Law And More

Booze Sales Down - Bad News for SmallLaw, Solos, AA Could Die of Natural Causes

A predicable piece of business for SmallLaw and Solos has been the DUI. 

But that could go poof, like so many other B2C niches in the legal sector.

The Wall Street Journal documents how the sale of booze keeps declining.

During 2018, it went down another 0.08%. Beer got hit the worse, with another 1.5%.

Seeing the handwriting on the wall, those in alcoholic beverages are diversifying. Soon enough they could be opening spas in southwestern Arizona. 

Without the DUI, SmallLaw and solos could be even more in a pickle to land enough work to keep the lights on. 

Another institution to take a hit - maybe even collapse - is 12-step program Alcoholics Anonymous. For several years its effectiveness has been questioned. Membership is down worldwide. And, critics frequently quote from the hatchet job done by the now iconic anti-AA article in The Atlantic.

Without a nation of boozers, AA would lose its reason for being. Of course it could rebrand as Opioids Anonymous but that's not what it is about at its core. The "trusted servants" who oversee AA probably wouldn't allow that. The organization tends to be fundamentalist.

How will America be as post-boozing nation?

Could be we will sip herbal tea while watching the Superbowl. Since there is already an epidemic of loneliness we will likely be experiencing that sporting event alone. Instead of bros and sistas, there will only be our dog next to us, along with our smartphone. 

Overall we seem to have given up on socializing, unless it has a definite professional agenda. Sure, I will meet you for a drink - only one - if there is a possibility of business. 

Several years back I took my last shot at the joys of human companionship. Somehow four former college classmates and I found our way back into each other lives. It should have been predictable that would be a disaster + BigTrauma.

My father bowled alone. I will do the SuperBowl alone.

Tonight we will watch another episode of supposed friends' saga "A Million Little Things." Could be we could pick up some tips about getting back into the human interaction game.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

FCC, Please Pay Attention - My SECOND AT&T Ernestine Moment (should telecommunications executives face criminal charges as do food industry ones?)

AT&T is no longer a monopoly. 

Yet, within less than a month I have had not one but TWO Ernestine moments.

Those experiences were frequent back then when AT&T was the only telecommunications game in town.

The seeming indifference at that time was symbolized by Lily Tomlin's character Ernestine.

The first Ernestine moment happened on November 29th, both in AT&T retail (6000 Mahoning Avenue, Austintown, Ohio) and its support line (800-331-0500). Here are the soul-wrenching details.

In response, the power that be who oversees OH - Shaun Nork - contacted me. He listened. At the time, just having AT&T listen satisfied me. Emotionally, I filed away the ordeal as over. 

Shame on me. Ernestine returned yesterday. Through email I received this receipt from AT&T for payment of a bill for an account I assumed had been closed on November 29th. Here it is Download Attpaymentreceipt. 

My concerns were:

• The account wasn't closed
• This was a charge I should not have to pay
• The charge will continue to recur and be deducted from my bank checking account via direct deposit
• The billing on the new account (a downsized smart phone replacing the iPhone) would not proceed 
• The new account, because of an unpaid bill, would be shut down.

I called the AT&T help line listed on the old account - 800-331-0500.

Two account representatives later over a time frame of two hours, the problem wasn't resolved. I was in terror that mismanagement would result in shutting off my new account and I would be left without a phone which I needed for my business.

Yet, obviously, this wasn't a complex issue that would have to be handled by the transactional lawyers at Cravath Law Firm. 

Totally unhinged, I called Nork. Then and since then no return call. I left the voice mail that this had turned into a regulatory matter.

Yes, I was having chest pains. And, yes, my age puts me in a protected category.

A recovered alcoholic who hasn't had a drink in decades felt powerless against having that first drink, again.

Sweet jesus, I thought to myself, help me.

Next, I further disrupted my work day by driving to the AT&T retail in Austintown.

There, the manager and a salesperson explained what should have been on the receipt or told to me by the account representatives I had reached at 800-331-0500.

• The account was closed in the midst of the normal billing cycle.
• Therefore, a bill was issued.
• The full amount for a total cycle was charged.
• I would received a return of the over-billing by check, within about four weeks.

So, after almost three hours (including drive time), the problem was addressed. 

Or, so I hope.

I don't know.

