Law And More

Brands in Play: Sheryl Sandberg, Larry Summers

Success in Silicon Valley isn't just a matter of brains and talent.

The network, that is the ability to reach the right people, also factors in.

And, Facebook chief operating officer (coo) Sheryl Sandberg is being factored out.

The New York Times expose functioned essentially as the force escorting her out of the inner circles of the tech community.

The door was open. Diverse constituencies let loose on their negative assessments of her. In Vanity Fair, Nick Bilton applied the label "vicious."

Bilton recounts this anecdote. She had been waiting for the cameras to pan on her and former president Barack Obama at a White House kind of tech meet-up. At that moment she touched the president's hand. Of course, that catapulted the photo-op to the top of digital coverage. Many technies seethed. But, the timing wasn't right for starting to toss rhetorical grenades at the Sandberg positioning and packaging. The brand still was intact.

No, Sandberg isn't America's high IQ sweetheart. At least, no longer. 

Like Megyn Kelly, who had been ousted from NBC, she has been outed as a seeming self-absorbed empire-builder whose ambition might have outstripped her ability.

How would security analysts rate her as a coo? Overall, the consensus might become that she, along with Mark Zuckerberg, are in over their head when it comes to the leadership and management of Facebook. But unlike "Zuck" who fesses up to flaws, she assigns blame to others. 

Will shareholders, like the powers that be at NBC did with Kelly, push Sandberg out? There may be a collective sigh of Good Riddance.

If so, like other fallen saints in tech, such Elizabeth Holmes, she may Become Wunderkind Erased.

There is one more question: Will the collapse of the Sandberg brand throw shade on that of her mentor Larry Summers?

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

Planet Lead Paint - Shift from Advocacy to (Big) Money

When I was blogging the iconic Rhode Island lead paint public nuisance class action trial, the formal public relations focused on advocacy. That was November 1, 2005 until February 22, 2006. 

The defendants promoted public policies such that the landlords were responsible for making the residue of lead paint safe. Another was that federal and state initiatives had already addressed most of the hazard.

The plaintiff and the child activists supporting them argued that children were not safe where they should be: their own homes.

When I interviewed jurors after the verdict went against three of the defendants, including Sherwin-Williams, one woman hammered that stance. She felt so strongly that children must be safe where they live. 

Years later, the RI Supreme Court threw the whole case out. 

That was then.

More recently, both the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the conviction of the defendants, including Sherwin-Williams, in the west coast version of a lead paint public nuisance class action lawsuit.

As expected, that has opened the door to other municipalities and plaintiff lawyers working on contingency filing similar lawsuits. Currently two have been filed in counties in eastern Pennsylvania. Here are details. More are anticipated, not only in PA but in other states.

This time the rhetoric, on both sides, seems to have a lot to do with money.

For instance Jones Day, representing Sherwin-Williams, contends that lawyers are motivating county officials to file the lawsuits because of the contingency fees. Those can reach one-third of the verdict or settlement. Here those statements, part of Sherwin-Williams' lawsuit to halt those two PA lawsuits, are quoted in Forbes. 

Meanwhile, municipalities can certainly use the lead-paint abatement funds from litigation to fix that problem in older stock housing. Otherwise, homelessness can increase, which can hurt the economy of those counties. In San Francisco, the homelessness situation has discouraged conferences from choosing that city. 

Money will become even more prominent if there is an international economic recession. Today, a headline in The Wall Street Journal reads: Global economic slowdown deepens. That, the article goes on to assert, can put U.S. robust growth at risk. The current stock market is hurting the portfolios of too many. 

As for money and the lead paint defendants, such as Sherwin-Williams, they will require a great deal of it for legal expenses as well as verdicts against them and any settlements. Currently Sherwin-Williams is among the CA trial losers which has to collectively pony up $400 million. 

Those public relations firms officially handling the positioning and packaging of the lead paint defendants will have to transcend platitudes. Money as money has a crass image. 

This is Phase Three of the lead paint public nuisance class action litigation. Together the lawyers and the public affairs experts have to prevent it from mutating into "Another Tobacco" or "Another Asbestos." Yes, the courts of law and the courts of public opinion intersect. 

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

"Caroline Ruiz, et al. v. New Avon and Avon Products" - Filed as Class Action

Distressed Avon should be braced for lots more stress.

This time it will be on its branding as a business that empowers women.

Eventually, the pressure also could be financial if there is a verdict against it in a jury trial or if it ponies up a hefty settlement. 

