Law And More

"Depp v Heard" - Not Since OJ Simpson Murder Trial Have Lawyers Been Such Celebrities + Have Down Cold Nuances of Defamation Law

Good luck marketing departments of law firms trying to get attention in the media. The dismissal of litigation the legal team might have obtained is likely not being noticed. Even if the head of the team is a brandname and the law firm is in the top 10. 

The preoccupation has been with the lawyers on both sides in "Depp v Heard." Yes, the focus on the lawyers' performance art has been as over-the-top, just as in the OJ Simpson murder trial. For decades there will be re-runs of that "Depp v Heard" courtroom theatre in thought leadership articles, documentaries, and more. For this version of a trial of a century there are streaming and social networks. 

For Johnny Depp the star players are Brown Rudnick's Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez. The latter, although an associate not a partner, has received more than 541.8 million page views on TikTok. As Law and More chronicles, the world has fallen in love with her aggressive objections and cross-examination. Chew, who had been with Big Law's Squire Patton Boggs, has developed a signature for his devotion to gummy bears.

For Amber Heard it's Woods Rogers' Benjamin Rottenborn. Previously with Kirkland & Ellis, Rottenborn has become infamous for screwing up. Insider gleefully notes:

" [Rottenborn] has struggled to win the popularity battle online. Early in the trial, Depp fans seized on an embarrassing slip-up that has since become the defining soundbite of the case: Rottenborn objecting to his own question while grilling Depp."

If juries are more influenced by likability versus evidence, Rottenborn might have done a disservice to this client. 

This trial has been set in play by Heard's 2018 The Washington Post Op-ed on being a survivor of domestic abuse. A warning to those who really don't understand the nuances of defamation law in that op-ed Heard never mentioned Depp by name. Also, it is reported that she did seek legal advice before publishing the personal essay. Yet here we are with the a trial that has sucked up all the oxygen in not only legal but also general media.

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

Will Crossing the Line (yet again) with NFTs (this time) Make Madonna Relevant (yet again)?

"The 63-year-old singer [Madonna] teamed up with nonfungible token extraordinaire Beeple [Mike Winkelmann] to create a series of X-rated graphics showing her fully nude and giving birth to butterflies, insects and trees. Called 'Mother of Creation,' the NFT collection, which will be sold for charity, also includes a 3D model of Madonna’s vagina ..." - New York Post, May 11, 2022.

Age per se doesn't knock you out of the relevance box.

Clint Eastwood and the late Betty White had reset their careers as they entered old age. Yes, a lot of folks are putting the knock on David Boies as a leader/manager. But at 81, reports Reuters Legal, he is still relevant as a litigator. Recently he won a case he argued before the US Supreme Court. 

What puts the kibosh on relevance for an aging entity, human or institutional, is usually just trying too hard to be, yes, relevant. The second coming of fictional Jack McCoy on the return of "Law & Order" isn't crushing it in  ratings.  Old in digital years Gawker 2.0 keeps trying too hard and keeps being irrelevant. 

Madonna's crossing-the-line NFT collection may be experienced out here as straining. And, we folks are already plum tired from COVID, inflation, and deep hits to our investment accounts. The soft-porn part likely won't phase us. Actually that's traditional Madonna. Back then, that was shocking. And relevant. 

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

"Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore" - Of Course, the US Government Could Use a Ministry Of Magic

The good versus evil meme plays out over control of the Ministry of Magic. That's the delightful plot and setting for the latest sequel in the "Fantastic Beasts" film series. This one has the subtitle "Secrets of Dumbledore."

The good side is represented by Albus Dumbledore and the evil one by Gellert Grindelwald. What hangs this all together is the need to protect the mystical creature Qilin which can see into souls and foresee the future. Meanwhile Grindelwald has conjured up a fraudulent version of the Qilin. 

Magic, of course, is the way problems are solved and opportunities are seized in the film. Those on the Dumbledore team use white magic. Those on Grindelwald's the toxic kind.

But, white magic wins, thanks to the ability to get the Qilin to the election to select what leader is pure of heart. Along the way the displays of fanastic whatevers, including the beasts, are amazing. And, like a Shakespearean comedy, the film ends with a wedding. All's well that ends well. 

