Law And More

Legal Secretaries: Vanishing role of the Della Street from "Perry Mason"

Concerned, alert, loyal, and competent in her administrative duties, especially typing, Della Street was the glue which held the law office of Perry Mason together.  Today that role is vanishing from the legal sector.  The next television show which is set in a law firm might not even have legal secretaries in it.

As THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reports, the combination of the need to reduce costs and technology is putting legal secretaries out on the street.  Those who survive a layoff often wind up in group work clustering which provides administrative assistance more efficiently.

Legal secretaries who are cut loose usually have difficulty finding comparable jobs.  Their situation is similar to that of laid-off lawyers who have no place to go in a downsized industry.  Also, since both have highly specialized skills they won't find opportunities in other industries unless they can reinvent themselves.  

This problem isn't new.  In the early 1970s, thousands of doctoral candidates in the humanities found out that the college teaching jobs the U.S. government predicted would develop didn't.  We had ossified into academics, whose skills and persona no one outside of academia wanted.  For most of us it required several years to shake off that conditioning, develop marketable skills, and be willing to start all over again.  

Liberal Arts/Law Professors: Struggling for survival

"The liberal arts are very old and very distinguished, and those who teach them are among the bitterest people I know." - Judith Shulevitz, "And Martians Shall Save The University: Why Do We Need The Liberal Arts? Because it Gives Us Sci-Fi," THE NEW REPUBLIC, July 15, 2013 (subscription required).

Shulevitz' article seems a bit tongue in cheek.  The argument for maintaining the liberal arts is that it was classic literature, such as the science fiction of Jules Verne, which paved the wave for game-changers like submarines.  However, clever entertainment tycoons gave us game-changers like "All in the Family" and "The Sopranos."  Their backgrounds may or may not have included close study in the liberal arts.  

Those employed in teaching the liberal arts, just like those employed in teaching certain areas of the law, are struggling for survival.  Soon they may be not only out of work.  They may also be unable to find work, much like the pickle we Baby Boomer English majors realized we were in, despite the booming economy in the mid 1970s.

The prediction of their joblessness is not hyperbolic.  Schulevitz notes:

 "Governor Rick Scott of Florida thinks that state universities should charge higher tuition to students who choose majors that don't lead directly to jobs."

Of course, there is no question that the liberal arts and law are not going away. For example, the streets of New Haven, Connecticut were packed the past few weeks for the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. On June 22, Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster presented a reinterpretation of Hamlet.  And the legal sector is necessary to maintain the right of private property which is fundamental for capitalism as well as punish those violating the norms of a civilization.  

What has begun to disappear is the edifice of jobs associated with these two institutions.  Society simply is unwilling or maybe even economically unable to cough up the salaries for a large force of professors in the two disciplines.  Among various circles that could cause great glee.  Professor as Bully was something we over-educated Baby Boomers felt we had to endure, both in undergraduate days and later in professional schools like law.  After all, education was everything, at least then.  In my mind's eye I rejoice seeing them cooling their heels at a temp firm, waiting to be interviewed for a $10 an hour contract position.  

Global M&A Down 9% - Bad news for law firms

M&A (mergers and acquisitions) makes money for the middlemen.  Those include law firms.  

So it's bad news for the legal sector that M&A activity is down.  According to Thomson Reuters, reports CNN MONEY, so far in 2013 M&A is down 9% from the comparable period in 2012.  At $978.8 billion, that puts it at a low for 3 years. 

Jo Mihalic Pays Off 6-figure Harvard B School Loans: Here's how

BUSINESS INSIDER tells us that Americans have an average of $47,000 in debt.  Recent graduates of professional programs have much more than that.  Then BI goes on to chronicle the stories of those who are now totally debt-free, in a relatively short period, including within 12 months.

One of those success stories is that of Jo Michalic.  He now has the peace of mind of no $101,000 student loan debt hanging over him from getting his MBA at Harvard Business School.  His tactics?  They included both increasing money coming in and reducing money going out.  

For more revenue, Michalic worked a weekend job, started a side landscaping business with a friend, and took in a roommate.  For cutting money going out he stopped contributions to his 401K, carried a flash for booze emergencies rather than bellying up to the bar, and forgot all about those nice restaurant meals. 

Others in the BI coverage and those I interviewed for getting-out-of-debt articles  did things like going without what people now consider necessities such as cable TV, working more than one job, getting a better job, selling the house and renting  in a downscale neighborhood or even at affordable housing, shopping primarily in consignment shops, and not owning a car. 

Letting go of middle-class expectations of how to bring in income and to slash expenditures can be the necessary mindset for getting out of debt, pronto. 

Steve Cohen: Can Preet Bharara bypass July 29th statute-of-limitations deadlines through hub & spoke conspiracy theory?

