Law And More

The Former Lawyers in the U.S. Senate Should Have Known Better

The ABC Evening News with David Muir dominates the category.

That's because those behind and in front the camera know how to conjure up drama.  Yes, all the world's a stage. 

Those in the U.S. Senate lack that theatrical know-how. Yet, as the New York Post reports, the Senators are baffled that the Senate spectator gallery is half empty.

Their back offices, which should be filled with public relations types, can't put together what should have been the Greatest Show on Earth for 2020.

That is weird since many of the Senators have a lawyering background. Lawyers are socialized to put on show, be it in the courtroom or across the negotiation table.

 Here are 4 tips to reverse this failure to engage.

Create mystery. Everyone anticipates an acquittal. To derail that mindset senators should posture voting for conviction. A wonderful side benefit of that is that they will receive lots of coverage in the media. The media is the most powerful institution in the world. 

Stop being so repetitive. The American people feel reduced to being a child whose adults in the loop continue to nag about the same things. Even in search engine optimization (SEO), Google is punishing posters who get stuck in one message phrased in an infinite number of ways. 

Raise the Emotional Intelligence (EI) double-digit points. The ugliness of extreme polarization is turning people off. Ranging from Dale Carnegie to Dan Goleman, those smart about how to win friends and influence people hammer the importance of being tolerant, respectful, and willing to listen. Actually that dates back to St. Francis of Assissi who preached the value of struggling to understand rather than being understood. Here is his iconic prayer. 

Render public service back home. The impeachment trial is typical inside the beltway, that is, looking inward. Break that spell by reaching out back in the home state and do good. Are the supplies for the food pantry running low? Organize an initiative to solicit and collect food from local restaurants and grocers. Part of the popularity of the ABC version of the news is the "American Strong" snippet at the end of the broadcast. It melts our hearts. Yes, 21st century humans still have hearts. 

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Beyond the Usual Genteel Poverty of Student Life - Food Pantries, Clothes at Law Schools

Among the happy memories of student life for Ok, Boomer had been the genteel poverty.

There was the bunking in fire-trap boarding houses.

Everyone pitched in for the beer and chips.

It was print times and we went through the trash bins for discarded copies of The New York Times.

That was then. Tuition and fees had been manageable. 

Now, for some law students, who might already be carrying undergraduate student loan debt, the kind of poverty they live with is harsh. That is especially the situation at the end of the semester when their loan funding is depleted.

According to U.S. News, the average tuition and fees for the year at a private law school is $49,095. At a public one it's $21,500.

Law.com reports that four law schools have established food pantries. Those distribute not only jars of peanut butter and cans of tuna. There is fresh produce. The term for this situation is "food insecurity."

In addition, there are law schools which are making available the kinds of professional attire required for interviews and internships.

The poignant part of this hard-core financial neediness is that there might not be any light at the end of the tunnel, at least not in the near future. 

Consider the time invested, post-graduation, in preparing for the bar exam.

Often, it requires a year or more to land a job.

Meanwhile, after the six-month grace period, repayment on student loans starts, along with the meter on interest ticking. The average original amount is $145,500. With years of interest, it becomes funny money.

The compensation for the majority of full-time positions isn't Wall Street stuff. U.S. News documents that the median for private sector jobs is $72,500 and for public sector ones $54,550. Meanwhile, those who do receive that $180,000 entry-level compensation are playing in an up or out system. Most will be out within a few years.

It's no longer the elephant in the room. It's out there: Is law school a financial investment which makes common sense?

Actually, that's being asked of myriad advanced degrees. A special target is the Ph.D. Way back in 2010, The Economist pointed out that it not only didn't yield higher earnings than an MA degree. It could actually reduce earnings. A common fate for those who complete the doctoral degree in humanities is to become an adjunct professor, earning peanuts, with no benefits and no job security.

Also being cited more and more is how the funds plowed into degree-getting could have been invested in something with better odds of building wealth. An example would be parachuting into real estate, residential and/or commercial. 

