Law And More

Latham Layoffs - The Messages Aren't Pretty

Everyone in legal circles knows every detail of the layoffs and delayed start dates at Latham & Watkins.  And everyone, reports Amanda Royal in THE RECORDER, is opining about what messages Latham might be sending about the global economy and future opportunity in the profession of law.

None of those messages are pretty.  They could communicate a long-term downturn.  Since Latham is a global firm, they also might indicate the scope of the downturn which is worldwide. They also should lead a reasonable young person to reconsider a career in the legal profession.  In addition, there is the question for law schools which aren't among the top 14: Should you even be in existence as the profession seems to be contracting?

There's no way to put a rosy spin on all this.  Royal quotes some who try.  For instance, one head hunter opines this is a great opportunity for the displaced Latham lawyers to take their $100,000 in severance and re-think their career path. 

But, come on, those displaced lawyers would much prefer to have a place at Latham than the option to start all over again.  From experience, I know: Getting canned is never a blessing and I never perceived it as such.  We get through it.  We might turn the lemon into lemonade.  But it's horrific.  We join the Latham laid-off in mourning this loss.

Note:  Those attorneys interested in re-making a resume can have a complimentary consultation with career-transition boutique Mint Resumes. It's operated by Silicon Valley marketing guru Marsha Keeffer [Mkeeffer@gmail.com.]

Jackson Lewis et al. - Law firms need PR counsel in alleged cyber-bullying

Law firm Jackson Lewis, reports Robert J. Ambrogi on LEGAL BLOG WATCH, "delivered two nastygrams this week to two health industry blogs, demanding that they take down anonymous comments and hand over information to help identify the person who posted the comments." 

The two blogs are CONFESSIONS OF A PEDIATRIC PRACTICE CONSULTANT and CHILMARK RESEARCH. Their response: No and No.  The organization which perceives itself an alleged victim of cyber-bulling is the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society.

Jackson Lewis might soon discover its move might have been exactly the wrong one.  Its demands will be all over the net, attracting even more attention for the content it is trying to have vanish.  That will include more of it splashed on search engines, more coverage of the dispute by media, and more side-taking.  

Also, although the law might be on its side to find out the actual identity of the anonymous blogger, the legal process moves too slowly, with remedies available too trivial, to make a difference.  That was chronicled in the March edition of PORTFOLIO.  In his article "Slimed Online," David Margolick details the ordeal of two female Yale law students who were allegedly defamed on AUTOADMIT.  Their legal moves got the two women little in settlements and seemingly less in satisfaction.

Jackson Lewis might have served its client more effectively if it had brought in a public relations consultant for advice.  My hunch is this would have been the communications expert's recommendations:

• Wait.  Frequently, a net controversy will vanish as quickly as it appeared.  That's the nature of the medium of the Internet.  That's why it's prudent to monitor the situation for signs of acceleration, making no response.  Given the rapid pace of cyberspace, the attackers, if ignored, will probably move onto another target.

• If there is to be a response, it must be on one's own digital territory. That's why it's imperative to have a rumor-management plan in-place and one's digital sites already operating.  Never ever respond on the sites of the attacker. 

• If wrong, admit it, provide a sincere apology, and drop the matter.  If right, present one's response.

• To contain the crisis, the response should be part of an overall message.  That might be: We care about people. And show it. Staying within this message will eventually shut down the conversation. Meandering out of its parameters will open Pandora's Box.

• The tone should be conversational, not corporatese or even statesmanlike.  Messages on the web will only resonate with a human voice. Tone is everything Download SavingSoulsJaneGenova.

• If the attack continues, the reason is usually that there is an unanswered question or that those engaged in the activity haven't gotten something they want.  Drill down to uncovering any hanging issues or if it's useful to grant the attacker's demands. 

• An excellent template for rumor management might be plaintiff attorney Bill Marler's blog.  He's become a master at knowing when to hold and when to fold and how.  In his communications, including his Congressional testimony, Marler is 100-percent conversational Download Testimonywaxmanfoodsafety. [Disclosure: I do digital editing for Marler Clark.]

This kind of strategic and tactical guidance about rumor-management on the net is contained in Bob Dilenschneider's public relations handbook to be published by the American Management Association in late Spring or early summer. Dilenschneider, founder of the global advisory firm The Dilenschneider Group [DGI], coaches leaders about the threats and opportunities presented on the web. 

For the chapter on the communications dynamics and the legal implications of a net attack, Dilenschneider uses the former FBI Assistant Director Mark Mershon.  The latter is currently a Senior Consultant with DGI.  Former FBI! Yes, the issues embedded in alleged cyber-bullying are that serious, that complex, and that potentially catastrophic.  Here is DGI's global trend report Download WorldinCrisisLookstoaNewEra. [Disclosure: I do digital writing for DGI.]

