Law And More

SmallLaw: Train front lines in hospitality industry to prevent lawsuits

The hospitality industry accommodates those who are out of their usual routine.  They may be relaxing, being naughty, traveling on business or celebrating a special occasion.  All that makes for unusual situations.

Take the lesbian couple who went to a Sheraton restaurant in Phoenix to toast their anniversary.   They exchanged a kiss at the table.  A power-that-be hotfooted it over and told them to get a room.  Of course the media picked it up.  A member of the couple had posted about this incident on Facebook.

This is probably not the kind of work BigLaw wants to do.  However, SmallLaw could create a How To Prevent Lawsuits hands-on coaching program for the front lines in hotels, motels, restaurants, escort firms, country clubs, and so on.  Sheraton did the right PR thing and apologized.  But we can bet that the couple's network is advising them to sue, if just for the issue involved. 

LegalZoom: Telecommuting openings for legal writers/copy editors

Here is a sweet way into career change or to at least test out the waters.  Web-based consumer service LegalZoom has openings for legal writers and copyeditors.  Telecommuting fine. You must be a JD, law student, or paralegal.

Here are the details and how to appy.

CEO Succession & SEC Division of Corporate Finance Bulletin 14E (Legal work in governance)

What gets investors very nervous is CEO succession.  They don't just want any dude to parachute in.

Sure there's the little legal matter of SEC Division of Corporate Finance Bulletin 14.  That mandates that the board of directors has to ensure succession planning.  But research by Heidrick & Struggles and Stanford University's Rock Center for Corporate Governance found that the average time per year boards devote to succession planning is 2 hours.

There will be growing legal work here on matters of governance.  After all, consider the high churn in CEO jobs.

I take a look at CEO succession for the financial information powerhouse Motley Fool. Here you can read all about it.  Maybe you will get ideas how to develop or expand your practice to capture some of these opportunities.

Jamie Dimon: Will he succeed Warren Buffett?

There are those on Wall Street who are speculating that Jamie Dimon, Chief Executive Officer of JP Morgan Chase, might be the one who will take over Berkshire Hathaway when its current CEO Warren Buffett retires or dies with his trading accounts still active. 

After all, in his iconic letter to shareholders, Buffett told readers to check out Dimon's own shareholder letter.  Also, Buffett reported that he has chosen a successor but that person doesn't know that and the name won't be made public, at least not now.

In interviews, Dimon says he wants to keep his present job about 3 to 5 more years.  His unfinished business is getting the stock price up.  Smart, self-confident, a survivor, Dimon is the kind of professional Buffett likes.

Here is my commentary on both letters, published on Motley Fool, a global financial information powerhouse.

Pistol-waving judge - Right out of "The Good Wife"

Can we expect an episode of "The Good Wife" to include a pistol-waving judge?  Well, "The Good Wife" did have in its plot line the judge who friended a juror on Facebook.

What has made news in real life is the bizarre situation of Georgia's Judicial Circuit Chief Superior Court Judge David E. Barrett.  As the DAILY REPORT tells us, "Barrett pulled a pistol out from under his robe and waved it at a witness on the stand during court Feb. 22, according to three attorneys present."

The judge then engaged, still waving the gun, in a diatribe, telling the witness that she was "killing her case" and it might be a good idea for her to kill her lawyer.

From a communications point of view, Barrett seemed to be indulging in a little performance art.  From a point of view of the law, he will probably be punished by the Georgia state bar.

Paul Hastings: Does the emerging model in legal sector mean fewer partners?

Paul Hastings had a flat year, with a slight decline in revenue and profit.  The interesting part of its financial reporting is that it mentioned fewer partners.  This could be a trend.  Goodwin Procter had a 2.5% increase in gross revenues for last year.  One reason why was fewer equity partners.  That just happened with retirements and less hiring.  It wasn't strategic but it could become so.

The model of the law firm could include not only fewer associates but also fewer partners, both equity and plain vanilla. Therefore, fewer associates might be on the partner track.  Fewer will make it to partner.  And partners will have to step up bringing in new business if they don't want to be forced into retirement.

The law game is now no different from that across professional services.  It's all about new business development.

AOL: Will more shareholders revolt against Armstrong-Huffington show?

Should AOL be a technology company like Google and Microsoft, not a media one?  That's the issue that has grabbed the Starboard Value fund by the throat.  They demand that the dynamic media duo Tim Armstrong and Arianna Huffington focus less on breaking news, provocative commentary, and hyperlocal news through Patch.  Instead, Starboard wants them to unlock the value in their Intellectual Property which it values at about $1 billion. 

