Law And More

Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Wins One in Court Pre-Trial Hearing

Steve Jobs wannabe Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is still in black.

Only at the pre-trial court hearing it wasn't the signature black turtleneck.

It was a basic black dress and black blazer. And, at age 35, she's still attractive.

Some conjecture that it had been her youthful blonde good looks which lured big establishment names such as Henry Kissinger to the Theranos board of directors. At one point superlawyer David Boies had represented her.

Her trial on 11 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud will begin on July 28, 2020, in San Jose, California. Here is a summary of those counts by the Department of Justice. And, here is a copy of the actual indictment. 

The contention is that she and the startup's number-two Sunny Balwani deliberately misled investors, regulators, and the public about a technology which didn't exist. Balwani, who had also been her lover, was in court but arrived separately. In a television interview he argued that Theranos represented a business failure, not a fraud. If convicted, both face decades in prison.

But meanwhile, she did win one in court. She requested that the Food and Drug Administration speed up the process of turning over documents to her legal team. It claims that would require 6 months. No way, ruled federal judge Edward Davila. He gave the regulatory agency 75 days. Here are more details from the media.

By the time of the trial, most of the tech world could be in the reputational toilet. Regulators, media, the stock market, consumers, and the public globally could have turned on it. An indication of how bad it could it get is playing out in Europe. New York University marketing professor and internet expert Scott Galloway has been predicting just that. 

My hunch is that it will be difficult for both sides - prosecution and defense - to find objective jury members in the San Jose area. The defense might request a change of venue, which could delay the trial. Delays help defendants. 

In the tabloid media this saga could go down as "The Blonde and The Old White Men." 

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Alan Dershowitz Says - More Rhetorical Pratfalls

Is is that bad?

Has the once formidable (lawyers didn't want to be on the opposing side) brand - Alan Dershowitz - become clownish?

Maybe.

Since he retired as a professor at Harvard Law School, the Dershowitz brand has been deflating. Think about those interviews on Fox ...

Now, with the interview he gave to Daily Mail, the brand seems to have become downright open to ridicule. 

Dershowitz, as some recall, had been part of Jeffrey Epstein's legal Dream Team. Nothing wrong with that. The Sixth Amendment is all about the right to legal representation.

However, Dershowitz asserts that Epstein's dream team didn't receive a "sweetheart" deal from then-prosecutor Alex Acosta. Yeah, Acosta got it right.

In addition, Dershowitz argues that Epstein did not receive any special treatment because of BigContacts. They include Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Prince Andrew. 

As a result of this Daily Mail interview one wonders if members of the media will begin bypassing Dershowitz. Maybe he should head to Clown Alley. There he can continue his rhetorical pratfalls. 

Meanwhile his 2018 book "The Case Against Impeaching Trump" isn't doing so hot. On Amazon its rank is a low 124,641. 

Dershowitz's enemies, in the legal sector and beyond, must be smirking. 

UPDATE:

Labor Head Alex Acosta resigns. More details here from Axios. 

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Jeffrey McIntyre, former Husch Blackwell Partner - What Could Play Out

Unlike many lawyers who self-destruct, Jeffry McIntyre sill has a license to practice law. He can start over in that line of work, if he chooses that path. 

The Wisconsin Supreme Court only reprimanded him. He had had guilty pleas for battery and a DUI. 

Unfortunately, though, as Law.com reports, he and the law firm where had been a partner - Husch Blackwell - have parted company. His profile is no longer on the website. 

The world might view McIntyre's situation as bleak.

But it's a different mindset in the rooms of recovery. Those are full of hope and one of the promises is that members will not regret the past or wish to shut the door on it.

After three DUIs, getting caught up in a physical altercation, and losing a big job, McIntrye could be willing to change. That's the first step toward a new life. 

Some day, McIntyre may get up before the recovery group and proudly tell his story. The past few years he could describe as his bottom. 

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Nancy Pelosi v AOC, et al - The Extreme Advantage of Having Nothing to Lose

As Hillary Clinton was becoming irrelevant, the conservative Drudge Report began targeting Nancy Pelosi. Matt Drudge seems to have a special antipathy for liberal female leaders.

