Law And More

The Law Firm in 2021: Jabs, Branding, and Being "Double-Humped"

The politics and the theatre of the vaccination issue have pivoted into a branding one.

For example, early adopters in announcing mandatory jabs have been positioned and packaged as heroes. Those range from chairpersons David Sanford at Sanford Heisler to Brad Karp at Paul Weiss. In a sense they have been "Profiles in Courage," as John F. Kennedy understood that term.

No surprise, the entire law-firm niche currently gets it how important in reputation management is the jab policy - along with the decisions about the return-to-the-office and when.

Chairperson at Akin Gump Kim Koopersmith receives lots of space in Bloomberg Law in the announcement: no access to the office until two weeks after being fully vaccinated. Also, circling back to the office has been rescheduled from September 13th to October 11th. That might be wishful thinking. 

Obviously, the legal sector is getting it that, just as with the Influenza pandemic, the world is going through a second round of COVID. That, just like how influenza circled back in 1918, could be more virulent than the first hit. Back in the early 20th century, chronicles Lawrence Wright in "The Plague Year: America in the Time of COVID," the phenomenon was called being "double-humped."

A double-humped law-firm industry could ride this out smoothly (despite all the announcements and backtracking) if it doesn't panic. Remote had been proved out. Evidence of that had been the windfall profits of 2020.

The rub, of course, could be possible pressure from clients such as Morgan Stanley by way of Chief Legal Office Eric Grossman. They could be impatient to have all lawyers on the account back in a formal office setting, very soon.  

A premature return to the office could involve tremendous risk. Even with the abundance of caution, COVID could spread through an office. The jabs don't guarantee much. As played out in Provincetown, MA, some of the fully vaccinated did contract the Delta variant. The most optimistic take on going through the ordeal of the jabs is that if contracting Delta, the experience probably won't be life-threatening. 

The outbreak of COVID in a law firm could derail that brilliantly engineered assembly line to get the nuts and bolts tasks done which implement partner strategy. Associates could wind up beig stuck at home, too sick to even do work remotely. Also, it's a brand issue. The law-firm leadership would be vilified for "allowing" the plague to take over the lives of the workforce.

Of course, there are no right answers.

In "The Plague Year," Wright notes:

"In 1918, Americans were facing the same confounding choices they would a century later."

With the brand in play, law-firm chairpersons are in a pickle they probably never anticipated. On this one, they have to think beyond business to old-fashioned ethics. In a sense, this is the ESG moment for the ethos of the legal sector. Forced could be a massive rethinking of culture. 

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Of Course, You Can Write a Best-Selling Mystery

People love mysteries. There's adrenaline. Complex relationships. And, the fun of figuring out before the story's ending who were the bad guys (or dames).

Writing mysteries made James Patterson a household name, plus wealthy. And lawyer Scott Turow isn't doing too shabby either.

As in all writing, the first step is the hardest. In writing a mystery that tough first step is understanding what the genre is all about. You are smart. So you assume because you have read 100s of mysteries you have the scoop.

Well, that's like assuming that you because you have watched all the "Law & Order" re-runs you can be a prosecutor, that is, w/o going to law school.

Like all genres, the mystery novel and short story have very specific rules for success. Not only do you have to learn about them. Equally important you have to learn when you should break them. Note also, this is not only about writing per se. It's also about marketing. That's from the get-go. Before you start writing you have to be planning including the elements which will make it sell. 

All that information and insight is contained in the 2021 handbook "How To Write a Mystery" by Lee Child. 

It's an easy read, despite being one of those guidebooks. In fact, it starts out with a joke. Child says that successful mysteries have two attributes. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.

The input you get is broad-based because it is provided by many experts in the field. There are four sections:

The Rules and Genres

Other Mysteries

The Writing

After the Writing (In this part there is a section "Legal Considerations" by Daniel Steven. Essentially it's what those in this genre have to have down cold about publishing law.)

To me (I had published one novel "The Fat Guy From Greenwich") the most interesting approach is what in the "The Rules" part, Alex Segura calls "The Mindset of Darkness." The subgenre has the flawed protagonist. 

