Law And More

"Law Office of Chris Sanchez v. Kocaoglan" - Litigation about Social Network Reviews and More

Filed on August 19, 2019, in County Court of Hidalgo County, Texas, lawsuit "Law Office of Chris Sanchez v. Kocagoglan" can establish fear about posting negative reviews on social networks. Here is a copy of that complaint.

As Law.com reports, lawyer Chris Sanchez contends the statements posted on his own Facebook page and Google about his law firm by his former client constitute defamation and libel. The poster had been Trevor Kocaoglan. He was allegedly joined in the postings by his boss Pablo Trejo. Both are defendants in the lawsuit.

The story starts out with Kacaoglan having Sanchez represent him in a legal matter associated with a fire in his vehicle. The relationship soured and Sanchez terminated representing him. The lawyer claims the client harassed him verbally in person and on the phone, also sending 50 phishing emails. Kocaoglan contends it essentially was the other way around. 

Sanchez is requesting damages, lost profits, attorney fees, and more. 

The defendants contend their statements on social are protected by the Texas Citizens Participation Act. That is intended to prevent Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. 

This is not the first high-profile bit of litigation associated with negative comments on social about a business. DeLand Animal Hospital sued former customer Thomas Lloyd who had posted negatives on Yelp. However, leadership at DeLand contends it was not the review itself that precipitated the complaint. Instead it had been an alleged smear campaign organized by the defendant. 

These kinds of push-back lawsuits demonstrate the power of online reviews. According to Pew research, 82% of consumers read online reviews sometimes and 40% all the time. 

Increasingly, customers/clients who seem satisfied with their transactions are being asked by the business to "leave a positive review on Google." 

Given the influence of online reviews, more legal action can be expected against those who are perceived as making false statements about a business.

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"Perella Weinberg v. Michael Kramer, et al." - Weil Gotshal Requests to Withdraw from Litigation

High drama in both boutique banking and biglaw.

After the leadership at specialized investment banker Perella Weinberg Partners discovered a supposed coup by Michael Kramer, et al. to flee and form a competitor, PWP sued. That was "Perella Weinberg Partners v. Michael Kramer et al." Among the contentions had been a breach of contract.

Law firm Weil Gotshal represented PWP.

That was then.

In the interim, Weil Gotschal botched the pay packages for Kramer and another member of the alleged coup Derron Slonecker. The mistake was missing the deadline for a routine filing of paperwork. That was about deferring compensation for five months. But the law firm didn't report the error to either the client or Kramer and Slonecker. What was generated were unpaid liabilities. 

In the loop is the IRS which is demanding millions. All parties are engaged in the blame game about which has responsibility for paying those bills. Recently the tension escalated to Weil Gotchal's rescinding the privilege of allowing those at PWP to dine in its cafeteria.

Now, another shoe drops.

The New York Post reports that Weil Gotshal requested permission from Judge Peter Sherwood to withdraw from representing PWP. Permission is expected to be granted. Boies Schiller will take its place. The rumor is that PWP threatened to fire Weil Gotshal. 

As things stand, it is unclear what party will be saddled with any taxes, fines, and penalties because of the failure to file the paperwork on deferred compensation. 

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Legal Writer - REMOTE

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Sinclair Broadcasting, Cockeysville, MD - Corporate Counsel

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Student Press Law Center, D.C. - Paid Journalism Intern

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EI Inside the Law Firm - How Long Can Rainmakers Ignore That Internally?

Obviously, law firm rainmakers know how to leverage EI - Emotional Intelligence - to sell services and keep clients happy. 

The problem comes, observes Law.com, when rainmakers don't extend that skill set to how they interact people inside the firm. This is common. 

As a result, the fallout from team members could range from flight of talent to suppression of good ideas. 

Those who have worked in organizations have often experienced that disconnect.

Leadership has great interactional success with external constituencies, be they shareholders, customers/clients, or members of the media. Internally they are saddled with nicknames like "Attila the Hun" or "Dragon Lady." They are oblivious to how they are affecting colleagues, subordinates, and rank and file. That lousy treatment is documented on Glassdoor. 

At the very least, those anonymous employee evaluations on Glassdoor could discourage the best and brightest from applying for jobs.

But there is a much more dire scenario.

During the next recession, the consequences of alienating team members can bite those Attila the Huns and Dragon Ladies in the results. That's when those types get pushed out. In blunt terms, the troops turn on them at the worst of times.

