Law And More

Legal Blogging: Action, money are in the business angles

No surprise, the new kid on the blog in digital legal sites BUSINESS LAW DAILY focuses on intersections of legal and the private sector and what those mean for profitability, stock price, governance and more.  You can reach the editor Chris Rizo at rizo@businessdlawdaily.net. 

That's the space where action is happening and pre-downturn types of money and upward mobility are available again.   Lucrative assignments are coming to me finally for ghostwriting articles for financial-services firms on issues involving law.  Just this week a brandname investment ecommerce enterprise hired me as a blogger for a new site.  Not to jinx the opportunity I'm keeping the details under wraps until the relationship is on-track.

One-dimensional law coverage is a glutted field.  Mainstream media and the blogosphere all have strong established players in them, all competing for readers.  Niches are well-stocked and well-served.  For in-house legal there's CORPORATE COUNSEL.  For law students and young associates there's Abovethelaw.com.  How much information and insight about legal can be absorbed?

The way to leverage a legal media outlet or simply knowledge of the ins and outs of law is to find the connections with that massive umbrella entity business, be it the investment community or the food industry and labeling.  As the conventional wisdom goes: follow the money.  The money's in business. 

The problem can be that legal matters are so intellectually riveting.  That's exactly why so many of us tried law school.  Other disciplines or jobs seemed so intellectually un-stimulating.  But connecting the dots on the business angles involves plenty of creativity.   We have to be fresh to compete with the expert communicators on business.  For some of us developing innovative slants can be more satisfying that cognitive prowess.

Family Law: Child obesity as smoking gun in custody, with good reason

Few legal disputes get more nasty and personal than child-custody battles.  So, it's predictable that the highly visible problem of childhood obesity will play a role, as THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reports.  The overweight child, it's now assumed, is the not-properly supervised child.  In addition, part of parenting consists of educating offspring about nutritional values and reinforcing healthy eating. 

Family-law practitioners, of course, have to prep their clients for this issue.  The whole custody sandbox has always been filled with landmines.

Even before the obesity issue surfaced there were horror stories of these kinds of battles.   It's now embedded in the history of "The Sopranos" that its Dr. Melfi played by Lorraine Bracco went bankrupt in her dispute with deep-pocketed star Harvey Keitel over custody of daughter Stella.

So, what strategies can the lawyer and client take?  At the top of the list is the tough job of helping the child reset eating habits and exercising more.  Since childhood takes place primarily outside the home, ranging from school to play dates, that means parents have to operate on the marco level be it overseeing school menus to making play dates more physically active.

Next is investing the attention so that the child will not take that flight into food.  As a fat kid, who should have been spotted by Child Protective Services, I trimmed down when away from the home environment such as with a relative or at camp.  For years I argued with my younger sister Anne Murga that I would have fared better in foster care.  Only now are the child-abuse powers-that-be paying attention to what fat might flag about the dysfunctional home.

Third, for those with the funds, is to hire a private investigator to monitor what the other party is doing in the way of taking the easy way out with fast foods or simply setting a bad example.  Obesity is contagious, research shows.

White-collar Prison: How will Raj Rajaratnam et al. do?

Convicted insider trader Raj Rajaratnam has requested to remain free while appealing his sentence.  He is due to report to federal prison at the end of November.  Most of us watchers of white-collar criminals have a hunch that Rajaratnam will be reporting to prison right on time. 

So we have moved to the question: how will this cunning human being fare in the joint?  We also are curious about how the others caught in this Wall Street mashup of greed, co-dependency, and ego will navigate years in prison.  They range from Danielle Chiese who's already at Camp Cupcake to Raja Gupta who might wind up there, depending on how his trial in April goes.

Since white-collar prison has become a common rite of passage for the ambitious and tragically flawed, much information is out there about that environment.   In BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK there's a long how-to by Teddy Wayne on surviving the ordeal.  NEW YORK MAGAZINE's Steve Fishman conducted an extensive interview inside prison with Bernie Madoff.  There is a growing cottage industry in prepping criminals to serve their time.

From what we know, the odds are that after getting roughed up [who does that will gain status inside the walls] Rajaratnam will probably manage the transition as well as he has managed everything else up to now.  The more skilled the player such as Madoff the better and quicker the adjustment.  Likely Rajaratnam will be briefed about the rules of the game and the options before he enters and will figure out the rest for himself.  He could become a mini celebrity like Madoff.  Boredom will probably be avoided by all his interaction with medical personnel for his diabetes and need for a kidney transplant.

Less rosy are the scenarios for the seemingly more needy like Chiesi.  From those I interviewed who had served time it's imperative to be proactive in the new environment, ranging from the persona to develop to who to network with.  Otherwise suicide is possible.   

 

Tabloids: Where middle-aged partners wind up

Lawyers who have made it to partnership and then find themselves middle-aged tend to wind up in trouble.  If it's just having their personal lives featured in the tabloids, they probably have an internal set-point which keeps them from breaking bad.

