Law And More

"The Good Fight" - Fun Look at Law Firm Business/Politics, Litigation Financing, Class Actions, False Confessions, and More

"The Good Fight" is the sequel to "The Good Wife."

Tonight it became available network television, on CBS, at 9 P.M. New York Time.

Since 2017, you could view the pile up of the seasons' episodes only through CBS Streaming Service on CBS All Access.

The programming kicks off with Diane Lockhart announcing her retirement at Lockhart & Lee. Of course, the Lee part is jubilant.

But soon Diane discovers her entire nest has been part of the Henry Rindell Alleged Ponzi scheme. An invitation-only investment scam, many powerful players also have lost their money.

When Lockhart asks for her job back, the answer is no. In the legal community, because she had introduced people to Rindell she is poison. No one will hire her.

Salvation comes in the form of an offer to join African-American law firm Reddick, Boseman. She brings along with her Rindell's daughter Maia, who had started out at Lockhart & Lee, but was fired and also is poison everywhere else.

Unlike more traditional firms, Reddick is a raw hustler. They pitch possible class actions to litigation financers who use algorithms. The variables fed in include such matters as what judge would be overseeing the case.

On her first case, Maia encounters the now-popular in the media issue of false confessions. She and a Reddick colleague even attend a seminar on a method to elicit a confession, even if the person interrogated isn't guilty. 

Along side all the legal issues are the emotional, social, and spiritual ones.

Diane can't forgive her estranged husband - Marlboro Man - for his sexual affairs with students. He wants to remain part of her life. She wants that door closed. She files for a divorce. In a sense that is also a generous gesture because divorce means that his accounts won't be frozen during the investigation of the Ponzi scheme.

Meanwhile the only way she can navigate losing both her wealth and her law firm is to be open to change. She's softening around the edges.

Maia, after a charmed childhood and early adult years, encounters extreme adversity. Lots of folks figure she was in on the Ponzi scheme. Her lesbian personal life finds its way onto social networks. She loses her first case and the litigation financers' algorithm tells them to bail out of the class action. 

Henry, who had been Diane's close friends, claims he's innocent. He's in jail. His wife is already in bed with someone else.

The major takeaway from "The Good Fight" is that everyone is imperfect and some of them are more imperfect than others. Watch out for the latter.

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New York City Police Department - Third Suicide in Two Weeks

Again, members of the New York City Police Department are in shock and in mourning.

The third member of the police force has taken his own life within two weeks.

Although his name has not been released, what we do know is that he was off-duty when he apparently committed suicide near where he worked in Staten Island. Earlier Joe Calabrese and Steven Silks had also committed suicide. Here are more details from the New York Post.

No successful suicide has returned to inform researchers the thought processes which were involved. So, it's mere speculation to pontificate about what might have been going through the officers' minds.

There have been some respected studies of suicide. One popular one is Kay Jamison's "Night Falls Fast." But, overall the subject has not received adequate research. 

Let's leave the survivors, ranging from members of the NYPD to families, alone. They should not experience a pile-on of theories. What they might need instead is for others to simply listen to them talk. Talking really does help. It can ignite the candle of hope. 

BTW, a lawyer who had been overwhelmed created an app for those who have to unburden themselves. Here is the background on that and a little perspective. 

If a police officer, in any part of the nation, seems like he or she is carrying an inner burden, encourage them to talk.

Show that you are capable of what is called "compassionate listening."

Few are in this second decade of the 21st century.

Jeremy Fischbach's "Happy" App - Digital Tech + Old-Fashioned Concept of Being Listened To

Former BigLaw attorney Jeremy Fischbach has come up for a solution for the 21st-century plague: extreme isolation.

Even in supposed functional families the members, stuck behind their screens, are separate from each other. In a two-hour television special on the negative impacts of screen time, Diane Sawyer presented how even toddlers and dogs get shut out of the kind of interaction needed to emotionally survive. One toddler demands of his mother who is doing screen time, "Listen to me with your whole face."

In the law firm the isolation frequently results in clinical depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and even suicide. That setting is a hyper-competitive environment where the clock is always running on how much revenue is being made. It's a risk to allow any neediness to peek out. That could be blood in the water attracting sharks.

After he left BigLaw for a less isolated way to make a living practicing law, Fischbach developed an app called "Happy." It combines digital technology with that very old-fashioned ability to listen. Some refer to that lost art as "compassionate listening."

