Law And More

Lawyers Stuck with Intrusive Traumatic Memories - What Neuroscience Has Discovered (and monks always knew)

Forgetting is what we victims of PTSD yearn for. Not fear, as with those who carry the Alzheimer's gene. Here and here are at the top of the list of what I hope to strategically forget.

On this front, Axios hammers there is good news from neuroscientists. Here is that special report, hot off the press an hour ago. In a nutshell, we stuck in past trauma can get the hang of bringing up memories and inputting new information that override the hardened memories.

Quanta Magazine is among the growing number of publications explaining what neuroscientists have been discovering about what's called "actively forgetting." Here it notes:

"One form of active forgetting that scientists formally identified in 2017 is called intrinsic forgetting. It involves a certain subset of cells in the brain ... that degrade the engrams in memory cells."

Essentially, this is a process. What neuroscientists speculate about it is that it could constitute the decay of the links among neurons which imprint the memory. 

Actually, this is not new.

In 2003, I began an amazing journey of cognitive therapy with Amy Karnilowicz in West Hartford, Connecticut. Our objective had been to reframe how I perceived the world and created ways of reimagining my behavior. Yes, together we were rewiring my brain. 

And, for centuries, Buddhist monks have been helping the suffering through meditation which also rewires the brain.

That ability of the brain to change, sometimes radically, is called "neuroplasticity."

Around mid 2012 I began training in mindfulness at the Zen Center in New Haven, Connecticut. I might or might have rewired my brain.

But by early 2014 I was on the I-95 ramp heading west out of the pricey New York Metro area. I had the insight and courage to start over again - both my business and my life when over-60. Aside from one speedbump, I have been thriving. 

Buddhist teachers also provide exercises such as "cutting the cord" to reduce the distraction of intrusive negative memories.

But there are those traumas I haven't been able to shake. My career coach wisely told me not to discuss them with others. So, that has stopped. However, the pain from the flashbacks is still disabling. 

Neuroscience is offering hope that we can parachute out of most of that into a more Hallmark type of daily thought processes. I am alert for notices of clinical trials in my area. The journalist still in me will find a way to report on them.

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

Ian Samuel - Lost, Yes, But Time Will Tell If He Will Be "Found"

One of the most direct paths to becoming lost in life is to experience early success.

That might be how Ian Samuel wound up resigning from his associate professor position at Indiana Law School. That followed a Title IX misconduct investigation. Here are more details from Tony Mauro at Law.com.

Samuel, still now a young man, had been a clerk to the late U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia.

He was an associate at the elite law firm Jones Day.

He had lectured at Harvard Law School.

And he was part of the successful initiative to convince law firms not to impose mandatory arbitration agreements on summer associates.

That was then.

Following the Title IX investigation he decided not to push to hold on to his teaching job at Indiana Law School.

He made the public statement that he had engaged in antisocial conduct such as excessive drinking in public places and not treating people right. In fact, he sums up where he wound up as "an ugly man."

Critics of his mea culpa observe that the tone and content are narcissistic. There doesn't seem to be any emotional or spiritual connection to the possible harm done others. 

So, only time will tell if Samuel can evolve into "Found." 

There are many examples of former miscreants who were able to get right with their humanity.

Labeled the "Evil Genius" of the Richard Nixon White House, lawyer Chuck Colson had a jailhouse conversion. After his release he ministered to the spiritual needs of ex-cons. Obituaries in establishment media positioned and packaged him as a kind of saint. 

In the "New Testament," Saul used to persecute Christians. Then he had a psychic shift and became Paul, in the front lines of preaching the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

On the other hand, there are those who seem incapable and/or unwilling to explore a less toxic existence. There is no need to list names.

I had dedicated my 2009 dark comedy - the novel "The Fat Guy From Greenwich" - to all those who wound up in Lost and Found.

It resonated.

For a while it was #60 on Amazon.

I let it go out of print when I no longer needed that mirror. In 2014, I took the I-95 ramp out of the careerist Gold Coast of Connecticut and went in search of a different path. The jury is still out if I have found it.

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

 

Hanging On, for a Very Different Kind of Justice - Roman Catholicism Before The Boston Globe Broke Story of Clergy Abuse

In 2002, The Boston Globe broke the story. Roman Catholic clergy were sexually abusing young boys. Eventually, the priest John J. Goeghan was sent to prison. There, no surprise, he was murdered.

Then began a new era - and not a positive one - for Roman Catholicism. It also ended the time of Catholic superstars. Among them had been:

Thomas Merton

Clare Boothe Luce

Graham Greene

Fulton Sheen

John F. Kennedy (and his mother Rose Kennedy who received the Elizabeth Seton Medal at my Catholic college during my freshman year)

Gerard Manley Hopkins

T. S. Eliot

Back then Roman Catholicism was one of the most powerful and enduring global brands.

