The other day, I found in my office mailbox a photocopied Subway coupon sheet addressed to “Daily Record Newspaper Employees” and touting “great offers.” As a longtime Subway customer, I read on, expecting to find a deal that would save me a few bucks. Instead, I met with an insult to my intelligence.

“Daily Record Newspaper Employees,” one coupon advertised, could get a FOOTLONG sub, chips and a drink for $7.

Thanks for the personal invitation, Subway, but spare me the disingenuous implication of exclusivity. As any regular patron of the sandwich chain knows, that’s what everybody pays when they make a $5 FOOTLONG into a combo meal.

I don’t know whether the other coupons offer similarly misleading deals. Maybe somebody at another downtown Baltimore employer who eats six-inch subs and has little tolerance for “one for $1, two for $2″ bargains cares to chime in.

Jay Perman, the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s new president, has no problem being known as a nice guy. His annual commencement speech while dean at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine was even about the importance of doctors being nice to patients.

But Perman told reporters and editors at The Daily Record last week that what surprises him are people who view nice as a liability. He recalled early in his career a colleague at the University of California, San Francisco, said Perman “would never make it” because of his niceness.

“So ha-ha,” Perman said dryly. “I’m here to say that’s not true.”

Perman describes himself as nice by nature but also in a pragmatic way.

“When you’re nice, it becomes that much easier to demand of those who are not nice that they shape up or get out,” he said. “That’s why it’s been so effective for me.”

That Perman is a pediatrician has also helped him as an administrator. (You can insert your own joke here about what caring for children and overseeing a faculty have in common.)

“I think if there’s a case for a leader being nice, that sort of self-selection goes into choosing pediatrics,” he said. ‘There are no harsher critics of nasty adults than children. They will not have it.”

Happy Monday! Here are a few law links to start your gonna-be-another-hot-one week.

On a personal note, this will be my last blog round-up, since I will be wrapping up five great years at The Daily Record this Friday. The round-up will be taken over by Danielle Ulman, who will also be moving from covering finance, energy and biotech to covering the business of law. She’ll do a great job!

• “One part charisma, one part skill and a dash of improvisation is the recipe for success,” “Be careful who you smack with a steel chair, because he will probably be your tag-team partner next week,” and other law career lessons from pro wrestling. HT: ABA Journal.
• Would you tell another lawyer that she looks inappropriate?
• Could soldiers who believe homosexuality is wrong seek conscientious objector status as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ends?
• With Justice Stevens’ departure, Justice Breyer looks ready to lead the opposition, former Daily Record-ite Lawrence Hurley writes.
• There’s never been so much riding on passing the bar exam, argues a bar review teacher.
• But she’s so darn sassy!