Law And More

"Tis the season for serial killer, including on Wisteria Lane

One murder just isn't a compelling formula on crime shows.  It isn't either on general program such as "Desperate Housewives."  Not in these ratings-challenged times.

Well, even Wisteria Lane now has a serial killer.  Julie, who was strangled, managed to survive.  The waitress in the coffee shop wasn't so lucky.  Expect everyone to suspect everyone else.

Meanwhile viewers's eyes are on Bolen, who was dumped by Julie, and was overheard by the waitress as he spoke to a federal agent about turning himself in.  But that seems too obvious.  Could it be a creature of rectitude such as Carlos aka Prince Hal has become?  Or is Orson as nutty as Bree thinks he is with his stealing binges?  Let's not rule out females.  Katherine has gone off the deep end since Julie's stepfather Mike dumped her. 

Ironically, it requires serial killers in the dying medium of television whereas cute dominates the video medium on YouTube.  In the December edition of VANITY FAIR, Jim Windolf does some heavy-duty analysis of the cute phenomenon sweeping the globe.

Attorneys Dying for Success: 21st-century "The Great Gatsby"

Jobless attorneys landed on their feet.  They didn't wind up dying for success.  They're still wandering planet earth, in shock.

Others, in law and other professions, weren't so lucky.  "The Fat Guy From Greenwich" is the 2st-century version of the men and women, once nobodies or at least not somebodies, who put themselves in harm's way as they chased success.  It's now in print and available to order on Amazon.com. Jay Gatsby is an archetype, a striver and dreamer of all times.

Can't wait until your copy comes in the mail?  Here are the first two chapters Download FGFGchapters1,2.  Those who don't see themselves are either emotionally whole or very emotionally unwhole.

John Grisham watch out: "The Fat Guy From Greenwich" has just been published

Half mystery, half-morality tale of "The Great Gatsby" updated for the 21st century, the comedy of manners "The Fat Guy From Greenwich" may snatch away fans of John Grisham.  It's just been published by legal blogger Jane Genova.  Here you can order it at Amazon.com.  And here is a complimentary peek at the first two chapters Download FGFGchapters1,2.

Warning: You'll will never feel the same about success.

Health Bill in Senate: Catholics a la Italian Style

The bookmakers are calculating the odds that the Roman Catholic stand on abortion could help sink the Health Bill in the Senate and, later, upset the 2010 elections.  But, not so fast. 

RC religious points of view are coming to go a la Italian Style: Pick and Choose.  The members of the RC religion no longer represent a monolith.  And they are likely to be actually split from the official church [called "Holy Mother Church"] after the once-sealed discovery documents about the clergy sex abuse litigation in 2001 are unsealed. 

A Connecticut Superior Court, after the matter went all the way in different formats three times to the U.S. Supreme Court, mandated the media get access on or before December 1, 2009.  Here's what the Diocese of Bridgeport says about the matter on its website. 

The media getting that access are no slouches at maximizing the payoff of a story.  They include THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE HARTFORD COURANT, and BOSTON GLOBE, which broke the clergy sex-abuse story and is now owned by The New York Times Inc.  Some foresee a Martin Luther type reset and reformation post-analysis of the 12,000 pages of discovery material.  That could make all bets about the 2010 elections irrelevant.

My comedy of manners "The Fat Guy From Greenwich" has just been published.  The main characters embrace Roman Catholicism or did in their youth.  Here are the first two chapters Download FGFGchapters1,2.  You can order here from Amazon.com.

Bear Market: Could Reed Smith demand of 15% from nonequity partners be a form of pay to play?

In a bull market, like, who would blink an eye.  The stars and even the tier just a bit below that would and could bail to another firm.  But in a bear market for legal talent, even the seasoned kind, Reed Smith's demand of 15% of nonequity partners's pay seems to be a form of pay to play.  Cagey lawyers might be wise to investigate if there's any where to go or to set up a small firm.

Clearly, this mandate at a firm which has already had two rounds of layoffs in the past 11 months and cut first-year associate's salary and billing rates 20% sends a negative message to the marketplace, ranging from prospects and clients to recruits and current employees.  Could Reed Smith have managed its financial affairs without these kinds of radical moves?

Reflection: Could a good public relations expert  with a high level of Emotional Intelligence [EI] have prevented all this at Reed Smith?  Here is my complimentary copy of ebook on EI which has had more than million downloads Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg.

CT Diocese of Bridgeport: Court Action the Wrong Action?

There's the old adage: Sure you can win the case but at the same time you could lose your company to bankruptcy and take a major hit to your reputational capital.  There's now a new version of that.  And that's that you can lose the case and also lose plenty more. 

That might be the situation the Connecticut Diocese of Bridgeport is in.  It lost its motion to keep the discovery documents from the 23 clergy sex abuse lawsuits which were settled sealed.  It took that request from courts in Connecticut all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  And in the U.S. Supreme Court, it presented the request in various forms three times.  Since the work was done by a major law firm on a fee-paid basis, submitting those motions was expensive. 

Recently the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Diocese's request to keep the documents sealed.  And last week, a Superior Court Judge in Connecticut ruled that the sealed documents had to be made available to the media by December 1, 2009. That media includes THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE HARTFORD COURANT, and THE BOSTON GLOBE.  The latter, whose parent is The New York Times Company, broke the clergy sex abuse story.