Along with that is the opportunity cost of the time locked into studying. Instead of taking on debt, there could be real income from wages and paid benefits. An ambitious youth could start out in fast food or a discount grocery and make it into middle management.

Reflection: The Sweet Suffering of matriculating for advanced degrees (or maybe even the undergraduate one) could be labeled as "crazy."

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Timing Is Everything - Talk of Managing Layoffs/Transitioning in Legal Media

The stock market bounced back today. That's after the drop yesterday which some watchers attributed to the coronavirus.

But, hovering over the legal sector - and many other lines of work - is the fear of a shoe ready to drop.

That shoe is, in the best case scenario, a recession. The recent Citi survey found pessimism about the global and U.S. economy among law-firm leaders. Of course, most were quite confident about how their own firms were going to do in 2020.

At worst, what could be coming is a comprehensive unhinging of work and life as usual. That would include employment at law firms or rather the reductions in force (RIF). 

The drivers would be:

• The perfect storm of a pandemic (yes, the coronavirus which is mutating)
• The barbarians, who had been at the gates protesting society's wrongs like income inequality, racism, and sexism, now had gotten in
• Those busy-bee robots taking over retail and directed by clients of law firms to march into all functions (recall the "March of the Wooden Soldiers")
• Speeded-up outsourcing. Law firms are stripping back to their core competence, that is, practicing law. Bye-bye staff. Sometimes they just have to go. Sometimes their employment status is transferred to the vendor organization. 

It seems no coincidence that in the legal media there is an article on layoffs in the legal sector.

It's by Olga Mack, posted on Abovethelaw. The focus is on the urgent need for that possibility of unemployment to be embedded in the mindsets of even law students. Yeah, they happen.

Back in 2008 -2009, they were brutal. Here Kathryn Rubino recounts what the RIFs were like.

Institutions, ranging from law schools to state bar associations, hammers Mack, should be equipped to guide the displaced lawyers and staff on the road to The Next.

If the axed are fortunate it will be a search for a comparable job in the legal sector.

If not, the platform will be a how-to on leaving a comfort zone and exploring alternate career paths.

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Harry Sends Cease & Desist Letter to British Media, Including Sun

The world enjoyed a relaxed photo of Meghan on a hike. Archie was strapped to her chest. Two dogs walked alongside mother and child.  

That image could become iconic. That's because, according to Harry, it was published unsanctioned. New York Magazine reports that a photographer had been hiding in the bushes, then snapped the picture.

In response, Harry's lawyer sent a cease and desist letter to the British media. That includes the Sun, which Harry sued in September for alleged phone hacking.

Obviously, Harry fears that his wife could come to the same fata as his mother did because of the paparazzi. 

As many know, John F. Kennedy Jr.'s wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was also hounded by the paparazzi. Some speculate that threw shade on the marriage because she couldn't handle it. 

For Meghan and Harry there might be no safe harbor. They could be as aggressively pursued in Canada as they had in the UK. 

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Crazy - The Edge, Dating Back to Puritan Times

Johns Hopkins professor Kay Jamison documented the correlation between creativity and mental illness. That was in her breakthrough book "An Unquiet Mind," which remains a brisk seller. Although published way back in 1996, it still ranks 1,969 on Amazon. Here it can be ordered.

Incidentally, Jamison herself struggles with a bipolar disorder and had attempted suicide. In 2002, she won the MacArthur Genius Award ($500,000 was the monetary part).

Yet, those with various sorts of mental illness can't shake the stigma. Actually, that bias against mood disorders and intermittent faulty perception often eats deeply into their own self-esteem. They drag around that diagnosis like stink on their shoe. 

Help could be on the way. Really.

As the New York Post records, the Van Gogh Museum is in the loop of certifying two things. One is that Vincent Van Gogh's self portrait is not a fake. And, two it was created by him in a psychotic state. The authenticity had been debated because the color patterns were muted, not the usual vivid hues. Some contend that reflected the artist's pulling back from being so out-there. He recognized his psychic shift at the time.

