Law And More

Religion: Failure to warn

Those sexually abusive priests in the Roman Catholic Church might be just the tip of the iceberg in the perils associated with joining a religion.  Perhaps that entity "religious organization" is so potentially toxic that it should carry labeling describing possible emotional side effects. Not doing that could get the group sued for failure to warn.

Middle-aged Westerners don't wander into a Buddhist Center in downtown New Haven, Connecticut, near Yale, because we are thriving.  If we were in great shape, we would be out jogging or taking in a film on Netflix.  I entered in great pain.  I exited months later in worse shape. An abused child, I perceived myself bullied by the "middle management."  They were not the top brass.  Instead they had gained enough responsibility to push around the lost.  They pranced around in long gray monk robes, with various colored markings for their level in the organization.  Not much different than the gowns Roman Catholic priests wear.

There was what I perceived as verbal abuse, under the guise of shaping up the karma of those on meditation cushions.  I reported that to the head, who goes by the name of Guiding Teacher and is based across the river in New York.  For a while it stopped.  Middle management was spiritual peaches and cream. 

Then one middle manager seemed to single me out.  He had been looking frayed.  Compassion is one of the values of that Buddhist group.  But the hell with that.  On the way out of the center forever, I sent a full report, framed in my best legalese, to the Guiding Teacher. 

Filing a legal complaint, as we all know, stirs up even more emotional havoc.  So, that's not likely.  My fantasy is to make a huge warning label and slapping it on their building.  It could read: Beware flawed human beings in monk robes.  But maybe that isn't necessary.  On the last Sunday I sat meditation there I was the only one there.  On the last Wednesday, I was one of two.  The toxicity might have been picked up by others who also fled.

Mindful Lawyers - Tune up at New Haven, CT Zen Center Retreat, June 15th

At the University of San Francisco Rhonda Magee teaches third-year lawyers the fundamentals of mindfulness, reports MINDFUL in the June 2013 edition.  The course is "Contemplative Lawyering." Consequently lawyers can help their clients frame their complaints more effectively, which could prove out to be more cost efficient.  Mindfulness is the art and science of staying in the moment.

Lawyers in Connecticut are lucky. They can tune up on mindfulness at the New Haven, CT Zen Center six-hour retreat on Saturday, June 15th.  The guiding teacher will be Paul Majchrzyk, JDPSN.  There will be sitting and walking meditation, along with refreshments.  The address is 193 Mansfield Street, not far from Yale.  There is free parking on the street.  Lawyers can find out more information, including the sliding scale for fees (click on UPDATE PAGE), by going to the Zen Center website.  They can contact the Center at info@newhavenzen.org and 203-787-0912. 

Everyone is welcome to the retreat, not just lawyers.

Yale Law Professors, et al. - One-day zen retreat, right in New Haven

A fundamental of the Kwan Um School of Zen is that we don't know.  Yale School law professors and others associated with the legal sector might find it a relief to be able to embrace not-knowing.  After all this is a time of upheaval in the business of law. 

On Saturday, June 15th, the New Haven Zen Center is holding a six-hour retreat. That will consist of sitting and walking meditation.  Lunch is thrown in.  The leader is guiding teacher Paul Majchrzyk, JDPSN.  For more details, please just check the website.

There's a sliding scale fee.  Please just go to the Update page on the website for that.  You can register at info@newhavenzen.org or by calling 203-787-0912.

 

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: Empathy is by no means an irrational response

The elephant in the room in the tragedy surrounding alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is this.  Some of us, including lawyers and judges, who had been politically active during the Counterculture might feel empathy for this 19-year-old college student. 

During the heated feelings against the VietNam War, it could have been a natural progression to migrate from passive resistance to violence.  We are here as successful professionals today because for whatever reason we didn't cross that line. 

Here is a discussion of an alternative to hate for viewing Tsarnaev.  A number of world views advocate compassion.  If the suspect lives, he has a lot of painful thinking he might be doing the path he had taken.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: Muslims will continue to suffer

From Biblical times, society designated scapegoats and that is that.  Currently, in response to the horrific Boston Marathon bombing, Muslims are being scapegoated.  Suspect Dzhokhar embraced the religion of Islam.

In THE ATLANTIC, Rebecca Greenfield reports that already a medical doctor in Boston has been attacked as well as the site for building a mosque. 

When I was a dark-skinned Italian growing up in Jersey City, New Jersey in the 1950s, the prejudice was brutal. The fair-skinned Irish, who controlled politics and the Catholic Church, bullied us.  I longed to be blond and to belong.

Being an outlier, even in normal times, can mean great suffering.

 

Matthew Warren and Yoselyn Ortega: How little science knows about the human mind

A young man who is the son of a respected religious figure is dead from suicide and a middle-age woman who immigrated to the U.S. will stand trial for allegedly murdering two children. 

As yet, science can't explain their behavior. In addition, it obviously hasn't done much to prevent it.  Despite all the rhetoric about innovation, there really hasn't been much of it in that huge umbrella field we call "mental illness." The key to unlocking the secrets of why the mentally ill see the world as they do remains hidden.

Last Friday, reports THE NEW YORK TIMES, Matthew Warren, the young adult son of leader of the Saddleback Church Rick Warren, committed suicide.  His life has been filled with clinical depression and suicidal ideation. 

