Law And More

Brian Schroeder - Sounds like a recruit for FOBs [Friends of Bill]

The spell that seemingly fell over Brian Schroeder, Harvard Law School alumni, seems to be cast by demon booze.  Alcohol seemed to change his personality from associate at a Manhattan law firm to vicious, disrespectful arsonist.  FOBs [Friends of Bill] might invite him to a 12-step meeting.

"Hope can be a powerful thing," Elie Mystal, ATL - Should it be a regulated entity?

Globally, the lousy news keeps rolling in for new JDs, associates, and even partners. 

The latest is that Chadbourne & Parke, reports Elie Mystal in Abovethelaw.com, "had decided to push back half of its incoming class 'indefinitely.'"  The lion's share of those involved will likely still harbor hope.  Mystal shrewdly observes, "Hope can be a powerful thing."  So powerful, in fact,  that I recommend that it be regulated by federal, state and local authorities.  Those dispensing misleading or actually false hope or hope without labeling should face criminal penalties, including mandatory prison time. 

That's the theme of my first novel "The Fat Guy From Greenwich," to be published late Fall by Outskirts.  It chronicles how magical thinking about success aka hope does in a God's Plenty of strivers.  Here is a complimentary peek into the First Chapter of the novel Download FatGuyFromGreenwich.  If you don't see yourself as among the damned hopefuls, you are really in trouble.  Guess who the character Maria Romano has been based on?  After all, she did wind up a 1L at Harvard Law School.  [The book will be for sale online in about three months.]

William Safire - Lawyer-Like Attention to Langugae

Like a lawyer, William Safire understood the voodoo involved in the use of language.  It could cast spells. A mesmerized jury or economic summit could make decisions affecting life and death, prosperity or recession. 

Now he is gone as national watch dog of language.  The timing couldn't be worse as we go through a paradigm shift caused by digital technology.  How we use language is being turned inside out by tweets and text messages.  When it comes to the legal profession, regulators, the public, and even lawyers are demanding the end to that insider language and a migration to plainspeak. Who in law or public policy will protect what is most meaningful in legal discourse and supervise the trashing of what's only serving to obscure? 

Gay-discrimination Trial against Korn/Ferry - Alleged client efforts to screen out gays could come out

The odds are this is a gay-discrimination lawsuit that Korn/Ferry International will settle before the March 1 trial date.  That's because in court its alleged client efforts to screen out gays could be disclosed.  The suit has been filed in California by Marti Smye who contends, reports Sarah E. Needleman, "Korn/Ferry breached her employment contract by dismissing her last year and not paying her nearly $4 million she earned in bonuses."

Here's the scary part.  Needleman goes on to tell us this:

"As part of the suit, Ms. Smye's attorney filed a declaration by Donna McNicol, senior vice president of human resources for Canadian telecommunications company Telus Corp., who says a Korn/Ferry recruiter told her the search firm could 'screen out gay and lesbian clients ...'"

Given the success and aggressiveness of the gay-rights movement, both Korn/Ferry and its clients could become the target of global protest.  The ramifications could be huge:  International corporations could rush to review their explicit and implicit human-resources policies.  There could be more: Will McNicol wind up filing some kind of whistleblower suit in the U.S. against Canadian employer Telus.  That would be an interesting case for a plaintiff employment-issues lawyer.

Female, Smart, Still Employed in Law Firm: Oh, Don't Admit You're In Love

If Cristina Nehring is on the money, then smart females better not admit to being in love.  Romantic love, a courtly tradition of madness, angst and finally consummation which began in 11th century, can be a career-killer in the 21st. 

Finding a suitable mate or companion is now positioned as just another business problem to be solved.  It's simply a situation which can be addressed pragmatically, legally and with due cynicism. Think enhancing a genetic pool, combining networks, pre-nups, arrangements avoiding the designation of "common law" marriage, confirmation of birth control.  To do otherwise can invite, at the very least for females, puzzlement, at worst, writing off her professional potential.  Isn't marriage a symbol that the problem has been addressed?  Professional peers and superiors celebrate that for its efficiency and its suitable fit. 

In her 2009 book "A Vindication of Love: Reclaiming romance for the 21st century," Nehring argues for the return of the pain and pleasure of romantic love.  In that state, we are finally open to the world, with all its uncertainty and gifts.  Currently, she documents, romance has become "an explicit embarrassment, a discredited myth, the deceptive sugar that once coated the pill of women's servility."

