Law And More

West Point, Utah: The 15-year-old honor student suspected of murdering his two brothers

The supposed unthinkable has become routine.  LA TIMES reports that in West Point, Utah, a 15-year-old honor student allegedly stabbed to death his two younger brothers.  At the time, his mother was going on an errand with the family's four other children and asked him to take care of his brothers.

When I was in Snyder High School, based along the mean streets of Jersey City, New Jersey during the early 1960s, the worst that would happen was that a girl would be beat up by her boyfriend.  Eventually she'd return to school and everyone would avoid eye contact.  We were expected to be perfectly behaved, not be victims of any crime, and it was unthinkable that we'd commit a crime.  Yet that demand for conformity didn't trigger violence.  We just turned out messed up, the first generation to embrace therapy.  Later in college and graduate school, we continued to be self-destructive, even suicidal, not homicidal.

What changed?  Why are youth and young adults killing?

 

"Elly Rosenthal v Proskauer Rose" - Yet another high-profile employment suit for Sanford Heisler

Since 2007, I have been following employment lawsuits settled or won by law firm Sanford Heisler.  Often the lead defense lawyer is David Sanford.  One of those tawdry light-night television commercials could be made of a mean-spirited Dickensian company hearing that Sanford Heisler is handling the lawsuit and having a collective meltdown. 

Now back in the news is the 2011 lawsuit "Elly Rosenthal v Proskauer Rose," reports AM LAW DAILY.  At the time, like all employment lawsuits filed by high ranking professionals against brandname companies, it received a lot of media attention.  The complaint alleged discrimination based on age, gender, and disability.  It has been reconfigured to simply a disability one.

Plaintiff Elly Rosenthal, former Chief Financial Officer at Proskauer Rose, contends she was sidelined, then terminated after her medical leave for breast cancer.   Given the intense focus on breast cancer these days, if this goes to trial and if Sanford can get the right composition of a jury, Rosenthal could find herself in a position of strength. 

The defendant has until May 30th to respond.  My hunch is that it will settle, after first going through some other motions. 

SAC's Steven Cohen: The art of the indirect

The pursuit of hedge fund founder Steve Cohen by U.S. Attorney Prett Baharara is the legal and business story of our time.  Moby Dick intensity?  Could be. 

The heat has been turned up with subpoenas for four of Cohen's employees at his SAC fund.  As BLOOMBERG reports, they are Tom Conheeney, Steve Kessler, Phillip Villhauer, and Solomon Kumin.  That continues to leverage the art of indirect interrogation.  Those posing the questions can do that in ways to attempt to shake loose incriminating information about Cohen.

Meanwhile since Cohen received his own subpoena to appear before the Grand Jury, there will also be the art of the direct questioning.

There are infinite possibilities about what both types of questioning can turn up.  We have much to reflect on this Memorial Day weekend.

iGate: Will it be the sexgate forcing creation of human-friendly company codes of behavior?

Perhaps no coincidence, Liz Ryan in BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK had a seminal article on sex in workplace.  Essentially what she made clear is that humans aren't going to stop being sexually attracted to each other.  She admits that she found her spouse at work.  That story has had a happy ending, including five children.

However, many other office sexual encounters have ended in firing of the top guy.  The most recent is the Chief Executive Officer Phaneesh Murthy from his job at iGate. Before this, reports ZRG, he was forced out of Infosys because of alleged sexual harassment.   As Kevin McCauley reports on Odwyerpr.com (sub req), iGate has hired the public relations firm Weber Shandwick to assist with this crisis.  Murthy is not alone.  Among the other alleged sexual miscreants in high places who were forced out had been Mark Hurd at H-P.

 All sexual relationships used to be verboten in some corporations because they usually mean trouble.   When it ends, one lover can contend harassment.  There is jealousy from those not chosen.  Many claim the lover, if a subordinate, was provided with unethical or even illegal career help.

Clearly, it's time for legal, employee relations, and public relations departments to hunker down with organizational leaders and the boards of director to create human-friendly codes of behavior.  Making sex verboten probably wouldn't be realistic in this century. However, preventing it from disrupting the workplace obviously is necessary.  Human beings are sexual creatures and they go to work.  That combination has to be managed as a challenge in business.

Photo Fatigue: Need for federal law to bar transmission of all those cute photos w/o permission

Timeline. Smimeline.  Some of us do not want to receive via web or mobile photos updating anyone's life or the lives of the family, pets, and roses in the garden.  Yeah, photo fatigue.

Some courageous federal legislator has to propose a bill requiring permission to transmit personal photos to anyone.  The logistics are not hard to configure.  There would simply be an opt-out list as with telemarketers.  It would be titled, "Thank you for not sharing your photos." Violation of this law would result in mandatory jail time, a place where they would detox from the compulsion.

