Law And More

Ivanka Trump's "Women Who Work" - Female Lawyers in No Mood to Read It

Legal media outlets keep publishing the grim information about bias against female lawyers. That ranges from compensation shortfalls to harassment during pregnancy.

Superlawyer David Sanford is handling some of the growing number of lawsuits filed by female partners against their BigLaw firms. At Abovethelaw.com, lawyer-journalist Kathryn Rubino has been tracking the Kerrie Campbell litigation against Chadbourne. As the litigation progresses, Chadbourne ousted Campbell as a partner.

So, no, female lawyers are in no mood to read Ivanka Trump's "Women Who Work." Neither are many of us professionals in other lines of work where there are negative gender issues. Piled on those is a glut of talent. We know success is about more than passion. Yet it is passion that Ivanka hammers.

As reviewers have noted - here is one - the book seems a copy and paste of current platitudes about work. In itself that's annoying. I can learn more about succeeding at work as a woman while watching Oliva Benson on "Law & Order: SVU." For instance, Benson never has hardened into not caring or become lazy.

Worse than the platitudes, though, is this: The real audience seems to be rich white women who have the connections to land plum jobs + afford household help to take care of everything else. They seem to be the Social X-Rays Tom Wolfe describes in "Bonfire of the Vanities" who decided to get a job.

You meet them all the time on Metro North going from Darien, Connecticut, to Midtown Manhattan.  And, they probably have received the good advice Ivanka tells us to embrace from others. That's because their networks are likely full of those with solid recommendations for career moves.

Outside those golden networks, however, so much of the advice is out-of-date, generic and/or just dumb. Female lawyers and those of us females in other professions have discovered that we have to be willing to figure out things on our own. My two comebacks since the turn of the century were DIYs. Had I followed what God's Plenty dished I would be homeless.

Sales of "Women Who Work" are brisk. The Amazon ranking is 1,144. But 40% of reader reviews give the book only a "1" out of a possible "5" score.

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"Party Rape" & College Women - In Drunkworld, It's Inevitable

In the Online College Social Life Survey, one in four women report being sexually assaulted.

Much of that happens at the weekend ritual called "Drunkworld." There, college females are expected to be hot, beautiful and fun. To be prepared for that staging, most arrive already boozed up. Provocative or "dirty dancing" is routine. Often that takes for form of "grinding."

Obviously, the setting is ideal for sociopaths out to take advantage of women. It also if filled with ambiguity. There are those who simply can't figure out the line between recreational sex and assault. Or assume that's not required.

The term for what happens next is "party rape."

Lifetime trauma can ensue. Careers can be derailed. And the brand of the institution of higher learning becomes tarnished.

This phenomenon is described in the 2017 book "American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus" by Lisa Wade. It helps makes sense of why so much sexual assault seems to be occurring on college campuses.

At the very least, the hookup ethos places a lot of pressure on women. To be part of the social fabric of college life they have to be a valued commodity in weekend partying. The unattractive or those without a fun persona are shut out. That means being treated as "less than" in the college community.

Sure, women could and should push back against Drunkworld. But, what young person has the insight or emotional strength to do that? In itself, the college experience is supposed to provide youth with the opportunity to learn to navigate life on their own.  Probably for the first time in their lives they are away from their parents.

Sure, colleges can ban alcohol at social activities. And they do. But, as Wade reports, students circumvent that by having a few belts of hard liquor before arriving.

What is the solution? Ideally, the college experience could become less of a pressure-cooker - socially and academically. Then there would be less need to party so hard to relieve the stress. But the reality is that finding one's place in life and in the labor market has become so challenging. That's difficult for adults. It may be downright impossible for youth.

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Work - End of Platitudes, Expert Advice, Shaming Mistakes

Among the reasons digital-only legal news site Abovethelaw.com has thrived is this: From the get-go it avoided the platitudes/expert advice/shaming mistakes game.

That meant it veered away from 20th century approaches to careers. Instead, its message has been: Bro, sista, you're on your own in this new labor market, so you have to figure it out for yourself.

It's that mindset which can help the struggling workforce Alia E. Dastagir describes in USA TODAY.

Those having the most trouble even earning enough to pay the bills seem to have 20th century expectations about how to generate income.

They likely get those assumptions from some advisor or some left-over bit of conventional wisdom about success. And when things don't play out as they should, they absorb shame. The grim outcomes include those who, like the John Neumann types, after being fired, return to retaliate.

