Law And More

Election 2020 - We Will Probably Be Hearing Lots from Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly's strength is sharp-elbowed political rhetoric combat. Not moderating soft-ball talk shows.

So, it was predictable that she could leverage the findings of the Mueller Report as a platform for attempting a comeback. 

In a tweet, she attacked the liberal media for investing too much in the Russia collusion narrative. She indicated that journalism isn't about rooting for outcomes. Here are more details from Daily Mail.

Recently there has been a lot of buzz that Kelly was looking for work back in broadcast political commentary. After all, Election 2020 in already in play.

We may soon be hearing Kelly has been hired. Smart tweeting.

Along the way, she ditched the long curly hair soft look and returned to the hard edged short style. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Fox and Jones Day - The Trump Association

Today Disney closes the deal. It is purchasing, for $71.3 billion, 21st Century Fox assets.

And, according to Gabriel Sherman's analysis in Vanity Fair, that means the Lachlan Murdoch era hicks off at Fox News.

Here is the bombshell in Sherman's take: Lachlan, as CEO of Fox, could see his role as getting that television network ready for sale. It could be too small a business entity to operate as a stand-alone. 

Sherman is highly credible. For years he had been the go-to journalist for information and insight on both the founder of Fox News - Roger Ailes - and Fox itself. He had developed a deep pipeline of sources within Fox. Not everyone was a loyal Ailes soldier.

In 2014, Sherman published that negative best-selling Ailes biography "The Loudest Voice in the Room."

That seemed so threatening to those in the Ailes allies loop, that Ailes' personal public relations representative Bob Dilenschneider plowed $15k in publicity, on a supposed stealth basis, for a vanity biography.

Intended as a distraction, the Machiavellian move backfired. When the Dilenschneider caper was outed by the media, both Sherman and his book received even more attention. It was the must-read. However, it contained only a hint of possible sexual misconduct by Ailes. That was to be a whole other story which precipitated the end of Ailes.

Sherman still has unique sources within Fox. What they tell him is that Lachlan might have been waiting until the close of the Disney deal to start reshaping Fox. To do so when the deal was still in play could have attracted the retaliation of Donald Trump. And, according to Sherman, Lachlan, as well as other Murdochs, is not a devoted Trump supporter. 

The reshaping would be in the direction of a reduction of alt-right aka pro-Trump rhetoric from Jeanine Pirro, Sean Hannity, and Lou Dobbs. The Fox brand would become more middle-ground - and appeal to a larger group of potential buyers. 

Meanwhile, though, Lachlan knows the network has to make scale revenues and profits. Advertisers, Sherman tells us, have been complaining about the seemingly too-close Trump association. Money talks. And that advertiser unhappiness could have become the new loudest voice in the room. The voices at Fox supporting Trumpism could become muted.

There is speculation that the shift from hard right to middle will motivate Hannity to leave. Conservative media is big. He is also big. He could find a high-paying home elsewhere. But others such as Pirro and Dobbs could wind up as symbols of a time long passed. Will they be forced out and be unable to land comparable work? They are also aging on air personalities. Age bias is very real in glam professions such as media. 

The Murdochs are very smart. They might be anticipating the end of the Trump Administration and want to duck being crushed by it.

On the other hand, the collapse of Trump Everything could hurt the Jones Day law firm brand. It has become the go-go counsel for so many legal matters involving Trumpism.

Former White House head lawyer Don McGhan, who had been a Jones Day partner, has returned to Jones Day. About a dozen former Jones Day lawyers hold jobs in federal government. That might be labeled "The Jones Daying of U.S. government."

Takeaway: What happens at Fox could be a microcosm about what could shift in the U.S. brand of conservatism. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

The Influencer Game - Protecting the Brand

Influencers are playing an increasingly important role in marketing. Yet, that legal territory still remains the wild west. The field is so relatively new.

However, corporations recognize they better make progress fast on the learning curve.

That ah-ha moment emerged when Olivia Jade Giannulli became enmeshed in the college admissions scandal. Very quickly, two of her influencer accounts - Sephora and TRESemme - dumped her. 