In addition, there could be a massive shakeup at the top. Male leadership could be replaced with females attuned to the specific needs of employees who are mothers or are in the process of becoming a mother. 

For a while now,  legal and business media outlets have been covering the initial litigation by Caroline Ruiz. She had been recruited by Avon for a procurement position. After a short time with the corporation she requested special accommodations such as working partly from home because of a high-risk pregnancy. She intended to continue fulfilling all her duties. Long story short, soon she was fired, allegedly for performance reasons. She had come to Avon with a great track record. 

What grabbed attention is that Avon supposedly is supportive of women. The reality, though, it came out was this: Its leadership is primarily male. And, according to Ruiz it was operating on the male experience at work as the default standard. 

Since then, the Wigdor law firm, representing Ruiz, has expanded that individual lawsuit into a putative class action, which had been filed yesterday. It requests a jury trial.

The amended complaint  has two clients and three other possibilities, so far. Many more could participate. 

All plaintiffs contend they suffered professional discrimination and some were actually penalized because of issues associated with maternity and child care (e.g. breastfeeding). Here are more details from Jason Grant at Law.com. And, here is a copy of the amended lawsuit. 

The timing of this lawsuit couldn't be worse for Avon.

Not only is it struggling for a turnaround in a changing global cosmetic marketplace.

This, of course, is the era when employment matters related to females are totally high profile.

#MeToo is just the tip of the iceberg. 

More a symbol of the changing values in the workplace is the risk top professional women have been taking in filing gender-bias lawsuits against their well-known employers. That kind of risk-taking is relatively new. But it is being embraced by more female players. 

For instance, brandname employment-discrimination lawyer David Sanford currently is representing, among others, female partners in law firms who contend gender-based bias. That ranges from compensation to promotability.

Sanford had been a pioneer in that, taking on GE in 2007. Unthinkable then, lawyer in the GE legal department - Lorene Schaefer - claimed gender discrimination.

That litigation, requesting $500 million in damages, sought class action status. Here are more details. GE settled before the complaint went to court.

More recently, Sanford's Sanford Heisler Sharp has been the law firm which achieved the settlement for Kerrie Campbell, who had been forced out of her law firm when she sued. Since then, she has launched her own boutique law firm and had been a guest speaker at Harvard Law School, discussing that experience.

Avon also has to anticipate a probable informal boycott. I have already steered clear of purchasing its whatever. Like most baby boomer female professionals, I put up with horrific gender bias, standard back then. Litigation wasn't considered an option by us "good girls." Instead, we would cry. 

Currently, more female professionals have been socialized to think like a lawyer. 

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

 

Southern Poverty Law Center - Questions of What Is a "Hate Group" and Should That Really Matter

In many circles, being actively against alleged hate groups puts you on the side of the angels. That's so much the situation that being known for that can be, well, profitable. 

In The Washington Post, David Montgomery reports that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLA), which lists 953 active hate groups, raised $132 million last year. That had been significantly more than the previous year.

SPLA started up in 1971 to support lawsuits associated with alleged racial bias. Legal advocacy remains a core mission. 

However, it also has made it its "business" to identify, disclose, and monitor hate groups. That certainly seems noble. 

But, as Montgomery explains, there is increased questioning of the criteria used to label an organization a hate group.

What was clear last night on "20/20" was that the ideology of groups against gays and Jews helped trigger the murder of Blaze Bernstein. Those kinds of groups should be outed and investigated. 

However, human experience surely shows that groups with strong opinions much of the rest of society disagrees with aren't necessarily hate groups.

The classic example could be the Roman Catholic Church which has long forbidden its members from using artificial means of contraception - and, of course, abortion. Many others disagreed and continue to disagree with that. However, despite its myriad flaws, the Roman Catholic Church is not a hate group. 

Needless to say, it hurts one's brand to be declared a hate group. Also, that can put the organization or the individual on the radar of law enforcement. In addition, labeling whatever as a hate group can dance on the edges or right into the heart of defamation. 

Given the influence of the WaPo analysis it might be good business sense for Richard Cohen, SPLA president, to back off vigilance of supposed hate groups and channel more resources, including staff attention, to legal advocacy. 

Extreme stances on issues can be just that: extreme. And that is the end of the story. Progress in so many aspects of civilization has been triggered by oddball views which were put out there with great intensity. In the 1960s, lawyer Ralph Nader was perceived as off for making consumer rights a matter of law - and branding.

