Law And More

Game Theory: Ending that commoditized job search

Most job searches in law are what game-theory experts Nathan Bennett and Stephen Miles would label "commoditized."  In their 2010 book YOUR CAREER GAME, Bennett and Miles explain that when an approach is the same all the time it is usually ineffective.  That's because the JD who does get that job anticipates competitors's every move.  That provides a distinct advantage.  The winner creates strategies and tactics which make him or her appear superior to the other applicants.

Commoditized approaches for JDs would include highlighting grades, rankings in class, how a case introduced by the interviewer would be solved, evidence of the ability to fit in the organizational culture, and perhaps some actual experience.   

The non-commoditized method could include bringing in new business during the application process, taking on the role of a team member and making recommendations about a real case the firm is working on, and/or offering to be "tried out" for a month without compensation. 

Lawyers are hardly the only professionals who default into presenting themselves in homogeneous ways.   This is frequently what many of us do, whether we pitch ourselves for a job or assignment in-person, on paper, or online. That is most likely because, as Bennett and Miles point out, we don't truly grasp the real game with the real rules.  Therefore, we take the flight to safety and come across as most of the other applicants.

YOUR CAREER GAME is a must read for those who are not succeeding in a search for jobs or assignments.  Results could happen immediately.  That's because it makes clear that the winner is not necessarily the best credentialed or most talented but the professional who plans and plays the game the most astutely.

Writing - The craft is no different for lawyers than for management consultants, bankers, or even, yes, journalists

Writing is a craft.  Its fundamentals are no different for lawyers than they are for any other professional, including journalists.  The principles that those responsible for written text have to master are all the same:

• Who is the audience?  A judge is one distinct audience, a client is another, a prospect yet another.  That specific reader determines tone, word choice, types of evidence marshaled or persuasive techniques used, degree of explicitness [soft or hard sell], and length.

• What is the definition of the situation?  For example, are you the one with the power?  If so that means you have the upper hand and must use it. If you don't use it, you will confuse the audience.  If you are in a position of weakness, you have to figure out tactics to transform that into some kind of semblance of a level playing field.  A useful read on definition of the situation is Erving Goffman's THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERYDAY LIFE.

• What can be improved on the second and third draft?  Usually plenty.  In their article on legal writing in THE RECORDER, Elizabeth Lampert and John di Bene stress the utility of re-writing.  What usually occurs as we review the first draft or even the second is that we become aware of flaws in thinking.  For example, we might catch that we implied some kind of cause-effect relationship when we only have evidence of a correlation.  Picking up on this helps our communications with clients and prospects in which we might overstate a situation.

• Whose writing should you be analyzing as models?  Human learning starts with imitation.  Until we master this craft, it's a must to retrieve the best models of that kind of writing.  When I began to write in the medium of the weblog, I had to struggle to break away from the medium of print.  To do that I studied the blog posts of those who had gone there before me such as Toby Bloomberg and Paul Chaney.

• When should you argue for your approach in writing?  In that we all have to choose our shots.  That's primarily not so much because of power relationships but rather because writing is a subjective entity. 

My book on how to present ourselves in all mediums might be useful.  It's OVER-50: HOW WE KEEP WORKING.  Although it's custom-made for Baby Boomers it's really a primer on presentation of self in professional settings.  It's in paperback and available online.  Here you can review the Preface, Introduction and Table of Contents Download Over50prefaceintrotoc.

New York City: Triumph of the Creative/Debtor Class

As usual, New York City survived the worst of times.  According "to most standard measures of economic health," reports Patrick McGeehan in THE NEW YORK TIMES, "New York City's recovery from the financial crisis and the recession it started is well under way."  The reason for that might be that this city, like most influential areas, operates according to the values of what has been called by economic development leader Richard Florida as "The Creative Class."

Years ago that group of thought and action leaders were called visionaries, new establishment, bohemian, and counterculture.  Over the centuries what they shared was the ability and the support system to buck the norms of mainstream society and put together their own lifestyle and approach to producing wealth on their own terms.  Because of that mindset and organizing smarts they were the real operators.

Even in a digital age, there's a payoff to being in proximity with The Creative Class of that decade.  That's why unemployed and underemployed lawyers and law students paying high tuition stay in New York City.  They exist on a platform of hope, optimism, and no middle-class fear of debt.  It was Jackson Lears in THE NEW YORK TIMES who identified debt as economically enlightened.  His article "The American Way of Debt," states having more liabilities than assets is "a strategy for survival and a tool for economic advance."

