Law And More

Economic Justice Nonprofit, San Francisco - Philanthropy Manager

Details

Such a Risky Move: Donald Trump Says He's Looking for New News Outlet to Replace Fox News

Those who are up on their history know that Henry VIII wound up offing those institutions and people who didn't do what he wanted.

That template seems to be playing out in Donald Trump's seeming definition of "loyalty." That quality appears to be one of total unwavering support of his policies, opinions, and, of course, reelection campaign.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, Trump doesn't perceive Fox News as sufficiently loyal. Therefore, he has said that he has to start looking for an new news outlet. 

Among Fox News' acts of disloyalty have been:

Provided air time to Democratic candidates.

Released an unfavorable poll about Trump.

Hired a liberal commentator.

One interesting issue here is: Can Trump "afford" during a reelection effort to turn on Fox News? It has deep bonds with his core supporters. Some speculate that the media is the most powerful institution in society. Yes, that power is greater than any government head, wealth per se, and corporation.

Another provocative issue is: Will Fox News turn on Trump? It can easily do that by giving plenty of air time to the Democrats. 

Myriad media outlets will closely follow this development. Meanwhile, all eyes are on how Matt Drudge, founder of the conservative Drudge Report, positions and packages this development.

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Legal Public Relations/Marketing - Tone

Like all public relations representatives and marketers, those in the legal sector are caught in the tone pressure-cooking.

Of course, tone is almost everything, especially in this era of high sensitivity. The wrong one can tarnish the brand.

My hunch has been that the tone Jones Day is using on its website about gender/parental bias lawsuits against it has been alienating. Increasingly, the court of public opinion intersects with the court of law.

The good news is that there are no absolutes on tone. Actually, that tone should be such a perfect fit for the communications that it becomes part of the law firm's signature. An example of that is the law firm specializing in bias litigation - Sanford Heisler Sharp. 

The bad news is two-fold.

One, tone keeps changing.

When blogging was a new medium, the snarky highly personal tone was a traffic magnet. Now that it is a mature medium and the world has tilted to high economic angst, the tone which is welcome is conversational but serious and other-oriented. The content should have substance. While there is a place for opinion, that should be tempered. Such can be accomplished by presenting more data and interviews. 

And, two, putting together the right tone for the right time involves research and experimentation.

The research part primarily consists of retrieving and analyzing what's out there that is successful. What are the attributes? When it comes to cryptocurrency, Michael Arrington's tone is right on the money. It exudes confidence born of both knowledge and hands-on experience in that field.

The experimentation aspect involves risk, of course. That can be scary to those old enough to recall how foolish Dan Rather came across trying out new things for the evening news. But the greatest risk is not experimenting and studying the results. The communications can go dead in the water and it will require an expensive campaign to re-grow an audience.

A big success in the glutted legal media market is Dan Abrams' "Law and Crime." In July, it had a record more than 3 million unique visitors. The overall tone is an earnestness to provide readers with enough information to make their own judgments about what's going down in the legal world. 

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Alan Dershowitz & His Theatrical Talent - Will It Pan Out in Epstein Legal, Branding Mess

In the recently published book "Siege," Michael Wolff blows off former Harvard Law School professor and iconic criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz as a sort of celebrity-seeker.

According to Wolff, his major asset is not a brilliant legal mind. It's a know-how about getting, holding, and scaling attention. One tactic has been publishing popular books.

Well, Dershowitz seems at the theatrics again.

As many know, he's caught up in the residue of the Jeffrey Epstein mess. Dershowitz had been Epstein's lawyer. Also he had been accused by Virginia Roberts of alleged sexual misconduct.

Daily Mail reports that during a keynote speech at the Colorado Steamboat Institute on August 23rd, Dershowitz positioned and packaged himself as a victim of #MeToo. He also contended that Roberts' lawyers are trying to pull a shakedown on him.

Will the theatrics pan out this time? 

The odds are not good.

Dershowitz already damaged his brand on conservative television, as an advocate for Donald Trump. Some of the stances he argued seemed a stretch. Shade was thrown on his credibility.

Playing the theatre game is full of risk. This could not end well for the Dershowitz legalities and branding. 

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

"David Anderson v. Anthony Levandowski" Points to Importance of Self-Driving Car

Anthony Levandowski faces 33 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets.

Those involve the engineering of the driverless car at Google. The case is "David Anderson United States Attorney, United States of America v. Anthony Levandowski." Here is a copy of the indictment.

The contention is that when employed at Google's Waymo division and paid about $120 million for his work, Levandowski downloaded 14,000 files. They contained engineering information about the driverless car. The indictment claims that such property belonged to Google, had economic value, and contained details which were not generally known.

Then the defendant allegedly took them with him a month later when he left Google. He joined Google's competitor Uber in the driverless car niche.

After Uber was sued by Google for alleged possession of those files, Levandowski was terminated by Uber. The litigation was settled and Levandowski was not a defendant. However, some in the law enforcement loop would circle back.

For each count, he faces up to 10 years in prison. There could also be a fine and the demand for restitution. 

This development made The Wall Street Journal. That signals how important the driverless car is to the transportation industry and other businesses associated with this technological innovation.

So many media stories have hammered the problems in this niche. Those ranged from the high turnover at Waymo to the fatality caused by one of Uber's driverless cars. However, this move by law enforcement creates another narrative. 

Levandowski has pleaded not guilty. That means this story isn't going away. In itself it could bring out the commercial implications of the driverless car. The progress might not be as fast as the players had hoped for. But the result could create enormous wealth, influence, and prestige for the parties who succeed.

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

Exit of Managing Partner - No One Reason, Implications Vary Too

In all industries, everyone from insiders to the media, closely watches the exits of leadership. They speculate why. And then assumptions are made about both those who depart and the organization.

