Law And More

EU Fines Google $2.42 Billion for Disrupting Invisible Hand

The fundamental of capitalism is confidence in the dynamics of the Invisible Hand. Or, how the unfettered marketplace plays outs.

That's why anything which unfairly or illegally disrupts that operation must be identified and punished.

Otherwise, trust is destroyed in capitalism. Nations will seek to adopt another economic system. 

The European Union (EU) has determined that Google is one of those illegal players. And, therefore, a serious menace.

The BBC reports:

"Google has been fined 2.42bn euros ($2.7 bn ...) by the European Commission after it ruled the company had abused its power by promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of search results ... The ruling also orders Google to end its anti-competitive practices within 90 days or face a further penalty."

Google announced that it may appeal the ruling. That hasn't been decided.

In the past Google has contended that Amazon and eBay have more power over how purchases are made than it does.

That claim could motivate the EU to also investigate those corporations for possible anti-competitive policies.

The EU has left it to Google to figure out how to modify its shopping service to make it comply with anti-trust mandates. That solution could mean new rules for advertisers. The Mad Men of 2017 might be totally unhinged. 

Some of us might smirk about Google's original slogan about doing no evil. The EU development is the kind of material William Shakespeare would have written a tragedy about.

Google could be depicted as a kind of King Lear. That toppled power could find itself an outlier, ranting that it's more sinned against that sinning.

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Mishap at Six Flags Great Escape - Legal/Branding Implications

The world rejoices that the ride-faller at Six Flags Great Escape was rescued. The condition of that 14-year-old girl remains unknown, however.

But, in this litigious society, the question on so many minds is: Does she have grounds for a lawsuit?

In addition, the brand is everything. How might this mishap impact business this summer at Six Flags and other amusement parks?

On LawNewz, Aaron Keller presents the pros and cons. But, essentially, he is not bullish on her prospects for a personal injury lawsuit or one involving alleged product liability. Litigation against amusement parks does not happen often.

On the pro side for personal injury litigation, there is the possibility on these grounds:

• Negligence such as not keeping up the equipment
• Failure to warn of risks involved
• Lack of adequate training for ride operators
• Not giving appropriate instructions to riders.

As for the product liability contention, there could be design or construction flaws.

On the con side, here are the amusement park's usual defenses:

• Riders are aware of the risks and decided to go ahead anyway
• Tickets usually carry disclaimers (This is similar to the disclaimers psychics post. Those specify the experience is for entertainment purposes only.)
• Not complying with the rules.

The public relations fallout should be of more concern to Six Flags and other amusement parks than any litigation.

Families have many options for how they will enjoy this summer. Instead of putting the children on the rides in an amusement park they might decide to go camping or drive to explore Alaska. They could also invest in having a pool constructed in their backyards.

Events such as a fall from a ride damage the brand in the short term. Long term destruction could occur if there is another accident.

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Lawyers, Law Students - Learning to Hunt for Today's Dinner

Bad news sells.

So, Bloomberg's article about the 10 jobs most likely to disappear is attracting lots of eyeballs.

It doesn't list practicing law. But, with the accelerating pace of implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI), it should.

On Abovethelaw.com (ATL), Robert Ambrogi keeps up-dating busy-bee LexisNexis in that niche.

Eventually the traditional law firm could operate with a small core of seasoned legal strategists and lots of subscriptions to AI services. The first jobs to go will be those contract assignments in document review. The next will be those of inexperienced associates. 

However, that shouldn't be news.

The traditional concept of "job" is totally mid-20th century. That was the era of the BigJobs.

We Baby Boomers recall landing great ones. And we are the last generation who could travel a linear career path. Perhaps DailyJobCuts.com should change its name to "DailyLossofIncome.com. That site would report how many income-producing slots were shut down. 

According to researchers at the University of Oxford, in the coming decades, about half of the current jobs (which it's already smart to think of as income-producing slots) in America will vanish. And, no expert can predict what will replace those slots. 

