Law And More

Bullying the 65+ - One for Congress

Somehow we made it through multiple economic downturns, including the whopper of 2008.

We did what it took to accommodate a workplace gone tech.

Many of us came from under debt.

Yet, some economists and many financial planners have been labeling us "Brand Dumb."

Come 65, announces the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, 40% of us who are middle class will tumble into poverty. Read all about it in MarketWatch. 

That assumes we're relying primarily on Social Security. After we receive our 2.8% boost in the monthly payment, the average benefit will be $1,461.

Annually, that will total $17,532. Well, the supposed experts concede, that puts us way over the official government threshold of $12,060 for poverty.

However, the experts reply with this: Even at $17,532, many of us will be living in poverty.

But, will we? Or, more to the point, are we?

There are plenty of those in America 65 and over whom I coached who are living a fulfilling middle class life on their Social Security. They are doing that because they made it their personal finance business to adjust and keep adjusting to cost of living realities. 

For example, they knew to sell the family home when the real estate market was near the top. No, many of them haven't been caught in what could be another housing bust, especially in the northeast.

They shed a few tears about leaving all they knew but did the deed: They relocated from high priced locales to much lower priced ones such as Sierra Vista, Arizona, and Youngstown, Ohio. Renting isn't cheap but they know how to shop around in Landlord Nation. 

That's reality number-one.

Reality number-two is that not too many of us are winging it on Social Security, alone.

As The New York Times reports, more than half of us plan to or are already working beyond 65. Some have no intention of retiring at all.

In fact, the two age groups - 65 to 74 and 75 and older - have the fastest rate of growth in the U.S. labor market. That's why I have been a busy career coach for those over-50 who are determined to continue to earn income from work. The aging recognize that full retirement was their dad's and mom's game. A career path may end at age 65. Working rarely does in the current time.

No, we're not dumb. 

And, collectively, we should send this collective message to the economists and financial planners: We won't be bullied into assuming we played it all wrong during our peak working years.

Then and now there were problems. Often big ones, such as the collapse of our industry or medical bills.

But, we have emerged as The Scrambling Generation. Here is my guide, free to download, on how to make a buck, no matter what  Download Outwitting ageism.

And here is my e-book, also free to download, on how to keep finding the exit out of our comfort zone. 

Meanwhile, Congress should be investigating the tactics by professionals trying to establish reputations for brilliance or developing new business - at our expense. You bet, I will testify.

Coaching and Thought Leadership Ghostwriting about Issues Associated with Aging.

Complimentary consultation, sliding scale fees. Please contact Jane Genova at janegenova374@gamil.com.

The Jell-O "Curse" - Bill Cosby as Spokesperson Was Least of It

Public relations representatives and marketing communications experts warn clients about the downside of human spokespeople and influencers. 

The human kind, as opposed to a made-up mascot, can get involved in all sorts of scandals.

The classic example had been Bill Cosby. America's Dad had been the face of Jell-O.

However, that actually was a small part of the "curse" which has plagued Jell-O.

In the new book "Jell-O Girls: A Family History," Allie Rowbottom chronicles how the purchase of the Jell-O patent in 1899 had brought down extreme suffering to her family. 

It had been her great-great-great uncle who bought the patent for $450. Twenty-six years later it was sold for $67 million.

Along with the wealth that created for her family in LeRoy, New York, there has been a sustained history of premature deaths, suicide, alcoholism, drug use, sexual abuse, mental illness, and a predisposition to cancer. In connecting the dots, Rowbottom theorizes that the boredom generated by privilege helped bring the family down. 

It was Allie's mother Mary who began a memoir about the curse. But she died relatively young from cancer before getting all that organized. So, Allie took that up as a mission.

When a child Allie's mother had been sexually molested by teenage friends of her brother, raped by a cousin, essentially ignored by her parents, and did lose her own mother to cancer when very young. Later she suffered from hysteria, had bouts of drug use and alcoholism, spent time in a psychiatric facility, and was betrayed by her husband.

As Allie tells it, Jell-O has also inflicted a cultural curse on America. After World War II, its commercials reinforced the role of women as stay-at-home housewife and caretaker. Serving creative versions of Jell-O was positioned and packaged as helping those women be perfect in that role.