During The Great Recession, The Wall Street Journal created a series about how unemployed professionals were approaching the job market. Most were blindly following platitudes such as network. The reality is that those in a network don't want you in it unless you have something to trade. Most jobless don't have much or anything to trade. 

Not only did the majority of job searchers not get jobs. They came across as naïve.

I wouldn't have hired them for a contract assignment for my boutique.

They might have put together a more promising present and future had they applied for a management training position at the up-and-coming Aldi discount supermarket. That supposed step down could have been a move in a promising direction.

Too many displaced lawyers also are unable to figure out how to earn income. The sandbox they are playing in is the career one. That single concept has probably generated more suffering than any concrete reduction of hours or loss of a job.

The lucky break venture capitalist Peter Thiel got was having his supposed law career derailed. As he recounts in his book "Zero to One," neither of his two interviews for clerk positions at SCOTUS panned out. He went to make a lot of money as an entrepreneur.

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La La Land - Right Not To Be Homeless Next Social Movement

In the La La Land metro area, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,995.

No surprise,  Steve Lopez hammers in the LA Times that homelessness is growing. Those who can bunk in their cars consider themselves "lucky."

That same reality dominates throughout the U.S. It isn't only glam locations in which the monthly rent is beyond what too many can afford.

In Tucson, Arizona, where retirees flock for a supposed low cost of living, the night brings police chasing the homeless from bedding down on lawns, in alleys and on the benches meant for those waiting for the bus. During the day, the homeless navigate their tied-together multiple shopping carts around the city.

Yet, there hasn't been a well-organized movement to ensure the right not to be homeless.

One reason might be that there is the illusion that homeless is a choice. That romantic notion is depicted in the influential book and film "Stuart: A Life Backward." By Alexander Masters, it captures the mindset of those who opt for the life on the street. When they are placed in housing, they make it their business to break out of the confines.

Another might be the judgment that folks better get real about being willing to live where they can afford. However, affordable is increasingly less affordable.

Here in flyover country, that is the land of no glam, the "middle class" consider themselves fortunate to be renting a one-bedroom for about $600 which includes utilities. Many of them are making $10 an hour for less than 40 hours weekly. That gets around the employer's providing benefits. Therefore, their rent could suck up more than half of their monthly income.

A third reason might be the anachronistic belief that the American Dream is home ownership, not renting. Therefore, those who lease somehow screwed up. They don't count.

The civil rights movement has been the model for change. That had been embraced by women and those of diverse sexual orientations. Organizers might train the homeless et al. in those tactics.

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"Al Franken, Giant of the Senate" - Plain-Speaking That's Fun (unlike rhetoric of Trumpism)

This is the media era. Has been a long time.

That savvy about the importance of media  probably dates back to when John Kennedy "got" television, his opponent didn't and the world was educated that the medium is the message.

In this media era we understand how the plain-speaking of successful business player Donald Trump during Campaign 2016 sucked the attention away from his opponent. She talked politico.

But then the plain-speaking turned adolescent sarcastic. And it stopped making sense, e.g. "Pittsburgh, not Paris." What was that about?

Now, it's a relief that a form of plain-speaking is out there which is fun. And makes sense. That's U.S. Senator Al Franken's book "Al Franken, Giant of the Senate." It's #879 on Amazon. Here you can order it.

Lawyer-journalist Kathryn Rubino at Abovethelaw.com looks at the Franken chapter titled "Sophistry." In it, Ted Cruz is positioned and packaged as a type of public nuisance. We think to ourselves: Sounds right to me. Here you can read Rubino's take.

In the spirit of Frankenism, can we have fun with this and organize a class action lawsuit against Cruz for constituting an alleged public nuisance? Maybe law firm Motley Rice will take it on contingency, as it did the lead paint class action litigation against companies such as Sherwin-Williams.

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Tiger Woods - What Supersurvivors Learn (fast)

Everyone has seen the mugshot of Tiger Woods. It had been taken as part of an arrest in Florida. A DUI had been suspected.

Now both his fans and his enemies wonder: Can Woods come back from that photo of a man who looks much older than his 41 years and has those alcohol-induced droopy eyes? Here is the New York Post account of what the world has been musing since the mugshot hit the internet.

What we do know is that celebrity sports is a cruel game.

O.J. Simpson found that out.

On "Law & Order SVU," there was the fictional tale of the hero football player whose concussions made him senile. His defense lawyer got an acquittal on a rape charge by unmasking his condition in court. On the steps of the courthouse, the diminished former athlete committed suicide.

