Law And More

BU Trademarks @fckitwontcutit

The fundamental of marketing is to identify and figure out how to appeal to the mindset of the target market. The language is especially important. 

In the serious matter of protecting university students from the coronavirus, the stakes are high in that.  As BusinessInsider documents, across the U.S., young adults are being affected the most by the pandemic. 

So, what is being done?

Boston Magazine reports that the Boston University student-run AdLab and PR Lab came up with a bold experiment. The objective of the campaign is to shake students returning to campus out of their denial about the high contagiousness of COVID-19. It embodies how students think and actually talk.

The meme is: F*ck It Won't Cut It or @fckiwontcutit. The brass in administration has approved it. Yes, BU has trademarked it. 

Of course, this innovation is news in the global distressed industries of advertising and public relations. There is bound to be plenty of chatter.

But the bottom line, as in all marketing, is the question: Does this dog hunt?

Will students dutifully maintain social distancing, wear masks and maintain hand hygiene? Or will BU have the same amount of COVID-19 infections and deaths as campuses not embracing such a cool type of warning?

However, that could all be mere speculation about results. 

The game might never be played or not for long. BU can decide against reopening or shut down campus pronto after opening. After all, many schools at Harvard, including the Law School, have gone total remote in instruction for the fall semester.

Time will tell. But time is not on the side of those vulnerable to the virus. At the top of the list are young adults. Gen Z and the youngest of Millennials could be wiped out.

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Edelman Parachutes In - Elizabeth Warren's Concern about Kodak Stock Activity Prior to Announcement of $765M Loan

Giant public relations firm Edelman has developed a brandname representing controversial people, organizational developments, and corporations. Some may recall it represented GE employee Peter Lanza whose son Adam Lanza orchestrated the Sandy Hook, Connecticut massacre and his own suicide.

Currently, Edelman is representing Kodak, reports Kevin McCauley in Odwyerpr.com. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren wants SEC head Jay Clayton to investigate the stock activity before the announcement of a $765M loan for Kodak to pivot to become a pharma corporation. 

The issue concerns alleged insider trading or unauthorized disclosure of material nonpublic information associated with the loan. Warren has questions about the stock purchases of two Kodak insiders. They are executive chairman Jim Continenza and board member Phillipe Katz. 

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Law Schools and Other Institutions of Higher Education - In-Person Instruction (yeah, sure)

The news that shouldn't have been.

Law.com reported that some law schools which earlier had announced for the fall in-person instruction or some hybrid of that are walking that back. Like Harvard Law School, they will do it all online.

And, of course, that brings with it lawsuits if there is no discounting on the traditional tuition. And if there are discounts there could still be lawsuits which allege those aren't adequate, given the lack of the traditional education in-person experience. 

What's playing out globally with COVID-19 indicates that not only has the first round not been completed. What's obvious is that there could be a second round. As with the Spanish Flu of 1918, that second bout could be more severe than the first.

Yet, there have been institutions of higher education which made plans and announced those plans to media to bring students back to campus this fall. The tone was, well, heroic. Now those which haven't walked those back are conceding that they may have to shut down campus during the semester. What an ordeal for students. Move in. Then move out. 

Odd, that higher education could  be so out of touch with scientific realities. The question is how much will this peculiar thinking throw shade on BigBrand Education? 

Meanwhile, the funds not coming in for room and board and so on, along with the legal fees to deal with the litigation, could close down permanently universities and colleges which had already been vulnerable.

In January 2019, long before COVID-19, Boston Magazine walked the world through how the death of shaky colleges happened and would accelerate. Post-COVID-19, there could lots fewer centers of higher learning left standing.

Expect massive unemployment among administrators and professors. The media will run with features about the dean of whatever who lost the big job and can't land a new one. Higher educational experience might not be all that marketable. That space could be, like editorial currently, a total glut area.

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Johnson & Johnson's Spravato - New Hope for the Actively Suicidal in Legal Sector

The Food and Drug Administration has approved Johnson & Johnson's nasal spray Spravato for the actively suicidal.

Medical Press reports that it is the first breakthrough in the treatment of clinical depression since 1987. That had been when the FDA Administration approved Eli Lilly's antidepressant Prozac. 

The breakthrough is that this antidepressant acts quickly. Those from families in which there seems to be a suicide gene understand that darkness can fall fast. 