Later, low-calorie Jell-O was part of the ethos of extreme body consciousness by females. Allie herself got caught up in that and had to receive treatment for an eating disorder. 

In addition, the one-time corporate home for Jell-O - General Foods - also became cursed in complacency. After Philip Morris purchased it to diversify into food, eventually The General, as it was called, was gutted. Later the parts of it which were marketable were merged with Kraft. 

Of course, this isn't the only chronicle of the peril of wealth. In fact, with all the recent suicides in BigLaw, one might wonder if there is any correlation between the high compensation and self-destructiveness. 

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

 

$400k Bonuses, Jones Day, and the Peter Thiel Saga

Sure, Jones Day paid bonuses up to $400k to the 11 former U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) clerks.

And, sure, that has become a story in itself, and, according to Tony Mauro at Law.com, not an entirely positive one.

But, likely Jones Day doesn't give a damn. When The Washington Post broke the story that one of its partners Don McGahn was representing the Make America Great Again campaign, planet earth went off its axis. Jones Day didn't seem to blink. 

Some question what Jones Day and other law firms are buying with those large bonuses and is it worth it.

Jones Day has hired 47 former SCOTUS clerks since 2102. But, even with all that, it couldn't get its client Sherwin-Williams a review by SCOTUS of its conviction for creating a public nuisance through lead paint in Santa Clara, California.

Now, Sherwin-Williams, along with the other defendants which had been convicted in that bench trial, will have to pay multi-millions in abatement fees. In addition, the door is wide open for the filing of similar lawsuits in other counties and states. Here is Forbes on that. So much for the return on an investment. Client Sherwin-Williams could become the setting for the play-out of the next type of tobacco or asbestos litigation. Nice job, Jones Day.

In addition to the issue if former SCOTUS clerks are worth the big bonuses is the question if such a monetary reward boxes them into a career path that could be unduly limited. 

In his bestselling book "Zero to One," multi-billionaire Peter Thiel recounts how he applied for and was turned down for two SCOTUS clerkships. At the time, the Stanford University JD was beyond devastated. Now, he seems to smirk.

Without being pushed off that career path, he probably wouldn't have gone on to co-found PayPal and more. Incidentally, as Mauro points out, the SCOTUS chief justice only earns $267k annually and associate justices $235k. 

Meanwhile, with his much larger earnings, Thiel has had as much or more influence as SCOTUS. That included funding the "Hogan v. Gawker" breakthrough litigation. In addition, he financially supports conservative ideology. In photo ops he was sitting right there, near U.S. president Donald Trump.

Can the bonus game be blown up? Clients can do that by refusing to do business with law firms participating in the payout. The slogan can be: Remember Sherwin-Williams.

 

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.

 

 

That Laser-Like Focus on Outcomes - Smirk, Smirk

Success usually comes in through some back door. Not from careful planning of goals and then methodically tracking them.

The same goes for happiness.

That's why it would be a useful experiment for law firms, lawyers, and law students not to set goals this New Year.

Instead, just commit to be totally engaged in your little life. Or, if you are a partner, your outsized life. 

Essentially that's the thinking embedded in the 2016 book "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Happy?" Here 2018 is almost over and the book continues to rank high on Amazon: 5,537. 

Its author is University of Texas business school marketing professor Raj Raghunathan. His observations are counterintuitive. The one which is the major stunner is that focusing on goals will not necessarily:

• Generate success
• Bring happiness. 

It's such as shocker because from the get-go our mindset is trained for the goal-orientation box.

We are to identify goals and continually measure progress being made.

The lack of adequate progress demands course correction. Yeah, hire an executive coach. Or, if you are a corporation, bring in McKinsey. 

Those not playing in that sandbox will be labeled losers - that is, until they become our bosses or billionaires. And, unlike most of the goal-setters, they don't wind up depressed and preoccupied with suicidal ideation.

