Law And More

Rajat Gupta - Indian-Americans Predicted a Comeback, At Least a Partial One

It was a different time.

Back then the nation could still be stunned.

Yes, it was before the iconoclastic dynamics of the campaign of Donald Trump and his even more disruptive U.S. presidency.

Former head of McKinsey (prior to the investigative reporting about it by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal) Rajat Gupta was accused of insider trading.

That pertained to what he had picked up as a Goldman Sachs board member.

Most were stunned. Both here in the U.S. and around the world. 

Despite his denial of guilt, which continues today, he was convicted in 2012. Sentenced to two years in prison and then house arrest, he finally became a free man again in March 2016.

When I covered those developments for this blog, the Indian-Americans I spoke to predicted that Gupta could re-built his reputation and re-establish a career in India. There he was revered, both as a business leader and a philanthropist. 

And, as Kaverie Bamzai reports in the December 3, 2018 edition of The Print in India, that is what has happened. Business executives there as well as those associated with IIT Delhi have made it possible for him to network at a high level in India.

It is the publishing house in India - Juggernaut - which is producing his memoir. That is due to be out early this year. 

The question is: Will the American business community forgive him and allow him back in? So far, McKinsey will not re-instate his name in its alumni directory. 

The memoir, if it gains traction in the U.S., might create a second chance for him here. 

But, it's important to remember that America has its own rigid value system.

Unlike hedge fund guru, Steve Cohen, Gupta was personally convicted. Cohen was never even arrested, although a number of his employees went to prison for insider trading. Cohen is back in business (although his hedge fund Point72 is stumbling in this volatile economy).

See, in America, getting caught is a no-no. The late crime writer Dominick Dunne hammered that reality in his novels which thinly disguised real life misdeeds by the rich and powerful. 

In addition, it's a lot easier to find redemption if you admit you did wrong. Gupta continues to position and package himself as a victim of injustice. Watergate legal villain Chuck Colson mastered a roaring comeback as a spiritual leader because he embraced his sinfulness. 

Overall, the odds seem against Gupta for an American comeback. 

Out of the Box Communications = Unexpected Results

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Hani Khoja - No Longer McKinsey Employee

Recently, BigBrand in global management consulting - McKinsey - has been in the media.

And not for positive reasons.

The issues have been its roles in allegedly supporting authoritarian governments. A specific focus, since the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, has been its assignments for Saudi Arabia. Overall, the firm has been perceived as lacking a moral compass.

The latest exploration of how it operates is today's The Wall Street Journal article on a former partner - Hani Khoja. One immediate question is: Why is Khoja no longer an employee of the firm?

A Saudi national Khoja became a partner when McKinsey purchased his company Elixir Creative Solutions. Educated in the U.S. Khoja had learned business working for P&G. Then he struck out on his own and championed entrepreneurship, even publishing an autobiography. Khoja's web of influence was probably useful to McKinsey. 

Somehow, Khoja rubbed the powers that be in Saudi government the wrong way. Perhaps it was his relationships with the head of the economic ministry. He was arrested. The Wall Street Journal's sources contend he has been beaten. McKinsey is silent. 

From a public relations perspective, this no-comment can generate more unwanted attention on McKinsey. Eventually, that could deter governments and organizations from doing business with it. On the other hand, the clouds hanging over it can make it more attractive to those with values in conflict with democracy and human rights.

Obviously, the McKinsey brand is in play. This provides opportunity for its competitors to figure out how to try to poach clients and go up against it in new business acquisition. 

Out of the Box Communications = Unexpected Results

Complimentary Consultation janegenova374@gmail.com – I help, not sell.

McKinsey Takes It on the Chin, Again - This Time about Its Alleged Lack of Transparency in Restructuring Assignments

Brand McKinsey took another hit.

This time it was delivered via the influential The Wall Street Journal about its alleged lack of transparency in managing bankruptcy assignments. 

Earlier, The New York Times published a major feature about McKinsey's work which bolstered authoritarian entities. 

The Wall Street Journal reports:

"McKinsey & Co.'s retirement trust held two undisclosed investments in hedge funds that were creditors of GenOn Energy Inc. … when it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2017, recently filed documents show."

Also, in the courtroom of bankruptcy judge in Houston David R. Jones there was concern expressed about McKinsey's disclosure policies. It had applied to work in the Westmoreland Coal Co.'s bankruptcy case. Judge Jones informed McKinsey that he didn't like to be misled. He indicated he believed in honesty and transparency.