Perhaps the US government would be able to reestablish hope if it established a Ministry of Magic. It would symbolize extreme possibility. In the 21st century we have already been through:

The Terrorist Attack of 9/11,  followed by an economic downturn

The Deep Recession of  2008 -2009

COVID

Political Polarization 

A War in Europe

Wild Inflation

An Even Wilder Stock Market

A Possible Recession

What's been called "occulture" or a belief in other dimensions of knowing and experiencing has been catching fire. Timing is almost everything. And the timing may be just right for the Biden Administration to authorize the creation of the Ministry of Magic.

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

"Hereafter" - Marie LeLay shoulda got that leave in writing, considered sex harassment suit

Those with legal mindsets were likely puzzled as they viewed Clint Eastwood's new film "Hereafter." 

The worldly television anchor in France Marie LeLay falls apart after dying and then being revived during a tsunami.  She allows her superior/lover to talk her into taking a leave a absence.  Then when she needs to return to work, he tells her there could be difficulty getting her old job back.  She also has a hunch he's sleeping with her replacement.  Incidentally, when the two were on holiday, she left the safety of the hotel to buy his childrem proper, that is non airport gifts.  That puts her in the path of the tsunami.

Tears run down her cheeks.  Luckily the book she decided to write on her near death experience gets published, gets readers, and gets her hooked up with a new soul mate.  But those tears could have been prevented if she had put the terms and conditions for her leave in writing, reviewed by her own legal team, and filed a lawsuit for sexual harassment.

Workers of the world, except maybe in America, have united.  Paris is burning.  UK labor isn't taking crap.  No need for tears any more.  What isn't settled in the streets, gets addressed through contracts and lawsuits.  Shame on you, Marie LeLay.

 

Harvard: Did it deserve that shabby treatment in "The Social Network?"

The Harvard mystique apparently was still dominant in 2003, the time in which "The Social Network" was set.  Within that ethos aristocrats like Winklevoss twins, new barbarians such as Larry Summers, and brilliant kids with chips on their shoulder like Mark Zuckerberg could all pull what they needed from the Harvard brandname and move on.

That sort of thing happens all the time, be it a prestige law firm or a hedge fund that has a good run.  The world is made up of hustlers, smooth and crass.

The question "The Social Network" leaves us with is: did Harvard deserve the awful treatment it received? I have a hunch the answer is yes.  The place was a caricature of elite higher education when I attended its school of law in the mid 1980s.  It seems no change happened over the years.

Let's start at the ending.  When as an older student [think early 40s] with a former successful career in communications I decided to flee law as a 1L, some BigFoot wouldn't allow me to. She insisted I meet with a committee. I ignored her the first time.  The second time I firmly told her I was leaving and that was that.  She sent me a letter stating that I might have an emotional problem.   Does surrendering the possible prestige of a Harvard degree, along with the all-nighters and internal angst, mean one is emotionally challenged.  At the time I wasn't a writer so, no, I didn't write about it.

During the time I matriculated at Harvard Law School, in criminal law class an oddball medical doctor insisted the professor address her as "doctor."  He continually refused.  Every time she requested the title be used, the Winklevoss kind hissed.  Was it that she was an outsider that she couldn't get respect or is everyone supposed to play inferior to the Harvard brand?

The contracts professor did the same performance art from the same script he had for decades.  Stale?  Surely, there had to be emerging trends in the field that could have been incorporated.

And, of course, everyone, except me, felt blessed to be there.  I experienced that moment of clarity that I was a working class kid who got far with my brain and push but, maybe Harvard had been right, was stuck as a victim of arrested development.  I had hungered for the stamp of approval, got it, and was still a mess. Yeah, like Zuckerberg, an asshole. 

More or less, I remained an asshole until I was 58. Here is my sad story which has a happy ending Download Geezerguts.

"The Social Network"- Caricature of the Law

"The Social Network" will go down in history as the early 21st-century critique of all American institutions, be it the legal system, elite higher education, or social class. 

