Law And More

Reputation Laundering - The Genius, Money, and Morality

Despite the Sixth Amendment - the right to a defense - superlawyers such as David Boies have been criticized for pulling out all stops assisting their clients.

Forever will resonate Jason Farrow's outing of this in The New Yorker. However, the reality is this: Boies' law firm continues to be in demand. Unlike the warrior in the film "John Wick 3," Boies has not had imposed on him an "excommunicado."

But the legal defense is only a part, perhaps a relatively small one, in the parallel universe that those with significant resources can operate. 

Before, during, and after that win in the court of law could come what John Naughton The Guardian essentially labels as "reputation laundering." The analysis fingers the MIT Media Lab as the platform for the attempt to restore Jeffrey Epstein's brand. 

Rebranding, just like many defenses in the court of law, requires strategic genius, money, and its own kind of morality. The latter mirrors capitalism's notion of paying for a service.

In reputation laundering that payment is usually high. Over the years, Epstein donated large sums to the MIT Media Lab and motivated those on his global network to also contribute.

According to current norms, society now demands that process be transparent.

Had the MIT Lab disclosed in detail those financial windfalls, perhaps members of the media, including Ronan Farrow again in The New Yorker, wouldn't have this issue to cover.

Actually, it's an ideal one for the ambitious media. More recently, Harvard has also been outed as accepting Epstein's contributions and appointing him as a "fellow" (a kind of professor) in the psychology department. At a time when many have become weary of national politics, this particular story has legs.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees the defense.

But there is no constitutional guarantee that the influential institutions in society will continue to allow reputation laundering. Businesses, such as public relations firms, could be, yes, be stamped with an "excommunicado" decree if they accept a rebranding assignment for what is perceived as a questionable cause or an enemy of the people. 

The Verge is among the communications sources which reported that disgraced media tycoon Roger Ailes was planning a comeback. After his non-compete provision with Fox News ended, he, assisted with venture capitalist Peter Thiel's funding, was envisioning a rival to Fox. That would be another kind of conservative cable network. 

Likely, a moving part in that would have had to be reputation restoration. Could Ailes' long-time personal public relations representative Bob Dilenschneider been assigned that project? Could that mission of reinvention be pulled off?

Many Ailes watchers never counted him out to time travel to an undiscovered planet of accomplishment. What seems unthinkable simply might be conceived within a framework lacking imagination and push.

It was before prison that the Nixon Administration lawyer Chuck Colson seemed to begin to self-launder his reputation. He found and shared spirituality. When he died the obituaries hailed his contribution to humanity. 

What could be crossing the minds of those not perched on the top rungs of the socio-economic ladder in America is deep resentment. They assume that they are locked out of the shot at reputation laundering. On the agenda for ending inequality could be tutorials on the art of rebranding.

But that hostility may arise from a lack of a capacity to envision what's possible. In reality, nobodies pull off every day overcoming how they initially are perceived and treated.

The warm and fuzzy term for that is "The American Dream." Like Colson, it was in prison that Malcom X laundered his reputation. The transition was from street thug to respected leader.

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Catholic Diocese of Rochester (NY) Files for Bankruptcy - Deluged with Lawsuits After CVA Went into Effect

On August 14th, the Child's Victim Act (CVA) went into effect. That provides a one-year look-back window for alleged victims of abuse to file lawsuits.

Since then, reports Law and Crime, 580 lawsuits have been filed in the Catholic Diocese of Rochester (New York). So far, 59 lawsuits have been filed directly against the Diocese. They contend abuse by Catholic priests, nuns, brothers, and deacons.

No surprise, then, the Diocese of Rochester has filed for bankruptcy - a Chapter 11. This filing doesn't mean that the Rochester is without funds. Chapter 11 is tool for organizations to reorganize their finances amid a crisis.

In the past 15 years, 19 other Catholic dioceses and archdioceses have also taken the bankruptcy route. They range from San Diego to Portland, Oregon. All felt overwhelmed with lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy. 