Also, and this is the really tough nut to crack, no one can specify the most effective and efficient way to find work. As is obvious, so many displaced lawyers are doing that all wrong.

Network? That could get you labeled as a pest or, worse, a has-been. 

Be aggressive. That can make you come across as desperate.

Creative. So many have been too out of the box.

In the box. That doesn't get attention.

Story-telling is the meme of our time. The stories which should be in demand, on a grassroots basis, are the personal testimonies of those who got work. It's increasingly irrelevant that the story-teller held onto the work.

On ATL, under the pen name of Alex Rich, current editor Karen Rubino chronicled her search for work in the document-review ghetto. She provided details on everything from the need for anger management when being treated as if you were invisible to hustling for the next gig before the current one ended. That story-telling helped land her a full time job at ATL.

It had been my story-telling on my communications blog http://janegenova.com which resulted in a major marketing communications project with a career service. The saga was about the shame I couldn't shake about losing a BigJob way back when. 

Is it obvious to you now that, yes, mankind is back to hunting for dinner every day day? Yesterday, my dog LOV and I had ate well. Yet again. I had bagged an assignment, paid by PayPal, for editing a proposal for venture capital. 

That's done. Before I go out there today, I have to figure out where exactly I should be hunting.

For instance, should I leverage this skill in proposals?

Or will dinner be easier to find in the lucrative but downsizing book-ghostwriting niche? 

Smart people want to hear that story. People stuck in the mid-20th century want to hear about career paths. 

Members of the legal media who want to be helpful to employment-challenged lawyers should solicit those stories.

My own story about working as a security guard in an inner city Home Depot back in 2003-2004 has had more than a million downloads. Here you can pick up some hands-on insight about how to go hunting when your old bow and arrows not longer bring home the bacon. BTW, my tale of a crash and bounce-back brought in a four-year legal-oriented assignment. 

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Yes, Law Students, Solos, SmallLaw, BigLaw - Blog

On Abovethelaw.com today there are two articles on blogging.

Yes, operating a blog does develop a brandname. Yes, it does bring in business.

Why is there need to deliver this message?

Well, in the volatile world of social networks and social media, blogging is a mature entity. Way back in 2004, Ana Marie Cox was dishing the dirt about Inside the Beltway. It was on the Gawker blog platform.

Since then, so many other platforms have emerged. Being compulsively on LinkedIn Update, Facebook, Twitter, Medium and Instagram seems a lot more cool.

Yet, the blog remains a powerful tool to create unique reputational space out there and develop new business. In addition, for lawyers who hope to turn their communications skills into a profit center, it constitutes an online portfolio. Also, search engines tend to give the blog posts high rankings. That is, if bloggers are doing it "right."

By "right" I mean leveraging the best practices, at the time. Those change with the times, Currently, best practices include:

• Topical references. It makes common blogging sense to opine on X issue before, during and after the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing it or making the decision whether or not to do that.
• Keywords. The best tutorial in that is to monitor continually what terms high-traffic sites are posting.
• Catchy headline. In this era of distraction, the headline is everything.
• Unique angles. No one wants to ingest platitudes about obstruction of justice. Figure out a provocative angle. Do research. Position and package all that as would a copywriter such as Don Draper on "Mad Men." No, don't sound like a lawyer.
• Outbound links. Those organizations and individuals track those links. They might start inbound links to your blog.
• Post links on other social networks and social media.
• Re-purpose. For example, it can be modified for a post on Medium or a LinkedIn Group.
• Do frequently. No, three times a week in not enough.
• Live-blog special events such as a seminal presentation or panel on impeachment. Add live tweets.

I operate three syndicated blogs. The other two are http://jangenova.com and http://over-50.typepad.com. About 60% of my new business comes from them, directly and indirectly. In addition, I have become a paid influencer. You bet, blogging is a profit center for me.