I have a hunch Nehring isn't going to have many supporters.  It's not professionally or politically correct to become moonstruck.  It can't be imagined that Jones Day managing partner Laura Ellsworth would be behaving "in love" with anyone, ranging from a legal spouse or one to be.

Full Disclosure:  It's beyond me to even envision falling in love.

Greek Chorus Chants, "Beware, Jones Day, of Hubris, Beware"

Can't you hear the Greek Chorus chanting, warning Jones Day of hubris and its consequences, particularly after that amazing memo authored by partner Joe Sims, praising the firm and panning competitors.  Since ancient times, the voodoo seems to be: The boast, and then the fall.  There seems to be no way to escape the hex. 

Will Jones Day heed the dire tone of the Greek Chorus as well as some of the comments which were posted on Abovethelaw.com about that memo?  Let's hope so. 

Jones Day is a sophisticated, hard-working operation.  [Although some in the plaintiff bar contend the firm is not imaginative enough in strategies.]

Their partners have common as well as business sense, e.g. Mickey Pohl, global head of product liability.  Way back in Spring 2008, Pohl flagged the legal community, including General Counsels, on the need for "business-focused solutions" instead of approaching the law in isolation [PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES: PRODUCT LIABILITY & TORT LITIGATION.] 

In addition, they seem to be savvy about the court of public opinion and its influence on public policy which intersects with the law, e.g. Chuck Moellenberg on lead paint, both personal injury and public nuisance, litigation.  Incidentally, R. Trent Taylor, partner at McGuireWoods, opines that an "North Carolina v. TVA" appeal could turn on public policy, not points of law.

They haven't laid off.  That frees up associates to focus on their clients, not their job security.

And, in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania office, many of us are cheering for associate John Boyle, who I babysat when in college in western PA, to make partner.  If there is no Jones Day, there is no partnership for Boyle.

One of the most useful books on the potential peril of hubris and how to dodge the bullet is "How The Mighty Fall: And why some companies never give in."  It's by Jim Collins, who also wrote "Good To Great."

Black '03 Ford Escort, Black Swan

"Tell those who park here, if they want to theft-proof themselves, they gotta have a two-door black '03 Ford Escort, just like mine."  That's what I told the attendant in one of those cheap lots in Providence, Rhode Island, too far from the State Courthouse.  I thought I was a riot.  When he was off, I told his replacement the same thing.  Sure enough, no one tampered with that car from nowhere during the whole four months of the RI lead paint public nuisance trial and the myriad hearings afterward.

I loved the line so I used it a lot.  Did that anger the gods? Or was its theft on June 25th this year right here in New Haven, Connecticut a play-out of Nassim Taleb's theory of the Black Swan: The Unexpected will happen and it will have Unexpected consequences.

I go with the latter explanation.  The Unexpected simply took place.  The result has been, yes, unexpected.  The shock, the dealings with the police, insurance companies and all the yentas in the complex who fear for the safety of their clunkers changed me. 

I assumed that massive internal reconfiguration was complete with Career Paradise Lost and Career Paradise Regained.  But, the missing piece, as I mention at the end of my e-book on that reversal and happy ending, was that I still tried way too hard Download Geezerguts.  Of course, that's a negative in business.  You oversell and prospects flee, take advantage in pricing, and/or abuse us.  Well, I stopped all that.  The impact was immediate.  Business got better fast.  This week I have four sales calls in three days.

Mental-Health Pros, BigPharma Can Exhale, for now - CA Appeals Court rules in favor of psychiatrist

Mental health professionals along with BigPharma can exhale, at least for now.  In "Greenburg v. Superior Court (Smith), Santa Ana, California 4th District Court of Appeal in a summary judgment ruled for the psychiatrist.  It was a closely watched 2005 case in which a 19-year-old under psychiatric care killed two neighbors.  Survivors filed a lawsuit against the psychiatrist for dispensing antidepressants to the youth.

In THE RECORDER, Mike McKee reports that the two judged concluded that the psychiatric condition was pre-existing and was not caused by the psychiatrist or his treatment.  This is a victory both for the imprecise science of psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry which markets antidepressants, particularly to those under-25.  Members of both businesses have been frequent targets for lawsuits.