Some may recall that it was the Boston Globe which broke the story that Catholic priests were sexually abusing boys. Caught up in the fallout from that had been priest John Geoghan. During his 10-year prison sentence Geoghan had been murdered by one of his victims - Joseph Druce. 

As time passed, what surfaced was that nuns were also getting into the act of sexual and other kinds of abuse of young girls. They became known as "pedophile nuns."

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Ghosts of the Puritans - Sin Taxes, Laws, Wellness Restrictions, and More

Famous artist David Hockney is fleeing his life in Los Angeles and relocating to Normandy, France. His beef is that in the U.S. pleasure is verboten. He wants, for example, to be able to enjoy a cigarette in a restaurant when dining. 

His exodus raises the very old issue: Do Americans feel barred from embracing life as a good experience versus the drudgery of work, save (invest), and showing off success? For instance, it's obvious myriad prominent lawyers seem unable to relax and just be. Workworkwork seems their ethos.

So much of that goes back to the Puritan founders of America.

Their world view was that human beings were on planet earth to honor God. That was to be through hard work. Their outsides reflected their insides. That is, they would exhibit wealth and status in their society if their inner life had been virtuous. Enjoyment? Maybe on a few designated holidays.

Those who veered from this mindset were punished in public ways. From high school English class, many recall the novel about the scarlet letter the sexually loose had to wear. But, being held in the stocks was no fiction. And, no, if you were part of the Puritan community, you didn't want to wind up there. As we all know, being shamed is a brutal emotional ordeal.

So many taxes, laws, wellness restrictions, and other aspects of American life seem embedded in that Puritan value system. Those who rebel against being in that box will be punished - in public. That can take the form of simple criticism for not being engaging in wellness to arrest for walking along the street tipsy from alcohol.

The irony about the latter is this: As Susan Cheever documents in her book "Drinking in America," the founders were a bunch of drunks. Getting really wasted on booze was perfectly okay unless the happy soul started vomiting a lot under the table. Then, that was it, for that night. But usually there was no it. Intoxication was woven in the fabric of life. In addition, with food not plentiful, the necessary number of calories had to come from boozing. 

Can America ever shake its Puritan heritage?

That's unlikely as long as it is totally committed to capitalism. It had been the Puritans who had created what had been for a long time the most powerful economy in the world. Professional success is the informal religion.

To achieve that no one can risk being observed buying into a pleasure ethos. Just bear witness how activists are railing against the hedonistic members of the 1%. The assumption is that they should be working hard at sharing their expertise and wealth. 

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The Smart Family of Utah - New, Unexpected Chapter in Saga of Kidnapping/Recovery

Ed Smart could become a role model for the aging who discover radical new truths about themselves.

As the Daily Mail reports, Smart has found out that he is gay. Therefore, he is divorcing his wife Lois and leaving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He admits this latest phase of his journey in life has been painful.

Previously Smart had been known for being Elizabeth's father. At age 14, she was snatched from the bedroom she shared with her sister. During that period of being kidnapped she was repeatedly molested. 

What was most notable about that incident was that after she was rescued she made a point of showing how she could and did recover. She went on to showcase her normal life. 

Now her father Ed is demonstrating that same resilience in the midst of personal upheaval.

There is a phenomenon called the "Late Bloomer." Usually that blossoming results from an unexpected awakening. 

This blog wishes Ed Smart blessings in his new life.

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"Nonlawyers" in Law Firms - Is a High Adaptability Quotient the (sick) Solution?

Read the anonymous postings on Glassdoor by staff at law firms and the usual is: We are treated as less-than.

For example, on the Cravath Glassdoor site, here are two anonymous staff opinions:

"Lawyers are rude and treat admins like they are slaves."

"Associates yell at paralegals."

Those jobs, ranging from IT specialist to marketing expert, frequently put the "nonlawyer" out of the loop socially and in terms of big benefits. The very term "nonlawyer," used in a law firm to describe their roles, tells the story of the stigma associated with being a staff member.

Now, what's coming out is that those nonlawyers also suffer many of the same stresses as the lawyers.

In addition there have been mental illness woes, including suicides.

