Law And More

Legal Marketers - Tell How Your Law Firm Is Pivoting

The term "pivot" will peak.

And then another word will replace it.

Those still putting out there "pivots" will sound like yesterday.

But, currently, everything, such as careers, must be positioned and packaged as "pivots." Not doing so dooms the speaker, texter, emailer, journalist, thought leader or politico as out of the loop. That also applies to those playing in that very special sandbox: legal marketing. 

As legal marketers and the lawyers they promote know: We are our language.

It had been Donald Trump's use of workingman's language that catapulted him onto the global radar. Immediately he differentiated himself from the typical potential presidential candidate. And the media, which served him so well back then, moved in to take a closer look. 

 Next week I'll be pivoting to the next in my communications career. That's because this week I had two articles published, for my own byline, in third-party media. This is the one on how COVID-19 is reshaping marketing. 

Takeaway for legal marketers: Boost attention. Tell the world about your law firm's pivot. It doesn't have to be major. Just some new wrinkle on WFH. 

The Message Glut. You need bold strategy/ghostwriting. Let’s talk about what will work. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

Legal Marketers & The Message Glut: Learning from Boston University Student-Run AdLab/PRLab

Legal marketers are working 12 to 14 hours a day.

After all, the partners can't go out there and wine and dine prospects or rent a booth at a beauty show.

So, the law firm is depending on you. And because they are, you have more status. 

But what kinds of results are you getting amid The Message Glut? 

In Odwyerpr.com today, I tell how the brass at Boston University realized that the only way to send a marketing message was boldly. Otherwise, well, don't bother sending it. 

Those powers that be allowed the student-run AdLab and PRLab to launch the @fckitwontcutit (F*ckitwontcutit) campaign.

See, the stakes are high. Those returning to campus had to have the Ah-Ha Moment that COVID-19 is real and not just for old people. Otherwise they could die. And take lots of members of Gen Z, along with professors and administrators, with them. 

Well, you legal types will want to at least know this: Boston University trademarked @fckitwontcutit. Yes, the administration knows that there is value (bigtime) in innovation.

And messaging at Boston University will never be the same. History might chronicle this campaign as the Communications Boston Tea Party.

The Message Glut. You need bold strategy/ghostwriting. Let’s talk about what will work. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

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.

Place your paid sponsored content on this blog. Here are 6 tips for search engine optimization (SEO) in 2020. Contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

Hey, the Partner Poached My Work - Red Flag of Systemic Trouble in Law Firm Industry

It had been confirmed by Peer Monitor Report that overall demand is down in the legal sector.

But, work is up. And, that is also being confirmed by documentation that partners, who bill higher than associates, are doing more of the assignments. As Law.com puts it: Work is moving upstream.

The results will include that the business is evolving, at least for now, into a zero-sum game. And out in the cold will be the associates.

The gallows humor in law firms could be: Hey, the partner poached my work.

But at that level of earning capacity, there is no place for humor.

During the fallout from the 2008 - 2009 global financial collapse, associates who were pushed out rarely landed work which paid comparable salary and benefits. As the recovery kicked in, law firms hired brandname laterals and recruited very recent law school graduates. 

Obviously, associates should be hedging. That includes studying help-wanted ads (Craigslist is adequate) to find out what lines of work within the legal sector and outside law are growth sectors. Then they should stretch the creative thought processes to determine if they can retrofit their experience, skills, and education to apply for those jobs or gig assignments. Mock out resumes and cover letters. Role play interviews in which they pitch themselves in this way: Here's is what I can do for you. You bet, it's time to read and pore over the bible in job search and career transition - "What Color Is Your Parachute?"

Both Abovethelaw and Law and More hammered yesterday that starting their own law firms was not a sensible option for most displaced lawyers. The key obstacles are the large upfront investment, length of time to build a client base, and the need for non-stop marketing. The latter is the business of the solo and small law firm. Not practicing law.

But, in addition, this poaching can signal something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

I encountered a similar lack of work and its going only to those in some kind of magic circle at IBM in the late 1980s. Microsoft and Apple were making the corporation look totally old line in a sector in which innovation was and is everything. 