In the U.S. it symbolized protection for immigrants who were the underdogs in a nation originally settled by White Anglo Saxon Americans.

It was "The Church" which socialized the children of those immigrants in special parish schools. I was enrolled in St. Boniface school in downtown Jersey City, New Jersey. It has since been shuttered.

Catholics had their own major holidays. The children's Holy Communion Day was probably the biggest and most proud. 

Later we were funneled into Catholic colleges such as mine - Seton Hill in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

When we stepped out of that magic circle of protection to secular institutions of higher education there were Newman Centers. At one of them, near the campus of the University of Michigan where I was doing doctoral studies, I could meet Catholic men. We were not supposed to go out of our faith to marry. We were to wait until marriage to experience sex. Even when married we were not supposed to use artificial means of birth control. 

Then, it all turned to dust, just like the ashes we had received on the Wednesday which kicked off the season of Lent. 

The Catholic superstars seemed like naïve fools. How could they had bought in to that belief system and web of rigid rules? 

But there was really no exit ramp, not in our wiring. The mysticism remains.

At the top of the list were saints in heaven we could implore for help. An intern came into my office and her eyes popped. On the wall was pasted an invocation to St. Jude, who gets to work in supposed impossible cases. Some are convinced he was the force behind Danny Thomas' success. 

There is also expectation of divine justice in an afterlife. Yeah, things will get better there. That's why we were hammered not to commit suicide. Hold on and turn it all over to God.

And, so many speaker stories in Alcoholics Anonymous (boozing is known as the Irish Catholic virus) recount, for better or for worse, how it was growing up Catholic. 

Overall, many of us are sad that such as masterfully worked out system of thought and rituals wasn't legit.

Perhaps the new definition of "growing up" should be moving beyond that hocus pocus with humor.

A good time was had by all at the top of that worldwide organization, as is usually the situation.

They were mighty clever to be able to get away with it for so many centuries.

The 1% in American should study that system for clues how to retain their power.

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

Patrick Murphy Gets Stay of Execution, Based on "Governmental Discrimination Against Religion"

Member of the notorious Texas 7, Patrick Murphy gained a stay of execution via SCOTUS.

When the group had escaped prison they had killed a TX police officer back in 2000. So, the case has been high profile, with political implications.

Essentially the stay was based, wrote justice Brett Kavanaugh in a solo concurrence, on "governmental discrimination against religion," in violation of the Constitution.

Murphy had demanded a Buddhist spiritual advisor accompany him to the execution chamber and the state of TX has not permitted it. The remedy will be up to the state. However, that remedy may not restrict the choice of the kind of spiritual advisor at the execution setting. Here are more details from Tony Mauro at Law.com.

This 7-2 ruling (Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented) might seem to be in conflict with the earlier decision to deny a stay in Alabama to Domineque Ray. He contended the state denied him the right to have a Muslim imam at his execution.

The difference, SCOTUS indicated, was one of timing. Ray applied a little more than a week before the execution date for the stay. Murphy applied in a more timely manner - a month. 

Those who had been in crisis emotional situations will recognize the comfort a spiritual advisor can bring. 

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. 

Quinn Emanuel's Joseph Milowic III Continues on Front Lines Removing Stigma of Disease Afflicting Almost 30% of Lawyers

It was a year ago. 

That's when Quinn Emanuel's Joseph Milowic III went on a mission.

It was to break through the severe stigma in the legal profession associated with anything that potentially impaired cognition.

Practicing law is a game of mental combat. 

What Milowic targeted was clinical depression.

He himself had been diagnosed with it long before he had begun his career as a lawyer. He recognized that many others also were struggling with it.

According to the famous recent student on lawyers' mental health, 28% or almost one-third were found to be afflicted with that disorder. 

Just outing himself as vulnerable to clinical depression represented a brave breakthrough in the legal sector. Then he went on to create the Lawyers Depression Project. It isn't supposed to be therapy. But, as anyone who has had any kind of problem knows, talking with someone who listens can provide unique relief. Also the listener could make suggestions.  Here is the coverage in Law.com. 

One wonders if Gabe MacConaill and Cameron Schladenhauffen had tapped into the Lawyers Depression Project support group they might be alive today. MacConaill committed suicide. Schladenhauffen died from a lethal combination of legal and illegal drugs. MacConaill had been in his early 40s, Schladenhauffen in his early 30s. 

As successful professionals know, the "system" rewards those who pull out all stops to get the job done.

That's even the situation in self-employment.

By pulling two all-nighters to complete an urgent report for a new client, I was awarded the long-term account. I would have been considered a fool (including by myself) to have passed up that opportunity.

