Law And More

Crowdsourced Sleuthing for Boston Marathon Bombers: Parallel investigations on Internet

Having the public pitch in and help with an investigation of crimes is nothing new.  Part of the law of attraction of "America's Most Wanted" with John Walsh has been his ability to turn ordinary citizens into volunteer crime-stoppers.

The new version of that is crowdsourcing investigations on the Internet.  As THE WASHINGTON POST reports, simultaneously with the FBI search for the bombers are the parallel ones on the Internet.

Sometimes that sleuthing in cyberspace is a disaster and sometimes it's helpful.  Those on Reddit had identified the wrong man as the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing.  In a sense it was a People's crusade.  The man wrongly identified as the bomber was harassed on Facebook to the point that he turned himself into the police.  When he did the police had no idea that in cyberspace he had been fingered as the culprit.  

Because of that error, this time the FBI has arranged with Reddit just to display the official photos and video it releases.  Reddit will not allow any other material.  There will probably be a case study about what the Internet sleuthing contributed to the identification and apprehension of those who will convicted of the Boston Marathon two bombings.

Chris Christie, Former Practicing Attorney, Loses Big One in Court of Public Opinion

Conservative and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani rides to the rescue. 

Here, as POLITICO reports, he takes on liberal media which declared New Jersey Governor  Chris Christie's RNC keynote speech a 'flop."  Instead Giuliani describes it as "measured" and "philosophical," code that the flamboyant iconoclast can be statesmanlike.  Giuliani knows his rhetorical game.  He has rebranded Christie as potential presidential material.

However the NJ Governor has treated the media with disrespect, and in public.  When that happens, the media will not forget.  No question Christie has become a target.  This is analogous to when a specific law firm, law school, or individual becomes a target for the wildly popular media property Abovethelaw.com. No one can resist the entertainment value of witnessing an entity bashed.  As Joseph Epstein hammers in his book "Gossip," much of journalism has always been positioned and packaged as bread and circuses, with juicy tidbits of negative information thrown in.  For instance, on ATL, New York attorney James Doyle is featured for DUIs and cavorting with a prostitute.  A good time is being had by all.

A speechwriter, I assessed Christie's keynoter as a paradigm shift to a presence on the national stage.  He hit on hard values like respect versus soft (Democratic) values like popularity.  On that platform he could move forward to a campaign for the White House in 2016.  But will the media allow that?  It may shut him down just as it seems to be shutting down one-time phenomenon Sarah Palin.   Even the conservative media have declared her over.  GOP-dominated Fox News canceled interviews with her. That was after she wasn't invited to the GOP. 

The media giveth and the media taketh away.  In response, Christi can do what the private sector is doing.  That is, it is establishing its own content or brand houses.  Instead of waiting for the external media to cover it, it provides its own online video including B-roll and interviews, photos, speeches, press releases, earnings reports, announcements, legal documents which are public, white papers, opinions, advertising, and real time interaction with constituencies in its "Media Center."  That Media Center is embedded on its website.

Of course, any law firm, lawyer, or law student can also set up a Media Center.  Attention gets attention.  The external media might swing by to check out what's happening and cover it.

Prince Harry, Privacy: This is not only a social media network issue

Once Prince Harry left his native England for the U.S., he lost the protective insulation of being a member of the royal family.  In Vegas, he agreed to participate in a private game of strip billiards. The photos from TMZ show that he didn't make out so well.  In addition, he dallied with a nude female.

Those photos can damage the reputation of the House of Windsor aka The Firm at a time when much of England is experiencing soul-numbing austerity.  It's not impossible that head of The Firm Queen Elizabeth II could find herself out of a job.

The ethics and legalities of privacy are not restricted to what occurs or doesn't occur on social media networks.  In a private game, what are the expectations for confidentiality?  Will The Firm's barristers be consulting with America lawyers about what harm might have been done and what remedy would be appropriate?

LawZam Needs Licensed Attorneys (This is Plan B)

LawZam, the real time online video service through which attorneys audition their skills to real live prospects, is looking for licensed attorneys.  Here you can apply.

Note: Attorneys tend to be traditional and might hesitate to become part of the LawZam concept. Well, just about every career expert worth his or her salt recommends that the underemployed and underemployed move on to Plans B, C, D, and E after that carefully made Plan A doesn't pan out.

LawZam: Lawyers need to be self-protective

For frantic individuals and businesses with a legal situation, LawZam could be exactly what they need.  This new digital video service allows those needing a lawyer and a variety of lawyers to briefly have a video chat, at no cost to the prospect.  It's been likened to speed-dating.  And it well may be.  In any event, it's a more convenient way to take advantage of those "free consultations" lawyers advertise. 