Here is what the Diocese of Bridgeport says about this matter on its website.  Soon enough we will find out what public opinion says about the delay in releasing the 12,000 pages of discovery and what's in those documents.  Also, human beings tend to register their points of view through their pocketbooks. We will find out at the end of 2009, how the fundraising for the Diocese of Bridgeport went during this period of high-profile legal wrangling.  Heading up that mission are public relations leader Bob Dilenshneider and his wife Jan, both residents of Darien, Connecticut.

Could this mess have been prevented by even an average dose of emotional intelligence [EI]? Here is a complimentary copy of my ebook on EI which has already had more than a million downloads Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg.  A number of its readers contend that it put their failing organizations, nonprofit and profit, back in the black.

Full Disclosure:  For a few months in 2004, I did freelance consulting and writing for the Diocese of Bridgeport.  On and off from the mid 1990s until 1Q '09, I freelanced for The Dilenschneider Group.

Breaking News: My comedy of manners "The Fat Guy From Greenwich" has just been published.  Here are the first two chapters Download FGFGchapters1,2.  Here you can order the novel from Amazon.com. The plot line follows devout Roman Catholics and not so devout ones.

 

Discover Card & Me

I am asking U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Discover Card's Vice President of Customer Service Clint Morley to look into this one.  Was I a victim of a bait and switch?  Here's my side of the story Download Discovercard.

Time will tell.

Reed Smith in news AGAIN, for people/pay issues

Reed Smith is again in the news for people/pay issues.  This latest follows earlier news about two rounds of layoffs in the past 11 months as well as cutting first-year associate salaries and their billing rates 20%.

This time the news, reports Zach Lowe in THE AMERICAN LAWYER, is about asking "its roughly 300 nonequity partners to contribute a percentage of their base pay - likely about 15 percent - to the firm in order to maintain their partnership status."  The firm explains this move as ensuring that every partner has a share in the risks of the business, not only the rewards. 

However, like the layoffs and pay cuts, this sends a negative signal to the marketplace.  The timing seems desperate. According to Lowe, in 2008 gross revenues increased 10% but PPP was down by 6.5%. 

When the defense doesn't put on a defense: Astor/RI Lead Paint Trials

There's a model that leaves us with lots of questions.  That's the defense which doesn't put on a defense in a court trial.  In the December edition of VANITY FAIR, Meryl Gordon, also author of "Mrs. Astor Regrets," reports on talking to the jury in the famous Anthony Marshall trial.  There, as in the Rhode Island lead paint trial II, the defense didn't present its case. 

Overall, that, says Gordon, worked as a negative with the jurors.  They were waiting for defense witnesses who would speak well of Anthony Marshall.  When there were none, they were somewhat taken aback.  After all the prosecutor had depicted Marshall as a monster who preyed on his elderly mother.  That put him in two bad categories:  Elder abuser and mean to mother.  After days and days of deliberation, even longer than the RI lead paint trial II, Marshall was convicted on 14 of 16 counts. 

At RI II, we observers were equally taken aback when the defense didn't present a case.  After all, we had been sitting there since November 1, 2005 listening to the plaintiff legal teams - both the office of the state attorney general and contingency attorneys from Motley Rice - hammer the four lead paint companies.  Agreed, the cross done by defense attorneys such as John Tarantino [representing ARCO] and Mickey Pohl [representing Sherwin-Williams] was brilliant.  But cross is cross.  We were waiting to see the defense dog and pony show. 

When I interviewed jurors soon after the trial they didn't seem to feel that if the defense had put on a case they wouldn't have convicted three of the four defendants.  However a few months later when a reporter from THE NEW YORK TIMES interviewed them they had shifted opinion.  They said that the no defense signaled to them that there was no way the defendants could refute the charges. 

Trial attorneys are often like poker players.  They keep information close to their vest.  In both trials we don't know who are the prime leader in the decision not to put on a trial or why that strategy was adopted.  What we do know is that it tends not to have positive outcomes for the clients. 

For years, we will be reviewing these two trials and wondering if convictions could have been prevented in both had there been a strong defense put on.

All Higher Ed Is Big Business, Especially Law School

Late June in THE NEW YORK TIMES, Mark C. Taylor, who heads Columbia University's Religion Department, went on the record.  Taylor said, "Make no mistake about it, education is big business and, like other big businesses, it is in big trouble."  Eric Gerding, a New Mexico law professor, has more recently said the same thing specifically about law school.

In Abovethelaw.com, Elie Mystal quotes Gerding on what should be the end of the BigLawSchool model, which was built on the BigLaw model of absorbing the graduates and paying them well enough for the new JDs to pay off their loans.  Gerding observes the the paradigm shift in BigLaw

"would likely mean the end of the law school boom - with its expanding law faculties and the bumper crop of new law students."

Yet, as we know that's not happening, at least not yet.  Applications to law schools are increasing.  The classic example of that is Iowa Law School.  There applications are up 62%.  Perhaps news that the law-employment bubble - high demand, high compensation - has burst has not been absorbed by the next generation of lawyers - and their parents.  A new CBS News survey, published in the December edition of VANITY FAIR, found that 63% of parents want their children to become lawyers as well as doctors and bankers.

Maybe it will take a psychologist, sociologist or anthropologist to explain why decreasing demand for lawyers isn't decreasing demand for law degrees.  Those arguing this from the point of view of low ROI haven't been heard.