Law And More

Harvard Puts Out Welcome Mat: Kevin Cao steps over it

The story has gone viral.  Virginia high school senior Kevin Cao has turned down Harvard for the University of Virginia, reports Steve Annear in BOSTON Magazine. 

Harvard received 35,023 applications and admitted 2,029 or 5.8%.  Cao was one of them But when he went to visit campus he didn't like the better-than-thou attitude of students and alumni.  He sensed the competition would be cut-throat.  And someone tipped him off he would be lonely.

He put down all the reasons why he was stepping over the welcome mat and posted that on Facebook and Google docs.  Of course, no one was going to miss out on reading that.

Time will tell if Cao applies to Harvard Law School, if he will be accepted.  In four years, who knows - the legal sector could have bounced back and the kid all-grown-up wants in.

One for Preet Bharara: What did Bloomberg News reporters know, when did they know it, and did they trade on information

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. 

That's an observation from a play by William Shakespeare.  The royal figures, in terms of wealth and power, associated with Bloomberg terminal and Bloomberg News probably didn't sleep so hot last night. 

As we all know, News Corp's the NEW YORK POST broke the story that Bloomberg News reporters were observing traders' activity on the terminals. Now that the shock is over, we look at implications.  Over in his office, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and his team must be considering the issue: What did those Bloomberg News reporters know, when did they know it, did they trade on any of that information on their own or someone else's account, and did gains result?

If there is cause to investigate that issue, Bharara can bag prey bigger than would be SAC hedge fund founder Steve Cohen for alleged insider trading.  This could open a whole new phase in Bharara's career. 

Michael Arrington, TechCrunch Founder, Sues Jenn Allen: Facebook, twitter posts as evidence

In what could turn out to be a huge lawsuit in terms of media attention and the questions it raises about posting on social networks, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington sued former girlfriend Jenn Allen.

As BUSINESS INSIDER reports, Arrington, one of the biggest names in tech coverage, has accused Allen of defamation and false publication.  Here, thanks to VALLEYWAG, is a copy of the complaint.

On social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, Allen stated that Arrington had allegedly done things to her as serious as rape and as ambiguous as emotional abuse.  When she made those claims, given Arrington's powerful brandname and wealth, they received considerable coverage in both business and tech media.  Now that a lawsuit has been filed, the legal media will probably jump in too.

On trial, of course, is what one can post on social networks and not be vulnerable to legal action.  If Arrington's suit doesn't get tossed, this kind of complaint could send a chill through social networks.  Those used to posting without much thought to the legal implications could become quite circumspect.  The impact on the popularity of Facebook and Twitter could be huge.

Apps Educating Consumer about Law: Latham & Watkins doing good, in hopes of doing well

Major law firms such as Latham & Watkins, O'Melveny & Myers, and Baker & McKenzie have put a new wrinkle in the old branding tactic of educating consumers. 

Instead of publishing a detailed article on some topic useful to consumers, those law firms have developed free mobile apps providing information about niche legal areas, reports Julia Love of  THE RECORDER.  Such sharing of information and insight could generate a halo effect for their brand.  And that can build the kind of trust which brings in the new client and prevents churn.

These law firms have the advantage of never committing the error of "giving away the store" through this kind of outreach.  Law, unlike my field of communications, is too complex and ambiguous a field for B2B prospects to assume they can go it alone.

"I f_______ing hate it here" direct mail gets BLOOMBERG social media head fired

Of all professionals, a director of social media at a business publication like BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK should realize that no electronic communication is truly private.  Daily Jared Keller must have bumped into news of some miscreant getting nailed through email when the feds or the lawyers for the other side retrieved them.

But, none the less, Keller did send a fellow social media head honcho at Reuters Matthew Keys the direct mail stating about his employer BBW "I f____ing hate it here."  As Stefan Becket reports in NEW YORK Magazine, Keys made that private communication public.  That could have been in retaliation when Keller leaked to Gizmodo last March when Keys had been indicted for hacking.  Last week Keys had lost his job.  This week Keller lost his.

