Law And More

"Breaking Bad" - Few Cool Customers

Bernie Madoff was the cool customer.  He could hustle close friends without any sign of falling apart.  How different the miscreants are on "Breaking Bad." 

Walter can't stop playing a game of chicken with Gus the head of the meth lab.  When Gus installs security cameras in the lab, Walter gives them the finger.  That's after he arrives with a gun at Gus's house and Gus calls his cell phone and tells him to go home.

Jesse sinks into drug parties, including S&M ones.  As usual, "Breaking Bad" depicts the S&M antics to their full visual potential. 

Marie veers between emotional shut-down and hysterical sobbing when she's caught stealing items from houses which are up for sale.  At each open house she diverts the real estate agent with non-stop talking, a different tale for each house.  Then she clips something. 

"Breaking Bad" warns the non-cool-customers among us to not even consider trying to live outside the law.

Let 'em eat tweets - Lawyers beware social media

Slow adopters of technology, the legal sector has been embracing social media.  That could be just in time to run up into the backlash. 

 

This morning on Fox News, U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy [R-CA] made an allusion to the President's tweeting.  In essence what McCarthy observed is that it will take more than tweeting to fix the nation's problems, including debt.

Too much use of social media, including the short form tweets, could position a law firm as investing excessive resources into marketing and messaging and too little on fighting for clients.  It's a fundamental of management philosophy that the source of success can rapidly mutate into the source of failure.  The President's ingenious use, at one time, of social media can become a liability in 2012 for The Candidate.  Moreover, from deconstructing the too many emails I receive daily from the Obama camp, the use of social media seems to have settled into a predictable routine for the front lines of Obama The Candidate.

The challenge for the legal sector is to use social media to communicate what you can do for clients vs. brilliance in messaging.  Highlight accomplishments for clients and how the same can be achieved for prospects.  Remember that as a law firm, you are not selling your messaging expertise.  You are selling your track record on solving the client's overall business problems or their personal life difficulties [e.g. child custody], not just their presenting legal situation.

 

 

New Haven, CT Jacobs, Grudberg, Belt, Dow & Katz Streamlines to Jacobs & Dow

Iconic Connecticut law firm Jacobs, Grudberg, Belt, Dow & Katz streamlined this month.  It became, reports the NEW HAVEN REGISTER, Jacobs & Dow.  The new firm has 7 attorneys, down from 13.  And following the national pattern, the majority are partners or seasoned lawyers, not newbie associates.  The reasons for the downsizing include the attempt to reduce overhead and to align the firm with the reality of lower awards in personal injury cases.

However, law can still be a good bet for those who understand they have to leverage their skills.   Last night I interviewed a solo lawyer who had practiced 25 years in the Hartford area.  Off the record, he noted that a law degree can be the ticket into good jobs which don't involve practicing law.  For example, nonprofits want that expertise as a layer of protection against getting ensnared in law suits.  Location also matters.   JDs in Washington D.C. will probably be more successful transitioning into non-law jobs because everyone there understands the value of that background.

DeLauro, Johnson: Fair Employment Act of 2011

Unemployed lawyers picked up very fast the stigma against them.  Once they were knocked out of the job box it became unlikely they would never get back in.  Head hunters wouldn't present them to law firms.  And it was almost impossible to get to present themselves to anyone who had hiring power or even influence.

Now, research and experience show that practice of discriminating against the unemployed has gone mainstream.  Help-wanted ads even explicitly state that only the employed should apply.  Sooner than later that could become illegal. 

In Congress, Representatives Rosa DeLauro [from here in Connecticut] and Hank Johnson [Georgia] had introduced the Fair Employment Act of 2011.  An extension of the Civil Rights Act, it would prohibit discrimination against the jobless.

If that becomes law, employers would have to hire defensively, that is, demonstrating that they had reviewed the applications of all qualified applicants, employed or not employed.  However, there are so many ways employers could justify not extending an offer to the unemployed.  Applicants who are not hired and contend discrimination based on their joblessness could bring some interesting lawsuits.  They would be test cases.

DeLauro has been ahead of the curve in leveraging technology to open government to constituents.  One evening I picked up the phone here in New Haven and found myself in the midst of a DeLauro town meeting.  I didn't hang up. 

 

Law Firm Marketing: Managing Partner's Byline on WALL STREET JOURNAL Op-ed

Suppose today the managing partner of your law firm, no matter its size, had a bylined opinion-editorial [op-ed] in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL?  Of course, that would attract new business, confirm in the mind of current clients that they were shrewd in choosing you, enhance your brand, and make it easier and maybe less expensive to hire desirable laterals.

