Law And More

Loud Commercials Now Illegal - What about public nuisance of loud people?

The model is: loud is bad.  So, it's a step in the right direction that the Congress took on and completed the mission of making loud commercials illegal.  The volume of the advertisement on television can't be louder than that of the volume of the programming.

The next step for the Congress is to make loud people illegal.  Anyone who rides elevators, takes mass transit, or works in cube land knows how loud people create or contribute to a public nuisance.  Before that happens, a plaintiff law firm might have to sell that public nuisance litigation to an attorney general.  Since the state supreme courts in both California and Rhode Island have allowed contingency in public nuisance lawsuits, this kind of litigation is doable.  Then, if the concept proves popular, the Congress can make it the law of the land.

Eric Wisler - Is a law firm "a near occasion of sin?"

Lawyers seem to get into hot water more often than those in many other professions.  We all personally know a lawyer nailed for embezzling clients or, of one, as with Eric Wisler who is accused of paying a state senator $192,000 to influence legislation.  Is the practice of law configured to put human beings in situations that are way too tempting?  The Roman Catholic Church referred to those kinds of conditions as "the near occasions of sin."

In the NEW JERSEY LAW JOURNAL, David Gialanella reports, "An indictment announced Monday charges that Eric Wisler, while partner at DeCotlis, FitzPatrick & Cole in Teneck, made regular payments from 2004 through 2006 to Sen. Wayne Bryant, D-Camden, in return for Bryant's influence in the Legislature."

Why weren't there adequate monitoring systems as well as checks and balances in that law firm to pick up on, investigate, and report that kind of activity, if indeed it did take place?  Should there be more peer review of other attorneys's strategies, tactics, and behavior?  Should there be a more detailed accounting for money coming in and money going out? 

The business of law might learn something from the business of intelligence.  At the fictional think tank API in "Rubicon," which is supposed to dig for intelligence about national security, there are myriad devices as well as oversight from other organizations such as the FBI to detect inappropriate, illegal, or unethical behavior.  Unfortunately, the top layer of the organization contains a master crook.  However, the organization might be structured in a such a way that the brass will be outed and ousted.

It might be useful for the American Bar Association to study how other types of organizations prevent what happens too often in law firms, of all sizes.

 

PAJAMAS MEDIA: Here's my update on Connectict U.S. Senate race

Weekly, the political online site PAJAMAS MEDIA posts an update on the hot midterm races.  Here is that for this week, including my post on what's happening in Connecticut's U.S. Senate race between Democrat state attorney general Richard Blumenthal and former WWE owner Linda McMahon. 

Linda McMahon: Only 3-points behind Blumenthal, she takes big risk with minimum wage

According to classic game theory, the assessment of risk is idiosyncratic.  What I perceive as an acceptable risk in quitting my job and going to law school, my establishment parent might see as insane.  

Well, some of us may view as insane Connecticut GOP U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon's remarks at a press conference recommending that America review the federal minimum wage.  In Connecticut, it's at $8.25.  She didn't actually say that it should be lowered but that's what too many people are "hearing."  What she did admit afterward, when interviewed by the media, was that she didn't know what the mininium wage was at.

Since she's only three points behind her opponent Democratic state attorney Richard Blumenthal, she didn't have to take this risk.  She might have decided to play so close to the fire in order to get more attention.  She sure got it.  Every media outlet from the local channel 8 here in Connecticut to the national HUFFINGTON POST jumped on story.  Immediately, Blumenthal forces as well as unions went on the attack.

What I hear from the man of the street is that there is a migrating away from the strong Democrat support in the state.  There's lots of talk about "that Linda McMahon."

Tyler Clementi - Shame plaintiff bar didn't get to him first

What a wonderful lawsuit he could have had.  Videotaped having sex in his Rutgers University dorm, student Tyler Clementi could have sued not only the miscreants who live-streamed the video but also the deeper pockets of the University, owners of the channels of distribution, and more.  Yeah, at Harvard Law, I learned about how to configure litigation to max profit.