Yes, with the mystery genre, you can self-publish. I recommend iUniverse.com.

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Chris Christie and More - Maybe You Should Wait to Bet

On ABC's "This Week" former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie took a position on COVID vaccination, reports The Hill.

He's not the only politico there, of course.

President Joe Biden has taken on Facebook about that.

Senator Amy Klobuchar has introduced a bill related to health-related misinformation in social media.

And, Facebook's head Mark Zuckerberg who, like all top business leaders, has to be a politico, also is in the vaccine messaging space. 

But, those other three are dealing from a position of strength. They have jobs and they have solid power bases.

Christie, in contrast, is wandering in the political wilderness. He bet on the wrong horse in aligning with the Trump Administration. Like so many depicted in Michael Wolff's "Landslide" he chased after being associated with power and came out of that essentially powerless. Rudy Giuliani is in the same pickle. The legacy of Alan Dershowicz? Sad.

Christie had lost his own power during BridgeGate. Although not convicted in that scandal about politically oriented blocked lanes on the George Washington bridge he couldn't shake the stink.

But he might have been able to engineer a comeback had he not tried so hard to loop into someone else's (that is, the Trump Administration's) power force field. After his political collapse, Andrew Cuomo had reestablished his power base. He didn't piggyback on others. 

Sure, Christie has been able to gain exposure as a political commentator. In that, though, he's no Tucker Carlson. 

The new book about the Nixon Administration - "King Richard" by Michael Dobbs - tells the same kind of tale of power games resulting in everything from the loss of human dignity to the loss of freedom (yes, they went to prison).

Not that this phenomenon only plays out in politics.

The Wall Street Journal chronicles graduates of elite advanced degree programs who bet big money and one or two years of their lives on what left them in deep debt and in low-paying jobs. There seems to be no way out. 

Media such as The Atlantic Magazine rode hard the Trump Administration story, without enough preparation for the next. Currently most of them are struggling. 

Overall, power institutions like Morgan Stanley and Paul Hastings bet that their power would remain intact. That resulted looping into the whole where-work-will-be-done in very wrong ways. 

Nothing is certain, of course. But some guesses about where to invest a career, an education or a brand are wiser than others. 

Guidance on this may come from a source which seems strange to the ambitious. That source is American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron.  Her message is so gentle. Specifically she recommends:

"It all comes through learning to pause for a moment, learning not to just impulsively do the same thing again and again. It's a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately filling up the space." 

Reflection: Will Christie, youth considering advanced degrees, media, Morgan Stanley and Paul Hastings continue their frantic pace to losing so much? 

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King Richard - The Politics of Division

Even Richard Nixon's most critical enemies had to admit he had been a brilliant political strategist.

The new chronicle of Watergate "King Richard" by Michael Dobbs captures him as dark force which knew how to unleash the politics of division.

That is, of course, the oldest of ways to control people. The serpent leveraged it to turn Eve against her Garden of Paradise landlord.

Such a mindset came naturally to Nixon. He saw the world through the lens of enemies and how to get revenge. 

It is interesting to remember that Roger Ailes, who invented Fox News, had been a political consultant for Nixon. The mission of Fox News seems to be polarization. As with Nixon, it sells well.

It's too much to hope that the majority of Americans would believe that they are being manipulated by those hammering conservative or liberal ideology. So, polarization will likely continue indefinitely. Even the catastrophe of COVID couldn't establish the recognition of common ground.

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Disney - Of Course, Bob Iger Doesn't Want to Lose His Giant Mickey Mouse Ears

BusinessInsider reports on the usual: A power figure who was supposed to pass on that power doesn't quite do that.

Allegedly, former Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger is caught in that syndrome.  

Management expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld captured that existential crisis in his book "The Hero's Farewell." To go from extreme power to simple vestiges of it is a rite of passage not all leaders are capable of. In the process of trying to hold on or circling back, lots can go wrong.

The classic example is how retired savior of Chrysler Lee Iacocca attempted an end run to get back in power. That turned the auto world against him. In myriad circles his legacy was tarnished. 

