Law And More

One of Those Whose Case Had Been Handled by Federal Judges Who Should Have Recused Themselves

Posted on Craigslist (New York City section), here is some of the beginning of the fallout of The Wall Street Journal expose of the 131 federal judges with alleged conflicts of interest in cases they oversaw:

"My case was handled by (1) of the 131 Judges found to be breaking the Law, because of their financial interest in the companies. Although one of the defendants explained to me that " no matter what they did wrong, this Judge was not going to let me win" And he was right, now, I know why.

"He had stock in (3) of the companies being sued. So now what do I do now that the WSJ broke the news?
LINK:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/131-federal-judges-broke-the-law-by-hearing-cases-where-they-had-a-financial-interest-11632834421

"More than 130 federal judges broke the law and violated ethics by hearing cases involving companies they had a financial interest in over 11 years"

"The Opinion and Order in my case "clearly shows his bias, in spite of the facts...I actually died because of this case, and Einstien Hospital bought me back to life!!!
---

"Federal judge Edgardo Ramos presided over a lawsuit between an Exxon Mobil unit and TIG Insurance Co. over a pollution concern - while owning between $15,001 and $50,000 of Exxon stock. He ruled in the gas company's favor

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Those Black Boxes, From Apple to Jones Day

The black box culture at Apple, from the era of Steve Jobs to today, has been justified as this: protecting trade secrets.

Also, the corporation's DNA was and is to surprise the marketplace with its products.

For that reason departments and projects functioned as silos. Even badges were coded to restrict access outside one's specific task on a project. Transparency. Forget it. 

However, current worker activists complain that has seeped into the entire culture. They, reports Zoe Schiffer at VERGE, demand transparency about items that are practical such as pay and social-justice oriented as what the corporation is doing about the Texas Abortion Law.

What gives this activist push power is that more and more workers are not afraid of losing their jobs. They recognize their marketability and are willing to give up the prestige of being part of Apple.

That same feeling could take over Big Law firms such as Jones Day which operate as black boxes. Associates recognize they are needed. An emerging value might be to opt for prestige less and the right working conditions more. That mirrors the dynamic in my field of communications. Fed up with corporate ridiculousness, we surrendered the status of being a full-time employee in the Fortune 50 to hang out a shingle. A funny thing happened on the way to becoming entrepreneurs: Most of us made more money.

In addition to being emboldened, the workers are become more informed about what's taking place throughout the corporation. The collaborative work tool Slack has blown up the silos. Workers can share their experiences with each other. One especially active Slack channel is #remote-work-advocacy. 

Among what activist employees contend is that when they try to step outside the black box and ask questions or challenge what they are told there is gaslighting. That is, management plays with their heads.

As is well known, what goes on in California tends to have ripple effects throughout the United States.

This assertiveness can penetrate law firms, especially when junior lawyers find themselves back in the office. That might not happen on a large scale until February 2022 but the reopening of offices will happen.

Some associates could have an emotional meltdown and start taking on the mindset of the Apple kind of activist.

Like, after all we in so many professions have been through since March 2020, who's all that scared of the Big Bad Wolf who huffs and puffs that he can take away your job or your client assignments? Plum exhausted some would smirk and say: Take it. 

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Taming the Wild West of ESG Investing - Carlyle and CalPERS Lead Way to Standardize Reporting on ESG Investments

On the one hand, about a third of U.S. assets are classified as ESG Investments. On the the other hand there is growing awareness that the term "ESG Investments" has no standard definition. The joke in some circles is that anything you want to call an "ESG Investment" can pass as that. 

But scrutiny has begun. Deustche Bank's DWS is being investigated both here in the U.S. and Germany. Its data on ESG investments are being questioned. 

In fact, as Reuters Legal reports, there is a movement to taming that wild west. Carlyle and the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) are heading a group of private equity firms and pension funds to create standards for how the performance of ESG investments will be reported.

They will track the data on metrics such as board diversity, greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy and more. 

Currently, the data investors rely on come from myriad different sources. In addition, there is no standard way of how that data is interpreted and then the information distrubuted to investors. For example, at DWS it had been discovered that the evaluations are done by a variety of third parties. Then those evaluations are averaged. That could mean that the investment some assess as a "D" comes out with a middle rating when averaged in with "A" evaluations.