In Corporate Counsel, Kristen Rasmussen presents steps that are necessary to take before entering into a formal agreement with influencers. The legal relationship should be treated in much the same way as has that with the traditional spokesperson type.

From the get-go, before even approaching a potential influencer, there should be comprehensive due diligence. That should include investigating:

•  Any previous scandals
•  Frequent participation in controversy
•  Tone and content of social media
•  Out of the box behavior such as use of heavy-duty profanity
•  Track record for staying on script.

However, the rub is this: Those with influence have done plenty to establish that force field. They are unlikely to be a Ken Doll or America's Sweetheart. To get, hold, and grow attention often requires outrageous theatrics.

Once the influencer is selected, then there will be the push and pull about what is now determined to be necessary to include in the contract. At the top of the list will be the morals clause.

The company will want the morals clause as broad as possible. For example, it might want to include the right to terminate the contract if influencer is convicted of a felony. 

The influencer will want the morals clause as narrow as possible. The greater the level of influence, the more negotiating power that person has.

Obviously, tremendous effort has to be plowed into protecting the brand from influencer scandal or even a controversy that can't be easily managed. But, the influencer game is one of the most effective in selling whatever, ranging from causes to products/services. Corporations would be downright negligent in leaving it out of the marketing mix. 

Corporations will have to ramp up their negotiating skills.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

Strange Legality: Ghostwriting College Term Papers Okay Because Process Classified as "Transaction"

Morally wrong. That's about all.

So, the FBI probably will not organize stings for ghostwriters who research and put together those growing number of college and graduate/professional school term papers for students who pay up the big bucks. That's because that process is classified as a paid transaction. So, it is perfectly legal. Wealthy insiders always knew that.

Now, the world finds that out through the Daily Mail article on former ghostwriter Jaimie Leigh. In addition to doing term papers she positioned and packaged the kinds of content which helped her clients not only get into college but on boards of directors. 

The reality of the ghostwriting world is much larger than enhancing academic and career credentials. But most of it is totally legit, that is, in the legal sense.

Essentially the game is: Pay some talent to look good. Instead of makeup and hairstyling, ghostwriters use research skills, analysis, strategic planning of content, and word mastery.

That's the source of myriad best-selling books, those opinion-editorials in The Wall Street Journal, erudite white papers produced by brandname management consulting firms, speeches, scripting for videos, blogs, social media, podcast talking points, and even fiction. 

Will the morality ever matter? Likely, not in America. That is, not until its current brand of capitalism grafts on other values.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

We Sit on Juries, We Educate Your Children, We Attend Your AA Meetings

Now we know - that is, the full extent of how the very rich game so many systems, including catapulting their offspring into elite schools. 

In Vanity Fair, William Cohan documents the ethos of the 1% and the few tiers under them.

The mindset is entitlement.

The tool is buying shortcuts to whatever.

When it comes to admission to educational institutions, the assumption is that going through the process the traditional way is for suckers. 

Yes, "they" scorn us mere middle class and below. In their orbits the old-fashioned American values of hard work, determination, creativity that is within the ethical and legal box, and grit could represent raw innocence about how the world really works. To them, that might seem cute. Or another reason to roll their eyes about the world view of the little people.

Of course, for a few weeks or a few months that could discourage us from continuing to try (I took the weekend off from re-doing my marketing communications, figuring the hell with it). But, come on, what choice do we have but to return to hustling.

More importantly, though, will be the subtle and not so subtle forms of backlash against the very rich and those who are quite privileged. 

We sit on juries. Some of those jury members will be involved in trials of alleged tricksters ensnared in the admissions scandal. No question we will be objective. But bits of our hearts have hardened. Justice reflects community values. Our values here in Eastern Ohio are to have no sympathy for the gilded age players. 

We also sell them services and products. As Cohan notes, already vendors charge them more than they do Everyman and Everywoman. 

We encounter them at recovery meetings. No, we won't go the extra mile to help them help themselves. Incidentally, those towns housing the 1% like Greenwich, Connecticut have more than the national average number of meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. 