Currently, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is being attacked for not surrendering his power. Liberals want him to retire so that they can replace him with a younger liberal. 

And, 90-year-old media tycoon Rupert Murdoch remains firmly in charge at Fox. 

American capitalism is so misunderstood. So many think it's about acquiring and increasing wealth. Wrong. That's for amateurs. It's about power. The founding fathers knew that. That's why they were so aware of managing the pursuit of power in how they structured the new nation.

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"Landslide" By Michael Wolff - Chasing Power by Association Instead of Creating Their Own Power

The ugliness of the world Michael Wolff depicts in "Landslide" is one in which many men and even some women chase power by association. 

Some such as Rudy Giuliani had lost their own power.

Others like Chris Christine couldn't seem to have the kind they lusted after.

And then there were those like the myriad lackluster lawyers Donald Trump floated into his orbit who didn't have what it requires to become powerful.

That chase, at least as it was made to configure in the Trump Administration, was both bizarre and sad.

Those men and those women could have gone on with their own professional and personal lives with dignity, satisfaction and inner peace had they not looped into the power-through-association game.

On a much smaller level that can be played out by ghostwriters and speechwriters who mistake their service to power as their own real power. Typically they "throw their weight around" in corporate executive communications departments. In referring to the chief executive they write for, they slip into the term "we." The rest of us, there to just earn a good living through our writing skills, roll our eyes. 

Tech innovator Steve Jobs had his own power.

In the literay world so did novelist Philip Roth. Like Greek god Zeus he could throw thunderbolts. For example, his books triggered the controversy if there were such a phenomenon as ethnic self-hate. 

In the legal sector, Brad Karp, as chairman of Paul Weiss, clearly has his own power. Just in New York City, there are 811 lawyers. Interestingly, in addition, he also, as Bloomberg Law reports, enjoys power by association with the Biden Administration. Are the two synergistic? That's not as important as the need to have one's own solid power base.

Of course, there are all sorts of power. Hedrick Smith hammered that in "Power Game." For instance, the ability to obstruct constitutes a kind of power.

But most think of power in heady terms and want it that way: There are the BigInfluence, media coverage, option to acquire great wealth, invites, and adulation.

About the latter, it was Henry Kissinger who observed that power brings on the babes. So, it's not hard to speculate that maybe former Apollo head Leon Black didn't really have power. He wound up ponying up money and too many gifts for the babe who sued him last June (and whom he sued yesterday).

Irony: As "Landslide" makes clear: Those chasing power are hardest on those chasing power. So, sure, we wonder if author Wolff is chasing power by association.

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The Tyranny and Cruelty of Wellness - There are Plenty of Functioning Depressives, et al.

"We talk a lot about “mental health” these days, and references to mental illness are becoming rarer. The focus is on being well, and on recovery, which is very encouraging. But it’s not so good if you don’t actually manage to recover." - Rebecca Lawrence, The Guardian, July 15, 2021. 

Once the political wars about where work will be done are over, likely the legal sector will shift back to the happy-clappy focus on how mental health can be improved. 

But, for many it will not be improved. And that's not the end of the world - or a career.

The reality is that science as yet doesn't know a whole lot about most forms of mental illness. Sure, pharmaceuticals, talk therapy, meditation, exercise and more do a lot, for example, to keep depressives like myself rolling. Without them there could have been a larger number of suicides or filings for permanent disability.

But being well? Being recovered? Why should those be held out as a goal?

Since there was civilization there has been those with mental illness who managed to operate well enough to earn a living and maintain relationships. If they were pragmatic, they made it their business to conceal that at work. Let's call them Functioning Depressives or Functioning Angst Folks or Functioning Occasional Delusionals. 

Some, details Nassir Ghaemi, M.D. in "A First-Rate Madness," have managed to accomplish the extraordinary. They include Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill.  

So, they may not be at optimal well-being? So, they may win those battles with the monsters of the mind? 

The zealots for wellness keep sending them messages that they can be "cured." Or, at least feel a whole lot better. Only they should try this. Or try that. Or listen to what X did. Or what didn't pan out for Y. Those "they" are quite busy dishing what they position and package as hope.

