Law And More

Lawyers: Give recovery shot, if Elton John can be your sponsor?

We all know that lawyers have a higher rate of substance abuse than the general population.  What we don't know is what could motivate you to stop all that before it took away your career, family, and self.

Well, I have a hunch that one factor could be access to a famous sponsor.  In a number of recovery programs, including the 12 steps, having a sponsor or recovered person with a track record is recommended.  The ROLLING STONES interview with Eninem mentions that his unofficial sponsor is Elton John. How about if you could have some brandname judge or feared-by-all-opponents equity partner in a law firm?  Hopefully, those kind are making themselves available as sponsors.

Illegal Immigration: Entrepreneuer's Dream

Obviously, George Anagnostou was a hustler.  He had two restaurants going.  And he could have done well had he left it at that.  But, he took that dark step of entering the world of employing and exploiting illegal immigrants.  Late last month, Anagnostou forfeited about $750,000, including his 2009 Harley Davidson, and will spend four months in jail.

On his blog http://talkingimmigrantlaw.typepad.com, immigration/naturalization attorney Alan Lbuiner, partner with Lubiner & Schmidt, looks at that saga of an entrepreneurial dream gone wrong.  Here you can read it.

Disclosure: I sometimes do digital writing for Lubiner & Schmidt.

Those Boozy Business Lunches: No more bottle-watering it

It's official.  Booze has returned to the business lunch.  No longer do we have to bottle-water it as we endure bosses, clients, customers, and prospects for one to three hours which makes certain we will be pulling an all-nighter to get our work done.

But booze back on the scene brings up questions of etiquette.  Not to worry.  In my new role as contract blogger for AOL on career issues, I share my wisdom with you.  Read it here, to save your job, career, and ability to remain out of jail.

That Three-Martini Lunch: Are clients boozing again?

Have clients and prospects returned to boozing it up at lunch and dinner again? According to Joel Stein of BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK the business ritual of drinking way too much alcohol is back.  This is especially the situation if the group numbers four or more.  All that has to transpire is for one to order a drink and then everyone is off to the races.  Even in health-consumed California, business as boozing has lost any stigma it might have carried for a few years.

Of course, given the high rate of alcohol abuse among lawyers, this can be fatal, literally, for those who crossed that so-called invisible line from drinking socially to never being able to drink safely in the future.  Research has linked alcoholism with increased risk of suicide. 

Cheeseburger as the new tobacco: How will fast food fight back?

The first time around the political and legal push against low-nutrition, high-calorie food, just like lead paint, gained plenty of attention.  Then more or less fizzled.  The cause never gained the momentum that the crusade against tobacco did which led to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement [TMA]. Perhaps that mission lacked the cunning mind and leadership of a plaintiff lawyer like Dickie Scruggs.  A comprehensive, insight history of the TMA is in KINGS OF TORT, by Alan Lange. 

That could be changing.  The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine [PCRM] is renewing the focus, this time with significant media savvy, reports Bob Marshall on Mediabistro's AGENCY SPY.  For one thing it is targeting a very specific product: the cheeseburger, rather than poor food choices generically. For another, it's doing it dramatically with sizzle, including the perfect overweight corpse.  And third, the reach is wide.  The Public Service Ad will start out on the "The Daily Show" and local Washington D.C. markets, then play in other markets.

In addition, timing, which is everything, is great.  Budget-challenged government agencies at every level can't absorb the health costs of maladies correlated with unhealthy eating habits.  Even if better economic times were to come, there is still the financial burden of the generation of obese children with their chronic problems such as diabetes.

Clearly, the parts of the food industry targeted will have to create counter moves.  If one of them is legal, then law firms could be entering another golden age of litigation.  The first one, set in play by Ralph Nader's consumer movement, provided tons of work for high-paid lawyers at all levels.  That could happen again, proving wrong the predictions of consultants like Hildebrandt Baker Robbins of slow growth.  There could be a boom.

Yet another food contamination and again no mention of plaintiff attorney Bill Marler

My business is media, including the key players who create the content and those who frequently get interviewed.  That's how influence happens. 

So, I have been curious why plaintiff attorney Bill Marler whose law firm Marler Clark dominates the food-borne-illness category hasn't been cited in the top-tier media all that often.  For example, here is a one-million-pound meat recall, and right in his neck of the woods - Modesto, California.  Marler's firm is based in Seattle, Washington.  Yet, Marler's expertise isn't part of the coverage on Huffingtonpost.  There had been a piece in THE ECONOMIST on raw milk.  Marler, although he was early in flagging the possible problems with this unpasteurized beverage, wasn't in the coverage.