More and more often, the curators at Drudge picked up on news items which described Pelosi as slurring her words and having brain freezes.

Now, after the blow up between Pelosi and AOC, et al., Drudge will have lots more to attack Pelosi about. Overall, the Drudge message will be: The Iron Lady Is Melting Down. That means, as with Hillary, there could be quite unflattering Pelosi photos as headlines for the Drudge Report. 

Yesterday, Pelosi made the strategic mistake of gathering the troops in a room and hammering the importance of not making conflicts public. Talk to me, she said, don't tweet about it. Clearly she was addressing "the squad," that is, the four upstart newbies in the House. Their spiritual leader is AOC.

Pelosi's little talk screamed she was losing control over the troops. That's at a time when control must be exercised if the leaders among the Democrats hope to get one of their own back in the White House and many of them own elected to the U.S. Senate.

Pelosi's problem is that she has so much to lose. That invites the sharks, including the conservative cabals in media, to worsen her deteriorating situation. 

On the other hand, her number-one foe - AOC - has nothing to lose.

If AOC really screws up she can return to New York City and be a community organizer or the executive director of a non-profit.

Also, she's too new in the D.C. game to have acquired wealth. She hasn't been part of the gilded age. A one-bedroom walkup in the Bronx would be just fine. 

Incidentally, the East Coast is full of megawatt sagas of immigrants who also had nothing to lose. They literally came to the U.S. from Ireland, Italy, and Poland with a few coins in their shabby coat pockets.

Soon enough, they were in control of politics, jobs on the Hudson River docks and the railroad, illegal industries, and the Catholic Church in America.

Pelosi should be very afraid. So should all vested interests in the legislative and executive branches of government. Maybe that can be extended to every member of the 1%. The barbarians are already in the gate. A total disruption is possible. 

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Ben Crump Could Be the One to Stop Alleged Police Brutality Against Blacks

The way New York Magazine depicts Ben Crump is as the digital era's Martin Luther King who has a law degree. 

Crump has King's innate sense of showmanship and his selfless determination.

Also, through his legal background, Crump has already achieved justice for the families of black males such as Martin Lee Anderson and Trayvon Martin. 

But, Crump feels no satisfaction. Despite the headlines he helped create for his legal victims, he assesses that alleged police brutality against blacks hasn't stopped. That's his mission: stopping all that. 

Crump is an expert in how to get the right attention. Early in his law career he knew to bring into the loop publicity experts. Currently he has his own production company. 

Most importantly, like Detective Robert Goren from "Law & Order Criminal Intent," Crump focuses on the question. Recently, he knew exactly the question to ask of a black financial services executive who had allegedly been mistreated by a bank. Then that professional was arrested by the police and put in a jail cell. There he remained for hours before being allowed a phone call.

That question was: How did you feel?

It took a while for the executive to allow the answer to rise up from his soul.

Eventually, the response was: This is how it happens.

Crump could go down in history as the disruptor who didn't allow "it" to happen any more.

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The Roger Ailes Smirk - Was #MeToo Kicked Off by a Boy-Man?

Adolescent boys are practically delusional about where they can channel their sex drive.

They are also Masters of The Smirk. How many parents, even sophisticated ones, have barked out to their teenage sons: Wipe that smirk off your face.

Also, boys in those years between childhood and adult responsibility tend to be mean.

In addition, they frequently get into a pickle with the law.

As we watched Episode Two of Showtime's "The Loudest Voice in the Room" Sunday night, some of us had an ah-ha moment. Could the code about whom Roger Ails really was be broken by analyzing Ailes as a Boy-Man. The media tycoon with the smirk on his face.

Somehow Ailes might have missed that rite of passage which males undergo to leave boyish things behind. Yes, Ailes might well be a classic case of arrested development. Here is TV's summary of Episode Two. 

And, it was the play-out of that syndrome which might have kicked off #MeToo. Ailes died before any of the allegations of sexual misconduct at Fox could be proved in court. So, we will never know for certain if Ailes was the sexual predator he has been suspected to be. However the suspicions were enough for The Murdochs to oust him from Fox.