Overall, the pharmaceutical treatment of the kind of serious clinical depression associated with suicide hasn't exactly been the Promised Land. For instance, those in the legal sector who have struggled with clinical depression know it takes a while for other antidepressants to kick in. Also, that kick-in might not happen. It could take a while for medical community to match the depressed with an effective medication. In the worse-case scenario, there will be no match. 

In addition, Spravato doesn't act in the brain on serotonin or norepinepherine. Instead it acts on the glutamate system. 

Between 1996 and 2016, the suicide rate has risen about 30%. The upheaval put in-play by COVID-19 has also made suicide an urgent concern. The timing of Spravato might prove a massive life saver - literally.

Here is the information about Spravato provided by J&J. 

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Populism v. Science - PR Giant Hill + Knowlton Parachutes in to Assist World Health Organization (WHO)

Populism has shaken the faith societies once had in science.

The standard course in higher education globally had been the introduction to the scientific method. Evolution was assumed to be a fact. 

The break-down of confidence in science is happening at the worst of times: during  the surge of the coronavirus in myriad nations.

On July 6th, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he's considering cutting ties with the World Health Organization (WHO).

No newsflash, then, giant public relations agency Hill + Knowlton is assisting WHO in establishing establish trust in its messaging about science and well as public health.

In Odwyerpr.com, Kevin McCauley reports Hill + Knowlton is focusing on influencer identification, messaging testing, and development of campaigns. For this it's receiving a $135k fee.

How successful Hill + Knowlton is can save lives - perhaps millions of them. COVID-19 seems to be just getting started.

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In-Person Instruction - Lawyers in Higher Ed Struggling

Some institutions of higher education are betting they can pull off in-person education this coming semester. That's despite the current surge in COVID-19 cases and that there is a prediction of a second wave.

Their lawyers are struggling with issues related to reopening campuses, reports Law.com.

Legally, it could be a kind of high noon.

Most legal experts agree that students and employees would have a challenge attributing becoming infected with COVID-19 to their daily lives on campus. But such a possibility is what lawyers have to pull out all stops to prevent.

That includes, notes Law.com:

• Paying attention to state-of-the-art cleaning techniques
• Creating codes of conduct 
• Establishing the language for housing contracts.

All that, of course, would have to comply with CDC guidelines.

Also, there is the financial matter of refunds/no refunds if it is necessary to shut down campus after it had been opened up again. Such a what-if scenario has to be accounted for in contracts before the semester starts.

Among the options is to have students and employees sign waivers before the beginning of the new semester. That would get the institution of higher education off the hook for liability for some happenings.

Another option is to have those parties agree to arbitration. Likely that would be voluntary since the ethos of higher education would push back against the mandatory kind.

Colleges and universities going for in-person are opening themselves to myriad kinds of risk. Beyond the legal one is that shade could be thrown on the brand if their campus becomes a hotspot. Post-COVID-19, students and members of a workforce might be reluctant to return. The courts of public opinion could blame them for reopening. That could be analogous to any large outbreak of COVID-19 at Disney theme park in Florida, which is operating again.

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Ghislaine Maxwell: Can Federal Authorities Keep Her Alive?

"Powerful men are scared about what Ghislaine Maxwell will say." - Headline in New York Post article by Maureen Callahan.

Federal authorities made a great catch. But that's only phase one in what will be the high drama of keeping Ghislaine Maxwell alive to stand trial or take a guilty plea.

The danger, of course, as with Jeffrey Epstein is this: She could pull off a suicide, even under close monitoring, or be whacked, even under close monitoring.  

If either happens, a lot of careers will be destroyed among federal authorities. 

Meanwhile, those who enjoy psychological constructs will speculate on their networks why the privileged and favorite daughter of media tycoon Robert Maxwell allegedly played out the sadistic roles she did. Did she consciously or subconsciously want to outdo dad in criminal antics? 

The media now has several stories to run with:

• Ironic takes on "Saving Ghislaine"
• Legalities (Here is the indictment)
• Psychological profiling.

All this is a welcome distraction from the inability to manage COVID-19.

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More Post-Coronavirus (the 1st round, that is): Catching Up with David Lat, 44

In some circles, the Post-Coronavirus new world order has already kicked in. 

That ranges from lawyers returning to their offices in New York City on June 22nd to survivor of a severe bout of COVID-19 David Lat. 

The best way to describe that new world order is one of almost total uncertainty.

Law firms will have to put in-place elaborate procedures to protect employees. Those may or may not work. Simultaneously some of them could become wobbly because of slow payment on accounts receivable. 