Regulators in telecommunications should assign mystery shoppers to both AT&T retail and its phone help lines.

When it comes to negligence in the food industry, criminal charges are made and executives go to prison.

Why not apply that same model to telecommunications. Wireless service is as much a necessity of life in the 21st century as food. My hunch is if some AT&T members of the C-Suite go to prison sales and customer service would improve - significantly.  

The chest pains let up about 90 minutes after I left AT&T retail.

I didn't have a drink of alcohol.

At 7:00 P.M. I attended a 12-step meeting I hadn't planned on going to. After all, I have assignments to complete before the long Christmas holiday.

The dog jumped up on my lap when I cried. 

Reflection: Personal injury lawyers might find they can file class action litigation based on the alleged harm done by the current seeming Ernestine ethos. Judges who have experienced that kind of trauma are likely to certify the class. 

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

Heaven: If It Exists, Will Lawyers Be Allowed In? (George H.W. Bush Wasn't a Lawyer)

A Christian, George H.W. Bush had a firm belief in an afterlife.

What seemed to ease his transition from living to the dying process was his conviction that he would join his wife Barbara in heaven. It worked. According to close friends, he had a peaceful death. 

But that was Bush. That's not the majority of us who have veered off from formal religions and are left to sort through old-line myths about the Next.

Also, there is antipathy about the character of lawyers. If heaven exists, they have to be wondering if they will get passed the gatekeepers, on the first try. Or will they have to file motion after motion?

So, there's the book "Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia." The author is Michael Schermer, columnist for Scientific American. Here the book can be ordered from Amazon.

From the get-go, Shermer shows he doesn't buy Christian mythology. For example, he observes that no one has returned from the dead to tip us off about the Next. Obviously, he rules out Jesus Christ's. According to religious ideology, Jesus came back to life post his death on the cross. 

However, Shermer does point out that 74 percent of Americans believe in heaven (Source: Pew Forum). The rub, of course, is that no one will have this confirmed until death. So, both during this best time of the year and more routine days and nights, we have to live on with no proven-out answer - only our little individual mindset.

Oh, there have been scientific studies. But, science has lost our allegiance. Remember what "they" said about taking antidepressants forever if we had had one clinical depression. Smirk smirk. And what about the firm faith in psychoanalysis? Analysts such as David W. Harder were positioned and packaged for the so-called sophisticated as the Secular Shamans. 

Consequently, what's Next remains a mystery. The upside of that is that we can unleash our imaginations to play out the kind of existence we can enjoy after how difficult life has become on earth.

I envision being in a field surrounded by all my pet children who have died.

We have no time commitments. We just are, together.

There is no more clinical depression. No more earnest therapists like David W. Harder. 

No former college classmates who caused us so much pain.

No more disappointments about client assignments we anticipated which didn't come through.

And, no more regrets.

Those, in my realm of make-believe, are days of heaven. I have much to look forward to. That hope will keep me going. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Respect in the Recruitment Process - Time for a Public Policy

Tone-deaf.

That's the best way to describe the recruitment policies of an established organization dealing with economic development.

I had applied for a contract position rewriting content. Quickly I received a response. I had been selected to create sample content. That would be paid. 

And that was the good part. 

Now for the bad part.

I was explicitly informed that several applicants, including myself, had been chosen to downsize a policy-heavy document. I assume that in addition to word reduction it should be made engaging. The one applicant whom, they judged, was the best writer would be contracted to work with them on a long-term basis. The rest would be throw-backs. 

Insulting?

That's what I thought.

The powers that be at that organization could have simply indicated there was a paid trial assignment. That would have made good business sense.

After I thought about all that and wound up not participating I recalled slaving in my pre-teen days in the contests to name Lassie's puppies. That had been a popular Sunday night series on network television.

Back then the contest was a useful exercise for children to understand the concept of competition. The adults in the family agreed with that and gladly provided the 2-cent stamps to mail the entries.

No, I never did win the prize: 1 of Lassie's puppies. But I salute the producers of "Lassie" for socializing children to the realities beyond the farm where Lassie lived. With my relatives who worked in sophisticated Manhattan I analyzed what my entries might have lacked. The reverse engineering came up with the need for me to be more creative in the choice of names but still remain within the box of warm and fuzzy dogville. 