Meanwhile, this Showtime series, which re-interprets Ailes' rise and fall, could be affecting other careers. For instance, in Episode Two, Rupert Murdoch does not come across as the cunning fox he is usually portrayed as.

Here is speculation about losers and winners from Showtime's "The Loudest Voice in the Room." That programming, although not a ratings blockbuster, could havee long-term impacts on individual professional lives and media in America.

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Era of Reimagining Capitalism - Hillary Who?

A sign that a prominent liberal has become irrelevant is this: The conservative digital native Drudge Report stops pouncing on her or him.

This time it's a her - Hillary Clinton.

At one time the Drudge Report's signature had been headlining with alleged doctored photos of Hillary. Those ranged from Rage-filled Hillary to Sick Hillary. 

That was then.

Currently Matt Drudge is finding negative articles and photos to curate about AOC, Bernie, Elizabeth, Cory, and, of course, Nancy. Regarding the latter, a fav is Nancy caught in various forms of brainfreeze.

The meme attacked is reimagining capitalism. Conservatives want none of that. They see the status quo as the best of all systems.

However, Harvard Business School had established an elective on that issue. And the World Economic Forum has weighed in about adjusting the dynamics of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand. Stanford Graduate School professor Jeffery Pfeffer has published the grim chronicle of working today - "Dying for a Paycheck."

Liberals from yesterday do reappear on the radar. Recently The Hill gave some attention to Hillary. The occasion was what she pontificated about the U.S. president Donald Trump's gala 4th of July military affair. 

If Hillary wants to reclaim space as we move into the third decade of the 21st century, she could put together a documentary on becoming irrelevant and strategies to create new platforms for influence.

There's a massive audience for that. Those include Baby Boomers and oldest of Gen X who have retired. The moment their title is gone, they become invisible. In addition, young people duck them. The fear is that the ghosts from another time will pile on the advice.

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Legal Sector Needs a Lee Iacocca

Today the world lost a business leader who will be remembered for myriad accomplishments.

He gave youth the Mustang.

He turned around almost-bankrupt Chrysler. That saved hundreds of thousands of jobs in North America.

He knew how to put together a best-selling memoir.

And, to honor immigrants, he restored the Statue of Liberty. His parents had journeyed to America for a better life.

That giant was Lee Iacocca.

He passed on from his home in Los Angeles to that great auto show in the sky, at age 94. 

But because he was so prolific in what he gave the world there is one achievement - an earthquake in the field of communications - that is frequently ignored.

That's how he disrupted corporatespeak.

And that's exactly what is needed in much of the legal sector. Abovethelaw received and is still receiving so much attention because it ignored the stodgy stylistics traditional in just about every aspect of legal communications. 

Lee made his speeches totally conversational, decades before social media created that trend.

And his print material was direct versus the usual indirect aka safe style of Fortune 100 executives.

For example, in his oral presentations he used half statements. Even just single, stand-alone words. Contractions were standard in his speeches. And, nothing was wrong with the totally relaxed words like "gonna." 

In addition, he leveraged the tactic of shock. That was when most corporate players were predictable. At a special event the sponsor introduced him as having left Ford before coming to Chrysler. Iacocca stood up and bellowed out: I didn't leave Ford, I was fired. 

In print, he introduced short sentences, a major deviation from the convoluted structure of most business leaders. He made statements. Usually the context of most business communications had been not to say anything. He was dogmatic and imposed his ego. He refused to adopt the disemboweled corporate "we."

When Lee is finished having his say about heaven's version of the auto show, he should go to the powers that be. He will use his persuasive voodoo to no longer allow lawyers to enter. Their crime - dense, boring communications - is unforgivable.

Full Disclosure: I had the honor of serving the communications needs of Lee and some of the rest of his team ranging from Dick Dauch to Chris Steffen.

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Now It's Dems Kicked in Butt with "Old White Man" Meme

"Old white men" had been the classic rhetorical attack on Republicans.

Now, it's being used against Democrats - and by members of their own party. In fact, the members are the ones running against old white men for the U.S. presidency.

The Guardian picked that up from the two debates and ran with it. Here is the commentary.