On February 21st, the Van Gogh Museum opens an exhibit with that painting in it. If the public relations is sophisticated it will hammer that the artist was producing from what could be thought as another dimension. 

Given the rigidity of capitalism, dimensions other than the maximizing of profits aren't welcome. A current commercial about insurance makes fun about that. It's labeled "being your parents." The art-student waitress is asked how she intends to earn a living after she graduates. 

Experience in professional life, though, indicates that being in other dimensions, full-time or just now-and-then, doesn't exclude being self-supporting or a big success. 

Actually, success driven by mental illness might not be reserved for the creative arts. In 2011, psychologist John D. Gartner published an amazing book. It is "The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot of) Success in America." Here it can be ordered.

Gartner starts off with that misfit group from the Old Country - the Puritans. Certainly they were operating in another dimension. But once freed from the establishment rules in the UK, they went about putting together an economy which had been for centuries the most powerful in the world. 

Ever since the Puritans, it's likely that many of the brandname entrepreneurs in America would be classified by those in the "helping professions" as, well, crazy. And, yes, like the Puritans they created a new kind of economy.

The authentic reason for concern about mental illness is that it can open the doors to suicide. A theory of suicide is that the distressed keep traveling through a series of unthinkable scenarios. "What if I simply stopped trying" could then open the next door which could be the psychotic "Suicide would help me feel better." The final door is the decision to go for it.

It could be that former partner at law firm Sidley Austin Gabe MacConaill might have travelled that corridor.

He had confided to his wife Joanna Litt his perception of emotional deterioration. Simultaneously, he had a hunch that going for professional help would tarnish his professional branding. Lawyers I have spoken to about that agreed that MacConaill was right. The sharks would have smelled vulnerability, circled, and that could have been the end of a high-powered career.

If the stigma around mental illness can be blown up and those saddled with that disease able to forgive themselves for imperfection, the "career price" paid for being treated could be reduced. In time, it could disappear. 

After all, from "Genesis" on, civilization has recorded examples of aberrant thought processes. Eve had to be out of her mind to risk what she had for a dream of more autonomy. Even more crazy was for Adam to buy in. Of course, the history of ideas punished them harshly. That included inflicting on them a son who was a murderer. However, Eve got the worst of it. Crazy women are more unwelcome in society than crazy men.

An effective constraint for moving on to the next door is to contact the deep listeners at Samaritans. The hotline is confidential, free, and operates 24/7. The phone number is 212-673-3000.

Full Disclosure: I have taken on clinical depression since age 11. Despite the family suicide gene I am still here.  

Smart global ghostwriting, with SEO and social networking know-how. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Kim Kardashian - Future JD, Legal Activist

She stuck with it. 

Back when the legal media announced, usually with a smirk, that reality star Kim Kardashian was committed to becoming a lawyer, there was that universal eye-roll. 

Most experienced Kim's career plan as simply another promotional stunt.

But, Kim has stuck with it. As the Daily Mail reports, she had completed the first year of her four-year apprenticeship in California studying law. Every week she invests 20 hours in that. She anticipates taking the bar exam in 2022. 

In addition, she also has stuck with her legal activism. Her successful campaign to get Alice Marie Johnson out of prison was not a standalone event.

Her mission is to end the mass incarceration in the U.S.

Here is The New York Radio Hour on Mass Incarceration.

On April 5th, on Oxygen, the two-hour The Justice Project documentary will air. In it she features four cases of alleged misjustice. 

Her celebrity could be the game-changer in reforming the U.S. criminal justice system.

Even those who are politically moderate might have come to view the mass incarceration as a job-making system for the middle class. The corrections industry tends to pay well and, even in this volatile economy, provide employment security. 

It's odd that Dick Wolf, in programming such as "Chicago P.D.," doesn't push back against drug laws which result in arrest and incarceration.