Eventually the IBM chief executive officer John Akers was forced out. Parachuted in was outsider (now, that was an innovation for closed-loop IBM) Lou Gerstner Jr. For a while, IBM enjoyed a strong turnaround. Currently, not so much so.

Clearly the law firm sector has to change itself in significant ways in order to boost demand. But, it might not be able to pull that off. 

Sure, there are strong firms, such as Paul, Weiss headed by ultimate connector/deal-maker Brad Karp, which will keep on scaling. For example, Paul, Weiss just began establishing its presence in Silicon Valley. 

But many other law firms could be replaced by competition from, for example, BigAccounting. That has the edge of cross-selling. Clients trust its audit services. Why not also try out its legal ones. 

There's also tech. Already LegalZoom, which started out B2C, is in B2B. Mostly small business. It could retrofit itself to take on the assignments of large businesses. 

The powers that be in corporate could allocate the budget so that its in-house legal has the resources to manage those bet the ranch cases (with a little help from outside law firms).

The possibility exists also that American business will become less litigious. Instead of see-you-in-court, it can seek out other methods of dispute resolution.

Here's what we know: After IBM went on its downward trajectory, with the exception of a brief time in the sunlight, it really never recovered. If demand keeps falling off for law firms, the sector may never be what it had been. For instance, its autonomy could be taken over by litigation funders. Gone will be the whole concept of the divine right of partners. 

Place your paid sponsored content on this blog. Here are 6 tips for search engine optimization (SEO) in 2020. Contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Not the Lawyer You Used to Be - Lifequakes & Story Time

"I don't know who I am."

That's how people in transition usually sum up how they feel. Lawyers who had depended on their work to have an identity usually feel especially dismal when there could be change. Or the change has already happened. Those upheavals range from a stealth layoff to being forced into early retirement. 

But what would be more accurate and what would make moving forward less painful is if they noted "I need a new story."

We are the stories we tell about ourselves.

Both professionally and personally.

Way back when in a less chaotic era we used to call that the "elevator speech." In a sentence or two it summed up what we were about. If it concerned our professional identity, it could help our career. For instance, "I'm Joe and I help big companies sell a lot of products." 

In transition, that identity, once so solid, is shifting. In the interim and then longer term, folks can gain control of the process if they put together a fresh narrative. That tells the world where they are in their careers and personal lives. More importantly, it delivers the message to themselves that they are in-charge.

That's especially needed in what Bruce Feiler, author of "Life Is in the Transitions," has called "lifequakes" or seismic shifts. As MarketWatch reports, Feiler anticipates lifequakes to increase in number and intensity.

So, as folks sense a lifequake coming to rattle their lives to the core, a multi-dimensional tool could be conjuring up a new story.

The partner at a law firm gets it: The firm wants him out. He isn't bringing in enough new business or billing enough hours. The way to emotionally, socially, and professionally manage that experience is to capture it in a story that moves the process forward. An example? "I'm reviewing what could be Next. This is the first time in 30 years I looked up from my desk." 

A former star in public relations contacted me for a complimentary consultation on her career. She wanted another one. So typical she framed that in the narrative embedded in the past, in who she used to be. "At Corporation X, the world knew my name. I made a lot of money. The media quoted me." 

To have a shot at a Next, she had to extricate the story from the past to possibility. During four coaching sessions, she came to manage this lifequake with the story "I fix brands. That could be your personal or social brand. Or the brand of, say, Uber." That got people interested. Even before she had fully established her communications boutique she had business. 

In COVID-19, it's the rare professional, parent or retired who isn't being rattled by a lifequake.

How to start on the new story? 

Accept that what was is no longer. Then be ready to take the first few steps. Get those down in one or two sentences. Let language take charge. It's not what is happening. It's how people manage that whatever. Christians came up with the narrative of how the word was made flesh. 

Coaching, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on human resources and careers.  