Raj provides the analogy of how children master their little worlds and simultaneously experience joy. They don't approach the cardboard box just unpacked in a move, determine that by sitting in it they will develop skills in X or Y, and then monitor achieving all that. Instead, they simply totally engage with the box. Recall that we all learned in developmental psychology how rapidly children get a hang of how to navigate their universes.

It's that same childlike wonderment that frequently characterizes those entrepreneurs who will make it big, lawyers who are in demand, and nobodies who become influencers in social media.

In contrast are those pain-in-the-ass plodders who keep measuring their supposed progress. When they wind up stuck, which is almost to be expected, we can't suppress the smirk.

The classic example of a non-goal-setter who bumped into amazing success, along with a happy family life, is Abovethelaw's editor-in-chief Elie Mystal.

Probably he didn't start out that way. After all, it takes careful planning to get into and complete Harvard undergraduate and Harvard Law School. That he did do.

Then, it turned out that he hated his practicing law. That's when he had to stop doing what he was told he ought to be doing. He knocked around, working at this and that. 

Along the way, he tried out for a journalism job at Abovethelaw. Effortlessly he made it to the top of that food chain. He also has become a prominent commentator in other media outlets. And he's the loudest voice on the internet combatting racial discrimination. 

Takeaway: Engage, with all your mind and heart. Don't plan outcomes. Success and happiness then will come to you. 

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

Apparent Suicide - Dorothy Bruns, 44

Dorothy Bruns, 44, suffered from MS and seizures. Given those conditions, she had been warned not to drive.

But last March, drive she did. In the process she killed two Park Slope toddlers and the fetus one of their mothers had been carrying. Mothers of both children had been injured. 

That's a lot to live with. She had been out on bail and, if convicted, faced 15 years in prison.

According to the law, her alleged crimes included criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter, and reckless endangerment.

She might have made the decision to administer her own punishment. As the New York Post reports, she apparently committed suicide through prescription medication. She left a note. 

The human mind and heart are complex.

Often what goes on in them not even that person fully understands. In some minds and hearts the crime may seem so horrific that the only just punishment is to take their own lives.

In my own family, an uncle had accidentally killed a man in a professional boxing bout. After a stretch of addiction to gambling, he went on the road of passive suicide. 

Then there are those we meet up in support groups who had been in prison for murders they committed in blackouts. They have forgiven themselves. And that was that. 

Russian novelist Dostoevsky probed those complex issues of crime and punishment. 

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.

 

Lawyers, Law Students - When It's Time to Take Your Cushion/Mat & Flee

Meditation, yoga, and prayer.

All of these have been and continue to be useful for self-calming, insight, tapping into the unconscious, and even overcoming addictions. 

Media sites for those in stressed out professions such as law regularly post articles on them. 

And, from way back in the 1930s, the 11th step of global Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) hammers how essential meditation and prayer are.

But, there is a stern warning about spirituality overindulgence in the November 2018 issue of OUT. In the Wellness section, the commentary's title is "A Divine Road to Nowhere" (not online). The author is Alexander Kacala. 

The beef is that too many have come to expect spirituality as the total fix-it. Somehow they got the message that a guarantee of everything good comes with the meditation cushion or yoga mat.

In a sense, 21st-century spirituality has become as much a closed system or a seeming cult as Roman Catholicism, Freudian psychoanalysis, the hardening of the philosophy of AA, or America's success ethos.

The classic example is those who bet the ranch on their "spiritual practice." They will even pony up the funds and take a week from their lives for a meditation retreat. Their objective is to land a job after a period of unemployment.

The obvious error is not investing enough resources in figuring out the dynamics of a search for work in 2018. In this year's edition of "What Color Is Your Parachute?" the front part of the book explains how much that game has changed. 

Just last month I had to take my cushion and flee. The premise of the meditation group was that a certain school of Buddhism had all the answers. In addition, I picked up on a threat that not conforming to the tenets would bring down destruction on not only this life but also my next when I am reincarnated. 

I had joined to be able to think more clearly about how to position and package a niche business I was launching. What I wound up thinking was how much the meditation leader reminded me of the nuns in the front lines of the Roman Catholic education system in the 1950s. 

Also, I noted that everyone in the group, with the exception of myself, was unemployed or underemployed. 