Those lawyers who lost jobs or walked away from careers in law and stayed in pricey New York and those students who are amassing six figure debt in acquiring a law degree in this city likely will do better than the risk-averse types who moved back to Akron, Ohio to bunk with family or gave up the law degree for one in teaching.  Everyone I know who is finally making some serious money as the recovery takes hold were philosophical about living off credit cards rather than in angst or shame.  A strong year can wipe out most of that.

One of the several times I was without income was the recession of 1982.  I was in the New York Metro area.  I had an unsold house back in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  I called a headhunter to ask if I should go back to that house.  "No, never."  He said and with such emphasis that I got it that there is something to place.  In 2002 in his landmark book THE RISE OF THE CREATIVE CLASS, Florida documented that with research as well as anecdotes.

 

Knewton LSAT course prep dumb enough to post this ad

Attending law school has become highly controversial. Also, everything connected with branding, wheter it's Tide or the brand called you, has become so sophisticated and protective of the identity of the franchise.  Yet, Knewton has posted an ad on Craigslist recruiting campus representatives to promote Knewton LSAT preparation.  If someone does sign up, the bounty could be $200.

The planning is rather long-term, as you see by how the ad starts out:

"Are you or someone you know taking the LSAT in the next 3 years?"

Those selected as recruitment representatives will have among their responsibilities these:

• Hang flyers and posters where there is lots of traffic by those pre-law types
• Distribute Frisbees etc. with the Knewton brand on it
• Supply the pre-law counselor on the campus with Knewton materials
• Dig around about campus trends
• Be at campus events, and
• Take pictures of your efforts and send them back to headquarters every week.

Maybe this is good training for marketing and sales and maybe it's not. But posting this kind of help-wanted doesn't make for smart public relations, which is the core of branding.

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft: Those Five-Finger Discounts

Could it be the cleaning staff or The Horror a colleague or maybe even a superior.  Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft is experiencing those five-finger discounts on its 37th floor. 

In Abovethelaw.com, Elie Mystal informs us that an email has been sent to employees at the firm from the brass. It noted the thefts and that "the issue [will] be included on the agenda for the next Firm Committee meeting."  The email asks alleged victims of any thefts to let the powers-that-be know what was taken and when. 

The latter is supposed to contain great specificity since the sleuths will likely set about putting together a profile of the miscreant or miscreants.  Unfortunately the elite FBI team on "Criminal Minds" haven't resumed their regular schedule.  Master profiler Spencer won't be back until fall.  And JJ can't offer consolation to those whose possessions have been lifted. 

Lawyers, of both sexes, need their version of EAT, PRAY, LOVE

EAT, PRAY, LOVE resonated and is still resonating - at least the book version of this search for self - because most of us are in bad shape.  That applies to both sexes, not only women.  And it applies to all professions, probably lawyers especially. 

We might have had a sense of self before the world began changing around 9/11 and hasn't stopped since.  But we were in the minority.  Most of the middle-class and upper-middle-class were not allowed to complete this fundamental task of development.  It could have gotten in the way of the compliance necessary to do what was required to have our ticket punched for success.  Think all the mind-reading of professors in order to do well in courses.

Those who did have that sense of self likely have seen it shot through with holes of self-doubt, panic, and even thoughts of suicide.  Therefore they may have to go in search of a self, just like the rest of us professional messes.

Although every profession has been hit hard by the Black Swans, law has actually been pulled into The Perfect Storm.   Not one aspect of it has been spared the winds of change. 

So, who in law will put together the EAT, PRAY, LOVE which lawyers, former lawyers, those who should be former lawyers, and law students can make use of?  There are so many possibilities, ranging from former lawyer and now head writer of Abovethelaw.com Elie Mystal to lawyer's lawyer but steeped in working-class ethos Adler Pollock & Sheehan's John Tarantino.  Perhaps the ABA can run a contest for the best artistic rendering of this theme - open to all legal eagles and in all media: print, digital, video, audio, and in-person.

Romance, Sex in the office: What's off limits, why lawyers won't comply

One explanation for so much romance and sex in our professionals lives is that we don't have the time or opportunity to find those goodies elsewhere.  Another is that work is so exciting that those engaged in it tend to bond.  That might begin with admiring each other and sharing confidences.  Then it can mutate into stronger stuff. 

