Law And More

Wendi Deng: FORBES goes tabloid

Divorces, being the ugly legal and emotional processes they are, usually turn establishment media into sensationalistic gossips.  That kind of tabloid coverage may go over the top in the divorce of the Murdochs.

Already, buttoned-down FORBES has a juicy comprehensive expose on Wendi Deng's gold-digging, sleeping-around, nothing too outrageous for getting attention past.  In that article Eamonn Fingleton goes all the way back to when Deng stole the husband belonging to the couple who helped her get established in the U.S.  No sooner then she married him then she was sleeping with another man.  Apparently (and this is difficult to believe) crafty Murdoch was unaware of this background until after he married Wonder Woman (able to pull off whatever she plotted).  

Fingleton predicts that Deng will not go quietly.  We all know there's a pre-nup.  But he warns, with Deng's track record, Murdoch and his lawyers might be in for a bumpy ride.   

 

"Academic Doping" - We know that continues into working in law firms

NEW YORK Magazine reports that New York senator Chuck Schumer is urging students against "academic doping."  Good luck, Chuck.  About 35% of students use Adderall and Ritalin to give them the edge for studying.  We know that pattern doesn't end with undergraduate graduation.  It's said that Adderall and newer versions of stimulants are not uncommon in law firms.  And with good reason.  The all-nighter is standard.

That use of stimulants could be a factor in the above-average rate of suicides among lawyers.  In Kentucky there has been an epidemic of suicides in the past few years. The problem with uppers, as well as other kinds of substance abuse, is that they prevent the professional from learning to cope with life.  There's no learning curve.  Emotionally, lawyers could be emotionally stuck back in the year they started using uppers in college.

Charla Nash: CT chimp victim can't sue state for $150 million

Travis the chimp earned a few bucks on the side in television commmercials.  But mostly he laid back and enjoyed the good life with his pet parent Sandra Herold in Stamford, Connecticut.  Then one day that whole set up went very wrong.  Travis had become aggressive and Herold asked her friend Charla Nash to come over and get him settled down.  Travis attacked Nash.  She lost her face, sight, and two hands.  The police killed the chimp.

From the Herold estate, Nash received $4 million.  Peanuts.  She went for a $150 million lawsuit against the state of CT.  That has been tossed by the state claims commissioner J. Paul Vance, reports Huffington Post.  The lawsuit contended that the state should not have allowed the chimp to be maintained as an animal companion. At the time, ruled Vance, the law did not forbid it and there was no reason for the authorities to have seized the animal prior to the attack.

Anthony Marshall: What juror, a lawyer, claims

Judi DeMarco, herself a lawyer, was a juror in the trial of Anthony Marshall for attempting to swindle his mother Brooke Astor out of $50 million.  Now she has stepped forward, reports the NEW YORK POST, and claims her guilty verdict was coerced.  On the basis of that, Marshall has requested that Justice A. Kirke Bartley provide a new trial.  In addition, he asks that the date for reporting to prison be delayed.

Divorce Lawyers Not Handling Rupert Murdoch's - Eat your heart out

The lawyers who are handling the legal details of Rupert Murdoch's divorce from Wendi Deng will likely make a killing.  As Mediabistro.com reports in "FishBowl," the two are calling it splits after 14 years of marriage and producing offspring.  That's a lot of money and illiquid assets to sort through as well as what pieces of News Corp the little ones get.

Deng is best known for protecting her husband from an attack with a custard pie at a hearing in the U.K. 

NLJ 350: Are leaned-in women too aware to pursue big-time career in legal sector?

Face it, a career path in law was always dificult.  From what I have observed, it's a whole lot easier and more lucrative making a professional life in financial services.  Now, of course, as the legal sector is rocked by change and most firms can't respond effectively and fast enough, maybe smart folks steer clear of getting ahead in law.  Or even entering it.

So, it might be a sign of the aware leaned-in women that, as THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL reports, females only represent one-third of attorneys in the NLJ 350 and only 16% of the equity partners.  Women may be deciding this isn't the game for them. 

