Law And More

"In re: Application of Cynthia Marie Rodgers" - Not So Fast to Rant about Factoring in Student Loan Debt & Bar Admission

At a glance this development seems to be a solid reason for outrage about how a state bar factors in student loan debt for admission decisions. One major criterion is evidence of character. 

The legal situation is "In re: Application of Cynthia Marie Rodgers." The Ohio bar denied her application. Here is a copy of that ruling the Ohio Supreme Court Board of Bar Commissioners.

But the context is more complex than her student loan debt of $300,000. She had not paid on that debt, citing federal provisions for that because of low income. Since she had intended to only work part-time as a lawyer, it would be a slow repayment process. In addition, her husband owes $600,000 in student loans.

As Forbes explains, there was also this two-fold issue:

• She had filed nearly 60 civil lawsuits. Some were perceived as without merit.
• There was not full disclosure of these details to those who had recommended for admission to the OH bar. 

That might have indicated more about her character than the existence of a large student loan debt with no solid plan for repayment.

Meanwhile, there is the more urgent issue of how a record of being treated for mental illness can knock an applicant out of the box in the bar admission process. The reality is that anxiety and clinical depression have become the analogue of the common cold in America. 

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Displaced Lawyer Transitioning to Communications Career Path - Hits The Wall of The Audition (Passport Admissions)

For a high-profile, decent-paying full-time job with benefits, sure, go through the audition.

That's what Harvard Law School graduate Elie Mytal did in 2008.

He landed a position in the then-hot, getting hotter all the time digital native legal news platform Abovethelaw. There he rose to editor-in-chief. Along the way he became a media star. Recently he transitioned to another career path. 

And, then there are the kinds of work situations offered by Passport Admissions. Based in San Diego, it assists with the academic admissions process.

On the San Diego section of Craigslist, it had posted a help-wanted. The structure was a contract gig. The task: editing student personal essays. The pay $20 to $25 an hour. Here is that ad. Oh, there was a cute promise: Those accepted for assignments would have their photo featured on Passport Admissions website.

Well the audition consists of:

• Yes, the usual cover letter and resume.
• Replying thoughtfully to a series of questions. They range from how to manage hypothetical situations to what is a perfect day like for the gig applicant.
• A 30-minute exercise to evaluate two student essays. That must be done on Google Docs. No simple Tracking on Word.
• A 5-minute exercise to correct the grammar, spelling, and punctuation of the front end of one of the essays.

 A displaced lawyer I coach who wants to transition to communications flagged me about this ad. Should he do the audition for what he described as an "opportunity" which paid "peanuts?" His gut screamed nonono.

I navigated to the ad. On the plus side, Passport Admissions did indicate there would be an audition.

Many other employers are guilty of a failure to warn. The applicants have already invested a hour or so in the process and then discover they will have to, for example, research a series of questions and then write a well-organized answer for each.

To help my client with his decision, I parachuted in and began the audition myself. I wanted to determine how time-consuming it would be. Too time-consuming, I concluded. After step two, I stopped. I had already invested plenty of time. My advice to him was: Choose your shots. This one, at least to me, isn't worth taking. 

Globally, capitalism has become controversial. Harvard Business School has an elective about Reimagining capitalism. This kind of required audition for a relatively low-paying gig seems to require a comprehensive reimagining.

My heart breaks for those who feel they have no choice but to comply with the audition for assignments which pay peanuts. In the American style of capitalism, 60% don't have $1,000 to pony up for an emergency. 

Coaching, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on human resources and careers.  

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The special area of expertise is the displaced over-50 professional. Please contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

Those Fake Influencers - Legal Action for Failure to Disclose, Infringement of Likeness

Influencer marketing is raising legal issues. At least when the ad, social network, customer service platform, or political campaign had used fake ones. Those go by myriad terms, ranging from "avatars" to "bots" to "virtual influencers."

The two key legal concerns, reports Law.com, is the failure to disclose that the influencers aren't human and infringement on someone's likeness. Regarding the latter, the virtual influencer could be configured to appear very much like Mr. Rogers. 

Meanwhile the technology behind the fakes is attracting venture capitalists. It's a promising business niche.

Already, last July, California passed the bot law. In that state the undisclosed use of fake influencers is now illegal if the purpose is to motivate a sale or mislead voters during an election. 

This example of lack of transparency in how technology is making new rules in the influencer game could be correlated with an emerging mind: diminished trust in technology. Would Steve Jobs still be a superhero in 2020?

The 2020 Edelman annual Trust Barometer documents the shift from perceiving technology as a positive force to extreme wariness. Of course, a driver for that is the fear that Artificial Intelligence will poach more and more jobs. 