Law firms are no different.

In Law.com. Samantha Stokes brings up this subject. She frames it in terms of the departure of the managing director.

Essentially, what she has discovered are two things.

One, there is no one reason why managing directors leave their firms.

And, two, the impacts are diverse.

There are three major motivations for the good-bye.

• The firm is troubled. That could take any number of forms, ranging from political turmoil to a falloff in revenue and Profit Per Partner
• The leader wants to navigate in another career direction. 
• The leader has lost credibility in the firm, therefore power. The only real option is to leave. 

The implications depend on both the reason for the departure and what narratives get constructed about that development.

Sure, a managing director can decide he or she is weary of the whole management thing and wants to return to practicing law. That is an individual career decision, right, and should have no impact on the law firm, right?

Wrong, of course.

There is no predicting how everyone in the loop will position and package that particular move. For example, some can conjecture that the managing director was disinterested and might have allowed the firm to drift. There will be digging around for problems at the firm. 

The bottom line is that any change by any leader will be closely scrutinized. If that leader feels loyalty to the law firm, then he or she should assess what harm can be done by a departure.

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Google Searches for "Dow Jones" Up - Law Firms, Beware

Both those who own equities and those who don't are doing a lot of Google searches for "Dow Jones." That's what Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research, has observed, reports Marketwatch.

That can be a dangerous development for the economy. Preoccupation with a stock market that has been volatile can trigger a pull-back in spending. And, it's spending that goes into a growing GDP. 

The immediate impact could be a disappointing holiday season. Of course, that could mean the tipping point into bankruptcy for already troubled retailers. 

Longer term, a mindset of frugality can harden into the new usual. 

Essentially, the U.S. economy is propelled by consumer purchases. While radical savings and doing a FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) which involves minimalism have gotten plenty of media attention, those behaviors have been aberrant. Should they evolve into standard, that could eat into GDP growth. 

Of course, such a development can be a factor in bringing an actual recession.

The timing for that isn't good for most law firms. Recovery is new. Moreover, as Citi found, there's expense creep that's bypassing the level of revenue. Analysis of LeClairRyan documented that while it seemed to be thriving, internally there was a rotting of the financial structure. And, who isn't aware of that number floating around: 10,000 lawyers could lose their jobs in the next recession.

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

The Day After - Johnson & Johnson's Stock Up 3.9 Points

The activity of Johnson & Johnson stock provides insight into the investor mindset. 

It's the day after the bench verdict in the Oklahoma opioid class action public nuisance litigation. The stock is up 3.9 points, at 10:15 A.M. New York time.

The prosecution had asked for billions to abate the public nuisance, over the long term. The judge thought differently. Although there was a conviction, it was for only millions and for one year. The defendant indicated it would appeal. Out there are still about 2,000 other opioid lawsuits. 

Given that cluster of realities, investors have voted with their funds not to punish the stock. That could change the public relations game when a deep pocket is hit with litigation. In the court of public opinion there may not have to be extreme fear about damage to the stock price.

That could have interesting implications for Sherwin-Williams's team of image-managers, including those in-house in investor relations. Maybe the outbreak of other lead paint class action public nuisance lawsuits might not do a number on the stock. Or even the corporate brand.

Following its conviction in a bench trial in Santa Clara, California, there has been what might be classified as "copy cat" litigation in Pennsylvania. If a recession hits, Sherwin-Williams might look like an attractive target for cash-challenged municipalities. 

It's a new day in America, the headquarters for global capitalism. Yes, emerging seems to be a sometimes disconnect between litigation and the market value of the stock. 

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

Law Firm Midlevel Associates - High Satisfaction, Fear of Burnout

The Midlevel Associate Survey, reports Law.com, shows many positives. 

In general, midlevel associates at law firms are please with their situations.

The burr under the saddle, though, is that they fear they will burn out. And that will destroy the joy they currently have in their jobs. 

The source of the burnout, no surprise, is the firm's emphasis on billable hours in order to boost short-term profitability. The associates, through the survey, ask firms to review that whole enchilada. That ranges from a fee structure for clients based on hourly metrics to the continually increasing number of billable hours imposed on associates.

One wonders if the results of this survey will have any influence on how leadership at law firms manage policies and people.

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Joseph Kennedy III Files for U.S. Senate Run, But, on Social Media, Does a Hamlet

From the get-go, Joseph Kennedy III played the game as The Non-Entitled. Unlike so many hardened members of the Kennedy clan he was and still is, well, a fresh face. 

But, it seems the Kennedy DNA took over. He is only 38 years old and a relative newbie in the U.S. House.

Yet, the New York Post reports that he did file to run for the U.S. Senate with the Federal Election Commission. In social media he states he hasn't made up his mind. That posting of indecision could be a bit of a Machiavellian gesture to trigger feedback. That is sometimes called a trial balloon. In politics, all tactics are possible. Of course, if he sustains the Hamlet stance, his aura could dim. 

Should Kennedy run, his advantages are huge. He has the Kennedy name recognition and access to immense fundraising know-how. Also, he is young, in fact, very young.

His chief opponent Ed Markey is 73. Markey is the political establishment after spending 36 years in the U.S. House. However, he only came to the U.S. Senate in 2013. 

Another opponent probably could lose a lot of the traction she had with Massachusetts voters if Kennedy declares he's in the race (in social and establishment media). That is labor lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan. Her signature is fighting for the gig workers at Uber. My hunch is that she will be smart and trade her supporters for future favors from Kennedy.

Businessperson Steve Pemberton is also running for the U.S. Senate seat.

Not getting results from your marketing communications? Complimentary consultation – janegenova374@gmail.com.