This is all quite peculiar but let's stick just to the free-wheeling direct-mail part.  We in business communications know like we know libel laws that we have to think like lawyers when it comes to electronic anything.  Here is an interview with a BigLaw partner warning BigPharma to be hyper-cautious.  But for some insane reason caution is too often throw to the wind.  For example, some lawyers at DLA Piper joked around in email about allegedly overcharging a client. When that client sued, yes for allegedly being overcharged, those emails turned up in e-discovery.

In a world in which there is no trust loose lips in electronic communications could sink careers as well as whole institutions. 

Michelle Crosby & Wevorce: This 37-year-old lawyer gets her divorce startup business funded

Generation X lawyer Michelle Crosby has found a way of doing law in a way she loves.  

As THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE reports, she has started up a kind of H&R Block for divorces called Wevorce.  That was after she left her career path at a law firm.  She felt a natural affinity for divorce since her partners had gone through that when she was very young.

Of course, she needed funding for her enterprise.  When the bank was dragging its heels on her request of a $10,000 loan (peanuts), Crosby got an email from private investors.  They asked her to pitch them.  So she did.  They invested $100,000 for a 7% stake.  Since then she has raised more than a $1 million. 

This approach could be the way more lawyers should go.  Investors are constantly searching for enterprises to fund in order to passively earn money.  It's up to the lawyer to come up with a concept and the model for how it will produce revenue.  That revenue piece is the key to getting funding.  Forget hammering the big picture about how the industry or niche will quadruple in size in the next 10 minutes.  Investors need to know the details on how the specific enterprise will make enough bucks for them to have a good ROI.  

NEWSWEEK Purchase a Mistake, Says Barry Diller - Should he have Tina Brown intern at Abovethelaw.com?

IAC head Barry Diller not only said it was a mistake buying print NEWSWEEK, overseen by Tina Brown.  He added that he didn't have great expectations for its digital compression into the Daily Beast.  If he wants to save the media property he may have a shot at that by sending Brown to Abovethelaw.com (ATL) as an intern.

Clearly, Brown, who uses the anachronistic term "zeitgeist," can't get with the zeitgeist of a digital era. For example, the articles for Daily Beast have too many ideas, as in the olden days, not one idea that is played with in brilliant and provocative ways.

At ATL, David, Elie, Staci, and Joe have down cold the minimalism of driving one message forward until readers are persuaded or resist so aggressively that the piece goes viral, then results in behavior change.  I have a hunch that it was Elie who is responsible for shaking Millennials out of denial that law school had a lousy ROI.  His rhetorical crusade was relentless and it worked, finally.  Applications are down.  

Also, ATL doesn't need the big bucks to operate which burdens Daily Beast.  It has a volunteer army of tipsters who in almost cult-like fashion pony up smug or abrasive memos from law firms.  And, thanks to the new rules on aligning the monthly repayment of law school student loans to monthly income the writers aren't going to bellyache too much about making a lot more.

What could Intern Tina pick up at ATL?  Plenty, including:

Keep it simple.  If the attention span of those who scored in the 99 percentile of the LSATs is low, lower is that of the demographics for Daily Beast.

Throw high earnestness, not money, into coverage.  Human beings are suckers for a wrong that needs to be made right, not sophistication created with money.

Show you're having fun.  Everyone wants to be a part, in some way, of ATL because it seems a throwback to the heady days of the ad business in the 1960s but without the undertow of sadness of "Mad Men." 

Be accessible.  Staci told me it was good to hear from me.   Would the folks at Daily Beast make me feel like a pest?

Who should supervise Intern Tina?  Joe has the ideal temperament for that. In return? Intern Tina can pay off all the ATL members student loans.

 

In contrast to marketing, "public relations is closer to relationship building," Brian Tannebaum, on Abovethelaw.com

Too many law firms have signed contracts with social media "experts' for myriad services which have not brought in new clients or prevented existing ones from defecting. 

