Law And More

Restructuring & Insolvency - Paul Weiss Partners Alan Kornberg and Elizabeth McColm publish the USA chapter in the International Comparative Legal Guide

POSSIBILITY OF RECESSION

The smart money is confirming this: the possibility of a recession. For example, as Reuters Legal reports, former Goldman Sachs’ Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein indicated that an economic downturn was “a very, very high risk factor.”

FOCUSING ON RESTRUCTURING AND INSOLVENCY

Therefore, on an exploratory basis – or in a more serious mode – businesses are or will be focusing on the ins and outs of restructuring and insolvency. Those businesses, along with financial and law firms, will find useful the International Comparative Legal Guide (CLG) to Restructuring & Insolvency Laws & Regulations 2021-2022. It has been published by the Global Legal Group Ltd. in London, with the “Preface” by Contributing Editor Jat Baines of Macfarlanes LLP.

PAUL WEISS PARTNERS IN PUBLISING LOOP

Paul Weiss is thrilled to announce that two of its own had been a part of that book-publishing project. Here is the Paul Weiss Client Memorandum with the details.

The two partners Alan Kornberg and Elizabeth McColm wrote the USA chapter for the book. Here is that chapter, available to be read, at no charge.

Essentially Kornberg and McColm discuss the key issues to consider when a company is in financial difficulties. Those include the restructuring options, insolvency procedures, cross-border concerns, COVID factors, and more.

More specifically, what the chapter covers are these topics:

Overview

Key issues to consider when the company is in financial difficulties

Restructuring options

Insolvency procedures

Tax

Employees

Cross-Border Issues

Groups

Covid-19

The Future.

PAUL WEISS

The law firm has a formal Restructuring Practice.

It is proud to showcase on the webpage for that practice this:

“The thing that strikes you the most about Paul, Weiss is the depth of the practice. They just have a large number of senior partners, all of whom are of an outstanding quality.” – Chambers USA, Band 1 for Bankruptcy/Restructuring (Nationwide and NYC) and “Bankruptcy Law Firm of the Year” in 2019.

Since 2008, Brad Karp has been Chairperson of Paul Weiss. His transactional and litigation work has been primarily for the financial sector. SuperLawyers provides a backgrounder on that.

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com. Now and then she does freelance assignments for professional services firms such as Paul Weiss.

Fading Brands: From Davos to Being a Billionaire

The excitement just isn't there. That's what Bloomberg quotes Wendy Craft, chief of staff at Fulcrum Equities, as saying about Davos in summer. (What could be interesting, though, are that shamans are there hawking their services. Yeah, attendees can book a premium tarot reading,)

Actually, Davos Man and Davos Woman haven't been relevant for almost a decade. After all, with the emerging ESG ethos extreme wealth has come under attack. Both individual and institutional. 

Then when the once-iconic journey to the winter Switzerland retreat went remote for two years the Davos Man/Woman brand faded. The new book flaming Davos Everything - "Davos Man" - ranks high on Amazon: #29,413. By journalist Peter S. Goodman, it showcases Davos' sponsor, that is, the World Economic Forum, as a platform for billionaires to present themselves as passionate about creating a good future for the rest of us. You bet, the distance from their perch and where we hang out is made palpable. Incidentally, more authenic at all that and perhaps accomplishing much more could be the Milken Institute Global Conference. This year it took place May 1 through 4.

Along with Davos, what has become a lot less buzzy is the billionaire. That happened quite abruptly, didn't it. There is a shift in the narrative from how these wonderkinds made their billions to how they haven't been too smart about hanging on to those big bucks. Here is it from Bloomberg, May 21, 2022.

"The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily measure of the wealth of the world’s 500 richest people, has dropped $1.6 trillion since its peak in November. Leading the way are the Americans on the index, who have lost $797 billion since their peak. Perhaps the most humbled by it all is the world’s richest person, Elon Musk. He’s lost $139.1 billion, or 41% of his wealth, since November, when his net worth briefly surpassed $340 billion. Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, the second-richest person, lost $82.7 billion, or 39% of his peak wealth." 

