation platform of a train:
Obama Kicks Off 'Whistle-Stop' Tour (OBAMA INICIA TOUR DE TREM) - Obama appealed to Americans to persevere through hard times as he kicked off a "whistle-stop" train tour from Philadelphia to Washington.
Source: Answers.com; New York Times, etc.

INNATE / BORN / INBORN / INSTINCTIVE / INBRED / CONGENITAL / HEREDITARY

An ability that is inborn or instinctive. These adjectives mean existing in a person or thing from birth or origin. Ex.: a born athlete
Something that is innate seems essential to the nature, character, or constitution: innate common sense.
Inborn strongly implies that something has been present since birth: inborn intelligence.
What is inbred has often been ingrained through earliest training or associations: an inbred love of music.
Congenital is applied principally to characteristics, especially defects, acquired during fetal development: a congenital disease. It is also used figuratively of characteristics or people with characteristics that are so deep-seated as to appear natural: a congenital pessimism; a congenital liar.
Hereditary refers to what is transmitted by biological heredity (a hereditary heart anomaly) or by tradition: “that ignorance and superstitiousness hereditary to all sailors” (Herman Melville). Source: Answers.com

THE JOKER

O noticiário de hoje informa os ganhadores do 2009 Golden Globe, entre os quais, Heath Andrew Ledger (4 Apr 1979–22 Jan 2008) an Australian television and film actor, for Best Supporting Actor (Melhor Ator Coadjuvante) in a motion picture.. He has also been nominated for and won awards for his portrayal of the Joker (Curinga ou Coringa) in The Dark Knight, including a Best Actor International award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards, for which he became the first actor to win an award posthumously (postumamente), and, also posthumously, the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actor.
Source: Wikipedia

URBANE

(adjective) = Suave, polite, sophisticated. Usage: This is a straight-forward word with no pitfalls to look out for: "His urbane manner impressed everyone at dinner." Suggested Usage: Use this term to refer to people who are sophisticated as a result of education, travel, and intelligent experience: "Lucy's travels have left her an urbane commentator on world politics." "She also has urbane tastes in cuisine."
Source: Your Dictionary

CONTINUALLY / CONTINUOUSLY

Yes, there is a slight difference, although most people (and even many dictionaries) treat them the same.
Continually means repeatedly, with breaks in between.
Continuously means without interruption, in an unbroken stream.
Ex.: Heidi has to wind the cuckoo clock continually to keep it running continuously. (If it's important to emphasize the distinction, it's probably better to use periodically or intermittently instead of continually to describe something that starts and stops.) The same distinction, by the way, applies to continual and continuous, the adjective forms.
Source: Your Dictionary

REFORMA ORTOGRÁFICA

Alfabeto: + k, y e w

Trema: Eliminado, exceto em nomes próprios e seus derivados.

Hífen: Não mais usado quando a primeira palavra terminar com vogal e a segunda começar com consoante (Agora: antirrugas, autorretrato), ou quando a primeira palavra terminar com letra diferente da que começar a segunda (Agora: autoestrada, infraestrutura). Será usado quando a palavra seguinte começa com b, h, r, m, n ou com vogal igual à ultima do prefixo (Agora: anti-imperialista, super-homem, inter-regional, sub-base) e quando a primeira palavra terminar com vogal ou consoante igual à letra que começar a segunda (Agora:micro-ônibus, contra-ataque, micro-ondas)

Acento agudo: Eliminado em ditongos abertos ‘‘ei’’ e ‘‘oi’’ de paroxítonas, paroxítonas com ‘‘i’’ e ‘‘u’’ tônicos precedidos de ditongo, nas formas verbais com ‘‘u’’ tônico, precedido de ‘‘g’’ ou ‘‘q’’ e seguido de ‘‘e’’ ou ‘‘i’’, “i” e no “u” tônicos quando vierem depois de ditongo em palavras paroxítonas. (Agora: jiboia, apoio, plateia, europeia, feiura). As palavras herói, papéis e troféu continuam sendo acentuadas porque têm a ultima sílaba mais forte. O acento permanece se o “i” ou o “u” estiverem na ultima sílaba (Piauí e tuiuiú). Na letra “u” dos grupos que, qui, gue e gui o acento também deixa de existir (Agora: averigue).