As Dylan Jackson reports in Law.com:

"'Happy' connects users with more than 2,000 peers who are trained to be 'compassionate listeners' ... It prompts users to specify why they're calling - financial troubles, interpersonal issues, work ... Calls are confidential and not recorded ...The app is available to everybody, not just attorneys ..."

Results range from users noting an almost 50% decrease in stress and anxiety to a more than 90% boost in happiness. Already, there have been business partnerships with organizations such as the American Heart Association and Aetna.

Some critics put the knock on the app because the listeners receive only rudimentary training. But others push back and declare the restorative power of emotional connection.

Suicide prevention hotline Samaritans is based on that: one human being listening attentively to another. The service is available free, 24/7 at 212-673-3000.

From interviewing those who have contacted Samaritans at dark times in their lives, what I have found out is that hope comes from knowing someone, anyone cares. Plans of action seem to follow naturally.

For instance, one suicidal newbie to Boston got it on his own during the phone call that if he took trips back to the Pittsburgh he would be less lonely. He made it his business to invest in those journeys until he could set up a social network in New England.

The model of 12-step meetings, derived from the original Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), is fellowship. Human beings are joined by their weaknesses, be they booze or gambling.  The meeting format is that members say what they need to say. There is no feedback, that is, crosstalk, at least during the meeting. The resolve to stay away from a drink or a casino one more day comes from being heard. There is emotional connection.

The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DPSA) is also a self-help group which facilitates listening by peers. Members are in the same pickle of mood disorders. When they "share" at meetings in-person or online they assume those who are listening have a deep understanding of their challenges. They feel heard.

But listening doesn't have to happen in a formal context.

There was a retired Teamster big rig driver who had just moved into my residential complex. He looked at my face. He stopped his walk with his dog. That was the signal he was listening.

I babbled about turning down this assignment and that assignment. He didn't say a word. Then I burst out laughing. I said, "I am asking your permission not to work so hard 'at my age' as I had in my 50s." He did the wrap on that by sharing that he too had a difficult time figuring out how to not chase money as he aged. "They asked me to do this or that haul. Finally, one day I said 'no.'"

This Father's Day the best present society can give its distressed males is 10 minutes listening time. During that, there will be no comments, no advice-giving. The answers human beings need are inside them. Talking gives them access to all that.

Coaching, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Please contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Newbie Lawyers Who Can't Get Their Footing, Seasoned Ones Knocked Out of the Box: Expatriate Re-Start

Back in the time of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, being an expatriate was glam. 

Now, it's evolved into a financial necessity. And not only for financially exhausted retirees and the semi-retired. 

What could become commonplace is the narrative about Chad Albright. Here are all the details from the media.

Currently, in his mid 30s, he is a permanent resident of the Ukraine, employed in sales. Before that he taught English to residents of Zhongshan, China.

At Millersville University in the U.S., Albright majored in public relations. But he was among The Lost Generation whose graduation aligned with The Great Recession. They had degrees but no chance to get experience in their field because there were no entry-level jobs. Employers could hire for peanuts those with a ton of experience and great track records who had lost jobs.

Meanwhile, Albright's student loan payment was $400 a month. He bunked with his parents and, no surprise, slipped into a clinical depression. During that time, the unpaid nut was accruing interest. It could balloon to what no ordinary person would be able to pay off in a lifetime.

On television, there was an interview with an American college graduate describing a career in ESL - English as a Second Language - in China.

Albright had nothing to lose. His earnings in China of $1000 a month covered everything, including his lodging. 

Gradually, he learned the ropes of finding other kinds of work outside the U.S. 

Only once has he returned to the U.S. It was to visit his family. Of course, the student loan debt goes unpaid. 

If a do-over were possible in life, he told the media he wouldn't have gone for a college degree. Instead he would have enrolled in a non-degree program online in some aspect of computers. 

The aging who didn't play their money cards right in youth and middle age are being encouraged to relocate permanently to low-cost locations like Ecuador. Retirees in Ecuador can subscribe the national health plan. According to International Living, an American couple can retire there on less than $18,000 a year. 

Now there could be a rogue movement to also encourage unemployed and underemployed Millennials dragging around student loan debt to also explore the expatriate option.

Those could include newbie JDs who haven't been able to establish themselves in employment that covers loan debt.

In addition, more seasoned lawyers knocked out of the box might explore the expatriate option. During the next economic downturn, which will eventually arrive, 10,000 could be put on the mean streets of metro areas in the U.S.

