Law And More

Latham & Watkins cut summer associate program 68%

Before they even officially start their JD careers, these future lawyers are already facing a major setback.  They might not be summer associates in BigLaw.  That means no brandname experience, no five-figure summer earnings to help with tuition next year, and no shot at receiving a full-time job offer.  Law firms have been drastically cutting the size of those programs.

Latham & Watkins, reports Vesselin Mitev in the NEW YORK LAW JOURNAL, has reduced the size of its usual program 68%.  Instead of taking on 80 summer employees it only hired 26.  Last February, Latham & Watkins let go 190 of its 2,322 attorneys.  Sherman & Sterling, Mitev adds, decreased its summer hiring a little more than 50%.

It was conjectured that BigLaw would hesitate to drastically reduce the number of summer associates.  That could send a negative message about the prosperity of the firm and its commitment to recruit fresh legal talent.  However, those reservations have become downright irrelevant.

Europe - If it functions like a class action, maybe it is

Legal trend-watchers on comparative systems have been watching the class-action configuration become operational in Europe.  They might finally have their first real class action litigation, sort of. It comes from the Amsterdam Court of Appeals's issuance of a binding declaration against Royal Dutch Shell on behalf of a group of institutional shareholders.  The Netherlands is the one European nation which already has in-place the makings of a class-action system.

In THE AMERICAN LAW, Ben Hallman reports, "Europe may not have a class action mechanism, but a securities fraud settlement approved Friday by a Dutch court comes pretty darn close."  The court ordered Royal Dutch Shell to begin paying $381 million to a foundation representing 150 shareholders from 17 European nations as well as Canada and Australia.

This all began, Hallman tells us, with that infamous e-mail in 2003 by Shell's head of exploration which blasted the company: "I am becoming sick and tired about lying about the extent of our reserve issues." In the U.S. there was a class action suit filed in federal court in 2003. 

Then in 2006, Shell initiated the process of settling the claims of non-U.S. investors.  For this they used the law firm Grant & Eisenhofer.  The company did this without the knowledge of the U.S. plaintiff firm Bernstein Liebhard which was pursuing the litigation in America.  Reportedly, Bernstein Leibhard, which had already spent two years in discovery, was angry.

It is likely that Shell's approach in this matter in Europe could become one model for implementing the class action suit there.  It also provides a high-profile humiliation to an American plaintiff law firm, which can send a message to the plaintiff bar here.

"Coming unstuck always has its downsides," Anneli Rufus

"What's keeping you stuck?" 

That's the question career counselors, executive coaches, psychotherapists and, yeah, significant others are likely forcing unemployed attorneys to explore. The outcome is supposed to be a willingness to embark on career change.  The jobs they lost could be gone forever. 

As everyone knows and few can deny any longer, the legal profession is going through 1) brutal downsizing, which isn't over yet, as a result of a deep downturn and 2) and longer-term systemic changes, especially in how it uses manpower.  Probably there will be reduced need for associates or unseasoned legal talent.

The prevailing ideology, it seems, in the "change" industry - that is the businesses and social services focused on helping people through transitions - is to get unstuck.  Do that and the rest will fall into place.  The problem with that assumption is, as Anneli Rufus points out in her 2008 book "Stuck," that all it really does is open us to a difficult process.  On page 280, Rufus notes, "Coming unstuck always has its downsides."  Among them for attorneys forced into involuntary career changes are:

• Probable loss of status and high income.  Few go from being a second-year associate in BigLaw to the Chief Compliance Officer at Aetna. 

• Mourning.  Grieving is a painful state and that seems a must-do when waking up and finding it all gone, at least for a while.

• Humiliating trial and error that can erode confidence.  The change industry experts say, "Try new things."  Rarely do a lot of them work out.  The attorney in transition to something else can enter a period of self-doubt.

• Worrying constantly about money.  Until landing in a new port income will be uncertain. 

