Law And More

Halsey Minor: Maybe he should have stuck with technology

Halsey Minor became a millionaire, as did many tech entrepreneurs, when he sold his enterprise in 2008.  That was CNET Networks to CBS for more than a billion dollars.  If he would have stuck with what he knew - tech - he might not be in his current pickle.

As BLOOMBERG reports, Minor has filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  According to its rules for businesses, he can blow off the unsecured creditors.  The records show his liabilities are about $100,000 million and his assets are about $50,000. 

After he was in the money, he dabbled in art, real estate, and horses.  A lot of that didn't work out so hot.

Alexis Wright - All's well that ends well

As she serves her 10-month sentence in prison, former prostitute Alexis Wright might get to do the right thing.  She could teach inmates the steps of zumba dancing, the latest dance craze.  She had taken a plea deal.

According to her, reports AP in the NEW YORK POST, she's relieved to be free of her life of crime in the Bushy town of Kennebunk, Maine.  There, under the guise of teaching Zumba dancing she was not only turning tricks but video-taping the action, without the knowledge of the clients.  Believing Wright's intention to turn her life around, Justice Nancy Mills wished her success in all that. 

During this grandiose legal drama, many wondered if any Bush men had been among those interested in learning Zumba dancing.

My Big Break: Old lady gets in with Millennial Web/Mobile Entrepreneurs

A few days before my 68th birthday this month I landed a huge ghostwriting contract.  Not bad.  Better is that the assignment had put me in the hub of Millennial entrepreneurs involved with the web and mobile. 

This big break started with the interview for a full-time writing job I had about 18 months ago on Milk Street in Boston at the MASSACHUSETTS LAWYERS WEEKLY.  Back then I was still committed to the relatively low-paid field of journalism. So, what the hell.  I drove there from New Haven, Connecticut and parked in one of those structures.  I did all the right things like get there early, which was going to add to the parking fee.  The interview lasted about an hour.  When I went to redeem my car, I owed $32.  The hell with this, I thought: If I got an offer, that meant moving to this pricey town for a gig under $60K.  At a truck stop for dinner there was a notice in my email about a big ghostwriting assignment and I never looked back at journalism.

Except to remember that $32 parking fee.  So, I answered a help-wanted for a freelance ghostwriter in Boston from a position of not giving a damn.  When I was told I made the first cut and would be interviewed near Milk Street, I told them I wasn't going to pop for the $32 parking fee.  They said fine, they would pick it up.  I showed up.  I didn't present myself as overly eager.   And I was the one selected.

Since then I am a regular in Boston and the client picks up all the expenses.  His network is bursting with money and talent under 30.  I had gotten over being self conscious about my age.  This new mindset has opened so many doors.  Also, this month, from all my ghostwriting accounts I made more than I ever have in any other month in all my years in executive communications.

Lesson: Don't take crap. Don't apologize for anything. 

My Son/Daughter the Lawyer: Are poor parents driving their kids into poverty?

An interesting discussion on Abovethelaw.com (ATL) breaks open a major problem. Low-income parents may be encouraging their children to embark on a career path leading to poverty.  In her analysis of the Lawyers.com survey, ATL writer Staci Zaretsky points out that 80% of parents whose income is below $25,000 want their children to become lawyers. 

The Lawyers.com survey of 1,001 found that 64% of parents hoped their children would enter the legal sector.  That's despite the reality that, at least for now, it's a downsizing business.  Of those indicating this dream, 80% were at the bottom of the food chain.

Obviously, there is a dangerous lag in information about career paths among the classes.  Upscale parents know that their children will make a good living through becoming entrepreneurs or being employed in the fields of engineering, information technology, and math.  Law had been fine, they know. But not any more.

A compelling pro bono project by lawyers and law firms looking to enhance their branding is to arrange town meetings in low-income neighborhoods and in schools and communicate the realities of the changing economy.

Good Wife Silda Spitzer: Is it a wrap?

The NEW YORK POST reports that former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has been bunking in a building owned by his father, not his own marital home in Manhattan. The reason could be that his father, who also lives there, is ill and Spitzer is the dutiful son.  Or, it could be that Good Wife Silda Spitzer will be ending the marriage.  Iconic was her pained expression when she stood by Spitzer when he resigned his position after a sex scandal.

Michael Cook, Joe Christ - Alleged arrested development

Joe Christ, who had been a St. Clair County judge for about a week, died on vacation.  The autopsy reports a drug overdose.  And his buddy, who was with him when he OD-ed, Michael Cook has been charged with federal heroin and gun offenses.  He was also a judge in that county.  BUSINESS INSIDER carries the AP coverage that Cook has since resigned, but with no mention why.

Talk about arrested development.  If the allegations about Cook are true, then he and his pal were stuck in adolescence.  That was when our brain hadn't developed to the point of our being able to calculate accurately the risks we were taking.  And took them we all did.  But we weren't judges.

Michele Bachmann: But, she Leaned In

Michelle Bachmann never made an apology for herself.  Let her critics giggle.  This woman exuded confidence.  She was a classic example of Leaning In.  And maybe that's the peril in Leaned-In Women.  They are so certain of themselves that they fail to respond appropriately to the external environment. 

Will there be many other Bachmanns - women who Lean In and find themselves out of the game?

Harvard Law JDs - Not to worry, Jeffrey Toobin says you will be okay

We all know the game is changing.  And some are fearing that investment in Ivy League academic credentials might not have the kind of payoff it had before the crashes in the legal sector, financial services, and publishing. 

Well, BUSINESS INSIDER reports that at Harvard Law School, THE NEW YORKER columnist and legal book author Jeffrey Toobin assured the students et al. all will be okay.  There is plenty of demand for legal services, especially serving the poor (maybe not what Harvard JDs had at the top of their list) and those from that school are well prepared.

The real issue, and only time will tell, is if graduating from a top law school can really protect one from being knocked out of the box in the legal sector.  It can help get that first job.  But is it enough to ensure one can hold on to well-paying work?  Abovethelaw.com has been reporting again on national layoffs of associates and partners. 

 

PTR Industries: Gun laws may make for good politics but lousy economics

Influential BUSINESS INSIDER is running the story of PTR Industries, which manufactures arms similar to the HK-91 semi automatic rifle.  Its Chief Executive Officer Josh Fiorini announced that he's pulling the company  out of my home state Connecticut.  Of course we all know about how a rapid-fire weapon snuffed out the lives of 20 children in Newtown.  It's no surprise, given politics, that the state passed the strictest gun control law in the nation.  However, the legislation could have been constructed with companies like PTR Industries in mind.  Fiorini et al. are being cast as the bad guys.

There's a price to pay for politics and CT is paying it with the loss of this employer.

Another Mini "Dukes v Wal-Mart" Gets Tossed in WI

As with the original U.S. Supreme Court ruling in "Dukes v Wal-Mart," the mini class action suit in Wisconsin got tossed because it didn't pass muster as for the commonality of the class, reports THE LITIGATION DAILY.  Similar suits have also been dismissed in Tennessee and Dallas. 

Still alive are the mini suits in San Francisco and Florida.