Law And More

Inept Attempt at Reputation Restoration - Hunter Biden's "Beautiful Things"

America is the land of second chances.

That ethos kicked in when that bunch of misfits from the old country came to New England to have another try at acceptance and material prosperity. Along the way those Puritans developed what was to be for centuries the most powerful economy in the world. 

So, it was predictable that the reputation-restoration niche would thrive in America.

O'Dwyer Public Relations published my article on how suspended Yale Law School professor Jed Rubenfeld could rebrand. Every now and then I receive calls from official reputation restoration firms about how I might help their clients. 

However, for every success - such as how Jimmy Carter repositioned and repackaged himself - there is plenty of failure. 

Among the latter could be First Son Hunter Biden. It might have been a mistake for him to use the strategy of publishing a book for redemption, forgiveness and a second chance. That was "Beautiful Things." As Daily Mail reports, in the first week of sales, only 10,638 copies have been sold. Future sales don't seem promising.

What Hunter should have done was something more hands-on activist and noble. Carter threw himself into global good deeds. Hunter could have organized a team and built irrigation facilities where there were none in a desolate part of planet earth. That should have proceeded on a low-profile basis. Then, 18 months later an international journalist stumbles upon the project. 

This inept book tactic, of course, makes Hunter's transformational work more difficult. 

In general, the odds are against salvation through book publishing. Not only does that approach tend to be inefficient. For instance, there is too much of a lag between conception and publication. In addition, social networks, social media and podcasting are where personal branding is made, destroyed, course corrected and reimagined. 

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Not the Professionals or Human Beings They Were Pre-COVID: Legal Sector Should Anticipate Values Earthquake

The legal industry might anticipate an earthquake in values.

That force field could rock law firms and in-house legal departments. The pheonomenon could be triggered both from those inside and third parties.

The U.S. Supreme Court might be shaken up also. Last Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden announced establishing a 32-person panel to review every aspect of the High Court. 

As The Wall Street Journal reports, the majority of Americans are not the professionals and human beings they were before COVID became a reality in March 2020.

Let's look at that from our own experience. You probably have plenty to add.

First of all, they get it that they are alive. They didn't die from the virus. Sure, those they cared about or knew from work those who did die. However, they didn't. Survival provides a platform for a new start. Despite hatred of change, many are ready to do just that: Change. 

Also, they might have experienced profound anxiety about their professional status. Would their law firm lay them off? Corporations' financial performance got hit hard by COVID. In-house legal was no longer a safe (and relaxed) harbor. After so much suffering they have gained a fresh perspective about the place of work in their lives and how much they are willing to endure for traditional achievement. 

Therefore, it's no newsflash that James Suzman's "Work" is a best-seller. Although it's ponderous - 464 pages - it ranks high on Amazon - 33,314. In addition, Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer is getting attention for his "Dying for a Paycheck" movement against exploitation of the global workforce. 

And, third, social isolation provided over and over again that moment of clarity: Relationships are important. Human beings are a social animal. You bet, make time to find and nurture those human ties.

The legal industry will have to pony up real solutions for work/life balance. Read Glassdoor and the universal complaint is too much work, much of it unscheduled. That eliminates the opportunities to lock up social. For Jones Day, an associate posted on Glassdoor in January 2021: "zero work/life balance." That employee gave the firm a 2.0 out of a possible 5. 

Of course, media outlets are in the business of picking up on trends. The disruption in the cultures in the legal sector is what they will probably focus on. And it's not just the advocacy player Abovethelaw. Traditional media centers such as Law.com are also looping in. Recently it published an article that indicated some skepticism about Orrick's much-praised paid Unplug initiative. 

For decades, thought leaders will analyze how COVID transformed the perception of work per se and the collective unconscious of America. A lot is so so different. It's up to the legal sector to adjust.

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Justice for Ghislaine Maxwell - Family Sets Up Advocacy Website realghislaine.com

"This website has been developed and is maintained by brothers, sisters, family & friends of Ghislaine Maxwell, the people who have known the real Ghislaine all her life, not the fictional one-dimensional character created by the media." 

That is the lead-in to what essentially is the Justice-for-Ghislaine-Maxwell website - realghislaine.com - launched by supporters. It's quite well-done. That includes a professional photo of Ghislaine, personal background material, frequently-asked-questions, two videos by her brother Ian, resources, a link for the media (Justice@realghislaine.com) and a link to court documents.

The case is "U.S. v. Ghislaine Maxwell." 

Interestingly, one bit of material in the Resources section is Alan Dershowitz's book "Guilt by Accusation." On O'Dwyer Public Relations, I reviewed that provocative book. Take a read.