Sure, Woods could come back, in some fashion. Whether it will be in golf depends on his back.  The issue is: Can he give up hanging on to former stardom in order to put together a next? Or will he make bad judgment calls and try to resume his golf game even if his medical condition is against that?

Woods can fundraise to start a foundation for preparing inner city kids for operating within the system. Or he can sponsor a documentary on what happens to athletes post their prime and how can society ease them into the role of ordinary person.

The New York Post labels Woods' fall from grace "sad." But he can leverage that as a platform for future success. A useful book he can read is "Supersurvivors: The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success." It's by David Feldman and Lee Daniel Kravetz. Here he can order it from Amazon.

What Woods will learn from that book is that supersurvivors triumphed after catastrophe by becoming totally pragmatic. And, isn't that the American Way.

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Ailes/Sherman Relationship - Negative Bonding and Its Power

Media tycoon Roger Ailes and biographer/journalist Gabriel Sherman had a powerful bond. It was based on plenty of negatives.

That antipathy kept both of them fixated on the other. And what helped make Sherman a brandname was his 2014 expose on Ailes "The Loudest Voice in the Room."

In fact, that well-researched book even caused the brilliant Ailes to stumble.

Ailes' personal public relations representative at the time, Robert Dilenschneider, spent $15,000 to place a promotion in The New York Times Review of Books for the vanity biography "Roger Ailes: Off-Camera" by Zev Chafets.

The media outed that. Ailes et al. looked foolish. Dilenschneider's fingerprints were on the caper. As a public affairs leader, he should have known to use a third party to try to pull that one off.

Publicity about that ham-handed gesture could have been a factor in making the biography a best-seller. Three years later, it remains in the 11-thousand ranking on Amazon. Here you can order it from Amazon.

No surprise, in a column in New York Magazine, Sherman outs how much of a sense of loss he feels now that Ailes has died. Sure, there are the remaining lawsuits against Ailes for Sherman to cover.

In addition, of course, amid so many scandals, the Fox News business and brand are in play. How long can it sustain its dominance in conservative news? Rivals such as Sinclair are becoming stronger. One reason, it is speculated, that NBC hired former Fox celebrity Megyn Kelly is its plan to develop a conservative footprint.

So, Sherman will still be busy with what Ailes has left behind.

But it won't be the same. One can envision Sherman's satisfaction in hearing from his sources that he was getting under Ailes' skin. That part is over.

If Donald Trump is forced out of the White House, his critics in the media could experience the same deep loss. Few entities make a life worth living like a formidable enemy. That starts, of course, with a toddler's ability to make daddy very very mad.

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Yale Dean June Chu Put on Leave - But, Growing Up White Trash Gave My Generation the Edge

At Yale, Pierson College dean June Chu posted her personal opinions on Yelp.

Among the observations were that some of the patrons of a restaurant in the New Haven, Connecticut Metro area were "white trash."

The universe was not smiling on Chu.

Those posts got attention. Now, reports AP, she has been put on leave by Pierson head Stephen Davis.

This is an era of extreme political correctness. And those in elite institutions of higher learning such as Yale have to buy into that ethos. 

So, Chu should have known better. By now, of course, everyone with a good job knows the line is blurred between the professional and private self in life and in social media. My fellow ghostwriters who work for the Fortune 100 know that they have to limit the tone and content of their social media to what would align with the culture of their companies.

However, the subject of white trash is inherently fascinating for true intellectuals as well as those who analyze success.

In 2016, the best-seller by Nancy Isenberg was published: "White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America." It is at 4,791 on Amazon. Here you can order it.

From the get-go, there had been those whites in America who were perceived and treated as less-than. The snobbery was embedded in the values of just about every community. 

It continues today, of course. My neighbor in this Norman Rockwell town in eastern Ohio refers to his brother's wife as "white trash."

As I was coming of age on the mean streets of Jersey City, New Jersey, in the 1950s, I never heard that phrase "white trash." Instead my family was referred to in terms of ethnic slurs. They were immigrants.

For better or worse, the Roman Catholic Church made it its mission to socialize all of us into non-white trash.

Perfect grammar, spelling and enunciation were hammered in St. Boniface Parish School.

We wore uniforms.

We had to report in on our breakfast, which was not supposed to be ethnic fare.

We were instructed to tell our families to speak only English at home.

For two weeks each summer we bunked at a sleep-over camp in Butler, NJ. There the nuns taught us table manners, polite conversation and how to move our bodies gracefully.

