Law And More

Small Law Firm, Bethesda, MD - Case Manager, Advocate

Ideal for someone considering eventually going to law school. Compensation is in ballpark of $40K.

Here are details and how to apply.

"Pao v. Kleiner" - Will "Doing A Pao" Become Meme In Legal Sector?

The world of venture capital is a heady one.

It is filled with the excitement of dealing with startups.

The potential for big money is huge.

And the players seem protective of one another. Even when employees are getting the boot, in a layoff or firing, the trauma is cushioned by generous payouts.

According to evidence and testimony, Ellen Pao had a charmed professional life at Kleiner Perkins. Her termination, which is part of the reason for the lawsuit, provided her with a soft landing.

In TechCrunch, Colleen Taylor reports that when given the boot, the firm informed her:

" ... she'd continue to receive a base salary of $33,333.33 per month for the next six months, receive up to $200,000 in additional payments if she did not find another job in the following months, and still be eligible for a bonus."

Therefore, we have to ask (and are jurors also asking) what really has been Pao's beef?

After all, she entered the sexual relationship with a fellow worker on her own. She contends she was pressured into it. But Trae Vassallo also felt pressure and didn't bite.  And, wasn't it her own lack of judgment that she believed her lover would leave his wife? How many times have we heard that one before? Is this really a woman scorned?

She whines not getting promoted because she was female. But Vassallo, on her second try, did get promoted.

And there is the issue of being terminated. Obviously, Pao didn't have to have a tag sale afterward in her driveway.

Will the jurors, as they did in the O.J. criminal trial, show their very human side, and not give her the conviction and financial windfall she is after? And, will she go down in legal history as being an over-educated (Harvard Business, Law) cry baby? Will "doing a Pao" become the meme for a lawsuit without substance? Legal media will damn what seem to be meritless lawsuits as "doing a Pao?'

 

1st-Year Associates, Legal Journalists Living in Manhattan: You Probably Spend 60% Of Income On Rent

"City residents are now shelling out nearly 60 percent of their income to live here, according to a new study by the website StreetEasy. The median monthly city rent is set to hit $2,700 - or more than 58 percent of residents' median income." - Jennifer Gould Keil, New York Post, March 3, 2015. Here is the article.

But given the crushing work load for anyone associated with the legal sector, it's almost mandatory to bunk not far from your place of business.

However, the ugly underbelly of that is that you probably live paycheck to paycheck. That can make you New York-grumpy.

Consider getting jobs in fly-over country.

Ed Snowden - Will Return To U.S. If Fair Trial Possible

According to his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, Edward Snowden will return to the U.S. if he guaranteed a fair trial. Here you can read that coverage by USA Today reporter John Bacon.

After hearing this, we wonder if the documentary film "CitizenFour" was made to position and package Snowden as a good guy. That would pave the way for the court of public opinion to support the defendant in a trial.

As we know, the courts of public opinion and that of law tend to intersect. I was convinced that public policy issues helped to get the historic Rhode Island lead paint litigation tossed. Here is that verdict from the RI Supreme Court Download Statev.LeadIndustriesAssoc.,Inc.

Throughout "CitizenFour," Snowden comes across as a kind of mild Clark Kent sort of character. His concern about American values of freedom and privacy then transform him into a the kind of Superman who will take on the policies and procedures of U.S. government. Rather than being a egotistical rogue, he is portrayed as a kind of patriot. He did not seem to cultivate media or any other kind of attention.

If Snowden does return and there is a trial, that could be the legal event of the 21st century. Also, it could be part of Snowden's agenda to make public the security activities of the U.S. government. Every media outlet would be following what goes on in that courtroom. What better global forum for his message?

 

"Pao v. Kleiner" - Did Defendant's Career Get Stuck Because She Was Caught Between 2 Partners?

"The Kleiner ... sexism trial has exposed disagreements between the firm's top partners, John Doerr and Ted Shlein, about what should be have been done about Ellen Pao ..." Cromwell Schubarth, "Kleiner sexism trial bares disagreements between firm's top 2 partners," Silicon Valley Business Journal, March 3, 2015. Here is the article.

According to testimony at "Pao v. Kleiner," there were 2 very different perceptions of Ellen Pao's skills and actual job performance.  That could have been the source of problems in that setting.

John Doerr, who brought her into the firm, thought she was doing great and was annoyed when Ted Schlein et al. gave her a poor performance review in the digital group. They contended she was misplaced as a venture capitalist. Her ability was in overseeing operations.

