Law And More

Yesterday - The Chase After That, From "Mad Men" Kodak Carousel Pitch to Gen Z Fashion

The hunger for what was.

On "Mad Men," Don Draper captured that in his presentation for the Kodak carousel.

His specific pitch was the pain and confusion of transitioning from childhood to teenage years. So, there is the reaching back to the known. Here is that iconic pitch.

Now, in real life, reports Axios, Gen Z is experiencing that same pull force. TikTok is in sync with that. Yesterday's brandnames and fashions are, for example, back again. 

What youth most crave is the slower pace of a very different time.

Maybe they're onto something big. And they're not alone. In an interview with Bloomberg Law, it was the chairperson of elite law firm Paul Weiss Brad Karp who put it this way:

“'We have to push the brakes in today’s world to deal with the mental health and emotional stability of our community,' he said. 'It is probably the most important single issue I’ve grappled with during the pandemic.'”

The slow movement is, of course, not new. It originated in Italy in 1989. The meme is that faster isn't necessarily better.

One major way it has seeped into Americana had been through the embrace of eastern philosophy, especially Buddhism. Its central practice - meditation - slows down humans' "monkey mind" so that its workings can be observed. Those in that kind of trance get it: So, that's how I'm thinking and why I'm going wrong.

Every Thursday evening, the Tucson, Arizona Shambhala Buddhist Center provides a no-cost reading of text (often from the writings of American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron), a 20-minute meditation session, discussion, and another five minutes of meditation. Then there is a chant for the well-being of all sentient creatures.

Marketers are no slouches when it comes to leveraging trends into platforms for promotions. Expect plenty of yesterday to be featured during this holiday selling season. 

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True Story "The Last Duel" - Legal System Also Flawed in 14th Century (also big risk in contending rape)

"The Last Duel" takes up the soul-wrenching decision of a woman, along with her husband, to disclose her rape by a powerful well-connected man. Here is a video excerpt. 

Yes, that storyline could be the plot line for an episode of "Law & Order SVU."

However, it's set in the 14th century. As often happens in  "SVU," one takeaway is that the price of truth could be too high. So, think carefully about going out there to proclaim the "truth" of what you perceive your experience. Interestingly, the producer uses a Rashomon style screenplay. The audience is presented with different scenarios of what could have happened.

In asserting her claim of rape by squire Jacques Le Gris, Marguerite eventually is responsible for involving her husband Jean de Carrouges in a duel. A true story, that was the last official duel in France. If her husband doesn't win, the law has it that she will be stripped and burned to death. That process could take about 30 minutes of suffering before she died. Right before the duel she questions her decision. 

The husband does win. And Marguerite goes on to live a long happy life with her son. He might have been conceived during the rape. Before that during five years of marriage, she didn't become pregnant. Her husband, a skilled soldier, died a few years after the duel in the Crusades. 

Another meme in this film is that power and religion beliefs can derail justice. The duel wouldn't have had needed to have been if the legal systems hadn't been controlled by the existing power structure. Also, the orthodoxy had been that many legal verdicts  would be handed down by God. It had been religious dogma that if a woman contended rape and her husband couldn't prove that she would be burned alive. 

What the film neutralizes is the current rage over the current legal system. For instance, The Wall Street Journal exposed that many federal judges hadn't recused themselves from presiding over cases in which they had a financial interest. That is prohibited by federal law.

Jusstice was also highly flawed in the 14 century.

Religion complicated that.

English majors might remember The Pardoner in Chauer's "Canterbury Tales." He sold fake indulgences which he promised would erase all sins on one's soul and facilitate a straight trip to heaven. Another pilgrim had been the lawyer who feigned being hyper-busy. That could have attracted new clients with a kind of "false advertising."

In addition to the takeaways, another reason to pop for the movie ticket is that array of stars. They include Ben Affleck.