Ira Schacter, 51 and a partner at Calwalder Wickersham & Taft, is one of those lucky guys.  The NEW YORK POST and DAILY MAIL [U.K] are among those having a lot of fun, reports Vivia Chen in THE CAREERIST, outing how he didn't pop the $12K for his daughter's hearing aid but bought a $215K engagement ring for a 26-year-old  hottie who had been in PLAYBOY.

This media circus could be put in play by his estranged wife.  But divorce is part of this game plan.  At middle age, the titan who faced down mighty opponents and came away with the crown of partner recognizes that death and maybe losing control of bodily functions before that are in the cards.  That's that.  Why not just live a little.

Boston: Full-time opening for court/legal reporter

In Boston, which is overrun with lawyers, there's a full-time opening at LAWYERS WEEKLY to cover courts and legal matters.  This is an opportunity for one of those too-many lawyers to start on a new career path.  Writing about the law instead of trying to practice it can be as intellectually satisfying.  Eventually the money does come.  I landed in the insolvency niche and it's lucrative.

Here are the details and how to apply.

So, 3L, what are your Klout, PROskore numbers

With increased competition and client churn, the legal game has become about developing new business, that is, rainmaking.  There it's not alone.  Those  approaching other professional services firms such as public relations are immediately asked "you have any business to bring in?" 

The potential at rainmaking is being quantified.  After all, new business comes through influence and influence comes partly through the quality of our social network.  Soon enough, law firms recruiting for summers and first-year associates as well as assessing who's partner material will be checking the candidates's Klout and PROSkores.  Both are measures of influence.   And both have plenty to do with how effectively we put ourselves out there on digital social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. and Twitter.  This is career life and death, not frosting on the cake.

 Three-year-old Klout has become the standard in the influence business.  It has developed an algorithm which tracks and interprets what is someone's reach on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and FourSquare.  The numbers fall into three boxes: True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score. 

New kid on the blocks is PROSkore.  In MASHABLE, Todd Wasserman reports that this could represent real competition for Klout since PROSkore also factors in how you're perceived to be doing in your actual professional life.

Added to what law students and young lawyers have to get in-place for a career path is developing a presence on social networks.  Without it, those doing the recruiting and promoting can't afford to invest in players who seem clueless about what it takes to attract and keep business.  Prospects are unlikely to even accept a free dinner with you if your Klout and PROskores are low. 

 

Geezer Glow: Obama Administration only raises Medicare about $3.50 a month

Believe me, we geezers watch our pennies. So, we're all a-glow to find out that the Obama Administration is only raising Medicare for most of us $3.50 a month.   That puts the monthly nut at about $99.90.  Before I was eligible for this entitlement I was shelling out more that $500 monthly, with a $3000 deductible.

This good news is on top of the raise in Social Security the Obama Administration is giving us come January.   Clearly, that bunch is determined to stay in the White House.  We will remember them on Election Day and more of us turn out to vote than do youth. 

Obama is making all the right moves.  At our age, we have to be pragmatic.  What matters to us is who's the guy giving us the financial goodies.  End of that story.

"Dukes v Wal-Mart" - Reconfigured as regional lawsuits

The massive gender-discrimination lawsuit "Dukes v Wal-Mart" had been knocked out of the box as a class-action lawsuit by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Now, reports Ginny LaRoe in THE RECORDER, it's been reconfigured by plaintiff attorneys Brad Seligman and Joseph Sellers as a series of regional lawsuits.

One of them is built on a platform of an amended complaint in San Francisco federal court where the lawsuit was originally filed.  Instead of being a nationwide suit of 1.5 million, it is now seeking certification as a class of 95,000 Wal-Mart employees in California who are divided into two groups.  One is going after injunctive relief.  The other is going after back pay.  In addition, the lawyers state that they have found fresh evidence of discrimination by supervision.

Gender-discrimination lawsuits, whether against a giant corporation or a mid-sized law firm, are growing in number.  Sometimes I wonder if we Baby Boomer women who suffered silently through harassment and blocked promotions could even identify the kinds of discrimination which is allegedly cause for lawsuits now.  In essence, we were simply thrilled to have a well-paying job in a brandname organization.

Hillary: By a landslide

Hillary Clinton comes out in the TIME poll 17 points ahead of Mitt Romney and 26 ahead of Rick Perry, reports POLITICO.  Surely, candidate Barack Obama has to put her on the ticket as vice president.

Law Degree: Less Blind Faith

In just about a year the percentage of prospective law students who would go for the degree, despite the prospect of not getting a job, has dropped 13 percent - from 81% in 2010 to 68% currently.  Those numbers come from a survey by Veritas Prep, a law school admissions consulting firm, reports Karen Sloan in THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL. 

So, the blind faith in investing in a JD is over.  But still 68% represents a lot of possible seat-takers in the nation's law schools.  They could be seeking out training in critical thinking and a place to park for three years in which they anticipate the world economy will begin an upward trajectory. 

Many lawyers I speak with do not regret their legal education, even if they had a tough time getting that first job.  In addition, the work can be interesting.