That could have meant that Pao was not receiving one clear directive about doing course correction to succeed. There was not universal agreement that she should be modifying or overhauling X and Y mindsets and behaviors. And that could have gotten her career stuck at Kleiner. Not retaliation after ending an affair. Not gender.

Another female, Trae Vasssallo, did thrive there, including being promoted on her second try. Pao was not promoted. Instead she was eventually terminated.

The one thing that came out in testimony, though, was that the married lover she dropped at the firm, Ajit Nazre, did participate in that negative performance review. That probably shouldn't have been allowed.

Reflection: Could the "crime" in this case be negligence in supervision?

"Better Call Saul" - Jimmy Is Sanest Of The Bunch

"So it turns out that when you advertise a law practice through a publicity stunt, some of the potential clients you lure will be crackpots." - David Segal, "'Better Call Saul' Recap: Of Sound Mind," in The New York Times, March 2, 2015. Here is the article.

Anyone who has desperately hustled for business found this episode painful to watch.  I did.

Those who have led a charmed professional life probably experienced it as hilarious. Jimmy's manic energy and infinite ability to take on whatever personality the prospect wants in a lawyer are bits of comic genius.

The previous episode featured his billboard stunt to try to bring in business. It was out-there enough that the media covered it. The prospects it attracts make Jimmy seem the sanest of the bunch. One is a guy who makes his own money and wants to succeed from the U.S. Another has invented a soft-porn crapper Tony the Toilet Buddy.

The real business comes from elderly Mrs. Strauss who wants to arrange to will her Hummel figurine collection. One piece is an alpine shepherd boy.

In addition to the nuts in his business life, Jimmy also has to deal with his once-brilliant brother, Chuck, who was a partner in a white-shoe law firm. His madness concerns electric current.

In the episode the police come to Chuck's house. He has, without the neighbor's consent, taken her newspaper in exchange for $5.  The police don't want to listen to his legal justifications for the exchange. All they know is that she did not agree to sell her newspaper.

Naturally, Jimmy is distraught about his brother's decline. Here we see straight into the heart of man who can care a great deal about a very few people. That's what makes us bond with Jimmy whereas we could never bond with Walter White, Gus or Skyler.

Toward the end of the episode we meet up again with Mike. He and Jimmy do come to care about each other. And we did care about Mike in "Breaking Bad." Again the question is raised as to why Mike left the police department. This mystery is a sub-theme which will keep "Better Call Saul" running for years and years.

Jimmy's raw need to not only survive but prove himself claws at our heart. As in the Woody Allen film "The Purple Rose of Cairo," we are tempted to step into the screen and give Jimmy some business. I would have him handle my end-of-life issues.

DLA Piper + Canada's Davis LLP = 4,500 Lawyers Around World

"DLA Piper LLP will merge with Davis LLP, a Canadian firm with more than 260 lawyers. The tie-up follows a failed attempt last years by DLA Piper to merge with another Canadian firm, Heenan Blaikie LLP, which is now defunct." - Ashby Jones, "DLA Piper Goes North To Find Latest Merger Partner," The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2015. Here is the article.

M&As are the preferred model for both survival and scaling up. The tough nut to crack, though, has been integration. The cultures, systems and manpower have to be combined in a way to create synergies.

That challenge might be significantly easier in this situation. Davis has only a little more than 260 lawyers. The firm's special expertise is in energy and natural resources.

As many know, DLA Piper has also been recently in the news because of the murder of associate, David Messerschmitt, in its Washington D.C. office. As yet, although there is a person of interest, a suspect has not been arrested.

"You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube," Ray Lane says at "Pao v. Kleiner" Trial

What is obvious from the testimony in the "Pao v. Kleiner" trial is that perhaps romance isn't such a cool idea in the workplace.

In indulging herself in one with married Ajit Nazre, plaintiff, Ellen Pao, seems to be coming across as, well, naïve. She believed her lover Nazre was going to leave his wife. No surprise, eventually the sexual affair soured.

At Kleiner, Trae Vassallo's situation with Nazre was different. He pursued her but she didn't go along. So, no, there was no romance. She seemed to continue to thrive at the firm. Meanwhile Pao's career seemed to enter a downward trajectory.

In his testimony at the trial, reports Sam Colt in Business Insider, Kleiner Perkins partner emeritus Ray Lane summed up those kinds of messes with: "You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube."

