Law And More

Displaced JDs - Panhandling Has Become Legitimate Career Path

Panhandling is like many other lines of legitimate work. Success in it demands understanding its dynamics and how to do fast course correction when there's trouble, e.g. the usual begging spot is declared off-limits by concerned citizens or official law enforcement. Here are some tips by eHow.

Given that lawyers are analytical, by nature and education, the odds are with them that they could make a go of this growing career path. Estimates of earnings vary greatly. It is likely beggers doing the best will be circumspect about what they bring home. 

Articles on revenues from regular begging indicate that for those who have a good handle on this way of making a living can generate enough income for a middle class lifestyle. Here is one piece on earnings from Yahoo. 

What I do know is that a neighbor who panhandles six days a week can pay his rent in a middle-class apartment complex here in Tucson, Arizona. Regularly he carries into his apartment sacks of food from the grocery store, not a soup kitchen. He never has hustled any residents for a few bucks to get by until ...

His prop is his dog. Every panhandler needs a prop. Ones for lawyers could include free consultations about over-education, law books placed strategically around the collection basket and/or a chart of student loan debts versus income from practicing law.

Should lawyers offer entertainment? That could represent added value. For example, they can enact snippets from classic courtroom scenes.  But they have to check out if zoing laws and other regulations allow performance art.

From anecdotal evidence, beggers who are clean and well dressed earn more per day. That could be because they are approachable. Those looking like Charles Manson scare us. We hurry by.

It could be a plus to be willing to listen and engage in conversation. Too many people are lonely. They welcome and will reward the opportunity to connect in person with another human being.

How to dry run this approach to economic survival? Research local ordinances about panhandling. Case out locations for competition. Experiment with a variety of approaches, ranging from attire to props to level of gregariousness. It has been claimed that a smart panhandler, like an in-touch waiter, can bring home $500 a night. Perhaps more. 

 

JD Class of 2015 - Consider Taking Bar In North Carolina

Raleigh, North Carolina, reports Kurt Badenhausen, is the only East Coast city to make into the top 10 of Forbes' Best Places for Business and Careers. Here is that coverage.

What it has going for it is what many non-Norheast Corridor and California locations don't have. That's this: The cost of doing business is 18% below the national average. Yes, you could set up your solo law firm or create a service which leverages your legal background without a wolf continually howling at the door.

Since people aren't struggling so hard to make ends meet, they are likely to help you.

In general, NC has become one of the hot spots to come, start something or start over because business conditions are so favorable. That means myriad legal documents and transactions for lawyers. 

John Edwards is back in NC, doing law. He just helped win a double-digit million-dollar settlement for a case about an allegedly brain-damaged boy.  

 

American Bar Association - Focus on Marketing

 I n its help-wanted on Mediabistro.com the American Bar Association (ABA) is recruiting for help in marketing.  Here is that ad.

The job title is "Digital Marketing Specialist." That professional will, says the help wanted, be:

"Responsible for one or more aspects of translating marketers' needs and visions into digital experiences that are member/customer friendly and moves the member to action relating to the message, irrespective of the medium, [e.g. social media, targeted e-mail, shopaba.org, americanbar.org., et.].

Obivously, the ABA has joined the rest of the legal sector in the urgency of hustling.  Actually, that mandate is sweeping through most disciplines.

In public relations, although a growing field, those who are thriving are cagey relentless marketers who know how to close sales. Ther rest have become stuck. A sign of that state of limbo is their, you bet, digital promotional material. Everything from their website to tweets (or lack of them) screams they have become clueless how to put themselves out there in 2014. 

ABA, like most trade associations, has to fight for its financial existence. Many of us who used to consider it standard to join at least one trade association know we can shrug it off. So much of the knowledge they used to provide is available free on the Internet. As for lobbying for our interests, we can do that ourselves quite well with digital tools.

The last time I paid membership to any trade association in communications was 2002. Public relations leader Jack O'Dwyer has been taking on trade assocation PRSA for a while now. On his newsletter, which is the go-to for all of us, you can follow his campaign.

