Law And More

Women in Legal Sector: Why aren't they rock stars like women in tech?

Women in the legal sector don't know how to become rock stars like women in tech and probably don't want to.  Agree?

In tech, women like Marissa Mayer and Sheryl Sandberg dominate multiple conversations, chronicled in great detail in the media.  Carly Fiorina is back, this time with microloans, which is very promising space to be in.  And, there is every possibility that Meg Whitman can turn around H-P.

Yet, what do we hear from women in the legal sector?  Their most prominent representatives have always been fictional.  The most recent pop culture female lawyer is Alicia on "The Good Wife."  And they stand out for their absence on "Downton Abbey."  The barristers are male.  Players like Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama are not in the role of lawyer.

We don't hear much from female lawyers and that very lack of presence in the media, at TED conferences, and in politics could be holding them back on the way to equity partner.  Visibility is a form of power, right up there with wealth, ability to obstruct, and likability.   

I have a hunch female lawyers are not out there with outsize brandnames because they, the mentors who support them, and their firms don't understand public relations.  To become in legal circles what Sandberg is in tech ones demands a comprehensive public relations infrastructure.  That's a lot more than a few hours with the firm's marketing person about finetuning the web profile, putting out a press release about a win in court, and publishing an article targeted at lawyers not clients.

Female lawyers on the partner track should negotiate that kind of full public relations support.  Part of the negotiation would be putting in for fewer billable hours and more minutes on "Jimmy Kimmel," a keynote address at the American Psychological Association (not the American Bar Association), and membership in the World Economic Forum.

Female lawyers as rock stars would create the demand for many more female lawyers.

Remember When Word Processing Came to Corporate? Same phenomenon happening in legal sector

"I am transferring out of corporate communications into finance.  It will be a long time before the executives in finance get their own word-processing machines."  - Secretary at Chrysler, early 1980s

That's what the secretary I shared with another speechwriter told me.  I was blown away.  Self absorbed in mastering word processing, I never considered the implications on the secretarial staff.  Of course, she was on the money.  Chrysler was all about cost efficiency and we who cranked out so much copy had better learn to do it without a $45,000, plus benefits secretary. 

Apparently, the same phenomenon is happening, finally, in the legal sector.  On Abovethelaw.com, David Lat reports the law firm Stroock, Stroock & Lavan could be eliminating half of the secretarial positions.  This has been expected.  Lawyers can do plenty of their own document preparation.  What they can't do can be done by temps or outsourced.  Who needs to pay the full time salary and the benefits for the traditional secretary? Also, does having secretaries in the office send a negative signal to clients who recognize they are absorbing the bill for this staff function?

Secretaries who lose their jobs at law firms are unlikely to find comparable jobs.  That game has changed.  Like so many of us who had to re-start our careers several times they might have to go through the ordeal of figuring out what skills and experience they can sell in the marketplace and how to close the deal.  Here is the talk I delivered on career change at the New York State Bar Association which has been published in VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY Download NYSBAtalkinVITALSPEECHESOFDAY.  Now and then I still get calls from professionals who claim that reading the talk and thinking about it saved their lives.

Titanic II - Already a commercial success

The Titanic has become so embedded in the global collective consciousness that it has become a reliable platform on which to build commercial success.  Just think about about the film "The Titanic" and how the the first episode of wildly popular "Downton Abbey" opens with the Titanic's sinking.

Therefore, there is plenty of incentive for entities chasing a buck to become associated with Titanic II.  It's the mission of Clive Palmer to construct an exact replica of the cruise ship and have it taking on passengers by 2016.  If the concept itself isn't enough of a magnet for money then the public relations gimmicks increase the odds for a commercial success.  For example, passengers can spend the voyage dressed in period attire. Yes, we can all look like Lady Mary Crawley.

Already, disgraced member of the Astor family Anthony Marshall is planning how he will cash in, reports THE NEW YORK POST.  At a gala affair hosted by Palmer Marshall, stepson of Vincent Astor,  wore the watch that John Jacob Astor had on when the ship went down.  Convicted of defrauding his mother Brooke Astor of $60 million, Marshall said he was going to sell the watch for a bundle.  Obviously the possibility of a Titanic II has boosted its market value. Marshall, along with this wife Charlene, always had a quick eye for acquiring wealth without a lot of heavy lifting.

The ship is being made in China. 

Jack Kennedy Schlossberg: NEW YORK POST creating platform for Camelot 2.0

Jack Kennedy Schlossberg, the only grandson of President John F. Kennedy, has the iconic mop of Kennedy hair.  THE NEW YORK POST both talks about it and makes sure it's prominent in the photo.  He also has plenty else going for him to give America another round of Camelot.

The son of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg and nephew of the late John Kennedy, he is public spirited enough, reports THE POST, to be taking a non-credit course at Yale training him to be a first responder in the mean streets of New Haven.  That involvement in community outreach is a prerequisite for anyone in the Kennedy dynasty.  Not far from the Yale campus Ted Kennedy, Jr. is well known for his advocacy for the disabled.

Yale, of course, puts Schlossberg in the Ivy League where a Kennedy must also be.  His height, trim built, and good looks are ideal for The Candidate, should that be the route he will go. 