After ending the affair, Pao didn't seem to be able to handle things. She attempted to continue to work with Nazre in the green group. But soon enough she switched to the digital group. According to Pao's attorney, Alan Exelrod, she didn't want to continue in the green group because Nazre was a member of it.

There is a lesson for all professionals who work together. They could be in one setting such as the Kleiner office or they could be in different settings, such as client in a venture capital firm and the lawyer in a law firm. It is easy to fall in love or just into lust. It is not so easy to emotionally extricate oneself from the entanglement.

BoxAid's Jonathan Computer Fix-It Genius - Hardened Lawyers, You Can Trust At Least One Vendor

We who deal with legal matters, ranging from communications pros like myself to you lawyers, are a hardened bunch.

Since the members of Generation X and Baby Boomers among us didn't grow up digital, we assume trouble when dealing with computer Fix-It vendors. Of course, they recognize our lack of knowledge. They smell our fear. Aren't we sitting ducks for exploitation?

So, when my first business transaction with BoxAid went wonderfully and cost-efficiently, I figured: Yeah, that's how the remote computer-repair service attracts customers. I didn't expect the high quality and relatively low cost of service to continue.

Soon enough I was to test out that hypothesis. Last night I called BoxAid at 866-999-3578. I was frazzled, desperate and just about willing to pay a king's ransom to get my HP laptop back online. Because it couldn't connect to the Internet I was terrified that BoxAid would reply, "Sorry, Charlie, we only handle assignments we can do remote."

The genius IT tech, Jonathan, answered the phone. There was no automatic menu I had to navigate, my sweat dripping onto my keyboard.

"Jonathan, it's you."

Immediately, I felt, well, safe. Jonathan had diagnosed and fixed my computer problem last January. Back then, he had even educated me about the causes and how I could prevent that same difficulty in the future. All for 89 bucks.

Immediately, after I described my crisis, hammering that I couldn't get online, Jonathan jumped in. He pointed out a possible way back online. He asked me if I wanted to try it.

Long story short, restoring the system to where it had been before this glitch put me back online. Jonathan noted that, in the process, the system had been re-programmed to learn from this "mistake" and not repeat it.

The charge?

Nothing.

No, BoxAid didn't charge me a cent.

Jonathan didn't try to sell me a computer tune-up.

There was no tutorial about what I needed for my laptop three months from now.

I know one thing: I can trust BoxAid.

When you contact BoxAid, yes, ask for Jonathan. Say Jane Genova sent you.

$50,000+ Annual Law School Tuition - Worth That, And More

No surprise. In Abovethelaw.com, Staci Zaretsky flags the National Law Journal coverage by Karen Sloan on the high cost of annual law school tuition.

At elite institutions, the range can be between $50,000 and $60,000+. This is at a time, we are to note, when the overall demand for the JD degree declines.

However, such framing in terms of supply and demand for a particular degree neglects the real power which results from attending law school. That advantage can be acquired even for the typical 1L who enrolls in law school for the wrong reasons and leaves.

Law school introduces us to how to leverage points of law in any and all situations, professional and personal. That manner of approaching a commercial transaction, dispute on the job and the financials associated with a romantic relationship usually cannot be acquired in any other way. It is summed up by the phrase "learning to think like a lawyer." You bet, that's a mouthful.

But there is more to it. Even as a 1L, we get it how the legal system dominates U.S. capitalism and everyday encounters. In the latter, reasonable human beings know not to take on a neighbor in the courtyard with a loud voice and raised fist.

It's amazingly obvious even one month into law school: No other code can entangle a business or a life in so many complex, expensive, time-consuming and put-on-the-record consequences.  Clearly, the sensible adults among Americans eagerly welcome compromises which prevent getting into such a pickle. The conventional wisdom is to steer clear of the law.

In addition, our 1L experience can trigger a paradigm shift toward certitude. When putting a legal argument out there, even in a petty consumer purchase, I am confident. Sure, there are myriad ways to interpret the law. However, once we select that arena to approach whatever, we tend to be on solid ground. And, damn it, don't we know that. And, even more importantly, doesn't everyone else. Even if we don't win, we realize that we might have eventually, if we continued to pursue our legal strategy and tactics.

Also, consider the satisfaction of having a proven tool to take on what we perceive as the forces of evil. Both on a macro level (like the journalists at Abovehthelaw.com) and on an individual level we can make a difference. In the U.S. some of the most seminal reforms have come through the court system.

Full disclosure: I am a Harvard Law School dropout. I regret neither going there nor leaving there.