The concept of hate groups might be reframed to be groups or individuals recommending violence as a method of self expression or reform.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

Google - CEO Sundar Pichai Giveth & He Taketh Away

Yesterday, Googlers won a big one.

The chief executive officer of Google Sundar Pichai ended the policy of mandatory private arbitration for alleged sexual harassment/assault. 

However, today that's followed by another policy he issued. That's an official limit on what he terms as "excessive drinking." As BusinessInsider reports, Google found that 20% of reported sexual harassment/abuse incidents involved alcohol. 

Pichai has instructed leaders and managers to ban that excess both in settings within the corporation and at offsite events. "Excess" seems to mean more than two drinks.

The threat in this announcement is that if the new policy isn't effective in preventing inappropriate behavior, then the presence of all alcohol could be prohibited. 

Like much of Silicon Valley, Google has nurtured a hard-partying culture. That's no surprise since the tech industry tends to be dominated by youth. 

One wonders if the fun is sucked out of working at Google talent will exit. They can start their own enterprises and enjoy all the fun they want.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Network Television Is Old-Line Medium - Like Megyn Kelly, Alec Baldwin Allegedly Ignored That

Like Megyn Kelly's NBC Sunday evening talk show, Alec Baldwin's ABC one has poor ratings.

Both can't connect with the audience in a talk-show format.

And the selection of their guests seems all wrong.

And, also like Kelly, Baldwin's behavior embarrassed the television.

For Kelly it was the blackface remark on the third section of the "Today" slot. For Baldwin it was the alleged punch thrown over a parking place.

For a while, gawkers watched Baldwin seem to be penalty-free. Kelly's Sunday show was put in limbo. Then, later she was yanked off the air from the "Today" slot. Currently she is negotiating her exit package with NBC.

Now the shoe, at least the first one, has fallen.

The New York Post reports that "The Alec Baldwin Show" has lost its 10:00 P.M. Sunday slot. Beginning November 18th, it will be replaced with reruns of "Shark Tank." Then, on December 8th, it will start up again in a Saturday 10:00 P.M. schedule. 

How long it will last is uncertain. But given its poor ratings and the reputational trouble Baldwin is in he could find that he could be pushed, as was Kelly, into broadcast oblivion. 

Unlike cable television, the television network cannot tolerate controversial behavior of its stars. 

If Baldwin is banished from Network Paradise, will he, also like Kelly, become an Untouchable? Fox isn't having her back. 

Network television hasn't changed much from its early days when on-air personalities had to be squeaky clean. It's an old medium. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Lawyers - Shame on You For Slaving for Those Top Grades

History does have some useful success lessons.

The founding fathers of America were rule-breakers.

That's why they were misfits in the old world. Because they had to put together a way to survive economically and have some kind of social life, they risked it all, boarded a boat, and came to the new land.

In an ironic book "The Hypomanic Edge" John D. Gartner documents the link between the little bit of craziness among the early settlers and big-time success. Yeah, on that oddball platform they created one of most powerful economies in the world.

Today, that model still plays out. It is the iconoclast types in the supposedly precedent-bound legal sector who thrive.

Example? They are the folks at plaintiff law firm Motley Rice who conjured up applying the traditional concept of public nuisance to product liability. Along the way, they undid former lead paint manufacturer/marketer Sherwin-Williams and white shoe law firm Jones Day. Also taking direct hits are the energy industry and pharma.

Yet, there are still folks like Conor P. Williams who grouse in The Guardian about not being able to afford to buy a home (aka The America Dream) despite being a rule-follower. 

Smirk smirk.

The cruel joke is on those who follow all the earnest guidelines which are embedded in the official system. Those are really the directions for barely making it in capitalism.

That's well documented in Eric Barker's new book "Barking Up the Wrong Tree." Its message is that most of what we have been told about success is off.

Take getting good grades. Barker updates the adage that the C students in college become the bosses of the A students. Millionaires and billionaires had an average GPA of about 2.9. 

"Barking Up the Wrong Tree" is 9,087 on Amazon (here it can be ordered) but the odds are that the front lines of the system will still preach the platitudes of top grades et al. Colleagues who are adjunct professors in Manhattan universities roll their eyes about how iGens are obsessed with A grades. 

Success comes from investing one's resources - time, energy, youth, money - in trying things out. Not slavishly conforming following the rules others have made. 

The trick, of course, is to manage to stay out of prison and the mental hospital while doing A/B testing. 