I learned plenty from watching how Don Draper on "Mad Men" approached framing material.

Binge watch "Mad Men" episodes this coming weekend. The most useful lesson for me was Draper's nostalgia work for Kodak. Here you can experience it.

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Trial Lawyers & All Others Who Talk for a Living - Lesson from Joan Rivers

Trial  lawyer. Corporate Executive. Motivational speaker. Salesperson. Politico. And, yes, Comic. All those roles involve talking for a living. 

To succeed mandates finding the right "stage" persona. That lesson is described in detail in the new biography of Joan Rivers - "Last Girl Before Freeway" by Leslie Bennetts.

Rivers kept dying up there as a comic. Those hiring her for a week would fire her after the first night, without pay. They didn't go lite on the profanity.

Then, at the Cherry Grove Hotel on Fire Island, she finally connected with the audience. They were 500 gays whose self-hate mirrored hers. Both had been forced to exist emotionally off the grid. That night they found each other.

Born was Rivers' outrageous persona. The door was opened to success. She had the courage to step through. And hang out there, no matter the bad times.

The most common mistakes newbies to a life of talking for a living make is grafting on a persona that is successful. For someone else, such as superlawyers David Boies or Charles Harder. They don't risk experimentation to find their own. 

There are few natural born speakers.

Lee Iacocca, who talked Chrysler back from near bankruptcy, recognized he needed help in public speaking. He took a Dale Carnegie course. Before he had to deliver a speech he would parachute into town a day early and practice in his hotel room in front of a mirror. He found that plain-speaking was the fit for him. Drop the old-line corporatese which was standard in the auto industry at that time. 

Unhinged by two recessions in the 21st century, I lost my "voice." I began pitching the services for my communications boutique as I assumed those more successful than I were doing. Of course, that bombed.

Worn down by failure, I reverted to my own Jersey City Hustler speaking persona. Actually, I had never really allowed that completely out. You know the rest: Immediate and sustained success in selling.

Takeaway: Try out a variety of "stage" personas. 

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Baby Boomer Partners in Law Firms - No, No One Wants to Hear It

Of course, there are silos among generations.

Gen zers hang with their own kind. The same thing prevails with Gens Y, X and Baby Boomers.

What that means is that we who were born after World War II to create the normalcy of happy family life are left with only "our own" to talk with. Yet, the reality is that so many other decent human beings who would have listened in a caring way to us years ago don't have the energy for that any more.

Baby Boomer partners in law firm are facing so many new challenges. Doing rain dances is mandatory. The issue of a quota of billable hours is as severe as it had been when an associate. Artificial intelligence could make better decisions than they do.

Yet, who's there to talk this out with? Who will really listen? Whom can aging partners trust?

Increasingly, aging Baby Boomers are stocking the moat with alligators and pulling down the drawbridge. There is no welcome to our fellow Baby Boomers to talk it out.

I am among those who have shut down. Before the days when we could easily block calls on cellphones an acquaintance kept calling me, recounting her anxiety attacks. Already I had told her she had to experiment with a variety of medications and lifestyle changes to manage them. She called again. That time, I belted out, "X, I have my own troubles." And hung up.

Four months later she sent one of those cute greeting cards with an apology. But she had already been purged from those I still let into my life.

So, where can we talk things out, as we had in the dorm? No where.

Those days of free-floating intense sharing are over. Probably those ended on graduation day. Immediately, we faced the rites of passage of adulthood.

But, we can find a few ears in support groups, small spiritual organizations, one of those few friends for life and the new friends we are lucky enough to make.

Also, our pets "read" us. When confused, I load my animal companion LOV in the car. We drive around until I get perspective on whatever. LOV looks at me with eyes of deep understanding.

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Megyn Kelly - From Jones Day Associate to Wizard of Controversy

Megyn Kelly's NBC show "Sunday Night" started off with a strong get. That was through the interview with Vladimir Putin.