Last week also Yoselyn Ortega, who the New York tabloids labeled the "Upper West Side Killer Nanny," had been ruled by the court as mentally competent to be tried for the alleged murder of the two children she was caring for.  Her lawyer Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg objects, moving for the insanity defense.  This case is so riveting in the media because of the "why" - how could anyone allegedly kill innocent children.

Through BigData, particularly predictive analytics, business can forecast with a great deal of accuracy what consumers will buy on X day in Y amount.  But society remains held hostage to the aberrant workings of human brains.  So do those whose brains have that frayed wiring.

Lawyers, as Steven J. Harper documents in the book "The Lawyer Bubble: A Profession in Crisis," have more than the average share of mental illness, including suicides.  He profiles some of the high-profile ones such as that of Kilpatrick Stockton who shot himself in his office after it was announced he had been laid off.

Since age 11, I have struggled with clinical depression. Clients and colleagues salute my efforts, calling me "an inspiration."  Believe me, I would prefer to be an uninspiring plain-vanilla professional who doesn't have to take my emotional pulse every few hours to ensure that I am centered. 

"Unique Opportunity" - To write article on faith and legal system for $10 (yes, $10)

Unique opportunity?  In some ways it is.

It isn't usual for help wanted, even on Craigslist, to advertise an opportunity like this one.  Here you can read how you get to write an article on faith and the legal system for $10.  Yet, $10. 

The help wanted is posted in Washington D.C., where the cost of living isn't cheap.

Pope Francis I: Can compassion trump ideology?

Like law, religion is an institution which has plenty of control over a soceity.  Often that society extends across the world.  The Roman Catholic Church was once one of the most powerful and enduring global brands. Next to it, Coca-Cola was small potatoes.

With great interest we followed the "campaign" talk about who had the inside track on becoming the next leader of the Roman Church.  Now we have the winner who from this day forward will call himself Francis I.  POLITICO briefed us on all we need to know.

And, essentially it's that Francis I is very conservative, including attempting to overthrow allowing gay marriages in Argentina.  Not good news for those of us who hoped for what we think of as more progressive views.

However, POLITICO also noted that, on the other hand, the man is deeply compassionate.  He went to a hospice where AIDS patients were and washed their feet.  Often we have found that kindness can trump ideology.

So we end our day wondering if Francis I has what it takes to pull off a turnaround of this distressed institution.  If he does, the lawsuits, criminal trials, and settlements might become fewer in number and then become just a memory of a bad patch the Roman Church went through. That distress began when THE BOSTON GLOBE broke the story of sexual abuse of children by priests.

Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA: After I hire good lawyer, I can transform it into higher ed's lean, job-getting machine

It's a tough job but someone has to do it.  Seton Hill University, Greensburg, Pennsylvania is in a lame-duck situation.  Its president for the last quarter of a century Joanne Boyle is retiring in June.  From Avon's decline after Andrea Jung announced she was leaving when the company found her replacement, we know the perils of lame-duckness.

So, Seton Hill would be smart to announce that I will be in-place as its next president in June.  To begin with, the public relations would be off the charts since I have been an astute critic of some of the institution's best practices, past and present.  Secondly, I know the corporate and startup world and, thanks to my own public relations skills, can attract the leaders in those to come to Greensburg and interview students and graduates for jobs and contract work.

After I hire a good lawyer (maybe Jones Day's Mickey Pohl who had been chairman of Seton Hill's board) I can arrange to abolish many or all positions, both administrative and faculty, and have those who had held them apply for the new ones created in the restructuring. That would save a bundle.  Seton Hill will be known as one of the most cost-efficient players in higher ed.  I would do for it what the late Matthew Crawley began doing for Downton Abbey.

And, fourth, I would expand its religious-spiritual base from the Christian - Judea tradition to include Buddhism, Wicca, and more.  This rebranding would attract more students since there is a surge of interest in comparative religions.  From a Roman Catholic background, I have studied both Eastern religions and the pagan one of Wicca.

And, fifth, I would not charge for relocation from my residence near Yale to western Pennsylvania.  Until I generate outcomes I would negotiate compensation at one-third to one-half  what the incumbent is making. 

 

BOSTON GLOBE: Broke Clergy Sexual Abuse Story in 2002

Today, the BOSTON GLOBE is up for sale by The New York Times Inc.  Deal experts, reports TIME, don't expect it to fetch much.  The best-case scenario could be that a wealthy group in the Boston area would buy it.  However, even with that, some reporters and editors will still be cut loose and likely will never find comparable jobs.

This is a sad turn of events for the newspaper which, back in 2002, broke the story that the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church had been sexually abusing children and the higher ups were covering it up.  That story then caught fire.  Both in the U.S. and in nations like Ireland and Canada alleged victims of the abuse came forward. 

Some of those accusations resulted in trials.  Among the clergy convicted were John Geoghan who was later murdered in prison. Some, such as in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, were settled for millions of dollars.

But that legacy of public service hasn't insulated the newspaper from the realities of the Internet era.  The New York Times Inc., of course, is trying to save its own skin in unloading the BOSTON GLOBE.  Whether the parent itself can survive remains dubious.