But today the managing partner's op-ed is not in the WSJ.  Instead a contrarian psychiatrist from Tufts has  that space.  He is Nassir Ghaemi and here you can read his commentary.  You can bet that from this day forward it will be easier for the Mood Disorder Center he heads to receive funding, hire brandnames, and attract even more media attention. 

What can law firms learn from how Ghaemi succeeded here?  There are four lessons:

Take a stand.  Boilerplate was tolerated in a more stable era.  In fact, much of what had been published in the 20th century in media had a predictable tone and stance.  A few statistics were thrown in and a big whig's byline attached and that was that.

Now, to even be considered for placement in any media, no matter how low in the food chain, the material has to be provocative.  Better yet if the tone is passionate and idiosyncratic.  In itself, this is not entirely new.  It's now just a must.  Ghaemi positions mental illness as a plus, not a liability.  During times of crisis the traits of the so-called "mentally ill" are essential to getting society to the other side of the chaos.  Those traits are realism, empathy, resilience, and creativity.

In the late 1980s, contrarian management consultant Peter Drucker would be regularly published in prestigious media such as the WSJ.  It was at a time when corporate America was trying to reduce the costs of internal operations such as running the mail room.  Instead of focusing on incremental changes, Drucker introduces the outsourcing movement.  One op-ed was titled "Sell the Mailroom."  On that platform was built the notion of core competence or only keeping in-house functions which produced revenues.

Jones Day has developed its own strong branding by going out on limbs in thinking.  Its PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES, edited by product liability expert Mickey Pohl, was ahead of the time in framing law as a business which has to be focused holistically on the client's business, not legal problems in isolation.

Write a book. Since I am a ghostwriter [http://janegenova.com], this sound self-serving.  However, it was a book which catapulted Ghaemi into the spotlight.  His "A First-Rate Madness" has been published by brandname publisher Penguin.

 
There is no money in publishing a book.  In THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, executive editor Bill Keller pointed out that the book market had peaked around 2005.  Since then it has been in decline.  However, those in professional services never published books for the revenue per se.  Books have always been, at least among players, a platform for branding, developing new business, attracting media attention, and charging premium fees.

Invest the resources into doing that book right.  [You can reach me at mgenova981@aol.com].

Make friends with media.  Reporters are only as good as their sources.  Let media know that you will be a source, both off and on the record.  Frequently, law firms host educational seminars for prospects and clients.  Host the same kinds of quality special events for media, briefing reporters on emerging trends, for example, in corporate governance.

Self-promote.  The WASP code of modesty has been over for at least a decade.  The new ethos is one of relentless self-promotion.  However, as in the old days, that has to be be done with high emotional intelligence [EI].  Here is my free book on boosting EI [Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg]. 

Part of EI is understanding the power of third parties.  Instead of promoting yourself directly, you arrange with Joe at Corporation X and Sally who works on The Hill to slip in a few words about your approach to mediation.  BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK interviewed me on third party intervention [Download BLOOMBERGBUSINESSWEEKinterviewsJaneGenova]. 

Another major piece of EI is timing.  There should be no rush to self-promotion.  You have a whole career to do that.  The push-back to self-promotion comes because you might be timing it poorly.  For example, you casually mention your law firm just got X account to a partner at another firm who has been sidelined into retirement. 

Of course, bylined commentary in media is just one strategy in marketing.  There are more and they must to leveraged simultaneously.  Here is the seminar I delivered on multi-channel marketing [Download Rainmaking].

Mahatma Gandhi: The Recommendation Few Know About

Like most leaders, Mahatma Gandhi was a complex human being.  But few of us realized how many sides there had been to him until "A First-Rate Madness" was published and instantly become popular, especially because of the dirt it dishes.  Author Nassir Ghaemi, a psychiatrist and head of the Tufts Mood Disorder Program, discloses the mental instability which is hard-wired into those who pull off helping society through crisis.

Gandhi, a depressive who had his manic side, proposed - yeah, for real - that in World War II, Jews commit large-scale suicide to create global outrage.  Those of us used to playing outside the box see the shrewdness of such a strategy.  But we are repulsed that human beings would be expected to make that kind of sacrifice.

Gandhi also tried suicide when he was a teenager.  The man who adopted his methods - Martin Luther King - tried suicide twice.  Ghaemi dishes plenty on him too.

Caution: BigLaw extended 33% fewer offers to summers in 2010

The mood in BigLaw is caution when it comes to extending job offers.  In 2010, reports Tom Huddleston Jr. in the AMERICAN LAWYER, that number was down 33% for summer associates in 2010.  Part of the reason the number was significantly lower was that BigLaw had fewer summers.  Among those which had cut back on the number of summers were Skadden, Arps and Cravath.