It's not so much that the "experts" were cons.  More often the law firm didn't invest the time in shopping around and getting up to speed on the right questions to ask.  Therefore, just as happens with uninformed consumers, they feel "cheated."

The timing, therefore, is great for Brian Tannebaum's column on Abovethelaw.com explaining the key difference between various kinds of marketing, including those focused on social media, and public relations. Depending on the law firm's promotional needs, public relations might be the better investment long term.

From the get-go, Tannebaum points out that public relations is very different from marketing per se.  It's, he points out, "closer to relationship building." The competent public relations firm puts the law firm leadership in contact with the right people, both possible clients and media, and events and steers them clear of the wrong ones.  Regarding the latter, a good public relations agency will know that the managing partner shouldn't deliver the keynote speech at a conference which will produce more controversy than the firm can handle.

Since law firms want to connect with possible clients they will need to focus on the commercial sector, not other lawyers.  One way to do that is for the leadership to position key partners as thought leaders.  Once that is established, they will not only receive myriad invitations to speak at influential business forums.  They will also be sought after for submitting bylined think pieces and for interviews and background information for brandname business media.

Searching for a public relations agency, as Tannebaum notes, requires putting in face time with at least a few, listening, asking questions, and investigating track records.  To find out about the firms in your area you can check out O'Dwyer's Public Relations Directory.  Please click here for free access to that database.  It could be useful to become "PR Literate." One easy way to do that is to get a paid subscription to O'Dwyer's Public Relations Daily Online Newsletter.  Here are the details about subscribing. 

As a ghostwriter/speechwriter, I research and create materials for thought leaders which resonate with the right constituencies. For a complimentary consultation, please contact mgenova981@aol.com.

Legal Sector Recruiting: Time to outsource function to BigData

No surprise, the staid legal sector, despite its slow growth and reported internal unhappiness at all levels, is still recruiting the old-fashioned way.  For new associates, law firms go through the familar ritual of screening for summer interns, some of who will get hired.  There is also the trip in-person to law schools to interview those at the top of the class, on law review, and with the look of what will fit in with the organizational culture. For laterals, it's word of mouth, through head hunters, or by newly hired partners dragging along a few buddies. And although it's 6 years since The Crash of the legal industry all those recruits have not turned around, never mind transformed BigLaw, MidLaw, or SmallLaw.

Clearly, the risk is not taking the risk of outsourcing the whole function to BigData.  Today's THE NEW YORK TIMES, in its business section, has yet another one of those articles on how the private sector is turning to algorithms to locate talent which might have been bypassed by traditional recruiting practices.  This new field is called "work-force science."  The approaches tend to remove the conventional assumptions about what makes for a successful hire.

"Bias often takes forms that people may not recognize," says the article's author Matt Richtel.  And it's people, often with enough power held long enough to make them smug, who make the hiring decisions in law firms.  What if those people were removed from the value equation?  Skadden could wind up hiring a woman at the middle of her class in a non-elite law school.  Work-force science could pick up on her ability to notice details no one else has and present them persuasively to the powers-that-be as she had in her third-year pro bono clinic work.  In addition, she seems a natural rain maker who sold used Toyotas to get through college.

Human bias tends to be increased by fear.  Since the legal sector is full of that the time may have come for adopting world-force science.

Richard Cordray: BigData kind of guy

What does Richard Cordray, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, intend to find out by gathering financial data about 10 million consumers in America? 

According to THE BLOG OF THE LEGAL TIMES, Cordray told the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs the purpose is to analyze consumer financial behavior with the mission of preventing harm.  Republican member of the Committee Mike Johanns objected on the grounds of invasion of privacy.

However, others might cheer Cordray for seeking insight through analyzing BigData, just as the private-sector movers and shakers are.  Through BigData, for example, alternates could be developed for FICO ratings to determine credit-worthiness.  Some social entrepreneurs are focusing on extracting from mobile phone usage patterns to create formulas for identifying from them which applicants for loans would be likely to repay them.

Had Cordray not put his agency's nose into BigData he could be vilified as just not being with the times.