Law And More

From Andrew Bachman to Mark Zuckerberg, What Can Go Very Very Wrong in TechVille

Andrew Bachman is the 30-something son of two suburban Boston medical doctors.

The media packaged him as the Massachusetts version of California's tech wizards. His unique brand of tech entrepreneurship, as the Boston Globe crowed, was the physically fit one. 

In the Babson College dorm he and buddies had launched Tatto. That was an internet marketing company.

Eventually, they sold that for $60 million and became rich. That made him more successful than his physician parents. 

The White House had invited him for a visit.

He taught a course at Babson on entrepreneurship and created a scholarship.

Wiley was going to publish his memoir, which I assisted him in researching and writing. We hunkered down together in his Boston penthouse putting it together. In the garage below were parked his expensive cars. Initially, I toyed with the title of the book that the brand of one of the cars served as his business card. 

He had other enterprises going.

That was then.

Four years ago, the media outlet Techli interviewed Bachman about a possible comeback. And, that is really the central issue of this tech saga of what can go very very wrong. Can a Bachman type return to success? 

Now, as the U.S. Attorney's Office Southern District of New York reports, Bachman is among those who have taken a guilty plea.

Their scam had been orchestrated through Tatto, along with Mobile Messenger. One of those in the loop - Darcy Wedd - received a 10-year sentence on April 3, 2018. Back in 2017, he had been convicted in a two-week jury trial.

Bachman awaits sentencing. Earlier, he had depleted his assets by settling with the FTC for what was at the time still an alleged fraud. Those cars went in the settlement. 

After the Wedd sentencing, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman provided a simplified description of the technically complex fraud. Essentially, he said, Tatto constituted

" .... a large-scale auto-subscribing scheme that forced mobile phone users to pay charges for unsolicited and unwanted text messaging services ... [The defendants'] conduct ultimately netted over $150 million in illegal profits."

So, how do tech hustlers cross that ethical and legal line into criminals? Initially Tatto had been legit. Bachman had and probably still has a good head for business.

In the Techli interview Bachman noted he was talking with a psychotherapist. If he serves time in prison there will be support personnel he can also sort things out with. 

Perhaps already he has gained insight about what led to his catastrophic fall from grace. There's a documentary he can develop on that meme. That could be his Next: To help other techies avoid his ordeal. 

With Facebook in such trouble, seemingly because of its lusting after growth, lessons from the Bachman fall from grace might be currently considered by others in the tech loop.

On April 11th, when Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress, there could be a paradigm shift in tech. Those who are both ambitious and smart about how the world really works might get it that they have to play by the rules. 

 

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"Mullaugh v. JPMorgan" - This Lawsuit Could Stop Employers from Forcing Retirements

"The estate of a deceased broker [Michael A. Lorig] filed a wrongful death lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co., saying he took his life after becoming despondent because he was forced to retire." - Christian Berthelsen, Bloomberg, April 2, 2018. Here is the article.

For years Michael A. Lorig had been a star in the world of finance. That accomplishment took place despite his struggle with clinical depression.

Essentially, depression is the common cold of mental illnesses. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 16.2 million adults will have at least one depressive episode. Likely in just about every workplace someone is drifting into a depression.

During his career he did take leaves of absences to treat his depression.

In 2014, he went on short-term disability. He extended that to long-term disability. When he was ready to return to work in 2016, his employer JPMorgan Chase responded with a "no." They said that at the time there was "no business" for him to return to.

According to the wrongful death lawsuit, essentially Lorig was forced to retire. Also, it is claimed that JPMorgan Chase terminated his professional licenses after he didn't accept its first retirement proposal.

The case is "Mullaugh v. JPMorgan." It was filed in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. 

Lorig was 66 when he took his life.

If this litigation catches fire in the media and among advocates to end discrimination against the mentally ill and aging, employers might re-think the standard practice of forced retirements.

Usually, the most push-back employees put together is bringing a lawyer into the loop to negotiate the best severance package possible. The filing of this case may embolden them to actually sue.