The current meme is advocacy for Ghislaine's appeal of the third time she had been turned down for bail. Of course, there is a description of her inhumane treatment at Metropolitan Detetention Center.

The website will provide updates on legalities, right up to the trial. 

As a communicator in the legal-defense loop, I have created advocacy material. This is worth a look for others in this niche. Study it for what seems effective and what probably isn't moving the dial in the court of global public opinion. Ian alludes to the American legal system.

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Is Much of Law Firm Work "Bullshit Jobs?"

"In his book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, the late anthropologist David Graeber described a particular type of employment: 'If the position were eliminated, it would make no discernable difference in the world.' A bullshit job, he writes, is 'so completely pointless that even the person who has to perform it every day cannot convince himself there’s a good reason for him to be doing so.'" - Apoorva Tadepalli, The Atlantic, April 2, 2021.

Are so many of the jobs in law firms actually "bullshit work," that is, really meaningless? And if not done the world would be the same? Or maybe even better?

Those bullshit jobs would no longer exist if American became a lot less litigious.

For example, instead of filing lawsuits against each other they would resolve conflicts in other ways. 

Feuds in the old neighborhoods about the sale of a car could be righted by crossing the street when approaching that person or clan. Then crossing back when there was ample distance between the two parties. That would go on for decades.

Those who perceived that harm had been done them felt satisfied. Actually, they often concluded they emerged with the upper hand. The whole neighborhood witnessed the frequent humiliation of the miscreant.

Currently, those conflicts, be they invididual or corporate, find their way into lawsuits. In law school, students do the bullshit work of reading about them. Then as associates in BigLaw they do the document review. The lack of satisfaction is papable.

However, it's unlikely that the Biden Administratio will institute tort reform. 

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Home Invasion of Glenn Greenwald's Farm House - As Amateurish as Those of Petit and Clutter Families, But w/o Murders

On Substack this Easter weekend journalist Glenn Greenwald is the subject of his story.

It's about the home invasion March 5th of his rented farm near Rio de Janerio.

Greenwald described it as performed by three thugs in black masks, looking for money and merchandise to rob. In the process they manhandled Greenwald and his security guard. That included shoving a gun into Greenwald's mouth.

But, unlike the iconic home invasions of the Petit and Clutter families in the United States there were no murders. Also, unlike them, there will likely be no trial which attracts global interest. The latter also resulted in a classic work of nonfiction - Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood." International media covering the trials of the Petit murders continually referred to the similarities to "In Cold Blood."

But as with those two home invasions, Greenwald summed up the assault as amateurish. Also like them, there was little in the house that could have made the crime worth their time and the penalty if they are apprehended. 

It's a given that your home is supposed to be your castle.

So, a home invasion always is a scary story. But it's tragic irony was what gripped the Petit family's neighbors in Connecticut and the Clutter's in Kansas. There was little gained. In fact, that was captured by the image of one of the robbers in the Clutter farm house shaking loose coins from a piggy bank.

In addition, the criminals were apprehended. Obviously, crime didn't pay. One set were executed. The other only ducked that when CT abolished the death penalty and that was made retroactive. 

At the time of the home invasion, Greenwald's husband and two children were not at home. Otherwise the probability for fatal violence could have been increased. With more in the loop, there could have been a wrong move. The robbers could have panicked. 

Greenwald's followers are relieved the trauma hadn't resulted in death. 

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Lawyers Living in Jersey City Will Never Experience the Ethos Philip Roth Captured Brilliantly in Novels

The New York Times nailed it: Philip Roth chronicled growing up in that  unique pocket of New Jersey - the Newark/Jersey City area - in his novels. Therefore, there is little for his biographers to add. 

That ethos was created, value by value, by some very fonfused characters. And Roth spotted the marketability of all that. The culture was in-your-face and raw but socially conservative. The ugly underbelly was self-hate. Family was supposed to be sacred but the heretics were already clawing at the gates. Extreme generosity was cancelled out by pettiness.

Unfortunately, with gentrification that went poof. Lawyers residing in downtown Jersey City or near what's being called Wall Street on the Other Side of the Hudson will never experience a kind of inner life and a subculture so ambivalent and intense. 

Instead the region is embedded with careerism. There is that same Manhattan-type ambition that they might have hoped to flee. They have to be that same type of New York City hustlers in order to pay the rent.

Downtown, on 185 Mongomery Avenue, a 600 square foot apartment rents for $2,500. 

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Paul Weiss Through the Glass Door - As a Friend of Joe, New Scrutiny

" ... Paul Weiss has emerged as a power center in the Biden era." -  Bloomberg Law, March 24, 2021.

That positioning - label it being "a Friend of Joe" - brings new scrutiny to the dynamics of that law firm.