Now, I am simply puzzled why a reputable organization would lack respect for communications talent. The more enlightened approach would be to simply position and package the competitive element as a necessary screening whatever.

Can those who create public policy make this happen? 

Takeaway: Don't continue with a process that treats professionals like children. 

Hope: Public policies will mandate gig workers be treated with respect. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Legal Marketing - Maybe Skip Holiday Reflections for Sales Pitches

There is a school of thought which champions sustained reinforcement of a stock marketing message. The classic example of that had been Ford's slogan that quality was job #1. 

Then there is another line of marketing strategy which pushes continuous disruption. Every minute social media should be showcasing yet another insight about the product, service, good cause, or political candidate.

My experience favors frequent experimentation and always A/B testing.

It is interesting to take a look at Bob Dilenschneider's long-term formulaic leverage of multiple-purpose holiday greetings. For the last several years they have been published on Odwyerpr.com.

This thanksgiving the odds are that we can anticipate a message from Dilenschneider about what we Americans should be grateful for.

Likely the job  creation statistics will be cited. There will probably be no mention that more and more Americans recognize that they can no longer afford to live here.

Not only retirees on fixed incomes are becoming expats. The young and middle aged are researching where they can get jobs or start businesses overseas. 

Several of my clients have already relocated to Mexico. They spotted a cute cottage I can purchase and join them in a more affordable lifestyle. 

Dilenschneider founded the boutique public affairs firm The Dilenschneider Group, based in Manhattan and Chicago. Historically he has had brandname clients, ranging from GE to Lou Dobbs. In itself, a prestigious client list is a new-business-development magnet. That is especially the situation in professional services such as law. 

However, on Glassdoor, anonymous employee assessments give the agency a sustained 1 rating out of possible 5. One wonders if it matters to current clients or prospects what the "help" thinks.

After all, capitalism seems to be at a raw stage. Compared to now, the times Charles Dickens chronicled seem fairly tame. Currently, the Scrooge type doesn't seem to go in search of salvation.

Given the extreme stress involved in earning a living today, my hunch is that more of us want to left alone on holidays. All holidays.

We don't welcome being instructed on what we should be feeling or doing.

Recently, in fact, I took my cushion and fled a Buddhist meditation group filled with oughts. There seemed a replay of the ethos of absolutes which is embedded in Roman Catholicism. 

Reflection: This Thanksgiving I will be grateful for the usual: That I managed to outsmart the family suicide gene. Here I am alive, dancing on planet earth longer than any member of my extended family. In addition, I will be grateful to the businesses and non-profits which use my communications and coaching services. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

Stacey Radin's Suicide By Hanging - Lawyers, Be Aware of CopyCat Phenomenon

Extreme success. A New Yorker. Middle-Aged. And, struggling with clinical depression.

Lawyers, if that profile fits you, your colleagues, and/or your loved ones, then recognize that these are The Hanging Times.

In New York City, there has been the third hanging.

High-profile clinical psychologist, best-selling author of "Brave Girls," and animal-rights activist Stacey Radin took her life yesterday. It was by hanging, just like the recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. Both Spade and Bourdain were middle-aged.

Radin was 52. She reportedly battled clinical depression. Here are more details from The New York Post. 

There seems to be a copycat phenomenon in play. Hanging is a relatively  slow, painful way to die. Also, it's not usual for women to take that route of self-deliverance.

According to the website Lost All Hope, suicide by hanging:

Is effective (leads to death) only 89.5% of the time. That means that a botched job could result in permanent brain or physical injury. In contrast, a gun shot to the head is effective 99%.

The process requires 7 minutes. Those can be a period of both physical (difficulty breathing) and mental (reflection on one's life) agony. In contrast, death by a gun requires only 1.7 minutes.

On a scale of 100, the amount of distress is in the 25.5% slot. When using a gun, that's at 5.5.

Clearly, the method of suicide can provide one of the dots on what might have been the mood at the time this decision was made.

Was the person so lacking in hope at that moment that the act was one of impulse? The mindset could have been: I can't take this one more minute. There's a way I can hang myself right here. In a support group, I have heard that line of thinking often.

Was the person full of self-loathing? In clinical depression there is a tendency to turn on oneself. 

And, was the act, in its theatricality, a kind of rebuke to others? There is the thinking that all suicide is homicide. Those committing it are sending a message to those whom they perceive let them down.