Observation: In alleged cyber-bullying, the counsel of the PR experts should trump the opining of the lawyers. [Disclosure: I make my living as a communications expert.]

Prince Walid bin Talal "has received special investor care," NEW YORK TIMES

If there a correlation between being made to feel special and losing one's money in investments?  Maybe. 

After all, those "permitted" to lose their millions or billions in Bernard Madoff's ponzi scheme often saw themselves as a type of chosen people. 

Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal, who invested a bundle in Citigroup, report Landon Thomas Jr. and Eric Dash in THE NEW YORK TIMES, "has received special investor care." There were ritual pilgrimages by Citi's brass to visit with the Prince Walid in his tent.  Those pilgrims included Sandy Weill, Chuck Prince III, and Robert Rubin.  Now, notes Thomas and Dash, this man made to feel so special is "now suffering the public embarrassment" of seeing his investment at $1.50 a share.

Should that sense of specialness be some kind of tip-off of possible problems? 

Latham Cuts 190 Associates: End of Era of Magical Thinking

On what could go down in legal history as The Friday Massacre, today - and it's just beginning - Latham & Watkins  confirmed that it is cutting 190 associates.  THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL also reports that Lownenstein Sandler let go eight percent of its attorneys [subscription required but clip available on Law.com.]

America's middle and upper classes have had a genius for pulling off magical thinking or superimposing fantasy on what should be on reality.  That might have just ended.  Not only are we getting it that things are that bad.   We're also digesting that this economic ordeal could go on for years. Here is global advisory firm The Dilenschneider Group's analysis of this crisis Download WorldinCrisisLookstoaNewEra. 

For unemployed attorneys and members of the law class of '09 the end of magical thinking might mean, as friends and family have been advising laid-off attorney Dan Zoloth Dorfman, "to look outside the law."  So, where is there demand in work that former attorneys might be able to do? 

Humor is one.  That market is always strong and it surges during hard times.  Many comics such as Charlie Chaplin got their start during the Great Depression. Dan Gerstein, President of Gotham Ghostwriters, has put out a call for those who can create humor.  As for performing humor, the best route is to develop a niche identity and try it out locally such as in senior citizen complexes.  Incidntally, Gerstein is also in the market for book ghostwriters [Dan@GothamGhostwriters.com.]

Sales is another.  The easiest way in is to apply for commission-only positions.  From there, if you find you can sell, there's unlimited earnings runway.  Eventually, you can set up an enterprise coaching others to sell - products, services, causes, and themselves.  Although America is known for its marketing prowess, on an individual basis most professionals haven't been oriented to selling.  Yet, it is the most important skill as we make progress on the food chain.

Pet services is a third.  My vet says that business has slowed a little.  But that has nothing to do with other kinds of pet services, ranging from grooming to grief counseling after the four-footed companion has died. Psychic Sylvia Browne, who has shown herself to be an astute marketer, has just published "All Pets Go To Heaven: The Spiritual Lives of the Animals We Love."

A fourth is aspects of health care and education.  Fuse a legal background with the needs in those fields and a good living might be had.

Often, rituals get us through tough transitions.  Think wakes, bachelor parties, having dinner with friends after a romantic loss.  Displaced attorneys can invent one for daring to try other things.  Recommendations: Throw out the lion's share of books, notes, and clipped articles schlepped around over years of schooling, first job, second job, and abortive job hunt.  It wasn't until I did that that I was able to write my first book.

"Friends, family have urged me to look outside the law," Dan Dorfman, 60

Dan Zoloth Dorfman's story provides at least two lessons for the unemployed and those fearing the ax. 

One, beware making a major career change late in life.  Dorfman received his law degree when he was 50, after 20 years as a rabbi and nonprofit administrator. 

Two, when a job search fails to turn up a job, maybe the searcher should stop searching for that specific kind of job. 

This is all occurring at a time when layoffs and rescinded offers have become commonplace in the legal profession.  Lowenstein Sandler, for instance, cut eight percent of attorneys and reduced incoming associate slots by three [Reported in THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, subscription required, but clip available on Law.com.]

In yesterday's THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Dorfman tells  his tale of being without a permanent law job since he was laid off in September 2006.  He is working temporary attorney assignments.  From what he reports, he seems to have done everything you're supposed to during an aggressive job hunt.  Currently, he says, "Friends and family have also urged me to look outside the law and I have begun that process."

Clearly, Dorfman is thinking binary: Law or something else.  That might be way too narrow.  And it's likely it will not lead to a job in either category.