If the sale of drugs like heroin and cocaine were made legal, regulated, and taxed, Hank Voigt and his team might be able to focus on other kinds of criminality. It could be the big leap forward if Kim pitches that story line to Wolf. 

Those taxes can fund solutions for homelessness. 

Place your sponsored content on this blog. Coaching on SEO and Ghostwriting for that content also available. Sliding scale fees. Please take advantage of a complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

Bluelining - New Kind of Housing Discrimination

It's as simple - and legal - as billing a house, condo, coop, or rental at an extraordinarily high price.

That puts in a play the new kind of discrimination.

That's bluelining.

In The Atlantic, Derek Thompson examines that and its implications.

Only the wealthy can afford to buy or to rent, at least in those zip codes.

Partly for that reason, 300 exit New York City daily and homelessness increases.

Meanwhile, the fear of becoming homeless has become a mainstream anxiety. Yes, in an economy where even graduates of brandname colleges live paycheck to paycheck, darkness, that is losing the roof over one's head, can fall fast. Loss of a job, a big medical bill, or a lousy credit rating can do it.

Of course, the term "bluelining" should enter the rhetoric of Election 2020.

Ironically, those who indirectly or directly created bluelining also have become victims of it, points out Thompson. Those are the assorted types in the real estate loop. Instead of focusing on affordable housing they built lux condos and McMansions, as well as palatial apartment complexes. 

However, half the condos they made happen in Manhattan during the past five years are empty. It's been a perfect storm.

Foreign money to purchase those is drying up as the economies of boom nations slow.

The Treasury folks have cracked down on using real estate purchases as a way to launder money.

And the prices themselves are, well, ridiculous. The ROI on putting money in the stock market could have a better.

The impacts of climate change will intensify the shortage of affordable housing. As the special on "60 Minutes" documented, it's no longer unthinkable that residents will have to consider migrating from a city because flooding becomes the norm. The deluge which happened every 800 years can now occur every year.

A positive unintended consequence is this: Pockets of the midwest can have an economic comeback because they are insulated from the worst of global warming. Unfortunately, a chunk of that could result from the real estate industry which engineers a surge in housing prices and in the average rental. Anticipate homeless to grow in those locations. 

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"Lawrence Lessing v. The New York Times Co. et al." - Harvard Law Professor Sues for Alleged Clickbait Defamation

"Clickbait" is the slang term used for the myriad tactics used by establishment media, ecommerce experts, social networks, and bloggers to attract traffic. Some of those tactics could cross the line for ethical behavior - and even the law.

Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessing contends that media outlet The New York Times crossed both lines.

Through law firm Todd and Weld, he filed the lawsuit "Lawrence Lessing v. The New York Times Co. et al." Here, provided by Law.com which also covers this development, is a copy of that complaint (scroll to the bottom). 

Lessing perceives the headline and the lede in a fall NYT article as being clickbait which defamed him. The coverage was about the donations convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein made to universities. Recently Goodwin Procter submitted its report of its investigation of the Epstein donations to MIT. Here is my coverage of that, including a link to the report.

NYT Headline:  "A Harvard Professor Doubles Down: If You Take Epstein's Money, Do It in Secret"

NYT Article Lede: "It is hard to defend soliciting donations from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But Lawrence Lessing, a Harvard Law professor, has been trying."

Lessing states the headline and lede are not only sensationalistic but misleading. As a result of the alleged misinterpretation by the NYT of his September 8th opinion-editorial in Medium, he has suffered. For example, those outraged by the headline and lede have harassed him.  

According to the Law.com article those at the NYT Co. stick with their story. They indicate they will defend themselves against this lawsuit.

Unfortunately, this litigation can defame clickbait per se. That will generate endless confusion for businesses hiring ecommerce experts. 

Any digital marketer, social network influencer, and bogger will scream from the rooftops: Clickbait is a legitimate and necessary strategy to get, hold, and scale attention. Attention is the currency of the 21st century. The tactics used range from search engine optimization (SEO) to researching and creating the kind of content not easily available elsewhere.