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The special area of expertise is the displaced over-50 professional. Please contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

Tuesday, 8/11/2020 - Watchers Waiting for TikTok to Sue Trump Administration

Even before U.S. President Donald Trump issued his executive order last Thursday, reports Tech Crunch, TikTok had its objections prepared.

The executive order relating to TikTok mandates a forced sale of the mobile video app or the ban of its services in the U.S. Essentially it contends TikTok, whose parent is Chinese company Bytedance, is a threat to national security. Meanwhile both Microsoft and Twitter have indicated interest in purchasing TikTok.

Watchers - and they are global - anticipate that on Tuesday TikTok will file a lawsuit against the executive order. That will be where it has its U.S. headquarters. So the filing will be U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. The interest is not just business. The undertow is the growing trade tension between the U.S. and China. 

Tech Crunch notes that TikTok will probably contend the order is unconstitutional. Also it will claim that it undermines trust in the business community worldwide in the U.S. legal system.

In addition, TikTok is expected to maintain that the order had been issued without due process.

Meanwhile, those focused on equities markets recognize how the U.S.-China trade tension can deliver a major hit to the stock market. Currently that, along with COVID-19 and the November election, is considered a key variable. Investors are fixated on how long and strong the rally in the U.S. stock market will be. Many observe a disconnect between the overall U.S. economy and the behavior of the U.S. stock market.

Place your paid sponsored content on this blog. Here are 6 tips for search engine optimization (SEO) in 2020. Contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

DefLanders: What Will the 20% Admitted to Harvard Who Deferred Be Doing Instead? (implications for law school deans)

COVID-19, not the Invisible Hand, is undoing centuries of the market dynamics in higher education.

Ever since the Puritans established Harvard on September 8, 1636, higher education has been a growth industry. That is despite its rising cost and questionable ROI in terms of career mobility and lifetime job security.

The numbers bouncing around are that about 20% of those accepted for the Class of 2023 have deferred.

It had been assumed that the elite institutions of higher education would be immune from this falloff in enrollment - and revenue. That assumption, reports Brandon Busteed in FORBES, was wrong. At Harvard, 340 have gone DefLand or about 20% of those admitted. In addition, only 25% of those who could live on campus have accepted the offer.

That reality, in itself, has serious implications.

At the top of the list is the financial one. Of course, Harvard is not going to financially collapse. But others with less of an endowment might. 

The next issue on the list is: What does this mean about the blind faith in education? Incidentally, that territory has already been covered in Boston Magazine. That was way back in January 2019. Even in the bucolic setting of New England, with all its old-line colleges and universities, institutions of higher education have been shuttering. Part of that was that parents and members of Gen Z were questioning the ROI. 

The story here is not DefLand. Not per se. Not even the part about the high percentage opting not to attend Harvard.

The story is: What are those in DefLand doing instead? And will that "instead" trigger never enrolling in college?

The world is a big place. That's what the DefLanders might discover.

Some might get a management trainee job in the grocery industry, like it, stay on, and later pick up a college degree online, with tuition paid by the employer. Others might become entrepreneurs. Some might embrace altruism and participate in an global initiative to construct irritation systems in wastelands. 

Will this shifting mindset about higher education seep into the ethos of professional schools, such as law?

Right now, the deans of law schools seems to be sitting pretty. But that could be the calm before the storm. The question could go mainstream among the best and brightest: Given the volatility of career paths should any reasonable person invest multiple years and lots of money in pursuing a post-graduate professional degree? 

Prediction: A power outage throughout the entire Academic-Industrial Complex.

Place your paid sponsored content on this blog. Here are 6 tips for search engine optimization (SEO) in 2020. Contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

The Anthony Levandowski Sideshow in "Waymo v. Uber" - Pile Up of Ironies

During the sentencing of former Silicon Valley engineer Anthony Levandowski, U.S. District Judge William Alsup praised his brilliance, reports Bloomberg Law. Echoes of the Ted Bundy sentencing.

That high intelligence, as with serial killer Bundy, had been misdirected. Levandowski had pilfered trade secrets from Google's Waymo and brought them along to his next employer Uber. But his plea had been to one count of downloading confidential files from Google. The criminal case was "U.S.A. v. Levandowski."