The easiest way to parachute in is to answer one of the help-wanted ads about some academic-related job in China. That could range from ESL to coaching the offspring of the wealthy how to apply successfully to U.S. elite prep schools and universities. Next, leverage the new-found confidence to search the world for a better fit for work.

Reflection: The shot at a re-start, that is rebranding, is a wonderful thing.

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

SCOTUS - More Female Clerks Than Males, Thanks Partly to Brett Kavanaugh

U.S. Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh hired all female law clerks. 

Yes, let's all belt out "For he's a jolly good fellow." Because of Kavanaugh's recruiting, for the first time in the history of SCOTUS, the majority of clerks are female. His colleague justice Ruth Ginsburg praised that. Here are more details from Daily Mail.

As so many lawsuit indicate - e.g. "Tolton v. Jones Day" - the legal sector can be a tough nut to crack for women. 

Simultaneously, positions such as SCOTUS clerk is a super resume-building. When Jones Day goes on its annual hiring spree recruiting former SCOTUS clerks, members of the media report that Jones Day will pay up to a $300,000 sign-on bonus. Good-bye student loan debt.

Hiring former clerks gives the law firm insider insight about how each justice thinks and then makes actual decisions. Also, in the loop with be knowledge about how they like the information provided them to be positioned and packaged.

Given that Kavanaugh has evolved into The Good Guy, he might have a cameo role as himself on a episode next season of "Law & Order SVU." That could inject freshness into that long-running series which seems to have jumped the shark.

Brand Kavanaugh just got hot.

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

 

Anti-Semitic - Lite and Not So Lite

In 2018, according to the Anti Defamation League, there were 1,879 incidents of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S.

France24 reports that, here in the America and other locations around the world, some Jewish communities are arming themselves, in response. The debate goes on if the members of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Jewish house of worship had been armed fewer would have been died in the massacre.

Those concerns are about violent forms of bias against Jews.

There are also the lite kind. Emotionally and socially they can be just as unsettling.

Once I relocated from the New York Metro area in April 2014, I have been subjected to what I call "Anti-Semitic Lite." That has occurred as far west as Arizona and only 500 miles from Manhattan here in the Midwest.

I am not Jewish. Not in religion. Not culturally.

But the New York accent (actually it's 1950s Jersey City, New Jersey per-gentrification), Eastern European stocky body style and facial features, and business mindset have become markers for a Jewish identity. 

Some of the unpleasantness takes the form of being "interrogated" about supposed Jewish family values.

In Tucson, AZ, a next door neighbor began to quiz me why Jewish parents "pushed" their children so much. When I told him I didn't know since I wasn't Jewish, he just smirked. He assumed I was trying to "pass for Christian." The reality is that I am not a Christian either. Since the end of the 1990s, I have been studying Buddhism.

Another play-out of the bias is isolation. Social groups tend not to let me in, at least not fully. I feel on the fringes.

A third is, yes, fear. Neighbors get drunk and the resentments can come pouring out. Will my car get keyed or scrawled on my door "Jew, get out?"

Of course, one solution could be bouncing back to the New York Metro area where I blend right in. Twice in the past three years I have returned there. Twice I had to conclude that is all behind me. It takes "real money" to live there. That applies even to my hometown Jersey City. A studio apartment can run almost $3,000 a month. You bet, you can't go home again.

Is my fate to become The Wandering Jew, even though I am not Jewish?

In the fall, I am relocating to an out-of-the-box U.S. town on the border of Mexico. When I checked it out in 2015, the vibes were inclusive.  Already I have let an organization there know that I am eager to do volunteer work. The head said to swing by when I settle in.

What gnaws at me, though is the question: Will I really be able to settle in?

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

Remembering Joe Calabrese and Steven Silks

Genius producer Dick Wolf captures the complex psyches of police in "Chicago P.D."

Each member of that elite unit has his or her demons.

The most complex case of suffering is played out by the leader Hank Voight. Audiences feel for this antihero.

In real life we are encountering the kind of mental disquiet which the police officers were not able to endure. In the New York Police Department this week there have been 2 suicides. Here is the coverage in the media.

The most recent is that of homicide detective Joe Calabrese.

As yet the shock has prevented the usual speculation about the why. But, the speculation will be just that: speculation. It is impossible to know what thought processes took over that human being before the decision to take his own life.

Earlier in the week Steven Silks, deputy chief in Queens North, committed suicide. He was being subjected to mandatory retirement. He had aged out of the job. Perhaps that provided a tipping point. Perhaps not. The mind houses so many trains of thought. 