Lawyers involved in jury trials regarding tech will have to work around that mindset. It's well known that jurors are sending a message about their ethical concerns through nuclear verdicts. Those tend to be reduced on appeal, as had the Johnson & Johnson $8 billion risperdal verdict. 

But the activist attitude persists.

If  lawyers are representing defendants in lawsuits about fake influencers they better be brilliant in establishing baseline trust with the jurors.

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Timing Is Everything - Talk of Managing Layoffs/Transitioning in Legal Media

The stock market bounced back today. That's after the drop yesterday which some watchers attributed to the coronavirus.

But, hovering over the legal sector - and many other lines of work - is the fear of a shoe ready to drop.

That shoe is, in the best case scenario, a recession. The recent Citi survey found pessimism about the global and U.S. economy among law-firm leaders. Of course, most were quite confident about how their own firms were going to do in 2020.

At worst, what could be coming is a comprehensive unhinging of work and life as usual. That would include employment at law firms or rather the reductions in force (RIF). 

The drivers would be:

• The perfect storm of a pandemic (yes, the coronavirus which is mutating)
• The barbarians, who had been at the gates protesting society's wrongs like income inequality, racism, and sexism, now had gotten in
• Those busy-bee robots taking over retail and directed by clients of law firms to march into all functions (recall the "March of the Wooden Soldiers")
• Speeded-up outsourcing. Law firms are stripping back to their core competence, that is, practicing law. Bye-bye staff. Sometimes they just have to go. Sometimes their employment status is transferred to the vendor organization. 

It seems no coincidence that in the legal media there is an article on layoffs in the legal sector.

It's by Olga Mack, posted on Abovethelaw. The focus is on the urgent need for that possibility of unemployment to be embedded in the mindsets of even law students. Yeah, they happen.

Back in 2008 -2009, they were brutal. Here Kathryn Rubino recounts what the RIFs were like.

Institutions, ranging from law schools to state bar associations, hammers Mack, should be equipped to guide the displaced lawyers and staff on the road to The Next.

If the axed are fortunate it will be a search for a comparable job in the legal sector.

If not, the platform will be a how-to on leaving a comfort zone and exploring alternate career paths.

Place your sponsored content on this blog. Coaching on SEO and Ghostwriting for that content also available. Sliding scale fees. Please take advantage of a complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

Kim Kardashian - Future JD, Legal Activist

She stuck with it. 

Back when the legal media announced, usually with a smirk, that reality star Kim Kardashian was committed to becoming a lawyer, there was that universal eye-roll. 

Most experienced Kim's career plan as simply another promotional stunt.

But, Kim has stuck with it. As the Daily Mail reports, she had completed the first year of her four-year apprenticeship in California studying law. Every week she invests 20 hours in that. She anticipates taking the bar exam in 2022. 

In addition, she also has stuck with her legal activism. Her successful campaign to get Alice Marie Johnson out of prison was not a standalone event.

Her mission is to end the mass incarceration in the U.S.

Here is The New York Radio Hour on Mass Incarceration.

On April 5th, on Oxygen, the two-hour The Justice Project documentary will air. In it she features four cases of alleged misjustice. 

Her celebrity could be the game-changer in reforming the U.S. criminal justice system.

Even those who are politically moderate might have come to view the mass incarceration as a job-making system for the middle class. The corrections industry tends to pay well and, even in this volatile economy, provide employment security. 

It's odd that Dick Wolf, in programming such as "Chicago P.D.," doesn't push back against drug laws which result in arrest and incarceration.

If the sale of drugs like heroin and cocaine were made legal, regulated, and taxed, Hank Voigt and his team might be able to focus on other kinds of criminality. It could be the big leap forward if Kim pitches that story line to Wolf. 

Those taxes can fund solutions for homelessness. 

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Boies Schiller - 2nd Round of Partner Defections

Founder of Boies Schiller David Boies is aging. He is currently 78, with another birthday coming up in March.

Ever since Ronan Farrow published his The New Yorker Harvey Weinstein expose, Boies also carries around the stink of scandal on his shoe.

More recently, that has extended to his legal feud with take-no-prisoners Alan Dershowitz. That is related to the Jeffrey Epstein legal and media mess. 

And, some remember that Boies had been both on the board of directors of Theranos and in the role of legal counselor for its founder Elizabeth Holmes. Her trial for fraud is scheduled for August. In his book "Guilt by Accusation," Dershowitz classifies that dual identity as a conflict of interest.

Recently Boies Schiller reorganized, with Boies passing on some responsibilities. 

Now this: There have been two rounds of partner defections.

The exit of partners always sends a negative message about the law firm. Questions arise: Is the firm financially troubled? Is the brand in play? Is leadership dysfunctional? Has growth peaked? 