And, that was the tragedy of this expert on driverless cars, whom Google had paid a $120 million bonus, who wound up with a sentence of 18 months (delayed until after the pandemic is over). In addition he has to pay a $95 fine and restitution of $758,499.22 to Waymo. The prosecution wanted 27 months. It sought to leverage the sentence as a warning to other engineers thinking about stealing trade secrets to not try it. 

Actually, though, this gigantic fall from grace was a sideshow for the main drama of "Waymo v. Uber," which was settled during trial.

Allegedly, Uber used the data Levandowski secretly transported from Waymo. Fortune pointed out the civil lawsuit was a symbol of the fierce war for talent in tech. In that particular situation it was to get an edge in the emerging autonomous niche, projected to be a $7 trillion industry.

Like most legal spectaculars, this one is filled with irony.

For one, the guy is bankrupt. 

For another the driverless car sector has stalled, documents a study by Deloitte. Waymo has only one paid project in the works. That's in Phoenix, Arizona. And Uber's unit has yet to schedule a date for the commercial launch of its autonomouse vehicle. Meanwhile, what is taking off are other forms of alternatives to the car. They range from traditional bicycles (try to find one to buy) to electric scooters. 

Yet another is the value system in tech. Levandowski launched entrepreneurial company Pronto. It creates safety systems for trucks without relying on Waymo lidar technology. If that venture generates high market value, then Levandowski can enjoy a roaring comeback. The sins of the past will be in the past. Although the Puritans nurtured their unique form of capitalism when they came to America, the rigid morality of that system is not part of the Silicon Valley ethos. 

Place your paid sponsored content on this blog. Here are 6 tips for search engine optimization (SEO) in 2020. Contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

WFH Associates, Law Students, Legal Journalists, and Marketers - Broken Supply Chains (and those could get lots worse)

It happens all the time.

You are working on an urgent assignment at home during the night.

The printer sends the signal "low cartridge."

Very soon, when you press "print," blank sheets come out.

So, you check the internet for opening times for office supply stores as well as chain drug stores which carry e-supplies. Mission accomplished. Tired but relieved you return to the assignment.

That was then.

Such a happy ending rarely if ever plays out in inventory-challenged coronavirus times.

Whether you are shopping for a printer cartridge, the printer itself, an adult bicycle (there are plenty around for kids, new and used), or no-calorie I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray, you might not find it. Yes, you're out of luck, for the time being.

This time, yesterday morning, I was lucky. I frame that as "Tender Mercies."

Three weeks ago I went to Best Buy and several non-office-supply retailers which have an e-section. No Number 65 ink cartridge for the HP Envy series 5055.

I went beyond the city borders.

Finally, I found two of them at an Office Max. I grabbed both. For some reason there hadn't been a limit posted about purchases. In retrospect, I realize I should have purchased all that were on the shelf.

However, I hadn't anticipated that two new assignments would entail so much research that I needed to print out and analyze.

Therefore, I would up yet again in the during-the-night pickle.

I didn't expect anything. But my first stop was Best Buy, whose shelves had been bare last week of replacement ink cartridges.

There it was.

I froze in surprise.

Then I scooped up one.

Why not more?

I was debating whether to ditch the Envy 5055. All this cartridge replacement needed at the wrong time was undoing me.

The selling point the clerk in one of those office-supply stores made about the printer was that it was not only cheap (at that time, three years ago, but isn't really cheap now). Each cartridge would only set me back about $16 a pop. Compare that with other printers whose cartridge replacement run three figures.

The joke? The Number 65 doesn't deliver much ink.

But, for now I am okay. The new assignments involve creative thought. Not research. 

As for shopping for a new printer, I don't anticipate encountering much of a selection brick and mortar. When I was at Best Buy a few weeks ago, there were none in stock and the floor models were not for sale. The only option was to order online.

