Law And More

Legal Marketers: Beware LinkedIn Updates

Experts haven't come to any definitive conclusions about the surging rate of narcissism.

But, therapist and best-selling author Shahida Arabi has some hunches. She discusses them in her book "Power: Surviving & Thriving After Narcissistic Abuse." Although published more than two years ago, it continues to rank high on Amazon. This afternoon it's at 7,473. Here you can order it from Amazon.

Among the factors triggering the uptick in narcissism, observes Arabi, is the dominance of self-promotion on social networks. Sure, that self-promotion is often is positioned and packaged as information. Sometimes posters get away with appearing to post as a public service. For instance, they are providing documentation for the harm X or Y causes. And they may be totally sincere.

But self-promotion it is.

And, you bet, it's necessary.

That currently extends from the brutal world of high school alpha-strutting to the stealth games of professional life. For the latter, the must platform to post on is LinkedIn Updates.

I tell clients just that: They have to be there on LinkedIn Updates. And once there no such entity as excessive self-promotion exists. 

But the downside of that is a hardening of sensitivity about human interaction.

Soon enough in the seeming compulsive self-promotion process the poster loses any interest in if readers are interested.

During in-person interaction (which there is less and less of in digital times) there is the glazed-over look. Online, there may be no likes, shares, comments or views. But posters rarely take note. They just keep posting and posting. The mindset might be: I'm in business, I postpostpost. 

That reckless disregard of others is an attribute of narcissism. Eventually it could become a formal case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. 

Meanwhile, that extreme lack of social skills can actually hurt the business or the cause. That's what should scare those who have made LinkedIn Updates their platform.

Over and over again, especially in this digital economy, human resources leaders are singling out soft skills as what their organizations need. Here is Deloitte's white paper on that.

In my research/ghostwriting assignments on implementing Digital First, 90% has been focused on raising the organization's and the individual's Emotional Intelligence. The technology will succeed or fail based primarily on human factors. 

So, the irony may be: The business is an effective promoter on LinkedIn Updates but it winds up going bankrupt.

The autopsy at the bankruptcy uncoveres that it had lost touch with clients/customers, prospects, and third-party partners.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

"Medellin" Flop Raises Question for All Aging Professionals: When Is It Time to Leave?

" … [Madonna'] 'Medellin' failed to catch on. It rose to number 9 on iTunes briefly, and now sits at number 32 … Beyoncé's 'Homecoming' album, released the same day, has sold or streamed a total of 43,000 copies in 48 hours." - ShowBiz411, April 19, 2019. Here is the article. 

Here is the audio - chachacha - from "Medellin," which is the lead-in to Madonna's new album "Madame X." Out in mid June, "Madame X" is supposed to be the 60-year-old's comeback platform. 

Nothing about "Medellin" is fresh.

That's why Madonna is being positioned and packaged as "washed up."

It isn't her age per se.

Betty White, a relic from the Mary Tyler Moore era, is in her 90s. She did fresh. That was through creating the persona as the designated role model for aging. That process, she hammered in her book, wasn't for sissies. The world loved it. Still love it. She remains marketable.

The issue Madonna raises is the scary question for all aging who are still working: Is it time to leave?

But what they are leaving might well be a very narrow career path. No, it isn't necessary to hang it all up, disappear into a retirement community in Oro Valley, Arizona, and compulsively do yoga. 

ShowBiz411 points out that the last several albums Madonna has put out have been "flops." 

Instead of continuing to do what isn't panning out, she could be testing out other ways to distinguish herself through work.

Maybe she can launch a training institution for the performing arts in Lordstown, Ohio. GM recently shuttered the plant there, putting about 1,600 out of a good job and hope. She can open the door to the light for all the Youngstown, OH metro area. The region still is caught in the shadow of Steel Yesterday.

Shoot-'em-up actor Clint Eastwood transitioned to serious drama at age 62. That was his film "The Unforgiven." Most recently, near 90, he gave us the amazing complex character of Earl Stone in "The Mule." Here is a video clip.

In the legal sector, Chris Darden of O.J. Simpson criminal trial fame shifted from prosecutor to defense attorney. At age 63, he is representing Nipsey Hussle's alleged murderer Eric Holder. 

If Don McGahn of Trump Administration fame is to regain his power and influence, he has to figure out how to develop a new sphere of influence. At age 51, his long-term branding is being blown to bits. Here is just a peek into that mess.

And there is that much younger version of transition: Elie Mystal. The Harvard Law School trained lawyer has gone rogue as journalist activist. He set that in play during his "audition" for a reporting job on Abovethelaw.com.

How do the aging and those no longer perceived as "young" come up with the courage to change?

