Law And More

Allen & Overy: The case of the disappearing junior associates

What gets attention in the legal sector is news about various forms of "righsizing."  Those are rarely called "layoffs" any more.  What gets even more attention is what seems like rightsizing, smells like rightsizing, talks like rightsizing, and walks like rightsizing but has no name.  And that's the story which David Lat broke on Abovethelaw.com.

According to ATL's sources, the law firm Allen & Overy has been, as some already know, cutting staff positions.  But in addition, there has been the strange case of the disappearing junior associates.  One day they are there.  The next day they aren't.  Ah! one suspects stealth layoffs.  The vanishing lawyers might have been terminated but we won't hear a peep from them because they signed confidentiality contracts. 

This story will not go away. ATL asks for more tipsters to step forward.  My hunch is that they will.  Another big story in the making.

First Amendment & Bloggers: Those full of nerve and self-righteousness ignore it

Come on, blogging is a mature medium. People should know better.  The courts are even coming around to providing us the same protections that journalists attached to brandname media have.  Yet, those full of nerve and self-righteousness still contact us. That want this and that deleted. 

Last week, one of those babes with highly traditional credentials stamped her mighty little foot.  Taken aback, I did delete the post which had gone viral. Mistake. I realized that when she wouldn't stop. Then she chastised me for covering the story, mentioning her, without her permission.  The First Amendment does not require asking permission.  At that point, I consulted lawyers.  They are still working on this, developoing a case study.  Like all seeming bullies she backed down, telling me how wonderful a friend and writer I was.  Incidentally, she took down her Facebook page where I had the unfortunate experience of meeting her.  Beware accidental acquaintances on Facebook. That makes me feel, as Walter White announces in "Breaking Bad," I won.  For several years she had used that medium to chronicle the story of her daily activities.

Yesterday, the nephew of a woman called him.  Wiser now, I didn't cave to his demand that I take down a post or delete a link to the NEW YORK POST. I ended the call that this was inappropriate. Nicely.  That didn't stop mom from calling. She told me with great pomp and circumstance that she was the mother of the man mentioned in my post.  I told her not to contact me.  End of all that.

Should there be more education about the First Amendment in schools, the media, and meetups?  All this threw me for a loop.  A street kid from Jersey City, New Jersey I am not easily thrown.

Chelsea Clinton: Is her secret to professional success that she doesn't have a law degree?

Unlike Papa and Mama Bear, Chelsea Clinton never picked up a law degree at a top-ranked law school.  That's a surprise because Caroline Kennedy did that years ago.  Sweet Caroline might have used it to good advantage when she and the rest of the jurors acquitted an alleged crack dealer of selling the bad stuff to an undercover officer.

Well, NEW YORK Magazine is among the media properties which are having a good time putting the spotlight on Chelsea's many professional career paths. She is in this. She is in that. In addition, she can be spotted at Papa Bear's meetups on behalf of saving the world. 

Clearly the media have come to praise Chelsea, not bury her.  The gal is a player.  The Clinton name helps.  But what might help more is that she didn't jump into that black hole of cognitive excellence which traps so many of those who pursue the study and practice of law.

In the rooms: Another suicide

Let's call him Joe.  He wasn't a lawyer but had to use those kinds of skills in his wok with contracts.  Smart.  That's what everyone, including the lawyers, labeled him in the 12-step program.  He had been in the rooms about two years.  He seemed to get through the beginnings of his divorce.  Then his former wife lost her job.  At her age there wouldn't be another.  He had to shell out a ton of alimony but protected his pension.  By this month his daugther would be finishing her Master's Degree and he was helping her with that.

Why he committed suicide, of course, we will never know.  He had made close friends in the program.  When he needed a ride from the airport, there was a program member waiting, even for hours.

As John Donne observed in a poem, when the bell is tolling for a funeral, don't ask for who it is tolling.  It is tolling for all of us.     The viewing will be in North Haven, Connecticut this Thursday from 4 P.M. until 8 P.M. Last year he gave me my chip for my anniversary.  He hugged me tight.

Steve Cohen's Subpoena before Grand Jury: What is the fed strategy?

Founder of SAC hedge fund Steve Cohen has eluded being directly associated with insider trading. However, 9 former employees have been investigated.  Four have pleaded guilty.

Now that Cohen has been subpoenaed to appear before the Grand Jury, reports THE NEW YORK TIMES, everyone is wondering about the fed strategy.  If they want to trap him in a lie and nail him for perjury, that might not happen if he takes the Fifth Amendment. Cohen might have assumed he as well as entity SAC were off the hook when they paid out the $616 million fine to the SEC.

Can Cohen, like O.J., really go free, at least on this one?

Beyond Law School: Now questioning value of BA/BS

Thanks to Facebook, I re-entered the lives of some of the members of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania's Class of '67.  Among them have been Lee Harrison, Charlotte Toal, and Irene Nunn. Even before "education bubble talk" dominated the national conversation about college, I asked them what they got out of the four years.  Most felt they had had a safe place to mature, away from the family nest.  At the time, as Americans adopted the value that the more education the better, I felt it was necessary.  I couldn't have gone on to be a full-time employee in communications departments at the Fortune 100 without the degree.