But for me that really wasn't an option. Recently I had ordered from Amazon. The merchandise was shipped via USPS. Haha. Online I was notified several times that delivery was attempted but no go. I snagged the purchase by directly going to the USPS truck, with my ID, and long face.

Am now totally back to brick and mortar.

Incidentally, more tender mercies.

I finally found a woman's 24-inch bicycle to buy at the nonprofit Toledo Bike, in downtown Toledo. Earlier, I had been to designer bike shops, sports shops like Dick's, big boxes, flea markets, and Nextdoor/Craigslist for-sale sections. My mindset was: A Bike! A Bike! All my discretionary budget for a bike! 

If there is a severe second wave of COVID-19, there will be even more disruption to the supply chain. Stock up now. 

In marketing timing is everything. Complimentary consultation on your marketing communications in COVID-19 time. janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Quinn Emanuel $185 Million Fee - Belief in Protestant Ethic Seems So Schoolgirlish

Quinn Emanuel figures it has "earned" a $185 million fee in its legal work for health insurers who hadn't been paid by the Obama Administration. That number has been calculated on the basis of results. The law firm's work resulted in the insurers receiving $3.7 billion. 

The issue involved, reports Bloomberg Law, is that in terms of hours the fee would come to Quinn Emanuel's earning $18,500 an hour. There are those who object, including litigation funders. 

However, the fee only represents 5% of the results, note supporters of Quinn Emanuel.

At its core, this dispute is not really about high fees charged by elite law firms. That is so boring. The marketplace, including its dynamics during COVID-19, takes care of that. 

It gets down to questioning the Protestant Ethic. That had been woven into a system of beliefs by Max Weber. Essentially the meme is: Work hard. 

Such an ideology - actually almost a religion - dominated Americana since Puritan times. Hard work was valued in itself. Ironically, it still is. Those who sinned or stumbled professionally were advised to "Work Hard." That was the path to salvation.

Currently, that adage is still being touted, in some circles.

Many help-wanted ads on Craigslist, for example, indicate the need for a "hard worker." Yeah, an eye-roll. Professionals who want to get ahead in an organization sense that employer doesn't understand how success happens, is sustained and scaled. 

For players, the Protestant Ethic seems downright misleading. It's obvious that it can be even counterproductive. Looking for the way not to have to work hard can be the real path to wealth - as well as power and influence.

Through inventing the Mac, then the iPhone, Steve Jobs eliminated the need for lots of old-fashioned kinds of work. 

Before that, Ronald Reagan's branding was about not working hard. He came across as confident, a quality needed in a leader.

I landed a communications contract (one hat I wear) by pitching to the prospect a shortcut to boosting rankings on search engines. No, we weren't going to work hard together.

Mouthing platitudes about hard work can seem downright schoolgirlish. Even small business owners, at least those still in business in coronavirus times, understand that the game is about results - the bigger the better, the sooner the better. It's not about hours the workforce plows into a project.

The Emanuel Quinn fee controversy can be a flashpoint in law firm billing. The billable hour can be tossed. It could be replaced by performance-based metrics. 

More generally, parents, teachers, and guidance counselors who tell youth to work hard will have no credibility. As a sometimes career coach, I advise the over-50 unemployed/underemployed I guide to ditch their own hard-work ethos. It's all about what they can accomplish for an employer.

The pitch should be: This is what I can do for you - better and faster than those others competing for work. 

One professional in the real estate loop, after two years searching for a better job, reframed his marketing to just that: Promised results, supported by documentation of those created for other employers over the years. Those were his new marketing materials. Immediately, he received an interview. A prospective employer flew him to its headquarters and hired him on the spot. 

Sour grapes: Too long I worked hard at a doctoral degree that wasn't marketable. Early in the game the savvy owner at a business where I worked part-time recommended I pull the plug. Get a job in media or at a public relations agency, he counseled. I didn't. I assumed my unusually intense hard work would land me one of the few jobs in the field. I limped away from that disaster getting it that betting on the right horse, not hard work, is the key career fundamental. 

Coaching, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on human resources and careers.  

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The special area of expertise is the displaced over-50 professional. Please contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.