Those of us who don't quite fit into conventional job slots - e.g. late career-changers, the over-50, the over-educated - have been putting together multiple streams of income.  This is exactly the recommendation Leonard Felder makes in "Fitting in is Overrated: The survival guide for anyone who have ever felt like an outsider." 

This can be configured in a variety of ways.  When I was rebuilding after my communications boutique with a single specialty in speechwriting tanked in 2003, I worked a full-time job in a blue-collar field, did freelance marketing communications assignments, and tested out what writing services were in demand.  I then switched the mixture to a part-time job, contract assignments, and developing a boutique in social media.  By 2007, the boutique took off enough for me to drop the other streams of income.

Dorfman can continue to do contract law work while he launches his own legal firm, with or without partners.  Also open to him are part-time jobs as a spiritual advisor, a consultant to the nonprofit sector, creating a legal-related enterprise on the web and doing executive coaching.  The only trick in all this is to keep the professional identities separate.  Employers, clients and customers can't handle complexity.  To them, we are X the lawyer, Y the counselor, and Z the consultant.

What kind of world are we all trying to make a living in?  Global advisory firm The Dilenschneider Group provides this trend report on the current crisis environment Download WorldinCrisisLookstoaNewEra.

Porker Patrol - CT AG Blumenthal nails makers of Enviga

Finally someone is going to bat for us porkers. 

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal got Beverage Partnership Worldwide [BPW] to stop claiming Enviga burns calories and for it to kick in settlement money.  A joint venture of Coca-Cola and Nestle, BPW had positioned Enviga as a drink that burns extra calories. As John O'Brien reports in LEGAL NEWSLINE, the new Enviga label will clearly state that "calorie burning and weight loss requires proper diet and exercise."

Philly DA Rescinds 12 Offers - Admit investing in law career not good idea, leverage smarts/skills

The lack of lawyer jobs has spread beyond BigLaw to the public sector.  Today, reports Gina Passarella in THE LEGAL INTELLIGENGER, the "Philadelphia District Attorney's Officer ... rescinded offers to the 12 incoming attorneys who were set to start in the fall." Those doing the rescinding call this a "heartbreaking" decision.  Sorry, your hearts are broken, rescinders.

Now to those who thought they had employment, although the relatively low-paying kind, and don't.  They have plenty to consider, at the top of the list how to pay their bills, including possible student loans and financing preparing for the bar examination in Pennsylvania.  So, could this drying up of law jobs in government be some kind of tipping point?  My hunch, given that two of my career paths vanished beneath me, is that it should be.

Not that anyone ought to surrender the mission to be an attorney, be that in the private or public sector.  Keep trying for the jobs available.  However, the time has come to do a 180, that is, shift from strategically planning a career in law to leveraging your smarts and skills to still earning a decent to good living.  That doesn't necessarily mean writing off as a loss your investment of time, money, and hope in becoming a practicing attorney.  It does mean investigating other options, aggressively.  After all, you're not getting any younger and your monthly nut isn't going away. Look at it this way:  If you had whatever it took to get into, complete law school, and position/package yourself for a search for employment, you know plenty and can do plenty.

Here are some recommendations to ready yourself from that leap from what was/is to what could be:

• Get over denial, self-pity, the need to compulsively discuss how things are playing out.  That's a luxury none of us can afford in this turbulent, fast-moving marketplace.

• Ask for help, but without panic or desperation.  That could range from chatting things up with a spiritual advisor to taking Uncle Guido out for a beer and checking out opportunities in waste management.  The latter needs plenty of your kinds of perspective.

• Study, as if for the bar exam, help-wanted on all Internet job sites.  How can you force-fit what you know and any experience such as helping out in the family deli growing up on what employers need.  Be imaginative and put together a series of resumes and cover letters which tell those new stories.  Those lacking creativity, can contact Mint Resumes, a service I refer those I coach to.  That shop in California has a 120% [multiple offers] hit rate.  Ask for Marsha [Mkeeffer@gmail.com].

• Pray.  All prayer is is this: An admission that we can't deal with whatever.  We surrender our will to some other force out there.  A prayer can be as basic as "I don't know.  Help." 

• Have revenue coming in.  That could mean renting out the basement to a student, grabbing survival jobs [here's my experience with that Download Geezerguts], and temping for $35 an hour as a contract attorney.

• Forget the experts and trust our guts.  That's what animals have been doing from the beginning of time and they're around to tell the tale.  Some of you will develop what's called "Golden Guts" and become very wealthy.

Since we're all terribly overeducated, we like to read our way through ordeals.  Recommended are:

• "Confidence" by Rosabeth Kanter
• "When You're Falling, Dive" by Mark Matousek
• "Born to Kvetch" by Michael Wex
• "Emotional Intelligence on the job and in our own businesses," by The Jersey City Kid Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg.