In an article on the subject for Law, Dylan Jackson discusses the suicides of Doug Johnson and Ian Turvill. As a recent survey found, 36% of law firms don't offer the same mental health assistance programs to the nonlawyers as they do the lawyers. 

What's no surprise is that staff, just as with lawyers, get it that they better keep any clinical depression or anxiety under wraps.

Any sign of what is traditionally called "mental illness" probably would be interpreted as vulnerability. That's blood in the water. The sharks swim by. At the very least, the staff member loses credibility in the firm. Worse, the job could go poof. Of course, there could also be and have been suicides.

Since Puritan days, work has been the unofficial religion of America. That's been called the "Protestant Ethic." Not measuring up 100% at work can be perceived as a "mortal sin." Sinners merit severe punishment, right?

Solutions, though, aren't easy.

Actually a Catch-22 usually exists. And that is not only in law firms.

In much of professional life, having mental illness become a public issue can suck the mobility out of a career. So, sure someone might recognize the need for treatment but simultaneously fear entering that loop. Suppose the boss' spouse spots the chief marketing officer sitting in the therapist's waiting room? Not good. So, the conclusion could be: Hey, keep the hell away from all kinds of treatment.

Unfortunately, if the world economy slips into a serious recession, the pressure will ramp up even more. So will the fear of job loss. It isn't rocket science to anticipate more suicides among law firm staff as well as other professionals. That's tragic since appropriate treatment can address common forms of mental illness such as clinical depression and suicidal ideation.

A book for our pressure-cooker times is "Dying for a Paycheck." It's by Stanford Graduate Business School professor Jeffrey Pfeffer. It fingers extreme stress as a global problem in the workplace. Suicides occur as the ability to cope unravels. Here the book can be ordered from Amazon. 

A growing phenomenon is the new kind of stress emerging as aging workers struggle to remain in the labor market. Maybe they can't afford to retire. And/or, they recognize that, given the Protestant Ethic, they become invisible the day they give up the official title. Meanwhile, age bias pushes up against them. 

The good news on that one is that those who have a high Adaptability Quotient can continue to be marketable. Part of the ability to adapt, though, is that, as with many nonlawyers, they may be treated as "less than." The reality is: Learn to live with the age-bias stigma or not keep working. Yes, you might earn less. But, hey, you're working. 

Reflection: Nonlawyers, such as marketing coordinators, whom I have done assignments for and seem to be thriving simply embrace what is. They have adapted to maybe what shouldn't exist but does. A lousy solution but it seems to be panning out. No wonder AQ is being championed as the critical success skill currently. Not pretty. But that's the way it is.

In 2014, I adapted to the reality that I had aged out of the New York Metro market. After my relocation I grossed more but did find it necessary to bill less for each assignment. Ironically, I was treated better. That was a wonderful side effect of adapting to the brutal bias of aging. 

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So Many Moving Parts: The Royals' Public Relations Machine, U.S. Legal System

For a long time, the royals have been on the defensive.

The times have changed and, aside from tourism, their institution creates less value for the pocketbooks of their financially distressed "subjects." In addition, there's climate change to worry about.

So, some day and that day can be soon the once solid "firm" operated by Queen Elizabeth could go the way of the low-IQ phone. Who knows, Prince Harry's wife might have to return to her acting career in the U.S. William's daughter Charlotte might have mastered the royal wave for a lousy return on investment.

So, it was predictable that with the most recent allegations about the Duke of York - 59 year old Prince Andrew - the royal public relations machine should be flipped on.

Media outlets are publishing star snaps of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Andrew, and his daughter Princess Beatrice on their way to Crathie Church. After all, it's Sunday. Church is good. 

Prince Andrew, it is alleged, groped a woman's breast at a party at a party at Jeffrey Epstein's mansion. The woman allegedly had been Joanna Sjoberg.

Esptein's death and the mystery surrounding it have catapulted what was to be a U.S. trial about alleged sex-trafficking into a hot global media story. Over and over again it played on global broadcasts this weekend.

