Law And More

Marketing from the Soul - Can Law Firms Become Purpose-Driven

A global copywriting firm and a computer sales/repair service both have hired me to make their marketing communications more effective. That was right after our first conversation.

How that happened is that my purpose was to help them scale up. Yes, a growth hack.

I didn't promote my services. The encounter was framed as: If you tried this, X and Y could happen in your enterprise.

Such an approach might be called "marketing from the soul." And, it's possible (but not probable) law firms can adopt that ethos. The incentive on that one is this: The Bloomberg survey on marketing found the need for law firms to differentiate themselves. As yet, most can't figure out how to accomplish unique branding. Jones Day may be the exception.

The experts at Traackr discuss why and how purpose is replacing promotion (and that advertising may be dead) in the white paper "The Rise of Influencer Marketing in B2B Technology." Here you can download it.

Marketing from the soul, of course, is nothing new.

Jesus Christ and his 12 evangelists informed "prospects" how their lives could be enriched and the society brought to the next level. That was through the fundamentals of what would become Christianity.

Later in the 20th century, Jean Nidetch also had a purpose. It was to help the overweight feel good about themselves and offer them a safe, dignified path to losing the pounds. The result was Weight Watchers.

Now, in the 21st century, the wildly successful digital legal news outlet Abovethelaw.com has as its purpose truth about everything legal. That ranges from the increasingly low ROI in attending law school (at least if it isn't a top brandname) to the human implications of a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Because the approach is so different, the reader experience is fun. Media genius David Lat is the founder. What Rupert Murdoch has been to conservative news, Lat has been to progressive takes.

Here on 'Main Street" in Eastern Ohio, the purpose-driven businesses include Auto Zone and Sweeney Chevrolet. Both exist to help those of us with cars operate them efficiently and safely, at the lowest price. Actually, both gave me recommendations at no price. I was able to duck a $1000 repair, it turned out, I didn't need.

Advertising may or may not vanish. The "Mad Men" types will likely come up with a form which we can't block and actually enjoy.

But what is melting away, like the Wicked Witch of the West in the "Wizard of Oz," is selling. No one will put up with that any more. Human life has become too stressful to endure a sales pitch.

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We All Have a Dream: Elie Mystal for U.S. President

Sure, Abovethelaw.com's star - Elie Mystal - contributes much through his journalism. But, there's a limit to that reach. 

Obviously, he's meant to be THE game-changer for America. As U.S. president. 

But first he has to be elected to something. Anything.

For that, some organization-type person needs to establish a crowdfunding site. I'm totally in my head. That's because of too much education which I took too seriously and too much ghostwriting. 

With Mystal as U.S. president, all will be right again. 

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Workman Comp Defense Firm, Southern CA - Marketing Coordinator

Here are details and how to apply.

Lordy, Now It's a Dem Being Investigated

The conservative Drudge Report gets right to the point. In a two-word headline - "Her Turn" - it announces that it's a Democrat in the hot seat. That's former attorney general Loretta Lynch.

The focus is if she inappropriately attempted to shape the FBI's 2016 investigation of Hillary Clinton's management of emails.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has instructed Lynch to provide details about how she conducted herself with the FBI and with the Clinton power structure about those emails.

It was former FBI director James Comey who stated publicly that he had concerns about Lynch's behavior. But, of course, he was really articulating what a lot of folks already had on their minds.

Questions arose about the Clinton connection as soon as it was learned that Lynch and Bill Clinton had a conversation on the tarmac in Phoenix, Arizona, last June. Lynch herself indicated that she regretted that meeting. The image that arose in many minds was of Bill's putting a verbal chokehold on Lynch, with a velvet glove.

If the GOP is cunning, it will make hay of this investigation of a high-profile Democrat. That could distract some of the media attention from the Mueller investigation of the myriad Trumpettes.

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State Bar of TX, Austin, TX - Associate Editor

Here are details and how to apply.

Dentons' Michael Potere - 21st-Century Raskolnikov from "Crime and Punishment"

It was an abstraction - an idea - which drove Raskolnikov to murder an old lady.

That's the grim theme of Dostoyevsky's classic Russian novel "Crime and Punishment." The pragmatic takeaway is supposed to be: Don't live in your head.

A 21st century version of Raskolnikov may well be Michael Portere, former associate at BigLaw firm Dentons. Here is his LinkedIn profile.

As lawyer-journalist Kathryn Rubino tells his story at Abovethelaw.com, Portere had the idea that he represented all Millennials. In his mind, they were getting screwed.

For him, the screwing happened to him in the form of being terminated by Dentons. When he found that out, he allegedly cooked up an extortion scheme. It was almost cartoonish.

When working with a partner on a case, he had gained access to confidential Dentons' information. That ranged from how to collect account receivables to what mighty legal minds were being considered for promotion to equity partners.

He allegedly threatened to release that information to Abovethelaw.com if the firm didn't give him more than $200K and a piece of art.

It seems that idea was so powerful that Potere didn't care about the legal and professional consequences of his actions.

Potere has lots of company in his world view, of course.In this era of so many who are highly educated and professionally frustrated, it's all too easy to default into abstractions about justice. The surprising thing is that not more implement that mindset into crimes. 

One would have assumed, for example, that the growing number of displaced associates would march into their former law firms and the partners' mansions in Greenwich, Connecticut, with bayonets and wild eyes.

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Lawyers, Law Students - Learning to Hunt for Today's Dinner

Bad news sells.

So, Bloomberg's article about the 10 jobs most likely to disappear is attracting lots of eyeballs.

It doesn't list practicing law. But, with the accelerating pace of implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI), it should.