Some assessed that Putin outfoxed Kelly. But still, he did sit for the interview in Moscow. We enjoyed observing him.

Last Sunday's interview with media star Erin Edwards was, to some of us, a disappointment.

Sure, Andrews had been stalked and she suffered. Then she had developed cancer and her suffering increased. But the interview went on too long. And Kelly asked no tough questions.

Meanwhile, on "60 Minutes" Anderson Cooper had a provocative segment on brain hacking. That's the alleged practice of Silicon Valley to make their digital devices addictive. Yes, the cellphone et al. could become the new tobacco. "Sunday Night" is pitted against "60 Minutes."

On Father's Day, Kelly has scheduled an interview with Alex Jones. He denies the Sandy Hook massacre of children, claiming it was a government hoax. When Kelly tweeted an excerpt from that interview, controversy broke loose.

For example, JPMorgan Chase stated it will pull its advertising from the show. Parents of the young victims expressed their pain. Chelsea Clinton, who has developed a large social media following, expressed outrage. Here is the coverage in the Daily Mail.

As public relations representatives know, controversy can be a powerful tool in attracting attention from myriad constituencies. Those range from media to prospective customers/clients. Those goes back to the polarization of Elvis Presley's erotic body language during his singing.

On the other hand, controversy can sink the ship. Kathy Griffin's career tanked after the Severed Head incident. Former Fox News head Roger Ailes was forced to resign during the alleged sexual harassment scandal.

Obviously, creating controversy is a risky tactic. After only two segments, "Sunday Night" is in play. It could become the spot to tune into at 7:00 P.M. on Sundays. Or it could be pulled by NBC because advertisers bailed, as they had with Bill O'Reilly.

Kelly started out her career as a lawyer. She had been an associate at BigLaw firm Jones Day. That tends to be a low-profile position. At Fox News she got down cold how to be a wizard of controversy.

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Alleged Brain Hacking By Silicon Valley - Will This Be the New Tobacco

Researchers in Silicon Valley are always chasing improving the user experience (UX). Supposedly.

But, what may be really going on is the attempt to find the "addiction code," that is the kind of programming which ties users to their digital devices. The term for that is "brain hacking."

Tonight on "60 Minutes," Anderson Cooper interviewed those in Silicon Valley who contend that the UX is actually about juicing the parts of the brain which can come under the control of digital gadgets. The objective is to have those parts continue to "need" more and more of what the device transmits.

Cooper cites his own personal experience with this. While he was being tested on camera about his response to digital stimuli, within 10 minutes his brain registered anxiety. His cellphone hadn't given off a notification. But he still "felt" the compulsion to check it. His experience with that kind of anxiety is commonplace.

Yes, the term "addiction" is being used.

And that raises the issue: Will this alleged brain hacking become the next tobacco?

The tipping point for the level of public concern which led to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement was the contention that many children were becoming hooked on tobacco. The plaintiff lawyers in the loop knew to play that card.

Even before the "60 Minutes" expose, there has been an outcry about what digital addiction was allegedly doing to youth.

In August 2016, Nicholas Kardaras published "Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids - and How to Break the Trance." It continues to rank high on Amazon - 13,153. Here you can order it.

Kardaras documents, for example, how psychological problems can be tracked back to compulsive gaming. Others, of course, would also be quick to attribute everything from inability to relate in person to obesity to youth's digital addictions.

Employers also complain young people don't know how to comport themselves on job interviews. When I approach millennials in my complex, their attention is on their cellphones. There is no eye contact. Now and then there might be an exception when they are walking their dogs. It is then that they might relate to me, another human being.

The biggest challenge to Silicon Valley might not be the pressure to innovate. Rather, it could be the same kinds of lawsuits, fines and laws which became the new normal for the tobacco industry. The initial focus could be on children. Then the web of scrutiny could widen to all adults.