For example, if they do enter it, they may make the decision to only invest so much of their energy in upward mobility and the rest in carving out another game for themselves.  Those could range from establishing a legalzoom-type service in divorces or becoming a career coach for those in transition.

I had a similar ephiphany about 18 months ago.  Social media became a glutted ever-changing field.  I opted out and hightailed it back to executive communications.   The big bucks rolled in, and on my terms.  I never looked back.

Preet Bharara's Former Spokesperson Ellen Davis Now with Sard Verbinnen

Let's cut to the chase.   The public relations firm Sard Verbinnen has been representing SAC for about a decade.  SAC is headed by Steve Cohen who is being dragged in front of the grand jury by U.S. Attorney Preet Baharara.  Lawyers who had been English majors might describe the relationship between Baharara and Cohen as something out of the novel "Moby Dick."

Until recently Baharara's spokesperson has been Ellen Davis. Now, reports BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK, Davis has joined Sard Verbinnen.  However, she will not be involved with any of the public relation firm's business involving SAC.

The worlds of law, media, and public relations should be buzzing right now about this newest development in the most compelling story about suspected insider trading since former pillar of the establishment Rajat Gupta was hauled into court. 

Anthony Marshall, Off the Slammer, Finally

That seeming 88-year-old specimen of arrested development Anthony Marshall is finally going to prison. It could be for as long as three years.  His appeal to overturn his conviction for attempting to swindle $60 million from his mom Brooke Astor was denied by Judge Robert Smith, reports the NEW YORK POST.  On June 17th, Marshall will have to show up in court for the execution of the sentencing.

Not too long ago he was unmasked as trying to claim that he had the watch which was on Jacob Astor when the Titantic went down.  The collector who really owned the watch outed the charade.  When I asked an international watch salesman about why Marshall would do this, he answered, "Probably wanted attention." 

Since his mom was much loved and admired, there will be great joy in the land when he is behind bars.   Until an intervention, Astor was living in filth in her declining years because of Marshall.

Edward Snowden: Leaks a lot bigger than law-firm associates to Abovethelaw.com

Leaking fascinates us.  Since it involves risk, we wonder if we would have the courage or the playfulness to leak what our employers or clients were up to.  Extend that a bit and we then spend a lot of time focusing on what goes on in the minds, hearts, and souls of the big-time whistleblowers like Edward Snowden. His game is way beyond the leakings we have come to so enjoy on Abovethelaw.com.

Snowden, in the GUARDIAN video tape, speaks in a matter-of-fact manner.  He says he wants to preserve freedom.  He is aware that harm could come to him.  He blows off the speculation that he will defect to China, given that he fled to Hong Kong.  Of course, cynical us believe not a word of it.  We will wait patiently for more information to be uncovered about him and then we will connect the dots in our own way.

As we wait, we return to wondering.  Why would a young man earning $200,000 in an industry which is growing and who has a girlfriend give up all that for a future which probably will involve suffering, or at least continually looking over his shoulder? Would we do something like that? 

Back in the Counterculture days, we wondered about successful scholar Angela Davis.  She was risking it all for what was seen as a radical cause.  I asked a fellow graduate student at the University of Michigan who was also African America her take on Davis.  I assumed she would cheer her on.  "She has too much going for her to take those stands," answered my acquaintance.  I was stunned.  I was 24 years old then.  At age 68, Snowden's decision is what now stuns me.  

London Law Market Bouncing Back: No wonder Boies Schiller expanded there, first

A rising tide lifts all boats.  Or so they say.  Those who believe that will find it welcome news that parts of the London law-firm market are bouncing back after getting hit hard during the global economic downturn.

BLOOMBERG reports that three major law firms have raised entry-level salaries for lawyers.  They include Clifford Chance which boosted compensation 3%.  At about $99,000, that still leaves London pay scales behind U.S. ones.  Despite the hit to the legal sector, a new associate can start out at BigLaw at about $160,000.

With the recovery in the London legal market, it's no surprise that Boies Schiller chose it as its first place for its global expansion.