A member of my nuclear family left an unfilled bottle of blood pressure medication on the kitchen table. My sister found her in the nearby bedroom dead of a massive heart attack. Some interpreted that as a passive suicide - and act of rage.

Lawyers in all locations, not only New York City, have to recognize the pull power of the hanging ethos in these chaotic times. It is difficult to hold on to anything - a nest egg in a portfolio. a high-powered job, looks when hitting middle age, trust in relationships, and a doable plan for semi-retirement or retirement.

Recently, I asked a 53-year-old colleague who sensed he was going to be forced out of a job, if he planned to kill himself. Maybe because he was stunned, he answered "yes." I made the appointment for him with a cognitive therapist who specializes in displaced professionals. And, as a coach I am helping him navigate the search for how to make a living. He was on the money: He had been forced out. He blamed both his age and that his boss had been fired. 

Full Disclosure: I have been clinically depressed since age 11. What I have observed is that the mood can become so dark that it shifts into psychosis. It took relocating from the New York Metro area for me to finally get the upper hand in battling this monster. OF COURSE, I had sought out many traditional modes of treatment. I could teach a course at Harvard Medical School on all that and more. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Halloween - BigLaw Has To Lobby To Keep This Holiday Family-Free

Celebrating Halloween has become a big-spending day.

Think $9 billion.

And, about $480 million of that will be ponied up, no pun intended, for our pets' costumes.

Likely our animal companions will be invited to multiple parties. Hosting them will be vets, pet supply retailers, and property managers for residential rentals. Here are more financial details from the New York Post.

My hunch about why Halloween has evolved into the holiday to throw ourselves into is that it's family-free. At least for now.

And, so far, there probably aren't traumatic memories of Halloweens marred by dad throwing the turkey against the wall. 

Yes, the long season of Family Horrors kicks off on Thanksgiving. Then there's Christmas. Next Easter. In between are birthdays, graduations, weddings, baptisms, and funerals. Family members are forever. 

The most recent funeral I was involved with I ran into a brother-in-law whom I hadn't spoken to for a decade and two nephews who should have known who I was but didn't. Folks from the old neighborhood, who had been "like family," brought up, of course, my weight. Since age five, it has always been my weight which has been the issue with family and the family-like. 

There must be a temptation for businesses such as special events firms to transform Halloween as it is now into a family-centric one.

They will create packages for entertaining  families of up to 20 on this holiday. The odds are animal companions will not be welcome. Halloween will be rebranded as a heart-warming extension of Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

BigLaw firms increasingly have gotten into the federal lobbying niche. The Jones Days and DLA Pipers can take on preventing Halloween from becoming a family holiday pro bono. Unfortunately, I predict corporations will push hard for making it a family affair. The newly conservative U.S. Supreme Court will probably allow that.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

"Alpha" - Healing After the U.S. Senate Brutality

There is that old saying in Washington D.C. - If you want a friend, get a dog.

Well, the 2018 film "Alpha" posits how the wolf evolved into dog as man's best friend. The account is fictional. 

The setting is prehistoric times.

A teenage boy is separated from his tribe during the hunt. A wolf is separated from his pack. Both are wounded. They wind up saving each other's lives, over and over again. And forming a deep friendship. The wolf becomes part of the tribe. 

The narrative provides a healing after the U.S. Senate brutality. We can at least believe in the human-animal bond. if nothing else. 

The values of the tribe are geared toward survival in tough terrain. So, there's also plenty of brutality there. For example, the young boys who do not pass their rite of passage test are beaten by members of the tribe. The chief won't accept his son's reluctance to kill, at least not early in the film. And the animals which are pursued in the hunt are driven off a cliff to their deaths. 

Sure, there is a little bit of progress on the tribe's learning curve but not much. The takeaway is, yes, get yourself a dog if you want a friend. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

 

Broken Families & Extreme Violence - The Watts' Household, Now the Torabi Horror

It was Tolstoy who talked about unhappy families. 

Now, that concept seems way too tame.

The media outlets continually report about broken families in which violence is the common mode of communication. That's how the members transmit messages.

Today, that violence took the form of a suicide of the father.

That was following the charges filed against the mother for an alleged horrific beating given to one twin. He - Kian - is in critical condition in a New York City hospital. The other twin - a girl named Elaina - has been found dead in a basement. 