As The Wall Street Journal points out:

"Bankruptcy advisers are supposed to be disinterested advocates for their clients and are required to disclose all relationships that might give rise to a conflict of interest."

Some may recall that shade was thrown on McKinsey when its former head Rajat Gupta had been convicted of insider trading in 2012.

The new clouds hanging over McKinsey provide opportunities for competitors to poach clients. Also, its current vulnerability invites fresh attacks.

Out of the Box Communications = Unexpected Results

Complimentary Consultation janegenova374@gmail.com – I help, not sell.

"Overeducated" - That Can Include JDs

The peril of age in a hunt for work is well-known. 

Less well-known is how "dangerous" being what's called "overeducated" can be.

By "overeducated" is meant that your academic degree isn't marketable - at least to that particular employer or temporary agency.  The degree may be a Ph.D. in psychology or JD.

Because those searching for work are not fully aware how that degree could be holding them back, they leave it on their resume. That's even though a few employers might have told them explicitly that they are overeducated.

Tonight, again I encountered that reality.

From my communications business I developed a career coaching niche. A Ph.D. in American Literature had been referred to me. She no longer wanted to hop around being an adjunct professor. For the past six months she had been turned down for a number of non-academic jobs. In two situations she had been told she was, you got it, overeducated.

Bluntly, I asked her: Do you want to work?

Her answer: Yes.

Then I went right to it: Have you considered dropping all the degrees beyond the BA?

She was silent. 

Obviously, she didn't want to cave to disowning what she had achieved and was proud of.

But disown she may have to. I explained that in many job slots and gig assignments a lot of education scares employers.

They might assume you will be analyzing what's going on in the workplace and wind up reporting whatevers to regulatory agencies or even filing a lawsuit. 

Another negative is that they fear you will fly the coop when something better comes along. After all, with all that education ...

Of course, there are those who declare that it would be unethical to leave off the academic degrees.

I reframe their objection in this way: It's also unethical to put your life at risk (yes, possibility of suicide) because you can't get work.

Here's a classic example of that. A JD lost her job practicing law in 2009. 

No surprise, she had a mental breakdown. No one was hiring laid-off lawyers back then. They were perceived as damaged goods.

The odds were that she would never get another similar job.

Her therapist told her to get a job, any job. It was the first step to becoming employable in something, anything. And saving her life.

Her therapist also told her to not put the JD on the resume. Otherwise no one would hire her for a survival job. At the time, that was the only kind of task she could handle.

It took two years but eventually she was hired for a middle management job. Yes, she applied for it with the JD on the resume. It was not directly related to law but in that context the law degree was assessed as a plus.

Along her journey to regroup after losing her law job, did she worry about ethics? No.

Did she worry about misrepresenting herself? No.

In therapy, she recognized her life was on the line. To save it, she violated her usual norms.

When the market for doctoral degrees in the humanities crashed for college teaching in the early 1970s, I wasn't worldly enough to scale back my credentials to the BA.

Consequently, it took about five years - way too long - to land a nonacademic job which paid well. And that only happened because, at the time, the oil industry was on the defensive in public affairs. It recruited the highly educated like myself to draft articles and speeches for the executives. 

Takeaway: In the current fast-changing world economy many academic degrees will wind up not being marketable. That's just the way it is.

Out of the Box Communications = Unexpected Results

Complimentary Consultation janegenova374@gmail.com – I help, not sell.

Paul Weiss - Totally White, 11/12s Male Partner Class of 2018

Talk about visually challenged.

Elite law firm Paul Weiss posted on LinkedIn (since deleted) a photo of the partner class of 2018.

The 12 new partners were all white. Only one among those white folks is a female. Here are more details from Law.com. 

No surprise, in this era of the push for diversity in the workplace, the internet pushed back. In particular in-house counsel warned that clients would increasingly require a diversity report before hiring a law firm. 

The head of Paul Weiss Brad Karp didn't hide. He did respond. He used the in buzzphrase of 2018: will do better.

Overall, the culture at Paul Weiss doesn't seem like a human disaster. Its rating on Glassdoor is about average for large law firms: 3.7, out of 5. 

In contrast, at the Cleveland, Ohio headquarters of elite Jones Day, the Glassdoor rating is 2.7, out of 5. That firm has what many describe as an oddball culture. The culture could blow up if the Trump Administration implodes. Jones Day has become the go-to law firm for Everything TrumpWorld. Among current clients and in chasing new business there could develop the phenomenon of guilt by association. 