For all these reasons, there is every sane reason for attorneys needing to get unstuck to stay stuck.  In addition, there is the routine wiring issue.  As Rufus also notes, "Human beings do not change readily."  I never suffered emotionally when I was stuck as I did during the two years I became unstuck.  Probably that's why I put it off for four years.  Attorneys have every right to also drag their feet and hang out in illusion.

No reason not to start a law firm - By 2011, corp profits could be 9% of GDP

End of the world talk is nearing an end.  THE ECONOMIST is presenting optimistic predictions for the coming recovery.  For instance, Macroeconomic Advisers, the publication reports, "predicts that they [U.S. corporate profits] will find a sustainable level of about 9% bu 2011." That's below their 13% level back in 2006.  But we will take what we can get.

For out of work lawyers and those tired of BigLaw all this means that it can make sense to start their own small or midsize firm.  By 2011, it could be all-systems-go for the recovery.  Opportunities for non-big-box firms could be greatest away from the coasts.  Legal trend watchers note, "Even some of the largest corporations are stepping out of their megafirm comfort zones and bringing significant matters to smaller regional firms." 

This option will be discussed at the New York Bar Association's special event "Getting Back in the Game: How to Restart Your Career in a Down Economy."  It's being held on Tuesday, June 16th in Manhattan, from 9:30 AM until 4:30 PM.  Fee is $30 for NY Bar members and $50 for non-members.  Here is more information and how to register.

Institutions in Crisis: Now add Harvard

Now Harvard joins other institutions, ranging from capitalism to BigLaw, in crisis.  This one was triggered by the global financial meltdown, reports Richard Bradley in the June edition of BOSTON Magazine. By playing around with illiquid assets like hedge funds and overleveraging itself, the Harvard endowment is down $11 billion.  This is at a time when the university was expanding, e.g. lots of hiring of faculty, lots of expanding the campus, lots of new science labs promised researchers.

There's no predicting what will emerge from this dark night of the soul or the visit of a Black Swan. [As we all know by now, "black swan' is the concept financial markets expert Nassim Taleb brought mainstream to denote an unexpected development which has unexpected impacts.]  Meanwhile, as Bradley points out, as is typical the cracks in the brandname are allowing the light to show flaws in the institution.  Under attack seemingly is everything.  The ethos of the institution is being positioned as allegedly greedy.  The quality of undergraduate education is opined to be better elsewhere.  The new president Drew Gilpin Faust is unwilling or perhaps even unable to aggressively manage controversy and the implosion of what Harvard used to represent.

Harvard haters, and there are many both among those who weren't let in and those who were, are gleeful.  However, those hammered by adversity have a unique opportunity to reinvent themselves and for the better.  Harvard, just like capitalism and BigLaw, could emerge from this stronger, more influential, more powerful entities.

6/16 - Uncle Bernie Gets Sentenced

Won't be long.  On 6/16 Bernard Madoff aka Uncle Bernie gets sentenced for his exotic [mostly the psychological part was the fine art] con of a financial fraud. 

I've consulted with experts on those sorts of miscreants.  They opine that it's likely that Uncle Bernie is a narcissist and those extreme lovers of self rarely commit suicide.  As for being offed by others in the slammer, that's a possibility.  Uncle Bernie's smirk could get under the skin of the wrong inmate.

"Lawyers have been unhappy a long time," THE AMERICAN LAWYER

Every unhappy profession is unhappy in its own way. 

"Lawyers," as Susan Beck observes in THE AMERICAN LAWYER, "have been unhappy for a long time."  That unhappiness usually takes the form of being compelled to bill a tremendous amount of hours, having to deal with the ambiguity that law is along with the nastiness of a system that's adversarial, and the self-hate which usually accompanies the compulsion for achievement.

Academics, another field I was in, are unhappy in different ways.  And we all know about psychologists and psychiatrists, a field I tried out, who are said to enter that field of work to solve their own emotional difficulties and often don't succeed at that.

Despite the different forms of unhappiness different professions cause, lead to, come with, we in them have control over where, how and when we will work.  Professional life isn't an ossified layer of hell in Dante's "Divine Comedy." 