Most of us learn to handle the risk and reward of such workplace encounters.  Actually the lion's share have become as stoic as the folks on "Mad Men" about dreams gone sour.  The secretary Allison who expected more from her alpha male boss Don Draper after a Christmas encounter was viewed as not knowing the score about the score.

However, there are rules, often those which carry stiff penalties, that pertain to chasing love and lust in professional dealings.  For lawyers, as Nathan Koppel notes in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Law Blog, it's verboten to have sex with clients.  Those who ignore this rule, allegedly like attorney Clovis Bowles had, can lose a lot, perhaps all.

Why then do lawyers still take on this sort of risk and indulge themselves with intimate relations with clients? 

Well, it's easy.  The client is dependent on the skills, contacts, and cunning of their lawyers.  That often makes them vulnerable to the supposed charms of the lawyer.

It gives lawyers the edge.  Lawyers know a lot about the client and the client knows little about the lawyer.  The lawyer can leverage that information to get in, that is, emotionally.

And, it's exciting, especially to break rules.  That is part of the flavor of forbidden relationships and the dullness of those which conform to norms.

Given the glut of lawyers and the increased oversight of their professional conduct it seems wise for lawyers to stick to the rules and find their soulmates at eHarmony instead of their caseload.

NJ "State v. Daniel Davies" - Fresh legal grounds for Waiver of Inadmissibility

Legally, aliens have one more tool to leverage to remain in or return to the United States.  That's come from the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate decision in "State of New Jersey v. Daniel Davies." 

On his new blog http://talkingimmigrantlaw.typepad.com, immigrant attorney Alan Lubiner explains the points of law involved.  He has been practicing immigration/naturalization law at Lubiner & Schmidt, based in Cranford, New Jersey, for 30 years.

No country to be suicidal in

Maybe lawyers have such a higher rate of suicide than the general population because they're intelligent and cynical enough to recognize that America is no coutry to seek help for suicidal ideation or earnest attempts.  That's confirmed in an article by Robert Langreth and Rebecca Ruiz in FORBES.  They chronicle how little science knows about suicide and how little there is to prevent the 35,000 which occur annually.   The National Institutes of Health only is spending $40 million in 2010 studying suicide. 

However, there is a ray of hope.  And that's a lot in the dark world of successful suicides and serious attempts.  That is coming from innovative therapy such as that provided by University of Washington psychologist Marsha Linehan.  Much like cognitive behavioral therapy, her approach is to teach practical ways to change thoughts.  Those in her groups acquire the ability to switch the emotional channel when they become preoccupied with suicidal compulsions.

Law firms and law schools might consider making available this kind of therapy to those who seem to be in a downward emotional spiral that they can't pull out of.

Sheresky Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan - It's all about bringing in new business, getting it in writing

In his prime Norman Sheresky was a mover and shaker, bringing in new business and even co-authoring book UNCOUPLING: THE ART OF COMING APART.  The law firm he helped found Sheresky Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan was and is the premier brand in divorce, reports John Eligon in THE NEW YORK TIMES.  Now at age 82, he is suing that firm in State Superior Court in Manhattan, for alleged breach of contract and fraud.  He wants $26 million.

As he aged and younger turks in the firm were bringing in  more of the new business, Sheresky felt increasingly isolated.  He got the message and transitioned to retirement.  He expected, says Eligon, for his former partners, "to take care of him financially in the twilight of his career." He contends they made a commitment to do so.  But, that alleged promise was never put in writing.

Among the terms and conditions Sheresky claims were not stuck to was to continue for the firm to pay his mortgage [at the tune of $100K annually] and his life insurance premiums in perpetuity.  The fraud part of his lawsuit concerns that, as Eligon describes it, the law firm, "got him to agree to hire Ms. Sloan and lease a lavish new office in 2007 by saying he would benefit from the increased business, while all the time they were planning to push him out."

The other partners contend Sheresky's contentions are pure fantasy.

If this lawsuit proceeds, it could make visible how such a divorce law firm operates.  A good time could be had by all who follow that story in the media, just as it was when gay associate Aaron Charney sued Sullivan & Cromwell for alleged discrimination.

Regarding being a rainmaker, here is the text of the webinar I gave for ExecSense on developing new business for a law firm, no matter what level you're at Download Rainmaking.