Maybe The American Wealth Dream is mutating into the ability to create financial comfort in ways that don't have to brand you as anything. You can just make your money and not be forced into any category like "billionaire" or "millionaire." And you don't have to prance around like Bill Gates (who is at Davos summer) pontificating about broad-based topics ranging from pandemics to the world economy. You can just be. 

Reflection: Is could be a professional liability to be at Davos summer. 

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com.

Shamans Will Be Hawking Enlightenment at Davos - Lawyers, You Can Become Plenty Enlightened DIY

The new normal is there is no normal.

So, it shouldn't be really news - but Bloomberg treats it as news - that shamans will be marketing their services at Davos. After all, those conferences in Davos, sponsored by the World Economic Forum, are really about business (but wrapped in the gravitas packaging of creating a better future for those of us who can't afford to attend). 

The shamans will be there as part of an addition to the usual fare. That's the presentations under the umbrella of the "House of Psychedelics." 

But, what everyone knows who has explored the highly permeable boundaries of How to Know is that the middleman shaman is not necessary. We can all be our own shaman. Only these are required:  (1) the belief that there is something beyond what's visible and (2) that by being open we can access it.

The DIY can consists of a simple visualization of ourselves walking tall and not putting ourselves down, not even in humorous self-deprecation. We repeat the visual ritual often enough and there we are - rid of that self-defeating habit. 

A primer on all that is Sylvia Browne's "Phenomenon: Everything You Need to Know About the Paranormal."  On Amazon, the Kindle version is $12.99. A used paper copy goes for a few bucks.

An increasingly popular tool to bypass the visible for the kinds of self-awareness allowing us to transcend our man-made defaults is the tarot. Those are the 78 cards which parachute us into the realm of the subconscious as well as the collective unconscious. 

On April 1, 2021, The New York Times published an article on how to read your tarot cards. Yes, the tarot has gone mainstream.

At the Strega metaphysical shop in Sierra Vista, Arizona, there is always a tarot reader or multiple ones on-duty. But demand is so intense that an appointment is necessary. Among the "star" readers is Wendy Vonne.

At Strega, Vonne uses a variety of tarot card sets from around the world. She has practiced mysticism in a number of nations.

But the tarot set recommended for beginners is the Rider - Waite - Smith deck. Along with a guide, it costs $25.99 through Amazon. Stores such as Strega also sell them.

The best introductory comprehensive easy-to-understand guide I have come across is "Kitchen Table Tarot" by Melissa Cynova. On Amazon there is a special for $14.44.

One hack I teach those I train in DIY tarot reading is this.

Sit in a relaxed position.

Close your eyes.

Visualize a blue sky.

Put your dominant hand around a string on a bright yellow balloon.

Then let that string go.

You are ready to surrender to the subconscious.

Shuffle the cards until it feels you are ready to stop.

From left to right, assemble the cards into three piles. They do not have to be equal.

Float your hands over the cards several times to align with the universe's vibrations. Then you will be know the card to choose and to interpret.

Later you can move on to doing multiple-card spreads.

For more information about the tarot you can contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Milken Institute Global Conference - Has It Become Davos, Without the Negative Symbolism and With Warm Weather?

Davos Man had once been the symbol of professional success, influence, power, and a commitment to making the future better for the rest of us little people. That was then.

IRRELEVANT, AT BEST

More recently, Davos Man as well as Davos Woman has degenerated into, at best, an irrelevant brand. More likely, everyone in the Davos loop represents part of the problems members of the World Economic Forum put on a show every January pretending to solve. 

Last January, the usual timing for the supposed movers and shakers to journey to Switzerland, journalist Peter S. Goodman published what has been a bestseller: "Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World." Readers give it almost a 5 (out of 5) rating. There are 183 comments. And it ranks high on Amazon - 18,880. Goodman can't say enough bad about that tribe. What he vilifies most is their pretension to be passionate about solving the world's problems while actually being totally locked into augmenting their own wealth.

NOW, MILKEN MAN AND WOMAN

The exposure of the Davos tribal members as seemingly self-interested hypocrites opens the door for another tribe to rise to power. A likely replacement could be those who have been attending the Milken Institute Global Conference. As Bloomberg reports, that's taking place right now (May 1 -4). Participation is global. The weather in California, unlike that for the Davos event, is pleasant. And no one could slap a "geriatric" label on it. Hey, these people are cool.

