Law And More

Hillary Clinton: Tweeting provides an age-lift

The Hillary Clinton brand needed an age-lift, at least if it's going to go up against New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in 2016.  A Baby Boomer, she's in her mid 60s.  A Generation Xer, he's in his early 50s.  Among politicos, he's her equal in strategy and tactics.

Through using Twitter, Hillary might have narrowed the age gap.  As THE WASHINGTON POST reports her Twitter persona is cool.  Instead of grimly Leaning In, she self deprecates.  That includes making fun of her signature pantsuits. 

In addition to the matter of age, there's the Benghazi issue.  According to Gallup her favorability rating has gone down to 58%. 

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) Plans Class Action Lawsuit: To be filed against Obama Administration

Crisis makes breakthroughs is careers, just as wars make generals.  U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) can create a brandname in courageous leadership for himself, in response to the alleged unconstitutional surveillance by the Obama Administration.  As THE WASHINGTON POST reports, Paul is planning to file a class action lawsuit on behalf of at least 10 million Americans.  He will ask customers of internet providers and phone companies to participate in the lawsuit.

This electronic peeping tom story keeps getting bigger and more compelling.  Now, thanks to the GUARDIAN, we know that 29-year-old employee Edward Snowden at Booz Allen Hamilton was the leaker on PRISM.  Why such as young man with such as good job ($200,000 yearly) would risk it all as a whistle-blower will trigger decades of commenatry and research about the mind and motivation of those who engage in "truth-telling."

Photo Fatigue: Need for federal law to bar transmission of all those cute photos w/o permission

Timeline. Smimeline.  Some of us do not want to receive via web or mobile photos updating anyone's life or the lives of the family, pets, and roses in the garden.  Yeah, photo fatigue.

Some courageous federal legislator has to propose a bill requiring permission to transmit personal photos to anyone.  The logistics are not hard to configure.  There would simply be an opt-out list as with telemarketers.  It would be titled, "Thank you for not sharing your photos." Violation of this law would result in mandatory jail time, a place where they would detox from the compulsion.

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.