Of course, the experience took a toll. My skeletal system was thrown for a loop. It was about 10 days before I could navigate stairs.

Milowic is a superhero in his outreach to help other lawyers caught in the clinical depression loop.

However, as long as extreme success is the unofficial religion of America, most of us in myriad lines of work, are likely to risk it all, including our very lives, to make it big.

Underachievement is a mortal sin in that religion. It is also unforgivable. 

For those humans who sense their grasp on hope is failing a proven resource - free and 24-hours - is the Samaritan hotline - 212-673-3000. 

Full Disclosure: Since age 11, I have struggled with clinical depression and an anxiety disorder. I have found that many of the supposed experts don't know as much about effective treatment as they contend. Through trial and error I have put together a way of continuing to function - and staying alive. 

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. 

 

Suppose Adam and Eve Had Skilled Defense Lawyer? We Might All Be Living in Paradise

In terms of what we currently consider "justice," Adam and Eve might have gotten a raw deal.

Thought leaders, including legal scholars such as Alan Dershowitz, have analyzed how arbitrary rules for conduct and the punishment for violating them had been portrayed in "Genesis." Here, for example, are the reflections of Dershowitz.

A skilled defense lawyer could have gotten Adam and Eve off the hook enough to prevent such as harsh sentence. As a result, we the human race could still be living in Paradise. No extreme pain in childbirth. No polar vortex. No age bias.

To begin with, did a type of entrapment go down in the Garden of Eden? Was the serpent planted there by a ego-driven power structure which wanted to play around with human nature? 

Also, given their lack of experience in the real world, the cognitive ability of Adam and Eve essentially had been that of a child. Their behavior and punishment should have been evaluated in terms of juvenile justice.

Also, there should have been separate trials. The two were not equally culpable. Eve had been the prime mover, Adam a kind of patsy.  Given that, Adam might have been able to hang onto the right to Paradise for the rest of us. His defense lawyer would have advised him to flip on Eve.

A law school can conduct this trial. Members of the jury can be selected from the local outside community.

Should Paradise not be taken away, then artificial reality can be programmed for us to enjoy the cool lifestyle there. 

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. 

 

Sins of the Father - Legacy (and earning power) of Gordon Caplan

In both the courts of public opinion and the court of law Gordon Caplan is allegedly in big trouble.

The nation tends to view him as an arrogant wealthy guy who assumed he could buy what others have to work hard to get. The legal community is probably ripped that he throws shade on all lawyers. 

His legal mess could result in an irreversible loss of high income. His financial future depends on how his legal situation plays out. Not only could his job blow up. He could have to surrender his license to practice law. Also, will there be jail time? Inmate jobs pay peanuts.

All this brings back the biblical notion of how the sins of the father haunt future generations. In "Genesis," Adam screwed up. Look at the struggle we his children still deal with. Yes, because of his sin, it has been Paradise Lost.

Caplan's daughter is a sitting duck for bullying, on social media such as Instagram and in-person. Her own children, if she retains hope of better days, can also be doomed. Members of the media don't let stories go. They re-visit the situation obsessively. 

Perhaps this saga is a medieval morality tale. Embedded in it is a warning that the universe mandates humans stay in the box. Wandering beyond the box can bring down tragedy for the children.

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. 

Buddhism - Accessible, No or Low Cost, and Won't Prevent Admission to the Bar

Psychotherapy, even with good medical insurance, is expensive. My co-pay would be $45 a session.

And, as Olga Khazan reports in The Atlantic, 60% of counties in the U.S. don't have even one psychiatrist.

So, no surprise, in this era of extreme stress associated with earning a living and coping with so much change, Buddhism is catching on. Khazan notes that four in ten of us have tried meditation.

Participating in some form of Buddhism currently is very accessible and conveniently located. If there isn't a temple per se in the area, Buddhist oriented meditation and discussions are available at a yoga studio, meet-up, or local public library.

Also it is low-cost or no cost. At the Shambhala Buddhist temple in Tucson, Arizona, there was no fee when I had attended meditation practices and discussions. Donations were welcome, though, and most of us pitched in a buck every time we swung by.

The beauty of Buddhism for law students and lawyers is that, unlike seeking professional mental health treatment, there is no stigma. Having participated in meditation practices won't get anyone rejected for admission to the bar. A psychiatric diagnosis could. 

We who try out Buddhism keep coming back because what it provides works. By that I mean, we do calm down. We learn to process matters that pass through our brains in a different manner. And, most of the tactics are those we can carry away and use anywhere at any time in our lives.

