Law And More

Outsourcing - The Issue May Not Matter Soon

The American Bar Association changed its rules in August 2008 to allow outsourcing.  Now, reports Elie Mystal in Abovethelaw.com, it is seeking the opinions of lawyers on the general issue and how things have been going so far.

That's very earnest of the ABA, particularly since the jobs of many junior lawyers are at stake in the outsourcing matter.  However, all of this may prove to be a waste of concern and time.  Sooner than later software will be configured to do the kinds of routine tasks, such as document searches and copy-editing for consistency, that human lawyers are doing now, both here in the U.S. and abroad in outsourced locations.  As you know, Richard Susskind has been predicting that for a while.  And laid-off lawyers with in-depth knowledge of the review processes have been hired to oversee those kinds of software development.

Meanwhile, the growing glut of former junior associates now out of work can downsize the hourly rate of those tasks, even in major metro areas.  Say, the temp agency was charging $45 an hour.  Law firms could negotiate that down to $30 or less.  The buyers of these kinds of services know that most legal help will attempt to remain "in the profession."  Therefore, they remain sitting ducks for exploitation, only outside a law firm they are paid far less to be exploited.

Biz Flat? Try video ads in media consumed by GCs et al.

We like our news packaged in video.  Remember when TV was the unifying medium for national events such as President Kennedy's death and the moon walk?  Now the medium is video we view on our laptops. The 2008 election, Michael Jackson's death, and Fort Hood came to us on video. 

That attention paid to video is transferable to video ads.  Though expensive, they deliver the eyeballs.  And if the video ads are in the right media, e.g. what general counsels read, they are reaching the right eyeballs.  And unlike television ads with their history of the carnival barkers in the legal business, video is a classy medium.  Cost keeps it that way.

No surprise then, in THE NEW YORK TIMES, Brian Stelter reports, "At a time when other categories of advertising dollars are shrinking, video ads are booming."

Levinson Axelrod might have made out better setting up "Edward Heyburn Sucks" site

It seems that even Levinson Axelrod, which is suing former employee Edward Heyburn for cyber-assault with the intention to profit, can't contend there is defamation or breach of client confidentiality.  At least that's what I read between the lines in Mary Pat Gallagher's coverage in the NEW JERSEY LAW JOURNAL.  The case seems weak.  Moreover, "cyber-bullying" is difficult to prove and to litigate against.  Here is a white paper I published on that Download Digitaldefamationcopy.  One person's perception of being cyber-bullied might be another person's interpretation of the exercise of First Amendment rights.

When Heyburn first launched his original site "Levinson Axelrod Sucks" it had 1700 unique visitors in all of October.  Since then he changed the site to "Levinson Alexrod Really Sucks" and in the first six days of November had more than 11,000 unique visitors.  That's influence.  LARS is getting up there in the cult following which satiric site Abovethelaw.com has.  Not long ago ATL was sued by a University of Miami Law Professor Donald Jones for a similar alleged misdeed.  The blogosphere went on steroids defending ATL.  The plaintiff dismissed the lawsuit within about 24 hours.

Given the power of wit, irony, and sarcasm, Levinson Axelrod would perhaps be making out better had it launched a site "Edward Heyburn Really Sucks."  That could have pulled in supporters and the kind of media attention that brings clients to a personal injury firm.  Prospects might think, "Those guys got guts - and imagination. Just what my case needs." 

My new book "In Humor We Trust" focuses on the surging influence of those who think slant.   It's a mindset, an ethos, not behaving funny or even bothering to laugh.

Cornell's John & Lisa: Could Lisa, plus their spouses sue John for neglience?

At Cornell, tech consultant John pressed the "cc" button when transmitting an email to his mistress Lisa, also an employee at the university.  That particular transmission indicated his longing to be "SPANKING that FINE ASS of yours."  Both John and Lisa are married to other people.  Along with that particular email was an electronic trail of other desires and fantasies.

This might be one for the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, housed at Harvard Law School. Could Lisa and/or the two spouses file a lawsuit claiming negligence in John's pressing the "cc" button?  Lisa's professional and personal reputation might be damaged.  The spouses could drum up many alleged damages.  Suggestion: Lisa and the two spouses rush to the ER for psychiatric treatment.  That's a start.

Your Legal Tribe: The Pow-Wow

Mark Herrmann, Jones Day partner, will testify how the blog he co-authors on Drug and Device Law eats through his time.  No regrets and tons of satisfaction.  But Herrmann and I would likely warn others to first consider their goals before launching a blog.

Increasingly, in these volatile times that goal might be simply building a community of kindred spirits online.  Perhaps you want that tribe to be solo lawyers or attorneys struggling with even the idea of a career shift.  Well, you don't need the demands of a blog to host your pow-wows.  You can do that directly through an online social network.  That can be set up free through Ning.   Incidentally, "ning" means "peace" in Chinese.  Currently, there are more than 300,000 Ning communities.

The benefits of starting up an online social network can include:

• You get to set the tone and focus.  Say, you've become an aggressive muckraker against law school.  That's the sandbox you create to play in. 

• Belonging, w/o any heavy lifting.

• Have access to the kinds of perspectives, information, and experience you want/need.

• Networking, including for strictly professional reasons. 

• Practice tribalization skills online.  Who knows where that could lead.

• Create platform for activism.  That could catapult you into a leadership position in a think thank or trade association.

One more thing. Online communities can be more versatile a marketing device than blogs.  Just ask Abbot.  That drug firm has an online community for Diabetics and one for mothers.  Your law firm can have one for businesses facing specific regulatory challenges.  The firm will learn plenty about those prospects's needs in the process of hosting such pow-wows.  It's a no-lose.  And could be a marketing homerun.