No successful suicide has been able to return to planet earth to provide a detailed account of how the decision-making proceeded. And, if there had been any regrets. Scientific research shows that after the heart stops the brain is still functioning for a bit. The person is aware that he or she is dead.

The one explanation of the suicide process which made sense to me was by Abby Hoffman's brother Jack Hoffman. In "Run Run Run," Jack describes a mental process of passing through a series of doors. The journey, at least for Abby, was irreversible. Once through all those doors, in all sorts of psychiatric states, there is no way back. Suicide is The Next. Abby had developed a bipolar condition. Here the book can be ordered from Amazon.

May the souls of Joe Calabrese and Steven Silks rest in peace.

May their families find the strength to live with this loss.

And may those who serve as police officers throughout America talk to someone, anyone when their thoughts overwhelm them. No, it doesn't have to be a professional in the field of mental health. A trusted human being who knows how to listen can save a life.

William Husel as The Alleged Bad Doctor - Need to Parachute in Undercover Agents

If medical personnel at Mount Carmel Health System knew there could be an undercover agent in their midst there might not be the current allegation about William Husel M.D.

The possibility of a spy in some form - doctor, nurse, aide, administrator - could deter crime against patients. 

Franklin County prosecutor Ron O'Brien has slapped Husel with 25 counts of murder. Allegedly Husel was in the loop of fatal overdoses of pain killer fentanyl. Each count, if proved, carries a sentence of 15 to life in prison. Here are more details from Jeremy Smith at Law and Crime.

The powers that be can make it a state law that a a specified number of undercover agents are parachuted in randomly to healthcare facilities. To avoid being outed, those law enforcement officials would only do serve in that role once. What they uncover will be celebrated in the media. That could strengthen the deterrent power.

Overall, trust is broken in the healthcare system in the U.S. That ranges from fixing our bodies to attending to our mental equilibrium. With the current allegations against Husel, we downright fear for our lives.

Meanwhile, since television producer Dick Wolf rips episode plots from the headlines, expect to see some of the Husel type story on a program like "Chicago P.D." How wonderful it would be to experience Hank Voigt interrogating The Bad Doctor.

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

 

Model Being Studied: SF Bay Area Gun Violence Drops 30% (2007 - 2017)

The San Francisco Bay area has accomplished what many other communities can't: Reducing significantly gun violence.

And, as The Guardian reports, it's become a model for experts to analyze what might be working. Right now, no one pretends to have all the answers on that one. 

From 2007 through 2017, gun violence, including homicides, has dropped in the Bay area 30%. That has been across all racial and ethnic groups but the largest decline had been among Blacks. It has taken place both in gentrified areas and non-gentrified ones. 

Among the dots which might be connected on this is: During that time period there have been justice reforms in California. The number of those incarcerated in jail and prison has declined.

Also there has been a shift. The reformers have been approaching gun violence prevention as a public health issue. Reframing the gun issue from politics and legalities might have gotten residents' attention. The old framework usually generates glaze-overs. 

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

Leslie Van Houten - Of Course, CA Gov Gavin Newson Didn't Approve Parole

Is it cruel to have convicted Manson Family murderer Leslie Van Houten to keep hoping for parole? 

Of course, it is. No one who understands the dynamics of public opinion ever anticipated than any of her three attempts at parole would succeed. 

No surprise, California governor Gavin Newson turned down the most recent request. Here are more details from the media.

Baby Boomers recall living through the mass murders in CA. Those, along with severe recession happening, probably were primary factors in ending the 1960s counterculture. No longer were Americans opening themselves to the ethos of love. The nation turned inward, including in reflection about old-fashioned values.

No newly elected official, such as Newson, could take the public relations risk of releasing from prison one of the actual killers. 

In addition to the horror embedded in the collective memory bank about the Manson gang there is the fear that humane treatment of Van Houten could result in "Another Jack Abbott." Liberal influencer Norman Mailer campaigned to have Abbott let out of prison. Soon after that happened Abbott committed a murder.

The Abbott saga raised the question which still percolates through the American value system: Do human beings really change? America is a Christian nation believing in redemption of the soul. But from experiences such as that of Abbott there is skepticism if a leopard can change its spots. Or, that, hell, it even wants to.

Van Houten will die in prison. If she lets go of hope that will sooner than later. Hope is what sustains life. Perhaps her lawyer Rich Pfeiffer wants her to continue living. That could be why he is assisting with the filings for parole. Any experienced lawyer, that is one who gets the intersection of public opinion and law, recognizes the hopelessness of Van Houten's mission to return to a life on the outside.

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