Forever, conspiracy theories will bounce around Epstein's death. That gives the saga sustained marketability. In the process, the branding of the royals could shift from sometimes-naughty to predatory. Not good. 

An activist can organize a boycott of tourism scheduling anything royal. Queen Elizabeth will go down in history as the chief executive officer who lost the firm. 

The royals deny all the allegations associated with the Duke of York. The world might be thinking: A pox on all their houses. 

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"Ma"- Pain, Pre-Digital, Then a Crime Spree

Back in an Ohio high school, Sue Ann - who goes by nickname Ma - had been withdrawn and naive. She was also one of the few blacks. Of course, she craved to belong.

The mean kids set her up to give oral sex to popular Ben. Then, as a group almost like a Greek Chorus, they laughed about it. That was in person, in the high school corridor. Today it would be through Instagram. 

The film "Ma" chronicles how Sue Ann enacts revenge on those former classmates. That plot starts out with their children, whom she allows to party in her basement.

Bit by bit she becomes increasingly unstable and hostile. That ranges from murdering Ben and his girlfriend Mercedes to drugging and sewing the lips of a smart-mouthed teenager who told her she needed a man. 

Critics note that "Ma" could have been a great film. The plot line and acting don't take advantage of possibilities. But what resonates is the message that those years between childhood and becoming an actual adult are difficult. There are those, like Ma, who never shake off the pain. 

Some entrepreneur with a deep understanding of human nature can invent an app that allows teenagers to sort out in real time and all the time what's happening in their little lives. It would be voice-activated like Alexa, be a damn good listener, and provide sophisticated forms of compassion and guidance. In addition, it would be guaranteed for confidentiality. 

Another kind of help would be allowing students to bring their dogs to school. 

My own descent into hell began not in high school. It was in an all-woman's small Roman Catholic College, not far from where "Ma" is set. Here is that dark psychological drama.

Three years ago, I returned to the scene of the crime to try to sort out all that. I didn't expect it to work. But it did. Unfortunately, too many real-life therapists are unimaginative about what could and does heal. Apps could be lots more creative. 

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The Pickle The Puritans Created - Naive to Predict Solutions

It's now a way overdone story that investing in obtaining a JD from a law school too frequently yields a lousy return on investment (ROI).

The only thing added on has been the increasing amount of student loan debt. Currently, it's at almost $113,000.

What could be a grabber, though, will be the size of JDs cuts in the coming recession. One forecast is 10,000.

But, what isn't overdone is that the number of folks entering law and other professional/graduate degree programs with unpromising ROIs is going up.

Take journalism.

The coverage of the number of buyouts and layoffs, of course, had been overdone. For a while. Now those developments rarely even make headlines in the media which is still around.

Late last week the Youngtown, Ohio metro area's daily newspaper Vindicator announced it was shutting down totally in August 2019. Like, so? 

Yet, in Bloomberg News, Gerry Smith reports:

"Journalism schools say enrollment is up, despite dark headlines about the industry ..."

The employment situation for journalists is likely to sour even more. The reasons the field is imploding include:

• Can't scout up enough digital subscribers. (The exception has been The New York Times.)
• Buyouts have eroded quality. Audiences fled.
• Digital natives have the bad habit of hiring to grow, then shifting abruptly to making a profit so the labor is laid off.
• The industry has become concentrated in three locations: New York, LA, and D.C. Journalists based elsewhere are out of luck. And it takes good luck to be able to afford to bunk in those cities.
• Few reputable brandnames are in hiring mode. LA Times is an outlier on that. It added 100 journalists.

In graduate education overall, the dynamics are just as off reality.

In Inside Higher Education, Nick Roll reports:

"Enrollment in graduate school is up ..."

Yet, many master's degrees aren't very marketable. The worst for ROI are:

Counseling

Social Work

Music

Education

Library and Information Science

History

Fine Arts

Biology Architecture

Human Resources Management.

When it comes to the supposed gold standard in advanced degrees - the Ph.D. - the marketability situation is catastrophic. According to Isaiah Hankel on LinkedIn, 60% of all those with the Ph.D. are unemployed. In the life sciences, 80% are. 