For those feeling oppressed by ageism, here is my new book. It's available free (and no user data is being collected)  Download Over50TheFourMonstersoftheMind

Coaching on all aspects of aging, from careers to retirement. Complimentary consultation. Sliding scale fees. Please contact aging expert Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. Read her syndicated site http://over-50.typepad.com.

BigLaw Seems to Also Be "correcting seniority mix"

IBM had a institutional problem.

Unlike new players in the tech industry such as Google and Amazon, it had a mature workforce. Digital tech's signature is a workforce of tireless Millennials.

IBM's solution, an internal document indicated, was to "correct the seniority mix." Could that be a corporatespeak euphemism for "ageism?"

During the past five years, at IBM, more than 20,000 U.S. employees 40 years or older have been laid off, fired, or retired. Some of their positions were shipped overseas. Some filled by younger, less experienced hires who received lower compensation.

This has been disclosed by Peter Gosselin and Ariana Tobin in ProPublica. Here is that article, published in March 2018. 

Before it blew up its traditional culture in the early 1990s, IBM was paternalistic. Employment was for life, in return for loyalty. Then upstarts like Microsoft and Apple changed the game. To change its, IBM parachuted in outsider Lou Gerstner. And that was that.

More recently came the digital shift. Only recently did IBM generate growth in revenue. Previously, it had had 22 quarters of declining revenue. Here are more details about that.

So, no question, IBM had to make another radical move. But, in seeking cost efficiency it seemed to have targeted older employees. Not necessarily dead wood or those with outdated skills. 

Unfortunately, IBM is not atypical.

Ageism is increasingly prevalent, even in stodgy branches of professional services such as law. Law firm partners are being forced out. If they're not meeting a quota for billable hours and/or bringing in new business they're finished.

The reality is that those over-50 should expect to get the boot. Likely, they will be the first to be terminated, over and over again. Yes, there are ways to push back through government agencies and private legal counsel. Those take time. 

But, the bottom line is that the unemployed over-50 still need to find work. That could continue into their late 60s, 70s, and 80s.

They might have children to be educated. No sizeable nest egg. No pension. And their physical and cognitive health are solid.

According to Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, more than half of Baby Boomers intend to remain working beyond 65 or not retire at all. Here in The New York Times are more details about that emerging trend.

However, because of how ageism eats at their sense of self, too many wind up standing in their own way. Manhattan psychotherapist Will Meyerhofer noticed that in his practice. Older professionals can and do become self-defeating. 

The good news, I have found in coaching the over-50, is this: Once they become aware of how they are blowing it, they are able to change their mindsets and behaviors. 

Here is my new book on that - available free (and without any collection of user data)  Download Over50TheFourMonstersoftheMind.

Coaching on all aspects of aging, from careers to retirement. Complimentary consultation. Sliding scale fees. Please contact aging expert Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. Read her syndicated site http://over-50.typepad.com.

Martin Sorrell of WPP - Flashback to when "Mad Men" Lane Pryce's Desperate Move at Sterling Cooper

Advertising agencies under the WPP umbrella are reeling. Those include J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather.

The latest negative development at WPP is the allegation that its chief executive officer - Martin Sorrell - has misused company funds. An investigation has begun. Here are more details from the media.

That accusation mirrors an episode from the fictional AMC television series "Mad Men." Partner Lane Pryce, a tormented soul, embezzles $7,500 from the ad firm Sterling Cooper. When the theft is discovered and he's forced to resign, he hangs himself in the office.

That suicide jolts the agency - and the audience of "Mad Men." We wanted Pryce to find a way out of his emotional and social agony. His suicide ended that hope. Top programming like "Mad Men" is all about relationships - including the audience's with the characters.

This allegation about Sorrell also stuns. The timing is lousy. To use the cliché, it's been a "perfect storm" in the global ad business.

More advertising dollars are going to astute digital players like Google and Facebook. They make an anachronism of the old saying that advertising half works, only no one knows which half. The digital folks up the odds of what can work and have ways of monitoring and measuring that.