I don't know about others.

What I do know is that for me the pain of becoming invisible was greater than the anxiety involved in trying out new lines of work. That experimentation in my professional life began when I was 58. Then, that same courage took over the decisions I made in my personal life. Here is one of those stories of brutal moments of clarity and then transition.

A useful read for those caught between career paths is "Necessary Endings" by executive coach Henry Cloud. Here you can order it from Amazon.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Alan Dershowitz, 80, Sued for Alleged Defamation by Virginia Giuffre (formerly Virginia Roberts)

Alan Dershowitz has defended many famous people.

But his defense of rich, influential, and well connected Jeffrey Epstein keeps biting him in the butt.

The latest negative development on that front has been a defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who, when she was underage. had been in the loop of the whole Epstein sex scandal.

At the time she was known as Virginia Roberts. Now 35 years old and a mother, she is known as Virginia Giuffre.

The complaint is "Virginia Giuffre v. Alan Dershowitz." Here is a copy of it. The plaintiff is represented by Paul Cassell.

In it, filed in the Southern District Court of New York, the plaintiff contends that Dershowitz inflicted on her a "desperate barrage of false and increasingly defamatory attacks."

Throughout the scandal, she had also accused Dershowitz of forcing her to have sex with him. One of the locations had been Epstein's New York McMansion.

In an exclusive to the Daily Mail, Dershowitz denied everything the plaintiff contends.

In fact, he describes her as positioning and packaging herself as a MeToo victim. He anticipates that a trial will result in her being convicted of perjury. He frames the whole thing as a zero-sum game. One is lying and that one will be punished. He contends she has a long history of lying. 

It's sad that the Dershowitz brand is subjected to this sustained attack.

After reading Dershowitz' "The Best Defense," I applied to Harvard Law School. When accepted by Harvard I requested to be placed in his Criminal Law course. That didn't happen. I was crushed since I knew he had involved his students in his trial research.

Despite his rhetorical theatrics on Fox, I still admire his aggressiveness as his clients' advocate. My hope is that he is cleared of the allegations dating back to his defense of Epstein. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

The Peculiar "The Rules Defense" - Loughlin/Giannulli Taking Gigantic (and arrogant) Legal Risk

From the get-go on the new job, some old hand swings by and clues us into The Rules. That is, the essentials of the organizational culture or how things get done there.

Often The Rules are unique to that workplace.

For example, if asked a question related to employment, hesitate in order to showcase that you are thinking.

Another could be to arrive very early versus doing face time late into the evening.

If we break enough of The Rules, we probably will be the first to get laid off or forced out. But, we likely won't be in legal trouble. The Rules are usually not associated with The Law per se.

This distinction is, reports Matt Nathan on Law and Crime, what Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli are leveraging as their defense. As with much of the coverage about the Loughlin Giannulli legal pickle, the info is coming from sources, not the two celebs.

What Loughlin and Giannulli are accused of is very serious. If convicted, each faces up to 40 years in prison. The charges go beyond the mess Felicity Huffman was in. And unlike her, they have rejected the option of taking a guilty plea. By now, that window might be closed.

The charges include conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

Yet, they seem to have confidence that when they tell their story to the judge all will be understood. 

What they want understood was when they engaged in the broad-based behavior (including donations to a charity) they assumed that they were simply violating The Rules. They were unaware that they were breaking laws. 

Such an assumption is not only legally risky.

It can be perceived as arrogant.

Folks don't cotton to arrogant.

Remember how "let them eat cake" went over?

And there is that famous line in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" that the rich are careless people. For that book, readers 'sympathy is with those who get plowed over in that carelessness. Among them in AdmissionsGate are strivers who didn't have the resources to game the system. 

Reflection: One wonder if even a David Boies mastermind could get The Rules defense to win an acquittal? 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Puzzling: Courts Still Sentencing to Alcoholics Anonymous

In meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) across America, attending are those "sentenced" by the court.

Usually that is positioned and packaged as an option: AA or jail. For X number of months they will attend Y number of meetings a week and have their being there verified by the meeting secretary, who in AA, is referred to as a "trusted servant."

It's puzzling that such a legal ritual still takes place.

When AA was launched in the 1930s, the scientific knowledge about what "caused" problem drinking and what could reduce or end it had been primitive. 

Also, it has been documented that AA's success rate - that is, assisting with long-term sobriety - is about 5%.

Now a classic, the 2015 article in The Atlantic hammers in detail why AA should not be the default approach for treatment of alcohol abuse.

This month, Joe Miller published "US of AA: How the Twelve Steps Hijacked the Science of Alcoholism." Here it can be ordered from Amazon.

