Law And More

Patricia Grayson: Turns down $240,967 severance, sues for age discrimination

As a Baby Boomer I see age bias as the new gay rights. But as a legal writer, I understand the wisdom of accepting $240,967 in severance and not filing a federal lawsuit for alleged age discrimination. The outcomes of all litigation are iffy. Also, who knows what the employer had been documenting.

So, for many of us seasoned law watchers the case of Patricia Grayson, 61, against her former boss Richard Buery at Children's Aid in Manhattan is puzzling. He is now a deputy city mayor in New York City.  Here is the coverage from the New York Post.

Grayson contends her performance as a fundraiser was superior.  Yet, she claims that she was told by Buery that a number of trustees were not pleased with her.  When she approached those trustees, she says, they denied that.  In addition, she alleges that five other aging employee at Children's Aid were also terminated.

Clearly, Grayson feels she has a strong case. If this isn't tossed or settled and goes to trial, testimony could be embarrassing to the new mayor's administration since Buery is part of it. On the other hand, Grayson could be raked over the coals in court by the defense lawyer about how she went about her job. 

Solos: Yes, It's Okay To Use Credit Cards as Alternative Funding

Even solos who keep startup and maintenance expenses low still need some funding.

Those of you who considered using credit cards for that were probably hammered with negativity.  Well, those naysayers about credit cards as alternative funding for your small business are wrong. Experience and research prove that reasonable people don't get into financial messes with credit card funding. The few who default or run up six-figure balances give the rest of credit card users a bad name.

One more thing: It really doesn't matter much if you charge expenses on your personal or business cards.  Right now, your FICO might not let you apply for a business card, so go ahead with your consumer one.  

Here is my article on this topic, published this week in PaymentWeek.com.

Bloomberg, VA: Opening for legal writer on employment issues

A JD is required for this plum opportunity with Bloomberg, based in Virginia.  You also need two years of legal writing experience. The focus is employment law. Here are the details and how to apply.

Doc Review: 8 bucks hourly in South Carolina

Down and out in the legal sector?  Well, there should be a line between continuing with the illusion that one can make a living in it and making a break for reality in a turbulent economy.  Those in South Carolina should be on the verge of crossing that line.

On Abovethelaw.com, Alex Rich reports that in SC, doc review assignments are going for 8 bucks an hour.  Here you can read that coverage. 

This is 2014.  In 2003, when I was down and out in the communications sector, I was earning $11.50 an hour being a security guard in Sephora at the Farmington Mall in Connecticut  Download Geezerguts. That experience re-socialized me on how to go to work.  After my industry collapsed, I had been unemployed, losing my capacity to function in the workplace.  

Doc reviewers in SC might check out the help wanted on Craigslist for security guards. My hunch is that experience could be the ticket into high-powered employment in the booming field of security, all kinds of it. 

Legal Sector: On the way to "right size," expect layoffs, cautious hiring to become routine

What to make of all the recent layoffs, along with the rescinded offers at Brown Rudnick? If we read between the lines in the reporting by Julie Triedman in the American Lawyer, we get it that the legal sector is now determined to cut expenses.  The meme for that is "right size."  Here is the Am Law coverage.

The implications are obvious. There will be continual layoffs and cautious hirings forever.  The legal sector is following the model of Corporate America when international competition became a reality.  From the early 1980s to today Corporate America keeps downizing the number of permanent full time workers with benefits. Meanwhile those who fill those full time jobs have been told by the experts that they should consider themselves "on assignment." 

In essence, all employees in the legal sector have to consider themelves free agents.  There's more. As the Brown Rudnick 10 found out, you don't have a job until you are actually in that job. Being in BigLaw has become lots like being on Wall Street. From the get-go, you know that you are on short time. You try to make the most money and acquire the most skills and contacts while you're there. Soon enough you won't be.

In supply chain management, there is a phrase "just in time."  Essentially that's what labor has become in the legal sector.

"Microaggression" - Employers, schools should worry about their brandname, trust

Maybe human beings are wired to be bullies.  

The most sophisticated form to evolve is to damn with faint praise. An example would be, "For a woman, she's a surprisingly good coder."

The term coined for that is "microaggression." To many of us, the put-down hardly seems subtle. But it's being perceived as such. Corporate Counsel covers this phenomenon.  So far, not too much litigation has been generated, contending microaggression. Here is the CC reporting. 

In the near term, what employers and schools have more to worry about is the hits to their brandname or organizational reputation as well as the decline of trust among workers. If the rumor gets out that media outlets focused on high-tech has microaggression against female employees, they could be dragged through the public relations mud.  Also, internally, all employees, not just women, will be on guard about who's next to be insulted in what might be called a "Praise Sandwich."

Career Tragedy: The Game Our Mothers and Professors Never Taught Us

When the game is played in a capitalist economy, it's the individual who is held responsible for failure.  That's just the way it is.  Playwriter Arthur Miller was shrewd in framing the downfall of Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" as a result of character flaws and an inability to change. Audiences weren't supposed to look at the systems triggering and accelerating a salesman's downfall. After all, that would undo the meme of personal success which our mothers and professors hammered. 