Mental health professionals, in the 1970s hailed as the high priests of the culture, have increasingly come under fire for not producing positive outcomes or even downright malpractice.  This was bound to happen.  The field is filled with myriad schools of thought, some conflicting, about what changes behavior and improves mood.  Moreover, medications can have a variety of impacts or no impacts on each individual who uses them.  However, the risk presented by no-treatment usually outweighs reservations about wasting time and money or incurring negative results.  The amazing thing is that those in this discipline aren't sued more often.

In BigPharma, antidepressants, especially the SSRI class, have been under attack since the euphoria about Prozac, a member of that class, subsided.  Treating with medication seems to be more art than science, with perhaps a bit of voodoo thrown in.  That requires continual attention and caring by the mental-health provider and often there just aren't the resources for that.  What works for one client might not work for another and could stop working abruptly.  Thanks to Congressman Patrick Kennedy parity for mental health treatment exists.  But as long as the stigma of so-called mental illness endures, this population will likely get shortchanged in receiving the custom-made ongoing treatment it requires.

"People treat me like I'm doomed," Elizabeth Gilbert of her astounding success with "Eat, Pray, Love"

In America the supposedly optimistic, most folks actually see in big success The End.  Wildly successful author of "Eat, Pray, Love" Elizabeth Gilbert tells about how, after she published that book, "Everywhere I go now people treat me like I'm doomed."  They expect her to now be incapable of surpassing that achievement.  Therefore, she will spend the rest of her career stuck reflecting on the past glory days of "Eat, Pray, Love."

Well, there are instances of that, of course.  After "Catch-22," that was the end of Joseph Heller.  After the Dream Team won the O.J. murder trial, that seemed to be their career plateau.  And former President Bill Clinton can't really find a place for himself.

But past success doesn't necessarily prelude nothingness.  Clint Eastwood keeps hitting homeruns.  Philip Howard's second book "Life Without Lawyers" is better than his first "The Death of Common Sense."  And Nassim Taleb grows in influence, all the way to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Given these two kinds of scenarios, we lead-paint watchers wonder which it will be for the defense attorneys in the public nuisance litigation.  They won the lawsuits which went to trial.  Just last Friday, the suit in Ohio was dismissed.  And, if the lead paint public nuisance complaint in Santa Clara, California does make it to trial [anything is possible on the Left Coast], we anticipate they will bring home the gold there too.

So, will this achievement be it for their careers?  Or will they find another 900-pound guerrilla to wrestle to the ground?  We don't know the answer, unfortunately.

"What besides education, experience needed to increase job security?" - Dawn Jordan, WSJ, 1/26/09

What do employers - and clients - want?  That's the question the newly unemployed Professional Class is asking.  The answer isn't what they expected.

Today, in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Dawn Jordan, a former operations VP at Bank of America, is discovering that the M.B.A. she acquired at great sacrifice - think about your law degree:

• Isn't helping her be hired for a decent job

• Didn't prevent her from losing her previous job.

She had assumed that the degree would give her an edge.  So would her experience. Wrong.

The edge, more and more out-of-work corporate executives, JDs, journalists, investment bankers and even ghostwriters like myself now that publishing has imploded are finding out, comes from inside ourselves.  Not external credentials. 

The edge, I've noticed in my own experience and in coaching, seems to be a form of voodoo the new breed of employed, in-demand custom-make for each opportunity. 

It's part hustle, but done not to appear manic, desperate, or vulgar.  More, it resembles the play-out of living by our wits.  Saul Bellow captures that in his 1940s novel "The Adventures of Augie March" about a smooth street kid who believes in his ability to come up with "a scheme."

It's part lowering risk for employers and clients by a willingness to prove ourselves before the meter starts running.  We work as "interns" for a week.  We do mock-up or sample assignments they can actually use.  We trail them around to get a feel for operations, organizational culture, pitfalls.  We put together a case study of their shop vs. the competition.  Incidentally, that bit of freeconomics has never failed to land me the full-time job or the contract assignment.

Most importantly, it's part brilliant social skills.  We make the right read of that person.  We take on exactly the right persona.  No one with anything to lose - e.g. those who can still hire us - wants additional interpersonal stress.

Maybe this isn't new-economy.  Maybe it's just that those who can't conjure up this voodoo can no longer get in or stay in the game.  It's now not icing on the cake.  It's the only cake around.