Because of the dog fight for attention and how Google continually modifies its rules, new approaches to clickbait are always being tried out. The game is difficult to play.

Those not leveraging clickbait on behalf of their clients could be accused of malpractice.

As for Lessing, as a highly educated professional, he had to be aware that once you put out there content, it's open to interpretation.

I posted comments on the now-defunct Gawker. For four years those on the site openly vilified me. Weekly there were debates if I should be selected for execution.

Unfortunately, unlike Lessing, I did not have the resources to hire a law firm to sue. My only option was pro se litigation and that would have siphoned off too much time from operating my two boutiques.

Smart global ghostwriting, with niche social networking know-how. Also communications coaching. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

As Lawyers Know: StoryTelling Serves Agendas, Not Struggle for Truth (if such an entity exists)

Since early civilization, human beings gathered around the fire and told stories.

Probably then as now few or any of those stories disclosed much truth.

They were shared with an agenda. Not to make the definitive statement about whatever. When law was shaped as systems, lawyers functioned to help their clients put together the right story and have it hold up under a society's version of cross-examination. 

In caveman times, the agendas ranged from showing off and reducing their own anxiety to helping the clan survive and bring home bigger and better food for supper for all.

In the 21 century sundry legal systems, the strategic narratives focus on strong or lame contentions of innocence, pile on of examples of mitigating circumstances, and/or suffering endured. For the latter, juries are all ears, with their nuclear verdicts. 

Yet, currently there persists, especially in tabloids like Daily Mail and New York Post, claims that X or Y has access to the "real story" and is spilling the beans - on an exclusive basis. There are plenty of those, of course, in the megxit loop. Who doesn't have the real story about why half of the Fab Four bailed! 

The reality, as anyone who has studied or observed human psychology understands, is that probably not even H & M fully understand the drivers for their decision.

The unconscious and subconscious are complex entities. Even after years of psychoanalysis those screwing up might still be mostly clueless why. Great art such as the dramas of William Shakespeare and novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald hammer the memes of the struggle for self-awareness.  Deceased pop author and former lawyer at Boies Schiller Elizabeth Wurtzel, I have a hunch, didn't know who she was.

That supposed real story represents little else than a clever striver having fun connecting some dots. Yes, media subscribers do also have fun reading all that. But, it's reductionistic to apply the "findings" to anything as convoluted and messy as a human life.

What could have been the real motivation in Timothy Banowetz's alleged murder of lawyer Randy Gori? He likely will never find out himself. 

Smart ghostwriting, with social repurposing. Also, communications coaching. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

Ian Turvill - Anatomy of a Suicide in Legal Marketing

Legal marketer Ian Turvill was doing fine until he wasn't.

Or, he and the world thought he was doing fine.

Then, abruptly he "snapped" and committed suicide.

That's the way Dr. Marny Turvill describes the tragic loss of her husband in Law.com. The reality was that he wasn't doing fine. That's because the medication he was taking for his mild clinical depression treated the symptoms but not the root cause. 

Had Ian invested the time to investigate what was making him depressed and then changing what he could he might not have "snapped." He would still be alive.

Marny provides an analogy from her own health history. When she was practicing medicine a mysterious illness overcame her. Those in the medical community couldn't diagnose it. Therefore they couldn't treat it. So, she could no longer continue in her profession.

That freed her up to explore self-caring. Bit by bit she discovered what could relieve the distress. She changed what she could in how she lived her life. Eventually she was healthy. Her new career path is consulting on how human beings can find their way out of the boxes making themselves sick. 

In the practice of law its very nature seems to constitute the platform for becoming unhealthy. Evidence for that is the higher than average rate of mental illness and substance abuse.

Since lawyers or at least many of them are smart it probably has occurred to them that they have to stay in the boxes to continue being at the top of their game. That's the Catch 22 in the attempt to improve mental health in the legal sector.

Smart global ghostwriting, with niche social networking know-how. Also communications coaching. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.