Too many of my clients have been former lawyers who didn't understand what rules they could break. After release from prison and losing their license they are having me reconfigure job search materials for them. 

In addition, it's possible to become undone in reimaging the elements of success.

Actually, and this is totally anecdotal, the earlier in life the emotional breakdown, the greater the probability for success.

Instead of hanging on so tight, those family members, former classmates, and co-workers I visited in psychiatric wards had tap danced on the edges of respectability. If only there was a way to learn to stay enough in the box to not lose the emotional footing. Eventually they did make it big. But, losing one's mind is extreme suffering. 

My regret is not thumbing my nose at the rules earlier in life.

When I was 14, the homeroom teacher in a high school based in the hood in Jersey City, New Jersey told me and the rest of the class (who could have wound up on death row or murdered) all about the rules we had to follow. At the top of the list were, of course, outstanding grades, dressing neatly, and being polite. 

At age 33, when I was down and out in a small town in Pennsylvania, I went rogue. Finally. That was by using a talent I didn't know I had - writing - to provoke. Along the way I made, lost, and re-made a ton of money. 

When iGens ask me for an unpaid internship for my communication businesses I tell them: Stop listening to the rules. Go find paid work doing whatever. You will become more marketable walking dogs or manning the fast food drive-in than proofreading content for me.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Whitey Bulger - Breaking the Rules Started with America's Founding Fathers

Whitey Bulger might have been murdered in a West Virginia federal prison because he was poised to do "the right thing." That's a bit of speculation from the Daily Mail.

The buzz is that he had long been a federal snitch and now was going to snitch on the feds themselves. That can't be allowed, of course. So, those who are good at taking care of such things took care of them.

If Bulger had been an FBI informant that is a dark spot on his brand.

After all, many of us Americans love our bad guys - and girls. Just recall how Bonnie & Clyde had been heroes during The Great Depression. It took producer Dick Wolf to reposition and repackage the law & order folks as the heroes. 

The nation has been founded by a bunch of misfits who couldn't cut it in the old country. They broke the rules of being settled and opting for safety by boarding a small ship and coming to the new country.

By grit and maybe underlying craziness, they did okay for themselves. That okay included establishing what had been the most successful economy in the world. Today their legacy of thumbing their noses at the rules is being played out by tech titans. 

In the tourist town of Tombstone, Arizona, what's palpable is a healthy respect for the outlaws. Although the location's tourist promotions are about the Earp Brothers (Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan) lawmen, the branding is really about the lawless crowd who piled into town. The steps up to the former prostitute quarters are worn down. 

Bulger will hover over U.S. history as an interesting character. The fascination could diminish, though, if there is solid evidence that he was confused about his bad guy identity. Only recently, as with the television series "Good Girls," are hybrids tolerated.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

IBM Red Hat Acquisition - Cravath, Swaine & Moore Out of the Loop

The $33.4 billion acquisition which could change the cloud niche has reinforced that Scott Barshay is the star in the M&A niche. Currently with Paul, Weiss he is the lead legal counsel on IBM's purchase of open source cloud software company Red Hat.

Meanwhile his twinkle could be throwing shade on law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Cravath is not in the loop on this deal. That's despite the reality that Cravath has been a long-time legal guide to IBM, including its earlier M&A strategy and moves. Part of that partnership was Cravath's hiring one-time IBM in-house IP counsel David Kappos. Here are more details from Brian Baxter at Law.com.

Much of the business of law is based on an adversarial model. That's binary. You win or you lose.

In this situation, as far as we know, Paul, Weiss has won. Cravath has lost. The implications for Cravath branding could be profound. This also makes for grand theatre in the media.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Bois, Schiller & Flexner Mutating Into BSF - Legal Sector Rebrands

Superlawyer David Boies is in the news a lot. So the name of the law firm he founded is also.

At one time it was known as Boies, Schiller & Flexner.

Then, a consultant helped simplify or rebrand that as Boies Schiller & Flexner. 

In Law.com, Dan Packel predicts that will soon enough become the abbreviated law firm title BSF.

The trend has begun, even in the highly traditional world of law, to downsize those titles which can include up to six names. One example is the firm that now goes by the title Mintz. Its title used to include six names, most of them legacy partners. 

For many law firms, there has to be a wait to do that until the legacy partners die or retire. While working at the firm, those partners prefer (strongly) to have their names on the door. 

Our society, a digital one, has shifted into fastspeak. Prospects might go with the law firm with a short, fast-to-say title. The marketing departments of all law firms of all sizes have to look into this. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com