Both SAC hedge fund founder Steve Cohen and U.S. Attorney Manhattan Preet Baharara are engaged in a high wire act.  And, as with NFL teams, it's their strategies which are keeping us riveted to this ongoing story.

Cohen's strategy for not being indicted for alleged insider trading is to take the Fifth Amendment before the Grand Jury.  Meanwhile, Bharara has been filing charges against former SAC employees such as Mathew Martoma.  Seemingly the objective is to make them sing like a bird, against Cohen, in exchange for a break on sentencing.  So far not enough has come from all that. Martoma hasn't flipped. 

On the books, reports the NEW YORK POST, is a five-year statute of limitations.  The deadline is this July 29th.  If Bharara can't get anything concrete on Cohen, will the game be over?  Not necessarily.  As the POST explains, the prosecution can leverage the hub-and-spoke conspiracy theory.  In that it can cite a recent insider trading case, as with Martoma, and trace it back to the "hub," that is, Cohen.   

We wait.  What's Bharara's next move?

31% Satisfaction with Primary Law Firm, Down from 42% in 2011 (Source: BTI Consulting)

Justice may be positioned as blind but clients aren't.  Because they see their primary law firms as inflexible and doing only what they have to, only 31% told BTI Consulting they are satisfied, reports BLOOMBERG.  That's down from 36% in 2012 and 42% in 2011.  

That means that those primary firms can expect client churn to continue.  

England and Wales: Is justice in play or to be managed more efficiently?

England and Wales are determined to reduce legal-aid costs, reports THE ECONOMIST.  In the end, justice could be c0mprised and/or the systems involved in justice could be more efficiently managed.  

Since legal systems have impacts on each other around the world, any changes could influence how law is administered in the U.S. What could change?  We could have more pro se litigation, which is already happening in family court.  There could be fewer trials by jury.  That could mean creation of options to simply summary judgment, arbitration, and mediation.  Yes, the systems could become more innovative.

Expense cuts could be opportuntiies for positive change.  That's how corporate America became competitive again in the late 1970s.  The pioneers included Jack Welch at GE and Lee Iacocca at Chrysler. 

Suicide & Dispruptive Research Approach of Matthew N. Nock

The son of a mechanic in New Jersey, Matthew N. Nock has parachuted in to develop data about what signals humans give off about a coming suicide attempt - or worse.  He has rejected many of the standard theories such as increasing isolation.  Since lawyers have a higher than average suicide rate, his research at Harvard's Laboratory for Clinical and Developmental Research should interest them.

A sign of our self-destructive times - suicides are up - Kim Tingley presents a description of Nock's approach in THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE.  What Nock is discovering is that no one, not the experts and not the victim, can predict a suicide.  At least not using traditional templates.  And not even through the potential victims' probing their psyche through therapy.

The new kinds of tests he's developing might fill that gap. For instance, in one test those who will wind up trying suicide hesitate a second or so longer than those who don't clicking on words associated with suicide. 

If Nock succeeds in identifying signs of a coming suicide lawyers could take advantage of those tests.  They might feel disjointed but not even realize they are unconsciously plotting to check out.  That might prevent the epidemic of suicides which has taken place among middle-aged male trial lawyers in Kentucky.  In addition, as we saw with the layoffs at Weil and Jones Day, extreme professional challenges hang on in the legal sector.  

"Shudders rippled across the cloistered confines of elite law firms this week," Elizabeth Olson at FORTUNE

It's been a wonderful week for media, experts on trends in the legal sector, and career counselors.  They all got plenty of attention because of the layoffs at Weil Gotshal and Jones Day.  Since there are tons of associates, partners, paralegals, secretaries, law students, and law professors to continue to scare, the layoff story will be milked.  

Today FORTUNE finally leaped in and joined THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, and BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK in coverage of the Big Story.  At FORTUNE, Elizabeth Olson noted, "Shudders rippled across the cloistered confines of elite law firms this week."

What brandname media are missing, though, is that the legal sector is bigger than BigLaw.  There's a lot going on in mid-sized, small, and solo firms.  For example, corporations are increasingly opening their beauty contests to the mid-sized firms.  Small firms are going virtual and in the process providing discounts for clients.  Solos are taking on cases like unpaid interns which are only now becoming cool.  

It could happen that BigLaw will become less a story.  It will handle certain kinds of lucrative litigation and transactions.  And most of the legal business of America will be conducted outside it.  That's where the action will be and media will have to find it.  

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: Indicted, trial might reveal plenty

The interesting thing about the indictment of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is that his computer records revealed an association with al-Qaeda, reports BLOOMBERG.  Of course, Tsarnaev can contend that material was planted.  But, if this case goes to trial, plenty could come out which will leave the media and public spellbound.

The 30-count indictment accuses him of allegedly causing senseless violence through homemade bombs.  He will be arraigned on July 10th.