Crime & Punishment - Legal Systems May Only Be Superimposed on Biology

Smart lawyers know that law often does not have that much to do with how juries and judges will make their decisions. They present arguments which, sure, include points of law. But they hammer what they have found to be the deep defaults in the human mind. Perhaps more lawyers should play that hand.

Trial judge Morris Hoffman has given this a lot of thought. Now he has published a book on it.  It's "The Punisher's Brain: The Evolution of Judge and Jury." Here it is reviewed by no less than The Economist. 

In "The Punisher's Brain," Hoffman contends, reports The Economist:

"People's view of others' misdoings have more to do with evolution than abstract legal philosophy ... In all their modern complexity, legal systems are a biological solution to a simple problem ..."

The problem is that there are rogue human beings who decide to turn their backs on the benefits of being a social animal. Instead they push against the norms. That might be to get what they want. Or if they are pyschopaths they don't feel any restraint not to.

Unfortunately, Hoffman doesn't have recommendations on how to deter that aberrant behavior. For much of it, we in 12-step programs observe, punishment does not halt anti-social behavior. It's the rare addict who gets something out of incarceration. The majority is determined to booze it up and/or score illegal substances after release. 

Eventually, app developers might come up with signals from smartphones which can persuade miscreants to choose the social good instead of robbing the convenience store and offing the counter help. 

 

Bad News For BigLaw: InHouse Does More, Demands More Alternative Billing

BigLaw just can't catch a break. It's been 7 years since the Crash, when the legal sector went from a seller's to a buyer's market.

Now, in a survey of in-house counsel, the Consero Group found that 84% will not be assigning more work to law firms than they did 12 months ago.  No surprise then, 51% in-house legal departments have increased their budgets and 44% added to their own staff.

Also, more bad news for BigLaw, 58% are demanding alternatives to the billable hour.

The Consero Group's findings are reported by Paul M. Barrett in Bloomberg Business Week. Here you can read that article. 

Since 2007, BigLaw has supposedly been struggling to develop a new model on how to serve clients better and more cost efficiently. Obviously, what they have come up with hasn't satisfied corporate clients. 

Yet, newbie law graduates can't set their professional sights on joining a corporate legal department. It's unusual for them to develop legal talent from scratch. 

Law Students Considering Different Career Path - Could you be admitted to Harvard Business School?

Some opt for law school because they are not naturally adept at STEM subjects. That could operate against those already in law school who are toying with the notion of getting off that train and boarding another which seems to be heading toward some kind of Promised Land. 

Currently, elite institution Harvard Business School is advertising for a Admissions Marketing Coordinator. Among the duties for that professional is "Outrearch travel to colleges/universities with particular focus on attracting STEM candidates." Here is that help-wanted in Mediabistro.com

That means that if you do have that kind of background buried beneath your newly acquired knowledge of the U.S. legal system, you may have a shot at heading in a more promising direction. Insight into American jurisprudence could give an edge in a business career.

Lawyers, Law Students, Legal Writers - Our Edge in Life, Work

"I'm a JD from the Class of 2009. Can you spare me enough to learn coding."

The foundation of capitalism is the protection of private property. That means a gigantic infrastructure of law and plenty of litigation.

Given that way of the world lawyers, law student and legal writers have an edge in life and in our work. We might never get wealthy, financially comfortable or even able to keep a roof over our heads.

But we can use our knowledge of law and skills in presenting quasi legal arguments as tools to manage public nuisances, enemies and jerks in our professional lives.  No wonder some landlords don't like to rent to lawyers. 

An organization I shouldn't have hooked up with raised questions about how I approached an assignment. No, I didn't argue. In a transmittal note, in which I included the URL for this blog (it was aware I had attended Harvard Law School), I indicated that the new set of directions should have been provided at the get-go. I requested a kill fee of half the original amount. That was that. I got the original amount.

A neighbor piled on me, in the presence of another person (potential witness) the urgency that I accept Christ into my daily life. Steam is coming out of my ears.  While I plan my push-back, though, I know I have the upper hand. The law is on my side. 