Yes, it does have a noble mission. The Milken Institute is a think tank which, it states, exists to:

" ... advance unconventional economic and policy solutions that support growth and enhance health by conducting research ..."

No, that doesn't come across as the grandiose posturings of the Davos tribe.

MILKEN AS REBORN

Most importantly, the leader of these Milken galas - Michael Milken - can't position and package himself the way those in the World Economic Forum tend to. Milken had been in prison. Actually, after he took a guilty plea for violating securities laws, he had been sentenced to 10 years. But he wound up only serving two. In 2020 he had received a pardon from then US President Donald Trump. 

Instead of being The Extreme Success brand Milken is the Born-Again One. That's a kind of inspirational narrative we ordinary people can hang our hats on. Like Milken, maybe we too can turn our lives around. And keep doing better. 

THE PERIL OF SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

The peril with the new model for collective power and influence creating good is that it can become intoxicated with its wonderfulness. Slowly and then more quickly it could harden into a closed system. Those unconventional economic and policy decisions could become not only mighty traditional. They could be self-serving.

You can connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Bill Gates & The Art of the Comeback - In Safe Harbor with Pandemic Narrative

Again once-fallen tech icon Bill Gates gets the front digital page in influential media. And for a positive reason. 

Insider features his warnings about future pandemics. That's the meme Gates nurtured to shift the global conversation away from his divorce and alleged womanizing. And, it worked. What is playing out is yet another example of the art of the comeback.

Initially, Gates did a mea culpa about his part in not being able to sustain his marriage. Then he laid low, which is a fundamental in reputation restoration. 

Soon enough he went locked and loaded into what had become the worldwide preocccupation: What about the next pandemic.

On May 3rd his book will be released. It's "How to Prevent the Next Pandemic." In pre-sales it ranks high on Amazon: #2,009.

Since COVID is not yet finished with the world, interest in pandemics will remain an obsession.

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

SCORPIONS: When civilty didn't rule U.S. Supreme Court

The book SCORPIONS by Noah Feldman makes the juicy tidbits uncovered by Jeffrey Toobin seem tame.  Today in THE NEW YORK TIMES, Adam Cohen reviews this analysis of a U.S. Supreme Court which didn't view civility as necessary.  The time period is that served by FDR's appointees.

Those justices, ranging from Felix Frankfurter to Hugo Black, were no better than the ill-tempered clients divorce lawyers have to deal with.  Some of the hostile opining was due to diverse interpretations of the Constitution. Some was the nature of the beast.  Four ot the biggest feuders were self-made outsiders.  As we know, those types carry Idiosyncrasies, strength and that chip on their shoulder everywhere.

One of the most interesting, at least as presented by Feldman, is Black.  No slouch at being ambitious, he joined the Ku Klux Klan to get a Senate seat.  After that, he got it that he could make it on his own and dumped the Klan. This approach mirrors how what's being called the shadow elite manage make a good living and acquire lots of power.  They do that by being totally opportunistic and not loyal.  Janine Wedel wrote an amazing book by that title.  The game is to pick up experience globally and then leverage it to the max.  The way the shadow elite put that together is both bold and creative.  Civility is irrelevant.

Perhaps the model of SCORPIONS and SHADOW ELITE is what's shaping up to the ethos of our age.

That eBook - It can help with job search/developing new business

Yes, there's a glut of books - all kinds, ranging from traditionally published by houses like HarperCollins to how marketer Seth Godin now does his.  But, they are still the price of entry if you want to be taken seriously in a niche or enhance a brandname.  Nice, that you can knock one out, on say elder law in Connecticut or animal companion estate planning, fast and cheap with eBooks.

Here is my post on that on AOL Jobs.  Soon enough, some career consultants who themselves need to perk up their brand names will be doing a survey on how eBooks were the tipping point in a job hire or attracting new business.

Walter Berglund - Lawyers can skip FREEDOM for insight into themselves

Secondary player in FREEDOM by Jonathan Franzer, Walter Berglund the lawyer could have been a mid-level manager at 3M or a third-tier lobbyist at K Street.  The book offers no particular insight into how a lawyer's particular training, professional responsibilities, and personal longings can put a human being on a downward trajectory. 