Of course, the pragmatic takeaway is: Consumer beware.

But the wrench in those works is that ever since the Puritans established Harvard in 1636, education has been both a religion (blind faith required) and BigBusiness (those making a good buck in it have the mental horsepower to outsmart those determined to dismantle the whole edifice).

For years, activists have proclaimed that higher education is a bubble and that bubble would soon burst. Meanwhile, AdmissionGate took place in 2019.

Full Disclosure: My Ph.D. studies led to five years of struggle before I landed in a career path. Directly, that had nothing to do my education. 

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

SCOTUS Docket for 2019 - 2020 Term - 13 Cases, Including Review of Bridget Kelly (Bridgegate) Conviction

Those of us who sensed Chris Christie aide Bridget Kelly got a raw deal in court regarding "Bridgegate" have our faith restored in the U.S. legal system.

As Marcia Coyle reports in Law.com, Kelly's conviction is one of the 13 petitions the U.S. Supreme Court has chosen to review for the 2019 - 2020 term. She is challenging both the conviction and the 13-month sentence.

The Kelly petition is "Kelly v. United States."

Here is a copy of the Petition for a Writ of Certiorari. 

Here is the history of that petition at SCOTUS.

Kelly is being represented by a Jones Day team including partner Yaakov Roth. The United Sates is being represented by deputy U.S. solicitor general Jeffrey Wall.

Jones Day is known to have a unique feel from what persuades The Nine. Annually they hire a large number of former SCOTUS clerks, paying them sign-up bonuses of up to $300,000. That insider perspective is, though, priceless.

As many recall, Kelly was among the seeming "fall guys" for the artificially created traffic jam on the Fort Lee ramp on the George Washington Bridge. The motivation was political retaliation.

Some contend that it was her boss Chris Christie who ordered it. After all, she at the time was an aide - with a big title. Those who understand how organizations, including political ones, operate wondered how any employee, even one with an impressive title, would take it upon herself to orchestrate such chaos without approval from the very top.

What the Jones Day team is asking, reports Law, is:

" ... whether a public official can 'defraud' the government of its property by advancing a 'public policy reason' for an official decision that is not her subjective 'real reason' for making the decision."

There was particular sympathy for Kelly from females who, like her, came of professional age as a seemingly "good Catholic girl." We were socialized to be other-directed, focused on making superiors and other forms of power look good. Those frequently included husbands. Also we worked unusually hard. In that selflessness we might have compulsively managed to cross the line from the ethical/legal to what the powers that be ordered or indirectly indicated would please them. 

The other dockets selected for review are:

"Department of Homeland Security v. Regents, University of California." (This represents a consolidation of three cases.)

"Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue."

"Opati v. Sudan." 

"Thole v. U.S. Bank N.A."

"GE Energy Power Conversion v. Oukokumpu Stainless." 

"Romag Fastners v. Fossil."

"Lucky Brand Dungarees v. Marcel Fashions."

"Rodgriguez v. FDIC."

Two associated with the original "Carpenter v. Murphy." 

The implications of SCOTUS' decisions for each review are huge.

However, the decision, the written majority opinion, and any written minority dissents in "Kelly v. U.S." could impact not only Kelly but also the future career of Christie.

In the book "Kushner Inc.," Vicky Ward reports that Christie eventually was shut out of a major high-profile role in the Trump Administration. That could have been retaliation from the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner for the prosecutorial role Christie had played in sending dad to prison. Here it can ordered from Amazon.

Currently, Christie doesn't seem to have a lot going for him. Likely as part of a comeback strategy, in January, he published "Let Me Finish." Here it can ordered from Amazon. It ranks okay on Amazon -  in the 9,000s. But folks may be paying attention to that book to get the supposed dirt on the Trump Administration players. So, overall, Christie's positioning and packaging does not appear to be solid. 

If the SCOTUS decision goes Kelly's way, her career path, in contrast, has no limits. She can be the new kind of female superhero of our times. Flawed and sinning, but determined and resilient. 

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?

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