Perhaps this kind of harassment will end in the legal sector if there is less messaging about wellness. Or the pretense to really care. Instead focus on what counts: PPP.

Smirk. If a human being, even a relatively young one, is going to put in continually 100 hours a week there is a high probability what is classified as "mental illness" will hit. But, it usually plays out that they will get through all that. They will get enough experience to get another job, enough bonus money to pay off debt and enough perspective not to take on that kind of job again. Unfortunately, during those years of 100-hour weeks they will have wellness foisted on them. 

From when I was 11 until here I am in my 70s, I have managed to function with clinical depression. In my first go-around with treatment in my doctoral studies during the heyday of Freudianism there was plenty of hoopla about a "cure." The "r" word - that is "recovery" - wasn't bouncing around back then. The cure didn't happen. Of course I tried many other modes of treatment. I would not have had so much disappointment had I not expected anything more than just to be able to keep rolling. 

If associates can gain more power they can consider having buttons created saying: "I am a functioning depressive. Cut the crap about wellness."

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"Christine Crawford, et al. v. McDonald's" - How One Thing Leads to Another and Another

It all began with the stunner of a jury verdict in "Hulk Hogan v. Gawker." Reputation-protection lawyer Charles Harder pulled off a nuclear one: $140 million. That was March 2016.

Since then, there have been antennas pulled way up trying to connect with signals about other possible big-bang jury awards.  

 So, it was predictable that I would begin following the racial bias class-action lawsuit filed in Illinois: "Christine Crawford, et al. v. McDonald's." More than 50 former Black franchisees contend they failed because of the fast-food giant's racist policies and procedures. Here is a copy of the complaint.

And, follow it I have, compulsively. There's a lot more to the lawsuit than just what could be another of those large awards.

To begin with, there's the matter of contract law. Always a solid and strong point of law. Well, in the book "Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America," Marcia Chatelain explains how that McDonald's contract represents unequal power. The terms and conditions mandate strict conformance to the rules for franchisees established by McDonald's headquarters. 

Incidentally in that book the author provides the backstory of how, after Martin Luther King's murder, the power structure in America was championing Black Capitalism. At the time, becoming a franchise owner seemed to be a perfect fit. There were no barriers of academic credentials and the risk of entrepreneurship was (supposedly) reduced by the safety net established by the franchise concept.

Another reason for anyone's fascination with this litigation is that for the defense is Black lawyer Loretta Lynch.

If this gets to trial, in the subconscious of the jury will her being a woman of color operate as a symbol of total objectivity?

Or will it turn into the kind of Shakespearean tragedy of a Black highly credentialed lawyer using her skills against her own people?

Add on to that this: Some or all media outlets could resurface the infamous tarmac incident. That was when Lynch, as U.S. Attorney General in the Obama Administration, met with Bill Clinton, whose wife was under DOJ investigation, at the airport. 

A third magnet drawing attention in "Crawford" is that Lynch is a partner in elite law firm Paul Weiss, chaired by high-profile Brad Karp.

Would the optics for all this have been better had McDonald's selected for the defense a low-profile law firm in IL? Baby Boomers recall the lousy optics of big brandname controversial attorney F. Lee Bailey defending Patty Hearst. To today, followers of that trial argue that Hearst might have gotten off had her family selected a no-name lawyer with an earnest persona.

Think about it: Having such a prominent law firm like Paul Weiss in the loop against what could be perceived as a relatively powerless group of Blacks.

Well, my ongoing obsession with "Crawford" has been the gift that keeps giving. That is, professionally.

Recently, I had successfully pitched doing an article on the pros and cons of franchising to a magazine. Of course, in my analysis I would allude to "Crawford."

In addition, the library in which I accidentally spotted the book "Franchise" and jumped up and down in wild joy at such an addition to my perspective on the litigation has become part of my network. That's the Copper Queen Library in Bisbee, Arizona.