That got me to thinking about the curse of over-exposure as well as the danger of trying too hard.  Marler's blog captures and communicates every development in his category. At one time, it was unusual for an article in THE NEW YORK TIMES on food contamination not to quote him.  He travels to China to discuss supply chain safety and U.S. Product Liability Laws.

Maybe all that somehow transferred Marler across that invisible line from informative to too much. Before that happens, what the prolific and earnest can do is communicate about other aspects of the law.  Law professor and criminal attorney Alan Dershowitz was shrewd about that.  Look over his list of books, articles, and opinion-editorials and it's obvious his focus is electic.  The same has been true of trend author Christopher Hitchens.  And that's why I operate four syndicated blogs.  The audience for any specific one would quickly tire of me if all my posts appeared on just one.  

Disclosure:  A few yeas ago I did some writing for Marler Clark.

Camel Milk: Bill Marler will have to get right on this

Raw milk, as a media topic, has about peaked.  A sign of that is that it has been featured as a stuffer item in free street rag here THE NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE.

Now, the hot issue, literally because that's the way it comes out of the camel, is camel milk.  Like raw milk, there's probably a lot to worry about with camel milk. But the potential of the market, reports Sue Manning in HuffingtonPost.com, is about $10 billion annually.  Currently it's against the law to sell it and sooner than later attorney Bill Marler, who has his own testing ability, will inform consumers and government why that should stay that way. At least, until certain precautions are taken and made law.

However, that won't stop health evangelists who claim, like the raw milk crowd, the unique benefits of cow milk. It also won't stop entrepreneurs who can sell the milk at $40 to $60 a liter.  The initial investment is doable.  Manning notes that it only costs about $12,000 to purchase an adult female cow and $5,000 for a baby.  Any small business could put that on its credit card.

Children: Are they self-medicating with food?

Try everything.  Among what's being tried to take on childhood obesity is first putting the muscle on food companies, then eating establishments like McDonald's, to cut calories in food consumed by children.

But I have a hunch that's not going to prove to be the magic bullet.  A self-medicator since 11 years old, I sense that children are not at-ease in their little worlds and are using food as mood-changer.  It's there.  It's legal.  And it is not expensive. 

I was the fattest person, not only girl, in the fifth grade.  In college, I discovered beer.  I graduate school I found wine.  Meanwhile it wasn't until 1981, when I joined a 12-step program, did I finally deal with my inability to feel at home in any space I entered.

Are children the latest victims of uncaring capitalism?  Of their humanity being ignored?  Sure, pay attention to the calories.  But also let's reach out to children and make them know they are okay, just a they are. 

Food - The new tobacco

We knew this was coming.  The first few tries were comic failures.  But this latest tactic to take on the food industry may just work and turn it into the new tobacco.  That's because, like Dickie Scruggs's way in, it focuses on children. In his research about the possibility of suing BigTobacco Scruggs found out that the public only paid attention to the issue when it was framed as preventing young people from starting.

Consumer groups are delivering McDonald's an ultimatum to stop marketing Happy Meals which, they claim, provides a toy as an incentive.  In PORTFOLIO, Brett Chase reports that this activists are well organized.  Unlike earlier opposition to the way food is processed and marketed, this latest variety is hitting home.  The problem of overweight children is now highly visible.  Also, with national health initiatives, taxpayers recognize they could be picking up the tab for that generation's medical problems such as high blood pressure.

The food industry should be put on high alert.  I have a hunch that sooner than later a leader among the activists will emerge on the public stage.  That leader could mirror the tone and tactics leveraged by plaintiff attorney BIll Marler whose law firm Marler Clark specializes in food-borne diseases.  After the national concern following the Jack-in-the-Box deaths in the early 1990s died down, Marler kept the matter on the radar.  Today, he's being proved right.  Here is the testimony he delivered before the Waxman Committee Download Testimonywaxmanfoodsafety.

Food Safety: Anything can go wrong, including changing color

Food safety concerns include color.  As yet, Italian authorities don't know if the 70,000 balls of mozzarella are dangerous to health.  That will be determined by testing. What they do know is that these balls, produced in Germany, turn blue when the packaging is opened, reports AP.  This development could hurt Brand Italy as the home for great cheese products such as pizza.