Law And More

Susan G. Komen for the Cure Splits with Planned Parenthood

A stunner.  And a blow for both the political positioning of Planned Parenthood and the women its funding had helped.  As AP reports, the influential, well-funded charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure has exited from its partnership with Planned Parenthood.  That means it will cut off hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding.  Last year its grants to Planned Parenthood totaled $680,000.

The charity contends the reason for withdrawing support is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation by Congress.  On the other hand, Planned Parenthood claims the move is a result of Komen's caving to the anti-abortion forces.

Planned Parenthood is headed by the daughter - Cecile Richards - of the late Anne Richards who had been governor of Texas and a force in liberal politics.

Obviously, with the abortion issue so high profile as a result of this development, it will be central to the presidential campaign.  Candidate Obama will have to bring his wife into this one.

 

Rajat Gupta: New allegations about his role in insider trading re Goldman Sachs, P&G

Former McKinsey head Rajat Gupta now has more legal trouble.  BLOOMBERG reports, "In a superseding indictment filed today in federal court in Manhattan, the U.S. broadened its description of the insider-trading scheme, saying it began in March 2007 not in 2008 as alleged in October." 

Those allegations concern his alleged disclosure of developments at Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble.  The prosecution contends, for example, that Gupta was present at the Galleon offices when he participated in a phone call with the Goldman Sachs audit committee about quarterly earnings.  Those results would be made public the next day.

Until the new count of securities fraud was made today, Gupta had been charged with five counts of securities fraud and one of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. It will be fascinating to learn of his lawyers's response to this new development. 

New Haven, CT: Manhattan LSAT pays $100 per hour for instructor

This is 4Xs the industry standard for an LSAT instructor.  Here are details and how to apply.

Arlington, VA: Bloomberg has full-time opening for legal editor

The pay range on this is $50,000 to $60,000.  And you would be working for Bloomberg.  An opportunity in communications doesn't get better than that.  I would jump at this myself but I don't want a full-time job. Worked too hard to build my client base.

Here are details and how to apply.

 

Branding: Acritas identifies top ones in law, but what about conversion rate

With so much churn in accounts, the legal sector has to now continually search for ways to attract and keep business.  One proven way is the strength of its brand or identity. 

Branding has been officially around since the 1930s when consumer products company Procter & Gamble figured out that it had to provide its soaps with a way that they would stick in the consumer's mind.  Brand management was born. 

Now there are many ways to measure brand equity.  Research company Acritas is one of those organizations which do that.  In AM LAW DAILY, Aric Press reports that Acritas recently did a study of the strongest brands in the legal sector.  They are Skadden, Jones Day, Kirkland & Ellis, Sidley Austin, and Wachtell.

The danger with focusing on branding is that the organization can take its eye off its coversion rate.  Sure, it's wonderful to have a powerful brand, as measured in various ways.  But unless the asset is being leveraged to get new business it's wasted.  Marketing has to come up with ways to improve the conversion rate and track what's making that happen.

Cyber Security: Competitive weapon for law firms

Law firms which can demonstrate that their systems are secure from hackers have a distinct competitive advantage.  BLOOMBERG observes that law firms "are increasingly threatened with a loss of client business if they can't show improved security as such (hacker) attacks continue to escalate."

BLOOMBERG focuses on the recent example of Chinese hackers  intent on deep-sixing a $40 billion deal in which BHP Billiton was trying to acquire Canadian Potash Corporation.  Access to the kind of information law firms maintain about that transaction could be just what those opposed need.

Since law firms, at least not in the U.S., are not public companies they would not be subject to any new regulations the SEC produces about disclosure to investors of cyber attacks and what the company has done to prevent those in the future.  What they can do to attract new business and retain the clients they already have is to figure out how to make their data not vulnerable to hacking.  Then, they have their marketing front lines tell that story to all appropriate constituencies.

Silly Season: Is it helping sales of "AMA Handbook of Public Relations"

Politics is performance art pushed to the ultimate.  And the book "AMA Handbook of Public Relations" by strategist Bob Dilenschneider provides the fundamentals of the stagecraft.  In addition, there's an overlay of how to fuse the basics with social media. 

In this silly season as the GOP struggle to find its way back from desperation to implementing a gameplan, that kind of book coud wind up in the hands of many Republicans.  Dilenschneider's philosophy tends toward conservative tenets.

No surprise, this book which had essentially been a sleeper is doing well on Amazon.com.  The last time I checked it was in the 41,000 rankings.  Not exactly a best seller but selling briskly enough to generate some serious revenues.

Full disclosure: Because of my assistance with "AMA Handbook of Public Relations," I receive some of the royalties.

Quinn Emanuel Had a Very Good Year

For 2011, gross revenues at Quinn Emanuel rose 31% to more than $723 million, reports Irene Plagianos at AM LAW DAILY.  Its profits per equity partner soared 15% to $4.1 million. Much of this came from contingent fee and other alternative fee arrangements, both on the plaintiff and defendant sides.

News Corp PR Chief for UK Hacking Teri Everett Leaving Company

The bible for the public relations industry Odwyerpr.com reports that Teri Everett will be leaving News Corp on February 10th. 

As Senior Vice President of corporate affairs and communications, Everett handled the UK hacking scandal.  She had started with the company back in 2000 as Vice President of corporate communications in LA.

Some of her duties will be absorbed by Julie Henderson, now Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer.  Her focus had been on the West Coast.

SuperBowl XLVI: Tutorial for legal sector for online video marketing

The world of marketing and messaging has gone visual.  And online video has become the low-cost, interactive, and self-replicating option for more professional services.  Show it, don't even try to tell it. 

During SuperBowl XLVI, Coca-Cola's iconic Polar Bears will be watching the game, commenting on it, and even deconstructing the commercials. That will happen through video streaming on CokePolarBowl.com.   Baby Bear's eyes will be covered during the too racy commercials, as from GoDaddy and Doritos.

Watch the visuals during the game and read about the analysis of what is happening before and after the game for marketing and messaging.

To get you started I published a piece on SuperBowl XLVI on the site of financial information powerhouse Motley Fool.  Here you can read all about it.