For instance, lawyers such as those at Rimon, a virtual shop that charges less, have been creating models that lessen the negatives of the profession for them and even increase the satisfactions.  Yeah, law can be very intellectually stimulating and isn't it wonderful to problem-solve for clients.

Professors, even in that field where there tend to be few jobs, have been known to put together powerful brandnames.  That makes the Administration less likely to mess with them and other employers more likely to seek them out. 

Those in the mental-health field, who come to understand themselves, can opt out of direct hands-on service and administer, write, research or even walk the earth as gurus. The trick is self-knowledge, which in itself is a form of self-healing.

In short, it's not the profession.  It's the members.  In my discipline of public relations, more of us are refusing the sweat shops of agency work and the groupthink of corporate.  We take the risk of flying solo or in small groups out there.  Like the folks at Rimon, we even see ourselves establishing an alternative to the worst of our fields.

Phil Spector gets 19 to life - Can fading celeb afford appeal done right

Appeals, at least those done right, cost money.  And Phil Spector has been running low on that.  He claims he will appeal his 19 to life sentence.  Fifteen of those are for second-degree murder.  And four for personal use of a gun. 

Transition Tough, Even After Success - Just Ask Edie Falco aka Carmela Soprano

Unemployed lawyers should be having a rough transition.  It's hell, even when it comes after a big success.  Just look at Edie Falco aka Carmela Soprano. 

In the current edition of NEW YORK Magazine, Mike Flaherty reports about Falco, "Moving on professionally has been harder than she expected."  In fact, she felt again in the position of the underdog. She had to learn to act in a new way when she did four episodes on "30 Rock."  And emotionally when she saw James Gandolfini aka Tony Soprano up on stage in "God of Carnage" with another spouse, she was, yeah, upset.

Yet, we're so often told to "just move on," as if transition wasn't a total experience in agony. Hopefully, the profound pain of transition will be outed and solutions discussed at the June 16th special career event sponsored by the New York Bar.  It's called "Getting Back in the Game: How to Restart Your Career in a Down Economy."  It runs from 9:30 AM to 4:30 AM. 

Speakers and panelists at the June 16th NY Bar event are diverse.  That means attendees will be receiving guidance from a number of perspectives.  Here you can get more information and register.  The fee is $30 for NY Bar members and $50 for non-NY Bar members. 

Yes, I will be there covering it for this blog.  In preparation, I hope to do doing interviews beforehand.  Any one presenting or attending, please contact me Mgenova981@aol.com if you want to be interviewed about any aspect of this crisis.

Michael Lewis Outs Capitalism: It's rigged to identify/exploit weakness

Had we only known before: Capitalism is rigged to identify/exploit weakness.  That's what Wall Street writer Michael Lewis outs in the current edition of THE NEW REPUBLIC.  Had we realized that before our first job, we would have saved our significant others light years of our complaining about how the powers-that-be treat us.  And you would have anticipated that with six-figure student loan debt, you were a sitting duck for torment by the partners.

Lewis reviews Warren Buffett biography "The Snowball" by Alice Shroeder.  In passing, Lewis notes that Buffett is a total capitalist, always on the hunt for vulnerability - in people, companies, stocks, and events. But Buffett pulls this off with such smoothness that he can still pass as a decent human being. 

Is there any way to lessen our position of weakness?  Here's what I recommend to those I coach:

• Find an environment you fit into.  Bad fits broadcast vulnerability.  If a bad fit is a must-endure for the time, get in and get out fast.  Some never recover from the emotional waterboarding.

• Highlight strengths.  Then the weaknesses tend to recede into the background. Helpful read on that is "Now Discover Your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton.

• Identify weaknesses in superiors. This is the most common and effective underdog or David tactic for survival or even winning the game.  Go after those weaknesses cautiously but relentlessly. 

• Identify weaknesses in subordinates when up there in the food chain.  That's the game.  If you don't exploit them your power will be questioned, perhaps overthrown. However, there's no reason for brutality or even plain-vanilla mean-spiritedness.  It's conjectured that Disney had its slump because it conducted its get 'em on the way up or the way down with excessive cruelty.