Drywall 2005-06 - Made in the US or China?

Around 2005 and 2006, there was a problem with Chinese-produced drywall. Homeowners who ensured that their builders weren't using it assumed they were safe.  Maybe not.  Or maybe their builders were using it and simply not disclosing that.  That plus the possible health problems associated with contaminated drywall has made for class action lawsuits, reports John Pacenti in DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW.  

Among the ramifications of a settlement or verdict favoring plaintiffs could be yet another hit to the U.S. building industry.  At stake is its reputation for full disclosure.  National Gypsum is along the defendants.  Also the matter of using China as a supplier again rears its head.   

In addition, since the drywall in the complaints allegedly contains sulphur emissions, houses might have to be torn down to the studs and the nature of any long-term health problems could be another huge cost.  If children have been possibily impacted, good luck defendants.  I know the likely emotional pull of children on jurors from interviewing four of them whose verdict went against three of the defendants in the Rhode Island lead paint trial II.

As Pacenti notes, "Numerous lawsuits have been filed over drywall, and the Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., law firm of Leopold-Kuvin filed a motion Wednesday with the Federal Multi-District Litigation Panel to consolidate the drywall class action complaints being filed across the country."  The lawsuits are expected to include claims of:

• Negligence
• Liability
• Breach of express warranty
• Unjust enrichment
• Violation of the state Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Requiem for Law Blogs: Managing the [post-print] metabolism

At THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Law Blog, the lead writer departed.  Last Friday, Dan Slater announced his leaving.  As some of us recall, his predecessor Peter Lattman also made a similar announcement over a year ago.  They're not alone.  In Legal Blog Watch, Robert J. Ambrogi delivers a eulogy of sorts for three other legal bloggers who "threw in the virtual towel."

Obviously, it isn't the subject matter.  Just about every digital site, ranging from Gawker.com to Politico.com, has experienced unusual turnover.  It's the metabolism.  It's post-print.  And many print writers can't or won't adjust.  In THE NEW REPUBLIC, Gabriel Sherman describes the pace of an online publication.  There, observes Sherman, "speed rules" on a sustained basis. One of the head honchos at Politico.com John Harris reminded the digital staff that they "can't organize our thinking around the institutional rhythms of a newspaper.  It's not okay to sprint for three days and then coast."

The environment which Sherman has captured in her article mirrors that of entrepreneurship.  The metabolism is hypomanic.  And it was exactly the speedy thought processes and fast execution, argues psychologist John D. Gartner in his 2005 "The Hypomanic Edge: The link between a little craziness and a lot of success in America", which made the U.S. economic top dog.  According to Gartner a bunch of hypomanics, who couldn't fit into society in the old country, were the ones who came to settle the new.  The rest was history.

Being an entrepreneur is not for every writer, or perhaps not for most writers.  The medium of the net requires a strong mixture of hypomania, obsessive compulsive disorder, and competitiveness.  Those are not the traditional qualities of writers.  And that's exactly why it took the emergence of the web for scribes, ranging from Ana Marie Cox to me, to finally succeed.  In print, just like our hypomanic ancestors growing up in Europe and England, we were, well, not ideal fits.  Much of the print world was and is elite, Waspy, overly polished in its prose.  Fast-metabolism folks like us rarely made it far up those kinds of food chains.  More accurately, we were often expelled from Paradise.

The digital type of success is not for the many, including the lion's share of defense lawyers.  Among those in the plaintiff bar, such as Bill Marler of Marler Clark, well it's been quite another story.  Could that partly account for the plaintiff's bar unique success in America?

But for the grace of God - I could be manufacturing peanut-butter treats, not ideas

Down the road from me in Stratford, Connecticut is Aurora Products, a small business like mine.  The difference is that it uses peanuts in what it manufactures and packages.  I only use ideas.  When there was a recall of peanuts purchased from the Peanut Corporation of America, Aurora Products, reports Karla Cook in THE NEW YORK TIMES, lost about $1 million.  For a small business, that's a fortune.  And but for the grace of God, that loss could have been mine.

At the time of that particular recall, notes Cook, "many small businesses have never had to deal with anything like this."  The "this" was the threat of a tainted product which killed nine people and sickened, in some cases critically, over 650 others.  The alleged negligence of the Peanut Corporation was not just a crime against humanity.  It was a crime against America's entrepreneurial class.  The timing couldn't have been worse.  The economic downturn is deepening.

Note: Marler Clark Law Firm's blog provides ongoing coverage of this food-safety crisis.  Here is Congressional testimony on reforming the overall food-supply system Download Testimonywaxmanfoodsafety.