While Netflix, Amazon, Wal-Mart, and now Comcast duke it out with streaming, AOL pursues quirky topics which go viral.  That's supposed to bring in online advertising.  But, according to eMarketer, not much of it for 2012: AOL's share of the market will likely be 3.9% v Google's at 12.3% and even Microsoft's at 4.8%

Starboard's high profile move may encourage other AOL shareholders to revolt.  The danger with that, of course, is that the shorts move right in.

News Corp, where head Rupert Murdoch loves his newspapers and may not be focusing enough on technology, could also be the setting for shareholder revolts.  Publishing is losing money and getting the corporation into alleged hacking and bribery messes.

I look at AOL and News Corp for the financial information company Motley Fool.  Here you can read all about it.

"Gopocalyse" Lessons in Desperation: What lawyers must learn

The implosion of the once disciplined, now desperate GOP has important but brutal lessons for organizations and individuals affected by change.  In the influential NEW YORK Magazine, John Heilmann refers to this phenomenon as "Gopocalyse." 

There are no elephants in the room on this one.  All the mistakes are in clear view.  

At the top of the list is how easy it has been for the GOP to migrate from feeling naked without a winning formula to panic.  In her book "Confidence," Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter fingered panic as the reason why organizations descend into a downward trajectory and can't pull out of that force field.  

That's because those in a panic can't follow the fundamental of game theory.  That is, observe your opponents's moves or what your best guess is and then from there determine your own.  Instead the moves are self-referential.  Politico A blasts Politico B, all done in isolation. 

Secondly, desperation looks awful.  That's exactly why displaced lawyers perform poorly in interviews for whatever.  They come across just as they are: congealed into a ball of fear. 

Third, united we stand, divided we fall.  Those not desperate have their wits about them to build bridges with anyone who can be useful, enemies included.  The women's movement had a severe setback when it became divided on the alternate sex issue.  Fights consume too much oxygen.

How to transform desperation into something, anything else?  The best insight comes from the days when test pilots were trying to break the sound barrier.  Most went into a panic during the process and over-corrected how they were operating the plane.  They died.  Chuck Yaeger, who did accomplish it, did so and lived to tell the tale because he passed out.  Therefore, explains Tara Brach in book "Radical Acceptance," he was in no position to over-correct.  He did nothing.

All of us who feel desperate - and that often happens hourly - might embrace the wisdom of not doing anything.  Observe what's unfolding, the moves of others, and then calmly align our own moves to outfox theirs. The term for that is "making it up."  For us humans, who crave certainty, that hasn't been wired into our genes.

Philly Archdiocese: Judge won't dismiss counts against RC monsignor in closely watched trial

There has been a major setback for officials in the Roman Catholic Church on whose watch priests were accused of sexually molesting children.

CNN's Sarah Hoye reports that Common Pleas Judge Teresa Sarmina rejected the defense's motion to dismiss the two counts against Monsignor William Lynn of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  That sustains the possibility that if Lynn is convicted that would encourage others to file charges against officials in dioceses throughout the U.S. 

This is the first of such cases.  Until now prosecution was limited to the priests who had allegedly abused children.  With the Lynn trial, in which jurors are being selected, a superior's actions are being reviewed.  Lynn is accused of two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.  For about 12 years he had been assigned responsibility for investigating suspicion of the sexual abuse.

The defense filed the motion for dismissal based on newly found documents of a 1994 memo which ordered destroyed a list of 35 priests who might have been involved with sexual abuse.  Lynn's lawyers contended that document proved he had informed his superiors of what was supposedly going on.  Judge Sarmina responded that there was no legal basis to toss the case.  The prosecutors went a step further and declared the document actually constituted a "smoking gun."

Should a jury convict Lynn, his maximum sentence could be 12 years. He's now 60.  Monsignors, bishops, and cardinals throughout the U.S. are watching this case closely.  So are victims of the abuse and their supporters.  One of the most enduring global brands Roman Catholicism could collapse in the U.S. if many other officials are brought to trial.  The legal expenses alone would do it in.

A&P Exits Bankruptcy: Can it make it in a post-supermarket era?

Such an old brand - A&P.  It also went under the brandnames Food Emporium and Pathmark.  Today, it exited bankruptcy, which it had filed in 2010, reports BLOOMBERG.

The question is if it can make it in a post-supermarket era?  Kroger, for example, is heavy with debt.  If it weren't for that some European company would probably take it over and turn it into something else.

The Baby Boomers among us remember when the model of A&P was an innovation, as much a game-changer as Wal-Mart had been.  The butcher, baker, and candlestick maker in the neighborhood went out of business.

Then A&P got lost.  Then it wouldn't have done much good to be found because big boxes and extreme discounters controlled the new game based on low price points.  They still do. 

Time will tell if the supermarket has a comeback. In time we will also find out if A&P, which has financing help from Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Companies, can rebrand itself.  IBM did, after almost filing a Chapter 11.  Now, it's a leading provider of high-tech services.