Joe Biden has been saddled with the old white man label. That has long been in the coming, of course. But the label, like tar and feathers, has been made to stick via youngish woman of color Kamala Harris.

Others who have showcased during the debates that they are definitely not old white men include, in addition to Harris, Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Pete B., and Elizabeth Warren.

This not old white men positioning and packaging can be used directly against the GOP incumbent Donald Trump. He is the stereotypical old white man - smug and wealthy. With Americans losing sleep about money right now, that's not the branding Trump should have.

Yes, a recession has not been officially declared but Bankrate.com documents that 56% of us are already tossing and turning at night because of angst about everything financial. That ranges from increasing trade/tariff tensions to not enough socked away for retirement. 

The takeaway from last night's debate was: Biden, as the line from "John Wick" goes, has been declared excommunicado. 

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Legal Media - Will It Become Zero-Sum Game?

Will there be a shakeout in legal media?

Or can all the current players co-exist, continue to make a profit, and scale?

What is obvious is that the playing field for reporting on legal matters and analyzing the implications (and associated issues such as the business of law) has been getting crowded.

The competitive dynamics could eventually harden into a zero-sum game. An uptick in traffic for one could come out of the numbers of another. 

Back in 1991, "Court TV" launched on cable as the space where Everyman (and Everywoman) could experience big trials - from their couches. There were also documentaries and so on. Viewers got hooked. Items from trials became as much part of daily conversation as sports.

That's because, of course, what goes on in  the legal system tends to create drama.  As many know, before the era of broadcast, the good people of the town would set themselves down in courtrooms with lunch for free entertainment. Frequently the audience spilled out to the lawn. 

Last May "Court TV" returned as a digital broadcast.

Currently, what we have come to think of as "television," as well as what's streamed only digitally, is glutted with legal coverage, analysis, and even judgments made in real time.

Who fills that space ranges from Judge Judy to Dan Abrams. Their styles differ. But most of the players have found and held onto a niche audience, at least so far. 

Along with that is the parallel universe of reading material, frequently beefed up with podcasts. Their tones, formats, topics, and modes of organization have been evolving. 

Recently Dow Jones posted a help-wanted for a bureau chief for its legal section. My hunch is that what will happen is that more opinion will be added to the straight reporting.

Currently, yes, the coverage is comprehensive, but no fun. Twitter made fun a necessary component to develop, hold, and grow an audience. Who knows, Dow Jones might bring back The Wall Street Journal blog. Then-head Peter Lattman made that a fun hang-out.

Law.com contains more opinion, as well as hammering the implications of provocative news such as all the motions in gender discrimination lawsuit "Tolton et al. v. Jones Day." Dan Packel is a must-read for those who enjoy the ugly underbelly beneath the seemingly staid world of BigLaw.

Abovethelaw.com (ATL) could be at a crossroads. Recently, its founder David Lat went off to be a headhunter for lateral placements. After running it since 2006, a few years ago Lat had handed over daily operations to Elie Mystal.

What seems to be occurring is that Mystal has transformed the digital native into a platform tilted toward political advocacy. The agenda includes unmasking and castigating all kinds of discrimination.

What Mystal is up against is this: ATL is now a mature medium. That's a peril-filled stage in the life cycle of a business entity. What plays out will be interesting to watch. 

Courthouse News has been busy. It has mutated from simply providing data on filings of legal action to investigative reporting. Yes, it breaks stories.

Its advantage is that it has boots on the ground throughout the U.S., including small towns. Its workforce, mostly operating on contract, would have unique sources if a major story broke in, say, a Norman Rockwell type community. Other media outlets would be parachuting in those who have to start from scratch.

There is also the proliferation of blogs and tweets. Brandnames ranging from Preet Bharara to Laurence Tribe dominate. Their followers could be pulling away numbers from more standard legal journalism. O.J. Simpson has also joined Twitter.

In addition, law firm websites have also gotten into the act. They are presenting the news, often from their own point of view. The classic example is the website of Jones Day. 

Once Election 2020 is over, the nation could lose its appetite for legal-oriented stories. Actually, there could be a disenchantment with all legal. That could include no new startups of fictional legal dramas. Our generation may never have another "Boston Legal." Taste is cyclical. 

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