And, we teach their children in prep schools, universities, and professional schools such as law. Will instructors and professors struggling to make ends meet grow an unconscious bias?

It's sad that a talent such as F. Scott Fitzgerald so yearned to be one of them. That impossibility could have been what drove him to drink. Yet, part of him knew that, as the line goes in "The Great Gatsby," that they are careless people. 

The probability is low that there will be the analogue of the Russian Revolution here in America. No, we won't be marching into Greenwich, driving the residents out of their mansions, and becoming squatters. 

But, something big has changed since the outing of the exotic admissions scams. There is a target on the backs of those who tell the rest of us to work hard - then smirk about the absurdity of all that.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Legal Marketers - 5 Tips, Now that Podcasting Has Caught On All Too Well

Podcasting is one part of the marketing mix. 

Admittedly, a powerful part, but still, only one tactic.

From the get-go, that had been the reality legal marketers embraced. They had to add on podcasting to the rest of what they needed to do for their law firm clients, including SmallLaw. 

Now, the reality has become more brutal.

As CJR reports, there's not only a glut in the podcasting space. The current dynamics in the medium are being described as a "bubble" bursting. That signals that some listeners will simply stop listening entirely or reduce their list of must-hear podcasts significantly.

So, how should legal marketers manage the marketing mix in the spring 2019? Here are 5 tips:

•  Differentiate the tone, formats, and content of your clients' podcasts from what else is out there. That could include hustling to have celebrities to interview. Then you promote that BigGun in IP is scheduled and a few of the controversial areas which will be covered.
•  Repurpose the podcast aggressively. That is, put a link on website, blogs, tweets, LinkedIn Updates, Facebook, and Alexa. That can turn it into a workhorse in your marketing prorgram.
•  Make it your business to have influencers review your podcasting. Of course, there's risk involved. But you can transform even the negative into useful exposure. A fundamental of effective public relations is that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
•  Think strategically and out of the box about what other marketing tactics to roll out. Should the law firm, based in Florida, operate a contest for students at law schools in the state to create content, in any medium, about the subject of ethics in the practice of law? Can you persuade the regional business journal to have a new legal column authored by a member of your client firm? There are all kinds of innovative kinds of pro bono initiatives. 
•  Let local, state, national, and international media know your clients are available on-demand for background briefings and interviews. Make sure your clients know how important it is for them to respond pronto to a media request.

A third reality in marketing is that there is no longer any such concept as over-doing it. Any excess occurs only on the sales end. That is, when directly approaching a prospect about responding to the Call to Action.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

Crisis Communications - Willkie Farr and Unexpected College Admissions Allegations against Gordon Caplan

Crisis communications planning for law firms is not much different from that done in other types of businesses. 

In Law.com, Dan Packel explains that prominent law firm Willkie Farr had likely followed the fundamentals in its one preparations for a crisis.

As many recall, its co-chair Gordon Caplan was arrested in the college admission sting and released on $500,000 bond. It wasn't long before Willkie Farr made the public announcement, with its public relations vendor, that he had been put on leave and relieved of his management duties. 

Since then, it has been silent, in public. That might be among the recommended steps in its own crisis management plan. 

Well-done crisis plans for law firms, the experts contend notes Packel, should:

•  Contain enough scenarios to cover the unexpected. The allegations about Caplan were certainly unexpected. Plan creators should think creatively. Yes, it's possible that a leader in a law firm would allegedly risk it all to have his daughter admitted to college.
•  Designate who's responsible for what. For instance, what is the role for the outside public relations agency?
•  Provide for how the facts are gathered in an urgent manner. What information must be verified and by whom?
•  As soon as the bare facts are known, make a public statement. Promise to keep up the flow of information as it becomes available.
•  Launch an investigation.

How well Willie Farr manages this threat to its reputation will determine if it can prevent client churn, continue to develop new business, retain top talent, and recruit rainmakers. Meanwhile, the brand could be in play.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

"The Good Parents" - That Real-Life Show Produced College-Student Offpring Needing Lawyers, PR Crisis Counselors

It was a reality show - only played out in real life. That could be titled "The Good Parents."