The first had been by three partners in the Miami office who formed boutique Heise Suarez Melville. 

More recently, reports Law.com, 10 lawyers left to form boutique Roche Cyrulnik Freedman. The boutique differentiates itself by both its alternative billing structure for clients and compensation for partners and associates.

In terms of fees, it offers BigLaw experience at lower and more flexible price points. They are configured as defense-side contingency, flat, success, and equity fees.

In terms of paying lawyers, there is a veering away from the billable hour. New business development and contingency work receive monetary recognition. Associates can earn more than market rate salary and, from the get-go, do interesting work. 

Meanwhile, the media and business media are watching both Boies and Boies Schiller for signs of a shift into a downward trajectory. On Glassdoor, the law firm receives a 2.9 out of a possible 5 rating, based on anonymous input from employees. 

This is the era of supreme power of the media. It seems that Boies and Boies Schiller have become easy targets. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with niche social networking know-how. Also communications coaching. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

"Lawrence Lessing v. The New York Times Co. et al." - Harvard Law Professor Sues for Alleged Clickbait Defamation

"Clickbait" is the slang term used for the myriad tactics used by establishment media, ecommerce experts, social networks, and bloggers to attract traffic. Some of those tactics could cross the line for ethical behavior - and even the law.

Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessing contends that media outlet The New York Times crossed both lines.

Through law firm Todd and Weld, he filed the lawsuit "Lawrence Lessing v. The New York Times Co. et al." Here, provided by Law.com which also covers this development, is a copy of that complaint (scroll to the bottom). 

Lessing perceives the headline and the lede in a fall NYT article as being clickbait which defamed him. The coverage was about the donations convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein made to universities. Recently Goodwin Procter submitted its report of its investigation of the Epstein donations to MIT. Here is my coverage of that, including a link to the report.

NYT Headline:  "A Harvard Professor Doubles Down: If You Take Epstein's Money, Do It in Secret"

NYT Article Lede: "It is hard to defend soliciting donations from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But Lawrence Lessing, a Harvard Law professor, has been trying."

Lessing states the headline and lede are not only sensationalistic but misleading. As a result of the alleged misinterpretation by the NYT of his September 8th opinion-editorial in Medium, he has suffered. For example, those outraged by the headline and lede have harassed him.  

According to the Law.com article those at the NYT Co. stick with their story. They indicate they will defend themselves against this lawsuit.

Unfortunately, this litigation can defame clickbait per se. That will generate endless confusion for businesses hiring ecommerce experts. 

Any digital marketer, social network influencer, and bogger will scream from the rooftops: Clickbait is a legitimate and necessary strategy to get, hold, and scale attention. Attention is the currency of the 21st century. The tactics used range from search engine optimization (SEO) to researching and creating the kind of content not easily available elsewhere.

Because of the dog fight for attention and how Google continually modifies its rules, new approaches to clickbait are always being tried out. The game is difficult to play.

Those not leveraging clickbait on behalf of their clients could be accused of malpractice.

As for Lessing, as a highly educated professional, he had to be aware that once you put out there content, it's open to interpretation.

I posted comments on the now-defunct Gawker. For four years those on the site openly vilified me. Weekly there were debates if I should be selected for execution.

Unfortunately, unlike Lessing, I did not have the resources to hire a law firm to sue. My only option was pro se litigation and that would have siphoned off too much time from operating my two boutiques.

Smart global ghostwriting, with niche social networking know-how. Also communications coaching. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

MIT - Goodwin Procter Investigation Found President Rafael Reif Did Not Know of Epstein Donations

It has become standard in a scandal to contract with a law firm to investigate.

After it was disclosed that the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein made sizable donations to MIT, law firm Goodwin Procter was brought in. Here is its report. And, here is MIT's official statement about the report.

The findings get MIT's president Rafael Reif off the hook. The conclusion is that he was not aware of the donations. However, three MIT vice presidents were: Israel Ruiz, R. Gregory Morgan, and Jeffrey Newton. 

What also came out was that nine times, despite his conviction, Epstein visited the MIT campus without the police being notified. 

Meanwhile, at the Boston Globe, Shirley Leung calls for Reif to step down. Based on what's in the Goodwin Procter report, Leung concludes that he shouldn't be operating the university any more.

Obviously, this story in terms of fallout isn't over.

Smart global ghostwriting, with niche social networking know-how. Also communications coaching. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Authority in Play - Lessons for Lawyers from Megxit, Iran, France, and the American Revolution

With a very American perspective in The New York Times, columnist Maureen Dowd reflects on the "corgi-and-gin-loving racket." That is, the very wealthy reign of the House of Windsor. 