If media follow THE POST's lead we will be encountering a lot more of this fourth-generation Kennedy in America.  Of course, one immediate question is whether he will attend law school after he completes his undergraduate degree.

 

Bob Woodward: What fun to have the White House allegedly threatening you

"Didn't you hear.  The White House has threatened that fearless reporter Bob Woodward that he will regret hammering President Obama about sequester." 

Buzz like that is priceless.  It's irrelevant if it's true or not.  All that counts is influential media properties like BUSINESS INSIDER are posting it.  Now everyone is leaning in a little closer to hear what Woodward is saying.  And that leaning in will go on for a long long time.  Lucky devil.

The rest of us would consider it a public relations miracle  as well as a lot of fun if we could even get the town dog catcher to seem to threaten us.

Social Networks: ABA catches up to "The Good Wife"

On "The Good Wife" Alicia hit a homerun and informally got on the partner track when she noticed that the judge had friended one of the jurors on Facebook.  He was campaigning for re-election and just sort of responded to her request for friending.  Because of that, Alicia had him declare a mistrial which worked perfectly for her client.

Finally, the American Bar Association is catching up with pop culture.  It has issued guidance for judges and social networking, reports THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL. 

On the one hand, the ABA indicates that judges should participate in social networks since not doing so could make them seem out of touch.  On the other hand, they have to cautious about the appearance of relationships with others. 

I have a hunch that there will be court cases to address ambiguities about what a relationship might have appeared to be and what it can be proved to be.

 

"Ladik v Wal-Mart Stores" - Another regional class action gender discrimination suit filed post "Dukes v Wal-Mart"

That giant gender discrimination class action lawsuit "Dukes v Wal-Mart" tossed by the U.S. Supreme Court has been reappearing as micro regional suits. 

The latest, filed on February 20th in Wisconsin, is "Ladik v Wal-Mart Stores."  As Bloomberg reports, it represents five female Wisconsin plaintiffs with the lead one being Sandra Ladik.  The suit is a regional umbrella one covering not only WI but also Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Employed by Wal-Mart from 1992 to 2006, Ladik contends she was paid less than the male employee she trained.  She had been head of the maintenance department.

So far the regional suits haven't been faring too well.  The date this one was filed the one in Tennessee was tossed because the judge ruled it had been filed too late but said nothing about the merits of the case.  The one filed in Dallas had been dismissed in late 2012.

However, all the plaintiffs need is for one suit to get to trial. That will re-energize all the women who claim they had been shortchanged on the basis of gender in wages and promotions. In some ways, these regional suits are analogous to the 14 class action suits filed against law schools by alumni claiming the schools issued misleading information about job placement.  Many of the suits have been dismissed, with the exception of those in California.  If those get to a courtroom or settlement, the plaintiffs in the other suits might reconfigure their arguments and try again.

JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs Cuts: Maybe you were better off pursuing careers in law per se

There had been lots of wistful looks by financially insecure lawyers at their thriving age-counterparts on Wall Street.  Maybe they should have gone the MBA, not the JD, route, made the big money, and then figured out what to do next.  The downside on Wall Street has always been that from the get-go you knew you were on short time.

Now that time seems to be getting shorter.  BUSINESS INSIDER reports that today JP Morgan will probably cut thousands and next week Goldman Sachs will lay off more than the 5% expected.

Once bounced from Wall Street, it is even harder than being bounced from BigLaw to get another job in the industry.  You are more or less finished.  The media are fill of tales of former Wall Street players driving cabs or being waiters in upscale restaurants. 

Legal Sector: Liberal administration has been good for business

A liberal administration in the White House and the ripple effects of that kind of power in other government institutions have been good for business in the legal sector. 

CORPORATE COUNSEL presents the findings of the 9th Annual Litigation Trends Survey by Fulbright & Jaworski.  Among what it found was that regulatory investigations have increased to the extent that there has been a significant boost in the percentage of corporations seeking outside counsel. For example, in 2010 it was 42%.  Last year it was 60%.

Even if the investigation doesn't result in litigation, the process is a legal ordeal for corporations.  That can provide plenty of business for law firms.  A Machiavellian move on the part of conservative law firms in 2016 would be to provide stealth support to the liberal candidate for the While House and for other key positions.

 

Legal Sector Branding: Right now bigger does better but for how long

Big has been the sweet spot in branding.  Coca-Cola got to be the iconic brand "Coke" because it is big.  The Harvard brand wouldn't have become so dominant had it remained a small liberal arts institution.  And part of the power of the Kennedy brand in politics versus the Bush brand comes from the large number of its members.

The positive role of big in branding continues in the U.S. legal sector, reports AM LAW DAILY.  According to a survey by Acritas U.S. law firm branding, Skadden Arps is the number one brand in the legal sector partly because of its size, which includes international reach.  Corporations with a supply chain issue in China seem to prefer taking its business to a large organization like Skadden rather than to a boutique specializing in global supply chain legalities.

But that might not always be the case.  Small upstarts could create the kind of branding prospects will investigate first.  Power could be flowing to smaller.  Now hot Twitter, Zipcar, and Target were once small.  Since the legal sector is essentially conservative this won't happen any time soon.  Offbeat models such as that of Equity in Silicon Valley are getting business and media attention but are far from well known brands in the industry.

It will be interesting to check Acritas in 10 years and find out what kinds of brands are dominant and why.