Takeaway: Spirituality is a tool. Not a way of life. 

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

 

Lawyers - Shame on You For Slaving for Those Top Grades

History does have some useful success lessons.

The founding fathers of America were rule-breakers.

That's why they were misfits in the old world. Because they had to put together a way to survive economically and have some kind of social life, they risked it all, boarded a boat, and came to the new land.

In an ironic book "The Hypomanic Edge" John D. Gartner documents the link between the little bit of craziness among the early settlers and big-time success. Yeah, on that oddball platform they created one of most powerful economies in the world.

Today, that model still plays out. It is the iconoclast types in the supposedly precedent-bound legal sector who thrive.

Example? They are the folks at plaintiff law firm Motley Rice who conjured up applying the traditional concept of public nuisance to product liability. Along the way, they undid former lead paint manufacturer/marketer Sherwin-Williams and white shoe law firm Jones Day. Also taking direct hits are the energy industry and pharma.

Yet, there are still folks like Conor P. Williams who grouse in The Guardian about not being able to afford to buy a home (aka The America Dream) despite being a rule-follower. 

Smirk smirk.

The cruel joke is on those who follow all the earnest guidelines which are embedded in the official system. Those are really the directions for barely making it in capitalism.

That's well documented in Eric Barker's new book "Barking Up the Wrong Tree." Its message is that most of what we have been told about success is off.

Take getting good grades. Barker updates the adage that the C students in college become the bosses of the A students. Millionaires and billionaires had an average GPA of about 2.9. 

"Barking Up the Wrong Tree" is 9,087 on Amazon (here it can be ordered) but the odds are that the front lines of the system will still preach the platitudes of top grades et al. Colleagues who are adjunct professors in Manhattan universities roll their eyes about how iGens are obsessed with A grades. 

Success comes from investing one's resources - time, energy, youth, money - in trying things out. Not slavishly conforming following the rules others have made. 

The trick, of course, is to manage to stay out of prison and the mental hospital while doing A/B testing. 

Too many of my clients have been former lawyers who didn't understand what rules they could break. After release from prison and losing their license they are having me reconfigure job search materials for them. 

In addition, it's possible to become undone in reimaging the elements of success.

Actually, and this is totally anecdotal, the earlier in life the emotional breakdown, the greater the probability for success.

Instead of hanging on so tight, those family members, former classmates, and co-workers I visited in psychiatric wards had tap danced on the edges of respectability. If only there was a way to learn to stay enough in the box to not lose the emotional footing. Eventually they did make it big. But, losing one's mind is extreme suffering. 

My regret is not thumbing my nose at the rules earlier in life.

When I was 14, the homeroom teacher in a high school based in the hood in Jersey City, New Jersey told me and the rest of the class (who could have wound up on death row or murdered) all about the rules we had to follow. At the top of the list were, of course, outstanding grades, dressing neatly, and being polite. 

At age 33, when I was down and out in a small town in Pennsylvania, I went rogue. Finally. That was by using a talent I didn't know I had - writing - to provoke. Along the way I made, lost, and re-made a ton of money. 

When iGens ask me for an unpaid internship for my communication businesses I tell them: Stop listening to the rules. Go find paid work doing whatever. You will become more marketable walking dogs or manning the fast food drive-in than proofreading content for me.

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.

 

Courage - Nowhere Near Getting Our Values Around It in 2018

Are those female law firm partners, ranging from Kerrie Campbell to Dawn Knepper, courageous for suing BigLaw for alleged gender discrimination?

Or, are they simply piggybacking on third-wave feminism which, in turn, has become a platform for #MeToo?

Or, horrors, are they reckless? 

In these unusual times it's a struggle to get our heads around what is "courage."

On Twitter, public affairs thought leader Richard Levick praised an instance of courage.

In coaching a 40-year-old woman in her personal essay for law school I am having her dig deep to describe how her unique version of courage listened, looked, walked, and talked.

And, among those in a recovery group in central Connecticut there had been an undertow of criticism that a lawyer shot himself in the head instead of having the "courage" to embrace the consequences of his third DUI.