As usual, one thing leads to another and I blogged on that library's unique ethos. I catapulted into library royalty. That opened the door to the comfort level in which I could approach patrons for interviews for one or more of my three syndicated blogs. Today I was able to nail down an interview with a Baby Boomer about how he made the decision about retiring. Spoiler: It's a feeling. You know when you are "done."

Probably the takeaway here is: Forget cool. Grab onto enthusiasms and hold on tight. In unexpected ways opportunities unfold.

NOTE: 

All parties in this litigation are welcome to submit their point of view to this blog. There is no fee. Please send content, subject-matter headline and contact information to janegenova374@gmail.com. That will be posted verbatim and the link forwarded to you. "Crawford" is an important lawsuit and the more conversation about it the better for the U.S. justice system.

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Of Course, You Don't Want to Be Back in the Office: Everyone Is Watching You, You Are Watching Them Watching, and You Are Watching Everyone Else

Of course, there are the hyper ambitious. They have leveraging face time down to a science: How to catch the partner's attention in 16 seconds and sustain that for 2.3 minutes. They missed that during remote. But, the odds are they figured out another tactic for looping on the partner's radar. 

Then there are the rest of the lawyers.

They dread being back in the office.

They know too well the office phenomenon that everyone is watching you and you are watching them watching you in addition to watching them.

In his second (and forgotten) novel "Something Happened," Joseph Heller captured that aspect of office life. Heller is known, though, for capturing in "Catch-22" the craziness of how "crazy" is defined in the military.

Why return to being a victim and a predator in that Watch Patrol when lawyers have proved during the pandemic that they can be productive enough away from the office to generate windfall earnings for the law firm?

There could be speculation that the end of the watching syndrome was a significant factor in such wild financial success for 2020.

After my 10 years of full-time employment in Fortune 50 companies being watched and watching it was days of heaven to hang out a shingle and work unobserved. I even stopped watching myself.

Right out of the gate I grossed 30% more than I had as an employee. Could that have been (partly) the result of eliminating the watch factor? 

Lawyers being hauled back into the office might file a lawsuit contending that the office constitutes a public nuisance. Likely there will plenty of others with a similar experience for the litigation to go for class certification. The request could be for injunctive relief (no work in othe office) and damages.

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Ethel Rosenberg - Beyond the Legal Story to the Woman Who Didn't Want the Life Her Mother Had

"Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy" by Anne Seeba focuses on the female half of that supposed notorious spy couple.

The message of the biography, published last month, essentially is that there had been a miscarriage of justice.

Lawyers will be fascinated. A prominent law school might opt to re-enact the proceedings with top legal minds. Let's see if there emerges a different legal judgment.

But, along the way in this amazing read, we Baby Boomer females encounter a restless young woman, much like we had been in the late 1960s. 

At the top of the list of similarities is this: She disliked her mother. In fact, just like us, she strove to be not at all like her.

Here are those great lines from "Becoming Ethel" - Chapter 1:

" ... Ethel would confide to her friend that her greatest ambition was 'never having to live like her mother, forever going about the streets with a big shopping bag searching for bargains trading with the pushcart men.' Her disdain for her mother's way of life was becoming corrosive."

One day in 1969, my former roommate from college confided to me,"I overthrew my mother. Now I can find the right husband." She associated her mother and the life her mother had lived with having the wrong husband. The man my roommate did marry became a successful lawyer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Among other things her mother wouldn't dare do, Ethel went on strike, then fought successfully to get her job back when fired for her organizing activities.

"Ethel Rosenberg" also brings back those old-line neighborhood values in lower-income Manhattan metro areas pre-gentrification. For that alone it's a must read for the Baby Boomers who came of age in that world of ethnic self-hate and youthful wild dreams of liberation from all that. 

Yes, all ethnics were persecuted back then by The Establishment. But the Jews, as always, seemed to suffer the most. Therefore, current antisemitism is soul-wrenching, isn't it. Fortunately, lawyers are organizing initiatives against that. One mobilization has been by Brad Karp at Paul Weiss. 

Obviously, Ethel's story resonates. The book is 12,867 on Amazon. If enough folks read it, Ethel could evolve into a feminist hero. 

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