In addition, big advertisers like P&G has yanked the business back from agencies to in-house. Like many marketers of consumer brands, P&G has its own problems. Plenty of them.

As Scott Galloway hammers in his book "The Four," search is killing brands.

Instead of relying on a brand, consumers currently have the option to key in the generic request for a moisturizing soap. What comes up in the search might not be a P&G product.

Another tech innovation destroying brands is Alexa. Request batteries and the usual brands will not come up. Instead, it's likely to be an Amazon offering.

In the last year, WPP stock lost 27% of its value. The price fell more after this allegation about misconduct.

Despite all the personal problems of the creatives in "Mad Men," those men and the few women had the advantage of knowing that what they did was in demand. And revered. That mindset is over. The WPP folks know they could be on short time. 

Those most vulnerable in the 21st century analogue of "Mad Men" are those over-50. They might not have a deep understanding of digital. They might not see the need to retrain in another communications niche. And ageism is positioning and packaging them as "old." 

In addition, their clients who are aging might be caught in the same loop. 

So, what's the exit ramp out of such confusion that is eating profits?

Here is a free book (no data collected) to provide insight and solutions for that kind of growing problem in creative professions as well as industries which are their clients Download Over50TheFourMonstersoftheMind.

Coaching on all aspects of aging, from careers to retirement. Complimentary consultation. Sliding scale fees. Please contact aging expert Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. Read her syndicated site http://over-50.typepad.com.

 

Mueller Probe - Will Donald Trump Pull Alan Dershowitz into Loop

Being part of the legal team representing Donald Trump in the Robert Mueller probe of the alleged Russian connection could restore retired Alan Dershowitz to his previous megawatt brand status.

That was kicked off not so much by his popular books but his participation in the defense of O.J. Simpson in the criminal trial.

Currently, as watchers of Fox News know, Dershowitz has been developing a new kind of presence. It's one tolerant of conservative ideology. Also, he has been making noises elsewhere.

But the big move could be assisting the U.S. president in the current legal threat to his staying in the job. 

In The Hill, that is analyzed.

Such representation would give Trump an edge in the court of public opinion. Wow! Having a certified liberal in his legal corner? Priceless.

After all, so many of us of progressives like myself went to Harvard Law after immersing ourselves in Dershowitz's lefty writings. 

According to The Hill, the constitutional legal game involves three options:

• A legal pass for the U.S. president
• Indictment
• Grand Jury indictment not to indict.

A brilliant legal mind whose strategy is aggressive and is backed with copious legal precedents could possibly pull off the best scenario for Trump. It's in Trump's interest to hire Dershowitz. And it's in the latter's to accept the offer.

We should be preparing for an amazing show. It could bypass the Theatre of OJ. 

Place your links and sponsored content on this syndicated site. High Google Rankings. Brandname Inbound Links. For more information: jangenova374@gmail.com.

Back to 2009 in Legal Sector? Older Lawyers/Law Professors Most Vulnerable

Dark clouds have been hanging over much of the world economy, just as they did in 2008 - and 1929.

"U.S. stocks had their worst April start since 1929, according to data complied by Bloomberg." 

Anyone who had decided to not avoid looking at their brokerage statement for March 2018 experienced that reversal of fortune on a personal level. 

In terms of the careers of lawyers the legal sector could return to mass layoffs, deferred start dates, and snatch back job offers of 2009.

On Abovethelaw, Kathryn Rubino had documented the 6,000 lawyers put out on the street into a market becoming glutted. Now, of course, it's more glutted.

The future of the Class of 2018 is in play. 

In addition, those who informed law schools they would be taking a seat as a 1L in the fall might not show up. Again, law schools will be thrown into the kind of crisis mode which had been standard before there has been a Trump Bump in those taking the LSAT. 

But, those most vulnerable in what could happen in the legal sector are the older lawyers and older law professors.

That's because they worked their way up to a high compensation. And unless they are singing for their supper in the exact ways their employers now require they could be among the first wave of terminations. 