Just as when law firm Jones Day had been"a Friend of Donald," it will be under the microscope for the next four years. Can you hear it? That's the sound of the media rushing onto the playing field to develop unique angles on how Paul Weiss operates, externally and internally.

One feeder pool for data about Paul Weiss is the input from members of the firm, present and past.

On Glassdoor, they give the firm a 4.1 rating out of 5.

That's in the ball park of other BigLaw players such as Cravath which has a 4 rating. It's higher than Willkie Farr's 3.8

Overall, the gush factors about working at Paul Weiss mirror those at most of BigLaw:

Good pay, decent benefits. At least for lawyers. Staff has some beefs.

Smart colleagues.

A shot at interesting assignments. Some do get stuck in the document review ghetto - and for years. 

Availability of lots of overtime for paralegals.

Transparency.

Satisfaction with the chairman Brad Karp (92% approval rate).

Most of the negatives also mirror much of BigLaw:

Politics. The values are power-driven. Most large law firms are microcosoms of what goes down Inside the Beltway. Talk to those who don't make partner and their assessment frequently is that they played the politics wrong. A useful read for insight into those machinations is the oldie but still relevant "The Power Game" by Hedrick Smith. Another oldie but helpful is "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli. 

Long, unpredictable hours. The implied expectation is of availability 24/7.

Staff perception that they are being treated as "lower class"

Arrogance of some of those with authority. The gallows humor could be all about the divine right of kings. But, I have a hunch, that's already as much a cliche as the "perfect storm."

Low probability of upward mobility. One post reads "Only chance of promotion is becoming a Senior Staff Attorney, which is extremely hard to get (maybe 1% make it) and only available after 5 years." After all, the system is up-or-out. Large law firms are a dead-ringer for the tenure game in elite academia such as Harvard.

Little predictability about what assignments you will get. Could be stuck in menial tasks or could wind up in a team who is in the courtroom for trials.

But there are also the rants which stand out as a sticky on Paul Weiss. They include:

Ironically, a Conflict Analyst reported, "I was yelled out and chastised for any mistake I made." What's of note here is that that kind of behavior was of the type that not even a conflcit analyst was able to tame. Interesting.

There is also the issue of turnover, which may be atypically high. One employee comments about " ... some really impatient and unpleasant clients (internal and external) so most people won't last long."

No formal or informal connection between legal and non-legal employees.

One post uses this terminology "dirty clients." (But, hell, don't most clients contact elite law firms because of alleged serious wrongdoing? That should stink up the place.)

Another post uses the term "toxic" to capture the culture.

Some or much of this could change.

Yes, the barbarians could be at the gate.

Even before the disruption of COVID, Millennial lawyers have been challenging the traditional values, policies and practices of large law firms.

With the current chase after talent their voices have become louder and are being heard.

Actually, though, no one can freeze-frame those Millennial values. That's one reason Abovethelaw is conducting a major survey about what young lawyers want.

The stakes for law firms, including Paul Weiss, are high on this one.

The Millennials can leak to media and/or exit as a lateral, solo, or boutique player. They can also file lawsuits. The gender-bias ones may only be the beginning of the litigation challenges to how it is to work in large law firms.

The whole future of work, of course, is in play.

Overdue is how those issues could transform career paths in the legal sector. Incidentally, Willis Towers Watson is among those projecting the end of careers. Replacing them will be developing and carrying around a portfolio of skills and experiences. 

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Paul Weiss - Will It "Do a Jones Day" and The Possible Implications

Back in April 2017, Joe Patrice did a long-form piece on Abovethelaw about how Jones Day was leveraging its association with the Trump Administration.

Of course, because of that Jones Day was in the catbird seat for developing new business and reducing client churn.

Some recall that the branding kicked in when Jones Day partner Don McGahn began representing the 2016 Make America Great Again campaign. He himself went on to be White House Counsel. With him parachuted into federal government about a dozen other Jones Day lawyers.

Power? A pile-on of it.

Now, Bloomberg Law detailed how embedded Paul Weiss is in the Biden Administration. So, it isn't a stretch to speculate how much of an edge that will be in landing new accounts, expanding the business from current ones and discouraging churn.

Bluntly put, Paul Weiss could the liberal version of Jones Day.

With that edge, though, comes fresh challenges.

For instance, the Bloomberg Law coverage pointed out that although Paul Weiss has a progressive culture its client list isn't totally that. On it are Exxon and private equity. Also, in this era of radical politics, being looped in with Biden Administration branding makes Paul Weiss a target for just about any extreme constituency. As well as the not-so-extreme ones.