For example, on my trip from AZ to Ohio the motel, two hours behind me, notified me that I had left my attache case, with my laptop and wallet, in the room. I pulled over the car and meditated. I got it that this was a setback, not the end of the world. The four hours added onto the trip were just four hours added onto the trip. One tenet of one school of Buddhism is that what is just is. It is neither good nor bad.

I have a hunch that Buddhist fundamentals such as not attaching to outcomes reach us because they are new to us. Most of us grew up with the tenets of Christianity or the Jewish faith. Unfortunately, much of that evolved into mere platitudes. 

In 2012, I began studying at the zen school of Buddhism in New Haven, Connecticut. There was also no fee.

Maybe there is no direct cause and effect relationship but soon enough I had the insight that I had "aged" out of doing business in the New York Metro area. I reconfigured my two enterprises to telecommuting ones and relocated to the more affordable, less age-biased AZ. In addition, I was able to phase out of antidepressants. And, there has been no need to pony up the money for appointments with mental-health professionals. 

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. 

Priest, Nun Sexual Misconduct - There Is No Statute of Limitations on Sin

In the communications industry and among those savvy about perception management a common verdict on Pope Francis' conference on sexual misconduct is: Publicity Stunt. 

Then there are those less harsh. They express disappointment that the global meeting hadn't hashed out concrete reforms. Here is coverage in MarketWatch.

If the institution to Roman Catholicism was an ordinary organization - instead of one considered "special" - long before the conference there would have been demand for comprehensive punishment for those found guilty of sex abuse of children. They include both priests and what is now being labeled "pedophile nuns." 

Losing their job or even been exiled from their religious communities is not enough.

There is no statute of limitations on sin. The ones who committed the heinous acts and the administration involved in cover-ups should be denied all means of financial supports. Punishment in the 21st century is the financial hit. 

You bet, no safe houses or old-age homes where they can bunk at no cost. It's ridiculous that an analogue of the witness protection program should be provided to them.

Also, there should be no pensions to fund a comfortable post-work life.

And there ought to be no payout for benefits such as accrued sick time.

Homelessness would be the beginning of a penance for sin.  

When we Everywoman and Everyman embraced the sacrament of Reconciliation (which used to be called "confession") we were assigned a penance. What meaningful penance have the priests and nuns sex abusers received? 

Also, think about this: Perhaps those misfit Puritans were on the right track to instill sexual control. They used public shaming. 

It could have sent a powerful message to priests and nuns around the world had the Vatican put on display the miscreants. Also, it could have accelerated the healing of victims.

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. 

Former Enron Head Jeff Skilling Leaves Prison, 2 Years Early - Should a Nation Forgive?

When Enron collapsed in 2001, diverse constituencies suffered where it hurts the most - in the pocketbook.

After all, we live in the system of (brutal) capitalism.

About 5,600 employees lost jobs. And because they couldn't shake off the Enron stink, they found it difficult to find comparable positions.

$2 billion was lost in employee pension funds.

Stockholders, who hadn't bailed out when something seemed very wrong at the energy corporation, lost it all. A colleague, retired military, saw his $300,000 nest egg vanish. A coincidence? He died soon after.

And, we in executive communications watched our market vanish. After the accounting fraud at Enron, corporate leaders put their heads down. No longer were they contacting us for bylined articles to be published in the business media or for presentations to be delivered at prestigious forums such as the World Economic Forum.

So, we followed with great glee the long trial of former Enron chief executive officer Jeff Skilling. He had left the company a few months before the accounting fraud was unmasked. And, soon after he did he unloaded his stock. He came out whole.

He received a 24-year sentence, later reduced to 14 years when he agreed to donate $40 million of his assets to Enron victims.

In 2011, while serving time his son John died. Either it was from an accidental overdose or a suicide. However, there wasn't a whole lot of sympathy for the father.

Like Bernie Madoff, who also lost a son to suicide (and one to cancer), he had inflicted a severe financial wound on too many people. It took years for executive communications to bounce back. To exit my own dark hole of financial collapse, I had to struggle to put together a new career. That was social media. 

Yesterday, as the media reports, Skilling was released from prison, two years early.

Much of America believes in the possibility of spiritual redemption. That applied to Watergate lawyer, also known like Skilling as an "evil genius," Chuck Colson. In prison he discovered his calling to minister to souls. When he died he was hailed as one of the good guys.

Has Skilling embraced his sinfulness and did he seek salvation? Somehow, when it comes to this particular player, most of us don't give a damn. 

In some spiritual groups, there is special guidance to members who have a deep resentment against another human being. It's recommended: Pray that the person gets what he or she deserves.

Most buy in because of the open-ended aspect of the prayer. So, perhaps, we who had been financially shattered by Skilling should ask the higher power or the universe that he gets what he deserves.

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.