Unfortunately, the same is true of the primary player Patty Berglund in this supposed breakthrough novel.  That goes for all the other characters whose myopic paths we plow through in the 562 pages of this book.  The plot turns again and again on the inevitable reality that most of human beings are messes, some more than others.  Some of the messes get into less trouble than others but few if any can anticipate a life without plenty of melodrama, flight into alcohol, and even some 20th century modes of psychotherapy with its focus on the family of origin thrown in.

Is FREEDOM something lawyers should look forward to reading over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays?  Forget it.  Much more insight and even self acceptance could come from:

• SCHULZ AND PEANUTS by David Michaelis.  The creator of "Peanuts" knew he was a mess and put every bit of that wounded state to creative use.  Charles Schulz was so aware of the utility of being broken that he refused to ever ever consult with a psychotherapist.  Yeah, leverage suffering as a fresh form of creating wealth, prestige, and status.

 

• WHEN YOU'RE FALLING, DIVE, by Mark Matousek.  The thesis is that once human beings get on the other side of whatever is haunting, chasing, or trying to destroy them, the power is there to accomplish whatever and live exactly how they want.  The trick is to be able to hold on while in transition.  Matousek tells the story of the American lobster "homarus americanus."  Annually it has to dive to the bottom of ocean where it drops its old shell.  Until it grows a new one it has to put everything into not being eaten.

 

• THE WISDOM OF NO ESCAPE by Pema Chodron.  This Buddhist nun who is an alumna of Katherine Porter school tells us healing and growing and getting stronger in the right places is "about befriending who we are already."  No, we don't have to plan an extreme makeover.  What might be useful is taking a peek at what's there and then going on from there. 

 

"How did it happen?" Hilary Smith talks about being bipolar

The grueling profession of practicing law seems to be a socially accepted career path for bipolars.  Just consider the number of serial all-nighters. 

Finally, there is a book for bipolars that makes for almost trashy reading.  It's by bipolar Hilary Smith and it's called: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE: Everything you ever wanted to know about bipolar but were too freaked out to ask.  With brilliance, personal experience, research and wit Smith takes this baffling condition out of the clinical literature and positions and packages it so that we bipolars will be open to its contents.

That's rare.  Even the most well meaning among us bipolars like Johns Hopkins University professor Kay Redfield Jamison makes the whole enchilada seem pretty scary.  Also, experts like Jamison don't provide commonsense practical ways we can navigate through the day at work following insomnia or racing/slowing thoughts.  Smith does.  For example, on page 115, she has Ten Ways You Can Say Yes To Something Without Losing Face."   All of them prevent needless confrontations.

There's more.  The tone of the book is realistic.  Bipolars are not depicted as special or carrying the burden of genius.  Instead, says Smith, we should just consider our lives as a game that is faster and harder than it is for others. 

Of course there are those bipolars who want to consider their condition an edge, a type of way to create added value for their employers and clients.  They might be right on the money.  But Smith wouldn't encourage that kind of mindset.  It could be a symptom of the classic grandiosity among bipolars.

All life is copy: So, of course, lawyers have great books in them

On her death bead, the mother of famous writer Nora Ephron told her to consider this sad experience as copy - and use it.  Since life is the mother of all creative work, lawyers could be knocking out plenty of great books.  So, it's no surprise that novelist David Fulmer finds lawyers in his fiction-writing course. Beginning with the cases they deconstruct in law school to the confidential information they receive from clients to the antics pulled by opposing lawyers, do they ever have copy.

Likely it is that very material is what makes lawyering so tough on the nervous, emotional and spiritual systems.  As we all know. lawyers have significantly higher rates of everything, ranging from substance abuse to suicide. In his new book DRIVE, Daniel Pink, who did attend law school, posits that lawyers are such an unhappy lot because the right mindset in the profession is pessimism, the game is zero-sum, and there is lots of responsibility and accountability but little control.

Plaintiff attorney Bill Marler, whose firm Marler Clark specializes in food-borne diseases, could pen a sci-fi best seller about a microbe which destroys the entire food supply on planet earth.  Some lawyers based in Seattle, Washgington, where Marler Clark is located, travel to Mars to locate a new type of food supply.