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In these complex times, especially in the legal sector, has charisma become just another kind of sound and fury signifying nothing? If you had a choice, and some do have choices, would you work for a partner who exuded charisma or a more buttoned-down management type who also happened to be smart?
I look at the matter of charisma in business for the financial information company Motley Fool. Here you can see what I make of it.
Cate Edwards' life started off so rosy. She was the oldest child of two brilliant attorneys. One of them became wealthy in plaintiff work. The other backed off from practicing law to raise Cate and then her brother.
Then the pain began in the life of privilege. Her brother died in an accident. A pall was cast over the home. The mother took hormones to become pregnant with two more children. That may or may not have caused her breast cancer. Her father ran for president and lost. Then a scandal broke about a mistress and a love child. The mother died of breast cancer. The father was accused of funny business with campaign contributions.
Now Cate is sitting right behind her father at the trial. He faces a 30-year prison sentence. Along the way he also developed heart problems. Clearly, caring for her younger sister and brother could be added to Cate's responsibilities. She left the practice of plaintiff law, after graduating from Harvard Law School, and set up a foundation in honor of her mother. She married a medical doctor.
At one time some might have envied Cate's seemingly charmed life. Now that might have turned to admiration for her strength.
What's the deal with the (insultingly) small spring bonuses at Sullivan & Cromwell? As a bit of breaking news, David Lat and Elie Mystal reported on Abovethelaw.com the numbers, which are even smaller than the year before. For example, first year associates received $2500 as a spring bonus. This year they receive $1000.
If Sullivan & Cromwell sending out a message that they're not riding high? And, or are they communicating how lacking in value most associates are?
Even as a nobody writer in corporate where everyone let me know I was staff not line my bonus was bigger than that. And that was years ago.
There will be plenty of S&C jokes going around.
One group's poison can be another professional's magic potion.
The story of the downfall of law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf has seized the attention of both the business and the legal media. That started with the unusual internal communication created and distributed by then head Steven Davis. It went on with a daily body count of partners exiting for other firms.
Now the focus is survival or collapse. Will the firm be able to secure a line of credit? Can it find a firm to merge with?
Then there's the human angle. A paralegal sent his lament about possible unemployment to legal tabloid Abovethelaw.com.
All the while Sara Randazzo at THE AMERICAN LAWYER has been covering, in great detail, every development, including the missteps we all love to hear about. Her most recently article reports on the lack of communications about its state of solvency or insolvency and its options from the firm to the employees. This is the kind of story which makes stars of reporters. And it does because Randazzo made it her story, with its own angles like the current disconnect in communications.
Her career in communications has broken open. She could host podcasts on the business of law firms. She could write a book on the fall of the house of Dewey & LeBoeuf. She could get offers from bigger media properties.
It is always fun to observe that one of us in communications is twinkling like a star. May she use this break well.
From the get-go, distressed law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf turned inward, locked inside itself. Constituencies, ranging from the media to employees, noticed that when the then one-person head Steven Davis wrote and distributed a ham-handed memo announcing among other things a reduction in force (RIF). That set off a firestorm of negative publicity and speculation about how bad was the firm's troubles.
The firm seems to continue to remain in a bunker mentality. As Sara Randazzo reports in the THE AMERICAN LAWYER, firm leadership is not communicating with employees about where the firm is financially and in its options for survival and an eventual turnaround. That's puzzling - and so 20th century. Given the volatility in just about every aspect of business, the field of employee communications has become a high-profile, well funded mission in organizations. Increasingly, leadership is investing resources, including its own time, in connecting with employees in person through diverse channels, be they town meetings or intranets.
The good news, says Randazzo, is that search firms are contacting paralegals about other jobs. Hopefully, among those contacted is the paralegal who sent his lament to Abovethelaw.com.
In itself, turning inward is a sign of trouble. In the late 1980s, IBM did just that. The distress was so massive and systemic that it had to reach to an outsider to reset the brand and operations.
The high drama surrounding the death penalty is over in Connecticut. At least for all those convicted of heinous crimes, with the exception of the 11 who are already on death row. Those include the two infamous murderers of the Petit family.
Governor Dan Malloy signed the bill banning the death penalty. Instead there is the option of life in prison without the possibility of parole. CT is the 17th state to make this move.
Every line of business, including politics, has its favor bank. Others do unto you and expect, in return, a job, a promotion, to get their mother in a nursing home, or access to important networks. Usually it's an efficient and effective systrem. Candidates get elected. And then the favors are granted.
The rub comes when what was promised doesn't come through. That seems at the heart of the fallout between John Edwards and his one time aide Andrew Young. A job and more were said to the in hopper and all that didn't happen. Young turned on Edwards.
We already know that Young published a big seller tell off about how it really was with the Edwards family, both John and the late Elizabeth. Now we're hearing more about Young's disappointment at the trial in which Edwards is accused of funny business with campaign money. Bloomberg reports the tawdy details. Caught in this sort of emotional let down, anyone like Young comes across as a naive creature who doesn't have the right stuff to play the tough game of politics. If he had been a true player Edwards likely wouldn't have jacked him around.
A number of legal experts weighing in on this bit of litigation do not see the government as having a strong case. Edwards might be guilty of being a selfish cad. However, that's not against the law. So much money is being spent on this. Sympathy for Edwards could bubble up. On that he could construct a kind of comeback.
Employers are now thinking twice before they discriminate against female employees on compensation. That's a result of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. That act, which came into law early in the Obama Administration, resulted from the determination of one blue-collar employee at Goodyear Tire.
Finally Lilly Ledbetter tells her story. It's in the 2012 new book "Grace and Grit: My fight for equal pay and fairness at Goodyear
Continue reading "Lilly Ledbetter tells her story: "Grace and Grit"" »
There could come into being the phrase "Doing a Muto." That would be shorthand for a reckless act of complete professional self-destruction.
As the world recalls, Joe Muto, former producer at conservative Fox Broadcasting, turned over some internal video to online tabloid Gawker. He also submitted a column about how soul-destroying the broadcaster is to work at. Fox uncovered his identity quickly. He lost his job. Now we may lose everything he has to legal bills.
NEW YORK MAGAZINE reports that Fox has accused him of grand larceny and other crimes. The authorities came to his residence with a search warrant. They left with some gadgets and notebooks.
This ongoing story, which might not get the amount of attention Muto had anticipated, could become a dire warning not to play in certain sandboxes. Fox doesn't seem to like sharing its media space.
Dewey & LeBoeuf is in a race to save itself. If it does not jobs will be lost. One of those jobs belongs to a paralegal who contacted Abovethelaw.com. Here is that story.
Just as ATL showed the human side to the crash in the legal sector, it is putting on display the Everyman pain in a law firm which could tank. This paralegal is very ordinary. He does his job. Has mild disdain for the lawyers who don't understand the basics of filing documents. And he lives paycheck to paycheck.
The world he has known could disappear. Although it's projected that paralegals will be taking the places of some lawyers and the number of help-wanted ads for paralegals are increasing, still, it takes time to find a job. He might not find a job that pays what he's making. And he has to adjust to a whole new set of players. Of course, no reasonable person would want to endure all that.
For the sake of these Everymen we hope Dewey & LeBoeuf finds a way to save itself.