And, here is today's discussion by the New York Post on how neither attendance nor the tenets of AA should be foisted on those for whom alcohol is getting in the way.

There exist proven methods to put alcohol in its place.

Unlike AA's fundamentals, some of those approaches do not require never consuming alcoholism again.

Others involve medication.

The courts should make it a priority to learn about the alternatives to AA. It might be a brutal miscarriage of justice and not in the public interest to impose sentences to AA.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

Power & Its Lousy ROI - From Henry VIII to Roger Ailes

From his father Henry VII, Henry VIII learned that power had to be used brutally. After all, the empire was filled with the enemy within. 

The recent biography "Henry VIII And The Men Who Made Him" by Tracy Borman recounts how this preoccupation with power probably caused the king's relatively early death. It could also have prevented him from achieving greatness. That didn't happen for the empire until his daughter Elizabeth, wiser about how to manage power, pulled off it.

Not long after he settled into being kind, he spotted traitors everywhere and dispatched them to the tower for execution. The ROI on that was subpar. Among those offed were advisors who simply disagreed with him. However, given the spell power casts, he lapsed into paranoia. Conflict was interpreted as extreme threat.

Likewise, creator of Fox News Roger Ailes, a brilliant leader and manager, went the power route. Allegedly he leveraged it to force females into unwanted sex. When he was ousted and his office cleared out, guns were found in his desk. Suppose, Ailes hadn't fallen victim to the voodoo of power? He might still be at Fox. 

Sure, power is part of the game. But it turns on the players when they make it their whole game. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

 

Julian Assange - Irrelevant That We Don't Like Him

It's the classic on how the world (including inside the beltway) really works: "The Power Game" by Hedrick Smith. 

In it, Smith explains that one source of power is likability. 

Well, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is perceived to lack that. Much of the media coverage and films made portray him as a self-seeking Machiavellian player. So? 

That really is irrelevant - or should be.

Many positive game-changers in the history of civilization were not likable.

America's freedom fighter John Adams comes across as pompous. Also, it seems he was jealous of the gregarious Ben Franklin who had a way with the ladies, both here and in Paris.

Steve Jobs was not a nice guy. 

Can the U.S. legal system separate out Assange the person from his motivations and behavior?

He is charged with conspiracy to commit computer crime. More specifically, he teamed up with Chelsea Manning to steal and publish classified U.S. government documents.

Here is a copy of the grand jury indictment against him, issued March 2018 but kept under wraps until his arrest today.

The question, as with Ed Snowden (who is more likable), is: Were the "crimes" committed with the greater good in mind? 

Assange legal defense team should hammer in the courts of law and public opinion that, no, we don't like the guy. But his actions might have been acts necessary to protect democracy.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

Post-Guilty Plea - What's Next for Gordon Caplan?

Loss is relative.

The billionaire whose stock portfolio declines 10% in one day can shrug that off. The working stiff hoping to retire in a year can't take that cavalier attitude.

So, what former co-chair and partner at Willkie Farr Gordon Caplan will lose as a result of his guilty plea in AdmissionsGate might not seem to him a gigantic reversal of fortune.

For example, in Law.com, Jenna Greene notes that he might not get prison time. Therefore he might not lose his freedom.

Instead he might be assigned community service. That could rebrand him as a kind of d0-gooder. Soon enough he could establish a foundation to fund that cause. 

Here's why he could get off the hook on prison time: There could be sympathy in the legal system that his crime was not greed-motivated. Rather he was trying to help his kid. Many parents understand that, especially in this era of extreme over-protection of offspring. 

In contrast, another partner from Willkie Farr Keila Ravelo was imprisoned for embezzlement motivated by personal lust for a high lifestyle. She will be released from the slammer in 2023. In following her case the members of the media had not been kind. 

As part of his punishment it is likely that as a convicted felon Caplan will lose his law license. That's automatic in New York. Maybe that won't unhinge him. He could have taken such a risk in crossing the line to illegal activity because he was burned out or suffering from a brown out (that is, diminished fire in the belly). Maybe, at an unconscious level he didn't want to be a lawyer any more. 

But his skills in deal making are highly marketable. He could use them outside the pressure cooker life of BigLaw. Yeah, choose his assignments. 

Those who matter know his ability. In 2018, American Law voted him DealerMaker of the Year. He should still have work he finds stimulating and which pays well. America is full of disbarred lawyers who are making an excellent living. 

Actually, the most cruel punishment could be the kind which might be going on in his head. Like so many who get caught, he could obsess about mistakes he made in not covering his tracks. After all, he's a plenty smart guy.

Mental torment, as Fyodor Dostoevsky portrayed in his iconic novel "Crime and Punishment," is worse than what the official system can impose.