In my new book I describe how ineptly aging lawyers have been managing the current threats to their employment.

That book is "Over-50: The Four Monsters of the Mind." Here the legal community can access it free and with no collection of their data -  Download Over50TheFourMonstersoftheMind.

The book is dedicated to psychotherapist and author Will Meyerhofer. He nailed it that many aging professionals are self-defeating. Yes, they are standing in their own, making ageism worse. His Manhattan practice includes members of the legal community. 

Lawyers and law students becoming anxious about what could play out for the rest of 2018 and beyond should give themselves the gift of a complimentary coaching consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com. After that, there's a sliding scale fee schedule.

Download IntroducingYoutoover50coaching  this backgrounder on the fast-start approach to thinking differently about earning a living.

Place your links and sponsored content on this syndicated site. High Google Rankings. Brandname Inbound Links. For more information: jangenova374@gmail.com.

Ethan Couch, Andrew Bachman, and Other Privileged Kids - Are They "Cursed"

Ethan Couch grew up in a family so well-off that his lawyer used the "affluenza" defense.

The lawyer argued that Couch's background was so much a gilded age that he was prevented from developing a sense of right and wrong.

That defense strategy worked. Initially, he received 10 years probation versus jail time. But, of course, as a rich kid, he blew it.

Today he finished serving almost two years in the Tarrant County Jail. In a few days he will be 21.

But, Couch watchers such as myself are not optimistic that he will go on to have a productive life. Here is the media coverage in the New York Post.

A less extreme example of that is Andrew Bachman.

He grew up in a suburb of Boston, MA. Both parents are medical doctors. The family may not be among the 1%. But the odds are Bachman wanted for nothing.

Currently, he is awaiting sentencing for what's known as mobile cramming. Already he has paid the FTC over a million dollars in assets and cash. His photo is on the left.

In a mobile cramming scam, those who sign up online for a sweepstakes or whatever wind up not being able to exit the loop - even if they beg the company. Every month they are billed about 10 bucks. You can imagine their frustration.

It was while in college - Babson - that Bachman and his band of miscreants cooked up the scam.

I encountered him when he contracted me to research, conduct interviews for, and ghostwrite his memoir. Wiley accepted it for publication. Then backed off when Bachman first got on the FTC radar. Next, Preet Bharara noticed what Bachman was up to. Eventually Bachman took a plea.

When we worked together, he was certainly brash. Understatement. In my head I wrote him off as peaking prematurely in his career because he seemed to lack what Dan Goleman labeled "emotional intelligence." But I didn't predict this kind of catastrophe. 

Bachman was not the first privileged player I had dealt with. All danced on the edge of the law and social decorum. Not one I knew well made it big professionally, although their gold-plated network would have facilitated that. 

Is it sour grapes to position and package the children of privilege "cursed?" Articles on them in Vanity Fair makes it seem that way.

Any size business can promote itself like a big business. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. Here is a brief backgrounder.

What Those Monsters Under Your Bed Become When You're Over-50

You're over-50.

You need to download - free- my new book "Over-50: The Four Monsters of the Mind"  Download Over50TheFourMonstersoftheMind.

Next, give yourself the gift of a complimentary coaching consultation on where you are, where you need/want to go, and action plans to get there. No pressure. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Lawyers Who Were English Majors - You Probably Never Bought into "The Waste Land"

T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land" opens with what has become a historic line:

"April is the cruellest month of all."

We will be hearing that line and others from T.S. Eliot's collection of poems a lot.

That's because booming-voiced actor Jeremy Irons has taken on the mission of giving public recitals of them. Here are the details. 

However, some of us will push back on "The Waste Land." For us, April has not been the cruellest month of all.

It was in April 2005 that I launched this blog. Instantly, like the dramatic visual shift in "The Wizard of Oz," I went from being a print player to a digital one.

Since I was an early adopter of blogging, I flew around the U.S. delivering talks to corporate types about how that medium was disrupting communications.

Some listened.

High-profile, well-paid blogging assignments came my way.