So, it's no surprise that those experiencing career tragedy in this spring of the long knives in the legal sector are left without a playbook for managing the setback.  And, in many ways, it just is a setback, at least now in Fast Time. Employers and clients want to know what we can do for them right now. Not what we did or not have done yesterday. The past isn't prologue.  The past is simply the past.

The 10 newbie JDs, the 38 staff and the law faculty whose jobs vanished or could vanish have to get a hang of managing the growing phenomenon of a career tragedy. Systems are causing most of it.  But it's still up to us individuals to navigate away from the past and equip ourselves for making a living in the future. That living could be as lucrative as promised by mom and professors who pushed us to do well in school and then on the job.

What are some tips?  Here are just a handful.

Don't search for "the cause." Trained to be analytical, lawyers get stuck in deconstructing what went wrong along the career path.  Forget it.  In 12-step programs, which have been proven to rescue lives from substance abuse, those in a mess are told to not focus on causes of their troubles.  Move instead to fresh mindsets and behaviors.  Yes, you can make that leap without setting up a template of cause-effect.

Don't blame yourself. Human beings are wired to screw-up. So? Instead focus on what you have recently done right, such as exiting graciously.  Always reflect on points of strength, not weakness.  Become a winner again and the weaknesses will take care of themselves.

Ask for help in the right places. You only lose time and invite harsh assessments of yourself if you reach out to the wrong resources.  No, you don't tell your neighbor who knows nothing about the legal sector that you no longer have the job you thought you did. Make up cover stories.  Test out who could provide insight and concrete assistance.

Experiment. It could take several tries to land on a new career path. When the Humanities tanked in the 1970s for college professors, most of us had a series of jobs before we could put together a career.  Feeling foolish about trying what doesn't pan out is an emotional lux no one can afford.

Takeaway: Push yourself into the solution, not examining the problem. 

Adding to Legal Sector Downsizing: Nova Southeastern Law School Offers Buyouts to all full-time faculty

Truly, the legal sector is downsizing. What will be left and how it will be reconfigured into a new entity a lot experts can speculate about. However, no one really knows. Some firms may engage in radical moves and establish models which help the strong players become stronger and the weaker ones survive.

Meanwhile, though, lots of jobs are being or could be lost. This is turning out to be the spring-time of the long knives.

Nixon Peabody laid off 38 staff. Brown Rudnick rescinded offers to 10 summers.  

And now, Staci Zaretsky at Abovethelaw.com tells us Nova Southeastern Law had provided buyout offers to all its full-time faculty.  The acceptance date is May 25. What will happen if few accept the offers? There could be layoffs which would tarnish the law school's brand. Here is the ATL coverage.

Yet, probably more than 40,000 a year will continue enroll in law school.  The type of critical thinking it inculcates is priceless.  A law degree can be used in myriad ways.  And one's life is more manageable when you assert yourself as a lawyer. 

The challenge is to have options for the rigid dream of having the big compensation, status and stimulating work of being a part of brandname law firms and boutiques.  More lawyers, for example, are embracing government work, which entails 9 to 5, not serial all-nighters. 

This downsizing saga will only tip into tragedy for those who aren't truly flexible. At the end of the 1980s, Corporate America downsized out our generation of middle managers. Once we got over the shock, we found new ways of making a living. Many of us are still doing that, making a good buck, despite the bias against the aging.

Nixon Peabody Layoff: 38 Staff

The problem with being a staff member at a brandname law firm and losing the job is this: The odds are bleak for landing a comparable position. Craigslist is full of local help-wanted for paralegals, administrative assistants and even secretaries.  But, come on, what will the pay be.

So, it is a sad time for the 38 staff who are being laid off at Nixon Peabody. In the reporting of this on Abovethelaw.com, David Lat speculates that the law firm might be trying to slim down to make itself more attractive as a partner in a merger.  Here is that ATL coverage.

Brown Rudnick Cuts 10 of 23 Incoming Fall Associates - Career Tragedy

Remember back when law firms were beginning to adjust to Post-2007 Crash realities?  Abovethelaw.com kept reporting on deferral of start dates for new associates.  That was then.  

Some assumed the legal sector had restructured itself to eliminate what I called "Def Land." After all the industry grew at a bit over 2% in 2013. Not great but still a bit of an upward trajectory.  Well, things have not been on the uptick at Brown Rudnick.  In Abovethelaw.com, Staci Zaretsky reports that the firm recently rescinded 10 of the 23 offers it had made to summers. No this was not a situation of a deferred start date. It was no job. Ever. At Brown Rudnick. Here is the coverage by ATL.

Given that the offers were pulled so late, those cut are in nowhereville. For them this is career tragedy, especially since they were supposed to be headed to the glutted legal markets of New York and Boston. 

What will they do? Well, they will have to scramble in a number of directions.  Those include hunting for full time legal work, contract legal assignments, work not practicing law but related to it, and work that has no relationship to law. 

The 10, when they pull themselves together, should seek funding for a documentary.  It will track their mindsets and activities from when Brown Rudnick dropped the bomb to when they sensed they landed on their feet.

If they feel free coaching might be useful, please contact me - Jane Genova -  at mgenova981@aol.com.  Talking with me might help them become strategic about their options.  In the 1970s I went through my own version of career tragedy when the market for Humanities college professors imploded.