Out of the Box Communications = Unexpected Results

Complimentary Consultation janegenova374@gmail.com – I help, not sell.

 

The New York Times Attacks McKinsey, Those Submitting Comments Defend It

Riding high as it continues to take on TrumpWorld, The New York Times now attacks management consulting firm McKinsey.

McKinsey has developed and scaled one of the most powerful brands in professional services. 

Essentially the NYT's beef is McKinsey's alleged moral ambiguity in the global clients it serves. They range from the absolute monarchy in Saudi Arabia to Turkey under President Erdogan. Also explained in detail is that McKinsey has been involved in some of the projects in which Paul Manafort had participated. The implication might be: Guilt by association. 

However, what's acknowledged is that all the assignments McKinsey takes on are legal. 

Here is the major feature by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe. 

What is interesting in this particular questioning of McKinsey's values are some of the comments from readers. They are well-thought-out.

Essentially they position and package what McKinsey does as little or no different from what major U.S. corporations have done to establish their businesses around the world. In addition, the comments note that throughout history, America's global interests have been economic.

Also, what's obvious is the value system which McKinsey applies mirrors that of the legal sector. Lawyers represent those who may be perceived as horrific by society. Superlawyer David Boies has made no apology for defending Harvey Weinstein who allegedly sexually assaulted females. 

Therefore, one wonders if the McKinsey brand will be tarnished by the NYT article. My hunch is that irony will play out. The feature could develop more and better business for McKinsey. Organizations both domestic and outside the U.S. can read the article and think to themselves, "McKinsey gets the job done. Let's hire it."

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"Law & Order SVU" - Migrant 9-Yr. Old Yanked from Mother at Border, Then Snatched by Sex Trafficker

"Ripped from the headlines" has been the signature for Dick Wolf's "Law & Order" television franchise.

That played out in full force tonight on latest episode in "Law & Order SVU."

The plot line tracked the plight of a nine-year-old girl separated from her mother at the border. First the child is put in a holding whatever in Texas, then transported to the New York Metro area. A kind family offers to be her foster parents until her mother's legal problems can be sorted out.

Totally traumatized the child can't settle in with the family. She asks one of the parent's sons how can she get back to TX and find her mother. The boy quips that she needs to take a plane. So, the girl sets off to New York to catch a plane. There a sex trafficker spots her as she roams around the Port of Authority dazed. 

It's when the SVU liberates an apartment of young girls from that sex trafficker that they encounter the child, now even more traumatized. That brings the plot to be the platform for showcasing the plight of children separated from their parents. 

Yes, there is an acknowledgement that the parents broke the law. But there is no ambiguity that the family shouldn't have been broken up. 

There is one failed legal battle. Then strings are pulled. Mother and child are reunited. But the camera pans on all the children still without their parents.

This hard look at what's going on beneath the headlines was not the only sadness in the episode.

Amanda Rollins, who has had her share of inner turmoil, has become pregnant. The father is a medical doctor. He does not offer anything, with the exception of supporting her through an abortion. She meets with him personally to say she does not want anything - and will keep the baby. 

Obviously, this has thrown Rollins off the equilibrium she has managed to put together since her daughter, now three years old, was born. Her colleagues notice that. No one has said it: The possibility that Rollins could return to any of her addictions. 

"Law & Order SVU" continues to endure because the writers create such intense relationships among the regular characters. Of course, there is conflict. There was a time when Oliva Benson had to reprimand Rollins.

But the caring is something the audience wishes we could experience in our own work lives. With capitalism becoming so raw, it's difficult for colleagues to even trust one another. Caring? Haven't witnessed that for a long long time. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

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Such a Different Time in American Culture - Currently, George H.W. Bush Wouldn't Be Electable or Marketable

George H.W. Bush represented the last of what might have been praiseworthy in WASP culture - that is the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant ethos.

WASPS, such as those living in upscale charming New England towns like Greenwich, Connecticut, were known for a code of conduct. That included good manners or decorum, devotion to establishment institutions including Ivy League schools, and public service. 

WASP influence had dominated until the counterculture of the late 1960s. It was then that other groups in America pushed for their values to be recognized. In English Departments in universities there began to be battles about including the works of non-WASP authors in the curriculum. Williams Shakespeare was a dead white man. 

Soon enough the WASP style began to be derided. For example, "preppy" was positioned and packaged as stodgy. WASP rhetoric, including in corporate, elicited smirks. As a ghostwriter/speechwriter, I was on the front lines of helping business executives become conversational - that is, non-WASPY.

