"Measure Twice, Cut Once"
About This Website
I was a cabinet maker before I went to law school, making fine furniture and custom cabinets.
Although I ultimately settled on earning a living practicing law, I love furniture making and have continued to build furniture throughout my life. Making something out of wood in the evenings and weekends provides a nice counterbalance to practicing law (where, at the end of a typical day, you’ve written a bunch of words on a computer). If you’d like to see some pictures of my woodworking, please click [here].
I mention woodworking because the mentality I developed making furniture shaped the way I practiced law.
In the fine woodworking business, there is a saying: “measure twice, cut once.” The idea is that if you cut a piece of wood too short, you’ve ruined it and you need to get a new piece of wood. Wood is precious, so double check your measurements to be sure they are dead on. And whereas carpenters measure to a quarter or eighth of an inch, fine woodworkers measure to thousandths of an inch. When I use a tape measure or ruler, I pay attention to which side of the line I am measuring from—being off by the thickness of the lines on the rule could affect the fit of the piece. I tried to bring that level of attention to detail to my law practice and I try to bring it to my teaching and writing.
Woodworking also led me to my area of legal expertise: procedure.
When you are building a complex piece of furniture designed by an interior decorator, you need to follow the blueprints precisely and perform each step in the proper sequence.
whereas carpenters measure to a quarter or eighth of an inch, fine woodworkers measure to thousandths of an inch.
When you are handling a big lawsuit, you need to observe and comply with the rules of procedure—the blueprints for federal court cases.
My love of woodworking also dovetails (pun - haha) with another one of my passions— music.
I built my first guitar in law school and I’ve now made these three.
My last passion (other than my family) is playing squash.
I took the sport up quite late in life (in my late 40s, when my basketball skills started to decline), but dived in to make up for my late start. I play six (or sometimes seven) days a week and I am a three-time national champion for my age group, a silver medalist at the Pan Am games, and finished 8th at the World Championships.
Other Important Info:
I’m married to Carol Baicker-McKee, a children’s book author and illustrator, who I met as an undergrad at Yale University. We have three children, Kyle, Eric, and Sara. I went to William and Mary law school, where I was on the board of editors of the law review. I clerked on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania after law school, then practiced at Babst Calland for more than 25 years, where I was on the Board of Directors and the Operating Committee. I was “AV”-rated by Martindale-Hubbell, named a “Key Author” by West Publishing Company, regularly selected as a Pennsylvania “Super Lawyer,” elected to the Academy of Trial Lawyers, and recognized in The Best Lawyers of America. I joined the fulltime faculty of the Thomas R Kline School of Law of Duquesne University in 2012, where I teach civil procedure, litigation skills courses, environmental law, environmental litigation, and energy law.
Where to Go Next:
For Practicing Lawyers:
For practicing lawyers, I have two primary tools:
• First, I have compiled the text of all of the advisory committee notes in a searchable database. Although these notes are available many other places, to my knowledge they are not compiled together in one dedicated, searchable format anywhere else.
• Second, this website contains a growing archive of short articles exploring different aspects of federal practice. To receive these by email, sign up below. I’m also available to consult on thorny procedural issues that arise in your cases.
For Law Students:
For law students, I also offer two benefits:
• In the blog, you’ll find numerous articles about how to succeed in law school. To receive these by email, sign up below.
• And if you have questions about civil procedure (or any other trial or federal court-related class), please contact me and I’ll do my best to answer your questions in writing or by video. These questions and responses are archived in the blog as well.
For Nonlawyers:
For nonlawyers I offer answers to your questions about the civil trial system:
• Previous answers are archived on the blog, and I’ll be happy to try to answer new questions that you post to me.
• Additionally, I am working on a book about a fascinating case I worked on that involved a rare cancer cluster in Nevada. It’s tentatively titled Clusterf*ck and it includes a medical mystery, plenty of human interest, and a rare peek under the curtains of the civil justice system.
I’m looking for beta readers, so if you’re interested in reading my chapters and providing your reactions, please reach out here.