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From Jane Fonda's Outing of Her Bulimia to Those Recent Gossipy Exposes of Wall Street and Big Law

It's supposedly in the public interest. Or, to save souls. 

That's given as the motivation for celebrities and book authors to dish the dirt. Either about themselves. Or about others. 

But more often than not, all that can actually set in play the opposite: harmful behavior. Both individual and for society. 

Take Jane Fonda's revealing her bulimia. That probably kicked up plenty of eating disorders. I know. My coaching clients shared that with me. Too many young women and not-so-young women sized up Fonda's disclosure as: So, that's how Jane stays thin. This is great. I better get busy purging. 

And there is also the new run of expose gossipy books.

One is by former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen - "Disloyal." It ranks on Amazon 9,294. It's rated almost a 5 out of 5. And 24,317 customer reviews - mostly positive - have been posted.

You bet, it's in glam territory. Part of the glam is that Cohen wrote the book in his prison cell pre-dawn before the other inmates were up. Could anything be more cool. 

Early in the book he sets the heady tone of a smart lawyer being caught up in his own brilliance. That includes pulling an all-nighter to pore over documents to find a legal way out (aka loophole) for a squeeze Trump had been in. The ethos showcased is a subculture of surreal ambition, drive, and chaos.

Cohen is supposed to be rejecting all that, right. He got religion. That's the purpose of the book: preventing others from taking the path he had. 

But, hey, who wouldn't want to be in on such excitement and in such proximity to extreme power, wealth, and influence? That's exactly why youth chase low-paying long-hour jobs in the D.C. and home offices of politicians. There are also the interns. Monica Lewinsky had the adventure of her life. 

Another dishing of the dirt is "The Caesars Palace Coup." It's by two financial journalists Sujeet Indap and Max Frume. It means to be a fire-and-brimstone censuring of what shouldn't be. The specific targets are big bad Wall Street and those Ivy League lawyers in Big Law. For shame.

So that we get the point that these are white-collar villains the book portrays this: the brutal clashes of superhumans as they battle to get what they want or what their investors/clients want. And the world is supposed to tisk tisk and lobby government to tame those games.

Instead, it's more likely the world comes away from the book trying to figure out how they and/or their children can become a member of either tribe: Wall Street or Big Law. Why the hell be stuck on the reservation as middle manager in a cereal corporation or sweating getting clickbait for a social-media client! We want to be Marc Rowan at Apollo or a partner at Kirkland and Ellis. 

Indap and Frume, though, aren't as proficient book authors as Cohen. Theirs has plunged recently to 24,317. It has only 237 customer reviews. Some of those pan the book for a lack of proper editing. And, the tone is downright nasty. We expect even prisoners on death row to be treated with respect.

Perhaps personal confessions and books created for the public interest/saving souls should be officially labeled just the opposite: Hazardous to the impressionable. They could even wind up in the slammer like Cohen. 

The Fondas, Cohens, Indaps, and Frumes can also be as annoying in their self-righteousness (they have seen the light and we haven't, get it) as those members of 12-step programs bashing about inflicting their amends on us. 

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The Gods May Be Angry - Facebook Down

"Just as Facebook’s Antigone Davis was live on CNBC defending the company over a whistleblower’s accusations and its handling of research data suggesting Instagram is harmful to teens, the company’s entire network of services suddenly went offline. On Twitter, Facebook communications exec Andy Stone says, 'We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.'” - The Verge, October 4, 2021.

Some speculate the problem is the usual DNS. 

Others can posit that Facebook crossed a line when it was considering a strategy to make preteens a target market. And the gods got angry.

We all know by now that whistleblower Frances Haugen has been a busy bee badmouthing Facebook. She provides documents to prove that the social network is not operating in the public interest. Its only interest is profits. 

Haugen got herself invited to spill the beans at Congress. That's always a heady experience. It also annoints her as an official activist. She will have lots of exposure runway until folks weary of dumping on Facebook.