Of course, I still feel foolish having fallen in love with law way back when. Had I not done that I might be rich today. That's because I would never have lost time preparing for the LSAT, relocating to Cambridge to find out I didn't want to study law, and then trying to sort all that out for decades. Instead I would have been ghostwriting compulsively for "captains of industry," as they used to be called.

But, hell, let's salvage what we can from the pickle we got ourselves into.

 

Lobbying - A Game in Transition Presents Opportunities for Well-connected Lawyers

Old-school lobbying is dying.  That could provide an opening for well-connected lawyers who have deep expertise in one issue such as tech policy or defense. As Byron Tau observes in Politico:

"The biggest [lobbying] firms are facing increasing competition from upstarts, breakaways and boutique lobbying shops ... [Lobbying] has become increasingly crowded with public affairs shops, digital firms and grassroots experts all promising different approaches ..." Here is that Politico coverage of how K Street is losing power and revenue. 

One of those approaches is to have down cold one field. Patton Boggs might have been too much of a generalist. Media report that it is attempting to hire one-issue talent who will operate as a one-man band. 

Politco notes that overall lobbying revenues have been plummeting since 2010. Between 2010 and 2011, they were down $220 million.  Between 2011 and 2012 they declined another $20 million. And between 2012 and 2013, they were down another $8 million.

Where there is a world of pain there can be opportunity for those, as Politico has picked up, with "different approaches."

Likely Not For (Most) JD Students - MBA Straight Students Show Up at Gay Job Recruitment Events

One of the popular articles on Bloomberg Business Week is by Cory Weinberg. It captures the desperation in the current job market: Straight MBA students are finding their way into Gay Job Recruitment events. Here is that coverage. 

Hell, any tactic is worth a try. But for most JD students this particular one likely isn't too promising. Sure, there are jobs available within the gay niche. Some of them might pay well. But not as well as those positions in BigLaw.

Essentially BigLaw remains a monolith. Its ethos is conservative. In return for total conformity to its values and behaviors, it provides newbies excellent training, a superior entry-level salary and high-profile assignments. 

Those JD students not interested in BigLaw might check out any gay job fairs. In my profession of communications, there is a surge of opportunities in the gay niche. Those range from editing Out Magazine to creating fundraising materials. You bet, I apply. So far, no assignments. I don't think not being gay has anything to do with that. As in business and law, in communications there's a glut of talent. 

JD Class of '14, Jobless Former Associates, Booted Partners - Is Job Hunting in NY, San Jose or Even Bridgeport, CT the Problem?

Yes, the great compensation for jobs and even contract assignments happens in locations like New York and San Jose.  No wonder so many newbie JDs and displaced associates and partners are determined to hang out there and search for work. 

And while you are doing so, you have to pony up the extreme cost of living. At the top of the list for that is the price for keeping a roof over your head.  

In CityLab, Richard Florida (famous for coining the phrase "the creative class") documents how expensive all that is. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis's Regional Price Parities, as interpreted by Jose Lobo of Arizona State, New York, San Jose and even New York bedroom community Bridgeport, Connecticut are outliers in what housing rips from your pocket. Here is the coverage.

On the one hand, there is a school of thought which mandates that you remain in those kinds of locations to have access to opportunity.  But there is also another emerging line of thought. It is that the stress of struggling to make ends meet can impede your selling skills. Desperate, you don't pitch from a position of strength. 

I know. As an experiment I uprooted myself from my base just outside of Bridgeport to try my luck in the less expensive Southwest.

Here in Tucson, Arizona, my housing costs half what it did in CT. My car insurance is also half. Gasoline is about 60-cents less a gallon. An emergency visit to the vet on a Sunday was $80, not the expected $250.

Without the wolf howling at the door, I have been able to approach marketing and sales in a calm manner. No surprise, the results have been awesome. Finally, after two professional catastrophes in the 21st century, I am financially secure again. That hppened in three months. I arrived here on April 14, 2014.

Yes, I am back to selecting my clients.  I no longer can be bullied into accepting peanuts as a fee. Again, I am trusting my gut instead of frantically researching what the "experts" pontificate about running a business.

Of course, I recognize how difficult it is to give up on the shot at the big big money. However, sometimes a bit more than enough money is quite enough.