Among its targets, law really takes it on the chin.  The scenes of the depositions regarding the lawsuits filed against outsider Mark Zuckerberg by aristocratic Winklevoss twins and insider Eduardo Saverin make caricatures of the way deposing is done, the profesionals who do them, and the feigned attempt to connect by some lawyers.  One might even detect a rooting for the rebel who shows lack of respect for the process - and even very limited attention to it.

Undergraduates considering attending law school might view how this film depicts legal proceedings and they might opt to figure out a business to start instead.

When Pathology Had Grandeur

There was a time before the Lindsay Lohans when breaking the rules had a grandeur. 

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton abused alcohol, prescription drugs, the expectations about the bonds of marriage, artistic commitment, and much more.  Today, Taylor keeps in her the stipulation that she be buried next to her former husband, two times over, Burton. 

And, in their 2010 biography of the two FURIOUS LOVE, Sam Kahhner and Nancy Schoenberger even contend that it was Taylor who created the prototype for today's celebrity.  She knew exactly what she was doing when she went out in public, set off a storm of media attention, and feigned disinterest.  She was also the first celebrity to check herself into the Betty Ford Clinic. Betty Ford herself was her personal sponsor.

Without Taylor there would not have been the phenomenon of Princess Di and later the erosion of that into a Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton.

Who should play John Boy?

The NATIONAL ENQUIRER is running a poll about who should take the part of John Boy, that is plaintiff attorney John Edwards, in the film being made from THE POLITICIAN.  Too bad Harrison Ford got stuck in the character role of the adventurer hero.  He would do the early-earnest Edwards brilliantly.

Then there is the important role of once practicing attorney Elizabeth, who seems to enjoy the limelight as much as John Boy.  Given her pudge, Kathy Bates may be perfect.  She can bring part of the self-confident nuttiness she displayed in "Misery."

As for Rielle Hunter, there is only one option: Angelina Jolie with a short blond wig.

William Kunstler's Daughters: They come not to praise nor bury Caesar

Famous men, including lawyers, tend to have ambivalent children.  That confusion tends to undo some of of the offspring.  Bob Shapiro, from the O.J. Dream Team, lost his son to drugs.  TV commentator Ted Koppel lost his to an all-night bender. 

Well, it seems that William Kunstler's two daughters Emily and Sarah from his second marriage, are searching for their center through art.  The two produced a documentary film "Disturbing the Universe," which already won an award at the recent Sundance Festival.  It will be aired as part of the "Point of View" series on PBS on June 22nd.

In THE HARTFORD COURANT, Alan Bisbort describes the treatment as "deeply critical without 'Daddy Dearest.'"  The two girls's life was nightmarish because of the cases their father took on, ranging from John Gotti to the Chicago Seven.

Beware Jobless Lawyers: The Emotional Cheerleaders aka Upliftment Industry Always Win

This is America, the land of the emotional cheerleaders and the thriving Upliftment Industry.  After all, look at how far Bubble Bath/Candles will renew your spirit Oprah got.  So, despite its flawed premise that a human being can be readily salvaged by a caring someone - fill in the word: teacher, social worker, minister, therapist -"Precious" will probably be popular and profitable. 

As legal watchers know, jobless lawyers are sitting ducks for this kind of rah-rah thinking. 

In their little support groups in Manhattan, the capital of sidelined once-successful professionals, they are being encouraged and encouraging themselves that they can land a jobs back practicing law.  Just keep at it, keep networking, be flexible, do pro bono work to enhance skills, jog.  After all that, the result probably will be they will not land a job practicing law and they will have wasted time that should have been invested in a career reset. 

In addition, their expectations remain out-of-whack with the current global economy.  Potential employers and clients can smell it - and run.  The emotional cheerleaders reinforce not compromising but rather shoot for the stars.

Instead of the straight-line optimistic mindset, the jobless - all double-digit of them - might find it more productive to surrender to what is, at least currently.  For once highly compensated professionals, it's the worst of times.  By expecting less we open ourselves to learning more, especially the new skills the marketplace demands.  In the future, all that could well pay off in another bubble economy.  We will be ready to cash in.