If alleged brain hacking does become the new tobacco, for the tech industry this could wind up being one of Nasser Taleb's Black Swans. According to Taleb there occurs now and then a "Black Swan" which was unexpected and plays out as a massive game changer. The previous one cited was how the internet of things unhinged whole industries such as journalism.

The stock of digital companies could come crashing down. The use of digital technology, even in the workplace and educational institutions, could be closely regulated. The leaders of tech companies could be tried as criminals.

Meanwhile, a medical doctor had recommended no digital use after a certain hour. Her hunch was right. When I restrict digital in the late evening I have fewer bouts of insomnia.

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Ivanka Trump's "Women Who Work" - Female Lawyers in No Mood to Read It

Legal media outlets keep publishing the grim information about bias against female lawyers. That ranges from compensation shortfalls to harassment during pregnancy.

Superlawyer David Sanford is handling some of the growing number of lawsuits filed by female partners against their BigLaw firms. At Abovethelaw.com, lawyer-journalist Kathryn Rubino has been tracking the Kerrie Campbell litigation against Chadbourne. As the litigation progresses, Chadbourne ousted Campbell as a partner.

So, no, female lawyers are in no mood to read Ivanka Trump's "Women Who Work." Neither are many of us professionals in other lines of work where there are negative gender issues. Piled on those is a glut of talent. We know success is about more than passion. Yet it is passion that Ivanka hammers.

As reviewers have noted - here is one - the book seems a copy and paste of current platitudes about work. In itself that's annoying. I can learn more about succeeding at work as a woman while watching Oliva Benson on "Law & Order: SVU." For instance, Benson never has hardened into not caring or become lazy.

Worse than the platitudes, though, is this: The real audience seems to be rich white women who have the connections to land plum jobs + afford household help to take care of everything else. They seem to be the Social X-Rays Tom Wolfe describes in "Bonfire of the Vanities" who decided to get a job.

You meet them all the time on Metro North going from Darien, Connecticut, to Midtown Manhattan.  And, they probably have received the good advice Ivanka tells us to embrace from others. That's because their networks are likely full of those with solid recommendations for career moves.

Outside those golden networks, however, so much of the advice is out-of-date, generic and/or just dumb. Female lawyers and those of us females in other professions have discovered that we have to be willing to figure out things on our own. My two comebacks since the turn of the century were DIYs. Had I followed what God's Plenty dished I would be homeless.

Sales of "Women Who Work" are brisk. The Amazon ranking is 1,144. But 40% of reader reviews give the book only a "1" out of a possible "5" score.

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Drudge Report Curates Vanity Fair Article on Need for Hillary Clinton to Retreat from Spotlight

Drudge Report had developed a popular niche deriding Hillary Clinton.

A major piece of that were the unflattering Hillary photos. Those ranged from wicked witch Hillary to manic Hillary. A good time was had by all, even progressives who personally disliked her.

After Hillary lost the election, the Drudge Report promised to cut that out. Essentially it did.

Today, it only curated, not headlined, the negative Hillary Vanity Fair article by T.A. Frank. In it, Frank details how Hillary is holding onto the spotlight and why that's putting in a headlock the recovery of the Democratic party. And, America.

Frank is saying nothing new.

Who hasn't noticed how little time Hillary spent in the woods? So quickly she re-emerged on the world stage.

This version she presents, which is supposed to attract attention, is Hillary Unplugged. Having lost everything, she has the freedom to be herself. That is the positioning and packaging of the new brand.

But, the branding hasn't yet caught fire.

Yes, she still receives media coverage. But, perhaps borrowing a Drudge Report tactic, the photos with the articles make Hillary look older than her years. Already in their mid-80s, Rupert Murdoch and Warren Buffett appear more spry.

Could Drudge Report headlines mocking Hillary, along with more old-lady photos, push her back into the woods? There she can pen a policy book no one will read.

Meanwhile, members of the media have to support a fresh face for leadership of the progressive thinking.

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