Caplan could go to his grave replaying how he could have done what he had done, without getting nailed. That emotional drama could become a script for a fictional rendition of this scandal about how the elite assumed they could game the system.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

Election 2020 - Platform for (attempted) Comebacks, Such as by Greta Van Susteren

Election 2020 is big business. 

Already those whose careers got sidelined are crawling on that platform to attempt a comeback.

For instance, there are rumors in the media Megyn Kelly will return to what she does best. That is, engage in combative political discourse, as she had at Fox.

She struck out in the happy-clappy talk niche. Incidentally, she has ditched the soft curly hair look for the hardball tapered cut. 

It's a for-sure that former legal analyst Greta Van Susteren is also leveraging Election 2020 to return to being an on-air personality.

She had been thriving in the old Roger Ailes regime. After the scandal broke about alleged sexual misconduct, she remained loyal. Soon enough she was gone. Her next stop - MSNBC - was not a good fit. And she was gone, yet again. Not good for her branding, of course.

Watchers of the post-Ailes universe also wonder how the media mogul's personal public relations representative Bob Dilenschneider of The Dilenschneider Group is faring. In addition, attention has been focused on his long-time administrative assistant Joan Avagliano. In her own right her moves have been fun to observe and analyse. The Internet has made us compulsive watchers. 

Bob tried to protect Ailes from Gabriel Sherman's book "The Loudest Voice in the Room" by promoting an Ailes vanity biography in The New York Times. But the Machiavellian tactic was uncovered and seemed to be counterproductive. Sherman's book became a best seller. Smirk Smirk. 

Will Bob scramble onto the 2020 platform as a supporter of conservative candidates? And, will it work?

Meanwhile, Van Susteren is trying out a new persona: political analyst. Her debut will be next September in the Sunday show "Full Court Press" on Gray Television. There will be a local tie-in, which could boost viewership and advertising. Here are more details from the LA Times.

In professional life, there is the brutal phenomenon of being a bright star in one organization. And that will that. There will never be anything like that again. Camelot can rarely be replicated.

Usually, the professionals don't get it that they have to figure out how to put together a fresh act for the new context. The more failure they encounter - such as being fired - the more clueless they tend to become. 

For so many Ailes' Fox had been Camelot. But not for everyone.

I had a client who had been a Fox producer during The Ailes Administration. He got it from the get-go of the emerging scandal to find a way to bury that experience on his resume. He was on the money. He received two good job offers, one in D.C. and one in Manhattan. He has been tight-lipped about his experience at Fox.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Don McGahn - Judges Focused on Dereguation, Reducing Power of Administrative State

Axios parachuted into an insightful scoop about the actual agenda and management style of the Trump Administration.

In this article, Axios reports what former White House head lawyer Don McGahn disclosed to a group of GOP Senate aides last Thursday.

After serving in the White House McGahn has rejoined Jones Day where he had been a partner - and resumed that title of partner, along with its power.

The big insight from what McGahn discussed was confirmation that Donald Trump, like Ronald Reagan, has made a mission out of deregulation.

For that he is appointing judges who will make it their business to lessen the control of federal agencies and the administrative state. Given their lifetime appointments, they can implement this directive for decades. 

An example is for them to reconsider what is known as the "Chevron Defense." In that, judicial decisions defer to the notion that federal agencies have the authority in ambiguous cases for what might be thought of as the final say. That would shift  a lot of power to the courts, from federal agencies.

What else McGahn spoke about was Trump's management style. Essentially it is hub and spoke. The president is the hub and the rest are the spokes. Therefore, there is really no real chief of staff. 

Routinely, the same task is assigned to multiple people. Then, Trump decides whose work he will accept as the final product. And who therefore will be considered top dog, at least for the time being.

This is not unique to the Trump Administration. When I was a ghostwriter/speechwriter at a Fortune 100 in the 1980s, the head of communications leveraged that tactic among both full time internal staff and freelance outsiders. Then he would copy and paste the best parts of each. Those whose work made into the final would be golden. Those whose work didn't would bear an aura of shame. 

A version of that is the up or out system in major law firms. New hires are pitted against each other. Rarely, though, are partners straight with them about their chance of surviving the mauling. The objective is to get as much work as possible from each newbie. Then, cut them loose.

A version of that is described in the book "Disrupted" by Dan Lyons. After getting the boot at Newsweek allegedly because of age bias (the powers that be could replace the 50-something with a 20-something at a third of compensation), Lyons went to work at a startup. The human resources policy seemed to be hire, burn, and turn. 

The Trump management philosophy mirrors much of capitalism. And it's not really new.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com.