Drugs might have set this tragedy in play. Allegedly the father got the mother, a law school dropout, hooked.

The father - Mohammad Torabi - jumped to his death from the roof of the Renaissance New York Hotel today. His body was found on the third floor. 

The mother - Tina Torabi - is in the midst of serious criminal problems. Here are more details from the tabloid the New York Post. 

This kind of scenario has become increasingly common.

The one most in the public's mind are the murders of the wife, the unborn baby, and two young female children in the Watts' household. The father, a suspect, had been on suicide watch in jail. 

In Americana, the family is perceived as a revered social system. That is one of the reasons many anticipate the new justice on the U.S. Supreme Court - Brett Kavanaugh - will be successful in blowing up "Roe v. Wade." 

The Roman Catholic Church, in its heyday, reinforced that image of the good family. A motto back in the old days had been: The family that prays together stays together.

Nightly, on our knees, my immigrant family did the rosary. However, that ritual didn't keep it together. Five members committed suicide. Of course, back then, those deaths were made to appear not like self-deliverance. All were permitted to be buried in Catholic sacred ground.

And, painter Norman Rockwell provided graphic props to the gospel of family joy such as the iconic Thanksgiving dinner. 

When will supporters of family finally get out the message that such a social unit is difficult to manage - and grow up in? That might release some of the extreme expectations about what life inside a family is supposed to be. 

Perhaps there should be a GoFundMe site for hiring a top public relations agency to position and package the meme: Families are fragile entities. Treat each and every member with care and respect. Were care and respect missing in the Torabi's and Watts' households? 

Full Disclosure: Once I could make my own living, I created a family of rescue cats and dogs. Clinically depressed since age 11, I could hang on by accepting their love. A wonderful film with that theme is "Alpha." 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Halloween 2018 - 5 Best Costumes for Law Students

Life happens in moments.

Right now, these moments seem good for many law students.

There is a turnaround, finally, in the legal sector, even in litigation. Some never thought that possible after 6,000 lawyers lost their jobs in 2009.

Enrollments are up in law schools. At Arizona State that up is 35%.

The starting salary is $190k in a growing number of large law firms.

The law has been the driving force in ousting alleged sexual predators from entertainment, media, prep schools, universities, and more.

With so much turnover of legal talent in the Trump Administration, there could be a shot at a job. 

So, Halloween parties at law schools should be euphoric events in 2018. Hope is high for both a lucrative career and making a difference. 

Here are the 5 best choices in costumes.

Nitin Nohria Mask. Hahaha.

The Wall Street Journal tells the world that the M.B.A. degree is no longer perceived as golden. Applications have been down for four consecutive years, even at elite programs such as Harvard, where Nohria is dean. 

Remember when the M.B.A. was the ticket. And the JD was positioned and packaged as a solid credential for a Uber driver. 

Button-hole the Nohria simulation, explaining why you opted for the JD, not the M.B.A.

Can of Lead Paint. The U.S. Supreme Court has shelved, with no definite date for un-shelving, the schedule to review the conviction of Sherwin-Williams, et al. in the California Santa Clara class action lead paint public nuisance bench trial.

The CA appeals court upheld the conviction. The CA Supreme Court refused to review it.

You would have to have taken a stupid pill to not anticipate that other municipalities could file lawsuits loosely modeled on the CA one. Lots of work for prosecutors as well as plaintiff lawyers pitching in on a contingency basis and defense firms. 

Public nuisance is also a sturdy platform for lawsuits in energy and pharmaceuticals (think opioids).

A Dog. Some suffering from arrested development continue to search for affection. They won't find it as a lawyer. Likely not as human being, either. That whole illusion of love, begun in the Medieval Ages, is so impossible in the digital one. I know. I was a copywriter for a dating service in Canada. The option is to become a dog. We will rush into burning buildings and in front of cars to save our dogs. 

Elie Mystal. Head of Abovethelaw.com, Mystal is the role model for not being stressed by conventional concerns.

For Mystal, they ranged from $150k in student loan debt to the decision to leave BigLaw with no soft landing. For baby boomers like myself he is the analogue of our mascot Alfred E. Neuman. His meme was: What, Me Worry?

Currently, Mystal is a media celebrity. 

SEO Firm Which Produces Significant Results at Affordable Fees. That will get a good laugh. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com