But before the Catholic Church achieved its outcomes, we got down cold how to survive economically. Everyone hustled. At age 11, I had my own successful Wallace Brown Greeting Card franchise. No surprise, my current colleagues know me as a go-getter.

Also, due to lousy hygiene, we caught every disease. Those of us who lived tend to be in robust health today. Probably that's because we built up immunity.

In addition, despite the attempts at socialization, we can turn on the mean body language and inner city face. So many people with whom I became close confided, "You used to scare me." That's a good way to be positioned and packaged for a world in which there is little trust. At college, when just about everyone's room was robbed, mine wasn't. At a tech corporation, where I worked, the hands of a manager (whom I disliked) would shake when I entered his office. That's exactly the way I want things.

Yes, there are advantages associated with growing up non-white trash. But I didn't have them. Did that limit my career trajectory? Probably.

But here I am alive. A number of my colleagues with middle class backgrounds committed suicide. And I am still out here making a good buck. Most of my college and graduate school classmates from the elite threw in the towel and retired. They couldn't navigate all the change.

What Chu and probably too many others have missed is the inherent emotional, physical and economic edge the white trash have.

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Roger Ailes, Outsized Player in American Conservatism, Dead at Age 77

His health had never been good. In the best-seller "The Loudest Voice in the Room," New York Magazine reporter Gabriel Sherman provides the details.

So, it's no surprise that outsized media player Roger Ailes died at the relatively young age of 77. Also, there had been a major stressor. He had been forced to leave Fox. That was the conservative news network he had put together.

In communications circles, Ailes was associated with his personal public affairs representative Bob Dilenschneider. When Sherman's negative Ailes biography was published, it was Dilenschneider who transacted the publicity for an older but positive Ailes' biography "Roger Ailes: Off Camera."

That was supposed to distract attention from "The Loudest Voice in the Room." But it backfired. The media, including the then wildly popular Gawker discovered that it was Dilenschneider who purchased the ad in The New York Times Book Review for "Off Camera." When questioned about this, Dilenschneider didn't comment. That was in 2014.

That ham-handed gesture still hovers over the Ailes legacy. A media genius such as Ailes should have been able to manage the hit to his branding with grace and wit.

As Sherman explains, Ailes began his career in conservative politics advising Richard Nixon. But the book that made him a brandname in communications was his self-help guide "You are the Message." In executive communications, it was our bible.

With Ailes' passing away so soon after the end of his reign at Fox News, there will be no more speculation about what his Next would be. Some assumed he was operating as a behind-the-scenes power broker.

Bob Dilenschneider with wife Jan Dilenschneider.

Also, Dilenschneider loses an important contact on his conservative network. He still represents Fox News business anchor Lou Dobbs. But that's small potatoes compared to Ailes' web of contacts.

Meanwhile, the American brand of conservatism is mutating.

Ailes is gone.

The Trump Administration is in serious trouble.

The second generation of the Murdoch family is struggling to preserve what has been most profitable about Fox News while fixing the worst of its culture.

What transpires in the mid-term elections could create the new face of American conservatism.

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Drudge Report - Clean Sweep Expected by President Who Now Has Nothing to Lose

The Drudge Report frames the widely-talked-about coming clean sweep of White House staff and cabinet members as a move by a president who now has nothing to lose.

Matt Drudge accomplishes that by linking to the media coverage which depicts a frustrated, enraged Donald Trump who seems to recognize his administration is in deep trouble.

Too many things went wrong too quickly. No reason not to take radical action. The ghost of the Comey firing hovers over the White House.

Among those who could get the boot are Reince Priebus, Steven Bannon and Don McGahn (the latter is a lawyer who parachuted in from law firm Jones Day.) This prediction of a clean sweep also has been put out there on "Meet the Press."

Trump's tendency to abrupt action actually could give him the edge. Some perceive that as "crazy." It was political genius Richard Nixon, reports the New Republic, who observed that being crazy has advantages. That's because you have nothing to lose.

That meme John D. Gartner also hammered in his book about how a little craziness can lead to a lot of success.  Among those Gartner profiles is Alexander Hamilton. He was off enough to keep George Washington waiting.

And it had been Nassir Ghaemi's book which documented that leaders who tend to mental illness are  more effective than "normal" ones during crisis. An example cited is Abraham Lincoln. His struggle with clinical depression is well-known.

On the other hand, too much craziness can throw the system into chaos.

If there is a clean sweep, it will be interesting to assess the level of craziness. If it isn't high, then maybe it will be a shrewd move by the president. A little craziness can indeed lead to plenty of success.

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