Of course, lawyers get to show-case themselves, also in a more convenient format.  It's time-consuming for lawyers to drum up businesses by agreeing to deliver a seminar on landlord liability or to deliver a keynote speech on tort reform at the New Haven Chamber of Commerce. 

Some have expressed concern that the lawyers appearing on the live videos could open themselves for lawsuits for malpractice.  However, that underestimates lawyers' knowledge about how to frame information.  We in communications do exactly the same thing to avoid libel lawsuits.  Lawyers who don't understand how to be self-protective in these contexts should be sued.  After all, how will they be able to have their clients proctect themselves and their interests.

Could this be the next homerun like LegalZoom?  It's possible.  

Restless Lawyers, Unemployable Law Students: Should you become a whistleblower?

Facebook and Google could be yesterday unless they migrate from being so web-centric to mobile.  Therefore, some of their employees might find themselves in the pickle that a growing number of lawyers and law students are in: Unemployed, fearing unemployment, or just sensing they aren't hot anymore. 

Yes, everything is changing.  So, some professionals are thinking the unthinkable: Should they embrace another career path?  Why not at least investigate that possibility?

Well, one option which is emerging as viable is whistleblower.  Sure it involves legal risk.  As everyone knows, Fox News, after having its former employee Joe Muto blow the whistle on it via tabloid GAWKER, hired a law firm to a) tell both Muto and GAWKER to cease and desist and b) warn them that what they had already done might constitute criminal and civil wrongdoing.

On the other hand, former Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith will be continuing his whistleblowing in a book for which he has received a $1.5 million advance from Grand Central.

I look into the underlying dynamics of whistleblowing for the financial information company Motley Fool.  Here you can read and think.  If you are associated with a functional organization you probably haven't even considered turning on it.  To paraphrase Tolstoy, all happy organizations seem to prevent loose lips from sinking their ships.  All unhappy ones create blabbermouths, externally and internally, in different ways.

Wireless Carriers: FCC might have gotten angst attack for nothing

The FCC assumed that there was a competition problem in the wireless industry dominated by AT&T and Verizon.  Well, that might not be the pain point in wireless.  Where it hurts might just be in the hits At&T and Verizon could receive from upstarts like Republic Wireless, tablets, and what Microsoft's Skype could be up to.

I analyze this piece of the telecommunications space for financial information company Motley Fool.  Here is what I have found out.

Video: No safe harbour

Hey, that's me on YouTube

Members of my Monday night 12-step speaker meeting in Connecticut learned a tough lesson tonight.   It was discovered that last week when the speaker was sharing his experience, strength, and hope, a miscreant was videotaping him. 

Suppose that got out there and his boss or his clients/customers saw it?  In some businesses such as law and communications, there's a lot of that sort of thing going on.  We crash.  We recover.  We stay on-track.  But the majority of the world doesn't know about that and has no incentive to learn about it.

Smartphone Defense - "Judge, he always brought that thing into the bedroom"

Technology is changing how humans behave and the law will have to catch up with that.   For example, as MIT professor Sherry Turkle tells Adam Ostrow of MASHABLE, smartphones and other devices are casting spells on us.  Instead of paying attention to each other, in person and in real time, we are fiddling with our devices.  That might be to answer email, download a video, or even talk over the phone.

Sooner than later lawyers will be trying out the "Smartphone Defense."  A spouse, arrested for murdering hubby, will contend she just lost it (like Mary Winkler the preacher's wife) because he would bring his smartphone into the bedroom all the time.  One night that became one time too many.

AOL: Will more shareholders revolt against Armstrong-Huffington show?

Should AOL be a technology company like Google and Microsoft, not a media one?  That's the issue that has grabbed the Starboard Value fund by the throat.  They demand that the dynamic media duo Tim Armstrong and Arianna Huffington focus less on breaking news, provocative commentary, and hyperlocal news through Patch.  Instead, Starboard wants them to unlock the value in their Intellectual Property which it values at about $1 billion. 

While Netflix, Amazon, Wal-Mart, and now Comcast duke it out with streaming, AOL pursues quirky topics which go viral.  That's supposed to bring in online advertising.  But, according to eMarketer, not much of it for 2012: AOL's share of the market will likely be 3.9% v Google's at 12.3% and even Microsoft's at 4.8%

Starboard's high profile move may encourage other AOL shareholders to revolt.  The danger with that, of course, is that the shorts move right in.

News Corp, where head Rupert Murdoch loves his newspapers and may not be focusing enough on technology, could also be the setting for shareholder revolts.  Publishing is losing money and getting the corporation into alleged hacking and bribery messes.

I look at AOL and News Corp for the financial information company Motley Fool.  Here you can read all about it.