Huddleston points out that BigLaw has learned not to make offers it might have defer.  In the worst of the implosion the legal sector went through after the bubble burst, some hires were not able to start actual work until a year or more after they were originally supposed to show up for work.  Those deferred or "Defs" attracted considerable media attention, particularly from popular tabloid Abovethelaw.com. 

Law Schools as Cash Cows: Attention on issue escalating

The American Bar Association sent a request to the University of Baltimore Law School about how much of its revenue is being spent on what's not related to the law school.  The day the letter from the ABA arrived, reports Karen Sloan in THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, the dean Philip Closius says he was asked to resign.  And resign he did yesterday.

This resignation by Closius increases the attention being focused on law schools as university cash cows.  He was concerned that the university retained 45% of the money the law school pulls in, which he saw as above average.

Not long ago THE NEW YORK TIMES, which has been running a series of negative articles about  law school's poor return on investment [ROI], featured this cash cow issue.  It fingered that money matter as the primary reason law schools are not cutting back on the number of students they admit or even shutting down completely. 

There's a growing glut of lawyers who can't find jobs practicing law.  Paradigm shifts in the business of law, along with a slow recovery, have downsized manpower demand.  Not only can't newbie JDs find their first job.  Senior associates who do not make partner are having a difficult experience landing on their feet in any job, never mind a comparable one.   Sure, they can fly solo or start a small firm.  However, few lawyers are cut out to be entrepreneurs in a game in which marketing is everything.  Here is the seminar I delivered on multi-channel marketing [Download Rainmaking].  Success in SmallLaw is directly correlated with the skill and persistence of marketing.

Another possibility is going outside the law.  At the New York State Bar Association, I talked about career transition.  That address has been published in VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY [Download NYSBAtalkinVITALSPEECHESOFDAY].

Fat Guy for President: U.S. Can't Afford that Image

A guy once known as "Governor Sandwich" is not the kind of president the U.S. needs right now. 

 
Already the U.S. had a global image of being over.  Fat reinforces that message and will with each photo-op.  VANITY FAIR had a lot of fun in its August issue with photos of once-dashing Prince Andrew appearing fat and old in Central Park. That said plenty about Britain and the royals.

Chris Christie, despite being hospitalized for breathing problems yesterday, insists he's "fit" to run for the presidency.  The image experts as well as the medical community would likely disagree.

According to THE POWDERED WIG, there have been four fat U.S. presidents:

• Teddy Roosevelt, Jr.
• John Adams, Jr.
• William Howard Taft
• William Jefferson Clinton.

Those were different times, of course.  Even though the U.S. had problems back then it was not competing head-to-head with other economies. There were not emerging economies such as China, India, and Brazil.  Also, there was more hope on Main Street. 

I am an expert on Fat Guys.  I published a novel about them.  Here is the video trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIWY1o2Efxk.  And here are the first two chapters of "The Fat Guy From Greenwich" Download FGFGchapters1,2.

Jeff Kindler: Former lawyer, leadership role not mastered

Jeff Kindler went far, in fact all the way to the chief executive position at Pfizer.  Then, as FORTUNE reports, it all came down.  It was a transitional time at Pfizer and, it appears, Kindler could not provide the leadership to restore the company to growth and get the anxious warring factions to work together toward that goal.

Before going to Pfizer, Kindler had been a successful general counsel at McDonald's and earlier a successful defense attorney at law firm Williams & Connolly.  Maybe that was the trouble: Kindler the lawyer couldn't get a handle on how to change from the mindset, methods, and persona of a lawyer to that demanded by corporate leadership.  In trial law, for example, the focus is adversarial or "get them."  The methods emphasize exploiting details, which entails micro-managing.  The persona is that of extreme confidence and rectitude.  While that's usually the way to succeed in the legal sector, it can be a career-killer outside.

In 2010, FORTUNE details, Kindler was pressured to resign from Pfizer.  His fall may be an extreme example of attorneys who have the ambition or need to take on a non-legal professional role but don't know how to or simply won't change.

Over and over again we hear unemployed and underemployed lawyers telling about getting rebuffed in the marketplace when they reach out into other fields.  What I have found in coaching and communicating with them is the identity of lawyer seems glued on.   They won't even do those fundamental things which most reasonable professionals do who have to re-invent ourselves. 

Most of those have to do with emotional intelligence, which has become so important in a volatile marketplace that "The Social Animal" by David Brooks became a best-seller.  The best summary of that is this THE NEW YORKER article. 

Right now I am making the shift into doing much more work in marketing communications [Download Socialmediamarketing].  That entails listening to pick up on what the organization really needs for branding and actual conversion to sales.  Listening is a new skill for me.  Along the way to acquiring it I lost out on getting accounts I should have. The lesson here is that change is always difficult.  The good news is that if we are persistent we can come out on the other side the professional who is in demand.