Kerry Kennedy: PR coup could be to position court decision as victory for democracy

In Westchester County, New York, Judge Elyse Lazansky ruled not to dismiss the charge of alleged drug-driving against Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert Kennedy, reports the NEW YORK POST.   She will have to return to court October 8.  She contends her erratic behavior on the road was the result of taking a prescribed sleeping pill.

Kennedy could turn this embarrassment into a public relations coup. She could issue a press statement that she views the court's decision as a victory for democracy.  The U.S. legal system does not make exceptions for those from wealth.  And she hopes to prove her innocence in the fall.  She could then go on to start a foundation on behalf of justice for all, despite income or pedigree.  This would provide resources for both the poor and the rich.

Rajat Gupta: Two key arguments to overturn convictioin

Defense attorney Seth Waxman hammered two key arguments before the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals.  His objective was to have overturned Rajap Gupta's conviction for insider trading  

As BLOOMBERG reports, Waxman pointed out that the playing of wire-tapped conversations in which Gupta did not participate should not have permitted in the trial. The jury heard them which constituted, some say, only circumstantial evidence.  In addition, Waxman objected that the testimony of Gupta's daughter was not allowed at the trial.  Two days before the supposed giving off of insider information to Raj Rajaratnam, head of Galleon Group, he told his daughter that Rajaratman, as his investment partner, has secretly withdrawn $25 million from their account.  In the reporting by BLOOMBERG, this is referred to as a "swindle."  Had that testimony been permitted there might have been a question raised in jurors' minds about Gupta's passing of nonpublic information to his now-enemy.  Why would he aid the man who had swindled him?

The Gupta saga remains compelling.  This one-hour presentation by the defense makes us wonder if Gupta had been dragged into the sting because, at the time, he was the highest-status fish.  Now, of course, that space belongs to Steve Cohen, head of SAC hedge fund, who has been called into the Grand Jury. 

First Amendment & Bloggers: Those full of nerve and self-righteousness ignore it

Come on, blogging is a mature medium. People should know better.  The courts are even coming around to providing us the same protections that journalists attached to brandname media have.  Yet, those full of nerve and self-righteousness still contact us. That want this and that deleted. 

Last week, one of those babes with highly traditional credentials stamped her mighty little foot.  Taken aback, I did delete the post which had gone viral. Mistake. I realized that when she wouldn't stop. Then she chastised me for covering the story, mentioning her, without her permission.  The First Amendment does not require asking permission.  At that point, I consulted lawyers.  They are still working on this, developoing a case study.  Like all seeming bullies she backed down, telling me how wonderful a friend and writer I was.  Incidentally, she took down her Facebook page where I had the unfortunate experience of meeting her.  Beware accidental acquaintances on Facebook. That makes me feel, as Walter White announces in "Breaking Bad," I won.  For several years she had used that medium to chronicle the story of her daily activities.

Yesterday, the nephew of a woman called him.  Wiser now, I didn't cave to his demand that I take down a post or delete a link to the NEW YORK POST. I ended the call that this was inappropriate. Nicely.  That didn't stop mom from calling. She told me with great pomp and circumstance that she was the mother of the man mentioned in my post.  I told her not to contact me.  End of all that.

Should there be more education about the First Amendment in schools, the media, and meetups?  All this threw me for a loop.  A street kid from Jersey City, New Jersey I am not easily thrown.

"Lou v Ma Laboratories" - Sanford Heisler wins another employment suit, but in different category

Most of us know Sanford Heisler for its wins in gender discrimination lawsuits, such as Novartis.  However, in its recent win in "Lou v. Ma Laboratories" it could have bagged itself even bigger game.  That's because, as the RECORDER reports, the case is about the controversial issue of employee arbitration contracts and how difficult it is to get them tossed. 

Sanford Heisler represented lead plaintiff Michelle Lou who signed the arbitration agreement as she was being fired. U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that unenforceable because it was unconscionable under state law.  He noted, says the RECORDER, "The procedural unfairness was severe and the substantive one-sidenesss was heavy-handed."

This was a surprise win since getting out of arbitration agreements has become much more difficult with the ruling in "AT&T Mobility v. Concepion."  The defendant's lawyers are evaluting the options for appeal. 

Given that arbitration agreements are increasingly being imposed on employees and more, when they feel they have been trated unjustly by employers, want out of them, Sanford Heisler could be very busy.  In this niche it could develop an even more powerful brandname than it has in gender discrimination lawsuits.  

Sex in the Workplace: There, and a mess

In BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK, Liz Ryan admits that there are a lot of both sexual vibrations and acting on them in the workplace.  Those who haven't had an obsessive passion about someone at work can cast the first stone. Yet, we all know that people get fired, demoted, and sued when the passion runs out of control or is misinterpreted.  Also, productivity takes a hit.

TED talks should have the wisest in law, human resources, and psychology focus on this reality.  Maybe my age is showing but I have a hunch that passion might be more contained if we had explicit guidelines about what behavior was going to be permitted in our professional dealings.