Had a plaintiff lawyer have gotten to Clementi before he took a dive off the George Washington Bridge, he might be alive today and eventually on his way to not only fortune but enduring fame.  There is a book in this traumatic experience.  That could have been his platform for starting an organization whose mission is personal privacy in a digital age.

Tony Curtis [1925-2010]: Patron Saint for JDs

What's the voodoo that makes one professional failure able to bounce back and exceed anyone's expectations and prevents another from regaining control of a career?

Optimism.  That's what those who analyze comebacks might say, at least based on the upward, downward, and sustained upward trajectories of Tony Curtis.  He died today, at age 85, after a career in lightweight and serious acting and painting.  His canvasses often sold for $20,000 each.

Like too many lawyers he had his run-ins with alcohol and drugs.  Then he got it that those substances, as Ken Ritter reports in HUFFINGTON POST, made him "unavailable" for career challenges.  That slide into darkness was triggered by the kind of shifts many lawyers are experiencing: a niche dries up.  Beginning to age, Curtis could not get those parts as a heart throb.  Also his soul yearned for his talent to be taken seriously.  So, he changed.  He had the optimism to believe that all that painful effort could lead to a positive outcome.

Here is the address I delivered at the New York State Bar Association on career transition, which has been published in VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY Download Rainmaking.

CA Death Row: Inmate's life spared for now by CA SC

Foes of the death penalty, as did Albert Greenwood Brown who was slated for execution this week in California, got good news today - for a second time. 

The state's Supreme Court, reports Ginny LaRoe in THE RECORDER, "unanimously refused to accommodate the state's timeline for the executing Brown by suspending its own rules or speeding up its process for reviewing how the prison system adopted new execution regulations."  LaRoe also points out that earlier, a federal judge had put a stay on the execution but on different grounds.

The prison system was in a panic because one of the drugs used in executions has a Friday expiration date and the company which manufactures it won't have more available until some time next year.

Perhaps the universe is conspiring against another execution in the U.S.

 

Your law classmates - Their careers, lives went so smoothly

So many unemployed JDs are aggressively deconstructing their pasts to figure out why they seemed to have so much professional crisis and some of their classmates so little.  Well, the answer might be that they are what philosopher Williams James called "Twice-Born" People.  Unlike their classmates who James would call "Once-Born," they seem to attract darkness, maybe deliberately.  That's how they get the opportunity to make new kind of sense of their worlds.

Born with unusual gravitas and introspection, Twice-Born are bound to bounce up against or even create obstacles. They need them to do the work of transforming who they are or who they defaulted into being a sort of Joseph Campbell type of hero.  Post that internal shift, they are positioned for the extraordinary, if that's what they want.

On the other hand, the Once-Born glide by, don't look too closely inward and outward.  They are simply a kind of person, no better or no worse than the Twice-Born.  Their careers and lives might appear to be without disruption but that might be only a reflection of their no-waves mindset about their lives.

In her book BROKEN OPEN, Chapter "What Dante Knew," Elizabeth Lesser champions us Twice-Born.

Chicago - LSAT Proofer, Part-time

This part time position with Cambridge Educational Services is for proofing LSAT questions.  Clearly, you can try out if the test industry is a career path for you.   Here are details and how to apply.

Political Journalism: Exploding in Opportunity

Lawyers have often migrated to the political arena, ranging from being actual candidates to managing campaigns to being speechwriters.  Now, they might consider a niche within politics which is exploding with opportunity. That's covering politics.

First of all, political journalists are so in demand that Gen Y online political outlet PAJAMAS MEDIA even took on Baby Boomer me to freelance about the Connecticut midterms.  Here is one feature I did for it Download LinktoarticlebyJaneGenovainPAJAMASMEDIA.  The opportunity didn't end there.  Broadcast media also interviews me about my coverage.

Secondly, solid-as-a-rock business Bloomberg hired 100 journalists for jobs Inside the Beltway.

And today, POLITICO, which took on WASHINGTON POST, has multiple help-wanted ad on JournalismJobs.com.

Law students and working lawyers can hedge their bets by picking up some political clips for a writing portfolio.  You could get noticed.  This career path is ideal for unemployed lawyers, particularly since they understand much of the legislative and regulatory processes.