On a more limited scale, I recall making the gods at Gawker during the Nick Denton reign of terror quite angry. Ever Friday there was a meeting to decide if I would be executed or not. That worked in my favor. It brought lots of traffic to this and my other syndicated blog.

Facebook too could gain an advanage through the wrath of the righteous. Never predict the outcome of anything. 

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TV Lawyer Advertising Spend Declines in 2021, But End Run for Catholic Child-Abuse Victims Before 8/14/21 Deadline

"Television advertising by law firms seeking clients to pursue lawsuits against the Catholic Church surged ahead of an August deadline [August 14] to bring decades-old child abuse claims under a landmark New York law, according to a new report [by X Ante]. Reuters Legal, October 1, 2021. - Nate Raymond, Reuters Legal, October 1, 2021.

During July and August, there had been 5,700 TV ads. That was 900 more than had been on television during the previous two months. 

Overall, though. lawyer TV advertising had been down during 2021. Since January advertising spend had been at $59.9 million, compared to $142 million during the comparable period the year before.

The top TV lawyer advertising had been associated with weedkiller paraquat. The spend had been $5.97 million. 

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Yes, Lawyers, Of Course, You Like to Drink Alcohol and Other Stuff

"People like to masturbate. They also like to get drunk ... We are inveterate pleasure seekers, promiscuously grabbing little jolts of ecstasy ..." - In the "Introduction" of Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, And Stumbled Our Way to Civilization" By Edward Slingerland, published in New York, by Little, Brown Spark, 2021.

Essentially the message of this book is that so many of the behaviors society warns us against are those which bring such joy.

Because the attitude about these is often so punitive (remember how Sally Draper on "Mad Men" was ramped into therapy when she masturbated in public) we can wind up mighty confused about what is normal and what crosses the line and gets us into trouble (remember how Jeffrey Toobin indulged himself on company time on Zoom).

That could be one reason lawyers have a tough time determining if their enjoyment of alcohol has become a problem requiring intervention.

Positioning and packaging pleasure as forbidden goes all the way back to the Puritans. 

Such a rigid sense of disapproval dominates old-line recovery approaches such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Implicitly it's banned to recount the period of excessive drinking as an experience of much joy. The speakers' stories tend to depict that time as one of great pain, not only for them but for myriad others. That's why one of the 12 steps involves making amends.

Such an unrealistic take on pleasure can be counterproductive in leaping out of the trouble. No surprise, AA is estimated to have a low success rate - between 5% and 10%. In 2015, The Atlantic published a highly critical article of AA.

A more effective approach at managing fun kinds of behavior which have gotten out of hand could be to loop into the pleasure. Yes, all that is wonderful. Now, what do you and I together do about what has turned out to be too much of a good thing? 

Such an accepting mindset might prevent so many of the crimes which could be rooted in repressed sexuality or shame even about masturbation.

Slingerland's book might be distributed free by the ABA and state bar associations. That could be more effective in eliminating problem drinking than all the research projects documenting its prevalence among lawyers. 

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It's Official: Slow-Down of Expansion

"The U.S. economic expansion is losing momentum. U.S. factories and service providers reported sharply slower growth in August, the forecasting firm IHS Markit said Monday in its surveys of purchasing managers. Its index of service-sector activity, the broadest segment of the economy, fell to 55.2 last month from 59.9 in July, hitting an eight-month low. An index of factory activity dropped to 61.2, a four-month low, from 63.4 in July. " - The Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2021.

Of course, the major driver of the this loss of traction is Delta variant. More specifically, all the uncertainties triggered by a virus which keeps brilliantly mutating.

Consequently, that leaves most if not all decision-makers stumbling around in the dark.

They are used to going out there with a plan. Now, even planning itself seems like a totally pre-COVID function. After the worst of COVID, planning may never again regain credibility. Those jobs in businesses totally in the planning box could be eliminated. 