Acento diferencial: Eliminado em alguns casos (Agora: para, pela, pelo, polo, pera). (O acento diferencial não deixa de ser usado em pôr (verbo) / por (preposição) e pôde (pretérito) / pode (presente). Fôrma também continua sendo acentuada para ser diferenciada de forma.

Acento circunflexo: Eliminado na terceira pessoa do plural do presente do indicativo ou do subjuntivo dos verbos crer , dar, ler, ver e seus derivados; palavras terminadas em hiato ‘‘oo’’. Também eliminado nas palavras terminadas em “êem” e “ôo” (Agora: creem, veem, leem, enjoo)

Veja, no link abaixo, uma tabela publicada pela Folha:
http://media.folha.uol.com.br/educacao/2009/01/02/reforma_ortografia.pdf

TITTLE / TILDE

Vamos começar o ano de trabalho “dotting our ‘is’ ” colocando os pingos nos “is” (ainda mais depois da reforma ortográfica!) (ou é melhor esperar passar o carnaval?)

tittle (noun): til (the tilde on “ã”), pingo (no “i”[the dot on an “i”]), ponto, traço:
(1) A small jot, the dot of an [i], cross on a [t], the beard on [ç], or a discritic such as the tilde on [ñ]; (2) something minute, incredibly tiny, smaller even than an iota—indeed, an iota (Greek short [i]) is capped by a tittle.

tilde (noun): A mark used over an n (ñ) or over a vowel (ã). or to express negation in mathematics or logic, etc. You cannot use tildes ( ~ ) as part of a URI on Windows NT systems. Please DO NOT use the tilde character in your filenames. Players can press the tilde key ( the ~ key ) from any game screen to bring down ( and/or raise ) their console. Google has added a synonym function, using the tilde symbol ( the curly horizontal line or ' ~ ' to be exact ).

"Tittle" is unrelated to the verb "to tittle," which was clipped from the rhyme compound "tittle-tattle." It should not be confused with a titter, either, for that is a suppressed giggle. Think of a tittle as the smallest thing or amount visible without a microscope. Originally, "tittle" referred to those itsy-bitsy appendages added to letters in some languages, "Red Ard did almost fail French for consistently omitting the tittles on his written French." Although we classify today's word as a noun, it probably is used today more often as a quantifier, specifying how much, "When Lucinda dropped her ice cream cone on Hardy Root's head, he didn't move a tittle (não moveu um músculo). "I'll quote him to a tittle," meaning precisely, without omitting so much as a tittle. Somewhere over the years that followed, "to a tittle" was apparently confused with the phrase, "cross all your Ts (and dot your Is)," which also referred to exactitude. Ultimately, "to a tittle" was reduced to "to a T." Now we can quote or describe someone to a T, meaning absolutely exactly.
Source: YourDictionary

ELEEMOSYNARY

adjective: : Of or related to charity; altruistic, contributed as charity. The obvious usage refers to eleemosynary institutions, eleemosynary activities, and the like. Aren't they paying you enough? Prove you deserve more by telling them that your work is not intended as an eleemosynary contribution. (If you say "charity work" they won't look up from the desk.) It is an isolated adjective with no corresponding noun or verb.
Etymology: Medieval Latin eleemosynarius "alms" which gave Late Latin eleemosyna. This word entered Old English where it was reduced to "ælmesse" and further to "almes" in Middle English. The Latin stem was borrowed from Greek eleemosyne "pity, alms" from eleos "pity, mercy."
Source: Your Dictionary

NICETIES

Morei 5 anos no Iraque. Lá, tive algumas aulas de árabe. O professor, Youssef, procurava ensinar-nos somente palavras bonitas, gentis, agradáveis, poéticas. Queria que as nossas tentativas de comunicação com o povo árabe fossem trocas de gentilezas. Entre outras, aprendi “jamil(i)”/”helwa” [bonito(a)], “xucram” [obrigado]. Hoje é o “capodanno” (Na Itália, cabeça do ano, primeiro dia do ano). É um dia de palavras bonitas, sentimentos agradáveis. Por isso, vamos dedicar-nos às “niceties”.
1. Nicety (noun): the quality or state of being nice; specif.: scrupulosity/ precision; accuracy; exactness, as of discrimination or perception / fastidiousness; refinement; delicacy of taste
2. quality of calling for delicacy, accuracy, or precision in handling, discrimination, or adjustment
3. involving or calling for delicacy, accuracy, or precision; subtle or minute detail, distinction, etc.
4. choice, dainty, or elegant.
Source: YourDictionary