The founding group indicates it will meet annually to review the previous year's data and then use all that as a platform for future work on standards. It opens its membership to other private equity firms and other kinds of investors.

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Clients, Review Your Bills - Former Associates at Lewis Brisbois and Reed Smith Nailed for Overbilling

" ... some lawyers overbill their clients. If they get caught, the punishment can be even worse than going without a bonus ... John P. Paleczny and Stephanie A. Gerstetter, now former associates at Lewis Brisbois and Reed Smith, respectively, learned this lesson the hard way. As reported by the ABA Journal, both Illinois attorneys will be suspended from the practice of law for inflating their hours ..." - Abovethelaw, September 30, 2021.

So, you bet, clients and others in the loop should make it their business to review the bill carefully. Ask questions. 

As for Paleczny, he had billed 2,000 hours on a closed pro bono case. For that he received a $12,000 bonus. After he was fired at Lewis Brisbois in his job interviews with four Chicago law firms again had an ethical lapse. He presented himself as having been laid off, not fired.

Gerstetter overbilled 86.4 hours on a document review assignment. That resulted in an fraudulent billing of $40,000. 

Of course, this development throws shade on all law firms. No client should feel safe when it comes to the bill being calculated. 

Meanwhile, society as well as the legal sector has to examine why these two lawyers, after jumping through so many hoops to be able to practice law, decided to take the risk of overbilling. They had to realize the seriousness of that in terms of consquences. After all, if caught the brand of the law firm would be tarnished. Therefore, the law firm would impose a severe penalty. 

In my coaching of lawyers who had lost their positions, license, and even freedom (they had served time in prison) what usually turned up was this: They had assumed they were more clever than the systems of checks and balanced. They never anticipated their capers would be detected.

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Lawyers, Did Your Angst/Depression Start with Chasing High Grades in High School?

Overall, it's a given that suicide is common among high-achievers. The example which haunts the legal sector has been that of Sidley Austin partner Gabe MacConaill in 2018.

Also, it's well-known that mental illness and substance abuse occur at a higher rate among lawyers than professionals in a number of other career paths.

Could this be traced back to how those who wound up practicing law got it in high school that they better achieve high grades? Otherwise their professional possibilities could be limited? 

Researchers at the University of Ottawa found a correlation between youth who strived for top grades in high school and anxiety and depression later in life.

Essentially that could be informally labeled "The Perfectionism Syndrome." Some recall that MacConaill's widow Joanna Litt published a commentary in Law.com. She attributed the suicide to her husband's maladaptive perfectionism. He couldn't do any aspect of his job not perfectly, be it mentoring summers or managing a major bankruptcy.

The Ottawa study conducted by Shari Endleman et al. has been published in the International Journal of Behavioral Development. Here is a copy of that research. And, here is a copy of the University's press release about the study.

The study strikes a nerve with just about anyone who had gotten caught up in chasing grades in high school and then in higher education. It's a game. Those determined to succeed in it know they have to discern the rules. The rules include, for example, being able to ferret out what the instructor "wants." Is it original thought or boilerplate? The consequences of not winning through those rules are severe. The academic transcript is there forever. Those "B" grades during the college sophomore slump have to be explained in the application to law school. The admission committee could buy that or not. 

So, what should lawyers do if they find that The Perfectionism Syndrome holds them emotionally and spiritually hostage? The pragmatic approach, unlike how MacConaill approached his career, is to assess when perfect performance is necessary and where it's not. Of course, in preparing legal documents things must be perfect. In other tasks such as supervising summers, maybe not. And does every interaction with a superior, a client, or a prospect have to be perfect? Usually it's possible to smooth over less-than-perfect connections.

It's not rocket science to recognize that a lawyer is a victim of The Perfectionism Syndrome. One junior associate I coached described the pickle she was in as "dancing as fast as I can and still not feeling that was enough." She came to learn to size up the rules of work games she was in. Then she could make decisions about which demanded perfect performance and which she simply could play less intensely. 

Here's an analogy. Those astute in game-playing in my doctoral studies figured out quickly that winning was about course grades, research, and relationships with professors. It was not about the quality of teaching, at least not years ago. So, they didn't strive to be perfect in teaching. Those who assumed they had to excel across the board had a very difficult time in the program and usually wound up not being able to land the kind of job they wanted.

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