The world of business could become embedded with Buddhist concepts such as being only in the now. Detach from the past and don't project the future. Also, ditch the old story lines, both of former success and former failure. 

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Holy Communion as Starter Sacrament in Roman Catholicism - The Bishops and Joe Biden

White dress.

White veil.

White knee socks.

White shoes.

White purse.

White prayer book.

White rosary beads.

White candle.

That was me on my First Communion Day. 

To the present time, I have never felt so important.

That's likely exactly what the one-time brilliant-in-marketing Roman Catholic Church intended in configuring the First Communion ritual. It is a starter sacrament whose aura becomes embedded in both the individual and collective memory bank. My family was beside themselves watching me walk in measured steps up to the altar. 

So, it's no surprise that currently the power structure of Roman Catholicism in the U.S. has zeroed in on communion as the symbol of the need to buy into its whole orthodoxy of beliefs and practices. As is well known, the bishops have been busy bees putting together a manifesto about this sacrament. It seems intended as a stern warning to all who approach its dogma menu on an a carte basis. Among them is U.S. President Joe Biden.

Those close to his administration, such as Brad Karp of Paul Weiss, might advise Biden to, well, smirk. 

Strategically, this busy-bee activity on the part of American Roman Catholicism seems like a very dumb move at the wrong time. And those bishops used to be such smart players.

 Pew documents that of all religions in the U.S. Roman Catholicism has lost the most members. Since the Boston Globe outed clergy sexual abuse of young boys beginning in 2002, there have been a loss of market share, bankruptcies and the shuttering of parish schools. 

Those of us supporting the Biden Administration policies such as pro-abortion could protest in front of our local diocese  headquarters in simulations of our attire for our First Communion.

A budding fashionista can loop into a big brandname by designing the females' Communion Dresses so that they won't be confused with wedding dresses. Much fun to be had. Plus interesting to time travel back to an era when Roman Catholicsm could cast such a spell on our immigrant families in the 1950s. 

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American Buddhist Nun Pema Chodron Transcends Health Challenges - To Celebrate 85th Birthday July 14th

So many of us have been able to navigate the ups and downs of professional life through the books and YouTube chats by American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron

On July 14th she will be 85 years old. She has made it through a number of health crises.

But, according to her teachings, her most difficult ordeals have been emotional. They range from her second husband leaving her to her initial struggle with the leadership role at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia. She shares the lessons she learned from that adversity.

Among her best sharings is about becoming comfortable with fear. Here is that free video. 

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Unforgiven: Monsignor Owen Keenan's Sin of Extreme Arrogance

"A Canadian priest [Monsignor Owen Keenan] has come under fire for saying there was 'good done' in government-funded residential schools where hundreds of indigenous children died in the care of the Catholic Church." -  Daily Mail, June 25, 2021.

First, 215 children's bodies were found in graves without tombstones in Kamloops, British Columbia. Then, 715 more unmarked graves were discovered.

In a positioning of extreme arrogance, Keenan contended that in those 130 compulsory boarding schools the residents gained from receiving health care, education and a "joyous experience."

I recall that same kind of arrogance when I attended on scholarship then all-women's Roman Catholic college Seton Hill in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. That was 1963 - 1967.

I was informed how lucky I was to have been funded in that way. From the hood in Jersey City, New Jersey I was an outlier in a setting which at the time seemed to have the mission of nurturing the wives of lawyers. Not to be the lawyer. Along the way in my little life (that experience might have triggered my feeling less-than), operating on rage and grit, I did make it to Harvard Law School as a 1L.

In the rough and tumble of shifting world values - even Boston Consulting Group in advising chief executives officers factors those in - no one knows what will happen. Any expert peddling a high degree of certainty? Immediately, credibility takes a hit. Arrogance has become a crime against the odds that a business or a law firm or a career can survive and thrive.

Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church, once among the most powerful and enduring brands worldwide, continues to lose market share. 

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