Internally, those who have been oppressed get it that they have an opening to "get" that leader. A familiar tactic is leaking to the media. The coverage throws an unwanted spotlight on the leader. The leader is thrown off his or her game. That agitation invites more media leaks. Doing that could become a sport. In the legal sector, that leaking could be to Abovethelaw. 

There will be many other ways of revenge. For instance, the numbers are down, the leaders' jobs are on the line, and the team frequently uses passive resistance. They withhold ideas. They drag their feet on performing tasks. They spread fake gossip. They get those they know to post negative items about the leader on social networks. There is a collective consciousness that the leader is being watched, the job is vulnerable, and there is glee at doing what it takes to hurry the monster out the door. 

According to psychologist Dan Goleman, who brought mainstream the importance of EI in 1995, the capability consists of four traits:

Self-Awareness

Self-Management

Social Awareness

Relationship Insight. 

Can law firms save themselves by coaching rainmakers on how to transform their behavior internally? This could be the best preparation for navigating the next downturn.

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MIT's Richard Stallman - Career Interrupted, But Maybe Not for Long

Brilliant professionals can be very dumb about how the world really works. And that cluelessness can derail a successful career. At least temporarily.

MIT professor in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory - Richard Stallman - has resigned. He should have known in this digital era to never put in email what you don't want the world to see and interpret as it wishes. After all, he had played every day in the tech sandbox. 

As the New York Post reports, in an email on MIT's listserv Stallman touched what has become the third rail: anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein. 

It was Vice which essentially broke this story.

On the listserv, Stallman attempted to defend MIT's background with Epstein. Part of that was positing a "most plausible scenario" that minor at the time Virginia Giuffre had been "entirely willing" to have sex with math expert Marvin Minsky. Stallman extended that scenario to all the women in the Epstein sex trafficking loop. 

In this time of high political sensitivity such a hypothesis is not what reasonable people put out there. And that's that.

But, Stallman's reputation and career might recover from this.

Prominent players such as Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessing and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman have come to the defense of Joi Ito. That former head of the MIT Media Lab also had resigned. It had been discovered that the Media Lab had not been transparent about donations from Epstein. 

Those whose branding and career path have been disrupted by fallout from the Epstein scandal should lay low. If they have the resources they should hire a top expert in reputation restoration.

Meanwhile, they learned the brutal lesson that before engaging in any behavior, that should be filtered through how the media would interpret it. Currently, the media is the most powerful institution in the world. And in order to worm their way into the force field, more and more folks rush to leak to the media. In a sense it's power by association.

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Jeffrey Epstein - Harvard's Kind of Mea Culpa

Intense media coverage of Jeffrey Epstein's association with elite universities has put Harvard on the hot seat.

Predictably, Harvard's president Lawrence Bacow has put out there an elaborate mea culpa. Eloquent, of course. Here is a copy of Bocow's letter to the Harvard community. 

That was even though Harvard, as least according to information available right now, didn't accept funds after Esptein's 2008 conviction. The total in various kinds of donations added up to about $9 million. Until recently, $2.4 million had not been known. Here are more details from Boston Magazine.

As for Epstein's serving as a visiting fellow in the psychology department, that also took place before the conviction. The time was 2005. Who is being investigated is the professor who made that appointment - Stephen Kosslyn. He went on to establish a college in San Francisco and had been on the receiving end of Epstein's donations. 

The odds are that the Harvard brand will be intact when this crisis blows over. 

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WeWork - IPO Probably Will Be Delayed

Investors are not buying into what WeWork claims its value is. And they demand reforms of the startup's governance.

That has had an impact on WeWork parent's decisions.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, it seems that the IPO will be delayed. That means that the roadshow planned to "selling" that will be called off.

Meanwhile the influential Scott Galloway, NYU professor, has been using social media to hammer all that is wrong with WeWork. His commentary is also in third-party media. He's a genius in getting pickup on his observations on whatever is related to the internet. 

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Buyouts - Morgan Lewis & Bochius Offers Packages to All Legal Secretaries

Given word-processing technology and the sophisticated features of the PC, it's amazing that any legal secretaries are left in law firms. But they are.

But maybe not for much longer.

As Abovethelaw.com reports, Morgan Lewis & Bochius is offering buyout packages to all legal secretaries in all its offices. The package provides for two weeks salary for each year of work, up to 52 weeks.

Should signs of recession hover over the legal sector, there will be plenty more of these - or outright layoffs. The odds are against legal secretaries having soft landings, that is, picking up comparable jobs.

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