Law And More

Sobered-Up Lawyers: Why AA preaches that geographics don't work

"In the rooms" of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), lawyers hear repeatedly that a "geographic" doesn't work.  Most of time that geographic involves professional opportunity.  The lawyer specializing in intellectual property from a mid-sized law firm in the midwest takes a lateral to a large firm in California.  At first he's euphoric.  Soon enough he's miserable, again. Actually, he could be worse off emotionally than before the change. The intensity of suffering could trigger relapse back into drinking.

Psychology professor at the University of California at Riverside Sonya Lyubomirsky explains why these grabs for a better life don't pan out.  It's all in her new book "The Myths of Happines: What Should Make You Happy, but Doesn't - What Shouldn't Make You Happy, but Does." 

In essence, humans are wired for a certain baseline in happiness.  After the positive change, we tend to return to that baseline.  The problem is, though, that simultaneously our expectations on what we are entitled to are raised.  Therefore, the new position, despite its status, intellectual stimulation, and lucrative pay, serves to create a craving for more and more of that.  The lawyer could then start searching for what he perceives as a better opportunity.

How to stop that cycle?  Lyubomirsky recommends what will sound familiar to those "in the rooms." That's an attitude change.  For example, mentally re-experience what your professional life used to be and develop an attitude of gratitude.  Sure, you can go after better professional opportunities. But you do it this time with a grateful heart for what you already have.

 

Chris Christie: Fat and magical thinking

Will Chris Christie, the politico once called "Governor Sandwiches," be able to keep off the weight he loses through lap-ban surgery? Time will tell. 

The odds, though, are against it.  History shows that we porkers tend to reach for panaceas which don't yield permanent weight loss.  For us Baby Boomers that magical thinking took the form of getting prescriptions for diet pills.  I was fat then. I am fat now.  The only approach which kept the weight off for years, at least when I kept with the program, was that developed by Weight Watchers. 

The NEW YORK POST reports that the medical doctor George Fielding, who did Christie's lap-band operation, is being sued for alleged malpractice here the U.S. and in Australia.  Fielding is Chief of the New York University Weight Loss Program.

Rehab: Fairy tale of drunken prince/princess who lives happily ever after

The fairy tale in America is that addiction, ranging from alcohol to food, can be cured through the seemingly progressive but expensive institution of "going to rehab." Pack the prince/princess or oneself off to those 28-day stays and the light will be turned on.  The once-addicted will live happily ever after. The monsters of the mind have been slayed.

That's the mythology.  The reality is presented in the book "Inside Rehab" by Anne M. Fletcher.  The author previously published "Sober For Good."  Her research for this book included staying in more than 10 rehabs.

Essentially, "going to rehab" means bcoming a consumer of a largely unregulated industry whose methodologies are unproven and success rate frequently not measured.  Yet since science and society know so little about the causes and "cures" for the chronic disease of addiction, the industry continues to thrive.  That could be easily changed if Congress, insurance companies, and employers demand transparency about approaches and outcomes.

One theme in "Inside Rehab" is the high relapse rate of rehab alumni, although each stay might cost from $28,000 to $40,000.  Often alumni return to the same rehab several times.  Those of us in 12-step programs, which cost nothing but also have no hard data on outcomes, hear constantly tales of those multiple stays, without results, that is long-term sobriety or being free from all addictive substances.  The tragedy of that is the illusion of help. 

Since lawyers have a higher than average rate of addiction they might, through their trade associations, push to get some answers about this approach which might have promised them and their colleagues a second chance and hasn't yet delivered.

After Our 12-Step Meeting - See you at Subway, new Third Place

Maybe it's the image of sensible eating.  The counter features plenty of tomatoes and lean meat. Maybe it's because it doesn't seem like one of the Third Places like Panera or Starbucks that the lawyers from the courthouse in downtown New Haven belly up to Subway after their 12-step meeting. That could make it the new Third Place.

A survey by Certify found that Subway also beats out McDonald's for lunch, reports BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK. 

Suffering: When lawyers no longer see their pain as unique

Lawyers don't walk into a 12-step program like Alcoholics Anonymous because they are doing great.  Yet, once there, too many are unable  to identify with the common suffering in the room. 

Instead they remain preoccupied with their own pain.  That includes  resentments, professional anxieties, and regret about the past.  A few nights ago at a meeting in the Connecticut suburbs this was obvious.  Lawyer members of the AA group who seemed to be healing, achieving their new career goals, and staying sober were those who had become part of the group.  They chaired meetings, took the job of treasurer, sponsored newcomers, and had found themselves a posse.  

Then there were those who stood apart, not allowing the magic of the group process to happen.  They were usually the ones who floated away and piled on losses, including of jobs.

Why do too many lawyers resist the dynamics of AA?  My hunch is that it is the sense of specialness which comes from being in an analytical hothouse since high school.  Analysis can become a closed-systems approach. Those stuck in it can't not think. Buddhism, which has influenced AA philosophy, embraces the ethos of "Not Knowing."  One mantra is: Breath in, then say to oneself, "Clear Thinking.  Breath out, then say to oneself, "Don't Know." 

Foodborne Diseases: Now, those involve criminal charges

No one knows why there have been so many outbreaks of foodborne diseases in America.  But a new development in that story of tainted food which causes death and permanent injury is that the federal government is treating it as criminal act.

THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL reports that four key executives at Peanut Corporation of America have been charged with several crimes, including distributing adulterated food and deceiving the public.  In 2009, peanut products from the company were the cause of a salmonella outbreak.  They are also accused of not being truthful with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

This should throw a chill through the C-suite of companies which process and/or distribute food.  Usually they take a hit in the pocketbook since recalls are expensive and consumers might back off from buying those particular products for a while.  Now, the consequences become personal.

Scientists have been approaching food safety through prevention.  In this article published in IP WATCHDOG I discuss some of the directions this research has been taking.

Federal Perkins Student Loans: Yale, U of PA, George Washington suing deadbeat former students

That sweet spot in the America Dream - college education for the poor - has soured.  A growing number of those federal Perkins student loans earmarked for the poor and administered by the institutions of higher learning themselves aren't being paid back.

Consequently, reports Bloomberg, those institutions are suing.  By federal law, they are mandated to try to collect.  Familiar is the story of college graduates not being able to get jobs or employment which pays enough to allow repayment of student loans.  Unlike with Stafford loans, income-based repayment doesn't apply to Perkins. 

According to Bloomberg, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and George Washington University have already filed lawsuits against some of those whose repayment is 120 days or more late.  The amount due tends to balloon because of both interest adding up and collection fees, including lawyer expenses.  Therefore, that $4,200 a former student can't pony up grows by the thousands.

As word of mouth recounts this horror among lower income families, there might be fewer of their members considering a college education.  That would be a loss of talent as well as reduced diversity from us first-generation college students. 

Back in the 1960s, Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania provided a sanctuary to us first-geners.  I arrived from the mean streets of Jersey City, New Jersey with a full scholarship and work contract from Seton Hill.  So did many other members of the Class of '67. There were also emotional safety nets to catch us as we encountered culture shock.  The majorities of those stories have had happy endings.  If a small Roman Catholic woman's college could pull that off a half century ago, why can't major universities accomplish that today?

Connecticut: Feral cats v songbirds

Maybe because we Americans root for the underdog many of us cheer on the efforts of homeless A.K.A. feral cats to survive.  On the other hand there are also many of us who view those cats as a menace in general since they can carry diseases and as a threat specifically to songbirds which become their lunch. 

That collision of points of view has been profiled in the cover story of THE NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE (not online) by Gregory Hladky.  Here in Connecticut we might be unique in having a program which tries to resolve the conflict without putting the cats to sleep.  Volunteers trap the ferals, then bring them to a vet to be neutered and vaccinated.  The cats are brought back to their colonies, usually behind a dumpster or among abandoned cars.  Even with that care they usually live about half of the 15-year lifespan of cats who are domestic pets.

The question is what will the powers that be in Connecticut, as well as other states, decide to do about the "feral problem."  When humans don't feed them, they serve a community purpose by hunting mice and other rodents.   Despite our good intentions, feeding wild animals reduces their ability to make it out there.

For about a decade I served as a volunteer in Fairfield County, Connecticut in the trapping projects.  It really did keep down the population in that new kittens weren't added and the colonies didn't allow in other strays.  Therefore, what some perceive as a problem was well under control.

Brandon Lincoln Woodard: The hit happened w/o the meal

The cinema and the small screen have conditioned us to expect mob "hits" to happen in a nice restaurant over a nice meal. 

But, hey, everything changes.  And these days the hit can occur right in broad daylight on a Manhattan street.  Also, according to Abovethelaw.com's sources the victim can be educated, in this case a law student at Whittier in California.

The hit everyone on the Northeast corridor is focused on was a gunshot to the head of Brandon Lincoln Woodard.  There was no rush to get away.  The hitman calmly got in a car, which dutifully stopped for a red light. 

One wonders if this kind of fate could happen to "Breaking Bad" lead character Walter White in the closing season.  There he could be walking on a street and one of the few who hadn't been offed by White shoot him in the head and that will be that.  The hit could be arranged and paid for by his wife.  That would save the government money for an arrest and trial when White's brother-in-law Hank turns him in.

 

Calories in Pizza Slice: Can business, government honor the spirit of the health reform law?

A chubbo concerned about both appearance and health, I want to know the calorie count on that pizza slice before I even enter a Domino's.  Maybe it would be calorically wiser to go over to the Wendy's, where the calories are already posted, and order a grilled chicken salad.  No question, we must become nutritionally literate if we aren't going to waddle into the sunset to drop dead of the heart attack.

The challenge for both business and government is to position and package this information in an entertaining but accurate manner.  In a talk at his local chamber of commerce Dominio's chief executive officer Patrick Doyle, reports AnnArbor.com, lamented the regulation in the healthcare reform that calorie counts for pizza be posted at the entrance to the pizza parlors (that's how we referred to them back in Jersey City before gentrification).

Doyle pointed out in his address that, given that there are countless ways a slice can be served, it is practically impossible to provide exact calorie counts.  Of course, he is right.  What about the slice I order with sausage, onions, chicken, and double cheese? 

That's where the spirit of the regulation comes in.  Business and government can identify the must-knows for consumers and then leave it at that.  For example, in a friendly tone, there can be calorie counts for the most common items such as standard slice, double cheese, and toppings such as sausage.  Then there can be brief but weighty explanations about what have the highest calories and why that is.  Consumers will be able to not only make enlightened calorie decisions but also receive lessons in nutritional value.

With a new adminstration and a new approach to healthcare, business and government have plenty of incentive to join together to count calories in a way that is truly useful to consumers. Domino's can get plenty of brand power and media attention by doing that just right.