As for Lat, in an interview with Law.com, he indicates he doesn't know if he will ever return to being his pre-COVID-19 self. His near-death struggle had been covered in the media. More recently he shared aspects of his recovery at his parent's house in suburban New Jersey. 

Essentially he came out the other end okay. His lungs weren't permanently damaged and he returned to full-time work as a recruiter for Lateral Link. He also resumed writing for publications. He may do a book of essays.

But, long term, of course, Lat does not know how his body will be impacted by his encounter with the disease or his outlook on life will be reshaped. In a sense, he's in a kind of comprehensive limbo created by this novel virus. So is much of the legal sector - and America.

Meanwhile, the lateral market is tricky. Some parts of it, be they bankruptcy or healthcare, are doing brisk business. Other parts are on pause as law firms turn cautious about any new hiring, especially those of expensive laterals.

In his role of managing director of an office of Lateral Link, Lat generates publicity for the legal search firm. Media is his background.

The elephant in the room on that one is this: Can media attention push the dial enough on developing and closing on new business? Time will tell - just as it will on the whole new order being established as we come out of the first wave of COVID-19.

There's more uncertainty on the horizon if there is a second wave. It is well known that the second round of Spanish Flu was more intense and deadly than the first. 

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America's Romance with Contract Killing - From "Have Gun, Will Travel" Through "The Godfather" to Fascination with Accusations about Steven Williams

America had been founded by a bunch of misfits.

They were outliers in the proper ways of the old country. Most couldn't make a living, never mind just not fit in.

Their oddball mindsets and behavior had been documented by psychologist John D. Gartner in the best-seller "The Hypomanic Edge." It was that out of the box ethos, showed Gartner, which helped created the most powerful economy in the world.

So, it's no surprise that the cult of the criminal has taken hold. The criminal as outlier.

A subcategory of that is the contract killer.

On network television during its golden age there had been from 1957 through 1963 the western "Have Gun, Will Travel."

In "The Godfather," contract killers were a necessary moving part of keeping the family business going.

And, now, reports Daily Mail, there could be the possible phenomenon of a 25-year-old in Philadelphia: Steven Williams. Allegedly he could have been contracted to murder four or more people. 

Not that a nation where the vestiges of Puritanism still dominate condones contract killing. It is wrong to take a life (even, some believe, by the state).

But …

Contract killers can make a good buck. That's important in capitalism. Success tends to be measured in money.

In addition, contract killers require a very different kind of mindset than is socialized in Americana. That fascinates.

That's why programming such as "Criminal Minds" which explores aberrant thinking is so engaging. On that series, which is no longer producing new episodes, David Rossi's books on deviant behavior are best-sellers. Youth is drawn to join the FBI because of Rossi's publications. Serial killers read them to find out more about themselves. 

No surprise either, watchers of the legal sector spend lots of time analyzing why ultra successful law partners go rogue. That includes everything from embezzling to sexual misconduct. Why didn't they simply treasure and protect their conventional success?

Likely, real-life researchers of criminal brain wiring, much like the fictional Rossi, are already working on how to interview Williams. So much can be learned. New brandnames can be made.

Conventional thinking is not only boring. As Gartner hammers in the book: It doesn't get a society or individuals very far financially. A popular current show on network television is dark comedy "Good Girls." There traditional Detroit housewives go rogue. Their lives become interesting. They can pay their bills. 

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Paul Rawlinson Died from Disease We Don't Understand

A bit more than a year ago the world heard the news that global chairman of Baker McKenzie - Paul Rawlinson - died. That was after he had announced he was taking a leave of absence.

At the time, the cause of death was not made public.

Now it has been. Law.com reports that it was suicide. At the time Rawlinson was being treated at a Swiss facility for severe clinical depression.

That's a disease we don't understand. Yet, according to the World Health Organization, it is a common illness globally. And, too many afflicted with it are resistant to known treatments. The treatments which are available can take time to work. By that time, time might have run out for the sufferer. Also, for some, it can be a chronic disease. The ongoing relapses can be discouraging.

In addition, there is a stigma surrounding it, especially in professional services where analytical skills are required. Yes, some state bar associations can hold a bout with it against the lawyer.

The tragedy of Rawlinson's death might awaken the legal community, as well as other constituencies, to the reality that sliding into clinical depression happens all the time. It's not an exotic illness. It could require complex treatment approaches. It could return. And, the penalty for being afflicted with it has to be ended.

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