Today, of course, the WASP ethos is downright vilified, at least in a growing number of circles. The most aggressive voices in our society have made old wealthy Protestant men the symbol of oppression. And wrong values.

No, you don't want your children growing up in the seemingly closed society of Greenwich, CT. They will never survive the rough and tumble of life in the 21st century. Locate your family life in the diverse (now-gentrifying) Jersey City, New Jersey. The kids will have to be alert about crime. That's good. You will train them how to hop on the PATH train to Manhattan. No eye contact. 

In short, to get anywhere, at least anywhere that's fun, you can't be known as having relatives who came over on the Mayflower.

Instead the cool is for one's background to reach back to steerage in a ship docking at Ellis Island or one operated by those in the slave trade. Those are feeder pools for slots that are game-changers.

A classic example is African-American Elie Mystal who heads editorial at Abovethelaw.com. He started out doing the WASP thing: Harvard undergraduate, Harvard Law School, white-shoe law firm. That either broke him and/or he had the strength to break free.

Right now, Mystal represents the new code for right values, at least among the young or those who pride themselves on thinking young. 

Meanwhile, English departments find it increasingly hard to market what they represent - or used to. To survive, they would be smart to reposition and repackage themselves as "Communications" or "Media." 

In fact, the WASP tradition of the more education the better in elite institutions is being questioned. Sure, the college bubble hasn't burst yet. Sure, there's stiff competition to be admitted to those prep schools in New England. After all, George H.W. Bush had attended Phillips Academy. 

But applications to M.B.A. programs are down. Harvard Business School? The emerging meme is to view it as the laboratory for creating ethical Frankensteins.

For the next few weeks many in the nation will come together to honor former president Bush. But many others will think: Good riddance, that's the end to a system that kept us down or in the shadow.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

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Australia's Protections for Overworked Lawyers - Will America Import Them?

In Australia, the state occupational health and safety regulators are investigating two law firms. They are King & Wood Mallesons and Gilbert & Tobin. 

The alleged violations: Overworking lawyers and staff, along with drug use. Here are more details from John Kang at Law.com.

However, the details are business-as-usual in myriad U.S. law firms. For example, state regulators in Australia were informed that lawyers were working hellish hours, even sleeping in the office. A young associate I coached defended her firm in this way: During the night as we worked they let you take naps.

Should the allegations be proved in Australia there can be fines of up to $200,ooo for each individual.

However, come on, that is unlikely to deter the U.S. legal industry. Nevertheless, having regulators crack down on excessive work hours and the drug use could become an import to the U.S. Introducing such an ethos could blow up the traditional culture of The Law Firm.

The thing called "balance" could come through a back door. 

Litigation Communications

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"The Inventor" Explores Psychology of Deception - Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos

How so many were duped by Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes still remains a mystery. They range from Henry Kissinger to Rupert Murdoch.

Yes, the dynamics and details of the elaborate con were provided by The Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou.

He broke the story in that newspaper.

That was despite how hard Holmes' celebrity lawyer David Boies huffed and puffed to not have the first expose published. Eventually it seemed to tarnish the Boies brand to have been associated with Holmes. Yesterday, he announced he was stepping down from leadership of the law firm he founded Boies Schiller. Here is the coverage in Law.com.

Eventually Carreyrou published the book "Bad Blood." A feature film derived from the book could be released in 2019.

But, the hunger to understand still exists - so much so that a second feature film will also be released about that saga. It's "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley." The movie will have its debut at Sundance in Utah in 2019. Directed by Alex Gibney, it will explore the psychology of deception. Here are more details from TechCrunch.

A third probe into this kind of collective delusion has been Dan Lyons' book "Disrupted."

Fifty-something Lyons was laid off from his journalism job at Newsweek. To provide employer-paid health insurance for his wife and two young children he grabbed any job he could.

It turned out to be another example of tech startup magical thinking. More a cult than a contrived fraud it made no business sense. 

His next job stop was Gawker. And we all know how "Hulk Hogan v. Gawker" represented the beginning of the end of digital native hipster fun and profit, posing as journalism. 

Will all this analysis prevent the next tech con? The odds are against it. When I was interviewing sources for a book on tech entrepreneurship I asked why was so much money being risked. Most of the time there was no guarantee of reward.

The answers ranged from the anticipation of fast wealth to wanting to be close to the action. Those needs cast spells. That kind of voodoo has become standard. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

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