The wealthy contingent of helicopter parents, with or without their offspring's awareness, allegedly purchased an unethical and illegal edge for admission to a brandname college. Of course, many of those parents are already suffering the consequences of those allegations. There have been arrests and work assignments lost.

But the second shoe to drop is this: consequences for the offspring.

In Vanity Fair, Julie Miller explains the immediate and longer-term implications for those who benefited from this edge, knowingly or unknowingly. The situation is so serious that experts recommend the students get both a lawyer and a public relations crisis counselor. Yes, some could wind up being slapped with an indictment. 

Already, the two daughters of the "Full House" star have dropped out of U.S.C. Experts are pushing for that same move for others. The scenario goes like this: Don't talk to press, drop out, get a menial job like waiter, start over again sometime in the future, and expect to be questioned forever about this scandal. 

Of course, if those offspring want to pursue careers, shade had been thrown on all that. They will remain part of The Lost Generation of Rich Kids from 2019. Salvation could come in the form of taking on professional roles of do-gooders such as social workers in the inner city or building facilities for fresh water in developing nations.

Can the best of the breed of crisis communications experts conjure up sympathy for The Kids? Don't bet on it. Earning a living has been a struggle for all generations. The hostility against the wealthy will escalate if there is a global economic slowdown. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

When First Daugthers Are No Longer in Protected Category

First, Bill Clinton rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. The return of Monica Lewinsky to the media resurrected memories of The Intern, The Starr Report, and The Impeachment.

Hillary Clinton has never been a masterful politico. During her two unsuccessful runs for president she made a lot of the wrong moves.

Both are fading from the spotlight.

But they leave behind their daughter Chelsea Clinton as scapegoat. Like her mother, she has no presence. She isn't skilled as a charmer.

So, she is quite the convenient target.

Last night the members of the media gleefully piled on.

It was at the NYU grieving event for the New Zealand victims of what appears to be a hate massacre. Student who is a senior Leen Dweik was the loudest voice in room (and on streaming video).

She accused Chelsea of stirring the cauldron of hate. Specifically, it was Chelsea's accusations that U.S. House Representative Ilham Omar's remarks were anti-Semitic. Here, in the New York Post, is an example of the coverage.

The target, lacking her father's pull force with people, was unable to push back. She offered the kind of apology that intensified the attack.

Of course, there has been an outbreak of tweets. Some were supportive of Chelsea. Others recommended that she get the hell off the national stage. She simply doesn't have what the role demands.

The next few months experts in politics and public relations will be closely following and interpreting Chelsea's moves.

Probably not since the First Daughters in the Lyndon Johnson Administration has one been so unpopular. Meanwhile Jenna Bush is thriving in network television. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

ACLU - Should It Stay in Its Traditional Box Or Gravitate toward Advocacy?

From the get-go, ACLU has been controversial.

What's new, though, is that some of the controversy is emerging from inside the organization.

Tonight, the influential "60 Minutes" dug deep into the contention that the ACLU has wandered inappropriately from its mission to defend the Bill of Rights to advocacy. The latter includes involvement in the governor races in Kansas and Georgia. Here is the transcript/audio from that "60 Minutes" segment.

Essentially, the mission of the ACLU has been to defend the Bill of Rights. That means not only freedom of speech but also the right to freedom of association. 

No surprise, the election of Donald Trump has brought in both a lot more money ($120 million the year he was elected) and supporters. Some of the latter have become a grassroots activist organization PeoplePower.

Added to the controversy has been the reality that leadership has analyzed and borrowed from strategies and tactics of the NRA. Actually, that shouldn't be an issue. I inform my clients that Hitler wrote his own speeches. And they were certainly powerful. I recommend that clients put together as much as their in-person speeches and podcasts as possible.

An obvious danger of branching out from a clear mission is the dilution of the brand. With that could be internal battles about assigning resources. Will there be a drop in funding for filing litigation and a surge in advocacy kind promotional material?

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com.