On Abovethelaw.com (ATL), Robert Ambrogi keeps up-dating busy-bee LexisNexis in that niche.

Eventually the traditional law firm could operate with a small core of seasoned legal strategists and lots of subscriptions to AI services. The first jobs to go will be those contract assignments in document review. The next will be those of inexperienced associates. 

However, that shouldn't be news.

The traditional concept of "job" is totally mid-20th century. That was the era of the BigJobs.

We Baby Boomers recall landing great ones. And we are the last generation who could travel a linear career path. Perhaps DailyJobCuts.com should change its name to "DailyLossofIncome.com. That site would report how many income-producing slots were shut down. 

According to researchers at the University of Oxford, in the coming decades, about half of the current jobs (which it's already smart to think of as income-producing slots) in America will vanish. And, no expert can predict what will replace those slots. 

Also, and this is the really tough nut to crack, no one can specify the most effective and efficient way to find work. As is obvious, so many displaced lawyers are doing that all wrong.

Network? That could get you labeled as a pest or, worse, a has-been. 

Be aggressive. That can make you come across as desperate.

Creative. So many have been too out of the box.

In the box. That doesn't get attention.

Story-telling is the meme of our time. The stories which should be in demand, on a grassroots basis, are the personal testimonies of those who got work. It's increasingly irrelevant that the story-teller held onto the work.

On ATL, under the pen name of Alex Rich, current editor Karen Rubino chronicled her search for work in the document-review ghetto. She provided details on everything from the need for anger management when being treated as if you were invisible to hustling for the next gig before the current one ended. That story-telling helped land her a full time job at ATL.

It had been my story-telling on my communications blog http://janegenova.com which resulted in a major marketing communications project with a career service. The saga was about the shame I couldn't shake about losing a BigJob way back when. 

Is it obvious to you now that, yes, mankind is back to hunting for dinner every day day? Yesterday, my dog LOV and I had ate well. Yet again. I had bagged an assignment, paid by PayPal, for editing a proposal for venture capital. 

That's done. Before I go out there today, I have to figure out where exactly I should be hunting.

For instance, should I leverage this skill in proposals?

Or will dinner be easier to find in the lucrative but downsizing book-ghostwriting niche? 

Smart people want to hear that story. People stuck in the mid-20th century want to hear about career paths. 

Members of the legal media who want to be helpful to employment-challenged lawyers should solicit those stories.

My own story about working as a security guard in an inner city Home Depot back in 2003-2004 has had more than a million downloads. Here you can pick up some hands-on insight about how to go hunting when your old bow and arrows not longer bring home the bacon. BTW, my tale of a crash and bounce-back brought in a four-year legal-oriented assignment. 

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Downtown Manhattan Getting New Legal Media Outlet

Yes, the law is a fascinating subject.

So, it's no surprise that in downtown Manhattan there is a new startup which will cover recent legal events.

It is positioned as not just for lawyers. The tone is supposed to be lite.

I found out about this fresh entry to the legal communications space on Craigslist. It posted a help wanted for an editor with a JD. Here is that ad. 

I shot off an email to the pub for an interview. If I hear, you will hear more.

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Legal News Startup, Downtown Manhattan - Editor, JD Required

Here are details and how to apply.

Outplacement - Burden on Displaced Lawyers to Make It Lead to Next Source of Income

The DailyJobCuts.com lists layoffs. Your legal job may have already been cited. Or soon will be.

The new normal is to get that tap on the shoulder, then be directed to outplacement. That's the employer-paid service to help you, the terminated employee, transition to The Next.

Admittedly, outplacement services vary in quality and duration.

Some, especially for equity partners, are superior. Some are mediocre, with a lackluster track record for helping the unemployed lawyer land jobs or other kinds of sources for income such as contract work. Some last a short time. Some can go on for a year or more. 

But, no matter which kind you find yourself in, the burden is on you to get the most out of the service. Based on research, conversations with outplacement experts, feedback from those in outplacement and my own experience with transition, here are 6 must-dos:

• Sample all the items on the menu. For example, you might have been told your resume is excellent. However, it's in your self-interest to take advantage of the resume analysis, feedback and overhauls. The reality is that the preferred style of resumes continues to change in these turbulent times. What yours currently has in the Summary or Education/Training may be last year.
• Attend sessions on entrepreneurship and contract work. Your preference may be to keep doing what you have been doing - that is, working at a full time job with benefits. But that way of earning income may be closing for you.
• Ask direct questions, in an indirect way. You may sense that you will be subject to age bias in your search for the next job. The outplacement service you are assigned might not address that issue. So, you have to, in a way that doesn't put it on the defensive. You might say, "Can you give me special pointers for how a former partner in-house counsel can earn a living at age 63?" That can open the door to recommendations for leveraging that background in a different sector such as public affairs or creating a resume/cover letter for contract assignments.
• Exploit the opportunity for coaching. After each interview, reverse engineer each aspect with the coach. Keep pumping for feedback.
• Don't make the outplacement facility a make-believe office and the other unemployed professionals your new reference group. That kind of mindset and buddy system distracts from the urgency of getting a new source of income. 
• Ask for guidance on possible career change. That should be part of your education in outplacement. Your next job or project may be in your current career. Lucky you. But your focus has to be on leveraging your experience in other ways, in the future. 

When hundreds of my colleagues and myself were laid off from middle management in a corporate restructuring, the outplacement service re-socialized us.

We were told we could no longer depend on any organization to earn a living. Instead we had to keep building our portfolio of experience and skills. I listened. Those who didn't failed to become strategic about their careers. Their suffering was and remains enormous - and probably unnecessary.

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