There, of course, is no shortage of templates of courage.

President John Kennedy published his book "Profiles in Courage."

Mr. Smith went to Washington.

And, in "Stuart: A Life Backwards," there is the real life character alcoholic who chooses to live his life on the streets. 

There are also templates of downright stupidity.

The classic example is the teacher in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" who encourages little girls to become political heroes. 

In between, there are so many questions. Unfortunately, most of the answers have been filled with 20th-century platitudes. 

Where can we find insight to help sort out even some of this?

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.

 

Impeachment - More Political Tool Than Process

The message makes a nice tidy package.

That is: Get out and vote next Tuesday. The Democrats can re-take the U.S. House. Then, the impeachment of the current president can begin. 

The promise of being able to start the impeachment process against Donald Trump is what counts. Not the process itself. And not if it is effective and the president loses his job.  

Probably from the get-go with the election of the first president of the U.S. - George Washington - the concept of impeachment has been more a political tool than an actual course of action politicos or a private citizens intended to put in play. So radical is that notion that it packs a power punch.

That's what Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz explain in their May 2018 book "To End A Presidency: Power of Impeachment." Here it can be ordered from Amazon.

The reality is that impeachment, by constitutional design, is a complex, cumbersome process. Rarely does it proceed from start to finish.

But the threat of it, as happened with Harry Truman, can hobble the credibility of a president to the point that he can become a kind of lame duck. That threat was used against Truman for firing war hero Douglas MacArthur. 

Clearly, that same threat against Trump serves myriad political uses. Getting out the Democratic vote is just one. Another is that the term has become a popular buzzword which calls attention to what Trump's critics contend he is doing wrong. Also, if the target takes the threat seriously, it can be a distraction. Likely, the president will begin to make mistakes.

The leverage of this kind of tool is not, of course, unique to politics. Those in business use it all the time to motivate anyone, be it an executive or rank and file, to resign. The threat of being forced out is clear. Others distance themselves from the one targeted. And, soon enough, what is supposed to happen happens: That alleged misfit in the organization leaves on his or her own.

"To End A Presidency" is a well-written book. It breaks down legalities into what laypeople can understand and makes the ins and outs of the constitution a riveting narrative.

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.

 

 

Gab Goes Dark - GoDaddy Tells It to Find New Domain Provider

Smart media and business guidance could have kept social network Gab in the safe-content box.

However, the newbie, launched in 2016, allowed its posters to stray too far out of the box with rhetoric that was assessed to encourage violence.

Now, reports TechCrunch, Gab is over. At least for now. Its domain provider GoDaddy told it to find another registrar. Since then, Gab is offline. 

Part of this GoDaddy action is in response to the worldwide news that alleged mass murderer Robert Bowers posted hate speech on Gab. But even before that, alt-right Gab got on the wrong side of the tech community. For example, Apple and Google banned it from its App stores. 

More recently, though, PayPal and Stripe suspended its payment accounts. And cloud hosting service Joyent parted ways. 

Underlying this push-back against a social network which is perceived to be extremist is the age-old issue: Can there be a direct correlation between words and action? 

In short, how much influence and power does language really have? Is the pen really more mighty than the sword?

In the era when the medium of published books dominated, academics frequently raised the question if language products such as "Uncle Tom's Cabin" helped end slavery.

Further back in history, did the satire on religion Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" prompt Roman Catholics to push for reform? 

Although we are in a post-book time, there are still those questions on applications for content assignments or even jobs about what books changed one's thinking or had a great influence on us.

Not long ago, for instance, I applied to research and create equities analysis for Motley Fool again. Years ago, more than 140 of my writeups had been published on Yahoo Finance under the umbrella of Motley Fool.

On the application was that question about books. My answer was that Scott Galloway's "The Four" had reinforced my questioning about the power of branding. The system of brand management had been invented by P&G in the 1930s. In my current purchasing patterns, I am post-branding. 

Will it be up to the lawyers to duke out if social network language can be held accountable for behavior?

Meanwhile, those socializing youth should explain how misleading the nursery tune can be: Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me. On an emotional level, for many of us the damage has been profound. 

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