Jones Day went through a lot of that. Iconic had been the anti-Trump media coverage of its role in questioning the results of the 2020 election in Pennsylvania.

Therefore, along with the huge plus of access to the Biden Administration, Paul Weiss will be slugging it out with myriad old and new enemies. Much of that will make it into the legal, business and political media.

As with all matters in the court of public opinion, how those headlines play out depends primarily on how the law firm manages its now number-one job of public relations. The door has been opened - a favorite phrase in the legal sector - to turn over Paul Weiss and inspect its underbelly. 

That public-relations "duty" also reaches inside the law firm. The leadership will have to persuade the Millennial lawyers to buy into both its ideological stances and whatever pops up on its client list. Otherwise there could be leaks to media and the exiting of talent. 

Should Paul Weiss learn from Jones Day?

Just like its unique black box culture, that law firm has its own kind of public relations. For instance, it's not one for mea culpas. Unlike Chadbourne & Park did when settling with Kerrie Campbell, Jones Day didn't indicate it had learned useful lessons when gender bias lawsuit "Tolton, et al v. Jones Day" dissolved. 

Paul Weiss can, just as Jones Day does, also stand firm.

Or, given the amazing social skills of its well-connected chairperson Brad Karp, it can negotiate the whatevers.

What might guide us in watching this new game unfold in D.C. and New York is a classic in the theory and practice of human behavior. That's the book "Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" by famous sociologist Erving Goffman.

Its takeaway is this: The person or the institution with the most power sets the "definition" - that is the rules - for what goes down. That covers everything from what issue is on the table to who speaks first to who gets to speak last. 

What will be of most interest in the next four years is who or what really has the power in America. 

Could it be elite law firm Paul Weiss?

The media?

The Biden Administration?

The radical movements? 

The control of law firms by non-lawyers?

BigTech? (Paul Weiss now is establishing a presence in Silicon Valley.)

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Climate Change - Research on Reproductive Organs Might Be Tipping Point in Acceptance

"Greta Thunberg joke-tweets that worry over smaller penises will finally get more people to join climate movement" - Rachel Koning Beals, MarketWatch, March 26, 2021

With 4.9 million Twitter followers, Thunberg has influence. What she is broadcasting on her Twitter platform is the research of Dr. Shanna Swan.

In her book "Count Down" Swan presents her findings that the chemical phthalates is associated with shrinking penises and reduced sperm count. That chemical is used in making plastic more flexible. And plastics are among the most controversial factors in the debate over climate change. Swan is based at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

In addition to this information, what could move the dial on the acceptance of the reality of climate change is the extreme weather this past winter. Even here near the border of Mexico there had been severe cold and snow. 

The Biden Administration could leverage these developments in implementing policies and initiating lawsuits which address climate change.

But that path is not linear. For instance, two days ago, Bloomberg Law pointed out that the law firm close to the Biden Administration - Paul Weiss - regularly represents Exxon. Most recently that was when Exxon had been accused by New York state law of spreading misinformation about climate change.  

Not only politics, but also business makes for strange bedfellows. The culture of Paul Weiss is liberal. But its list of clients is not. 

However that could bite it in the rear, just as that did David Boise at Boies and Schiller.

It was Boies' taking on the Harvey Weinstein defense and how he did it which set in play his downward trajectory. The New Yorker published the details of all that. Later it was Boies' dual role with startup Theranos. As Alan Dershowitz hammered in his book "Guilt by Accusation," that could represent a conflict of interest. Boies was both on the board of directors and represented founder Elizabeth Holmes. At the end of August she goes on trial for allegedly misleading investors and consumers.

Yes, law firms also have their tipping points.

Small changes can trigger big success in your career and your business communications. Swing by for a complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)

Alan Dershowitz Loops into Defense of "U.S. Dominion v. Michael Lindell" - "The Hero's Farewell"

"Attorney Alan Dershowitz says he is advising lawyers representing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in the $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems in connection to the businessman’s conspiracy theories involving the 2020 election." The Hill, March 18, 2021.  

The litigation is "U.S. Dominion v. Michael Lindell." Here is a copy of the complaint. 

Post retirement as a professor at Harvard Law School Dershowitz has been a busy guy. And an increasingly high profile player.

One wonders if this iconic criminal lawyer has been sucked into the force field described by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld in "The Hero's Farewell." That book details the syndrome of the powerful who can't let go after they retire or step back from their position. 

The "usual" is that they can undermine their legacy by struggling all too hard to remain on the radar. 

One wonders what the first line in The New York Times obiturary for Dershowitz will be. It had been his book "The Best Defense" which motivated me to apply to Harvard Law School. When I was admitted, unfortunately, although I pleaded I wasn't admitted to his Criminal Law Course.

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