Also, my brandname was mentioned along with those of the cool kids like Ana Marie Cox (now with Guardian)  and David Lat (now with Abovethelaw).

That megawatt branding lasted four years. Then, the space became glutted (as it always does).

The next miraculous April happened in 2014. My rescue dog LOV and I pulled onto I-95, headed out of Connecticut.

In southwestern Arizona we found how work could be without the New York Metro area pressure of careerism. My creativity thrived. No surprise, my communications boutique tripled revenues. 

But the most amazing gift from the universe was the strength to break loose from the hail-hail-the-gang's-all-here crowd from college. One of them was 14 desert miles from me. Here is that story of emotional resurrection.

And, this April I have structured Download CoachingbyJaneGenovaforover50 as a formal stand-alone business. For more than a decade, I have doing both paid and pro-bono coaching for aging professionals. But, afraid to "mix" brands, I kept all that under the radar. Fortunately, branding has loosened up. My LinkedIn profile contains both identities: marketing communications expert and coach for over-50.

Right now I am working on my new book "Over-50: The Four Monsters of the Mind." It's dedicated to Manhattan psychotherapist - Will Meyerhofer. He confirmed for me that the aging tend to stand in their own way. 

Aging is a process that begins at conception. "Old" is a condition we tend to inflict on ourselves. My new book guides the over-50 how to get out of their own way and headed towards The Next.

Coaching on all aspects of aging, from careers to retirement. Complimentary consultation. Sliding scale fees. Please contact aging expert Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. Read her syndicated site http://over-50.typepad.com.

 

Outfoxing Bias, Ranging From Gender to Age, Through Communications

Smart. Andrea Karmer's book "Breaking Through Bias" focuses on, as the subtitle states, "communications techniques for women to succeed at work."

She published the book in 2016, along with her husband Alton Harris.

University professor and linguist Deborah Tannen published her book "Talking from 9 to 5" in 1994. It too zeroed in on how communications can hold women back in professional life.

So, things haven't changed much, if any, over the decades.

And, yes, how females communicate is still either creating or reinforcing negative gender stereotypes.

The classic example is the bad conversational habit of women to preface an opinion with some kind of self-deprecation. Instead of simply stating that the initiative isn't effective, she will start out, "I may be wrong ..."

Kramer's awareness of gender bias only happened after she had been practicing law for 15 years. She had started out in a small firm. Although then she was the only female, it was gender-neutral. It continued that way. But to serve the client market she had created she needed the resources of a large firm.

That was when she encountered what she classified as the "double bind." Women were damned both if they communicated in traditionally feminine ways and when they didn't. The book presents ways to outfox that entrenched  game. 

What Kramer and Tannen observe about the dangers and opportunities in female communications also applies to bypassing age bias. 

Overall, the system is rigged to flush out the aging from the workforce.

Potential employers, customers, and clients usually are alert to signs that those applying for work are over-50. That's why it's imperative for job and assignment searchers not to present themselves as "old."

Aging is what is happening to every human being from the moment of conception. Being "old" is self-inflicted. No one refers to investment guru Warren Buffett as "old." It is noted now and then that he is in his 80s. 

The classic "old" example resembles that of female conversational self-deprecation. The "old" version is the ingrained habit of referring to a world that has gone by. That could be their accomplishments in 2005 or how breakthrough the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" had been.

The employer interviewing for a job wants to hear how a current problem will be solved fast, with scarce resources. Applicants over-50 who can focus on that and deliver a solution on the spot in the "in" lingo of the industry have an excellent shot at getting an offer. The situation immediately can turn "age-neutral." 

Those over-50 who are caught in the "old" loop should read my new book. It's free. Access it here Download Over50ebookpioneersinwildwildwest.

And, here is how to navigate a phone interview without sounding "old." Outplacement firms have linked to it.

Coaching on all aspects of aging, from careers to retirement. Complimentary consultation. Sliding scale fees. Please contact aging expert Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. Read her syndicated site http://over-50.typepad.com.