Essentially, ranging from Prince Andrew's alleged sexual misconduct to Megxit, this is yet one more institution in which trust is lost.

Actually those in the new land went to through that crisis of belief and support about two and a half centuries ago. What was to evolve into the headquarters for global capitalism, the colonists' mindset was about money. The British form of taxation was siphoning off too much of it. 

Windsor's moral authority on everything and anything has blown up.

It would be no surprise if in a future Edelman Trust Barometer there is an allusion to the collapse of belief in the need for the British monarchy.

There is a push-back on the leadership in Iran.

And, in France, Everyman and Everywoman are saying "nonono" to the government's big idea about upping the age of retirement. 

Obviously, Megxit is a microcosm of an extreme paradigm shift in values. That mirrors the intensity of rebellion of not only the American Revolution, but also the French and Russian ones. Of course, lawyers have to pay heed. Law is a man-made institution. The human intersects with all those rules.

The world is bearing witness to that in how Judge James Burke has decided to oversee the Harvey Weinstein trial. Sure, his interpretation of the rules could give ammo to the defense to appeal a conviction. However, currently, it's a kind of "woke" for how judges impose common sense in the convoluted entity that the legal system has become. In time, SCOTUS could decide on the side of simplification: It's that simple that Weinstein shouldn't have been using his cell phone in the courtroom.

With the Barbarians at the Gate, all those with any authority will have to revisit what they consider their "core competence." The question is: What are you best at, what value does that create, how to communicate that, and what is an appropriate reward for all that? 

That type of comprehensive review includes lawyers, both litigation and transactional.

Law.com keeps presenting evidence of the disruptions in the legal sector. Actually, what could be happening is one of those Big Bangs. Law firms, courts, trade associations such as the US Chamber of Commerce, and clients have the opportunity to be proactive on this one.

Communications specialists such as myself are already busy bees recommending:

The new language of authority. Bring on the "we." That's why diversity is so important. With all the current challenges, it's necessary to be inclusive of all points of views and backgrounds. No secret, the legal sector suffers a diversity-challenge. 

Toned-down tone. Authority must sound like it recognizes the unknowability of so much. A Zen mantra is: Clear Thinking, Don't Know.  On "Criminal Minds," there is often an overhaul of the profile. A great moment in broadcasting had been when superprofiler David Rossi had to wrestle with ambiguity.

Confidence in the ability to try on ideas and experiment with solutions. That's how law firm Motley Rice became a respected brand. It put out there and kept refining the traditional concept of public nuisance apllied to product liability. In the California lead paint class action litigation that had resulted in a seminal win. SCOTUS wouldn't review the conviction. 

Connecting. For centuries, the model for that has been how Jesus Christ reached myriad constituencies. Harvard, Stanford, and Yale law schools can launch seminars analyzing the persausive genius of the early Christians. Lawyers have to achieve, metaphorically, eye contact in new business development and all other constituencies to generate positive outcomes for those clients. 

Meanwhile, the 2020 campaign provides a platform for wrestling with the issue of what kinds of leadership are a fit for times of such change. Lawyers should have lots to say about that.

Takeaway: Underneath all the rules is the human need to trust. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with niche social networking know-how. Also communications coaching. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Asheen Phansey - Professor Axed by Babson Because of Facebook Joke

Babson College was not amused. 

On his Facebook page, Babson professor for 15 years - Asheen Phansey - had joked around about 52 cultural sites in America Iran could attack. They ranged from Mall of America to a Kardashian residence.

As The Guardian reports, that was a play on Donald Trump's warning to Iran that America would attack 52 of its cultural sites. Later he backed off. Some speculate it was after he was informed such would violate the rules of warfare by the Hague Convention.

At Babson, the Facebook posting was interpreted as hate speech and could possibly incite violence. Phansey was terminated. Babson made the public statement that what he had posted did not represent the college's values. 

Through his lawyer, Phansey apologized. But he did bring up the issue of free speech. 

Of course, those lawyers and law students interested in first amendment and employment issues might have something to say about this. If they want to share their analysis and have it posted on this blog, please email the content, identity information such as title, contact information, and a photo to janegenova374@gmail.com. That will be posted verbatim. 

There was actual humor in Phansey's commentary. The ability to create humor is in demand and pays well. His next career could be in that niche. For example, he could audition to write for a comic or pitch himself to businesses to ghostwrite their humor. 

In the latter category are the opening lines for presentations. The way in is to offer to do that free. Build a portfolio. And soon enough Phansey is a brand in (sophisticated) belly laughs.

Smart global ghostwriting, with niche social networking know-how. Also communications coaching. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.