Now, of course, it's a different story as more youth decide to be entrepreneurs.  Their parents might be shocked when they toss off the idea of getting a college degree.  But parents were also shocked when the best and brightest re-considered the long and winding road of getting a law degree and studying to pass the state bar.

What did I get out of college?  Probably the most useful experience was being introduced to diversity. At the time the college, now a university, was all-female.  Some of the women were relatively well off.  They were going to marry lawyers, doctors, and dentists.  Some were a mess, including me, and would need years of experimenting with healing programs before they became whole.  Then there were those traditional women who had no trouble conforming.  They were the amazing ones.  Before second semester senior year they had an engagement ring and, as a backup, a teaching certificate.  To this day I wonder how they could so easily buy into what was expected of our generation, pre-feminism. 

CT Lawyers: Brutal commute into Manhattan

Not since Sandy have Manhattan lawyers residing in Connecticut faced such a brutal commute.  About 30,000 commuters are nosing around for alternates to Metro North.  Last Friday during rush hour an eastbound and a westbound commuter train collided.  More than 60 were injured, some critically. 

Sure there is telecommuting.  But some lawyers have to be in the office or in court in person.  I faced that extreme pressure during Nemo.  I had to show up in Old Saybrook, CT.  That meant digging out my car from three feet of snow.  Kids are such sophisticated entrepreneurs these days that they only hustle in upscale communities for snow removal.  Mine wasn't one of them.  This blog wishes all the distressed commuters inner serenity.

Rajat Gupta: Mirror for examining our own less interesting screwups

Sure, Rajat Gupta's appeal for a new trial is this week. So, he's back in the news.  THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE has a major feature which presents little new but which gets read.  The article doesn't get past the enigmatic fortress Gupta has build for himself and is able to remain behind a drawbridge that's drawn down and a moat stuffed with alligators. Maybe the media as well as us plain-vanilla gawkers will give up on trying to figure the guy out. 

Instead, we might shift perspectives and ask why his story continues to resonate.  My hunch is that he mirrors our universal tendency to screw up. Only he had the opportunity to do it on grander, more public scale than most of the rest of us.  His downfall, as the cliche goes, is Shakespearean. 

However, his seeming weaknesses are all too familiar.  For example, his hunger for more (he was only a millionaire longing to be a billionaire) made him vulnerable.  Machiavellian Galleon head Raj Rajaratnam moved right in on that. 

Between professional identities, after he left McKinsey, he seemed to get lost.  For us, that starts right after college and we often get stuck in adolescence.  Most of my crimes against myself and society came from that immaturity.

And, he seemed to over-value his education and intelligence  As we see with all the unemployed and underemployed lawyers, Ivy credentials and the gray matter are increasingly worthless in an economy which keeps changing.  Best-selling author Nassim Nicholas Taleb provides insight on exiting that black hole in "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder."

We need the Guptas because their reversals, even if temporary, provide the platform for doing autopsies on our own screwups.  

"Lou v Ma Laboratories" - Sanford Heisler wins another employment suit, but in different category

Most of us know Sanford Heisler for its wins in gender discrimination lawsuits, such as Novartis.  However, in its recent win in "Lou v. Ma Laboratories" it could have bagged itself even bigger game.  That's because, as the RECORDER reports, the case is about the controversial issue of employee arbitration contracts and how difficult it is to get them tossed. 

Sanford Heisler represented lead plaintiff Michelle Lou who signed the arbitration agreement as she was being fired. U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that unenforceable because it was unconscionable under state law.  He noted, says the RECORDER, "The procedural unfairness was severe and the substantive one-sidenesss was heavy-handed."

This was a surprise win since getting out of arbitration agreements has become much more difficult with the ruling in "AT&T Mobility v. Concepion."  The defendant's lawyers are evaluting the options for appeal. 

Given that arbitration agreements are increasingly being imposed on employees and more, when they feel they have been trated unjustly by employers, want out of them, Sanford Heisler could be very busy.  In this niche it could develop an even more powerful brandname than it has in gender discrimination lawsuits.  

Ropes & Gray Settles with Patricia Martone: Age discrimination suits will become more common

The titillating lawsuits by employees of the legal sector filed against law firms usually deal with sex issues. They range from harassment to discrimination because of an alternate orientation.  However, as we all age and as partners are getting forced out, the ones focused on age discrimination could become increasingly compelling.  Even we lay bystanders wonder if the partner became dead wood or did the law firm want a younger version for rainmaking and dealing with clients.

The lawsuit about alleged age discrimination filed by Patricia Martone against Ropes & Gray had been knocking around for about two years.  AM LAW DAILY reports it has been settled, without the attorney fees of either being paid for.  Martone had contended that they were re-assigning her cases to younger males.  Ropes & Gray claimed keeping her on didn't make any economic sense.  It had O'Melveny & Myers investigate her allegation of age discrimination. It did not find any. She was fired in 2010.

Those of us Baby Boomers who are aging and are determined to remain in the work force have continually monitored what it takes to come across as energetic and what new skills are needed to perform tasks in creative and efficient ways. But the bigger challenge, if we want to shift from being on the defensive in an organization, is figuring out how to develop fresh positions of strength. Mine has been fusing social-media expertise with knowledge of financial services. That took about 18 months to figure out. My positioning is now age-irrelevant.  Those hiring me for contract assignments need the work done.