 

Halloween over, Ghosts Haunt Online MBA Program [lawyers might be considering]

It isn't the online part that's making folks giggle about the MBA progam about to be launched at Chancellor University System.  It's that ghosts of Success Past seem to be in charge of it.  Think once hot former GE head Jack Welch, once hot management consultant Noel Tichy, and once hot model of GE's in-house education center at Crontonville.  When a program is front-loaded with the past, the odds are not good for the present. 

This program is starting when the content, ethical underpinnings, and the marketability of the MBA is being hammered globally.  As for the content, so much of it is the models of the past.  The values got us into the pickle of the Great Recession.  And, as BUSINESS WEEEK reports, percentage of members of the Class of '09 not getting even one offer is in the double digits.  For less than top-tier programs it's about 16%.  For Harvard B,  it's 8.8% vs. 3% in '07.  Median starting salary is down 1K, to $114K, from $115K in '07.

Unemployed, underemployed, and unhappily employed lawyers confide their "dream" of getting an MBA.  That added pile-on of yet another degree has never been more of a risk.  A more promising tactic, long term, is to get a job at a big box, any job, and observe their potential liabilities in customer service, safety, and employee relations.  Then start a firm specializing in those legal issues or become a journalist writing on them.  The Wal-Mart/Target/Costco model is the present and perhaps the future. 

Old-line Politics: US Chamber's $20 Million Annual Spending for Promoting Free Enterprise

The underbelly of the US Chamber shootout with the White House, Apple, Nike, et al. is that it has the audacity to practice old-line politics.  That's the politics of wealth.  The US Chamber intends to spend $20 million a year for several years advocating free enterprise. 

The game isn't played that way any more.  First of all, it ain't politically correct when so many Americans are jobless or, worse, homeless.  Secondly, with digital technology the BigFoot money isn't needed.  Barack Obama and his merry digital band led by Chris Hughes proved that out in the presidential campaign. Less money has become more credibility.  In fact, less is more in plenty of areas of influence and power. 

As a result of that web experiment gone perfectly right, the new politics is binary: You use the web, therefore message cheaply and look like someone we might trust or You use conventional lobbying methods, spend a bundle, and look stupid and untrustworthy.  See, as Paul Chaney put it in his 2009 book "The Digital Handshake," social media is a mindset.  It's the embrace of values like listening, collaboration, sharing, sweat equity and the pile-on of creativity.  Everyone in the know knows that.  Those who don't know that are no longer in the know. 

That's exactly why a relatively unknown assemblyman in California [Irvine -R] is catching fire.  He's Chuck DeVore and he could be the only conservative who understands the mindset of social media.  Even if he never used YouTube, blogging and more again, he would still be the new kind of pull force in politics.  He's booked for the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate in California and could just make it all the way.  That victory would make the new politics the only kind. 

AutoAdmit Settled: Yale Law School Plaintiffs Poster Girls for Difficulty of Digital Suits

The First Amendment has a way of protecting those merry mischief-makers online.  I found that out when over 100 anonymous commentators flamed me on a MediaBistro.com bulletin board. 

The two female Yale Law students who were not only flamed but allegedly defamed on AutoAdmit haven't fared much better.  They did sue.  But by time they did that the comments were embedded in search engines and read by prospective employers.  Articles on the difficulty of obtaining a legal remedy in such situations cited that digital tragedy.  I discuss it in my own white paper on cyberbullying Download Digitaldefamationcopy.

The two plaintiffs Heide Iravani and Brittan Heller, who have since received their degrees, had sought, reports THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, $245,000 in punitive damages plus legal expenses.  Yesterday, they settled, says the AP, with a handful of the more than 30 anonymous posters.  Terms were confidential.

The most effective prevention of these kinds of cyberattacks is to steer clear of all digital sites dominated by those under-30 years of age.  Both Mediabistro.com and AutoAdmit have young users.  With only about 48% of those under-27 employed, this group has plenty of time on their hands to torment others who have a goal. 

BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK - Fills gaps in enterprise-type editors, be cost-efficient

In ATLANTIC, Derek Thompson waxes positive about Bloomberg's acquisition of BUSINESS WEEK.  It serves to fill the gaps at BLOOMBERG of enterprise-type reporters, notesThompson.  The integration can be cost-efficient.  The operation can be moved into the BLOOMBERG digs and it's expected that BW staff will be cut by 20 to 50 percent.  Time will tell, of course, if this plays out the way Thompson anticipates.

WSJ.COM - Are tort reformers simply talking to themselves?

I did it: I had the self-confidence aka lack of deference to The Establishment to cancel my pricey subscription to WSJ.Com.  It has one of those pay walls which Rupert Murdoch plans to erect throughout his News Corp empire.  In the November edition of VANITY FAIR, media expert Michael Wolff opines why pay walls, at least at this time, might not be the right strategy for profitability.

Others could be joining me.  The content in WSJ.COM is material I can obtain for free elsewhere on the web.  Just as importantly, the tone and content of that material on free sites are often more aligned with these volatile scary times on other sites.  For example, the career advice on WSJ.COM is frequently a throwback to the 1980s: Network.  What about that gives us the edge?  Nothing. 

And, the opinion pieces, such as Philip Howard's recent diatribe against so-called excessive malpractice litigation, seem to pontificate rather than argue.  Most of those opinion-editorials seem to be preaching to the choir rather than delivering a message that resonates.

To regain influence, tort reformers might have to depart their usual media platforms and come out to meet us on less protected territory.  Otherwise, they will continue to talk to themselves.  Who is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce addressing?  Several utilities, Nike, then Apple stopped listening and quit their membership.